Taurus
The Bull
Manilius makes the Taurus-born ploughmen, paid in harvests rather than praise; the sign gave Rome the Serrani and Curii, and a dictator called from his own plough.
Manilius, Astronomica 4.140–151 (Latin text, The Latin Library)
The second zodiac sign, the Bull, which the sun enters a month after the spring equinox.
More context
Taurus, the Bull, is the second sign of the zodiac. In Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, written in the second century, it is a solid sign, following the equinoctial Aries, and feminine. It is the house of Venus and the exaltation of the Moon. With Virgo and Capricorn it forms a triangle ruled by Venus by day and the Moon by night. Aratus, in the early third century BCE, describes a crouching, horned Bull. Hyginus' Latin Astronomica notes that only its forepart is clearly seen. He makes it the bull that carried Europa to Crete, or Io changed into a cow.
Light
Manilius gives the Taurus-born patient labour on the land and a love of quiet, unspoken praise.
Shadow
For Manilius their minds and bodies are slow, strong only through sheer bulk.