The Sphere of Marcus Manilius (Astronomica, Book I)

THE SPHERE of MARCUS MANILIUS

ABOUT THIS WORK The Astronomica of Marcus Manilius offers the oldest detailed work on astrological techniques to survive (more or less) intact. A Latin didactic poem in five books, references within the text show that Manilius lived during the reign of Augustus and penned his work towards the end of that era, around 10 CE. The artistic elegance he lent to an otherwise complex, technical subject, garnered widespread appreciation during the Renaissance when the Astronomica became one of the most significant and influential works of astrological literature. Nowhere do English language readers come closer to appreciating the poetic skill and lyrical intent of the Astronomica’s original design than in the versified translation of Book I, published by Sir Edward Sherburne in 1655 for the delight of King Charles II. Sherburn’s Sphere is a majestic rendering of the first book of the Astronomica, a celestial journey that lays the ground for understanding the celestial framework of astrology. It starts the poet’s guidebook by explaining the construction, division and revolution of the sky (essential knowledge for an ancient astrologer, since drawing up an astrological ‘chart’ requires knowledge of what is being charted). This book introduces and places the constellations, defines the celestial circles, explains how to find, monitor and measure the stars and planets, and offers a poet’s tour of awesome phenomena such as the Milky Way and the ominous lights of comets and fiery meteors.

This text re-animates ancient history and sees the sky as a cultural projection screen throbbing with the influence of ancient gods and Homeric heroes. The poet’s narration draws out anecdotes, legends, and myths, explores classical philosophies, and embraces great battles and strides of history, including the ancient foundation of Rome, the battles of Troy, the conquests of Alexander, the Roman Civil Wars, and the emergence of the Roman Empire under Augustus, which brought the Hellenistic period to a close as Egypt became yoked to Rome. Helpful annotations and illustrative diagrams have been added throughout by Deborah Houlding to aid the modern reader’s understanding of complex astrological details or obscure historical points.

Sherburne’s Sphere is also accompanied by Mireille Crossley’s biographical account of what is and is not known about the poet Manilius, with a focused, digestible timeline for his work’s rediscovery, transmission and reproduction. This pieces together a feasible biography with plausible details, allowing – for the first time – the figure of Manilius to emerge as a relatable, full-bodied character rather than a shady figure for which nothing is known other than a name and a handful of sketchy, generally awkward, self-contradictory potentials.

This text emerges as a collaborative effort of the Skyscript website’s Manilius reading group. Thanks are due to: Leena Chauhan, Michele Debs, Emma Gardiner, Joanna Grant, Jane Griscti, Josh Hancock, Dru Ish, Peter Moodie, Sheila Roher, Lori Sailiata, Christine DiSandro, Felicity Johnston, Joy Usher, Cerise Vablais, Diane Waldstätten, Jada Walston, Yangyi, Lara van Zydam, Sonja Foxe – and to all Skyscript patrons past and present that have or are supporting the Skyscript development project. www.skyscript.co.uk

CONTENTS The Sphere of Marcus Manilius The origin & progress of astronomy Origin of the world Disposition and order of its parts The Earth of a spherical form The twelve signs of the zodiac The axis of the world Constellations of the northern hemisphere The southern constellations Inconspicuous southern constellations Dimensions of the universe The heavenly circles The Galaxy (Milky Way) Comets & Niery meteors

1 2 4 5 6 7 9 10 12 15 17 18 22 28

Who was Marcus Manilius: poet, astronomer, slave?

Biography by Mireille Crossley

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General Index

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The Sphere of

MARCUS MANILIUS made an English Poem (1675)

by Edward Sherburne, Esq., (transcribed in modernised English)

The Poem 1

CARMINE divinas artes et conscia fati sidera diversos hominum variantia casus, caelestis rationis opus, deducere mundo aggredior ; primusque novis Helicona movere

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cantibus et viridi nutantis vertice silvas hospita sacra ferens nulli memorata priorum.

Hunc mihi tu, Caesar, patriae princepsque paterque, qui regis augustis parentem legibus orbem concessumque patri mundum deus ipse mereris,

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das animum viresque facis ad tanta canenda.

Iam propiusque favet mundus scrutantibus ipsum et cupit aetherios per carmina pandere census.

Hoe sub pace vacat tantum; iuvat ire per ipsum aera et immenso spatiantem vivere caelo

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signaque et adversos stellarum noscere cursus.

Quod solum novisse parum est. impensins ipsa scire iuvat magni penitus praecordia mundi, quaque regat generetque suis animalia signis, cernere et in numerum Phoebe modulante referre.

Bina mihi positis lucent altaria flammis,

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ad duo templa precor duplici circumdatus aestu carminis et rerum; certa cum lege canentem mundus et immenso vatem circumstrepit orbe vixque soluta suis immittit verba figuris.

1 2

D ivining Arts, and Stars foreknowing Fate,

Varying the diverse Turns of Humane State (The Works of Heaven’s high Reason) We bring down in Verse, from Heaven; and first move Helicon, And its green Groves, with unacquainted Rhymes, Offering strange Rites, not known to former Times.

Caesar! thy Country’s Prince and Father! Thou, To whose Imperial Laws the World doth bow, Who merited, what was granted to thy Sire, Heaven as a God! does this high Song inspire.

And now, Heaven kinder to the Curious grows, And courts in Verse, its Treasure to disclose.

Fit Task alone for Peaceful Leisure! Rise We then through yielding Air, and mount the Skies, There live and range; Learn all the Signs, and prove How in their adverse Course the Planets move: To know but which were little; we will sound The hidden Entrails of this ample Round.

Enquire how Star Creatures beget and sway, Which whilst we sing, Apollo’s self shall play.

Two altars bright with Flames, we raise;1 repair To a double shrine, pressed with the double Care Of Verse and Matter; on these certain Grounds Raising our Song, concordant Heaven surrounds Its Poet with deep Harmony, and Words Scarce fit for [what] Latian2 Characters affords

Meaning one altar each to the patrons of astronomy and poetry.

Latian refers to early Latin culture of the iron age, which was culturally similar to that of the Etruscans and spoke the language which came to be known as Latin.

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The Origin & Progress of Astronomy 25

Quem primum interius licuit cognoscere terris munere caelestum. quis enim condentibus illis clepsisset furto mundum, quo cuncta reguntur? quis foret humano conatus pectore tantum, invitis ut dis cuperet deus ipse videri?

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tu princeps auctorque sacri, Cyllenie, tanti; per te iam caelum interius, iam sidera nota sublimis aperire vias imumque sub orbem, et per inane suis parentia finibus astra ?

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nominaque et cursus signorum, pondera, vires, major uti facies mundi foret et veneranda non species tantum, sed et ipsa potentia rerum, sentirentque deum gentes quam maximus esset. [qui sua disposuit per tempora, cognita ut essent omnibus et mundi facies caelumque supernum.]

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Et natura dedit vires seque ipsa reclusit, regalis animos primum dignata movere proxima tangentis rerum fastigia caelo, qui domuere feras gentes oriente sub ipso, quas secat Euphrates, in quas et Nilus inundat,

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qua mundus redit et nigras super evolat urbes.

Tunc qui templa sacris coluerunt omne per aevum delectique sacerdotes in publica vota officio vinxere deum, quibus ipsa potentis numinis accendit castam praesentia mentem,

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inque deum deus ipse tulit patuitque ministris.

Hi tantum movere decus primique per artem sideribus videre vagis pendentia fata.

Singula nam proprio signarunt tempora casu, longa per assiduas complexi saecula curas:

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nascendi quae cuique dies, quae vita fuisset, in quas fortunae leges quaeque hora valeret, quantaque quam parvi facerent discrimina motus.

Postquam omnls caeli species redeuntibus astris percepta in proprias sedes, et reddita certis

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fatorum ordinibus sua cuique potentia formae, per varios usus artem experientia fecit exemplo monstrante viam speculataque longe deprendit tacitis dominantia legibus astra et totum aeterna mundum ratione moveri

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fatorumque vices certis discernere signis.

Who to Inferior Earth did first reveal These gifts of Gods? Who – what they hid – could steal?

All-ruling Heaven! What Mortal dared so high As spite of Gods, himself to Deify?

Open the highest Path, the lowest Deep?

Tell how the Stars their bounded Courses keep?

The Force and Motions of the Signs impart?

Cyllenius! 3 Thou first taught this sacred Art Thou the inmost Heavens, & utmost Stars made known, That so to Nature’s Power, not Face alone, Might greater Awe, and Reverence accrue; And Nations learn what to that God was due, Who did through Seasons, to be known, display The Heavens, and this great World’s Phænomena.

Nature helped too; Her self, her self improved, And Monarchs (next to Heaven in power) first moved To affect these Arts; who near Sol’s rising Beams Fierce Nations tamed; whole Lands Euphrates Streams Divide, and Nile inundates; where the Sun Returning, does over Negro Cities run.4 Next, chosen Priests,5 who serve from Age to Age At Public Altars, and with vows engage, The indulgent God, whose awful Presence fires Their Zealous Minds with uncorrupt Desires; He with himself possessed them, and made known His unveiled Deity unto his own.

Such were the Men, who first could apprehend That Humane Fates on wandering Stars depend; They to each time applied its own Events, and by long Toil observed the Accidents Of many Ages, Birthdays, Lives; what Power Of Fortune governed each successive Hour, And what great Changes the least Motions cause.

Thus when Heavens various Face, (The Stars by Laws of Fate returning in the ordered Course) Was fully known; and each Sign’s proper Force, Experience framed thereof an Art; the Way shown by Example;6 Which through long Essay, And various Speculation, learned from far The tacit Laws of every ruling Star; Saw in alternate Course Heaven still move round, And Fate to vary as its Aspects, found.

Cyllenius – Roman epitaph for Mercury; according to Greek myth, Hermes was born in a sacred cave on Mount Cyllene (a.k.a Kyllini), situated in Corinthia, Greece, which was anciently renowned for its dedication to and temple for Hermes.

4 This is singing praises to the Mesopotamians (whose lands were divided by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers) and the Egyptians of Northern Africa.

5 G.P. Goold suggests that the Egyptian priests Nechepso and Petosiris may be alluded to here (f.n. c ; p.9).

6 That is, by both observation and applied practice.

3

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Nam rudis ante illos nullo discrimine vita in speciem conversa operum ratione carebat et stupefacta novo pendebat lumine mundi, tum velut amissis maerens, tum laeta renatis [surgentem neque enim totiens Titana fugatis] 70

sideribus, variosque dies incertaque noctis tempora nee similis umbras iam sole regresso, iam propiore suis poterant discernere causis.

Necdum etiam doctas sollertia fecerat artes, terraque sub rudibus cessabat vasta colonis; tumque in desertis habitabat montibus aurum,

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immotusque novos pontus subduxerat orbes; nec vitam pelago nec ventis credere vota audebant; se quisque satis novisse putabant.

Sed cum longa dies acuit mortalia corda

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et labor ingenium miseris dedit et sua quemque advigilare sibi inssit fortuna premendo, seducta in varias certarunt pectora curas, et quodcumque sagax temptando repperit usus, in commune bonum commentum laeta dederunt.

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Tunc et lingua suas accepit barbara leges, et fera diversis exercita frugibus arva, et vagus in caecum penetravit navita pontum, fecit et ignotis itiner commercia terris.

Tum belli pacisque artes commenta vetustas;

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semper enim ex aliis alias proseminat usus.

Ne vulgata canam: linguas didicere volucrum, consultare fibras et rumpere vocibus angues, sollicitare umbras imumque Acheronta movere in noctemque dies, in lucem vertere noctes.

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Omnia conando docilis sollertia vicit.

Nec prius imposuit rebus finemque manumque, quam caelum ascendit ratio cepitque profundam naturam rerum causis viditque quod usquam est; nubila cur tanto quaterentur pulsa fragore,

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hiberna aestiva nix grandine mollior esset, arderent terrae solidusque tremesceret orbis, cur imbres ruerent, ventos quae causa moveret, pervidit solvitque animis miracula rerum eripuitque Iovi fulmen viresque tonantis

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et sonitum ventis concessit, nubibus ignem.

For before them, rude Man no difference made Twixt Nature’s works, nor things with Reason weighed; Astonished at Heaven’s newly disclosed Light, Now mourned the Stars as lost; now at their Sight As if newborn, rejoiced: the uncertain Times of Day and Night, differing in different Climes.

Till then none knew; nor could the Causes clear Of shades unlike the Sun far off and near.

Yet witty Cunning no learned Arts had found; Under rude Swains7 waste lay the untilled Ground: Gold then in Desert Mountains lodged at Ease, New Worlds8 lay hid in unattempted Seas, To waves and winds to trust their Lives none dared, To know themselves and theirs, Men only cared.

But when long Time and Toil their Wits had whet, And Want – an Edge on Industry – had set, Then thousand Cares their working Heads possessed Whilst to escape Need, they Sacrifice their Rest; Conclusions tried: and whatsoever wise Use By oft-repeated Practice did produce Of sure Effect; the new Experiment Unto the common Good they gladly lent.

Then Barbarous Tongues received new Laws, the Earth Manured, to various Fruits gave timely Birth.

Bold Seamen the blind Ocean did invade, And ’twixt strange Lands procured a mutual Trade: Thence Arts of War and Peace in time arose, For Art by Practice propagated, grows.

What’s yet more strange, they learnt the Tongues of Birds, Entrails to inspect, burst Snakes with powerful words Called up pale Ghosts, moved Hell itself, the Light Turned into Darkness, into Day the Night.9 Ingenious Industry made All things bend; Nor put they to their curious Search an End, Till Reason had scaled Heaven, thence viewed this round, And Nature latent in its Causes found; Why Thunder does the suffering Clouds assail; Why Winters’ Snow’s more soft than Summers’ Hail; Whence Earthquakes come, and Subterranean fires, Why Showers descend, what force the wind inspires.

From Error thus she wondering Mind uncharmed; Unsceptered Jove; The Thunderer disarmed; Of Name and Power despoiled him, and assigned Fire to the Labouring Clouds, Noise to the Wind.

Swain: country peasant or rustic farmhand.

Alluding to the discovery and conquest of Great Britain by Julius Caesar, which the Romans then called a New World.

9 This verse speaks about he mastership of magic. Goold’s translation of this point reads: “… men learnt to understand the utterance of birds; to divine from the entrails of animals; to burst snakes assunder by incantations; to summon up the dead and rouse the depths of Acheron [mythological river that led to the underworld]; to turn day into night and night into the brightness of day”.

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Quae postquam in proprias deduxit singula causas, vicinam ex alto mundi cognoscere molem intendit totumque animo comprendere caelum, attribuitque suas formas, sua nomina signis, 110

quasque vices agerent certa sub sorte notavit, omniaque ad numen mundi faciemque moveri, sideribus vario mutantibus ordine fata.

Hoc mihi surgit opus non ullis ante sacratum carminibus. faveat magno fortuna labori,

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annosa et molli contingat vita senecta, ut possim rerum tantas emergere moles magnaque cum parvis simili percurrere cura.

These to their proper Causes having brought, Next on the whole World’s Mass she casts her Thought, Of which the System in herself she frames, Dispensing to the Signs both Forms and Names; Their Aspects and their Orders notes, and saw Heaven’s changing Face gave fatal changes Law. This is our Muses’ Theme, as yet displayed In Verse by None: Propitious Fortune aid The bold Attempt; with Ease my Life befriend, and to a long and cheerful Age extend, That so I think not with my Subject’s weight, But with like care, great Things, and small relate.

Origin of the World according to various Opinions of the Ancients Et quoniam caelo descendit carmen ab alto, et venit in terras fatorum conditus ordo, 120

ipsa mihi primum naturae forma canenda est, ponendusque sua totus sub imagine mundus.

Quem sive ex nullis repetentem semina rebus natali quoque egere placet semperque fuisse et fore principio pariter fatoque carentem:

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seu permixta chaos rerum primordia quondam discrevit partu, mundumque enixa nitentem fugit in infernas caligo pulsa tenebras; sive individuis in idem reditura soluta principiis natura manet post saecula mille,

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et paene ex nihilo summa est nihilumque futurum, caecaque materies caelun, perfecit et orbem; sive ignis fabricavit opus flammaeque micantes, quae mundi fecere oculos habitantque per omne corpus et in caelo vibrantia fulmina fingunt;

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seu liquor hoc peperit, sine quo riget arida rerum materies ipsumque vorat, quo solvitur, ignem; aut nrque terra patrem novit nec flamma nee aer aut umor, faciuntque deum per quattuor artus et mundi struxere globum prohibentque requiri

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ultra se quicquam, cum per se cuncta creentur, frigida nec calidis desint, aut umida siccis, spiritus aut solidis, sitque haec discordia concors, quae nexus habilis et opus generabile fingit, atque omnis partus elementa capacia reddit :

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semper erit genus in pugna, dubiumque manebit quod latet et tantum supra est hominemque deumque.

Now since from Heaven itself our Verse descends, And down to Earth Fates settled Order tends, We first must Nature’s General State rehearse, And draw the Picture of the Universe.

Which, whether it from Nothing were derived; Or (of Beginning both, and End deprived) Has ever been, and ever shall endure; Or Chaos severing from the Mass obscure The mixed Principles of things, this bright World teemed, whilst Darkness took to Hell its Flight; Or that made up of Atoms Nature’s Frame Exists, and shall resolve into the same Some thousand Ages hence, and almost brought From nothing, fall again to almost Nought; Or that the Heavenly Spheres and Globe of Earth, From Fire, not such blind Matter, drew their Birth, Whose flames in all things dwell, kindled Heaven’s Eyes,10 And form the glittering Lightning of the Skies; Or sprung from Water, which dry Matter soaks, And ravenous Fire, that would devour it, chokes; Or unbegot were Earth, Air, Water, Fire, And these four Limbs make up the God entire, And form this World; nor will that ought be found Beyond themselves, since All things they compound, Applying Hot to Cold, to Humid Dry, To Heavy Light, which kind Discordancy The Matrimonial Bands of Nature knits, And Principles for all Production fits; We can but guess its Birth: obscured it lies Beyond the reach of Men and Deities

10 Sherburne’s annotation takes this to be all the stars, saying that the stoics “make the World to be a Corporeal Deity, and the Stars its

Eyes”, but the two luminaries (Sun and Moon) are usually treated as the ‘eyes’ of the cosmos.

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Disposition & Order of its Parts Sed facies quaecumque tamen sub origine rerum, convenit et certo digestum est ordine corpus. ignis in aetherias volucer se sustulit oras 150

summaque complexus stellantis culmina caeli flammarum vallo naturae moenia fecit. proximus in tenuis descendit spiritus auras aeraque extendit medium per inania mundi; ignem flatus alit vicinis subditus astris.

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Tertia sors undas stravit fluctusque natantis aequora per fudit toto nascentia ponto, ut liquor exhalet tenuis atque evomat auras aeraque ex ipso ducentem semina pascat. ultima subsedit glomerato pondere tellus,

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convenitque vagis permixtus limus harenis paulatim ad summum tenui fugiente liquore; quoque magis puras umor secessit in auras, et siccata magis struxerunt aequora terram, adiacuitque cavis fluidum convallibus aequor,

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emersere fretis montes, orbisque per undas exsiliit vasto clausus tamen undique ponto imaque de cunctis mediam tenet undique sedem, idcircoque manet stabilis, quia totus ab illo tantundem refugit mundus fecitque cadendo

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undique ne caderet (medium totius et imum est), ictaque contractis consistunt corpora plagis et concurrendo prohibent in longius ire. quodni librato penderet pondere tellus, non ageret cursus mundi subeuntibus astris

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Phoebus ad occasum et numquam remearet ad ortus, lunave submersos regeret per inania cursus, nec matutinis fulgeret Lucifer horis, Hesperos emenso dederat qui lumen Olympo. nunc quia non imo tellus deiecta profundo,

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sed medio suspensa manet, sunt pervia cuncta, qua cadat et subeat caelum rursusque resurgat. nam neque fortuitos ortus surgentibus astris nec totiens possum nascentem credere mundum solisve assiduos partus et fata diurna,

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cum facies eadem signis per saecula constet, idem Phoebus eat caeli de partibus isdem, lunaque per totidem luces mutetur et orbes, et natura vias servet, quas fecerat ipsa, nec tirocinio peccet circumque feratur

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aeterna cum luce dies, qui tempora monstrat nunc his nunc illis eadem regionibus orbis, semper et ulterior vadentibus ortus ad ortum, occasumve obitus, caelum et cum sole perennet.

Yet though its Birth be hid, its Form is disclosed, And in due Order all its Parts disposed; Fire up to the Ethereal Confines flew, And a round Wall of Flame about Nature drew, The subtle Air possesses the second Place Diffused throughout the vast Globe’s middle space; Whence its hot Neighbour draws cool Nourishment: The third Lot levelled the wide Seas Extent, And a liquid Plain the Waters spread, Whence hungry Air is by thin Vapours fed; Pressed down by its Sediment, Earth lowest fell, Whilst sand-mixed slime contracting did expel The subtler moisture; which to flight constrained Rose by degrees ’till it the surface gained.

And the more that into pure Water went, The more the squeezed out Seas the drained Earth pent, Settling in hollow Vales; whilst Hills thrust out Their Heads from Waves circling the Globe about: This lowest, in the mid is still confined, On all parts equally from Heaven disjoined, Secured from further falling by its fall Earth in the The Middle both and Bottom of this All, midst of the In whose concentring Parts, on every side world Bodies encountering, are to sink denied.

And did not Earth by its self-poise suspend, Phoebus,11 the Stars approaching, could not bend His course to set; nor set, ever rise again, Nor Phoebe drive through the Aerial plain Her Wave-drenched Steeds; nor Phosphorus12 the Light Ever usher more, if Hesperus to Night.

Now in the Middle Earth suspending thus, Not sunk to the Bottom, All is Pervious: For We nor can the rising Stars conceive A casual Production; nor believe Of the changed Heavens, the oft-renascent State, Sol’s frequent Births, and his Quotidian Fate; Since the Signs always show the self-same Face, Heaven keeps one Course, the Sun one constant Race, The Moon in certain, although various, way, The changes of her Light, and Orb displays.

Nature, the Tract which first she made, observes; Nor ever like an unskilful Novice swerves.

Day with eternal Light is carried round, This the times show, in several Regions found Successively the same; and we may see Eastwards its Rise, its Setting West to be (The further unto either we run) Continued with Heaven’s Motion, and the Sun.

11 Phoebus and Phoebe are epithets of the Sun god Apollo and his twin sister, the Moon goddess Artemis (from Greek Phoibus, ‘bright/shining’).

12 Phosphorus or the Latin Lucifer (lux-ferre ‘light-bringing’) describe Venus as a morning star or are used as adjectives relating to the east;

Hesperus or Verspera describe Venus as an evening star, or are used as adjectives relating to the west.

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The Earth of a Spherical Form Nec vero natura tibi admiranda videri 195

pendentis terrae debet. Cum pendeat ipse mundus et in nullo ponat vestigia fundo, quod patet ex ipso motu cursuque volantis, cum suspensus eat Phoebus currusque reflectat huc illue agiles et servet in aethere metas,

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cum luna et stellae volitent per inania mundi, terra quoque aerias leges imitata pependit.

Est igitur tellus mediam sortita cavernam aeris et tote pariter sublata profundo nec patulas distenta plagas, sed condita in orbem

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undiquo surgentem pariter pariterque cadentem.

Haec est naturae facies; sic mundus et ipse in convexa volans teretes facit esse figuras stellarum; solisque orbem lunaeque rotundum aspicimus, tumido quaerentis corpore lumen,

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quod globus obliquos totus non accipit ignes.

Haec aeterna manet divisque simillima forma, cui neque principium est usquam, nec finis in ipsa, sed similis tote ore manet perque omnia par est.

Sic tellus glomerata manet mundique figura.

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Idcirco terris non omnibus omnia signa conspicimus. nusquam invenies fulgere Canopum, donec Niliacas per pontum veneris oras; sed quaerent Helicen, quibus ille supervenit ignis, quod laterum tractus habitant, medioque tumore

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eripiunt terrae caelum visusque coercent.

Te testem dat, luna, sui glomeraminis orbis, quae cum mersa nigris per noctem deficis umbris, non omnis pariter confundis sidere dempto, sed prius eoae quaerunt tua lumina gentes,

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post, medio subiecta polo quaecumque coluntur, ultima ad hesperios infectis volveris alis seraque in extremis quatiuntur gentibus aera.

Quodsi plana foret tellus, semel orta per omnem deficeret pariter toti miserabilis orbi.

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Sed quia per teretem deducta est terra tumorem, his modo, post illis apparet Delia terris exoriens simul atque cadens; quia fertur in orbem ventris et acclivis pariter declivia iungit atque alios superat gyros aliosque relinquit.

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[Ex quo colligitur terrarum forma rotunda.]

Hanc circum variae gentes hominum atque ferarum aeriaeque colunt volucres. pars eius ad arctos

Nor need the Pendant Earth wonder beget, Since the whole World suspends as well as it, Whose foot upon no certain Bottom rests, As its swift Course and Circular attests.

The radiant Sun suspended runs its Rounds, Never transgressing his Ethereal Bounds.

The Moon and Stars in Skies suspended stray, And Earth by Imitation hangs as they, Poised in the middle of circumfluent Air: Not flatly stretched, but swelled into a Sphere, Rising alike, and falling everywhere.

This is the Face of Nature; this the Heavens rolled Swiftly about, into round Figures mould The Sun and Stars; round is the Moon to sight, and with a swelling Body bars the Light; hence never wholly Lucid is her Ball, When the Sun’s Beams on it obliquely fall.

A Form eternal, like the Gods alone, In which, beginning there or End is none; But like throughout, and everywhere the same.

Such are the Stars, such is the whole World’s Frame.

Hence ’tis We see not in all Lands all Signs, Canopus not till you reach Egypt shines, And they lack Helice, who see his Light,13 Earth’s Tumour hindering the intercepted Sight.

The Truth of this Thou Cynthia may attest,14 When darkening shadows thy bright Looks invest, At once thou does not all the World amaze, But first the Eastern Nations miss thy Rays; Then those which under the Midheaven are placed; Next, towards Hesperia flyest thou, cloudy-faced; Then those who yet more distant have their Seat, Later (to aid thee) brazen Vessels beat.15 If then the Earth were flat, this sad Defect Of Light, the whole World might at once detect, But since ’tis Round, to These first, then to Those, Her Rising Self, or Setting Delia16 shows; For carried Circular, she first attains The Ascending Parts, then the Descending gains Now climbs this Arch, anon leaves that behind, Whence that the Earth is Round, we clearly find.

13 Canopus is the second brightest star in the sky and the most southerly of all first magnitude stars (latitude 76°S) so it never rises above the

horizon for locations north of around 37°N. Helice is an epithet for the polar constellation of the Bear(s), which captures the principle of the pole being the point around which all other points spin (deriving from helix, ‘spiral’ or something that twists and turns). The polar constellation of Ursa Major is only visible to latitudes above 30°N ; hence, those who are able to see the light of Canopus lack the ability to view the Pole Star.

14 Cynthia: epithet of the Greek Moon goddess Artemis who was said to have been born on Mount Cynthus on the isle of Delos, Greece. This verse is explaining how the shadow of the Earth cast upon the Moon at the time of a lunar eclipse proves that the Earth is also a sphere and not flat.

15 The ancient custom of making loud noises to protect the ‘endangered Moon’ at the time of its eclipse. Sherburne explains the belief that the Moon was “endeavoured by the charms of witches to be drawn from her sphere. And therefore they made that noise that she might not hear their incantations” (p.17).

16 Delia: another epithet for the Moon goddess Artemis, meaning ‘from Delos’, the site of Mount Cynthus (cf. footnote 14).

6

eminet, austrinis pars est habitabilis oris sub pedibusque iacet nostris supraque videtur 240

ipsa sibi fallente solo declivia longa et pariter surgente via pariterque cadente.

Hanc ubi ad occasus nostros sol aspicit actus, illic orta dies sopitas excitat urbes et cum luce refert operum vadimonia terris;

245

nos in nocte sumus somnosque in membra vocamus.

Pontus utrosque suis distinguit et alligat undis.

Hoc opus immensi constructum corpore mundi membraque naturae diversa condita forma aeris atque ignis terrae pelagique iacentis

250

vis animae divina regit, sacroque meatu conspirat deus et tacita ratione gubernat mutuaque in cunctas dispensat foedera partes, altera ut alterius vires faciatque feratque, summaque per varias maneat cognata figuras.

The Divine Spirit or Soul of the World

This is by Men, and Beasts, and Birds possessed, The North Parts Eminent, the South depressed Beneath our Feet; whose surface seems to be (its Breadth deceiving its Declivity) Stretched to a lengthful Plain; the large Extent Composed of equal Rising and Descent.

Hence whence Sol’s Beams in the West our Orient Face There rising Day does from sleep Mortals chase, And when the Light to Labour summons Those, ’Tis Night with us, and Time for our Repose.

The watery Girdle of the Ambient Main,17 Does either Hemisphere divide, and chain.

This World’s huge Mass framed into One Entire Of different Parts, as Earth, Air, Water, Fire, A Power Divine, whose sacred Influence glides Through all its Limbs, with tacit Reason guides, And mutual Leagues inclines them to contract, That some may suffer, what the Others act, And the whole Frame (although diversified by various Figures) be throughout allied.

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac 255 Nunc tibi signorum lucentis undique flammas ordinibus certis referam. Primumque canentur quae media obliquo praecingunt ordine mundum solemque alternis vicibus per tempora portant atque alia adverso luctantia sidera mundo; 260

omnia, quae possis caelo numerare sereno; e quibus et ratio fatorum ducitur omnis, ut sit idem mundi primum quod continet arcem. aurato princeps Aries in vellere fulgens respicit admirans aversum surgere Taurum

265

summisso vultu Geminos et fronte vocantem. quos sequitur Cancer, Cancrum Leo, Virgo Leonem. aequato tum Libra die cum tempore noctis attrahit ardenti fulgentem Scorpion astro. in cuius caudam contento dirigit arcu

270

mixtus equo volucrem missurus iamque sagittam. tum venit angusto Capricornus sidere flexus; post hunc inflexa defundit Aquarius urna Piscibus assuetas avide subeuntibus undas, quos Aries tangit claudentis ultima signa.

Now we the radiant Signs in Order sing; First those which girdle Heaven with an Oblique Ring, And Phoebus by alternate Courses bear Through the successive Seasons of the Year.

Then those whose Course to Heaven is Opposite, All which may numbered be in a clear night; The Laws of Fate depending on their Power.

First then of Heaven’s chief Part, its Starry Tower.18 The Princely Ram glittering in Golden Wool, Wonders to see the backward-rising Bull, With submiss Looks beckon the Twins; next whom Cancer, who after him sees Leo come; Him Virgo follows; then the Scales, that weigh In even Balance equal Night and Day, Draw on the Scorpio with the fiery Sting, At which the Centaur his shaft levelling Seems ready to let fly: To these comes on The Goat’s contracted Constellation.

Aquarius next pours from his Urn a flood, Whilst the glad Fish to the loved Waters scud,

By Aries touched, and make the closing Sign.

17 The ocean was poetically referred to as a girdle that split the Earth from the atmosphere (ambient) because its surface marks the horizon which

divides the upper and lower hemispheres.

18 I.e., the zodiac. Sherburne adds a note here (p.18) that the Arabians called the signs buruj which translates to ‘towers’. Other commentators have

explained how this word is used in Arabian texts to refer to the signs of the zodiac or the twelve houses; it is the plural of burj, which carries the sense of ‘high place’ and originates the English burg, burgh, berg (iceberg), see for example, Arabian Nights XI, by A. Jackson (2008), p.248.

7

Above: modern reproduction of a woodcut illustration of the zodiac constellations that adorns the Bentley Latin edition of the Astronomica. Details are taken from the ceiling fresco in the Villa Farnese, at Caprarola, Italy, built 1559-73 for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The larger image below (sourced from Wikimedia) shows all the constellation imagery, which was inspired by the work of Manilius.

8

The Axis of the World 275 At qua fulgentis caelum consurgit ad Arctos, omnia quae summo despectant sidera mundo, nec norunt obitus unoque in vertice tendunt in diversa situ caelumque et sidera torquens aera per gelidum tenuis deducitur axis 280

libratumque regit diverso cardine mundum, sidereus circa medium quem volvitur orbis aetheriosque rotat cursus; immotus at ille in binas Arctos magni per inania mundi perque ipsum terrae directus constitit orbem.

285

Nec vero e solido stat robore corporis eius, nec grave pondus habet, quod onus ferat aetheris alti; sed cum aer omnis semper volvatur in orbem, quoque semel coepit, totus volet undique in ipsum, quodcumque in medio est, circa quod cuncta moventur,

290

usque adeo tenue, ut verti non possit in ipsum nec iam inclinari nec se convertere in orbem, hoc dixere axem, quia motum non habet ullum, ipse videt circa volitantia cuncta moveri.

Summa tenent eius miseris notissima nautis

295

signa per immensum cupidos ducentia pontum: maioremque Helice major decircinat arcum, septem illam stellae certantes lumine signant, qua duce per fiuctus Graiae dant vela carinae. angusto Cynosura brevis torquetur in orbe

300

quam spatio, tam luce minor; sed iudice vincit maiorem Tyrio. Poenis haec certior auctor, non apparentem pelago quaerentbus orbem. nec paribus positae sunt frontibus; utraque caudam vergit in alterius rostro sequiturque sequentem.

305

Has inter fusus circumque amplexus utramque dividit et cingit stellis ardentibus Anguis, ne coeant abeantve suis a sedibus umquam.

Hunc inter mediumque orbem, quo sidera septem per bis sena volant contra nitentia signa

310

mixta ex diversis consurgunt viribus astra hine vicina polo Phoebique hinc proxima flammis; quae quia dissimilis, qua pugnat, temperat aer, frugiferum sub se reddunt mortalibus orbem.

Now in the Skies near where the bright Bears shine (Which from Heaven’s Top on all the Stars look down, Nor know to set; but placed on the World’s Crown, Though differently, whirl round the Stars and Skies).

Stretched through thin Air the subtle Axis lies, Whose distant Poles the Balanced Fabric hold; Round this the Star-embellished Orbs are rolled: Whilst yet itself unmoved through empty Air, And the Earth’s Globe extend to either Bear.

Nor is it a solid Substance, or oppressed with Weight, though the World’s weight upon it rest But as the Air moved in a Circle goes, And on itself, whence first it flowed, reflows, What e’re that is which still the midst doth hold, About which, (itself unmoved) All else is rolled, So subtle it can no way be inclined, That by the Name of Axis is defined.

Upon whose Top (to Mariners distressed Well known, their Guides through Seas) two bright signs rest Great Helice19 moves in a greater Bend Marked with seven fair Stars, the Greek Pilot’s Friend, Small Cynosure,20 less both in Light and size, A less Orb holds; whom yet the Tyrians21 prize More than the Great; by This the Poeni22 steer Through vast Seas to the Western Hemisphere.

These join not Fronts, but either’s Head turns to The other’s Tail; pursued, as they pursue.

Between both which, his large unfolded Spires A Serpent stretches;23 and with winding fires Embracing them, one from the other parts, And from their Stations sees that neither starts. ’Twixt this and Heaven’s Mid-Circle, where the Sun And six Lights more against the bright Zodiac run, Rise Stars of different Magnitude and Power, Some near the Pole, some near Heaven’s radiant Tower.24 Which tempered by the disagreeing Air The fruitful Earth for humane use prepare.

19 Ursa Major (c.f., footnote 13).

20 Ursa Minor; the Greeks called it Kynosoura (‘hound’s tail’) referencing the placement of the pole star, Polaris, at the end of the small bear’s tail.

21 The inhabitants of Tyre (modern-day Lebanon), one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world; anciently famed for producing a

‘Tyrian purple’ dye from the shell of a local spiny sea snail that was worth its weight in silver to the Greeks and Romans.

22 The Phoenicians, the ancient civilization that occupied the coast of the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean, later Syria), including Tyre, Sidon, Byblos

and Arwad. It is assumed the Greeks called them Phoenicians because in Greek phoinix means purple and the Greeks so prized their vivid dyes.

23 Draco the Dragon, depicting in classical myth the dragon Ladon, guardian of Hera’s golden apples in the garden of Hesperides, whom Hercules

had to defeat to complete his 11th labour of retrieving three golden apples. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Ladon’s corpse is still heaving and trembling years later as heartbroken nymphs sob nearby; in other versions of the tale, Ladon survives the assault by Hercules and continues to guard the tree of life, or is fought again by Jason as he retrieves the Golden Fleece that hangs upon its branches.

24 Heaven’s mid-circle is here referring to the ecliptic; six lights more refers to the Moon and the rest of the planets; Heaven’s radiant Tower is the circle of the signs of the zodiac (c.f., footnote 18).

9

The Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere Proxima frigentis Arctos boreamque rigentem 315

nixa venit species genibus sibi conscia causae a tergo nitet Arctophylax, idemque Bootes, quod stimulis iunctis instat de more iuvencis; Arcturumque rapit medio sub pectore secum at parte ex alia claro volat orbe Corona,

320

luce micans varia; nam stella vincitur una circulus, in media radiat quae maxima fronte candidaque ardenti distinguit lumina flamma: Gnosia desertae fulgent monimenta puellae. et Lyra diductis per caelum cornibus inter

325

sidera conspicitur, qua quondam ceperat Orpheus omne quod attigerat cantu manesque per ipsos fecit iter domuitque infernas carmine leges. hinc caelestis honos similisque potentia causae: tunc silvas et saxa trahens, nunc sidera ducit

330

et rapit immensum mundi revolubilis orbem.

Serpentem magnis Ophiuchus nomine signis dividit, ut tote cingentem corpore corpus explicet et nodes sinuataque terga per orbes: respicit ille tamen molli cervice reflexus

335

et redit effusis per laxa volumina palmis: semper erit paribus bellum, quia viribus aequant. proxima sors Cycni, quem caelo Iuppiter ipse imposuit, formae pretium, qua cepit amantem, cum deus in niveum descendit versus olorem

340

tergaque fidenti subiecit plumea Ledae. nunc quoque diductas volitat stellatus in alas. hinc imitata nitent cursumque habitumque Sagittae sidera. tum magni Iovis ales fertur in altum, assueto volitans gestet ceu fulmina mundo,

345

digna Iove et caelo, quod sacris instruit armis.

Next the cold Bears, (the Cause to himself best known) Shines forth a kneeling Constellation.25 Behind whose back Arctophylax appears, The same Boötes called, because yoked Steers He seemingly drives; who through the rapid Skies (Bearing Arcturus in his Bossom) hies.26 On the other side see the rich Crown display27 Its Luminous Gems, bright with a different Ray: For the fair Round is by One Start outvied, Near to the middle of its Front decried, Whose clear Fires make the other pale Lights fade, Bright Marks of the deserted Gnosian Maid.

Then see the crooked-neck Lyre to Heaven advanced,28 Whose Music whatsoever was struck with, danced:

By Orpheus touched; forced down to Hell his Way, And made the infernal laws his Verse obey; Celestial Honours added; the same Cause Remains, once Woods and Stones, now Stars it draws And leads about the revoluble Spheres.

With large Lights parted Ophiuchus bears29 A Snake; and from its Winding Body strives To free his own, and loose its sinuous Gives Which, writhing its soft Neck, turns Head again; Their equal Strengths, still equal Fight maintain.

Next see the Swan placed in the Skies by Jove As Guardian of that form which gained his Love: For once the God on Earth transformed to such Submitted to fair Leda’s softer touch30 his downy Back; This now through ample Skies Roving, a winged Constellation flies.

Here Stars an Arrow’s shape and flight present; 31 There with unusual Wing the Firmament Jove’s Eagle Scales; now justly stellified, Who Heaven and him with sacred Arms supplied.

25 The constellation of Hercules, the Hero, often known in ancient times as Engonasi, from a Greek term which literally means ‘the kneeler’.

26 Arctophylax is the Greek name for the constellation Bootes, which literally means Guardian of the North or Bear Watcher (Arcto ‘north’ or ‘bear’

+ phylax ‘watcher, sentinel, guard, protector’). The name Bootes derives from the Greek Βοώτης ‘herdsman’ or ‘ploughman’. Arcturus is the brightest star of the constellation, its name also capturing the same essence as Arctophylax (Arcto + ourus ‘watcher, guardian’).

27 Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, the fabled coronet presented by Bacchus to Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, whose palace at Gnossos (now Knossos, Crete) gave her the title of Gnosian Maid (quoting Ovid Heroides 15. 23 “Bacchus loved the Gnosian maid”). Legend relates that Ariadne was in love with the Athenian King Theseus, who was chosen as the yearly tribute that Athenians had to give to Minos, as a sacrifice to the monstrous minotaur that dwelt in the labyrinth beneath the city. Ariadne helped her lover escape the labyrinth, giving him a thread of glittering jewels by which he could trace his steps, but was later abandoned by Theseus after he carried her away to the Aegean island of Naxos.

28 Lyre the Lyre (or harp) celebrates the myth of Orpheus, son of Apollo and the muse Calliope; his music was so beautiful that no one or thing could resist it, including trees or stones. After his wife Euridice died, Orpheus descended to Hades and played music so sweet that he was allowed to have his wife follow him out – on one condition: that he did not look back at her until he had left the underworld; a condition he broke at the end of the journey, upon which Euridice was swept back to Hades and he played a mourning song with his lyre, begging for his own death.

29 Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer, holding Serpens the Serpent. Ophiuchus is usually associated with Asclepius, a legendary physician worshipped as a god of medicine. In some versions of his myth he killed a snake with his staff, then another snake brought it back to life after dropping some herbs on it, giving Asclepius knowledge of how to use those herbs to resurrect the son of King Minos of Crete.

30 Cygnus the Swan. Myth relates that after Leda was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, she gave birth to Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins.

31 Sagitta the Arrow and Aquila the Eagle. In myth, the arrow was used by Hercules to strike down the Eagle that Zeus had sent to gnaw at the liver of Prometheus (as punishment after Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind).

10

tum quoque de ponto surgit Delphinus ad astra, oceani caelique decus, per utrumque sacratus. quem rapido conatus Equus comprendere cursu festinat pectus fulgenti sidere clarus.

350

et finitur in Andromeda; [quam Perseus armis eripit et sociat sibi, cui] succedit iniquo divisum spatio, quod tertia lampada dispar conspicitur paribus, Deltoton nomine sidus, ex simili dictum; Cepheusque et Cassiepia

355

in poenas signata suas iuxtaque relictam Andromedam vastos metuentem pristis hiatus, expositam ponto deflet scopulisque revinctam, ni veterem Perseus caelo quoque servet amorem auxilioque iuvet fugiendaque Gorgonis ora

360

sustineat spoliumque sibi pestemque videnti. tum vicina ferens nixo vestigia Tauro Heniochus studio mundumque et nomen adeptus, quem primum curru volitantem Iuppiter alto quadriiugis conspexit equis caeloque sacravit.

365

hunc subeunt Haedi claudentes sidere pontum, nobilis et mundi nutrito rege Capella, cuius ab uberibus magnum ile ascendit Olympum. lacte fero crescens ad fulmina vimque tonandi; hanc ergo aeternis merito sacravit in astris

370

Iupiter et caeli caelum mercede rependit.

Pleiadesque Hyadesque feri pars utraque Tauri in boream scandunt. haec sunt aquilonia signa.

Then see from Seas to Stars the Dolphin rise,32 The Grace both of the Ocean and the Skies, Whom the swift Courser33 strives to overtake, his Breast With a refulgent34 Signature impressed, Which closes in the fair Andromeda:35 Kind Perseus’ Shoulder lends her Feet a Stay,36 And joins to himself; but a large Space divides Deltoton37 brighter in its Base than sides, So called from its Resemblance; Cepheus And Cassiopeia made conspicuous Even to her Punishment, seems to deplore Andromeda chained to the rocky shore, Fearing the gaping Monster of the Deep;38 But Perseus still does his kindness keep, Come to her Aid, and of the Gorgon slain Shows the feared Head, his Spoil39 the Seers’ Bane.

Close running by the kneeling Bull, behold Heniochus,40 who gained by skill of old Heaven and his Name; as first four Steeds he drove On flying Wheels, seen, and installed by Jove.

The Kids next, the Seas barring till the Spring,41 Then the Goat42, Nurse to the World’s Infant King, Who from her Teats scaled heaven, her Milk, did grow To brandish Lightning, and feared Thunder throw, By her own Jove a Constellation made, And for the Heaven she gave, with Heaven repaid.

Last view the Pleiades and the Hyades Both Parts of the Bull; The Northern Signs are These.

32 Delphinius the Dolphin and Sagitta the Arrow are among the smallest constellations. According to Ovid’s Fasti (II, F.3) Dephinius celebrates the

dolphin that carried the sea goddess Amphitite to Poseidon to become his wife (“He was a happy go-between in love’s intrigues”), as well as that which saved the Greek poet Arion from drowning after his ship was attacked by robbers: “The gods see good deeds: Jupiter took the dolphin and ordered its constellation to contain nine stars”.

33 Pegasus the Winged Horse, offspring of the Gorgon Medusa and Poseidon, who emerged from Medusa after Perseus decapitated her. The name comes from Greek pegai, ‘springs’ because Pegasus could strike the earth with his hoof to create a spring of water. He was ridden by Poseidon’s hero son Bellerophon, who died when he fell from Pegasus in an act of hubris, riding too high in an attempt to join the gods on Mount Olympus.

34 Refulgent: archaic word for brilliant.

35 Andromeda the Chained Princess, daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia (surrounding constellations) who was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus on the orders of Poseidon after the Nereids (sea nymphs) complained of Cassiopeia’s boast that her daughter was more beautiful than they. Andromeda married Perseus after he rescued her by exposing Cetus to the petrifying head of the Gorgon Medusa.

36 Perseus the Hero, grandson of Acrisius, King of Argos, who was rescued as a baby (along with his mother) from the wooden chest that Acrisius set to sea after an oracle claimed that one day his grandson would kill him. He was placed amongst the stars after successfully completing the challenge of King Polydectes to defeat the Gorgon Medusa, or else his mother would belong to Polydectes, whose advances she had spurned.

37 Triangulum the Triangle, also called Deltoton because its shape resembles an upper-case Greek letter delta (Δ).

38 Cetus the Sea Monster, depicted beneath Pisces; the name derives from the Greek kêtos, which describes a sea-monster, whale or huge fish.

39 His ‘spoil’ being Caput Algol the star that represents the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which is the “seer’s bane” because anyone who sees it is turned to stone (Perseus was able to decapitate Medusa by using a mirror to avoid a direct gaze).

40 Auriga (L: ‘Charioteer’); the name Heniochus transliterates a Greek term Hνίοχος, meaning ‘rein-holder’. The constellation possibly commemorates the chariot victories of Polyzalus in the Pythian Games of 474 BC, held at Delphi where an ancient life-sized bronze statue known as Heniokhos has been discovered.

41 The Kids (Haedi) and the Goat are asterisms within the constellation Auriga, depicted as carried by the Charioteer. Goold’s translation of this point reads “Him follow the Kids that with their constellation close the seas” and is accompanied with a footnote: “Referring to the matinudal setting of the kids in mid-November, from when until early March navigation was for the most part suspended” (p.33); Sherburne reports that this event was celebrated by festivities and games.

42 Capella (L: ‘She-Goat’) is the sixth brightest star in the sky – in Greek myth this commemorates the she-goat Almathea ‘Tender Goddess’ who suckled and raised the infant Zeus after he was hidden from Chronos, who was intent on swallowing all his children.

11

The Southern Constellations aspice nunc infra solis surgentia cursus, quae super exustas labuntur sidera terras 375

quaeque inter gelidum Capricorni sidus et axe imo subnixum vertuntur lumina mundum, altera pars orbis sub quis iacet invia nobis ignotaeque hominum gentes nec transita regna, commune ex uno lumen ducentia sole

380

diversasque umbras laevaque cadentia signa et dextros ortus caelo spectantia verso. nec minor est illis mundus nec lumine peior, nec numerosa minus nascuntur sidera in orbem. cetera non cedunt; uno vincuntur in astro,

385

Augusto, sidus nostro quod contigit orbi, Caesar nunc terris, post caelo maximus auctor. cernere vicinum Geminis licet Oriona, in magnam caeli tendentem bracchia partem nec minus extento surgentem ad sidera passu,

390

singula fulgentis umeros cui lumina signant et tribus obliquis demissus ducitur ensis. at caput Orion excelso immersus Olympo per tria subducto signatur lumina vultu, non quod clara minus, sed quod magis alta recedunt.

395

hoc duce per totum decurrunt sidera mundum. subsequitur rapido contenta Canicula cursu, qua nullum terris violentius advenit astrum nec gravius cedit; nunc horrida frigore surgit, nunc vacuum soli fulgentem deserit orbem:

400

sic in utrumque movet mundum et contraria reddit. hanc qui surgentem, primo cum redditur ortu, montis ab excelso speculantur vertice Tauri, eventus frugum varios et tempora dicunt, quaeque valetudo veniat, concordia quanta;

405

bella facit pacemque refert varieque revertens sic movet, ut vidit mundum, vultuque gubernat. magna fides hoc posse color cursusque micantis in radios: vix sole minor, nisi quod procul haerens frigida caeruleo contorquet lumina vultu.

Now see the Stars which above the scorched Earth run Rising beneath the Pathway of the Sun, And those which ‘twixt the Tropic are confined Of Capricorn, and Pole that is declined.

Near to the Twins behold Orion rise43 With stretched Arms almost fathoming the Skies: Nor marching with a less extended Pace.

Bright shining Stars his either shoulder grace.44 Three Lights his Pendant Sword obliquely sign,45 In his advanced Head three others shine46 Deep in the Skies immersed; nor yet less bright, Though such they seem because more removed from Sight.

Him, as through Heaven he marches, follow All The starry Legions as their General.47 Next after whom with rapid Motion bent, (No Star than that against Earth more violent) The fierce Dog runs;48 not one for Heat does rise, Not one for Cold more grievous quits the Skies, The World afflicting with a different Fate: Nor ever fails upon the Sun to wait.

Who this from Taurus Crown first rising see49 Guess thence of Fruits what the Event may be: What Health, what Quiet may the Year befall: Here War it makes, there Peace does reinstall; And as it variously returns, does awe The inferior World; Its aspect is their Law. ’Tis strongly credited this owns a Light And runs a Course not than the Sun’s less bright, But that removed from Sight so great a Way It seems to cast a dim and weaker Ray:50 All other Stars it foils, none in the Main Is drenched, or brighter thence ascends again

43 Orion the Hunter, fabled as mighty and magnificent (reflecting the prominence of the constellation). Part of Orion’s rich mythological story

makes him the lover of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Offended by his boast that there was no creature he could not hunt and defeat, Artemis proved Orion wrong and caused his death by the sting of a scorpion. Afterwards, beset by grief, Artemis begged Jupiter to place her belated lover in the sky opposite the constellation Scorpio, so he could escape in the west whenever his murderer arose in the east.

44 Betelgeuze (roughly translates an Arabic term for ‘armpit’), the red star on the right shoulder which is the brightest of Orion, and Bellatrix ‘Female Warrior’ on the left shoulder, the third brightest star of the group.

45 The three in the belt are Mintaka ‘the Belt’ (to the west, so the first to rise), Alnilam in the centre and Alnitak to the east.

46 The brightest of the small group of three stars marking the head is Meissa (Arabic: ‘Shining One’). The poetic lines that follow show a curious resonance with modern astronomical knowledge. Wikipedia reports: “Despite Meissa being more luminous and only slightly further away than Rigel, it appears 3 magnitudes dimmer at visual wavelengths, with much of its radiation emitted in the ultraviolet due to its high temperature”.

47 Orion is the most noticeable constellation in the sky, and is followed by the (Hunter’s) Hound that holds Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The heliacal rising of Sirius accompanied the annual inundation of the Nile, an event that heralded the commencement of the ancient Egyptian New Year. Ptolemy reports in his Tetrabiblos (II.10) how both equinoxes and both solstices have been used as starting points of the zodiac, according to “those who have written on these matters”. Translator F.E. Robbins footnotes the realisation of Bouché-Leclercq that this is why Cancer, the sign of the summer solstice “was the horoscope in the so-called Egyptian “theme of the world … [but] after Posidonius Aries was definitely recognised as the starting point of the zodiac” (p.197).

48 Sirius, the ‘Dog Star’ of the constellation Canis Major the Great Hound.

49 Goold’s translation reads: “Those who from Mount Taurus’ lofty peak observe it ascending when it returns at its first rising learn of the various outcomes of harvests and seasons…” A footnoted comment here reads “Scaliger observes that the mention of Mount Taurus is a compliment to Aratus, who was a Cilician” (Cicilia is an ancient name for what is now Southern Turkey where the Taurus Mountains are located).

50 Sirius is the nearest Sun of another solar system – the text appears to recognise that other suns exist or that a star might be as bright as the Sun if closer to Earth. Geminos had explained that some stars are more distant than others, affecting brightness, in his Phaenomena (1st century BCE) 12

410

cetera vincuntur specie, nec clarius astrum tingitur oceabo caelumque revisit ab undis tum Procyon veloxque Lepus, tum nobilis Argo in caelum subducta mari, quod prima cucurrit, emeritum magnis mundum tenet acta periclis,

415

servando dea facta deos. cui proximus Anguis squamea dispositis imitatur lumina flammis. et Phoebo sacer Ales et una gratus Iaccho Crater et duplici Centaurus imagine fulget, pars hominis, tergo pectus commissus equino.

420

ipsius hinc mundo templum est, victrixque solutis Ara nitet sacris, vastos cum terra gigantes in caelum furibunda tulit. tum di quoque magnos quaesivere deos; dubitavit Iuppiter ipse, quod poterat non posse timens, cum surgere terram

425

cerneret, ut verti naturam crederet omnem, montibus atque atiis aggestos crescere montes, et iam vicinos fugientia sidera colles, arma importantis et rupta matre creatos, discordes vultum permixtaque corpora partus.

430

nec di pestiferum sibi quemquam (aut) numina norat si qua forent maiora suis. tunc Iupiter Arae sidera constituit, quae nunc quoque maxima fulgent. quam propter Cetus convolvens squamea terga orbibus insurgit tortis et fluctuat alvo,

435

intentans morsum, similis iam iamque tenenti,

Next, with the nimble Hare see Procyon rise,51 And then the noble Argo; to the Skies52 From Seas translated which she first did plow; Once tossed with mighty storms, in Heaven fixed now, And deified for saving Deities.

Close boarding her a glittering Serpent lies,53 And by so ordered Lights, seems to present His speckled Body’s scaly Ornament.

Sols’ Bird,54 the Cup, dear to the God of Wine,55 And Centaur56 next in a mixed shape does shine, Half Man, half Horse; then Heaven’s bright Temple see,57 And Altar consecrate to Victory , What time the enraged Earth a Giant Race Against Heaven produced, then Gods besought the Grace Of the great Gods; and Jove himself feared too He wanted Power to do, what he could do.

When he amazed the rising Earth beheld, How even against Nature’s self, Nature rebelled, Saw Mountains heaped on Mountains to aspire, And Stars from the approaching Hills retire, Charged with dire Arms by a deformed Birth Issuing from Ruptures of the teeming Earth.

No Victim-Bearers yet the Gods had known Or that there were Powers Greater than their own; Then did Heaven’s King this Starry Altar raise, Whose fires even yet with brightest Lustre blaze.

qualis ad expositae fatum Cepheidos undis expulit adveniens ultra sua litora pontum.

Near which the Whale raising his scaly Limbs58 In large Wreaths, wallowing on his Belly swims, And gapes as ready just to seize his Prey: As when the same the exposed Andromeda To her sad Fate approaching once beheld, who the forced Waves beyond their Shore impelled.

51 The Hare is the constellation Lepus; the fixed star Procyon is of the constellation Canis Minor (‘Little Hound’); these two constellations surround

Canis Major and rise at around the same time. The name Procyon derives from a Greek term meaning ‘the one [rising] before the dog [star]’ because although Procyon precedes Sirius by celestial longitude, its more northerly declination means it ascends over the eastern horizon shortly before Sirius comes into view.

52 Argo Navis the Ship Argo, (or Navis, L: ‘Ship’) was the largest of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy. Its mythology honours the vessel used by Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece. Because of the constellation’s great size (it once housed 160 easily visible stars), it was rearranged in the 18th century into three modern constellations: Carina, the Keel; Puppis, the Ship’s Deck; and Vela, the Sail.

53 Hydra the Water-snake, now the sky’s largest constellation, lying with its head below Cancer and its tail towards Scorpio. Its alpha star, Alphard, takes its name from the Arabic Al-Fard, ‘the Solitary One’ because it is an easily identifiable orange star in an otherwise dark area of sky (known in Latin texts as Cor Hydrae ‘the Hydra’s Heart’, it is positively associated with wisdom and negatively associated with poisons, asphyxiation or drownings). In classical myth, Hydra is associated with the nine-headed Lernean Hydra that Hercules slew as his second labour (brother to Ladon the Dragon, c.f., footnote 23) and it also features in the myths of the neighbouring constellations of the Crow and the Cup (see below).

54 Corvus the Crow (or Raven), the sacred messenger of Apollo, god of prophecy, who cast favour upon it after triumphantly assuming its shape during a contest of the gods. According to Ovid, “The bird was once of a silvery hue, with such snowy feathers it could rival any dove”, but the Sun god turned its plumage to black after it brought news to him that it had spied on his wife and caught her with a lover.

55 Crater, the Cup (Gk: kratēr), favoured by Bacchus, god of fertility and wine (the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Dionysus). One myth tells of Apollo sending his raven, Corvus, to fetch a cup of water. During the errand, Corvus lazily loitered at a fig tree, eventually returning with a water snake in his claws, whom he falsely blamed for his delay. Seeing through the lie, Apollo cast the bird to heaven alongside the cup and the snake, in such a way that he would be prevented from drinking out of the cup by the folds of the snake and thus realise the pains of feeling thirsty.

56 Centaurus the Centaur. The mythology of the Southern Centaur is believed to be of Greek origin, developing later than that of the more warlike Sagittarius, whose imagery is known to be Mesopotamian. Centaurus barely featured in the 4th century BCE text of Aratus, but according to Eratosthenes, who wrote of the constellations in the 2nd century BC, the star group depicts the mythological figure of Cheiron: a half-man, halfhorse creature who was remarkable amongst his wild and lawless race because of his wisdom, gentility and love of humanity.

57 Ara the Altar; Manilius is an important source for relating its myth, which commemorates the altar of sacrifice and ritual at which Zeus and the Olympian gods prayed for strength and vowed to overthrow Chronos and the primaeval Titans.

58 Cetus the Whale is not near Ara, so this is assumed to be a mistake by Goold. However, the original text might have intended to suggest that Cetus confronts Ara, since Cetus sets in the West as Ara rises in the East (being very southerly, Ara is seldom visible in most northern latitudes).

13

440

flexa per ingentis stellarum flumina gyros. alterius capiti coniungit Aquarius undas amnis, et in medium coeunt et sidera miscent. his, inter solisque vias Arctosque latentes axem quae mundi stridentem pondere torquent,

445

orbe peregrino caelum depingitur astris,

In Heaven’s South Part, the Fish then from the Wind Called Southern rises;59 close to which conjoined In Mighty flexures60 starry Rivers run.

One of their Heads flows from Aquarius Tun,61 Whose Waters by communicated Streams Meet in the midst, and mix Sidereal Beams.62

quae notia antiqui dixerunt sidera vates.

Top left: Albert Dürer’s 1515 depiction of the southern constellations, showing limited understanding of the southern skies in the early 16th century.

‘Twixt the Ecliptic and the latent Bears, Which about the creaking Axis turn the Spheres, Heaven’s stranger Orb with these Stars painted shines, Which Ancient Poets called the Southern Signs.

Top right and bottom illustrations, showing much improved accuracy, are from Johannes Hevelius’s Firmamentum (1690).

59 Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish (or Pisces Notius, the Notable Fish, because this is a single creature close to the feet of Aquarius, in contrast

with the two fish of Pisces). This is a feint constellation except for its alpha star, Fomalhaut (Arabic: ‘Fish’s Mouth’), which is the 18th brightest star in the sky and can be easily found by northern latitude observers due to the fact that the western side of the Square of Pegasus points towards it.

60 Flexures: archaic word for ‘flexes’ (bends and curves).

61 Tun: an urn, barrel or container for wine or liquid.

62 Historical star maps depict a starry stream that flows between the urn of Aquarius and Fomalhaut in the Mouth of the Southern Fish. It is possible that Manilius envisioned this as connecting up to the Ptolemaic constellation of Eridanus, the River, which is usually depicted as flowing from Orion and meandering past Cetus into the southern hemisphere.

14

The Inconspicuous Constellations of the Southern Hemisphere ultima quae mundo semper volvuntur in imo, quis innixa manent caeli fulgentia templa, nusquam in conspectum redeuntia, cardine verso 450

sublimis speciem mundi similisque figuras astrorum referunt. aversas frontibus Arctos uno distingui medias claudique Dracone credimus exemplo. quamvis fugientia visus hunc orbem caeli vertentis sidera cursu cardine tam simili fultum, quam vertice, singit.

455

Haec igitur magno divisas aethere sedes signa tenent mundi totum deducta per orbem. tu modo corporeis similis ne quaere figuras, omnia ut aequali fulgentia membra colore

460

deficiat nihil aut vacuum qua lumine cesset. non poterit mundus sufferre incendia tants, omnia si plenis ardebunt sidera membris. quicquid subduxit flammis, natura pepercit succubitura oneri, formas disiungere tantum

465

contenta et stellis ostendere sidera certis. linea designat species, atque ignibus ignes respondent, media extremis atque ultima summis creduntur; satis est, si se non omnia celant. praecipue medio cum luna implebitur orbe,

470

certa nitent mundo tum lumina, conditur omne stellarum vulgus, fugiunt sine nomine signa. pura licet vacuo tum cernere sidera caelo, nec fallunt numero, parvis nec mixta feruntur.

Et quo clara magis possis cognoscere signa,

475

non varios obitus norunt variosque recursus, certa sed in proprias oriuntur sidera luces, natalesque suos occasumque ordine servant. nec quicquam in tanta magis est mirabile mole, quam ratio et certis quod legibus omnia parent

480

nusquam turba nocet, nihil ullis partibus errat, laxius aut brevius mutatove ordine fertur. quid tam confusum specie, quid tam vice certum est?

The rest of the World lies underwater, hid, Where unknown Realms, Lands to our Sight forbid, Take from one Sun, with us, a common Light, But several Shadows,63 and a different Night.

Where Stars sinistral set, and dextral rise,64 Their Heaven as ample, nor less bright their Skies, Their Stars as numerous, only thus outvied, In that, to them, Augustus Star’s denied, Which does our World with Rays propitious bless; Earth’s present, and Heaven’s future Happiness.

That the Extremes which about the neather Pole65 Decked with Bright Stars, though inconspicuous, roll The upper Pole’s resemble, with Signs graced Like that; where Bears with Fronts averse are placed, And by one Dragon parted; we suppose66 Induced to credit what Example shows, For Reason urges from Analogy, The Parts unseen are like those we see.

These several Stations, by large Skies disjoined; To all the Constellations are assigned, Yet think not they corporeal Figures are, Or all their Members equal Lustre share; Heaven could not suffer so intense a Heat, Were no Part void, but all with Fire replete.

Some, therefore, cautious Nature kept from Flame, Lest it should hazard the Celestial Frame, Only to mark their Figures out content, And Signs by certain Stars to represent, Whose Lights design their shapes; fire answers fire, Mean to Extreme, the Lower to the Higher, It is enough they are not hidden quite.

Some Stars the Moon half-full show greatest Light,67 But all the nameless Commons of the Sky Obscured by her completed Splendour, fly: The brighter Signs yet nor their Number change Nor with less Stars in mixed Motion range, But the same Course (the better to be known) And Order, in their Rise and Setting, own.

Nor in this World may Ought more wonder raise Than that the Whole Reason, and Laws, obeys, Where Nothing’s crowded, Nothing loosely roves, Or cross to its determined Order, moves.

63 The archaic meaning of several is ‘different’ or ‘diverse’ (rather than ‘many’, a meaning which developed after the 16th century); this detail

alludes to how shadows, which fall towards the north in the northern hemisphere, fall towards the south in the southern hemisphere.

64 Sinistral ‘leftwards’ (in ancient astronomy ‘leftwards’ is associated with the descent of the stars towards the descendant); dextral ‘rightwards’

(in ancient astronomy associated with the ascent of the stars from the ascendant) – so this is referring to how stars rise in the west and set in the east in the southern hemisphere, contrary to how they rise and set in the northern hemisphere.

65 Neather (from Old English nithera) means ‘low down’ or ‘beneath’, from which the phrase nether regions means the lowest part of any place.

66 Manilius wrongly assumes that what cannot be seen at the southern pole will mirror the northern polar constellations of the Bears and Draco.

67 Goold’s translation is clearer on this point, which is explaining that when the Moon is full, the light of the stars is lessened because the light of the luminaries is greater: “the princely luminaries shine conspicuous in the heavens; the whole stellar populace fades from sight”.

15

Ac mihi tam praesens ratio non ulla videtur, qua pateat mundum divino numine verti 485

atque ipsum esse deum nec forte coisse magistra, ut voluit eredi, qui primus moenia mundi seminibus struxit minimis inque illa resolvit, e quibus et maria et terras et sidera caeli aetheraque immensis fabricantem finibus orbes

490

solventemque alios constare et cuncta reverti in sua principia et rerum mutare figuras. quis credat tantas operum sine numine moles, ex minimis caecoque creatum foedere mundum? si fors ista dedit nobis, fors ipsa gubernet;

495

at cur dispositis vicibus consurgere signa et velut imperio praescriptos reddere cursus cernimus ac nullis properantibus ulla relinqui? cur eadem aestivas exornant sidera noctes semper et hibernas eadem, certamque figuram

500

quisque dies reddit mundo certamque relinquit? iam tum, cum Graiae verterunt Pergama gentes, Arctos et Orion adversis frontibus ibant, Haec contenta suos in vertice flectere gyros, ille ex diverso vertentem surgere contra

505

obvius et toto semper decurrere mundo. temporaque obscurae noctis deprendere signis iam poterant, caelumque suas distinxerat horas. quot post excidium Troiae sunt eruta regna! quot capti populi! quotiens fortuna per orbem

510

servitium imperiumque tulit varieque revertit!

Troianos cineres in quantum oblita refovit imperium! fatis Asiae iam Graecia pressa est. saecula dinumerare piget, quotiensque recurrens lustrarit mundum vario sol igneus orbe.

515

omnia mortali mutantur lege creata, nec se cognoscunt terrae vertentibus annis exutas variam faciem per saecula gentes. at manet incolumis mundus suaque omnia servat, quae nec longa dies auget minuitque senectus,

520

nec motus puncto curvat cursusque fatigat: idem semper erit, quoniam semper fuit idem. non alium videre patres aliumve nepotes aspicient: deus est, qui non mutatur in aevo. numquam transversas solem decurrere ad Arctos

What more confused in show, yet what in Course More certain? a clear Reason to enforce That this World is governed by a Deity And is itself a God; nor casually Together met, as he would once persuade, Who first the Walls of this wide System made Of Atoms, and to those resolves again;68 Of which, the solid Earth, the floating Main, The fiery Stars, and Aether that creates Infinite Orbs, and others dissipates, Consist All which revert unto their Springs, And transmutate the various Forms of things.

But who can think this World educed69 should be From such blind Grounds without a Deity?

If Chance did give, Chance rules this All; Whence are The Signs then in their Course so regular?

Rising by Turns, as if by Laws enjoined, None posting on, whilst others stay behind?

The same Stars Summer, the same Winter grace, Day takes, and leaves to Heaven one certain Face.

What time Troy’s State was by the Greeks undone, Opposed did Arctos and Orion run70 She the World’s Top to circle still content, He facing her, to round the whole Firmament.

The times of obscure Night, were then divined From the bright Stars; Heavens had its Hours designed: Since when how many Kingdoms waste are laid?

How many Nations have been Captive made?

Empire and Servitude how oft dissolved

By Fortunes’ Power? and differently revolved?

Troy’s Ashes now to what a glorious State She reinspires ?71 Greece suffers Asia’s Fate. ’Twere tedious to recount the Ages past, How oft the Sun hath seen the World new cast.

All Things by humane Laws created, change: Lands to each other known, in time grow strange: Nations in course of many Years, put on A various Face; but Heaven wears always one; Grows not by length of Days, nor wastes with Age, Always in Course, yet faints not in its Stage, Will ever be the same, since such it was ever; Other than ’tis our Fathers saw it never,

68 The Greek philosopher Democritus (460-370 BCE) proposed that all things are composed of tiny, imperceivable and indivisible particles called

‘atoms’ (from Greek atomos, ‘indivisible’), which are varied in size and property, so determining the nature of the matter constituted by them.

The theory was developed by Epicurus (341-271 BCE), who rejected the notion of Platonic forms or an immaterial human soul, arguing that the body and the individual soul are destroyed at death (offering appeal in freeing adherents from the fear of suffering after death). Manilius is probably referencing the more contemporary Roman poet Lucretius, who versified the ideas of Epicurus in his Latin text On the Nature of the Universe in the 1st century BCE. Though considered a ‘materialistic’ argument, it retains a notion of all life continuing through a constant return to and emergence from the universal source and does not disregard the controlling effect of the planets (Lucretius commences with an invocation to “life-giving Venus … guiding power of the Universe” who is asked to bring peace and endow the work with ever-lasting charm).

69 Educed, brought about or developed (literally: drawn out or extracted).

70 Arctos, from the Greek arktos, meaning ‘bear’; i.e, the constellations of the Bear and the Hunter were in opposition then, as they remain today.

71 Sherburne notes that this refers to “the Roman State and People, which rose from the ruins and ashes of subverted Troy … The Romans bringing upon Greece the same desolation, which they once brought upon Troy, one of the most flourishing cities of Asia”.

16

525 nec mutare vias et in ortum vertere cursus auroramque novis nascentem ostendere terris, nec lunam certos excedere luminis orbes sed servare modum, quo crescat quove recedat, nec cadere in terram pendentia sidera caelo 530

sed dimensa suis consumere tempora signis: non casus opus est, magni sed numinis ordo.

Haec igitur texunt aequali sidera tractu ignibus in varias caelum laqueantia formas. altius his nihil est; haec sunt fastigia mundi; 535

publica naturae domus his contenta tenetur finibus amplectens pontum terrasque iacentis. omnia concordi tractu veniuntque caduntque, qua semel incubuit caelum versumque resurgit.

Nor shall our Nephews: ’tis a God, and knows, Nothing of Change, which Age and Time impose.

That the Sun never starts to the North aside, Nor changing Course back to the East does ride, And to strange Lands a newborn Day disclose; That the Moon always the same changes shows, The Laws observed of her Increase and Wane, That Stars themselves from falling still sustain, And run in measured Courses, seems to Sense No Work of Chance, but Act of Providence.

These Signs, divided thus, by equal space, Heaven’s azure Ceiling with Gold fretwork Grace Above which is Nothing; there the World’s height ends, Nor further Nature’s Public House extends, [Above] which Seas embrace the Earth’s round Ball, All These in mutual Courses rise and fall, As the revolving Skies, here downward bend Beneath the Horizon, and there reascend.72

Ipse autem quantum convexo mundus Olympo 540

obtineat spatium, quantis bis sena ferantur finibus astra, docet ratio, cui nulla resistunt claustra nec immensae moles, ceduntque recessus, omnia succumbunt, ipsum est penetrabile caelum. nam quantum a terris atque aequore signa recedunt,

545

tantum bina patent. quacumque inciditur orbis per medium, pars efficitur tum tertia gyri, exiguo dirimens solidam discrimine summam. summum igitur caelum bis bina refugit ab imo astra, bise senis ut sit pars tertia signis.

550

sed quia per medium est tellus suspensa profundum, binis a summo signis discedit et imo. hinc igitur quodcumque supra te suspicis ipse, qua per inane meant oculi quaque ire recusant. binis aequandum est signis, sex tanta rotundae

555

efficiunt orbem zonae, qua signa feruntur bis sex aequali spatio texentia caelum. nec mirere vagos partus eadem esse per astra et mixtum ingenti generis discrimine fatum, singula cum tantum teneant tantoquo ferantur

560

tempore; sex tota surgentia sidera luce [nec spatio octis linquentia plura profundim]

The Dimensions of the Universe Now to what Compass Heaven’s extremest Round Is stretched; what Lists the bright Zodiac bound, Reason will teach; to whom there’s nothing hard, From whom by space or Bulk nothing is debarred; To her all stoop; She sounds the Depths of Night, And Heaven itself is pervious to her Sight.

How far the Stars are above the Earth and Main, So great the space is, which two Signs contain, and if the World’s Diameter you take, That, with small Difference, will a third Part make Of its Circumference;73 Four Signs then, (so far) Heaven’s Zenith and its Nadir distant are; And twice four added its whole Round complete.

But since in the midst Earth has its Pendant Seat, ’Tis two signs distant from Heaven’s Depth or Height.

Thus All which above the Earth is reached by Sight, Or underneath, by that unseen, extends, Each way the space of two Signs comprehends: And six times that measures the Circle, where Twelve Constellations equal Mansions share.

Nor wonder that the self-same Signs create Uncertain Births mixed with much different Fate; Since Each six rising with their Lights entire, So great a space, and so long time require.

72 At this point Goold’s translation moves forward the verse lines of 805-809 so that the passage continues with a reference to the planets: “There

exist other stars, which strive against the contrary movement of the sky and in their swift orbits are poised between heaven and earth: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and the Sun, and beneath them Mercury performing its flight between Venus and the Moon”.

73 Using the logic expressed by Euclid (Elem. 4.15) that the circumference of any circle is approximately three times its diameter (precisely π: 3.14).

17

Of the Heavenly Circles restat ut aetherios fines tibi reddere coner filaque dispositis vicibus comitantia caelum per quae dirigitur signorum flammeus ordo. [circulus a summo nascentem vertice mundum 565

permeat Arctophylaca petens per terga draconis] circulus ad boream fulgentem sustinet Arcton sexque fugit solidas a caeli vertice partes. alter ad extremi decurrens sidera Cancri, in quo consummat Phoebus lucemque moramque

570

tardaque per longos circumfert lumina flexus, aestivum medio nomen sibi sumit ab aestu temporis et titulo potitur metamque volantis solis et extremos designat fervidus actus et quinque in partes aquilonis distat ab orbe.

575

tertius in media mundi regione locatus ingenti spira totum praecingit Olympum parte ab utraque videns axem, quo limite Phoebus componit paribus numeris noctemque diemque veris et autumni currens per tempora mixta,

580

cum medium aequali distinguit limite caelum quattuor et gradibus sua fila reducit ab aestu. proximus hunc ultra brumalis nomine limes ultima designat fugientis limina solis invidaque obliqua radiorum munera flamma

585

dat per iter minimum nobis; sed finibus illis, quos super incubuit, longa stant tempora luce, vixque dies transit candentem extenta per aestum, bisque iacet binis summotus partibus orbis. unus ab his superest extremo proximus axi

590

circulus, austrinas qui stringit et obsidet Arctos. hic quoque brumalem per partes quinque relinquit, et quantum a nostro sublimis cardine gyrus, distat ab adverso tantundem proximus illi.

It rests [that] we now the Ethereal Bounds design, The Circles which the parted Heavens confine, And of the Stars the splendid Order steer.

One74 toward the North sustains the shining Bear, And from the Pole six Parts of Heaven retires.

The other75 touching Cancer’s utmost Fires, (Where Phoebus consummates his Light and stay, Bearing through tedious Rounds the tardy Day) Does from the Season, and Midsummer heat Derive its Name; and to the Sun’s Race set The extremest Bound: which five Parts of the whole Declines the Circle of the Northern Pole.

The Third,76 which the World’s middle Region holds Olympus with a mighty Bend enfolds, On either Hand viewing the Pole; the Way In which the Sun makes even Night and Day. When by the Spring and Autumn Points he glides, And Heaven in the midst by equal Parts divides.

This from the Solstice four Degrees retreats; The next beyond,77 named from the Winter, sets The utmost Bound to the Sun’s backward flight, Obliquely rendering us his niggard Light78 By a short Course; but long over those He stays, Whose Lands are warmed by his directer Rays; The slow-paced Day there hardly passing round.

This from the Equator four Degrees is found.

One Circle more yet rests,79 whose Site inclines Towards the South Pole, and Southern Bears confines, Ranged from the Winter Tropic five Degrees, And near its Pole, and the North’s far from his.

74 The Arctic circle. Like Geminos (Phenomena, 5.46), Manilius adopts

‘Eudoxean divisions’ for measurement of the parallel circles, an ancient mathematical scale where a full circle measures 60 parts, so 1 part = 6° of arc. This places the Arctic Circle at 36° from the pole (lat. 54°N), concurring with Hipparchus and other ancient reports, as well as the depiction of this circle on the Farnese globe. Modern definitions make the Arctic and Antarctic circles much smaller (around 66°30' N/S) so that their distance from the poles mirrors the distance of the tropics from the equator: about 23°30' (the obliquity of the ecliptic). Note that while we expect to commence measurement of the parallels from the equator, for Manilius, their placement is derived by finding their distance from the poles.

75 Tropic of Cancer (‘5 parts’ declining from the Arctic circle, so 30° below it).

76 The equator: ‘4 degrees’ (20°) below the tropic of Cancer and equidistant from both poles.

77 The tropic of Capricorn: ‘4 degrees’ (20°) below the equator.

78 Niggard: barely sufficient (from the O.E. nigon, ‘stingy/miserly/scant’).

79 The Antarctic circle: ‘5 degrees’ (30°) below the tropic of Capricorn, near the South Pole and far from the North Pole.

18

[sic tibi per binas vertex a vertice partes divisus duplici summa circumdat Olympum et per quinque notat signantis tempore fines.] his eadem est via quae mundo pariterque rotantur inclines sociosque ortus occasibus aequant, quandoquidem secti, qua totus volvitur orbis, 600

fila trahunt alti cursum comitantia caeli intervalla pari servantes limite semper

Thus, Heaven in two divided, Pole from Pole, Does by that double Sum measure the Whole, And by five Bounds distinguished into Climes, Marks out the difference of Place and Times.

Which (Parallels) One Course with Heaven partake, And equal Rising with that and Setting make, Since in the Ethereal Texture they observe Their stated Distance, and thence never swerve.

divisosque semel fines sortemque dicatam. sunt duo, quos recipit ductos a vertice vertex, inter se adversi, qui cunctos ante relatos 605

seque secant gemino coeuntes cardine mundi transversoque polo rectum ducuntur in axem, tempora signantes anni caelumque per astra quattuor in partes divisum mensibus aequis.

Passing across by either Pole two more There are, which intersect all Those before,80 And themselves too; concurring in the Extremes Of the World’s Axis at right-angled Schemes, Which mark the Seasons out, and Heaven beside Into four Quarters equally divide.

alter ab excelso decurrens limes Olympo 610

serpentis caudam siccas et dividit Arctos, et iuga Chelarum medio volitantia gyro extremamque secans Hydram mediumque sub austris Centaurum adverso concurrit rursus in axe et redit in caelum squamosaque tergora Ceti

615

Lanigerique notat fines clarumque Trigonum Andromedaeque sinus imos, vestigia matris principiumque suum repetito cardine claudit.

18th-century Armillary Sphere illustration by Thomas Jeffreys

The Kugel Globe, ancient celestial globe assumed to date to around 100 BCE, illustrates the five horizontal circles of the equator, tropics and poles (the southern polar region is missing) and the two great colures that pass through the equinoxes and solstices (see footnote 79, below).

Of these, through highest Heaven its Course one steers81 Parting the Serpent’s Tail and undrenched Bears, And Tips of Scorpio’s Claws, born through Mid-skies, Of Hydra cutting the Extremities And Middle of the Southern Centaur, then Concurring in the Adverse Pole, again Returns by the huge Whale: whose Scaly Chine, Bright Trigon, and the Bounds the Ram confine It marks; then by Cepheïs Waist does run,82 Her Mother’s Head, and ends where it begun.

80 The colures: the two great circles of the celestial sphere which pass through the poles and either the equinoxes (the equinoctial colure) or the

solstices (the solstitial colure), used to identify the location of the equinoctial and solstitial points. The name derives from the Latin coluri (GK: kolourai) which roughly translates to ‘curtailed (lines)’, because the lower part is always invisible beneath the horizon.

Manilius’ understanding of the colures is illustrated in the photograph of the Kugel Globe, one of the few surviving celestial globes from the classical period, housed at the J. Kugel Gallery of Antiquaries in Paris. This has not been precisely dated, but is assumed to date to around 100 BCE, partly because its details align well with the text of Manilius.

81 The equinoctial colure (shown in red in T. Jeffrey’s illustration of the armillary sphere, from the Gentleman’s Magazine for August, 1748, p.345.).

82 The text intends reference to Andromeda, daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia, who is referred to in the following line as “Her Mother”. Goold’s translation more reliably places the colure towards the feet of Andromeda and Cassiopeia: “the boundary of the Ram, the bright Triangle, the lowest folds of Andomeda’s robe, and her mother’s feet, and, the pole regained, ends with its beginning”.

19

alter in hunc medium summumque incumbit in axem perque pedes primos cervicem transit et Ursae, 620

quam septem stellae primam iam sole remoto producunt nigrae praebentem lumina nocti, et Geminis Cancrum dirimit stringitque flagrantem ore Canem clavumque Ratis, quae vicerat aequor. inde axem occultum per gyri signa prioris

625

transversa atque illo rursus de limite tangit te, Capricorne, tuisque Aquilam designat ab astris, perque Lyram inversam currens spirasque Draconis: posteriora pedum Cynosurae praeterit astra transversamque secat vicino cardine caudam.

630

hic iretum coit ipse sibi memor, unde profectus atque hos aeterna fixerunt tempora sede immotis per signa modis statione perenni. hos volucris fecere duos; namque alter ab ipsa consurgens Helice medium praecidit Olympum

635

discernitque diem sextamque examinat horam et paribus spatiis occasus cernit et ortus. hic mutat per signa vices; seu si quis eoos seu petit hesperios, supra se circinat orbem verticibus super astantem mediumque secantem

640

caelum et diviso signantem culmine mundum (quando aliis aliud medium est; volat hora per orbem), cumque loco terrae caelumque et tempora mutat. atque ubi se primis extollit Phoebus ab undis, illis sexta manet, quos tum premit aureus orbis.

645

rursus ad hesperios sexta est, ubi cedit in umbras; nos primam ac summam sextam numeramus utramque et gelidum extremo lumen sentimus ab igni. alterius fines si vis cognoscere gyri, circumfer faciles oculos vultumque per orbem.

650

quicquid erit caelique imum terraeque supremum, qua coit ipse sibi nullo discrimine mundus redditque aut recipit fulgentia sidera ponto, praecingit tenui transversum limite mundum. haec quoque per totum volitabit linea caelum,

655

nunc tractum ad medium vergens mediumque repente orbem, nunc septem ad stellas nec mota sub astra, sed quacumque vagae tulerint vestigia plantae has modo terrarum nunc has gradientis in oras, semper erit novus et terris mutabitur arcus;

By the midst of this, the World’s Extremity And the Forefeet and Neck of Helice, (Which first of all when Sol withdraws his Light With seven fair Stars illuminates the Night) The other runs;83 the Crab and Twins divides, By the fierce Dog and Argo’s steerage glides; Then cross the former’s traversed Signs is born By the South Pole; Thee touching Capricorn!

Parting the Eagle from its Starry Fires By the Lyre running, and the Dragon’s Spires; Then cuts the less Bear’s Tail and hinder Feet, And makes its End with its Beginning meet.

The Seasons thus have fixed within these Rounds, Their Everlasting Seats and changeless Bounds.

These two are moveable: Whereof one Bend84 Does through Midheaven from Helice ascend, The Day distinguishes, the sixth Hour tries,85 And at just distance East and West decries, Changing the Signs by turns, still as we run, Or toward the rising or the setting Sun, Cutting Heaven’s height in the midst; and with Earth’s Place, Varies the Skies’ Position, and Times Race.

All have not one Meridian; the Hours fly round: When first we see Sol rise from the Eastern Sound, ’Tis their sixth Hour by his gold Orb then pressed;86 Such theirs, when he to us sets in the West.

These two sixth Hours we count our first, and last, When from the Extremes of Light chill Beams are cast.

The other’s Bound,87 if thou desirest to know, Look round about far as thy sight will go, Whatever Earth’s Surface with Heavens Verge does close, And the divided Hemispheres compose; Couches in Seas the Stars and thence doth send; Rounding the traversed Earth with a slight Bend; That shifting Place about the World still flies, Now more and more unto the South applies, Now to the North again as much inclines, Now runs against, now with the moved Signs.

83 The solstitial colure (shown in green in the peripheral circle of Jeffrey’s armillary sphere, previous page).

84 Having outlined astronomical circles that are fixed for all locations, Manilius now introduces the two great celestial circles that are constantly

shifting since they differ for every locality: the meridian (MC-IC axis) and horizon (Asc-Desc axis). At this point, he starts to describe the local meridian, which in Jeffery’s armillary sphere equates to the solstitial colure because of the way that diagram makes the meridian peripheral and places the horizon ‘face-on’ in the centre (in an astrological chart, we expect to see the horizon on the right of the diagram, depicting the northern hemisphere eastern horizon, and the meridian in the centre, depicting the halfway point between the eastern and western horizons).

85 The sixth Hour tries – i.e., like a judge or the centre of a balance, since there are 12 seasonal hours between the start of the day at sunrise and its end at sunset, and the meridian marks the centre between the two, which the Sun reaches at the 6th hour of the day.

86 Meaning it is the 6th hour after sunrise (noon) for nations where the Sun is upon (pressing) the meridian.

87 This begins the description of the circle of the local horizon (shown in gold in Jeffrey’s armillary sphere, previous page).

20

660

quippe aliud caelum ostendens aliudque relinquens dimidium teget et referet varioque notabit fine et cum visu pariter sua fila movente. hic terrestris erit, quia terram amplectitur orbis, [et mundum pleno praecingit limite gyrus]

665

atque a fine trahens titulum memoratur horizon. his adice obliquos adversaque fila trahentis inter se gyros, quorum fulgentia signa alter habet, per quae Phoebus moderatur habenas, subsequiturque suo solem vaga Delia curru,

670

et quinque adverso luctantia sidera mundo exercent varias naturae lege choreas. hunc tenet a summo Cancer, Capricornus ab imo, bis recipit, lucem qui circulus aequat et umbras, Lanigeri et Librae signo sua fila secantem.

675

sic per tres gyros inflexus ducitur orbis rectaque devexo fallit vestigia clivo; nec visus aciemque fugit tantumque notari mente potest, sicut cernuntur mente priores, sed nitet ingenti stellatus balteus orbe

680

insignemque facit caelato lumine mundum et ter vicenas partes patet atque trecentas in longum; bis sex latescit fascia partes, quae cohibet vario labentia sidera cursu.

But wheresoever its wandering Course it steers, As now to this, then to that Part it bears, It changes still; a new Arch always making; For leaving now this Heaven, then that forsaking, One half it will still disclose, or hide, and sign With varying Limits which the Sight confine.

This is terrestrial, because the Earth it rounds, And called Horizon, because the sight it bounds.88 To these, two others add, obliquely born, Whereof the one twelve radiant Signs adorn,89 Through which the Sun runs his Career of Light, And the Moon follows in her Coach of Night, And five Stars more against Heavens’ swift Course advance Their oppositely Nature-guided Dance.90 On whose Top Cancer; [on whose] Base the Goat resides, Twice through the Equator runs it, twice divides At Libra and the Ram; whose sloping Bend Obliquely by three Circles does extend; Not hid; nor, as the rest (discerned alone By mental view) to mental view is shown;91 But shines a glittering Belt with bright Stars graced, And girdles with its golden Fires Heaven’s Waist.

Degrees three hundred and thrice twenty counts Its Circles Round; its Breadth to twelve amounts: Within which measured Limits is confined The Planets’ Motion, variously inclined.

Above: rear view of the Farnese Atlas Globe, housed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, believed to be a 2nd-century CE Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, which offers one of the oldest representations we have of how the constellations were conceived in classical times. Some scholars believe it is based on the work of Manilius because its details fit so closely with what he reports, including the dimensions of its lines of parallels and colures which are very clearly marked in the sculpture.

88 The word horizon originates from a Greek term (horizōn) meaning ‘limiting’ or ‘bounding’, because it determines the limit of what can be seen.

89 The zodiac (shown in red in Jeffrey’s armillary sphere, above).

90 Whilst the celestial sphere has an apparent daily motion that moves all bodies from east to west, the “five Stars” (the planets: Mercury, Venus,

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) have a secondary motion, by which advancement by celestial longitude through the zodiac moves them westwards.

91 Manilius treats the zodiac as a visible circle because in his day there was close alignment between the 12 signs of the zodiac and the

constellations whose name they bear, and the planets that are placed within it can be seen. However, as Sherburne points out, Manilius is taking a poetical license – the zodiac is a precisely calculated astronomical circle that even in antiquity was understood to be perceived by intellectual reasoning only. Sherburne adds (p.48): “And therefore, Geminius in Isoge. says rightly, that of all the circles in the Heavens, only the Via Lactea is visible by sense, the rest being no otherwise discernible than by the eye of Reason”. The Via Lactea is the Milky Way, which Manilius now moves on to and discusses at length.

21

Galaxie – Milky Way alter in adversum positus succedit ad Arctos 685

et paulum a boreae gyro sua fila reducit transitque inversae per sidera Cassiepiae. inde per obliquum descendens tangit Olorem aestivosque secat fines Aquilamque supinam temporaque aequantem gyrum zonamque ferentem

690

Solis equos inter caudam, qua Scorpius ardet, extremamque Sagittari laevam atque Saglttam. inde suos sinuat flexus crura pedesque Centauri alterius rursusque ascendere caelum incipit Argivumque Ratem per aplustria summa

695

et medium mundi gyrum Geminosque per ima signa secat, subit Heniochum, teque, unde profectus, Cassiepia, petens super ipsum Persea transit orbemque ex illa coeptum concludit in ipsa trisque secat medios gyros et signa ferentem

700

partibus e binis, quotiens praeciditur ipse. nec quaerendus erit: visus incurrit in ipsos sponte sua seque ipse docet cogitque notari. namque in caeruleo candens nitet orbita mundo ceu missura diem subito caelumque recludens.

705

ac veluti virides discernit semita campos, quam terit assiduo renovans iter orbita tractu; [inter divisas aequalibus est via partis] ut freta canescunt sulcum ducente carina accipiuntque viam fluctus spumantibus undis,

710

quam tortus verso movit de gurgite vertex, candidus in nigro lucet sic limes Olympo caeruleum findens ingenti lumine mundum. utque suos arcus per nubila circinat Iris, sic superincumbit signato culmine limes

715

candidus et resupina facit mortalibus ora, dum nova per caecam mirantur lumina noctem inquiruntque sacras humano pectore causas,

The Via Lactea, ‘Milky Way’

The other,92 carried toward the opposed Bears Its Course close by the Artic Circle steers,93 And by inverted Cassiopeia tends; Thence by the Swan obliquely it descends The Summer Tropic, and Jove’s Bird divides, Then cross the Equator and the Zodiac glides ’Twixt Scorpio’s burning Tail, and the left Part Of Sagittarius, near the fiery Dart; Then by the other Centaur’s Legs and Feet Winding, remounts the Skies (again to meet)

By Argo’s Topsail and Heaven’s middle Sphere, Passing the Twins to overtake the Charioteer; Thence Cassiopeia seeking Thee does run, Over Perseus’ Head, and ends where it begun.

Three middle Circles and the Zodiac too Twice passing, and by that as oft past through.

Nor needs it to be sought; its obvious Course Itself illustrates, and the sight doth force; For in the azure skies its candid Way Shines like the dawning Morn, or closing Day; And as [if] by often passing over some Green, An even Path, parting the Mead, is seen; Or as a Ship plowing the Seas’ smooth Plain, Of foaming Bubbles leaves a silver Train: So shines its milky Path in the dark Night, Parting the blue Skies with its numerous Light.

And as through Clouds the Rainbow does extend, So on Olympus Height shows its white Bend, And Mortals fill with Wonder, whilst they spy New Lights: unknown Flames darting through the sky.

92 Referencing now the other ‘visible circle’ the Via Lactea (Latin: ‘Milky Way’), where we get the side-on view of the galaxy that includes our solar

system (it appears as a band of stars, interstellar gas and dust, etc., because its basically flat, disk-shaped structure is being viewed from within).

The word ‘galaxy’ – historically applied to the Milky Way before the realisation that a galaxy is a system in itself, or that there are a countless number them – derives from the Greek term galaxías (γαλαξίας): ‘milky’.

93 Manilius outlines the path of the Milky Way starting from its most northerly point in the constellation Cassiopeia (close to the Arctic circle), tracing it through Cygnus the Swan, across the tropic of Cancer into Aquila the Eagle, crossing the equator via the tail of Scorpio and the arrow of Sagittarius, through the legs of Centaurus the Southern Centaur, re-joining the equator at the top of Argo the Ship, through Gemini and Auriga the Charioteer, rising northwards again across the head of Perseus to rejoin the starting point in Cassiopeia.

22

Various Opinions Concerning the Galaxy num se diductis conetur solvere moles segminibus, raraque labent compagine rimae 720

admittantque novum laxato tegmine lumen quid sibi non timeant, magni cum vulnera caeli conspiciant, feriatque oculos iniuria mundi? an coeat mundus, duplicisque extrema cavernae conveniant caelique oras et sidera iungant,

725

perque ipsos fiat nexus manifesta cicatrix fusuram faciens mundi, stipatus et orbis aeriam in nebulam clara compagine versus in cuneos alti cogat fundamina caeli. an melius manet illa fides, per saecula Prisca

730

illac solis equos diversis cursibus isse atque aliam trivisse viam, longumque per aevum exustas sedes incoctaque sidera flammis caeruleam verso speciem mutasse colore, infusumque loco cinerem mundumque sepultum?

735

fama etiam antiquis ad nos descendit ab annis Phaethontem patrio curru per signa volantem, dum nova miratur propius spectacula mundi et puer in caelo ludit curruque superbus luxuriat mundo, cupit et maiora parente,**

740

monstratas liquisse vias orbemque rigenti imposuisse polo; nec signa insueta tulisse errantis meta flammas cursumque solutum, * deflexum solito cursu curvisque quadrigis* quid querimur flammas totum saevisse per orbem,

745

terrarumque rogum cunctas arsisse per urbes, cum vaga dispersi fluitarunt lumina currus, et caelum exustum est? luit ipse incendia mundus, et nova vicinis flagrarunt sidera flammis nunc quoque praeteriti faciem referentia casus.

The sacred Causes humane Breasts enquire, Whether the Heavenly Segments there retire94 (The whole Mass shrinking) and the parting Frame Through cleaving Chinks admits the stranger flame?

Astonishment must sure their Senses reach To see the World’s wounds and Heaven’s gaping breach!

Or meets Heaven here? and this white cloud appears The Cement of the close-wedged Hemispheres?95 Or seems that old Opinion of more sway That the Sun’s Horses here once ran astray,96 And a new Path marked in their straggling flight Of scorched Skies, and Stars a-dusted Light, Changing to paler white Heaven’s azure Face, And with the burnt World’s Ashes strewed the Place?

Fame, likewise, from old Time to us succeeds How Phaeton97 driving his Father’s Steeds Through radiant Signs, and with a wounding Eye Viewing the approached Beauties of the Sky, (Whilst in his Chariot, proud, he childlike plays, And things yet greater than his Sire essays) Left the known Path, and a rough Tract impressed In the smooth Skies, whilst wandering Flames infest The affrighted Signs, not brooking the loose Course Of the erring Chariot and ill-guided Horse.

Hence the whole World became a fiery spoil, And burning Cities made Earth’s funeral Pile; When from the hurried Chariot Lightning fled, And scattered Blazes all the Skies over spread; By whose approach new Stars enkindled were, Which still, as Marks of that sad Chance, appear.

94 An opinion expressed by Diodorus of Alexandria, student of Posidonius (1st cent. BCE), that this is where two hemispheres of the cosmos are

slowly drifting apart, showing glimpses of an internal celestial fire through its cracks.

95 An opinion expressed by Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BCE), that this is where the two hemispheres are coming together and compacting (rather

than drifting apart).

96 A theory ascribed to Oenopides of Chios, (5th cent. BCE) that this was once the course of the Sun before some event caused a change of course to

the zodiac.

97 The myth relayed in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, II (1-366),

concerning Phaeton, son of a water nymph, Clymene and the sun god Apollo (or Helios).

To offer proof that he was, indeed, his father, Apollo promised to grant Phaeton anything he asked. Phaeton asked to drive the sun god’s chariot, and although Helios tried hard to dissuade him, pointing out that not even Zeus had the power to control his fire-breathing horses, Phaeton was insistent, and Apollo was obliged to keep his word. Phaeton inevitably lost control of the chariot and the confused horses, having lost their track, scorched the earth, turning Africa to a desert, and causing massive devastation and chaos. Implored by the Earth to stop the destruction, Zeus halted the chariot by striking it with a thunderbolt: “He thundered, and balancing a lightning bolt in his right hand, threw it from eye-level at the charioteer, removing him, at the same moment, from the chariot and from life, extinguishing fire with fierce fire. Thrown into confusion, the horses, lurching in different directions, wrench their necks from the yoke and throw off the broken harness. Here the reins lie, there the axle torn from the pole, there the spokes of shattered wheels, and the fragments of the wrecked chariot are flung far and wide.

But Phaethon, flames ravaging his glowing hair, is hurled headlong, leaving a long trail in the air, as sometimes a star does in the clear sky, appearing to fall although it does not fall” (II:301-328; A.S. Kline translation, 2000; ovid.lib.virginia.edu).

23

Left: Ruben’s Birth of the Milky Way (c. 1637) depicting the infant Hercules suckling at the breast of Juno (Hera) as Jupiter (Zeus) watches from behind.

Below: Seven Trojan heroes: Menelaus, Paris, Diomedes, Ulysses, Nestor, Achilles, & Agamemnon (Tischbein, Costume Antico & Moderno, 1842).

Nor must that gentler Rumour be suppressed, How Milk once flowing from fair Juno’s Breast, Stained the Celestial Pavement; from whence came This Milky Path, its Cause shown in its Name.98 Or is it a Crowd of Stars crowning the Night?

A candid Diadem of condensed Light?99

750

755

760

765

770

nec mihi celanda est famae vulgata vetustas mollior: e niveo lactis fluxisse liquorem pectore reginae divum caelumque colore infecisse suo. quapropter lacteus orbis dicitur, et nomen causa descendit ab ipsa. an maior densa stellarum turba corona convexit flammas et crasso lumine candet, et fulgore nitet collato clarior orbis? an fortes animae dignataque nomina caelo corporibus resoluta suis terraeque remissa huc migrant ex orbe suumque habitantia caelum aetherios vivunt annos mundoque fruuntur? atque hic Aeacidas, hic et veneramur Atridas Tydidemque ferum terraeque marisque triumphis naturae victorem Ithacum Pyliumque senecta insignem triplici Danaumque ad Pergava reges, [castra ducum et caeli victamque sub Hectore Troiam] Auroraeque nigrum partum stirpemque Tonantis rectorem Lyciae; nec te, Mavortia virgo, praeteream regesque alios, quos Thraecia misit atque Asiae gentes et Magno maxima Pella;

Or valiant Souls freed from corporeal Gives Thither repair and lead Ethereal Lives?100 There the Atrides, there the Aeacides,101 Fierce Diomede; He, who through Lands and Seas His Triumphs over conquered Nature reared, Subtle Ulysses, We believe ensphered.

There Nestor is throned among the Grecian Peers, Crowned with a triple Century of years.102 Aurora’s Black Son,103 He who Lycia swayed Jove’s Royal Issue;104 and Thou Martial Maid!105 The Kings whom Asia did or Greece beget, Or Pella, justly greatest in the Great.106

A fable attributed in the work of Aratus to the Catasterismi, a now lost collection of Hellenistic myths about the constellations by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 BCE – c. 195/194 BC).

99 According to the 1st century Platonist philosopher Plutarch, the theory that the Milky Way is simply a concentration of countless stars was popularised by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Democritus (c.460-370 BCE), whose works are now lost. Plutarch’s own chapter on the Milky Way explains: 98

“It is a cloudy circle, which continually appears in the air, and by reason of the whiteness of its colours, is called the galaxy, or the Milky Way. Some of the Pythagoreans say that, when Phaeton set the world on fire, a star falling from its own place in its circular passage through the region caused an inflammation. Others say that originally it was the first course of the sun; others, that it is an image, as in a looking-glass, occasioned by the sun reflecting its beams towards the heavens, and this appears in the clouds and in the rainbow. Metrodorus, that it is merely the solar course or the motion of the sun in its own circle. Parmenides, that the mixture of a thick and thin substance gives it a colour which resembles milk. Anaxagoras, that the sun moving under the earth and not being able to enlighten every place, the shadow of the earth, being cast upon the part of the heavens, makes the galaxy.

Democritus, that it is the splendour which arises from the coalition of many small bodies, which, being firmly united amongst themselves, do mutually enlighten one another. Aristotle, that it is the inflammation of dry, copious, and coherent exhalations, by which the fiery train, whose seat is beneath the ether and the planets, is produced. Posidonius, that it is a combination of fire, of rarer substance than the stars, but denser than light” (Plutarch’s Morals, III.1.1, trans. by W. Goodwin, 1874).

100 The belief that the Milky Way is an abode of the souls of past heroes is referred to in Cicero’s Republic, 6.16 ‘Dream of Scipio’

(c. 50 BCE):

“… follow justice and natural affection, which though great in the case of parents and kinsfolk, is greatest of all in relation to our fatherland. Such is the life that leads to heaven and to the company of those who have now lived their lives and released from their bodies dwell in that place which you can see – that place was a circle conspicuous among the fires of heaven by the surpassing whiteness of its glowing light – which place you mortals, as you have learned from the Greeks, call the Milky Way.” 101 Atrides: the sons of Atreus – Agamemnon (king of Mycenae during the Trojan War) and his brother Menelaus; Aeachides: the sons and

grandsons of Aeacus of Epirus, including Achilles and Ajax (Manilius first refers to celebrated Trojan War heroes, then lists philosophers and wise men before concluding with a list of famed Roman warriors).

102 Nestor was said to have lived three generations, a recompense from Apollo after his brothers were murdered by Hercules (Hyginus, Fab. 10).

103 Memnon, King of Ethiopia, a defender of Troy made immortal after being killed there by Achilles.

104 Sarpedon, King of Lycia, a son of Zeus who died in battle defending Troy.

105 Penthesilia, daughter of Mars, Amazonian Queen who died defending Troy at the hands of Achilles (who fell in love with her after her death).

106 Alexander the Great, born in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia.

24

quique animi vires et strictae pondera mentis prudentes habuere viri, quibus omnis in ipsis census erat, iustusque Solon fortisque Lycurgus, aetheriusque Platon et qui fabricaverat illum 775

damnatusque suas melius damnavit Athenas, Persidis et victor, strarat quae classibus aequor.

Romanique viri, quorum iam maxima turba est: Tarquinioque minus reges, et Horatia proles, tota acies partus, nec non et Scaevola trunco

780

nobilior, maiorque viris et cloelia virgo, et Romana ferens, quae texit, moenia Cocles, et commilitio volucris Corvinus adeptus et spolia et nomen, qui gestat in alite Phoebum, et Iove qui meruit caelum Romamque Camillus

785

servando posuit, Brutusque a rege receptae conditor, et Pyrrhi per bella Papirius ultor,

There those whom Wisdom hath exalted, shine; Just Solon,107 stout Lycurgus,108 the Divine Plato, and He who made him such; whose Doom Justlier condemns his Athens.109 He by whom Persia was foiled,110 which strowed with Fleets the Main, And Roman Worthies, the more numerous Train.

There’s all their Kings but the Proud Tarquin;111 there The Horatii, who their Sides sole Army were; 112 Scaevola glorying in his Arm’s stump;113 then, Claelia,114 although a Maid, more Brave than Men. Cocles115 with Rome’s Walls crowned which he maintained, And He who by a Crow’s Assistance gained Both Spoils and Name, Corvinus116! on whose Crest Phoebus does in his black-plumed Emblem rest.

Camillus117 too, who Heaven with Jove may claim, Whom saving Rome, We may Rome’s Founder name.

The Generous Brutus,118 her Enfranchiser,119 Papyrius, who revenged the Pyrrhic War;120

107 Solon (c. 630-560 BCE): Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet; one of the Seven Sages of Greece credited with laying

the foundations for Athenian democracy.

108 Lycurgus (fl. c. 820 BCE): legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with establishing a military-based society in accordance with the Oracle of

Apollo at Delphi, which promoted equality among all citizens, military fitness, and austerity.

109 Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE), the philosopher of Athens who acted as teacher to Plato (427-348 BCE). He was condemned to death (by drinking

hemlock) after a trial in Athens which accused him of impiety and corrupting the youth because he rejected the city’s gods and so inspired disrespect for authority among his followers. This ‘unjust doom’ was said to have condemned his city, which afterwards suffered decay.

110 Themistocles (c. 524-459 BCE): Athenian politician, magistrate and general who vastly increased the naval power of Athens and fought the Persian invasion at the Battle of Marathon.

111 The seven legendary Kings of Rome are Romulus, Numa Pompillus, Tullus Hostillus, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius and finally, Tarquinius Superbus ‘Tarquin the Proud’, who is excluded from the honour of being among the stars since his tyrannical rulership led to an uprising that ended the monarchy and led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.

112 The Horatii were triplet warriors during the reign of Tullus Hostillus (7th century BCE). Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita (AUC: I.24) explains that a costly war with Alba was avoided by agreement that these three Romans would fight three Alban counterparts (the Curiatii) as the armies and countrymen looked on. Two of the Horatii were killed, but the third, Publius, defeated the Curiatii to win the war for Rome.

113 Scaevola, ‘the left-handed’ (Latin scaevus, ‘left’): legendary Roman hero who tried to assassinate the Etruscan King Porsena, who was besieging Rome around 509 BCE. After being captured, he declared he was only one of 300 warriors who had sworn to kill Porsena – to show his fearless determination, he thrust his right hand into a blazing altar fire and held it there away without giving any semblance of pain. Shocked and fearing another attempt on his life, Porsena ordered his release “since you do more harm to yourself than me”, then made peace with the Romans and withdrew his forces (Livy, AUC, II.12).

114 Claelia: one of a group of Roman women taken hostage by Porsena as part of the peace treaty that ended his war with Rome. She led an escape after telling the captors the women needed privacy to preserve their modesty as they bathed in the river Tiber, then encouraged the women to swim across the river to the safety of Roman territory (some say through a barrage of enemy arrows).

115 Horatius Cocles: Roman officer who defended the Sublician Bridge from the invading army of King Porsena, holding off the enemy until other Romans were able to destroy the bridge and stop their advance upon the city walls. The name Cocles (from Latin oculus) is said to mean ‘oneeyed’ because he was injured in the battle. After he became disabled, every citizen of Rome was obliged to give him a full day’s ration of food.

116 Marcus Valerius Corvus (c. 370-270 BCE): military commander who, according to Livy (Periochae, 10), won a combat with a giant-like general of the Gauls, because, “a raven perched on the Roman’s crest and attacked his opponent with his beak and talons; therefore, Valerius accepted the surname Corvus, the raven. Because of his valour, he was made consul in the next year, when he was twenty-three”.

117 Marcus Furius Camillus (c. 448-365 BCE): semi-legendary Roman statesman who defeated the Etruscans at neighbouring Veli by infiltrating that city’s drainage system, supposedly being instructed to do so by the oracle at Delphi. Livy’s account says that Camillus then persuaded the goddess Juno Regina to leave that city and move to Rome. Other accounts say the Romans slaughtered all the males, made slaves of the women and children, and took the statue of Juno to Rome as part of plundering the city.

118 Lucius Junius Brutus (died c. 509 BCE): semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, who led the revolt against the last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus. This was triggered when a son of the king raped a noblewoman, Lucretia, who subsequently dressed in black and requested an audience, where she revealed the rape and pleaded for vengeance before stabbing herself in the heart. According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus (iv.66): “This dreadful scene struck the Romans who were present with so much horror and compassion that they all cried out with one voice that they would rather die a thousand deaths in defence of their liberty than suffer such outrages to be committed by the tyrants”.

119 Enfranchise: to give freedom and power to something, or to liberate, give the power to vote, etc.

120 The Pyrrhic War (280-275 BCE): fought against the Greek King Pyrrhus, who was supporting the independence of a Greek colony at Tarentum in Southern Italy (modern-day Taranto). Pyrrhus initially defeated the Romans, but the cost of continuing the campaign was so heavy that he complained, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined” (Plutarch, Parallel Lives, ‘Pyrrhus’, 21.8-10).

This is the origin of the term ‘pyrrhic victory’, which describes a victory that, in real terms, brings loss. Pyrrhus died in 272 BCE, after which the Roman military hero, Lucius Papirius Cursor, besieged and successfully captured Tarentum to make it part of the Roman Republic.

25

left: Ruben’s The Death of Decius Mus in Battle (1618) illustrating Manilius’ line certantesque Deci votis similesque triumphis: “The Deci in their vows at noble strife, in honours equal [to Marcellus and Cossus]”

Fabricius Curiusque pares, et tertia palma Marcellus, Cossusque prior de rege necato, certantesque Deci votis similesque triumphis, 790

invictusque mora Fabius, victorque necantis Livius Hasdrubalis socio per bella Nerone, Scipiadaeque duces, fatum Carthaginis unum, Pompeiusque orbis domitor per trisque triumphos ante deum princeps, et censu Tullius oris

Staid Curius, and Fabricius, a stern Pair!121 Marcellus, who the third rich Trophies bare122 And Cossus Second, from Kings spoiled of Life.

The Decii in their Vows at noble strife,123 In Honours equal; Fabius, Rome’s Defence,124 In War unconquered, by the War’s suspense.

Livius the Victor of slain Asdrubal, With Nero the joint Author of his Fall.125 The Scipios unto Carthage both one Fate: Pompey, before Caesar Prince of Rome’s great State,126 And the awed World, which thrice his Triumphs sung, And Tullius worthy Heaven for his sweet Tongue.127

121 Manius Curius Dentatus (died 270 BC): Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits during the Pyrrhic War. According

to Pliny, he was born with teeth, hence the surname Dentatus, ‘toothed’ (N.H., 7.68). He was considered incorruptible and was famed for living his life with exemplary abstinence, illustrated by one tale of how he refused a huge sum of gold sent to gain his favour, telling the messenger to “report and remember that I can neither be defeated in battle nor be corrupted with money” (Valerius Maximus, Factorum, 4.3.5).

Gaius Fabricius Luscinus: Roman ambassador to Tarentum. According to Plutarch (Pyrrhus, 18), after the Roman defeat at Heraclea in 280 BCE, King Pyrrhus was so impressed by Fabricius – the way he argued terms and refused to be bribed – he rewarded his virtue by releasing prisoners without a ransom. His character appears in Dante’s Divine Comedy as an example of someone who chooses poverty and virtue over avarice and wealth: “O Good Fabricius, you who chose to live with virtue in your poverty, rather than live in luxury with vice” (Canto XX 24-27).

122 Marcus Claudius Marcellus (c. 270 – 208 BCE): the third Roman military leader to earn the spolia opima (the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn) for killing the Gallic military leader and king in single combat at the Battle of Clastidium (222 BCE).

Spolia opima: the term means ‘rich spoils’, which included the armour, arms, and artefacts stripped from the body of an opposing ruler slain in single combat. These were then fixed to the trunk of an oak tree and carried to the temple of Jupiter in Rome. The Romans recorded only three occasions when this ritual was performed, the first the legendary account of Romulus defeating Acron (752 BCE), the second the victory of Cossus over the King of Veli (437 BCE – below) and the ‘third rich trophies’ being those taken by Marcellus.

Aulus Cornelius Cossus: according to Livy, a “remarkably handsome” cavalry officer who identified the enemy king during the Battle of Fidenae (a Roman colony revolt; 437 BCE) and promptly charged him, unhorsing him with his spear, then spearing him several times as he lay on the ground, before decapitating the king and parading his spiked head on his spear before his army, which then panicked and fled (AUC, 4.19).

123 Gens Decia: a Roman family which became illustrious for the voluntary sacrifice of its members in battle through the ritual of devotion (an appeal to the gods which vowed the exchange of the devotee’s life in exchange for victory). This included a father, son and grandson, all named Publius Decius Mus, the father being a Roman consul in 340 BCE. Livy reports that after performing the ritual, the fully armoured Decius spurred on his men and plunged his horse into the enemy with such supernatural vigour and violence that the awe-struck enemy initially refused to engage him, before eventually bringing him down with arrows (AUC, 8.10).

124 Gens Fabia: an illustrious family line that played a prominent role in the establishment of the Republic, which gained repute after the tragic loss of over 300 Fabii in the Battle of the Cremera (477 BCE) against Rome’s neighbouring city, Veli, which was later taken by Camillus (see fn. 117).

The Fabius referred to here is Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (c. 280-203 BCE), described as ‘the buckler and shield of Rome’s defence’ and nicknamed Cunctator (‘delayer’), due to tactics he successfully employed against Hannibal during the Second Punic War. Rather than directly engaging with far superior forces, he originated a strategy of targeting Hannibal’s supply lines, employing a ‘scorched earth’ policy that destroyed local water, food and crops, and forcing only smaller engagements in locations that suited the Romans and disadvantaged Hannibal.

He is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare and wars of attrition.

125 The stealth and speed by which the Roman consuls Marcus Livius and Gaius Claudius Nero joined forces to defeat the reinforcement army led

by Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal, at the Battle of the Metaurus in 207 BCE, is credited with ending Hannibal’s prospect of victory in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. This battle is listed as one of The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (Creasy, 1851), because of its importance in determining the course of history and securing the power of Rome at the pivotal period of the Carthaginian threat.

The Scipios were Publius Cornelius Scipio (c. 236-183 BCE), the main general who opposed Hannibal through the Second Punic War and defeated him at the Battle of Zasma (modern-day Tunisia) in 202 BCE, earning the title Africanus, meaning conqueror of Africa, and his adopted grandson Scipio Aemilianus (c. 236-183 BCE), who oversaw the final defeat and destruction of Carthage during the Third Punic War, in 147 BCE. 126 Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE): illustrious Roman general and statesman who steered Rome’s transformation from republic to empire. He gained the cognomen Magnus ‘the Great’ after celebrating three great triumphs as an army commander between 8 and 63 BCE. Initially a political ally of Julius Caesar, he later became his enemy and was eventually defeated by Caesar’s army during Caesar’s Civil War, then assassinated in Egypt while seeking refuge there in 48 BCE. 127 Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE): statesman, lawyer, philosopher and orator, remembered as one of Rome’s greatest prose stylists. He wrote more than three-quarters of the extant Latin literature that existed within his lifetime and introduced into Latin language the chief schools of Hellenistic philosophy. During the Civil War period, he championed a return to the traditional republican government. Following Caesar’s death in 44 BCE, Cicero became the main opponent of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, and was declared an enemy of the state when Antony gained power, being executed in 43 BCE as he attempted to flee Rome.

26

795

emeritus caelum, et Claudi magna propago, Aemiliaeque domus proceres, clarique MeteIli, et Cato fortunae victor, matrisque sub armis miles Agrippa suae. Venerisque ab origine proles Iulia descendit caelo caelumque replevit,

800

quod regit Augustus socio per signa Tonante, cernit et in coetu divum magnumque Quirinum altius aetherii quam candet circulus orbis. illa deum sedes, haec illis proxima, divum qui virtute sua similes vestigia tangunt.

805

ac prius incipiam stellis quam reddere vires signorumque canam fatalia carmine iura, implenda est mundi facies, corpusque per Omne quid, quod ubique nitet, vigeat quandoque, notandum est.

There the great Claudian Progeny does shine,128 And all the Worthies of the Aemilian Line; 129 Metelli, signal for their Noble Name;130 Cato, who Fortune even in Death overcame;131 Agrippa, Soldier from his Mother’s Breast;132 Venus her Julian Offspring,133 repossessed Of Heaven, whence first descended; which now proves The Rule of great Augustus joined with Jove’s; 134 Who among the Deathless Deities enrolled, His Father and Quirinus doth behold.135 More high the Immortal Gods have fixed their Seat, Next whom, is This, with Godlike Men replete.136 But of the Stars ever we the Laws rehearse, And fatal Changes, We the Universe Must first complete; and show what does dispense Throughout the Whole, or Light, or Influence. left: silver Denarius of Caesar, struck 48 BCE, pairing the head of Venus with a trophy of Gallic arms.

Below: panorama of the Milky Way taken at Paranal Observatory, Chile; the bright star is Jupiter in the constellation Sagittarius (source: Wikimedia)

128 Gens Claudia: one of the most prominent patrician houses at ancient Rome, founded by Appius Claudius, the Consul of the Roman Republic in

495 BC, after which members of the gens Claudia held the highest offices of the state, both under the Republic and in Imperial times.

129 Gens Aemilia: another of the great patrician families at Rome, whose members held the highest offices of the state from the early decades of the

Republic to Imperial times. It claimed descent from Numa Pompilus, the second King of Rome.

130 Gens Caecilli Metelli: the noblest branch of the plebian Caecilian Family, which became influential in the history of Rome from the 5th century

BCE. The first member to receive the consulship was Lucius Caecillius Metellus in 284 BCE, after which the Caecilli Metelli became one of the most powerful families of the late Republic, from the period before the First Punic War to the time of Augustus. The Latin word ‘mettellus’ means mercenary soldier.

131 Cato the Younger (95-46 BCE): senator during the late Republic and supporter of Pompey during Caesar’s Civil War. Latin literature labours the details of his ‘resolute and heroic’ death, by which he settled the affairs of his city and secured the freedom of others before choosing suicide over the prospect of asking Caesar’s pardon. According to Plutarch, he stabbed himself in the stomach but the wound was not mortal, so was attended and sewn up by a physician. When Cato awoke: “he pushed the physician away, tore his bowels with his hands, rent the wound still more, and so died” (The Life of Cato the Younger 70.5-6). His death turned him into a symbol of martyrdom for supporters of the Republic.

132 Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (c. 63-12 BCE): Roman general and statesman who was a close friend, son-in-law and lieutenant to emperor Augustus.

Agrippa led many military victories, including the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

133 Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, and subsequently his adopted son, Augustus, claimed descent from the goddess Venus, via her son, the Trojan hero Aeneas. For this reason, Venus was repeatedly represented in civic architecture during this period, and the title ‘Venus Genetrix’ was stamped on coins produced during the reigns of Caesar and Augustus. Julius Firmicus, in his Mathesis (II.ii), described Julius Caesar as being one of the first important sources to write about the principles of astrology in Latin.

134 Sherburne reminds us that although Augustus was still alive as Manilius wrote his poem, even within his lifetime he was “reputed and honoured as a God, and had his Priests, Altars, Sacrifices and Temples … For this reason, Manilius, while yet living, gives him a share in the Celestial Government, as another Jupiter” (Sphere, p.58).

135 Quirinus: an early god of Rome, originally a Sabine god of war, usually depicted as a bearded man with religious and military clothing. In Augustine Rome, around the time of Manilius, this was also an epithet of Janus, who took the name ‘Janus Quirinus’.

136 Meaning that the immortal gods reside in a higher sphere but the Milky Way, replete with human heroes, lies just beneath this.

27

Comets & Fiery Meteors 810

sunt alia adverso pugnantia sidera mundo, quae terram caelumque inter volitantia pendent.

[Saturni, Iovis et Martis Solisque, sub illis Mercurius Venerem inter agit Lunamque locatus.] sunt etiam raris orti natalibus ignes, protinus et rapti. subitas candescere flammas

815

aera per liquidum tractosque perire cometas rara per ingentis viderunt saecula motus. sive, quod ingenitum terra spirante vaporem umidior sicca superatur spiritus aura, nubila cum Iongo cessant dispulsa sereno,

820

et solis radiis arescit torridus aer, apta alimenta sibi demissus corripit ignis materiamque sui deprendit flamma capacem et quia non solidum est corpus, sed rara vagantur principia aurarum volucrique simillima fumo

825

in breve vivit opus coeptaque incendia fine subsistunt pariterque cadunt fulgentque cometae. quod nisi vicinos agerent occasibus ortus et tam parva forent accensis tempora flammis, alter nocte dies esset caelumque redirect

830

inmmersum et somno totum deprenderet orbem. tum quia non una specie dispergitur omnis aridior terrae vapor et comprenditur igni, diversas quoque per facies accensa feruntur lumina, quae subitis exsistunt nata tenebris.

835

nam modo, ceu longi fluitent de vertice crines, flamma comas imitata volat, tenuisque capillos diffusos radiis ardentibus explicat ignis. nunc prior haec facies dispersis crinibus exit, et glomus ardentis sequitur sub imagine barbae;

Some Stars there are which against the World’s Course bend, And wandering ’twixt the Earth and Heaven suspend.

As Saturn, Jove, Mars, Phoebus, Maia’s Son,137 Placed under these ‘twixt Venus and the Moon.

Others there are too of less usual kind; For Sudden Flames streaming through Skies We find, And Times more rare have Comets seen to blaze138 And loose midst mighty stirs their threatening Rays.

Whither as Earth transpires its Native fumes, Those humid Spirits the hot Air consumes, When a long Drought from Clouds hath cleared the Sky And Heaven by the Sun’s scorching Beams grows dry; Whence fitting Aliment is snatched by Fire,139 And Matter like to Tinder flames acquire.

And since the Principles which Air compose Are not gross Bodies, but like Smoke that flows, The fiery Substance is not permanent, But with the Comet, soon as kindled, spent.

Else, if its Rise and Fall were not so nigh, We should another Day in Night descry,140 And the couched Sun, when from the watery Deep Returned, would the whole World surprise in sleep.

Then since the arid Vapour is not used To be alike attracted, or diffused; Hence several Shapes to Meteors are assigned, As in dark Nights their sudden Births they find.

For now (like long hairs flowing from some head) The Flame is in disheveled Tresses spread; Then what a fiery Peruke first appeared,141 Assumes the Figure of a blazing Beard.

Left: The daylight-visible comet that appeared in Rome after Julius Caesar’s death became known as the Sidus Iulium (‘Julian Star’) and was represented on coinage as a symbol of the assumed divinity of the Caesar-Augustan line.

(The Temple of Divus Iulius ‘Deified Julius’, erected in 42 BCE, featured a huge image of Caesar with a flaming comet fixed to his forehead)

137 Mercury. According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, (a collection of ancient Greek hymns dated to the 7th and 6th centuries BCE), the Greek

god Hermes was born from the secret affair of Zeus with Maia, a shy goddess who hid away in a cave on Mount Cyllene, the daughter of Atlas and the oldest of the seven Pleiades. The child was described as “the luck-bringing son of Zeus” but also characterised as “of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods. Born with the dawning, at mid-day he played on the lyre, and in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting Apollo…” (translation by H.G. Evelyn White, 1914, online at Perseus Digital Library).

138 The word ‘comet’ comes from the Greek term Kometes, ‘long haired’, in reference to the characteristic tail. When a ‘hairy star’ appeared over Rome in 79 AD, Emperor Vespasian remarked, “This is an omen, not for me, but for the Parthian king; for he has long hair, whereas I am bald”; misplaced bravado since Vespasian was to die shortly after of a severe attack of diarrhea (Cass Dio R. H., LXVI.17). Manilius uses comets as a bracket term to also include meteors or shooting stars, as noted in footnote 140 below.

139 Aliment: sustenance, resources or food supply; from the Latin alimentum ‘nourishment/provisions’.

140 This is describing the sudden and dramatic blaze of meteors (which burn very brightly and quickly) rather than the effect of what we term comets, which can remain visible in the sky for weeks or months. Goold’s translation of this point reads, “Were their risings not near neighbour to their sinkings and the duration of the kindled flames not so short, a second daytime would exist by night, and the Sun would return to find the whole world fast asleep” (p.71).

141 Peruke or Perruque: a full head of hair or a large ample wig of hair (periwig); from the Italian perucca ‘head of hair/wig’.

28

840

interdum aequali laterum compagine ductus quadratamve trabem fingit teretemve columnam quin etiam tumidis exaequat dolia flammis procere distenta uteros, parvosque catillos mentitur curvos ignis glomeratus in orbes

845

hirta figurantis tremulo sub lumine menta lampadas et fissas ramosos fundit in ignes praecipites stellae passimque volare videntur, cum vaga per nitidum scintillant lumina mundum et tenuem longis iaculantur crinibus ignem;

850

excurruntque procul volucris imitata sagittas, arida cum gracili tenuatur semita filo

Sometimes ’twixt equal-bounded Sides it flows, And a square Post, or a round Pillar shows, Like a big-bellied Tun, now its swollen Beams Dilate, and then contract to narrower Streams, Like little Locks which in small Curls are tied, Now like fired sheafs, now like branched lamps descried,142 Now falling Stars seem to shoot every where, When wandering Lights do sparkle in the Air. And darted Flames swift Arrows imitate, When the dry Train runs in a narrow Strait,

sunt autem cunctis permixti partibus ignes, qui gravidas habitant fabricantis fulmina nubes et penetrant terras Aetnamque minantur Olympo 855

et calidas reddunt ipsis in fontibus undas

Their origin from fire

ac silice in dura viridique in cortice sedem inveniunt, cum silva sibi collisa crematur: ignibus usque adeo natura est omnis abundans. ne mirere faces subitas erumpere caelo 860

aeraque accensum flammis lucere coruscis arida complexum spirantis semina terrae, quae volucer pascens ignis sequiturque fugitque, fulgura cum videas tremulum vibrantia lumen, imbribus e mediis et caelum fulmine ruptum,

865

sive igitur ratio praebentis semina terrae in volucres ignes potuit generate cometas

For everything does mixed Fire enfold; That dwells in pregnant Clouds which Thunder mould, Pierces Earth’s Veins; Heaven’s Terrors counterfeits From Etna’s Caves; in Spring’s cold Water heats; Lurks in hard Flints, and in green Bark finds Room, When Woods, by their Collision, flames assume; So fertile every Matter is in fire.

Nor sudden Flames breaking through Skies admire, Nor frequent Coruscations by Earth’s hot143 Exhaling Vapours in the Air begot, Which the swift-feeding Flame pursues or flies; Since trembling Lightning darted through the Skies, Thou mayst behold [fire] in midst of falling Rain, And Thunder, though forced Clouds its way constrain: Whether from fiery Seeds enclosed in Earth, And thence emitted, Comets draw their Birth.

Plate 16: ‘The More Remarkable Comets’, from W. Peck’s Popular Handbook & Atlas of Astronomy, 1891

Various shapes of comets, as described in Pliny’s Natural History 2.22.1, including disks, tubs, twin-tailed, beards, swords, horns, daggers, horses’ manes, darts, triangles, etc.

Image: plate III (following p.198), in A. Guillemin’s World of Comets, 1877.

142 Descried: to be briefly seen, glimpsed or noticed; from the Latin descriven, ‘to see/discern’.

143 Coruscation: a bright flash or spark of light; from the Latin coruscatio, ‘glitter/flash’.

29

sive illas natura faces ut cuncta creavit sidera per tenues caelo lucentia flammas sed trahit ad semet rapido Titanius aestu 870

involvitque suo flammantis igne cometas, ac modo dimittit, sicut Cyllenius orbis et Venus, accenso cum ducit vespere noctem, saepe nitent falluntque oculos rursusque revisunt) seu deus instantis fati miseratus in orbem

875

signa per affectus caelique incendia mittit; numquam futtilibus excanduit ignibus aether: squalidaque elusi deplorant arva coloni, et sterilis inter sulcos defessus arator ad iuga maerentis cogit frustrata iuvencos.

880

aut gravibus morbis et lenta corpora tabe corripit exustis letalis flamma medullis labentisque rapit populos, totasque per urbes publica succensis peraguntur fata sepulcris. qualis Erechtheos pestis populata colonos

885

extulit antiquas per funera pacis Athenas, alter in alterius labens cum fata ruebant. nec locus artis erat medicae nec vota valebant; cesserat officium morbis, et funera deerant mortibus et lacrimae; lassus defecerat ignis,

890

et coacervatis ardebant corpora membris, ac tanto quondam populo vix contigit heres. talia significant lucentes saepe cometae: funera cum facibus veniunt terrisque minantur ardentis sine fine rogos, cum mundus et ipsa

895

aegrotet natura, hominum sortita sepulcrum.

Comet imagined as a sword from a 16th-century manuscript on Comets (unknown artist).

Alternate Causes & Calamitous Effects

Or did Nature those fading Lights design As sub-united Stars in Heaven to shine,144 Or the Sun’s rapid Course these Meteors rears145 And draws to himself, his flames involving theirs, And now dismisses; Like Cyllenius’ Light,146 Or fair Dione’s Star, Usher to Night;147 Which often shine, as oft the sight delude, (Hiding themselves) and then again are viewed.

Or God in Pity to our humane State, Sends these as Nuncios of ensuing Fate,148 Never did Heaven with these fires vainly burn; Deluded Swains their blasted Labours mourn,149 And the tired Husband-man to fruitless Toil Compels his Oxen in a barren Soil.

Or the lethiferous Fire their Bodies kills,150 Wasting their Marrows out with lingering Ills, People consumes, whole Towns depopulates, Whilst flaming Piles conclude the public Fates.

Through Erecthean Lands as that Plague strayed,151 Old Athens waste by peaceful Funerals laid, When each contracted another’s Death; whilst Art No Cure could find, nor Prayers no help impart; Even Tears were wanting: Those no Mourners shed.

The wearied Flame did from its Office cease, And Heaps of fired Bones burnt dead Carcasses; Whilst to so great a People scarce an Heir Remained: Such Woes dire Comets oft declare.

They bring with them the World’s last Funeral Fire, In which sick Nature one Day must expire.

144 Sherburne’s annotation to this point (p.62) quotes from several ancient authors where the cause of comets is postulated to be a refracted light

effect of the joining of planetary rays. Examples include Anaxagoras and Democritus, quoted in Plutarch, Philosophical Essays III.2: “that two or more stars being in conjunction by their united light make a comet” and Zeno, quoted in Seneca’s Natural Questions 7.19: “He is convinced that the stars act in concert, and unite their rays with one another a partnership in light which creates the image of a more elongated star. Therefore, some persons suppose that comets have no real existence, and that it is only the appearance of them that is reproduced through the reflection of neighbouring stars or the union of stars that stick together”.

145 Rears: draws behind, or causes to trail. The theory proposed here is that comets are additional planets that, like Mercury and Venus, remain close to the Sun, so they only come into sight when they reach points of maximum elongation from the Sun. Seneca (N.Q. 7.17) quotes the teaching of Apollonius of Myndus (4th cent. BCE), that a comet “is not an illusion nor a trail of fire produced on the borders of two stars, but is a distinctive heavenly body, just as the Sun or the Moon is. Its shape is not limited to the round, but is somewhat extended and produced lengthwise. On the other hand its orbit is not visible. It cuts (intersects) the upper part of the universe, but only emerges when at length it reaches the lowest portion of its course”.

146 Cyllenius’ Light: Mercury – the mythological birthplace of the Greek god Hermes being Mount Cyllene (Kyllini) on the Peloponese in Greece.

147 Dione’s Star: Venus. In Homeric myth, the goddess Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and the Titanic ocean nymph Dione; but the term is also used as an honorific title, the Greek Διώνη, (Diṓnē), literally translating as ‘She-Zeus’ or δῖος dîos, ‘divine one’.

148 Nuncios: Latin word for messengers or announcers.

149 Swains: rustic peasants or servants; from Old Norse sveinn ‘boy/servant/attendant’.

150 Lethiferous: lethal, bringing death and destruction; from the Latin letifer (letum death/lethal + -fer/ferous bearing).

151 Erecthean: Athenian territories belonging to the Erectheis, an ancient Greek tribe. Manilius is referring to the great plague of Athens in 430 BCE, which devastated the city and killed about a third of its population. R. G. Joseph’s 2010 paper Comets and Contagion: Evolution, Plague, and Diseases From Space (online at Researchgate.net) considers this plague to be “a strong candidate for a cometary cause” since the description of the terrible symptoms by the contemporary historian Thucydides defies identification with any known infectious diseases.

30

quin et bella canunt ignes subitosque tumultus et clandestinis surgentia fraudibus arma, externas modo per gentes ut, foedere rupto cum fera ductorem rapuit Germania Varum 900

infecitque trium legionum sanguine campos, arserunt toto passim minitantia mundo lumina, et ipsa tulit bellum natura per ignes opposuitque suas vires finemque minata est. nec mirere graves rerumque hominumque ruinas:

905

saepe domi culpa est; nescimus credere caelo; civilis etiam motus cognataque bella significant. nec plura alias incendia mundus sustinuit, quam cum ducibus iurata cruentis arma Philippeos implerunt agmine campos.

910

vixque etiam sicca miles Romanus harena ossa verum lacerosque prius superastitit artus, imperiumque suis conflixit viribus ipsum, perque patris pater Augustus vestigia vicit. necdum finis erat: restabant Actia bella

915

dotali oommissa acie, repetitaque rerum alea, et in ponto quaesitus rector Olympi, femineum sortita iugum cum Roma pependit, atque ipsa Isiaco certarunt fulmina sistro. restabant profugo servilia milite bella,

920

cum patrios armis imitatus filius hostis aequora Pompeius cepit defensa parenti. sed satis hoc fatis fuerit. iam bella quiescant, atque adamanteis discordia vincta catenis aeternos habeat frenos in carcere clausa.

925

sit pater invictus patriae, sit Roma sub illo, cumque deum caelo dederit, non quaerat in orbe.

Wars they proclaim too, Tumults to arise, And open Arms from secret Treacheries.

So when the Nations late from Faith withdrew, When the fierce Germans our great Varus slew,152 And Fields in Blood of three whole Legions drowned, Through all the Skies such Ominous Lights were found; As if with Those warred Nature; and against Ours, Threatening an End to All; opposed her Powers.

Nor wonder Men and States such Mischiefs grieve, The fault’s at Home; We will not Heaven believe.

Oft Civil Wars, and Kindred Arms they raise, Nor more did Heaven with such fires ever blaze, Than when fierce Leaders joining bloody hands Ranged on Philippic Plains confederate Bands.153 The Roman Soldiers on Sands yet scarce dry, Trampled fresh Relics of Mortality.

Empire, Itself with its own Strength assailed, But Great Augustus (Julius-like) prevailed.

Yet ends not there: the Actian Battles fought;154 When Armies as a fatal Dowry brought,155 Once more engaged for the World’s glorious Prize, And sought at Sea, a Ruler of the Skies; When Fleets did on a Woman’s Sway depend: Nile’s Timbrels against Rome’s Thunder dared contend.156 There yet remained the servile War behind;157 When with his Countries’ Foes young Pompey joined, Harrassed those Seas his Father did defend.

But this suffice the Fates; now let Wars end; And Adamantine Fetters Discord bind,158 To close Restraint eternally confined.

Whilst Father of his Country never overcome, Augustus lives; such too beneath him, Rome.

And when a God she to a Heavenly Throne Resigns Him up; else in the World seek None.

F I N I S.

152 The Battle of Teutoburg Forest (known as the Varian Disaster), a major battle in September 9AD in which Germanic tribes conquered the

Romans, bringing the triumphant period of expansion under Augustus to an abrupt end.

153 The Battles of Phillippi, in Macedonia, northern Greece (42 BCE) , where Brutus and Cassius, conspirators in the assassination of Julius Caesar,

were defeated by the armies of Mark Antony and Octavian (Augustus Caesar). Both Brutus and Cassius took their own lives shortly afterwards.

154 The naval Battle of Actium (Sept. 31 BCE), where Augustus defeated Mark Antony. Antony and his remaining forces were rescued by

Cleopatra’s fleet, which had been waiting nearby. Augustus pursued with an army the following year and defeated their forces in Alexandria in August 30 AD, after which Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives. Cleopatra’s death marked the end of the Hellenistic period – which began with the death of Alexander in 323 BCE – and ended the ‘Ptolemaic’ line of rulers in Egypt, which fell in power after its conquest by Rome.

155 Sherburne reads this as Mark Antony promising to give Cleopatra the Roman Empire as a dowry.

156 A timbrel is a sort of tambourine (this suggests that Egyptian military forces were no match for Roman forces).

157 Called the ‘servile’ war because its forces mainly comprised of slaves, this refers to the naval battles fought by Sextus Pompey, younger son of Pompey the Great, who created a resistance army following his father’s death in 48 BCE. Sextus defeated Augustus in the naval Battle of Messina in 37 BCE, but his fleet was destroyed at the subsequent Battle of Naulochus; he was captured and executed without trial one year later.

158 Adamantine fetters: unbreakable chains. Adamant was the name given to very hard, resistant materials such as diamonds; hence the term is also used to suggest an unyielding opinion; from the Greek adamas, ‘invincible’.

31

BIOGRAPHY OF MANILIUS & THE REDISCOVERY OF HIS TEXT

Who was

Marcus MANILIUS «

Poet, Astronomer, Astrologer, Slave?

by Mireille Crossley The Astronomica, written in the 1st Century AD, is a beautiful Latin didactic poem consisting of five books on astronomy and astrology. It is the oldest and most extensive comprehensible work on ancient astrology and the only extant poem of its kind. When rediscovered in Italy in the early 15th century, the manuscript bore the name of its composer: Manilius, but here the mystery and debate begin, as so little is known about its author.

sensitive soul who suffered financial hardship and bouts of depression; shortly after his edition of Manilius was published he received a fellowship at Oxford University, but an emotional heartbreak meant he was never to take up residence. After he had been missing for five days, the 40-year-old Creech was found to have tragically hanged himself, forlorn that his request to marry his intended had been denied by her friends. The most recent English translator, G.P. Goold, was to remark on his Manilius text: “Creech’s rhymed couplets are excellent in themselves, but all too often they leave the Latin far behind”.2

This is the ultimate cold case! Clues as to who Manilius was are to be found in the poem itself, which commanded an avid interest from many Renaissance scholars upon its publication. The first to write an important and extensive commentary on it was the French Calvinist religious leader Joseph Scaliger, a renowned classical history scholar who published his own edition of the Latin text in Paris in 1579.

In England, book one was translated into English verse in 1675 by poet (and staunch Royalist during the English Civil War) Edward Sherburne. Under the title ‘The Sphere of Manilius’, his work was written for the pleasure of the restored King, Charles II, in a lavishly annotated edition that offered detailed commentary and an extensive appendix featuring the history and illustrious practitioners of its subject.

The King could not have been displeased, since he issued a knighthood on Sherburne a few years later.

Sherburne’s rhyming translation of book one was followed a few years later by a poetical English rendition of the whole text by Thomas Creech in 1697. Creech, who entered education as a ‘sponsored commoner’, became the headmaster of Sherborne School in Dorset, where he gained renown for his skill in classics (he also produced translations of Horace, Lucretius and Theocritus).1 Creech was a

Scaliger, Latin, 1579

Sherburne, Bk I, 1675

Creech, versified, 1697

Bentley, Latin, 1739

Sherborne School in Dorset is an historically important private boarding school for boys along the lines of Eton; the resemblance of the name to the earlier Manilius translator, Sherburne, is purely coincidental.

2 Manilius, M. Astronomica, tr. G. P. Goold (Harvard University Press, 1977; hereafter ‘Goold’), p.vii.

1

33

Above: 1655 edition of Scaliger’s Astronomicon Right: 1675 edition of Sherburne’s Sphere of Manilius

Many more international editions were made in the 18th and 19th centuries, most notably the 1739 Latin edition with the expansive commentary of Richard Bentley, the contentious Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, who introduced the study of Hellenism into the British curriculum and has been historically labelled “England’s Greatest Latinist”. In Housman’s opinion, the Latin editions of Scaliger and Bentley far surpass all others, and Bentley’s so far surpasses Scaliger’s that “Scaliger at the side of Bentley is no more than a marvellous boy”.3

A.E. Housman 26 Mar 1859 – 30 Apr 1936

But it was the English classical scholar and poet Alfred Edward Housman himself who stirred the 20th-century revival of academic interest in this text, after spending 27 years writing what has been called his personal ‘Opus Magnus’: a critical Latin edition of Manilius with very extensive commentary, published as a series of five volumes between 1903–30.

Housman’s work was most recently followed, in 1977, by George Patrick Goold’s acclaimed addition to the Harvard University Loeb Library of ‘handy’ texts, with a version which has both the text and commentary in English prose. This is now considered the academic standard for an English language translation. Goold rested so heavily on Housman’s diligent research that in acknowledging his “practically total” debt to the earlier transmitters, he stated “But to none is it greater than Housman. There cannot be a page of this book untouched by his influence”.4 Such scholars have been enraptured by Manilius.

Housman called him “the one Latin poet who excelled even Ovid in verbal point and smartness”;5 but to return to our original question: who was Manilius?

G.P. Goold 15 May 1922 – 5 Dec 2021

Housman, A. E., M. Manilii Astronomicom; Liber Primus, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1937; hereafter Housman), p.xvii. The introductory pages xii-xxiii describe the previous editions and their relative merits; also see Goold (cxiii ff.) for a comprehensive list of published editions.

4 Goold, p.vii.

5 Housman, p.xxi.

34 3

Since no other works have been unearthed bearing the name of Manilius (Marcus or otherwise), it is within the content of the Astronomica that the investigation regarding his identity must start. A lot of the so-called knowledge about the poet is assumed information, including the spelling of his name. He is variously referred to as Manilius, Manilii, Manlius or even Mallius, but the weight of the evidence falls in favour of the current spelling: Manilius. Similarly, his first name has been noted as either Caius or Marcus, but Marcus was ultimately settled upon.

and governing Rome when Manilius composed some of the verses in the first book of the poem, as the final lines are in the present tense, and Augustus has yet to be taken to “a Heavenly Throne”.

“

This shows the poem was being worked on after the death of Varus in late 9 AD but before the death of Augustus in mid-14 AD. That much is conventionally acknowledged, although there is debate about the dating of the fourth book, which makes reference to Rhodes as “the abode of him who was to rule the world as emperor”, referring to the retreat of the succeeding emperor, Tiberius, to that island between 6 BCE and 2 AD.8 However, this could be explained as an expectation of rule for the emperor’s chosen successor – like much of the information on Manilius, this point is difficult to fully resolve. All in all, there are good reasons to establish a ‘ballpark’ dating of the text’s composition in its final form as the generally agreed upon date of around 10 AD. Let’s turn now to the next clue in the poem: the supposed age of Manilius at the time of his writing.

This will prove very relevant when attributing any dated mention of a Manilius to him. It is clear from the start of the poem that Manilius began writing when he was free from constraints …

Sherburne – the first scholar to fully honour the essentially artistic nature of the work by capturing its poetic flavour in his verified translation of book one – while discussing the life of the author, admitted:

“

The best means that we can use for the clearing of a matter so dark and dubious, will be to take a view of those, who by the name of Manilius have been recommended to posterity, as qualified with the knowledge of good letters, and among them to consider, which in all rational appearance may be the person we look for.

Sherburne provides a wealth of useful research on this point, which does not seem to have been surpassed by any commentator since.

Two details are considered as fact by all scholars: 1) the author was a Roman citizen at the time of writing, and 2) he was actively writing during the reign of Caesar Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome who ruled from the fall of the Republic in 27 BCE to 14 AD. Several lines of the poem allude directly to the might of Augustus, or reference battles fought before and during his reign, with one critical clue for timing the poem appearing in the lines:

“

Whilst Father of his Country never overcome, Augustus lives; such too beneath him, Rome.

And when a God she to a Heavenly Throne Resigns Him up; else in the World seek None.7

“

And now, Heaven kinder to the Curious grows, And courts in Verse, its Treasure to disclose.

Fit Task alone for Peaceful Leisure! Rise.9

… and that he was in his later years:

“

So when the Nations late from Faith withdrew, When the fierce Germans our great Varus slew, And Fields in Blood of three whole Legions drowned.6

Publicus Quinctillius Varus was a Roman general under Augustus who lost three legions in an ambush

by Germanic tribes at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in September 9 AD. Upon seeing that all hope was lost, Varus killed himself by falling on his sword, making this referenced event precisely datable.

This is our Muses Theme, as yet display’d In Verse by None: Propitious Fortune aid The bold Attempt; with Ease my Life befriend, And to a long and cheerful Age extend, That so I sink not with my Subjects weight, But with like care, great Things, and small relate.10

So it seems Manilius had already attained a good age when he found the time to commit to this project, and that he had left his working life behind to concentrate on his writing. From the depth and quality of his astrological knowledge, does this mean he had been a working astrologer? There is no clear evidence to advance that theory in this or any other text.

Although elements of the poem may be much older, there is also no doubt that Augustus was still alive

Poetic quotes are sourced from Sherburne. Goold’s English prose translates this passage as “so of late in foreign parts, when, its oaths forsworn, barbarous Germany made away with our commander Varus and stained the fields with three legions’ blood” (I.899, p.77).

7 Several passages attest to Augustus being the reigning emperor at the time books I and II were written, see for example Goold I.385 (p.35), 800 (p.69), 925 (p.79) and 2.508 ff (p.123 ff).

8 The relevant passage is at 4.766 (Goold, p.285). Tiberius, who governed between 14-37AD, was politically encouraged and continually elevated by Augustus in preparation for his expected role of succeeding the aging emperor.

9 Goold translates as “Now is heaven the readier to favour those who search out its secrets, eager to display through a poet’s song the riches of the sky. Only in time of peace is there leisure for this task” (I.9, p.5).

10 Goold translates as “This is the theme that rises before me, a theme hitherto unhallowed in verse. May fortune favour my grand enterprise, and may a life of many years crowned with a serene old age be mine, enabling me to surmount the vastness of the subject and pursue my course with equal care through mighty things and small” (I.113, p.13).

6

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There is also the most inferior kind of chalk which was used … for marking the feet of slaves on sale, that were brought from beyond sea. Such, for instance, were Publilius Lochius [Syrus], the founder of our mimic scenes; his cousin, Manilius Antiochus, the first cultivator of astronomy; and Staberius Eros, our first grammarian; all three of whom our ancestors saw brought over in the same ship.

–

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 35.58

originate the instructive element of the text himself, but made his task the versification of existing works, perhaps leaning on such ancient texts as Aratus’ Phaenomena (3rd century BCE), the fragments of which show many notable similarities in theme.

The Varro references are particularly interesting in the light of later comments made by Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), who mentions in his Natural History a ‘Manilius Antiochus’ whom he describes as “the first cultivator of astronomy”. Some scholars have doubted that this Manilius could still be alive and actively working in 10 AD, so this, again, is where the issue of age becomes relevant. 12

Page from R.G. Kent’s 1938 translation of Varro’s On the Latin Language, showing reference to Manilius.

Pliny recounts how one particular slave boat brought three slaves to Rome who later became illustrious Romans: this Manilius Antiochus, together with his cousin Publilius Syrus (a renowned dramatist), and Staberius Eros “our first grammarian”. No date of arrival is given but we can consider the biographical details reported of Publilius, who is said to have been “brought to Rome when about twelve years of age”, receiving the name ‘Syrus’, “in accordance with the custom by which slaves took a name derived from that of their province”. Biographers suppose this to have happened around 64 BC “when Syria … was reduced to a Roman province by Pompey”.13

How advanced in years was he? For this we should note that Marcus Varro, (116-27 BCE) one of Rome’s greatest scholars and satirists, who studied with the philosopher Antiochus of Ascalon at Athens, makes several short, incidental references to a poet by the name of Manilius in his grammatical text, On the Latin Language, without telling us anything significant about him. One of these relates to astronomical myth and clearly bears the hallmark of our Manilius.11 Providing this is the same person, this would mean that Manilius was known to Varro personally, or was generally known in Rome in the latter half of the 1st century BCE. This prospect seems feasible when we consider that Housman spent three decades compiling his commentary on the work of Manilius; we cannot expect that the author wrote such a work of art as an untested poet. It is probable he authored other (now lost) works that were circulating beforehand, or that some of the Astronomica’s books or passages were composed at different times as part of a life work. It is also probable that Manilius did not

Publilius was brought over by an army officer called Domitius, who transferred him to the service of his own patron after the latter noticed the boy’s keen wit and decided to educate him. He was later made a free man and eventually founded the School of Mimicry in Rome. Let us imagine Manilius to have been the same age, although he could have been even younger; this would place him in his mid-80s in 10 AD. Would that be what “with Ease my Life befriend” implies? We can at least see a feasible timeline.

11 Varro, On the Latin Language vol. I (1st cent. BCE), tr. R. G. Kent (Harvard Univ. Press, 1938). Relevant references at VII.16-17, p.284-5

(see image over); VII.28-29, p.296-7 and VII.104-105, p.358-9.

12 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, VI, tr. J. Bostock and H. T. Riley, (Henry Bohn, 1857): bk. 35, ch.58, p.302. The footnote annotation by

the translator suggests that whilst this is supposed to be the author of the Astronomica it is possible “that he was the father of the poet, or perhaps the grandfather, as … the poem must have been written, in part at least, after the death of Augustus”. As noted, the evidence that the text was completed after the death of Augustus is weak and easily explained away, especially in view of historical reports that the manuscript included a dedication to Augustus.

13 Lyman, D., The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, (Bernard & Co., 1856), ‘Life of Syrus’, p.v.

36

Of the grammarian, Staberius Eros, we learn from the historian Suetonius that he purchased his freedom with his own savings and was “formally manumitted because of his devotion to literature. He numbered among his pupils Brutus and Cassius”.14 It is tempting to imagine that the slave Manilius, also exceptionally bright as the poem demonstrates, gained his freedom in a similar way, so was able to travel and perhaps met or studied with the famous Philosopher Antiochus Ascalonita in Athens, where Varro may have met him.

According to Sherburne, a 17th-century Dutch manuscript collector owned a copy of the text bearing the title M. Mallii Poeni Astronomicon, Divo Octavio Quirino Aug, meaning ‘The Astronomicon of the Phoenician M. Mallii, dedicated to the godly Octavius Quirinus Augustus’. Sherburne therefore independently concluded that Manilius was of Syrian origin (historically called Phoenician), and speculated that he perhaps even came from the same town as Antiochus, who may have acted as his tutor, and so, whose name he assumed. At the very least, the appendage of that name points to descent from or connections to Antioch, which neatly aligns with the attributed provenance of Publilius, also generally said to originate from Antioch.15

Above left: Poggio Bracciolini; right: Pope Sylvester II Lower left: page from Muller’s 1473 editio princeps with inserted image of Muller (Regiomontanus)

There are two other notable ‘Manilius’ references in ancient literature which might yield clues to our author, or distract us with ‘red herrings’. One is the report of a ‘Manilius Mathematicus’ being the person Pliny describes as having placed a gilded ball on top of the Obelisk which Augustus erected in the Campus Martius, which was used as a sundial.16 Some scholars, including Scaliger, took this to be a further reference to Manilius Antiochus.

paid great attention to him or quoted his verse.

Considering the huge interest his manuscript generated upon its later rediscovery, the earlier silence might suggest that death cut him down before he had the chance to completely finish his work (explaining the rougher aspect of some of the later books, lacuna in book five, etc). An untimely death would have prevented the celebrated publication and widespread circulation of his work, leaving many of his own peers unaware of it.

And, lastly, Pliny mentions a Manilius of Senatorial dignity, whom he says described a connection between the life cycle of the mythical Phoenix and the Great Year (the Annus Magnus). He stated that the life of the bird is consummated in the conversion of the great year (when the stars return again to their first points, and begins about high noon on the day when the sun enters the first degree of Aries). Due to the description of senatorial rank, this reference has been ignored by most scholars as unlikely to be representing the author of the poem.17

Though the text dropped into obscurity, at least some of its copies were preserved, one of which came to the attention of the scholar Gerbert of Aurillac, who would become Pope Sylvester II in 999iAD. Archived letters mention his discovery of the manuscript in 983, and his request, five years later, to have it included among a list of texts to be copied.18 Archived letters also show that in 1417, the Italian Renaissance humanist Poggio Bracciolini searched among several European libraries to find a copy of the manuscript to have it reproduced. We don’t know where he eventually found it, but his letters reveal great dissatisfaction with the appointed scribe, who

It is very satisfying to imagine Manilius as someone raised from slavery into posthumous fame, although, strangely, it seems no subsequent Roman writers

14 Seutonius vol. II, tr. J.C. Rolfe (Harvard Univ. Press, revised ed. 1997). Lives of Illustrious Men, ‘Grammarians’ (13), p.374.

15 For more on the historical importance of Antioch as a transmission node of astrological ideas from Babylon to Rome (and the most

likely locality of Vettius Valens), see Deborah Houlding’s ‘Life and Work of Vettius Valens’, 2015, online at skyscript.co.uk/valens.html.

16 Known as Solarium Augusti; it collapsed during the 10th Century and was rebuilt in 1792 as the Obelisk of the Montecitorio. The report

is unreliable because whilst Scaliger and Sherburne seem convinced that Pliny identifies ‘Manilius the Mathematician’, modern translators identify this person as ‘Facundus Novus, the Mathematician’; NH II, bk. 36, ch.2, p.334.

17 NH, Vol. 2 (1878), bk. 10, ch.2, p.481. This Manilius was described by a Monsieur Tristan in his Historical Commentaries according to Sherburne’s introduction but I have been unable to find any further trace of Monsieur Tristan.

18 Detailed by Goold, p.cviii.

37

is described as ignorantissimus omnium viventium (‘the most ignorant of all things living’).19 The scribe was, apparently, “at the end of Book 4 so tired and weary that he no longer remembered the names and even forgot what book he had ended and what book he was about to begin”.20 Thereafter, other medieval manuscripts started to reveal themselves and with the rise of the printing press later that century, the editio princeps was published in 1473 by Johannes Muller (a.k.a. Regiomontanus, of the house system fame), just two years before he was called to Rome to work on calendar reform, where he died suddenly in 1476, having played an important part in the Renaissance recirculation of many classical texts concerning astrology.21

PPROPOSED TIMELINE & NOTABLE DATESP

c.64 BCE Manilius brought to Rome from Syria as an enslaved child, along with his 12year-old cousin, following Pompey’s defeat of Tigranes the Great in the Third Mithridatic War (speculative). c.10 AD Text written (after death of Varus in 9 AD, before death of Augustus in 14 AD).

983 AD Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) discovers a copy of the manuscript and arranges to have it copied 5 years later.

1417 Poggio Bracciolini actively seeks a copy in the libraries of Europe and arranges for its reproduction.

1473 Regiomontanus produces the first printed copy from his personal press at Nuremberg, Germany.

1579 Scaliger produces a new edition with much improvement to the Latin text and extensive commentary.

1651 A crater on the Moon is named Manilius in honour of the Astronomica author.

1674 Sherburne creates versified English translation of book one for Charles II. 1697 Creech creates versified English translation of all five books.

1739 Bentley creates improved edition with commentary that far surpasses all others.

1903 Housman begins a 27-year project to create a new Latin edition with his own extensive English commentary.

1977 Goold creates an acclaimed English prose edition for the Loeb Classics series.

Manilius did more than extend beyond the limits of slavery by rising to an elevated position in Rome within his own lifetime – excitement about the Renaissance rediscovery of his work meant that he was honoured by having a notable crater of the Moon named after him in 1651. This lunar Manilius is located in the Mare Vaporum, or ‘Sea of Vapours’.

Considering the obscurity around his personal life, this seems a very fitting tribute to a man whose astronomical knowledge and poetic vision wove the ancient myths into a timeless celestial tour which still invokes mystery, awe and wonder in its reader.

2023 My thanks are due to Deborah Houlding for contributing various points of research, and to Christine DiSandro for friendly collaboration regarding the text of Thomas Creech

The Skyscript Manilius Reading Group begins at 5:30 pm UTC on 3rd August 2023 (details and Zoom link in the members’ area).

About the Author: Mireille Crossley has been studying and practicing astrology since the early 1990s, obtaining her diploma of the Faculty of Astrological Studies in 1994 (DFAstrolS), studying Olivia Barclay’s QHP course and recently completing the STA Horary Practitioner’s course. Contact Mireille at mimicrossley@gmail.com.

19 K. Volk, Manilius and His Intellectual Background, (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009), p.2.

20 Quoted from Goold, p.cix.

21 For more on Johannes Muller and the role he played as a publisher of astrological texts see ‘The Creative Genius of Earhart Ratdolt’ by

Deborah Houlding, Skyscript Newsletter, #4, November 2022, pp.11-19.

38

GENERAL

INDEX

Acheron, 3 Achilles, 24 Acrisius, 11 Acron, 26 Actian Battles, 31 Aeacides, 24 Aeacus of Epirus, 24 Aemilian Line, 27 Aeneas, 27 Aether, 16 Agamemnon, 24 Agrippa, 27 Ajax, 24 Alba, 25 Alexander, Great, 24, 31 Algol, 11 Almathea, 11 Alnilam, 12 Alnitak, 12 Alphard, 13 Altar, 13 Amphitite, 11 Anaxagoras, 24, 30 Ancus Marcius, 25 Andromeda, 11, 13, 19 Annus Magnus, 37 Antarctic circle, 18 Antarctic circles, 18 Antioch, 37 Antiochus, 36, 37 Aphrodite, 30 Apollo, 1, 5, 10, 13, 23-25, 28 Apollonius of Myndus, 30 Apparent daily motion, 21 Appius Claudius, 27 Aquarius, 7, 14 Aquila, 10, 22 Ara, 13 Aratus, 12, 13, 24, 36 Arctic, 18, 22 Arctic Circle, 18 Arctophylax, 10 Arctos, 9-10, 15-16, 18-19, 22

Arcturus, 10 Argo, 13, 20, 22 Ariadne, 10 Aries, 7, 12, 37 Arion, 11 Aristotle, 24 Artemis, 5, 6, 12 Artic Circle, 22 Asclepius, 10 Asdrubal, 26 Asia, 16, 24 Astronomica, 34, 35, 36, 38 Athens, 25, 30, 42 Atlas, 28 Atoms, 4, 16 Atreus, 24 Atrides, 24 Augustus, 15, 27, 31, 35-38 Auriga, 11, 22 Aurora, 24 Axis, 9, 14, 19 Bacchus, 10, 13 Balance, 7 Battle of Actium, 27, 31 Battle of Clastidium, 26 Battle of Fidenae, 26 Battle of Marathon, 25 Battle of Messina, 31 Battle of Naulochus, 31 Battle of the Cremera, 26 Battle of the Metaurus, 26 Battle of Zasma, 26 Battles of Phillippi, 31 Battle Teutoburg Forest, 31, 35 Bear, 6, 9, 10, 16, 18, 20 Bears, 9-10, 14-15, 18-19, 22 Bellatrix, 12 Bellerophon, 11 Bentley, Richard, 33, 34, 38 Betelgeuze, 12 Bird, 13, 22 Boötes, 10 Bouché-Leclercq, 12

Bracciolini, Poggio, 37, 38 Brutus, 31, 37 Brutus, Lucius Junius, 25, Bull, 7, 11 Caesar, 1, 3, 26, 27, 31 Julian Offspring, 27 Caesar’s Civil War, 26, 27 Calliope, 10 Camillus, 25, 26 Campus Martius, 37 Cancer, 7, 12, 13, 18, 21, 22 Canis Major, 12, 13 Canis Minor, 13 Canopus, 6 Capella, 11 Capricorn, 12, 18, 20 Carina, 13 Carthage, 26 Cassiopeia, 11, 19, 22 Cassius, 31, 37 Castor, 10 Cato, 27 Celestial longitude, 13, 21 Centaur, 7, 13, 19, 22 Cepheus, 11, 19 Cetus, 11, 13, 14 Charioteer, 11, 22 Cheiron, 13 Chronos, 11, 13 Cicero, 24, 26 Cicilia, 12 Claelia, 25 Claudian Progeny, 27 Cleopatra, 27, 31 Climes, 3, 19 Clymene, 23 Cocles, Horatius, 25 Colures, 19 Comets, 28, 29, 30 Constellations, 10, 12, 15, 17 Corona Borealis, 10 Corvus, 13, 25 Corvus, Marcus Valerius, 25

Cossus, 26 Crab, 20 Crater, 13 Creech, Thomas, 33, 38 Cronos, 11 Crossley, Mireille, 33, 38 Crow, 13, 25 Crown, 9, 10, 12 Cunctator, 26 Cup, 13 Curiatii, 25 Curius, 26 Cursor, Lucius Papirius, 25 Cygnus, 10, 22 Cyllenius, 2 Cyllenius’ Light, 30 Cynosure, 9 Cynthia, 6 Dante, 26 Decii, 26 Decius, 26 Delia, 6, 21 Delphi, 11, 25 Delphinius, 11 Deltoton, 11 Democritus, 16, 24, 30 Dextral, 15 Diodorus of Alexandria, 23 Diomede, 24 Dione, 30 Dione’s Star, 30 Dionysius (historian), 25 Dionysus, 13 Christine DiSandro, 38 Dog Star, 12 Dolphin, 11 Domitius, 36 Draco, 9, 15 Dragon, 9, 13, 15, 20 Earth is Round, 6 Ecliptic, 7, 9, 14, 18 Egypt, 6, 26, 31 Elements: Air, Fire, Water and Earth: 4-7 Engonasi, 10 Entrails, 1, 3 Epicurus, 16 Equator, 18, 21, 22 Equinoxes, 12, 19 Eratosthenes, 13, 24 Erectheis, 30 Eridanus, 14 Etna, 29 Etruscans, 1, 25 Euclid, 17 Eudoxean divisions, 18 Euphrates, 2 Euridice, 10 Fabius, 26 Fabricius, 26 Facundus Novus, 37 Farnese globe, 18 First Punic War, 27 Fish, 7, 14

Fomalhaut, 14 Gemini, 10, 22 Geminos, 7, 12, 18 Gens Aemilia, 27 Gens Caecilli, 27 Gens Claudia, 27 Gens Decia, 26 Gens Fabia, 26 Gerbert of Aurillac, 37, 38 Gnosian Maid, 10 Goat, 7, 11, 21 Golden Fleece, 9, 13 Goold, George Patrick, 2-3, 11-13, 15, 17, 19, 28, 33-35, 37-38 Gorgon, 11 Greece, 2, 6, 16, 24, 25, 30-31 Hades, 10 Haedi, 11 Hannibal, 26 Hare, 13 Hasdrubal, 26 Helice, 6, 9, 20 Helicon, 1 Helios, 23 Hemispheres, 20, 23 Heniochus / Heniokhos, 11 Hera, 9 Heraclea, 26 Hercules, 9, 10, 13, 24 Hermes, 2, 28, 30 Hesperia, 6 Hesperides, 9 Hesperus, 5 Hipparchus, 18 Homeric Hymn to Hermes, 28 Horace, 33 Horatii, 25 Horizon, 6-7, 13, 17, 19-21 Watery Girdle, 7 Houlding, Deborah, 37, 38 Housman, Edward, 33-34, 36, 38 Hyades, 11 Hydra, 13, 19 Janus, 27 Jason and Argonauts, 9, 13 Jove, 3, 10, 11, 13, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28 Juno, 24, 25 Jupiter, 11, 12, 17, 21, 26, 27 Kids, 11 King Charles II, 33, 38 King Minos, 10 King Pyrrhus, 25, 26 Kugel Globe, 19 Kynosoura, 9 Ladon, 9, 13 Leda, 10 Lernean Hydra, 13 Libra, 7, 21 Livius, 26 Livy, 25, 26 Lucretia, 25 Lucretius, 16 Lycia, 24 Lycurgus, 25 40

Lyre, 10, 20 Macedonia, 24, 31 Maia, 28 Manilius, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 Lunar crater, 38 Manilius Mathematicus, 37 Marcellus, 26 Mark Antony, 26, 27, 31 Mars, 17, 21, 24, 28 Martial Maid, 24 Medusa, 11 Meissa, 12 Memnon, 24 Menelaus, 24 Mercury, 2, 17, 21, 28, 30 Meridian, 20 Metelli, 27 Metellus, Lucius Caecillius, 27 Metrodorus, 24 Midheaven, 6, 20 Milky Way, 21, 22, 24, 27 Minos, 10 Minotaur, 10 Mintaka, 12 Moon, 4, 5, 6, 9, 15, 17, 21, 28, 30 Mount Cyllene, 2, 28, 30 Mount Olympus, 11, 18, 22 Muller, Johannes (Regiomontanus), 3738 Phoenix, mythical, 37 Nadir, 17 Navis, 13 Naxos, 10 Nechepso, 2 Nereids, 11 Nero, 26 Nestor, 24 Nile, 2, 12, 31 Numa, 25, 27 Nuremberg, 38 Obelisk of Montecitorio, 37 Oenopides of Chios, 23 Ophiuchus, 10 Orion, 12, 14, 16 Orpheus, 10 Ovid, 10, 11, 13, 23, 34 Papyrius, 25 Parallels, 19 Parmenides, 24 Pegasus, 11, 14 Pella, 24 Penthesilia, 24 Perseus, 11, 22, 28 Persia, 25 Petosiris, 2 Phaethon / Phaeton, 23, 24 Philippic Plains, 31 Phoebe, 1, 5 Phoebus, 5-7, 18, 20-21, 25, 28 Phoenicians, 9 Phosphorus, 5 Pisces, 11

Pisces Notius, 14 Piscis Austrinus, 14 Plato, 25 Platonic, 16 Pleiades, 11, 28 Pliny, 26, 36, 37 Plutarch, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 Poeni, 9 Polaris, 9 Pole, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20 Pollux, 10 Polydectes, 11 Polyzalus, 11 Pompey, 26, 27, 31, 36, 38 Pompey, Sextus, 31 Pompillus, 25 Pope Sylvester II, 37, 38 Porsena, 25 Poseidon, 11 Posidonius, 12, 23, 24 Procyon, 13 Prometheus, 10 Ptolemy, 12, 13 Publilius Syrus, 36, 37 Publius (Horatii), 25, Publius Decius Mus, 26 Puppis, 13 Pyrrhic War, 25, 26 Pythian games, 11 Quirinus, 27 Ram, 7, 19, 21 Regiomontanus, 37-38 Rigel, 12 River (constellation), 14 Robbins, Frank Egleston, 12 Rome, 25, 26, 27, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38 Seven legendary Kings, 25 Romulus, 25, 26 Sagitta, 10, 11 Sagittarius, 13, 22 Sarpedon, 24

Saturn, 17, 21, 28 Scaevola, 25 Scaliger, Joseph, 12, 33, 34, 37, 38 Scipio, Aemilianus, 26 Scipio, Publius Cornelius, 26 Scipios, 26 Scorpio, 7, 12, 13, 19, 22 Second Punic War, 26 Secondary motion, 21 Seneca, 30 Serpens, 9, 10, 13, 19 Servile War, 31 Seutonius, 37 Sherburne, Edward, 1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 16, 21, 27, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38 Sidon, 9 Signs, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23 Sinistral, 15 Sirius, 12, 13 Socrates, 25 Sol, 2, 5, 7, 20 Solarium Augusti, 37 Solon, 25 Solstice(s), 12, 18, 19 Solstitial, 19, 20 Southern Centaur, 13 Spolia opima, 26 Staberius Eros, 36, 37 Sublician Bridge, 25 Suetonius, 37 Sun, 2-6, 9, 12-13, 15-18, 20- 21, 23, 28, 30 Sun’s Horses, 23 Swan, 10, 22 Syria, 9, 36, 38 Syrus, 36 Tarentum, 25, 26 Tarquinius Priscus, 25 Tarquinius Superbus, 25 Tetrabiblos, 12

41

Themistocles, 25 Theophrastus, 23 Theseus, 10 Third Mithridatic War, 38 Third Punic War, 26 Thucydides, 30 Tiberius, 35 Tigranes the Great, 38 Triangulum, 11, 19 Tristan, Monsieur, 37 Tropic(s), 12, 18, 22 Troy, 16, 24 Tullius, Servius, 25, 26 Tullus Hostillus, 25 Twins, 7, 12, 20, 22 Tyre, 9 Tyrians, 9 Ulysses, 24 Universe, 4, 16, 17, 27 Ursa Major, 6, 9 Ursa Minor, 9 see also Bear(s) Varro, Marcus, 36, 37 Varus, 31, 35, 38 Vela, 13 Veli, 25, 26 Venus, 5, 16-17, 21, 27-28, 30 Venus Genetrix’, 27 Vespasian, 28 Vettius Valens, 37 Via Lactea, 21, 22 Virgo, 7 Whale, 13, 19 World governed by a Deity, 16 World’s Diameter, 17 World’s middle Region, 18 Zenith, 17 Zeno, 30 Zeus, 10, 11, 13, 23-24, 28, 30 Zodiac, 7, 9, 12, 17, 21-23