Translation of 2nd letter

When I received your letters, outstanding man, around the 5th of December, and became aware that I must undertake considerably more labor to satisfy you, already then I had to cast off the duty of answering, and began to search for some liesure. Surely there is no need for me to describe to you, though I concede my youth and freedom from public office, the diversity of tasks I am stretched to fulfill, except merely to say that I can hardly breathe. Since I had to push off your request till the Christmas holidays due to my workload, I decided, in order to be the more prepared afterward, to steal like a thief several hours from my other labors (good God, how contemptible and regretted) to read Lucan, Caesar, and both volumes of Cicero's letters. I do seem, however, to have achieved something from this reading, namely that I am able to cast off your remaining requests, unless you absolutely demand them. You will soon understand why.

First off I rejoice that you, learned man, found my explication lacking. For after I read the books I describe above, I too feel otherwise. So in order to explain it better, and not to appear before so great a man at this time of year without a literary Christmas present,[1] I will write an exacting correspondence of the days of the old Roman calendar with those of the Julian, so that from the very beginning of the civil war to when the old calander was abolished by Caesar they will be coherent. I do this for you because I do not think anyone up till now has clarified it, and because, though there would of necessity be despair concerning the preceding years (with a few exceptions), it is believable that others interested in antiquity have reached a state of despair concerning these last four.

It is established that the Popilian year, which the Romans used before the Julian, was 355 days, indeed consistently, but intercalated by a fixed, yet arbitrarily observed, Pontifical law. So from my reading I have amassed these: 1) there was no intercalation at the beginning of the civil war; 2) in the same year the equinox was either on the 16th or 17th of May. To the above let us also add the following: 3) with all earnestness Cassius Dio asserts that Caesar added no more than 67 days in the last Roman year which they call the year of confusion; 4) Suetonius, Censorinus, Macrobius, Solinus affirm that the same year was intercalary by custom. Therefore I have compared the last with the first, and have discovered that in the time intervening between the civil war and the new calendar of Julius it was not possible to intercalate any more than in the year of confusion. I still had a little doubt about one day. For Mercedonius did not know whether 22 or 23 days were intercalated. Nor was he able to make a conjecture based on the equinox which I described above, because Cicero left one day of doubt in his account. If I were to refer May 16th (a.d. XVII Cal. Jun.) of this year to March 24th of the Julian year, 23 days could be intercalated, which Censorinus seems to assert, and Manutius also. But it must be presumed that in these times the equinox happened on the 25th (and 26th) of March, at which time Caesar placed it. Add the fact that through addition of Mercedonius there were 445 days,[2] which Macrobius makes 445, although Scaliger reads 444.[3] Finally I have concluded that the 16th of May (a.d. XVII Cal. Jun.) corresponds to the Julian 25th of March. Once this is set aside, if we call to mind the above discussion, this correspondence follows:

January 1st in the Popilian refers to ... in the Julian

49 14 Nov. 50

48 3 Nov. 49

47 24 Oct. 48

46 14 Oct. 47

The year of confusion follows the intercalary custom as Suetonius, Solinus, Macrobius, Censorinus point out. Cicero supports an intercalation of 22 days which the equinox supports, while Manutius and his Censorinus are against it. The days, which Caesar added between November and December in 2 intercalary months equal 67, as Dio attests, though Manutius objects with the figure of 65, and Censorinus also at 68. The total of days in the year of confusion is 444 according to Scaliger's Macrobius, but all the manuscripts have 443.[4]

Let us now explain the three months of the year in which the civil war began:

(the Julian date is given on the left and the Popilian in Roman notation)

Nov. 14 - Cal. Ian.

15 - IV. the senate begins action against Caesar.

16 - III.

17 - Pridie

18 - Nones Senatus Consultum extremum (sic).

19 - VIII.

20 - VII.

21 - VI. the tribunes of the people flee.

22 - V.

23 - VI.

22 - III.

25 - Pridie provincial administration is appointed.

26 - Ides

27 - XVII. levies are raised in Rome.

28 - XVI.

29 - XV.

30 - XIV. consuls and Pompey leave the city.

Dec 1 - XIII.

2 - XII.

3 - XI. levies are raised throughout Italy.

4 - X.

5 - IX.

6 - VIII. Caesar sends to Pompey and the consuls conditions for peace.

7 - VII.

8 - VI.

9 - V.

10 - IV.

11 - III.

12 - Pridie Cal. Febr.

13 - Calends Febr.

14 - IV. Caesar seizes Picenum.

15 - III.

16 - Pridie

17 - Nones Pompey is at Luceria.

18 - VIII.

19 - VII. Pompey calls the consuls to Rome to seize the treasury and they immediately flee again at the false report of Caesar's approach.

20 - VI.

21 - V.

22 - IV.

23 - III.

24 - Pridie

25 - Idus

26 - XVI.

27 - XV. Caesar arrives at Corfinium.

28 - XIV. Domitius is besieged.

29 - XIII.

30 - XII. Pompey is at Canusium.

31 - XI.

Jan. 1 - X.

2 - IX. Corfinium is surrendered.

3 - VIII. Caesar withdraws from Corfinium and Pompey from Canusium.

4 - VII.

5 - VI. MY DATE FOR THE FIGULAN CONSTELLATION.

6 - V.

7 - IV.

8 - III. Pompey arrives at Brundisium.

9 - Pridie Cal. Mart.

10 - Cal. Mart.

11 - VI.

12 - V.

13 - IV.

14 - III.

15 - Pr.

16 - Nones

17 - VIII.

18 - VII. Caesar besieges Brundisium.

19 - VI.

20 - V. Birthday of Atticus.

21 - IV.

22 - III. consuls cross the sea. Caesar begins to build jetties to obstruct the port.

23 - Pridie

24 - Idus Pompey embarks.

25 - XVII.

26 - XVI. Pompey breaks out to sea.

27 - XV. Caesar takes Brundisium.

28 - XIV.

29 - XIII.

30 - XII.

31 - XI.

Febr. 1 - X.

2 - IX.

3 - VIII.

4 - VII.

5 - VI. Cicero is with Caesar

6 - V.

7 - IV.

8 - III.

9 - Pr. Cal. Apr. Caesar arrives at Rome.

There it is, all but the olives. From all of this I need to refute myself, who since I constantly contended that a future war ought to be signified by Lucan's stellar configuration, chose a stellar configuration which appeared after the war began. This is the first thing I wanted to set out in my reply.

Next you cast me down to 38 B.C. Certainly if we neglect the tenor of Lucan's poetry, perhaps it will be found nowhere else than in that very time which you have noted at the beginning. I have not yet, however, consulted calculation. But if I should hold the sense of Lucan tight between my teeth, and if we seek such a configuration in some year other than 50, I will end up with one of two: either, his configuration ought to be sought not in 38 but 51, or Lucan was creating fiction in the typical poetic fashion. I believe it more deeply because earlier it was impossible to reach through calculation. It goes even deeper; consider the following reasons. First, based on my reading of Lucan I have perceived that Lucan was a neophyte in matters of astronomy. Although Scaliger, among others, gathers this in his Hypercritic, it is sufficiently proven to me from this passage in front of us. He places three tyrants in the sky, and three helpers. The configuration is bad if one of the tyrants rules while the good are afflicted. If Saturn were in his house, which is Aquarius,[5] he says that there will be a flood. If the sun is in his house, surely in Leo,[6] there will be a fire. If Mars is in his house, Scorpio,[7] there will be war. As if no good or bad fortune can come from the planets unless they are in their houses? But this is how we expect neophytes to speak. Even the thing about floods is unclear to me. I have not seen such a teaching in the astrologers.[8] For Saturn does not govern moisture but rather cold. At this point I confess two more mistakes above. "If the frigid star of Saturn at his zenith..." Surely this is nothing other than an epithet for Saturn's placement in the cosmos, for the zenith of Saturn is moveable. As long as I attributed knowledge of astrology to Lucan, I construed a different meaning from these words, as you can remember. Then there is this: "the black fires," certainly you instruct very elegantly about clouds, in which discussion you do not differ much from the scholiast who says that cloudy lighting is indicated here. I, on the other hand, understood the constellations of the Manger and the Asses. So easily are errors sown while one encourages another. But let us return to the astrology of Lucan. In no other way does he debilitate the three beneficient planets than if he had dictated the precepts of astrology himself, if each one were to be held by circumstances contrary to his nature. "Mild Jupiter is afflicted," he who on his own is high, suffers in decline. Venus is the brightest star per se; he says that she is dim. Mercury who otherwise is the fastest planet, now clings. Who does not see that Lucan is playing like a poet, while he creates a fiction which he feels is best suited to the circumstances.[9] Alas once more I must confess my mistake in the following verse: "why do the constellations leave their courses..." For in these words he is not talking about planets, as I earlier interpreted, but he is coming from planets to fixed stars. He wants nothing else than that "sword bearing Orion" be conspicuous while all the other stars are hidden below the earth. Some of these smack of simple astrological rules, others of poetic fictions (like Aquarius and Orion). It is certainly amazing that I was able to find any configuration, that could accomadate this poetic description so closely. This is my first point, that I do not think we should look for Lucan's sky in nature.

The second point consists of this, that the horrible and tragic stellar configuration that Lucan exalts happened near the beginning of the Roman year--surely in November of the Julian calendar. But if Lucan either had been an astrologer, and had learned to calculate the celestial configuration of that time, or had consulted astrologers on this point, he would most appropriately have exalted instead that most dire conjunction of Saturn and Mars at 10 degrees of Libra (and it would not be necessary to slide down to 38 where another inquiry would be needed). So he who exaggerates the course of Mars in Scorpio--something that occurs every other year--to so great a degree, my God, as he possibly could exploit his tragic language at the very time when that rarest of events happens, when Jupiter is retrograde in Cancer and the sun is in Scorpio, such that each is maleficent and ascendent. Third, he writes that simultaneous eclipses of the sun and moon appeared, of which there is no mention in any of the trustworthy sources.[10] The commentator Sulpitius asserts that these are the words of Appian which are used to describe the portents of that year and the propitiary rites performed at the temple. There is no eclipse there, no comet. Indeed there could be no eclipses in that year that the consuls fled, since the Dragon's Head was in Virgo.[11] Therefore I reckon thus: if Lucan's memory held any more tragic sounding astrological laws, he would have added them to his existing list.

Fourth, what needs to be attributed to him here, cautions the reader everywhere. He is stuffed, copiously redundant clear to tedium, melodramatic to the point of horror. How he burst the bounds of propriety (Greek) by piling up every portent that was ever heard of! Who would believe that they all could happen at once? Let him show the same credibility seen elsewhere in his description of the sky.

Fifth, there is a clear imitation of Vergil here. Lucan has borrowed deeply from that passage where Vergil spoke to the truth of the matter (refering to the portents before Caesar's death) and has turned something out in the same order and often even in the same words.[12]

Vergil: "And the impious age feared eternal night."

Lucan: "The peoples of the world began to despair of day."

He does nothing but as a poet. But I do not think that there need be any more sweat shed in vain for Lucan's sake. If he were alive and heard us, he would laugh at us. Of what use would a chronology of this whole time period be unless some astrologer would want to compare our time with these. For the same heavenly configuration returns from August of 98 through the year 99 (1598-1599 A.D.) that appeared at the beginning of the civil war if I leave out the fixed stars.[13] And nevertheless if it pleased someone short of immense fatigue and vast loss of time to wander back in contemplation of those times and the courses of the heavens, I have discovered a means by which he would be able to devise a clock or celestial calculator, and with it calculate a hundred years time in one hour with hardly a mistake in 6000 years of reckoning while avoiding costs. A tool perhaps not unworthy of a prince, nor unaffordable to the rich. So much for matters of antiquity, in which I have proceeded in such a way as you ordered in your letters. As for the other pertinent matter, that is the six first days of 4 B.C., at 8 1/2 hours after midnight there was a conjunction of Venus and Mercury such that Mercury was below Venus and both were apparent in the morning. For the position of the sun was 13 or 14 degrees of Capricorn; but the position of Venus and Mercury was 24 degrees of Sagittarius. But they varied 3 degrees in latitude. I would prefer nothing more than to know the author of this observation. Much remains to be emended in the motions, but especially in the latitudes, of the planets. To do this observations are required.

All this on a stormy night, since the opportunity of writing was offered me by the most worthy D. Chancellor. Which is the reason why I, in my helplessness, will not get to answer the letter of the most excellent and so on doctor Fickler, my relative. I bid your worthiness good health, and I pray you good auspices for the new year. Dec. 24, 1597.

Your zealous client,

Johan Kepler

Mathematician of the illustrious Styrian province