Lucretius: DE RERVM NATVRA LIBRI SEX

Primae frugiparos fetus mortalibus aegris
dididerunt quondam praeclaro nomine Athenae
et recreaverunt vitam legesque rogarunt
et primae dederunt solacia dulcia vitae,
cum genuere virum tali cum corde repertum,
omnia veridico qui quondam ex ore profudit;
cuius et extincti propter divina reperta
divolgata vetus iam ad caelum gloria fertur.
nam cum vidit hic ad victum quae flagitat usus
omnia iam ferme mortalibus esse parata
et, pro quam possent, vitam consistere tutam,
divitiis homines et honore et laude potentis
affluere atque bona gnatorum excellere fama,
nec minus esse domi cuiquam tamen anxia cordi,
atque animi ingratis vitam vexare sine ulla
pausa atque infestis cogi saevire querellis,
intellegit ibi vitium vas efficere ipsum
omniaque illius vitio corrumpier intus,
quae conlata foris et commoda cumque venirent;
partim quod fluxum pertusumque esse videbat,
ut nulla posset ratione explerier umquam,
partim quod taetro quasi conspurcare sapore
omnia cernebat, quae cumque receperat, intus.
veridicis igitur purgavit pectora dictis
et finem statuit cuppedinis atque timoris
exposuitque bonum summum, quo tendimus omnes,
quid foret, atque viam monstravit, tramite parvo
qua possemus ad id recto contendere cursu,
quidve mali foret in rebus mortalibus passim,
quod fieret naturali varieque volaret
seu casu seu vi, quod sic natura parasset,
et quibus e portis occurri cuique deceret,
et genus humanum frustra plerumque probavit
volvere curarum tristis in pectore fluctus.

First the fruit-bearing yields to ailing mortals
once distributed did Athens, of illustrious name,
and they refreshed life and proposed laws,
and first they gave the sweet solaces of life,
when they begot a man found with such a heart,
who once poured forth everything from a truth-telling mouth;
and whose glory, though extinct, because of divine discoveries
divulged, now ancient, is borne to heaven. For when he saw that for sustenance what use demands
almost all things were already prepared for mortals,
and, so far as they could, life stood secure,
men overflowing in riches and in honor and in praise, powerful,
and excelling in the good repute of their sons;
yet that no less at home anxiety was at anyone’s heart,
and that the mind vexed life ungratefully without any
pause and was forced to rage with hostile complaints,
he understood there that a defect was making the vessel itself,
and that by the defect of it everything within was being corrupted,
whatever had been gathered from outside and whatever conveniences might come;
partly because he saw it to be leaky and bored-through,
so that by no plan could it ever be filled;
partly because with a foul, as it were, savor it befouled
within all things whatever it had received. Therefore with veridical sayings he purged hearts
and he set an end to desire and to fear,
and he expounded what the highest good is, to which we all tend,
and showed the way, by a small track,
by which we might be able to strive toward it with a straight course,
and what evil there would be in mortal affairs everywhere,
what comes to be by natural cause and flits variously,
either by chance or by force, since nature had so prepared,
and by which gates it would be fitting to meet each thing;
and he demonstrated that the human race for the most part in vain
rolls in the breast the sad billows of cares.

nam vel uti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis
in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus
inter dum, nihilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam
quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura.
hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest
non radii solis nec lucida tela diei
discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.
quo magis inceptum pergam pertexere dictis.

for just as boys tremble and in blind
darkness fear everything, so we in the light at times fear
things no whit more to be feared than
what boys in the dark quake at and imagine to be about to happen.
therefore this terror of the mind and these darknesses must needs
be scattered not by the sun’s rays nor the bright shafts of day,
but by the aspect and the reasoning of nature.
wherefore the more I will go on to weave the begun work with words.

Et quoniam docui mundi mortalia templa
esse [et] nativo consistere corpore caelum,
et quae cumque in eo fiunt fierique necessest
pleraque dissolui, qui restant percipe porro,
quandoquidem semel insignem conscendere currum
* * *
tu mihi supremae praescripta ad candida callis
currenti spatium praemonstra, callida musa
Calliope, requies hominum divomque voluptas,
te duce ut insigni capiam cum laude coronam.
* * *
ventorum existant, placentur [ut] omnia rursum
* * *
quae fuerint, sint placato conversa furore.
cetera quae fieri in terris caeloque tuentur
mortales, pavidis cum pendent mentibus saepe
et faciunt animos humilis formidine divom
depressosque premunt ad terram propterea quod
ignorantia causarum conferre deorum
cogit ad imperium res et concedere regnum.

And since I have taught that the temples of the world are mortal
and that the heaven consists of native body, [and] that whatever things in it happen and must happen
for the most part are dissolved, take in further those that remain,
since once to mount the distinguished chariot
* * *
do you for me the prescripts to the shining paths of the highest
show in advance the expanse as I run, cunning Muse
Calliope, the repose of men and the delight of gods,
with you as leader, that I may seize a crown with distinguished praise.
* * *
how the winds arise, [so that] all things are calmed again,
* * *
that what they had been may be turned with fury appeased.
the rest which mortals behold to occur on earth and in heaven,
when they often hang with fearful minds,
and make their spirits lowly by dread of the gods and press them downcast to the earth, because
ignorance of causes compels them to confer things upon the dominion of the gods
and to concede the kingdom.

[quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre
possunt ac fieri divino numine rentur.]
nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom,
si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione
quaeque geri possint, praesertim rebus in illis
quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris,
rursus in antiquas referuntur religionis
et dominos acris adsciscunt, omnia posse
quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse,
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens;
quo magis errantes caeca ratione feruntur.
quae nisi respuis ex animo longeque remittis
dis indigna putare alienaque pacis eorum,
delibata deum per te tibi numina sancta
saepe oberunt; non quo violari summa deum vis
possit, ut ex ira poenas petere inbibat acris,
sed quia tute tibi placida cum pace quietos
constitues magnos irarum volvere fluctus,
nec delubra deum placido cum pectore adibis,
nec de corpore quae sancto simulacra feruntur
in mentes hominum divinae nuntia formae,
suscipere haec animi tranquilla pace valebis.
inde videre licet qualis iam vita sequatur.

[of whose works they can by no reason see the causes,
and think they are brought about by divine numen.]
for those who have well learned that the gods pass a secure aeon,
if yet meanwhile they marvel by what reason
each thing can be conducted, especially in those matters
which are seen above the head on ethereal shores,
are again carried back into the ancient religion
and enroll harsh lords, whom the wretched believe able to do all things,
ignorant what can be, what cannot, and, finally, for each, what finite power there is,
and by what reason the deeply fastened terminus clings;
whereby, wandering, they are borne the more by blind reason.
unless you spit these out from your mind and send far away
as things unworthy of the gods and alien to their peace,
the sacred numina of the gods, once infringed upon by you through yourself,
will often work harm to you; not because the highest force of the gods
can be violated, so that from wrath it should imbibe the seeking of sharp penalties,
but because you yourself for yourself, though in placid peace at rest,
will establish great billows of wraths to roll,
nor will you approach the shrines of the gods with a placid breast,
nor will you be able, with the tranquil peace of mind,
to receive those simulacra which are borne from the sacred body
into the minds of men, messengers of the divine form.
from this it is possible to see what sort of life then follows.

quam quidem ut a nobis ratio verissima longe
reiciat, quamquam sunt a me multa profecta,
multa tamen restant et sunt ornanda politis
versibus; est ratio caelisque tenenda,
sunt tempestates et fulmina clara canenda,
quid faciant et qua de causa cumque ferantur;
ne trepides caeli divisis partibus amens,
unde volans ignis pervenerit aut in utram se
verterit hinc partim, quo pacto per loca saepta
insinuarit, et hinc dominatus ut extulerit se.
[quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre
possunt ac fieri divino numine rentur.]
Principio tonitru quatiuntur caerula caeli
propterea quia concurrunt sublime volantes
aetheriae nubes contra pugnantibus ventis.
nec fit enim sonitus caeli de parte serena,
verum ubi cumque magis denso sunt agmine nubes,
tam magis hinc magno fremitus fit murmure saepe.
praeterea neque tam condenso corpore nubes
esse queunt quam sunt lapides ac ligna, neque autem
tam tenues quam sunt nebulae fumique volantes;
nam cadere aut bruto deberent pondere pressae
ut lapides, aut ut fumus constare nequirent
nec cohibere nives gelidas et grandinis imbris.

which indeed, that the most truthful reasoning may far reject from us,
although many things have proceeded from me, many yet remain and are to be adorned with polished
verses; there is a rationale of the heaven and of the fires to be held,
storms and bright thunderbolts are to be sung—what they do and for what cause whenever they are borne—;
lest you, distraught, should tremble at the divided parts of the sky,
whence the flying fire has come or to which side
it has turned itself from here in part, by what pact it has insinuated through fenced places,
and how from here, being lord, it has lifted itself forth.
[the causes of which works they are able by no reasoning to see,
and think that they are brought about by a divine numen.]
To begin with, the cerulean expanses of the sky are shaken by thunder
for this reason: because the aetherial clouds, flying on high,
collide, with the winds fighting against them. For a sound of the sky is not made from the serene part,
but wherever the clouds are in a more dense battalion,
so much the more from there a roaring is often made with great murmur. Furthermore, clouds are not able
to be of so dense a body as stones and wood are, nor yet
so thin as mists and flying smokes; for, pressed by brute weight, they ought to fall
like stones, or, like smoke, they would be unable to hold together,
nor to confine icy snows and the hail-shower.

Dant etiam sonitum patuli super aequora mundi,
carbasus ut quondam magnis intenta theatris
dat crepitum malos inter iactata trabesque,
inter dum perscissa furit petulantibus auris
et fragilis [sonitus] chartarum commeditatur;
id quoque enim genus in tonitru cognoscere possis,
aut ubi suspensam vestem chartasque volantis
verberibus venti versant planguntque per auras.
fit quoque enim inter dum [ut] non tam concurrere nubes
frontibus adversis possint quam de latere ire
diverso motu radentes corpora tractim,
aridus unde auris terget sonus ille diuque
ducitur, exierunt donec regionibus artis.
Hoc etiam pacto tonitru concussa videntur
omnia saepe gravi tremere et divolsa repente
maxima dissiluisse capacis moenia mundi,
cum subito validi venti conlecta procella
nubibus intorsit sese conclusaque ibidem
turbine versanti magis ac magis undique nubem
cogit uti fiat spisso cava corpore circum,
post ubi conminuit vis eius et impetus acer,
tum perterricrepo sonitu dat scissa fragorem.

They also give a sound over the plains of the outspread world,
as linen canvas once, stretched over great theaters,
gives a crackle, when tossed among masts and beams,
and at times, when thoroughly torn, raves with wanton breezes,
and counterfeits the brittle [sound] of papers;
for that kind too you can recognize in thunder,
or when the wind’s lashes turn and beat through the airs
a hanging garment and flying papers.
for it also happens at times [that] the clouds are not so much able
to run together with opposing fronts as to go from the side
with a different motion, grazing their bodies gradually,
whence that dry sound rubs the ear and is drawn out for long,
until they have gone forth from the narrow regions.
In this fashion too, by thunder shaken, all things often seem
to tremble with a heavy shock, and the greatest walls
of the capacious world, torn apart suddenly, to have burst asunder,
when suddenly strong winds, gathered into a squall,
have hurled themselves into the clouds and, shut in there,
with a whirling turbine more and more from every side
force the cloud so that it becomes hollow around with dense body;
afterwards, when its force and sharp impetus have been diminished,
then, split, it gives a crash with a terror-rattling sound.

nec mirum, cum plena animae vensicula parva
saepe haud dat parvum sonitum displosa repente.
Est etiam ratio, cum venti nubila perflant,
ut sonitus faciant; etenim ramosa videmus
nubila saepe modis multis atque aspera ferri;
scilicet ut, crebram silvam cum flamina cauri
perflant, dant sonitum frondes ramique fragorem.
Fit quoque ut inter dum validi vis incita venti
perscindat nubem perfringens impete recto;
nam quid possit ibi flatus manifesta docet res,
hic, ubi lenior est, in terra cum tamen alta
arbusta evolvens radicibus haurit ab imis.

nor a marvel, since a little vesicle full of breath
often gives not a small sound when suddenly exploded.
There is also a rationale, when winds blow through clouds,
that they make a sound; for indeed we see ramose
clouds often carried in many modes and rough;
clearly as, when the blasts of the Caurus blow through a thick forest,
the leaves give sound and the branches a crash.
It also comes to pass that sometimes the incited force of a strong wind
slashes a cloud, breaking it with straight onset;
for what a blast can do there a manifest fact teaches,
here, where it is gentler, when yet on land,
as, uprooting tall groves, it draws them from their deepest roots.

sunt etiam fluctus per nubila, qui quasi murmur
dant in frangendo graviter; quod item fit in altis
fluminibus magnoque mari, cum frangitur aestus.
Fit quoque, ubi e nubi in nubem vis incidit ardens
fulminis; haec multo si forte umore recepit
ignem, continuo magno clamore trucidat;
ut calidis candens ferrum e fornacibus olim
stridit, ubi in gelidum propter demersimus imbrem.
Aridior porro si nubes accipit ignem,
uritur ingenti sonitu succensa repente,
lauricomos ut si per montis flamma vagetur
turbine ventorum comburens impete magno;
nec res ulla magis quam Phoebi Delphica laurus
terribili sonitu flamma crepitante crematur.

There are likewise billows through the clouds, which give, as it were, a murmur
in breaking heavily; which likewise happens in deep
rivers and on the great sea, when the surge is broken.
It also happens when from a cloud into a cloud the burning force
of the thunderbolt falls; if this, having much moisture, by chance has received
the fire, straightway it slaughters it with a great clamor;
as glowing iron from hot furnaces once upon a time
hisses, when we have plunged it nearby into a gelid shower.
Further, if a drier cloud receives the fire,
it is burned with an immense sound, kindled suddenly,
as if a flame were wandering through laurel-haired mountains,
burning with a whirlwind of winds in mighty impetus;
nor is any thing more than Phoebus’s Delphic laurel
consumed with terrible sound, the flame crackling.

Denique saepe geli multus fragor atque ruina
grandinis in magnis sonitum dat nubibus alte;
ventus enim cum confercit, franguntur in artum
concreti montes nimborum et grandine mixti.
Fulgit item, nubes ignis cum semina multa
excussere suo concursu, ceu lapidem si
percutiat lapis aut ferrum; nam tum quoque lumen
exilit et claras scintillas dissipat ignis.
sed tonitrum fit uti post auribus accipiamus,
fulgere quam cernant oculi, quia semper ad auris
tardius adveniunt quam visum quae moveant res.

Finally, often the manifold crash of ice and the ruin of hail
gives a sound in the great clouds on high;
for when the wind packs them together, there are broken into tightness
the concreted mountains of nimbus-clouds and mixed with hail.
It also flashes, when the clouds by their own concourse have shaken out many seeds of fire,
as if stone should strike stone or iron; for then too light
leaps forth and fire scatters bright scintillas.
but it comes about that we receive the thunder afterward with our ears,
than our eyes discern the flashing, because always to the ears
they arrive more slowly than the things which move the sight.

id licet hinc etiam cognoscere: caedere si quem
ancipiti videas ferro procul arboris auctum,
ante fit ut cernas ictum quam plaga per auris
det sonitum; sic fulgorem quoque cernimus ante
quam tonitrum accipimus, pariter qui mittitur igni
e simili causa, concursu natus eodem.
Hoc etiam pacto volucri loca lumine tingunt
nubes et tremulo tempestas impete fulgit.
ventus ubi invasit nubem et versatus ibidem
fecit ut ante cavam docui spissescere nubem,
mobilitate sua fervescit; ut omnia motu
percalefacta vides ardescere, plumbea vero
glans etiam longo cursu volvenda liquescit.

One may recognize this from here as well: if you see someone from afar felling a grown tree with a two-edged iron,
it comes about that you discern the blow before the stroke gives a sound through the ears; so too we behold the lightning-flash before
we receive the thunder, which is sent equally with the fire from a similar cause, born from the same concurrence.
In this same fashion the clouds tinge places with winged light, and the tempest flashes with a tremulous impetus.
when the wind has invaded a cloud and, being whirled there within, has made the previously hollow cloud, as I taught before, to grow thick,
it grows hot by its own mobility; as you see all things, thoroughly heated by motion, ignite, and indeed even a leaden
bullet, when rolled in a long course, liquefies.

ergo fervidus hic nubem cum perscidit atram,
dissipat ardoris quasi per vim expressa repente
semina, quae faciunt nictantia fulgura flammae;
inde sonus sequitur, qui tardius adlicit auris
quam quae perveniunt oculorum ad lumina nostra.
scilicet hoc densis fit nubibus et simul alte
extructis aliis alias super impete miro.
ne tibi sit frudi quod nos inferne videmus
quam sint lata magis quam sursum extructa quid extent.

therefore, when this fervid one cleaves the black cloud,
it scatters the seeds of ardor, as if suddenly forced out by force,
which make the winking fulgurations of flame;
then the sound follows, which more slowly draws the ears
than the things which reach the light of our eyes.
of course this happens with clouds dense, and at the same time
others piled high above others with wondrous onset.
let it not be a deception to you that we from below behold
how they are broader than, upward built, to what extent they project.

contemplator enim, cum montibus adsimulata
nubila portabunt venti transversa per auras,
aut ubi per magnos montis cumulata videbis
insuper esse aliis alia atque urguere superna
in statione locata sepultis undique ventis;
tum poteris magnas moles cognoscere eorum
speluncasque vel ut saxis pendentibus structas
cernere, quas venti cum tempestate coorta
conplerunt, magno indignantur murmure clausi
nubibus in caveisque ferarum more minantur,
nunc hinc nunc illinc fremitus per nubila mittunt,
quaerentesque viam circum versantur et ignis
semina convolvunt [e] nubibus atque ita cogunt
multa rotantque cavis flammam fornacibus intus,
donec divolsa fulserunt nube corusci.
Hac etiam fit uti de causa mobilis ille
devolet in terram liquidi color aureus ignis,
semina quod nubes ipsas permulta necessust
ignis habere; etenim cum sunt umore sine ullo,
flammeus [est] plerumque colos et splendidus ollis.
quippe etenim solis de lumine multa necessest
concipere, ut merito rubeant ignesque profundant.

contemplate, then, when clouds assimilated to mountains
the winds will carry crosswise through the airs,
or when you will see over great mountains heaped-up masses
to be, one above others, and the upper to urge down,
set in station, the winds buried on every side;
then you will be able to recognize their great masses
and even to discern caverns as if built with hanging rocks,
which the winds, when a tempest has arisen,
have filled; shut in, they chafe with a great murmur,
in the clouds and in the caves they threaten in the manner of wild beasts,
now here now there they send roars through the clouds,
and, seeking a way, they wheel around and roll up seeds
of fire [e] from the clouds and thus compress them
in many ways, and within hollow furnaces they whirl the flame inside,
until, the cloud torn asunder, coruscations flashed.
By this same cause it also comes to pass that that mobile
golden hue of liquid fire swoops down to the earth,
because it is necessary that the clouds themselves have very many
seeds of fire; for indeed when they are without any moisture,
a flaming [is] for the most part the color to them and splendid.
For indeed it is necessary that they conceive many things from the light of the sun,
so that with good reason they grow red and pour forth fires.

hasce igitur cum ventus agens contrusit in unum
compressitque locum cogens, expressa profundunt
semina, quae faciunt flammae fulgere colores.
Fulgit item, cum rarescunt quoque nubila caeli;
nam cum ventus eas leviter diducit euntis
dissoluitque, cadant ingratius illa necessest
semina quae faciunt fulgorem. tum sine taetro
terrore atque sonis fulgit nulloque tumultu.

Therefore, when the wind, acting, has driven these together into one
and has compressed them into a single place by compulsion, they pour forth
pressed-out seeds, which make the colors of flame flash.
It also flashes, when the clouds of the sky grow rare;
for when the wind lightly draws them apart as they go
and loosens them, it is necessary that those seeds which make the brilliance
fall more ungraciously. Then without foul terror and sounds it flashes,
and with no tumult.

Quod superest, [quali] natura praedita constent
fulmina, declarant ictus et inusta vaporis
signa notaeque gravis halantis sulpuris auras;
ignis enim sunt haec non venti signa neque imbris.
praeterea saepe accendunt quoque tecta domorum
et celeri flamma dominantur in aedibus ipsis.
hunc tibi subtilem cum primis ignibus ignem
constituit natura minutis mobilibusque
corporibus, cui nil omnino obsistere possit.

What remains, [of what kind] nature thunderbolts consist,
their strokes and the burned-in marks of vapor declare,
the signs and tokens of heavy, exhaling breaths of sulphur;
for these are signs of fire, not of wind nor of rain.
furthermore they often also ignite the roofs of homes
and with swift flame hold sway in the very abodes.
this fire, subtle among the foremost fires for you,
nature has constituted from minute and mobile
bodies, which nothing at all can resist.

transit enim validum fulmen per saepta domorum
clamor ut ac voces, transit per saxa, per aera
et liquidum puncto facit aes in tempore et aurum.
curat item vasis integris vina repente
diffugiant, quia ni mirum facile omnia circum
conlaxat rareque facit lateramina vasis
adveniens calor eius et insinuatus in ipsum
mobiliter soluens differt primordia vini.
quod solis vapor aetatem non posse videtur
efficere usque adeo pollens fervore corusco.

for the strong thunderbolt passes through the enclosures of houses
just as clamor and voices do, it passes through stones, through bronze,
and makes bronze and gold liquid in an instant.
likewise it contrives that in intact vessels the wines suddenly
disperse, because, no wonder, it easily loosens all around
and makes rarefied the side-walls of the vessels,
its heat arriving and insinuated into the very thing,
nimbly loosening, scatters the first-beginnings of the wine.
which the vapor of the sun does not seem able to effect in an age,
so exceedingly powerful in coruscating fervor.

tanto mobilior vis et dominantior haec est.
Nunc ea quo pacto gignantur et impete tanto
fiant ut possint ictu discludere turris,
disturbare domos, avellere tigna trabesque
et monimenta virum commoliri atque ciere,
exanimare homines, pecudes prosternere passim,
cetera de genere hoc qua vi facere omnia possint,
expediam neque [te] in promissis plura morabor.
Fulmina gignier e crassis alteque putandumst
nubibus extructis; nam caelo nulla sereno
nec leviter densis mittuntur nubibus umquam.

by so much the more mobile and more dominant is this force.
Now in what way they are generated and with such impetus
they come to be that by a stroke they can burst apart towers,
disturb houses, tear away beams and timbers,
and the monuments of men demolish and set in motion,
deprive men of life, prostrate cattle everywhere,
and the other things of this kind, by what force they can do them all,
I will set forth, nor will I delay [you] longer upon promises.
It must be thought that lightnings are engendered from thick and loftily piled-up
clouds built up; for none are sent from a serene sky
nor ever from clouds that are lightly compacted.

nam dubio procul hoc fieri manifesta docet res;
quod tunc per totum concrescunt aeëra nubes,
undique uti tenebras omnis Acherunta reamur
liquisse et magnas caeli complesse cavernas,
Æusque adeo tetra nimborum nocte coorta
inpendent atrae formidinis ora superne,Æ
cum commoliri tempestas fulmina coeptat.
praeterea persaepe niger quoque per mare nimbus,
ut picis e caelo demissum flumen, in undas
sic cadit effertus tenebris procul et trahit atram
fulminibus gravidam tempestatem atque procellis,
ignibus ac ventis cum primis ipse repletus,
in terra quoque ut horrescant ac tecta requirant.
sic igitur supera nostrum caput esse putandumst
tempestatem altam; neque enim caligine tanta
obruerent terras, nisi inaedificata superne
multa forent multis exempto nubila sole;
nec tanto possent venientes opprimere imbri,
flumina abundare ut facerent camposque natare,
si non extructis foret alte nubibus aether.

for beyond doubt a manifest fact teaches that this is so;
that then clouds congeal through the whole aether,
so that on every side we may suppose that all the darknesses of Acheron
have flowed forth and filled the great caverns of the sky,
and to such a degree, with a foul night of storm-clouds arisen,
the borders of black dread hang from above on high,
when the tempest begins to work up the thunderbolts.
moreover, very often a black nimbus also over the sea,
like a river of pitch sent down from the sky, into the waves
so falls, burdened with darkness from afar, and it draws along a black
tempest gravid with thunderbolts and with gales,
itself, to begin with, filled with fires and with winds,
so that on land as well men shudder and seek roofs.
thus therefore it must be thought that there is above our head
a lofty tempest; for they would not with so great a caliginous gloom
overwhelm the lands, unless many clouds had been built up on high
with the sun taken away from many regions;
nor could they, coming, oppress with so great a rain,
as to make rivers overflow and fields to swim,
if the aether were not raised high with clouds erected.

hic igitur ventis atque ignibus omnia plena
sunt; ideo passim fremitus et fulgura fiunt.
quippe etenim supra docui permulta vaporis
semina habere cavas nubes et multa necessest
concipere ex solis radiis ardoreque eorum.
hoc ubi ventus eas idem qui cogit in unum
forte locum quemvis, expressit multa vaporis
semina seque simul cum eo commiscuit igni,
insinuatus ibi vortex versatur in arto
et calidis acuit fulmen fornacibus intus;
nam duplici ratione accenditur: ipse sua cum
mobilitate calescit et e contagibus ignis.

here therefore all things are filled with winds and fires; therefore everywhere rumblings and flashes of lightning come to be.
for indeed above I have taught that hollow clouds have very many seeds of vapor and that it is necessary to conceive many from the sun’s rays and their ardor.
when the wind, the same that compels them into one, by chance into any place, has pressed out many seeds of vapor and has at once mingled itself with that fire,
there, insinuated, the vortex is turned in the narrow space and within hot furnaces it sharpens the thunderbolt;
for it is kindled by a twofold rationale: it grows warm by its own mobility and from the contacts of fire.

inde ubi percaluit venti vis [et] gravis ignis
impetus incessit, maturum tum quasi fulmen
perscindit subito nubem ferturque coruscis
omnia luminibus lustrans loca percitus ardor.
quem gravis insequitur sonitus, displosa repente
opprimere ut caeli videantur templa superne.
inde tremor terras graviter pertemptat et altum
murmura percurrunt caelum; nam tota fere tum
tempestas concussa tremit fremitusque moventur.

then, when the force of the wind has been thoroughly heated and the heavy onset of fire has set in,
then, as if a ripe thunderbolt, it suddenly rends the cloud and the impetuous ardor is borne along,
surveying all places with flashing lights.
A heavy roar follows it, so that the temples of the sky,
suddenly blown apart, seem to press down from above.
then a tremor gravely shakes the lands, and murmurs run through the high
heaven; for then almost the whole tempest, concussed, quakes and the roarings are set in motion.

quo de concussu sequitur gravis imber et uber,
omnis uti videatur in imbrem vertier aether
atque ita praecipitans ad diluviem revocare;
tantus discidio nubis ventique procella
mittitur, ardenti sonitus cum provolat ictu.
Est etiam cum vis extrinsecus incita venti
incidit in validam maturo culmine nubem;
quam cum perscidit, extemplo cadit igneus ille
vertex, quem patrio vocitamus nomine fulmen.
hoc fit idem in partis alias, quo cumque tulit vis.

whence from that concussion there follows a heavy and copious shower,
so that all the aether seems to be turned into rain
and thus, headlong, to call back a deluge;
so great a discharge from the rending of the cloud and the blast of wind
is sent forth, when the crash flies out with a burning stroke.
There is also a time when a force of wind, stirred from without,
falls upon a sturdy cloud with a ripened crest;
which when it has split through, straightway that fiery vortex falls,
which by our native name we call the thunderbolt.
this same thing happens in other quarters, whithersoever the force has borne.

Fit quoque ut inter dum venti vis missa sine igni
igniscat tamen in spatio longoque meatu,
dum venit amittens in cursu corpora quaedam
grandia, quae nequeunt pariter penetrare per auras,
atque alia ex ipso conradens aeëre portat
parvola, quae faciunt ignem commixta volando;
non alia longe ratione ac plumbea saepe
fervida fit glans in cursu, cum multa rigoris
corpora dimittens ignem concepit in auris.
Fit quoque ut ipsius plagae vis excitet ignem,
frigida cum venti pepulit vis missa sine igni,
ni mirum quia, cum vehementi perculit ictu,
confluere ex ipso possunt elementa vaporis
et simul ex illa quae tum res excipit ictum;
ut, lapidem ferro cum caedimus, evolat ignis,
nec, quod frigida vis ferrist, hoc setius illi
semina concurrunt calidi fulgoris ad ictum.
sic igitur quoque res accendi fulmine debet,
opportuna fuit si forte et idonea flammis.

It also happens that sometimes the force of the wind, sent without fire,
yet ignites in its tract and in a long course,
as it comes, shedding in its run certain large bodies
which are not able equally to penetrate through the airs,
and, scraping together others from the air itself, it carries
tiny ones, which, mingled in flying, make fire;
by no far different rationale than that a leaden
bullet becomes hot in its course, when, letting go many bodies
of chill, it has conceived fire in the airs.
It also happens that the force of the very stroke excites fire,
when the cold force of the wind, sent without fire, has driven,
no wonder, since, when it has smitten with a vehement blow,
the elements of vapor can flow together from the thing itself
and at the same time from that thing which then receives the blow;
as, when we hew a stone with iron, fire flies out,
nor, because the force of iron is cold, any the less do there run together to it
the seeds of hot brilliance at the blow.
thus therefore too a thing ought to be kindled by a thunderbolt,
if by chance it has been opportune and suitable for flames.

nec temere omnino plane vis frigida venti
esse potest, ea quae tanta vi missa supernest,
quin, prius in cursu si non accenditur igni,
at tepefacta tamen veniat commixta calore.
Mobilitas autem fit fulminis et gravis ictus
et celeri ferme percurrunt fulmina lapsu,
nubibus ipsa quod omnino prius incita se vis
colligit et magnum conamen sumit eundi,
inde ubi non potuit nubes capere inpetis auctum,
exprimitur vis atque ideo volat impete miro,
ut validis quae de tormentis missa feruntur.
Adde quod e parvis et levibus est elementis,
nec facilest tali naturae obsistere quicquam;
inter enim fugit ac penetrat per rara viarum,
non igitur multis offensibus in remorando
haesitat, hanc ob rem celeri volat impete labens.

nor by any means can the force of the wind be altogether frigid,
that which, sent with so great force, is borne aloft,
but, if it is not kindled into fire earlier in its course,
yet it comes warmed, having been commingled with heat.
But both the mobility of the thunderbolt and its heavy stroke
and almost always thunderbolts run through with a swift slide,
because the force itself, stirred up beforehand, altogether in the clouds first
colligit and takes a great endeavor of going,
then, when the cloud could not hold the increase of the onset,
the force is pressed out and therefore flies with marvelous impetus,
like things that are sent from powerful engines.
Add that it is from small and light elements,
nor is anything easy to resist such a nature;
for it slips between and penetrates through the rare passages,
therefore it does not linger with many hindrances in delaying,
for this reason, gliding, it flies with swift impetus.

    Deinde, quod omnino natura pondera deorsum
omnia nituntur, cum plagast addita vero,
mobilitas duplicatur et impetus ille gravescit,
ut vehementius et citius quae cumque morantur
obvia discutiat plagis itinerque sequatur.
    Denique quod longo venit impete, sumere debet
mobilitatem etiam atque etiam, quae crescit eundo
et validas auget viris et roborat ictum;
nam facit ut quae sint illius semina cumque
e regione locum quasi in unum cuncta ferantur,
omnia coniciens in eum volventia cursum.
    Forsitan ex ipso veniens trahat aeëre quaedam
corpora, quae plagis incendunt mobilitatem.

    Then, because by nature all weights strive downward,
when indeed a stroke has been added,
mobility is doubled and that impetus grows weighty,
so that, more vehemently and more quickly, whatever things delay
meeting it, it may scatter by strokes and follow its path.
    Finally, that which comes with a long impulse ought to take up
mobility again and again, which grows by going
and increases sturdy forces and corroborates the stroke;
for it causes that whatever be its seeds,
from the region, as if into one place, all are borne,
casting their whole rolling course into it.
    Perhaps, coming from the air itself, it draws along certain
bodies, which by strokes enkindle mobility.

incolumisque venit per res atque integra transit
multa, foraminibus liquidus quia transviat ignis.
multaque perfringit, cum corpora fulminis ipsa
corporibus rerum inciderunt, qua texta tenentur.
dissoluit porro facile aes aurumque repente
conferve facit, e parvis quia facta minute
corporibus vis est et levibus ex elementis,
quae facile insinuantur et insinuata repente
dissoluont nodos omnis et vincla relaxant.

and unharmed it comes through things and passes through many intact,
because the liquid fire threads across through openings.
and it shatters many things, when the bodies of the thunderbolt itself
have struck upon the bodies of things, in those places where they are held by their texture.
moreover it easily dissolves bronze and suddenly makes gold seethe,
because the force is made from small, minute bodies
and from light elements, which insinuate themselves easily and, once insinuated, suddenly
dissolve all knots and relax bonds.

Autumnoque magis stellis fulgentibus alta
concutitur caeli domus undique totaque tellus,
et cum tempora se veris florentia pandunt.
frigore enim desunt ignes ventique calore
deficiunt neque sunt tam denso corpore nubes.
interutrasque igitur cum caeli tempora constant,
tum variae causae concurrunt fulminis omnes.

And more in autumn, with the stars fulgent, the lofty house of heaven is shaken from every side and the whole earth, and when the seasons unfold flowering in spring.
for by cold fires are lacking and by heat winds fail, nor are the clouds of so dense a body.
therefore when the seasons of the sky stand between the two, then all the various causes of the thunderbolt concur.

nam fretus ipse anni permiscet frigus [ad] aestum.
quorum utrumque opus est fabricanda ad fulmina nubi,
ut discordia [sit] rerum magnoque tumultu
ignibus et ventis furibundus fluctuet aeër.

for the cycle of the year itself, relying on its own power, mingles cold with heat.
both of which are needed for the cloud to forge lightning,
so that there may be a discord of things and, with great tumult,
the air may billow, frenzied with fires and winds.

ut discordia [sit] rerum magnoque tumultu
ignibus et ventis furibundus fluctuet aeër.
prima caloris enim pars est postrema rigoris;
tempus id est vernum; quare pugnare necessest
dissimilis [res] inter se turbareque mixtas.
et calor extremus primo cum frigore mixtus
volvitur, autumni quod fertur nomine tempus,
hic quoque confligunt hiemes aestatibus acres.
propterea [freta] sunt haec anni nominitanda,
nec mirumst, in eo si tempore plurima fiunt
fulmina tempestasque cietur turbida caelo,
ancipiti quoniam bello turbatur utrimque,
hinc flammis, illinc ventis umoreque mixto.

so that there [may be] discord of things, and with great tumult
the air, raging, [may] fluctuate with fires and with winds.
for the first part of heat is the last of chill;
that time is spring; wherefore it is necessary that unlike [things]
fight among themselves and trouble the mingled.
and the extreme heat, mixed with the first cold,
rolls along, the time which is borne by the name of autumn,
here too winters clash with keen summers.
therefore these [straits] of the year must be named,
nor is it a wonder, if at that time very many lightnings come about
and a turbid tempest is stirred in the sky,
since by a two-front war it is disturbed on both sides,
on this side by flames, on that by winds and mingled moisture.

Hoc est igniferi naturam fulminis ipsam
perspicere et qua vi faciat rem quamque videre,
non Tyrrhena retro volventem carmina frustra
indicia occultae divum perquirere mentis,
unde volans ignis pervenerit aut in utram se
verterit hinc partim, quo pacto per loca saepta
insinuarit, et hinc dominatus ut extulerit se,
quidve nocere queat de caelo fulminis ictus.
quod si Iuppiter atque alii fulgentia divi
terrifico quatiunt sonitu caelestia templa
et iaciunt ignem quo cuiquest cumque voluntas,
cur quibus incautum scelus aversabile cumquest
non faciunt icti flammas ut fulguris halent
pectore perfixo, documen mortalibus acre,
et potius nulla sibi turpi conscius in re
volvitur in flammis innoxius inque peditur
turbine caelesti subito correptus et igni?
cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant?

This is to perceive the very nature of the fire-bearing lightning,
and to see by what force it does each thing,
not, rolling back Tyrrhenian chants in vain,
to search out indications of the hidden mind of the gods—
whence the flying fire has arrived, or to which side
it has turned itself here in part, in what way through fenced places
it has insinuated itself, and how from here, in domination, it has lifted itself up,
and what the stroke of lightning from heaven can harm.
But if Jupiter and the other gleaming divinities
shake the celestial temples with terrific sound
and hurl fire wheresoever each one has the will,
why, for those on whom an unguarded, abominable crime is present,
do they not bring it about that, smitten, they exhale the flames of lightning
from a transfixed breast, a sharp admonition for mortals,
and rather does one conscious to himself of no base thing
roll in the flames, innocent, and is trampled underfoot
by the heavenly whirlwind, suddenly seized and by fire?
why also do they seek lonely places and labor in vain?

an tum bracchia consuescunt firmantque lacertos?
in terraque patris cur telum perpetiuntur
optundi? cur ipse sinit neque parcit in hostis?

or then do the arms get accustomed and strengthen the upper arms?
and in their father’s land why do they allow a weapon to be blunted?
why does he himself permit this and not spare against enemies?

denique cur numquam caelo iacit undique puro
Iuppiter in terras fulmen sonitusque profundit?
an simul ac nubes successere, ipse in eas tum
descendit, prope ut hinc teli determinet ictus?
in mare qua porro mittit ratione?

finally, why does Jupiter never from a sky entirely pure hurl a thunderbolt upon the lands and pour forth the crash?
or, as soon as clouds have come up, does he himself then descend into them, so that from close at hand he may determine the strokes of the missile?
into the sea, by what rationale further does he send it?

quid undas
arguit et liquidam molem camposque natantis?
praeterea si vult caveamus fulminis ictum,
cur dubitat facere ut possimus cernere missum?
si nec opinantis autem volt opprimere igni,
cur tonat ex illa parte, ut vitare queamus,
cur tenebras ante et fremitus et murmura concit?

what accuses the waves
and the liquid mass and the floating fields?
moreover, if he wishes that we beware the stroke of the thunderbolt,
why does he hesitate to bring it about that we can discern it as it is sent?
but if he does not wish to crush the unsuspecting with fire,
why does he thunder from that quarter, so that we may avoid it,
why does he stir up beforehand darkness and roarings and murmurs?

et simul in multas partis qui credere possis
mittere? an hoc ausis numquam contendere factum,
ut fierent ictus uno sub tempore plures?
at saepest numero factum fierique necessest,
ut pluere in multis regionibus et cadere imbris,
fulmina sic uno fieri sub tempore multa.

and at the same time into many quarters who could you believe
him to send? or will you never dare to contend this has been done,
that strokes should occur, more than one, at one and the same time?
but it has very often been done in number and must needs be done,
as it rains in many regions and showers fall,
so many thunderbolts are produced at one and the same time.

postremo cur sancta deum delubra suasque
discutit infesto praeclaras fulmine sedes
et bene facta deum frangit simulacra suisque
demit imaginibus violento volnere honorem?
altaque cur plerumque petit loca plurimaque eius
montibus in summis vestigia cernimus ignis?
Quod super est, facilest ex his cognoscere rebus,
presteras Graii quos ab re nominitarunt,
in mare qua missi veniant ratione superne.

finally, why does it shatter the sacred shrines of the gods and their own
splendid seats with a hostile thunderbolt, and break the well-wrought simulacra of the gods and from their
images strip honor by a violent wound? and why does it for the most part seek high places, and why do we
discern the very many vestiges of its fire on the summits of mountains?
What remains, it is easiest from these matters to recognize the presters,
whom the Greeks named from the thing itself, by what reasoning, when sent, they come upon the sea from above.

nam fit ut inter dum tam quam demissa columna
in mare de caelo descendat, quam freta circum
fervescunt graviter spirantibus incita flabris,
et quae cumque in eo tum sint deprensa tumultu
navigia in summum veniant vexata periclum.
hoc fit ubi inter dum non quit vis incita venti
rumpere quam coepit nubem, sed deprimit, ut sit
in mare de caelo tam quam demissa columna,
paulatim, quasi quid pugno bracchique superne
coniectu trudatur et extendatur in undas;
quam cum discidit, hinc prorumpitur in mare venti
vis et fervorem mirum concinnat in undis;
versabundus enim turbo descendit et illam
deducit pariter lento cum corpore nubem;
quam simul ac gravidam detrusit ad aequora ponti,
ille in aquam subito totum se inmittit et omne
excitat ingenti sonitu mare fervere cogens.
Fit quoque ut involvat venti se nubibus ipse
vertex conradens ex aeëre semina nubis
et quasi demissum caelo prestera imitetur;
hic ubi se in terras demisit dissoluitque,
turbinis immanem vim provomit atque procellae.

for it happens that sometimes, as if a column let down,
from heaven into the sea descends, around which the straits
seethe mightily, impelled by blowing blasts,
and whatever ships then are caught in that tumult
come into utmost peril, harried. This happens when sometimes the impelled force of the wind
cannot break the cloud it has begun, but presses it down, so that it is
as if a column were let down from heaven into the sea,
gradually, as if something by fist and forearm from above,
by a cast were thrust and stretched out into the waves;
when it splits that, then the force of the wind bursts forth into the sea
and produces a wondrous seething in the waves;
for a whirling whirlwind descends and draws down
the cloud together with its sluggish body alike;
and as soon as it has driven her, pregnant, to the levels of the sea,
it suddenly plunges its whole self into the water and rouses
the entire sea with immense din, compelling it to boil. It also comes to pass that the very vortex of wind
wraps itself in clouds, massing from the air the seeds of cloud,
and as if a prester let down from sky it imitates;
here, when it has let itself down onto the lands and dissolved,
it spews forth the immense force of a whirlwind and of a storm-squall.

sed quia fit raro omnino montisque necessest
officere in terris, apparet crebrius idem
prospectu maris in magno caeloque patenti.
Nubila concrescunt, ubi corpora multa volando
hoc super in caeli spatio coiere repente
asperiora, modis quae possint indupedita
exiguis tamen inter se compressa teneri.
haec faciunt primum parvas consistere nubes;
inde ea comprendunt inter se conque gregantur
et coniungendo crescunt ventisque feruntur
usque adeo donec tempestas saeva coortast.

but because it happens very rarely altogether and it is necessary that mountains obstruct on the lands, the same thing appears more frequently in the prospect of the sea and in the great, patent sky.
Clouds coalesce, when many bodies flying above in this space of the sky have suddenly come together—rougher ones, which can, being in certain ways entangled, though small, be held together, compressed among themselves.
these first cause small clouds to take their stand; then they take hold of one another and are congregated together, and by joining they grow and are borne by the winds, even until a savage tempest has burst forth.

Fit quoque uti montis vicina cacumina caelo
quam sint quoque magis, tanto magis edita fument
adsidue fulvae nubis caligine crassa
propterea quia, cum consistunt nubila primum,
ante videre oculi quam possint tenvia, venti
portantes cogunt ad summa cacumina montis;
hic demum fit uti turba maiore coorta
et condensa queant apparere et simul ipso
vertice de montis videantur surgere in aethram.
nam loca declarat sursum ventosa patere
res ipsa et sensus, montis cum ascendimus altos.
Praeterea permulta mari quoque tollere toto
corpora naturam declarant litore vestis
suspensae, cum concipiunt umoris adhaesum.

It also happens that the mountain’s peaks neighboring the sky,
the nearer they are as well, by so much the more, set on high, they fume
continually with the thick caliginous gloom of tawny cloud,
for the reason that, when clouds first take their stand,
before eyes can see the tenuous things, the winds
carrying them drive them to the highest summits of the mountain;
here at last it comes about that, a greater throng having arisen
and thickened, they are able to appear, and at the same time seem
to rise into the aether from the very peak of the mountain.
for the thing itself and our senses declare that places above
lie open to winds, when we ascend lofty mountains.
Moreover, that nature lifts up very many bodies from the whole sea
is declared also by garments suspended on the shore,
when they take on the adhesion of moisture.

quo magis ad nubis augendas multa videntur
posse quoque e salso consurgere momine ponti;
nam ratio consanguineast umoribus omnis.
Praeterea fluviis ex omnibus et simul ipsa
surgere de terra nebulas aestumque videmus,
quae vel ut halitus hinc ita sursum expressa feruntur
suffunduntque sua caelum caligine et altas
sufficiunt nubis paulatim conveniundo;
urget enim quoque signiferi super aetheris aestus
et quasi densendo subtexit caerula nimbis.
Fit quoque ut hunc veniant in caelum extrinsecus illa
corpora quae faciunt nubis nimbosque volantis;
innumerabilem enim numerum summamque profundi
esse infinitam docui, quantaque volarent
corpora mobilitate ostendi quamque repente
immemorabile [per] spatium transire solerent.

wherefore the more many things seem able also to rise from the salty surface of the sea to augment clouds; for the whole rationale is consanguine with moistures.
Moreover, from all rivers and at the same time from the earth itself we see mists and heat-vapor arise, which, even as breaths from here, thus expressed upward are borne aloft and suffuse the sky with their own murk and, by convening little by little, make up high clouds;
for the heat of the sign-bearing aether above also presses, and, as if by condensing, underweaves the blue with rain-clouds.
It also happens that into this heaven there come from outside those bodies which make clouds and flying rain-storms; for I have taught that the number is innumerable and that the sum of the deep is infinite, and I have shown how many bodies fly by their mobility and how suddenly they are wont to pass through an immeasurable expanse.

haut igitur mirumst, si parvo tempore saepe
tam magnis ventis tempestas atque tenebrae
coperiant maria ac terras inpensa superne,
undique quandoquidem per caulas aetheris omnis
et quasi per magni circum spiracula mundi
exitus introitusque elementis redditus extat.
Nunc age, quo pacto pluvius concrescat in altis
nubibus umor et in terras demissus ut imber
decidat, expediam. primum iam semina aquai
multa simul vincam consurgere nubibus ipsis
omnibus ex rebus pariterque ita crescere utrumque
et nubis et aquam, quae cumque in nubibus extat,
ut pariter nobis corpus cum sanguine crescit,
sudor item atque umor qui cumque est denique membris.

therefore it is no wonder, if in a short time often
with such great winds tempest and darkness
cover seas and lands with abundance from above,
since from every side through the lattices of all the aether
and as it were through the spiracles around the great world
there exists for the elements an issue and an entrance.
Come now, in what way the rainy moisture coalesces in high
clouds and, sent down into the lands as a shower,
falls, I will set forth. First, I will prove that many seeds of water
rise up at once in the clouds themselves
from all things, and that in like manner both grow together—
both the clouds and the water, whatever exists in the clouds—
as alike in us the body grows with the blood,
and likewise sweat and the moisture whatever it is, finally, in the limbs.

concipiunt etiam multum quoque saepe marinum
umorem, vel uti pendentia vellera lanae,
cum supera magnum mare venti nubila portant.
consimili ratione ex omnibus amnibus umor
tollitur in nubis. quo cum bene semina aquarum
multa modis multis convenere undique adaucta,
confertae nubes umorem mittere certant
dupliciter; nam vis venti contrudit et ipsa
copia nimborum turba maiore coacta
urget et e supero premit ac facit effluere imbris.

they also conceive, and often much, marine
moisture, just as hanging fleeces of wool,
when the winds carry cloud-masses above the great sea.
by a similar rationale moisture from all rivers
is lifted into the clouds. And when the seeds of waters,
many, enhanced from every side in many modes, have well come together,
the crowded clouds strive to send out the moisture
in a twofold way; for the force of the wind compresses, and the very
abundance of rain-clouds, gathered into a greater throng,
urges and presses from above and makes the showers flow out.

praeterea cum rarescunt quoque nubila ventis
aut dissolvuntur solis super icta calore,
mittunt umorem pluvium stillantque, quasi igni
cera super calido tabescens multa liquescat.
sed vehemens imber fit, ubi vehementer utraque
nubila vi cumulata premuntur et impete venti.
at retinere diu pluviae longumque morari
consuerunt, ubi multa cientur semina aquarum
atque aliis aliae nubes nimbique rigantes
insuper atque omni vulgo de parte feruntur,
terraque cum fumans umorem tota redhalat.

Moreover, when the clouds also grow rarefied by winds
or are dissolved, smitten from above by the sun’s heat,
they send down rainy moisture and drip, as if by fire
wax, melting above a warm heat, were to liquefy in abundance.
but a vehement shower comes to be, when vehemently both
cloud-masses, heaped up by force, are pressed, and by the onset of the wind.
but to retain rains for a long time and to linger long they are wont,
when many seeds of waters are stirred,
and clouds upon other clouds and irrigating rain-clouds
are borne from above and commonly from every quarter,
and when the whole earth, steaming, exhales back moisture.

hic ubi sol radiis tempestatem inter opacam
adversa fulsit nimborum aspargine contra,
tum color in nigris existit nubibus arqui.
Cetera quae sursum crescunt sursumque creantur,
et quae concrescunt in nubibus, omnia, prorsum
omnia, nix venti grando gelidaeque pruinae
et vis magna geli, magnum duramen aquarum,
et mora quae fluvios passim refrenat aventis,
perfacilest tamen haec reperire animoque videre,
omnia quo pacto fiant quareve creentur,
cum bene cognoris elementis reddita quae sint.
Nunc age, quae ratio terrai motibus extet
percipe.

here, when the sun with its rays, amid the dim storm,
has shone opposite against the sprinkling of the rain-clouds,
then the hue of the bow appears in the black clouds.
The rest, which grow upward and are created upward,
and the things that coalesce in the clouds, all, outright
all—snow, winds, hail, and icy rime,
and the great force of frost, the great hardening of waters,
and the delay which everywhere reins in rivers eager to run—
it is very easy, nevertheless, to discover these and to see in the mind
how all come to be and why they are created,
when you have well come to know what things are rendered back to the elements.
Now come, perceive what account of the earth’s motions exists;
grasp it.

et in primis terram fac ut esse rearis
supter item ut supera ventosis undique plenam
speluncis multosque lacus multasque lucunas
in gremio gerere et rupes deruptaque saxa;
multaque sub tergo terrai flumina tecta
volvere vi fluctus summersos [cae]ca putandumst;
undique enim similem esse sui res postulat ipsa.
his igitur rebus subiunctis suppositisque
terra superne tremit magnis concussa ruinis,
subter ubi ingentis speluncas subruit aetas;
quippe cadunt toti montes magnoque repente
concussu late disserpunt inde tremores.
et merito, quoniam plaustris concussa tremescunt
tecta viam propter non magno pondere tota,
nec minus exultant, si quidvis cumque viai
ferratos utrimque rotarum succutit orbes.

and first make it that you suppose the earth to be
both beneath and likewise above on all sides full of windy
caverns, and that she carries in her bosom many lakes and many lacunae
and cliffs and rocks torn sheer away;
and that many rivers, roofed over beneath the earth’s back,
roll with force submerged billows, [blindly] one must think;
undique for the thing itself demands to be like itself on every side.
with these things, then, appended and put in place beneath,
the earth above trembles, shaken by great ruins,
down below where time undermines vast caverns;
indeed whole mountains fall, and with a great sudden
concussion, far and wide from there the tremors scatter.
and deservedly, since buildings tremble, shaken by wagons
along the road, the whole, though by no great weight,
and no less they bound, whenever anything at all of the roadway
jolts the iron-clad orbs of the wheels on either side.

Fit quoque, ubi in magnas aquae vastasque lucunas
gleba vetustate e terra provolvitur ingens,
ut iactetur aquae fluctu quoque terra vacillans;
ut vas inter [aquas] non quit constare, nisi umor
destitit in dubio fluctu iactarier intus.
Praeterea ventus cum per loca subcava terrae
collectus parte ex una procumbit et urget
obnixus magnis speluncas viribus altas,
incumbit tellus quo venti prona premit vis.
tum supera terram quae sunt extructa domorum
ad caelumque magis quanto sunt edita quaeque,
inclinata minent in eandem prodita partem
protractaeque trabes inpendent ire paratae.

It also comes to pass, when into great and vast pools of water
a huge clod, by long age, is rolled forth out of the earth,
that the earth too, wavering, is tossed by the water’s surge;
as a vessel among the [waters] cannot stand steady, unless the liquid
has ceased within to be tossed in a wavering swell.
Moreover, when wind, through the hollow places of the earth,
collected from one quarter, leans down and presses,
striving with great forces, the lofty caverns,
the ground inclines where the wind’s force, prone, presses.
then the structures of houses that are built above the ground,
and the more each is raised toward the sky,
leaning, they threaten, delivered toward the same side,
and the protracted beams hang impending, ready to go.

et metuunt magni naturam credere mundi
exitiale aliquod tempus clademque manere,
cum videant tantam terrarum incumbere molem!
quod nisi respirent venti, [vis] nulla refrenet
res neque ab exitio possit reprehendere euntis;
nunc quia respirant alternis inque gravescunt
et quasi collecti redeunt ceduntque repulsi,
saepius hanc ob rem minitatur terra ruinas
quam facit; inclinatur enim retroque recellit
et recipit prolapsa suas in pondere sedes.
hac igitur ratione vacillant omnia tecta,
summa magis mediis, media imis, ima perhilum.

and they fear to believe the nature of the great world
that some exitial time and calamity waits in ambush,
when they see so great a mass of the lands leaning!
but unless the winds breathe, [no force] reins back
things nor can reclaim from destruction those going;
now, because they breathe by alternations and grow heavy
and, as if collected, return and yield when driven back,
for this reason the earth more often threatens ruins
than it brings them about; for it inclines and recoils back
and, having prolapsed, regains its seats by its weight.
therefore by this reasoning all the roofs/buildings vacillate,
the highest more than the middle, the middle than the lowest, the lowest very little.

Est haec eiusdem quoque magni causa tremoris.
ventus ubi atque animae subito vis maxima quaedam
aut extrinsecus aut ipsa tellure coorta
in loca se cava terrai coniecit ibique
speluncas inter magnas fremit ante tumultu
versabunda portatur, post incita cum vis
exagitata foras erumpitur et simul altam
diffindens terram magnum concinnat hiatum.
in Syria Sidone quod accidit et fuit Aegi
in Peloponneso, quas exitus hic animai
disturbat urbes et terrae motus obortus.

This too is a cause of the same great trembling.
when wind and a certain very great force of breath
either from without or arisen from the earth itself
has hurled itself into the hollow places of the earth, and there
among great caverns it roars beforehand with tumult,
and, whirling, is carried along; afterward, when the force,
urged on, bursts out to the outside and at once, splitting
the high earth, it contrives a great yawning chasm.
as happened at Sidon in Syria and at Aegium
in the Peloponnese—cities which this egress of breath
throws into disorder—and an upheaval of the earth arose.

multaque praeterea ceciderunt moenia magnis
motibus in terris et multae per mare pessum
subsedere suis pariter cum civibus urbes.
quod nisi prorumpit, tamen impetus ipse animai
et fera vis venti per crebra foramina terrae
dispertitur ut horror et incutit inde tremorem;
frigus uti nostros penitus cum venit in artus,
concutit invitos cogens tremere atque movere.
ancipiti trepidant igitur terrore per urbis,
tecta superne timent, metuunt inferne cavernas
terrai ne dissoluat natura repente,
neu distracta suum late dispandat hiatum
idque suis confusa velit complere ruinis.

and many walls besides have fallen in great motions on the lands,
and many cities sank down to destruction through the sea
together with their citizens alike. But if it does not burst forth,
nevertheless the very impetus of the breath and the fierce force of wind
through the frequent apertures of the earth is distributed,
so that a shuddering horror is spread and from there it strikes a tremor;
as when cold, coming deep within our limbs,
shakes us unwilling, compelling us to tremble and to move.
therefore they quail with twofold terror throughout the cities,
t hey fear the roofs above, they dread the caverns below,
lest nature suddenly dissolve the earth,
or, torn apart, widely expand its own hiatus,
and, in confusion, wish to fill that with its own ruins.

proinde licet quamvis caelum terramque reantur
incorrupta fore aeternae mandata saluti:
et tamen inter dum praesens vis ipsa pericli
subdit et hunc stimulum quadam de parte timoris,
ne pedibus raptim tellus subtracta feratur
in barathrum rerumque sequatur prodita summa
funditus et fiat mundi confusa ruina.
* * *
Principio mare mirantur non reddere maius
naturam, quo sit tantus decursus aquarum,
omnia quo veniant ex omni flumina parte.
adde vagos imbris tempestatesque volantes,
omnia quae maria ac terras sparguntque rigantque;
adde suos fontis; tamen ad maris omnia summam
guttai vix instar erunt unius adaugmen;
quo minus est mirum mare non augescere magnum.

accordingly, although they may suppose that heaven and earth will be incorrupt, mandated to eternal safety:
and yet sometimes the present force of peril itself inserts also this goad, from a certain part, of fear,
lest the earth, suddenly withdrawn from under their feet, be carried into the abyss,
and the betrayed sum of things follow down to the bottom,
and there be the confused ruin of the world.
* * *
To begin with, they marvel that nature does not render the sea greater,
though there is so great a downflow of waters,
to which all the rivers come from every quarter.
add the wandering showers and the flying tempests,
all the things which sprinkle and irrigate seas and lands;
add its own springs; yet all of these, to the total of the sea,
will scarcely be an increment equal to the likeness of a single drop;
wherefore it is the less a marvel that the great sea does not increase.

Praeterea magnam sol partem detrahit aestu.
quippe videmus enim vestis umore madentis
exsiccare suis radiis ardentibus solem;
at pelage multa et late substrata videmus.
proinde licet quamvis ex uno quoque loco sol
umoris parvam delibet ab aequore partem,
largiter in tanto spatio tamen auferet undis.

Moreover, the sun draws off a great portion by heat.
for indeed we see the sun, with its burning rays,
dry out garments soaked with moisture;
but we see the sea spread out far and wide beneath.
therefore, although from each single place the sun
sips off from the level sea a small portion of moisture,
yet over so vast a space it will take away from the waves in ample measure.

    Tum porro venti quoque magnam tollere partem
umoris possunt verrentes aequora, ventis
una nocte vias quoniam persaepe videmus
siccari mollisque luti concrescere crustas.
    Praeterea docui multum quoque tollere nubes
umorem magno conceptum ex aequore ponti
et passim toto terrarum spargere in orbi,
cum pluit in terris et venti nubila portant.
    Postremo quoniam raro cum corpore tellus
est et coniunctast oras maris undique cingens,
debet, ut in mare de terris venit umor aquai,
in terras itidem manare ex aequore salso;
percolatur enim virus retroque remanat
materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis
confluit, inde super terras redit agmine dulci
qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas.

    Then furthermore the winds too can lift a great part of the moisture, sweeping the sea-levels, since by the winds we very often see in a single night the roads dry out and the soft crusts of mud congeal.
    Moreover, I have taught that clouds likewise take away much moisture, conceived from the great level of the sea, and scatter it everywhere through the whole orb of lands, when it rains on the lands and the winds carry the clouds.
    Finally, since the earth is with a rare (porous) body and is joined, girdling the shores of the sea on every side, it must be that, just as the moisture of water comes into the sea from the lands, so likewise it flows into the lands from the salty level; for the brine is percolated and the material of the moisture flows back, and all of it flows together to the head for the rivers; then it returns over the lands in a sweet (fresh) column, along the path once cut where with liquid foot it bore down the waves.

Nunc ratio quae sit, per fauces montis ut Aetnae
expirent ignes inter dum turbine tanto,
expediam; neque enim mediocri clade coorta
flammae tempestas Siculum dominata per agros
finitimis ad se convertit gentibus ora,
fumida cum caeli scintillare omnia templa
cernentes pavida complebant pectora cura,
quid moliretur rerum natura novarum.
Hisce tibi in rebus latest alteque videndum
et longe cunctas in partis dispiciendum,
ut reminiscaris summam rerum esse profundam
et videas caelum summai totius unum
quam sit parvula pars et quam multesima constet
nec tota pars, homo terrai quota totius unus.
quod bene propositum si plane contueare
ac videas plane, mirari multa relinquas.

Now what the rationale is, how through the jaws of Mount Aetna
the fires at times exhale with so great a turbine,
I will unfold; for indeed with no mediocre havoc arisen
a tempest of flame, having lorded it over the Sicilian fields,
turns toward itself the faces of neighboring peoples,
when, seeing all the smoky temples of the sky scintillate,
they were filling their fearful breasts with care,
what the nature of things was contriving of novelties.
In these matters you must see far and deep
and look out far into all directions,
so that you remember the sum of things is profound
and see how the heaven, one of the sum of the whole,
is a very tiny part, and of how many-th it consists,
nor even a whole part is man, who is but a what-numbered one of the whole of the earth.
which, if, well set forth, you behold plainly
and see plainly, you will leave off marveling at many things.

numquis enim nostrum miratur, siquis in artus
accepit calido febrim fervore coortam
aut alium quemvis morbi per membra dolorem?
opturgescit enim subito pes, arripit acer
saepe dolor dentes, oculos invadit in ipsos,
existit sacer ignis et urit corpore serpens
quam cumque arripuit partem repitque per artus,
ni mirum quia sunt multarum semina rerum
et satis haec tellus morbi caelumque mali fert,
unde queat vis immensi procrescere morbi.
sic igitur toti caelo terraeque putandumst
ex infinito satis omnia suppeditare,
unde repente queat tellus concussa moveri
perque mare ac terras rapidus percurrere turbo,
ignis abundare Aetnaeus, flammescere caelum;
id quoque enim fit et ardescunt caelestia templa
et tempestates pluviae graviore coortu
sunt, ubi forte ita se tetulerunt semina aquarum.

for does any of us marvel, if someone has received into his limbs
a fever arisen in hot fervor, or any other pain of disease through his members?
for the foot swells up suddenly, a keen pain often seizes
the teeth, it invades the very eyes; the sacred fire appears
and, creeping through the body, burns whatever part it has seized,
and it creeps through the limbs—no wonder, since there are seeds of many things,
and both this earth bears enough disease and the heaven enough ill,
whence the force of a vast disease can grow forth.
thus then it must be thought that for the whole heaven and earth
out of the infinite enough of all things is supplied,
whence suddenly the earth, when shaken, can be moved,
and a rapid whirlwind can run through sea and lands,
Aetnaean fire can abound, the sky grow aflame;
for that too happens, and the celestial temples blaze,
and rainy tempests are with a heavier onset,
when by chance the seeds of waters have so disposed themselves.

'at nimis est ingens incendi turbidus ardor.'
scilicet et fluvius qui visus maximus ei,
qui non ante aliquem maiorem vidit, et ingens
arbor homoque videtur et omnia de genere omni
maxima quae vidit quisque, haec ingentia fingit,
cum tamen omnia cum caelo terraque marique
nil sint ad summam summai totius omnem.
Nunc tamen illa modis quibus inritata repente
flamma foras vastis Aetnae fornacibus efflet,
expediam. primum totius subcava montis
est natura fere silicum suffulta cavernis.

'but the turbulent blaze of the conflagration is too immense.'
Of course even a river seems the greatest to him
who has not previously seen any greater; and a huge
tree and a man seems so, and all things of every kind—
the greatest which each has seen—these he fashions as vast,
although yet all things, together with sky and earth and sea,
are nothing compared to the sum of the totality of the whole.
Now, however, by what modes, when provoked, the flame suddenly
breathes out abroad from the vast furnaces of Aetna,
I will set forth. First, the under-hollow nature of the whole mountain
is for the most part supported by caverns of flints.

omnibus est porro in speluncis ventus et aeër.
ventus enim fit, ubi est agitando percitus aeër.
hic ubi percaluit cale fecitque omnia circum
saxa furens, qua contingit, terramque et ab ollis
excussit calidum flammis velocibus ignem,
tollit se ac rectis ita faucibus eicit alte.
fert itaque ardorem longe longeque favillam
differt et crassa volvit caligine fumum
extruditque simul mirando pondere saxa;
ne dubites quin haec animai turbida sit vis.
praeterea magna ex parti mare montis ad eius
radices frangit fluctus aestumque resolvit.

Moreover, in all caverns there is wind and air.
For wind comes to be, when air is agitated and struck into motion by stirring.
This, when it has been thoroughly heated and has made hot everything around,
the rocks, raging wherever it touches, and the earth, and from the pots
has shaken out hot fire with swift flames,
lifts itself and so through straight throats ejects high.
Therefore it bears heat far and carries cinder far and wide,
and rolls smoke in a thick caliginous gloom
and at the same time extrudes stones with wondrous weight;
do not doubt that this is the turbulent force of breath.
Moreover, for a great part the sea at the roots of that mountain
breaks its waves and loosens the surge.

ex hoc usque mari speluncae montis ad altas
perveniunt subter fauces. hac ire fatendumst
* * *
et penetrare mari penitus res cogit aperto
atque efflare foras ideoque extollere flammam
saxaque subiectare et arenae tollere nimbos.
in summo sunt vertice enim crateres, ut ipsi
nominitant, nos quod fauces perhibemus et ora.

from this sea the mountain’s caverns reach beneath all the way up to the lofty throats.
along this, it must be admitted, they go
* * *
and the situation compels them to penetrate deep from the open sea
and to blow out outside and therefore to lift up flame
and to thrust up rocks and to raise clouds of sand.
for on the topmost summit there are, in fact, craters, as they
themselves name them, what we call throats and mouths.

Sunt aliquot quoque res quarum unam dicere causam
non satis est, verum pluris, unde una tamen sit;
corpus ut exanimum siquod procul ipse iacere
conspicias hominis, fit ut omnis dicere causas
conveniat leti, dicatur ut illius una;
nam [ne]que eum ferro nec frigore vincere possis
interiisse neque a morbo neque forte veneno,
verum aliquid genere esse ex hoc quod contigit ei
scimus. item in multis hoc rebus dicere habemus.
Nilus in aestatem crescit campisque redundat
unicus in terris, Aegypti totius amnis.

There are also several things for which it is not enough to state one cause,
but rather several, from which, however, one may be the case;
as, if you yourself should espy from afar some lifeless body
of a human lying, it becomes fitting that all the causes
of death be named, so that one of them may be said to be his;
for you cannot assert that he has perished, vanquished by iron
nor by cold, nor by disease nor perhaps by poison,
but we know that something of this kind has befallen him.
Likewise in many matters we have to speak thus.
The Nile in the summer rises and overflows the fields,
unique on earth, the river of all Egypt.

is rigat Aegyptum medium per saepe calorem,
aut quia sunt aestate aquilones ostia contra,
anni tempore eo, qui etesiae esse feruntur,
et contra fluvium flantes remorantur et undas
cogentes sursus replent coguntque manere.
nam dubio procul haec adverso flabra feruntur
flumine, quae gelidis ab stellis axis aguntur;
ille ex aestifera parti venit amnis ab austro
inter nigra virum percocto saecla colore
exoriens penitus media ab regione diei.
est quoque uti possit magnus congestus harenae
fluctibus adversis oppilare ostia contra,
cum mare permotum ventis ruit intus harenam;
quo fit uti pacto liber minus exitus amnis
et proclivis item fiat minus impetus undis.

it waters Egypt through the midmost heat full often,
either because in summer the North Winds are against its mouths,
at that season of the year which are said to be the Etesians,
and, blowing against the river, they hinder it and, forcing the waves
upward, refill them and compel them to remain.
for beyond doubt these blasts are borne adverse to the
river, which are driven from the icy stars of the axis;
that river comes from the summer-bearing quarter from the Auster,
amid generations of men baked to a black color,
rising utterly from the mid region of the day.
there is also the case that a great heaping of sand can
by opposing billows stop up its mouths in front,
when the sea, stirred by winds, rushes sand inward;
whereby it comes to pass that the outlet of the river is less free
and likewise the impetus for the waves becomes less headlong.

fit quoque uti pluviae forsan magis ad caput ei
tempore eo fiant, quo etesia flabra aquilonum
nubila coniciunt in eas tunc omnia partis.
scilicet, ad mediam regionem eiecta diei
cum convenerunt, ibi ad altos denique montis
contrusae nubes coguntur vique premuntur.
forsitan Aethiopum penitus de montibus altis
crescat, ubi in campos albas descendere ningues
tabificis subigit radiis sol omnia lustrans.

it also comes about that perhaps rains happen more at its headwaters
at that time, when the Etesian blasts of the north winds
hurl all the clouds then into those parts.
of course, when they have been cast out to the middle region of the day
and have come together, there at the lofty mountains at last
the clouds, crowded, are compelled and pressed with force.
perhaps it swells from deep within the high mountains of the Ethiopians,
where into the plains the white snows are driven to descend
as the sun, surveying all things, with wasting rays compels them.

Nunc age, Averna tibi quae sint loca cumque lacusque,
expediam, quali natura praedita constent.
principio, quod Averna vocantur nomine, id ab re
inpositumst, quia sunt avibus contraria cunctis,
e regione ea quod loca cum venere volantes,
remigii oblitae pennarum vela remittunt
praecipitesque cadunt molli cervice profusae
in terram, si forte ita fert natura locorum,
aut in aquam, si forte lacus substratus Averni.
is locus est Cumas aput, acri sulpure montis
oppleti calidis ubi fumant fontibus aucti.

Now come, I will unfold to you what the Avernian places and lakes are,
and with what nature endowed they consist.
To begin with, the fact that they are called by the name Avernus has been imposed from the reality,
because they are contrary to all birds,
since, when flying creatures come into that region,
forgetful of their oaring, they slacken the sails of their feathers,
and headlong they fall, with soft-drooping necks poured forward,
to the earth, if perchance the nature of the places so bears it,
or into the water, if perchance the lake of Avernus lies beneath.
That place is near Cumae, where, the mountain being filled with sharp sulphur,
they smoke, augmented by hot springs.

est et Athenaeis in moenibus, arcis in ipso
vertice, Palladis ad templum Tritonidis almae,
quo numquam pennis appellunt corpora raucae
cornices, non cum fumant altaria donis;
usque adeo fugitant non iras Palladis acris
pervigili causa, Graium ut cecinere poeëtae,
sed natura loci opus efficit ipsa suapte.
in Syria quoque fertur item locus esse videri,
quadripedes quoque quo simul ac vestigia primum
intulerint, graviter vis cogat concidere ipsa,
manibus ut si sint divis mactata repente.
omnia quae naturali ratione geruntur,
et quibus e fiant causis apparet origo;
ianua ne pote eis Orci regionibus esse
credatur, post hinc animas Acheruntis in oras
ducere forte deos manis inferne reamur,
naribus alipedes ut cervi saepe putantur
ducere de latebris serpentia saecla ferarum.

There is also within the Athenian walls, on the very summit of the citadel,
by the temple of Pallas Tritonis the kindly,
a place to which the raucous crows never bring their winged bodies,
not even when the altars smoke with gifts;
so far do they shun it, not on account of the wrath of keen Pallas
for the sake of her vigilance, as the poets of the Greeks have chanted,
but the nature of the place itself works the effect by its own power.
Likewise in Syria it is reported there appears to be a place
where, as soon as four-footed creatures have first set their footprints,
a force compels them to fall down heavily of themselves,
as if suddenly sacrificed by the hands to the divine powers.
All the things which are carried on by natural reason,
and from what causes their origin comes to be, are evident;
let it not be believed that a doorway of Orcus can be in those regions,
and that thereafter from here the gods of the Manes below lead souls
to the shores of Acheron, as swift-footed deer are often thought
to draw with their nostrils from hiding-places the serpentine breeds of wild creatures.

quod procul a vera quam sit ratione repulsum
percipe; nam de re nunc ipsa dicere conor.
Principio hoc dico, quod dixi saepe quoque ante,
in terra cuiusque modi rerum esse figuras;
multa, cibo quae sunt, vitalia multaque, morbos
incutere et mortem quae possint adcelerare.
et magis esse aliis alias animantibus aptas
res ad vitai rationem ostendimus ante
propter dissimilem naturam dissimilisque
texturas inter sese primasque figuras.

perceive how far it has been driven back from true reason;
for now I strive to speak about the thing itself.
First, this I say, which I have said often also before,
that in the earth there are figures of things of every sort;
many which, being for food, are vital, and many which can
strike in diseases and can accelerate death.
and that certain things are more apt for certain living beings
for the regimen of life we have shown before,
because of the dissimilar nature and the dissimilar
textures among themselves and the primary figures.

multa meant inimica per auris, multa per ipsas
insinuant naris infesta atque aspera tactu,
nec sunt multa parum tactu vitanda neque autem
aspectu fugienda saporeque tristia quae sint.
Deinde videre licet quam multae sint homini res
acriter infesto sensu spurcaeque gravisque;
arboribus primum certis gravis umbra tributa
usque adeo, capitis faciant ut saepe dolores,
siquis eas subter iacuit prostratus in herbis.
est etiam magnis Heliconis montibus arbos
floris odore hominem taetro consueta necare.

many inimical things pass through the ears, many hostile and rough to the touch insinuate themselves through the very nostrils,
nor are there few things to be shunned by touch, nor to be fled by sight, and which are grim in savor.
Then one may see how many things are to a man acutely offensive to the sense, foul and grievous;
first, to certain trees a heavy shade is assigned
to such an extent that they often make pains of the head, if anyone has lain beneath them, prostrate in the grass.
there is also on the great mountains of Helicon a tree accustomed to kill a man by the foul odor of its flower.

scilicet haec ideo terris ex omnia surgunt,
multa modis multis multarum semina rerum
quod permixta gerit tellus discretaque tradit.
nocturnumque recens extinctum lumen ubi acri
nidore offendit nares, consopit ibidem,
concidere et spumas qui morbo mittere suevit.
castoreoque gravi mulier sopita recumbit,
et manibus nitidum teneris opus effluit ei,
tempore eo si odoratast quo menstrua solvit.

Surely for this reason all these things rise up out of the earth,
many seeds of many things in many modes,
because the earth bears them commixed and delivers them discrete.
and when a freshly extinguished nocturnal lamp, with its acrid odor,
offends the nostrils, it lulls to sleep on the spot
him who by disease is wont to fall down and to send forth foams.
and by heavy castoreum a woman, lulled, reclines,
and the shining work slips from her tender hands,
at that time if she has smelled it when she releases her menses.

multaque praeterea languentia membra per artus
solvunt atque animam labefactant sedibus intus.
denique si calidis etiam cunctere lavabris
plenior et lueris, solio ferventis aquai
quam facile in medio fit uti des saepe ruinas!
carbonumque gravis vis atque odor insinuatur
quam facile in cerebrum, nisi aqua praecepimus ante!

and many things besides loosen the languishing limbs through the joints
and make the spirit totter from its seats within.
finally, if you even linger in hot baths
and, fuller, wash yourself, in the vat of fervent water
how easily it happens that you often collapse in the midst!
and how easily the heavy force and odor of coals insinuates
into the cerebrum, unless we have forestalled it with water beforehand!

at cum membra domans percepit fervida febris,
tum fit odor vini plagae mactabilis instar.
nonne vides etiam terra quoque sulpur in ipsa
gignier et taetro concrescere odore bitumen,
denique ubi argenti venas aurique secuntur,
terrai penitus scrutantes abdita ferro,
qualis expiret Scaptensula subter odores?
quidve mali fit ut exalent aurata metalla!

but when, subduing the limbs, a fervid fever has seized,
then the odor of wine becomes like the likeness of a slaughterous blow.
do you not see even that in the earth itself sulfur is generated
and bitumen congeals with a fetid odor,
and finally where the veins of silver and of gold are followed,
scrutinizing with iron the hidden things of the earth deep within,
what sort of odors Scaptensula breathes out beneath?
and what evil it is that the golden metals exhale!

quas hominum reddunt facies qualisque colores!
nonne vides audisve perire in tempore parvo
quam soleant et quam vitai copia desit,
quos opere in tali cohibet vis magna necessis?
hos igitur tellus omnis exaestuat aestus
expiratque foras in apertum promptaque caeli.

what faces of men they render, and what sorts of colors!
do you not see or hear how they are wont to perish in a short time,
and how the supply of life is lacking,
those whom the great force of necessity cohibits in such work?
therefore the earth seethes out all these heats
and exhales them outward into the open and exposed reaches of the sky.

Sic et Averna loca alitibus summittere debent
mortiferam vim. de terra quae surgit in auras,
ut spatium caeli quadam de parte venenet;
quo simul ac primum pennis delata sit ales,
impediatur ibi caeco correpta veneno,
ut cadat e regione loci, qua derigit aestus.
quo cum conruit, hic eadem vis illius aestus
reliquias vitae membris ex omnibus aufert.

Thus too the Avernian places ought to emit to birds a death-bearing force,
which rises from the earth into the airs,
so as to envenom the space of the sky in a certain part;
whither as soon as a bird has been borne down on wings,
it is hampered there, seized by blind poison,
so that it falls straight from the region of the place where the surge directs.
where when it has collapsed, this same force of that surge
takes away the remnants of life from all its limbs.

quippe etenim primo quasi quendam conciet aestum;
posterius fit uti. cum iam cecidere veneni
in fontis ipsos, ibi sit quoque vita vomenda,
propterea quod magna mali fit copia circum.
Fit quoque ut inter dum vis haec atque aestus Averni
aeëra, qui inter avis cumquest terramque locatus.

for indeed at first it rouses, as it were, a certain surge;
later it comes to pass that, when already the venoms have fallen
into the very fountains, there life too must be vomited forth,
because a great abundance of evil is made all around.
It also comes to pass that sometimes this force and the exhalation of Avernus
affects the air, which is situated between the birds and the earth.

discutiat, prope uti locus hic linquatur inanis.
cuius ubi e regione loci venere volantis,
claudicat extemplo pinnarum nisus inanis
et conamen utrimque alarum proditur omne.
hic ubi nixari nequeunt insistereque alis,
scilicet in terram delabi pondere cogit
natura, et vacuum prope iam per inane iacentes
dispergunt animas per caulas corporis omnis.

so that it may shatter asunder, so that this place is left almost empty.
when winged creatures have come opposite the region of this place,
at once the ineffectual effort of their pinions limps,
and the endeavor of the wings on both sides is entirely betrayed.
there, when they cannot struggle nor stand supported on their wings,
nature, of course, compels them by their weight to slip down to the earth,
and, lying almost in a vacuum through the void,
they disperse their spirits through all the sluices of the body.

* * *
frigidior porro in puteis aestate fit umor,
arescit quia terra calore et semina si qua
forte vaporis habet proprie, dimittit in auras.
quo magis est igitur tellus effeta calore,
fit quoque frigidior qui in terrast abditus umor.
frigore cum premitur porro omnis terra coitque
et quasi concrescit, fit scilicet ut coeundo
exprimat in puteos si quem gerit ipsa calorem.

* * *
furthermore, in wells the moisture becomes colder in summer,
because the earth dries with heat and, if it has any seeds
of vapor properly its own, it sends them out into the airs.
the more therefore the earth is effete with heat,
the moisture that is hidden in the earth likewise becomes colder.
when pressed by cold, moreover, all the earth coalesces
and, as if congealing, it comes about that by coalescing it
presses out into wells whatever heat she herself bears.

Esse apud Hammonis fanum fons luce diurna
frigidus et calidus nocturno tempore fertur.
hunc homines fontem nimis admirantur et acri
sole putant subter terras fervescere partim,
nox ubi terribili terras caligine texit.
quod nimis a verast longe ratione remotum.

At the fane of Ammon there is said to be a spring, by daylight
cold and hot at nocturnal time. This spring men marvel at excessively, and they think that beneath the earth it seethes in part with the keen
sun, when night has covered the lands with terrible murk. Which is far from the truth and much removed from reason.

quippe ubi sol nudum contractans corpus aquai
non quierit calidum supera de reddere parte,
cum superum lumen tanto fervore fruatur,
qui queat hic supter tam crasso corpore terram
perquoquere umorem et calido focilare vapore?
praesertim cum vix possit per saepta domorum
insinuare suum radiis ardentibus aestum.
quae ratiost igitur?

indeed, when the sun, handling the bare body of water,
has not been able to render it hot on the upper part,
since the supernal light enjoys such fervor,
how could it down below, through so thick a body of earth,
cook the moisture through and rekindle it with hot vapor?
especially since it can scarcely insinuate its own heat with ardent rays
through the enclosures of houses. What, therefore, is the rationale?

ni mirum terra magis quod
rara tenet circum fontem quam cetera tellus
multaque sunt ignis prope semina corpus aquai.
hoc ubi roriferis terram nox obruit undis,
extemplo penitus frigescit terra coitque.
hac ratione fit ut, tam quam compressa manu sit,
exprimat in fontem quae semina cumque habet ignis,
quae calidum faciunt laticis tactum atque vaporem.

no wonder that the earth holds more porous ground around the spring than the rest of the soil,
and that there are many seeds of fire near the body of the water.
when dewy night shrouds the earth with dripping waves,
straightway the earth deep within grows cold and coalesces.
by this rationale it comes about that, just as if it were compressed by a hand,
it squeezes out into the spring whatever seeds of fire it has,
which make the touch of the liquid warm and its vapor.

inde ubi sol radiis terram dimovit obortus
et rare fecit calido miscente vapore,
rursus in antiquas redeunt primordia sedes
ignis et in terram cedit calor omnis aquai.
frigidus hanc ob rem fit fons in luce diurna.
praeterea solis radiis iactatur aquai
umor et in lucem tremulo rarescit ab aestu;
propterea fit uti quae semina cumque habet ignis
dimittat; quasi saepe gelum, quod continet in se,
mittit et exsolvit glaciem nodosque relaxat.

thence, when the sun, arisen, with its rays has dispelled from the earth
and has made it rarefied, with warm vapor mixing,
again the primordial first-beginnings return to their ancient seats
of fire, and into the earth yields all the heat of the water.
for this reason the spring becomes chill in the daylight.
moreover by the sun’s rays the moisture of the water is tossed
and into the light it rarefies from the tremulous heat;
therefore it comes about that whatever seeds of fire it has
it dismisses; just as often the frost, which it contains in itself,
sends forth and releases the ice and relaxes the knots.

Frigidus est etiam fons, supra quem sita saepe
stuppa iacit flammam concepto protinus igni,
taedaque consimili ratione accensa per undas
conlucet, quo cumque natans impellitur auris.
ni mirum quia sunt in aqua permulta vaporis
semina de terraque necessest funditus ipsa
ignis corpora per totum consurgere fontem
et simul exspirare foras exireque in auras,
non ita multa tamen, calidus queat ut fieri fons;
praeterea dispersa foras erumpere cogit
vis per aquam subito sursumque ea conciliari.
quod genus endo marist Aradi fons, dulcis aquai
qui scatit et salsas circum se dimovet undas;
et multis aliis praebet regionibus aequor
utilitatem opportunam sitientibus nautis,
quod dulcis inter salsas intervomit undas.

Cold too is a spring, above which tow, set there often,
casts flame, once fire is straightway conceived, and a torch,
kindled by a similar rationale, through the waves
shines together, wherever, floating, it is driven by the breeze.
no marvel, since there are in the water very many seeds of vapor,
and from the earth it is necessary that from the very bottom
bodies of fire rise up through the whole spring
and at the same time exhale outward and go forth into the airs,
yet not so many, however, that the spring could become hot;
besides, the force compels the scattered [particles] to erupt outward
through the water suddenly, and to be gathered upward.
of such a kind in the sea is the spring of Aradus, of fresh water,
which gushes and drives the salty waves around it away;
and the level sea to many other regions affords
a useful opportuneness to thirsty sailors,
because sweet waves it disgorges amid salty ones.

sic igitur per eum possunt erumpere fontem
et scatere illa foras; in stuppam semina quae cum
conveniunt aut in taedai corpore adhaerent,
ardescunt facile extemplo, quia multa quoque in se
semina habent ignis stuppae taedaeque tenentes.
nonne vides etiam, nocturna ad lumina linum
nuper ubi extinctum admoveas, accendier ante
quam tetigit flammam, taedamque pari ratione?
multaque praeterea prius ipso tacta vapore
eminus ardescunt quam comminus imbuat ignis.

thus therefore through it they can burst out through the spring
and those things gush forth to the outside; when the seeds meet with
tow or adhere to the body of a torch,
they blaze up easily at once, because tow and torches too hold in themselves
many seeds of fire. do you not see also, when to nocturnal lights you bring
linen lately extinguished, that it is kindled before
it has touched the flame, and a torch likewise in equal manner?
and many things besides, touched beforehand by the vapor itself,
ignite from afar before the fire at close quarters imbues them.

hoc igitur fieri quoque in illo fonte putandumst.
Quod super est, agere incipiam quo foedere fiat
naturae, lapis hic ut ferrum ducere possit,
quem Magneta vocant patrio de nomine Grai,
Magnetum quia sit patriis in finibus ortus.
hunc homines lapidem mirantur; quippe catenam
saepe ex anellis reddit pendentibus ex se.
quinque etenim licet inter dum pluresque videre
ordine demisso levibus iactarier auris,
unus ubi ex uno dependet supter adhaerens
ex alioque alius lapidis vim vinclaque noscit;
usque adeo permananter vis pervalet eius.

therefore this too is to be thought to happen in that fountain.
What remains, I will begin to set forth by what covenant of nature it happens,
that this stone can draw iron,
which the Greeks call Magnet by the ancestral name,
because it arose within the fatherlands’ borders of the Magnetes.
men marvel at this stone; for indeed a chain
often it produces out of annulets hanging down from itself.
for sometimes one may see five, and even more,
in a lowered order being tossed by light airs,
where one hangs down from one, clinging beneath,
and from another another becomes acquainted with the stone’s force and bonds;
so persistently does its force prevail through and through.

Hoc genus in rebus firmandumst multa prius quam
ipsius rei rationem reddere possis,
et nimium longis ambagibus est adeundum;
quo magis attentas auris animumque reposco.
Principio omnibus ab rebus, quas cumque videmus,
perpetuo fluere ac mitti spargique necessest
corpora quae feriant oculos visumque lacessant.
perpetuoque fluunt certis ab rebus odores;
frigus ut [a] fluviis, calor a sole, aestus ab undis
aequoris, exesor moerorum, litora propter;
nec varii cessant sonitus manare per auras;
denique in os salsi venit umor saepe saporis,
cum mare versamur propter, dilutaque contra
cum tuimur misceri absinthia, tangit amaror.

In matters of this kind many points must be established first before you can render the rationale of the thing itself,
and it must be approached with exceedingly long circumlocutions;
wherefore I demand all the more attentive ears and mind.
To begin with, from all the things whatever we see,
it is necessary that there continually flow and be sent forth and be scattered
bodies that strike the eyes and provoke the vision.
And continually there flow from definite things their odors;
as cold from [a] rivers, heat from the sun, swelter from the waves
of the level sea, the wall-eater, near the shores;
nor do varied sounds cease to stream through the breezes;
finally into the mouth there often comes a moisture of salty savor,
when we move about near the sea, and, on the contrary, when we behold
absinth being diluted to be mixed, the bitterness touches (us).

usque adeo omnibus ab rebus res quaeque fluenter
fertur et in cunctas dimittitur undique partis
nec mora nec requies interdatur ulla fluendi,
perpetuo quoniam sentimus et omnia semper
cernere odorari licet et sentire sonare.
Nunc omnis repetam quam raro corpore sint res
commemorare; quod in primo quoque carmine claret.
quippe etenim, quamquam multas hoc pertinet ad res
noscere, cum primis hanc ad rem protinus ipsam,
qua de disserere adgredior, firmare necessest
nil esse in promptu nisi mixtum corpus inani.

to such a degree from all things each thing flows fluidly
and is sent on every side into all parts,
nor is any delay nor any rest interposed to the flowing,
since perpetually we perceive and it is always permitted
to discern, to smell, and to sense sounding.
Now I will resume to commemorate how with rarefied body things are,
which also stands clear in the first song.
for indeed, although this pertains to be known for many matters,
especially for this matter straightway itself,
about which I begin to discourse, it must be established
that there is nothing at hand unless a body mixed with void.

principio fit ut in speluncis saxa superna
sudent umore et guttis manantibus stillent.
manat item nobis e toto corpore sudor,
crescit barba pilique per omnia membra, per artus.
diditur in venas cibus omnis, auget alitque
corporis extremas quoque partis unguiculosque.

in the beginning it happens that in caverns the upper rocks
sweat with moisture and drip with trickling drops.
likewise sweat flows for us from the whole body,
the beard grows and the hairs through all the members, through the joints.
all food is distributed into the veins, and augments and nourishes
even the extreme parts of the body and the little nails.

frigus item transire per aes calidumque vaporem
sentimus, sentimus item transire per aurum
atque per argentum, cum pocula plena tenemus.
denique per dissaepta domorum saxea voces
pervolitant, permanat odor frigusque vaposque
ignis, qui ferri quoque vim penetrare sueëvit,
denique qua circum caeli lorica coeërcet,
morbida visque simul, cum extrinsecus insinuatur;
et tempestate in terra caeloque coorta
in caelum terrasque remotae iure facessunt;
quandoquidem nihil est nisi raro corpore nexum.
Huc accedit uti non omnia, quae iaciuntur
corpora cumque ab rebus, eodem praedita sensu
atque eodem pacto rebus sint omnibus apta.

We likewise perceive cold to pass through bronze, and hot vapor; we likewise perceive it to pass through gold and through silver, when we hold brimming cups.
finally, through the stony partitions of houses voices fly-through, scent percolates, and cold and the vapors of fire, which is even wont to penetrate the strength of iron;
finally, though the cuirass of the sky restrains around, a morbid force likewise, when it insinuates itself from without;
and tempests arisen on earth and in sky, once removed, duly withdraw into sky and lands;
since nothing is bound together except by a rarefied body.
To this is added that not all the bodies, which are cast forth from things, of whatever sort, are endowed with the same sense and are fitted to all things in the same fashion.

principio terram sol excoquit et facit are,
at glaciem dissolvit et altis montibus altas
extructas[que] nives radiis tabescere cogit;
denique cera lique fit in eius posta vapore.
ignis item liquidum facit aes aurumque resolvit,
at coria et carnem trahit et conducit in unum.
umor aquae porro ferrum condurat ab igni,
at coria et carnem mollit durata calore.

to begin with, the sun parches the earth and makes it arid,
but it dissolves ice and on high mountains compels the high piled-up snows
to melt by its rays; and finally wax becomes liquid when placed beneath its vapor.
likewise fire makes bronze liquid and dissolves gold,
but hides and flesh it draws and contracts into one.
the moisture of water, moreover, hardens iron after the fire,
but it softens hides and flesh that have been hardened by heat.

barbigeras oleaster eo iuvat usque capellas,
effluat ambrosias quasi vero et nectare tinctus;
qua nihil est homini quod amarius fronde ac[ida] extet.
denique amaracinum fugitat sus et timet omne
unguentum; nam saetigeris subus acre venenumst;
quod nos inter dum tam quam recreare videtur.
at contra nobis caenum taeterrima cum sit
spurcities, eadem subus haec iucunda videtur,
insatiabiliter toti ut volvantur ibidem.

the wild-olive thus ever delights the bearded she-goats,
as if it poured out ambrosias and were truly tinged with nectar;
than which nothing appears to a man more bitter in sour foliage.
finally, the pig shuns marjoram and fears every
unguent; for to the bristle-bearing swine it is a sharp venom;
which to us at times seems, as it were, to refresh.
but on the contrary, though to us muck, most loathsome foulness, be
filth, this same thing seems pleasant to the swine,
so that they roll themselves there insatiably with their whole bodies.

Hoc etiam super est, ipsa quam dicere de re
adgredior, quod dicendum prius esse videtur.
multa foramina cum variis sint reddita rebus,
dissimili inter se natura praedita debent
esse et habere suam naturam quaeque viasque.
quippe etenim varii sensus animantibus insunt,
quorum quisque suam proprie rem percipit in se;
nam penetrare alio sonitus alioque saporem
cernimus e sucis, alio nidoris odores.

This too remains besides, about the very matter which I set about to speak, which seems to have to be said first.
since many openings have been assigned to various things,
they ought to be endowed with dissimilar nature among themselves and for each to have its own nature and paths.
for indeed various senses are present in living beings,
of which each one properly perceives its own thing in itself;
for we discern that sound penetrates by one way and flavor by another from juices,
and by another the odors of savor.

[scilicet id fieri cogit natura viarum
multimodis varians, ut paulo ostendimus ante.]
praeterea manare aliud per saxa videtur,
atque aliud lignis, aliud transire per aurum,
argentoque foras aliud vitroque meare;
nam fluere hac species, illac calor ire videtur,
atque aliis aliud citius transmittere eadem.
scilicet id fieri cogit natura viarum
multimodis varians, ut paulo ostendimus ante,
propter dissimilem naturam textaque rerum.
Qua propter, bene ubi haec confirmata atque locata
omnia constiterint nobis praeposta parata,
quod super est, facile hinc ratio reddetur et omnis
causa pate fiet, quae ferri pelliciat vim.

[Clearly the nature of the pathways, varying in many modes, compels this to be, as we showed a little before.]
Moreover one thing seems to percolate through rocks,
and another through timbers, another to pass through gold,
and another outward through silver and to meander through glass;
for appearances seem to flow this way, heat to go that way,
and the same materials seem to transmit one thing faster to some, another to others.
Clearly the nature of the pathways, varying in many modes, compels this to occur,
as we showed a little earlier, on account of the dissimilar nature and the textures of things.
Wherefore, when these points have been well confirmed and set in place,
all standing firm for us, preposed and prepared,
what remains, from here an account will easily be rendered, and the whole
cause will be made open, which allures the force of iron.

Principio fluere e lapide hoc permulta necessest
semina sive aestum, qui discutit aeëra plagis,
inter qui lapidem ferrumque est cumque locatus.
hoc ubi inanitur spatium multusque vace fit
in medio locus, extemplo primordia ferri
in vacuum prolapsa cadunt coniuncta, fit utque
anulus ipse sequatur eatque ita corpore toto.
nec res ulla magis primoribus ex elementis
indupedita suis arte conexa cohaeret
quam validi ferri natura et frigidus horror.

To begin with, it is necessary that from this stone there flow very many seeds or a heat, which with blows shakes the air, wherever it is situated between the stone and the iron.
When this space is made empty and a great vacancy is made in the middle place, at once the first-beginnings of the iron, having slipped down into the void, fall conjoined, and it comes about that the ring itself follows and so goes with its whole body.
Nor does any thing more, from its first elements ensnared by its own nature, cohere, bound by artful nexus, than the nature of strong iron and its frigid roughness.

quo minus est mirum, quod dicitur esse alienum,
corpora si nequeunt e ferro plura coorta
in vacuum ferri, quin anulus ipse sequatur;
quod facit et sequitur, donec pervenit ad ipsum
iam lapidem caecisque in eo compagibus haesit.
hoc fit idem cunctas in partis; unde vace fit
cumque locus, sive e transverso sive superne,
corpora continuo in vacuum vicina feruntur;
quippe agitantur enim plagis aliunde nec ipsa
sponte sua sursum possunt consurgere in auras.
huc accedit item, quare queat id magis esse,
haec quoque res adiumento motuque iuvatur,
quod, simul a fronte est anelli rarior aeër
factus inanitusque locus magis ac vacuatus,
continuo fit uti qui post est cumque locatus
aeër a tergo quasi provehat atque propellat.

wherefore it is the less a wonder, that it is said to be alien,
if bodies, having arisen in greater number out of the iron, cannot be carried
into the void without the ring itself following;
which it does and follows, until it arrives at the very
stone and sticks fast in it with blind joinings.
this same thing happens on all sides; wherever a place becomes
void, whether from across or from above,
the neighboring bodies are straightway borne into the vacuum;
for they are indeed agitated by blows from elsewhere, nor can they
of their own accord rise upward into the breezes.
to this there is added also, whereby it can be the more so,
this matter too is aided by help and by motion,
because, as soon as in front of the little ring the air is made thinner
and the place more emptied and vacuated,
straightway it comes about that the air, wherever it is placed behind,
as it were from the back, carries it forward and propels it.

semper enim circum positus res verberat aeër;
sed tali fit uti propellat tempore ferrum,
parte quod ex una spatium vacat et capit in se.
hic, tibi quem memoro, per crebra foramina ferri
parvas ad partis subtiliter insinuatus
trudit et inpellit, quasi navem velaque ventus.
denique res omnes debent in corpore habere
aeëra, quandoquidem raro sunt corpore et aeër
omnibus est rebus circum datus adpositusque.
hic igitur, penitus qui in ferrost abditus aeër,
sollicito motu semper iactatur eoque
verberat anellum dubio procul et ciet intus,
scilicet illo eodem fertur, quo praecipitavit
iam semel et partem in vacuam conamina sumpsit.

for the air set around always beats upon things;
but at such a time it comes about that it propels the iron,
because on one side the space is emptied and takes it into itself.
this air, which I remind you of, through the frequent perforations of the iron
insinuated subtly into the small parts
thrusts and impels it, as wind the ship and the sails.
finally, all things ought to have in their body
air, since they are of a rare body and air
is given and set around and apposed to all things.
this air therefore, which is hidden deep within the iron,
is always tossed with solicitous motion and thereby
beyond doubt beats upon the little ring and stirs it within,
plainly is borne in that same direction in which it has once
hurled headlong and has taken attempts toward the empty part.

Fit quoque ut a lapide hoc ferri natura recedat
inter dum, fugere atque sequi consueta vicissim.
exultare etiam Samothracia ferrea vidi
et ramenta simul ferri furere intus ahenis
in scaphiis, lapis hic Magnes cum subditus esset;
usque adeo fugere a saxo gestire videtur.
aere interposito discordia tanta creatur
propterea quia ni mirum prius aestus ubi aeris
praecepit ferrique vias possedit apertas,
posterior lapidis venit aestus et omnia plena
invenit in ferro neque habet qua tranet ut ante;
cogitur offensare igitur pulsareque fluctu
ferrea texta suo; quo pacto respuit ab se
atque per aes agitat, sine eo quod saepe resorbet.

It also comes to pass that from this stone the nature of iron sometimes retreats,
accustomed by turns to flee and to follow. I have even seen Samothracian irons exult,
and iron filings at the same time rage within bronze bowls,
when this Magnet stone had been placed beneath;
so far does it seem to long to flee from the rock. With bronze interposed, so great a discord is created
for this reason: because, no wonder, when first the surge of the bronze
has preoccupied and possessed the open ways of the iron,
the later surge of the stone comes and finds everything filled
in the iron, nor has where it may pass through as before;
therefore it is compelled to collide and to beat with its wave
the iron fabric; in which way it spits back from itself
and drives it through the bronze, without that which it often reabsorbs.

Illud in his rebus mirari mitte, quod aestus
non valet e lapide hoc alias impellere item res.
pondere enim fretae partim stant, quod genus aurum;
at partim raro quia sunt cum corpore, ut aestus
pervolet intactus, nequeunt inpellier usquam,
lignea materies in quo genere esse videtur.
interutrasque igitur ferri natura locata
aeris ubi accepit quaedam corpuscula, tum fit,
inpellant ut eo Magnesia flumine saxa.

Set aside marveling at this in these matters, that the surge
is not able from this stone to impel other things likewise.
for some, relying on weight, stand fast, as gold of that sort;
but some, because they are with a rare body, so that the surge
flies through untouched, are not able to be impelled anywhere,
in which kind wooden material seems to be.
therefore, the nature of iron, placed between the two,
when it has received certain little bodies of air, then it comes about
that the Magnesian stones impel it by that current.

nec tamen haec ita sunt aliarum rerum aliena,
ut mihi multa parum genere ex hoc suppeditentur,
quae memorare queam inter se singlariter apta.
saxa vides primum sola colescere calce.
glutine materies taurino iungitur una,
ut vitio venae tabularum saepius hiscant
quam laxare queant compages taurea vincla.

nor yet are these things so alien from other matters,
that many things, somewhat of this kind, are not furnished to me from this source,
which I could recount as singularly fitted together among themselves.
you see first stones coalesce by lime alone.
timber is joined into one by taurine glue,
so that by a flaw of the vein of the boards they more often gape
than that the taurine bonds can loosen the joinings.

vitigeni latices aquai fontibus audent
misceri, cum pix nequeat gravis et leve olivom.
purpureusque colos conchyli iungitur uno
corpore cum lanae, dirimi qui non queat usquam,
non si Neptuni fluctu renovare operam des,
non mare si totum velit eluere omnibus undis.
denique res auro non aurum copulat una,
aerique [aes] plumbo fit uti iungatur ab albo?

the vine-born liquids dare to be mixed with the fountains of water
whereas heavy pitch and light olive-oil cannot.
and the purple color of the shellfish is joined in one
body with the wool, which cannot anywhere be separated,
not even if you devote effort to renew it by Neptune’s surge,
nor if the whole sea should wish to wash it out with all its waves.
finally, a thing not-gold couples in one with gold,
and to bronze [aes] it comes about that it is joined by white lead?

cetera iam quam multa licet reperire! quid ergo?
nec tibi tam longis opus est ambagibus usquam
nec me tam multam hic operam consumere par est,
sed breviter paucis praestat comprendere multa.

the rest now—how many things it is permitted to discover! what then?
nor is there need for you anywhere of such long circumlocutions,
nor is it fitting for me to consume so much effort here,
but it is better briefly to comprehend many things in a few words.

quorum ita texturae ceciderunt mutua contra,
ut cava conveniant plenis haec illius illa
huiusque inter se, iunctura haec optima constat.
est etiam, quasi ut anellis hamisque plicata
inter se quaedam possint coplata teneri;
quod magis in lapide hoc fieri ferroque videtur.
Nunc ratio quae sit morbis aut unde repente
mortiferam possit cladem conflare coorta
morbida vis hominum generi pecudumque catervis,
expediam, primum multarum semina rerum
esse supra docui quae sint vitalia nobis,
et contra quae sint morbo mortique necessest
multa volare; ea cum casu sunt forte coorta
et perturbarunt caelum, fit morbidus aeër.
atque ea vis omnis morborum pestilitasque
aut extrinsecus ut nubes nebulaeque superne
per caelum veniunt aut ipsa saepe coorta
de terra surgunt, ubi putorem umida nactast
intempestivis pluviisque et solibus icta.

whose textures have thus fallen in mutual opposition,
that cavities agree with solids, this of that one, that of this one,
and with each other; this juncture stands as the best.
there is also [a mode], as if folded with little rings and hooks,
whereby certain things can be held together, coupled among themselves;
which seems rather to be done in this stone and in iron.
Now what the rationale is of diseases, or whence suddenly
a morbid force arisen can brew a death-bearing calamity
for the race of men and the herds of cattle,
I will set forth: first, I taught above that there are seeds of many things
which are vital to us, and, conversely, that there must fly many
which belong to disease and to death; when these by chance have arisen together
and have thrown the sky into disorder, the air becomes morbid.
and all that force of diseases and pestilence
either from outside, like clouds and mists from above,
come through the heaven, or often arising of itself
it surges up from the earth, where dampness has gotten a stench,
smitten by untimely rains and by suns.

nonne vides etiam caeli novitate et aquarum
temptari procul a patria qui cumque domoque
adveniunt ideo quia longe discrepitant res?
nam quid Brittannis caelum differre putamus,
et quod in Aegypto est, qua mundi claudicat axis,
quidve quod in Ponto est differre et Gadibus atque
usque ad nigra virum percocto saecla colore?
quae cum quattuor inter se diversa videmus
quattuor a ventis et caeli partibus esse,
tum color et facies hominum distare videntur
largiter et morbi generatim saecla tenere.

do you not see that even by the novelty of sky and waters
whoever come far from fatherland and home are tested,
for this reason, because things are widely discrepant?
for what do we suppose the sky to differ for the Britons,
and that which is in Egypt, where the axis of the world limps,
or what that which is in the Pontus differs, and at Gades, and even
as far as generations of men thoroughly baked to a black color?
since we see these four to be diverse among themselves,
from the four winds and the parts of the sky,
then the color and the face of men seem to differ
abundantly, and diseases by kind to hold the generations.

est elephas morbus qui propter flumina Nili
gignitur Aegypto in media neque praeterea usquam.
Atthide temptantur gressus oculique in Achaeis
finibus. inde aliis alius locus est inimicus
partibus ac membris; varius concinnat id aeër.
proinde ubi se caelum, quod nobis forte alienum,
commovet atque aeër inimicus serpere coepit,
ut nebula ac nubes paulatim repit et omne
qua graditur conturbat et immutare coactat,
fit quoque ut, in nostrum cum venit denique caelum,
corrumpat reddatque sui simile atque alienum.

there is the disease elephantiasis which is begotten near the rivers of the Nile in the midst of Egypt and nowhere else besides.
In Attica the steps and the eyes are assailed within the Achaean borders.
from there for some one place, for others another, is inimical to parts and limbs; the variegated air contrives this.
accordingly, when the sky, which perchance is alien to us, is set in motion and a hostile air begins to creep,
as mist and cloud it creeps little by little and, wherever it goes, it confounds everything and compels it to change,
it also comes to pass that, when at last it enters our sky, it corrupts it and renders it like to itself and alien.

haec igitur subito clades nova pestilitasque
aut in aquas cadit aut fruges persidit in ipsas
aut alios hominum pastus pecudumque cibatus,
aut etiam suspensa manet vis aeëre in ipso
et, cum spirantes mixtas hinc ducimus auras,
illa quoque in corpus pariter sorbere necessest.
consimili ratione venit bubus quoque saepe
pestilitas et iam pigris balantibus aegror.
nec refert utrum nos in loca deveniamus
nobis adversa et caeli mutemus amictum,
an caelum nobis ultro natura corumptum
deferat aut aliquid quo non consuevimus uti,
quod nos adventu possit temptare recenti.

therefore this sudden disaster, the new ruin and pestilence,
either falls into the waters or settles upon the crops themselves,
or upon other foods of men and the fodder of cattle,
or even, hanging, the force remains in the air itself,
and, when breathing, we draw mixed breezes from here,
it is necessary that we likewise absorb that into the body.
by a similar rationale pestilence also often comes to oxen,
and sickness to the sheep, now bleating sluggishly.
nor does it matter whether we come down into places
adverse to us and change the garment of the sky,
or whether nature of its own accord bears down to us a sky corrupted,
or something which we are not accustomed to use,
which can assay us by its recent advent.

Haec ratio quondam morborum et mortifer aestus
finibus in Cecropis funestos reddidit agros
vastavitque vias, exhausit civibus urbem.
nam penitus veniens Aegypti finibus ortus,
aeëra permensus multum camposque natantis,
incubuit tandem populo Pandionis omni.
inde catervatim morbo mortique dabantur.

This rationale of diseases and mortiferous heat
made the fields within Cecropian borders funereal,
and devastated the roads, exhausted the city of citizens.
For coming from deep within, sprung from the bounds of Egypt,
having traversed much air and the swimming fields,
at last it settled upon the whole people of Pandion.
Thence in throngs they were given over to disease and to death.

principio caput incensum fervore gerebant
et duplicis oculos suffusa luce rubentes.
sudabant etiam fauces intrinsecus atrae
sanguine et ulceribus vocis via saepta coibat
atque animi interpres manabat lingua cruore
debilitata malis, motu gravis, aspera tactu.
inde ubi per fauces pectus complerat et ipsum
morbida vis in cor maestum confluxerat aegris,
omnia tum vero vitai claustra lababant.

in the beginning they bore a head inflamed with fervor,
and their twin eyes, suffused with light, were reddening.
the throat too, black within, was sweating
with blood, and the way of the voice, hedged in by ulcers, was closing up,
and the tongue, interpreter of the mind, was oozing with gore—
debilitated by evils, heavy in motion, rough to the touch.
then, when through the throat the diseased force had filled even
the breast itself, and had flowed together into the mournful heart of the sick,
then indeed all the barriers of life were tottering.

spiritus ore foras taetrum volvebat odorem,
rancida quo perolent proiecta cadavera ritu.
atque animi prorsum [tum] vires totius, omne
languebat corpus leti iam limine in ipso.
intolerabilibusque malis erat anxius angor
adsidue comes et gemitu commixta querella,
singultusque frequens noctem per saepe diemque
corripere adsidue nervos et membra coactans
dissoluebat eos, defessos ante, fatigans.

the breath at the mouth was rolling out a foul odor,
by which, rancid, the cast-out cadavers reeked through, after the rite.
and the powers of the spirit [then] of the whole, the entire
body was languishing now on the very threshold of death.
and with intolerable evils there was an anxious anguish
a constant companion, and complaint mingled with groan,
and frequent sobbing through night and often through day
kept seizing the nerves and, constraining the limbs,
was dissolving them, already wearied before, by fatiguing.

nec nimio cuiquam posses ardore tueri
corporis in summo summam fervescere partem,
sed potius tepidum manibus proponere tactum
et simul ulceribus quasi inustis omne rubere
corpus, ut est per membra sacer dum diditur ignis.
intima pars hominum vero flagrabat ad ossa,
flagrabat stomacho flamma ut fornacibus intus.
nil adeo posses cuiquam leve tenveque membris
vertere in utilitatem, at ventum et frigora semper.

nor could you in anyone behold with excessive ardor the topmost part on the surface of the body seething,
but rather to present to the hands a tepid touch,
and at the same time the whole body to redden with ulcers as if branded,
as when the sacred fire is spread through the limbs.
the inmost part of men indeed was blazing to the bones,
a flame blazed in the stomach within as in furnaces.
you could in no way turn anything light and thin for the limbs to utility,
but always wind and chills.

in fluvios partim gelidos ardentia morbo
membra dabant nudum iacientes corpus in undas.
multi praecipites nymphis putealibus alte
inciderunt ipso venientes ore patente:
insedabiliter sitis arida corpora mersans
aequabat multum parvis umoribus imbrem.
nec requies erat ulla mali: defessa iacebant
corpora.

into gelid rivers some gave their limbs ardent with disease,
casting the naked body into the waves.
many headlong fell deep to the well-nymphs,
coming with mouth itself agape:
an unquenchable thirst, submerging the arid bodies,
matched a downpour with many small waters.
nor was there any respite of the evil: wearied they lay
bodies.

mussabat tacito medicina timore,
quippe patentia cum totiens ardentia morbis
lumina versarent oculorum expertia somno.
multaque praeterea mortis tum signa dabantur:
perturbata animi mens in maerore metuque,
triste supercilium, furiosus voltus et acer,
sollicitae porro plenaeque sonoribus aures,
creber spiritus aut ingens raroque coortus,
sudorisque madens per collum splendidus umor,
tenvia sputa minuta, croci contacta colore
salsaque per fauces rauca vix edita tussi.
in manibus vero nervi trahere et tremere artus
a pedibusque minutatim succedere frigus
non dubitabat.

medicine muttered in silent fear,
for indeed, as they kept turning the eyes’ lights, lying open and so often burning with illnesses,
deprived of sleep. many other signs of death besides were then being given:
the mind of the spirit perturbed in grief and fear,
a sad brow, a furious and keen countenance,
moreover ears solicitous and full of sounds,
breath frequent, or huge and arising but rarely,
and a gleaming humor of sweat soaking along the neck,
thin, minute sputa, touched with the color of saffron,
and salty, scarcely brought forth through the throat by a hoarse cough.
in the hands indeed the nerves drawing tight and the limbs trembling,
and from the feet little by little the cold advancing
did not hesitate.

item ad supremum denique tempus
conpressae nares, nasi primoris acumen
tenve, cavati oculi, cava tempora, frigida pellis
duraque in ore, iacens rictu, frons tenta manebat.
nec nimio rigida post artus morte iacebant.
octavoque fere candenti lumine solis
aut etiam nona reddebant lampade vitam.

likewise, at the very last moment,
the nostrils were compressed, the point of the foremost part of the nose
thin, the eyes hollowed, the temples hollow, the skin cold,
and a hardness in the mouth, lying with the mouth agape; the brow remained taut.
nor after death did the limbs lie overly rigid.
and about the eighth shining light of the sun,
or even at the ninth lamp, they gave back life.

quorum siquis, ut est, vitarat funera leti,
ulceribus taetris et nigra proluvie alvi
posterius tamen hunc tabes letumque manebat,
aut etiam multus capitis cum saepe dolore
corruptus sanguis expletis naribus ibat.
huc hominis totae vires corpusque fluebat.
profluvium porro qui taetri sanguinis acre
exierat, tamen in nervos huic morbus et artus
ibat et in partis genitalis corporis ipsas.

if any of these, as it happens, had avoided the funerals of death,
by foul ulcers and a black outflow of the bowel
later, however, a wasting and death awaited him,
or even much blood of the head, with frequent pain,
the corrupted blood, once the nostrils were filled, would go out.
to this, the whole strength of the man and his body were flowing away.
moreover, he who had gotten out of the acrid profluvium of foul blood
nevertheless, in him the disease went into the sinews and limbs
and into the very genital parts of the body.

et graviter partim metuentes limina leti
vivebant ferro privati parte virili,
et manibus sine non nulli pedibusque manebant
in vita tamen et perdebant lumina partim.
usque adeo mortis metus iis incesserat acer.
atque etiam quosdam cepere oblivia rerum
cunctarum, neque se possent cognoscere ut ipsi.

and gravely, some fearing the thresholds of death,
lived, deprived by iron of the virile part,
and some remained without hands and without feet
yet in life, and some were losing their lights (eyes).
to such a degree a sharp fear of death had advanced upon them.
and even oblivion of all things seized certain ones,
nor could they recognize themselves as themselves.

multaque humi cum inhumata iacerent corpora supra
corporibus, tamen alituum genus atque ferarum
aut procul absiliebat, ut acrem exiret odorem,
aut, ubi gustarat, languebat morte propinqua.
nec tamen omnino temere illis solibus ulla
comparebat avis, nec tristia saecla ferarum
exibant silvis. languebant pleraque morbo
et moriebantur.

and many bodies, since unburied, lay on the ground upon bodies, yet the kind of winged creatures and of wild beasts either leapt away afar, so that the acrid odor might be left behind, or, when it had tasted, it languished with death near at hand. nor yet at all in those suns did any bird appear, nor did the gloomy races of wild beasts come out from the woods. most were languishing with disease and were dying.

cum primis fida canum vis
strata viis animam ponebat in omnibus aegre;
extorquebat enim vitam vis morbida membris.
incomitata rapi certabant funera vasta
nec ratio remedii communis certa dabatur;
nam quod ali dederat vitalis aeëris auras
volvere in ore licere et caeli templa tueri,
hoc aliis erat exitio letumque parabat.
Illud in his rebus miserandum magnopere unum
aerumnabile erat, quod ubi se quisque videbat
implicitum morbo, morti damnatus ut esset,
deficiens animo maesto cum corde iacebat,
funera respectans animam amittebat ibidem.

and first among them the faithful force of dogs,
stretched along the roads, was laying down its spirit everywhere with difficulty;
for the morbid force was wrenching life from the limbs.
vast, unaccompanied funerals strove to be snatched away,
nor was any certain plan of common remedy being given;
for that which had granted to some that it was permitted to roll
the vital auras of the air in the mouth and to behold the temples of the sky,
this for others was for destruction and was preparing death.
That one thing in these matters was greatly to be pitied,
full of affliction: that when each one saw himself
entangled in the disease, as if he were condemned to death,
failing in spirit he lay with a sad heart,
and, looking at the funerals, he let go his spirit in the same place.

quippe etenim nullo cessabant tempore apisci
ex aliis alios avidi contagia morbi,
lanigeras tam quam pecudes et bucera saecla,
idque vel in primis cumulabat funere funus
nam qui cumque suos fugitabant visere ad aegros,
vitai nimium cupidos mortisque timentis
poenibat paulo post turpi morte malaque,
desertos, opis expertis, incuria mactans.
qui fuerant autem praesto, contagibus ibant
atque labore, pudor quem tum cogebat obire
blandaque lassorum vox mixta voce querellae.
optimus hoc leti genus ergo quisque subibat.

for indeed at no time did they cease to acquire,
eager, from others others, the contagions of the morbus,
the wool-bearing flocks as well as the horned breeds,
and this above all heaped funeral upon funeral;
for whoever avoided going to see their own sick,
too desirous of vita and fearing mors,
paid the penalty a little later with foul and evil death,
neglect slaughtering the deserted, bereft of help.
those, however, who were at hand, went into contagions
and into toil, whom shame then compelled to undergo it,
and the coaxing voice of the weary, mixed with the voice of complaint.
therefore each best man underwent this kind of death.

Praeterea iam pastor et armentarius omnis
et robustus item curvi moderator aratri
languebat, penitusque casa contrusa iacebant
corpora paupertate et morbo dedita morti.
exanimis pueris super exanimata parentum
corpora non numquam posses retroque videre
matribus et patribus natos super edere vitam.
nec minimam partem ex agris maeror is in urbem
confluxit, languens quem contulit agricolarum
copia conveniens ex omni morbida parte.

Moreover now the shepherd and every herdsman,
and likewise the robust moderator of the curved plow,
was languishing, and deep within the hut the bodies lay crushed,
consigned to death by poverty and disease.
upon the exanimate children over the exanimate bodies of parents
you could sometimes look back and see, and conversely
sons upon mothers and fathers breathing out life.
nor did a minimal part of grief from the fields conflux into the city,
which a languishing multitude of farmers, assembling from every morbid quarter,
brought together.

omnia conplebant loca tectaque quo magis aestu,
confertos ita acervatim mors accumulabat.
multa siti prostrata viam per proque voluta
corpora silanos ad aquarum strata iacebant
interclusa anima nimia ab dulcedine aquarum,
multaque per populi passim loca prompta viasque
languida semanimo cum corpore membra videres
horrida paedore et pannis cooperta perire,
corporis inluvie, pelli super ossibus una,
ulceribus taetris prope iam sordeque sepulta.
omnia denique sancta deum delubra replerat
corporibus mors exanimis onerataque passim
cuncta cadaveribus caelestum templa manebant,
hospitibus loca quae complerant aedituentes.

they were filling all places and houses the more with the heat,
thus death was accumulating the crowded in heaps upon heaps.
many bodies, laid low by thirst, along the road and rolled across,
lay stretched by the channels of the waters,
their breath shut off by the excessive sweetness of the waters,
and in many open places of the people and along the thoroughfares everywhere
you might see languid limbs with a half-animate body perishing,
horrid with filth and covered with rags,
with the foulness of the body, the skin alone upon the bones,
almost now buried by foul ulcers and by grime.
finally death had filled all the holy shrines of the gods
with lifeless bodies, and everywhere the temples of the celestials remained
burdened with cadavers, the places for guests which the attendants had filled.

nec iam religio divom nec numina magni
pendebantur enim: praesens dolor exsuperabat.
nec mos ille sepulturae remanebat in urbe,
quo prius hic populus semper consuerat humari;
perturbatus enim totus trepidabat et unus
quisque suum pro re [cognatum] maestus humabat.
multaque [res] subita et paupertas horrida suasit;
namque suos consanguineos aliena rogorum
insuper extructa ingenti clamore locabant
subdebantque faces, multo cum sanguine saepe
rixantes, potius quam corpora desererentur,
inque aliis alium populum sepelire suorum
certantes; lacrimis lassi luctuque redibant;
inde bonam partem in lectum maerore dabantur;
nec poterat quisquam reperiri, quem neque morbus
nec mors nec luctus temptaret tempore tali.

nor now were the religion of the gods nor the divine powers of the great gods esteemed; for present grief overmastered.
nor did that custom of sepulture remain in the city, in which earlier this people had always been accustomed to be interred;
for all, disturbed, were in a panic, and each one, mournful, buried his own according to the situation [kinsman].
and many a sudden [thing] and horrid poverty urged;
for they were placing their own consanguineous kin atop others’ pyres, piled up above, with huge clamor,
and they would thrust torches beneath, often brawling with much bloodshed, rather than that bodies be deserted,
and, competing, to bury one crowd of their own among others’; weary with tears and with grief they returned;
then a good part were given over to the bed by sorrow;
nor could anyone be found whom neither disease nor death nor mourning did not assay at such a time.