Far Eastern and Classical Antiquity 41 



This theory is due to ignorance of the theory of reflection, which is 

 the real cause of the phenomenon. The water appears to shine when 

 struck because our sight is reflected from it to some bright object: hence 

 the phenomenon occurs mainly at night: the appearance is not seen by 

 day because the daylight is too intense and obscures it. 



There is also a passage in De Mundo which might refer to sea 

 phosphorescence. Speaking of the characteristics of the ocean, Aris- 

 totle wrote: " Often too, there are exhalations of fire from the sea." 

 No further explanation is offered, but previously he had described 

 fire coming from the earth, as observed in Mount ^Etna, and declared 

 analogous phenomena occurred in the sea. The " exhalations of fire 

 from the sea " probably applies to volcanic fire, but the interpreta- 

 tion is not certain in view of the general reference of explorers to 

 seas on fire. It is very extraordinary that neither Aristotle nor Pliny 

 discuss in detail that homogeneous phosphorescence of the sea, due 

 to microscopic organisms, which aroused so much interest in later 

 centuries and was called the " burning of the sea." 



The only possible reference in Pliny is a phrase from the Natural 

 History ^^^—" there are sudden fires both in waters and even in the 

 human body; that the whole of Lake Thrasymenus was on fire." 

 Since microscopic luminous organisms are not found in fresh water, 

 and Lake Thrasymenus is the Lago di Perugia (Lago di Trasimeno) 

 of modern Italy, a fresh-water lake, it seems more likely that the 

 " sudden fires " were volcanic light or burning oil rather than 

 bioluminescence. 



However, the Romans, always on the watch for portents, did 

 occasionally observe and record sea phosphorescence, regarding it 

 as an omen. In 215 b. c, when Quintus Fabius Maximus was sub- 

 stituted for Marcellus as consul for the tliird time, Livy (Titus 

 Livius 59 b. c.-a. d. 17) reported, among other peculiar happenings, 

 that " The sea was aflame in the course of that year." ^" Again after 

 remarking that " the spears of some soldiers in Siciliy, and a walking 

 stick, which a horseman in Sardinia was holding in his hand, seemed 

 to be on fire," evidently a reference to St. Elmo's fire, Livy con- 

 tinued: ^^^ " The shores w^ere also luminous with frequent fires." 

 The '" sea aflame " and the " shores with fires " are undoubted 

 descriptions of the phosphorescence of the sea. The wonder is that 

 so little notice was taken of the phenomenon by other writers. 



A possible but dubious mention of sea light occurs in Roman 



"^ Pliny, Natural history (Book II, Chap. 3) , translated by J. Bostock and H. T. 

 Riley I: 143, 1855. 



^^^ Livy, Historiarum Romanarurn, Book XXIII, Chap. 31 and 32, translated by 

 F. G. Moore, Loeb Library of Classics, 6: 109. 



