1. _Praecedentia_ or _antegradatio_ of stars is when a star seems to be making its usual course and [really] is somewhat ahead of it. Chapter 69. 1. _Remotio_ or _retrogradatio_ of stars is when a star, while moving on its regular orbit, seems at the same time to be moving backward. Chapter 70. 1. The _status_ of stars means that while a star is continuing its proper motion it nevertheless seems in some places to stand still. Chapter 71. On the names of stars. 3. _Stellae_ is derived from _stare_, because the stars always remain (_stant_) fixed in the heavens and do not fall. As to our seeing stars fall, as it were, from heaven, they are not stars but little bits of fire that have fallen from the ether, and this happens when the wind, blowing high, carries along with it fire from the ether, which as it is carried along gives the appearance of falling stars. For stars cannot fall; they are motionless (as has been said above) and are fixed in the heavens and carried around with them. 16. A comet is so-called because it spreads light from itself as if it were hair (_comas_). And when this kind of star appears it indicates pestilence, famine, or war. 17. Comets are called in the Latin _crinitae_ because they have a trail of flames resembling hair (_in modum crinium_). The Stoics say there are over thirty of them, and certain astrologers have written down their names and qualities. 20. The planets are stars which are not fixed in the heavens like the rest, but move along in the air.... Sometimes they move towards the south, sometimes towards the north, generally in a direction opposite to that of the universe, sometimes with it, and their Greek names are Phaeton, Phaenon, Pyrois, Hesperus, Stilbon. 21. To these the Romans have given the names of their gods, that is, of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury. Deceiving themselves and wishing to deceive [others] into worship of these gods, who had bestowed upon them somewhat in accordance with the desire of the world, they pointed to the stars in heaven, saying that that was Jove’s star, that Mercury’s, and the empty idea arose. This erroneous belief the devil cherished, but Christ destroyed. 22. Moreover as to the constellations which are given names by the heathen, in which the likeness of living creatures is traced by means of the stars, like Arctos, Aries, Taurus, Libra, and others, they who first discerned constellations in a number of stars were influenced by superstitious vanity and imagined a bodily form, giving them, because of certain reasons, the likenesses and names of their gods. 23. For they named Aries, the first constellation—to which, as to Libra, they assign the middle line of the universe[275]—after Jupiter Ammon, on whose head image makers fix the horns of a ram (_arietis cornua_). [275] The celestial equator.