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LIBER II · CAPUT 83

PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE OCCURRED ONCE ONLY

PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE OCCURRED ONCE ONLY. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.
PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE OCCURRED ONCE ONLY · EDITORIAL PLATE II.83 · modern editorial plate
PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE OCCURRED ONCE ONLY. Complete modern editorial illustration created specifically for this chapter.

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Factum est semel, quod equidem in Etruscae disciplinae voluminibus invenio, ingens terrarum portentum L. Marcio Sexto Iulio cos. in agro Mutinensi. namque montes duo inter se concurrerunt crepitu maximo adsultantes recedentesque, inter eos flamma fumoque in caelum exeunte interdiu, spectante e via Aemilia magna equitum Romanorum familiarumque et viatorum multitudine. eo concursu villae omnes elisae, animalia permulta, quae intra fuerant, exanimata sunt, anno ante sociale bellum, quod haud scio an funestius terrae ipsi Italiae fuerit quam civilia. non minus mirum ostentum et nostra cognovit aetas anno Neronis principis supremo, sicut in rebus eius exposuimus, pratis oleisque intercedente publica via in contrarias sedes transgressis in agro Marrucino praediis Vetti Marcelli equitis Romani res Neronis procurantis.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

A great prodigy of the earth, which never happened more than once, I have found mentioned in the books of the Etruscan ceremonies, as having taken place in the district of Mutina, during the consulship of Lucius Martius and Sextus Julius. Two mountains rushed together, falling upon each other with a very loud crash, and then receding; while in the daytime flame and smoke issued from them; a great crowd of Roman knights, and families of people, and travellers on the Æmilian way, being spectators of it. All the farm-houses were thrown down by the shock, and a great number of animals that were in them were killed; it was in the year before the Social war; and I am in doubt whether this event or the civil commotions were more fatal to the territory of Italy. The prodigy which happened in our own age was no less wonderful; in the last year of the emperor Nero, as I have related in my history of his times, when certain fields and olive grounds in the district of Marrucinum, belonging to Vectius Marcellus, a Roman knight, the steward of Nero, changed places with each other, although the public highway was interposed.