62 plint's natijkal histoet. [Book 11. 



CHAP. 29. OF SUDDEN CIECLES. 



A bow appeared round the sun in the consulship of L. 

 Opimius and L. Eabius^ and a circle in that of C. Porcius 

 and M. Acilius. (30.) There was a little circle of a red 

 colour in the consulship of L. Julius and P. B/Utnius. 



CHAP. 30. — OF TJNUSTJALLT LONG ECXIPSES OF THE STTBT. 



Eclipses of the sun also take place which are portentous 

 and unusually long, such as occurred when Caesar the Dictator 

 was slain, and in the war against Antony, the sun remained 

 dim for almost a whole year^. 



CHAP. 31. (31.) — MANY SUNS. 



And again, many suns have been seen at the same time'; not 

 above or below the real sun, but in an oblique direction, never 

 near nor opposite to the earth, nor in the night, but either 

 in the east or in the west. They are said to have been seen 

 once at noon in the Bosphorus, and to have continued from 

 morning until sunset. Our ancestors have frequently seen 

 three suns at the same time'', as was the case in the consul- 

 ship of Sp. Postumius and L. Mucins, of L. Marcius and 

 M. Portius, that of M. Antony and Dolabella, and that of 

 M. Lepidus and L. Plancus. And we have ourselves seen 

 one during the reign of the late Emperor Claudius, when he 



^ The term here employed is " arcus," which is a portion only of a circle 

 or "orbis." But if we suppose that the sun was near the horizon, a 

 portion only of the halo would be visible, or the condition of the atmo- 

 sphere adapted for forming the halo might exist in one part only, so that 

 a portion of the halo only would be obscured. 



2 The dimness or paleness of the sim, which is stated by various writers 

 to have occurred at the time of Caesar's death, it is unnecessary to remark, 

 was a phsenomenon totally different from an echpse, and depending on a 

 totally different cause. 



3 Aristotle, Meteor, lib. iii. cap. 2. p. 575, cap. 6. p. 582, 583, and 

 Seneca, Qusest. Nat. lib. i. § 11, describe these appearances under the 

 title which has been retained by the modems of TraprjXia. Aristotle re- 

 marks on their cause as depending on the refraction (dvoKXao-is) of the 

 Sim's rays. He extends the remark to the production of halos (aXws) 

 and the rainbow, ubi supra. 



* This occurrence is referred to by livy, xli. 21. 



