Book IX, 378

They say that Sarapis appeared in a dream by night to a murderer who was sleeping under a decayed wall, and thus spoke as in an oracle: “Arise, thou who liest here, and seek, poor wretch, another sleeping place.” The man awoke and departed, and immediately the rotten wall fell to the ground. The evil-doer rejoiced, and in the morning sacrificed to the gods in thanks for his escape, thinking that Sarapis is pleased with murderers. But Sarapis appeared to him again at night, and prophesied thus to him: ‘“‘Wretch, dost thou think that I protect criminals? If I did not let thee be killed now, it is that thou now hast escaped a painless death; but know that thou art reserved for the cross.”