Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

154 ASTRON OMIA. ASTRONOMIA.
Before quitting this part of our subject, we as well as th3 date, but one day later than that
must add a few words on fixed by Ovid, we can scarcely doubt that he, as
GContase Bereeices; Bea-renices GC9riis. JIailvies. vwell as the poet, believed luilvus to be a" Stella."
1. THE HAIR OF BERENICE, fA4KOS S. II. RuSINGS AND SrETTIGS OF THE FixED
STARS.
Bo'TrpuXos Bepov /Kis (Callim. Schol. ad Arat. 146),
Coma Berenices (see Catull. Lxv.) was, as we have A nation like the Greeks, whose climate perseen above, formed by Conon out of certain unap- mitted them to watch their flocks by night during
propriated (&ajopgpwroi) stars behind the Lion's a considerable part of the year, could not fail to
Tail, in honour of Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy remark that certain fixed stars appeared and disEuergetes, and afforded a theme for a compli- appeared in regular succession, as the sun passed
mentary elegy by Callimachus, of which we pos- through the different stages of his annual career.
sess a translation by Catullus. The constellation Accordingly, we find, that as early as the time of
being unknown to Aratus, is not alluded to by his Hesiod, the changes of the seasons, and the more
translators, Cicero and Germanicus, nor is it important operations of agriculture, were fixed with
noticed by Manilius. When Pliny (II. N. ii. 71) reference to the risings and settings of Orion, the
observes " Septemtriones non cernit Troglodytice, Pleiades, the Hyades, Arcturus, and Sirius. Such
et confinis iEgyptus: nee Canopum Italia, et observations were in the first instance extremely
quem vocant Berenices Crinem; item quem sub rude; but after Thales had turned the attention
Divo Augusto cognominavere Caesaris Throlon, of his countrymen to scientific astronomy, these
insignes ibi stellas," it is much more probable that celestial phenomena were determined with great
he committed a positive blunder, than that, as care and accuracy: tables were drawn up in which
some have supposed, he intended to indicate under the risings and settings of the more brilliant stars,
the name of Berenices Crinem some southern sign with reference to the sun, were fully detailed, toto which no one else makes any allusion. gether with such notices, touching the winds and
2. We find in Ovid (Fast. ii. 793) the following weather to be expected at the different epochs, as
couplet in reference to the night of the 17th of experience suggested. Copies were engraved on
March: stone or brass, and, being nailed or hung up in the
Stella Lycaoniam. vergit declivis ad Arcton smarket-places of large towns and other places of
Alrl'lius..n Haec illa niocte videnda vnri public resort, received the name of 7rapar7ryu,-ra.
Two catalogues of this description have been preand in Pliny (H. N. xviii. 65. ~ 1), " Caesar et served which are valuable, inasmuch as they
Idus Martias ferales sibi annotavit Scorpionis oc- frequently quote the authority of the early Greek
casu: XV. vero Kalendas Aprilis Italiae Milvum astronomers, Meton, Euctemon, Eudoxus, Calippus,
ostendi: duodecimo Kalendas Equum occidere ma- &c. for their statements. The one was drawnI up
tutino." In the first of these passages we find a by Geminus (fl. B. c. 80), the other by the fanmous
constellation named Mfilvlis or the Kite described Ptolemy (A. D. 140). In the former the risings
as one of the northern signs, or at least as a sign andl settings of the stars are fixed according to
visible in Italy, and the period of its rising fixed the passage of the sun through the signs of the
to the 17th of March. The words of Pliny, although zodiac; in the latter they are ranged under the
more ambiguous than those of Ovid, would lead us months and 3years of the Julian Calendar.
to suppose that he was quoting this, as well as the The practice commenced by Hesiod was followed
preceding observation, from the Calendar of Caesar; by subsequent writers upon rural economy, and
but the abruptness of his ordinary style is such as we accordingly find numerous precepts in Virgil,
to prevent us from affirming this with certainty. Columella, and Pliny delivered with reference to
Now no Greek and no other Roman writers the risings and settings of the stars, forming a
mention any constellation bearing the above name, complete Calendarium Rusticum. Ovid has comnor can we adopt the explanation of Grotius, who bined the Fasti of the city with these Rural Alsupposes that the Swan or the Eagle is indicated, manacs, and has thus gained an opportunity of
for the rising of these signs is removed by three enlivening his poem by recounting the various
months from the period here fixed. Ideler has, in myths attached to the constellations. Indeed it
all probability, discovered the solution of the would appear that Caesar, when he reconstructed
enigma. In the Parapegma of Geminus, a phae- the Fasti of Rome, included the risings and setnomenon described by the words'IKc'ros (paiFveal, tings of the stars, since Pliny frequently quotes the
i.e. Milvus apparet, is placed by Eudoxus thirteen authority of Caesar for his statements on these
days before the vernal equinox, and by Euctemon points. Thus the Fasti of Ovid may be considered
and Calippus respectively, eight days and one day as a commentary upon the almanac in common
before the same epoch, while Ptolemy, in his use.
4Idacrs e,7rXavev, marks under the 12th of Phame- The early Grecian parcepegmata, were undoubtnoth (i. e. according to Ideler 8th March), ElvdioT edly constructed from actual observation in the
XEXbmv Kai LKtros cpaliveT'ra. Bat the brCTYmOS, countries where they were first exhibited, and must
rendered mlilvzis by the Latins, was, as we are therefore have completely answered the purpose
told by Aristotle (UI. A. viii. 16), a bird of pas- for which they were intended. But this does not
sage, and hence the arrival of the it'eKTOS, like that by any means hold good of the corresponding
of the swallow, took place at and served to mark a compilations of the Romans, who, being little
particular seaso'n of the year. Ovid and Pliny, versed in astronomy themselves, copied blindly
being ignorant of this fact, and fininrg in the from others without knowled-ge or discrimination.
calendars which they consulted the words Lfiivus It is necessary to attend to two facts: —
apparet, took it for granted, without further in- I. The time of the risings and settings of the.quiry, that Jfilucts was the name of a constellation; fixed stars varies for the same place at different
for rwh:ran we consider the context of the naturalist, epochs. Thus the Pleiades which at Rome rose