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Seneca’s ‘Quæstiones Naturales,’ Lib. I. c. xiv. Description of Auroræ.

In Seneca’s ‘Quæstiones Naturales,’ Lib. I. c. xiv., we find the following:—“Tempus est, alios quoque ignes percurrere, quorum diversæ figuræ sunt. Aliquando emicat stella, aliquando ardores sunt, aliquando fixi et hærentes, nonnunquam volubiles. Horum plura genera conspiciantur. Sunt Bothynoë[1], quum velut corona cingente introrsus igneus cœli recessus est similis effossæ in orbem speluncæ. Sunt Pithitæ[2], quum magnitudo vasti rotundique ignis dolio similis, vel fertur vel in uno loco flagrat. Sunt Chasmata[3], quum aliquod cœli spatium desedit, et flammam dehiscens, velut in abdito, ostentat. Colores quoque omnium horum plurimi sunt. Quidam ruboris acerrimi, quidam evanidæ ac levis flammæ, quidam candidæ lucis, quidam micantes, quidam æqualiter et sine eruptionibus aut radiis fulvi.

…

Seneca, c. xv.

C. xv. “Inter hæc ponas licet et quod frequenter in historiis legimus, cœlum ardere visum: cujus nonnunquam tam sublimis ardor est ut inter ipsa sidera videatur, nonnunquam tam humilis ut speciem longinqui incendii præbeat.

“Sub Tiberio Cæsare cohortes in auxilium Ostiensis coloniæ cucurrerunt, tanquam conflagrantis, quum cœli ardor fuisset per magnam partem noctis, parum lucidus crassi fumidique ignis.”

Translation.

We may translate this:—“It is time other fires also to describe, of which there are diverse forms.

“Sometimes a star shines forth; at times there are fire-glows, sometimes fixed and persistent, sometimes flitting. Of these many sorts may be distinguished. There are Bothynoë, when, as within a surrounding corona, the fiery recess of the sky is like to a cave dug out of space. There are Pithitæ, when the expanse of a vast and rounded fire similar to a tub (dolium) is either carried about or glows in one spot.

“There are Chasmata, when a certain portion of the sky opens, and gaping displays the flame as in a porch. The colours also of all these are many. Certain are of the brightest red, some of a flitting and light flame-colour, some of a white light, others shining, some steadily and yellow without eruptions or rays.

…

“Amongst these we may notice, what we frequently read of in history, the sky is seen to burn, the glow of which is occasionally so high that it may be seen amongst the stars themselves, sometimes so near the Earth (humilis) that it assumes the form of a distant fire. Under Tiberius Cæsar the cohorts ran together in aid of the colony of Ostia as if it were in flames, when the glowing of the sky lasted through a great part of the night, shining dimly like a vast and smoking fire.”

Auroræ frequently read of in history.

From the above passages many striking particulars of the Aurora may be gathered; and by the division of the forms of Aurora into classes it is evident they were, at that period, the subject of frequent observation. The expression “et quod frequenter in historiis legimus” shows, too, that the phenomena of Auroral displays were a matter of record and discussion with the writers of the day.

Various forms of Aurora may be recognized in the passages from Chap. xiv.; while in those from Chap. xv. a careful distinction is drawn between the Auroræ seen in the zenith or the upper regions of the sky, and those seen on the horizon or apparently (and no doubt in some cases actually) near the Earth’s surface.

A spurious Aurora.

The description of the cohorts running to the fire only to find it an Aurora, calls to mind the many similar events happening in our own days. Not, however, but that a mistake may sometimes occur in an opposite direction. In the memoirs of Baron Stockmar an amusing anecdote is related of one Herr von Radowitz, who was given to making the most of easily picked up information. A friend of the Baron’s went to an evening party near Frankfort, where he expected to meet Herr von Radowitz. On his way he saw a barn burning, stopped his carriage, assisted the people, and waited till the flames were nearly extinguished. When he arrived at his friend’s house he found Herr von Radowitz, who had previously taken the party to the top of the building to see an Aurora, dilating on terrestrial magnetism, electricity, and so forth. Radowitz asked Stockmar’s friend, “Have you seen the beautiful Aurora Borealis?” He replied, “Certainly; I was there myself; it will soon be over.” An explanation followed as to the barn on fire: Radowitz was silent some ten minutes, then took up his hat and quietly disappeared.

Auroræ as portents.

It is probable that many of the phantom combats which are recorded to have appeared in forms of fire in the air on the evenings preceding great battles might be traced to Auroræ, invested with distinct characteristics by the imagination of the beholders. Auroræ are said to have appeared in the shape of armies of horse and foot engaged in battle in the sky before the death of Julius Cæsar, which they were supposed to foretell. For more than a year before the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian, the Aurora was said to have been frequently visible in Palestine.

Josephus, in his ‘Wars of the Jews’ (Whiston’s Translation, Book VI. chap. v. sect. 3), in referring to the signs and wonders preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, speaks of a star or comet, and that a great light shone round about the altar and the holy house, which light lasted for half an hour, and that a few days after the feast of unleavened bread a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared—“for before sunsetting chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.” (This, if an Aurora, must have been an instance of a daylight one.)

We find in Book II. of Maccabees, chap. v. verses 1, 2, 3, 4 (B.C. about 176 years):—

“1. About this same time Antiochus prepared his second voyage into Egypt:

“2. And then it happened that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there were seen horsemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed with lances like a band of soldiers.

“3. And troops of horsemen in array, encountering and running one against another, with shaking of shields and multitude of pikes, and drawing of swords and casting of darts, and glittering of golden ornaments and harness of all sorts.

“4. Wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turn to good.”

Early descriptions of Auroræ.

In Aristotle’s ‘De Meteoris,’ Lib. I. c. iv. and v., the Aurora is described as an appearance resembling flame mingled with smoke, and of a purple red or blue colour. Pliny (Lib. II. c. xxvii.) speaks of a bloody appearance of the heavens which seemed like a fire descending on the earth, seen in the third year of the 107th Olympiad, and of a light seen in the nighttime equal to the brightness of the day, in the Consulship of Cæcilius and Papirius (Lib. II. c. xxxiii.), both of which may be referred to Auroræ.

In the ‘Annals of Philosophy,’ vol. ix. p. 250, it is stated that the Aurora among English writers is first described by Matthew of Westminster, who relates that in A.D. 555 lances were seen in the air (“quasi species lancearum in aëre visæ sunt a septentrionali usque ad occidentem”).

In the article in the ‘Edinb. Encyc.’ vol. iii. (1830), the Aurora (known to the vulgar as “streamers” or “merry dancers”) is distinguished in two kinds—the “tranquil” and the “varying.” Musschenbroek enumerates as forms:—trabs, “the beam,” an oblong tract parallel to the horizon; sagitta, “the arrow;” faces, “the torch;” capra saltans, “the dancing goat;” bothynoë, “the cave,” a luminous cloud having the appearance of a recess or hollow in the heavens, surrounded by a corona; pithiæ, “the tun,” an Aurora resembling a large luminous cask. The two sorts of Auroræ distinguished as the “bothynoë” and “pithiæ” are evidently taken from the passage in Seneca’s ‘Quæstiones’ before quoted. In ‘Liberti Fromondi Meteorologicorum’ (London, 1656), Lib. II. cap. v. “De Meteoris supremæ regionis aëris,” art. 1. De Capra, Trabe, Pyramide, &c., these and other fantastic forms attributable to Auroræ are more fully described.

In the article “Aurora Polaris,” Encyc. Brit. edit. ix., we find noted that from a curious passage in Sirr’s ‘Ceylon and the Cingalese,’ vol. ii. p. 117, it would seem that the Aurora, or something like it, is visible occasionally in Ceylon, where the natives call it “Buddha Lights,” and that in many parts of Ireland a scarlet Aurora is supposed to be a shower of blood. The earliest mentioned Aurora (in Ireland) was in 688, in the ‘Annals of Cloon-mac-noise,’ after a battle between Leinster and Munster, in which Foylcher O’Moyloyer was slain.

In the article in the Edinb. Encyc. before referred to it is stated that it was not much more than a century ago that the phenomenon had been noticed to occur with frequency in our latitudes.

Dr. Halley had begun to despair of seeing one till the fine display of 1716.

Early notices of Auroræ not frequent in our latitudes.

The first account on record in an English work is said to be in a book entitled ‘A Description of Meteors by W. F. D. D.’ (reprinted, London, 1654), which speaks of “burning spears” being seen January 30, 1560. The next is recorded by Stow as occurring on October 7, 1564; and, according to Stow and Camden, an Aurora was seen on two nights, 14th and 15th November, 1574.

Twice, again, an Aurora was seen in Brabant, 13th February and 28th September, 1575. Cornelius Gemma compared these to spears, fortified cities, and armies fighting in the air. Auroræ were seen in 1580 and 1581 in Wirtemberg, Germany.

Then we have no record till 1621, when an Aurora, described by Gassendi in his ‘Physics,’ was seen all over France, September 2nd of that year.

In November 1623 another, described by Kepler, was seen all over Germany.

From 1666 to 1716 no appearance is recorded in the ‘Transactions of the French Academy of Sciences;’ but in 1707 one was seen in Ireland and at Copenhagen; while in 1707 and 1708 the Aurora was seen five times.

The Aurora of 1716, occurring after an interval of eighty years, which Dr. Halley describes, was very brilliant and extended over much country, being seen from the west of Ireland to the confines of Russia and the east of Poland, extending nearly 30° of longitude, and from about the 50th degree of latitude, over almost all the north of Europe, and in all places exhibiting at the same time appearances similar to those observed in London. An Aurora observed in Bologna in 1723 was stated to be the first that had ever been seen there; and one recorded in the ‘Berlin Miscellany’ for 1797 is called a very unusual phenomenon. Nor did Auroræ appear more frequent in the Polar Regions at that time, for Cælius states that the oldest inhabitants of Upsala considered the phenomenon as quite rare before 1716. Anderson, of Hamburg, writing about the same time, says that in Iceland the inhabitants themselves were astonished at the frequent Auroræ then beginning to take place; while Torfæus, the Icelander, who wrote in 1706, was old enough to remember the time when the Aurora was an object of terror in his native country.

According to M. Mairan, 1441 Auroræ were observed between A.D. 583 and 1751, of which 972 were observed in the winter half-years and 469 during the summer half-years. In our next Chapter we propose to give some general descriptions of Auroræ from comparatively early sources.