The comet of the year 79 was said to portend the death of the Emperor Vespasian, who had already found himself involved with cometary portent. (...) Vespasian in this case expressed a healthy skepticism. "That hairy star does not portend evil to me," he said. "It menaces, rather, the King of the Parthians," his longtime adversary. "He is a hairy man," Vespasian explained, "I am bald." His skepticism did not save him, though, and he did the same year.
The comet of the year 79 was said to portend the death of the Emperor Vespasian, who had already found himself involved with cometary portent. (...) Vespasian in this case expressed a healthy skepticism. "That hairy star does not portend evil to me," he said. "It menaces, rather, the King of the Parthians," his longtime adversary. "He is a hairy man," Vespasian explained, "I am bald." His skepticism did not save him, though, and he did the same year.