But what was a sign from the gods and what wasn’t? On the evening of 7 April 363, there was an approaching cloud, which turned into an enveloping whirl of dust, which gave way to a full-blown storm in the course of which a certain Jovian and the two horses he was leading back from watering were struck dead by a thunderbolt. Experts in climate divination concluded that this phenomenon fell into the wonderfully named category of “an advisory thunderbolt.” The campaign, by their interpretation, should not proceed. Once again, however, the philosophers rubbished this explanation, and declared that
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