"We have stated that the s t a r s
are attached to the firmament -
not assigned to each of us
in the way in which the vulgar believe
and dealt out to mortals
with a degree of radiance proportionate to the lot of each -

the brightest stars to the rich,
the smaller ones to the poor,
the dim to those who are worn out;

they do not rise with their own human being,
nor indicate by their fall that someone's life is being extinguished.

There is no such close alliance
between us
and the sky
that the radiance of the stars there also shares our fate of mortality.
When the stars are believed to fall,
what happens is that
owing to their being overfed with a draught of liquid
they give back the surplus with a fiery flash,
just as with us also we see this occur
with a stream of oil when lamps are lit.

But the heavenly bodies have a nature that is eternal -
they interweave the world and are are blended with its weft,
yet their potency has a powerful influence on the earth,
indeed it is owing to the effects that they produce
and to their
brilliance
and magnitude
that it has been possible
for them to become known with such a degree of precision,

as we shall know in proper place."

Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 2, 28-31