’At this moment the defeated are far more strictly disciplined than their conquerors.  Indignation, hatred, the passion for revenge, all serve to steel our courage.  Theirs is dulled by pride and mutiny.  The course of the war will soon bring to light the hidden weakness of their party, and reopen all its festering sores.  I rely on your vigilance, your economy, your wisdom, and still more on the indolence, ignorance, and cruelty of Vitellius.  Above all, our cause is far safer in war than in peace, for those who plan rebellion have rebelled already.’

At the end of Mucianus’ speech the others all pressed round with 78 new confidence, offering their encouragement and quoting the answers of soothsayers and the movements of the stars.  Nor was Vespasian uninfluenced by superstition.  In later days, when he was master of the world, he made no secret of keeping a soothsayer called Seleucus to help him by his advice and prophecy.  Early omens began to recur to his memory.  A tall and conspicuous cypress on his estate had once suddenly collapsed:  on the next day it had risen again on the same spot to grow taller and broader than ever.  The soothsayers had agreed that this was an omen of great success, and augured the height of fame for the still youthful Vespasian.  At first his triumphal honours, his consulship, and the name he won by his Jewish victory seemed to have fulfilled the promise of this omen.  But having achieved all this, he began to believe that it portended his rise to the throne.

On the frontier of Judaea and Syria[402] lies a hill called Carmel.  A god of the same name is there worshipped according to ancient ritual.  There is no image or temple:  only an altar where they reverently worship.  Once when Vespasian was sacrificing on this altar, brooding on his secret ambition, the priest, Basilides, after a minute inspection of the omens said to him:  ’Whatever it is which you have in mind, Vespasian, whether it is to build a house or to enlarge your estate, or to increase the number of your slaves, there is granted to you a great habitation, vast acres, and a multitude of men.’  Rumour had immediately seized on this riddle and now began to solve it.  Nothing was more talked of, especially in Vespasian’s presence:  such conversation is the food of hope.

Having come to a definite decision they departed, Mucianus to Antioch, Vespasian to Caesarea.  The former is the capital of Syria, the latter of Judaea.[403]

The first offer of the throne to Vespasian was made at Alexandria, 79 where Tiberius Alexander with great promptitude administered the oath of allegiance to his troops on the first of July.  This was usually celebrated as his day of accession, although it was not until the third that the Jewish army took the oath in his presence.  So eager was their enthusiasm that they would not even wait for the arrival of Titus, who was on his way back from Syria, where he had been conducting the negotiations between his father and Mucianus.