[16,0] LIVRE XVI (fragments).

[16,0] Excerpts from Book XVI.

[16,1] Ῥωμαίων εἰς τὸν κατὰ Σαυνιτῶν τελευταῖον πόλεμον ἐξιόντων κεραυνὸς εἰς τὸν ἐπιφανέστατον τόπον κατασκήψας πέντε μὲν στρατιώτας ἀπέκτεινε, δύο δὲ σημείας διέφθειρεν, ὅπλα δὲ πολλὰ τὰ μὲν κατέκαυσε, τὰ δ´ ἐσπίλωσε. κεραυνοὶ δὲ κατηνέχθησαν τοῖς ἔργοις ἔτυμον φέροντες τοὔνομα· κεραϊσμοὶ γάρ τινές εἰσι καὶ μεταβολαὶ τῶν ὑποκειμένων εἰς τἀναντία τρέποντες τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας τύχας. αὐτὸ γὰρ πρῶτον ἠνάγκασται τὴν ἰδίαν ἀλλάξαι φύσιν τὸ κεραύνιον πῦρ, εἴτε δὴ αἴθριον εἴτε μετάρσιόν ἐστι, κάτω φερόμενον· οὐ γὰρ δὴ αὐτῷ θέμις ἐπὶ γῆν βρίθειν κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν, ἀλλ´ ἀπὸ γῆς ἄνω μετεωροπολεῖν· ἐν αἰθέρι γὰρ αἱ πηγαὶ τοῦ θείου πυρός. Δηλοῖ δὲ καὶ τὸ πῦρ τὸ παρ´ ἡμῖν, εἴτε Προμηθέως εἴτε Ἡφαίστου δῶρόν ἐστιν, ὁπότε λύσειε τοὺς δεσμούς, ἐν οἷς ἠνάγκασται μένειν, δι´ ἀέρος ἄνω φερόμενον ἐπὶ τὸ συγγενὲς ἐκεῖνο καὶ πᾶσαν ἐν κύκλῳ περιειληφὸς τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φύσιν. τὸ δὴ θεῖον ἐκεῖνο καὶ χωρισθὲν ὕλης φθαρτῆς δι´ ἀέρος ὀχούμενον, ὅταν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καταφέρηται, βιασθὲν ὑπ´ ἀνάγκης τινὸς ἰσχυρᾶς μεταβολὰς μαντεύεται καὶ τροπὰς ἐπὶ τοὔμπαλιν. Τοιούτου γοῦν τινος γενομένου καὶ τότε καταφρονήσαντες οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι καὶ ὑπὸ Ποντίου τοῦ Σαυνίτου κατακλεισθέντες εἰς ἀνεξόδους δυσχωρίας, μέλλοντες ἤδη τῷ λιμῷ διαφθείρεσθαι παρέδωκαν ἑαυτοὺς τοῖς πολεμίοις ἀμφὶ τοὺς τετρακισμυρίους ὄντες· καὶ καταλείψαντες τά τε ὅπλα καὶ τὰ χρήματα τὸν ζυγὸν ἅπαντες ὑπῆλθον· τοῦτο δὲ σημεῖον τῶν ὑπὸ χεῖρας ἐλθόντων ἐστί. μετ´ οὐ πολὺ δὲ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὁ Πόντιος ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων ἔπαθε, καὶ τὸν ζυγὸν ὑπῆλθον καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ.

[16,1] (1) When the Romans were setting out for their last war against the Samnites, a thunderbolt struck in the most conspicuous spot, killing five soldiers, destroying two standards, and either burning or tarnishing many weapons. The thunderbolts (keraunoi) that descend bear a name truly descriptive of their effects; for they are devastations (keraïsmoi) of a sort and transformations of the underlying substances, reversing mortal fortunes. 2 For, in the first place, the bolt's fire itself is compelled to change its own nature as it rushes down, whether its natural abode is the ethereal space or the region immediately above the earth; for it is not meet for it, in view of its inherent nature, to gravitate earthward, but rather to move aloft away from the earth, since it is in the ether that the sources of the divine fire are found. 3 (2) This is shown even by the fire that we know — whether this be the gift of Prometheus or of Hephaestus — which, whenever it bursts the bounds in which it has been forced to remain, leaps upward (p317) through the air to that kindred fire which embraces the whole universe round about. Hence that fire which is divine and separated from corruptible matter as it roams through the ether, when it descends to the earth under the compulsion of some drastic necessity, portends changes and reversals. 4 (3) At any rate, when some such portent occurred also at the time in question, the Romans scorned it, and having been hemmed in by Pontius the Samnite into a difficult position from which escape was impossible, when they were now on the point of perishing from famine, they surrendered themselves, about 40,000 in number, to the enemy; and leaving behind their arms and effects, they all passed under the yoke, which is a token that men have come under the power of others. But not long afterwards Pontius also suffered the same fate at the hands of the Romans, when both he himself and those with him passed under the yoke.