Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/117

 Cliap. 51.] INTOCATION" OF THUXDER. 83 more minutely suppose, that these come froin the plauet Saturn, as those that are of a barning nature do from Mars. In this way it was that Yolsiniiun, the most opulent town of the Tuscans, was entirely consumed by lightning The first of these strokes that a man receives, after he has come hito possession of any property, is termed Familiar-, and is supposed to prognosticate the events of the whole of his life. But it is not generally supposed that they predict events of a private nature for a longer space than ten years, unless they happen at the time of a first marriage or a birth-day ; nor that public predictions extend beyond thirty years ^, un- less with respect to the founding of colonies ^. CHAP. 5i. (53.) — or CONJTJEIIS'G UP THUJTDER. It is related in our Annals, that by certain sacred rites and imprecations, thunder-storms may be compelled or in- voked^ There is an old report in Etruria, that thunder was invoked when the city of Volsinium had its territory laid waste by a monster named Yolta^. Thunder was also in- ^ The city of Bolsena is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Yolsuiiura. From the nature of the chstrict in which it is situate, it is perhaps more probable, that the event alluded to in the text was produced by a volcanic eruption, attended by hghtning, than by a simple thvmder- storm. 2 " Yocant et familiaria quae prima fiimt famiham suam cuique indepto." This remark is explained bv the followhig passage from Seneca ; ISTat. Quaest. ii. 47. " Hsec sunt fuhnina, qua; pruno accepto patrimonio, in novo hominis aut m'bis statu fiunt." Tliis opinion, as well as most of those of om* author, respecting the auguries to be formed from thmider, is combated by Seneca ; iihi supra, § 48. 2 Tliis opinion is also referred to by Seneca in the following passage ; "privata autem fidmina ncgant ultra decunum annum, pubhca ultra trigesimum posse defem ;" ubi supra. " quum in oppida colonia; deducuntur." hoc multisque ahis auctorum locis, pleriqueconjiciunt Etruscis auguribus baud ignotam fuisse vim electricam, licet corum arcana nunquam divul- gata sint." Alexandi'c in Lemaire, i. 350. ^ Alexandre remarks m tliis place, " An morbus aliquis fuit, qui pri- nium in agros dcbacchatus, jam ui'bi minabatur, forsitan ab neris siccitate natiis, quern advenicntcs cum procclla imbres cUscussenmt ? " Lemaire, i. 350.
 * " m deductione oppidorum ;" according to Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 350,
 * The following conjectm'e is not without a degree of probability ; " Ex