Chap. 28.] 
ACCOUNT or THE WOBLD. 
CI 
more dreaded by mortals) whicli falls down upon the earth ^, 
such as was seen in the third year of the 103rd olympiad, 
when King Philip was disturbing Greece. But my opinion 
is, that these, like everything else, occur at stated, natural 
periods, and are not produced, as some persons imagine, from a 
variety of causes, such as their fine genius may suggest. They 
have indeed been the precursors of great evils, but I conceive 
that the evils occurred, not because the prodigies took place, 
but that these took place because the evils were appointed 
to occur at that period^. Their cause is obscure in con- 
sequence of their rarity, and therefore we are not as well 
acquainted with them as we are with the rising of the stars, 
which I have mentioned, and vrith eclipses and many other 
things. 
CHAP. 28. (28.) — OP CELESTIAL COBOIS"^. 
Stars are occasionally seen along with the sun, for whole 
days together, and generally round its orb, like wreaths made 
of the ears of corn, or circles of various colours^ ; such as 
occurred when Augustus, while a very young man, was 
entering the city, after the death of his father, in order to 
take upon himself the great name which he assumed^. (29.) 
The same coronce occur about the moon and also about the 
principal stars, which are stationary in the heavens. 
1 The meteor here referred to is probably a pecioliar form of the 
aurora borealis, which occasionally assimies a red colour. See the re- 
marks of Fouche, in Ajasson, i. 382. 
2 The doctrine of the author appears to be, that the prodigies are not 
the cause, but only the indication of the events which succeed them. 
This doctrine is referred to by Seneca ; " Yidebimus an certus omniimi 
rerum ordo ducatur, et aha ahis ita complexa sint, ut quod antecedit, 
aut causa sit sequentium aut signum." Nat. Qusest. i. 1. 
3 It would appear that, in this passage, two phsenomena are confounded 
together ; certain briUiant stars, as, for example, Yenus, which have been 
occasionally seen in the day-time, and the formation of different kinds of 
halos, depending on certain states of the atmosphere, which affect its 
transparency. 
^ This occurrence is mentioned by Seneca, Nat. Qusest. i. 2 ; he enters 
into a detailed explanation of the cause ; also by Y. Paterculus, ii. 59, 
and by Jul. Obsequens, cap. 128. We can scarcely doubt of the reahty 
of the occurrence, as these authors would not have ventured to relate 
what, if not true, might have been so easily contradicted. 
