[365] This will be either on March 2nd or on February 26th, according as we reckon from December the 21st, the real solstitial day, or the 17th, when, according to the Roman calendar, the sun is said to enter Capricorn. [366] “quasi Avicularem dixeris.” Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 334. [367] Corresponding to the 10th of May. [368] According to the Roman calendar, this corresponds to the 20th July, but, according to the text, to the 17th. Columella says, that the sun enters Leo on the 13th of the Calends of August; xi. 2. [369] “quasi præcursores;” Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 335. Cicero refers to these winds in one of his letters to Atticus; xiv. 6. [370] ἐτησίαι, ab ἔτος, annus. [371] This will be on the 13th of September, as, according to our author, xviii. 24, the equinox is on the 24th. [372] This corresponds to the 11th of November; forty-four days before this will be the 29th of September. [373] Or Halcyonides. This topic is considered more at length in a subsequent part of the work; x. 47. [374] The author, as it appears, portions out the whole of the year into fourteen periods, during most of which certain winds are said to blow, or, at least, to be decidedly prevalent. Although the winds of Italy are less irregular than those of England, Pliny has considerably exaggerated the real fact. [375] On this subject the reader may peruse the remarks of Seneca, Nat. Quæst. v. 18, written in his style of flowery declamation. [376] The greatest part of the remarks on the nature of the winds, in this chapter, would appear to be taken from Aristotle’s Treatise De Meteor., and it may be stated generally, that our author has formed his opinions more upon those of the Greek writers than upon actual observation. [377] 9 A.M. [378] In the last chapter Ornithias is said to be a west wind. [379] This obviously depends upon the geographical situation of the northern parts of Africa, to which the observation more particularly applies, with respect to the central part of the Continent and the Mediterranean. See the remarks of Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 340. [380] The influence of the fourth day of the moon is referred to by Virgil, Geor. i. 432 _et seq._ “Sin ortu quarto,” &c. [381] This refers to the genders of the names of the winds, analogous to the remark in note [346], p. 71. [382] Eudoxus was a native of Cnidus, distinguished for his knowledge in astrology and science generally; he was a pupil of Plato, and is referred to by many of the ancients; see Hardouin’s Index Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 187, and Enfield’s Hist. of Phil. i. 412, with the very copious list of references. [383] “flatus repentini.” [384] Cicero refers to an opinion very similar to this as maintained by the Stoics; De Div. ii. 44. [385] “procella.” [386] “ἐκ νέφους, ex nube, erumpente spiritu.” Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 343. Perhaps it most nearly corresponds to the term “hurricane.”