6

just as also the invincibility in arms from the Galatians. and witnesses to these things are both Capito and Fonteius, from whom also the most learned Varro, all Romans, after whom this Sallust the historian in his first history clearly teaches. 1.38 establishing the Ramnites and Tities and Luceres; and the reasons for these names we have set forth in our work on the months, as has been said. 1.39 A certain glossis or diadem, this too made of gold, fashioned into the shape of a cluster of grapes for the reason which we have given in the treatise on the months. 1.40 For of old and even now among them in their armed forces, the first of the so-called biarchs carries a rod entwined with a vine-shoot made of silver in honor of Dionysus who was once honored, as has been sufficiently related by us in the work on the months. 1.41 That the vexillationes are the Roman cavalry and vexilla are hangings made of purple and gold in a square shape; hanging these on long spears, marching around the emperors, they inspect them. They would be the so-called flammula. 2.t LIBER ALTER. On the day. 2.1 ... it seems necessary to me to speak about the months, whence and how each has received its name, and what things were long ago observed by the Romans in each of them, at least as much as we have received from the Roman histories; in addition to these things and still earlier, about the difference of years, ages and times and the beginning of days. And this might become like some seasoning to the ears of the many. 2.2 The natural day is taken from the rising of the sun until its setting, but not so among all. For the Babylonians take it from the risings of the sun until its settings, making no mention of the night at all, as something that does not exist in its own right but rather by accident. But the Egyptians and Hebrews, counting the approaching day from the beginning of the evening until the next evening again, that is, uniting the preceding night with the following day and calling both one day, and beginning first from the night, because darkness is more ancient than light and because the cosmographers presuppose that Erebus and darkness existed before the ordering of this universe, and they call night the mother of all; whence also the mythologists make Artemis and Apollo to be born from Leto, and Artemis first, as it were aerotemis, the Moon, after whom the Sun. And Leto would be the night; for during it forgetfulness and sleep occur. The Umbrians, however, an Italic and astrological people, take the beginning of the day from midday, saying that one day is from midday to the next midday again, just as the astrologers do for nativities. And the Athenians also from sunset to sunset just as the Hebrews, but the Romans at first, equally with the Babylonians according to the natural law, themselves also defined the day as only from sunrise to sunset, counting the night for nothing; but later from midnight, that is, from the beginning of its seventh hour, and until the middle of the next night again they established the day to be regarded and named. 2.3 It happens that all the rhythms are from the motion of the planets; for Kronos moves in the Dorian mode, Zeus in the Phrygian, Ares in the Lydian and the rest in the other modes according to Pythagoras, corresponding to the sound of the vowels; for that of Hermes is the alpha, that of Aphrodite the epsilon, that of Helios the eta, and that of Kronos the iota, and that of

6

ὥσπερ καὶ τῶν ὅπλων τὸ δύσμαχον ἀπὸ Γαλατῶν. καὶ μάρτυρες μὲν τούτων ὅ τε Καπίτων καὶ Φοντήϊος, ἐξ ὧν καὶ ὁ διδασκαλικώτατος Οὐάρρων, Ῥωμαῖοι πάντες, μεθ' οὓς Σαλούστιος οὗτος ὁ ἱστορικὸς ἐπὶ τῆς πρώτης ἱστορίας σαφῶς ἀναδιδάσκει. 1.38 Ῥαμνίτας καὶ Τιτίους ἱστῶν καὶ Λούκερας· τὰς δὲ αἰτίας τουτωνὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων ἐν τοῖς περὶ μηνῶν, ὡς εἴρηται, τεθεῖσιν ἡμῖν ἀποδεδώκαμεν. 1.39 Γλωσσίδα τινὰ ἤγουν διάβλημα, χρυσοτελὲς καὶ αὐτό, εἰς βότρυος σχῆμα πεποιημένον δι' ἣν ἐν τῇ περὶ μηνῶν συγγραφῇ ἀποδεδώκαμεν αἰτίαν. 1.40 Πάλαι γὰρ καὶ νῦν δὲ παρ' αὐτοῖς τῶν ὅπλων στρατεύμασιν ἐπιφέρεται ὁ τῶν λεγομένων βιάρχων πρῶτος ῥάβδον κλήματι ἐξ ἀργύρου πεποιημένῳ περιπεπλεγμένην πρὸς τιμῆς τοῦ ποτε τιμηθέντος ∆ιονύσου, ὡς ἐν τοῖς περὶ μηνῶν ἀποχρώντως ἡμῖν ἀνήνεκται. 1.41 Ὅτι βηξιλλατίωνες οἱ Ῥωμαίων ἱππεῖς καὶ βήξιλλα παραπετάσματα ἐκ πορφύρας καὶ χρυσοῦ εἰς τετράγωνον σχῆμα πεποιημένα· ταῦτα ἐξαρτῶντες ἐπὶ μακρῶν δοράτων, κύκλῳ παραπορευόμενοι τῶν βασιλέων κατασκέπτουσιν αὐτούς. εἶεν δ' ἂν τὰ λεγόμενα φλάμμουλα. 2.t LIBER ALTER. Περὶ ἡμέρας. 2.1 ... ἀναγκαῖόν μοι δοκεῖ περὶ τῶν μηνῶν εἰπεῖν, ὅθεν καὶ ὅπως τὴν προσηγορίαν αὐτῶν ἕκαστος εἴληφε, καὶ ἅπερ καθ' ἕκαστον αὐτῶν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις πάλαι παρατετήρηται, ὅσα γε ἡμεῖς ἐκ τῶν Ῥωμαϊκῶν ἱστοριῶν παρειλήφαμεν· πρὸς τούτοις καὶ περὶ διαφορᾶς ἔτι πρότερον ἐνιαυτῶν, αἰώνων τε καὶ χρόνων καὶ ἀρχῆς ἡμερῶν. γένοιτο ἂν καὶ τοῦτο ὥσπερ ἥδυσμά τι ταῖς τῶν πολλῶν ἀκοαῖς. 2.2 Ἡ φυσικὴ ἡμέρα ἀπὸ τῶν ἡλίου ἀνατολῶν ἕως δυσμῶν λαμβάνεται, ἀλλ' οὐ παρὰ πᾶσιν οὕτως. Βαβυλώνιοι μὲν γὰρ ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου ἕως αὐτῶν λαμ βάνουσι δυσμῶν, νυκτὸς οὐδ' ὅλως μνήμην ποιούμενοι, οἷα οὐ καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς γινομένης. Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ καὶ Ἑβραῖοι ἀπὸ ἀρχῆς ἑσπέρας τὴν ἐπιφοιτῶσαν συναριθμοῦντες ἡμέραν ἕως τῆς ἐπιούσης πάλιν ἑσπέρας, τὴν προλαβοῦσαν δηλονότι νύκτα μετὰ τῆς ἐπακολουθούσης ἡμέρας συνενοῦντες καὶ μίαν ἀμφοτέρας ὀνομάζοντες ἡμέραν, ἀρχόμενοι δὲ πρότερον ἀπὸ τῆς νυκτός, διὰ τὸ ἀρχεγονώτερον εἶναι τὸ σκότος τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ πρὸ τῆς τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς διακοσμήσεως ἔρεβος καὶ σκότος προϋποτίθεσθαι τοὺς κοσμογράφους, νύκτα δὲ πάντων μητέρα ὀνομάζειν· ὅθεν καὶ οἱ μυθικοὶ ἀπὸ Λητοῦς τεχθῆναι Ἄρτεμιν ποιοῦσι καὶ Ἀπόλλωνα, καὶ πρώτην Ἄρτεμιν, οἱονεὶ ἀερότεμιν Σελήνην, μεθ' ἣν τὸν Ἥλιον. εἴη δ' ἂν Λητὼ ἡ νύξ· καὶ γὰρ λήθη κατ' αὐτὴν καὶ ὕπνος ἐπιγίνεται. οἵ γε μὴν Οὖμβροι, ἔθνος Ἰταλικὸν καὶ ἀστρο λόγον, ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς ἡμέρας λαμβάνουσιν, ἕως πάλιν τῆς ἄλλης μεσημβρίας μίαν λέγοντες ἡμέραν, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ ἀστρολόγοι ἐπὶ ταῖς γενέσεσιν. Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀπὸ δυσμῶν εἰς δυσμὰς ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ Ἑβραῖοι, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον ἴσα τοῖς Βαβυλωνίοις κατὰ τὸν φυσικὸν νόμον καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν ἡμέραν μόνην ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἡλίου μέχρι δυσμῶν ἡμέραν ὡρίζοντο, τὴν νύκτα μηδὲν λογιζόμενοι· ὕστερον δὲ ἀπὸ μέσης νυκτὸς ἤγουν τῆς ἀρχῆς τῆς ἑβδόμης ὥρας αὐτῆς καὶ ἕως μέσης πάλιν τῆς ἐπιούσης νυκτὸς ἐτύπωσαν τὴν ἡμέραν καὶ νομίζεσθαι καὶ ὀνομάζεσθαι. 2.3 Πάντας τοὺς ῥυθμοὺς ἐκ τῆς τῶν πλανήτων κινήσεως εἶναι συμβαίνει· ὁ μὲν γὰρ Κρόνος τῷ ∆ωρίῳ, ὁ δὲ Ζεὺς τῷ Φρυγίῳ, ὁ δ' Ἄρης τῷ Λυδίῳ καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς κινοῦνται κατὰ τὸν Πυθαγόραν πρὸς τὸν ἦχον τῶν φωνηέντων· ὁ μὲν γὰρ Ἑρμοῦ τὸν α, ὁ δ' Ἀφροδίτης τὸν ε, ὁ δ' Ἥλιος τὸν η, καὶ ὁ μὲν τοῦ Κρόνου τὸν ι, ὁ δὲ