“A few months before the murder [of Domitian] a raven perched on the Capitol and croaked out the words: "All will be well!" – a portent which some wag explained in the following verse:
There was a raven, strange to tell,
Perched upon Jove's own gable, whence
He tried to tell us "All is well!" –
But had to use the future tense.”

—  Sueton , book The Twelve Caesars

Ante paucos quam occideretur menses cornix in Capitolino elocuta est: εσται πάντα καλως, nec defuit qui ostentum sic interpretaretur:
Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine cornix,
"Est bene" non potuit dicere, dixit: "Erit."
Source: The Twelve Caesars, Domitian, Ch. 23

Original

Ante paucos quam occideretur menses cornix in Capitolino elocuta est: εσται πάντα καλως, nec defuit qui ostentum sic interpretaretur: <br/>Nuper Tarpeio quae sedit culmine cornix, <br/>"Est bene" non potuit dicere, dixit: "Erit."

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A few months before the murder [of Domitian] a raven perched on the Capitol and croaked out the words: "All will be wel…" by Sueton?
Sueton photo
Sueton 28
Roman historian 70–126

Related quotes

Orson Welles photo
Plautus photo

“It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.”

Aulularia, Act iv, sc. 3, 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Referenced in "That raven on yon left-hand oak/(Curse on his ill-betiding croak!)/Bodes me no good", John Gay, 'Fables, Part I, The Farmer’s Wife and the Raven.
Aulularia (The Pot of Gold)

Jim Morrison photo

“Death makes angels of us all
and gives us wings
where we had shoulders
smooth as raven's
claws”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

An American Prayer (1978)
Variant: Death makes angels of us all
and gives us wings
where we had shoulders
smooth a raven´s claws…

Edgar Allan Poe photo
Emily Dickinson photo
John Gay photo

“That raven on yon left-hand oak
(Curse on his ill-betiding croak!)
Bodes me no good.”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Fable, The Farmer's Wife and the Raven. Comparable to: "It wasn't for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand", Plautus, Aulularia, act iv. sc. 3
Fables (1727)

William Congreve photo

Related topics