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[74]
34. "Again: what a warning was given to
the Spartans just before the disastrous battle of
Leuctra,1 when the armour clanked in the temple
of Hercules and his statue dripped with sweat!
But at the same time, according to Callisthenes, the
folding doors of Hercules' temple at Thebes, though
closed with bars, suddenly opened of their own accord,
and the armour which had been fastened on the
temple walls, was found on the floor. And, at the
same time, at Lebadia, in Boeotia, while divine
honours were being paid to Trophonius,2 the cocks
in the neighbourhood began to crow vigorously and
did not leave off. Thereupon the Boeotian augurs
declared that the victory belonged to the Thebans,
because it was the habit of cocks to keep silence
when conquered and to crow when victorious.
[p. 307]
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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