spatium

Latin noun

Last edited: 2024-02-19
Primary meaning position
Literal translation space
Variants
spatium
Edited by

position noun

In horum signorum lateribus aliae adhaerent stellae, sed quae numquam erratico cursu assignata sibimet deserant loca, sed tradita sibi spatia possidentes, currente mundo inmutabili semper agitatione volvuntur.

‘To the sides of these signs cling other stars. But they never desert their own path in an erratic course but hold space assigned to them and turn always with the immutable revolution of the universe.’

— Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 8.6.2

Genre: astrological compendium
Provenance: Sicily
Date: ca. 334 CE

Firmicus Maternus. 1897. Ivlii Firmici Materni Matheseos Libri VIII, ed. W. Kroll, F. Skutsch. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner. 2.294-295


length time interval

of a day

Adice nunc quod, si causa illis flatus esset spatium diei ac longitudo, et ante solstitium flarent, cum longissimi dies sunt et cum maxime nives tabescunt.

‘Add now the fact that if the cause of their blowing were the lengthened space of the day, they would also blow before the solstice when days are longest and when snows are mostly melted.’

— Seneca, Natural Questions 5.11.2

Genre: philosophy
Date: 62/63 CE

Seneca. Natural Questions, Volume II: Books 4-7. Translated by Thomas H. Corcoran. Loeb Classical Library 457. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. 92-93


Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Meinhardt, K. (2024). spatium (Lemma #1458). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/

Chicago (Author-Date)
Meinhardt, K. (2024). spatium (Lemma #1458). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/

MLA (9th)
Meinhardt, K. (2024). spatium (Lemma #1458). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/

Harvard
Meinhardt, K. (2024) spatium (Lemma #1458), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/ (Accessed: December 1, 2025).

BibTeX
@misc{zodiac1458,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2025-12-01]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2024},
	title = {spatium ({Lemma} #1458)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1458/},
}