of a malady probably aggravated by the pestilential and dusty air of the crowded city. Under these untoward circumstances Tiberius did what any other man would have done who was suffering as he suffered: he looked for some spot healthily situated not far from Rome, close enough to the great lines of communication to enable him to correspond freely with all parts of the world, but sufficiently removed from the beaten track to relieve him of the throng of unwelcome and importunate visitors. After trying various country houses in Campania he fixed upon the island of Capreæ as the ideal residence. Those who have seen the island have no hesitation in commending the Emperor’s taste. Apart from its inaccessibility and the beauty of its surroundings, Capreæ had this further attraction for Tiberius, that its elevated rocks afforded ideal opportunities for the prosecution of his favourite pursuit, for the Emperor was, as we have seen, an astronomer. It would be rash to affirm that Tiberius in his astronomical research was free from the taint of superstition with which that branch of natural science was at that time infected, and indeed the fact that he is said to have built twelve villas on the island, which he named after the twelve planets, and inhabited at different periods, suggests that he was a believer in the influences of the stars, or possibly had a superstitious faith that places thus dedicated would be more favourable to his observations at different seasons of the year. It is, however, significant of the character of the intellect of Tiberius that he fastened upon the one branch of science which even in those days was tolerably exact, for though the real nature of the movements of the heavenly bodies was unknown to the ancients, their observations were accurate so far as they went; eclipses and occultations could be predicted with a near approach to accuracy, and though the vulgar were still terrified by the temporary disappearances of the sun or moon, to the educated such events were, though mysterious, part of the orderly laws by which the universe seemed to be governed. Tiberius himself was believed to be an adept in astrology, and stories of his prescience have been handed down, based not improbably upon really successful calculations, by which the future movements of the planets were foretold. One of these stories is palpably absurd. It is said that Tiberius predicted the future reign of Galba by quoting a Greek verse to the effect that he too would have a share of the Empire, but the story is also told of Augustus, and under circumstances which involve no power of prediction, but simply a promise made by a kindly potentate to an attractive child in the presence of his parents.