At illi, qui satis scirent temporum orbes implere destinatas vices lunamque deficere, cum aut terram subiret aut sole premeretur, rationem quidem ipsis perceptam non edocent vulgus; ceterum affirmant solem Graecorum, lunam esse Persarum, quotiensque illa deficiat, ruinam stragemque illis gentibus portendi, veteraque exempla percensent Persidis regum, quos adversis dis pugnasse lunae ostendisset defectio.
But they, although they knew well enough that the heavenly bodies which determine the seasons have their destined changes, and that the moon suffers eclipse either when it goes behind the earth or is covered by the sun, do not teach the common people the knowledge which they themselves possess; but they declared that the sun represented the Greeks and the moon the Persians, and that whenever the moon suffered eclipse, defeat and slaughter was foretold for those nations, and they enumerated ancient examples of Persian kings whom an eclipse of the moon showed to have fought without the favour of the gods.
final_alignments\Quintus_Curtius_Alexander_Book4.json