The Spanish language is spoken today by more than 560 million people, the largest number, more than 120 million, in Mexico. It is the second most spoken language by native speakers after Mandarin Chinese.

In three quarters, ie approximately 75%, it is formed from the Latin language, the language of the Romans, who introduced it in  their empire, at least in the western part.

But in the formation of Spanish they have intervened and involved many components: the indigenous languages,  which  were the substrate on which was introduced the new, the Basque, the Germanic (which left few remains because the Visigoths and spoke Latin when they reach Hispania) , Arabic (with very strong presence), Hebrew, French, English, Italian, American languages, etc.etc.

The Greek is also a very important language in shaping of the Spanish. First because many Latin form words actually are originally Greek words. We should remember how Greek culture permeates the entire Roman life. See:https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/graecia-capta-greek-culture-quignard 

Secondly because the Greek, also Latin, have been, and continue to be, very productive in creating new words, especially in science and educated field.

All these are basic things that everyone knows, as no doubt also knows what I'll summarize below. I want to show how a simple understanding of the meaning of prepositions and some preverbs (part of a word that appears at the beginning and clarifies the meaning) Greek more used allows us to know easily, or help us to do so, the meaning of technicalities and words apparently of learned abstruse meaning.

So I'll do a little relationship, not intended to be exhaustive, of course, but by relating the most common and some techniques that serve as an example.

In this case, gradually we will complete  the series, give the beginning with a-, Greek. ἀ- a-, or -an, gr. ἀν- (if the term that it joins begins with vocal), the so-called privative alpha (first letter of the Greek alphabet). It is not properly a preposition, but both in Greek and Latin and several modern languages it serves to deny or indicate the lack or deprivation of the term that comes joined. I relate only Greek words, not Latin, nor others involved in the composition of the a-, but not the alpha privative. It will be time for other listings.

Abiogenesis: ἀ- (a-) (no, without, non, un-) βιο- (bio-) (life) – γένεσις (genesis) (origin, principle or process of formation): spontaneous generation from nonliving matter.

abyss and abyssal: ἄ- (a -) (no, without, non, un-) -βυθός (Byzas) background: bottomless: belonging to the abyss; wildlife that lives in the deep sea.

Aboulia, Abulia: ἀ- βουλία ,a-boulia, from βουλὴ (boule) (the will) and this from  βούλομαι (boulomai) (to will, to want): no will; indolent, selflessness, without interest. See  apathy.

Acephaly, Acephalus:  ἀ -κεφαλῇ (a-kefale)(head), ἀ-κέφαλος (aképhalos): headless.

Akinesia: ἀκινησία (akinesia); from κίνησις (kinesis), movement, and this from  κiνέο, kineo, to move: immobility, without movement, paralysis.

acracy: ἀκρατία (akrata) (intemperance) from ἀ-κράτος (a-kratos) (power, authority): Doctrine which advocates  the abolition of all authority;  pertaining or relative to the acracia. Partisan of the acracia. Lawlessness.  See anarchy

Achromia and Achromaticity: χρῶμα, -ατος (chroma, -atos) (color): colorless.

Aphasia: ἀφασία (aphasia) from  ἀ- φημί (femi, femi) (speaking): inability to speak, loss of speech.

Aphonia, aphonic, aphonous: ἀφωνία (Aphonia) from φωνή (phone) (sound):  Loss of voice. Voicelessness; without voice.

Agenesis:  from  ἀγενησία, from  α- γένος (a-genos) (origin, birth, race, training): quality of uncreated; inability to beget. Any imperfect development of the body, or any anomaly of organization.

Agerasia: ἀγηρασία (agērasía) from  a-γῆρας (a-geras) (old age): Old age exempt from infirmities of this age. An outward appearance more youthful than one's true age.

Agnosis, agnosy, agnosia, agnostic and agnosticism: αγνῶσις (agnosis) from α-γνῶσις. Αγνωμαζει,  (agnōstikós) from αγνωστικός (relative to knowledge) from  γιγνώσκω (ginnosko) (know). Inability to recognize objects through the senses. Philosophical attitude that declares inaccessible to human understanding all knowledge of the divine and what transcends experience or senses.

Alexia: ἀ- and λέξις (lexis) (speech, diction) from λέγω (lego) (to say, express, read): The inability, due to a cerebral disorder, to comprehend or understand writing.

Amazon: Αμαζών (amazon). Its etymology is not absolutely clear, but it has been made  popularly derived from α (a-) and μαζός (breast), because it was said that these warriors were amputated from right breast or burned to better draw the bow. But scientifically it has been proposed that the name derives from the name of an Iranian tribe called * ha-mazan, the warriors.

Marcus Junianus Justinus or Justinus Frontinus  includes the their fantastic version in his "Historiae Phillippicae ex Trogo Pompeio", Liber II, 4:

"They exercised the virgins on weapon-wielding, horse-riding and hunting, and burned the children's right breasts, so that arrow-throwing wouldn't be impeded; and for such reason, they were called Amazons."

"Virgines (…) armis, equis, venationibus exercebant, inustis infantum dexterioribus mammis, ne sagittarum iactus impediantur; unde dictae Amazones."

Ambrosia: ἀμβροσία ambrosia, from α- αν-  αμ-   ἄμ-βροτος ám-brotos,  immortal , not human, divine. Drink constituted among other things by honey, proper to the gods because it gave the immortality. Ragweed.

Amenorrhea: ἀ- a-, μήν, μηνός men, menos, (month) and -ρροια –rroia from ῥέω  rheo, to run, to flow. Absence of menstrual flow.

Analphabet:: ἀναλφάβητος analphábētos from  ἀν-ἄλφα βέτα alpha, beta (first letters of the Greek alphabet): Illiterate. Who can’t read or write.

Analgesia, analgesic: ἀναλγησία Analgesia, ἂν-ἄλγος  an- without algos, pain. Absence or reduction of painful sensations; insensitivity.

Anarchy, anarchism, anarchist: ἀναρχία anarchy, ἂν-,  ἄρχω an-archo, to order, ἀρχὴ, arché, origin, control, power: absence of government or authority. Doctrine which advocates the abolition of the state and the elimination of all power or authority which  constrains individual freedom.

Anemia, anaemia: ἀναιμία anaimia from  ἂν-, an, αἷμα, aima, blood:  blood deficiency, low blood count.

Anerosia: ἂν-, an-, ἔρως, eros, love,: absence of love.

Anesthesia and anesthetic: ἀναισθησία anaisthēsía, ἀν-, an-, αἰσθήσεις, theseis, sensation, perception, from αἰσθάνομαι, aisthanomai, receive: insensitivity, without sensitivity.

Anhydrous: ἄνυδρος ánydros, from ἀν-, an, ὕδωρ, hydor, water: that has no water.

Anhydride: ἄνυδρος ánydros from ἀν- a, ὕδωρ, hydro, water, εἶδος, eidos, aspect: corps  resulted from the combination of oxygen and a nonmetallic element that reacts with water and gives an acid.

Anhidrosis: ἀνίδρωσις anídrōsis from  ἀν-, an-, ἱδρόω, hidroo, to sweat  ἱδρώς, hydros, sweating: no sweating. The reduced ability or inability to sweat.

Anhipnia: ἀν-, an, ὕπνος, hipnos, sleep,: absence of sleep.

Anodyne:  ἀνωδυνία anōdynía, ἀνώδυνος, anodyne, from  ἀν-ὀδύνη, odyne,  pain;, from  ὀδυνἀω, odynao, causing pain. : Absence of pain, free from pain.        

Anomaly: ἀνωμαλία anomaly, from ἀν-ὁμαλὸς, an-homalos, even, same, Deviation or discrepancy of a rule or use, irregular, uneven, strange.

Anomie: ἀνομία. from ἀ-νόμος, nomos, usage, custom: Absence of law.

Anonymous: Anonymos ἀνώνυμος from ἀν-ὄνομα, onoma, name: without name

Anopsia and anopia: ἀνοψίη anopsíē  from  ἀν- (an-) and ὄψις (opsis) "sight":  blindness, sightless, A defect in vision. State or condition of sightlessness, often due to medical reasons.

Anorexia: ἀνορεξία anorexia, from ἀν-ὄρεξίς, orexis, appetite, from ὀρέγω, orego, to desire, to tender: inappetence, absence of appetite, without appetite.

Anuria:  ἀν- οὖρον, ouron, urine, from ουρώ, ouro, to urinate: complete cessation of urinary secretion. A condition in which the kidneys do not produce urine.

Aorist: ἀόριστος aoristos from  a- ὁριστός, determined, defined, from ὁρίζω, oriso, to limit,: undefined, not done, not completed.

Apathy, apathic and apathetic: from ἀ-πάθος, pathos, passion, incident”, “emotion”, “passion, feeling: impassive mind, without passions, indolence, impassibility”, “insensibility”, “freedom from emotion, absence of vigor or energy.

Apnea: from  ἄπνοια ápnoia, ἀ-απνοια, pnoia, breathing, from πνέω, pneo, to breath : cessation of breathing. Drowning.

Apteran, apterous: ἄπτερος wingless, from  ἄ-πτερὸν, pteron, wing, feather: Wingless insect; In a building, especially a classical temple without columns in its side walls.

Arrhythmia: ἀρρυθμία arrythmia, from  ἀ-ῥυθμός, Rythmos, rhythm.: regularly Irregularity and inequality in the heart's contractions. An irregular heartbeat.

asepsis and aseptic: ἀ-σῆψίς from sepsis, putrefaction, from σήπω, to rot: Absence of septage,  free from sepsis, infection-free status; set of scientific procedures designed to preserve the body of infectious germs, mainly applied to sterilization of surgical material.

Asphyxia: ἀσφυξία asphyxia, from ἄσφυκτος ásphyktos, from σφύξεις, pulsation, palpitation: Suspension or difficulty in breathing. Stopping of the pulse.

Asymmetry and asymmetric: ἀσυμμετρία asymmetría from  ἀ-συν without, with, μέτρον, metron, measure: without measure; absence of symmetry.

Asyndeton: ἀσύνδετον asyndeton; from ἀ-συν without, with, δέω, deo, to tye, συνδέω, to unite,link: detached itself; this grammatical figure is to remove conjunctions. Without conjunctions. Omission of conjunctions in a text to give vividness and energy to what is expressed, as in the famous phrase of Caesar "I came, I saw, I conquered," Veni, vidi, vici.

Note: the famous phrase is referred by Plutarch in Caesar, 50.3 and in Moralia, 206e and by Suetonius in Life of Julius Caesar, 37. 

Asymptomatic: ἀ-σύμ-πτωμα sýmptōma from ἀ- (no, without) – σύν-, with, πίπτειν, to fall, to influence: no coincidence; without symptom, ie, without revealing manifestation of a disease or no signal or indication of something it is happening or will happen.

Asymptote: [γραμμή] ἀσύμπτωτος [Gramme] asýmptōtos, from  ἀ- (no, without) – σύν-, with, πίπτειν, or πίπτω, pipto, falling, influence, impact: [line] that does not coincide. In geometry, straight line, indefinitely prolonged, continuous approaching a curve, without ever finding it.

astatine: ἄστατον astaton, from  α'- στα- from τι'θημι, to put, to place: unstable; radioactive chemical element, atomic number 85, obtained artificially, with chemical properties similar to those of iodine and whose isotopes are unstable.

Asthenia: ἀσθένεια astheneia from  ἀ-σθένος, strength,: without strength, weakness, loss of strength.

Astigmatism: ἀ-στίγμα, -ατος stigma, -atos, mark, point,  and -ism: defect of the vision due to an irregular curvature of the surface of the cornea and lens. In optical, defect of an optical system that reproduces a point as a small fuzzy area.

Athanasy, athanasia: ἀθανασία athanasia from  ἀ-θάνατος, death, without death, immortality. An absence of death or the condition of everlasting life.  Proper name.

Ataraxia: ἀταραξία ataraxia, from  ἀ- ταράσσω, tarasso, agitate, trouble, disturb:  imperturbability, serenity, tranquility of mind; absence of mental disturbance

Ataxia: ἀταξία from  ἀ- ταξις, taxis, order,: In medicine, disorder, irregularity, disturbance of the nervous system functions; inability to govern orderly locomotion.

Atheism, atheist: from θεος, from ἄ-theos, θεὸς, theos, god: denial of the existence of any god.

Athermal: ἄ- θέρμη, therme, heat,: without heat; that does not involve either heat or a change in temperature.

Atypical: τύπος, from ἀ- τύπος, types, figure, model, image: That by its characters deviates from the representative models or known types.

atom atomic: ἄτομον atomon from  ἄ-τομος – atoms, from τομὴ, tome,  cutting:  which can not be cut, indivisible.

Atony, atonal: ἀτονία, atonia, from τόνος, tones, rope, tension, stress, from τείνειν, teinein ,‎ to stretch, extend: languor, absence of energy, vigor or strength. Languid. Absence of tone and vigor, or weakness of organic tissues, particularly the contractile.

Atrophy: ἀτροφία atrophia τροφὴ, nutrition: malnutrition, absence  of development of an organ.

Who does not have engraved on his retina scene gathering honey in the Cave of  the Spider, in  Bicorp (Valencia, Spain) from  the years 8000-6000 B.C.?

The truth is that bees and their hives have always been an issue that has amazed men. I present another picture of an astonishing gem of ancient Crete in which two bees are foraging pollen from a flower.

Jewel from the necropolis of Krissolakkos, Mailla (Crete).

They are numerous Greek and then Roman authors who refer to honey by two different reasons: think first that the ancients did not know the sugar and therefore honey is the sweetener used and second the observation of the organization and industriousness of the bees in the hive induce them to establish fruitful comparisons with the society of men. Is a recurring topic well that the hive is a perfect society worthy of imitation and so men learned many things from them.

It appears already mentioned in Homer and Hesiod and its activity regulated by the  laws of Solon. Then there are countless poets and philosophers who focus their attention on bees and honey. But besides being bee an animal whose activity can be channeled and economically exploit their product, they are also many technical and scientific authors who write general agriculture beekeeping or more specific treaties.

Aristotle dedicates the book V, chapters 18 and 19 to bees and several references in Book IX of his Animalium History. Pseudo-Aristotle also addresses the issue in his Mirabilium Auscultationes (Περὶ θαυμασίων ἀκουσμάτων). Theophrastus, Democritus, Aristomachus of Solos, Nicander of Colophon, Philiscus of Tasus wrote apiculture treaties,.

In the Carthaginian world, Mago wrote a general treatise on Agriculture frequently cited by Greek and Latin authors, which  also refers to the bees.

In the Latin world, Virgil, in addition to referring it frequently in his Bucolic, dedicated the book IV of his Georgics to the world of bees; Pliny in his Naturalis Historia devotes several chapters of book XI and numerous references in his work, for example in the book XX dedicated to  remedies of  garden plants, and  in the XXI dedicated to flowers; Varro  with his De re rustica; Columela with his De re rustica; Ovid in his  Metamorphoses; Elianus in Natura Animalium; Iginus and Celsus in his medical treatises; Petronius in the Satyricon; Martial in his epigrams, Apicius in his  De re coqinaria, Cook book. Etc etc.

Petronius called them "divine animals":

Satyricon, 56

Then there's the bee: in my opinion, they're divine insects because they puke honey, though there are folks that claim that they bring it from Jupiter, and that's the reason they sting, too, for wherever you find a sweet, you'll find a bitter too."  (Translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

Apes enim ego divinas bestias puto, quae mel vomunt, etiam si diuntur illud a Iove afferrre. Ideo autem pungunt, quia ubicunque dulce est, ibi et acidum invenies.

Honey is used in ancient times in religious ceremonies because it is related to numerous gods and goddesses and appears in numerous myths; and especially in food to make cakes and delicious dishes; wine is sweetened with it to produce the famous "mulsum" or sweet wort and the "mead" or honey water was manufactured with it. But it was also used in medicine and pharmacology  and perfumery and jewelry to clean up the jewels  give a special texture to tissues.

If today the most famous honey in the world, at least in Spain, is the "honey of the Alcarria",  in Antiquity the most valued was the "honey of Attica", but it was produced in many parts of the Empire, from Germany to Africa and around it an important industry and economic activity was generated. All this deserves a special article.

Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC), who is considered "the wisest of the Romans," wrote many works on the most diverse subjects; but we retain only the title of 55 of them and only a complete, precisely on "agriculture". His "De re rustica" or "Rerum rusticarum libri III", that is "On Agriculture". The greater part of  his work "De lingua latina", On Latin language, is preserved and only some fragments of other works remain. In his work on agriculture he devotes part of Book III to treat bees.

Well, there is very harmful to bees mite, Varroa, which produces the disease called "varroasis" which finishes with hives. A.C. Oudemans described in 1904 the mite that Edward Jacobson had discovered in Java in Indonesia. When putting the scientific name, indicating the genus and species, he called "varroa iacobsoni". Jacobson named the species but for the genre Oudemans remembered Varro and his treatise on agriculture and he took  from him the name "varroa".

I will transcribe the entire chapter 16 of the third book of his work, dedicated to bees, but devotes only disease … I leave for another time the texts of other authors cited above also relate to the world of bees:

Marcus Terentius Varro
On Agriculture

16 1    ”Well,” remarked Appius, “the third act of the husbandry of the steading is left — fishponds.” “Why third?” inquired Axius. “Or, just because you were accustomed in your youth not to drink honey-wine at home for the sake of thrift, are we to overlook honey?” “It is the truth he is telling,” Appius said to us. 2 “For I was left in straitened circumstances, together with two brothers and two sisters, and gave one of them to Lucullus without a dowry; it was only after he relinquished a legacy in my favour that I, for the very first time, began to drink honey-wine at home myself, though meantime mead was none the less commonly served at banquets almost daily to all guests. 3 And furthermore, it was my right and not yours to know these winged creatures, to whether nature has given so much talent and art. And so, that you may realize that I know bees better than you do, hear of the incredible art that nature has given them. Our well-versed Merula, as he has done in other cases, will tell you of the practice followed by bee-keepers.

4 “In the first place, bees are produced partly from bees, and partly from the rotted carcass of a bullock. And so Archelaus, in an epigram, says that they are ‘the roaming children of a dead cow’; and the same writer says: ‘While wasps spring from horses, bees come from calves.’ Bees are not of a solitary nature, as eagles are, but are like human beings. Even if jackdaws in this respect are the same, still it is not the same case; for in one there is a fellowship in toil and in building which does not obtain in the other; in the one case there is reason and skill — it is from these that men learn to toil, to build, to store up food. 5 They have three tasks: food, dwelling, toil; and the food is not the same as the wax, nor the honey, nor the dwelling. Does not the chamber in the comb have six angles, the same number as the bee has feet? The geometricians prove that this hexagon inscribed in a circular figure encloses the greatest amount of space. They forage abroad, and within the hive they produce a substance which, because it is the sweetest of all, is acceptable to gods and men alike; for the comb comes to the altar and the honey is served at the beginning of the feast and for the second table. 6 Their commonwealth is like the states of men, for here are king, government, and fellowship. They seek only the pure; and hence no bee alights on a place which is befouled or one which has an evil odour, or even one which smells of sweet perfume. So one who approaches them smelling of perfume they sting, and do not, as flies do, lick him; and one never sees bees, as he does flies, on flesh or blood or fat — so truly do they alight only on objects which have a sweet savour. 7 The bee is not in the least harmful, as it injures no man’s work by pulling it apart; yet it is not so cowardly as not to fight anyone who attempts to break up its own work; but still it is well aware of its own weakness. They are with good reason called ‘the winged attendants of the Muses,’ because if at any time they are scattered they are quickly brought into one place by the beating of cymbals or the clapping of hands; and as man has assigned to those divinities Helicon and Olympus, so nature has assigned to the bees the flowering untilled mountains. 8 They follow their own king where he goes, assist him when weary, and if he is unable to fly they bear him upon their backs, in their eagerness to serve him. They are themselves not idle, and detest the lazy; and so they attack and drive out from them the drones, as these give no help and eat the honey, and even a few bees chase larger numbers of drones in spite of their cries. On the outside of the entrance to the hive they seal up the apertures through which the air comes between the combs with a substance which the Greeks call erithace. They all live as if in an army, sleeping and working regularly in turn, and send out as it were colonies, and their leaders give certain orders with the voice, as it were in imitation of the trumpet, as happens when they have signals of peace and war with one another. But, my dear Merula, that our friend Axius may not waste away while hearing this essay on natural history, in which I have made no mention of gain, I hand over to you the torch in the race.”

10 Whereupon Merula: “As to the gain I have this to say, which will perchance be enough for you, Axius, and I have as my authorities not only Seius, who has his apiaries let out for an annual rental of 5,000 pounds of honey, but also our friend Varro here. I have heard the latter tell the story that he had two soldiers under him in Spain, brothers named Veianius, from the district near Falerii. They were well-off, because, though their father had left only a small villa and a bit of land certainly not larger than one iugerum, they had built an apiary entirely around the villa, and kept a garden; and all the rest of the land had been planted in thyme, snail-clover, and balm — a plant which some call honey-leaf, others bee-leaf, and some call bee-herb. 11 These men never received less than 10,000 sesterces from their honey, on a conservative estimate, as they said they preferred to wait until they could bring in the buyer at the time they wanted rather than to rush into market at an unfavourable time.” “Tell me, then,” said he, “where I ought to build an apiary and of what sort, so as to get a large profit.” 12 “The following,” said Merula, “is the proper method for building apiaries, which are variously called melitrophia and mellaria: first, they should be situated preferably near the villa, but where echoes do not resound (for this sound is thought to be a signal for flight in their case); where the air is temperate, not too hot in summer, and not without sun in winter; that it preferably face the winter sunrise, and have near by a place which has a good supply of food and clear water. 13 If there is no natural food, the owner should sow crops which are most attractive to bees. Such crops are: the rose, wild thyme, balm, poppy, bean, lentil, pea, clover, rush, alfalfa, and especially snail-clover, which is extremely wholesome for them when they are ailing. It begins flowering at the vernal equinox and continues until the second equinox. 14 But while this is most beneficial to the health of bees, thyme is best suited to honey-making; and the reason that Sicilian honey bears off the palm is that good thyme is common there. For this reason some bruise thyme in a mortar and soak it in lukewarm water, and with this sprinkle all the plots planted for the bees. 15 So far as the situation is concerned, one should preferably be chosen close to the villa — and some people place the apiary actually in the portico of the villa, so that it may be better protected. Some build round hives of withes for the bees to stay in, others of wood and bark, others of a hollow tree, others build of earthenware, and still others fashion them of fennel stalks, building them square, about three feet long and one foot deep, but making them narrower when there are not enough bees to fill them, so that they will not lose heart in a large empty space. All such hives are called alvi, ‘bellies,’ because of the nourishment (alimonium), honey, which they contain; and it seems that the reason they are made with a very narrow middle is that they may imitate the shape of the bees. 16 Those that are made of withes are smeared, inside and out, with cow-dung, so that the bees may not be driven off by any roughness; and these hives are so placed on brackets attached to the walls that they will not be shaken nor touch one another when they are arranged in a row. In this method, a second and a third row are placed below it at an interval, and it is said that it is better to reduce the number than to add a fourth. At the middle of the hive small openings are made on the right and left, by which the bees may enter; 17 and on the back, covers are placed through which the keepers can remove the comb. The best hives are those made of bark, and the worst those made of earthenware, because the latter are most severely affected by cold in winter and by heat in summer. During the spring and summer the bee-keeper should examine them about thrice a month, smoking them lightly, and clear the hive of filth and sweep out vermin. 18 He should further see to it that several chiefs do not arise, for they become nuisances because of their dissensions. Some authorities state also that, as there are three kinds of leaders among bees — the black, the red, and the striped — or as Menecrates states, two — the black and the striped — the latter is so much better that it is good practice for the keeper, when both occur in the same hive, to kill the black; for when he is with the other king he is mutinous and ruins the hive, because he either drives him out or is driven out and takes the swarm with him. 19 Of ordinary bees, the best is the small round striped one. The one called by some the thief, and by others the drone, is black, with a broad belly. The wasp, though it has the appearance of a bee, is not a partner in its work, and frequently injures it by its sting, and so the bees keep it away. Bees differ from one another in being wild or tame; by wild, I mean those which feed in wooded places, and by tame those which feed in cultivated ground. The former are smaller in size, and hairy, but are better workers.
“In purchasing, the buyer should see whether they are well or sick. 20 The signs of health are their being thick in the swarm, sleek, and building uniformly smooth comb. When they are not so well, the signs are that they are hairy and shaggy, as if dusted over — unless it is the working season which is pressing them; for at this time, because of the work, they get tough and thin. 21 If they are to be transferred to another place, it should be done carefully, and the proper time should be observed for doing it, and a suitable place be provided to which to move them. As to the time, it should be in spring rather than in winter, as in winter it is difficult for them to form the habit of staying where they have been moved, and so they generally fly away. If you move them from a good situation to one where there is no suitable pasturage, they become runaways. And even if you move them from one hive into another at the same place, the operation should not be carried out carelessly, 22 but the hive into which the bees are going should be smeared with balm, which has a strong attraction for them, and combs full of honey should be placed inside not far from the entrance, for fear that, when they notice either a lack of food. . . . He says that when bees are sickly, because of their feeding in the early spring on the blossoms of the almond and the cornel, it is diarrhoea that affects them, and they are cured by drinking urine. 23 Propolis is the name given to a substance with which they build a protectum (‘gable’) over the entrance opening in front of the hive, especially in summer. This substance is used, and under the same name, by physicians in making poultices,c and for this reason it brings even a higher price than honey on the Via Sacra. Erithace is the name given a substance with which they fasten together the ends of the comb (it is a different substance than either honey or propolis) and it is in it that the force of the attraction lies. So they smear with this substance, mixed with balm, the bough or other object on which they want the swarm to settle. 24 The comb is the structure which they fashion in a series of cells of wax, each separate cell having six sides, the same number as that of the feet given to each bee by nature. It is said that they do not gather wholly from the same sources the materials which they bring in for making the four substances, propolis, erithace, comb, and honey. Sometimes what they gather is of one kind, since from the pomegranate and the asparagus they gather only food, from the olive tree wax, from the fig honey, but of a poor quality. 25 Sometimes a double service is rendered, as both wax and food from the bean, the balm, the gourd, and the cabbage; and similarly a double service of food and honey from the apple and wild pear, and still another double service in combination, since they get wax and honey from the poppy. A threefold service, too, is rendered, as food, honey, and wax from the almond and the charlock. From other blossoms they gather in such a way that they take some materials for just one of the substances, other materials for more than one; 26 they also follow another principle of selection in their gathering (or rather the principle follows the bees); as in the case of honey, they make watery honey from one flower, for instance the sisera, thick honey from another, for instance from rosemary; and so from still another they make an insipid honey, as from the fig, good honey from snail-clover, and the best honey from thyme. 27 As drink is a component of food, and as this, in the case of bees, is clear water, they should have a place from which to drink, and this close by; it should flow past their hives, or run into a pool in such a way that it will not rise higher than •two or three fingers, and in this water there should lie tiles or small stones in such a way that they project a little from the water, so that the bees can settle on them and drink. In this matter great care should be taken to keep the water pure, as this is an extremely important point in making good honey. 28 As it is not every kind of weather that allows them to go far afield for feeding, food should be provided for them, so that they will not have to live on the honey alone at such times, or leave the hives when it is exhausted. So about ten pounds of ripe figs are boiled in six congii of water, and after they are boiled they are rolled into lumps and placed near the hives. Other apiarists have water sweetened with honey placed near the hives in vessels, and drop clean pieces of wool into it through which they can suck, for the double purpose of keeping them from surfeiting themselves with the drink and from falling into the water. A vessel is placed near each hive and is kept filled. Others pound raisins and figs together, soak them in boiled wine, and put pellets made of this mixture in a place where they can come out to feed even in winter.
29 “The time when the bees are ready to swarm, which generally occurs when the well hatched new brood is over large and they wish to send out their young as it were a colony (just as the Sabines used to do frequently on account of the number of their children), you may know from two signs which usually precede it: first, that on preceding days, and especially in the evenings, numbers of them hang to one another in front of the entrance, 30 massed like a bunch of grapes; and secondly, that when they are getting ready to fly out or even have begun the flight, they make a loud humming sound exactly as soldiers do when they are breaking camp. Those which have gone out first fly around in sight, looking back for the others, which have not yet gathered, to swarm. When the keeper observes that they have acted so, he frightens them by throwing dust on them and by beating brass around them; 31 and the place to which he wishes to carry them, and which is not far away, is smeared with bee-bread and balm and other things by which they are attracted. When they have settled, a hive, smeared on the inside with the same enticing substances, is brought up and placed near by; and then by means of a light smoke blown around them they are induced to enter. When they have moved into the new colony, they remain so willingly that even if you place near by the hive from which they came, still they are content rather with their new home.

32 “As I have given my views on the subject of feeding, I shall now speak of the thing on account of which all this care is exercised — the profit. The signal for removing the comb is given by the following occurrences . . . if the bees make a humming noise inside, if they flutter when going in and out, and if, when you remove the covers of the hives, the openings of the combs are seen to be covered with a membrane, the combs being filled with honey. 33 Some authorities hold that in taking off honey nine-tenths should be removed and one-tenth left; for if you take all, the bees will quit the hive. Others leave more than the amount stated. Just as in tilling, those who let the ground lie fallow reap more grain from interrupted harvests, so in the matter of hives if you do not take off honey every year, or not the same amount, you will by this method have bees which are busier and more profitable. 34 It is thought that the first season for removing the comb is at the time of the rising of the Pleiades, the second at the end of summer, before Arcturus is wholly above the horizon, and the third after the setting of the Pleiades. But in this case, if the hive is well filled no more than one-third of the honey should be removed, the remainder being left for the wintering; but if the hive is not well filled no honey should be taken out. When the amount removed is large, it should not all be taken at one time or openly, for fear the bees may lose heart. If some of the comb removed contains no honey or honey that is dirty, it should be cut off with a knife. 35 Care should be taken that the weaker bees be not imposed upon by the stronger, for in this case their output is lessened; and so the weaker are separated and placed under another king. Those which often fight one another should be sprinkled with honey-water. When this is done they not only stop fighting, but swarm over one another, licking the water; and even more so if they are sprinkled with mead, in which case the odour causes them to attach themselves more greedily, and they drink until they are stupefied. 36 If they leave the hive in smaller numbers and a part of the swarm remains idle, light smoke should be applied, and there should be placed near by some sweet-smelling herbs, especially balm and thyme. 37 The greatest possible care should be taken to prevent them from dying from heat or from cold. If at any time they are knocked down by a sudden rain while harvesting, or overtaken by a sudden chill before they have foreseen that this would happen (though it is rarely that they are caught napping), and if, struck by the heavy rain-drops, they lie prostrate as if dead, they should be collected into a vessel and placed under cover in a warm spot; the next day, when the weather is at its best, they should be dusted with ashes made of fig wood, and heated a little more than warm. Then they should be shaken together gently in the vessel, without being touched with the hand, and placed in the sun. 38 Bees which have be warmed in this way recover and revive, just as happens when flies which have been killed by water are treated in the same way. This should be carried out near the hives, so that those which have been revived may return each to his own work and home.”
(The English translation is by W. D. Hooper and H. B. Ash. published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1934)

16  Appius, Igitur relinquitur, inquit, de pastione villatica tertius actus de piscinis. Quid tertius? inquit Axius. An quia tu solitus es in adulescentia tua domi mulsum non bibere propter parsimoniam, nos mel neclegemus? Appius nobis, Verum dicit, inquit. 2 Nam cum pauper cum duobus fratribus et duabus sororibus essem relictus, quarum alteram sine dote dedi Lucullo, a quo hereditate me cessa primum et primus mulsum domi meae bibere coepi ipse, cum interea nihilo minus paene cotidie in convivio omnibus daretur  mulsum. 3 Praeterea meum erat, non tuum, eas novisse volucres, quibus plurimum natura ingeni atque artis tribuit. Itaque eas melius me nosse quam te ut scias, de incredibili earum arte naturali audi. Merula, ut cetera fecit, historicos quae sequi melitturgoe soleant demonstrabit.

4 Primum apes nascuntur partim ex apibus, partim ex bubulo corpore putrefacto. Itaque Archelaus in epigrammate ait eas esse
βοὸς φθιμένης πεπλανημένα τέκνα,
idem
ἵππων μὲν σφῆκες γενεά, μόσχων δὲ μέλισσαι.

Apes non sunt solitaria natura, ut aquilae, sed ut homines. Quod si in hoc faciunt etiam graculi, at non idem, quod hic societas operis et aedificiorum, quod illic non est, hic ratio atque ars, ab his opus facere discunt, ab his aedificare, ab his cibaria condere. 5 Tria enim harum: cibus, domus, opus, neque idem quod cera cibus, nec quod mel, nec quod domus. Non in favo sex angulis cella, totidem quot habet ipsa pedes? Quod geometrae hexagonon fieri in orbi rutundo ostendunt, ut plurimum loci includatur. Foris pascuntur, intus opus faciunt, quod dulcissimum quod est, et deis et hominibus est acceptum, quod favus venit in altaria et mel ad principia convivi et in secundam mensam administratur. 6 Haec ut hominum civitates, quod hic est et rex et imperium et societas. Secuntur omnia pura. Itaque nulla harum adsidit in loco inquinato aut eo qui male oleat, neque etiam in eo qui bona olet unguenta. Itaque iis unctus qui accessit, pungunt, non, ut muscae, ligurriunt, quod nemo has videt, ut illas, in carne aut sanguine aut adipe. Ideo modo considunt in eis quorum sapor dulcis. 7 Minime malefica, quod nullius opus vellicans facit deterius, neque ignava, ut non, qui eius conetur disturbare, resistat; neque tamen nescia suae imbecillitatis. Quae cum causa Musarum esse dicuntur volucres, quod et, si quando displicatae sunt, cymbalis et plausibus numero redducunt in locum unum; et ut his dis Helicona atque Olympon adtribuerunt homines, sic his floridos et incultos natura adtribuit montes. 8 Regem suum secuntur, quocumque it, et fessum sublevant, et si nequit volare, succollant, quod eum servare volunt. Neque ipsae sunt inficientes nec non oderunt inertes. Itaque insectantes ab se eiciunt fucos, quod hi neque adiuvant et mel consumunt, quos vocificantes plures persecuntur etiam paucae. Extra ostium alvi opturant omnia, qua venit inter favos spiritus, quam erithacen appellant Graeci. 9 Omnes ut in exercitu vivunt atque alternis dormiunt et opus faciunt pariter et ut colonias mittunt, iique duces conficiunt quaedam ad vocem ut imitatione tubae. Tum id faciunt, cum inter se signa pacis ac belli habeant. Sed, O Merula, Axius noster ne, dum haec audit physica, macescat, quod de fructu nihil dixi, nunc cursu lampada tibe trado.

10 Merula, De fructu, inquit, hoc dico, quod fortasse an tibi satis sit, Axi, in quo auctorem habeo non solum Seium, qui alvaria sua locata habet quotannis quinis milibus pondo mellis, sed etiam hunc Varronem nostrum, quem audivi dicentem duo milites se habuisse in Hispania fratres Veianios ex agro Falisco locupletis, quibus cum a patre relicta esset parva villa et agellus non sane maior iugero uno, hos circum villam totam alvaria fecisse et hortum habuisse ac relicum thymo et cytiso opsevisse et apiastro, quod alii meliphyllon, alii melissophyllon, quidam melittaenam appellant. 11 Hos numquam minus, ut peraeque ducerent, dena milia sestertia ex melle recipere esse solitos, cum dicerent velle expectare, ut suo potius tempore mercatorem admitterent, quam celerius alieno. Dic igitur, inquit, ubi et cuius modi me facere oporteat alvarium, ut magnos capiam fructus. 12 Ille, melittonas ita facere oportet, quos alii melitrophia appellant, eandem rem quidam mellaria. Primum secundum villam potissimum, ubi non resonent imagines (hic enim sonus harum fugae existimatur esse protelum), esse oportet aere temperato, neque aestate fervido neque hieme non aprico, ut spectet potissimum ad hibernos ortus, qui prope se loca habeat ea, ubi pabulum sit frequens et aqua pura. 13 Si pabulum naturale non est, ea oportet dominum serere, quae maxime secuntur apes. Ea sunt rosa, serpyllon, apiastrum, papaver, faba, lens, pisum, ocimum, cyperum, medice, maxime cytisum, quod minus valentibus utilissimum est. Etenim ab aequinoctio verno florere incipit et permanet ad alterum aequinoctium. 14 Sed ut hoc aptissimum ad sanitatem apium, sic ad mellificium thymum. Propter hoc Siculum mel fert palmam, quod ibi thymum bonum frequens est. Itaque quidam thymum contundunt in pila et diluunt in aqua tepida; eo conspergunt omnia seminaria consita apium causa. 15 Quod ad locum pertinet, hoc genus potissimum eligendum iuxta villam, non quo non in villae porticu quoque quidam, quo tutius esset, alvarium collocarint. Ubi sint, alii faciunt ex viminibus rutundas, alii e ligno ac corticibus, alii ex arbore cava, alii fictiles, alii etiam ex ferulis quadratas longas pedes circiter ternos, latas pedem, sed ita, ubi parum sunt quae compleant, ut eas conangustent, in vasto loco inani ne despondeant animum. Haec omnia vocant a mellis alimonio alvos, quas ideo videntur medias facere angustissimas, ut figuram imitentur earum. 16 Vitiles fimo bubulo oblinunt intus et extra, ne asperitate absterreantur, easque alvos ita collocant in mutulis parietis, ut ne agitentur neve inter se contingant, cum in ordinem sint positae. Sic intervallo interposito alterum et tertium ordinem infra faciunt et aiunt potius hinc demi oportere, quam addi quartum. Media alvo, qua introeant apes, faciunt foramina parva dextra ac sinistra. 17 Ad extremam, qua mellarii favum eximere possint, opercula imponunt. Alvi optimae fiunt corticeae, deterrimae fictiles, quod et frigore hieme et aestate calore vehementissime haec commoventur. Verno tempore et aestivo fere ter in mense mellarius inspicere debet fumigans leniter eas et ab spurcitiis purgare alvum et vermiculos eicere. 18 Praeterea ut animadvertat ne reguli plures existant; inutiles enim fiunt propter seditiones. Et quidam dicunt, tria genera cum sint ducum in apibus, niger ruber varius, ut Menecrates scribit, duo, niger et varius, qui ita melior, ut expediat mellario, cum duo sint in eadem alvo, interficere nigrum, cum sit cum altero rege, esse seditiosum et corrumpere alvom, quod fuget aut cum multitudine fugetur. 19 De reliquis apibus optima est parva varia rutunda. Fur qui vocabitur, ab aliis fucus, est ater et lato ventre. Vespa, quae similitudinem habet apis, neque socia est operis et nocere solet morsu, quam apes a se secernunt. Hae differunt inter se, quod ferae et cicures sunt. Nunc feras dico, quae in silvestribus locis pascitant, cicures, quae in cultis. Silvestres minores sunt magnitudine et pilosae, sed opifices magis.

In emendo emptorem videre oportet, valeant an sint aegrae. 20 Sanitatis signa, si sunt frequentes in examine et si nitidae et si opus quod faciunt est aequabile ac leve. Minus valentium signa, si sunt pilosae et horridae, ut pulverulentae, nisi opificii eas urget tempus; tum enim propter laborem asperantur ac marcescunt. 21 Si transferendae sunt in alium locum, id facere diligenter oportet et tempora, quibus id potissimum facias, animadvertendum et loca, quo transferas, idonea providendum: tempora, ut verno potius quam hiberno, quod hieme difficulter consuescunt quo translatae manere, itaque fugiunt plerumque. Si e bono loco transtuleris eo, ubi idonea pabulatio non sit, fugitivae fiunt. Nec, si ex alvo in alvum in eodem loco traicias, neglegenter faciendum, 22 sed et in quam transiturae sint apes, ea apiastro perfricanda, quod inlicium hoc illis, et favi melliti intus ponendi a faucibus non longe, ne, cum animadverterint aut inopiam esse . . . habuisse dicit. Is ait, cum sint apes morbidae propter primoris vernos pastus, qui ex floribus nucis graecae et cornus fiunt, coeliacas fieri atque urina pota reficiendas. 23 Propolim vocant, e quo faciunt ad foramen introitus protectum ante alvum maxime aestate. Quam rem etiam nomine eodem medici utuntur in emplastris, propter quam rem etiam carius in sacra via quam mel venit. Erithacen vocant, quo favos extremos inter se conglutinant, quod est aliut melle et propoli; itaque in hoc vim esse illiciendi. Quocirca examen ubi volunt considere, eum ramum aliamve quam rem oblinunt hoc admixto apiastro. 24 Favus est, quem fingunt multicavatum e cera, cum singula cava sena latera habeant, quot singulis pedes dedit natura. Neque quae afferunt ad quattuor res faciendas, propolim, erithacen, favum, mel, ex iisdem omnibus rebus carpere dicunt. Simplex, quod e malo punico et asparago cibum carpant solum, ex olea arbore ceram, e fico mel, sed non bonum. 25 Duplex ministerium praeberi, ut e faba, apiastro, cucurbita, brassica ceram et cibum; nec non aliter duplex quod fit e malo et piris silvestribus, cibum et mel; item aliter duplex quod e papavere, ceram et mel. Triplex ministerium quoque fieri, ut ex nuce Graeca et e lapsano cibum, mel, ceram. Item ex aliis floribus ita carpere, ut alia ad singulas res sumant, alia ad plures, 26 nec non etiam aliut discrimen sequantur in carptura aut eas sequatur, ut in melle, quod ex alia re faciant liquidum mel, ut e siserae flore, ex alia contra spissum, ut e rore marino; sic ex alia re, ut e fico mel insuave, e cytiso bonum, e thymo optimum. 27 Cibi pars quod potio et ea iis aqua liquida, unde bibant esse oportet, eamque propinquam, quae praeterfluat aut in aliquem lacum influat, ita ut ne altitudine escendat duo aut tres digitos; in qua aqua iaceant testae aut lapilli, ita ut extent paulum, ubi adsidere et bibere possint. In quo diligenter habenda cura ut aqua sit pura, quod ad mellificium bonum vehementer prodest. 28 Quod non omnis tempestas ad pastum prodire longius patitur, praeparandus his cibus, ne tum melle cogantur solo vivere aut relinquere exinanitas alvos. Igitur ficorum pinguium circiter decem pondo decoquont in aquae congiis sex, quas coctas in offas prope apponunt. Alii aquam mulsam in vasculis prope ut sit curant, in quae addunt lanam puram, per quam sugant, uno tempore ne potu nimium impleantur aut ne incidant in aquam. Singula vasa ponunt ad alvos, haec supplentur. Alii uvam passam et ficum cum pisierunt, affundunt sapam atque ex eo factas offas apponunt ibi, quo foras hieme in pabulum procedere tamen possint.

29 Cum examen exiturum est, quod fieri solet, cum adnatae prospere sunt multae ac progeniem ut coloniam emittere volunt, ut olim crebro Sabini factitaverunt propter multitudinem liberorum, huius quod duo solent praeire signa, scitur: unum, quod superioribus diebus, maxime vespertinis, multae ante foramen 30 ut uvae aliae ex aliis pendent conglobatae; alterum, quod, cum iam evolaturae sunt aut etiam inceperunt, consonant vehementer, proinde ut milites faciunt, cum castra movent. Quae primum exierunt, in conspectu volitant reliquas, quae nondum congregatae sunt, respectantes, dum conveniant. A mellario cum id fecisse sunt animadversae, iaciundo in eas pulvere et circumtinniendo aere perterritae, 31 quo volunt perducere, non longe inde oblinunt erithace atque apiastro ceterisque rebus, quibus delectantur. Ubi consederunt, afferunt alvum eisdem inliciis litam intus et prope apposita fumo leni circumdato cogunt eas intrare. Quae in novam coloniam cum introierunt, permanent adeo libenter, ut etiam si proximam posueris illam alvum, unde exierunt, tamen novo domicilio potius sint contentae.

32 Quod ad pastiones pertinere sum ratus quoniam dixi, nunc iam, quoius causa adhibetur ea cura, de fructu dicam. Eximendorum favorum signum sumunt ex ipsis † uiris alvos habeat nem congerminarit † coniecturam capiunt, si intus faciunt bombum et, cum intro eunt ac foras, trepidant et si, opercula alvorum cum remoris, favorum foramina obducta videntur membranis, cum sint repleti melle. 33 In eximendo quidam dicunt oportere ita ut novem partes tollere, decumam relinquere; quod si omne eximas, fore ut discedant. Alii hoc plus relincunt, quam dixi. Ut in aratis qui faciunt restibiles segetes, plus tollunt frumenti ex intervallis, sic in alvis, si non quotannis eximas aut non aeque multum, et magis his assiduas habeas apes et magis fructuosas. 34 Eximendorum favorum primum putant esse tempus vergiliarum exortu, secundum aestate acta, antequam totus exoriatur arcturus, tertium post vergiliarum occasum, et ita, si fecunda sit alvos, ut ne plus tertia pars eximatur mellis, reliquum ut hiemationi relinquatur; sin alvus non sit fertilis, ne quid eximatur. Exemptio cum est maior, neque universam neque palam facere oportet, ne deficiant animum. Favi qui eximuntur, siqua pars nihil habet aut habet incunatum, cultello praesicatur. 35 Providendum ne infirmiores a valentioribus opprimantur, eo enim minuitur fructus; itaque imbecilliores secretas subiciunt sub alterum regem. Quae crebrius inter se pugnabunt, aspargi eas oportet aqua mulsa. Quo facto non modo desistunt pugna, sed etiam conferciunt se lingentes, eo magis, si mulso sunt asparsae, quo propter odorem avidius applicant se atque obstupescunt potantes. 36 Si ex alvo minus frequentes evadunt ac subsidit aliqua pars, subfumigandum et prope apponendum bene olentium herbam maxime apiastrum et thymum. 37 Providendum vehementer ne propter aestum aut propter frigus dispereant. Si quando subito imbri in pastu sunt oppressae aut frigore subito, antequam ipsae providerint id fore, quod accidit raro ut decipiantur, et imbris guttis uberibus offensae iacent prostratae, ut efflictae, colligendum eas in vas aliquod et reponendum in tecto loco ac tepido, proximo die quam maxime tempestate bona cinere facto e ficulneis lignis infriandum paulo plus caldo quam tepidiore. Deinde concutiendum leviter ipso vaso, ut manu non tangas, et ponendae in sole. 38 Quae enim sic concaluerunt, restituunt se ac revivescunt, ut solet similiter fieri in muscis aqua necatis. Hoc faciendum secundum alvos, ut reconciliatae ad suum quaeque opus et domicilium redeant.

But we know according to the happy verse of Horace in Epistles II, 1, verse 156 to 157 that  ultimately it was Greece that dominated the Romans with their culture and civilization, which is ours civilization:

Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror  and brought her arts into rustic Latium.

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit artes et intulit agresti Latio

See: https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/graecia-capta-greek-culture-quignard

Well, in this process of acculturation, the Romans found a huge lack  when they came to translating and integrating into Latin the specialized and scientific terminology that Greeks had coined. Latin did not have technical terms appropriate to the invasion of new knowledge.

Latin authors respond to the problem by two possible ways: trying to translate and seek the equivalent Latin term or simply transcribing the Greek word into Latin adapting its spelling. So the numerous Greek terms  in the Romance languages, the languages  derived from Latin, do not come directly from the Greek but through its Latin form.

Latin authors were very conscious of this problem. So Lucretius writes a great scientific treaty: physics, chemistry, natural science,  in verse, in a poem of 7415 hexameters.

He titled it "On the Nature of Things", "De Rerum Natura", and he expounds the theories of Epicurus, from whom we have little and rare texts. Lucretius is precisely the main source to know the thought of Epicurus, who incidentally has little to do with the caricature since Antiquity was made of him.

Well, Lucretius, conscious of the linguistic difficulty of the work  and perfectly raising the question, says in the verses of the Book I, 136-145:

I know how hard it is in Latian verse
To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks,
Chiefly because our pauper-speech must find
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing;
Yet worth of thine and the expected joy
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through,
Seeking with what of words and what of song
I may at last most gloriously uncloud
For thee the light beyond, wherewith to view
The core of being at the centre hid.
(Translation  by William Ellery Leonard, 1916)

Nec me animi fallit Graiorum obscura reperta
difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse,
multa novis verbis praesertim cum sit agendum
propter egestatem linguae et rerum novitatem;
sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas
suavis amicitiae quemvis efferre laborem
suadet et inducit noctes vigilare serenas
quaerentem dictis quibus et quo carmine demum
clara tuae possim praepandere lumina menti,
res quibus occultas penitus convisere possis.

Maybe some kind reader asks curiously why he wrote this treaty of science on hexameter verses. The answer lies partly in connection with the stated above. The issue of the “nature” deserves an adequate, great and full of prestige and high tone treatment. At that time there is still no scientific prose sufficiently developed; so it uses the already prestigious, the epic verse, the hexameter, but now applied to a work whose aim is mainly didactic

Cicero also recognizes the importance of the work of translating Greek texts into Latin in his "On the Nature of the Gods", I, 4,7-8:

If again anyone asks what motive has induced me so late in the day to commit these precepts to writing, there is nothing that I can explain more easily. I was languishing in idle retirement, and the state of public affairs was such that an autocratic form of government had become inevitable. In these circumstances, in the first place I thought that to expound philosophy to my fellow-countrymen was actually my duty in the interests of the commonwealth, since in my judgement it would greatly contribute to the honour and glory of the state to have thoughts so important and so lofty enshrined in Latin Literature also ; and I am the less inclined to repent of my undertaking because I can clearly perceive what a number of my readers have been stimulated not only to study but to become authors themselves. A great many accomplished students of Greek learning were unable to share their acquisitions with their fellow-citizens, on the ground that they doubted the possibility of conveying in Latin the teachings they had received from the Greeks. In the matter of style however I believe that we have made such progress that even in richness of vocabulary the Greeks do not surpass us. (Translation by H.Rackham, M.A.  Harvard University Press)

Sin autem quis requirit quae causa nos inpulerit ut haec tam sero litteris mandaremus, nihil est quod expedire tam facile possimus. Nam cum otio langueremus et is esset rei publicae status ut eam unius consilio atque cura gubernari necesse esset, primum ipsius rei publicae causa philosophiam nostris hominibus explicandam putavi, magni existimans interesse ad decus et ad laudem civitatis res tam gravis tamque praeclaras Latinis etiam litteris contineri.
eoque me minus instituti mei paenitet, quod facile sentio quam multorum non modo discendi sed etiam scribendi studia commoverim. complures enim Graecis institutionibus eruditi ea quae didicerant cum civibus suis communicare non poterant, quod illa quae a Graecis accepissent Latine dici posse diffiderent; quo in genere tantum profecisse videmur, ut a Graecis ne verborum quidem copia vinceremur.

Cicero himself also complains bitterly about  his countrymen who despise the Latin works even if they are a direct translation from Greek on  De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), I,2,4

A more difficult task therefore is to deal with the objection of those who profess a contempt Latin writings as such. What astonishes me first of all about them is this, — why should they dislike their native language for serious and important subjects, when they are quite willing to read Latin plays translated word for word from the Greek ? Who has such a hatred, one might almost say, for the very name of Roman, as to despise and reject the Medea of Enniusor or the Antiope of Pacuvius, and give as his reason that though he enjoys the corresponding plays of Euripides he cannot endure books written in Latin ?….
(Translation by H.Rackham, M.A.  Harvard University Press)

Iis igitur est difficilius satis facere, qui se Latina scripta dicunt contemnere. in quibus hoc primum est in quo admirer, cur in gravissimis rebus non delectet eos sermo patrius, cum idem fabellas Latinas ad verbum e Graecis expressas non inviti legant. quis enim tam inimicus paene nomini Romano est, qui Ennii Medeam aut Antiopam Pacuvii spernat aut reiciat, quod se isdem Euripidis fabulis delectari dicat, Latinas litteras oderit?….

Cicero follows opposing the two languages in this passage for a long text and again in the same work (De finibus bonorum et malorum) in II, 4.12 and III, 2, 4

I now specify and exemplify this question with the term "cosmos" which is translated into Latin by "Mundus", a word that has passed into the Romance languages (Spanish: mundo, Italian mondo, French: monde …).

cosmos, κόσμος in Greek means order, arranged, how beautiful, clean; the Latin "mundus" is nothing but a translation that means the same. Who has not fallen into this reflect on the meaning of "in-mundus" on roman languages, which is the negation of the previous concept, ie "dirty, messy, ugly."

By extension cosmos and mundus (world)  refer to the order of the universe and therefore mean universe, bright sky, cosmos and world, set of celestial bodies.

Moreover, when Cicero has translated κόσμιος, kosmios, usually, well ordered, moderate, he  does it by  "mundanus" for example in Tusculanae, 5,3,108.

Pliny begins his book II, precisely dedicated to astronomy, with the term "mundum"

Book II, 1.

The world1, and whatever that be which we otherwise call the heavens2, by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a Deity3, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created, nor subject, at any time, to destruction4. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture respecting it. (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

Liber II, 1

Mundum et hoc quodcumque nomine alio caelum appellare libuit, cuius circumflexu degunt cuncta, numen esse credi par est, aeternum, inmensum, neque genitum neque interiturum umquam. huius extera indagare nec interest hominum nec capit humanae coniectura mentis.
Then further down, in the same book, he clearly explains why the the universe is called "mundus" in Latin:

And in Pliny, Book II,(4) 8

With respect to the name, I am influenced by the unanimous opinions of all nations. For what the Greeks, from its being ornamented, have termed κόσμος, we, from its perfect and complete elegance, have termed mundus. The name cœlum, no doubt, refers to its being engraven, as it were, with the stars, as Varro suggests.  In confirmation of this idea we may adduce the Zodiac, in which are twelve figures of animals; through them it is that the sun has continued its course for so many ages.  (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

Equidem et consensu gentium moveor; nam quem  κόσμοn Graeci nomine ornamenti appellavere eum et nos a perfecta absolutaque elegantia mundum. caelum quidem haud dubie caelati argumento diximus, ut interpretatur M. Varro. 9 adiuvat rerum ordo discripto circulo qui signifer vocatur in duodecim animalium effigies et per illas solis cursus congruens tot saeculis ratio.

But Pliny seems to quote from memory  Varro to establish the relationship between caelum (heaven) and caelare (chisel). Varro is quoting his master Aelius  Stilo ,  who establish the relationship, with that Varro himself is not on accord.

Varro  says on his "De lingua Latina" V, 18

Caelum, Aelius writes, was so called because it is ‘caelatum' raised above the surface,' or from the opposite of its idea, ‘celatum’ 'hidden' because it is exposed ; not ill the remark, that the one who applied the term took caelare 'to raise' much rather from caelum than caelum from caelare. But that second origin, from celare ‘to hide,’ could be said from this fact, that by day it celatur ‘is hidden,’ no less than that by night it is not hidden.
(Translated by Roland G.Kent, Ph.D.)

Caelum dictum scribir Aelius, quod est caelatum, aut contrario nomine,celatum quod apertum est; non, male: quod postriora multo potius a caelo quam caelum a celando vel caelando. Sed non minus illud alterum de celando ab eo potuit dici, quod interdiu celatur, quam quod noctu non celatur.

Later S. Isidore of Seville repeats these explanations in his Etymologies, XIII, 4:

The sky (caelum) is so named because it is like an engraved (caelatum) vessel, whicht has the lights of the stars pressed in it, just like ornament;  a vessel which shines  with fine figures  is called engraving (caelatus).God honored  the heaven and filled it with bright light,  with the sun and the refulgent orb of the moon; he adorned it with  the bright constellations of glittering stars. [However according to some,  it is named so from engraving (caelare) the superior bodies.]

Caelum vocatum eo quod, tamquam caelatum vas, inpressa lumna habeat stellarum veluti signa. Nam caelatum dicitur vas quod signis eminentioribus refulget. Distinxit enim eum Deus claris luminibus, et inplevit; sole scilicet et lunae orbe fulgenti et astrorum micantium splendentibus signis adornavit. [Alias autem a superiora calenado].

Naturally modern scientific philology does not accept these simplistic etymologies of  caelum "heaven" rather own of elementary popular imagination. Nor it accepts another long-standing, which derives "caelum" from Greek κοῖλον (koilon)  concave´´,´´empty´´, ´´hollow´´,  allowing transcribe sometimes belatedly as "coelum" because the sky seems an immense concavity. Also sometimes it is spelled "celum" as "celare".

But philology did not find the origin of the Latin term. It is also thought that it derives from the verb "caedo", "to cut", meaning the  space which it is cut  or delimited by the augur for  observe the signs of the gods. All these are somewhat outlandish mere hypotheses. At most it is suspected  an early Indo-European word * kaid-slo-, from a root meaning "bright, clear" that leaves traced in Germanic and Baltic.

Mundus is the term very used by Lucretius, especially in the book V, often with the extended sense of "universe", including heaven and earth. Cicero also uses it with the same sense. Roman authors sometimes use it as "land" or "heaven". The reduction of the meaning of mundus "world" to "terrestrial world, earth, earth dweller" came since the imperial era.

Then even it  suffered a further restrictions on the language of the Church, opposing mundus "the world" to caelum "heaven", becoming along with "the devil" and "meat" as an object of sexual incontinence one of the three enemies of the soul .

These polyvalences have passed to the Romance languages, where it is the context that is to clarify the specific meaning.

In any case universum  is actually the neutral form of the adjective universus-a-um, which means "all"; etymologically it is composed of unus and versus, turned to one point, one. Cicero translated the Greek word τὸ ὅλον, "to holon"  with the term “universes”, meaning all, entire, whole, and therefore universe becomes to mean "the whole, the set of all things."

Well, going back to the initial question, the translation of cosmos by Mundus, if cosmetic, κοσμητικός,  is derived from cosmos, like beauty products or art of applying beauty products for the body, especially on the face, hiding what ugly it may have, it should be known that also on Latin  the objects or toilet kits of girls and ladies are called “mundus”

I will finish this long article by saying that mundus "world" soon stopped been perceived as scientific or technical term to refer to the cosmos or to the  whole of all things perfectly ordereded. That perception and etymology is much less evident today. Of course nobody would identify at this time the "cosmology" with the “mundology?”, "worldly wisdom", “savoir vivre”,  for example.

The man began to count very soon; Paleolithic marks on bone, stone or other materials testify to this. No doubt on this task he used the help of his hands, fingers of his hands, his feet …

Soon he needed some figurative representation; he had need of the figures, because visually with a stroke of the eye he sees only up to four units; to recognize more he needs to count. And for counting large numbers he must have different orders or hierarchical levels, so that  he can represent large quantities with few figures.

In Sumer there are traces of a numeral system with five as the base (quinary) (five lower units amount to a higher level), certainly in relation to the five fingers.

The decimal system is certainly in connection with the fingers of both hands.

Also the Sumerian used a duodecimal system, a dozen. Probably they counted the phalanges of the four fingers (three phalanges in each finger) pointing with the thumb. Probably a system of this type is in relation to the twelve months of the year or 12 lunar months that occur in the solar year and the twelve signs of the zodiac; number 12, by the way, could serve to divide the day into twelve spaces, the twelve hours.

And also they used a sexagesimal system, in which sixty lower units amount to a higher order.

We do not really know why this sexagesimal system was invented, a tiresome system. Many hypotheses have been formulated. One of the most plausible is that, coexisting decimal and duodecimal system, the least common multiple to facilitate equivalence was sought. In fact 60 it is divisible by numerous divisors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 20, 30, 60.

The Sumerians were provided with a numeric notation circa 3200 BC on the base 60; and they attributed a special sign to the following units: 1, 10, 60, 600, 3600, 36,000, 216,000

Sumerians  raised on this basis  the division of time into hours, minutes and seconds and the division of the circle into three hundred sixty degrees; they divided these into sixty minutes and these in sixty seconds. We used still this system.

The Egyptians and everyone on the Middle East, including the Mediterranean peoples and the Greeks at the time, learned certainly from Sumerians.

Today, the decimal system is the most widespread, but the duodecimal system has been remarkably successful, because there are still remains in modern societies and languages. We continue demanding on Spanish "a dozen eggs ...".

Dozen derives from the Latin Duodecim (duo=two and decim=ten), (two + ten)

The term remains buoyant in many languages, which testify the historical importance of the duodecimal system. So on French "douzaine" ("à la douzaine); on English “by the dozen” and twelve; on German Dutzend; on Italian dozzina (1 dozzina di uova); on Portuguese dúzia (uma dúzia de ovos); on Catalan dotzena (una dotzena d'ous).

Naturally the term and the concept existed in the ancient world. On ancient Greek it is δυωδεκάς, duódekas, from δώδεκα, Dodeka (two and ten).

On Latin it is used generally the expression  Numerus duodenarius and later, since Tertullian (II-III century BC), the term duodecas also appears.

Duodenarius is built from numeral duodecim, twelve (two and ten) as I stated above and duodecas is constructed from the Greek (dŭōdĕcas, ădis.  f., = δυωδεκάς).

The term duodecas apears on the “Adversus omnes haereses, IV, 1, Against All Heresies,
work attributed to Tertullian, considered spurious; it sometimes is seen following his De Praescriptione haereticorum and  therefore also its unknown author is called the "Pseudo-Tertullian"

for of these last also proceeded twelve Aeons; from Speech, moreover, and Life proceeded other ten Aeons: such is the Triacontad of Aeons, which is made up in the Pleroma of an ogdoad, a decad, and a duodecad. (Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.])

Sed enim ex his quoque processisse duodecim Aenoas; de sermone autem et vita Aeonas alios decem: hanc esse Aeonum triacontada, quae fit in pleromate ex Ogdodae et Decade ac duodecade.

Then from Renaissance and Humanism the term "duodecadas" (a dozen) was used frequently in the title of several books and treatises, for example: Philippi: Duodecas thematum, 1612, “A dozen themes”; Hermann Witsius, Exercitationum academicarum Duodecas -, Duodecas dissertationum exegeticarum et apologeticarum … etc.

The oldest and most important in the early days of Rome statute, legal text, the Twelve Tables, developed in the V century BC, warns us  the importance of the number 12th. Naturally the wooden support is not retained but the reference to the text are very abundant in Latin authors and historians.

There is a text of Marcus Terentius Varro in his "De lingua Latina" (On the Latin language) that warns us of the old system in Rome.

Varro Says in De Lingua Latina, Book V, (6), 34:

There are many things which the ancients delimited with a multiple of twelve, like the actus of twelve ten-foot measures. (Translation by Roland G. Kent. Ph.D.Loeb Classical Library.1938)

Multa antiqui duodenario numero finierunt ut duodecim decuriis actum

Note:  actus is the way in which livestock can be driven, as it is told earlier in the same paragraph:

As an ager “field” is that to which driving can be done, so that whereby driving can be done is an actus “driveway”. (Translation by Roland G. Kent. Ph.D.Loeb Classical Library.1938)

“Ut ager quo agi poterat, sic qua agi actus”:

Duodecaiugum is twelve  horses team…; duodecennium is the period of twelve years; duodecemviri is the college of twelve magistrates.

The duodecimal system is also applied  to establish their system of weights. This system is more practical than the decimal because it supports more divisions (1, 2,3,4,6) and therefore more fractions can be expressed.

The duodecimal system was well suited to the application of interest on loans. At first it seems that the rule was charged twelve ounces of annual interest on a loan of one hundred ounces; ie, it is charged  12% pa (per annum), equivalent to an as (Roman coin), because one as was worth 12 ounces. If the account is made for months, six months interest was called semis, which means half an as, four months interest was called triens, which is the third part of an as, to three months interest was called quadrans, which is the fourth part, and a month interest is called unciaria, which is the twelfth  part of as or one part; because that the interest of 1% per mensem, per month, is called hundredth (centesimal) interest.

Anyway, all this numerically and terminological precision is possible precisely because the duodecimal system is used.

In Anglo-Saxon countries this system has endured even more in the system of weights and measures; and a foot is twelve inches, a pound is 12 ounces, …

The sexagesimal system had also and continues to have an amazing success, because it is still used to measure the space in "degrees",minutes and seconds and to measure time in hours, minutes and seconds.
The word "gradus", "degree" means step.

To know the origin of the words hour, minute and second , I refer to the article published in this blog  https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/hours-minutes-seconds-almagest-sumer

We can also refer to other systems such as the vigesimal; we have  a remainder, for example, on French, when eighty, 80,  is called quatre vingt (four twenties); the existence of twenty fingers in the four limbs or human extremities would lead to it.

It is worth  make a reference to binary numbering system, or base two,  which is the basis of all current computer and digital development.(Latin bini-ae-a means two by two.  But experts use the hexadecimal, that is, base 16 …
 

In the Greco-Roman world  astronomy (currently defined as "The science that is as it relates to the stars, and especially to the laws of their movements") and astrology (currently defined as "Study of the position and movement of the stars through whose interpretation and observation it is to know and predict the fate of men and predict terrestrial events. ") are confused, they are the same science. So the myths and beliefs that come from the mists of time are mixed with  it that reason and science is finding out . But gradually astronomy she was expressed in mathematical and geometric language without thereby the "astrology" disappear.

Today, these scientists professionals who also study the space  are highly valued. Who is not awed by the imaginative theories, impossible to understand for those who are laymen on these issues, the big bang, or by the beautiful received images with waves originated from thousands of light years?

But gradually the science was more independent from  myth and religion. In the case of astronomy it was becoming mathematics and physical astronomy and geometry astronomy, able to understand and anticipate the movements of the stars. Thus scientists freed or tried to liberate men from fear of the gods, caused by natural phenomena.

To free  people from fear, that are instilled by natural phenomena which they did not know, was the essential objective of the Epicureans, who already since antiquity were present unjust and selfishly as "hedonistic" greedy pleasures, when the only thing they  were eager was "reason”  and "common sense".

Lucretius says in his grand treatise on "science" in verse "De Rerum Natura", "On the Nature of Things", praising the great figure of the master Epicurus at the beginning of his work:

Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, I, 62-79:

Whilst human kind
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
Before all eyes beneath Religion- who
Would show her head along the region skies,
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face-
A Greek it was who first opposing dared
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky
Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.
And thus his will and hardy wisdom won;
And forward thus he fared afar, beyond
The flaming ramparts of the world, until
He wandered the unmeasurable All.
Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports
What things can rise to being, what cannot,
And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.
Wherefore Religion now is under foot,
And us his victory now exalts to heaven.

(Translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916)

Humana ante oculos foede cum vita iaceret
in terris oppressa gravi sub religione,
quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat
horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans,
primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra
est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra;
quem neque fama deum nec fulmina nec minitanti
murmure compressit caelum, sed eo magis acrem
nritat animi virtutem, effringere ut arta
naturae primus portarum claustra cupiret.
ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra
processit longe flammantia moenia mundi
atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque,
unde refert nobis victor quid possit oriri,
quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique
qua nam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens.
quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim
opteritur, nos exaequat victoria caelo.

…………
Y poco después, afirmando con rotundidad que la ciencia es la salvación,  idea que por lo demás repite en numerosas ocasiones, en los versos: 146-148

This terror, then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
But only Nature's aspect and her law,
(Translated by William Ellery Leonard, 1916)

hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest
non radii solis neque lucida tela diei
discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

A good example of this long road towards science is the astronomer Geminus and his "Introduction to the phenomena".We know very few things about him, such as he lived between the first (I)  centuries before and after Christ. Astronomy for centuries was a branch of philosophy. Geminus talks of  physics because everyone who deals with nature (physis) is phisyc, but in I century B.C., astronomy is becoming more specialized and emancipating as "mathematical astronomy", based on mathematics and geometry and moving towards a positive science. Geminus is a professional astronomer seeking demonstrative rigor of mathematics and therefore he despises making weather forecasts based on the rising and setting of the stars.

Another high exponent is Ptolemy, author, among other works, of the "Almagest", word  which is simply the Arabic transliteration of the Greek title Megisté Sýntxis (The great coordination), based on the understanding of the movements and orbits of the stars.

Well, another great scientist who could be called "general" and "communicator", Pliny the Elder, who wrote a great encyclopedia, a compendium of scientific knowledge of his time, which read with attention, is not without truly scientific critical thinking, emits a beautiful view on the scientific value of the astronomers in his Natural History, II, 12 (54):

These were indeed great men, superior to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these divine bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the fear which he had of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful events or the destruction of the stars. This alarm is freely acknowledged in the sublime strains of Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun. And with respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to witchcraft, and therefore endeavour to aid her by producing discordant sounds. In consequence of this kind of terror it was that Nicias, the general of the Athenians, being ignorant of the cause, was afraid to lead out the fleet, and brought great distress on his troops .

Hail to your genius, ye interpreters of heaven! ye who comprehend the nature of things, and who have discovered a mode of reasoning by which ye have conquered both gods and men!

For who is there, in observing these things and seeing the labours which the stars are compelled to undergo (since we have chosen to apply this term to them), that would not cheerfully submit to his fate, as one born to die?  (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

viri ingentes supraque mortalia, tantorum numinum lege deprehensa et misera hominum mente iam soluta, in defectibus scelera aut mortem aliquam siderum pavente — quo in metu fuisse Stesichori et Pindari vatum sublimia ora palam est deliquio solis — aut in luna veneficia arguente mortalitate et ob id crepitu dissono auxiliante — quo pavore ignarus causae Nicias Atheniensium imperator veritus classem portu educere opes eorum adflixit —: macte ingenio este, caeli interpretes rerumque naturae capaces, argumenti repertores, quo deos hominesque vicistis! quis enim haec cernens et statos siderum (quoniam ita appellare placuit) labores non suae necessitati mortales genitos ignoscat?

Ovid also  appreciates the extraordinary courage of those who studied the stars, in Fasti, I, 295 et seq .:

What is to stop me if I should tell also of the stars, their risings and their settings? That was part of my promise. Ah happy souls, who first took thought to know these things and scale the heavenly mansions! Well may we believe they lifted up their heads alike above the frailties and the homes of men. Their lofty natures neither love nor wine did breaks, nor civil business nor the toils of war; no low ambition tempted them, nor glory’s tinsel sheen, nor lust of hoarded pelf. The distant stars they brought within our ken, and heaven itself made subject to their wit. So man may reach the sky: no need that Ossa on Olympus should be piled, and that Pelion’s peak should touch the topmost stars. Under these leaders we, too, will plum the sky and give their own days to the wandering signs. (Translated by Frazer, James George. Loeb Classical Library)

Quis vetat et stellas, ut quaeque oriturque caditque,
dicere? promissi pars fuit ista mei.
felices animae, quibus haec cognoscere primis
inque domus superas scandere cura fuit!
credibile est illos pariter vitiisque locisque
altius humanis exeruisse caput.
non Venus et vinum sublimia pectora fregit
officiumque fori militiaeve labor;
nec levis ambitio perfusaque gloria fuco
magnarumque fames sollicitavit opum.
admovere oculis distantia sidera nostris
aetheraque ingenio supposuere suo.
sic petitur caelum: non ut ferat Ossan Olympus,
summaque Peliacus sidera tangat apex.
nos quoque sub ducibus caelum metabimur illis
ponemusque suos ad vaga signa dies.

Attempts to explain the stars and their movements, theoretical and practices speculations that incorporate and develop knowledge of mathematics and geometry, indeed pose a real scientific effort at the start of the path that led to the great current knowledge, that yet so much still unknown, but they want  to know..

On the background photo obtained by the Hubble  which Stephen Hawking has on the cover of his Facebook page, we will conclude with Manilius:

Photo credit: ESA/Hubble Rosette nebula

...there will always be a matter of debate for the intelligence of men and there will always remain the dark about what is hidden and far above man and God.  (Manilius, Astrologia, I, 145…)

semper erit genus in pugna, dubiumque manebit
quod latet et tantum supra est hominemque deumque;

For example, designed the stars as living beings, we may think they have diseases, they weaken and may even die. Lucretius (99-ca. 55 BC), for example explains it in his poem De Rerum Natura V, vv. 751-770):

  As due to several causes. For, indeed,
Why should the moon be able to shut out
Earth from the light of sun, and on the side
To earthward thrust her high head under sun,
Opposing dark orb to his glowing beams-
And yet, at same time, one suppose the effect
Could not result from some one other body
Which glides devoid of light forevermore?
Again, why could not sun, in weakened state,
At fixed time for-lose his fires, and then,
When he has passed on along the air
Beyond the regions, hostile to his flames,
That quench and kill his fires, why could not he
Renew his light? And why should earth in turn
Have power to rob the moon of light, and there,
Herself on high, keep the sun hid beneath,
Whilst the moon glideth in her monthly course
Athrough the rigid shadows of the cone?-
And yet, at same time, some one other body
Not have the power to under-pass the moon,
Or glide along above the orb of sun,
Breaking his rays and outspread light asunder?
And still, if moon herself refulgent be
With her own sheen, why could she not at times
In some one quarter of the mighty world
Grow weak and weary, whilst she passeth through
Regions unfriendly to the beams her own?
(Translated by William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916.)

Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras
pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandumst.
nam cur luna queat terram secludere solis
lumine et a terris altum caput obstruere ei,
obiciens caecum radiis ardentibus orbem,
tempore eodem aliut facere id non posse putetur
corpus, quod cassum labatur lumine semper?
solque suos etiam dimittere languidus ignis
tempore cur certo nequeat recreareque lumen,
cum loca praeteriit flammis infesta per auras,
quae faciunt ignis interstingui atque perire?
et cur terra queat lunam spoliare vicissim
lumine et oppressum solem super ipsa tenere,
menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras,
tempore eodem aliud nequeat succurrere lunae
corpus vel supra solis perlabier orbem,
quod radios inter rumpat lumenque profusum?
et tamen ipsa suo si fulget luna nitore,
cur nequeat certa mundi languescere parte,
dum loca luminibus propriis inimica per exit?
menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras.

A similar idea is that the philosopher Diogenes Laertius assigns to Leucipus  in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, IX, 33

…Eclipses of the sun are rare; eclipses of the moon constantly occur, and this because their orbits are unequal. As the world is born, so, too, it grows, decays and perishes, in virtue of some necessity, the nature of which he does specify.

It is curious the view of Manilius, astronomical poet, when he says that the stars lose their strength during eclipses, in his Astronomy, IV, verses 841-852:

The reason is clear because moon, suffering eclipse in some signs and deprived of her brother [Phoebus, the sun] and plunged into the darkness of the night, when the earth comes between and  intercepts the rays of Phoebus and Delia [the moon] does not attract the light wherewith she shines usually,  also those signs [zodiacal, eg. effective] languish along with their planet [the moon] and arching at the same time and losing their customary power, mourn Phoebe as though she was at her burial.  

The cause itself is reflected in its name: the ancients called them "ecliptic" signs. However, signs suffer while in pairs, and not those who are neighbors, but those who shine in opposite places, like the moon is eclipsed on her circle only when it does not see Phoebus running in the opposite sign .

causa patet, quod, Luna quibus defecit in astris
orba sui fratris noctisque immersa tenebris,
cum medius Phoebi radios intercipit orbis
nec trahit assuetum quo fulget Delia lumen,
haec quoque signa suo pariter cum sidere languent               
incurvata simul solitoque exempta vigori
et velut elatam Phoeben in funere lugent.
ipsa docet titulo se causa: ecliptica signa
dixere antiqui. pariter sed bina laborant,
nec vicina loco sed quae contraria fulgent,                 
sicut Luna suo tum tantum deficit orbe
cum Phoebum adversis currentem non videt astris.

Of course, some found the scientific explanation, they offer us very clearly: the eclipses are caused by the interposition of the moon or earth between the sun and the star that eclipses. This is the key theory in antiquity and so they are many authors that expose it. We will cite a few:

Aristotle uses this theory to prove that the stars are spherical, because the shadow cast by the Earth on the moon can be seen that way; in his On the Heavens, (De caelo,) II, 11, 291b24:

Moreover astronomical arguments give additional confirmation; why no other hypothesis explains the form of increased disk of solar eclipses. Therefore, if any one of the stars is spherical, it is obviously necessary that the rest stars will be spherical also.

Geminus (I century  BC.), in his Introduction to the phenomena (of Aratus), Chapter X , speaks  of solar eclipses and in XI of lunar eclipses.

Geminus, Introduction to the Phenomena, X, XI:
X

……….

The eclipses of the Sun occur because of the interposition of the Moon. Because  the Sun moves higher and the Moon lower,  when the Sun and Moon are at the same degree, the Moon passing under the sun, blocks the sun's rays coming toward our direction. Therefore,  we should not speak of them properly as eclipses, but rather as interposition. Indeed, one part of the sun is never eclipsed; it becomes invisible to us through  the interposition of the Moon.
….

That the sun is eclipsed because the interposition of the Moon  is the greatest proof that eclipses do not occur on another day, but only 30th, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun, and since then the magnitude of the eclipse is due to the geographical locations.

XI
Eclipses of Moon are caused by the incidence of the Moon on the shadow casted  by the Earth. Just as the other bodies illuminated by the sun cast shadows, so the Earth, illuminated by the sun casts a shadow. In addition it occurs that, because of the size of the Earth, the shadow is evident and profound.

When the Moon is diametrically opposite to the Sun, then the shadow casted  by the Earth is also diametrically opposed to the Sun; therefore  the moon, when it moves closer than the shadow falls logically in the shadow casted by the Earth.

The portion of the moon which affects the Earth's shadow is always deprived of sunlight because of the interposition of the earth; therefore at this moment they are at the same line the Sun, the Earth, the shadow of the Earth and the Moon. Therefore eclipses of Moon do not occur on another day, but on the full moon; therefore  the moon is diametrically opposite to the sun.

The Hispanic Roman Higinus (64 BC-17 AD), who according to Luis Vives was born in Valencia and who has given his  name to one of the lunar craters, also proposes  this theory in his Astronomy, IV, 14, 3:

You can also understand what happens. As when someone approaches his flat hand to his eyes, if closer it is,  less he can see, and  if farther away it is,  more all things will appear to him. Similarly when the moon reaches the position of the sun, then it seems to be near it and obstructs  its rays, and it  can not eject its  light. However, when the moon is far from that place, then the sun casts its light, and so it comes knocking on our bodies.The lunar eclipse therefore occurs when the moon is near by its size and the sun runs below the earth. Thus, if you drew a straight line down the middle of the earth , the line could touch the sun under the earth and the moon above the earth. When this happens, necessarily sunlight, by the magnitude of the earth, are deflected, so that its light, with which the moon looks, can not get to it, and so it is thought to produce the eclipse of moon.

Quod evenire sic etiam potest intellegi. Ut si quis alicui manum planam ad oculos admoverit, quanto magis sic fecerit, hoc minus ille videre poterit; et quanto longius ab eo discesserit, hoc magis illi omnia poterunt apparere. Simili ratione cum luna ad solis locum pervenit, tunc proxima eius videtur esse et radios eius obturare, ut lumen eicere non possit. Cum autem luna ab eo loco discesserit, tunc sol lumen eicit, et ita ad corpora nostra adicit.

Lunae autem eclipsis sic evenit, cum prope dimensione sit luna, cum abierit sol sub terram, dumtaxat hoc modo, ut per mediam terram si quid directum traieceris, contingere possit solem sub terra, lunam autem supra terram; quod cum ita evenit, necesse est solis radios propter magnitudinem terrae ita esse dimissos, ut lumen eius, quo luna lucet, non possit ad eam pervenire, et ita existimatur fieri eclipsis lunae.

Also Pliny the Elder (AD 62-113) gives this explanation in his Natural History, II, 7, 47:

For it is evident that the sun is hid by the intervention of the moon, and the moon by the opposition of the earth, and that these changes are mutual, the moon, by her interposition, taking the rays of the sun from the earth, and the earth from the moon. As she advances darkness is suddenly produced, and again the sun is obscured by her shade; for night is nothing more than the shade of the earth. The figure of this shade is like that of a pyramid or an inverted top; and the moon enters it only near its point, and it does not exceed the height of the moon, for there is no other star which is obscured in the same manner, while a figure of this kind always terminates in a point. (Translated by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

Quippe manifestum est solem interuentu lunae occultari lunamque terrae obiectu ac uices reddi, eosdem solis radios luna interpositu suo auferente terrae terraque lunae. Hac subeunte repentinas obduci tenebras rursumque illius umbra sidus hebetari. Neque aliud esse noctem quam terrae umbram, figuram autem umbrae similem metae ac turbini inuerso, quando mucrone tantum ingruat neque lunae excedat altitudinem, quoniam nullum aliud sidus eodem modo obscuretur et talis figura semper mucrone deficiat.

The ancients were aware of the danger involved directly observing the eclipses of the sun, which can cause irreversible blindness. So Plato (ca. 427-347 BC) in his dialogue Phaedo, 99d tells us:

SOCRATES: do you wish me, Cebes,” said he, “to give you an account of the way in which I have conducted my second voyage in quest of the cause?”

“I wish it with all my heart,” he replied.

“After this, then,” said he, “since I had given up investigating realities, I decided that I must be careful not to suffer the misfortune which happens to people who look at the sun and watch it during an eclipse. For some of them ruin their eyes unless they look at its image in water  or something of the sort. I thought of that danger, and I was afraid my soul would be blinded if I looked at things with my eyes and tried to grasp them with any of my senses.  (Translated by Harold North Fowler)

Seneca also reminds us how we must observe the eclipse of Sun:

Whenever we wish to observe an eclipse of the sun, we place on the ground basins filled with oil or pitch. The thick liquid is not easily disturbed, and therefore retains the images it receives.  Images, I may observe, cannot be seen except in a liquid at rest. Then we are in the habit of noting how the moon obstructs the sun, and by the interposition of her body hides his, which is so much larger, sometimes partially, if it so fall out that she only encounter a portion of his orb, sometimes completely. The latter is called a total eclipse : it quite shuts out the light and shows us the stars ; it occurs when the centre of the two bodies lies in the same straight line.  ( Translation by John Clarke, M.A., 1910)

[12,1] Quotiens defectionem solis uolumus deprehendere, ponimus pelues, quas aut oleo aut pice implemus, quia pinguis umor minus facile turbatur et ideo quas recipit imagines seruat; apparere autem imagines non possunt nisi in liquido et immoto. Tunc solemus notare, quemadmodum luna soli se opponat et illum tanto maiorem obiecto corpore abscondat, modo ex parte, si ita competit, ut in latus eius incurreret, modo totum; haec dicitur perfecta defectio, quae stellas quoque ostendit et intercipit lucem, tunc scilicet cum uterque orbis sub eodem libramento stetit.

They say that Thales was the first to predict an eclipse that have taken place in 585 BC but he had announced a year earlier. Current astronomers consider this prediction impossible and the news as a result of a somewhat hagiographic view of Thales.

Herodotus tells us (ca. 639-ca. 547 BC) in Book I of his history:  the kings of Lydia and Media, terrorized by the same eclipse, signed an armistice as soon as their  armies were ready to engage. Both monarchs interpreted the darkness of the sun as a sign from heaven to end hostilities.

Herodotus, The Stories, I, 74

After this, since Alyattes would not give up the Scythians to Cyaxares at his demand, there was war between the Lydians and the Medes for five years; each won many victories over the other, and once they fought a battle by night.

They were still warring with equal success, when it happened, at an encounter which occurred in the sixth year, that during the battle the day was suddenly turned to night. Thales of Miletus had foretold this loss of daylight to the Ionians, fixing it within the year in which the change did indeed happen.

So when the Lydians and Medes saw the day turned to night, they stopped fighting, and both were the more eager to make peace. Those who reconciled them were Syennesis the Cilician and Labynetus the Babylonian; (Translated by A.D. Godley)

It was this question of predictability certainly an issue that impassioned ancients.

At the beginning of the article I commented the discovery of the famous cycle "Saros" that the Greeks took from the Babylonians, and I give  two texts, from Pliny and from Ptolemy, to corroborate his knowledge.

Pliny referred to Hipparchus (ca.190-120 BC) as the astronomer who understood these cycles. Strabo in his Geography, I, 1, 13  says about Hipparcus:

Many have testified to the amount of knowledge which this subject requires, and Hipparchus, in his Strictures on Eratosthenes, well observes, ‘that no one can become really proficient in geography, either as a private individual or as a professor, without an acquaintance with astronomy, and a knowledge of eclipses. For instance, no one could tell whether Alexandria in Egypt were north or south of Babylon, nor yet the intervening distance, without observing the latitudes.43 Again, the only means we possess of becoming acquainted with the longitudes of different places is afforded by the eclipses of the sun and moon.’ Such are the very words of Hipparchus.  (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed. 1903).

Cicero (106-43 BC) also says that eclipses (of Moon) were provided in advance by studying the regular motions of the Moon in De divinatione II, 17

 "How can anything be foreseen that has no cause and no distinguishing mark of its coming? Eclipses of the sun and also of the moon are predicted for many years in advance by men who employ mathematics in studying the courses and movements of the heavenly bodies; and the unvarying laws of nature will bring their predictions to pass. Because of the perfectly regular movements of the moon the astronomers calculate when it will be opposite the sun and in the earth's shadow —which is 'the cone of night '1 —and when, necessarily, it will become invisible. For the same reason they know when the moon will be directly between the earth and the sun and thus will hide the light of the sun from our eyes. They know in what sign each planet will be at any given time and at what time each day any constellation will rise and set. You see the course of reasoning followed in arriving at these predictions. (Translated by William Armistead Falconer, 1923)

 Qui potest provideri quicquam futurum esse, quod neque causam habet ullam neque notam, cur futurum sit? Solis defectiones itemque lunae praedicuntur in multos annos ab iis, qui siderum motus numeris persequuntur; ea praedicunt enim, quae naturae necessitas perfectura est. Vident ex constantissimo motu lunae, quando illa e regione solis facta incurrat in umbram terrae, quae est meta noctis, ut eam obscurari necesse sit, quandoque eadem luna subiecta atque opposita soli nostris oculis eius lumen obscuret, quo in signo quaeque errantium stellarum quoque tempore futura sit, qui exortus quoque die signi alicuius aut qui occasus futurus sit. Haec qui ante dicunt, quam rationem sequantur, vides.

The famous mechanical device known as the Antikythera Mechanism, dating from 87 BC, we will discussed about it on another occasion, is a kind of gear-based calculator to predict the position of the Sun, the Moon and some planets. It allowed to calculate the cycle "saros" I was talking about at the beginning and therefore it helped  to provide for the existence of eclipses.

The determination of these cycles like  "saros", the millennial observation of the movements, creating instruments to reproduce the movements of the stars, all provided them great experience and made them walk in the right direction and from Mesopotamia, especially  referring to the eclipses of moon; but experts agree in saying that the instruments available at this time were unable to set in advance and accurately the occurrence of an eclipse. Only very recently it has achieved great precision in this regard.
In any case, astronomy (astrology) enjoyed great recognition in antiquity. Indeed, attempts to explain the stars and their movements, theoretical speculations and practices that incorporate and develop knowledge of mathematics and geometry, are a real scientific endeavor.

Pliny, whom we have mentioned several times, extols science and courage of the men trying to find out the causes of things. In the passage quoted above in relation to Sulpicius  Galus before the battle of Pydna, he follows commenting:

Pliny, Natural History II, 9 (12) (54)

These were indeed great men, superior to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these divine bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the fear which he had of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful events or the destruction of the stars. This alarm is freely acknowledged in the sublime strains of Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun. And with respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to witchcraft, and therefore endeavour to aid her by producing discordant sounds. In consequence of this kind of terror it was that Nicias, the general of the Athenians, being ignorant of the cause, was afraid to lead out the fleet, and brought great distress on his troops. Hail to your genius, ye interpreters of heaven! ye who comprehend the nature of things, and who have discovered a mode of reasoning by which ye have conquered both gods and men! For who is there, in observing these things and seeing the labours which the stars are compelled to undergo (since we have chosen to apply this term to them), that would not cheerfully submit to his fate, as one born to die? I shall now, in a brief and summary manner, touch on those points in which we are agreed, giving the reasons where it is necessary to do so; for this is not a work of profound argument, nor is it less wonderful to be able to suggest a probable cause for everything, than to give a complete account of a few of them only. ( John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London.)

 viri ingentes supraque mortalia, tantorum numinum lege deprehensa et misera hominum mente iam soluta, in defectibus scelera aut mortem aliquam siderum pavente — quo in metu fuisse Stesichori et Pindari vatum sublimia ora palam est deliquio solis — aut in luna veneficia arguente mortalitate et ob id crepitu dissono auxiliante — quo pavore ignarus causae Nicias Atheniensium imperator veritus classem portu educere opes eorum adflixit —: macte ingenio este, caeli interpretes rerumque naturae capaces, argumenti repertores,  quo deos hominesque vicistis! quis enim haec cernens et statos siderum (quoniam ita appellare placuit) labores non suae necessitati mortales genitos ignoscat?
Nunc confessa de iisdem breviter atque capitulatim attingam ratione admodum necessariis locis strictimque reddita, nam neque instituti operis talis argumentatio est neque omnium rerum afferri posse causas minus mirum est quam constare in aliquis.

Ovid also  appreciates the extraordinary courage of those who studied the stars, in Fasti, I, 295 et seq .:

What is to stop me if I should tell also of the stars, their risings and their settings? That was part of my promise. Ah happy souls, who first took thought to know these things and scale the heavenly mansions! Well may we believe they lifted up their heads alike above the frailties and the homes of men. Their lofty natures neither love nor wine did breaks, nor civil business nor the toils of war; no low ambition tempted them, nor glory’s tinsel sheen, nor lust of hoarded pelf. The distant stars they brought within our ken, and heaven itself made subject to their wit. So man may reach the sky: no need that Ossa on Olympus should be piled, and that Pelion’s peak should touch the topmost stars. Under these leaders we, too, will plum the sky and give their own days to the wandering signs. (Translated by Frazer, James George. Loeb Classical Library)

Quis vetat et stellas, ut quaeque oriturque caditque,
dicere? promissi pars fuit ista mei.
felices animae, quibus haec cognoscere primis
inque domus superas scandere cura fuit!
credibile est illos pariter vitiisque locisque
altius humanis exeruisse caput.
non Venus et vinum sublimia pectora fregit
officiumque fori militiaeve labor;
nec levis ambitio perfusaque gloria fuco
magnarumque fames sollicitavit opum.
admovere oculis distantia sidera nostris
aetheraque ingenio supposuere suo.
sic petitur caelum: non ut ferat Ossan Olympus,
summaque Peliacus sidera tangat apex.
nos quoque sub ducibus caelum metabimur illis
ponemusque suos ad vaga signa dies.

In the classic texts there are numerous references to eclipses actually incurred. I pick up some from article “La explicación de los eclipses en la Antigüedad Grecolatina”("The explanation of eclipses in Greco-Latin antiquity") of the authors Roberto Casazza Alejandro Gangui ,University of Buenos Aires, who in turn cite Couderc, 1969: 128-134. They are considered historic or described by reliable historical sources  the following :: Assyrian eclipse canon (June 15, 763 BC); eclipse of Ashurbanipal  (June 27, 661 BC); eclipse of Archilochus  (April 6, 648 B.C.);  eclipse of Thales (May 28, 585 BC) (-there dense discussions of this eclipse); eclipse of Pindar  (April 30, 463 BC); eclipse of Thucydides (August 3, 431 B.C.); eclipse of Agatocles  (August 15, 310 BC); eclipse of Hipparchus  (November 20 129 BC); eclipse of Phlegon  (November 24, 29 A.D.); eclipse of Plutarch  (March 20, 71 A.D.); eclipse of Theon (June 16, 364 AD Here are also doubtfully). Quoted from Couderc, 1969: 128-134.

The sky itself is a god and those bright points are also divine beings. So any signal that comes from heaven must  be observed, analyzed, countered if its effect is threatening.

Concerning the stars, one of the aspects that most interested the ancients  was the present position of the stars; some of them, the planets move, but others apparently remain fixed and anchored in heaven. Just the word "planet" πλανήτης, planetes in Greek, means "wanderer, moving"

From the position and appearance (ortho) and disappearance  (set) of the stars in the sky depend  two fundamental issues: one the determination of the calendar, the ability to organize and understand the cycles of nature; the other one  is related to the belief in the influence the stars have on the lives of men, especially the position of the stars at the time of birth. This question is studying since years  the "astrology" and irrational it may seem us, it has not yet ceased to have a large presence in contemporary life.

Well, to determine the position of the stars and their appearances and  cycles patient observations were made during thousands of years. The first were the Mesopotamians and Egyptians; from  them learned Greek, who incorporated this knowledge into their mythology and their fledgling science and developed it greatly.

One sign that most impressed the ancients, and that continues  fascinating us today, are the  eclipses, in our position especially they of the sun, but also of the moon.

The word eclipse comes from the Greek ἔκλειψις, ékleipsis, which means "disappearance, missing".
Strabo (ca. 63 BC-AD 19-24) in his Geography, 1, 1, 12 defines eclipses as συγκρίσεις ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης (syncríseis Heliou kay Selenes), ie as combinations, compositions or alignment of the sun and moon [to the earth]. This precise definition remains valid today.

According to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy in astronomy eclipse it is "temporary total or partial hiding of a star by the interposition of another celestial body."

Eclipses can be solar eclipse or lunar eclipse. They are especially striking and dramatic the solar eclipses, which can be partial, total or annular according the  part of sun which is obscured by the interposition of the moon.

Solar eclipses, especially total eclipses, may cause fear and anxiety for people, even today where the scientific explanation, long ago established, is known worldwide. In this type, night falls in the middle of the day and some stars can see and though they did not last long, they alter the behavior of animals and impress people greatly.

It can not, therefore, surprise us the interest that eclipses arose in the ancient.

The Babylonians were remarkable observers of the sky and Egyptians and Greeks learned from then. And Babylonians were those who realized that the planets periodically returned to the same one position and established the so called "Saros cycle", which naturally inherited the Greeks. This cycle is a period of 18 years, 10 or 11 days and 1/3 day (ie, 6585.32 days), time between two solar or lunar eclipses  with similar conditions, when the Moon and Earth they are again in the same approximate position in their orbits: at the same stage, on the same node and at the same distance.

The name "Saros" (Greek σάρος), which first was used in 1691 by Edmond Halley taking from  encyclopedia or from  Byzantine lexicon of eleventh century "Suda", which says:

[The saros is] a measure and a number among Chaldeans. For 120 saros-cycles make 2222 years according to the Chaldeans' reckoning, if indeed the saros makes 222 lunar months, which are 18 years and 6 months.

The Greeks in turn seems that they took  the word "saros" from the Babylonian "Saru", which meant the number 3,600.

Ptolemy and Pliny refer to this cycle, but they do not call it that. Pliny (23-79 AD) devotes the whole chapter 10 of Book II to the analysis of the recurrence of eclipses, solar and lunar, taking it from Hipparchus:

Pliny, Naturalis Historia, II, 10 (56-57)

It is ascertained that the eclipses complete their whole revolution in the space of 223 months, that the eclipse of the sun takes place only at the conclusion or the commencement of a lunation, which is termed conjunction, while an eclipse of the moon takes place only when she is at the full, and is always a little farther advanced than the preceding eclipse. Now there are eclipses of both these stars in every year, which take place below the earth, at stated days and hours; and when they are above it they are not always visible, sometimes on account of the clouds, but more frequently, from the globe of the earth being opposed to the vault of the heavens. It was discovered two hundred years ago, by the sagacity of Hipparchus, that the moon is sometimes eclipsed after an interval of five months, and the sun after an interval of seven; also, that he becomes invisible, while above the horizon, twice in every thirty days, but that this is seen in different places at different times. But the most wonderful circumstance is, that while it is admitted that the moon is darkened by the shadow of the earth, this occurs at one time on its western, and at another time on its eastern side. And farther, that although, after the rising of the sun, that darkening shadow ought to be below the earth, yet it has once happened, that the moon has been eclipsed in the west, while both the luminaries have been above the horizon. And as to their both being invisible in the space of fifteen days, this very thing happened while the Vespasians were emperors, the father being consul for the third time, and the son for the second. (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

defectus ccxxiii mensibus redire in suos orbes certum est, solis defectus non nisi novissima primave fieri luna, quod vocant coitum, lunae autem non nisi plena, semperque citra quam proxime fuerint; omnibus autem annis fieri utriusque sideris defectus statis diebus horisque sub terra nec tamen, cum superne fiant, ubique cerni, aliquando propter nubila, saepius globo terrae obstante convexitatibus mundi.
intra ducentos annos hipparchi sagacitate compertum est et lunae defectum aliquando quinto mense a priore fieri, solis vero septimo, eundem bis in xxx diebus super terras occultari, sed ab aliis hoc cerni, quaeque sunt in hoc miraculo maxime mira, cum conveniat umbra terrae lunam hebetari, nunc ab occasus parte hoc ei accidere, nunc ab exortus, quanam ratione, cum solis exortu umbra illa hebetatrix sub terra esse debeat, semel iam acciderit ut in occasu luna deficeret utroque super terram conspicuo sidere. nam ut xv diebus utrumque sidus quaereretur, et nostro aevo accidit imperatoribus vespasianis patre iii. filio consulibus.

Ptolemy tells us something similar in his Almagest, IV, 2 in its Latin version:

De periodicis lunae temporibus
The ancient considered that this period was approximately 6585 days and third day, ie 8 hours, because at that time they saw that they ran approximately 223 months (lunar), or 239 revolutions of the anomaly, however 242 around the same latitude, but 241 revolutions in length and 10.40 degrees plus on 18 revolutions at this time

Prisci ergo admodum tempus hoc esse putabant directum 6585 dies et tertiam unius diei partem utpote horas 8 in tanto enim tempore 223 menses proxime colligi videbant: Revolutiones aut inaequalitatis quidem 239. Latitudinis autem 242, longitudinis vero revolutiones 241 et ad haec gradus 10.40 quoque in 18 revoutionibus in praedicto tempore.

In the Greco-Roman world the astronomy (currently defined as "The science which is the study of that which is related to the stars, and especially to the laws of their movements") and astrology (currently defined as "Study of the position and movement of the stars through whose interpretation and observation it is to know and predict the fate of men and predict terrestrial events. ") are confused, they are the same science. So the myths and beliefs that come from the mists of time are mixed with that reason and science find out. Gradually the astronomy  was expressed in mathematical and geometric language without thereby the “astrology” disappear.

I will summarize this long process, in regard to eclipses, on a few  ancient texts, from  hundreds of interesting,  that have been remained.

Homer in his Odyssey, XX, 350 et seq.  refers to an eclipse, which he presents  as a premonition of the terrible end of the suitors of Penelope at the hands of Odysseus in his palace in Ithaca:

Then the godlike Theoclymenus spake among them:
'Ah, wretched men, what woe is this ye suffer?
Shrouded in night are your heads and your faces and your knees,
and kindled is the voice of wailing, and all cheeks are wet with tears,
and the walls and the fair main-beams of the roof are sprinkled with blood.
And the porch is full, and full is the court,
of ghosts that hasten hellwards beneath the gloom,
and the sun has perished out of heaven,
and an evil mist has overspread the world.'
(The Odyssey of Homer, done into English prose by S.H.Butcher, M.A. and A.Lang.Ma. Project Gutenberg)

Archilochus reminded us that eclipses are the work of the gods. Greek poet Archilochus  lived in the seventh century BC and he  refers to an eclipse, probably that of the year 648, as a work of Zeus. He says in the fragment 122 (West):

Zeus and the  Eclipse (fragment 122 West)

Nothing is unexpected, nothing can be declared impossible
or wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians,
made night at midday keeping back to the light
even sun was shining; and fear fell upon men.
From this time men can believe all things, they can wait all things.
None of you may  be surprised in the future, even when you
beasts change places with dolphins and go to pasture
in the deep, when the resonant waves of the sea become
dearer than the land, and the dolphins love the wooded hills.

Men do not know what causes eclipses, which as disturbance of the natural order of heaven  produce enormous fear. Sometimes they believe they are caused by the own magic action of men.

Some authors, like Democritus of Abdera (450a.C. – ca. 370 BC) think the sun or the moon become invisible when they descend from their orbits. The responsible for this descent are witches or wizards, according to popular belief.

Plato reflects this belief that he puts on the mouth of Socrates in Gorgias, 513a:

see if this is to your advantage and mine, so that we may not suffer, my distinguished friend, the fate that they say befalls the creatures who would draw down the moon—the hags of Thessaly; that our choice of this power in the city may not cost us all that we hold most dear. (Translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967.)

According to popular belief they turn blind, suffered burns and were left with broken legs for the effort.

Aristophanes uses the belief on The Clouds, v. 750 ff .:

Strepsiades. I have got a device for cheating them of the
             interest.

Socrates. Exhibit it.

Strep. Now tell me this, pray; if I were to purchase a
      Thessalian witch, and draw down the moon by night,  and
      then shut it up, as if it were a mirror, in a round
      crest-case, and then carefully keep it—

Soc. What good, pray, would this do you?

Strep. What? If the moon were to rise no longer
     anywhere, I should not pay the interest.

Soc. Why so, pray?

Strep. Because the money is lent out by the month.
                  (Translated by William James Hickie)

Pliny also tells us how men believed that eclipses were the result of witchcraft and how they produced them enormous fear, that they tried to ward producing great noise. He says in a text on that he values the great work of the men who liberated the men from fear to these phenomena. He says it in Naturalis Historia, II, 12 (54):

These were indeed great men, superior to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these divine bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the fear which he had of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful events or the destruction of the stars. This alarm is freely acknowledged in the sublime strains of Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun. And with respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to witchcraft, and therefore endeavour to aid her by producing discordant sounds. In consequence of this kind of terror it was that Nicias, the general of the Athenians, being ignorant of the cause, was afraid to lead out the fleet, and brought great distress on his troops. (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.)

viri ingentes supraque mortalia, tantorum numinum lege deprehensa et misera hominum mente iam soluta, in defectibus scelera aut mortem aliquam siderum pavente – quo in metu fuisse stesichori et pindari vatum sublimia ora palam est deliquio solis – aut in luna veneficia arguente mortalitate et ob id crepitu dissono auxiliante – quo pavore ignarus causae nicias atheniensium imperator veritus classem portu educere opes eorum adflixit

Livy also, commenting on the site by the Romans in the city of Capua, occupied by the Carthaginians, and describing the noise and clamor of the battle in that also is  involved Anibal, says in (Ab Urbe Condita libri), 26, 5 9,:

The battle commenced not only with the usual clamour and tumult, but in addition to the din of men, horses, and arms, a multitude of Campanians, unable to bear arms, being distributed along the walls, raised such a shout together with the clangour of brazen vessels, similar to that which is usually made in the dead of night when the moon is eclipsed, that it diverted the attention even of the combatants. (Translated by D. Spillan and Cyrus Edmonds)

proelium non solito modo clamore ac tumultu est coeptum, sed ad alium virorum, equorum armorumque sonum disposita in muris Campanorum inbellis multitudo tantum cum aeris crepitu, qualis in defectu lunae silenti nocte cieri solet, edidit clamorem, ut averteret etiam pugnantium animos.

Boethius (480-ca.526), still reminds us of the established practice of beating  bronze objects to ward off the evil spell of the solar eclipse, in his Consolation of Philosophy, Book IV, M (etro) 5, 7, -12

palleant plenae cornua lunae
infecta metis noctis opacae,
quaeque fulgenti texerat ore,
10 confusa Phoebe detegat astra:
commouet gentes publicus error
lassantque crebris pulsibus aera.

When the full-orbèd moon grows pale
In the mid course of night,
And suddenly the stars shine forth
That languished in her light,
Th' astonied nations stand at gaze,
And beat the air in wild amaze.
(Translated by H.R. James, M.A., CH. )

The texts that reflect these fears are numerous. Thucydides (460-396) provides an interesting text commenting on the magnitude of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides puts in relation the disasters of war with the misfortunes of all kinds that occurred then.

History of the Peloponnesian War, I, 23:

The Median war, the greatest achievement of past times, yet found a speedy decision in two actions by sea and two by land. The Peloponnesian war was prolonged to an immense length, and long as it was it was short without parallel for the misfortunes that it brought upon Hellas. [2] Never had so many cities been taken and laid desolate, here by the barbarians, here by the parties contending （the old inhabitants being sometimes removed to make room for others）; never was there so much banishing and blood-shedding, now on the field of battle, now in the strife of action. [3] Old stories of occurrences handed down by tradition, but scantily confirmed by experience, suddenly ceased to be incredible; there were earthquakes of unparalleled extent and violence; eclipses of the sun occurred with a frequency unrecorded in previous history; there were great droughts in sundry places and consequent famines, and that most calamitous and awfully fatal visitation, the plague. All this came upon them with the late war,… (London, J. M. Dent;)

Note: Thucydides in his History mentions two solar eclipses, in II, 28 and IV, 52.1; he also refers to one lunar eclipse in VII, 50.4:

All was at last ready, and they were on the point of sailing away, when an eclipse of the moon, which was then at the full, took place. Most of the Athenians, deeply impressed by this occurrence, now urged the generals to wait; and Nicias, who was somewhat over-addicted to divination and practices of that kind, refused from that moment even to take the question of departure into consideration, until they had waited the thrice nine days prescribed by the soothsayers. (Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. London, J. M. Dent; New York, E. P. Dutton. 1910.)

Pindar also uses the same idea and belief that eclipses carry great misfortunes in his Pean 9 (52K Fragment Maehler, A1 Rutherford):

Beam of the sun ! O thou that seest afar, what
wilt thou be devising } O mother of mine eyes ! O
star supreme, reft from us in the daytime. Why
hast thou perplexed the power of man and the way
of wisdom, by rushing forth on a darksome track }
Art thou bringing on us some new and strange
disaster? Yet, by Zeus, I implore thee, thou swift
driver divine of steeds ! do thou, O queen I change
this worldwide portent into some painless blessing
for Thebes . . .

[Is it because, in thine anger at the presumptuous
sons of mortals, thou art unAvilling utterly to blot
out the pure light of life ?] ^

But art thou bringing a sign of some war, or wasting
of produce, or an unspeakably violent snow-storm, or
fatal faction, or again, some overflowing of the sea
on the plain, or frost to bind the earth, or heat of
the south-wind streaming with raging rain ? Or wilt
thou, by deluging the land, cause the race of men to
begin anew ? I in no wise lament whate'er I shall
suffer with all the rest.

(English translation by  Sir John Sandys, Lttt.D., F.B.A. The Loeb Classical Library)

Some commentators appreciate precedent of this paean in Egyptian poems to the sun.

Seneca, in a long and rhetorical choir singing in his tragedy "Thyestes" poetizes on the status of cosmic disorder and panic generated by eclipses:

At the crime of Atreus who killed the children of Thyestes and had offered as food in a terrible feast, the sun goes back. The choir, stunned, fears that the whole structure of the world comes down and then all returns to the old chaos.

The choir at the end of his Thyestes, v. 789-884:

Chorus

Whither, O father of the lands and skies, before
whose rising thick night with all her glories flees,
whither dost turn thy course and why dost blot out
the day in mid-Olympus? Why, O Phoebus, dost
snatch away thy face ? Not yet does Vesper,
twilight's messenger, summon the fires of night ; not
yet does thy wheel, turning its western goal, bid free
thy steeds from their completed task; not yet as day
fades into night has the third trump sounded; the
ploughman with oxen yet unwearied stands amazed at
his supper-hour's quick coming. What has driven
thee from thy heavenly course? What cause from
their fixed track has turned aside thy horses? Is
the prison-house of Dis thrown wide and are the
conquered Giants again essaying war? Doth sorewounded
Tityos renew in his weary breast his ancient
wrath ? Has Typhoeus thrown off the mountainous
mass and set his body free? Is a highway being built
by the Phlegraean foe, and does Thessalian Pelion
press on Thracian Ossa?

Heaven's accustomed alternations are no more;
no setting, no rising shall there be again. The dewy
mother of the early dawn, wont to hand o'er to the
god his morning reins, looks in amaze upon the
disordered threshold of her kingdom; she is not
skilled to bathe his weary chariot, nor to plunge his
steeds, reeking with sweat, beneath the sea. Startled
himself at such unwonted welcoming, the sinking
sun beholds Aurora, and bids the shadows arise,
though night is not yet ready. No stars come out;
the heavens gleam not with any fires : no moon
dispels the darkness' heavy pall.

But whatever this may be, would that night
were here ! Trembling, trembling are our hearts,
sore smit with fear, lest all things fall shattered in
fatal ruin and once more gods and men be o'erwhelmed
by formless chaos; lest the lands, the encircling sea,
and the stars that wander in the spangled sky, nature
blot out once more. No more by the rising of his
quenchless torch shall the leader of the stars, guiding
the procession of the years, mark off the summer and
the winter times; no more shall Luna, reflecting
Phoebus' rays, dispel night's terrors, and outstrip
her brother's reins, as in scantier space she speeds
on her circling path. Into one abyss shall fall the
heaped-up throng of gods. The Zodiac, which,
making passage through the sacred stars, crosses the
zones obliquely, guide and sign-bearer for the slowmoving
years, falling itself, shall see the fallen
constellations ; the Ram, who, ere kindly spring has
come, gives back the sails to the warm West- wind,
headlong shall plunge into the waves o'er which he
had borne the trembling Helle ; the Bull, who
before him on bright horns bears the Hyades, shall
drag the Twins down with him and the Crab's widecurving claws;
Alcides’Lion, with burning heat inflamed, once more
shall fall down from the sky ; the Virgin shall fall to the earth
she once abandoned, and the Scales of justice with their weights
shall fall and with them shall drag the fierce Scorpion down;
old Chiron,who sets the feathered shafts upon
Haemonian chord, shall lose his shafts from the
snapped bowstring; the frigid Goat^ who brings
back sluggish winter, shall fall and break thy urn,
whoe'er thou art ; with thee shall fall the Fish, last
of the stars of heaven, and the Wain, which was
ne'er bathed by the sea, shall be plunged beneath
the all-engulfing waves ; the slippery Serpent which,
gliding like a river, separates the Bears, shall fall,
and icy Cynosura, the Lesser Bear, together with the
Dragon vast, congealed with cold; and that slow-
moving driver of his wain, Arctophylax,no longer
fixed in place, shall fall.
Have we of all mankind been deemed deserving that heaven,
its poles  uptorn, should overwhelm us? In our time has the last day come?
Alas for us, by bitter fate begotten, to misery
doomed, whether we have lost the sun or banished
it! Away with lamentations, begone, O fear!
Greedy indeed for life is he who would not die
when the world is perishing in his company.
(Translated by Frank Justus Miller, Ph.D.LL.D., The Loeb Classical Library)

Chorus
Quo terrarum superumque parem,
cuius ad ortus noctis opacae
decus omne fugit, quo vertis iter
medioque diem perdis Olympo?
cur, Phoebe, tuos rapis aspectus?
nondum serae nuntius horae
nocturna vocat lumina Vesper;
nondum Hesperiae flexura rotae
iubet emeritos solvere currus;
nondum in noctem vergente die
tertia misit bucina signum:
stupet ad subitae tempora cenae
nondum fessis bubus arator,
quid te aetherio pepulit cursu?
quae causa tuos
limite certo deiecit equos?
numquid aperto carcere Ditis
victi temptant bella Gigantes?
numquid Tityos pectore fesso
renovat veteres saucius iras?
num reiecto
latus explicuit monte Typhoeus?
numquid struitur via Phlegraeos
alta per hostes et Thessalicum
Thressa premitur Pelion Ossa?
solitae mundi periere vices?
nihil occasus, nihil ortus erit?
stupet Eoos
assueta deo tradere frenos
genetrix primae roscida lucis
perversa sui limina regni;
nescit fessos
tinguere currus nec fumantes
sudore iubas mergere ponto.
ipse insueto novus hospitio
Sol Auroram videt occiduus,
tenebrasque iubet surgere nondum
nocte parata: non succedunt
astra nec ullo micat igne polus,
non Luna gravis digerit umbras.
Sed quicquid id est, utinam nox sit!
trepidant, trepidant
pectora magno percussa metu:
ne fatali cuncta ruina
quassata labent iterumque, deos
hominesque premat deforme chaos,
iterum terras et mare cingens
 et vaga picti sidera mundi
natura tegat.
non aeternae facis exortu
dux astrorum saecula ducens
dabit aestatis brumaeque notas,
non Phoebeis obvia flammis
dement nocti Luna timores
vincetque sui fratris habenas,
curro brevius limite currens;
ibit in unum
congesta sinum turba deorum,
hic qui sacris pervius astris
secat obliquo tramite zonas
flectens longos signifer annos,
lapsa videbit sidera labens;
hic qui nondum vere benigno
reddit Zephyro- vela tepenti,
Aries praeceps ibit in undas,
per quas pavidam vexerat Hellen;
hic qui nitido Taurus cornu
praefert Hyadas, secum Geminos
trahet et curvi bracchia Cancri;
Leo flammiferis aestibus ardens
iterum e caelo cadet Herculens,
cadet in terras Virgo relictas
iustaeqne cadent pondera Librae
secumque trahent Scorpion acrem;
et qui nervo tenet Haemonio
pinnata senex spicula Chiron,
rupto perdet spicula nervo;
pigram referens hiemem gelidus
cadet Aegoceros frangetque tuam,
quisquis es, urnam; tecum excedent
ultima caeli sidera Pisces,
Plostraque numquam perfusa mari
merget condens omnia gurges;
et qui medias dividit Vrsas,
fluminis instar lubricus Anguis
magnoque minor iuncta Draconi
frigida duro. Cynosura gelu,
custosque sui tardus plaustri
iam non stabilis ruet Arctophylax.
Nos e tanto visi populo
digni premeret quos everso
cardine mundus?
in nos aetas ultima venit?
o nos dura sorte creatos,
seu perdidimus solem miseri,
sive expulimus!
abeant questus, discedo, timor:
vitae est avidus quisquis non vult
mundo secum pereunte mori.

Virgil (70-19 BC), relates sun signals (Phoebus) to the assassination of Caesar and the wars and misfortunes that will befall on Rome in his Georgics I, vv. 464-468:

He it is who warneth oft
Of hidden broils at hand and treachery,
And secret swelling of the waves of war.
He too it was, when Caesar's light was quenched,
For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled
In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age
Trembled for night eternal;
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900.)

… Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
saepe monet fraudemque et operta tumescere bella;
ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam,
cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit
impiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.

Virgil also, at the end of Book I of the Aeneid, when Aeneas has been
taken away by Dido to the palace, presents the court poet singing  the stars and their movements. He does it in verses 736 ff.

Aeneid, I,736-750

The goblet then she took, with nectar crown'd
(Sprinkling the first libations on the ground,)
And rais'd it to her mouth with sober grace;
Then, sipping, offer'd to the next in place.
'T was Bitias whom she call'd, a thirsty soul;
He took challenge, and embrac'd the bowl,
With pleasure swill'd the gold, nor ceas'd to draw,
Till he the bottom of the brimmer saw.
The goblet goes around: Iopas brought
His golden lyre, and sung what ancient Atlas taught:
The various labors of the wand'ring moon,
And whence proceed th' eclipses of the sun;
th' original of men and beasts; and whence
The rains arise, and fires their warmth dispense,
And fix'd and erring stars dispose their influence;
What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays
The summer nights and shortens winter days.
With peals of shouts the Tyrians praise the song

Those peals are echo'd by the Trojan throng.
th' unhappy queen with talk prolong'd the night,
And drank large draughts of love with vast delight;
Of Priam much enquir'd, of Hector more;
(Translated by John Dryden)

Dixit, et in mensam laticum libavit honorem,
primaque, libato, summo tenus attigit ore,
tum Bitiae dedit increpitans; ille impiger hausit
spumantem pateram, et pleno se proluit auro
post alii proceres. Cithara crinitus Iopas
personat aurata, docuit quem maximus Atlas.
Hic canit errantem lunam solisque labores;
unde hominum genus et pecudes; unde imber et ignes;
Arcturum pluviasque Hyadas geminosque Triones;
quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles
hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
Ingeminant plausu Tyrii, Troesque sequuntur.
Nec non et vario noctem sermone trahebat
infelix Dido, longumque bibebat amorem,
multa super Priamo rogitans, super Hectore multa;

Virgil  repeated almost verbatim the same ideas although in another context, now singing the excellence of the old Roman farmer and happy worker of his land; curiously they repeated here two upright lines of the previous text corresponding to the Aeneid, in Georgics, II, v. 475 et seq .:

Me before all things may the Muses sweet,
Whose rites I bear with mighty passion pierced,
Receive, and show the paths and stars of heaven,
The sun's eclipses and the labouring moons,
From whence the earthquake, by what power the seas
Swell from their depths, and, every barrier burst,
Sink back upon themselves, why winter-suns
So haste to dip 'neath ocean, or what check
The lingering night retards. But if to these
High realms of nature the cold curdling blood
About my heart bar access, then be fields
And stream-washed vales my solace, let me love
Rivers and woods, inglorious.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900.)

Me vero primum dulces ante omnia Musae,
quarum sacra fero ingenti percussus amore,
accipiant caelique vias et sidera monstrent,
defectus solis varios lunaeque labores;
unde tremor terris, qua vi maria alta tumescant
480obicibus ruptis rursusque in se ipsa residant,
quid tantum Oceano properent se tinguere soles
hiberni, vel quae tardis mora noctibus obstet.
Sin, has ne possim naturae accedere partis,
frigidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis:
485rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
flumina amem silvasque inglorius.

Plutarch (50-120d.C.) offers an interesting text on the fear instilled in the army by eclipses, lunar in this case. He says it in the biography of the Roman general Paulus Aemilius (229-160 BC) describing an eclipse that took place on June 21, 168 BC immediately before the battle of Pydna when  the Romans consolidated their dominance in Macedonia:

Plutarch, Life of Paulus Aemilius, XVII, 3 ff .: (1821, II, 160)

Now, when night had come, and the soldiers, after supper, were betaking themselves to rest and sleep, on a sudden the moon, which was full and high in the heavens, grew dark, lost its light, took on all sorts of colours in succession, and finally disappeared.
The Romans, according to their custom, tried to call her light back by the clashing of bronze utensils and by holding up many blazing fire-brands and torches towards the heavens; the Macedonians, however, did nothing of this sort, but amazement and terror possessed their camp, and a rumour quietly spread among many of them that the portent signified an eclipse of a king.

Now, Aemilius was not altogether without knowledge and experience of the irregularities of eclipses, which, at fixed periods, carry the moon in her course into the shadow of the earth and conceal her from sight, until she passes beyond the region of shadow and reflects again the light of the sun; however, since he was very devout and given to sacrifices and divination, as soon as he saw the moon beginning to emerge from the shadow, he sacrificed eleven heifers to her.

And as soon as it was day, he sacrificed as many as twenty oxen to Hercules without getting favourable omens; but with the twenty-first victim the propitious signs appeared and indicated victory if they stood on the defensive. Accordingly, having vowed to the god a hecatomb and solemn games, he ordered his officers to put the army in array for battle; but he himself, waiting for the sun to pass to the west and decline, in order that its morning light might not shine in the faces of his men as they fought, passed the time sitting in his tent, which was open towards the plain and the enemy's encampment.

The story also appears with some variation in Livy XLIV, 37, 4 ff.

The king, though he was disposed to have given battle that day, was yet satisfied; since his men knew, that, the delay was owing to the enemy: and he led back his troops to their station. When the camp had been thoroughly fortified, Caius Sulpicius Gallus, a military tribune of the second legion, who had been praetor the year before, with the consul’s permission collected the soldiers in assembly, and gave them notice, lest they should any of them consider the matter as a prodigy, that, “on the following night, the moon would be eclipsed, from the second hour to the fourth.” He mentioned that, “as this happened in the course of nature, at stated times, it could be known, and foretold.

As, therefore, they did not wonder at the regular rising and setting of the sun and moon, or at the moon’s sometimes shining with a full orb, and sometimes in its wane, showing only small horns, so neither ought they to construe as a portent, its being obscured when covered with the shadow of the earth.” When on the night preceding the day before the nones of September, at the hour mentioned, the eclipse took place, the Roman soldiers thought the wisdom of Gallus almost divine; but the Macedonians were shocked, as at a dismal prodigy, foreboding the fall of their kingdom and the ruin of their nation; nor did their soothsayers explain it otherwise. There was shouting and yelling in the camp of the Macedonians, until the moon emerged forth into its full light.

Both armies had been so eager for an engagement, that, next day, both the king and the consul were censured by many of their respective men for having separated without a battle. The king could readily excuse himself, not only as the enemy had led back his troops into camp, openly declining a battle; but, also, as he had posted his men on ground of such a nature, that the phalanx (which even a small inequality of surface renders useless) could not advance on it.

The consul, besides appearing to have neglected an opportunity of fighting, and to have given the enemy room to go off in the night, if he were so inclined, was thought to waste time at the present, under pretence of offering sacrifice, though the signal had been displayed, at the first light, for going out to the field.  At last, about the third hour, the sacrifices being duly performed, he summoned a council, and there, too, he was deemed by several to spin out, in talking and unseasonable consultation, the time that ought to be employed in action; after the conversation, however, the consul addressed to them the following speech. (Translated by William A. McDevitte)

rex quoque, cum sine detractatione paratus pugnare eo die fuisset, contentus eo, quod per hostem moram fuisse scirent, et ipse in castra copias reduxit. castris permunitis C. Sulpicius Gallus, tribunus militum secundae legionis, qui praetor superiore anno fuerat, consulis permissu ad contionem militibus vocatis pronuntiavit, nocte proxima, ne quis id pro portento acciperet, ab hora secunda usque ad quartam horam noctis lunam defecturam esse.  id quia naturali ordine statis temporibus fiat, et sciri ante et praedici posse.
itaque quem ad modum, quia certi solis lunaeque et ortus et occasus sint, nunc pleno orbe, nunc senescentem exiguo cornu fulgere lunam non mirarentur, ita ne obscurari quidem, cum condatur umbra terrae, trahere in prodigium debere.
nocte, quam pridie nonas Septembres insecuta est dies, edita hora luna cum defecisset, Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope divina videri; Macedonas ut triste prodigium, occasum regni perniciemque gentis portendens, movit nec aliter vates. clamor ululatusque in castris Macedonum fuit, donec luna in suam lucem emersit.
postero die—tantus utrique ardor exercitui ad concurrendum fuerat, ut et regem et consulem suorum quidam, quod sine proelio discessum esset, accusarent— regi prompta defensio erat, non eo solum, quod hostis prior aperte pugnam detractans in castra copias reduxisset, sed etiam quod eo loco signa constituisset, quo phalanx, quam inutilem vel mediocris iniquitas loci efficeret, promoveri non posset.
consul ad id, quod pridie praetermisisse pugnandi occasionem videbatur et locum dedisse hosti, si nocte abire vellet, tunc quoque per speciem immolandi terere videbatur tempus, cum luce prima ad signum propositum pugnae exeundum in aciem fuisset.
tertia demum hora sacrificio rite perpetrato ad consilium vocavit; atque ibi, quod rei gerendae tempus esset, loquendo et intempestive consultando videbatur quibusdam extrahere. adversus eos sermones talem consul orationem habuit.

Pliny also makes reference to episode in his Natural History II, 9 (12) (53)

The first among the Romans, who explained to the people at large the cause of the two kinds of eclipses, was Sulpicius Gallus, who was consul along with Marcellus; and when he was only a military tribune he relieved the army from great anxiety the day before king Perseus was conquered by Paulus; for he was brought by the general into a public assembly, in order to predict the eclipse, of which he afterwards gave an account in a separate treatise. Among the Greeks, Thales the Milesian first investigated the subject, in the fourth year of the forty-eighth olympiad, predicting the eclipse of the sun which took place in the reign of Alyattes, in the 170th year of the City. After them Hipparchus calculated the course of both these stars for the term of 600 years3, including the months, days, and hours, the situation of the different places and the aspects adapted to each of them; all this has been confirmed by experience, and could only be acquired by partaking, as it were, in the councils of nature. (Translated by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A)

Et rationem quidem defectus utriusque primus Romani generis in vulgum extulit Sulpicius Gallus, qui consul cum M. Marcello fuit, sed tum tribunus militum, sollicitudine exercitu liberato pridie quam Perses rex superatus a Paulo est in concionem ab imperatore productus ad praedicendam eclipsim, mox et composito volumine. apud Graecos autem investigavit primus omnium Thales Milesius Olympiadis XLVIII anno quarto praedicto solis defectu, qui Alyatte rege factus est urbis conditae anno CLXX. post eos utriusque sideris cursum in sexcentos annos praececinit Hipparchus, menses gentium diesque et horas ac situs locorum et visus populorum complexus, aevo teste haut alio modo quam consiliorum naturae particeps.

Also it appears in Frontinus, Stratagems, I, 12; Zonaras, 9.23., Valerius Maximus, 8, 11.1

Cicero adds some interesting nuances in Republic I, 15, 23:

Scipio:
—I had myself a great affection for this Gallus, and I know he stood very high in the estimation of my father Paulus. I recollect in my early youth, when my father, as consul, commanded in Macedonia, and we were in the camp, our army was seized with a pious terror, because that suddenly, in a clear night, the bright and full moon became eclipsed. Gallus, who was then our lieutenant, the year before that in which he was declared consul, hesitated not, next morning, to state in the camp that it was no prodigy, and that the phenomenon which had then appeared would always appear at certain periods, when the sun was so placed that he could not affect the moon with his light.
Tubero.
—Did he succeed in conveying his philosophic doctrine to the rude soldiery? Did he venture to say as much to men so uninstructed, and so fierce?
Scipio.
—He did,—and with great credit too; for his opinion was no result of insolent ostentation, nor was his declaration unbecoming the dignity of so learned a man,—indeed, he achieved a very noble action in thus freeing his countrymen from the terrors of an idle superstition.
(Translated by Francis Barham)

. … fuit, quod et ipse hominem diligebam et in primis patri meo Paulo probatum et carum fuisse cognoveram. Memini me admodum adulescentulo, cum pater in Macedonia consul esset et essemus in castris, perturbari exercitum nostrum religione et metu, quod serena nocte subito candens et plena luna defecisset. Tum ille, cum legatus noster esset anno fere ante, quam consul est declaratus, haud dubitavit postridie palam in castris docere nullum esse prodigium, idque et tum factum esse et certis temporibus esse semper futurum, cum sol ita locatus fuisset, ut lunam suo lumine non posset attingere. Ain tandem? inquit Tubero; docere hoc poterat ille homines paene agrestes et apud imperitos audebat haec dicere? S. Ille vero et magna quidem cum … …
[24] neque insolens ostentatio neque oratio  abhorrens a persona hominis gravissimi; rem enim magnam adsecutus est, quod hominibus perturbatis inanem religionem timoremque deiecerat.

Polybius also includes how astronomical knowledge of Galus served the Romans to beat Macedonia Perseus in Pydna; in XXIX, 16 (6)

Battle of Pidna

An eclipse of the moon occurring, the report went abroad, and
was believed by many, that it signified an eclipse of the king. And
this circumstance raised the spirits of the Romans and depressed those
of the Macedonians. So true is the common saying that “war has many a
groundless scare.”...( Translation by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh)

Tacitus (55-120 AD), also has the reaction much later of Roman legionaries before an eclipse. He tells how Drusus  Julius Caesar used the eclipse to quell a rebellion. He narrates it in his Annals, I, 28:

The night that followed seemed big with some fatal disaster, when an unexpected phenomenon put an end to the commotion. In a clear and serene sky the moon was suddenly eclipsed. This appearance, in its natural cause not understood by the soldiers, was deemed a prognostic denouncing the fate of the army. The planet, in its languishing state, represented the condition of the legions: if it recovered its former luster, the efforts of the men would be crowned with success. To assist the moon in her labours, the air resounded with the clangour of brazen instruments with the sound of trumpets, and other warlike music. The crowd, in the mean time, stood at gaze : every gleam of light inspired the men with joy; and the sudden gloom depressed their hearts with grief. The clouds condensed, and the moon was supposed to be lost in utter darkness. A melancholy horror seized the multitude ; and melancholy is sure to engender superstition. A religious panic spread through the army. The appearance in the heavens foretold eternal labour  to the legions ; and all lamented that by their crimes they had called down upon themselves the indignation of the gods. Drusus took advantage of the moment. The opportunity was the effect of chance; but, rightly managed, might conduce to the wisest purpose.

He gave orders that the men who by honest means were most in credit with the malcontents, should go round from tent to tent. Among these was Clemens, the centurion. They visited every part of the camp;
they applied to the guards on duty; they conversed with the patrole, and mixed with the sentinels at the gates. They allured some by promises, and by terror subdued the spirit of others. "How long shall
we besiege the son of the emperor? Where will this confusion end? Must we follow Percennius and Vibulenus? And shall we swear fidelity to those new commanders? Will their funds supply the pay of the legions? Have they lands to assign to the veteran soldier? For them shall the Neros and the Drusi be deposed? Are they to mount the vacant throne, the future sovereigns of Rome? Let us, since we were the last to enter into rebellion, be the first to expiate our guilt by well-timed repentance. Demands in favour of all, proceed but slowly ; to individuals, indulgence is more easily granted ; deserve it separately, and the reward will follow."

This reasoning had its effect: suspicion and mutual distrust began to take place; the new raised soldiers went apart from the veterans ; the legions separated ; a sense of duty revived in the breast of all; the gates were no longer guarded ; and the colours, at first promiscuously crowded together, were restored to their proper station. (Translated by Arthur Murphy, Esq.)

Noctem minacem et in scelus erupturam fors lenivit: nam luna claro repente caelo visa languescere. id miles rationis ignarus omen praesentium accepit, suis laboribus defectionem sideris adsimulans, prospereque cessura qua pergerent si fulgor et claritudo deae redderetur. igitur aeris sono, tubarum cornuumque concentu strepere; prout splendidior obscuriorve laetari aut maerere; et postquam ortae nubes offecere visui creditumque conditam tenebris, ut sunt mobiles ad superstitionem perculsae semel mentes, sibi aeternum laborem portendi, sua facinora aversari deos lamentantur. utendum inclinatione ea Caesar et quae casus obtulerat in sapientiam vertenda ratus circumiri tentoria iubet; accitur centurio Clemens et si alii bonis artibus grati in vulgus. hi vigiliis, stationibus, custodiis portarum se inserunt, spem offerunt, metum intendunt. 'quo usque filium imperatoris obsidebimus? quis certaminum finis? Percennione et Vibuleno sacramentum dicturi sumus? Percennius et Vibulenus stipendia militibus, agros emeritis largientur? denique pro Neronibus et Drusis imperium populi Romani capessent? quin potius, ut novissimi in culpam, ita primi ad paenitentiam sumus? tarda sunt quae in commune expostulantur: privatam gratiam statim mereare, statim recipias.' commotis per haec mentibus et inter se suspectis, tironem a veterano, legionem a legione dissociant. tum redire paulatim amor obsequii: omittunt portas, signa unum in locum principio seditionis congregata suas in sedes referunt.

Again Plutarch narrates  a similar episode now referred to an eclipse that took place many years before in 357 BC, time that also has other wonders, in Life of Dion, 24:

But after the libations and the customary prayers, the moon was eclipsed. Now, to Dion this was nothing astonishing, for he knew that eclipses recurred at regular intervals, and that the shadow projected on the moon was caused by the interposition of the earth between her and the sun. But since the soldiers, who were greatly disturbed, needed some encouragement, Miltas the seer stood up amongst them and bade them be of good cheer, and expect the best results; for the divine powers indicated an eclipse of something that was now resplendent; but nothing was more resplendent than the tyranny of Dionysius, and it was the radiance of this which they would extinguish as soon as they reached Sicily. This interpretation, then, Miltas made public for all to know; but that of the bees, which were seen settling in swarms upon the sterns of Dion's transports, he told privately to him and his friends, expressing a fear that his undertakings would thrive at the outset, but after a short season of flowering would wither away. It is said that Dionysius also had many portentous signs from Heaven. An eagle snatched a lance from one of his body-guards, carried it aloft, and then let it drop into the sea. Furthermore, the water of the sea which washed the base of the acropolis was sweet and potable for a whole day, as all who tasted it could see. Again, pigs were littered for him which were perfect in their other parts, but had no ears. This the seers declared to be a sign of disobedience and rebellion, since, as they said, the citizens would no longer listen to the commands of the tyrant; the sweetness of the sea-water indicated for the Syracusans a change from grievous and oppressive times to comfortable circumstances; an eagle, moreover, was servant of Zeus, and a spear, an emblem of authority and power, wherefore this prodigy showed that the greatest of the gods desired the utter dissolution of the tyranny. Such, at all events, is the account which Theopompus has given. (Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. 6.)

The fourth finger, the ring finger, it was also called in Antiquity "digitus medicinalis, medicus digitus". This deserves an explanation or at least an approximation to an explanation, because it is not an obvious name for itself. What relationship is there between the fourth finger and medicine?

St. Isidore in his Etymologies XI, 1, 70-71 explains these names:

Human beings and their parts
….
The fourth is the ring finger, because it is the one on which the ring is worn. It is also called medical, because physicians use it to apply ointments.

De homine et partibus eius
Quartus anularis, eo quod in ipso anulus geritur. Idem et medicinalis, quod eo trita collyria a medicis colliguntur.

See https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/finfers-the-names-of-fingers-digitus

The fourth is called  “anularis”, from “anulus” ("ring") and also honestus and medicus in Latin,  because on it the ring is worn, as St. Isidore says.

"anulus" comes from Latin anus, meaning ring,  in circular shape. It is clear, then, why it is named so, ano, on Spanish to the "hole in the digestive tract ends and by which the excrement is expelled". (Royal Spanish Academy)

Aulus Gellius offers us a curious, of course unscientific, explanation of why the ancients wore the ring on this finger:

Aulus Gellius, X,11:

The reason why the ancient Greeks and Romans wore a ring on the next to the last finger of the left hand.

I have heard that the ancient Greeks wore a ring on the finger of the left hand which is next to the little finger. They say, too, that the Roman men commonly wore their rings in that way. Apion in his Egyptian History says 2 that the reason for this practice is, that upon cutting into and opening human bodies, a custom in Egypt which the Greeks call ἀνατομαί, or “dissection,” it was found that a very fine nerve proceeded from that finger alone of which we have spoken, and made its way to the human heart; that it therefore seemed quite reasonable that this finger in particular should be honoured with such an ornament, since it seems to be joined, and as it were united, with that supreme organ, the heart. (An English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.)

Quae eius rei causa sit, quod et Graeci veteres et Romani anulum hoc digito gestaverint qui est in manu sinistra minimo proximus.

Veteres graecos anulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistrae manus qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt sic plerumque anulis usitatos. Causam esse huius rei Apion in libris Aegyptiacis hanc dicit, quod insectis apertisque humanis corporibus, ut mos in Aegypto fuit, quas Graeci ἀνατομάς appellant, repertum est nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno digito de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire; propterea non inscitum visum esse eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi conexus esse cum principatu cordis videretur.

Note: Apion who is also referred by Gelius, is who tells us the famous story of Androcles and the Lion in Gellius, 5.14; see https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/androcles-and-the-lion-aulus-gellius

Plutarch also discussed this issue in its Quaestiones convivales  4.8, but we only retain the title of this chapter.

St. Isidore in his Etymologies  XIX, 32.2 also refers to this belief so widespread in antiquity but unscientific and false:

The people initially wears  rings on the fourth finger from the thumb, because a certain vein runs in it and  goes to the heart, and the ancients thought it was necessary to note and adorned them by some special sign.

Anulos homines primum gestare coeperunt quarto a pollice digito, quod eo vena quaedam ad cor usque pertingat, quam notandam ornandamque aliquo insigni veteres putaverunt.

Macrobius repeats and expands the explanation of Aulus Gellius, being the matter  of conversation or dialogue of the guests who celebrate the banquet  of the feast  Saturnalia. At the end of this article you can read the extensive text of Macrobius.

The explanation must look to dialoguer so strange than he leaves ultimately the solution on the hands of everyone.

Macrobius also says that the Egyptians express with this finger the number 6, which is a perfect number.
Why Macrobius called the number 6 a perfect number? A perfect number is a natural number which is equal to the sum of its own positive dividers without considering himself. Thus, 6 is a perfect number because its divisors are 1, 2 and 3; and 6 = 1 + 2 + 3. The following perfect numbers are 28, 496 and 8128.

The Ancients  liked greatly to play with these relationships and many more.

Macrobius himself explains it in his commentary on the "Dream of Scipio", Book I, 6, 12

Six, when it joins one makes seven; it is varied and multiple in reverence and power. First, because it is the only one of all numbers below ten numbers which is the result of the sum of its parts. It has a half and a third and sixth, and its half is three, its  third is two, its sixth is one and all together make six '

senarius uero qui cum uno coniunctus septenarium facit, uariae ac multiplicis religionis et potentiae est. primum quod solus ex omnibus numeris qui intra decem sunt de suis partibus constat. habet enim medietatem et tertiam partem et sextam partem et est medietas tria, tertia pars duo, sexta pars unum, quae omnia simul sex faciunt.

But the issue of real interest is to find out why they called this finger also "medicinalis" or "doctor's finger" as Macrobius tells us in the quoted  passage and also Saint Isidore includes.

Well, "medical finger" is but the translation of the Greek name ring finger ἰατρικός δάκτυλος "iatrikós daktylos". So the fourth finger is called "medical finger" in both Latin and Greek. It is quite possible that the Latin name is a translation from the Greek.

The oldest to the origins of the name reference is in Galen, in his Eisagoge, which reads as follows:

"… This is followed by the next finger to the medium, which is dedicated to physicians (toiv iatroiv anakeimenov) …»

It should be clarified that in antiquity it was widespread the belief in the relationship of the ring finger with the heart or with certain diseases; the physicians of Alexandria extended this theory . They think than nerves or veins come from the heart because of its importance as a center of vitality and creative power; they think the vital force originated in the heart can concentrate on the finger. In some places even the people think in the association of the ring finger of the left hand, the generative power and the principle of motherhood

This may shock us and seem a little odd, but how many are who currently establish  a relationship between the dimensions of the fingers and penis size or male member? And is not it striking that some of those who hold this belief  seek  substantiate it into action  that androgens occur on the appendices of various kinds? And what about  those who are able to read on a hand the past, present and future of a person?

It is so called because it is the finger that is used to prepare medical potions and applying it to the sick.
Pliny says, for example,  in his Naturalis Historia, XXX, (34) 108:

REMEDIES FOR BOILS .
For boils the following remedies are prescribed; a spider, applied before mentioning the insect by name, care being taken to remove it at the end of two days; a shrew-mouse, suspended by the neck till it is dead, care being taken not to let it touch the earth when dead, and to pass it three times around the boil, both operator and patient spitting on the floor each time; poultry-dung, that of a red colour in particular, applied fresh with vinegar; the crop of a stork, boiled in wine; flies, an uneven number of them, rubbed upon the patient with the ring finger; the filth from sheep's ears; stale mutton suet, with ashes of women's hair; ram suet also, with ashes of' burnt pumice and an equal quantity of salt.  (The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855)

Furunculis mederi dicitur araneus, priusquam nominetur, inpositus et tertio die solutus, mus araneus pendens enecatus sic, ut terram ne postea attingat, ter circumlatus furunculo, totiens expuentibus medente et cui is medebitur, ex gallinaceo fimo, quod est rufum, maxime recens inlitum ex aceto, ventriculus ciconiae ex vino decoctus, muscae inpari numero infricatae digito medico, sordes ex pecudum auriculis, sebum ovium vetus cum cinere capilli mulierum, sebum arietis cum cinere pumicis et salis pari pondere.

But the author LászloA. Magyar, in his article Digitus medicinalis. The Etymology of the Name, in Actes du Congrès International d'histoire XXXII of Medicine, Ambres 1990 pat.175-179 offers a certainly interesting explanation. He thinks that the fourth finger, the finger medicinalis, is a finger with magical powers.

The word "medicus, medicinalis" derives from "medeor" Latin verb meaning heal, cure and formerly "heal through magic," as evidenced for example Ernout A. Meillet in his famous Dictionair etymologique de la langue latine, when he defines  "medeor"' and reads:

Medical and its derivatives medicus, medicamen (-mentum) often have the sense of "healing through magic" and as the Greek φάρμακον (pharmakon) have taken the meaning of "poisoning", cf. cat. Metzina, poison.

Medico et ses dérivées medicatus, medicamen, (-mentum) ont souvent le sens de “guérir par la magie”, etcomme le gr.  φάρμακον  (farcamon)  ont  pris le sens de “empoisonner”, cf.cat. metzina, “poison”
Pharmakon in Greek also means poison and charm, magic.

So the "ring finger" at the time would have been a magic finger, used precisely to heal.

From "medical" come "remedium" and many other derivatives. Moreover this Indo-European root exists in many languages also to mean "think,  judge, measure, weigh …"; meditation is the meaning of the Latin verb "Meditor" which is precisely the iterative  of "medeor" with this meaning of "thinking" …
So the "medical doctor" who  heals  with magic, is actually a "medium", mediator who remedies or intermediary between the sick person and the spirits or the powerful forces of divinity or of nature.

Silius Italicus, for example, calls the magicians “Medicum vulgus” in Punica III. 300

Then came the Marmaridae with a sound of clashing arms, a people of magical powers, at whose spell the snake forgot its poison, and at whose touch horned serpents lay still and harmless. (Translated by J.D.Duff).

Note: Cerastae are the Furies, mythological monster with snake hair

Marmaridae, medicum uulgus, strepuere cateruis,
ad quorum cantus serpens oblita ueneni,
ad quorum tactum mites iacuere cerastae.

The German word “Artz”  means "medical doctor" but also originally magician; the Greek word “iatros” derives form  “iaino”, which has similar connotations .

Moreover, the ring is the most important magical symbol of power, symbol of the relationship between life and death. So the question is whether the fourth finger is magical because it carries the ring or it wears  the ring because it is magical; in view of the comments, it seems that wears  the ring precisely because it is magical. The full and meaningful name, then, should be "magic finger ring" or "magic ring finger."

Furthermore the theme of medicine and its relationship with magic, religion and temples deserves one or more items. Think on the full votive sanctuaries  and places of pilgrimage even today to look body health.

Macrobius,  Saturnalia, 7, 13, 6-16

After this, he said, Avienus retrieved from the table the ring that just had fallen from the little finger of the right hand. And when the present asked him why he had preferably placed it on the other hand and finger, not intended for ring wearing, he showed them his left hand, quite swollen because of an wound.   From here Horus arose occasion for a question, and says:

Tell me, Disarius, (because everything in the body regards to the knowledge of the physician, and you have reached an understanding even beyond what is demanded by  medicine), tell me, I say, why the common assent has convinced everyone that the ring needs to be worn on the finger next to the little finger, which is also called "medical finger" and especially on the left hand?

And Disarius: On this question some conversation had reached me from Egypt, though I doubt whether I should call it a fable or a true story, but when later I consulted anatomists’ books, I discovered the truth: a certain  nerve that starts from the heart, runs straight to the finger next to the little finger on the left hand, where it mixes with all the other nerves of that finger. And for that reason it seemed to the ancients that the finger should be surrounded by a ring like a crown.

And Horus said: Indeed it is true that the Egyptians hold that opinion  as you say; when I saw in one  temple that  their priests, called prophets,  smeared around each of the images this finger with prepared perfumes and I asked the reason for this, I learned what I said about this nerve because the principal of these priests  accounted me and also I learned the number signified  by this finger.

Well when this finger is folded indicates the number six, which is in every way full, perfect and divine. He explained in many ways the reasons why this number is full: I now pass over these  as less suited to the current conversation. These are the things that I know in Egypt, the country most knowledgeable of all on divine matters, about why the ring is preferably placed on this finger.

In the midst of this discussion Caecina Albinus said: If you're agreeable, I can refer directly what I remember  that I have read about this issue  in Ateius Capiton, one of the most experts of pontifical law. This determining that it was contrary to divine law to record images of the gods in the rings, reached the point of no silent why the ring is worn on this finger and on this hand.

He said: "The ancients wore with them a ring not as an adornment but to seal. For that reason, it was not allowed to have more than one ring, and only  the free person could have it, because only they had the credit that sealing involved. So the slaves did not have the right to wear a ring. On the material of the ring, whether it was iron or gold, a figure was engraved, and each person worn it as each wanted , on either hand and on any finger.

Then he said, in times of luxury, it began the custom of engrave seals on precious gemstones; all this imitation of one another reached  to the point that they boasted of increased price they paid for the stones to engrave them. Since then it was avoided  the use of the rings on the right hand, which is very busy, and pass it to the left, which is  idler, for  gemstones would not break with the frequent movement and occupation of the right hand.

He said, on the left hand itself it was chosen  the finger next to the pinky as better suited than others to give so precious ring. The thumb, which is so named because that it is strong, is not idle on the left hand nor it is never in less activity than whole hand; that is why, he said, among the Greeks it is called ἀντίχειρ (antikheir, beforehand) like other second hand.

Now,  the finger next to the thumb seemed naked and unprotected by its opposite, since the thumb is so smaller that  it barely exceeds the base of the other. They avoided the middle finger and the pinky, he said,  as inadequate, the one by its magnitude and the other by its smallness; and so it was elected the finger which is enclosed by those two and has less activity and therefore is the best to protected a the ring.

This is what has the pontifical law: let each one  pursue, according he wants, the  Etruscan opinion or the Egyptian.

His dictis anulum Avienus de mensa rettulit qui illi de brevissimo dexterae manus digito repente deciderat: cumque a praesentibus quaereretur, cur eum alienae manui et digito, et non huic gestamini deputatis potius insereret, ostendit manum laevam ex vulnere tumidiorem. Hinc Horo nata quaestionis occasio, et: Dic, inquit, Disari (omnis enim situs corporis pertinet ad medici notionem, tu vero doctrinam et ultra quam medicina postulat consecutus es), dic, inquam, cur sibi communis adsensus anulum in digito qui minimo vicinus est, quem etiam medicinalem vocant, et manu praecipue sinistra gestandum esse persuasit?  Et Disarius: De hac ipsa quaestione sermo quidam ad nos ab Aegypto venerat, de quo dubitabam fabulamne an veram rationem vocarem: sed libris anatomicorum postea consultis verum repperi, nervum quendam de corde natum priorsum pergere usque ad digitum manus sinistrae minimo proximum, et illic desinere inplicatum ceteris eiusdem digiti nervis, et ideo visum veteribus ut ille digitus anula tamquam corona circumdaretur.  Et Horus: Adeo, inquit, Disari, verum est ita ut dicis Aegyptios opinari, ut ego sacerdotes eorum, quos prophetas vocant, cum in templo vidissem circa deorum hunc in singulis digitum confectis odoribus inlinere et eius rei causas requisissem, et de nervo quod iam dictum est principe eorum narrante didicerim, et insuper de numero qui per ipsum significatur. 10 Conplicatus enim senarium numerum digitus iste demonstrat, qui omnifariam plenus perfectus atque divinus est. Causasque, cur plenus sit hic numerus, ille multis adseruit: ego nunc ut praesentibus fabulis minus aptas relinquo. Haec sunt quae in Aegypto divinarum omnium disciplinarum compote, cur anulus huic digito magis inferatur, agnovi.  Inter haec Caecina Albinus: Si volentibus vobis erit, inquit, in medium profero quae de hac eadem causa apud Ateium Capitonem pontificii iuris inter primos peritum legisse memini: qui cum nefas esse sanciret deorum formas insculpi anulis, eo usque processit ut et cur in hoc digito vel in hac manu gestaretur anulus non taceret.  Veteres, inquit, non ornatus sed signandi causa anulum secum circumferebant. Unde nec plus habere quam unum licebat, nec cuiquam nisi libero, quos solos fides deceret quae signaculo continetur: ideo ius anulorum famuli non habebant. Inprimebatur autem sculptura materiae anuli, sive ex ferro sive ex auro foret, et gestabatur, ut quisque vellet, quacumque manu, quolibet digito.  Postea, inquit, usus luxuriantis aetatis signaturas pretiosis gemmis coepit insculpere: et certatim haec omnis imitatio lacessivit ut de augmento pretii quo sculpendos lapides parassent gloriarentur. Hinc factum est ut usu anulorum exemptus dexterae, quae multum negotiorum gerit, in laevam relegaretur, quae otiosior est, ne crebru motu et officio manus dexterae pretiosi lapides frangerentur.  Electus autem, inquit, in ipsa laeva manu digitus minimo proximus quasi aptior ceteris cui commendaretur anuli pretiositas. Nam pollex, qui nomen ab eo quod pollet accepit, nec in sinistra cessat, nec minus quam tota manus semper in officio est: unde et apud Graecos ἀντίχειρ, inquit, vocatur quasi manus altera.  Pollici vero vicinus nudus et sine tuitione alterius adpositi videbatur: nam pollex ita inferior est ut vix radicem eius excedat. Medium et minimum vitaverunt, inquit, ut ineptos, alterum magnitudine, brevitate alterum, et electus est qui ab utroque clauditur et minus officii gerit et ideo servando anulo magis accommodatus est.  Haec sunt quae lectio pontificalis habet: unusquisque, ut volet, vel Etruscam vel Aegyptiam opinionem sequatur.

In the myth of Pandora (the word means “who has received all the goods, from Greek pan, all,  and dora, gifts), a box encloses all goods or gifts that may cause harm to men when it is opened by the curiosity of a woman, his mistress Pandora.

In Cameron's film, Pandora is an extraordinary environmental unit which also contains extraordinary goods that will cause the ruin of its inhabitants.

When I saw the so successful film , with special really cool effects, a fable that basically tells an old story, I was amazed among other things by its Banshee  which  immediately remembered me the  "Horse-vultures "  which  Lucian of Samosata created in his science fiction "The true History". Since then I can not imagine otherwise the flying hybrid of Lucian.

These similarities or coincidences made me ask the question: Does Avatar  have something to do with the story of  Lucian? Will Cameron be inspired by the work of Greek Roman satirist?

Moreover, a few years ago the television network Nickelodeon produced a cartoon series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, titled Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend Aang.

The series gained remarkable success in much of the world. Here they are dozens of animals created,  resulting hybrid of several different. And this reminded me of the many fantastic creatures that Lucian created with the same procedure, mix several real and increase its size.

The inevitable question was, then: do  Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante have inspired in the work of Lucian?

Let's do a quick and brief analysis of the issue.

Lucian of Samosata is considered by many experts the first literary author of science fiction novels. His “The True History”, or “Verae Historiae”,  which narrates a journey through space and a fantastic stellar battle, among other things, certainly fulfills many of the conditions of this type of literature.

Lucian is a Greek author of Roman times, he lived in the second century, critical and sarcastic spirit, who moves between cynicism and stoicism, who whips with his irony myths and gods and especially conceited and pedants philosophers who only think about money and live from the story.

His "The true History" actually does  to maximize the quantity and quality of the absurdities of history books or mythological narratives caricaturing and making them impossible to believe. Stories like this are for example Homer's Odyssey or the histories of Herodotus himself or Ctesias, who include  in their  Histories legends and myths without any critical spirit and unverified testimony, or The Journey of the Argonauts of Apollonius. With all Lucian intended  amuse his educated readers.

This means that the title of his work is to be interpreted in an ironic sense, in the sense that it also takes into Spanish the term “historias”,"stories", in the plural as fantastic stories as opposed to the real story. The same meaning is in German plural "Gesichten" or French "des histoires". These "stories" are therefore correspond to the English story and not to the "history". Certainly the Greek name of the play “Aléthón diégémáton biblia dyó”  (Two books of true stories true) for anything is referred to several "stories" while "alethón",  true, must be understood as a clear irony in the direction indicated.

Lucian himself warns us about the veracity of his stories when he says:

(4)…I fall back on falsehood — but falsehood of a more consistent variety; for I now make the only true statement you are to expect — that I am a liar. This confession is, I consider, a full defence against all imputations. My subject is, then, what I have neither seen, experienced, nor been told, what neither exists nor could conceivably do so. I humbly solicit my readers’ incredulity. (Translated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905.)

Returning to the theme, we could specify that Lucian really does not intend to make a science fiction story, not his imagination takes him to serve  or imagine a development of modern science to acceptable limits but difficult to seer currently. His narrative does not try to create the future but to raise as much as existing in their environment.

The influence of this work has been huge in Western literature: Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), whom some consider the true initiator of science fiction with his work Somnium; Thomas More who translated some of the dialogue, Cyrano de Bergerac with his Histoire Comique d'un voyage à la Lune (1657); Rabelais probably with the gigantism of his characters, J. Swift in Gulliver's Travels (1726 Voltaire with his story Micromegas, and famous Jules Verne with nhis “Around the Moon” (1870) and From the Earth to the Moon (1872).

In Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was well known and imitated by Cristobal de Villalon, Mateo Alemán, Miguel de Cervantes and Francisco de Quevedo.

It is not therefore unreasonable to track a possible influence on contemporary forms of cultural creativity as cinema.

I think it should be a brief summary of the story of "Stories" or "true hystory" of Lucian; it does not avoided, of course, a thorough reading of the text. Serve these comments to encourage reading it and the rest of his interesting work.

"The true History" appears traditionally divided into two books, two rolls in the old format, which come to occupy in the current form of "book" about fifty pages, affordable amount even for the current more comfortable reader accustomed to the stunted prevailing tweets.

Lucian of Samosata is the first known author who imagined a trip into space. For this alone he would be worthy of being remembered. However it is generally assumed by scholars that Lucian knew and had reference to the work of Antonius Diogenes The Incredible Wonders Beyond Thule, that  already imagines  the trip to the Moon, as Photius says. Lucian would ridicule  precisely this passage. But not everyone accepts this hypothesis.

He tells the story of the fabulous journey of a maritime ship who have passed the Pillars of Hercules and entered the " mare ignotum or mare tenebrosum", the unknown Atlantic, suffering a long storm, and comes to an island where they see a trail with a worn inscription that marks the limit reached by Heracles and Dionisos. They reached a wine river fed by vines which on top were perfect women from the waist. It pushed by winds, rises from the sea to the sidereal space, visit the Sun and the Moon. After his arrival to the Moon, the "astronauts" are involved into a "galactic" war between Selenites (inhabitants of Selene, the Moon) and Heliotes (inhabitants of de Sun), together  with the most curious interstellar fighters.

(5) Starting on a certain date from the Pillars of Heracles, I sailed with a fair wind into the Atlantic. The motives of my voyage were a certain intellectual restlessness, a passion for novelty, a curiosity about the limits of the ocean and the peoples who might dwell beyond it. …

(6) —We surrendered ourselves to the elements, let her run, and were storm-driven for more than eleven weeks. On the eightieth day the sun came out quite suddenly, and we found ourselves close to a lofty wooded island, …

(7) We had advanced half a mile inland through woods, when we came upon a brazen pillar, inscribed in Greek characters — which however were worn and dim —‘Heracles and Dionysus reached this point.’
…
(9)… But about midday, when we were out of sight of the island, a waterspout suddenly came upon us, which swept the ship round and up to a height of some three hundred and fifty miles above the earth. She did not fall back into the sea, but was suspended aloft, and at the same time carried along by a wind which struck and filled the sails. –

(10) For a whole week we pursued our airy course, and on the eighth day descried land; it was an island with air for sea, glistening, spherical, and bathed in light. We reached it, cast anchor, and landed; inspection soon showed that it was inhabited and cultivated. In the daytime nothing could be discerned outside of it; but night revealed many neighbouring islands, some larger and some smaller than ours; there was also another land below us containing cities, rivers, seas, forests, and mountains; and this we concluded to be our Earth.

(11) We were intending to continue our voyage, when we were discovered and detained by the Horse-vultures, as they are called. These are men mounted on huge vultures, which they ride like horses; the great birds have ordinarily three heads. It will give you some idea of their size if I state that each of their quill-feathers is longer and thicker than the mast of a large merchantman. …

It seemed he too was a mortal, named Endymion, who had been conveyed up from our Earth in his sleep, and after his arrival had become king of the country; this was, he told us, what we knew on our Earth as the moon.

(12) …We asked about the enemy, and the quarrel. ‘Phaethon,’ he replied, ‘king of the Sun (which is inhabited, like the Moon), has long been at war with us. The occasion was this: I wished at one time to collect the poorest of my subjects and send them as a colony to Lucifer, which is uninhabited. Phaethon took umbrage at this, met the emigrants half way with a troop of Horse-ants, and forbade them to proceed. On that occasion, being in inferior force, we were worsted and had to retreat; but I now intend to take the offensive and send my colony. …

(13) …Our army numbered 100,000 (exclusive of camp-followers, engineers, infantry, and allies), the Horse-vultures amounting to 80,000, and the remaining 20,000 being mounted on Salad-wings. These latter are also enormous birds, fledged with various herbs, and with quill-feathers resembling lettuce leaves. Next these were the Millet-throwers and the Garlic-men. Endymion had also a contingent from the North of 30,000 Flea-archers and 50,000 Wind-coursers. The former have their name from the great fleas, each of the bulk of a dozen elephants, which they ride. The Wind-coursers are infantry, moving through the air without wings; they effect this by so girding their shirts, which reach to the ankle, that they hold the wind like a sail and propel their wearers ship-fashion. These troops are usually employed as skirmishers. 70,000 Ostrich-slingers and 50,000 Horse-cranes were said to be on their way from the stars over Cappadocia. But as they failed to arrive I did not actually see them; and a description from hearsay I am not prepared to give, as the marvels related of them put some strain on belief.

Follows the story of the battle with the same level of imagination that I miss not being essential to the objective, but it should not be uninteresting to the reader. Still there appear fantastic beings as the Horse-ants, the Sky-gnats, the Sky-pirouetters, firing giant radishes,  the Stalk-fungi, who used mushrooms as shields and  asparagus stalk as spears,  as the Dog-acorns -faced dogs on on winged acorns,  the slingers of the Milky Way and the Cloud-centaurs

(18) Relinquishing the pursuit, we set up two trophies, one for the infantry engagement on the spiders’ webs, and one on the clouds for the air-battle. It was while we were thus engaged that our scouts announced the approach of the Cloud-centaurs, whom Phaethon had expected in time for the battle. They were indeed close upon us, and a strange sight, being compounded of winged horses and men; the human part, from the middle upwards, was as tall as the Colossus of Rhodes, and the equine the size of a large merchantman. … (Translated by Fowler, H W and F G. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1905.)

And further:

Note: the next text number (22)  is a English Translation by A.M. Harmon, 1913

(22) In the interval, while I was living on the moon, I observed some strange and wonderful things that I wish to speak of. In the first place there is the fact that they are not born of women but of men: they marry men and do not even know the word woman at all! Up to the age of twenty-five each is a wife, and thereafter a husband. They carry their children in the calf of the leg instead of the belly. When conception takes place the calf begins to swell. In course of time they cut it open and deliver the child dead, and then they bring it to life by putting it in the wind with its mouth open. It seems to me that the term "belly of the leg " came to us Greeks from there, since the leg performs the function of a belly with them. But I will tell you something else, still more wonderful. They have a kind of men whom they call the Arboreals, who are brought into the world as follows: Exsecting a man's right genital gland, they plant it in the ground. From it grows a very large tree of flesh, resembling the emblem of Priapus: it has branches and leaves, and its fruit is acorns a cubit thick. When these ripen, they harvest them and shell out the men. Another thing, they have artificial parts that are sometimes of ivory and sometimes, with the poor, of wood, and make use of them in their intercourse.

So far the quote Lucian’s  texts. I omit the rest of the story in that they are episodes such  the visit to the Champs Elysees, the land of the dead, the entry into the belly of a huge whale, on which is a huge island, where they visite countries as surreal as the City of lamps  (Lichnópolis) or the Island of Dreams,  where there is a history of the modern Robinson who then is called Spintaros and countless exotic animals, etc. etc ..

In “The true History” they appear among others the following fantastic creatures:

Horse-vultures  (Greek hippógypoi); Horse-ants (hippomyrmekes); Salad-wings (lachanópteroi); Millet-throwers (kenchrobóloi); Garlic-men  (skorodomáchoi); Flea-archers (psyllotoxótai); Wind-coursers  (anemodrómoi); Horse-cranes  (hippogéranoi); Sky-gnats (aerokonopes); Sky-pirouetters (aerokórdakes); Stalk-fungi (kaulomýketes); Dog-acorns ( kynobálanoi); Cloud-centaurs  (nephelokéntauroi); etc.etc.

There are many more interesting details. For example I will discuss the means that the  transport used by Lucian to ascend to the sky and to move around the space is no sophisticated vehicle, but a boat that sails the sea and at some point is driven by the wind itself into the ether. Lucian knew many stories in which the gods and heroes walk the space, but they do so with their wings like Icarus and Phaeton, carried by eagles or in their cars as Helios, the Sun. Lucian has had more luck, your ship has provided the name and model to modern space "ships", but now they are driven by modern rockets or motors driven by atomic or similar energies.

It is also interesting detail that at the beginning of their journey they discover the footsteps of Hercules and Dionysus. I remember also in the "2001 A Space Odyssey" there is also an unearthed monolith and in the famous "Planet of the Apes" is also the Statue of Liberty half buried which informs us that we are in New York. These are facts that do not seem to have much to do, but it is curious this hobby to use these witnesses half-buried in movies with more vivid imagination.

Well, the action of Avatar is set in 2154 on Pandora, a moon or satellite of planet Polyphemus, inhabited by a humanoid race, the Na'vi, one of whose clans lives around a giant tree growing on a site of unobtainium, source of coveted energy coveted by terrestrial. The stellar conflict is inevitable.

Avatar is a classic tale of fantastic adventures in the general framework of imperialist domination of some beings by others and the defense of biodiversity threatened by modern development. From this point of view Avatar has been interpreted and valued in many ways, but it is not my intention to delve into it, but to have a relationship, at least formally, if it is present with the work of Lucian, for whom the goals are very different .

So the story of the movie Avatar is set in a place called Pandora, its inhabitants, the Na'vi, are hybrids of human and other beings with tails, ie are humanoid, as always it happens in every work of science fiction, the transport to heaven is done by huge volatile carriers, called Banshee, whose images impress us by  its dimensions, its agility and beauty; the direhorses are a kind of six-legged horses, hybrid beings also; the tree that houses the life of the Na'vi is as dimensional fantastic as the island of Lucian in the belly of the whale and other  beings. It seems to me that the belly of the whale actually resembles the belly or inside the tree that welcomes the Na’vi.

Some of the fantastic animals in the film are:

The Banshee of Mountain, Ikran in the Na'vi’s language; it is perfectly adapted to flight by its aerodynamics. It is the most spectacular animal, connected lifetime only with one Na'vi. It is used for hunting and travel over long distances. It seems me similar to Horse-vultures  of Lucian.

The leonopteryx  rex , ,flying king lion" (from the Greek word λέων, leon, meaning lion, πτέρυξ, pteryx, meaning wing, and the Latin word rex, meaning king);  it is extraordinarily beautiful and powerful jaws capable of halving a banshee in flight.

The sturmbeest, mixture of rhino and buffalo, blue, living in herds

The tetraperton, similar to a  type of four wings flamingo.

The direhorse, tuype of horse, three times larger than terrestrial horses, with neural antennae and six legs perfectly adapted to the terrain.

The Hammerhead Titanothere, huge creature eleven meter long with hammerhead able to break the trees.

Fan Lizard, dancing lizard which unfolds like a Chinese fan.

Hellfire Wasp, similar to a Earth wasp, but with the size of a sparrow

The hexapede, beautiful and fragile creatures that appears on flags and coats of some clans, whose skin has diverse uses.

The prolemuris, which  has four arms to move nimbly through the trees.

The stingbat, aerial predator with a system of highly developed visual navigation.

The thanator, the huge and powerful Pandora's terrible predator, reminiscent of the Terran panther.

The viperwolf, with six legs and a powerful torso, predator walking long distances.

To some readers it will might seem little substantiated this relationship between Lucian of Samosata and James Cameron. I see many similarities. As I said above, I can not imagine in any other way the Horse-vultures  rather than the "Banshee"

Well, the other work, the series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", are heavily influenced by Chinese art, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism and Yoga, but it has  a great resemblance with Lucian’s story.

The  influence is  evident in the process of creating fantastic creatures: in both series, in Lucian in the other one,  many animals are the result of the mixture of several real animals, but with its dimensions increased. The similarity with Lucian therefore seems more than coincidental. Lucian extremes his imagination giving the funniest names to these beings, resulting from the mixture of several. It is true that the Greek language lends itself perfectly to this type of verbal creations that current philologists attempt to decipher. It also seems that the English language lends itself perfectly to these creations.
 

In the series, found among others in the Earth Kingdom: ostrich-horses, used as transportation;  Hog monkey,  Buzazard wasp, singers marmots which attract tourists from all over with their music, purple Pentapus shaped small octopus five eye-five tentacles, platypus bear saber-tooth moose lion, very dangerous animals living in the woods, wolfbat, as large carnivores like wolves and bat with wings, badgermoles, Goat Gorilla,  wooly-pig, pigster, pigs-chickens, and bull-pig, Unagi, a giant eel, Koi fish with the size of an elephant, dragonfly, serpentine lizard that resembles a dragon, sparrowkeet, Canyon crawler, giant insect with four legs, the shirshu, which is a cross between a huge anteater and star-nosed mole, turkey duck, fox antelope, boar-qupine, flying boar, lion vulture, like griffin, mythical creature half lion half eagle, giant rhinoceros beetle, etc. etc. etc.

As I said about Cameron's film, it maybe some opine that the similarity seems very forced; I still think that without the many mythological monsters of Greek, modern imagination would be much reduced and limited.

In the animal world and zoo world, that  is the same but  in Greek cultism, being an "alpha" male means being the roughest and strongest of the group, accumulate a greater quantity of testosterone and have the fastest and most aggressive sperm and consequently have the  exclusivity of  junction  with the females.

In the "homo" gender it is not irrelevant and value to be an "alpha male" in the zoo sense, but the sapiens has many and varied areas of interest in addition to the primary desire of junction.

Eratóstener was  a curious and wise character in Greek Antiquity. He was born in Cyrene circa  276 B.C. and he died in Alexandria in 194 B.C. He lived in Alexandria, where he was director of the famous Library, about which I have dealt extensively in this blog.

He  was a wise mathematician, geographer, astronomer, philosopher, historian, poet, musician, etc. According to Suetonius, he was the first who called himself as “filologus", a philologist".  Among its achievements, which have been left  to posterity, it is the famous "Sieve of Eratosthenes" or  mode and stencil to find prime number and especially the measuring of the circumference of the Earth with minimal error.

It is allocated to him the famous work Catasterisms, which explains 44 constellations of the  visible from Greece sky. The work, as it has been transmitted quite schematic, it is not yours, but he must well have been the author of a larger work  which is today  a mere relic summary for students.

He wrote three books on Geography, in which he exposed his measurement of the circumference of the earth, explained below. He is also author of a Chronography from the Trojan War to Alexander the Great, on  reference to the celebration of the Olympic Games in honor of Zeus. He wrote the "Platonic" dialogue relating the music to mathematics; also he wrote an essay on the cub duplication; an epic poem called Hermes, the elegiac poem Erigone; an extensive work on Old Comedy and the famous  mentioned above treatise  “Catasterisms”.

Well, Eratosthenes was not for his contemporaries an "alpha" but a "beta" and with these  nickname he was called and this not because he was a scholar and second category scientist, but because it was "the second" in all categories and topics of in question.

By this reason he is also called "pentatlos", pentathlete, the best in the whole five sports. (compound Greek word from penta = five and ahtlos = competition). Others called him "the second Plato." All this is told in the Suda (Greek encyclopedia of X century), in  Ἐρατοσθένης, ε 2898 according to the numbering of Adler

Anyway, just  the gentle reader may compile clearly a long list of men "beta", of second men, whom  mankind is indebted for their  many positive contributions. They had the wisdom and intelligence to leave the first place, the "alpha" place ,for absolutely expendable people.

As I stated,  in the Suda (tenth century Greek encyclopedia) in entry Ἐρατοσθένης, ε 2898 according to the numbering of Adler, we are informed of it:

Son of Aglaus (others say Ambrosius); of Cyrene. A pupil of the philosopher Ariston of Chios, the grammarian Lysanias of Cyrene, and Callimachus the poet. Ptolemy III summoned him from Athens, and he lived until Ptolemy V. Because he came second in every branch of learning to those who had reached the highest level, he was nicknamed 'platforms', βήματα [1] Others called him a second or new Plato, or the 'pentathlete'. He was born in the 126th Olympiad,[276-273 B.C] and died aged 80, giving up food because of his declining eye-sight. He left a distinguished pupil, Aristophanes of Byzantium, whose pupil Aristarchus was in turn.His pupils were Mnaseas, Menander and Aristis. He wrote philosophical works, poems and histories; Astronomy, or Catasterisms; On the Philosophical Sects; On Freedom from Pain; many dialogues; and numerous grammatical works.

[1] βήματα , a mistake for βῆτα (the second letter  in the alphabet).

His measurement of length of the diameter of the Earth with minimal error, without  satellites, radar, telescopes and other modern props, is the result of an intelligence which continues to fascinate us. Definitely it deserves a little explanation.

It is told that reviewing one day a papyrus of Library, he found that it said that on June 21, in the spring solstice, in Siena, near the first cataract of the Nile Egyptian city, at noon you could see the water in fund of the wells and vertical poles did not shaded because the sun was at its zenith. Eratosthenes recalled that this day in Alexandria obelisks shaded shadow forming an angle of 1/50 of a circle, ie, 7.2 ° (degrees). As the sun was far from the earth, the sun's rays impinged parallel sites.  Knowing the distance between Alexandria and Syene was 5,000 stadia, about 800 kms, it was concluded that the share of 7.2 ° (degrees) away; inasmuch as the earth's circumference is 360 degrees, he concluded that the length was 252,000 stadia, equivalent to about 41 142 kms. He was wrong on a percentage laughable. The length in ecuador with today's precision is 40,076 kms.
 

If two parallel straight lines are transected by a third line, the alternate interior angles are equal. Angle B equals angle A; so the length from Alexandria to Syene was 7,2º, about 800 kms.