36 History of Luminescence 



under certain atmospheric conditions. A good example is the 

 miraculous omen described by Virgil in the Aeneid concerning the 

 young Julus,^* when: 



Lo! a light tongue of fire appeared on the head of lulus, 

 Glowing with a lambent light, and a flame, quite gentle and 



harmless. 

 Flickered about his hair, and crowned his brows with a halo.^^ 



A similar prodigy, mentioned by Livy ^^ (59 b. c.-a. d. 17), and 

 by Ovid (43 b. c.-a. d. 18) in the Fasti ^^ occurred when the head 

 of young Servius TuUius ^® " burned amidst his hair." These elec- 

 trical phenomena were well known to the Romans, and there are 

 many accounts of ignis lambens, as well as " Castor and Pollux " or 

 St. Elmo's fire at the ends of javelins and on the masts of ships.®^ 



Pliny also, speaking ^°° of the " Wonders of fires by themselves," 

 wrote: 



Over and besides, there be fires scene suddainely to arise, both in 

 waters and about the bodies of men. Valerias Antias reporteth, that the 

 Lake Thrasymenus once burned all over: also that Servius Tullius in 

 his childhood, as hee lay asleepe, had a light fire shone out of his head: 

 likewise as L. Mariiis made an oration in open audience to the armie, 

 after the two Scipios were slaine in Spain, and exhorted his souldiors 

 to revenge their death, his head was on a flaming fire in the same 

 sort. . . . 



The fire about the bodies of men were undoubtedly electrolumi- 



^* Son of Anaeas, sometimes called Ascanius. 



»6 Virgil, Aeneid, Book II, 11, lines 682-684 (trans, by H. H. Ballard). An earlier 

 version of the lines from a translation (1657) of J. Jonslon's Traumatographia 

 naturalis (1632) reads as follows: 



" Behold a shining Crest, was from Julus head 

 Seen to give light, and so the harmlesse flame 

 Did feel full soft, and on his temples fed." 



^^ According to Livy, in Book I, Chap. 39, of the History of the Romans, which is 

 entitled From the founding of the city, this event occurred about 600 b. c. 



^' Roman poetical calendar. Fasti, Book 6. 



^^ The sixth king of Rome, whose reign began 578 b. c. 



*^ Pliny, Natural history. Book II, Chap. 37 and Livy, History, Book XXXIII, Chap. 

 32, and Seneca, Qxiestiones naturales. Book I, Chap. 1. See T. H. Martin, La Foudre. 

 L'electricite et le magnetisme chez les anciens, 222-413, Paris, 1866, on " Le feu Saint 

 Elme dans I'antiquit^." 



J. Jonston {Thaumatographia naturalis, 1632) quoted Pliny as having said that 

 " these lights are dangerous, if they come alone, and sink the ships, and burn them 

 if they fall to the bottoms of the Vessels; but two are successful, and signs of a 

 prosperous Voyage; for they by their approach drive away, say they, that unhappy 

 and threatning Helena. Wherefore they assign that diety to Castor and Pollux, and 

 call upon them at Sea, making them the tutelar Captains for their Ships." (English 

 translation, 76, 1657. 



i°» P. Holland's translation (1601) of the Natural historic, Book II, Chap. 107. 



