The dreams of the Romans, as handed down by the historians, are curiously correct both in symbolism and in the structure that permits modern analysis to be carried out in every detail.

The vision of Brutus with its threat to "meet at Philippi," is an instance combining verified prophecy, dream phantasy and a distinct influence through the subconsciousness.

Something after the Brutus dream is one that appeared to Cassius of Parma, who had espoused the cause of Marc Antony and was therefore, after the Battle of Actium, forced to seek refuge at Athens. In his dream he saw a large, dark-skinned man, who stalked menacingly into the room. "I am your evil genius," he said in a tone that awakened the sleeper and left so vivid an impression that Cassius rose and calling the slaves, made them search the house. Finding that no stranger had entered, he settled himself to sleep. Again the vision appeared, whereupon Cassius arose a second time and sat up for the rest of the night

At dawn he was assassinated by the order of the Emperor Augustus.

Augustus himself, according to Suetonius, was a slave to dreams.

At Philippi he had determined not to leave his tent, but his physician had a dream forewarning him to have the Emperor removed from his couch and Augustus accordingly had himself carried forth. It was well that he did, for during the battle the tent was destroyed and a spear pierced the royal bed.

Tiberius was warned of his impending doom in a dream. In honor of his own birthday he had brought from Syracuse a wonderful work of art, a full-sized statue of the Timenian Apollo. This he intended to place in the temple library. In a dream, however, Apollo himself appeared and assured Tiberius that his statue could not be erected by him. "Nor was it," adds Suetonius.

Caligula dreamed that he stood in heaven near the throne of Jupiter and that the god gave him a push with the great toe of his right foot and sent him headlong back to earth. An ominous vision, indeed, and one that found fulfillment the very next day when Caligula was assassinated.

Nero's latter days were darkened by swarms of threatening dreams, especially after the murder of his mother. Not long before his suicide he dreamed of steering a ship whose rudder was forced from his hand. Another dream showed his body swarming with winged ants. One night he fancied himself surrounded by the national images that Pompey had set up, these stood in his pathway and forbade his further progress.

Vespasian, who succeeded Nero's successor Galba, once dreamed of a balance in the middle of the palatine house. In one scale stood Claudius and Nero, in the other himself and his sons. The balance was perfect. The symbolism of this prophetic dream was verified, for the reigns of the two factions were of precisely the same duration.

When Vespasian was in the Island of Achaia with Nero, who secretly feared and disliked his general, yet was unable to dispense with his services, he had another dream, the symbolism of which and its subsequent verification have caused it to become a classic. In his dream Vespasian met a stranger who informed him that his good fortune and that of his family would begin as soon as Nero lost a tooth. The very next day a surgeon coming into the hall showed him a tooth that he had just extracted from the Emperor.

Domitian, the son of Vespasian;, was also subject to premonitory dreams in which he implicitly believed. Among the portents of his impending fate was his dream that Minerva was withdrawing from him her sanctuary, declaring that Jupiter had disarmed her and she could therefore protect him no longer. Peculiar significance was attached to this dream through the superstitious excess with which Domitian worshiped Minerva.

Suetonius also states that Domitian dreamed of a golden hump growing out of the back of his neck. This he considered an augury of happy times for the empire after him, and through the moderation of his successors, says Suetonius, the augury was fulfilled.

Julian the Apostate was warned of his approaching end, not only through his own visions, but through those of friends and foes.

When one of the former was hastening to join the Emperor's army in Persia, chance compelled him to pass the night in a church. As he lay asleep he had a vision of the apostles and the prophets who had assembled to complain of the injuries that Julian had inflicted upon Christianity. Finally two individuals arose from the assemblage and bidding the others be of good cheer, set forth as though to wreak vengeance upon Julian.

So serious did these portents appear to the dreamer that he did not resume his journey, but on awaking, lay down to sleep again in the hope of continuing his dream. Again he saw the assemblage, and the messengers returning announcing the Emperor's death.

Didymus, the philosopher of Alexandria, was vouched a prophetic dream on the day of Julian's death. Wearied by fasting and prayer for his fellow Christians suffering under the Apostate's persecutions, Didymus had fallen asleep. In his dream he saw white horses flying through the air, while a voice cried: "Go and tell Didymus that Julian has just been slain and let him arise and eat and communicate this intelligence to Athanasius the bishop."

The Apostate's own reason must have clouded before the ominous portents of the night before his death. The geniiis of the Empire clad in mourning appeared and fled from his approach, and by this he knew that she was ready to abandon him. In the next day's battle Julian fell with the cry upon his lips: "Thou hast won, O Galilean!"

Charlemagne had his dreams and followed them, we are told, and Alfred the Great of England lives to this day in the hearts of the simple folk through the legends and dreams that history has forgotten or meticulously ignored. Coincidentally with Arthur Pendragon, King of Britain, and with the dreams of the Grail and of the Holy Rood that were one day to burgeon into dreams of the Crusades, the deserts of Arabia were nourishing a dreamer whose visions were to incarnate as the cause of the Holy Wars. Mahomet, born in 571 A.D., was a veritable prince of illusion and of dreams. His dreams began in early youth, when each year during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew from the arms of his elderly wife Kadijah and retired to the cave of Hera. Here the angel Gabriel appeared to his dream and pointed to the path that was to lead down the gory centuries. At another time a mysterious animal, the borak, conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem. With his companion, Gabriel, he successively ascended the seven heavens, and received and returned the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets and angels in their successive mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven Mahornet alone was permitted to proceed. He passed the veil of unity and passed within a bowshot of the throne and felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched by the hand of God. After this familiar though important incident he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the borak, and returned to Mecca. The dream faculty of annihilating time and space is herein exemplified, for the entire journey of many thousands of miles was performed in the tenth part of a night.