xvi CLASSIFICATION OF WINDS 209 



Eurus and Notus (south) rush together, and with squall upon 



squall 

 Africus (south-west). 



And we may add Aquilo (north), which has no place 

 in the famous battle of the winds to which Virgil 

 refers. Some make the number of the winds twelve. 

 They divide the four quarters of heaven into three 

 parts each, adding two subsidiary winds to each of 

 the principal ones. On this principle that diligent 3 

 author, Varro, classifies them. And there is good 

 ground for it ; the other method, which refers them 

 to seasonal changes, is very unsatisfactory. For 

 instance, the sun does not always rise or set at the 

 same point. He has one place of rising at the 

 equinox indeed, the equinox occurs twice a year 

 another at the summer, and still another at the 

 winter, solstice. The wind which sets in from the 

 direction of sunrise at the equinoxes is with us 

 called Subsolane (near the sun) ; the Greeks call it 

 a&amp;lt;/&amp;gt;?7Xtft)T779 (from the sun). From sunrise in winter 

 Eurus comes, named by our countrymen Vulturnus 

 (i.e. from Mt. Vultur in the S.E.). Livy also calls it 4 

 by this name, in connection with that famous battle 

 of Cannae, which proved so disastrous to Rome. 

 Hannibal on that occasion managed to get our 

 army with its face to the rising sun and to the 

 wind ; by the aid of the wind and the glare that 

 dazzled the eyes of the enemy he snatched the 

 victory. Varro likewise uses the same name. But 

 Eurus is a name now naturalised, and has a place in 

 our vocabulary that does not suggest any foreign 

 origin. The wind that is raised by sunrise at the 5 

 summer solstice was called by the Greeks /eat/aa? ; 1 

 we have no name for it. Sunset at the equinox sends 



1 No explanation of this name of the nor -easter is forthcoming. 



P 



