5

Since earthly things are in themselves indicative of things to come, it would be superfluous to speak at length. For when statues or images seem to sweat or weep, or when a thoroughly heated furnace or oven flashes, it threatens civil strife. Or when rivers overflow their own beds, they declare an attack of enemies. For what the sweatings of sheep's entrails signify, no one is ignorant. Or also when wells gush forth turbid water, the state against itself *. Or also when a kite flies about freely in the theater with the crowd gathered, such as we saw during the hippodrome races that were held during the ninth indiction which has just passed, during which a kite, carrying the dart, the so-called *sagitta*, with a rush, having circled the entire populace, deposited it upon the obelisk, shrieking piercingly. And the people, without delay, but having been stirred up against themselves, were themselves destroyed, and the whole city was destroyed by fire, so that even the imperial power itself, if God had not acted against it, would have come not far from danger. For concerning hoopoes and night-ravens and wolves and foxes, when they appear in cities, it is utterly superfluous to relate what was said by the ancients along with Pollux and those from whom he himself discourses. So much, then, a few things out of many, let it have been said to those who object to the divine signs and dare to contradict Ptolemy. But it is time to begin the promised subject, taking the preliminaries from the influences of the sun. 99dt DE SOLIS LVNAEQVE SIGNIFICATIBVS It must be known in the first place that the sun alone has universal effects, while the other divine signs have local ones. For it is granted once for the sun to be covered by the interposition of the moon, and for her by the opposition of the earth, and the former at every conjunction, but the moon, when it is full. And for this reason no one would dispute it. And this is said to have been foreknown among the Greeks by Thales of Miletus in the forty-ninth Olympiad, in the one hundred and seventieth year after the founding of Rome, and among the Romans by Sulpicius Gallus, one day before the defeat of Perseus of Macedon. And under Vespasian Caesar, it happened that this was experienced by both lights within fifteen days. Yet this event does not always portend the same things; for the eclipses are not of a single kind, with the sun ruling Asia and the moon Europe *, and especially when the eclipse occurs with the so-called malefics, with the royal signs being afflicted and the aid of the benefics being idle. For when an eclipse of either of the lights occurs in Taurus or Virgo or Capricorn, according to the aforementioned reasons, a scarcity of crops, and especially of seasonal ones, occurs, inasmuch as Virgo is the corn-bearer, and Taurus plows, and Capricorn is the first to taste of such crops; but if such a thing happens in Gemini or Libra or Aquarius, since the trigon is of human form, plagues and famines will break out; and when it happens in Cancer or Scorpio or Pisces, destruction of crowds and seditions of wars and ruin of things in the sea will ensue. And in the case of the royal trigon, I mean of Aries and Leo and Sagittarius, when an eclipse occurs it is necessary that one of those around the imperial power itself suffer some such thing as happens concerning the trigon, with that being additionally observed; as when an eclipse occurs in Leo, it signifies some affliction for kings, and it turns back the Nile. So that it is right to marvel at the providence of God, that throughout the whole time of this most fortunate reign of Anastasiị, an eclipse has not occurred in this sign. These things, then, have been said concerning solar eclipses.

5

καθ' ἑαυτὰ τὰ γήινα δηλωτικὰ τυγχάνει τῶν ἐσομένων, περιττὸν ἂν εἴη μακρηγορεῖν. ὅταν μὲν γὰρ ἱδροῦν ἢ δακρύειν δοκῇ ἀγάλματα ἢ εἰκόνες, ἢ ὅταν κάμινος ἢ ἰπνὸς περιπεφρυγμένος ἐκλάμψῃ, στάσεις ἐμφυλίους ἀπειλεῖ. ἢ ὅταν ποταμοὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ὑπερχέωσι κοίτας, ἔφοδον πολεμίων φράζουσιν. αἱ γὰρ ἱδρώσεις προβατείων σπλάγχνων τί σημαίνουσιν, οὐδεὶς ἀγνοεῖ. ἢ καὶ ὅταν ἐπίθολον ὕδωρ αἱ φρεατίαι ἀναβλύζωσι, καθ' ἑαυτῆς ἡ πολιτεία *. ἢ καὶ ὅταν ἰκτῖνος ἐν θεάτρῳ συνηγμέ νῳ τῷ πλήθει ἀνέδην περιποτᾶται, ὁποῖον ἱπποδρομίας ἐπιτελουμένης εἴδομεν ἐπὶ τῆς ἄρτι διελθούσης ἐνάτης ἐπινεμήσεως, ἧς ἀγομένης ἰκτῖνος τὸ βέλος, τὴν λεγομένην σαγίτταν, τῷ ῥέμφει φέρων, ὅλον ἐπικυκλώσας τὸν δῆμον, ἐπὶ τοῦ ὀβελοῦ ταύτην διωλύγιον συρίττων ἀπέθετο. ὁ δὲ δῆμος οὐδὲν βραδύνας, καθ' ἑαυτοῦ δὲ κινηθείς, αὐτὸς μὲν ἀπώλλυτο, ἡ δὲ πόλις πυρὶ πᾶσα διεφθείρετο, ὡς καὶ αὐτὴν τὴν βασιλείαν, εἰ μὴ θεὸς ἀντέπραττεν, οὐ πόρρω κινδύνων ἐλθεῖν. τὰ γὰρ περὶ ἐπόπων καὶ νυκτικοράκων λύκων τε καὶ ἀλωπέκων, ὅταν ἐν πόλεσι φαίνωνται, τὰ εἰρημένα τοῖς ἀρχαίοις μετὰ Πόλλητα καὶ τοὺς ἐξ ὧν αὐτὸς διαλέγεται, περιττὸν ἄντικρυς ἀναφέρειν. Τοσαῦτα μὲν οὖν πρὸς τοὺς ταῖς διοσημείαις ἐνισταμένους καὶ Πτολεμαίῳ τολμῶντας ἀντιλέγειν ἐκ πολλῶν ὀλίγα λελέχθω. καιρὸς δὲ ἄρξασθαι τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἐκ τῶν ἡλιακῶν ἀποτελεσμάτων λαμβάνοντας τὰ προοίμια. 99dt DE SOLIS LVNAEQVE SIGNIFICATIBVS Ἰστέον ἐν πρώτοις ὡς μόνος ὁ ἥλιος καθολικὰς ἔχει ἐνεργείας, τῶν ἄλλων διοσημειῶν τοπικὰς ἐχου σῶν. δέδοται γὰρ ἅπαξ ἡλίῳ μὲν καλύπτεσθαι τῇ παρεμπτώσει τῆς σελήνης, αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ ἀντιπτώσει τῆς γῆς, καὶ τὸν μὲν ἐν συνόδῳ πάντων, τὴν σελήνην δέ, ὅταν ᾖ πλησιφαής. καὶ τούτου χάριν οὐδεὶς ἂν ἀμφισβητήσειε. προγνωσθῆναι δὲ τοῦτο λέγεται παρὰ μὲν Ἕλλησι πρὸς Θαλοῦ τοῦ Μιλησίου ἐπὶ τῆς ἐνάτης καὶ τεσσαρακοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος, ἔτει ἑβδομηκοστῷ καὶ ἑκατοστῷ τῆς κτίσεως Ῥώμης ὕστερον, παρὰ δὲ Ῥωμαίοις ὑπὸ Σουλπικίου Γάλλου, μιᾷ πρόσθεν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς Περσέως τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἥττης. ἐπὶ δὲ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ τοῦ Καίσαρος ἐν πέντε καὶ δέκα ἡμέραις ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς φωσὶ τοῦτο συνέβη παθεῖν. Οὐ μὴν ἀεὶ τοῦτο τὸ πάθος τὰ αὐτὰ προμηνύει· οὐδὲ γὰρ μονοειδεῖς αἱ ἐκλείψεις, ἡλίου μὲν τὴν Ἀσίαν διέποντος, σελήνης δὲ τὴν Εὐρώπην *, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν πρὸς τοὺς λεγομένους κακοποιοὺς ἡ ἔκλειψις γένηται, κακουμένων μὲν τῶν βασιλικῶν ζῳδίων καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐπικουρίας ἀργούσης. ἐν ταύρῳ μὲν γὰρ ἢ παρθένῳ ἢ αἰγόκερῳ συμβαινούσης ἐκλείψεως ὁποτέρου τῶν φώτων κατὰ τοὺς προκειμένους λόγους, καρπῶν ἔνδεια καὶ διαφερόντως τῶν ὡρίμων συμβαίνει, καθὸ σταχυηφόρος μὲν ἡ παρθένος, ἀροτρεύει δὲ ὁ ταῦρος, ὁ δὲ αἰγόκερως πρῶτος τῶν τοιούτων καρπῶν ἀπογεύεται· εἰ δὲ ἐν διδύμοις ἢ ζυγῷ ἢ ὑδροχόῳ γένηται τὸ τοιοῦτον, ἀνθρωποειδοῦς ὄντος τοῦ τριγώνου, οἱ λοιμοί τε καὶ λιμοὶ ἐνσκήψουσιν· ὅταν δὲ ἐν καρκίνῳ ἢ σκορπίῳ ἢ ἰχθύσι συμβαίνῃ, ὄχλων φθοραὶ καὶ πολέμων στάσεις καὶ ἐναλίων ὄλεθρος ἐπικείσεται. ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ τριγώνου, κριοῦ τε φημὶ καὶ λέοντος καὶ τοξότου, γινομένης ἐκλείψεως ἀνάγκη τινὰ τῶν περὶ τὴν βασιλείαν αὐτὴν παθεῖν τι τοιοῦτον, ὁποῖον συμβαίνει περὶ τὸ τρίγωνον, ἐκείνου προσεπιθεωμένου· ὡς ὅταν ἔκλειψις ἐν λέοντι γένηται τοῖς μὲν βασιλεῦσι κάκωσιν σημαίνει τινά, τὸν δὲ Νεῖλον ἀποστρέφει. ὥστε καὶ θαυμάζειν εἰκότως τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ πρόνοιάν ἐστι, παρ' ὅλον τὸν τῆς εὐτυχεστάτης ταύτης τῆς βασιλείας ̣Anastasiị καιρὸν ἐκλείψεως ἐπὶ τούτου τοῦ ζῳδίου μὴ γενομένης. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἡλιακῶν ἐκλείψεων εἴρηται.