84 pliny's natueal history. [Book XVIII. 



CHAP. 65. WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN THE PREVALENCE OF 



THE WEST WINDS AND THE YERNAL EQUINOX. 



Between the prevalence of the west winds and the vernal 

 equinox, the fourteenth day before^^ the calends of March, ac- 

 cording to Caesar, announces three days of changeable weather : 

 the same is the case, too, with the eighth ^^ before the calends 

 of March, at the first appearance of the swallow, Arcturu? 

 rising on the evening of the next day. Caesar has observed, 

 that the same takes place on the third ^* before the nones ol 

 March, at the rising of Cancer; and most authorities say the same 

 with reference to ihe emersion of the Yintager.^^^ On the eighth^ 

 before the ides of March, the northern limb of Pisces ^'^ rises 

 and on the next day Orion, at Avhich period also, in Attica, thi 

 Kite is first seen. Caesar has noted, too, the setting of Scorpic 

 on the ides of March,^^ a day that was so fatal to him ; and or 

 the fifteenth'^ before the calends of April, the Kite appears ii 

 Italy. On the twelfth '^^ before the calends of April, the Horsi 

 sets in the morning. 



This interval of time is a period of extreme activity for th€ 

 agriculturist, and afi'ords him a great number of occupations, 

 in reference to which, however, he is extremely liable to be de- 

 ceived. He is summoned to the commencement of these 

 labours, not upon the day on which the M'est winds ought tt 

 begin, but upon the day on which they really do begin, to blow 

 This moment then must be looked for with the most carefu! 

 attention, as it is a signal which the Deity has vouchsafed m 

 in this month, attended with no doubts or equivocations, i. 

 only looked for with scrupulous care. We ha ve. already sta tec 

 in tlie Second Book,'^ the quarter in which this wind blows 3 

 and the exact point from which it comes, and before long wt 

 shall have occasion to speak of it again still more in detail. 



In the mean time, however, setting out from the day, what* 



* Sixteenth of February. 63 Twenty-second of February. 



'^ Fifth of March. 



6^ On the fifth of March, Ovid says, Fasti, iii. 1.407. Columella make 

 it rise on the sixth of the nones, or the second of March. 



w Eighth of March. 



" Or, more literally, the "Northern Fish." 



«8 Fifteenth of March, the day on wliich he was assassinated , in accord- 

 ance, it is said, with the prophecy of a diviner, who had warned him t( 

 beware (.t{ the ides of March. 



«9 Eighteenth of ftfarch. 7o Twenty-first of March. 



'» In c. 46 and c. 47. 



