Book 2, Chapter 44
Original Latin
92 Quae potest igitur contagio ex infinito paene intervallo pertinere ad lunam vel potius ad terram?
Quid? cum dicunt, id quod iis dicere necesse est, omnis omnium ortus, quicumque gignantur in omni terra, quae incolatur, eosdem esse, eademque omnibus, qui eodem statu caeli et stellarum nati sint, accidere necesse esse, nonne eius modi sunt, ut ne caeli quidem naturam interpretes istos caeli nosse appareat? Cum enim illi orbes, qui caelum quasi medium dividunt et aspectum nostrum definiunt, qui a Graecis ὁρίζοντες nominantur, a nobis finientes rectissume nominari possunt, varietatem maxumam habeant aliique in aliis locis sint, necesse est ortus occasusque siderum non fieri eodem tempore apud omnis.
93 Quodsi eorum vi caelum modo hoc, modo illo modo temperatur, qui potest eadem vis esse nascentium, cum caeli tanta sit dissimilitudo? In his locis, quae nos incolimus, post solstitium Canicula exoritur, et quidem aliquot diebus, at apud Troglodytas, ut scribitur, ante solstitium, ut, si iam concedamus aliquid vim caelestem ad eos, qui in terra gignuntur, pertinere, confitendum sit illis eos, qui nascuntur eodem tempore, posse in dissimilis incidere naturas propter caeli dissimilitudinem; quod minime illis placet; volunt enim illi omnis eodem tempore ortos, qui ubique sint nati, eadem condicione nasci.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the Latin in separate source-only tasks and reviewed throughout against it. Both books, all 130 chapters and 282 numbered sections; no historical English translation used. Latin transcription credited to the Perseus Project under CC BY-SA 4.0, Müller’s 1915 Teubner edition.
92 “What influence, then, could reach the moon—or rather the earth—across an almost infinite distance?
“Again, when they say, as they must, that all those born at a given moment anywhere on the inhabited earth have the same ascendant, and that the same things must happen to all who are born under the same configuration of sky and stars, do they not reveal that these interpreters of the heavens do not even understand the heavens’ nature? The circles that seem to divide the sky in half and set the limits of our vision, called ὁρίζοντες, ‘horizons,’ by the Greeks and quite properly ‘bounding circles’ in our language, differ enormously from place to place. The stars therefore cannot rise and set at the same time for everyone.
93 “If the stars’ power gives the atmosphere now one condition, now another, how can the influence on newborn children be the same when the heavens differ so greatly? Where we live, the Dog Star rises after the solstice, several days after it in fact; but among the Troglodytes, we are told, it rises before the solstice. Even if we now concede that heavenly power has some effect on creatures born on earth, they must admit that children born at the same time can have different natures because their skies differ. But that is precisely what they refuse to accept: they insist that everyone born at the same time, wherever the birth takes place, is born under the same conditions.
Plain English translation
Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation, made independently and directly from the Latin, never from the Musean edition. Both books and every numbered section; a separate Latin-source model review covered the entire text. No human specialist review is claimed.
92 “So what influence can reach the moon, or rather the earth, from a distance that is almost infinite?
“They say, as their theory forces them to, that everyone born at the same time anywhere on the inhabited earth has the same rising sign. Everyone born under the same arrangement of the sky and stars must have the same experiences. Doesn't this show that these interpreters of the sky do not even understand how the sky works? What we can see is bounded by circles that, as it were, cut the sky in two; these vary enormously with location. The Greeks call them ‘horizons,’ and we could very properly call them ‘boundaries’ in Latin. With these boundaries changing from place to place, the stars must rise and set at different times for different observers.
93 “If the stars' force produces different conditions in the sky, how can that force have the same effect on newborns when their skies differ so much? Where we live, the Dog Star rises after the summer solstice, several days after it in fact. But among the Troglodytes, according to the accounts, it rises before the solstice. Even if we allow that the force of the heavens has some effect on creatures born on earth, the astrologers must admit that people born at the same time can receive different natures because of differences in the sky. That is just what they will not accept. They insist that everyone born at the same time is born under the same conditions, wherever the birth takes place.
About this section
Book 2, Chapter 44 is part of On Divination by Marcus Tullius Cicero. This page sets the Latin original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 102 of 130 in the work, which is kept in the Roman tradition.
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