THE SECOND OBSERVATION.
IT is here delivered, that the outward cir∣cuit of the works contained fourteen miles, and the circuit of the inward works eleven miles: upon which ground Justus Lipsius maketh an unjust conjecture of the space between the out∣ward and the inward works where the Romans day incamped.* 1.1 For according to the proportion between the circumference and the diameter,* 1.2 he maketh the diameter of the greater circle four, and of the lesser three miles: and then he taketh the lesser diameter out of the greater, and conclu∣deth the space to be almost a mile between the in∣ner and the outward rampier, where the Romans lay incamped between the works: and least the matter might be mistaken in ciphers, he doth ex∣presse it at large in significant words, whereby he maketh the space twice as much as indeed it was. For the two circles having one and the same cen∣ter, the semidiameter of the one was to be taken out of the semidiameter of the other, and the re∣mainder would amount almost to half a mile; which according to the ground here delivered, was the true distance between the works, if the nature of the place (whereunto they had a respect) would suffer them to keep the same distance in all parts. But aliquando bonus dormitat Home∣rus, Homer himself is out sometimes; and no disgrace neither to the excellency of his learning, deserving all honour for the great light which he hath brought to the knowledge of Histories, and for redeeming the truth from blots and Barba∣risme.