From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAquam calescere means that water becomes hot; aquis transcursus names the waters' passage.
- In this workSeneca attributes heated underground water to concealed fires lying beneath the ground through which it travels.
- In this editionThe edition stresses duration of contact.
- A place to readExplains hot water through its passage above buried fires and adds a Roman heating-device analogy.
Meaning
Aquam calescere means that water becomes hot; aquis transcursus names the waters' passage. The Greek phrase refers to hot waters. Heat is explained as acquired during transit rather than as an intrinsic, unexplained property of a particular spring.
Use in the book
Seneca attributes heated underground water to concealed fires lying beneath the ground through which it travels. He illustrates the explanation with Roman coiled heaters and boilers: thin bronze pipes lead water on a sloping circuit around a fire, providing enough travel for it to enter cold and emerge hot. This is a notably concrete account of heating through an extended path. The domestic apparatus belongs to Seneca's exposition, not automatically to Empedocles' technology or examples. Pseudo-Aristotle's Problems also associates Empedocles with hot waters while considering how heat and moisture-loss produce stone. The passages thus connect underground fire with both thermal water and consolidated material, without proving that they preserve one continuous geological theory.
Places to read
- A 68 (testimony)Seneca, Natural Questions. Explains hot water through its passage above buried fires and adds a Roman heating-device analogy.
- A 69 (testimony)Pseudo-Aristotle, Problems. Includes hot waters with rocks and stones in a heat-based explanation.
Translation in this edition
The edition stresses duration of contact. Seneca's illustration supports sufficient path length for heating, but a quantitative relation between residence time and temperature is not stated. His Latin must not be cited as Empedocles' original wording.