88 pliny's NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book II. 



wounds that might come from above. In the consulship of 

 L. Paulus and C. Marcellus it rained wool, round the castle 

 of Carissanum, near which place, a year after, T. Annius Milo 

 was killed. It is recorded, among the transactions of that 

 year, that when he was pleading his own cause, there was a 

 shower of baked tiles. 



CHAP. 58. (57.) — EATTLI]S^G OP ARMS ATfD THE SOTJND OF 

 TEUMPETS HEAED IN THE SKY. 



"We have heard, that during the war with the Cimbri, the 

 rattling of arms and the sound of trumpets were heard through 

 the sky, and that the same thing has frequently happened 

 before and since \ Also, that in the third consulship of 

 Marius, armies were seen in the heavens by the Amerini and 

 the Tudertes, encountering each other, as if from the east and 

 west, and that those from the east were repelled^. It is not 

 at all wonderful for the heavens themselves to be in flames', 

 and it has been more frequently observed when the clouds 

 have taken up a great deal of lire. 



CHAP. 59. (58.) OF STOliTES THAT HAYE FALLEIST PEOM THE 



CLOUDS^. THE OPIKLOlSr OE AlfAXAGOEAS EESPECTINa 

 THEM. 



The Grreeks boast that Anaxagoras*, the Clazomenian, in 

 the second year of the 78th Olpnpiad, from his knowledge 

 of what relates to the heavens, had predicted, that at a certain 



wool mentioned below, i. e. a light flocculent substance, was perhaps 

 volcanic. 



^ Armorum sonitum toto G-ermania coelo 



Audiit. — Yirgil, Geor. i. 474, 475. 



" .... in Jovis Vicilini templo, quod in Compsano agro est, arma con- 

 crepuisse." Livy, xxiv. 44. 



2 See Plutarch, by Langhome ; Marius, iii. 133. 



3 See Livy, iii. 5 & 10, xxxi. 12, xxxii, 9, et alibi. 



"* I have ah'eady had occasion to remark, concerning this class of phae- 

 nomena, that there is no doubt of their actual occurrence, although their 

 origin is still xmexplained. 



* The life of Anaxagoras has been written by Diogenes Laertius. We 

 have an ample account of him by Enfield ia the General Biography, in 

 loco ; he was bom B.C. 500 and died B.C. 428. 



