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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
No sooner had Pompey and the Senate fled in terror from Rome before Caesar's approach than the fears of those who remained in the city were heightened by new portents. The Etruscan soothsayer, Arruns, who was called in by the frightened townspeople to discover the will of the gods, proceeded to give such instructions as might be expected from one of his profession, and then, on sacrificing a bull, found that the omens were unfavourable. As if this were not enough, at v. 639 the famous Neopythagorean scholar and friend of Cicero, P. Nigidius Figulus, appeared in order to consult the skies, for, as Lucan observes, he was in advance of even the Egyptians in his knowledge of astrology. He began by remarking that, if this science meant anything at all, considerable trouble was in store for the Romans; and then went on in vv. 651–65 to reveal what he saw when he looked at the heavens, expressing his meaning in words which, apart from a couple of technical expressions, may be immediately translated with some incidental interpretations as follows:
‘If the cold baneful planet Saturn were kindling his black fires summo caelo’ (the inference, of course, is that he was not doing so), ‘a flood like that of Deucalion would have been pouring from Aquarius’ (or, because Aquarius is sometimes identified with Deucalion, the meaning may be ‘Aquarius would have been pouring out such a flood as could be expected from him’) ‘and the entire land would have been hidden in the spreading expanse of water.
page 17 note 1 vv. 522–5 ‘turn, nequa futuri | spes saltern trepidas mentes leuet, addita fati | peioris manifesta fides, superique minaces | prodigiis terras inplerunt, aethera, pontum.’
page 17 note 2 vv. 640–1 ‘quem non stellarum Aegyptia 4599.4 Memphis | aequaret uisu numerisque sequentibus (so Bentley, MSS. mouentibus) astra.’
page 17 note 3 Housman's Astronomical Appendix to his edition, p. 326.
page 17 note 4 Mars was the guardian of Scorpio (Housman's edition of Manilius ii, p. xvi, and Manil. 2. 443 ‘pugnax Mauorti Scorpios haeret’). Cf. id. 4. 217–21 ‘Scorpios armata uiolenta cuspide cauda | …in bellum ardentes animos et Martia castra | efficit.’
page 18 note 1 Loc. cit., p. 326.
page 18 note 2 Loc. cit., p. 327.
page 18 note 3 Boll, , Sphaera, p. 362Google Scholar.
page 18 note 4 See also Bouché-Leclerq, , L'Astrologie grecque, Paris, 1899, p. 280Google Scholar.
page 19 note 1 Manil. 2.948 ‘unus in occasu locus est super’.
page 19 note 2 Cat. Cod. Astr. Graec., vol. viii, pt. iv, Brussels, 1921, p. 158Google Scholar.
page 19 note 3 2. 867–5, 871–2.
page 19 note 4 Op. cit., p. 154.
page 19 note 5 Op. cit., p. 161.
page 19 note 6 Math. 2. 17.
page 19 note 7 Cambridge, 1940.
page 19 note 8 Op. cit., pp. 325–6.
page 20 note 1 See a careful discussion of this in Housman's edition of Manilius III, pp. xiii–xx.
page 20 note 2 Quoted on pp. xxvii–xxviii of Housman's edition of Manilius II as follows: οἷον (ἔσται γ⋯ρ σαφ⋯ς ⋯π⋯ παραδε⋯γματος) Καρκίνου ὡροσκοπο⋯ντος μεσουρανεῖ μ⋯ν Κρι⋯ς, δὺνει δ⋯ Αἰγ⋯κερως, ὑπ⋯ γ⋯ν δ⋯ ⋯στι Ζυγ⋯ς (πρ⋯ς ⋯στρ. 12 sq.).
page 20 note 3 Op. cit., p. xxx.
page 20 note 4 Firm. Math. 2. 2. 5, etc.
page 20 note 5 See my edition of Lucan I (cit. supra), p. 121.
page 20 note 6 Vitruu. 9. 6. 2.
page 21 note 1 Edition of Lucan, p. 326.
page 21 note 2 Firm. Math. 2. 19. 7 ‘qui locus Mala Fortuna appellatur ob hoc quia locus est Martis.’
page 21 note 3 Id. 3. 3. 14 ‘locus enim, id est sextus, habet malitiae propriam praerogatiuam, et, quaecumque Stella in ipso loco fuerit, id est in sexto, ad decernenda mala maximas uires ex loci uitio semper mutuabitur.’
page 21 note 4 Id. 13.
page 21 note 5 Id. 2. 19. 7 ‘sed interdum loci ipsius malitia subleuatur, si in eo loco Stella collocata, alia Stella in decimo ab horoscopo loco inuenta prospera fuerit radiatione coniuncta.’
page 21 note 6 Id. 3. 2. 21 ‘quod si beniuola stella sic positum per noctem saltem Saturnum bona radiatione respexit, id est Iouis aut Veneris specialiter,… ex aliqua parte largitur.’
page 21 note 7 Manil. 4. 217–21 cit. supra.
page 21 note 8 Id. 2. 871–5.
page 21 note 9 ‘iam Phoebe toto fratrem cum redderet ore | terrarum subita percussa expalluit umbra.’
page 21 note 10 Manil. 2. 211–12.
page 21 note 11 Id. 2. 572–3 ‘sed plerumque manent inimica tertia quaeque | lege, in transuersum uultu defixa maligno.’
page 21 note 12 See Housman's edition of Manilius II, p. xviii.
page 21 note 13 Ibid., pp. xx–xxi.
page 22 note 1 In acquiring this knowledge he was more fortunate than Johann Kepler, who tried to test the accuracy of this passage and obtained only a negative conclusion. See Boll, , Sphaera, p. 362Google Scholar n. 1.
page 22 note 2 The substance of this paper was communicated to the Cambridge Philological Society on 23 February 1939, and an abstract of it appeared in the Cambridge University Reporter of 14 March of that year, p. 711.
