Aratus of Soli: Phenomena and Weather Signs

Above it, a shimmering star appears, fixed to its double shoulders,
With such beauty and such brilliance.

XIV.
A. P. vs.
82-85.

Here, with a double grip of his palms, he holds the Serpent,
And by that very means he remains bound with his whole body;
For the Serpent girds the man around his middle, beneath the chest.
Yet he, struggling, plants his footsteps heavily,
And presses his eyes upon the feet and chest of the Scorpion.

XV.
A. P. vs.
92-97.

Arctophylax [Bear-guard], who is commonly said to be Bootes,
Because he drives before him the Bear, as if joined to a wagon pole.

Then what follows. For to this Bootes
— fixed beneath his chest appears
A shimmering star, known by the clear name Arcturus.
— under the feet of Bootes she brings forth, finished,
The Virgin, holding a brilliant ear of grain with her shining body.

XVI.
A. P. vs.
112. 113.

Lactant. Instit. Div. book V, 5, speaking of justice:
For who, with justice present and flourishing, would think either of protecting himself, when no one was plotting against him, or of the ruin of another, when no one coveted anything?
They preferred to live content with simple cultivation,
as Cicero says in his Aratus, which is proper to our religion.
It was not right even to mark out or divide the field with a boundary.
He sought for the common good —