Note d — MUNDI THEMA, OR THE GENITURE OF THE WORLD. TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF THE MATHESIS OF JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS.

Page 57.—This first period of the world, which was uncultivated and rude, and, according to Firmicus, was under the dominion of Saturn, is mentioned by Plato at the beginning of his third book On Laws. For there having observed that time is infinite, he says, “that myriads upon myriads of cities have existed in this time, and that, in consequence of the same temporal infinity, as many have been destroyed.” He also says, “that they will everywhere have been governed according to every kind of polity; and at one time pass from the less to the greater, and at another from the greater to the less, and have become worse from the better, and better from the worse.” He adds, “that the cause of this mutation, viz. the many destructions of the human race, is through deluges, diseases, and numerous other things, in which a very small part of mankind was left....” After this he observes, “that those who escaped the destruction which was caused by a deluge, were nearly mountain shepherds, a few dormant sparks of the human race, preserved on the summits of mountains. That such as these must necessarily have been ignorant of other arts, and of those artifices, in cities, of men towards each other, with a view to prerogative and contention, and other base ends.” He also supposes “that the cities which were situated in plains, and those bordering on the sea, entirely perished at that time. That hence, all instruments were destroyed, together with every invention pertaining to art, political discipline, or anything else characterized by wisdom.” He adds, “We must therefore assert, that when that devastation by a deluge took place, human affairs were in a state of infinite and dreadful solitude; that a prodigious part of the earth was unprolific; and other animals having perished, some herds of oxen, and a few goats, which were rarely found, supplied those men with food that escaped the devastation.” See what the divine philosopher further observes on this interesting subject, in my Translation of this book of his Laws.