62 
PLTKY's ISTATUKAL HISTOET, 
[Book II. 
CHAP. 29. — OP SrDDEK 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. Eutilius. 
CHAP. 30. — OP TJNUSUALLX LOlSra ECLIPSES OE THE STO. 
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.) — MA^Y 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 sun, which is stated by various writers 
to have occurred at the time of Caesar's death, it is unnecessary to remark, 
was a phaenomenon totally different from an ecHpse, and depending on a 
totally different cause. 
^ Aristotle, Meteor, hb. iii. cap. 2. p. 575, cap. 6. p. 582, 583, and 
Seneca, Qusest. Nat. Hb. i. § 11, describe these appearances under the 
title which has been retained by the moderns of 7rapi]kia, Aristotle re- 
marks on their cause as depending on the refraction (ava/cXacis) of the 
sun's rays. He extends the remark to the production of halos (aXws) 
and the rainbow, uM supra, 
* This occurrence is referred to by Livy, xli. 21. 
