Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote 'Somnium Scipionis' (The Dream of Scipio) as the concluding part of his political treatise 'De re publica'. In this narrative, the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus experiences a profound cosmic dream-vision where his grandfather reveals the celestial hierarchy and the immortality of the soul. This text detached dreams from mere physical portents, elevates them into philosophical instruments capable of grasping cosmic architecture. It established a structural blueprint for visionary literature that bypassed standard rational prose.

Macrobius's later commentary on this work provided the entire Middle Ages with a taxonomy of dreams, directly inspiring Geoffrey Chaucer's 'The Parliament of Fowls' and Dante Alighieri's 'Divina Commedia'. It authorized medieval poets to use the dream state as a safe, allegorical space to critique contemporary politics and theology through surreal, otherworldly landscapes.