John the Lydian, On Months

of the whole to make the earth tremble just like a man; but Aristotle blames that which is vaporized and steaming from the earth .... if it should have an easy passage; but if not, it does violence to the earth. That Tages in his *Seismoscopica* says that if an earthquake should happen during the movements of wars, those among whom it occurs are in every way diminished; and he also mentions other wonders, about which I shall speak in another work. 4.80 On the first of this month the high priest proclaimed that no one should taste the feet or head of any animal whatsoever throughout the whole month, for the prevention of the disease of arthritis. During this month the festival of the Rosalia was also celebrated among the Romans. And the merchants used to pray to both Maia and Hermes that their profits be without risk. For all profits, it seems, grow in and from matter, and in it windfalls are found and bestowed, as they say, according to merit. But Numenius the Roman wishes Hermes to be the progressive logos; for, he says, an infant would not utter a sound before it touches the earth, so that the many rightly took Maia to be the earth. And according to another sacred account, Fonteius says that the earth must be honored on the Kalends of May, because the earth, boiling up its innate heat to the surface, exulting as it were and leaping, being led forth causes tremors for the most part during the month of May. Therefore during this month they honor Maia, that is, serving the earth. They call celebrating "maioumizein," from which also comes Maioumas; for a festival was held in Rome during the month of May. The leading men of Rome, taking over the coastal city called Ostia, indulged in pleasure, throwing one another into the waters of the sea; whence also the time of such a festival was called Maioumas. Beginning of the moon's generation. 4.81 That Empedocles judged the substance of necessity to be a cause that makes use of the principles and the elements; and Democritus, the resistance and stroke and motion of matter. Plato, however, traced some things to providence, others to necessity, blaming at one time matter, at another the disposition of the creator. Heraclitus wishes fate to be the same as necessity, but Plato adds also the cause that is in our power. The Stoics, then, say that necessity is immovable, but fate is an interconnection of ordered causes; in which interconnection are also the things in our power, so that some things are fated, and others are co-fated. And Heraclitus judged the substance of fate to be the logos that extends through everything. And Chrysippus, the order of the universe or the logos of the things administered in the cosmos. But Posidonius makes a threefold account: for the first is Zeus, the second is nature, and the third is fate. And Plato, the eternal logos of the nature of the universe. 4.82 That on the eighth day before the Ides of May a festival was celebrated by the Romans called the Lemuria, as it were, honors of phantoms or apparitions or impassioned daimons, whom the philosophers say are overseers co-natural with bodies, and for this reason rejoice in tombs. 4.83 That Aristotle and Heraclides say that, as the sun moves and carries around most of the winds and as these are being thrown out and pushed forward, the Atlantic sea swells and causes the flood tide, then, when they cease again, it recedes, being drawn back in turn, and thus the ebb tides occur. But Pytheas of Massalia holds that the flood tides occur with the filling of the moon, and the ebb tides with its waning; and the philosophers among the Romans the same. But Plato blames the swinging of the waters; for there is a certain natural swing through a kind of mouth-like opening that carries a reverse current, by which the seas are made to surge against each other. 4.84 That Plato according to addition or subtraction or transposition or inflation

συμβάσης τρέμειν τὴν γῆν ὥσπερ τὸν ἄνθρωπον· Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ τὸ τεθυμιωμένον τῆς γῆς καὶ ἀτμίζον αἰτιᾶται .... ἂν μὲν εὐπετῶς σχῇ· εἰ δ' οὐ, βιάζεται τὴν γῆν. ὅτι ὁ Τάγης ἐν τοῖς σεισμοσκοπικοῖς λέγει, ὡς ἐν ταῖς πολέμων κινήσεσιν εἰ συμβῇ σεισμὸν γενέσθαι, τοὺς παρ' οἷς γίνοιτο πάντως ἐλατ τοῦσθαι· καὶ ἄλλων δὲ θαυμαστῶν ἐπιμέμνηται, περὶ ὧν ἐγὼ ἐν ἑτέρᾳ λέξω συγγραφῇ. 4.80 Ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ τούτου τοῦ μηνὸς ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἐκήρυττε, μηδένα ποδῶν ἢ κεφαλῆς οἱουδήποτε ζώου γεύσασθαι παρὰ πάντα τὸν μῆνα πρὸς φυλακὴν ἀρθρίτιδος νόσου. κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν μῆνα καὶ ἡ ἑορτὴ τῶν Ῥοσαλίων παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις ἐτελεῖτο. ηὔχοντο δὲ Μαίᾳ τε καὶ Ἑρμῇ οἱ πραγματευταὶ ἀκίνδυνα τὰ τῶν κερδῶν εἶναι. πάντα δὲ ἄρα τὰ κέρδη ἐν τῇ ὕλῃ καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀναφύεται, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ ὡσανεὶ Ἕρμαια εὑρίσκεται καὶ ἐπιδίδοται, ὥς φασι, κατ' ἀξίαν. Νουμήνιος δὲ ὁ Ῥωμαῖος τὸν Ἑρμῆν τὸν προχωρητικὸν λόγον εἶναι βούλεται· οὐδὲ γάρ, φησι, πρότερον βρέφος φθέγξαιτο, πρὶν ἂν τῆς γῆς ἐφάψαιτο, ὥστε Μαῖαν εἰς γῆν καλῶς ἐξελάμβανον οἱ πολλοί. καὶ καθ' ἕτερον δὲ ἱερὸν λόγον ὁ Φοντήϊος χρῆναι τιμᾶσθαι τὴν γῆν ἐν ταῖς Καλένδαις Μαΐαις λέγει, ὅτι τὴν ἔμφυτον θέρμην ἐπὶ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν ἡ γῆ ἀναβράζουσα γαυριᾶν ὥσπερ καὶ σκιρτᾶν ἐξαγομένη σάλους ἐμποιεῖ ὡς ἐπίπαν κατὰ τὸν Μάϊον μῆνα. τιμῶσιν οὖν κατὰ τοῦτον τὴν Μαῖαν, τουτέστι τὴν γῆν θεραπεύοντες. μαϊουμίζειν τὸ ἑορτάζειν ὀνομάζουσιν, ἐξ οὗ καὶ Μαϊουμᾶν· πανήγυρις γὰρ ἤγετο ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ κατὰ τὸν Μάϊον μῆνα. τὴν παράλιον καταλαμβάνοντες πόλιν τὴν λεγομένην Ὀστίαν οἱ τὰ πρῶτα τῆς Ῥώμης τελοῦντες ἡδυπαθεῖν ἠνείχοντο ἐν τοῖς θαλαττίοις ὕδασιν ἀλλήλους ἐμβάλλοντες· ὅθεν καὶ Μαϊουμᾶς ὁ τῆς τοιαύτης ἑορτῆς καιρὸς ὠνομάζετο. ἀρχὴ γενέσεως σελήνη. 4.81 Ὅτι ὁ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς οὐσίαν ἀνάγκης αἰτίαν χρηστικὴν τῶν ἀρχῶν καὶ τῶν στοιχείων ἐνέκρινεν· ὁ δὲ ∆ημόκριτος τὴν ἀντιτυπίαν καὶ πληγὴν καὶ φορὰν τῆς ὕλης. Πλάτων γε μὴν τὰ μὲν εἰς πρόνοιαν, τὰ δὲ εἰς ἀνάγκην ἀνήγαγεν, ὅτε μὲν τὴν ὕλην, ὅτε δὲ τὴν τοῦ ποιοῦντος σχέσιν αἰτιώμενος. τὴν δ' εἱμαρμένην Ἡράκλειτος τὴν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀνάγκην εἶναι βούλεται, ὁ δὲ Πλάτων προστίθησι καὶ τὴν παρ' ἡμᾶς αἰτίαν. οἱ μὲν οὖν Στωϊκοὶ τὴν μὲν ἀνάγκην ἀκίνητον, τὴν δὲ εἱμαρμένην φασὶ συμπλοκὴν εἶναι αἰτιῶν τεταγμένων· ἐν ᾗ συμπλοκῇ καὶ τὰ παρ' ἡμᾶς, ὥστε τὰ μὲν εἱμάρθαι, τὰ δὲ συνειμάρθαι. οὐσίαν δὲ εἱμαρμένην ὁ Ἡράκλειτος τὸν διὰ παντὸς ἥκοντα λόγον ἐνέκρινεν. ὁ δὲ Χρύσιππος τάξιν τοῦ παντὸς ἢ λόγον τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ διοικουμένων. ὁ δὲ Ποσειδώνιος τρίτην ἀπόδοσιν ποιεῖται· πρώτην μὲν γὰρ εἶναι τὸν ∆ία, δευτέραν δὲ τὴν φύσιν, τρίτην δὲ τὴν εἱμαρμένην. ὁ δὲ Πλάτων λόγον ἀΐδιον τῆς τοῦ παντὸς φύσεως. 4.82 Ὅτι τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ εἰδῶν Μαΐων ἑορτὴ τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἐτελεῖτο ἡ λεγομένη Λεμούρια, οἷον τιμαὶ εἰδώλων ἢ φασμάτων ἢ δαιμόνων ἐμπαθῶν, οὕς φασιν οἱ φιλοσοφοῦντες ἐφόρους εἶναι συμφυεῖς τῶν σωμάτων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τοῖς τάφοις χαίρειν. 4.83 Ὅτι ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης καὶ ὁ Ἡρακλείδης φασίν,ἡλίου τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν πνευμάτων κινοῦντος καὶ περιφέροντος καὶ τούτων ἐκβαλλόντων μὲν προωθουμένων δὲ ἀνοιδεῖν τὴν Ἀτλαντικὴν θάλασσαν καὶ παρασκευάζειν τὴν πλημμύραν, εἰτ' αὖθις ληγόντων ἀντιπερισπωμένην ὑποβαίνειν καὶ οὕτω τὰς ἀμπώτεις γίνεσθαι. Πυθέας δὲ ὁ Μασσαλιώτης τῇ πληρώσει τῆς σελήνης τὰς πλημμύρας γίνεσθαι βούλεται, τῇ δὲ μειώσει τὰς ἀμπώτεις· τὸ αὐτὸ δὲ καὶ οἱ παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις φιλοσοφοῦντες, Πλάτων δὲ τὴν αἰώραν τῶν ὑδάτων αἰτιᾶται· εἶναι γὰρ φυσικήν τινα αἰώραν διά τινος στομίου τρήματος περιφέρουσαν παλίρροιαν, ὑφ' ἧς ἀντικυμαίνεσθαι τὰ πελάγη. 4.84 Ὅτι ὁ Πλάτων κατὰ πρόσθεσιν ἢ ἀφαίρεσιν ἢ μετάθεσιν ἢ πνευμάτωσιν