Tacitus

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman senator and historian, consul in 97 CE and governor of the province of Asia in 112 to 113 CE. He is widely judged the greatest historian and one of the finest prose writers in Latin.

His Histories covered the Roman Empire from 69 to 96 CE and his Annals the period from Tiberius to Nero; both survive only in part. He also wrote the Agricola, a life of his father-in-law, and the Germania, an account of the Germanic peoples.

In Histories 5.13, describing the run-up to the Roman siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Tacitus lists portents: contending hosts seen meeting in the sky, weapons flashing, and the Temple suddenly lit by fire from the clouds. He writes as a Roman who considered the Jews superstitious for not expiating such omens. The Jewish historian Josephus, on the other side of the war, describes chariots and armed troops running among the clouds. Historians suggest auroras or later literary convention; collectors of ancient sky sightings value the two independent reports.