caelum

Latin · noun

Edited by: Kierán Meinhardt
Last edited: 2025-05-26

Meanings

1. sky

2. air

Literal translation

sky

1. sky

1.a sky

caeli rotata vertigo

‘the spinning of the sky’

— Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 1.0.5

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. 1.3

2. air

2.a air cosmological concept

namque et hoc caelum appellavere maiores quod alio nomine aera, omne quod inani simile vitalem hunc spiritum fundit.

‘for the name ‘heaven’ was also given by our ancestors to this which is otherwise designated ‘air’—the whole of that apparently empty space which pours forth this breath of life.’

— Pliny, Natural History 2.102

Genre: encyclopedia Provenance: Rome Date: 77-79 CE

Pliny. Natural History, Volume I: Books 1-2. Translated by H. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 330. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.

Cite this entry

APA (7th)

Meinhardt, K. (2025). caelum (Lemma #853). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/

Chicago (Author-Date)

Meinhardt, K. (2025). caelum (Lemma #853). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/

MLA (9th)

Meinhardt, K. (2025). caelum (Lemma #853). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/

Harvard

Meinhardt, K. (2025) caelum (Lemma #853), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/ (Accessed: July 4, 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{zodiac853,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-07-04]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2025},
	title = {caelum ({Lemma} #853)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/853/},
}