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they rush down, drawing a long furrow. Beams also appear, and this is what the Greeks call them. A chasm also occurs in the sky, and when this happens, shakings and fractures from them and fissures of the earth occur. And another thing, very similar to a conflagration, often appears; such as is found in the history, when Philip, son of Amyntas, shook Greece. Stars also appear around the sun throughout the whole day, and around its disk itself like a crown, and certain multicolored circles, such as appeared when Augustus, avenging his father, decided to renew the civil wars. And no less does it happen that there appear, as we said on p. 34, 15, around the sun something like a bow and fiery collars. Such things the circle of the Roman Varro, Nigidius, and Apuleius set forth. However, Campestris, having composed a certain select treatise on these things, in the very words of the interpretation concerning comets, and what they threaten, says these things. 1112t CAMPESTRIS DE COMETIS DISSERTATIO THE HORSEMAN COMET The so-called horseman belongs to Venus, and is so named from its swiftness; it draws sideways and fiery locks, and stretches out a certain furrow of light, and again is gathered into a certain short circle, with a certain boundless brevity and swiftness, sometimes scattering, sometimes gathering the so-called furrows. When this comet, being fiery, rising from the west towards the east, darts its own locks, it threatens a revolt of the Persians, so that it is necessary for many forces of armies to rush together to the east, and for Syria to be filled with any soldier colonized from the earth, and since the preparation is not sufficient for the movement of enemies, for a new levy of troops to occur. A plague will break out, and it will especially attack the horses, not those of the Persians, but those brought from Europe against them. And this will be the first reduction for those suffering the plague. But the affairs of the Persians will not prosper to the end; for as a great preparation rushes against them, they will flee, and the cities taken by them will be released, and their king will perish in flight by the hands of his own people. Then the wealth of the Persians will also be plundered, and the crops will become useless since the farmers have been killed or have also perished by plague. Yet those from Europe will not remain in the Persians' lands nor will they linger in their territory, but each nation, as if the battle were finished, will return to its own home. It threatens these things, then, when it rises fiery; but if pale, it signifies certain wars, but not Persian ones, and earthquakes and certain sorrows will by all means fall upon men; and a plague will fall upon the cattle and a very violent famine. 12 If such a comet looks toward the south, casting pale and sharp torches toward it, around the summer solstice a severe plague will fall upon Libya and a multitude of various evils. But when it looks toward the north, on the contrary Libya will march against the northern peoples, with a very great force allied to it. But being diminished and then having taken a foreign force, it will at first arm itself not ignobly against its opponents, but not long after it will fall into complete misfortune, so that after nearly everyone is killed, the leader of the nation himself is enslaved and bound. And it must be understood that one should take Libya to be that from the Red Sea as far as Gadeira or Tartessus or what is called Gades among the Maurusii. For the outcome is not concerning Egypt alone, but would be rightly understood as concerning absolutely the entire Libyan zone, and

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καταφέρονται ἕλκουσαι αὔλακα μακράν. Φαίνονται δὲ καὶ δοκοὶ καὶ οὕτως αὐτὰς οἱ Ἕλληνες καλοῦσιν. γίνεται δὲ καὶ χάσμα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, οὗ συμβαίνοντος σάλοι καὶ ῥήξεις ἐξ αὐτῶν καὶ διαστάσεις τῆς γῆς γίνονται. καὶ ἕτερον δ' ἔτι ἐμπρησμῷ παραπλήσιον πολλάκις φαίνεται· ὁποῖον ἐπὶ τῆς ἱστορίας εὑρίσκεται, ὅτε Φίλιππος ὁ Ἀμύντου ἐσάλευσε τὴν Ἑλλάδα. Φαίνονται δὲ καὶ περὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἀστέρες διὰ πάσης τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ περὶ τὸν δίσκον αὐτὸν καθάπερ στέφανος καὶ ποικιλόχροοί τινες κύκλοι, ὁποῖοι ἐφάνησαν, ὅτε Αὔγουστος τοὺς ἐμφυλίους πολέμους ἐκδικῶν τὸν πατέρα ἀνανεοῦν ἔκρινεν. οὐδὲν δὲ ἧττον φαίνεσθαι συμβαίνει, ὡς ἔφαμεν ̣p. 34, 15 ̣, περὶ τὸν ἥλιον ὡσανεὶ τόξον καὶ μανιάκας πυρώδεις. Τοιαῦτά τινα οἱ περὶ τὸν Ῥωμαῖον Βάρρωνα Νιγίδιόν τε καὶ Ἀπουλήιον προύθηκαν. Ὁ μέντοι Καμπέστριος, ἐξειλεγμένην τινὰ περὶ τούτων συντάξας πραγματείαν, αὐταῖς λέξεσι καθ' ἑρμηνείαν περὶ κομητῶν, καὶ ὅ τι ἀπειλοῦσι, ταῦτα λέγει. 1112t CAMPESTRIS DE COMETIS DISSERTATIO ΚΟΜΗΤΗΣ ΙΠΠΕΥΣ Ὁ λεγόμενος ἱππεύς ἐστι μὲν Ἀφροδίτης, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ὀξύτητος οὕτως ὠνόμασται· πλαγίους δὲ ἕλκει καὶ πυρώδεις πλοκάμους, αὔλακά τέ τινα φωτὸς ἀποτείνει, καὶ πάλιν εἰς βραχύν τινα κύκλον συνάγεται, ἀπείρῳ τινὶ συντομίᾳ καὶ ὀξύτητι ποτὲ μὲν περιρραίνων, ποτὲ δὲ συνάγων τοὺς λεγομένους αὐλακισμούς. Οὗτος ὅταν πυρώδης ἀνίσχων ἀπὸ δύσεως πρὸς ἀνατολὰς ἀκοντίζῃ τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ πλοκάμους, τὴν Περσῶν ἀπειλεῖ ἐπανάστασιν, ὥστε δεῖν δυνάμεις πολλὰς στρατευμάτων ἐπὶ τὴν ἀνατολὴν συνδραμεῖν, τάς τε Συρίας πληρῶσαι τὸν ὁποιδήποτε γῆς ἀπῳκισμένον στρατιώτην, καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἀρκούσης τῆς παρασκευῆς πρὸς τὸ πολεμίων κίνημα καὶ νεωτέρων γενέσθαι στρατολογίαν. ῥαγήσεται δὲ λοιμός, καὶ διαφερόντως τοῖς ἵπποις ἐνσκήψει, οὐ τοῖς Περσῶν ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐκ τῆς Εὐρώπης ἐπ' ἐκείνους φερομένοις. καὶ τοῦτο ἐλάττωσις ἔσται πρώτη τοῖς λοιμώττουσιν. ἀλλ' οὐ μέχρι παντὸς τὰ Περσῶν εὐτυχήσει· μεγάλης γὰρ συντρεχούσης κατ' αὐτῶν παρασκευῆς φεύξονται, καὶ αἱ ληφθεῖσαι παρ' αὐτῶν πόλεις ἀφεθήσονται, ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς αὐτῶν φεύγων ἀπολεῖται ταῖς τῶν ἰδίων χερσίν. εἶτα καὶ διαρπαγήσεται ὁ πλοῦτος Περσῶν, τὰ δὲ λήια ἄχρηστα τῶν γεωργῶν ἀναιρεθέντων ἢ καὶ λοιμῷ διαφθαρέντων γενήσεται. οὐ μὴν ἐμμενοῦσι τοῖς Περσῶν οὐδὲ ἐμβραδυνοῦσι τοῖς αὐτῶν οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Εὐρώπης, ἀλλ' ἑκάτερον ἔθνος ὥσπερ τετελεσμένης τῆς μάχης ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις ἐπανήξει. Tαῦτα μὲν οὖν ἀπειλεῖ, ὅταν πυρώδης ἀνίσχῃ· εἰ δὲ ὠχρός, πολέμους μέν τινας, ἀλλ' οὐ Περσικούς, σημαίνει, σεισμοὶ δὲ πάντως καὶ πένθη τινὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐνσκήψουσι· λοιμὸς δὲ τοῖς βοσκήμασιν ἐπιπεσεῖται καὶ λιμὸς κάρτα βίαιος. 12 Εἰ δὲ ὁ τοιοῦτος κομήτης ἐπὶ μεσημβρίαν ὁρᾷ, ὠχροὺς καὶ ὀξεῖς ἐπ' ἐκείνην βάλλων τοὺς πυρσούς, περὶ τὴν θερινὴν τροπὴν λοιμὸς βαρὺς ἐπιπεσεῖται τῇ Λιβύῃ καὶ πλῆθος ποικίλων κακῶν. ὅταν δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν ἄρκτον ἴδῃ, ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου ἡ Λιβύη κατὰ τῶν βορείων στρατεύσεται, μεγίστης αὐτῇ συμμαχούσης δυνάμεως. ἐλαττωθεῖσα δὲ εἶτα καὶ δύναμιν ξενικὴν συλλαβοῦσα τὴν μὲν ἀρχὴν οὐκ ἀγεννῶς καθοπλίσεται τῶν ἐναντίων, οὐ μετὰ πολὺ δὲ εἰς παντελῆ κακοδαιμονίαν πεσεῖται, ὥστε μετὰ τὸ ἀναιρεθῆναι ἐγγὺς ἅπαντας καὶ αὐτὸν ἀνδραποδισθῆναι καὶ δεθῆναι τὸν ἡγεμόνα τοῦ ἔθνους. Ἰστέον δὲ ὡς Λιβύην τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης ἄχρι Γαδείρων ἢ Ταρτησσοῦ ἢ τῆς λεγομένης παρὰ Μαυρουσίοις Γάδεως λαμβάνειν χρεών. οὐδὲ γὰρ περὶ Αἴγυπτον μόνην τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα, ἀλλ' ἀπολύτως περὶ τὴν Λιβυκὴν ἅπασαν ζώνην καλῶς ἂν λαμβάνοιτο, καὶ