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CHAP. 25.—EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY OF CELESTIAL PRODIGIES; FACES, LAMPADES, AND BOLIDES1.

The faces shine brilliantly, but they are never seen excepting when they are falling2 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 gladiators3. 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 Mutina4. 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.

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