¹¹² This short passage would be very obscure to the reader without an explanation from another of Cicero’s treatises. The expression here, ad investigandum suem regiones vineæ terminavit, which is a metaphor too bold, if it was not a sort of augural language, seems to me to have been the effect of carelessness in our great author; for Navius did not divide the regions, as he calls them, of the vine to find his sow, but to find a grape.

¹¹³ The Peremnia were a sort of auspices performed just before the passing a river.

¹¹⁴ The Acumina were a military auspices, and were partly performed on the point of a spear, from which they were called Acumina.

¹¹⁵ Those were called testamenta in procinctu, which were made by soldiers just before an engagement, in the presence of men called as witnesses.

¹¹⁶ This especially refers to the Decii, one of whom devoted himself for his country in the war with the Latins, 340 b.c., and his son imitated the action in the war with the Samnites, 295 b.c. Cicero (Tusc. i. 37) says that his son did the same thing in the war with Pyrrhus at the battle of Asculum, though in other places (De Off. iii. 4) he speaks of only two Decii as having signalized themselves in this manner.

¹¹⁷ The Rogator, who collected the votes, and pronounced who was the person chosen. There were two sorts of Rogators; one was the officer here mentioned, and the other was the Rogator, or speaker of the whole assembly.

¹¹⁸ Which was Sardinia, as appears from one of Cicero’s epistles to his brother Quintus.

¹¹⁹ Their sacred books of ceremonies.

¹²⁰ The war between Octavius and Cinna, the consuls.

¹²¹ This, in the original, is a fragment of an old Latin verse,

¹²² The Latin word is principatus, which exactly corresponds with the Greek word here used by Cicero; by which is to be understood the superior, the most prevailing excellence in every kind and species of things through the universe.

¹²³ The passage of Aristotle to which Cicero here refers is lost.

¹²⁴ He means the Epicureans.

¹²⁵ Here the Stoic speaks too plain to be misunderstood. His world, his mundus, is the universe, and that universe is his great Deity, in quo sit totius naturæ principatus, in which the superior excellence of universal nature consists.

¹²⁶ Athens, the seat of learning and politeness, of which Balbus will not allow Epicurus to be worthy.

¹²⁷ This is Pythagoras’s doctrine, as appears in Diogenes Laertius.

¹²⁸ He here alludes to mathematical and geometrical instruments.

¹²⁹ Balbus here speaks of the fixed stars, and of the motions of the orbs of the planets. He here alludes, says M. Bonhier, to the different and diurnal motions of these stars; one sort from east to west, the other from one tropic to the other: and this is the construction which our learned and great geometrician and astronomer, Dr. Halley, made of this passage.

¹³⁰ This mensuration of the year into three hundred and sixty-five days and near six hours (by the odd hours and minutes of which, in every fifth year, the dies intercalaris, or leap-year, is made) could not but be known, Dr. Halley states, by Hipparchus, as appears from the remains of that great astronomer of the ancients. We are inclined to think that Julius Cæsar had divided the year, according to what we call the Julian year, before Cicero wrote this book; for we see, in the beginning of it, how pathetically he speaks of Cæsar’s usurpation.

¹³¹ The words of Censorinus, on this occasion, are to the same effect. The opinions of philosophers concerning this great year are very different; but the institution of it is ascribed to Democritus.

¹³² The zodiac.

¹³³ Though Mars is said to hold his orbit in the zodiac with the rest, and to finish his revolution through the same orbit (that is, the zodiac) with the other two, yet Balbus means in a different line of the zodiac.

¹³⁴ According to late observations, it never goes but a sign and a half from the sun.

¹³⁵ These, Dr. Davis says, are “aërial fires;” concerning which he refers to the second book of Pliny.

¹³⁶ In the Eunuch of Terence.

¹³⁷ Bacchus.

¹³⁸ The son of Ceres.

¹³⁹ The books of Ceremonies.

¹⁴⁰ This Libera is taken for Proserpine, who, with her brother Liber, was consecrated by the Romans; all which are parts of nature in prosopopœias. Cicero, therefore, makes Balbus distinguish between the person Liber, or Bacchus, and the Liber which is a part of nature in prosopopœia.

¹⁴¹ These allegorical fables are largely related by Hesiod in his Theogony.

Horace says exactly the same thing:

¹⁴² Cicero means by conversis casibus, varying the cases from the common rule of declension; that is, by departing from the true grammatical rules of speech; for if we would keep to it, we should decline the word Jupiter, Jupiteris in the second case, etc.

¹⁴³ Pater divûmque hominumque.

¹⁴⁴ The common reading is, planiusque alio loco idem; which, as Dr. Davis observes, is absurd; therefore, in his note, he prefers planius quam alia loco idem, from two copies, in which sense I have translated it.

¹⁴⁵ From the verb gero, to bear.

¹⁴⁶ That is, “mother earth.”

¹⁴⁷ Janus is said to be the first who erected temples in Italy, and instituted religious rites, and from whom the first month in the Roman calendar is derived.

¹⁴⁸ Stellæ vagantes.

¹⁴⁹ Noctu quasi diem efficeret. Ben Jonson says the same thing:

¹⁵⁰ Olympias was the mother of Alexander.

¹⁵¹ Venus is here said to be one of the names of Diana, because ad res omnes veniret; but she is not supposed to be the same as the mother of Cupid.

¹⁵² Here is a mistake, as Fulvius Ursinus observes; for the discourse seems to be continued in one day, as appears from the beginning of this book. This may be an inadvertency of Cicero.

¹⁵³ The senate of Athens was so called from the words Ἄρειος Πάγος, the Village, some say the Hill, of Mars.

¹⁵⁴ Epicurus.

¹⁵⁵ The Stoics.

¹⁵⁶ By nulla cohærendi natura—if it is the right, as it is the common reading—Cicero must mean the same as by nulla crescendi natura, or coalescendi, either of which Lambinus proposes; for, as the same learned critic well observes, is there not a cohesion of parts in a clod, or in a piece of stone? Our learned Walker proposes sola cohærendi natura, which mends the sense very much; and I wish he had the authority of any copy for it.

¹⁵⁷ Nasica Scipio, the censor, is said to have been the first who made a water-clock in Rome.

¹⁵⁸ The Epicureans.

¹⁵⁹ An old Latin poet, commended by Quintilian for the gravity of his sense and his loftiness of style.

¹⁶⁰ The shepherd is here supposed to take the stem or beak of the ship for the mouth, from which the roaring voices of the sailors came. Rostrum is here a lucky word to put in the mouth of one who never saw a ship before, as it is used for the beak of a bird, the snout of a beast or fish, and for the stem of a ship.

¹⁶¹ The Epicureans.

¹⁶² Greek, ἀὴρ; Latin, aer.

¹⁶³ The treatise of Aristotle, from whence this is taken, is lost.

¹⁶⁴ To the universe the Stoics certainly annexed the idea of a limited space, otherwise they could not have talked of a middle; for there can be no middle but of a limited space: infinite space can have no middle, there being infinite extension from every part.

¹⁶⁵ These two contrary reversions are from the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are the extreme bounds of the sun’s course. The reader must observe that the astronomical parts of this book are introduced by the Stoic as proofs of design and reason in the universe; and, notwithstanding the errors in his planetary system, his intent is well answered, because all he means is that the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, and their dependencies, are demonstrations of a divine mind. The inference proposed to be drawn from his astronomical observations is as just as if his system was in every part unexceptionably right: the same may be said of his anatomical observations.

¹⁶⁶ In the zodiac.

¹⁶⁷ Ibid.

¹⁶⁸ These verses of Cicero are a translation from a Greek poem of Aratus, called the Phænomena.

¹⁶⁹ The fixed stars.

¹⁷⁰ The arctic and antarctic poles.

¹⁷¹ The two Arctoi are northern constellations. Cynosura is what we call the Lesser Bear; Helice, the Greater Bear; in Latin, Ursa Minor and Ursa Major.

¹⁷² These stars in the Greater Bear are vulgarly called the “Seven Stars,” or the “Northern Wain;” by the Latins, “Septentriones.”

¹⁷³ The Lesser Bear.

¹⁷⁴ The Greater Bear.

¹⁷⁵ Exactly agreeable to this and the following description of the Dragon is the same northern constellation described in the map by Flamsteed in his Atlas Cœlestis; and all the figures here described by Aratus nearly agree with the maps of the same constellations in the Atlas Cœlestis, though they are not all placed precisely alike.

¹⁷⁶ The tail of the Greater Bear.

¹⁷⁷ That is, in Macedon, where Aratus lived.

¹⁷⁸ The true interpretation of this passage is as follows: Here in Macedon, says Aratus, the head of the Dragon does not entirely immerge itself in the ocean, but only touches the superficies of it. By ortus and obitus I doubt not but Cicero meant, agreeable to Aratus, those parts which arise to view, and those which are removed from sight.

¹⁷⁹ These are two northern constellations. Engonasis, in some catalogues called Hercules, because he is figured kneeling ἐν γόνασιν (on his knees). Ἐνγόνασιν καλέουσ’, as Aratus says, they call Engonasis.

¹⁸⁰ The crown is placed under the feet of Hercules in the Atlas Cœlestis; but Ophiuchus (Ὀφιοῦχος), the Snake-holder, is placed in the map by Flamsteed as described here by Aratus; and their heads almost meet.

¹⁸¹ The Scorpion. Ophiuchus, though a northern constellation, is not far from that part of the zodiac where the Scorpion is, which is one of the six southern signs.

¹⁸² The Wain of seven stars.

¹⁸³ The Wain-driver. This northern constellation is, in our present maps, figured with a club in his right hand behind the Greater Bear.

¹⁸⁴ In some modern maps Arcturus, a star of the first magnitude, is placed in the belt that is round the waist of Boötes. Cicero says subter præcordia, which is about the waist; and Aratus says ὑπὸ ζώνῃ, under the belt.

¹⁸⁵ Sub caput Arcti, under the head of the Greater Bear.

¹⁸⁶ The Crab is, by the ancients and moderns, placed in the zodiac, as here, between the Twins and the Lion; and they are all three northern signs.

¹⁸⁷ The Twins are placed in the zodiac with the side of one to the northern hemisphere, and the side of the other to the southern hemisphere. Auriga, the Charioteer, is placed in the northern hemisphere near the zodiac, by the Twins; and at the head of the Charioteer is Helice, the Greater Bear, placed; and the Goat is a bright star of the first magnitude placed on the left shoulder of this northern constellation, and called Capra, the Goat. Hœdi, the Kids, are two more stars of the same constellation.

¹⁸⁸ A constellation; one of the northern signs in the zodiac, in which the Hyades are placed.

¹⁸⁹ One of the feet of Cepheus, a northern constellation, is under the tail of the Lesser Bear.

¹⁹⁰ Grotius, and after him Dr. Davis, and other learned men, read Cassiepea, after the Greek Κασσίεπεια, and reject the common reading, Cassiopea.

¹⁹¹ These northern constellations here mentioned have been always placed together as one family with Cepheus and Perseus, as they are in our modern maps.

¹⁹² This alludes to the fable of Perseus and Andromeda.

¹⁹³ Pegasus, who is one of Perseus and Andromeda’s family.

¹⁹⁴ That is, with wings.

¹⁹⁵ Aries, the Ram, is the first northern sign in the zodiac; Pisces, the Fishes, the last southern sign; therefore they must be near one another, as they are in a circle or belt. In Flamsteed’s Atlas Cœlestis one of the Fishes is near the head of the Ram, and the other near the Urn of Aquarius.

¹⁹⁶ These are called Virgiliæ by Cicero; by Aratus, the Pleiades, Πληϊάδες; and they are placed at the neck of the Bull; and one of Perseus’s feet touches the Bull in the Atlas Cœlestis.

¹⁹⁷ This northern constellation is called Fides by Cicero; but it must be the same with Lyra; because Lyra is placed in our maps as Fides is here.

¹⁹⁸ This is called Ales Avis by Cicero; and I doubt not but the northern constellation Cygnus is here to be understood, for the description and place of the Swan in the Atlas Cœlestis are the same which Ales Avis has here.

¹⁹⁹ Pegasus.

²⁰⁰ The Water-bearer, one of the six southern signs in the zodiac: he is described in our maps pouring water out of an urn, and leaning with one hand on the tail of Capricorn, another southern sign.

²⁰¹ When the sun is in Capricorn, the days are at the shortest; and when in Cancer, at the longest.

²⁰² One of the six southern signs.

²⁰³ Sagittarius, another southern sign.

²⁰⁴ A northern constellation.

²⁰⁵ A northern constellation.

²⁰⁶ A southern constellation.

²⁰⁷ This is Canis Major, a southern constellation. Orion and the Dog are named together by Hesiod, who flourished many hundred years before Cicero or Aratus.

²⁰⁸ A southern constellation, placed as here in the Atlas Cœlestis.

²⁰⁹ A southern constellation, so called from the ship Argo, in which Jason and the rest of the Argonauts sailed on their expedition to Colchos.

²¹⁰ The Ram is the first of the northern signs in the zodiac; and the last southern sign is the Fishes; which two signs, meeting in the zodiac, cover the constellation called Argo.

²¹¹ The river Eridanus, a southern constellation.

²¹² A southern constellation.

²¹³ This is called the Scorpion in the original of Aratus.

²¹⁴ A southern constellation.

²¹⁵ A southern constellation.

²¹⁶ The Serpent is not mentioned in Cicero’s translation; but it is in the original of Aratus.

²¹⁷ A southern constellation.

²¹⁸ The Goblet, or Cup, a southern constellation.

²¹⁹ A southern constellation.

²²⁰ Antecanis, a southern constellation, is the Little Dog, and called Antecanis in Latin, and Προκύων in Greek, because he rises before the other Dog.

²²¹ Pansætius, a Stoic philosopher.

²²² Mercury and Venus.

²²³ The proboscis of the elephant is frequently called a hand, because it is as useful to him as one. “They breathe, drink, and smell, with what may not be improperly called a hand,” says Pliny, bk. viii. c. 10.—Davis.

²²⁴ The passage of Aristotle’s works to which Cicero here alludes is entirely lost; but Plutarch gives a similar account.

²²⁵ Balbus does not tell us the remedy which the panther makes use of; but Pliny is not quite so delicate: he says, excrementis hominis sibi medetur.

²²⁶ Aristotle says they purge themselves with this herb after they fawn. Pliny says both before and after.

²²⁷ The cuttle-fish has a bag at its neck, the black blood of which the Romans used for ink. It was called atramentum.

²²⁸ The Euphrates is said to carry into Mesopotamia a large quantity of citrons, with which it covers the fields.

²²⁹ Q. Curtius, and some other authors, say the Ganges is the largest river in India; but Ammianus Marcellinus concurs with Cicero in calling the river Indus the largest of all rivers.

²³⁰ These Etesian winds return periodically once a year, and blow at certain seasons, and for a certain time.

²³¹ Some read mollitur, and some molitur; the latter of which P. Manucius justly prefers, from the verb molo, molis; from whence, says he, molares dentes, the grinders.

²³² The weasand, or windpipe.

²³³ The epiglottis, which is a cartilaginous flap in the shape of a tongue, and therefore called so.

²³⁴ Cicero is here giving the opinion of the ancients concerning the passage of the chyle till it is converted to blood.

²³⁵ What Cicero here calls the ventricles of the heart are likewise called auricles, of which there is the right and left.

²³⁶ The Stoics and Peripatetics said that the nerves, veins, and arteries come directly from the heart. According to the anatomy of the moderns, they come from the brain.

²³⁷ The author means all musical instruments, whether string or wind instruments, which are hollow and tortuous.

²³⁸ The Latin version of Cicero is a translation from the Greek of Aratus.

²³⁹ Chrysippus’s meaning is, that the swine is so inactive and slothful a beast that life seems to be of no use to it but to keep it from putrefaction, as salt keeps dead flesh.

²⁴⁰ Ales, in the general signification, is any large bird; and oscinis is any singing bird. But they here mean those birds which are used in augury: alites are the birds whose flight was observed by the augurs, and oscines the birds from whose voices they augured.

²⁴¹ As the Academics doubted everything, it was indifferent to them which side of a question they took.

²⁴² The keepers and interpreters of the Sibylline oracles were the Quindecimviri.

²⁴³ The popular name of Jupiter in Rome, being looked upon as defender of the Capitol (in which he was placed), and stayer of the State.

²⁴⁴ Some passages of the original are here wanting. Cotta continues speaking against the doctrine of the Stoics.

²⁴⁵ The word sortes is often used for the answers of the oracles, or, rather, for the rolls in which the answers were written.

²⁴⁶ Three of this eminent family sacrificed themselves for their country; the father in the Latin war, the son in the Tuscan war, and the grandson in the war with Pyrrhus.

²⁴⁷ The Straits of Gibraltar.

²⁴⁸ The common reading is, ex quo anima dicitur; but Dr. Davis and M. Bouhier prefer animal, though they keep anima in the text, because our author says elsewhere, animum ex anima dictum, Tusc. I. 1. Cicero is not here to be accused of contradictions, for we are to consider that he speaks in the characters of other persons; but there appears to be nothing in these two passages irreconcilable, and probably anima is the right word here.

²⁴⁹ He is said to have led a colony from Greece into Caria, in Asia, and to have built a town, and called it after his own name, for which his countrymen paid him divine honors after his death.

²⁵⁰ Our great author is under a mistake here. Homer does not say he met Hercules himself, but his Εἴδωλον, his “visionary likeness;” and adds that he himself

which Pope translates—

²⁵¹ They are said to have been the first workers in iron. They were called Idæi, because they inhabited about Mount Ida in Crete, and Dactyli, from δάκτυλοι (the fingers), their number being five.

²⁵² From whom, some say, the city of that name was called.

²⁵³ Capedunculæ seem to have been bowls or cups, with handles on each side, set apart for the use of the altar.—Davis.

²⁵⁴ See Cicero de Divinatione, and Ovid. Fast.

²⁵⁵ In the consulship of Piso and Gabinius sacrifices to Serapis and Isis were prohibited in Rome; but the Roman people afterward placed them again in the number of their gods. See Tertullian’s Apol. and his first book Ad Nationes, and Arnobius, lib. 2.—Davis.

²⁵⁶ In some copies Circe, Pasiphae, and Æa are mentioned together; but Æa is rejected by the most judicious editors.

²⁵⁷ They were three, and are said to have averted a plague by offering themselves a sacrifice.

²⁵⁸ So called from the Greek word θαυμάζω, to wonder.