[318] This is said by Livy to have occurred to Servius Tullius while he was a child; lib. i. cap. 39; and by Virgil to Ascanius, Æn. ii. 632-5. [319] “Ut circumagendo balistæ vel fundæ impetus augetur.” Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 313. [320] “sed assidue rapta (natura) convolvitur, et circa terram immenso rerum causas globo ostendit, subinde per nubes cœlum aliud obtexens.” On the words “immenso globo,” Alexandre has the following comment: “Immensis cœli fornicibus appicta sidera, dum circumvolvitur, terris ostendit;” and on the words “cœlum aliud,” “obductæ scilicet nubes falsum quasi cœlum vero prætexunt.” Lemaire, i. 313. [321] The author probably means to speak of all the atmospheric phænomena that have been mentioned above. [322] Marcus has made some remarks on this subject which may be read with advantage; Ajasson, ii. 245-6. [323] The diminutive of Sus. [324] Ab ὕω, pluo. [325] The Hædi were in the constellation Auriga. [326] We have the same account of the Oryx in Ælian, lib. vii. cap. 8. [327] Our author again refers to this opinion, viii. 63, and it was generally adopted by the ancients; but it appears to be entirely unfounded. [328] “cum tempestatibus confici sidus intelligimus.” [329] “afflantur.” On this term Hardouin remarks, “Siderantur. Sideratio morbi genus est, partem aliquam corporis, ipsumque sæpe totum corpus percutientis subito: quod quum repentino eveniat impetu, e cœlo vi quadam sideris evenire putatur.” Lemaire, i. 317. [330] Cicero alludes to these opinions in his treatise De Divin. ii. 33; see also Aul. Gellius, ix. 7. [331] The heliotropium of the moderns has not the property here assigned to it, and it may be doubted whether it exists in any plant, except in a very slight and imperfect degree: the subject will be considered more fully in a subsequent part of the work, xxii. 29, where the author gives a more particular account of the heliotrope. [332] “conchyliorum;” this term appears to have been specifically applied to the animal from which the Tyrian dye was procured. [333] “soricum fibras;” Alexandre remarks on these words, “fibras jecoris intellige, id est, lobos infimos ...;” Lemaire, i. 318; but I do not see any ground for this interpretation. [334] It does not appear from what source our author derived this number; it is considerably greater than that stated by Ptolemy and the older astronomers. See the remarks of Hardouin and of Brotier; Lemaire. i. 319. [335] The Vergiliæ or Pleiades are not in the tail of the Bull, according to the celestial atlas of the moderns. [336] “Septemtriones.”