Note 10 — Chapter I
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Signs in the heavens were believed by the ancients; and even with regard to natural occurrences, they produced melancholy and awful reflections. Augustus Cæsar was so afraid of thunder and lightning, that, though he carried about him a skin of a sea-calf, which was in those days accounted an excellent paratonnerre, yet, whenever he saw a tempest coming, he used to fly for refuge to some vaulted place underground. Caius Caligula rivalled Augustus in this respect; for Suetonius observes, that when it thundered, he would wrap his head in some covering; or, if in bed, leap out of bed and hide himself under it.