Sect. 1. Of the Celestiall Sphears.
THales, Pythagoras (saith* 1.1 Plutarch, repeated by * Sto••aeus) with his followers affirm, that the Celestiall sphear is divided into five Circles (which they call Zones) whereof one is call, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Artick, and is al∣waies in view to us; one the summer Tropick, one the Equinoctiall, one the winter Tropick, one the Antartick circle, never seen by us. The oblique Circle called the Zodiack, lyeth under the three middle circles, it 〈◊〉〈◊〉 them all three as it passeth, and each of them is cut in right angles by the Meridian, which goeth from Pole to Pole. Unjustly therefore is the in∣vention of the Zones ascribed by* 1.2 Posidonius to Parmenides; and that of the obliquity of the Zodiack by* 1.3 others to Anaximander, Pytha∣goras, or Aenipodes.
* 1.4 Eudemus saith, that he first observ'd the Tropicks; Laertius, that he first found out the accession of the Sun from Tropick to Tropick. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies not only the Solstices, but the Equinoxes likewise:* 1.5 Sextus Empiricus. The Tropick signes are those into which the Sun comming, changeth and maketh conversions of the air; such a sign is Aries, and the opposite to it Libra; so also Capricorn and Cancer: for in Aries is made the vernall conversion, in Capricorn the winter, in Cancer the Summer, in Libra the autumnall. This exposition La••••tius confirmes, when he saith that Thales composed only two treatises, one of the Tropicks, the other of the Equinoctialls; and that he distinguished the seasons of the year.