Liver model, used by priests to predict the future. Assyria, 18th century BC Now in the British Museum

What could be called more divine than
the power of foreknowing and foretelling the future?"
Celsus, quoted by Origen, Against Celsus, 4.96

Was Christianity new?  Was Christianity unique? 
Lets talk about prophecy.

Pagan prophets predicted the future—correctly. You know this if you've heard of the famous oracle at Delphi. You probably also know that our word "auspicious" comes from "auspices", the Roman religious ritual where priests told the future by reading the livers of sacrificed animals. (Sheesh. Have you noticed how often other peoples' beliefs are crazy stupid?)

Prophsies were like other miracles. Paganism had plenty of them, the early Christains believed in the Pagan miracles (though they often attributed them to Pagan demons). Early Christianity also had plenty of spirit filled prophets of it's own.

Both Christians and Pagans understood their prophesies with the same—Pagan—ideas.

Christian ideas about prophesy were identical with Pagan ideas about prophesy—the only difference was Christians believed their prophesy came from their one true God and Pagan prophesies came from Pagan demons. Christian ideas about prophesy come from deep in the Pagan center of ancient culture

Why the mess? POCM 2012

Jews too
Judaism

So strong was the Pagans' faith, they institutionalized prophecy-miracles with professional prophesy-readers—guys with training and text-books, guys you'd consult like you consult a doctor. Ask a question, the prophecy-guy would find it on his list, apply his divine-seer skills, and foretell your future for you. Very comforting.

How do we know this? We have the prophecy books they used. > >

Professor Lee describes:
"In addition to a numbered list of nearly one hundred questions, the oracular expert would have had at his disposal a set of numbered answers and a mathematical formula for selecting, in an apparently baffling and mysterious manner, an appropriate answer." Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), section 1.10, pages 28

They saw that what both the fearful and the hopeful needed and wanted the most was knowledge of the future, that this was the reason Delphi and Delos and Carus and Didyma had ages ago become rich and famous; men, because of the two tyrants I mentioned, hope and fear, were forever coming to these shrines and asking to know the future, and, in payment, the sacrificed whole hecatombs and donated ingots of gold. After turning this discovery over in their minds and pondering it, the partners laid plans to set up an oracle, a seat of prophecy.
Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD),—which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 272

So Alexander gave out oracles and made prophecies, using a great deal of resourcefulness and combining guesswork with inventiveness.
pg. 272

Why so many Pagan prophecy-miracles? Pagan faith was stronger than ours.
Like the Pagans we see prophesy as supernatural. The difference is, we see the supernatural as rare; the Pagans? everywhere they looked they saw the supernatural. Pagan supernatural powers guided everything, all the time. Our God cares, maybe, but He's got physics to move the sun. Pagan Gods moved the sun across the sky, physically moved it every day. Pagan faith saw the supernatural in the moving sun; in where lightning hit, and when; in the paths birds flew; in doors banging, lights shining and chariots running in the clouds.

By the way Fate
Ancient civilization also had the notion of Fate: some stuff was gonna happen and there wasn't squat you could about it. Gods sometimes knew what was fated to happen. They'd pass what they knew along to their prophets, the prophets would pass it along to you. Even the Gods were subject to fate sometimes. And there were different kinds of fate. It's a big subject.

What was going to happen next was nothing more that what the Pagan Gods planned to do next, so of course the Pagan Gods and their prophets knew the future.

One good thing about Pagan Gods was they didn't mind letting on what they knew about the future. So, like Pagan miracles generally, Pagan prophecy-miracles number in the tens of thousands. You run out of patience before you run out of prophecy miracles. So here at POCM, I've included enough to give you a sense of how central prophecy was to Paganism. Need more? Just pick up Herodotus, Livy, Josephus, or any other ancient historian. They're chock-a-block with prophecy-miracles. Guaranteed.

Delphic oracle done by demons.

If, then, the Pythian priestess is beside herself when she prophesies, what spirit must that be which fills her mind and clouds her judgment with darkness, unless it be of the same order with those demons which many Christians cast out of persons possessed with them? And this, we may observe, they do without the use of any curious arts of magic, or incantations, but merely by prayer and simple adjurations which the plainest person can use.
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4

Moreover, if it is believed not only among Christians and Jews, but also by many others among the Greeks and Barbarians, that the human soul lives and subsists after its separation from the body; and if reason supports the idea that pure souls which are not weighed down with sin as with a weight of lead ascend on high to the region of purer and more ethereal bodies, leaving here below their grosser bodies along with their impurities; whereas souls that are polluted and dragged down to the earth by their sins, so that they are unable even to breathe upwards, wander hither and thither, at some times about sepulchres, where they appear as the apparitions of shadowy spirits, at others among other objects on the ground;--if this is so, what are we to think of those spirits that are attached for entire ages, as I may say, to particular dwellings and places, whether by a sort of magical force or by their own natural wickedness? Are we not compelled by reason to set down as evil such spirits as employ the power of prophesying—a power in itself neither good nor bad—for the purpose of deceiving men, and thus turn them away from God, and from the purity of His service?
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.5

Justin Martyr acknowledges Pagan miracles—says Christian miracles are similar

For let even necromancy, and the divinations you practise by immaculate children, and the evoking of departed human souls, and those who are called among the magi, Dream-senders and Assistant-spirits (Familiars), and all that is done by those who are skilled in such matters--let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation; and those who are seized and cast about by the spirits of the dead, whom all call daemoniacs or madmen; and what you repute as oracles, both of Amphilochus, Dodana, Pytho, and as many other such as exist; and the opinions of your authors, Empedocles and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates, and the pit of Homer, and the descent of Ulysses to inspect these things, and all that has been uttered of a like kind. Such favour as you grant to these, grant also to us, who not less but more firmly than they believe in God; since we expect to receive again our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we maintain that with God nothing is impossible.
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 18

Demons allow divination, says Origen

4.92 In my Origen's opinion, however, it is certain wicked demons, and, so to speak, of the race of Titans or Giants, who have been guilty of impiety towards the true God, and towards the angels in heaven, and who have fallen from it, and who haunt the denser parts of bodies, and frequent unclean places upon earth, and who, possessing some power of distinguishing future events, because they are without bodies of earthly material, engage in an employment of this kind, and desiring to lead the human race away from the true God, secretly enter the bodies of the more rapacious and savage and wicked of animals, and stir them up to do whatever they choose, and at whatever time they choose: either turning the fancies of these animals to make flights and movements of various kinds, in order that men may be caught by the divining power that is in the irrational animals, and neglect to seek after the God who contains all things; or to search after the pure worship of God, but allow their reasoning powers to grovel on the earth, and amongst birds and serpents, and even foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by those who are skilled in such matters, that the clearest prognostications are obtained from animals of this kind; because the demons cannot act so effectively in the milder sort of animals as they can in these, in consequence of the similarity between them in point of wickedness; and yet it is not wickedness, but something like wickedness, which exist in these animals.
Origen, Against Celsus, 4.92

But, to use the very words of Celsus, let it be granted that "the sun, moon, and stars do foretell rain, and heat, and clouds, and thunders," why, then, if they really do foretell such great things, ought we not rather to do homage to God, whose servant they are in uttering these predictions, and show reverence to Him rather than His prophets? Let them predict, then, the approach of lightnings, and fruits, and all manner of productions, and let all such things be under their administration; yet we shall not on that account worship those who themselves offer worship, as we do not worship even Moses, and those prophets who came from God after him, and who predicted better things than rain, and heat, and clouds, and thunders, and lightnings, and fruits, and all sorts of productions visible to the senses. Nay, even if sun, and moon, and stars were able to prophesy better things than rain, not even then shall we worship them, but the Father of the prophecies which are in them, and the Word of God, their minister. But grant that they are His heralds, and truly messengers of heaven, why, even then ought we not to worship the God whom they only proclaim and announce, rather than those who are the heralds and messengers?
Origen, Against Celsus, 5.7

Origen acknowledges pagan prophesies

In the next place, miracles were performed in all countries, or at least in many of them, as Celsus himself admits, instancing the case of Asclepius, who conferred benefits on many, and who foretold future events to entire cities, which were dedicated to him, such as Tricca, and Epidaurus, and Cos, and Pergamus...
Origen, Against Celsus, 3.3

Celsus mentions a multitude of Pagan oracles

Celsus goes on to say of us: "They Christians set no value on the oracles of the Pythian priestess, of the priests of Dodona, of Clarus, of Branchidae, of Jupiter Ammon, and of a multitude of others; although under their guidance we may say that colonies were sent forth, and the whole world peopled.
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4

Origen admits the oracles are real, but says: demons!

the Christian father Origen replies
But let it be granted that the responses delivered by the Pythian and other oracles were not the utterances of false men who pretended to a divine inspiration; and let us see if, after all, we cannot convince any sincere inquirers that there is no necessity to attribute these oracular responses to any divinities, but that, on the other hand, they may be traced to wicked demons...
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4

Maxentius told: this day an enemy of Rome will perish

44.7 Discord arose in the city and the emperor Maxentius was upbraided for abdicating responsibility….. 44.8 Disconcerted by this cry, he curried away and, summoning some senators, he ordered the Sibylline books to be consulted. In them was found the statement that on that day the enemy of Rome would perish.
Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 44.7-8 (early fourth century), which you can find in: Lee, A.D.. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), pg. 82

Christianity borrowed the Pagan notion of SibyllineOracles

In pagan times the oracles and predictions ascribed to the sibyls were carefully collected and jealously guarded in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and were consulted only in times of grave crises. Because of the vogue enjoyed by these heathen oracles and because of the influence they had in shaping the religious views of the period, the Hellenistic Jews in Alexandria, during the second century B.C. composed verses in the same form, attributing them to the sibyls, and circulated them among the pagans as a means of diffusing Judaistic doctrines and teaching. This custom was continued down into Christian times, and was borrowed by some Christians so that in the second or third century, a new class of oracles emanating from Christian sources came into being. Hence the Sibylline Oracles can be classed as Pagan, Jewish, or Christian.
Catholic Encyclopedia (1912), Sibylline Oracles

Celsus describes Christian's filled with the holy spirit

However, let us see what he the Pagan Celsus considers the most perfect kind of prophecy among these nations. "There are many Christians," He says, "who, although of no name, with the greatest facility and on the slightest occasion, whether within or without temples, assume the motions and gestures of inspired persons; while others do it in cities or among armies, for the purpose of attracting attention and exciting surprise. These are accustomed to say, each for himself, 'I am God; I am the Son of God; or, I am the Divine Spirit; I have come because the world is perishing, and you, O men, are perishing for your iniquities. But I wish to save you, and you shall see me returning again with heavenly power. Blessed is He who now does me homage. On all the rest I will send down eternal fire, both on cities and on countries. And those who know not the punishments which await. them shall repent and grieve in vain; while those who are faithful to me I will preserve eternally.'" Then He goes on to say: "To these promises are added strange, fanatical, and quite unintelligible words, of which no rational person can find the meaning: for so dark are they, as to have no meaning at all; but they give occasion to every fool or impostor to apply them to suit his own purposes."
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.9

Second century Christian prophetess

in the period after the emperor Alexander Severus (193 - 211 AD)... There were numerous frequent earthquakes… some towns were even swallowed up by cracks opening in the ground and taken down to the depths. ….
Suddenly a woman came to the fore who presented herself as a prophetess experiencing states of ecstasy and acted as through filled with the Holy Spirit. But she was so overwhelmed by the onset of the leading daemons that for a long time she seduced and deceived the brethren…. that evil spirit in the woman, being able to foresee that an earthquake was about to happen, sometimes pretended that it was going to bring about what it saw would happen anyway….
He also made the woman go barefoot in the freezing snow in the harsh winter, without her being troubled or harmed in any way by the outing….
Suddenly there appeared before him an exorcist, a man of proven character…. By subtle deceit, the daemon had even foretold shortly beforehand that an unbelieving assailant would come against him.
Cyprian, Cyprian's letters, Letter 75.10,—which you can find in: Lee, A.D.. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), section 2.10, page 48 - 49

And while he Polycarp was praying he fell into a trance three days before his arrest, and he saw his pillow being consumed by fire. And he turned and said to those who were with him: "It is necessary that I be burned alive."
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, 5.2—which you can find in: Holmes, Michael. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations (1999), pg. 231

44.5 Constantine was enjoined in a dream to mark the heavenly symbol of God on the shields of his men and so to engage in battle. He did as commanded, and marked Christ on the shields in the form of a letter X placed sideways with the top bent around.
Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 44.5 (early fourth century),—which you can find in: Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), pg. 82

Pythagoras
Chances are you think of Pythagoras as the s.o.b. who invented that geometry thingy. Pythagoras was also a guru who founded a philosophy-religion, gathered disciples, performed miracles and made prophecies.

Pythagoras had the power of God in him. How do we know this? His prophecies always came true, that's how. >>

Apollonius of Tyana
was a religious teacher who lived in the first century AD, traveled widely teaching goodness, performed miracles (raising the dead was one), and gathered disciples. After he died he was worshiped as a God.

Apollonius had the power of prophecy >>
(as did Socrates and Anaxagoras)

For the circumstance that Apollonius foresaw and foreknew so many things does not in the least justify us in imputing to him this kind of wisdom black magic; we might as well accuse Socrates of the same, because, thanks to his familiar spirit, he knew things beforehand, and we might also accuse Anaxagoras because of the many things he foretold.
Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 1.2 (217 AD),—which you can find in: Conybeare, F. C.. Philostratus I: The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Books I - V (Loeb Classical Library #16) (2000), pg. 7 - 9

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras foretold the future first.

Are you seeing the pattern here?

They saw that what both the fearful and the hopeful needed and wanted the most was knowledge of the future, that this was the reason Delphi and Delos and Carus and Didyma had ages ago become rich and famous; men ... were forever coming to these shrines and asking to know the future, and, in payment, the sacrificed whole hecatombs and donated ingots of gold. After turning this discovery over in their minds and pondering it, the partners laid plans to set up an oracle, a seat of prophecy.
Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD),—which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 272

Amphilochus, you see, after his father Amphiaraus' death and disappearance in Thebes, had been banished from his home town; he make his way to Cilicia and there came out of it all very nicely by going into oracle making himself, and foretelling the future for the Cilicians at a charge of 75 cents per prediction.

Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD),—which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 278

"Amphiaraus had been a seer during his lifetime. After a mysterious death (Zeus clove the ground in front of his chariot and he was swallowed up), he continued prophesying from a famous shrine in central Greece. The son's oracle was located in the town of Mallus."
Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 299

Pretty soon Alexander was even sending agents into neighboring lands to spread the word about his oracle among various people. These men advertised that he offered general prophecy, recovery of runaway slaves, detection of thieves and bandits, discovery of buried treasure, healing of the sick, and, on occasion, raising of the dead. The result was a stampede from all sides plus sacrifices and offerings.
Lucian, Alexander the False Prophet, 8 (2d Century AD),—which you can find in: Casson, Lionel. Selected Satires of Lucian (1962), pg. 23

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras and the priests at Delos and Dymma, and Amphilochus and Amphiarus and Glycon's prophet Alexander foretold the future first.

Be not, O Greeks, so very hostilely disposed towards the Barbarians, nor look with ill will on their opinions. For which of your institutions has not been derived from the Barbarians? The most eminent of the Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams; the Carians, that of prognosticating by the stars; the Phrygians and the most ancient Isaurians, augury by the flight of birds; the Cyprians, the art of inspecting victims.
Tatian, Address to the Greeks, 1 (2d century AD)

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others and Pythagoras and his disciples and the godman Apollonius of Tyana and Socrates and Anaxagoras and the priests at Delos and Dymma, and Amphilochus and Amphiarus and Glycon's prophet Alexander and the nation of the Greeks, and the nation of the Telmessians, and the nation of the Carians and the nation of the Phyrgians, and the nation of the Isaurians and the nation of the Cyprians foretold the future first.

Are you seeing the pattern here? Prophecies made and prophecies fulfilled were basic to Paganism.

I promised we'd run out of patience before we ran out of prophecies. And so we have.

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers foretold the future first.

The Christian Sybil

You knew there was a Christian Sybil, right?

Sibyls = prophetesseseszz One good thing about Pagan Gods was they didn't mind letting on what they knew about the future. You could get a forecast by consulting a Sibyl. (Why "Sibyls"? Because it was easier than "prophetesseseszz." The ancients didn't have spill chuckers.)

Here's the second century Christian writer Justin Martyr describing a Pagan Sybil at work >>

A Sybil was a woman, a prophetess who spoke God's words for Him. There were lots of Sibyls in lots of places. A God would move the Sibyl to speak, someone would quick write down what she said and later on folks would consult her words (in Rome they kept them in them the "Sibylline Books"—you'll someday run across that term in the ancient texts) for help foretelling the future.

The ancient Sibyl, who by some kind of potent inspiration teaches you, through her oracular predictions, truths which seem to be much akin to the teaching of the prophets. She ... uttered her oracular sayings in a city called Cumae ... And they who had heard it from their fathers as part of their country's tradition, told us that it was here she used to publish her oracles. . .. They said that she washed, and having put on her robe again, retires into the inmost chamber of the basilica, which is still a part of the one stone; and sitting in the middle of the chamber on a high rostrum and throne, thus proclaims her oracles.

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils foretold the future first.

You'd figure the place a Sibyl worked would be a Sibylarium, but it wasn't. It was an oracle. The predictions she gave were also oracles. Sometimes the Sybil was called an oracle. It was fun to say "oracle," so they used it whenever they could. Try it yourself: Oracle, oracle, oracle. See?

Pagans had lots of oracles,
and the oracles prophesied correctly >>

Celsus goes on to say of us: "They Christians set no value on the oracles of the Pythian priestess, of the priests of Dodona, of Clarus, of Branchidae, of Jupiter Ammon, and of a multitude of others; although under their guidance we may say that colonies were sent forth, and the whole world peopled.
Origen, Against Celsus, 7.4

There are many oracles among the Greeks, many among the Egyptians, some in Libya, and many in Asia. None of the others, however, speaks without priests or prophets. This god Apollo takes the initiative himself and completes the oracle of his own accord. This is his method. Whenever he wishes to deliver an oracle, he first moves on his throne, and the priests immediately lift him up. If they do not lift him, he begins to sweat and moves still more. When they put him on their shoulders and carry him, he leads them in every direction as he spins around and leaps from one place to another. Finally the chief priest meets him face to face and asks him about all sorts of thing. If the god does not want something done, he moves backwards. If he approves of something, like a charioteer he leads forward those who are carrying him. In this manner they collect the divine utterances. The god also speaks of the year and of all its seasons, even when they do not ask. He also talks about the "Sign", when it must make the journey I have just mentioned. I will tell something else which he did while I was present. The priests were lifting him up and beginning to carry him, but he left them below on the ground and went off alone into the air.
Lucian, The Syrian Goddess (De Dea Syria), Ch. 36 (2d century AD),—which you can find in: Meyer, Marvin W. The Ancient Mysteries; A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts (1987), pg. 137

Christian prophets foretold the future. Pagan prophecy readers and Sybils and the Pythian priestess and the priests of Dodona and Clarus and Branchidae and Jupiter Amon and a multitude of others foretold the future first.

Livy describes the

Sibylline Oracles is the name given to certain collections of supposed prophecies, emanating from the sibyls or divinely inspired seeresses, which were widely circulated in antiquity

In pagan times the oracles and predictions ascribed to the sibyls were carefully collected and jealously guarded in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, and were consulted only in times of grave crises.

29.10… Hannibal general of the invading army had gone into winter quarters in Italy…
Owing to the unusual number of showers of stones which had fallen during the year, an inspection had been made of the Sibylline Books, and some oracular verses had been discovered which announced that whenever a foreign foe should carry war into Italy he could be driven out and conquered if the Mater Idaea were brought from Pessinus to Rome. The ... deputation who had taken the gift to Delphi reported on their return that when they sacrificed to the Pythian Apollo the indications presented by the victims were entirely favorable, and further, that the response of the oracle was to the effect that a far grander victory was awaiting Rome than the one from whose spoils they had brought the gift to Delphi...

29.11 ... Accordingly, they decided to send a mission to him king Atalus, who controlled the Great Mother goddess (a meteor?)......He then handed over to them the sacred stone which the natives declared to be "the Mother of the Gods," and bade them carry it to Rome. . .

P. Scipio was ordered to go to Ostia Rome's port, accompanied by all the matrons, to meet the goddess... The matrons, each taking their turn in bearing the sacred image, carried the goddess into the temple of Victory on the Palatine.
Livy, History of Rome, 29.10 & 14 (1st century AD)

I am Serenus, assistant to the illustrious Ptolemaios—together with Felix and Apollonios the painter. We have come here, in accordance with the oracles of the invincible Apollo, to offer libations and sacrifices… to Isis.
stone inscriptions from Philae, Les Insccriptions grecques et latines de Philae, # 168 (March 25, 191 AD),—which you can find in: Lee, A.D.. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), page 27

The Epidaurian images

5.82. The ancient feud between the Aeginetans and Athenians arose out of the following circumstances. Once upon a time the land of Epidaurus would bear no crops, and the Epidaurians sent to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning their affliction. The answer bade them set up the images of Damia and Auxesia, and promised them better fortune when that should be done. "Shall the images be made of bronze or stone?" the Epidaurians asked; but the priestess replied, "Of neither: but let then be made of the garden olive." Then the Epidaurians sent to Athens and asked leave to cut olive wood in Attica, believing the Athenian olives to be the holiest; or, according to others, because there were no olives at that time anywhere else in all the world but at Athens. The Athenians answered that they would give them leave, but on condition of their bringing offerings year by year to Athena Polias and to Erechtheus. The Epidaurians agreed, and having obtained what they wanted, made the images of olive wood, and set them up in their own country. Henceforth their land bore its crops, and they duly paid the Athenians what had been agreed upon.
Herodotus, The Persian War, 5.82 (c 440 BC),—which you can find in: Godolpin, Francis. The Greek Historians (1942), pg. 323

14. When Gyges was established on the throne, he sent no small presents to Delphi, as his many silver offerings at the Delphic shrine testify. Besides this silver he gave a vast number of vessels of gold, among which the most worthy of mention are the goblets, six in number, and weighing altogether thirty talents, which stand in the Corinthian treasury, dedicated by him. I call it the Corinthian treasury, though in strictness of speech it is the treasury not of the whole Corinthian people, but of Cypselus, son of Eetion. Excepting Midas, son of Gordias, king of Phrygia, Gyges was the first of the barbarians whom we know to have sent offerings to Delphi. Midas dedicated the royal throne whereon he was accustomed to sit and administer justice, an object well worth looking at. It lies in the same place as the goblets presented by Gyges. The Delphians call the whole of the silver and the gold which Gyges dedicated, after the name of the donor, Gygian.
Herodotus, The Persian War, 1.13-14 (c 440 BC),—which you can find in: Godolpin, Francis. The Greek Historians (1942), pg. 8

94. Since we are upon this subject, it may not be improper to give an account of the omens, before and at his birth, as well as afterwards, which gave hopes of his future greatness, and the good fortune that constantly attended him. A part of the wall of Velletri having in former times been struck with thunder, the response of the soothsayers was, that a native of that town would some time or other arrive at supreme power; relying on which prediction, the Velletrians both then, and several times afterwards, made war upon the Roman people, to their own ruin. At last it appeared by the event, that the omen had portended the elevation of Augustus.

As Xerxes leaves to attack Greece, the sun quit the sky.

7.37. And now when all was prepared-the bridges, and the works at Athos, the breakwaters about the mouths of the cutting, which were made to hinder the surf from blocking up the entrances, and the cutting itself; and when the news came to Xerxes that this last was completely finished, then at length the host, having first wintered at Sardis, began its march towards Abydos , fully equipped, on the first approach of spring. At the moment of departure, the sun suddenly quitted his seat in the heavens, and disappeared, though there were no clouds in sight, but the sky was clear and serene. Day was thus turned into night; whereupon Xerxes, who saw and remarked the prodigy, was seized with alarm, and sending at once for the Magians, inquired of them the meaning of the portent. They replied, "God is foreshowing to the Greeks the destruction of their cities; for the sun foretells for them and the moon for us." So Xerxes, thus instructed, proceeded on his way with great gladness of heart.
Editor Godolphin notes: 'There was no eclipse of the sun visible in Western Asia this year (480 BC)
Herodotus, The Persian War, 7.37 (c 440 BC),—which you can find in: Godolpin, Francis. The Greek Historians (1942), pg. 405

Birth of Alexander the Great attended by prodigy

However this may be, Alexander was born on the sixth day of the month Hecatombaeon, which the Macedonians call Lous, the same day on which the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burned down. It was this coincidence which inspired Hegesias of Magnesia to utter joke which was flat enough to have put the fire out: he said it was no wonder the temple of Artemis was destroyed, since the goddess was busy attending to the birth of AIexander. But those of the Magi who were then at Ephesus interpreted the destruction of the temple as the portent of a far greater disaster, and they ran through the city beating their faces and crying out that that day had brought forth a great scourge and calamity for Asia.
Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 2- 3 (early 2d century AD),—which you can find in: Scott-Kilbert, Ian. The Age of Alexander; Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch (1982), pg. 253—4

Philostratus describes how dreams work.

And more than this, as a faculty of divination by means of dreams, which is the divinest and most god-like of human faculties, the soul detects the truth all the more easily when it is not muddied by wine, but accepts the message unstained and scans it carefully. Anyhow, the explainers of dreams and visions, those whom the poets call interpreters of dreams, will never undertake to explain any vision to anyone without having first asked the time when it was seen. For if it was at dawn and in the sleep of morningtide, they calculate its meaning on the assumption that the soul is then in a condition to divine soundly and healthily, because by then it has cleansed itself of the stains of wine. But if the vision was seen in the first sleep or at midnight, when the soul is still immersed in the lees of wine and muddied thereby, they decline to make any suggestions, and they are wise.
Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, 2.37 (217 AD),—which you can find in: Conybeare, F. C.. Philostratus I: The Life of Apollonius of Tyana, Books I - V (Loeb Classical Library #16) (2000), pg. 215

The Pythagoreans also assert that the whole air is full of souls, and that these are those that are accounted daimons or heroes. They are the ones that send down among men dreams, and tokens of disease and health; the latter not being reserved to human beings, but being sent also to sheep and cattle as well. They are concerned with purifications, expiations, and all kinds of divinations, oracular predictions, and the like.
Diogenes Laertius, The Life of Pythagoras, 19 (Guthrie's divisions) (3d century AD),—which you can find in: Gutherie, Kenneth. The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (1988), pg. 149

44.5 Constantine was enjoined in a dream to mark the heavenly symbol of God on the shields of his men and so to engage in battle. He did as commanded, and marked Christ on the shields in the form of a letter X placed sideways with the top bent around.

44.7 Discord arose in the city and the emperor Maxentius was upbraided for abdicating responsibility….. 44.8 Disconcerted by this cry, he hurried away and, summoning some senators, he ordered the Sibylline books to be consulted. In them was found the statement that on that day the enemy of Rome would perish.
Lactantius, On the Death of the Persecutors, 44.5 & 44.7-8 (early fourth century),—which you can find in: Lee, A.D. Pagans & Christians in Late Antiquity (2000), pg. 82

Here's Herodotus' long—but very cool—bit about how dreams influenced Xerxes to invade Greece-

7.12. ...When he Xerxes had thus made up his mind anew, he fell asleep. And now he saw in the night, as the Persians declare, a vision of this nature-he thought a tall and beautiful man stood over him and said, "Have you then changed your mind, Persian, and will you not lead forth your host against the Greeks, after commanding the Persians to gather together their levies? Be sure you do not well to change; nor is there a man here who will approve your conduct. The course that you determined on during the day, let that be followed." After thus speaking the man seemed to Xerxes to fly away.

16. Such were the words of Xerxes. Artabanus would not at first yield to the command of the king, for he considered himself unworthy to sit upon the royal throne. At the last however he was forced to give way, and did as Xerxes bade him; but first he spoke thus to the king:

"To me, sire, it seems to matter little whether a man is wise himself or willing to hearken to such as give good advice. In you truly are found both tempers, but the counsels of evil men lead you astray; they are like the gales of wind which vex the sea---else the most useful thing for man'in the whole world—and suffer it not to follow the bent of its own nature. For myself, it irked me not so much to be reproached by you, as to observe, that when two courses were placed before the Persian people, one of a nature to increase their pride, the other to humble it, by showing them how hurtful it is to allow one's heart always to covet more than one at present possesses, you chose that which was the worse both for yourself and for the Persians. Now you say, that page 398 from the time when you approved the better course, and gave up the thought of warring against Greece, a dream has haunted you, sent by some god or other, which will not suffer you to lay aside the expedition. But such things, my son, have of a truth nothing divine in them. The dreams, that wander to and fro among mankind, I will tell you their nature,-I who have seen so many more years than you. Whatever a man has been thinking of during the day, is likely to hover round him in the visions of his dreams at night. Now we during these many days past have had our hands full of this enterprise. If however the matter be not as I suppose, but god has indeed some part therein, you have in brief declared the whole that can be said concerning it-let it appear to me as it has to you, and lay on me the same injunctions. But it ought not to appear to me any the more if I put on your clothes than if I wear my own, nor if I go to sleep in your bed than if I do so in mine-supposing, I mean, that it is about to appear at all. For this thing, be it what it may, that visits you in your sleep, surely is not so far gone in folly as to see me, and because I am dressed in your clothes, straightway to mistake me for you. Now however our business is to see if it will regard me as of small account, and not vouchsafe to appear to me, whether I wear mine own clothes or yours, while it keeps on haunting you continually. If it does so, and appears often, I should myself say that it was from god. For the rest, if your mind is fixed, and it is not possible to turn you from your design, but I must go and sleep in your bed, well and good, let it be even so; and when I have done as you wish, then let the dream appear to me. Till such time, however, I shall keep to my former opinion."

107. The barbarians Persians were conducted to Marathon by Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, who the night before had seen a strange vision in his sleep. He seemed to have intercourse with his mother, and conjectured the dream to mean that he would be restored to Athens, recover the power which he had lost, and afterwards live to a good old age in his native country. Such was the sense in which he interpreted the vision. He now proceeded to act as guide to the Persians, and in the first place he landed the prisoners taken from Eretria upon the island that is called Aegileia, belonging to the Styreans, after which he brought the fleet to anchor off Marathon, and marshalled the bands of the barbarians as they disembarked. As he was thus employed it chanced that he sneezed and at the same time coughed with more violence than was his wont. Now as he was a man advanced in years, and the greater number of his teeth were loose, it so happened that one of them was driven out with the force of the cough, and fell down into the sand. Hippias took all the pains he could to find it, but the tooth was nowhere to be seen; whereupon he fetched a deep sigh, and said to the bystanders, "After all the land is not ours, and we shall never be able to bring it under. All my share in it is the portion of which my tooth has possession."

So Hippias believed that this fulfilled his dream.
Herodotus, The Persian War, 6.107 (c 440 BC),—which you can find in: Godolpin, Francis. The Greek Historians (1942), pg. 375

Demons allow divination, says Origen

4.92 In my Origen's opinion, however, it is certain wicked demons, and, so to speak, of the race of Titans or Giants, who have been guilty of impiety towards the true God, and towards the angels in heaven, and who have fallen from it, and who haunt the denser parts of bodies, and frequent unclean places upon earth, and who, possessing some power of distinguishing future events, because they are without bodies of earthly material, engage in an employment of this kind, and desiring to lead the human race away from the true God, secretly enter the bodies of the more rapacious and savage and wicked of animals, and stir them up to do whatever they choose, and at whatever time they choose: either turning the fancies of these animals to make flights and movements of various kinds, in order that men may be caught by the divining power that is in the irrational animals, and neglect to seek after the God who contains all things; or to search after the pure worship of God, but allow their reasoning powers to grovel on the earth, and amongst birds and serpents, and even foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by those who are skilled in such matters, that the clearest prognostications are obtained from animals of this kind; because the demons cannot act so effectively in the milder sort of animals as they can in these, in consequence of the similarity between them in point of wickedness; and yet it is not wickedness, but something like wickedness, which exist in these animals.
Origen, Against Celsus, 4.92

Augury Liver-reading
Oh yeah, the Pagan priests could also foretell the future by reading the livers of animals sacrificed to the Gods.

Pagan priests learned how to read livers by consulting model livers like this one >>

I'm still working on this page