[41] Does this refer to Otho’s encouragement by the astrologer Ptolemy to rebel against Galba? See Tacitus, Hist., I, 22. The sentence does not appear in Sextus.
[42] Sextus says 9977 years.
[43] φθάσει συνδραμεῖν, “arrive at concurrence with.” Sextus answers the question in the negative.
[44] Here the quotations from Sextus end.
[45] παρ’ ἔθνεσι “among the nations.” A curious expression in the mouth of a Greek, although natural to a Jew.
[46] Is this an allusion to trigonometry? The rest of the sentence, as will presently be seen, refers to Plato’s Timæus. Cf. also Timæus the Locrian, c. 5.
[47] Διὸ τοῖς ἐπιτόμοις χρησάμενος. An indication that Hippolytus’ knowledge of Plato was not first-hand.
[48] The passage which follows is from the Timæus, XII, where Plato describes how the World-maker set in motion two concentric circles revolving different ways, the external called the Same and Like, and the internal the Other, or Different.
[49] This seems to be generally accepted as Plato’s meaning. Jowett says the three are the orbits of the Sun, Venus and Mercury, the four those of the Moon, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. The Wanderers are of course the planets.
[50] i. e., swifter and slower.