[367] Corresponding to the 10th of May.
[368] According to the Roman calendar, this corresponds to the 20th July, but, according to the text, to the 17th. Columella says, that the sun enters Leo on the 13th of the Calends of August; xi. 2.
[369] “quasi præcursores;” Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 335. Cicero refers to these winds in one of his letters to Atticus; xiv. 6.
[370] ἐτησίαι, ab ἔτος, annus.
[371] This will be on the 13th of September, as, according to our author, xviii. 24, the equinox is on the 24th.
[372] This corresponds to the 11th of November; forty-four days before this will be the 29th of September.
[373] Or Halcyonides. This topic is considered more at length in a subsequent part of the work; x. 47.
[374] The author, as it appears, portions out the whole of the year into fourteen periods, during most of which certain winds are said to blow, or, at least, to be decidedly prevalent. Although the winds of Italy are less irregular than those of England, Pliny has considerably exaggerated the real fact.
[375] On this subject the reader may peruse the remarks of Seneca, Nat. Quæst. v. 18, written in his style of flowery declamation.
[376] The greatest part of the remarks on the nature of the winds, in this chapter, would appear to be taken from Aristotle’s Treatise De Meteor., and it may be stated generally, that our author has formed his opinions more upon those of the Greek writers than upon actual observation.