De prodigiosa specie, naturaq[ue] cometae, qui nobis effulsit altior lunae sedibus, insolita prorsus figura, ac magnitudine, anno 1577 plus septimanis 10. apodeixis tum physica tum mathematica

Comparison with a pestilential fever ending in a wasting fever.

continues from previous page: ...seem to be looking entirely toward a hectic fever; let these things be considered. But why not call it a wasting fever hecticam a persistent, wasting fever? In this state, although the very roots of the body are withering, the sick person does not even perceive that they are feverish or drying up. This becomes clearer than the sun itself through an induction of each rank of the Republic. Only turn your eyes to those highest and lowest classes. They agree in this, the majority of them: that they defend the title of "the just and the honorable" with their lips and most stubbornly. Indeed, they wear piety itself in their demeanor, face, and gestures. They contend no less that they are faithful to Christ, the King, and the Fatherland in this manner. Yet, if anyone were to open the breastplates of their hearts and look inside, they would find nothing but the reversed face of a Silenus a figure from Greek mythology; often depicted as ugly and grotesque on the outside, but hiding treasures or divinity within—here, ironically inverted to mean a deceptive appearance of holiness hiding corruption. Outside, it is magnificent and of great value—the insignia of masked piety and pretended religion. Inside, it is a pot of fury, hatred, cruelty, ambition, and greed, and so ignited with every sloth, gluttony, and wicked lust, just as it was described by the excellent poet:

The empty pretext of justice and Religion makes the disease nearly incurable for the greater part of mortals.

Just as when a roaring flame is supplied
By twigs beneath the sides of a bubbling cauldron,
The waters leap with heat, the stormy water rages within,
And the steaming river foams high.

An elegant allegory of a troubled public state, in which there is no doubt that by the boiling cauldron, Virgil understands the city. Under the name of the flame, he secretly insinuates the force of Tyranny, just as under the appearance of the overflowing river, he signifies the agitation of the people, a "Chirocracy" χειροκρατία rule of the hand/mob rule, which, once poured out more widely, eventually overflows and crushes kings, completely overturning their empires.