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first century have to take this factor into account when they are using texts from this period as historical sources.
Mouseion. Series III. Vol. S (200S) IIS-134 ©2oo5 Mouseion NOCTES MANILIANAE: THE TERMINAL ORNAMENT IN BOOK III' ALEXANDER MACGREGOR Book 3 ends (618-82) with a description of the four Tropic signs and the Seasons that they inaugurate: first Cancer and Capricorn. properly the "tropics" so-called; then Aries and Libra at the vernal and autumnal equinox. with a vignette of the Season characteristic of each sign; d. 2.178. This paper contends that the passage is integral to the book, a panoramic climax that links heaven and earth. Moreover. it contains a hitherto unrecognized authorial sphragis, a "signature" or token of the poet's neo-Platonic or rather Pythagorean allegiance. The critical consensus dismisses the passage as a "terminal ornament."2 The oft-repeated phrase is Housman's (52.xlvi: on 5.710-45. condemned on similar grounds): "Having professed that he is teaching what powers the four tropic signs enjoy in astrology (mathematica arte). the poet merely proffers commonplaces and generalities. Nor for the most part are they doctrines explained at greater length by other astrologers (astroJogorum), of which several are given at 5.678. In fact. a purple patch is being sewn on the end of the book-or rather a patch tricked out in four colors-and not very well at that. For the conjunctions sed tamen ('but still' in 3.618), which do not refer to 3.586 or anywhere else with ease. merely inject a deceptive appearance of propositions succeeding each other in order? though in fact what is related of I Translations are by the author unless noted otherwise. I would like to thank my colleagues M.W. Dickie. A. Kershaw. and W. Wycislo for their advice and criticism. as well as the anonymous readers of Mouseion. 2 The consensus consists of Housman followed by Goold and Bailey. Goold (1977) first invokes Housman. then labels the passage "a poetical description" (lxxxi) without discussing either the poetry or the description. Bailey (1979) 168 rejects a generally received conjecture (on S.217) as "a little too artificial for even that poet," as if poetry were ever "natural" in Latin or anywhere else. Such condescensions would carry more weight if they were not tautologies as well. The passage is ignored by Volk. who is concerned with a theory of didactic. Hubner's admirable monograph, pace its inclusive title, explicates the poet solely in terms of later judicial astrology, which was planetary. Granted some overlap, it is a mismatch; d. n. TO below. :1 The doubled adversatives sed tamen could hardly "succeed" anything. even if the work consisted of Euclidean propositions. In fact, the conjunctions point a contrast with the apparent climax of the book, the allocation of the lifespan at 115
Page 1 and 2: M OUSEION JOURNAL OF THE CLASSICAL
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Page 13 and 14: NOcrES MANILIANAE 117 astrologers a
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MOUSEION - Memorial University of Newfoundland

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