Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/91

 Chap. 23.] ACCOUNT OF THE WOELD. 67 generally in that white part of it which has ohtained the name of the INIilky Way. Aristotle informs us that several of them are to be seen at the same time but this, as far as I know, has not been observed by any one else ; also that they prognosticate high winds and great heat^. They are also visible in the winter months, and about the south pole, but they have no rays proceeding from them. There was a dreadful one observed by the Ethiopians and the Egyptians, to which Typhon, a king of that period, gave his own name ; it had a fiery appearance, and was twisted like a spiral ; its aspect was hideous, nor was it like a star, but rather like a knot of fire^. Sometimes there are hairs attached to the .planets and the other stars. Comets are never seen in the western part of the heavens. It is generally regarded as a terrific star, and one not easily expiated ; as was the case with the civil commotions in the consulship of Octavius, and also in the war of Pompey and Caesar^. And in our own age, about the time when Claudius Caesar was poisoned and left the Empire to Domitius Nero, and afterwards, while the latter was Emperor^, there was one which was almost con- stantly seen and was very frightful. It is thought important to notice towards what part it darts its beams, or from what star it receives its influence, what it resembles, and in what places it shines. If it resembles a flute, it portends some- on the contrary, remarks that comets are less frequently produced in the northern part of the heavens ; Meteor, hb. i. cap. 6. p. 535. 1 Ubi supra. ^ See Aristotle, ut supra, p. 537. 3 " Videtur is non cometes fuisse, sed meteorus qmdam ignis ; " Alex- andre in Lemaire, i. 296. ■* Virgil, Geor. i. 488 et seq., Mamhus, i. 904 ef seq., and Lucan, i. 526 et seq., all speak of the comets and meteors that were observed previous to the civil wars between Pompey and Csesar. In reference to the existence of a comet about the time of Juhus Caesar, Playfair remarks, that Halley supposed the great comet of 1680 to have been the same that appeared in the year 44 a.C, and again in Justinian's time, 521 P.c, and also in 1106 ; Elem. Nat. Phil. ii. 197, 198. See Ptolemy's Cent. Diet, no. 100, for the opinion, that comets presented an omen especially un- favourable to kings. To tliis opinion the following passage in the Paradise Lost obviously refers ; " And with fear of change pei-plexea monarchs." 5 Seneca refers to the four comets that were seen, after the death of Csesar, in the tune of Augustus, of Claudius, and of Nero ; Quscst. Nat. i. 7. Suetonius mentions the comet which appeared previous to the death of Claudius, cap. 46, and Tacitus that before the death of Nero, Ann. xiv. 22.