Varieties: or, A surveigh of rare and excellent matters necessary and delectable for all sorts of persons. Wherein the principall heads of diverse sciences are illustrated, rare secrets of naturall things unfoulded, &c. Digested into five bookes, whose severall chapters with their contents are to be seene in the table after the epistle dedicatory. By David Person, of Loghlands in Scotland, Gentleman.

SECT. 2.

Of Prodigies, and in what veneration they were a∣mongst the ancient Romans.

BEing loath to trouble the Reader with the te∣dious definitions of Prodigies, nor with the severall and many opinions of Writers con∣cerning

them I will relate onely some storyes of them, and of the times wherein some of them hap∣pened; of all which, as the most part of the Roman Writers make mention, so particularly Sabellicus in his Rhapsoeticall history of the world; and that from the 11. or 12. Booke of his 4. Aeneid, unto the end of his Worke.

During the first Punick Warre, (which was the first betwixt the Carthaginians and Romans) under the Consulship of Appius Claudius, and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, which was the foure hundreth and ninety yeare after the building of Rome; the Roman Histories were then both more frequent, and did savour more of truth and possibility than their for∣mer: Wherefore to begin with that time, I ob∣serve, that there never happened any remarkeable Prodigie,* 1.1 either in the Ayre, Water, or Earth, after which there were not presently Expiations, Lu∣strations, Prayers or offerings made unto their Gods, to whose Temples and Altars people of every sex, age, and condition did flock and runne, to pacifie and appease their incensed wrath; which may serve to condemne the neglect and contempt that is in Christians of the like Prodigies, and teach us (as these Heathen did when they chan∣ced) to repaire to our true God,* 1.2 and implore for mercy, and forbearance of wrath at his hands.

To begin then (as I said) with Prodigies obser∣ved in the time of the first Punick or Carthaginian Warre; of those many admirable ones recorded by Sabellicus, I finde this most worthy of relation:

In the Picenean Territory, Cneius Domitianus, and Lucius Annius being Consuls,* 1.3 a River was obser∣ved for the space of a whole morning, to runne red blood, no accident that might cause it being per∣ceived by any; for which, and some others the like,* 1.4 the Romans intituled their Novendialia sacra, or expiations for nine dayes; and Livius likewise in the time of Tullus Hostilius their third King, rela∣teth, that the like propitiatory Sacrifices were or∣dained for the like causes.

In Hetruria also,* 1.5 (which is now the Florentines bounds) the heavens were perceived to burne.

In the Citie of Ariminii,* 1.6 three Moones at once were one night seene by the Inhabitants; all which Prodigies appeared about the end of the foresaid first Punick Warres.

Shortly after, about the beginning of the se∣cond warre,* 1.7 after Hanno was overcome by Scipio, a Childe of a moneth old was heard to crie in the Streete Triumphi, Triumphi.

In the fields of Amitermin neere Rome, ships were discerned in the skie, and men in long white garments were perceived to march towards one another,* 1.8 but never to meete.

In the Picen Territory it rained stones; and the Sunne and Moone were seene to joust (as it were) at one another;* 1.9 and in the day time two Moones appeared in the heavens. At Phalascis the heavens seemed to bee rent asunder: And at Capua, the Moone seemed to burne; and, as envolved in a showre of raine, to tend towards the Earth; Civi∣tas

ob haec prodigia (saith Sabellicus) lustrata est, le∣ctisternium & supplicatio indicta, aliaque aliis diis placamina decreta.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The piety of the ancient Romans after any remake∣ble Prodigies.
• * 1.2

  Christians blamed.
• * 1.3

  A River ra•• blood.
• * 1.4

  The institu∣tion of the Nov••ndi••lia sacra.
• * 1.5

  The heavens burned.
• * 1.6

  Three Moones▪
• * 1.7

  A childe of a moneth old spake.
• * 1.8

  Men seene in the skie.
• * 1.9

  Two moones at once.