Marcus Manilius
Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD) was a Roman poet and astrologer, traditionally held to be the author of a poem in five books called Astronomica.
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Astronomica
- Facile est ventis dare vela secundis,
Fecundumque solum varias agitare per artes,
Auroque atque ebori decus addere, cum rudis ipsa
Materies niteat.- 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.
- I, 3.
- Semper enim ex aliis alia proseminat usus.
- Experience is always sowing the seed of one thing after another.
- I, 90.
- Certis * * * legibus omnia parent.
- All things obey fixed laws.
- I, 479.
- Omnia mortali mutantur lege creata,
Nec se cognoscunt terræ vertentibus annis,
Et mutant variam faciem per sæcula gentes.- 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.
- I, 515.
- Rationi nulla resistunt.
Claustra nec immensæ moles, ceduntque recessus:
Omnia succumbunt, ipsum est penetrabile cœlum.- 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.
- I, 541.
- Volat hora per orbem.
- The hours fly around in a circle.
- I, 641.
- Quis cœlum possit nisi cœli munera nosse?
Et reperire deum nisi qui pars ipse deorum est?- Who can know heaven except by its gifts? and who can find out God, unless the man who is himself an emanation from God?
- II, 115.
- Æquo stat fœdare tempus.
- Time stands with impartial law.
- III, 360.
- Labor est etiam ipsa voluptas.
- Labor is itself a pleasure.
- IV, 155.
- Exemplumque dei quisque est in imagine parva.
- Every one is in a small way the image of God.
- IV, 895.
- Victuros agimus semper, nec vivimus unquam.
- We are always beginning to live, but are never living.
- IV, 899.
