This work by Macrobius (5th century) illustrates the wealth of ancient and early medieval literary sources relevant to cosmology. Macrobius here comments upon a classic story of Cicero which described a vision given to the Roman general Scipio. In a dream, Scipio ascended through the heavens until the Earth receded into a pale dot in the distance: “From here the Earth appeared so small that I was ashamed of our empire which is, so to speak, but a point on its surface.”