“And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold
Than is the full-wing’d eagle.”
Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 3.
A GOOD OMEN.
With the Romans, the eagle was a bird of good omen. Josephus, the Jewish historian, says the eagle was selected for the Roman legionary standard, because he is the king of all birds, and the most powerful of them all, whence he has become the emblem of empire, and the omen of victory.[27]
Accordingly, we read in Julius Cæsar, Act v. Sc. 1:—
“Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell; and there they perch’d,
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers’ hands.”