Omen (ancient Rome)

A thunderclap cost Marcellus his very brief consulship (215 BC): thereafter he traveled in an enclosed litter when on important business, to avoid seeing possible bad omens that might affect his plans.

[5] Though by his time, politicians, military magnates and their supporters actively circulated tales of excellent omens that attended their births and careers.

In Roman histories and biographies, particularly Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, the lives, personal character and destinies of various emperors can be read in reported portents, omens and dreams; the emperor Caligula, for example, dreamt that he stood before the throne of Jupiter, king of the gods, and Jupiter kicked him down from heaven to earth; Caligula ignored the premonition and was assassinated the next day.

Josephus lists a series of portents that precede the failed Great Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire: a sword-like star, a year-long comet, a bright light during Passover lasting for 30 minutes, a cow giving birth to a lamb at the temple, the temple gates opening on their own, and an army of chariots in the clouds.

There are parallels with Roman emperors Julius Caesar, Claudius, and Nero, where biographers recorded lingering comets and bright lights to signal milestones in their lives.