Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/96

 62 PLIlfT's IfATrEAL HISTOET. [Book II. CHAP. 29. — OF SUDDEN CIECLES. A bow appeared round the sun in the consulship of L. Opimius and L. Fabius^ and a circle in that of C. Porcius and M. Acilius. (30.) There was a little circle of a red colour in the consulship of L. Julius and P. Eutilius. CHAP. 30: — OF TJNUSTTALLT LONG ECLIPSES OF THE SrW. Eclipses of the sun also take place which are portentous and unusually long, such as occurred when Caesar the Dictator was slain, and in the war against Antony, the sun remained dim for almost a whole year^. CHAP. 31. (31.) — MANY SUNS. And again, many suns have been seen at the same time^; not above or below the real sun, but in an oblique direction, never near nor opposite to the earth, nor in the night, but either in the east or in the west. They are said to have been seen once at noon in the Bosphorus, and to have continued from morning until sunset. Our ancestors have frequently seen three suns at the same time'*, as was the case in the consul- ship of Sp. Postumius and L. Mucins, of L. Marcius and M. Portius, that of M. Antony and Dolabella, and that of M. Lepidus and L. Plancus. And we have ourselves seen one during the reign of the late Emperor Claudius, when he or " orbis." But if we suppose that the sun was near the horizon, a portion only of the halo would be visible, or the condition of the atmo- sphere adapted for forming the halo might exist in one part onlv, so that a portion of the halo only would be obscured. 2 The dimness or paleness of the sun, which is stated by various writers to have occurred at the time of Caesar's death, it is vmnecessary to remark, was a phsenomenon totally different from an echpse, and depending on a totally different cause. 3 Aristotle, Meteor. Hb. iii. cap. 2. p. 575, cap. 6. p. 582, 583, and Seneca, Qusest. Nat. Hb. i. § 11, describe these appearances under the title which has been retained by the moderns of TrapijXia. Aristotle re- marks on their cause as depending on the refraction (dvuKXacns) of the sun's rays. He extends the remark to the production of halos (a(us) and the rainbow, ubi supra.
 * The term here employed is " arcus," which is a portion only of a circle
 * This occurrence is referred to by Livy, xli. 21.