Cliap. 47.] PEEIODS or THE WINDS. 75 have gone by the name of Argestes. In some places Csecias is named Hellespontia, and the same is done in other cases. In the province of Narhonne the most noted wind is Circius ; it is not inferior to any ot the winds in violence, frequently- driving the waves before it, to Ostia straight across the Li- gurian sea. Yet this same wind is unknown in other parts, not even reaching Yienne, a city in the same province ; for meeting with a high ridge of hills, just before it arrives at that district, it is checked, although it be the most violent of all the winds. Tab ins also asserts, that the south winds never penetrate into Egj-pt. Hence this law of nature is obvious, that winds have their stated seasons and limits. CHAP. 47. — THE PEEIODS OF THE WINDS^. The spring opens the seas for the navigators. In the be- ginning of this season the west winds soften, as it were, the winter sky, the sun having now gained the 25th degree of Aquarius ; this is on the sixth day before the Ides of February^. This agrees, for the most part, with all the remarks that I shall subsequently make, oiily anticipating the period by one day in the intercalary year, and again, prcserang the same order in the succeeding lustrum'*. After the eighth day be- fore the Calends of March", Favonius is called by some Che- lidonias^, from the swallows making their appearance. The wind, which blows for the space of nine days, from the seventy- first day after the Avinter solstice'^, is sometimes called Orni- thias, from the arrival of the birds^. In the contrary direc- tion to Favonius is the wind which we name Subsolanus, and 1 This wind must have been N.N.W. ; it is mentioned by Strabo, iv. 182 ; A. Gellius, ii. 22 ; Seneca, Nat. Quocst. v. 17 ; and again by our au- thor, xvii. 2. 2 We may learn the opinions of the Romans on the subject of this chapter from Columella, xi. 2, 3 con'csponcUng to the 8th day of the month. "* . . . lustro sequenti . . . ; " tribus annis scquentibus." Alexandre, in Lemaire, i. 33 1. 5 con'csponding to the 22nd of Februaiy. ^ a xf^"^tv, hirundo. 7 This will be either on IVIarch 2nd or on February 26tli, according as we reckon from December the 21st, the real solstitial day, or thel7th, Avhen, according to the Roman calendar, the sun is said to enter Capricorn. 8 " quasi Avicularem discris." Hardouin, in Lcmau'c, i. 331.
