BOOK II. XXII. 90-xxiii. 92 



visibility on record for a comet is 7 days, the longest 

 80." 



XXIII. Some comets move, like the planets, but courscso/ 

 others are fixed and stationary, almost all of them '^""^"'^- 

 towards the due North, not in any particular part of 

 it, though chiefly in the luminous region called the 

 Milky Way. Aristotle also records ^" that several 

 may be seen at the same time — a fact not observed 

 by anyone else, as far as I am aware — and that this 

 signifies severe winds or heat. Comets also occur 

 in the winter months and at the south pole, but 

 comets in the south have no rays. A terrible comet Cometsas 

 was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to 'P'^tents. 

 which Typhon the king of that period gave his name ; 

 it had a fiery appearance and was twisted Hke a coil, 

 and it was very grim to behold : it was not really a 

 star so much as what might be called a ball of fire. 

 Planets and all other stars also occasionally have 

 spreading hair. But sometimes *" there is a comct 

 in the western sky, usually a terrifying star and not 

 easily expiated : for instance, during the civil dis- 

 order in the consulship ** of Octavius, and again during 

 the war " between Pompey and Caesar, or in oin- day 

 about the time of the poisoning which secured the 

 bequest of the empire by Claudius Caesar to 

 Domitius Nero,/ and thereafter during Nero's 

 principate shining almost continuously and with a 

 terrible glare. People think that it matters in what 

 direction a comet darts, what star's strength it 

 borrows, what shapes it resembles, and in what 



^ 43 B.c. 

 • 49, 48 B.o. 



/ Nero had succeeded his stepfather, 54 b.c, before he 

 secured his position by murderiQg Britaonicus. 



