14 Pliny's natural history. [Book 11. 



call the heavens \ by the vault of which all things are en- 

 lent to the celestial regions as opposed to the earth. In the ninth line, 

 " concessumque patri mundo," we may consider it as signifying the 

 celestial regions generally ; and in the eleventh, " Jamque favet mundus," 

 the whole of the earth, or rather its inhabitants. We meet with it again 

 in the sixty-eighth hne, " lumina niimdi," where it seems more properly 

 to signify the visible firmament ; again in the 139th, " Et mundi struxere 

 globum," it seems to refer especially to the earth, synonymous with the 

 general sense of the Enghsh term world ; while in the 153rd line, " per 

 inania mundi," it must be supposed to mean the universe. Hyginus, 

 in his Poeticon Astronomicon, hb. i. p. 55, defines the term as follows : 

 •' Mimdus appellatur is qui constat in sole et hma et terra et omnibus 

 stellis ; " and again, p. 57, "Terra mundi media regione coUocata." We may 

 observe the different designations of the term mundus in Seneca ; among 

 other passages I may refer to his Nat. Qugest. vii. 27 & iii. 30 ; to his 

 treatise De Consol. § 18 and De Benef. iv. 23, where I conceive the precise 

 meanings are, respectively, the universe, the terrestrial globe, the firma- 

 ment, and the heavenly bodies. The Grreek term Kofffios, which corresponds 

 to the Latin word mundus, was likewise employed to signify, either the 

 visible firmament or the universe. In illustration of tliis, it ^ill be suf- 

 ficient to refer to the treatise of Aristotle Ilepi Kocjuov, cap. 2. p. 601. See 

 also Stephens's Thesaurus, iti loco. In Apuleius's treatise De Mundo, 

 which is a free translation of Aristotle's 11 ept Koa/xov, the term may be 

 considered as synonymous with universe. It is used in the same sense 

 in various parts of Apuleius's writings : see Metam. ii. 23 ; De Deo 

 Socratis, 665, 667 ; De Dogmate Platonis, 574, 575, et alibi. 



^ Cicero, in his Timseus, uses the same phraseology ; " Omne igitur 

 ccelum, sive mundus, sive quovis aho vocabulo gaudet, hoc a nobis 

 nuncupatum est," § 2. Pomponius Mela's work commences vdth a 

 similar expression ; " Omne igitur hoc, quidquid est, cui mmidi coehque 

 nomen indideris, tmum id est." They were probably taken from a 

 passage in Plato's Timaeus, "Universum igitur hoc, Coelum, sive Mimdum, 

 sive quo aho vocabulo gaudet, cognominemus," accorduig to the trans- 

 lation of Ficinus ; Platonis Op. ix. p. 302. The word coelum, which is 

 employed in the original, in its ordinary acceptation, signifies the heavens^ 

 the visible firmament ; as in Ovid, Met. i. 5, " quod tegit omnia, coelum." 

 It is, in most cases, employed in this sense by Lucretius and by Manihus, 

 as in i. 2. of the former and in i. 14. of the latter. Occasionally, how- 

 ever, it is employed by both of these writers in the more general sense 

 of celestial regions, in opposition to the earth, as by Lucretius, i. 65, and 

 by Manilius, i. 352. In the hne quoted by Cicero from Pacuvius, it 

 would seem to mean the place in which the planets are situated ; De 

 Nat. Deor. ii. 91. The Greek word oiipavbs may be regarded as exactly 

 cori'esponding to the Latm word caelum, and employed vnth. the same 

 modifications ; see Aristotle, De Mundo and De Coelo, and Ptolemy, 

 Mag. Const. Hb. i. passim ; see also Stephens's Thesaurus, in loco. Aratus 

 generally uses it to designate the visible fib'mament, as in 1. 10, while in 

 1. 32 it means the heavenly regions. Gresner defines coelvm, " Mundus 



