# So this dog walks into the banquet carrying a human hand... Good dog! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219 "2001-11-02T23:32:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219/1 "2001-11-02T23:32:11Z")
I’ve been reading Suetonius’ _The Twelve Caesars_, a collection of chatty biographies of Julius Caesar and the first eleven emperors. Suetonius always mentions the various omens of good and bad fortune that the Caesars noted before their accessions/battles/deaths. Most of them seem pretty straightforward, but one has thrown me for a loop. In the bio on Vespasian, before he becomes Emperor, Suetonius records this little tidbit: > [@](#): > > Then a stray dog picked up a human hand at the cross-roads, which it brought into the room where Vespasian was breakfating and dropped under the table; a hand being the emblem of power. A couple of things got me about this omen of good fortune: 1. Why was a human hand just lying about? Did the Romans normally just cut off peoples’ hands and scatter them about the cross-roads? 2. Didn’t any of the servants notice this dog wandering about with an unusual treat? (“Fluffius, bring that here, right now!”) 3. Having someone’s chopped off hand dropped under your table while you’re breakfasting is a good thing? WTF? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219/2 "2001-11-03T02:12:00Z")
Just a WAG, but I think the Romans were among the populations to cut off the hand of theives or other criminals as punishment. That might explain where the hand came from. Also, as a superstitious (or religious with lots of omens, etc) people, the Romans probably thought that a lot of weird stuff was good or bad luck. As for the dog - if he was a stray, I wouldn’t think he’d be looked at twice, since dogs have to eat somehow, right? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219/3 "2001-11-03T04:06:40Z")
Just off the top of my head, the crossroads was traditionally the place where the gallows was located (sometimes a constructed gallows, sometimes merely a tree), where people were hanged and left to rot while hanging. After the body disintegrates past a certain point, pieces start to fall off–like hands. And there’s this. [http://home.att.net/~asylumofshadows/wickedsuperstitions.htm](http://home.att.net/~asylumofshadows/wickedsuperstitions.htm) > [@](#): > > The hand of an executed criminal was once reputed to have various magical powers. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219/4 "2001-11-03T21:16:29Z")
- - - I have nothing useful to add. ~ - Otherwise, a few years back in E. St Louis a guy’s dog brought back a human skull. Does that mean anything special, except stay out of E. St Louis? - MC ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-this-dog-walks-into-the-banquet-carrying-a-human-hand-good-dog/91219/5 "2001-11-03T23:07:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MC \* > \*\*- - - I have nothing useful to add. > ~ > > - Otherwise, a few years back in E. St Louis a guy’s dog brought back a human skull. Does that mean anything special, except stay out of E. St Louis? - MC \*\* I, myself, need no such dramatic gestures to stay out of E. St Louis. I find that good taste does the trick. 😉