Disease-Spirits and Divine Cures Among the Greeks and Romans (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Disease-Spirits and Divine Cures Among the Greeks and Romans Plutarch,9 although writing on a Roman subject, but, it seems, from the point Of View of a Greek, tells the story of the ghost that pursued and demoralized Brutus before the fateful battle Of Philippi. While all the Roman camp was wrapped in sleep, there came to the warrior a strange and dreadful apparition, an ugly and terrible shape, telling the general that his hour had struck. But Brutus, plucking up courage to question it, said, 'who are you, Of gods or men, and what is your errand with me?' The phantom answered, 'i am your evil genius, Brutus, and you shall see me at Philippi Nor did the demon relent in his persecu tion until he had encompassed the utter destruction Of his victim. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.