My soul presaged as I left home that my leaving was in vain.Now sagire means 'to have a keen perception.' Accordingly certain old women are called sagae,3 because they are assumed to know a great deal, and dogs are said to be 'sagacious.' And so one who has knowledge of a thing before it happens is said to 'presage,' that is, to perceive the future in advance.
[65]
This is illustrated by the story which I related
about Callanus and by Homer's account of Hector,
who, as he was dying, prophesied the early death of
Achilles.1
[p. 297]
31. "It is clear that, in our ordinary speech,
we should not have made such frequent use of the
word praesagire, meaning ' to sense in advance, or
to presage,' if the power of presaging had been
wholly non-existent. An illustration of its use is
seen in the following well-known line from Plautus2 :
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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