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LIBER II · CAPUT 27

OF THE COLOURS OF THE SKY AND OF CELESTIAL FLAME

OF THE COLOURS OF THE SKY AND OF CELESTIAL FLAME. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
OF THE COLOURS OF THE SKY AND OF CELESTIAL FLAME · EDITORIAL PLATE II.27 · modern editorial plate
OF THE COLOURS OF THE SKY AND OF CELESTIAL FLAME. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

fit et sanguinea species et, quo nihil terribilius mortalium timori est, incendium ad terras cadens inde, sicut Olympiadis CVII anno tertio, cum rex Philippus Graeciam quateret. atque ego haec statis temporibus naturae vi, ut cetera, arbitror existere, non, ut plerique, variis de causis, quas ingeniorum acumen excogitat, quippe ingentium malorum fuere praenuntia; sed ea accidisse non quia haec facta sunt arbitror, verum haec ideo facta quia incasura erant illa, raritate autem occultam eorum esse rationem ideoque non, sicut exortus supra dictos defectusque et multa alia, nosci.20

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

There is a flame of a bloody appearance (and nothing is more dreaded by mortals) which falls down upon the earth, such as was seen in the third year of the 103rd olympiad, when King Philip was disturbing Greece. But my opinion is, that these, like everything else, occur at stated, natural periods, and are not produced, as some persons imagine, from a variety of causes, such as their fine genius may suggest. They have indeed been the precursors of great evils, but I conceive that the evils occurred, not because the prodigies took place, but that these took place because the evils were appointed to occur at that period. Their cause is obscure in consequence of their rarity, and therefore we are not as well acquainted with them as we are with the rising of the stars, which I have mentioned, and with eclipses and many other things.