INTRODUCTION

The Roman orator Cicero was skeptical not just about dream-interpreters in the marketplace, but the idea that dreams ever mean anything; his book De Divinatione says seeking what's not there leads us into "endless imbecilities". And yet...

GOLDEN CHAIN

On the first day of the new year Cicero accompanied Caesar, as Consul, to the Capitol. As it chanced he told his companions of a dream he had had the previous night.

He had seen a noble-looking youth, let down on a chain of gold from the skies, standing at the door of the temple.

At that very instant Cicero's glance fell on Octavius, who, known by sight to very few of the participants in the ceremony, had been brought there by his great-uncle, Caesar. Cicero exclaimed at once, "But there is the actual boy I dreamed of!"

Octavius, of course, took the more familiar name of Augustus when he succeeded Caesar as emperor of Rome and ushered in Rome's Golden Age.

SOURCE: Dream Telepathy, Ullman, Krippner & Vaughan (2nd ed., 1989), pp.7; their source was Such Stuff as Dreams, (1967) R. Hill, ed.

ON BLUNTNESS

I find it amusing that Cicero's dream requires no imbecilities--oops, interpretations. His dreams are courteous! Cicero loathes obscure portents, so they assess the next emperor's character in terms no Roman could mistake--the boy's sent from the gods.

It's an old joke in dream research that dream-theories suspiciously resemble the theorist's own dreams. Freud's dreams are Freudian, Jung's are Jungian... even their patients' dreams adjusted their dialect to fit their therapist's style. So we really shouldn't be surprised that Cicero's dream adapts to his skepticism--blunt is the only thing he'd accept.

Less amusing is that Cicero was killed just a few years later on orders of a triumvirate including Octavius; while the later-emperor privately admired Cicero's works, he did nothing to prevent his death.

--Chris Wayan

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