Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/94

 60 plint's nattjeal histoet. [Book IL heavens, in tlie sight of all the people, at noon-daj, when Germanicus Caesar was exhibiting a show of gladiators There are two kinds of them ; those which are called Imwpades and those which are called holides, one of which latter was seen during the troubles at Mutina^. They differ from each other in this respect, that the faces produce a long train of light, the fore-part only being on fire ; while the holides, being entirely in a state of combustion, leave a still longer track behind them. CHAP. 26. TRABES CELESTES ; CHASMA CCELI. The trabes also, which are named ^ofcoi', shine in the same manner ; one of these was seen at the time when the Lace- daemonians, by being conquered at sea, lost their influence in Grreece. An opening sometimes takes place in the firma- ment, which is named chasma^. CHAP. 27. (27.) — OF THE COLOTFES OF THE SKY AND OF CELESTIAL FLAME. There is a flame of a bloody appearance (and nothing is ^ Seneca refers to tliis meteor ; " Yidimus non semel flammani ingenti pHse specie, quse tamen in ipso cursu suo dissipata est ... . nee Grermanici mors sine tali demonstratione fuit ; " Nat. Qusest. lib. i. cap. 1. p. 683. 2 This meteor is mentioned by Dion Cassius, lib. xlv. p. 278, but is desci'ibed by him as a lampas. 3 We may presume that the trabes are, for the most part, to be referred to the aurora boreahs. The chasma and the appearances described in the twenty- seventh chapter are probably varieties of this meteor. On these phsenomena we have the following remarks by Seneca : " Lucem in aere, seu quamdam albedinem, angustam quidem, sed oblongam, de noctu quandoque visam, sereno coelo, si parallelo situ sit, Trabem vocant ; si perpendiculari, Columnam ; si, cum cuspide Bolida, sive Jaculum." Nat. Qusest. vii. 4, and again, vii. 5, " Trabes autem non transcurrunt nee prse- tervolant, ut faces, sed commorantiu*, et in eadem parte coeli collucent." ^ Seneca describes this meteor, uhi supra, i. 14. " Sunt chasmata, cum aliquando coeU spatium discedit, et flammam dehiscens velut in abdito ostentat. Colores quoque horum omnium plurimi sunt. Quidam ruboris acerritni, quidam evanidse et levis flammge, quidam candidse lucis, quidam micantes, quidam sequabihter et sine eruptionibus aut radiis fulvi." Ari- stotle's accoimt of chasmata is contained in his Meteor. Hb. i. cap. 5. p. 534.