Note 050
Sed fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent
In sua credebant redituras membra secures.
(Lucan. iii. 419). "Is it true" (said Augustus to a veteran
of Italy, at whose house he supped) "that the man who gave
the first blow to the golden statue of Anaitis was instantly
deprived of his eyes and of his life?" - "I was that man"
(replied the near-sighted veteran), "and you now sup on one
of the legs of the goddess." (Plin. Hist. Natur. cxxiii.
24).
The History Of The Decline and Fall
Of The Roman Empire—
Chapter 28