CHAP. 25.—EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY OF CELESTIAL PRODIGIES;
FACES, LAMPADES, AND BOLIDES[1].
The faces shine brilliantly, but they are never seen
excepting when they are falling[2] one of these darted across the
heavens, in the sight of all the people, at noon-day, when
Germanicus Cæsar was exhibiting a show of gladiators[3].
There are two kinds of them; those which are called lampades
and those which are called bolides, one of which latter was
seen during the troubles at Mutina[4]. They differ from each
other in this respect, that the faces produce a long train of
light, the fore-part only being on fire; while the bolides, being
entirely in a state of combustion, leave a still longer track
behind them.
1. The terms "faces," "lampades," "bolides," and "trabes," literally
torches, lamps, darts, and beams, which are employed to express different
kinds of meteors, have no corresponding words in English which would
correctly designate them.
2. From this account it would appear, that the "fax" was what we
term a falling star. "Meteora ista, super cervices nostras transeuntia,
diversaque a stellis labentibus, modo aërolithis ascribenda sunt,
modo vaporibus incensis aut electrica vi prognata videntur, et
quamvis frequentissime recurrant, explicatione adhuc incerta
indigent." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 302.
3. Seneca refers to this meteor; "Vidimus non semel flammam ingenti
pilæ specie, quæ tamen in ipso cursu suo dissipata est....nec Germanici
mors sine tali demonstratione fuit;" Nat. Quæst. lib. i. cap. 1. p.
683.
4. This meteor is mentioned by Dion Cassius, lib. xlv. p. 278, but is
described by him as a lampas.