Somnium Scipionis, Part XII

“For men commonly measure the year by the return of only the sun, that is of one star; in the affair itself, however, when all the stars return to the same place whence they set out, and after long intervals they will have brought back the same description of the entire heaven, then that can truly be called the turning year; in which I scarcely dare to say how many generations of men are held. For as, formerly, when the soul of Romulus entered into this temple itself, the sun seemed to men to desert and be extinguished, whenever, from the same part and at the same time, the sun will have deserted again, then, with all the constellations and stars having been called back to the same beginning, have a completed year; indeed know that of this year a twentieth part has not yet completed.