[9]The term Mundus is used by Pliny, sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible solar system; and at other times the universe; while in some instances it is used in a rather vague manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above designations. I have usually translated it by the term world, as approaching nearest to the sense of the original.
[10]The astronomy of our author is derived mainly from Aristotle.
[11]This theory of the “music of the spheres” was maintained by Pythagoras, but was derided by Aristotle.
[12]The letter Δ, in the constellation of the triangle; but except in this one case, the constellations have no visible resemblance to the objects of which they bear the name.
[13]Iliad, iii. 277, and Od. xii. 323.
[14]The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian deities that were engraved on rings.
[15]His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious.
[16]According to the most approved modern chronology, the middle of the 109th olympiad corresponds to the 211th year of the City, or 542 B.C.
[17]Nothing is known respecting the nature of these instruments.
[18]This is said by Livy to have occurred to Servius Tullius while he was a child; lib. i. cap. 39; and by Virgil to Ascanius, Æn. ii. 632-5.