The Astronomica , also known as the Astronomicon, is a Latin didactic poem about celestial phenomena, written in hexameters and divided into five books. The Astronomica was written c. AD 30–40 by a Roman poet whose name was likely Marcus Manilius; little is known of Manilius, and although there is evidence that the Astronomica was probably read by many other Roman writers, no surviving works explicitly quote him.
“It is easy to spread the sails to propitious winds, and to cultivate in different ways a rich soil, and to give lustre to gold and ivory, when the very raw material itself shines.”
Facile est ventis dare vela secundis,
Fecundumque solum varias agitare per artes,
Auroque atque ebori decus addere, cum rudis ipsa
Materies niteat.
Book III, line 26.
Astronomica
“Every one is in a small way the image of God.”
Exemplumque dei quisque est in imagine parva.
Book IV, line 895.
Astronomica
“Labor is itself a pleasure.”
Labor est etiam ipse voluptas.
Variant translation (reading ipsa): Even pleasure itself is a toil.
Book IV, line 155. Explained by Housman ad loc. The first reading is the correct one in the context.
Astronomica
“Man must be so weighed as though there were a God within him.”
Impendendus homo est, deus esse ut possit in ipso.
Book IV, line 407.
Astronomica
“No barriers, no masses of matter, however enormous, can withstand the powers of the mind. The remotest corners yield to them; all things succumb, the very heaven itself is laid open.”
Rationi nulla resistunt.
Claustra nec immensæ moles, ceduntque recessus:
Omnia succumbunt, ipsum est penetrabile cœlum.
Book I, line 541.
Astronomica
“Experience is always sowing the seed of one thing after another.”
Semper enim ex aliis alias proseminat usus.
Book I, line 90.
Astronomica
“As we are born we die, and the end commences with the beginning.”
Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.
Book IV, line 16. Quoted by Michel de Montaigne in Essays (1580), Book I, Chapter 19.
Variant translation: When we are born we die, our end is but the pendant of our beginning.
Astronomica
“By several proofs experience art has made,
Example being guide.”
Per varios usus artem experientia fecit,
Exemplo monstrante viam.
Book I, line 61. Quoted by Michel de Montaigne in Essays, Vol. III, Ch. 13 (tr. Charles Cotton).
Variant translation: Experience, after many trials, perfected the art, example showing the way.
Astronomica
“We are always beginning to live, but are never living.”
Victuros agimus semper, nec vivimus unquam.
Book IV, line 5.
Astronomica
“Who can know heaven except by its gifts? and who can find out God, unless the man who is himself an emanation from God?”
Quis cœlum possit nisi cœli munere nosse?
Et reperire deum nisi qui pars ipse deorum est?
Astronomica
“Seek not the measure of matter; fix your gaze
Upon the power of reason, not of bulk;
For reason 'tis that all things overcomes.”
Materiae ne quaere modum; sed perspice vires
Quas ratio, non pondus habet; ratio omnia vincit.
Materiae ne quaere modum; sed perspice vires
Quas ratio, non pondus habet; ratio omnia vincit.
Book IV, line 924, as reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897), p. 130.
Astronomica
“Who can believe that all these mighty works
Have grown, unaided by the hand of God,
From small beginnings? that the law is blind
by which the world was made?”
Quis credat tantas operum sine numine moles
Ex minimis, caecoque creatum foedere mundum?
Book I, line 492, as reported in Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897) by T. B. Harbottle, p. 240.
Astronomica
“How many realms since Troy have been o'erthrown?
How many nations captive led? How oft
Has Fortune up and down throughout the world
Changed slavery for dominion?”
Quot post excidium Trojae sunt eruta regna?
Quot capti populi? quoties Fortuna per orbem
Servitium imperiumque tulit, varieque revertit?
Book I, line 506, as reported in Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897) by T. B. Harbottle, p. 248.
Astronomica
“Death's law brings change to all created things;
Lands cease to know themselves as years roll on.
As centuries pass, e'en nations change their form,
Yet safe the world remains, with all it holds.”
Omnia mortali mutantur lege creata,
Nec se cognoscunt terræ vertentibus annis,
Et mutant variam faciem per sæcula gentes,
At manet incolumis mundus suaque omnia servat.
Book I, line 515, as reported in Dictionary of Quotations (classical) (1897) by T. B. Harbottle, p. 197.
G. P. Goold's translation: Everything born to a mortal existence is subject to change, nor does the earth notice that, despoiled by the passing years, it bears an appearance which varies through the ages.
Variant translation (disputed): Everything that is created is changed by the laws of man; the earth does not know itself in the revolution of years; even the races of man assume various forms in the course of ages.
Astronomica
“Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet.”
As we are born we die, and the end commences with the beginning.
Book IV, line 16. Quoted by Michel de Montaigne in Essays (1580), Book I, Chapter 19.
Variant translation: When we are born we die, our end is but the pendant of our beginning.
Astronomica
