Seneca: QUAESTIONES NATURALES

Prima pars naturam siderum scrutatur, et magnitudinem, et formam ignium, quibus mundus includitur : solidumne sit coelum, ac firmae concretaeque materiae, an ex subtili tenuique nexum ; agatur, an agat ; et infra se sidera habeat, an in contextu sui fixa ; quemadmodum sol anni uices seruet; an retro flectat : cetera deinceps his similia.

The first part scrutinizes the nature of the stars, and the magnitude, and the form of the fires,
by which the world is enclosed : whether the heaven is solid, and of firm and concreted matter,
or knit together from subtle and fine texture ; whether it is driven, or drives ; and whether it has the stars beneath itself, or fixed in the contexture of itself ;
how the sun keeps the vicissitudes of the year; whether it turns back in retrograde : the rest thereafter similar to these.

[1,2] Secunda pars tractat inter coelum terramque uersantia. Haec sont nubila, imbres, niues, et « humanas motura tonitrua mentes; » quaecumque aer facit patiturue. Haec sublimia dicimus, quia editiora imis sunt.

[1,2] The second part treats the things conversant between heaven and earth. These are clouds, rains, snows, and « thunderclaps destined to move human minds; » whatever the air does or suffers. We call these sublime, because they are more elevated than the lowest things.

Tertia illa pars de agris, terris, arbustis, satis, quaerit, et, ut iurisconsultorum uerbo utar, de omnibus quae solo continentur.

That third part inquires about fields, lands, arboreta, sown fields, and, to use the word of the jurisconsults,
about all things which are contained by the soil.

[1,3] Quomodo, inquis, de terrarum motu quaestionem eo posuisti loco, quo de tonitruis fulgoribusque dicturus? Quia, cum motus terrae fiat spiritu, spiritus autem sit aer agitatus, etsi subeat terras, non ibi spectandus est : cogitetur in ea sede, in qua illum natura disposuit.

[1,3] How, you ask, have you placed the question about the movement of the earth in the place where you are going to speak about thunders and flashes of lightning? Because, since the movement of the earth is made by a spirit, and spirit is agitated air, even if it goes beneath the lands, it is not to be inspected there : let it be thought of in that seat in which nature has disposed it.

[1,4] Dicam, quod magis uidebitur mirum : inter coelestia et de terra dicendum erit. Quare? inquis ; quia cum propria terrae excutimus suo loco, utrum lata sit, et inaequalis, et enormiter proiecta, an tota in formam pilae spectet, et in orbem partes suas cogat; alliget aquas, an aquis alligetur ipsa; animal sit, an iners corpus et sine sensu, plenum quidem spiritus, sed alieni ; et cetera huiusmodi quoties in manus uenerint, terram sequentur, et in imis collocabuntur.

[1,4] I will say something that will seem more marvelous : among celestial matters we will have to speak also about the earth. Why? you ask ; because when we shake out the things proper to the earth in its own place, whether it is broad, and unequal, and enormously projected, or whether as a whole it looks toward the form of a ball, and gathers its parts into an orb; whether it binds the waters, or is itself bound by the waters; whether it is an animal, or an inert body and without sense, indeed full of spirit, but of an alien one ; and the rest of things of this kind, whenever they come to hand, will follow the earth, and will be placed in the lowest regions.

[1,5] At ubi quaeretur, quis terrae sit situs, qua parte mundi subsederit, quomodo aduersus sidera coelumque posita sit, haec quaestio cedit superioribus, et, ut ita dicam, meliorem conditionem sequitur.

[1,5] But when it shall be asked, what the site of the earth is, in what part of the world it has settled, how it is set over against the stars and the heaven, this question yields to the superior ones, and, so to speak, follows a better condition.

[2,1] Quoniam dixi de partibus, in quas omnis rerum naturae materia diuiditur, quaedam in commune sunt dicenda, et hoc primum praesumendum, inter ea corpora, a quibus unitas est, aera esse.

[2,1] Since I have spoken about the parts into which the matter of the whole nature of things is divided, certain things are to be said in common, and this first is to be presumed: that among those bodies, by which there is unity, there is air.

[2,2] Quid sit hoc et quare praecipiendum fuerit, scies si paulo altius repetiero, et dixero aliquid esse continuum, aliquid commissum. Continuatio est partium inter se non intermissa coniunctio. Unitas est sine commissura continuatio, et duorum inter se coniunctorum corporum tactus.

[2,2] What this is and why it ought to have been prescribed,
you will know if I go back a little higher, and shall have said that something is continuous, something commissured.
Continuation is the unintermitted conjunction of parts among themselves.
Unity is a continuation without a commissure, and the touch of two bodies conjoined with each other.

[2,3] Numquid dubium est, quin ex his corporibus quae uidemus tractamusque, quae aut sentiuntur aut sentiunt, quaedam sint composita? Illa constant aut nexu, aut aceruatione: ut puta funis, frumentum, nauis. Rursus non composita: ut arbor lapis.

[2,3] Is there any doubt that, from among those bodies which we see and handle, which either are perceived or perceive, some are composite? Those consist either by nexus, or by aggregation: for instance, a rope, grain, a ship. Conversely, not composite: as a tree, a stone.

Ergo concedas oportet ex his quoque quae sensum quidem effugiunt, ceterum ratione prenduntur, esse in quibusdam unitatem corporum.

Therefore you must concede that among those things too which indeed escape sense, but are grasped by reason, there is in certain cases a unity of bodies.

[2,4] Vide quomodo auribus tuis parcam. Expedire me poteram, si philosophorum lingua uti uoluissem, ut dicerem unita corpora. Hoc cum tibi remittam, tu inuicem mihi refer gratiam.

[2,4] See how I spare your ears. I could have expedited the matter, if I had wished to use the philosophers’ tongue,
to say “united bodies.” Since I remit this to you, you in turn
return the favor to me.

Quare istud? si quando dixero unum, memineris me non ad numerum referre, sed ad naturam corporis, nulla ope externa, sed unitate sua cohaerentis. Ex hac nota corporum aer est.

Why so? if at any time I shall have said “one,” remember that I refer not to number, but to the nature of a body, cohering by no external aid, but by its own unity.
From this note, air is a body.

[3,1] Omnia que in notitiam nostram cadunt uel cadere possunt, mundus complectitur. Ex bis quaedam sunt partes, quaedam materiae loco relicta; desiderat enim omnis natura materiam, sicut ars omnis quae manu constat.

[3,1] All things which fall into our cognition or can fall, the world embraces. Among these some are parts, some are left in the place of material; for every nature desires matter, just as every art which consists in manual work.

[3,2] Quid sit hoc, apertius faciam. Pars est nostri oculus, manus, ossa, nerui. Materia sucus recentis cibi iturus in partes.

[3,2] What this is, I will make clearer. A part of us is the eye, the hand, the bones,

nerves. Matter is the juice of recent food, about to go into the parts.

Rursus quasi pars est sanguis nostri, qui et tamen est materia ; praeparat enim is alia, et nihilominus in numero eorum est quibus totum corpus efficitur.

Again, as it were, a part is our blood, which yet also
is matter; for it prepares other things, and nonetheless
is in the number of those by which the whole body is constituted.

[4,1] Sic mundi pars est aer, et quidem necessaria. Hic est enim qui caelum terramque connectit, qui ima ac summa sic separat ut tamen iungat. Separat, quia medius interuenit; iungit quia utrique per hunc inter se consensus est; supra se dat quicquid accepit a terris, rursus uim siderum in terrena transfundit.

[4,1] Thus a part of the world is the air, and indeed a necessary one. For this is what connects heaven and earth, which so separates the lowest and the highest that nevertheless it joins. It separates, because as the middle it intervenes; it joins, because by means of it there is consensus between the two; it gives above itself whatever it received from the earth, and in turn it transfuses the force of the stars into earthly things.

[4,2] Quasi partem mundi uoco ut animalia et arbusta. Nam genus animalium arbustorumque pars uniuersi est, quia in consummationem totius assumptum et quia non est sine hoc uniuersum. Vnum autem animal et una arbor quasi pars est, quia, quamuis perierit, tamen id ex quo perit, totum est.

[4,2] I call as if a part of the world such as animals
and arboreta. For the kind of animals and of arboreta
is a part of the universe, because it has been taken up into the consummation of the whole,
and because the universe is not without this. But one animal and one tree is as it were a part,
because, although it has perished, nevertheless that from which it perishes, is whole.

Aer autem, ut dicebam, et caelo et terris cohaeret; utrique innatus est. Habet autem unitatem quicquid alicuius rei natiua pars est. Nihil enim nascitur sine unitate.

The air, however, as I was saying, coheres both with heaven and with the earth;
to each it is inborn. Moreover, whatever is the native part of some thing has unity.
For nothing is born without unity.

[5,1] Terra et pars est mundi et materia. Pars quare sit, non puto te interrogaturum, aut aeque interroga quare caelum pars sit ; quia scilicet non magis sine hoc quam sine illa uniuersum potest esse, quod cum his uniuersum est, ex quibus, id est, tam ex illo quam ex ista, alimenta omnibus animalibus, omnibus satis, omnibus stellis diuiduntur.

[5,1] The earth is both a part of the world and matter. A part why it is, I do not think you will ask, or else equally ask why the sky is a part ; because, of course, the universe can no more exist without this than without that, since it is a universe together with these, from which—that is, as much from that as from this— nourishments are distributed to all animals, to all crops, to all stars.

[5,2] Hinc quidquid est uirium singulis, hinc ipsi mundo tam multa poscenti subministrantur ; hinc profertur quo sustineantur tot sidera tam exercita tam auida per diem noctemque ut in opere ita in pastu. Omnium quidem rerum natura, quantum in nutrimentum sui satis sit, apprehendit, mundus autem, quantum in aeternum desiderabat, inuasit. Pusillum tibi exemplar magnae rei ponam : oua tantum complectuntur humoris quantum ad effectum animalis exituri satis est.

[5,2] From here whatever there is of forces for individuals, from here to the world itself
so many things demanding, things are subministered; from here is brought forth
that whereby so many stars may be sustained, so exercised, so avid,
by day and by night, as in work so in feeding. Of all
things indeed, nature apprehends as much as is enough
for the nutriment of itself; the world, however, has invaded as much
as it desired for eternity. I will set for you a small
exemplar of a great matter: eggs encompass only so much humor
as is enough for the effect of the animal about to go forth.

[6,1] Aer continuus terrae est et sic appositus ut statim ibi futurus sit unde illa discesserit. Pars totius est mundi ; sed tamen, quicquid terra in alimentum caelestium misit, recipit, ut scilicet materia, non pars, intellegi debeat ; ex hoc omnis inconstantia eius tumultusque est.

[6,1] Air is continuous with the earth and so apposed
that it will at once be there where the earth has withdrawn. A part
of the whole world it is; yet nevertheless it receives back whatever the earth has
sent for the nourishment of the celestials, so that, namely, it ought to be understood as
matter, not as a part; from this comes all its inconstancy and tumult.

[6,2] Hunc quidam ex distantibus corpusculis, ut puluerem, struunt plurimumque a uero recedunt. Numquam enim nisi contexti per unitatem corporis nisus est, cum partes consentire ad intentionem debeant et conferre uires. Aer autem, si in atomos inciditur, sparsus est ; tendi uero disiecta non possunt.

[6,2] Some construct this from distant corpuscles, like dust, and they depart very far from the truth. For there is never any strain unless things are woven together through the unity of a body, since the parts ought to agree to the intention and contribute forces. But air, if it is cut into atoms, is scattered ; but things disjointed cannot be stretched.

[6,3] Intentionem aeris ostendent tibi inflata nec ad ictum cedentia ; ostendent pondera per magnum spatium ablata gestante uento ; ostendent uoces, quae remissae claraeque sunt prout aer se concitauit. Quid enim est uox nisi intentio aeris, ut audiatur, linguae formata percussu?

[6,3] The intention of the air will be shown to you by things inflated and not yielding to a blow ; it will be shown by weights carried off through a great space, the wind bearing them ; it will be shown by voices, which are remiss and clear according as the air has incited itself. For what is a voice if not the intention of the air, so that it may be heard, shaped by the stroke of the tongue?

[6,4] Quid? cursus et motus omnis, nonne intenti spiritus opera sunt? Hic facit uim, neruis, uelocitatem currentibus ; hic, cum uehementer concitatus ipse se torsit, arbusta siluasque, conuoluit et aedificia tota corripiens in altum frangit ; hic mare per se languidum et iacens incitat.

[6,4] What? Running and every motion—are they not the works of a strained spirit?

This gives force to the nerves, speed to runners; this one, when vehemently
aroused and having twisted itself, convolves orchards and woods,
and, snatching whole buildings aloft, breaks them; this incites the sea,
which by itself is languid and lying still.

[6,5] Ad minora ueniamus. Quis sine intentione spiritus cantus est? Cornua et tubae et quae aquarum pressura maiorem sonitum formant quam qui ore reddi potest, nonne aeris intentione partes suas explicant?

[6,5] Let us come to lesser things. What chant is there without the tension of breath? Horns and trumpets and those which by the pressure of waters fashion a greater sound than can be rendered by the mouth, do they not unfold their parts by the tension of air?

Consideremus quae ingentem uim per occultum agunt : paruula admodum semina et quorum exilitas in commissura lapidum locum inuenit in tantum conualescunt ut ingentia saxa deturbent et monumenta dissoluant ; scopulos interim rupesque radices minutissimae ac tenuissimae findunt. Hoc quid est aliud quam intentio spiritus, sine qua nihil ualidum et contra quam nihil ualidum est?

Let us consider the things which exert enormous force through what is hidden: exceedingly tiny seeds, whose thinness finds a place in the joint of stones, convalesce to such an extent that they topple huge rocks and dissolve monuments; meanwhile very minute and most slender roots split crags and rocky cliffs. What is this other than the intension of spirit, without which nothing is strong, and against which nothing is strong?

[6,6] Esse autem unitatem in aere uel ex hoc intellegi potest quod corpora nostra inter se cohaerent. Quid enim est aliud quod teneat illa quam spiritus? Quid est aliud quo animus noster agitetur?

[6,6] Moreover, that there is unity in the air can even from this be understood that our bodies cohere with one another. For what else is it that holds them than spirit? What else is it by which our mind is stirred?

Quis est illi motus nisi intentio? Quae intentio nisi ex unitate? Quae unitas, nisi haec esset in aere?

What motion has it except tension? What tension except from unity? What unity, unless this were in the air?

Quid autem aliud producit fruges et segetem imbecillam ac uirentes exigit arbores aut distendit in ramos aut in altum erigit quam spiritus intentio et unitas?

What, moreover, produces the fruits and the feeble seed‑crop,
and brings forth the green trees, or distends them into
branches, or erects them on high, other than the spirit’s intension and unity?

[7,1] Quidam aera discerpunt et in particulas diducunt ita ut illi inane permisceant. Argumentum autem existimant non pleni corporis sed multum uacui habentis quod auibus in illo tain facilis motus, quod maximis minimisque per illum transcursus est.

[7,1] Certain people tear the air apart and lead it out into little particles in such a way that they commingle void with it. And they consider it an argument, not of a full body but of one having much vacuum, that motion is so easy for birds in it, that through it there is transit for the greatest and the least.

[7,2] Sed falluntur. Nam aquarum quoque similis facilitas est, nec de unitate illarum dubium est, quae sic corpora accipiunt ut semper in contrarium acceptis refluant ; hanc nostri circumstantiam, Graeci g-antiperistasin appellant. Quae in aere quoque sicut in aqua fit ; circumsistit enim omne corpus a quo impellitur.

[7,2] But they are mistaken. For there is a similar
facility in waters as well, nor is there doubt about their unity,
which receive bodies in such a way that they always flow back in the opposite
direction from the things received ; our people call this a circumstance, the Greeks
g-antiperistasis. Which happens in air too just as
in water ; for every body is surrounded by that by which
it is impelled.

Nihil ergo opus erit admixto inani. Sed haec alias.

Therefore there will be no need of an admixed void. But these things at another time.

[8,1] Nunc autem esse quamdam in rerum natura uehementiam magni impetus est colligendum. Nihil enim non intentione uehementius est, tam mehercule quam nihil intendi ab alio poterit, nisi aliquid per semet fuerit intentum, - dicimus enim eodem modo non posse quicquam ab alio moueri, nisi aliquid fuerit mobile ex semet ; - quid autem est quod magis credatur ex se ipso habere intentionem quam spiritus? Hunc intendi quis negabit, cum uiderit iactari terram cum montibus, tecta murosque, magnas cum populis urbes, cum totis maria litoribus?

[8,1] Now, however, it must be gathered that there is a certain vehemence in the nature of things, of great impetus. For nothing is not more vehement by tension; indeed, by Hercules, nothing can be tensed by another, unless something has been tensed through itself, - for we say in the same way that nothing can be moved by another, unless something has been mobile from itself; - and what is there that is more believed to have tension from itself than spirit? Who will deny that this is under tension, when he has seen the earth with its mountains tossed, roofs and walls, great cities with their peoples, the seas with all their shores?

[9,1] Ostendit intentionem spiritus uelocitas eius et diductio. Oculi statim per multa milia aciem suam mittunt ; uox una totas urbes simul percutit ; lumen non paulatim prorepit sed semel uniuersis rebus infunditur.

[9,1] The velocity and dilation of the spirit show its tension
and drawing-out. The eyes at once send their gaze across many thousands;
a single voice strikes whole cities at the same time;
light does not creep forward little by little but is at once poured upon all things.

[9,2] Aqua autem quemadmodum sine spiritu posset intendi? Numquid dubitas quin sparsio illa quae ex fundamentis mediae harenae crescens in summam usque amphitheatri altitudinem peruenit cum intentione aquae flat? Atqui nec manus nec ullum aliud tormentum aquam potest mittere aut agere quam spiritus ; huic se commodat ; hoc attollitur inserto et cogente ; contra naturam suam multa conatur et ascendit, nata defluere.

[9,2] But how could water be put under tension without spirit? Do you doubt at all that that spray which, growing from the foundations of the central arena-sand, reaches up to the very height of the amphitheater, blows with the tension of the water? At any rate neither hand nor any other engine can send or drive water except spiritus ; to this it accommodates itself ; by this it is lifted, it being inserted and compelling ; against its own nature it attempts many things and ascends, though born to flow down.

[9,3] Quid? Nauigia sarcina depressa parum ostendunt non aquam sibi resistere, quo minus mergantur, sed spiritum? Aqua enim cederet nec posset pondera sustinere, nisi ipsa sustineretur.

[9,3] What? Do not ships, pressed down by cargo, show clearly
that it is not the water that resists them, so that they are not submerged,
but the spirit (air)? For the water would yield and could not bear weights,
unless it were itself sustained.

Discus ex loco superiore in piscinam missus non descendit, sed resilit ; quemadmodum, nisi spiritu referiente?

A disc from a higher place sent into a pool does not descend, but
rebounds ; how so, unless by the spirit returning?

[9,4] Vox autem qua ratione per parietum munimenta transmittitur, nisi quod solido quoque aer inest, qui sonum extrinsecus missum et accipit et remittit, scilicet spiritu non aperta tantum intendens, sed etiam abdita et inclusa, quod illi facere expeditum est, quia nusquam diuisus est sed per illa ipsa quibus separari uidetur coit secum? Interponas licet muros et mediam altitudinem montium, per omnia ista prohibetur nobis esse peruius, non sibi. Id enim intercluditur tantum per quod illum nos sequi possumus.

[9,4] But by what rationale is voice transmitted through the fortifications of walls, except that air too is present in solid things, which both receives and sends back the sound sent from without—namely, the spirit stretching not only the open spaces, but also the hidden and enclosed ones—which it can easily do, because it is nowhere divided, but through those very things by which it seems to be separated it coalesces with itself? You may interpose walls and the mid-height of mountains: through all these it is prevented from being pervious to us, not to itself. For only that is shut off by which we are able to follow it.

[10,1] Ipse quidem per ipsum transit quo scinditur, et media non circumfundit tantum et utrimque cingit, sed permeat. Ab aethere lucidissimo aer in terram usque diffusus est, aggilior quidem tenuiorque et altior terris nec minus aquis, ceterum aethere spissior grauiorque, frigidus per se et obscurus. Lumen illi calorque aliunde sunt.

[10,1] It itself indeed passes through that very thing by which it is cleft, and the things in the middle it not only circumfuses and girds on both sides, but permeates. From the most lucid ether the air has been diffused all the way to the earth, more agile indeed and more tenuous and higher than the lands and no less than the waters, but thicker and heavier than the ether, cold in itself and dark. Light and heat are to it from elsewhere.

[10,2] Sed non per omne spatium sui similis est ; mutatur a proximis. Summa pars eius siccissima calidissimaque et ob hoc etiam tenuissima est propter uiciniam aeternorum ignium et illos tot motus siderum assiduumque caeli circumactum ; illa pars ima et uicina terris densa et caliginosa est, quia terrenas exhalationes receptat ; media pars temperatior, si summis imisque conferas, quantum ad siccitatem tenuitatemque pertinet, ceterum utraque parte frigidior.

[10,2] But it is not similar to itself through its whole expanse ; it is altered by what is proximate.
Its topmost part is driest and hottest, and on this account also thinnest,
because of the vicinity of the eternal fires and
those so many motions of the stars and the constant circum-rotation of the sky ;
that lowest part and adjacent to the lands is dense and
caliginous, because it receives terrestrial exhalations ;
the middle part is more temperate, if you compare it with the highest and the lowest,
so far as dryness and tenuity are concerned,
but otherwise colder than both parts.

[10,3] Nam superiora eius calorem uicinorum siderum sentiunt. Inferiora quoque tepent; primum terrarum halitu, qui multum secum calidi affert ; deinde quia radii solis replicantur et, quousque redire potuerunt, id duplicato calore benignius fouent ; deinde etiam illo spiritu qui omnibus animalibus arbustisque ac satis calidus est, nihil enim uiueret sine calore.

[10,3] For the upper regions of it feel the heat of the neighboring stars. The lower regions also are tepid; first, by the exhalation of the lands, which brings with it much warmth; then because the rays of the sun are reflected and, as far as they have been able to return, they foment that more kindly with doubled heat; then also by that spirit which is sufficiently warm for all animals and shrub-plantings and crops for nothing would live without heat.

[10,4] Adice nunc ignes, non tantum manufactos et certos, sed opertos terris, quorum aliqui eruperunt, innumerabiles in obscuro et condito flagrant semper. Hae tot partes eius fertiles rerum habent quiddam teporis, quoniam quidem sterile frigus est, calor gignit. Media ergo pars aeris ab his summota in frigore suo manet ; natura enim aeris gelida est.

[10,4] Add now fires, not only manufactured and certain, but
those covered by the earth, some of which have erupted, innumerable
in the dark and the concealed they blaze always. These
so many of its parts, fertile in things, have a certain warmth,
since indeed cold is sterile, heat begets.
Therefore the middle part of the air, removed from these, in its own cold
remains; for the nature of air is gelid.

[11,1] Qui cum sic diuisus sit, ima sui parte maxime uarius et inconstans ac mutabilis est. Circa terras plurimum audet, plurimum patitur, exagitat et exagitatur ; nec tamen eodem modo totus afficitur, sed aliter alibi et partibus inquietus ac turbidus est.

[11,1] Since it is thus divided, in its lowest part it is especially
various and inconstant and changeable. Around the lands
it ventures most, it suffers most, it agitates and
is agitated ; and yet it is not as a whole affected in the same way,
but differently elsewhere, and in its parts it is restless and turbid.

[11,2] Causas autem illi mutationis et inconstantiae alias terra praebet, cuius positiones hoc aut illo uersae magna ad aeris temperiem momenta sunt, alias siderum cursus, ex quibus soli plurimum imputes ; illum sequitur annus, ad illius flexum hiemes aestatesque uertuntur. Lunae proximum ius est. Sed ceterae quoque stellae non minus terrena quam incumbentem terris spiritum afficiunt et cursu suo occursuue contrario modo frigora, modo imbres aliasque terris turbide iniurias mouent.

[11,2] But the earth supplies to it causes of mutation and inconstancy of one kind, whose positions, turned this way or that, are of great moment for the tempering of the air, and of another kind the courses of the stars, of which you impute the most to the Sun; the year follows him, and at his bending winters and summers are turned. To the Moon the next right belongs. But the other stars also affect no less things earthly than the spirit incumbent upon the lands, and by their course or by a contrary encounter they set in motion now colds, now showers, and other injuries to the lands, turbulently.

[11,3] Haec necessarium fuit praeloqui dicturo de tonitru fulminibusque ac fulgurationibus. Nam cum in aere fiant, naturam eius explicari oportebat, quo facilius appareret quid facere aut pati posset.

[11,3] These things it was necessary to preface for one about to speak about
thunder, thunderbolts, and fulgurations. For since they happen in the air,
its nature had to be explained, so that it might more easily appear what it
could do or suffer.

[12,1] Tria sunt quae accidunt, fulgurationes, fulmina, tonitrua, quae una facta serius audiuntur. Fulguratio ostendit ignem, fulminatio emittit. Illa, ut ita dicam, comminatio est et conatio sine ictu ; ista iaculatio cum ictu.

[12,1] There are three things that occur: fulgurations,
fulminations, thunders, which, though made together, are heard later.
Fulguration shows the fire; fulmination sends it forth. The former,
so to speak, is a threatening and an attempt without a stroke;
the latter, a hurling with a stroke.

[12,2] Quaedam sunt ex his de quibus inter omnes conuenit, quaedam in quibus diuersae sententiae sunt. Conuenit de illis, omnia ista in nubibus et e nubibus fieri. Etiamnunc conuenit et fulgurationes et fulminationes aut igneas esse aut ignea specie.

[12,2] Some of these are those about which all agree,
some are those in which diverse opinions exist. It is agreed
about the former, that all these things occur in the clouds and from the clouds.
Even now it is agreed that both fulgurations and fulminations
are either fiery or of a fiery appearance.

[12,3] Ad illa nunc transeamus in quibus lis est. Quidam putant ignem inesse nubibus ; quidam ad tempus fieri nec prius esse quam mitti. Ne inter illos quidem qui praeparant ignem conuenit; alius enim illum aliunde colligit.

[12,3] Let us now pass to those matters in which there is dispute. Some think that fire is present in the clouds; others that it is made for the moment and does not exist before it is sent. Not even among those who prepare the fire is there agreement; for one gathers it from elsewhere.

Quidam aiunt radios solis intercurrentis recurrentisque et saepius in se relatos ignem excitare. Anaxagoras ait illum ex aethere destillare et ex tanto ardore caeli multa decidere quae nubes diu inclusa custodiant.

Some say that the rays of the sun, as it runs between and runs back again and are more often reflected back upon themselves, excite fire. Anaxagoras says that it distills from the ether and that, from so great an ardor of the sky, many things fall, which the clouds, long enclosed, keep in custody.

[12,4] Aristoteles multo ante ignem colligi non putat, sed eodem momento exilire quo fiat. Cuius sententia talis est. Duae partes mundi in imo iacent, terra et aqua.

[12,4] Aristotle does not think that fire is gathered long before, but leaps out at the same moment at which it comes to be. Whose opinion is of this sort: Two parts of the world lie at the bottom, earth and water.

Vtraque ex se reddit aliquid terrenus uapor siccus est et fumo similis, qui uentos, fulmina, tonitrua facit ; aquarum halitus umidus est et in imbres et niues cedit.

Each of the two renders something from itself: the terrene vapor is dry and similar to fume, which makes winds, lightnings, thunders; the exhalation of waters is humid and passes into rains and snows.

[12,5] Sed siccus ille terrarum uapor, unde uentis origo est, cum coaceruatus est, coitu nubium uehementer a latere eliditur ; deinde, ut latius, nubes proximas feriet. Haec plaga cum sono incutitur, qualis in nostris ignibus redditur, cum flamma uitio lignorum uirentium crepat. Et illic spiritus habens aliquid umidi secum conglobatusque rumpitur flamma ; eodem modo spiritus ille, quem paulo ante exprimi collisis nubibus dixi, impactus aliis nec rumpi nec exilire silentio potest.

[12,5] But that dry vapor of the lands,
whence the origin of winds is, when it has been heaped together, by the coalescence
of clouds is violently dashed out from the side; then, as
it spreads more broadly, it will strike the nearest clouds. This blow
is inflicted with a sound, such as is produced in our fires,
when the flame crackles by the fault of green logs. And
there the breath, having something of moisture with it and conglobed,
bursts into flame; in the same way that breath which,
a little before, I said is squeezed out by colliding clouds,
when driven against others can neither be burst nor leap forth in silence.

[12,6] Dissimilis autem crepitus fit ob dissimilitudinem nubium, quarum aliae maiorem. sinum habent, aliae minorem. Ceterum illa uis expressi spiritus ignis est qui fulgurationis nomen habet, leui impetu accensus et uanus.

[12,6] But a dissimilar crack is produced on account of the dissimilarity
of the clouds, of which some have a greater recess, others
a smaller. Moreover, that force of the expressed spirit is a fire
which has the name of fulguration, kindled with slight impetus
and vain.

Ante autem uidemus fulgorem quam sonum audimus, quia oculorum uelocior sensus est et multum aures antecedit.

But beforehand we see the flash before we hear the sound,
because the sense of the eyes is swifter and
by much precedes the ears.

[13,1] Falsam autem opinionem esse eorum qui ignem in nubibus seruant, per multa colligi potest. Si de caelo cadit, quomodo non cotidie fit, cum tantumdem semper illic ardeat? Deinde nullam rationem reddiderunt quare ignis, quem natura sursum uocat, defluat.

[13,1] Moreover, that the opinion is false of those who hold that fire is kept
in the clouds, can be gathered from many things. If it
falls from heaven, how is it not done every day, since just as much
is always burning there? Next, they have rendered no reason
why fire, which nature calls upward,
should flow downward.

Alia enim condicio nostrorum ignium est, ex quibus fauillae cadunt, quae ponderis aliquid secum habent ; ita non descendit ignis, sed praecipitatur et deducitur.

For another condition of our fires is,
from which cinders fall, which have with them some weight ; thus fire does not descend, but is precipitated and led down.

[13,2] Huic simile nihil accidit in illo igne purissimo, in quo nihil est quod deprimatur. Aut si ulla pars eius exciderit, in periculo totus est, quia totum. potest excidere quod potest carpi.

[13,2] Nothing similar happens in

that most pure fire, in which there is nothing that can be pressed downward. Or if any part of it should fall out, the whole is in peril,

because, as a whole, it can fall out. What can be plucked can fall out.

Deinde illud quod cadit leue est an graue? Leue est? Non potest ruere quod cadere leuitas prohibet; si in abdito suo tenet graue, quomodo illic esse potuit unde caderet?

Next, that which falls— is it light or heavy? Light
is it? What levity prevents from falling cannot rush downward;

if in its own hidden recess it holds the heavy, how
could it have been there whence it fell?

[13,3] Quid ergo? non aliqui ignes in inferiora ferri solent, sicut haec ipsa de quibus quaerimus fulmina? Fateor.

[13,3] What then? Are not some fires wont to be carried into the lower regions, just like these very thunderbolts about which we are inquiring? I confess.

Non eunt tamen, sed feruntur ; aliqua illos potentia deprimit. Quae non est in aethere ; nihil enim illic iniuria cogitur, nihil rumpitur, nihil praeter solitum euenit.

Not they go, however, but are borne ; some potency depresses them. Which is not in the aether ; for there nothing is compelled by injury, nothing is ruptured, nothing comes to pass beyond the customary.

[13,4] Ordo rerum est, et expurgatus ignis in custodia mundi summa sortitus oras operis pulcherrimi circumit. Hic descendere non potest, sed ne ab externo quidem deprimi, quia in aethere nulli incerto corpori locus est ; certa et ordinata non pugnant.

[13,4] There is an order of things, and the purified fire in
the supreme custody of the world, having obtained the borders of the most beautiful work, goes around.
This cannot descend, but not even from
without can it be pressed down, because in the aether there is place for no uncertain
body ; things certain and ordered do not contend.

[14,1] Vos, inquit, dicitis, cum causas stellarum transuolantium redditis, posse aliquas aeris partes ad se trahere ignem ex locis superioribus et hoc ardore accendi. Sed plurimum interest utrum aliquis dicat ignem ex aethere decidere, quod natura non patitur, an dicat ex ignea ui calorem in ea quae subiacent transilire. Non enim illinc ignis cadit, quod non potest fieri, sed hic nascitur.

[14,1] You, he says, say, when you render the causes of shooting stars,
that certain parts of the air are able to draw fire to themselves
from higher places and to be kindled by this ardor. But it makes a very great difference whether
someone says that fire falls down from the aether, which nature
does not permit, or says that by fiery force heat leaps across into the things that are subjacent.
For fire does not fall from there, which cannot be done, but here it is born.

[14,2] Videmus certe apud nos late incendio peruagante quasdam insulas quae diu concaluerunt ex se concipere flammam ; itaque uerisimile est etiam in aere summo id quod ignis rapiendi naturam habet accendi calore aetheris superpositi. Necesse est enim ut et imus aether habeat aliquid aeri simile et summus aer non sit dissimilis imo aetheri, quia non fit statim in diuersum ex diuerso transitus ; paulatim. ista in confinio uim suam miscent ita ut dubitare possis aer an hic iam aether sit.

[14,2] We certainly see, among us, when a conflagration is widely pervading, that certain islands which have long grown hot conceive flame from themselves; and so it is very likely that even in the highest air that which has a nature apt to be seized by fire is kindled by the heat of the aether placed above. For it is necessary that the lowest aether have something similar to air and that the highest air not be dissimilar to the lowest aether, because the passage into a different thing from a different thing does not happen at once; little by little those things on the boundary mix their power, so that you can doubt whether this is air or already aether.

[15,1] Quidam ex nostris existimant aera, cum in ignem et aquam mutabilis sit, non detrahere aliunde causas flammarum nouas ; ipse enim se mouendo accendit et, cum. denses compactosque nubium. sinus dissipat, necessario uastum in tam magnorum corporum diruptione reddit sonum.

[15,1] Certain of our people estimate that the air, since it is mutable into fire and water, does not draw down from elsewhere new causes of flames; for it ignites by moving itself and, when. it dissipates the dense and compact folds of the clouds. of necessity renders a vast sound in the disruption of such great bodies.

Illa porro nubium difficulter cedentium pugna aliquid confert ad concitandum ignem sic quemadmodum ferro ad secandum aliquid manus confert, sed secare ferri est.

Moreover, that struggle of the clouds
that yield with difficulty contributes something to
kindling fire, just as with iron to
cutting something the hand contributes; but to cut is the iron’s.

[16,1] Quid ergo inter fulgurationem et fulmen interest? Dicam. Fulguratio est late ignis explicitus, fulmen est coactus ignis et in impetum iactus.

[16,1] What, then, is the difference between fulguration and thunderbolt is there? I will tell. Fulguration is fire unfolded broadly, thunderbolt is compacted fire and hurled into an onrush.

Solemus duabus manibus inter se iunctis aquam concipere et compressa utrimque palma in modum siponis exprimere. Simile quiddam et illic fieri puta : nubium inter se compressarum angustiae medium spiritum eiciunt et hoc ipso inflammant ac tormenti modo emittunt ; nam ballistae quoque scorpionesque tela cum sono expellunt.

We are wont, with two hands joined to each other, to take up water
and, the palm compressed on both sides, to squeeze it out in the manner
of a siphon. Think that something similar happens there too:
the narrowness of clouds compressed together drives out the air between,
and by this very act they inflame it and, in the manner of a war‑engine, send it forth;
for ballistae and scorpions also expel projectiles with a sound.

[17,1] Quidam existimant igneum spiritum per frigida atque umida meantem sonum reddere. Nam ne ferrum quidem ardens silentio, tinguitur, sed, si in aquam feruens massa descendit, cum multo murmure extinguitur. Ita, ut Anaximenes ait, spiritus incidens nubibus tonitrua edit et, dum luctatur per obstantia atque interscissa uadere, ipsa ignem fuga accendit.

[17,1] Some think that an igneous spirit, going through
cold and wet things, renders sound. For
not even burning iron is quenched in silence, but,
if a fervent mass descends into water, with much
murmur it is extinguished. Thus, as Anaximenes says,
a spirit striking upon the clouds puts forth thunders, and, while
it struggles to go through the obstacles and the things split asunder,
by its very flight it kindles fire.

[18,1] Anaximandrus omnia ad spiritum rettulit. Tonitrua, inquit, sunt nubis ictae sonus. Quare inaequalia sunt?

[18,1] Anaximander referred everything to spirit. Thunderclaps, he says, are the sound of a cloud that has been struck. Why are they unequal?

Quia et ipse ictus inaequalis est. Quare et sereno tonat? Quia tunc quoque per crassum et scissum aera spiritus prosilit.

Because the stroke itself is unequal as well. Why does it thunder even in serene weather? Because then too the spirit leaps forth through thick and cleft air.

At quare aliquando non fulgurat et tonat? Quia spiritus infirmior non ualuit in flammam, in sonum ualuit. Quid est ergo ipsa fulguratio?

But why is it that sometimes
it does not flash, and yet it thunders? Because the weaker spirit
did not have strength for flame; it had strength for sound. What, then, is
the fulguration itself?

Aeris diducentis se corruentisque iactatio languidum ignem nec exiturum pariens. Quid est fulmen? Acrioris densiorisque spiritus cursus.

The tossing of the air, as it is drawing itself apart and collapsing,
begetting a languid fire that will not issue forth.
What is the thunderbolt? The course of a sharper and denser spirit.

[19,1] Anaxagoras ait omnia ista sic fieri ut ex aethere aliqua uis in inferiora descendat. Ita ignis impactus nubibus frigidis sonat ; at, cum illas interscindit, fulget, et minor uis ignium fulgurationes facit, maior fulmina.

[19,1] Anaxagoras says that all those things come to pass thus: that from
the aether some force descends into the lower regions. Thus fire
impacted into cold clouds resounds ; but, when it
cleaves them apart, it flashes, and the lesser force of fires makes fulgurations,
the greater, thunderbolts.

[20,1] Diogenes Apolloniates ait quaedam tonitrua igne, quaedam spiritu fieri ; illa ignis facit quae ipse antecedit et nuntiat ; illa spiritus quae sine splendore crepuerunt.

[20,1] Diogenes of Apollonia says that certain thunderclaps come to be from fire, certain from spirit; those the fire produces which itself precedes and announces; those the spirit produces which have crepitated without splendor.

[20,2] Vtrumque sine altero esse aliquando concedo, ita tamen ut non discreta illis potestas sit, sed utrumque ab utroque effici possit. Quis enim negabit spiritum magno impetu latum, cum effecerit sonum, effecturum et ignem? Quis autem non et hoc concedet aliquando ignem quoque irrumpere posse nubes et non exilire, si plurium aceruo nubium, cum paucas perscidisset, oppressus est?

[20,2] I grant that either can sometimes be without the other, yet in such a way that their power is not discrete, but that each can be effected by each. Who, indeed, will deny that the spirit borne with great impetus, when it has effected a sound, will also effect fire? And who will not also concede this, that sometimes fire too can irrupt into the clouds and not leap forth, if, by a heap of more clouds, after it has slit a few, it has been pressed down?

Ergo et ignis ibit in spiritum perdetque fulgorem, et spiritus, dum secta intra incendit.

Therefore even fire will go into the spirit and will lose its effulgence, and the spirit, while it kindles within the cleft.

[20,3] Adice nunc quod necesse est impetus fulminis et praemittat spiritus agatque ante se, et a tergo trahat uentum, cum tam uasto ictu aera inciderit. Itaque omnia, antequam feriantur, intremesculit uibrata uento quem ignis ante se pressit.

[20,3] Add now that it is necessary that the impetus of the thunderbolt both
send forth a spirit and drive it before itself, and from the rear
draw wind, when with so vast a stroke it has cut into the air.
And so all things, before they are struck, quiver,
vibrated by the wind which the fire has pressed before itself.

[21,1] Dimissis nunc praeceptoribus nostris incipiamus per nos moueri et a confessis transeamus ad dubia. Quid enim confessi est? Fulmen ignem esse, aquae fulgurationem, quae nihil aliud est quam flamma, futura fulmen, si plus uirium habuisset ; non natura ista sed impetu distant.

[21,1] Our preceptors now dismissed,
let us begin to move on our own and pass from things confessed
to things doubtful. For what is confessed? That the thunderbolt is fire,
that the fulguration of water, which is nothing else than flame,
would have been a thunderbolt, if it had had more force ;
these differ not by nature but by impetus.

[21,2] Esse illum ignem calor ostendit, qui non est nisi ex eo. Ostendit effectus : magnorum enim saepe incendiorum causa fulmen fuit ; siluae illo concrematae et urbium partes ; etiam quae non percussa sunt, tamen adusta cernuntur ; quaedam uero ueluti fuligine colorantur. Quid quod omnibus fulguratis odor sulphuris est?

[21,2] That it is fire, heat shows, which comes only from it. The effect shows it: for the thunderbolt has often been the cause of great conflagrations; forests have been burned up by it, and parts of cities; even things which have not been struck are nevertheless seen to be scorched; certain things indeed are colored as if with soot. What of the fact that for all things struck by lightning there is an odor of sulfur?

[21,3] Ergo et utramque rem ignem esse constat et utramque rem inter se meando distare ; fulguratio enim est non perlatum usque in terras fulmen, et rursus licet dicas fulmen esse fulgurationem usque in terras perductam.

[21,3] Therefore it is agreed that both things are fire, and that both things differ between themselves in their transit; for a lightning-flash is a thunderbolt not borne through as far as the earth, and conversely you may say that a thunderbolt is a lightning-flash conducted all the way to the earth.

[21,4] Non ad exercendum uerba diutius hoc idem tracto, sed ut cognata esse ista et eiusdem notae ac naturae probem. Fulmen est quiddam plus quam fulguratio. Vertamus istud: fulguratio est paene fulmen.

[21,4] I do not handle this same matter longer for the exercise of words, but so that I may prove that these things are cognate and of the same note and nature.

The thunderbolt is something more than a fulguration.

Let us turn that: a fulguration is almost a thunderbolt.

[22,1] Quoniam constat utramque rem ignem esse, uideamus quemadmodum ignis fieri soleat apud nos ; eadem enim ratione et supra fit. Duobus modis, uno si excitatur sicut e lapide ; altero si attritu inuenitur, sicut cum duo ligna inter se diutius trita sunt. Non omnis hoc tibi materia praestabit, sed idonea eliciendis ignibus: sicut laurus, hederae et alia in hunc usum nota pastoribus.

[22,1] Since it is agreed that each thing is fire

let us see how fire is wont to be made
among us ; for by the same method it is made above as well.

In two ways, one if it is excited as from stone ;
the other if it is found by attrition, as when two sticks have
been rubbed against each other for a rather long time. Not every material will
afford this to you, but one suitable for eliciting fires: like laurel,
ivies, and others known to shepherds for this use.

[22,2] Potest ergo fieri ut nubes quoque ignem eodem modo uel percussae reddant uel attritae. Videamus quantis procellae uiribus ruant, quanto uertantur impetu turbines ; id quod obuium, fuit, dissipatur et rapitur et longe a loco suo proicitur.

[22,2] Therefore it can come about that the clouds likewise give back fire in the same
way, either when they are struck or when they are abraded. Let us see
with what forces the storms rush down, with what impetus the whirlwinds are turned ;
whatever lies in their way is scattered and snatched up and is projected far
from its own place.

[22,3] Quid ergo mirum, si tanta uis ignem excutit uel aliunde uel sibi? Vides enim quantum feruorem sensura sint corpora horum transitu trita, nec hoc in his tantum debere credi, ac in ui siderum, quorum ingens et confessa potentia est.

[22,3] What, then, is surprising, if so great a force strikes out fire either from elsewhere
or from itself? For you see how much heat the bodies are to feel, rubbed by the passage of these,
and that this ought to be believed not only in these things, but also in the force of the stars,
whose power is vast and acknowledged.

[23,1] sed fortasse nubes quoque in nubes incitatae fremente uento et leuiter urgente ignem euocabunt qui explendescat nec exiliat ; minore enim ni ad fulgurandum opus est quam ad fulminandum.

[23,1] but perhaps clouds too, incited against clouds,
with the wind roaring and lightly urging, will evoke a fire
which may become resplendent and not leap forth; for less
is required to fulgurate than to fulminate.

[23,2] Superioribus collegimus in quantum feruorem quaedam attrita perducerentur. Cum autem aer mutabilis in ignem maximis uiribus, id est suis, cum. in uentum conuersus est, atteratur, credibile est uerisimile, ignem excuti caducum et cito interiturum, quia non ex solida materia oritur nec in qua possit consistere.

[23,2] In the preceding we gathered to what fervor
certain things, when rubbed, are brought. But when the air,
mutable into fire by the greatest forces—that is, by its own—, when turned into wind, is abraded, it is credible, verisimilar,
that fire is shaken out, caducous and quickly perishing, because it does not
arise from solid matter nor in any in which it can subsist.

Transit itaque tantumque habet morae quantum itineris et cursus : sine alimento proiectus est.

Thus it transits, and it has as much delay as of the journey and the course: it is projected without aliment.

[24,1] Quomodo, inquit, cum dicatis ignis hanc esse naturam ut petat superiora, fulmen terram petit? Aut falsum est quod de igne dixistis ; est enim illi aeque sursuin iter quam deorsum. Vtrumque uerum potest esse.

[24,1] How, he says, since you say that this is the nature of fire, that it seeks the upper regions, does the thunderbolt seek the earth? Or what you have said about fire is false; for it has an equal path upward as downward. Both can be true.

Ignis enim natura in uerticem surgit et, si nihil illum prohibet, ascendit, sicut a qua natura defertur ; si tamen aliqua uis accessit quae illam in contrarium circumageret, illo intenditur unde imbre deiecta est.

For fire by nature into the vertex rises and, if nothing prevents it, ascends, just as by the nature by which it is borne downward ; if, however, some force has acceded which would wheel that into the contrary, thither it is directed whence it was cast down by the shower.

[24,2] Fulmen autem cadit eadem necessitate qua excutitur. ld his ignibus accidit quod arboribus quarum cacumina, si tenera sunt, ita deorsum trahi possunt ut etiam terram attingant, sed cum permiseris, in locum suum exilient. Itaque non est quod eum spectes cuiusque rei habitum qui illi non ex uoluntate est.

[24,2] However, lightning falls by the same necessity by which it is discharged.
The same thing happens to these fires as to trees whose
summits, if they are tender, can be drawn downward in such a way that they even touch the earth,
but when you let them go, they spring back into their place. And so there is no reason for you to regard as the habit/state of anything that which it has not by its own volition.

[24,3] Si ignem permittis ira quo uelit, caelum, id est leuissimi cuiusque sedem, repetet; ubi est aliquid quod eum ferat et ab impetu suo auertat, id non natura, sed seruitus eius fit.

[24,3] If you allow fire to go where it wishes,
it will return to heaven, that is, the seat of whatever is most light; where
there is something that carries it and turns it away from its own impetus,
that becomes not its nature, but its servitude.

[25,1] Dicis, inquit, nubes attritas edere ignem, cum sint umidae, immo udae ; quomodo ergo possunt gignere ignem, quem non magis uerisimile est ex nube quam ex aqua generari?

[25,1] You say, he says, that clouds rubbed together give forth fire, since they are moist, nay, wet ; how therefore can they generate fire, a thing not more likely to be generated from a cloud than from water?

[26,1] Ex nube nascitur. Primum in nubibus non ˆqua est, sed aer spissus, ad gignendam aquam praeparatus, nondum in illam mutatus, sed iam pronus et uergens. Non est quod existimes eam tum collig”, tum effundi.

[26,1] It is born from a cloud. First, in clouds there is not water, but thick air, prepared for engendering water, not yet changed into it, but already prone and verging. There is no reason for you to suppose it then to be gathered, then to be poured out.

Simul et fit et cadit.

At the same time it both is formed and falls.

[26,2] Deinde, si concessero umidam esse nubem conceptis aquis plenam, nihil tamen prohibet ignem ex umido quoque educi, immo ex ipso, quod magis mireris, umore. Quidam negauerunt in ignem quicquam posse mutari, priusquam mutatum esset in aquam. Potest ergo nubes, salua quam continet aqua, ignem parte aliqua sui reddere, ut saepe alia pars ligni ardet, alia sudat.

[26,2] Then, if I shall have conceded that a cloud is humid, full with waters conceived,
nevertheless nothing prohibits fire from being educed even from the humid,
nay, from the moisture itself, which you may marvel at more.
Certain men have denied that anything can
be mutated into fire before it has been mutated into water. Therefore
a cloud, the water which it contains being safe, can render fire from some
part of itself, as often one part of wood burns, another sweats.

[26,3] Nec hoc dico non contraria inter se ista esse et alterum altero perimi ; sed ubi ualentior ignis quam umor est, uincit ; rursus, cum copia umoris exsuperat, tunc ignis sine effectu est ; itaque non ardent uirentia. Refert ergo quantum aquae sit ; exigua enim non resistet nec uim ignis impediet.

[26,3] Nor do I say that these are not contraries to one another and that the one is destroyed by the other ; but where fire is stronger than moisture, it conquers ; again, when the abundance of moisture overmasters, then fire is without effect ; and so green things do not burn. It matters, therefore, how much water there is ; for a small amount will not resist nor impede the force of fire.

[26,4] Quidni? Maiorum nostrorum memoria, ut Posidonius tradidit, cum insula in Aegaeo mari surgeret, spumabat interdiu mare et fumus ex alto ferebatur. Nox demum prodebat ignem, non continuum sed ex interuallis emicantem fulminum more, quotiens ardor infernus iacentis super undae pondus euicerat.

[26,4] Why not? In the memory of our ancestors, as
Posidonius has handed down, when an island in the Aegean Sea
was rising, the sea foamed by day and smoke from the deep
was borne. Night at last brought forth fire, not continuous
but flashing out at intervals in the manner of lightnings,
whenever the infernal ardor had overcome the weight of the overlying wave.

[26,5] Deinde saxa euoluta rupesque partim illaesae, quas spiritus, antequam urerentur, expulerat, partim exesae et in leuitatem pumicis uersae. Nouissime cacumen exusti montis emicuit. Postea altitudini adiectum et saxum illud in magnitudinem insulae creuit.

[26,5] Then stones rolled out and the cliffs, partly unharmed, which the breath, before they were burned, had driven out, partly eaten away and turned into the lightness of pumice. Last of all the summit of the burnt mountain leapt forth. Afterwards an addition was made to its altitude, and that rock grew to the magnitude of an island.

[26,6] Idem nostra memoria Valerio Asiatico consule iterum accidit. Quorsus haec rettuli? Vt appareret nec extinctum ignem mari superfuso, nec impetum eius grauitate ingentis undae prohibitum exire ; ducentorum passuum fuisse altitudinem Asclepiodotus, auditor Posidonii, tradidit, per quam.

[26,6] The same thing happened again within our memory, when Valerius Asiaticus was consul. To what end have I recounted these things? So that it might appear that neither was the fire extinguished with the sea superfused,
nor its impetus prohibited from going out by the gravity
of an enormous wave; of two hundred paces
was the height, Asclepiodotus, auditor of Posidonius,
handed down, through which.

diremptis aquis ignis emersit.

with the waters parted, the fire emerged.

[26,7] Quod si immensa aquarum uis flammarum ex imo subeuntem uim non potuit opprimere, quanto minus impedire poterit ignem nubium tenuis umor et roscidus? Adeo res ista non affert ullam moram ut contra causa ignium sit ; quos non uidemus emicare nisi impendente caelo ; serenum sine fulmine est. Non lial~et istos metus dies purus, ne nox quidem nis” obscura nubibus.

[26,7] But if the immense force of waters could not oppress the force of flames rising up from the depths, how much less will the thin and dewy moisture of the clouds be able to impede the fire? So far does this matter not bring any delay that, on the contrary, it is a cause of the fires; which we do not see flash forth unless the sky is impending; the serene sky is without lightning. A clear day brings none of these fears, nor even the night unless dark with clouds.

[26,8] Quid ergo? non aliquando etiam apparentibus stellis et nocte tranquilla fulgurat? Sed scias licet, illic nubes esse unde splendor effertur, quas uideri a nobis terrarum tumor non sinit.

[26,8] What then? Does it not sometimes
even with the stars apparent and the night tranquil, flash with lightning?
But know that there are clouds there whence the splendor
is borne forth, which the bulge of the earth does not allow to be seen by us.

[26,9] Adice nunc quod fieri potest ut nubes summissae et humiles attritu suo ignem reddant ; qui in superiora expressus, in parte caeli sincera puraque uisitur, sed fit in sordida.

[26,9] Add now that it can happen that clouds sent down and low, by their own attrition, render fire ; which expressed into the upper regions, in the sincere and pure part of the sky is seen, but is made in the sordid.

[27,1] Tonitrua distinxere quidam ita ut dicerent unum esse genus cuius graue sit murmur, quale terrarum motum antecedit clauso uento et fremente. Hoc quomodo uideatur illis fieri dicam.

[27,1] Certain persons have distinguished thunders in such a way that
they say there is one kind whose murmur is grave,
such as precedes an earthquake, with the wind shut in and
roaring. How this seems to them to happen I will say.

[27,2] Cum spiritum intra se clausere nubes, in concauis partibus earum uolutatus aer similem agit mugitibus sonum, raucum et aequalem et continuum, utique ubi etiam umida illa regio est et exitum claudit ; ideo eiusmodi tonitrua uenturi praenuntia imbris sunt.

[27,2] When the clouds have enclosed a breath within themselves, in the concave
parts of them the air, rolled about, produces a sound like bellowings,
hoarse and even and continuous,
particularly where that region is also moist and shuts off an exit; therefore
thunders of this sort are harbingers of coming rain.

[27,3] Aliud genus est acre, quod acerbum magis dixerim quam sonorum, quale audire solemus, cum super caput alicuius dirupta uesica est ; talia eduptur tonitrua, cum conglobata nubes dissoluitur et eum quo distenta fuerat spiritum emittit. Hic proprie fragor dicitur, subitus et uehemens. Quo edito concidunt homines et exanimantur ; quidam uero uiui stupent et in totum sibi excidunt, quos uocamus attonitos, uni mentem sonus ille caelestis loco pepulit.

[27,3] Another kind is sharp, which I would call more acrid
than sonorous, such as we are accustomed to hear,
when above someone’s head a bladder has burst; such
thunderclaps are belched forth, when a conglobated cloud is dissolved
and emits the breath by which it had been distended. This
is properly called a crash, sudden and vehement. When this
is uttered, men collapse and are exanimate; yet some
indeed, while alive, are stupefied and altogether fall out of themselves, whom
we call thunderstruck; that celestial sound has driven their
mind from its single seat.

[27,4] Hic fieri illo quoque modo potest ut inclusus aer caua nube et motu ipso extenuatus diffundatur ; deinde, dum. maiorem sibi locum quaerit, a quibus inuolutus est, sonum patitur. Quid autem?

[27,4] Here it can also happen in that way that the air enclosed in a hollow cloud and attenuated by the motion itself is diffused ; then, while it seeks a greater space for itself, from those things by which it is wrapped, it suffers sound. What then?

non, quemadmodum illisae inter se manus plausum edunt, sic illisarum inter se nubium sonus potest esse, magnus quia magna concurrunt?

is it not that, just as hands dashed against one another produce applause, so the sound of clouds dashed against one another can exist—great because great things concur?

[28,1] Videmus, inquit, nubes impingi montibus nec sonum, fieri. Primum. omnium non quocumque modo illisae sunt sonant, sed si apte compo,sitae ad sonum edendum.

[28,1] We see, he says, clouds impinging
upon mountains and that no sound is produced. First of all, not
in whatever way they are struck together do they sound, but only if they are aptly
composed for emitting sound.

Auersas inter se manus collide, non plaudent ; sed palma cum palma collata plausum. facit ; et plurimum interest utrum cauae concutiantur an planae et extentae. Deinde non tantum ire nubes oportet sed agi magna ui et procellosa.

Collide hands turned away from each other, they will not clap ; but palm with palm matched makes a clap ; and it makes a very great difference whether they are hollow or flat and outstretched. Then not only must the clouds go but be driven with great force and tempestuously.

[28,2] Etiamnunc mons non findit nubem, sed digerit et primain quamque partem eius soluit. Ne uesica quidem, quocumque modo spiritum emisit, sonat : si ferro diuisa est, sine ullo aurium sensu exit ; rumpi illam oportet, ut sonet, non secari. Idem de nubibus dico ; nisi multo impetu dissolutae, non sonant.

[28,2] Even now a mountain does not cleave a cloud, but separates and loosens the foremost part of it, whatever it is. Not even a bladder, in whatever way it has emitted its breath, sounds : if it is cut with iron, it goes out without any sensation for the ears, it must be burst, in order that it may sound, not cut. I say the same about clouds ; unless dissolved with much force, they do not sound.

Adice nunc quod nubes in montem actae non franguntur, sed circumfunduntur et in aliquas partes montis, in arbores, rames, frutices, aspera saxa et eminentia; et ita discutiuntur, et, si quem habent spiritum, multifariam emittunt, qui, nisi uniuersus erumpit, nec crepat.

Add now that clouds driven against a mountain are not broken, but are poured around and upon some parts of the mountain, upon trees, branches, shrubs, rough rocks and eminences; and thus they are dispersed, and, if they have any breath, they emit it multifariously, which, unless it bursts forth as a whole, does not crepitate.

[28,3] Hoc ut scias, uentus qui circa arborem finditur sibilat, non tonat ; lato, ut ita dicam, ictu et totum globum semel dissipante opus est, ut sonitus erumpat qualis auditur, cum tonat.

[28,3] That you may know this, the wind which is split around a tree whistles—sibilates—, not
thunders; a broad, so to speak, stroke, dispersing the whole mass at once, is needed,
so that a sound may erupt such as is heard when it thunders.

[29,1] Praeter haec natura aptus est aer ad uoces. Quidni, cum uox nihil aliud sit quam ictus aer? Debent ergo nubes utrimque conseri, et cauae et intentae.

[29,1] Besides these things, by nature the air is apt for
voices. Why not, since voice is nothing other than a blow of
air? Therefore the clouds must be joined on both sides, both concave
and stretched.

Vides enim quanto uocaliora sint uacua quam plena, quanto intenta quam remissa. Item tympana et cymbala sonant, quia illa repugnantem ex ulteriore parte spiritum pulsant, haec et ipso aere non nisi cauo tinniunt.

For you see how much more vocal voids are
than full things, how much the taut than the remiss. Likewise
tympana and cymbals sound, because the former strike the resisting
breath from the farther side, while the latter tinkle only with the
air itself when hollow.

[30,1] Quidam, inter quos Asclepiodotus est, iudicant sic quorundam quoque corporum concursu tonitrum et fulmina excuti posse. Aetna aliquando multo igne abundauit, ingentem uim harenae urentis effudit,, inuolutus est dies puluere, populosque subita nox terruit. Aiunt tunc plurima fuisse fulmina et tonitrua quae concursu aridorum corporum facta sunt, non nubium, quas uerisimile est in tanto feruore aeris nullas fuisse.

[30,1] Certain men, among whom is Asclepiodotus,
judge that thus also by the concourse of certain bodies
thunder and lightning can be struck out. Etna at one time
abounded with much fire, poured forth a huge force of burning sand,,
the day was wrapped in dust, and a sudden night
terrified peoples. They say that then there were very many lightnings and
thunders which were made by the concourse of dry bodies, not of clouds,
which it is likely that in so great a fervor of the air there were none.

[30,2] Aliquando Cambyses ad Ammonem misit exercitum, quem harena austro, mota et more niuis incidens texit, deinde obruit ; tunc quoque uerisimile est fuisse tonitrum fulminaque attritu harenae sese affricantis.

[30,2] At one time Cambyses sent an army to Ammon, which the sand, with the south wind set in motion and falling in the manner of snow, covered, then overwhelmed ; then also it is likely that there were thunder and lightning from the attrition of sand rubbing itself.

[30,3] Non repugnat proposito nostro ista opinio. Diximus enim utriusque naturae corpora efflare terras et sicci aliquid et umidi in toto acre uagari ; itaque si quid tale interuenit, nubem fecit solidiorem et crassiorem quam si tantum simplici spiritu texeretur. Illa frangi potest et edere sonum.

[30,3] This opinion does not run counter to our proposition.
For we have said that the lands exhale bodies of both natures,
and that something of the dry and of the moist wanders in the whole air ;
and so, if something of that sort intervenes, it has made the cloud more solid
and thicker than if it were woven only by a simple spirit.
That can be broken and emit a sound.

[30,4] Ista quae dixi, sine incendiis uaporantibus aera repleuerunt, siue uentis terras uerrentibus, necesse est nubem faciant ante quam sonum. Nubem autem tam arida quam umida conserunt ; est enim, ut diximus, nubes spissitudo aeris crassi.

[30,4] Those things which I have said, without fires vaporizing, have filled the air,
or with winds sweeping the lands, it is necessary that they make a cloud
before they make a sound. But both dry things and moist things knit together a cloud ; for, as we have said,
a cloud is the spissitude of crass air.

[31,1] Ceterum luira fulminis, si intueri uelis, opera sunt nec quicquam dubii relinquentia quin diuina sit illius ac subtilis potentia. Loculis integris et illaesis conflatur argentum ; manente uagina gladius ipse liquescit, et inuiolato ligno circa pila ferrum omne destillat ; stat fracto dolio uinum nec ultra triduum ille rigor durat.

[31,1] Moreover, the works of the thunderbolt, if you wish to look upon them, are such as to leave nothing doubtful that its power is divine and subtle. With coffers intact and unharmed, silver is fused; with the scabbard remaining, the sword itself liquefies, and with the wood around the stake inviolate, all the iron drips away; the wine stands with the cask broken, nor does that rigidity last beyond three days.

[31,2] Illud aeque inter adnotanda ponas licet quod et hominum et ceterorum animalium. quae icta sunt caput spectat ad exitum fulminis, quod omnium percussarum arborum contra fulmina astulae surgunt. Quid quod malarum serpentium et aliorum.

[31,2] You may likewise set down among things to be noted this: that both in humans and in other animals, those which have been struck, the head looks toward the exit of the lightning-bolt, since in all trees that have been struck the splinters rise up against the bolts. What of the jaws of serpents and of others?

animalium quibus mortifera uis inest, cum fulmine icta sunt, uenenum omne consumitur? - Unde, inquit, scis? - In uenenatis corporibus uermis non nascitur .; fulmine icta intra paucos dies uerminant.

of animals in which a mortiferous force is present, when they are struck by lightning, is all venom consumed? - "Whence," says he, "do you know?" - In venomous bodies a worm is not born; those struck by lightning within a few days swarm with worms.

[32,1] Quid quod futura portendunt, nec unius tantum aut alterius rei signa dant, sed saepe longum fatorum. sequentium ordinem nuntiant, et quidem notis euidentibus longeque clarioribus quam si scriberentur?

[32,1] What of the fact that they portend future things, and do not give

signs of only one or another matter, but often announce a long

sequence of the following fates, and indeed

with evident marks and far clearer than if

they were written?

[32,2] Hoc inter nos et Tuscos, quibus summa est fulgurum persequendorum scientia, interest : nos putamus, quia nubes collisae sunt, fulmina emitti ; ipsi existimant nubes collidi ut fulmina emittantur ; nam, cum omnia ad deum referant, in ea opirione sunt tamquam. non, quia facta sunt, significent, sed quia significatura sunt, fiant. Eadem tamen ratione fiunt, siue illis significare propositum, siue consequens est.

[32,2] This is the difference between us and the Tuscans, to whom
the supreme science of pursuing lightning belongs:
we think that, because the clouds have collided, lightnings
are emitted; they think the clouds collide in order that lightnings
may be emitted; for, since they refer all things to god,
they are in that opinion as though not that, because things have been done,
they signify, but that, because they are going to signify, they come to be. The same
nevertheless happen by the same reason, whether for them it is the purpose to signify,
or it is a consequent.

[32,3] Quomodo ergo significant, nisi ”deo mittuntur? Quomodo aues non in hoc motae ut nobis occurrerent dextrum. auspicium sinistrumque fecerunt.

[32,3] How, then, do they signify, unless they are sent by god? How did birds, not moved for this purpose so that they might occur to us, make the right and the left auspice.

Et illas, inquit, deus mouit. Nimis illum otiosum. et pusillae rei ministrum, facis, si aliis somnia, aliis exta disponit.

And those as well, he says, god moved.
You make him too idle, and a minister of petty matters, if to some he allots dreams,
to others entrails.

[32,4] Ista nihilominus diuina ope geruntur, si non a deo pennae auium reguntur nec pecudum, uiscera sub ipsa securi formantur. Alia ratione fatorum series explicatur indicia uenturi ubique praemittens, ex quibus quaedam nobis familiaria, quaedam ignota sunt. Quicquid fit, alicuius rei futurae signum est.

[32,4] Nevertheless, those things are carried on by divine aid, even if the feathers of birds are not governed by God, nor the viscera of cattle are formed under the very axe. By another rationale the series of the Fates is explicated, sending ahead everywhere indices of what is to come, of which some are familiar to us, some unknown. Whatever happens is a sign of some future thing.

Fortuita et sine ratione uaga diuinationem non recipiunt ; cuius rei ordo est, etiam praedictio est.

Fortuitous things and things wandering without reason do not admit divination ; whereof there is order, there is also prediction.

[32,5] Cur ergo aquilae hic honor datus est ut magnarum rerum faceret auspicia, aut coruo et paucissimis auibus, ceterarum sine praesagio uox est? Quia quaedam !iondum in artem redacta sunt, quaedam uero ne redigi quidem possunt ob nin:iium remotam conuersationem ; ceterum nullum. animal est quod non motu et occursu suo praedicat aliquid.

[32,5] Why therefore has this honor been given to the eagle, to make the auspices of great matters,
or to the raven and to very few birds,
while the voice of the rest is without presage? Because certain things
have not yet been reduced into an art, and certain indeed cannot
even be reduced on account of too remote a way of life;
otherwise there is no animal that does not
by its movement and its encounter pre-tell something.

Non omnia scilicet, sed quaedam notantur.

Not everything of course, but certain things are noted.

[32,6] Auspicium obseruantis est ; ad eum itaque pertinet qui in ea direxit animum. Ceterum fiunt et illa quae pereunt.

[32,6] The auspice is the observer’s; and so it pertains to him who has directed his mind to it. Moreover, those things also come to pass which perish.

[32,7] Quinque stellarum potestates Chaldaeorum obseruatio excepit quid? tu tot illa milia siderum iudicas otiosa lucere? Quid est porro aliud quod errorem maximum incutiat peritis natalium quam, quod paucis nos sideribus assignˆnt, cum omnia quae supra nos sunt partem nostri sibi uindicent?

[32,7] The observation of the Chaldaeans has picked out the powers of the five stars what? do you judge that all those thousands of stars shine idly? What, moreover, is there that instills the greatest error into experts in nativities than this: that they assign us to a few stars, while all the things that are above us claim a share of us for themselves?

Summissiora forsitan propius in nos uim suam dirigunt et ea quae frequentius mota aliter nos aliterque prospiciunt. Ceterum et illa quae aut immota sunt aut propter uelocitatem uniuerso parem immotis similia non extra ius dominiumque nostri sunt. Alium aliud aspicit ; distributis rem offlciis tractant ; non magis autem facile est scire quid possint, quam dubitari debet an possint.

Perhaps the lower-lying things direct their force more closely upon us, and those which are more frequently moved look upon us now in one way, now in another. Moreover, even those which are either immobile, or, because of a velocity equal to the universe, are similar to things immobile, are not outside the right and dominion—indeed the jurisdiction—over us. One regards one thing, another another; with the offices distributed, they manage the matter. Yet it is no more easy to know what they can do than it ought to be a matter of doubt whether they can do anything.

[33,1] Nunc ad fulmina reuertamur. Quorum ars in haec tria diuiditur : quemadmodum exploremus, quemadmodum interpretemur ; quemadmodum expiemus. Prima pars ad formulam pertinet, secunda ad diuinationem, tertia ad propitiandos deos, quos bono fulmine rogare oportet, malo deprecari ; rogare, ut promissa firment; deprecari, ut remittant minas.

[33,1] Now let us return to the thunderbolts (fulminations). Whose art is divided into these three : how we should explore, how we should interpret ; how we should expiate. The first part pertains to the formula, the second to divination, the third to propitiating the gods, whom with a good thunderbolt it is fitting to ask, with an evil to deprecate ; to ask, that they may make firm the promises; to deprecate, that they may remit the menaces.

[34,1] Summam esse uim fulminis iudicant, quia, quicquid alia portendunt, interuentus fulminis tollit; quicquid ab hoc portenditur, fixum est nec alterius ostenti significatione mutatur ; quicquid exta, quicquid aues minabuntur, secundo fulmine abolebitur; quicquid fulmine denuntiatum est, nec extis nec aue contraria refellitur.

[34,1] They judge the thunderbolt to have the utmost force,
because whatever other [omens] portend, the intervention of the thunderbolt
removes; whatever is portended by this is fixed and
is not changed by the signification of another portent; whatever
the entrails, whatever the birds will threaten, by a second thunderbolt
will be abolished; whatever has been announced by the thunderbolt is
not refuted by contrary entrails nor by a contrary bird.

[34,2] In quo mihi falli uidentur. Quare? Quia uero uerius nihil est.

[34,2] In this they seem to me to be deceived. Why? Because indeed nothing is truer.

Si aues futura cecinerunt, non potest hoc auspicium fulmine irritum fieri, aut non futura cecinerunt. Non enim nunc auem comparo et fulmen, sed duo ueri signa, quae, si uerum significant, paria sunt. Itaque, quae fulminis interuentus submouet extorum uel augurii iudicia, male inspecta exta, male seruata auguria sunt.

If the birds have sung of future things, it cannot be
that this auspice is made null by a lightning-bolt, or else they did not sing of future things.
For I am not now comparing a bird and a lightning-bolt,
but two true signs, which, if they signify the true, are equal.
And so, those judgments of entrails or of augury which the intervention of a lightning-bolt removes
are entrails badly inspected and auguries badly observed.

Non enim refert utrius rei species maior sit uel natura potentior ; si utraque res ueri attulit signa, quantum ad hoc, par est.

For it does not matter whether the species of either thing is greater or the nature more potent; if both things have brought true signs, as to this, the case is equal.

[34,3] Si dicas flammae maiorem uim esse quam fumi, non mentieris ; sed, ad indicandum ignem, idem ualet flamma quod fumus. Itaque si hoc dicunt : « Quotiens aliud exta significabunt, aliud fulmina, fulminum. erit auctoritas maior », fortasse consentiam.

[34,3] If you say that flame has greater force than smoke,
you would not be lying; but, for indicating fire, flame is worth the same as smoke.
Therefore, if they say this: «Whenever
the entrails will signify one thing, the thunderbolts another, the authority of the thunderbolts will be greater», perhaps I might agree.

Si hoc dicunt : « Quamuis altera res uerum praedixisset, fulminis ictus priora deleuit et ad se fidem. traxit, » falsum est. Quare?

If this

they say: « Although the other thing had predicted the truth,

the stroke of the thunderbolt deleted the prior things and to itself credence. it attracted, »

it is false. Why?

Quia nihil interest quam multa auspicia sint. Fatum unum est ; quod si bene primo auspicio intellectum est, secundo non interit: idem est.

Because it makes no difference how many auspices there are. Fate is one ; and if by the first auspice it has been well understood, the second does not perish: it is the same.

[34,4] Ita dico, non refert idem an aliud sit per quod quidem quaerimus, quoniam de quo quaerimus, idem est.

[34,4] Thus I say, it does not matter whether it be the same or another by which indeed we inquire, since that about which we inquire is the same.

[35,1] Fatum fulmine mutari non potest. Quidni? Nam fulmen ipsum fati pars est.

[35,1] Fate cannot be changed by a thunderbolt. Why not? For the thunderbolt itself is a part of fate.

Quid ergo? expiationes procurationesque quo pertinent, si immutabilia sunt fata? - Permitte mihi illam rigidam sectam tueri eorum, qui excipiunt ista et nihil uota esse aliud quam aegrae mentis solacia existimant.

What then? expiations and procurations
to what do they pertain, if the fates are immutable? -
Permit me to defend that rigid sect of those who
except these things and think that vows are nothing other than the solaces
of a sick mind.

[35,2] Fata aliter ius suum peragunt nec ulla commouentur prece. Non misericordia flectuntur non gratia. Seruant cursum irreuocabilem: ingressa ex destinato fluunt.

[35,2] The Fates carry out their law otherwise and are moved by no prayer. They are not bent by mercy nor by favor. They keep an irrevocable course: once they have entered upon it, they flow from what is destined.

Quemadmodum rapidorum aqua torrentium in se non recurrit, nec moratur quidem, quia priorem superueniens praecipitat, sic ordinem fati rerum aeterna series rotat, cuius haec prima lex est, stare decreto.

Just as the water of swift torrents does not recur into itself, nor indeed does it linger, because the one supervening precipitates the earlier, so the eternal series of things rotates the order of fate, whose first law is this: to stand by the decree.

[36,1] Quid enim intellogis fatum? Existimo necessitatem rerum omnium actionumque, quam nulla uis rumpat. Hanc si sacrificiis aut capite niueae agnae exorari iudicas, diuina non nosti.

[36,1] What indeed do you understand by fate? I suppose
the necessity of all things and actions, which
no force can break. If you judge that this is to be appeased by sacrifices or by the head of a snow-white
ewe-lamb, you do not know the divine.

Sapientis quoque uiri sententiam negatis posse mutari ; quanto magis dei, cum sapiens quid sit optimum in praesentia sciat, illius diuinitati omne praesens sit?

You deny that even the judgment of a wise man can be changed; how much more that of God, since a wise man knows what is optimum in the present, while to his divinity everything is present?

[37,1] Agere nunc causam eorum uolo qui procuranda existimant fulmina, et expiationes non dubitant prodesse aliquando ad summouenda pericula, aliquando ad leuanda, aliquando ad differenda.

[37,1] I wish now to plead the cause of those who
judge that thunderbolts are to be taken care of, and do not
doubt that expiations sometimes are of benefit for removing dangers,
sometimes for alleviating them, sometimes for deferring them.

[37,2] Quid sit quod sequatur, paulo post persequar ; interim hoc habent commune nobiscum quod nos quoque existimamus uota proficere salua ui ac potestate fatorum. Quaedam enim, a diis immortalibus ita suspensa relicta sunt ut in bonum uertant, si admotae diis preces fuerint, si uota suscepta ; ita non est hoc contra fatum, sed ipsum quoque in fato est.

[37,2] What it is that follows, I will pursue a little later ;
meanwhile, they have this in common with us, that we too think vows profit, with the force and power of the Fates kept intact. For certain things have been left by the immortal gods in such a suspended state that they turn to good, if prayers have been brought to the gods, if vows have been undertaken ; thus this is not against fate, but this itself too is in fate.

[37,3] Aut futurum, inquit, est aut non ; si est futurum, etiamsi non susceperis uota, fiet. Si non est futurum, etiamsi non susceperis uota, fiet. Falsa est ista interrogat”o, quia illam mediam inter ista exceptionem praeteris : futurum hoc est, sed si uota suscepta fuerint.

[37,3] Either it is going to be, he says, or not ; if it is going to be, even if you have not undertaken vows, it will happen. If it is not going to be, even if you have not undertaken vows, it will happen. That question is false, because you pass over that middle exception between these : this will be, but if vows have been undertaken.

[38,1] Hoc quoque, inquit, ipsum necesse est fato comprehensum sit ut aut susc”pias uota aut non. Puta me tibi manus dare et fateri hoc quoque fato esse comprehensum ut utique fiant uota ; ideo fient.

[38,1] This too, he says, this very thing itself is necessary
to be comprehended by fate: that either you undertake vows or
not. Suppose I give you my hands and confess that this
too is comprehended by fate, that in any case vows may be made ;
therefore they will be made.

[38,2] Fatum est ut hic disertus sit, sed si litteras didicerit ; at eodera fato continetur ut litteras discat ; ideo dopendus est. Hic diues erit, sed si nauigauerit ; at, in illo fati ordine quo patrimonium illi grande promittitur, hoc quoque protinus adfatum est ut etiam nauiget ; ideo nauigabit. Idem tibi de expiationibus dico: effugiet pericula, si expiauerit praedictas diuinitus minas; at hoc : quoque in fato est, ut expiet; ideo expiabit.

[38,2] It is fated that this man be eloquent, but if he shall have learned letters; yet by the same fate it is contained that he learn letters; therefore he must be taught. This man will be rich, but if he shall have sailed; yet, in that order of fate in which a great patrimony is promised to him, this too has forthwith been assigned by fate, that he also sail; therefore he will sail. The same I say to you about expiations: he will escape dangers, if he shall have expiated the threats foretold by divinity; but this too: is in fate, that he expiate; therefore he will expiate.

[38,3] Ista nobis opponi solent ut probetur nihil uoluntati nostrae relictum et omne ius fato traditum. Cum de ista re agetur, dicam quemadmodum manente fato aliquid sit in hominis arbitrio ; nunc uero id de quo agitur explicui, quomodo, si fati certus est ordo expiationes procurationesque prodigiorum pericula auertant, quia non cum fato pugnant, sed et ipsae in lege fati sunt.

[38,3] These things are wont to be set against us, to prove that nothing is left to our will
and that all right has been handed over to fate.
When this matter shall be dealt with, I will say in what manner,
with fate remaining, something is in man's arbitrament ; now
I have explained that which is being treated, how, if the order of fate
is certain, expiations and procurations of prodigies
avert perils, because they do not fight with fate,
but they themselves also are in the law of fate.

[38,4] Quid ergo, inquis, aruspex mihi prodest? Vtique enim expiare mihi etiam non suadente illo necesse est. - Hoc prodest quod fati minister est.

[38,4] What then, you say, does the haruspex profit me? For surely it is necessary for me to expiate even without his advising. - This profits: that he is a minister of fate.

Sic cum sanitas debeatur fato, debetur et medico, quia ad nos benelicium fati per huius manus uenit.

So, since health is owed to fate, it is owed also to the physician, because the benefit of fate comes to us through this man’s hands.

[39,1] Genera fulgurum tria esse ait Caecina, consiliarium, auctoritatis et quod status dicitur. Consiliarium ante rem fit sed post cogitationem, Oum aliquid in animo uersantibus aut suadetur fulminis ictu aut dissuadetur. Auctoritatis est ubi post rem factam uenit, quam bono futuram maloue significat.

[39,1] Caecina says that the kinds of lightning are three,
the consiliary, the one of authority, and what is called “status.”
The consiliary happens before the deed but after cogitation,
when, for those revolving something in mind, either there is urging
by the stroke of lightning or dissuasion. The “of authority” is where
it comes after the thing has been done, which it signifies will turn out for good or for ill.

[39,2] Status est ubi quietis nec agentibus quicquam nec cogitantibus quidem fulmen interuenit et aut minatur aut promittit aut monet. Hoc monitorium uocat, sed nescio quare non idem sit quod consiliarium, nam et qui monet consilium dat.

[39,2] Status is when, with people at rest, neither doing anything nor even thinking, lightning intervenes and either threatens or promises or admonishes. He calls this monitorium (admonitory), but I do not know why it is not the same as the consiliarium, for he who admonishes also gives counsel.

[39,3] Sed habeat aliquam distinctionem et ob hoc separetur a consiliario, quia illud suadet dissuadetque, hoc solam euitationem impendentis periculi continet, ut cum timemus ignem, fraudem a proximis, insidias a seruis.

[39,3] But let it have some distinction and for this reason be separated from the consiliary, because that one urges and also dissuades, this one contains only the evasion of impending danger, as when we fear fire, deceit from those nearest, plots from slaves.

[39,4] Etiamnunc tamen aliam distinctionem utriusque uideo : consiliarium est quod cogitanti factum est, monitorium quod nihil cogitanti ; habet autem utraque res suam proprietatem : suadetur deliberantibus ; ultro monentur.

[39,4] Even now, however, I see another distinction of each : the advisory is that which has befallen one who is thinking, the monitory that which (befalls) one thinking nothing ; moreover each matter has its own propriety : advice is given to those deliberating ; unbidden they are admonished.

[40,1] Primo omnium non sunt fulminum genera sed significationum. Nam fulminum genera sunt illa, quod terebrat, quod discutit, quod urit. Quod terebrat subtile est et flammeum, oui per angustissimum fuga est ob sinceram et puram flammae tenuitatem.

[40,1] First of all, they are not genera of lightning-bolts but of significations. For the genera of lightning-bolts are these: that which bores through, that which shatters, that which burns. That which bores through is subtle and flaming, whose flight is through the very narrowest, on account of the sincere and pure tenuity of the flame.

[40,2] Quod dissipat conglobatum est et habet admixtam uim spiritus coacti ac procellosi. Itaque illud fulmen per id foramen quod ingressum. est redit et euad”t ; huius late sparsa uis rumpit icta, non perforat.

[40,2] That which dissipates is conglobated and has
an admixed force of a compressed and tempestuous spirit. And so
that thunderbolt, through the very aperture by which it entered,
returns and escapes; its widely scattered force breaks what is struck,
it does not perforate.

[40,3] Tertium illud genus, quod urit, multum terreni habet et igneum magis est quam flammeum ; itaque relinquit magnas ignium notas, quae percussis inhaereant. Nullum quidem sine igne fulmen uenit, sed tamen hoc proprie igneum. dicimus quod manifesta ardoris uestigia imprimit, quod aut urit aut fuscat.

[40,3] The third kind, that which burns,
has much of the earthy and is more igneous than
flammeous ; and so it leaves great marks of fires,
which cling to the things struck. No lightning indeed comes without
fire, yet nevertheless this we properly call igneous.
we say, because it imprints manifest traces of ardor,
in that it either burns or blackens.

[40,4] Tribus modis urit : aut afflat et leui iniuria laedit, aut comburit, aut accendit. Omnia ista urunt sed genere et modo differunt quodeumque combustum est, utique et ustum est at quod ustum est, non utique combustum est.

[40,4] It burns in three ways: either it afflates and harms with slight injury, or it combusts, or it accends. All these burn, but they differ in kind and in mode whatever is combusted is assuredly also scorched, but what is scorched is not assuredly combusted.

[40,5] Item quod accensum est, - potest enim illud ipso transitu ignis ussisse, - quis nescit uri quidem nec ardere, nihil autem ardere quod non et uratur? Vnum hoc adiciam : potest aliquid esse combustum nec accensum, potest accensum esse nec combustum.

[40,5] Likewise that which has been kindled, - for it can have been singed by the very passage
of the fire, - who does not know that it may be burned indeed and yet not burn, and that nothing
burns which is not also being burned?
One thing I will add: something can be combusted and not kindled,
something can be kindled and not combusted.

[40,6] Nunc ad id transeo genus fulminis quo icta fuscantur ; hoc aut decolorat aut colorat. Utrique distinctionem suam reddam : decoloratur id cuius color uitiatur, non mutatur ; coloratur id cuius alia fit quam fuit facies, tamquam caerulea uel nigra uel pallida.

[40,6] Now I pass over to that genus of thunderbolt by which things struck
are darkened; this either decolorates or colors. To each
I will render its proper distinction: decolorated is that whose
color is vitiated, not changed; colored is that whose face becomes other
than it was, for instance cerulean or black
or pallid.

[41,1] Haec adhuc Etruscis philosophisque communia sunt. In illo, dissentiunt quod fulmina a loue dicunt mitti et tres illi manubias dant. Prima, ut aiunt, monet et placata est et ipsius Iouis consilio mittitur.

[41,1] These things thus far are common to the Etruscans and to the philosophers. In this, they disagree: that they say lightning bolts are sent by Jove and they assign to him three discharges. The first, as they say, warns, and is appeased, and is sent by Jove’s own counsel.

Secundam mittit quidem Iupiter, sed ex consihi sententia, duodecim enim deos aduocat ; hoc fulmen boni aliquid. aliquando facit, sed tunc quoque non aliter quam ut noceat ; ne prodest quidem impune.

The second one Jupiter indeed sends, but by the council’s judgment, for he summons twelve gods ; this thunderbolt sometimes does something good, but then too not otherwise than so as to harm ; nor does it even profit with impunity.

[41,2] Tertiam manubiam idem Iupiter mittit, sed adhibitis in consilium diis quos superiores et inuolutos uocant, quia uastat in quae incidit et utique mutat statum priuatum et publicum. quem inuenit ; ignis enim nihil esse quod fuit patitur.

[41,2] The same Jupiter sends the third volley, but with gods summoned into counsel whom they call the higher and the involuti (veiled), because it lays waste whatever it falls upon and in any case changes the private and the public state. whatever it finds; for fire allows nothing to be what it was.

[42,1] In his prima specie, si intueri uelis, errat antiquitas. Quid enim tam imperitum est quam credere fulmina e nubibus Iouem mittere, columnas, arbores, nonnumquam statuas suas petere, uti, impunitis sacrilegis, percussis ouibus, incensis aris, pecudes innoxias feriat, et ad suum consilium a Ioue deos, quasi in ipso parum consilii sit aduocari? illa laeta esse et placata fulmina quae solus excutiat, perniciosa quibus mittendis maior turba numinum intersit?

[42,1] In these, at first aspect, if you wish to look, antiquity errs. What indeed is so unskilled as to believe that Jupiter sends thunderbolts from the clouds, that he aims at columns, trees, sometimes his own statues, so that, the sacrilegious going unpunished, with sheep struck, with altars burned, he smites innocent flocks; and that he calls gods into his counsel from Jupiter, as if there were too little counsel in himself? that those bolts are glad and placated which he alone shakes forth, and pernicious those for the sending of which a greater throng of divinities is involved?

[42,2] Si a me quaeris quid sentiam, non existimo tam hebetes fuisse ut crederent Iouem iniquae uoluntatis aut certae minus peritiae. Vtrum enim tunc cum emisit ignes quibus innoxia capita percuteret, scelerata transiret, noluit iustius mittere an non successit?

[42,2] If you ask me what I think, I do not suppose they were so dull as to believe Jupiter of inequitable will or of less-than-certain expertise. For which was it then, when he sent forth fires with which he would strike innocent heads and pass by the wicked: did he not wish to send more justly, or did he not succeed?

[42,3] Quid ergo secuti sunt, cum haec dicerent? Ad coercendos imperitorum animos sapientissimi uiri iudicauerunt ineuitabilem. metum, ut aliquid supra nos timeremus.

[42,3] What, then, did they have in view, when they said these things? To
coerce the minds of the unskilled, the most wise men
judged fear unavoidable, so that we might fear something above
us.

Vtile erat in tanta audacia scelerum esse aduersus quod nemo sibi satis potens uideretur ; ad conterrendos itaque cos quibus innocentia nisi metu non placet posuerunt supra caput uindicem, et quidem armatum.

It was useful, in such audacity of crimes,
that there be an adversary against whom no one seemed to himself sufficiently potent;
and so, to terrify those to whom innocence does not please except by fear,
they placed above the head a vindicator—and indeed an armed one.

[43,1] Quare ergo id fulmen quod solus Iupiter mittit placabile est, perniciosum id de quo deliberauit et quod aliis quoque diis auctoribus misit? Quia Iouem, id est regem, prodesse etiam solum oportet, nocere non nisi cum pluribus uisum est.

[43,1] Why, then, is that thunderbolt which Jupiter alone
sends appeasable, and pernicious that one about which he deliberated
and which he sent with other gods also as authorities?
Because Jove, that is, the king, ought to benefit even by himself,
to harm not unless it has seemed good to several.

[43,2] Discant hi, quicumque magnam inter homines adepti sunt potentiam, sine consilio ne fulmen quidem mitti ; aduocent, considerent multorum, sententias, nociturum temperent, hoc sibi proponant, ubi aliquid percuti debet, ne Ioui quidem suum satis esse consillum.

[43,2] Let these learn, whoever have obtained great power among men
that not even the thunderbolt is sent without counsel ; let them call in, consider the opinions of many,
let them temper what is going to do harm, let them set this before themselves, that when something
must be struck, not even for Jupiter is his own counsel sufficient.

[44,1] In hoc quoque tam imperiti non fuerunt ut Iouem existimarent tela mutare. Poeticam istud licentiam decet : Est aliud leuius fulmen, cui dextra Cyclopum Saeuitiae flammaeque minus, minus addidit irae. Tela secunda uocant superi.

[44,1] In this too they were not so unskilled as to think that Jupiter changes his missiles. This befits poetic license :

There is another, lighter thunderbolt, to which the right hand of the Cyclopes
has added less of savagery and flame, less of wrath.
The gods above call these the secondary weapons.

[44,2] Illos uero altissimos uiros error iste non tenuit, ut existimarent louem modo leuioribus fulminibus et lusoriis telis uti. Sed uoluerunt admonere eos quibus aduersus peccata hominum fulminandum est non eodem modo omnia esse percutienda ; quaedam. frangi debere, quaedam allidi ac destringi, quaedam admoueri.

[44,2] But that mistake did not hold those most exalted men,
so that they would think that Jove uses only lighter thunderbolts and playful missiles.
But they wished to admonish those for whom it is required to hurl thunderbolts against the sins of men,
that not all things are to be struck in the same way ;
that some things ought to be broken, some to be dashed and scraped, some to be brought near.

[45,1] Ne hoc quidem crediderunt louem, qualem in Capitolio et in ceteris aedibus colimus, mittere manu sua fulmina, sed eundem quem nos louem intellegunt, rectorem custodemque uniuersi, animum ac spiritum mundi, operis huius dominum. et artificem, cui nomen omne conuenit.

[45,1] Not even this did they believe: that Jove, such as
on the Capitol and in the other temples we worship, to send
thunderbolts with his own hand; but they understand the same Jove as we
do, the ruler and guardian of the universe, the mind
and spirit of the world, the master of this work. and the artificer,
to whom every name is fitting.

[45,2] Vis illum fatum uocare, non errabis ; hic est ex quo suspensa sunt omnia, causa causarum. Vis illum prouidentiam dicere, recto dices; est enim cuius consilio huic mundo prouidetur, ut inoffensus exeat et actus suos explicet. Vis illum, naturam.

[45,2] If you wish to call him Fate, you will not err; he is the one from whom all things are suspended, the cause of causes. If you wish to call him Providence, you will speak rightly; for it is by whose counsel provision is made for this world, so that it goes forth unhindered and unfolds its acts. If you wish to call him Nature.

uocare, non peccabis ; hic est ex quo nata sunt omnia, cuius spiritu uiuimus.

to call him, you will not sin ; this is he from whom all things have been born, by whose spirit we live.

[45,3] Vis illum uocare mundum, non falleris ; ipso enim est hoc quod uides totum, partibus suis inditus, et se sustinens et sua. Idem Etruscis quoque uisum est, et ideo fulmina mitti dixerunt a Ioue quia sine illo nihil geritur.

[45,3] Do you wish to call him the world, you are not mistaken; for this that you see, the whole, is himself, indwelling in its parts, and
sustaining both himself and his own. The same seemed to the Etruscans as well,
and therefore they said that thunderbolts are sent by Jove because without him nothing is carried on.

[46,1] At quare Iupiter aut ferienda transit aut innoxia ferit? In maiorem me quaestionem uocas, cui suus dies, suus locus dandus est. Interim.

[46,1] But why does Jupiter either pass by those that are to be struck, or strike harmlessly? You call me into a greater question, to which its own day, its own place must be given. Meanwhile.

hoc dico fulmina non mitti a Ioue, sed sic omnia esse disposita ut etiam quae ab illo non fiunt tamen sine ratione non fiant, quae illius est. Nam etiamsi Iupiter illa nunc non facit, Iupiter fecit ut fierent. Singulis non adest ad omne, sed manum et uim et causam omnibus dedit.

This I say: that thunderbolts are not sent by Jove, but that all things are so disposed that even the things which are not done by him nevertheless are not done without reason, which is his. For even if Jupiter does not do those things now, Jupiter made it so that they would be done. He is not present to individuals for everything, but he gave to all his hand and force and cause.

[47,1] Huic illorum diuisioni non accedo. Aiunt aut perpetua esse fulmina, aut finita, aut prorogatiua. Perpetua, quorum significatio in totam pertinet uitam nec unam rom denuntiat sed contextum rerum per omnem deinceps aetatem futurarum complectitur ; haec sunt fulmina quae prima accepto patrimonio et in nouo hominis aut urbis statu fiunt.

[47,1] I do not accede to that division of theirs. They say
that thunderbolts are either perpetual, or finite, or prorogative. Perpetual, whose signification to the whole
life pertains and denounces not one thing but a contexture
of matters, and it embraces through all the subsequent age of things to come ;
these are the thunderbolts which first, upon the patrimony having been received,
and in the new status of a man or of a city, occur.

Finita ad diem utique respondent. Prorogatiua sunt quorum minae differri possunt, auerti tollique non possunt.

The finite ones certainly correspond to a set day. The prorogated are those whose threats can be deferred; they cannot be averted or taken away.

[48,1] Dicam quid sit quare huic diuisioni non consentiam. Nam et quod perpetuum uocant fulmen finitum est, - aeque enim ad diem respondet nec ideo minus finitum est quia multa significat - ; et quod prorogatiuum uidetur finitum est; nam illorum quoque confessione certum est quousque impetretur dilatio ; priuata enim fulgura negant ultra decimum annum, publica ultra tricesimum posse differri ; hoc modo et ista finita sunt, quia ultra quod non prorogentur inclusum est. Omnium ergo fulminum.

[48,1] I will say what it is, why I do not agree with this division. For even the thunderbolt which they call perpetual is finite, - for it answers to a day equally, nor is it on that account less finite because it signifies many things - ; and that which seems prorogable is finite; for by their own admission it is fixed how far postponement is obtained; for they deny that private lightnings can be deferred beyond the tenth year, public beyond the thirtieth; in this way these too are finite, because it is enclosed within a limit beyond which they are not prorogated. Therefore, of all thunderbolts.

et omnis euentus dies stata sit ; non potest enim ulla incerti esse comprehensio. [48,2] Quae inspicienda sint in fulgure, passim et uage dicunt, cum possint sic diuidere quemadmodum ab Attalo philosopho, qui se huic disciplinae dediderat, diuisa sunt, ut inspiciant ubi factum sit, quando, cui, in qua re, quale, quantum. Haec si digerere in partes suas uoluero, quid postea faciam?

and let every event have its appointed day; not

for no comprehension of the uncertain can exist. [48,2] What things ought to be inspected in the thunderbolt, they say here and there and vaguely, although they could divide them thus, as they have been divided by the philosopher Attalus, who had devoted himself to this discipline: that they inspect where it happened, when, to whom, in what matter, of what sort, how much. If I should wish to digest these into their own parts, what shall I do afterward?

In immensa procedam.

I will proceed into the immense.

[49,1] Nunc nomina fulgurum quae a Caecina ponuntur perstringam. et quid de eis sentiam exponam. Ait esse postulatoria, quibus sacrificia intermissa aut non rite facta repetuntur ; monitoria, quibus docetur quid cauendum sit ; pestifera, quae mortem exiliumque portendunt ; fallacia, quae per speciem alicuius boni nocent, - dant consulatum malo futurum gerciitibus et hereditatem cuius compendium magno luendum sit incommodo - ; dentanea, quae speciem periculi sine periculo afferunt ;

[49,1] Now I will touch briefly on the names of thunderbolts which are set forth by Caecina, and I will explain what I think about them. He says there are postulatory ones, by which sacrifices that have been omitted or not rightly performed are demanded back; monitory ones, by which it is taught what must be guarded against; pestiferous ones, which portend death and exile; fallacious ones, which harm under the appearance of some good, - they grant a consulship that will prove bad to those who will bear it, and an inheritance whose profit must be paid for by great inconvenience - ; dentanean ones, which bring the appearance of danger without danger;

[49,2] peremptalia, quibus tolluntur priorum fulminum minae ; attestata, quae prioribus consentitint ; atterranea, quae in eluso fiunt ; obruta, quibus iam prius percussa nec procurata feriuntur ; regalia, cum forum tangitur uel comitium uel principalia urbis liberae loca, quorum significatio regnum ciuitati minatur ;

[49,2] peremptorial, by which the threats of prior thunderbolts are removed; attested, which agree with the former; atterranean, which occur in an elusion; overburied, by which things already previously struck and not propitiated are smitten; regal, when the forum is touched or the comitium or the principal places of a free city, whose signification threatens royal rule to the community;

[49,3] inferna, cum e terra exiliuit ignis ; hospitalia, quae sacrificiis ad nos louem arcessunt et, ut uerbo eorum molliore utar, inuitant, - sed non irasceretur inuitatus ; mine uenire eum inagno inuitantium periculo affirmant - ; auxiliaria, quae inuocata sed aduocantium bono ueniunt.

[49,3] infernal, when fire has leapt out of the earth; hospitable, which by sacrifices summon Jove to us and, to use their softer word, invite him, - but that he would not grow irate when invited ; they affirm that for him to come is with great danger to the inviters - ; auxiliatory, which, when invoked, come for the good of those who call upon them.

[50,1] Quanto simplicior diuisio est qua utebatur Attalus noster, uir egregius, qui Etruscorum disciplinam Graeca subtilitate miscuerat : ex fulminibus quaedara sunt quae significant id quod ad nos pertinet, quaedam aut nihil significant aut id cuius intellectus ad nos non peruenit.

[50,1] How much simpler is the division which our Attalus used, an excellent man, who had mixed the Etruscan discipline with Greek subtlety : of thunderbolts
some are those which signify that which pertains to us,
some either signify nothing or that whose
understanding does not reach to us.

[50,2] Ex his quae significant quaedam sunt laeta, quaedam aduersa, quaedam nec aduersa nec laeta. Aduersorum hae species sunt : aut ineuitabilia mala portendunt, aut euitabilia, aut quae minui possunt, aut quae prorogari. Laeta aut mansura significant, aut caduca.

[50,2] Of those which signify, some are favorable, some adverse, some neither adverse nor favorable. Of the adverse, these are the kinds : they either portend inevitable evils, or evitable ones, or those which can be diminished, or those which can be deferred. The favorable either signify things that will abide, or things that are fleeting.

[50,3] Mixta aut partem habent boni, partem mali, aut mala in bonum, bona in malum uertunt. Nec aduersa nec laeta sunt quae aliquam nobis actionem significant qua nec terreri nec laetari debemus, ut peregrinationem in qua nec metus quicquam nec spei sit.

[50,3] Mixed ones either have a part of good, a part
of ill, or they turn evils into good, goods into evil.
Neither adverse nor favorable are those which signify to us some
action at which we ought neither to be terrified nor to rejoice,
such as a peregrination in which there is nothing either
of fear or of hope.

[51,1] Reuertor ad ea fulmina quae significant quidem aliquid sed quod ad nos non pertineat, tamquam iterum eodem anno idem futurum fulmen quod factum est. Nihil significant fulmina aut id cuius notitia nos effugit, ut illa quae in uastum mare sparguntur aut in desertas solitudines ; quorum significatio uel nulla est uel perit.

[51,1] I return to those thunderbolts which do indeed signify something but which does not pertain to us, as, for instance, that in the same year the same thunderbolt will occur again as has happened. Thunderbolts either signify nothing, or that whose knowledge escapes us, as those which are scattered over the vast sea or into deserted solitudes; the signification of which is either none or is lost.

[52,1] Pauca adhuc adiciam ad enarrandam uim fulm”nis. Quae non eodem modo omnem materiam uexat. Valentiora, quia resistunt, uehementius dissipat ; cedentia nonnumquam sine iniuria transit : cum lapide ferroque et durissimis quibusque confligit, quia uiam necesse est per illa impetu quaerat, itaque facit qua effugiat ; at teneris et rarioribus parcit, quamquam flammis opportuna uideantur, quia transitu patente minus saeuit.

[52,1] I will still add a few things for expounding the force
of the thunderbolt. It does not vex all matter in the same way.
The stronger things, because they resist, it dissipates more vehemently;
the yielding ones it sometimes passes without injury:
it clashes with stone and iron and with whatever things are most hard,
because it must seek a way through them by its impetus,
and so it makes a way by which it may escape; but to tender and rarer
things it spares, although they may seem opportune for flames,
because, with the passage lying open, it rages less.

Loculis itaque integris, ut dixi, pecunia quae in his fuit conflata reperitur, quia ignis tenuissimus per foramina occulta transcurrit, quicquid autem in tigno solidum inuenit et contumax uincit.

Therefore, with the coffers intact, as I said, the money which in them had been fused is found, because the most tenuous fire runs through hidden holes, but whatever in a beam it finds solid and contumacious, it conquers.

[52,2] Non uno autem, ut dixi, modo saeuit, sed quid quaeque uis fecerit, ex ipso genere iniuriae intellegis et fulmen opere cognosces. Interdum in eadem materia multa diuersa eiusdem fulminis uis facit, sicut in arbore quod aridissimum urit, quod durissimum. et solidissimum est terebrat et frangit, summos cortices dissipat, interiores libros rumpit ac scindit, folia pertundit ac stringit.

[52,2] Not in one way, however, as I said, does it rage, but what each force has done you understand from the very kind of injury, and you will recognize the thunderbolt by its operation. Sometimes in the same material the force of the same thunderbolt does many different things, as in a tree it burns what is driest, what is hardest. And what is most solid it bores and breaks; it scatters the topmost barks, the inner layers it bursts and rends; the leaves it pierces through and grazes.

Vinum gelat, ferrum et aes fundit.

Wine congeals, it melts iron and bronze.

[53,1] Illud est mirum quod uinum fulmine gelatum, cum ad priorem habitum redit, potum aut exanimat aut dementes facit. Quare id accidat quaerenti m”hi illud occurrit. Inest uis fulmini pestifera ; ex hoc aliquem remanere spiritum in eo umore quem coegit congelauitque simile ueri est ; nec enim alligari potuisset, nisi aliquod illi esset additum uinculum.

[53,1] That is marvelous: wine congealed by lightning, when it returns to its former condition, if drunk either kills outright or makes people demented. As to why that happens, this occurs to me as I inquire. There is a pestiferous force in lightning; from this it is near to the truth that some spirit remains in that humor which it has compressed and congealed; for it could not have been bound, unless some bond had been added to it.

[53,2] Praeterea olei quoque et omnis unguenti taeter post fulmen odor est ; ex quo apparet inesse quandam subtifissimo igni et contra naturam suam acto pestilentem potentiam, qua non icta tantum cadunt sed et afflata. Praeterea quocumque decidit fulmen, ibi odorem esse sulphuris certum est, qui, quia natura grauis est, saepius haustus alienat.

[53,2] Furthermore, both oil and every ointment have a foul odor after lightning ; from which it appears that there is present in the most subtle fire, and driven against its own nature, a pestilent potency, by which not only the struck fall but even those breathed-upon. Furthermore, wherever lightning falls, it is certain that there is an odor of sulphur there, which, because by nature it is heavy, more often when inhaled alienates.

[53,3] Sed ad haec uacui reuertemur. Fortasse enim libebit ostendere quantum omnia ista a philosophia parente artium fluxere. Illa primum et quaesiuit causas rerum et obseruauit effectus et, quod in fulminis inspectione longe melius est, initiis rerum exitus contulit.

[53,3] But we will return to these matters when free. Perhaps indeed it will please us to show how much all those things have flowed from philosophy, the parent of the arts. She first both sought the causes of things and observed the effects and, what in the inspection of lightning is far better, with the beginnings of things she compared the outcomes.

[54,1] Nunc ad opinionem Posidonii reuertor. E terra terrenisque omnibus pars umida effiatur, pars sicca et fumida ; haec fulminibus alimentum est, illa imbribus. Quicquid in aera sicci fumosique peruenit, id includi se nubibus non fert sed rumpit claudentia ; inde est sonus quem nos tonitrum, uocamus.

[54,1] Now I return to the opinion of Posidonius.
From the earth and from all terrestrial things a humid part is exhaled,
a dry and fumid part; this is aliment for thunderbolts,
that for rains. Whatever of the dry and fumid reaches into the air,
does not endure to be enclosed by clouds but ruptures the closures;
thence is the sound which we call thunder.

[54,2] In ipso quoque acre quicquid extenuatur, simul siccatur et calefit ; hoc quoque, si inclusum est, aeque fugam quaerit et cum. sono euadit, ac modo uniuersum eruptionem facit eoque uehementius intonat, modo per partes et minutatim.

[54,2] In the very air itself, whatever is extenuated, at the same time
is dried and is heated; this too, if it is enclosed,
equally seeks flight and escapes with sound, and sometimes
as a whole makes an eruption and therefore thunders more vehemently,
sometimes by parts and little by little.

[54,3] Ergo tonitrua hic spiritus exprimit, dum aut rumpit nubes, aut peruolat ; uolutatio autem spiritus in nube conclusi ualentissimum est atterendi genus.

[54,3] Therefore this spirit presses out the thunderclaps, while either it bursts the clouds, or flies through ; but the rolling of a spirit enclosed in a cloud is the most powerful kind of attrition.

[55,1] Tonitrua nihil alind sunt quam citi aeris sonitus, qui fieri, nisi dum aut terit aut rumpitur, non potest. - Etsi colliduntur inter se, inquit, nubes, t is quem desideras ictus. - Sed non uniuersus neque enim tota totis concurrunt, sed partibus partes nec sonant mollia, nisi illisa duris sint, itaque non auditur fluctus, nisi impactus est.

[55,1] Thunders are nothing else than the swift sound of air, which
cannot occur, except while either it is rubbed or is broken.
- Even if the clouds collide with one another, he says,
there is the blow you desire. - But not as a whole,
for not whole to whole do they run together, but parts to parts;
nor do soft things sound, unless they have been dashed against hard things; and so it is not
a wave that is heard, unless it has been impacted.

[55,2] - Ignis, inquit, missus in aquam sonat, dum extinguitur. Puta ita esse, pro me est ; non enim ignis tunc sonum efficit sed spiritus per extinguentia effugiens. Vt dem tibi et fieri ignem in nube et extingui, a spiritu nascitur et attritu.

[55,2] - Fire, he says, sent into water sounds, while it is being extinguished. Suppose it to be so, it is to my advantage ; for it is not the fire then that effects the sound
but the spirit escaping through the extinguishing agents. Let me grant
you both that fire comes to be in a cloud and is extinguished, it is born from spirit and from attrition.

[55,3] - Quid ergo, inquit, non potest aliqua ex his transcurrentibus stellis incidere, in nubem et extingui? - Existimemus posse aliquando et hoc fieri ; nunc naturalem causam quaerimus et assiduam, non raram fortuitamque. Puta enim me confiteri uerum esse quod dicis, aliquando post tonitrua emicare ignes stellis transuersis et cadentibus similes, non ob hoc tonitrua facta sunt, sed, cum hoc fieret, tonitrua facta sunt.

[55,3] - What then, he says, is it not
possible that some one of these transcurrent stars should fall,
into a cloud and be extinguished? - Let us suppose that this too can sometimes
occur ; now we seek a natural and constant cause,
not a rare and fortuitous one. For suppose that I confess it to be true
what you say, that sometimes after thunder fires flash forth like transverse
and falling stars, not on account of this were the thunderclaps produced,
but, when this was happening, the thunderclaps were produced.

[55,4] Clidemos ait fulgurationem speciem inanem esse, non ignem; sic enim per noctem splendorem motu remorum uideri. Dissimile est exemplum. Illic enim splendor intra ipsam aquam apparet ; hic, qui fit in aere, erumpit et exilit.

[55,4] Clidemos says that fulguration is an empty semblance,
not fire; for thus through the night a splendor is seen
by the motion of oars. The example is dissimilar.
There indeed the splendor appears within the water itself ;
here, which comes to be in the air, it bursts forth and leaps out.

[56,1] Heraclitus existimat fulgurationem esse uelut apud nos incipientium ignium conatum et primam flammam incertam, modo intereuntem, modo resurgentem ; haec antiqui fulgetra dicebant. Tonitrua nos pluraliter dicimus ; antiqui autem tonitruum dixerunt aut tonum. Hoc apud Caecinam inuenio, facundum uirum et qui habuisset aliquando in eloquentia nomen, nisi illum Ciceronis umbra pressisset.

[56,1] Heraclitus estimates fulguration to be, as it were, the conation of beginning fires among us and the first uncertain flame, now passing away, now rising again; these the ancients called fulgetra. We say thunderings in the plural; but the ancients said tonitruum or tonus. This I find in Caecina, an eloquent man, and one who would at some time have had a name in eloquence, if the shadow of Cicero had not pressed upon him.

[56,2] Etiamnunc illo uerbo utebantur antiqui quo nos producta una syllaba utimur ; dicimus enim, ut splendŽre, sic fulgere; at illis ad significandum hanc e nubibus subitae lucis eruptionem mos erat correpta media syllaba uti, ut dicerent fulgŽre.

[56,2] Even now the ancients used that word
which we use with one syllable prolonged ;
for we say, as "splendŽre," so "fulgere"; but for them, to
signify this eruption of sudden light from the clouds
the custom was to use the middle syllable shortened, so that they would say "fulgŽre".

[57,1] Quid ipse existimem quaeris ; adhuc enim alienis opinionibus commodaui manum. Dicam. Fulgurat, cum repentinum late lumen emicuit ; id euenit ubi in ignem aer extenuatis nubibus uertitur, nec uires quibus longius prosiliret inuenit.

[57,1] You ask what I myself think ; for up to now
I have accommodated my hand to others' opinions. I will say.
It lightnings, when a sudden light has flashed forth widely ;
this happens when the air, with the clouds attenuated, is turned into fire,
and does not find the forces by which it might leap farther.

[57,2] Non miraris, puto, si aera aut motus extenuat aut extenuatio incendit ; sic liquescit excussa glans funda et attritu aeris uelut igne, destillat. Ideo plurima aestate sunt fulmina quia plurimum calidi est ; facilius autem attritu calidorum ignis existit.

[57,2] You do not marvel, I suppose, if the air either motion attenuates or attenuation ignites; thus the slug cast forth from a sling melts, and by the friction of the air, as if by fire, it drips. For this reason lightning bolts are most numerous in summer, because there is the greatest quantity of heat; more easily, moreover, by the friction of warm things fire comes into existence.

[57,3] Eodem autem modo fit fulgur, quod tantum splendet, et fulmen, quod mittitur. Sed illi leuior uis alimentique minus est et, ut breuiter dicam quod sentio, fulmen est fulgur intentum. Ergo ubi calidi fumidique natura emissa terris in nubes incidit et diu in illarum sinu uolutata est, nouissime erumpit et, quia uires non habet, splendor est ;

[57,3] In the same way, moreover, a lightning-flash, which only shines, and a thunderbolt, which is sent, come to be. But that one has a lighter force and less nourishment, and, to say briefly what I think, the thunderbolt is the lightning-flash made intent. Therefore, when the hot and smoky nature, sent forth from the lands, falls into the clouds and, rolled for a long time in their bosom, at last bursts out, and, because it has no strength, it is a mere splendor;

[57,4] at ubi illa fulgura plus habuere materiae et malore impetu arserunt, non apparent tantum, sed decidunt.

[57,4] but when those lightnings have had more matter
and have burned with greater impetus, they not only appear,
but they fall.

[58,1] Quidam existimant utique fulmen reuerti, quidam subsidere ubi alimenta praegrauauerunt et fulmen ictu languidiore delatum est.

[58,1] Some think at any rate that the thunderbolt returns, some that it settles when the nourishments (fuels) have weighed it down and the thunderbolt has been brought down with a more languid stroke.

At quare fulmen subitum apparet nec continuatur assiduus ignis? Quia celere mirique motus simul et nubes rumpit et aera incendit, deinde desinit flamma motu quiescente, Non enim assiduus est spiritus cursus, ut ignis possit extendi. Sed quotiens fortius ipsa iactatione se accendit, fugiendi impetum capit; deinde, cum euasit et pugna desinit, ex eadem causa modo usque ad terram profertur, modo ante dissoluitur, si minore ui pressus est.

But why does lightning appear sudden and is not continued as an assiduous fire? Because a swift and wondrous motion at once both breaks the clouds and ignites the air, then the flame ceases when the motion grows quiet. Non enim assiduus is the course of the spirit, so that the fire can be extended. But as often as it kindles itself more strongly by its very tossing, it takes the impetus of fleeing; then, when it has escaped and the struggle ends, from the same cause now it is carried forth all the way to the earth, now it is dissolved earlier, if it has been pressed by a lesser force.

[58,2] Quare oblique fertur? Quia spiritu constat, - spiritus autem obliquus est flexuosusque -, et quia natura ignem sursum uocat, iniuria deorsum premit ; incipit autem obliquum. esse iter, dum neutra uis alteri cedit et ignis in superiora nititur, in inferiora deprimitur.

[58,2] Why is it borne obliquely? Because it consists of spirit, -
but spirit is oblique and flexuous -, and because
nature calls fire upward, by constraint it is pressed downward ;
but the path begins to be oblique. while neither force
yields to the other and the fire strives toward the upper regions, toward the lower it
is pressed down.

[58,3] Quare frequenter cacumina montium feriuntur? Quia opposita sunt nubibus et e caelo cadentibus per haec transeundum est.

[58,3] Why are the mountain summits frequently struck?
Because they are opposite to the clouds and to what falls from the sky,
through these one must pass.

[59,1] Intelligo quid dudum desideres, quid efflagites. « Malo, inquis, fulmina non timere quam nosse ; itaque alios doce quemadmodum fiant ; ego mihi metum illorum excuti uolo, non naturam indicari. »

[59,1] I understand what for some time now you desire, what you insistently demand. « ‘I prefer,’ you say, ‘not to fear thunderbolts rather than to know; and so teach others how they come to be; I want to shake off for myself the fear of them, not to have their nature indicated.’ »

[59,2] Sequar quo uocas. Omnibus enim rebus omnibusque sermonibus aliquid salutare miscendum est. Cum imus per occulta naturae, cum diuina tractamus, uindicandus est a malis suis animus ac subinde firmandus, quod etiam eruditis et hoc unum agentibus necessarium est, non ut effugiamus ictus rerum, - undique enim in in nos tela iaciuntur, - sed ut fortiter constanterque patiamur.

[59,2] I will follow where you call. For in all things
and in all discourses something salutary must be mixed.
When we go through the hidden things of nature, when we handle divine
matters, the mind must be vindicated from its own evils and
from time to time strengthened, which is necessary even for the learned and for those devoted to this one
task, not so that we may escape the blows of things,
- for on every side missiles are hurled in in against us, -
but so that we may endure bravely and steadfastly.

[59,3] Inuicti esse possumus, inconcussi non possumus. Quamquam interim spes subit, inconcussos quoque esse nos posse. Quemadmodum?

[59,3] We can be invincible; we cannot be unshaken. Although in the meantime a hope arises that we too can be unshaken. How?

inquis. Contemne mortem, et omnia quae ad mortem ducunt contempta sunt, siue illa bella sunt, siue naufragia, seu morsus ferarum, seu ruinarum subito lapsu procidentium pondera.

you say. Contemn
death, and all things that lead to death are contemned,
whether those be wars, or shipwrecks, or the bites
of wild beasts, or the weights of ruins collapsing with a sudden fall.

[59,4] Numquid facere amplius possunt quam ut corpus ab animo resoluant? Haec nulla diligentia euitat, nulla felicitas donat, nulla potentia euincit. Alia uaria sorte disponuntur ; mors omnes aeque uocat ; iratis diis propitiisque moriendum est.

[59,4] Can they do anything more than

to release the body from the spirit? No diligence

evades these, no felicity grants, no power vanquishes.

Other things are disposed by a varied lot; death calls all

equally; whether the gods be irate or propitious, we must die.

[59,5] Animus ex ipsa desperatione sumatur. Ignauissima animalia, quae natura ad fugam genuit, ubi exitus non patet, temptant pugnam corpore imbelli. Nullus perniciosior hostis est quam quem audacem angustiae faciunt, longeque uiolentius semper ex necessitate quam ex uirtute corrigitur, aut certe paria conantur animus magnus ac perditus.

[59,5] Let spirit be taken from desperation itself. The most craven
animals, which nature has begotten for flight, when an exit is not open,
attempt combat with an unwarlike body.
No enemy is more pernicious than the one whom straits make audacious,
and far more violently is he always corrected out of necessity than out of virtue, or at least
a great spirit and a desperate one attempt equal things.

[59,6] Cogitemus nos, quantum ad mortem, perditos esse. Et sumus. Ita est, Lucili; omnes reseruamur ad mortem.

[59,6] Let us consider ourselves, as regards death, to be lost. And
we are. So it is, Lucilius; we are all reserved for death.

Totum hunc quem uides populum, totumque quem usquam cogitas esse, cito natura reuocabit et condet, nec de re sed de die quaeritur; eodem citius tardiusue ueniendum est.

All this populace you see, and all that you anywhere imagine to exist, nature will soon recall and lay away,
and the question is not of the thing but of the day;
to the same end there must be a coming, whether sooner or later.

[59,7] Quid ergo? Non tibi timidissimus omnium uidetur et insipientissimus qui magno ambitu iogat moram mortis? Nonne contemneres eum qui, inter perituros constitutus, beneficii looo peteret ut ultimus ceruicem praeberet?

[59,7] What then? Does he not seem to you the most timid of all and the most insipient, who with great canvassing asks a reprieve of death? Would you not contemn him who, set among those about to perish, would ask, as a favor, to be the last to offer his neck?

Idem facimus ; magno aestimamus mori tardius.

The same we do ; we highly esteem dying later.

[59,8] In omnes constitutum est capitale supplicium, et quidem constitutione iustissima, quod maximum solet esse solacium extrema passuris ; quorum enim causa, sors eadem est. Sequeremur traditi a iudice aut magistratu et carnifici nostro praestaremus obsequium ; quid interest utrum ad mortem iussi eamus an ultronei?

[59,8] Against all a capital punishment has been established, and
indeed by a most just constitution, which is wont to be the greatest
solace for those about to undergo the extremity ; for in their case,
the lot is the same. We would follow, delivered over by a judge
or magistrate, and we would render obedience to our executioner ;
what difference is there whether we go to death when ordered
or of our own accord?

[59,9] 0 te dementem et oblitum fragilitatis tuae, si tunc mortem times cum tonat ! Itane? In hoc salus tua uertitur? Viues si fulmen effugeris?

[59,9] O you demented and forgetful of your fragility, if
then you fear death when it thunders ! Is it so? On this does your salvation
turn? Will you live if you escape the lightning-bolt?

Petet te gladius, petet lapis, petet bilis ; non maximum ex periculis tuis sed speciosissimum fulmen est.

Will seek you the sword, will seek the stone, will seek the bile ; it is not the greatest among your perils but the most showy is the thunderbolt.

[59,10] Male scilicet actum erit tecum, si sensum mortis tuae celeritas infinita praeueniet, si mors tua procuratur, si ne tunc quidem, cum expiras, superuacuus sed alicuius magnae rei signum es. Male scilicet tecum agitur, si cum fulmine conderis.

[59,10] Of course it will have gone ill with you, if infinite celerity forestalls the sense of your death, if your death is procured,
if, not even then, when you expire, are you superfluous, but are the signal of some great affair. Of course it goes ill with you,
if you are interred with the thunderbolt.

[59,11] Sed pauescis ad caeli fragorem et ad inane nubilum trepidas et, quotiens aliquid effulsit, expiras. Quid ergo? honestius putas deiectione perire quam fulmine?

[59,11] But you grow pale at the crash of the sky and you tremble at an inane cloud, and, whenever something has flashed forth, you expire. What then? Do you think it more honorable to perish by a collapse than by a thunderbolt?

Eo itaque fortior aduersus caeli minas surge et, cum undique mundus exarserit, cogita nihil habere te tanta morte perdendum.

Therefore so much the stronger rise up against the menaces of heaven and, when on every side
the world has blazed up, consider that you have nothing to lose by so great a death.

[59,12] Quodsi tibi parari credis illam caeli confusionem, illam tempestatum discordiam, si propter te ingestae illisaeque nubes strepunt, si in tuum exitium tanta uis ignium excutitur, at tu solacii loco numera tanti esse mortem tuam.

[59,12] But if you believe that that

confusion of the sky is being prepared for you, that discord of tempests, if

on your account clouds heaped up and dashed together crash, if

so great a force of fires is shaken forth for your destruction, then you, in the place of solace,

count your death to be worth so much.

[59,13] Sed non erit huic cogitationi locus ; casus iste donat metum. Est inter cetera hoc quoque commodum eius quod expectationem suam antecedit. Nemo umquam timuit fulmen, nisi qui effugit.

[59,13] But there will not be room for this thought ; this occurrence bestows fear. Among other things, this too is the advantage of that which anticipates its own expectation. No one ever feared lightning, except the one who escaped it.