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The orrery or picture of the heavens given in the Republic

differs in its mode of representation from the circles of the

same and of the other in the Timaeus. In both the fixed stars are

distinguished from the planets, and they move in orbits without

them, although in an opposite direction: in the Republic as in

the Timaeus they are all moving round the axis of the world. But

we are not certain that in the former they are moving round the

earth. No distinct mention is made in the Republic of the circles

of the same and other; although both in the Timaeus and in the

Republic the motion of the fixed stars is supposed to coincide

with the motion of the whole. The relative thickness of the rims

is perhaps designed to express the relative distances of the

planets.