e reign of Philadelphus. He is the first astronomer who
is known to have taken the true view of the solar system. He said that
the sun was the centre round which the earth moved in a circle; and, as
if he had foreseen that even in after ages we should hardly be able to
measure the distance of the fixed stars, he said that the earth's yearly
path bore no greater proportion to the hollow globe of the heavens in
which the stars were set, than the point without size in the centre of a
circle does to its circumference. But the work in which he proved these
great truths, or perhaps threw out these happy guesses, is lost; and the
astronomers who followed him clung to the old belief that the earth was
the centre round which the sun moved. The only writings of Aristarchus
which now remain are his short work on the distances and magnitude of
the sun and moon, in which the error in his results arises from the want
of good observations, rather than from any mistake in his mathematical
principles.

Aratus, who was born in Cilicia, is sometimes counted among the
pleiades, or seven stars of Alexandria. His _Phenomena_ is a short
astronomical poem, without life or feeling, which scarcely aims at
any of the grace or flow of poetry. It describes the planets and the
constellations one by one, and tells us what stars are seen in the head,
feet, and other parts of each figure; and then the seasons, and the
stars seen at night at each time of the year. When maps were little
known, it must have been of great use, to learners; and its being in
verse made it the more easy to remember. The value which the
ancients set upon this poem is curiously shown by the number of Latin
translations which were made from it. Cicero in his early youth, before
he was known as an orator or philosopher, perhaps before he himself knew
in which path of letters he was soon to take the lead, translated this
poem. The next translation is by Germanicus Caesar, whose early death
and many good qualities have thrown such a bright light upon his name.
He shone as a general, as an orator, and as an author; but his Greek
comedies, his Latin orations, and his poem on Augustus are lost, while
his translation of Aratus is all that is left to prove that this high
name in literature was not given to him for his political virtues alone.
Lastly Avienus, a writer in the reign of Diocletian, or perhaps
of Theodosius, has left a rugged, unpolished translation of this
much-valued poem.