Schottus ad Pighii Annal. as likewise Ursinus in Numism Gentis Caecil Vide etiam de Origine hujus Nominis Meurs Exercit. Critie part 2. p. 108. Metelli signal for their Noble Name u Marcus Porcius Cato call'd Uticensis from Utica the Place of his Death and Minor to distinguish him from Cato Major or Censorinus thus character'd in Velleius Paterculus Per omnia Ingenio Diis quà m Hominibus propior Omnibus humanis vitiis immunis semper fortunam in sua Potestate habuit The great Assertor of the Roman Liberty in time of the Civil wars between Pompey and Caesar chosing rather to dy in freedom by his own Hand than to fall a Captive into those of the Conqueror Of whose resolute and Heroick Death see Seneca l. de Providentia and almost every where else And particularly Dion Cassius l. 43. This is further observable of him that though he himself chose rather to dy than to submit to Caesar yet at his Death he perswaded his Son to do so giving for it this Reason That he having always liv'd in Liberty and a free State could not in his old Age be brought to change that manner of life and subject himself to a servile condition but for his Son he being born and having lived in other Times he advised him to comply with the Fortune that should be offered him See Dion Cassius loco citato Which Reason is likewise hinted at by Cicero in primo de Offiâ—… Caeteris forsitan vitio datum esset si se interemisseâ—…t propterea quod eorum vita lenior mores fuerunt faciliores Catoni autem cum incredibilem tribuisset Natura Gravitatem eamque ipse perpetuâ Constantiâ corroboravisset semperque in proposito susceptâ—…que consilio permansisseâ—… moriendum potius quà m Tyranni vultus aspiciendus fuit Manilius elsewhere l. 4. calls him Invictum devictâ Morte Catonem Cato who Fortune ev'n in Death o'rcame x Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa though of a mean Family by his Merits and Valour attained to that eminent Degree as to be Second in the Empire under Augustus and to become his Son in Law Of which thus Taciâ—…us in primo Annal Marcum Agrippam ignobilem loco bonum Militiae Victoriae Sâ—…cium geminatis Consulatibus extulit mox defuncto Marcello Generum sumpsit Vellâ—…ius Paterculus giving this further Elogy of him That he was Virtutis Nobilissimae Labore Vigiliâ periculo invictus parendique sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus per omnia extra dilationes posiâ—…us consultisque facta conjungens To whom Augustus may justly be said to owe the Establishment of his Throne aud Empire by those 2 Memorable Victories gain'd by his Conduct and Valour over Sextus Pompeius near Sicily and Marcus Antonius near Actium for which he merited a Naval Crown Yet this great Statesman and Souldier the latter of which he was even born as Manilius here intimates for we read with Scaliger upon his last and better thoughts Matrisque sub Armis not Martis by Armis understanding Armos i. e. Ulnas not Arma as if sub ipsa Matre cum lacte imbibisset Militarem Scientiam Though we cannot but here acknowledge the Interpretation of Spanhemius in Dissertat de Numism to be very ingenious who understands by Matris Patriae seu Romae belligerantis that Title of Mater being often by the Antients apply'd to Rome was of that equal and moderate Temper that he never advis'd Augustus to any Actions but those of Humanity Honour and Publick Utility the Glory whereof he never arrogated to himself nor made of the great Honours and high Charges conferred upon him any Advantages to his own private Gain and Pleasure but converted and applyed them wholly to the profit of his Prince and Country Indelible Characters of an excellent Subject and Patriot Agrippa Souldier from his Mothers Brest y Meaning Iulius Caesar of whom 〈◊〉 Pâ—…rculus l. 2. Nobilissimá Iuliorum genitus Familiâ quâ—…d inter omnes Antiquâ—…ssimos constabat ab Anchise ac Venere duceus Genus The Iulian Family taking its Name from â—…lus the Son of Aeneas and Grand-Child of Venus whence Virgil Aeneid l. 1. Niscetur pulâ—…râ Trojanus Origine Caesar Iuâ—…ius à Magno demissum Nomen Iulo. Confirm'd by Livy l. 1. Strabo l. 19. Appian de belio Civil l. 2. and the Testimony of Caesar himself in his Funeral Oration upon Iulia the Wife of Caius Marius his Aunt as recorded by Sueâ—…onius where he thus speaks Amitae Meae Iuliae Maternum Genus ab Regibus orium Paternum cum Diis Immortalibus conjunctum est Nam ab Anco Marcio sunt Reges quo Nomine fuit Maâ—…er A Venere Iulii cujus Gentis Familia est Nostra Hence the Title of VENUS GENETRIX on the Roman Coyns stamped in Honour of Iulius and Augustus and this Inscription mentioned in Gruterus VENERI GENETRICI D. JULI IN MEMORIAM GENTIS JULIAE c. See more to this purpose in Ursinus in Famil Iul. And as to the Pretence of its Original see the same discussed by the 〈◊〉 B chartus in his Particular Tract entituled Num Aeneas unquam fuerit in Italia Venus her Iulian Offspring repossest Of Heaven whence first descended which now proves The Rule of great z 〈◊〉 here questions Manilius for giving to Augustus a share in the Government of Heaven before he 〈◊〉 thither Quare dicit Coelum regi ab Augusto quod nondum tenebat Hoc mortuo melius conveniebat says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Illustrious Critick might have remembred That Augustus was even in his life time such was the 〈◊〉 Adulation of those Times reputed and honoured as a God and had his Priests Altars Sacrifices and 〈◊〉 as is manifest by those Altars with their Inscriptions erected to him at Lyons and Narbon To which 〈◊〉 â—…udes Epist. l. 2. where he says that Augustus had that Praeeminence above either Romulus Bacchus 〈◊〉 or Pollux who were not honoured as Deities till after their Deaths For this Reason Manilius while yet 〈◊〉 gives him a share in the Celestial Government as another Iupiter And hence Philippus in that flattering but 〈◊〉 Epigram of his in Antholog l. 1. upon occasion of a Laurel springing out of an Altar dedicated to Auâ—… at Arragon in Spaine calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 JOVEM AENEADEM Nor did Augustus ' think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself as may appear by his facetious and yet tarâ—… Answer to the Arragonians who told him of that Proâ—…y of the Laurel or rather Palm as Quintilian relates it Apparet inquit quà m sâ—…pe accendatis It is a sign 〈◊〉 he how often you kindle fire there taxing them thereby of Negligence in his Worship For if they had freâ—…ntly sacrificed the Laurel or Palm could not have grown there And that he had equal share with Iove himâ—… in the Vows and Addresses of Suppliants appears by this Antient Inscription found near Nismes in France SANCTITATI JOVIS ET AUGUSTI SACRUM
he were the same with the Author of this Poem have been as he reckons 120 years old when he began to write an ill Age to play the Poet in this Piece being written in the later years of Augustus his Reign But the Author in the Proem of this Work wishes for long life to compleat his intended Poem Wherefore sayes Scaliger certainly he was not then old who wished he might live to be so But leaving this Argument at present to be anon reassumed We shall go on in our further Enquiry The same Pliny l. 36. c. 10. speaks of one Manilius a Mathematician who upon the Obelisque which Augustus erected in the Campus Martius for finding out the Hours of the Day by the Shadow of the Sun with the Increase or Decrease of the Dayes and Nights placed a guilded Ball. Cujus Vertice Umbra colligeretur in seme tipsam alia Incrementa jaculantem Apice ratione ut ferunt à Capite Hominis intellecta sayes Pliny who commends the Design as a Thing worthy of Knowledge and the Invention of a pregnant Wit To this Person Scaliger conceives this Work may with fairer Probability be ascribed than to the former which Opinion is by divers other learned Persons likewise embraced The excellently learned Doctor Isaac Vossius conceives yet that the Manilius Antiochus and the Manilius Mathematicus before mentioned are not two distinct Persons but one and the same under different Titles and Appellations and the very Author of the Poem we now publish Whose Particular Sentiments upon this Subject and Arguments confirming the same he was pleased not long since to impart to Me by his most obliging Letter in Answer to some Queries by Me proposed in one of mine to him upon Occasion of my intended Publication of this Piece which for the Readers Satisfaction I shall here make Publick though not in his own Words yet as near as may be in his own Sence And first in Answer to Scaliger's Argument drawn from Reason of time against Manilius Antiochus upon the Supposition that Staberius Eros one of the three before-mentioned set open his Grammar School in the Time of Sylla ninety five years before the Death of Augustus And that therefore according to Scaligers Computation Manilius could not probably be less than 120 years old at the time when this Poem was written He urges by way of Reply that Suetonius from whom Scaliger takes the Ground of his Argument does not say that Staberius Eros opened his School in Sylla's Time but that he taught Gratis the Children of Those who in Sylla's Time were proscribed The Words of Suetonius are these Sunt qui tradunt tantâ eum scilicet Staberium honestate praeditum ut temporibus Syllanis Proscriptorum Liberos gratis sine Mercede ullâ in Disciplinam receperit How long that was after the Times of Proscription will be needless here to declare and that Manilius was not so old as Scaliger conceives when this Piece was written may be made out from this that he was the Cousin German of Publius Syrus who that he was brought a Young Boy to his Patron Macrobius affirms from whom likewise and from the Verses of Laberius it may not obscurely be collected that he was but a Youth when he came upon the Stage against Laberius which was a little before the Death of Julius Caesar and of Laberius also to whom he succeeded on the Mimick Stage in the second Year of the CLXXXIV Olympiad that is in the Year of Rome DCCXI as Eusebius testifies And therefore seeing it is manifest that Manilius published this Poem soon after the Varian Defeat which hapned in the DCCLXII of Rome it is as evident likewise that between the Youth or Adolescence of Manilius and the Time wherein he writ this Piece there could not pass above one and fifty years and consequently there is no Reason to assign so great an Age to Manilius as Scaliger here does since perhaps he was not Seventy years old when he had finished this his Astronomical Poem As to what Scaliger subjoyns touching Manilius his Wish for long life together with a chearful Old Age and the Inference he thence makes that he could not reasonably be then thought to be Old who wished he might live to be so The Argument is but weak for Senium is one thing and Senium Annosum another Nor does he simply wish Vitam Annosam but Vitam Annosam quae conjuncta sit cum molli Senecta which may be wished for even by those who are very old As for the Name of Antiochus he seems to have taken it from the famous Philosopher Antiochus Ascalonita often mentioned by Cicero Plutarch Sextus Empiricus and others whose School not only Cicero but Varro Brutus and divers others are said to have frequented and in all Probability this our Manilius also as being not only of the same Nation but happily born in the same Town Ascalon So that it may seem no VVonder if after the manner of those Times he took upon him the Name of his worthy Tutor and Instructor For that he was a Syrian is not only manifest from his Consanguinity with Publius Mimus but may likewise be collected from the Title or Inscription of this VVork which in an antient and excellent Manuscript in the Possession of the said Doctor Vossius is this M. MALLII POENI ASTRONOMICON DIVO OCTAVIO QUIRINO AUG That the Phaenicians were by the Romans called POENI is manifest out of Horace Cicero a pud Nonium and our Author in this very Poem He concludes therefore that this our Manilius or as he is rather pleased to call him Manlius was a Phaenician and in all Probability Native of the same Town as Antiochus his Tutor whose Name he assumed From this Dedication of his VVork to Augustus by the Name of Quirinus as the Inscription shews will appear the Error of those who imagine the same to have been dedicated to Tiberius or some later Roman Emperor And the reason of attributing the Name of Quirinus to Augustus may be made clear from the VVords of Suetonius Censentibus quibusdam Romulum appellari oportere quasi ipsum Conditorem Urbis c. Dion likewise tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Augustus Caesar extreamly desired to be called Romulus and Joannes Philadelphensis scripto de Mensibus in Aug. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Octavianus Son of Octavius was after his great Victories honoured with divers Names for by some he was called Quirinus as another Romulus c. As to the other Manilius by Pliny stiled Mathematicus he conceives that Titular Distinction to make no Difference in the Person but that he is the same with the former further adding Omninò existimo illum quoque de Nostro Manilio accipi debere And whereas Salmasius affirms that the Name Manlius or Manilius is not to be found in that Place of Pliny in any antient Manuscripts and therefore ought to be expunged out of the Printed Copies he makes
of which that is the Pillar of Stone he affirms to have been extant in his Time in a Place call'd Syrias or Seirath conceived to be the Land bordering upon Mount Ephraim not far from Iericho Astronomy being thus brought into the World was cultivated and improved by the following Patriarchs who by reason of their long lives had the Opportunity of observing and noting many Astral Revolutions To which end chiefly according to the Opinion of some of the Jewish Doctors the Prolongation of their Lives was by divine Providence in a manner miraculously extended Among whom in this Science the most celebrated is Enoch whose Books upon this Subiect are said to be extant at this Day whence Tertullian and Origen produce several Citations But to what Extent of Improvement this Science was brought before the Flood is uncertain This only from the Testimony of Origen citing the Books of Enoch before mentioned appears That the Stars were then reduced into Asterisms under peculiar and distinct Denominations Touching which Names the said Enoch wrote many secret and mysterious things And Scripture makes it manifest that the Year then as now it is was computed by 〈◊〉 Revolutions of the Moon to one of the Sun 's through the Zodiack For in Genesis it is said that Noah entred into the Ark the 17. Day of the 2. Moneth there is likewise express mention of the 7. and the 10. Moneth and that on the 27. Day of the 2. Moneth of the Year following Noah went out of the Ark. Whence we may infer that the Patriarchs had then the knowledge as well of the Sun's Course as of the Moons with their Periods and in probability of the other Planets And that the Opinion of those who conceive the Year before the Flood to have been only Menstrual deserves to be exploded as most absurd and ridiculous After the Flood and the Dispersion of Mankind over the face of the Earth the Study of Astronomy began to be improved by several Nations who doubtless had derived the Knowledge thereof from Noah and his Posterity So that it may seem no wonder if at one and the same Time divers Persons in divers Regions applied themselves to the Observation and Study of this Astral Science Hence arises among several Nations the Contest for the Glory and Honour of its Invention But seeing it is clear beyond all Controversie that Mankind issued and dispersed themselves out of Asia into Africk Europe and other parts of the World the Glory thereof ought in the first Place to be attributed to the Asiaticks and among them chiefly to the Babylonians Chaldeans and Bactrians Among whom are principally celebrated Evahdnes Belus Zoroaster and his Successor Otanes as likewise Cidenas Naburian Sudinus and Seleucus the Chaldean before whom yet is to be reckoned the Patriarch Abraham and his Father Thare as great Improvers of those Inventions which had been handed down to them from their Forefathers and the Sons of Noah From the Assyrians and Chaldeans it came in the next Place to the Egyptians brought thither by the Patriarch Abraham as Eusebius proves from the Authority of Iosephus Eupolemus Artapanus Melo and others as cited by Alexander Polyhistor though Eupolemus seem to infer that Abraham first taught the same to the Phenicians before his Descent into Egypt There are others yet who attribute the Honour of its Invention to the Egyptians before the Chaldeans conceiving that Tradition of Abraham's instructing the Egyptian Priests to be inconsistent with Reason since Abraham's Stay in Egypt however Artapanus report it to have been 20 years seems not to have been above 3 Moneths most of which time was spent in Fears Jealousies and Dangers which in all Probability would not permit him to communicate at leisure and with freedom the Mysteries of that sublime Science They add further that the Egyptians were so far from receiving the Knowledge of Astronomy from the Chaldeans that on the Contrary they affirm the Chaldeans to have been first instructed therein by the Egyptians To prove which they produce the Testimonies of Diodorus Siculus and Hyginus The former writing that Babylon was a Colony of the Egyptians founded by Belus Son of Libya who therein instituted a College of Priests who were to contemplate the Sâ—…ars in the same manner as those in Egypt The later reporting that one Evahdnes is said to have come from beyond the Seas into Chaldea and there to have taught Astronomy But it seems strange if this Science were known to the Egyptians before the Babylonians and Chaldeans that yet the Egyptian Observations should be so much later than those of the Babylonians for we find scarce any of the Egyptians to precede the Time of Alexander the Great his Death than which even those of the Greeks are earlier whereas the Observations of the Babylonians appear to have been made almost 2000 years before that Time Others there are who would rob both the Chaldeans and Egyptians of this Honour and assign the Invention thereof to the Ethiopians of which Opinion is Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But this Assertion seems to want much of Validity as being opposed by the general Stream of Tradition and that long before Lucian's Time Nor wants Africa besides the Egyptians and Ethiopians other Pretenders to the Invention of Astronomy particularly the Mauritanians who are said to have been instructed therein by Atlas the Son of Libya their King From the several Nations before mentioned Astronomy seems to have been divided anciently into Three Principal Sects that is to say the Assyrian comprehending the Babylonian and Chaldaick the Egyptian and the Atlantick of which last yet the Greeks and Romans made no reckoning for among them were only enumerated these 3 Sects the Chaldaick Egyptian and Grecian the Original and Progress of which last comes next to be described To pass by the fabulous Age touching which there is nothing certain we shall only confine our Discourse to the Historical which began with the Olympiads Nor do any Monuments of this Later inform us that the Greeks had made any considerable Advance in Astronomy before the Death of Alexander the Great For excepting some few Observations of Eclipses made by Thales and Anaxagoras the rest of the Greeks imployed their Studies no further than in nothing the Rising and Setting of the fixed Stars and accommodating the Cycles of the Sun and Moon to the Constitution of the Civil Year to which end they observed the Solstices and Equinoxes Oenopides Cleostratus Harpalus Democritus Meton Euctemon or Eudoxus having not delivered to us any thing of the proper Motion of the fixed Stars or their certain Distances from one another nor yet says Ricciolus of the Revolutions of the Planets or the Periods determining the Apocatastasis of the Moons Anomaly and Latitude And yet such was their Self-conceit and Presumption as confidently to affirm that Astronomy ow'd its Invention to them and particularly to the Rhodians from whom they will have the
Cambridge From him besides is to be expected a New General Analytical Method by infinite Series for the Quadrature of Curvilinear Figures the finding of their Centers of Gravity their Round Solids and the Surfaces thereof the straitning of curved Lines so that giving an Ordinate in any Figure as well such as Des Cartes calls Geometrical as others to find the Length of the Arch Line and the Converse Such an Invention to wit but in one particular Figure the Circle the Learned Snellius thinks transcendent to any thing yet published and how much conducing to the Benefit of Astronomy and the Mathematical Sciences in General such an Universal Method is I leave others together with my self to admire and earnectly expect Mr. JOHN COLLINS Accomptant and a Member of the Royal Society published in the year 1658. his Treatise entituled The Sector on a Quadrant in which there are very curious Prints of two great Quadrants and of two small Quadrants with particular Projections on them serving for the Latitude of London Albeit by Aid of other Lines each of those Quadrants is rendred Universal for Astronomical Use as finding the Hour and Azimuth and all other Spherical Proportions The Author 's chief Design in publishing such Prints was to shew the World that the said Prints might be pasted on Copper or Brass and so varnished as to be rendred preservable from Dirt or sullying and sold at a cheap Rate as now they are In 1659. he published his Treatise of Navigation entituled the Mariners Plain Scale new Plained In which besides Projections of the Sphere there are Constructions for many Astronomical Problems and Spherical Proportions The Book hath found good Acceptance and is now like to become a Common Theme to the Scholars of Christ's Hospital London whereof forty by His Majesty's Bounty and to His Immortal Renown in Establishing a Lecturer to instruct them are constantly to be taught Navigation and e're long 't is to be hoped the Author will reprint the same with considerable Additions The same year he published a Treatise of Geometrical Dyalling of good Esteem both for the Newness and easiness of Method in situating the Requisites and drawing the Hour-Lines In which there being Spherical Proportions and some Astronomical Problems it deserves to be remembred in this Catalogue In the year 1667. he published in the Philosophical Transactions the Solution of a Problem concerning Time to wit about the Iulian Period with divers Perpetual Almanacks in single Verses a Chronological Problem and divers other Things since in the said Transactions which we mention not as being irrelative to the Sphere or Astronomy viz. concerning Merchants Accompts compound Interest and Annuities c. We should be injurious to him if we did not farther inlarge by telling the World how much it is obliged for his Pains in exciting the Learned to publish their Works and in acting the Part of an Ingenious Obstetrix at the Press in correcting and in drawing of Schemes So that he hath been Instrumental in furnishing the World with the many learned Mathematical Books here lately published for which his chief Reward hitherto hath been to obtain from the Learned the Title of Mersennus Anglicanus and many more may be expected if moderate Encouragements towards Printing such Works and Leisure for such an Affair be not impeded through the necessary Avocations for a livelyhood and though it be besides my Design yet I cannot but digress in giving him and others like minded which are very rare to be found their due commendations in promoting the laudable Design of getting Learned Men to impart their Labours to be Printed and exciting others to encourage the same as being of singular Use and advantage to the Republick of Learning through the want whereof many Learned Mens Works of much worth have been lost suppressed or long delayed As those of Maurolycus Abbot of Messina a large Catalogue whereof is to be seen at the End of his Opuscula but by the Care of the learned Mathematician Alphonsus Borellius some of them have been published in this Age ninety years after the Author's Death as his Apollonius at Messina in 1656. containing the substance of the four first Books of the Apollonius of Commandinus and two more Additional Books of Maurolycus and all in less Room and at a much cheaper price And now by the like Diligence the said Borellius is publishing Maurolycus his Archimedes in Latin reputed a Good one after we have been long tired with the Common Latin bad one Through want of such care the many learned Works of Vernalion of Naples Master to Iosephus Auria have not hitherto come to light as his Commentaries upon all Archimedes Apollonius Serenus Euclid Ptolemaeus and divers others of the Ancients which is much to be lamented seeing he was according to the Testimony of the said Auria Vir Divinitate quadam Ingenii Ornatus Nor those of the learned Bernardinus Baldus Abbot of Guastalla mentioned at the End of his Comment on Aristotle's Mechanicks amongst which are two Volums of the Lives of Mathematicians whereof Bartholinus in his Preface to the Edition of the Optick Fragments of Heliodorus Larissaeus Printed at Paris 1657. gives an honourable Elogium Varenius could find no Stationer or Printer in Holland to undertake his Treatise of Conicks and curved Lines See the Preface to his History of Iapan If Sir Charles Cavendish deceased Brother to the present Duke of Newcastle had not as 't is credibly reported given liberally toward the Printing of Mydorgius his four first Books of Conicks they had never come to publick view the four last as likewise those of Paschal the Younger yet remaining unprinted upon the same Accompt of whom Mersennus gives this Censure quòd Unicâ Propositione Universalissimâ quadringentis Corrolariis armatā totum Apollonium complexus est The Manuscript as yet remaining unprinted as I am informed in the Hands or at the Disposal of Monsieur Du Prez a Bookseller in Paris the want whereof is the most considerable in regard the Author besides the ordinary method treats of the Conick Sections as projected from lesser Circles of the Sphere Erasmius Bartholinus well known by his Additions to the second Volume of Des Cartes as it is commonly termed could find none to undertake the Printing of De Beaunes Treatise De Angulo solido and other Treatises both of that Authors and his own Iungius his Phoranomicks and Treatise De locis Planis c. and other Algebraical Tractates have remained at Hamborough above ten years since the Author's Death unprinted for want of due Encouragement Albeit a Iesuit who writes his Life makes him although a Physician equal in Mathematical Knowledge to Des Cartes On the like Reasons we may conceive we want the many learned Algebraical Works of our famous Countryman Mr. Thomas Harriot and of Mr. Warner into whose Hands they fell who is esteemed by some of the most knowing Persons alive to have been much Superiour to all that