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[8] But since the moon is situated near the movement of the earth, and is the most remote from heaven of all that celestial beauty, 1 she sometimes puts herself directly under the disc 2 that strikes upon her, and [p. 13] is overshadowed and hidden for a time by the interposition of the goal of darkness ending in a narrow cone; 3 and then she is wrapped in masses of darkness, when the sun, as if encompassed by the curve of the lower sphere, cannot light her with its rays, since the mass of the earth is between them; for that she has no light of her own has been assumed on various grounds.

1 I.e. is nearer the earth than the other heavenly bodies.

2 The sun.

3 I.e. the shadow cast by the earth; meta refers to the shape of the shadow; cf. Cic., De Div. ii. 6, 17, quando illa . . . incurrat in umbram terrae, quae est meta noctis; Nat. Deor. ii. 40, 103.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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