[485] “Tropici duo, cum æquinoctiali circulo;” Hardouin, in Lemaire, i. 384.
[486] The Troglodytice of the ancients may be considered as nearly corresponding to the modern Abyssinia and Nubia.
[487] This remark is incorrect, as far as respects nearly the whole of Egypt; see the remarks of Marcus, in Ajasson, ii. 245.
[488] This is a star of the first magnitude in the southern constellation of Argo; we have a similar statement in Manilius, i. 216, 217.
[489] The commentators suppose that the star or constellation here referred to cannot be the same with what bears this name on the modern celestial atlas; vide Hardouin in loco, also Marc. in Ajasson, ut supra. The constellation of Berenice’s hair forms the subject of Catullus’s 67th poem.
[490] In Troglodytice and in Egypt.
[491] The first watch of the night was from 6 P.M. to 9; the second from 9 to midnight.
[492] According to Columella, xi. 2. 369, this was 9 Calend. Mart., corresponding to the 21st of February.
[493] “In alia adverso, in alia prono mari.” I have adopted the opinion of Alexandre, who explains the terms “adverso” and “prono,” “ascendenti ad polum,” and “ad austrum devexo;” a similar sense is given to the passage by Poinsinet and Ajasson, in their translations.
[494] “Anfractu pilæ.” See Manilius, i. 206 et seq. for a similar mode of expression.