60 PLINY* S NATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book II. 



heavens, in the sight of all the people, at noon-day, when 

 Germanicus Ctesar was exhibiting a show of gladiators*. 

 There are two kinds of them ; those which are called lampadea 

 and those which are called bolides, one of which latter was 

 Been during the troubles at Mutina''. They differ from each 

 other in this respect, that the faces produce a long train of 

 light, the fore-part only being on fire ; while the bolides, being 

 entirely in a state of combustion, leave a still longer track 

 behind them. 



CHAP. 26. — TRABES CELESTES / CHASMA CCELI, 



The trabes also, which are named ^oicot', shine in the same 

 manner ; one of these was seen at the time when the Lace- 

 dffimonians, by being conquered at sea, lost their influence 

 in Greece. An opening sometimes takes place in the firma- 

 ment, which is named chasma*. 



CHAP. 27. (27.) — OF THE COLOUES OF THE SKY AND 0! 

 CELESTIAL FLAME. 



There is a flame of a bloody appearance (and nothing is 



' Seneca refers to this meteor j " Vidimus non semel flammam ingcnti 

 pilfie specie, aiUB tamen in ipso cursu suo dissipata est ... . noc Qennanici 

 mors sine tali demonstratione fuit ; " Nat. Queost. lib. i. cap. 1. p. 683. 



* This meteor ia mentioned by Dion CassiuB, lib. xlv. p. 278, but is 

 described by him as a lampas. 



« We may presume that the trabe* are, for the most part, to be referred 

 to the aurora borealis. The chastna and the appearances described in 

 the twenty-seventh chapter are probably varieties of tliis meteor. On 

 these phainomcna we have the following remarks by Seneca : " Lucem in 

 aijre, seu quaindam albedinem, angustam quideni, scd oblongam, do 

 noctu quandoque vieam, soreno coelo, si parallelo situ sit, Trabom vocant | 

 Bi perpendicularijColumnara ; si, cum cuspido Bolida, sive Jaculum." Nat. 

 Qusest. vii. 4, and again, vii. 5, " Trabes autem non transcumuit neo prro- 

 tervolant, ut factis, sed coraraorantur, et in eadem parte cooli collucent." 



* Seneca describes this meteor, ubi sttpra, i. 14. " Sunt chasinata, cura 

 aliquando cccli spatiiim disoodit, et flammam dehiscens volut in abdito 

 ostentat. Colores quoquo horum omnium plurimi sunt. Quidam ruboris 

 acerrimi, quidam evanidas ct lovis flammte, quidam Candida) lucis, quidam 

 micantes, quidam sequabiliter et sine eruptionibus aut radiis fulvi." Ari- 

 stotle's account of ohasmata is contained in his Meteor, lib. i. cap. 6, 

 p. 634. 



