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Gaius Julius Solinus, Polyhistor (Solin.)

§ i  (Translator's note: The Polyhistor has been translated into English only once. In 1587 Arthur Golding (more famous for his translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses) produced a version entitled The Excellent and Pleasant Worke of Julius Ca. Solinus, containing the Noble Actions of Human Creatures, &c. While Golding was on occasions misled by Solinus’ Latin, and failed to translate sections which offended his notions of propriety, his version is generally accurate, and, to modern ears, quaint and charming. As W.H. Stahl remarks, there is a certain appropriateness about an Elizabethan rendition of accounts of mirabilia (W.H. Stahl, Roman Science, p. 141). Stahl goes on to predict dire challenges for anyone undertaking a new translation of the Polyhistor, an “inexpertly and drastically reduced compilation”. If the translator adhered faithfully to the text, he theorised, the results would strike readers as strange, and at times nonsensical. Any attempt to gloss over Solinus’ “carelessness and ignorance”, he continued, would create a false impression of the author. But this is something on an exaggeration. Solinus was (in the main) not nearly so unskillful a writer as Stahl would have us believe. The translated text, as it stands, certainly does not require constant glossing to render it intelligible, though the esoteric nature of certain passages, particularly those describing gemstones (see e.g. XXXIII §18-19) ensures sporadic difficulties. The compilatory nature of the Polyhistor undoubtedly compromises ready comprehension at certain junctures, but the minutiae necessary for a deeper understanding are by no means indispensable navigatory aids. Certain passages do present distractingly contrasting styles (compare, e.g., the two prefatory letters, Chapters I-II, and Chapter XXIV) which may be galling to the modern reader, but I have attempted to preserve these contrasts in an effort to represent the relationship between the author and the text or texts he was abstracting.

§ P.1  Greetings from Solinus to Adventus:I realize that you, both in your ears’ forbearance and in your devotion to the liberal arts, excel others. I have had much experience of this, and thus cannot believe I rashly anticipate your kindness. Therefore, I thought to give the weighing of this trifling work especially to you. Either your diligence promises a ready judgment, or your generosity ready indulgence. 2 As far as reason would allow, this book has been designed with a view to brevity; moderately abridged, it has neither a wasteful abundance nor a detrimental beauty of style. If you study it earnestly, you will find it is leavened with knowledge rather than veneered with a gold-leaf of eloquence. 3 For I confess I have very conscientiously studied a number of excellent books, so I might leave the well-known subjects alone, and devote more attention to those which are less well-known. Observations of places occupy the majority of it, and nearly all the material is connected with the same. It seemed good to me to recall, in order, the famous sites on land, and the famous features of the seas, preserving the differences in the world.

§ P.4  On the other hand, I have put in a good many other things, though harmoniously, so, if nothing else, the ennui of readers might be assuaged by the very variety. Among these I have included studies on the natures of Man and other animals. I have added some things about strange trees and the appearances of remote tribes, and the unusual rites of far-flung peoples. Also I have included not a few things, worthy of mention, which it seemed negligent to omit. 5 I would wish you, in your industriousness, to particularly understand that the authority for these things stems from the most accepted writers. For what can we claim as our own, since nothing has been passed over by the diligence of old? What remains untouched up to our own era? Therefore, I beg you not to weigh the credit of this work in the present time, seeing indeed that I, having followed the traces of the old stamps, prefer to choose the universal opinions rather than to innovate. 6 Thus, if you have a different opinion on something in my work, I wish you would grant indulgence to my foolishness; the consistency of truth is in the power of those whom I have followed.

§ P.7  Those who imitate the shapes of bodies, setting the rest aside, figure the head before determining the lines of the other limbs. You might say they make their beginning at the very citadel of form. So I also will make my beginning with the “head” of the world, that is, the city of Rome, although the most learned authors have left nothing which may be newly spoken in her praise, and it may be almost superfluous to re-travel the course trodden over in so many chronicles. 8 Nevertheless, lest they be altogether ignored, I will follow the originals with as much faith as I can.

§ P.9  Solinus to Adventus: Seeing that many people have hurried to snatch up the trifle with which I laboured, more impatiently than studiously, and that they have already assigned it to an obsolete, unpolished mediocrity, I inflict the final form of the unfinished work upon you. Now, things which were omitted have been added, with greater care, to the incorrect versions (which have been condemned, although, as if approved, they are widely circulated), towards the development of the inquiry. Lest by chance a rough copy, with incomplete content, as though endorsed by me, fall into your hands, I have sent, as you see, this collection, interspersed with my own opinions. I did so because, in the first place, the layout of the work had to be referred to your diligence, and so the betrayal of rough unshapeliness be expunged from the proper edition. Therefore, the title of the work shall be Polyhistor. The title I had designated in the beginning, to wit, Collection of Marvellous Things, I have rejected, and I am pleased to assign it to oblivion. So then, when you compare this letter to the one which forms the beginning of my scriptio, you will understand that you occupy the same place as he to whom I dedicated the culmination of my labour.

§ 1.1  CHAPTER I: ROME AND THE HUMAN SPECIES
There are some who would have it seem that the name “Rome” was first thought of by Evander. Coming across a town there, already built, which the young men called in Latin “Valentia”, he paid heed to the meaning of the prior name, and called it in Greek “Rome”. And since he and his Arcadians lived on the highest part of the hill, the derivation followed that the safest parts of cities were in later times called arces.

§ 1.2  But according to Heracleides, after Troy was captured, certain of the Argives came by way of the Tiber to the place where Rome is now. They were persuaded by Roma, a most noble lady among their captives, who was as a companion to them, to burn their ships. They set up a base, built walls and named the resulting town “Rome” after her.

§ 1.3  Agathocles writes that it was not the prisoner Roma, as is said above, but rather the daughter of Ascanius, granddaughter of Aeneas, who was the reason for the name.

§ 1.4  Another name, peculiar to Rome, is also recorded. However, it is strictly forbidden to publish it, as it is enunciated along with other secrets during our religious ceremonies. This was agreed upon so that the reverence given to the accepted silence might abolish knowledge of the thing itself. 5 Valerius Soranus, who dared utter this name against the prohibition, was put to death because of his profane talk.

§ 1.6  Attendance at the little shrine of Angerona is among our most ancient religious observances: we sacrifice to the goddess seven days before the Kalends of January. She is the protector of Silence itself, and her statue shows her with her mouth gagged and sealed.

§ 1.7  Because certain forms of cult were maintained here long before Rome existed, the question of ambiguities arises. Indeed, Hercules dedicated an altar to his father Inventor, which he had vowed to do after the punishment of Cacus, when he had recovered his lost cattle. 8 This Cacus lived in a place called Salinae, which is today the location of the Trigemina Gate. Gellius reports that he was taken prisoner by Tarchon the Tyrrhenian, to whom he had come as ambassador from King Marsyas, with Megales the Phrygian as his associate. When he broke out of prison he returned from whence he had come, and with a superior number of troops, he seized the country around Vulturnus and Campania. Next he dared to attack the territory which had been handed over to Arcadian rule. But he was overwhelmed by Hercules, who was by chance present there. 9 Megales was received again by the Sabines, and he taught them the art of interpreting omens.

§ 1.10  Hercules also set up an altar to his own divine spirit, an altar which is held in great reverence by our high priests. He did this after he learned from Nicostrate, mother of Evander, who was called Carmentis because of her prophesying, that he would one day become immortal. He made an enclosure for this altar, and taught the Potitii the rites of worship, which involved the sacrifice of cattle. The sanctuary is in the Forum Boarium, and evidence of his banquets and of his greatness remain there, 11 for, because of divine influence, neither flies nor dogs can enter into the place. This came about, it is said, because when Hercules was performing the public distribution of the sacrificial meat, he invoked the god Myiagrus. Also, he left his club at the entrance, and the dogs fled at its smell. These things have endured to this day.

§ 1.12  Hercules’ companions also constructed the temple which is now called the Treasury of Saturn. They did this in honour of Saturn, whom, they learned, had been an inhabitant of the region. In addition, they named what is now the Capitoline Hill the Hill of Saturn,

§ 1.13  and called the gate in the fortifications which they built Saturn’s Gate. This name of the gate was later changed to Pandana. The lower part of the Capitoline Hill was the dwelling place of Carmentis, now the location of the temple of Carmentis, from which the Carmentalis Gate took its name.

§ 1.14  No-one doubts that the Arcadians were the founders of the Palatine. They also first established the town of Pallanteum, which the Aborigines had inhabited for some time. However, because of the inconvenience of the nearby swamp, made by the flowing Tiber, they soon left it behind and set out for Reate.

§ 1.15  There are those who wish to think that the name of the Palatine Hill was inspired by the bleating of sheep, and that the name was arrived at by adapting the letters of the word balatus. Others think that the name was taken from that of Pale, the pastoral goddess, or, as Silenus shows, from the name of Palantho, the daughter of Hyperboreus, whom Hercules was seen to have deflowered there.

§ 1.16  These things aside, it is at least clear that the glory of the Roman name is indebted to that particular propitious omen which we all know so well, especially since the account of the years brings verification of its truth.

§ 1.17  Varro (a very diligent author) asserts that Romulus founded Rome. His parents were Mars and Rhea Sylvia, or, as several people think, Mars and Ilia. At first, Rome was called “Squareset”, because it was placed at the balancing point. 18 It began at the wood which is in the Area Apollinis, and had its end at the top of the Stairway of Cacus, where the cottage of Faustulus was. This was where Romulus stayed overnight; he auspiciously laid down the foundations of the walls when he was eighteen years old, eleven days before the Kalends of May, between the second and third hours, as Lucius Tarruntius, a very notable mathematician, has recorded. Jupiter was in Pisces, Saturn, Venus, Mars and Mercury in Scorpio, the sun in Taurus and the moon in Libra. 19 Thereafter it became custom that no victims were sacrificed on this day, the festival of the Parilia, so it should be free from blood. The meaning of the custom is derived from Ilia’s child. Romulus reigned for thirty-seven years. 20 He held his first triumph over the Caeninenses, and took booty from their king, Acron. This he dedicated to Jupiter Feretrius, and called it “rich”. His second triumph was over the people of Antemnae, and the third over the people of Veii. He disappeared at the swamp of Capra, on the Nones of July.

§ 1.21  I will now say where the other kings lived. Tatius dwelled in the citadel, where the temple of Juno Moneta is now. Tatius was killed by the Laurentes in the fifth year after he had come to the city; this occurred in the 27th Olympiad. Numa at first lived on the Collis Quirinalis. Later he lived near the temple of Vesta, in the palace which to this day has the same name. Numa reigned for forty-three years and is buried under Janiculum.

§ 1.22  Tullius Hostilius lived at Velia, where later the shrine of the Penates was made. He reigned for thirty-two years, and died in the 35th Olympiad.

§ 1.23  Ancus Marcius lived at the uppermost end of the Sacred Way, where the shrine to the Lares is. He reigned for twenty-four years; he died in the 41st Olympiad.

§ 1.24  Tarquinius Priscus dwelt at the Mugonian Gate, above the top of the New Way. He reigned thirty-seven years.

§ 1.25  Servius Tullius Esquilinus lived above the slope of the city; he reigned for forty-two years. 26 Tarquinius Superbus, as Esquilinus himself, lived above the Clivus Pullius, at the Fagutaline Grove. He reigned for twenty-five years.

§ 1.27  It pleases Cincius to deem that Rome was founded in the 12th Olympiad [732 BCE]. Pictor believes it was during the 8th [748 BCE]; Nepos and Lutatius, seconding the opinions of Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, think it was founded in the second year of the 7th Olympiad [751 BCE]. Pomponius Atticus and Marcus Tullius hold out for the third year of the 6th Olympiad [754 BCE]. After comparing the judgments of us Romans with those of the Greeks, I conclude that Rome was founded at the beginning of the 7th Olympiad [752 BCE], 433 years after the capture of Troy.

§ 1.28  To be sure, the Olympic contest (which Hercules proclaimed in honour of Pelops, his maternal ancestor) was discontinued for an interval. Iphitus the Elean renewed it 408 years after the destruction of Troy, and therefore we count the first Olympiad from Iphitus. Thus, allowing six Olympiads (each of which is reckoned at four years) in between, since Rome was founded at the beginning of the 7th, it remains that there were 433 years between the capture of Troy and the foundation of our city. 29 To the latter argument this can be added: when Gaius Pomponius Gallus and Quintus Veranius were consuls [49 CE], it was the 801st year since the founding of the city, and at the time it was noted down in the public records that it was the 207th Olympiad. Having multiplied 206 by four, one arrives at an answer of 824 years, to which the first year of the 7th Olympiad must be added. In total, the number of years equals 825. After the 24 years of the six Olympiads which went before are subtracted, it is clear that 801 years remain. 30 Therefore, since the 207th Olympiad [49 CE]is reckoned as the 801st year after the founding of the city, it is right to believe that Rome was founded in the first year of the 7th Olympiad [752 BCE].

§ 1.31  Rome was ruled by kings for 241 years. The Board of Ten was created in the 302nd year. The First Punic War began in the 489th year, the Second in the 535th year, and the Third in the 604th. The war with the Allies began in the 662nd.

§ 1.32  A. Hirtius and C. Pansa became consuls in the 710th year [43 BCE]. During their consulship, the 18-year-old Caesar Augustus was himself made consul. His principate was begun in such a way that through his vigilance the Empire remained both untroubled and safe. 33 Indeed, this is almost the only time in our history when wars almost ceased and talent could flourish. As the wars were in respite, doubtless this was so the works of virtue should not become weak through the idle holiday.

§ 1.34  It was at this time, then, that the system of ordering the year, which had been covered in obscurity from the beginning of the world, was first explored. For before Caesar Augustus, the year was reckoned in an uncertain way. Among the Egyptians it was defined as having four months; among the Arcadians three, and among the Acarnanians six. In Italy, among the people of Lavinium, it was reckoned as having thirteen. Their year is said to have had 374 days.

§ 1.35  From the beginning, the Romans reckoned their year with ten months, starting from March. On the first day of the year they kindled fire on the altar of Vesta, and changed their old bay-wreaths for green. The Senate and the people held elections, and the mistresses served dinner to their slaves, just as masters did at the Saturnalia. The mistresses did this so they might encourage better service by the reward; the masters, as it were, did it so they might reward the slaves for completed work. It can be neatly proved that March was the first month: the fifth month from it was called Quintilis, and when the full number was passed through, 36 December completed the annual circuit within 304 days. For at that time that number of days finished the year, as six months had 30 days and the remaining four had 31. 37 But since this system (which was pre-Numa) differed from the course of the moon, they made the year equal to the lunar reckoning by adding 51 days. 38 So they might make up two more months, bringing the total number of months to 12, they took one day from the first six months, and added them to the extra 51 days. The resulting 57 days were divided into two months, one of which was 29 days long, and the other 28.

§ 1.39  Thus the year began to have 355 days. Later it was by chance perceived that the year was wrongly confined within the boundaries I mentioned above, as the path of the sun clearly did not finish the course of the Zodiac before the 365th day, overflowing even to another quarter of a day. So they added 10 1/4 days, and the year then consisted of 365 1/4 days. They lauded the accuracy of the odd number, which Pythagoras teaches it is fitting to prefer in everything. 40 Because of this, it is said that January and March, since they have an odd number of days, are assigned to the Olympian gods, while February, owing to its even number of days, is the province of the gods of the Lower World.

§ 1.41  When this state of affairs was pleasing to everyone, the quarter was variously inserted by different peoples. However, the times were not made perfectly equal with any certainty.

§ 1.42  The Greeks, every eight years, removed 11 1/4 days from each year, and multiplying this number by eight, they reserved the days to the ninth year. Having produced the number 90, they divided it into three months of 30 days, and restored them to the ninth year, ending up with a total of 444 days, which they called “odd” or “superfluous”.

§ 1.43  At first the Romans approved of this reckoning, but because of the displeasing even number it was neglected, and in a short time, forgotten. The power of the addition was handed over to the priests, who, for a price, mostly acceded to the reasonings of the tax-gatherers, and shortened or lengthened the times as they wished.

§ 1.44  When things were thus, the time inserted was sometimes too long, and sometimes too short, or ignored and let pass altogether unnoticed. Sometimes the months which were wont to be in winter came into their time in either summer or autumn.

§ 1.45  But Gaius Caesar settled this universal disorder, and brought to an end the confusion of the calendar. So the past error might be remedied, he intercalated 21 1/4 days. By this means, the months were drawn back to their accustomed times, and the seasons could keep to their appointed order. Therefore, that year alone had 344; thereafter, all the others had 365 1/4. Even then the priests made a mistake. 46 For when they were instructed to insert one day every four years, which ought to have been done at the end of every 4th year before the 5th year began with auspices, they inserted it instead at the beginning of the 4th year.

§ 1.47  Thus, in 36 years, when only 9 days should have been sufficient, 12 were inserted. This fault Augustus corrected; he ordered that 12 years pass without addition, so the three days which had been rashly added over the necessary 9 could be reconciled. By this amendment, a system was established for all times after.

§ 1.48  Truly, although this and many other things are owed to the reign of Augustus, who was almost peerless in his rule, he came upon many great misfortunes in his life. Thus it is not easy to tell whether he was more unhappy or more blessed. 49 Firstly, in his petition to his uncle for the office of Master of Horse, the tribune Lepidus was preferred to him, because of a sign at the taking of the auspices. Soon after, there was the burdensome power of Antony in the Triumvirate, the battle of Philippi, and the ill-will which arose from the resulting proscriptions. Next there was the renunciation of Postumus Agrippa, after the adoption, and Augustus’ subsequent great repentance. Then there were the shipwrecks at Sicily, and his shameful lurking in a cave there, the many seditions of his troops and the anxiety at Perusia. Also there was the detection of his daughter’s adultery and of her wish to murder him. Then there was the disgrace of his granddaughter (no less a shame than the other) and accusations of causing the deaths of her sons. After his own children were lost, there was the grief of childlessness. There was the pestilence in the city, famine in Italy, military difficulties in the Illyrian War, his ill health, the abusive discord with his step-son Nero, the unfaithful plots of his wife and also of Tiberius, and many other things of the same sort.

§ 1.50  Nevertheless, as though the spirit of the age were grieving, scarcity of all crops followed after the death of Augustus. Lest this seem like a mere accident which had befallen, the imminent evil was portended by certain signs. 51 A certain Fausta, a woman of low origins, brought forth two sets of twins at one birth -- two males and as many females. This monstrous fecundity foreshadowed the future calamity. Howbeit the author Trogus affirms that in Egypt seven were brought forth together at one birth, this is no great miracle. For in that country, the Nile with its fruitful water makes not only the fields on the land thrive, but also the wombs of women. 52 We read that Gnaeus Pompeius exhibited a woman from Asia called Eutyche in the theatre with her 20 children, which were known to have been born in three births. Whence, I think it proper to go on from here to examine the begetting of Man.

§ 1.53  Indeed, although I am going to treat all living creatures which seem worthy of mention, just as the country of each shall remind me, it is fitting for me to begin with that creature which Nature has placed before all in judgment of feelings and capacity for reasoning.

§ 1.54  As the natural philosopher Democritus observes, Woman is the only “monthly” animal. The monthly courses of women, as is observed by many, are justly to be accounted among the marvellous. 55 The fruit of the earth, stained by menstrual blood, will not sprout; the new wine becomes sour, the turf dies, the trees lose their produce. Iron is attacked by rust, copper becomes black. If any dogs taste it, they become enraged into a frenzy; anyone injured by their bites becomes mad.

§ 1.56  But these are small things. Bitumen from Judaea, which is produced at Lake Asphaltites, is very sticky, and has a gluey pliability; it cannot be dissipated. It is impossible to divide it -- if you wish to break it into parts, the whole will certainly stay together, as it extends as far as it is stretched out. But when the threads are brought near to the polluted blood, they are easily separated. When the noxious fluid is placed near any material, it is dissipated. The sudden division comes about through the tenacity being joined to the contagion.

§ 1.57  To be sure, the substance does have one beneficial property: it averts the Star of Helen, most pernicious to sailors. 58 For the rest, women themselves (whose functions are a necessity), do not possess harmless glances during the period they are subject to this natural law of theirs. The brightness of mirrors is spoiled by their aspect; offended, the mirror becomes dulled, and the quenched lustre loses its customary reflection of faces. The beauty of the gloss becomes obscured by darkness

§ 1.59  Some women are always barren. Others, by dint of changing husbands, are able to leave sterility behind. Some bear only once; others bear only males or only females. By the age of 50, the fertility of all women is stilled, but men in the 80th year can still procreate, as in the case of King Masinissa. He begot his son Mathumannus in his 76th year. Cato, when he was exactly 80 years old, begot the grandfather of the Utican Cato with the daughter of his client Salonis.

§ 1.60  It is also known that when two children are conceived within a short time of one another, both settle in the womb, as did Hercules and Iphicles, who were carried in the same pregnancy. Nevertheless, it seems that these two were born at the same interval at which they were conceived. 61 Then there is the case of the slave-girl from Proconnesus, who brought forth twins from her two-fold adultery, each similar to his father. This Iphicles fathered Iolaus, who, after he went to Sardinia, and by blandishments persuaded the fearful minds of the inhabitants into concordance, built Olbia and other Greek towns. His descendents, called the Iolenses, bestowed a temple on his tomb, because, in imitation of his uncle’s virtue, he had freed Sardinia from many evils.

§ 1.62  Above all, women wanting children should beware of sneezing after sexual union, lest the sudden shock reject the semen before the paternal fluid can penetrate to the mother’s inner parts. If natural processes prevail, the pregnant mother will be troubled by pain on the tenth day from conception. From this time she will become restless in mind, and her sight will dim with darkness. Also the desire of her stomach lessens and she begins to loathe food. All agree that it is the heart which is first formed of all the flesh. It grows until the 65th day, and then diminishes. First of all the bones is the backbone. Because of this, it endangers life if either of these parts are harmed. 63 Certainly, if the little body is being fashioned into a male child, the colour of the mother is better, and the birth is easier. Also the baby begins to stir from the 40th day. A female first quivers after the 96th day. The conception of a female dyes the countenance of the pregnant mother with pallor. Also it hinders her legs with a faint lethargy.

§ 1.64  In both sexes, when the hair starts to grow the mother becomes more troubled. The sickness is exacerbated when the moon is full; this time is always harmful until the birth happens. If the pregnant mother eats rather salty food, the child is born without nails. When the proper time for the birth draws near, it best suits the woman in labour to hold her breath, since yawning causes a lethal delay, suspending the birth.

§ 1.65  It is against nature for children to be born feet first. Just like other children brought forth with difficulty, those who are born thus are called “Agrippa”. These same mostly lead unfortunate lives, and die young; .

§ 1.66  only in one man, Marcus Agrippa, was it a sign of felicity. Nevertheless, one could hardly say he was completely untouched by hardship. It is rather that he had less of adversity than of good fortune. By the wretched pain of his feet, by the open adultery of his wife and by several other unhappinesses he paid for the foretoken of his inverted birth.

§ 1.67  For female babies, there is another unpropitious manner of birth. This is when the child is born with the vulva grown together. In this way were the genitalia of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi -- she atoned for the portent by the unlucky death of her children.

§ 1.68  A birth is more auspicious if the mother dies of it, as in the case of the first Scipio Africanus. His mother died, and because he was born by being cut from her womb, he was the first Roman to be called “Caesar”.

§ 1.69  On the subject of twins, if one of the two perishes by being prematurely born, the one that survives and is born at the proper time is called “Vopiscus”.

§ 1.70  When people are born with teeth, as were Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and Marcus Curius, they are given the surname “Dentatus”. Some in turn are armed with solid teeth which are one continual bone, such as the son of King Prusias of Bithynia.

§ 1.71  The sex of the child determines the number of teeth, since males have more and females fewer. Of those who have pairs of projecting teeth, if the double is on the right side, it gives hope of good fortune. In those whom the double is on the left, it is the opposite.

§ 1.72  The first sound made by newborns is screaming; the emotion of happiness is delayed until the 40th day. I know of only one who laughed in the same hour as he was born, namely, Zoroaster, who became extremely skilled in the arts. But Crassus, the grandfather of the Crassus who was violently seized in the Parthian War, used to be surnamed “Agelastus”, because he never laughed. .

§ 1.73  Among the other extraordinary things we are told about Socrates, it is a celebrated fact that his face kept the same expression, even when he was troubled by misfortune. Heraclitus and Diogenes the Cynic never yielded from their hardness of spirit. Trampled upon by the whirlwind of fortune, they continued unchanged in their purpose against all sorrow and compassion.

§ 1.74  It is said that Pomponius, the poet and consul, was a man who never burped. Among other examples is that of Antonia, wife of Drusus, who did not succumb to enticements to spit. I have heard of several born with hardened bones, who were not accustomed either to sweat or to thirst. Lygdamus the Syracusan is said to have been of such a sort. He was the first, in the 33rd Olympiad, to carry away the crown of the gymnastic contest. His bones were found to have no marrow in them.

§ 1.75  It is certain that the sinews make the greatest contribution to human strength. The thicker they are, strength is all the more ready to grow. Varro, in his report about unnatural strength, notes that there was a gladiator called Tritannus, who wore the Samnite armour, who had sinews both straight across and athwart his hands and arms, as well as his breast, like lattice. In conflicts, he conquered all his adversaries with a light touch, almost carelessly. .

§ 1.76  Varro also writes about this man’s son, a soldier of Gnaeus Pompeius, who was born in a similar way. He fought an enemy who challenged him, overcame him with his unarmed right hand and with one finger carried him back as a captive to the camp of his own general. Milo of Crotona is also reported to have done many things above the power of humans. It is even said that he felled a bull at a blow from his bare hands, and that he willingly consumed the entire victim on the day which he had killed it. Of this there is no doubt, for there exists an inscription in witness of the deed. He died the victor of all competitions.

§ 1.77  It is reported that there is a use for alectoria, which has the appearance of a crystal in the shape of a bean. It is found in the bellies of fowls: they say it is suitable for fighting cocks. Milo shone in the age of Tarquinius Priscus.

§ 1.78  Now, the reader who presses on after his mind has been turned to other things, to the causes of likeness, will discover how great is the talent of cunning Nature! Sometimes we observe likenesses between relatives. By means of offspring, passages make them in families, just as small children frequently bear moles or scars, or some other mark of their ancestors. This was so among the Lepidi, of whom three from the same house (although not in direct succession) were found to have been born with a membrane drawn across the eye. .

§ 1.79  There is also the famous boxer of Byzantium. He had a mother who was the daughter of a bastard Ethiopian, and although she in no way resembled her father, he himself begot children in the likeness of his Ethiopian grandfather.

§ 1.80  But this is not so amazing if we consider the likenesses which have been observed between complete strangers. A certain Artemon, a low-born Syrian, of similar appearance, pretended to be King Antiochus. It is further said that Antiochus’ royal wife Laodice, by showing this base fellow to the people, was able to conceal her husband’s death for a long time, until a successor of her choice was arranged for the kingdom.

§ 1.81  Such was the uncertainty due to the similarity of Gnaeus Pompeius and Gaius Vibius, a man of low origins, that the Romans called Vibius by the name of Pompeius and Pompeius by the name of Vibius. The actor Rubrius so resembled the orator Lucius Plancus that he was even called Plancus by the people.

§ 1.82  A herdsmen gladiator and the orator Cassius Severus did so resemble one another that if at any time they were seen together, no-one was able to tell them apart unless their dress betrayed the difference. Marcus Messala, who had been a Censor, and one Menogenes, who was from the commonplace dregs of society, were so similar in appearance that no matter which was seen, people thought Messala to be none other than Menogenes, and Menogenes to be none other than Messala.

§ 1.83  A fisherman from Sicily was compared to the proconsul Sura, because (among other things) of his open-mouthed expression. They resembled one another in the same impediment of speech, namely, in the natural obstacle of slowness in bringing forth words.

§ 1.84  It is a marvel to see indistinguishable faces not only among strangers, but also among people drawn together from the furthest parts of the world. When a certain Toranius sold two boys of extraordinary beauty as twins to the triumvir Antonius for 300,000 sestertii, he had acquired one from Transalpine Gaul and the other from Asia. Indeed, they might have been believed to be twins, had not their speech betrayed them. Antonius was angry at being deceived, .

§ 1.85  but Toranius not unreasonably remonstrated that the thing he as a buyer took such exception to was actually of great worth. It was, he said, no marvel for real twins to be alike, but that these two could be born more alike than twins, with such a great distance separating them, could not be priced at any value. .

§ 1.86  Indeed, Antonius was mollified by this answer, and thereafter he would tell people that there was nothing among his possessions that he held more dearly.

§ 1.87  Now, if we investigate the very shapes of men themselves, it is clearly evident that Antiquity proclaimed nothing falsely, but that the progeny of our time, corrupted by degenerate successors, and through the gradual deterioration of the children now born, has lost the grace of the old beauty.

§ 1.88  Although the majority assert that no man can exceed a height of seven foot, which was the very measure of Hercules, it was found that in the time of the Romans under the divine Augustus that Pusio and Secundilla were ten feet high and more. Their remains are yet to be seen in the sepulchre of the Sallusts. 89 Later, in the principate of the divine Claudius, there was a man brought from Arabia, by name Gabbara, who was nine feet and as many inches high. But 1000 years before Augustus, no-one of such a sort appeared, just as after Claudius, no-one of a like sort was seen. .

§ 1.90  For who in this age is not born lesser than his parents were? Orestes’ remains testify as to the bulk of the men of old. His bones (they were discovered in Tegea in the 58th Olympiad by the Spartans, who had been advised by an oracle) were seven cubits long. Also, writings summon faithful memories from antiquity of an incident in the Cretan war. 91 The rivers were swollen with more violence than is usual, and had broken up the ground; when the flood departed, among the many cracks in the earth a human body 33 cubits long was discovered. Lucius Flaccus the legate and even Metellus himself desired to see it. People refuted the marvel as hearsay, but they saw it with their own eyes.

§ 1.92  I must not omit that the son of Euthymenes of Salamis grew to three cubits high in three years. However, he was slow of gait, dull-witted, and boisterous of voice; he matured too soon and was immediately beset by many ills. He paid for his swift growth by falling prey to all manner of sicknesses.

§ 1.93  Man’s system of measurements has a two-fold harmony, for the measure between the two longest fingers, the arms being stretched out, is as much as is between the sole of the foot and the top of the head. Therefore, the natural philosophers judge Man to be a little world.

§ 1.94  More maneuverable movement is ascribed to the right hand, and greater firmness to the left. Whence, one is more suitable for gesticulating, and the other is more suited to bearing burdens.

§ 1.95  Nature has devised a method of modesty even between dead bodies. If ever the bodies of those killed are borne up by the waves, those of men float face up and those of women float face down.

§ 1.96  Now we may pass to the title of swiftness. A certain Ladas gained the first award for speed. He was accustomed to run so fast above loose dust that the sand still hovered, and there was no evidence of his footprints.

§ 1.97  When Polymestor, a Milesian boy, had been directed by his mother to feed the goats, he chased a hare for sport and caught it. Because of this, he was immediately induced by the leader of his people to compete in the 46th Olympiad. He was victor in the race, and won the crown.

§ 1.98  Philippides, in the space of two days, ran the 1240 stades from Athens to Lacedaemon. Anystis the Laconian and Philonides, couriers of Alexander the Great, ran the 1200 stades from Sicyon to Elis in one day, without halt. In the year that Fonteius and Vispanus were consuls [59 CE], an eight year old boy in Italy ran 65 miles between noon and evening.

§ 1.99  Next, Varro mentions one Strabo, who, having the clearest sight, could see over 135 miles. From the watch tower at Lilybaeum he was able to accurately note the number of ships in Punic fleet which had just left Carthage.

§ 1.100  Cicero reports that the whole Iliad was so finely written on vellum it could be enclosed within the shell of a nut. Callicrates carved some ants out of ivory; it was not possible to distinguish them from the real ones in the portico.

§ 1.101  Apollonides mentions some women called the Bitiae, who live in Scythia. They have twin pupils in their eyes, and if they look angrily at someone, they can kill by a glance. They also live in Sardinia.

§ 1.102  Among the Romans, Lucius Sicinius Dentatus is shown to have been the most courageous by the number of his titles. He was Tribune of the Plebs a little while after the expulsion of the kings, when Sp. Tarpeius and A. Aterius were consuls [454 BCE]. He, eight times victor in challenges, had 45 scars in front, and no mark on his back. He captured spoils from the enemy 34 times. 103 He earned 312 gifts of phalerae, ceremonial spears, bracelets and crowns. He followed nine other generals in their triumphs; they had conquered because of his work.

§ 1.104  After Sicinius comes Marcus Sergius, who served twice in the military. The first time he was wounded 32 times in front; the second time he lost his right hand in battle. Because of this, he afterwards made himself an iron hand, and although neither hand was much use for fighting, he fought four times in one day and conquered with the left hand. He had two horses slain under him..

§ 1.105  He escaped twice when captured by Hannibal. During the 20 months when he endured the fate of bondage, he was not for one moment without shackles and chains. He was rewarded with military honours in all the harshest battles the Romans experienced in those times. He carried away civil crowns from Trasimene, Trebia and Ticinus; also from Cannae, from which it was accounted an extraordinary feat merely to have escaped. He alone received a crown. Surely blessed would he be, with so many votes of glory, had not his heir Catiline, in the succession of his posterity, darkened his prizes with his hated name.

§ 1.106  As much as Sicinius and Sergius shone among the soldiers, among leaders (indeed, I may with more truth say among all men) shone Caesar the dictator. In his generalships, 1,192,000 of the enemy were slain. He was unwilling to note how many he routed during the Civil Wars. He fought 52 times in pitched battles. 107 He alone surpasses Marcus Marcellus who fought 39 times. Besides this, no-one wrote more swiftly, no-one read more quickly; he could dictate four letters at once. He was even endowed with kindness: those whom he had defeated in battle were further conquered by his clemency.

§ 1.108  Cyrus was famous for the gift of memory. In the army which he captained, which was most numerous, he could address each man by name. Lucius Scipio did the same thing among the Romans. But we may believe that Cyrus and Scipio did it out of habit, while 109 Cineas, the ambassador of Pyrrhus, greeted both the Equestrian order and the Senate by their own names on the day after he had come to Rome. Mithridates, the Pontic king, ministered justice without an interpreter to the 22 nations he governed. Plainly, memory is governed by practice, as we see in the case of Metrodorus the philosopher, who lived in the time of Diogenes the Cynic. He carried himself forward so much by regular practicing that he not only remembered the speech of many people speaking at once, but also the order of the words.

§ 1.110  Nothing, however, it is often seen in men, can be so easily lost as memory, whether by fear, or falling, or sickness. I heard that someone struck by a stone forgot how to read. Certainly, Messala Corvinus, after an illness which he endured, was stricken to forgetfulness of his own name, notwithstanding how much his senses throve previously.

§ 1.111  Fear destroys memory. Fear is in turn sometimes a stimulant for speech. Not only does fear incite speech in normal circumstances, but it can also wrench speech from those who were formerly dumb.

§ 1.112  When in the 58th Olympiad, the victorious Cyrus had eventually entered the Asian town of Sardis, where Croesus was lying hidden, Alys, the king’s son, mute up to this time, erupted into speech at the violence of his dread. For it is said that he shouted out: “Spare my father, O Cyrus, and learn from our plight that you are a man”.

§ 1.113  It now remains to hold forth on men’s characters. Excellence stands out the most in two cases. Firstly, in the case of Cato, founder of the gens Porcia, who was an excellent senator, orator and general. He was arraigned 44 times, because he had striven in the hostile rivalry of hatred, but he was always acquitted.

§ 1.114  Second, there is Scipio Aemilianus. Praise for this man is more favourably disposed. He, going beyond those things for which Cato was famous, also excelled in public favour.

§ 1.115  Scipio Nasica, an excellent man, was judged to be so not only by private testimony but also by a guarantee of the Senate. Of course, none could be found worthier than he to be entrusted with the office of special religion, since the oracle warned that the sacred ceremonies of the Mother of the Gods should be brought from Pessinus.

§ 1.116  Among the Romans many flourished in eloquence, but this good gift was never hereditary, except in the Curio family. Among them were three orators in succession. Certainly it was a great thing in those times, when eloquence was especially marveled at both in men and in gods.

§ 1.117  Of course, then Apollo exposed the murderers of the poet Archilochus, and the crime of the robbers was detected by the accusing God.

§ 1.118  And when Lysander the Lacedaemonian besieged Athens, where the unburied body of the tragedian Sophocles was lying, father Liber continually warned Lysander in his sleep to allow his favourite to be buried.

§ 1.119  He did not stop until Lysander, learning who had died and which god was commanding him, instituted a truce to allow the great man to be buried accordingly.

§ 1.120  Castor and Pollux, who were standing outside a dinner-party, called to Pindar the lyric poet when he was threatened with catastrophe, lest he perish with the rest. By this ploy alone Pindar escaped the impending danger.

§ 1.121  Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus must be counted next to the gods. When he was about to enter the house of Poseidonius, then the most famous teacher of wisdom, he forbade the lictor to strike on the door, as the custom was. Lowering the fasces, although he was victorious in the East and had subdued Mithridates, he yielded of his own will to the door of learning.

§ 1.122  Scipio Africanus earlier ordered a statue of Q. Ennius to be put in his tomb. The Utican Cato brought one philosopher to Rome when he was a military tribune, and another when he was ambassador to Cyprus. He declared that by these deeds he had bestowed much on the Senate and the people, even if his ancestor had very often recommended that the Greeks should be driven from the city.

§ 1.123  The tyrant Dionysius sent ships decorated with ribbons to greet Plato, and he himself honoured him by coming to meet him as he stepped onto the shore, in a chariot drawn by four white horses.

§ 1.124  Indeed, a well-respected example of piety shines forth from the house of the Metelli, but the most prominent is found in the case of a plebeian woman who had lately had a child. This woman was of low birth, and therefore of obscure fame. When she was allowed to go to her father (who was confined in prison, as a punishment) she was searched many times by the gaolers, lest she by chance had brought food for him. But later she was discovered feeding him from her breasts.

§ 1.125  This -- both the place and the deed -- were consecrated. For the father, who was condemned to death, was spared because he was given a memory of such praise by his daughter. The place was set aside as a shrine to the god of Piety.

§ 1.126  The Crown of Modesty was bestowed on Claudia by the ship which bore the sacred mysteries from Phrygia, and she followed it with the ribbons of Chastity. But Sulpicia, daughter of Paterculus and wife of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, was chosen (she was carefully selected by the matrons, from the hundred most esteemed women) to dedicate the image of Venus, as the Sybilline Books advised.

§ 1.127  As touching happiness, a man has not been found who ought to be justly deemed happy. Cornelius Sulla was said to have been happier than he actually was. The Delphic Oracle judged one Aglaus alone to be blessed; he was the owner of a meagre plot in the narrowest niche in Arcadia, and he was never found to have gone forth from the boundaries of his ancestral ground. About Man I have said enough.

§ 2.1  CHAPTER II: ITALY
Now, in order to return to my resolve, I must steer my pen towards the commemoration of places. First, I will visit Italy, the splendour of which I have already touched upon in writing of the city of Rome. 2 But as Italy has already been discussed with such care by everyone, especially by Marcus Cato, there is nothing now to be found which the old authors’ diligence did not anticipate. As material is plentifully at hand for the praise of this excellent land, the most pre-eminent authors have reflected upon many things: the salubriousness of Italy’s regions, the temperateness of the climate, the fertility of the soils, the sunny places on the hillsides, the shady groves, the benign passes, the successes of the vines and olives, the noble herds, the many rivers, the great lakes, and the violet beds that flower twice a year. 3 Then there is Vesubius, heated with the breath of a fiery spirit; Baiae, warm with springs; the many colonies; the constant beauty of new cities. There is the famed glory of the old towns, built by the Aborigines, the Aurunci, the Pelasgians, the Arcadians, the Sicilians, then by migrants from all over Greece, and lastly by the victorious Romans. Besides this, Italy’s coasts are full of havens; the coasts, with their open bays, are suitable for trading with the whole world.

§ 2.4  However, lest it appear as though I have left Italy entirely untouched, it seems by no means absurd for me to exert my mind about those things which are less familiar, and to travel through those areas which have been more sparingly investigated. 5 For who does not know that Janiculum was either named or founded by Janus? That Latium and Saturnia were founded by Saturn, Ardea by Danae, and Polycle by the companions of Hercules? Who does not know that Pompeii was founded in Campania by Hercules himself, because thence, after his victories in Spain, he had led his procession of cattle?

§ 2.6  Who does not know of the stony plains in Liguria, where the stones are believed to have been rained down when he was fighting there? Or that Ionia takes its name from Ione, the daughter of Aulochus, whom they say Hercules slew, as she impudently sat down in the road? Or that Archippe was founded by Marsyas, king of the Lydians, and was destroyed by being swallowed up into an opening in the ground, into the Fucine Lake? 7 Or that the temple of Argive Juno was founded by Jason, or Pisae by the Pelopidae? Who does not know that the Daunii were named by Cleolaus, son of Minos; that the Iapygians were named for Iapyx, son of Daedalus; the Tyrrhenians for Tyrrhenus, king of Lydia; Cora by Dardanus; Agylla by the Pelasgians, who first brought letters into Latium; Falisca by the Argive Halesus; Falerii by the Argive Falerius, and Fescenninum also by the Argives? Who does not know that the port of Parthenius was founded by the Phocians? That Tibur, as Cato gives testimony, by Catillus the Arcadian, prefect of Evander’s fleet, or, as Sextius has it, by the youth of Argos? 8 Catillus was the son of Amphiaraus. After the portentous death of his father at Thebes, he, the sacrifice of the spring-born, was sent forth on his grandfather Oecleus’ orders, with all his children. In Italy he begot three more children: Tibertus, Coras and Catillus; he expelled from Sicilia the old inhabitants of the town, the Sicani, and called it by the name of the eldest brother, Tibertus. Soon after, the temple of Minerva in Bruttium was built by Ulysses.

§ 2.9  The island of Ligea is called so because the body of a Siren named thus was cast ashore there. Parthenope, which Augustus later preferred to be called Neapolis, took its name from the tomb of the Siren Parthenopa situated in that place. Praeneste, as Zenodotus writes, was named after Praenestes, grandson of Ulysses and son of Latinus. On the other hand, the books of the Praenestines say the city was founded by Caeculus, whom, as the tale goes, the sisters of the Digidii came upon hard by a fortuitous fire.

§ 2.10  It has been noted that Petilia was established by Philoctetes, Arpi and Beneventum by Diomedes, Patavium by Antenor, Metapontum by the Pylians and Scylaceum by the Athenians. Sybaris was founded by Sagaris, the son of Locrian Ajax, and the Troezenians; the country of the Sallentines was established by the Lyctians, Ancona by the Sicilians, and Gabii was founded by the Sicilian brothers Galatius and Bius; Tarentum was founded by the Heraclidii, the island of Tempsa by the Ionians, Paestum by the Dorians, Croton by the Achaean Myscellus, Regium by the Chalcidians, Caulonia and Terina by the Crotonians, and Locri by the Naricii. Heretum was founded by the Greeks in honour of Hera (for thus the Greeks call Juno). Aricia was founded by Archilochus the Sicilian, from whom, as it pleases Hemina to say, the name was derived. 11 In this place Orestes, who had been advised by an oracle, consecrated the image of Scythian Diana, which he had carried out of Taurica before he made for Argos. Metaurum was established by the Zanclenses; Metapontum, which, as Bocchus asserts, is now Vibo, was established by the Locrians. Marcus Antonius reports that the Umbrians are descended from the ancient Gauls; the Gauls, because in the time of the calamitous flood they survived the rains, were called “Umbrians” by the Greeks.

§ 2.12  It pleases Licinianus to say that the name “Messapia” was originally given by the Greek Messapus to the area afterwards called Calabria; in the beginning, Peucetius, brother of Oenotrus, had named it Peucetia.

§ 2.13  Everyone agrees that Palinurus was named after Aeneas’ helmsman, Misenum after his trumpeter, and the island Leucosia after his first cousin on his mother’s side. Caieta was named after Aeneas’ nurse, and Lavinium, which, as Cosconius holds, was built four years after the destruction of Troy, after his wife.

§ 2.14  It must not be omitted that Aeneas landed on Italian shores in the second year after Troy was captured, with not more than 600 companions, as Hemina asserts. He pitched his camp in a Laurentine field. Here he dedicated an image, which he had carried out of Sicily, to his mother Venus, who is called Frutis, and received the Palladium from Diomedes. Next, he accepted 500 iugera from Latinus, and reigned for three years in conjunction with him. 15 After Latinus’ death, Aeneas ruled alone for a period of two years, and then, in the seventh year, disappeared at the River Numicius. The name Father Indiges was given to him. 16 After this, Ascanius founded Alba Longa, Fidenae and Aricia; the Tyrians founded Nola, and the Euboeans Cumae. In Cumae is the shrine of the Sibyl who was involved in Roman affairs in the 50th Olympiad, and whose Book was consulted by our priests up until the time of Cornelius Sulla. 17 At that time the Book — along with the Capitol — was consumed by fire. The two previous Books the Sibyl had herself burned, as Tarquinius Superbus had offered her a meaner price than she asked for them. Her tomb remains in Sicily to this day. 18 Bocchus asserts that the Delphic Sibyl prophesied before the Trojan Wars, and he declares that Homer inserted many of her verses into his work. Several years after her came Herophile of Erythrae, who was also called Sibyl, because of the similarity of her talents. Among other magnificent things, she forewarned that the Lesbians would lose dominion of the sea, long before it came to pass. Thus the sequence of time itself shows that the Cumaean Sibyl was the third.

§ 2.19  Italy as a whole — ancient Latium, formerly, reached from the mouth of the Tiber all the way to the River Liris — springs from the ridge of the Alps and stretches to the promontory of Reginum and the shores of the Bruttii, where it extends southwards into the sea. 20 Thence it proceeds, raising itself by degrees to the Apennine range. It extends between the Tuscan and the Adriatic, that is, between the upper and lower seas. In shape it is similar to an oak-leaf, namely, wider in length than in breadth. 21 Further off, where it disappears, Italy is split into two horns, one of which watches the Ionian Sea, and the other the Sicilian. One shore does not receive the onset of the sea which insinuates between these projections; the open sea is admitted separated by spurs, which jut out like projecting tongues. 22 Along the way, we might note things here and there: the citadels of Tarentum, the region of Scylacea with the town Scyllaeum, and the River Crateis — Scylla’s mother, as antiquity has fabled. Then there are the Regian woodlands, the valleys of Paestum, the rocks of the Sirens, the charming tracts of Campania, and the Phlegraean plains. There is Tarracina, and the house of Circe, once an island encircled by the boundless sea, but now, in the fullness of time, attached to the mainland. It experienced the opposite fortune to the Regini, whom the sea, by insinuating itself between, violently separated from the Sicilians. Also there is Formiae, which was inhabited by the Laestrygones, and much more beside, which I thought best to pass over, rather than taking the risk of pursuing in an unsatisfactory fashion.

§ 2.23  The length of Italy, which extends from Augusta Praetoria through the City and Capua all the way to the town of Regium, adds up to 1020 miles. The breadth, at the widest point, is 410 miles, and at the narrowest point, 136 miles. The narrowest part is actually near the port which is called “Hannibal’s Camp”, for there it does not exceed 40 miles. The centre of Italy, as Varro set forth, is in the Reatine fields. The circumference of the whole is 2049 miles. 24 In this circuit, the first gulf of Europe, having begun from Gades, has its end looking towards the beginning of the country of the Locrenses. The second, having begun from Lacinium, has its end at Acroceraunium.

§ 2.25  Italy is famous for the River Padus, which Vesulus, the highest mountain, pours out of his bosom among the ridges of the Alps. The Padus first hurls itself forward from this spring, which can be seen on the borders of Liguria; after being submerged in an underground tunnel, it rises in the fields of Vibo. Padus is not lesser in fame than any river, and is called Eridanus by the Greeks. It becomes swollen at its source at the rising of the Dogstar, with the melting snows and dissolving hoar-frosts of winter, and is augmented by the inflow of other waters. Padus carries 30 rivers into the Adriatic Sea.

§ 2.26  Among other things worthy of remembrance, celebrated and conspicuously talked of by everyone, is this. There are a very few families in the fields of the Falisci who are called “Hirpus”. They make a yearly sacrifice to Apollo on Mount Soracte, in the course of which they dance with impunity in burning heaps of wood, making religious gestures. The flames yield in honour of the divinity. The Senate have honoured their devotion magnificently; the Hirpi were given perpetual freedom from all services.

§ 2.27  It is not to be wondered at that the Marsi people are resistant to the bites of serpents. They regard their family as being descended from the son of Circe; because of this ancestral power, they know that they ought to hold poisons in servitude. For this reason, they disdain poisons.

§ 2.28  Gaius Coelius says that Aeetes had three daughters: Angitia, Medea and Circe. Circe settled in the Circean mountains, and there with sorceries invented sundry contrivances to do with charms and phantoms. 29 Angitia lived in the neighbourhood of Fucinus, and spent her life pursuing the wholesome knowledge of prevention of disease. Since she gave her life to men, she is regarded as a goddess. 30 Medea was buried by Jason at Buthrotum, and her son ruled among the Marsi.

§ 2.31  But although Italy has this defence, it is not completely free from serpents. 32 In fact, the inhabitants of Amunclae, which the Greeks from Amyclae built, were driven forth from their town by serpents. There are numerous vipers with incurable bites in Italy. They are shorter than those which are found in other parts of the world; they harm all the more easily when, for this reason, they are deemed contemptible.

§ 2.33  Calabria swarms with water-snakes, and gives birth to the boa, which is a kind of snake said to grow to an immense size. First, the boa hunts herds of cattle, and he fastens himself to the udder of whichever cow is watered with the most milk. Fattened by continual sucking, he swells to such a state of satiety that no force is able to withstand his magnitude. Having plundered the animals, he brings the regions which he takes possession of to desolation. 34 In the reign of Claudius, a whole child was seen in the belly of a boa slaughtered in the Vatican field.

§ 2.35  Italy has wolves which are different to others; when one of these wolves sees a man before the man sees the wolf, he is stricken dumb. Regarded by a baleful gaze, he does not have the use of his voice, even though he may wish to shout. 36 I pass over much I know about wolves, and include this as the most worthy of observance: a very small tuft of hair in the tail of this animal procures love. When he fears to be caught after being injured, the wolf willingly casts away this tuft, but it does not have the power unless it is pulled from the wolf while he is alive. Wolves do not breed on more than twelve days per year in total. In famines, they feed on the earth.

§ 2.37  When those creatures who are called deer-wolves, after long hunger, light on flesh, they painfully begin to chew, but they forget their food if by chance they gaze on something else. Heedless of the present abundance, they go searching for the satiety they left behind.

§ 2.38  Lynxes are to be numbered among this kind of animal. The urine of the lynx is said to collect and harden into precious stones by those who have narrowly investigated the nature of stones. That this is known to the lynxes themselves is proved by this example: when they discharge liquid, they immediately cover it, as much as they are able, with hillocks of sand. No doubt they do this from spite, lest such matter as issues from them be useful to us. As Theophrastus holds, these stones are the colour of amber. The substance attracts by a breath things that are near at hand. It cures diseases of the kidneys and assuages the jaundice; it is called luncurium.

§ 2.40  At Reginum, and nowhere else, the cicadas are silent. This silence is a marvel, and not to be deplored, since the neighbouring Locrian cicadas make more noise than all the rest. Granius relates the reason for their silence: when they were murmuring in protest at Hercules, who was resting there, the god ordered them not to make such a loud noise. From that day, the silence which then began has remained.

§ 2.41  The Ligurian Sea produces shrubs, which, however long they have been in the deeps of the water, are lush and flesh-like to the touch. When they are removed from their origins and finally raised into the upper world, they become as rocks. Not only their quality but also their colour is altered, for they immediately blush crimson. Their little branches are such as we see on trees, mostly half a foot long. It is rare to find one a foot long. From these plants are fashioned many things for the adornment of the body. 42 As Zoroastres says, this substance actually has a kind of power. For this reason, whatever may come from it, it is deemed wholesome. 43 Metrodorus calls it gorgia; others call it “coral”. Metrodorus also affirms that it resists typhoons and lightning bolts. In a part of Lucania a gemstone with a very beautiful appearance may be dug up. It is saffron in colour, and it has stars inside it, which are dim, as though shining under a cloud. Since it was first discovered on the shores of the Syrtes, it is called the Syrtian stone. 44 There is also the Veiian stone, called so from the place where it is found. Its colour is black, which, with beautiful contrast, is intersected by white tracks and marks.

§ 2.45  There is an island which watches the shore of Apulia which is famous for the tomb and shrine of Diomedes. Also, here alone nest Diomedes’ birds; these birds cannot be found anywhere else, which can be judged remarkable. Their shape is almost the same as that of a coot; they are white in colour, their eyes are fiery, and they have toothed bills.

§ 2.46  They fly about in flocks, which, for purposes of proceeding efficiently, are not without order. There are two leaders who rule the onrush: one goes in front of the column and the other brings up the rear — the former that he might lead a direct route and the latter that he might urge on the tardy. This is the discipline of their traveling. 47 When the time for fructifying comes upon them, they dig trenches with their bills, and stretch shoots over the top, imitating the framework of a basket. Thus they cover up the space hollowed out underneath. Lest these lids be found wanting, and the wooden hollows carried away by chance winds, the birds press down the pile with the earth they dug out when raising their wells. 48 They build their nests with double entrances. It is not done fortuitously -- they mark out the entrances and exits according to the regions of the heavens. The opening that dismisses them to the feeding grounds is open to the east, and that which receives them is situated towards the west; thus, light rouses them, and does not deny them for their retreat. For the relieving of their bellies, they fly upwards in adverse winds, so their bodily discharges may be blown further away from them. 49 They judge between visitors. Those who are Greek they permit to approach, and as far as it is to be understood, they fawn coaxingly upon them as countrymen. If they are of another race, they rush upon them and attack. They frequent the sacred shrine every day, and their zeal takes this form: they wet their feathers with water, and they flock together with thoroughly soaked and dewy wings. By shaking off the moisture, they purify the shrine. Then they clap their wings and depart, as though they have completed their worship. 50 Because of this, the birds are said to have been Diomedes’ companions. Certainly, before the advent of the Aetolian leader, they did not go by the name of Diomedes, but thenceforth they have been called thus.

§ 2.51  Italy runs as far as the land of the Liburnians, who are an Asiatic race, to the foot of Dalmatia. Dalmatia extends to the Illyrian border, on which coast the Dardanians have their home. These men have been brutalized from their Trojan lineage into barbarous customs.

§ 2.52  But from the other side it proceeds down the Ligurian coast into the province of Narbo. Here the Phocaeans, having at one time been driven into exile by the advent of the Persians, built the city of Massilia in the 45th Olympiad. 53 Gaius Marius, in the war with the Cimbrians, let the sea into canals, and so assuaged the danger of sailing on the swollen river Rodanus. This river, cast down from the Alps, first runs through the territory of the Helvetii, dragging streams of running waters with it. It increases by a great amount, and becomes more turbulent than the sea itself, which it invades, except when the sea is raised. Rodanus rages even when the weather is calm, and for this reason it is reckoned one of the three greatest rivers of Europe. 54 Aquae Sextiae also became famous there. Once this was the winter quarters of a consul, and later the waters were improved by walls. Their heat, which once breathed out sharply, evaporated over time, and now they do not enjoy their prior fame. If we have a mind to the Greeks, it is best to consider the Tarentine coast. Thence, from that promontory which they call Acra Iapygia, is the shortest voyage to Achaia.

§ 3.1  CHAPTER III: CORSICA
From here, my pen must change its course. Other lands call on me, and it would be tedious to travel slowly along the shores of all the islands which face the promontories of Italy. These islands are scattered in the most delightful nooks, and seem arranged by Nature as a show lest they be omitted. 2 But how long would I tarry, if, through idleness, I delayed treating the important things, and spoke of Pandateria, or Prochyta, or Ilva, fertile with iron, or Capraria, which the Greeks call Aegilon, or Planasia, called thus because of its plain-like appearance, or from the wanderings of Ulysses? Or Columbaria, mother of the birds which bear this name, or Ilhacesia, Ulysses’ watchtower, or Aenaria, named Inarime by Homer, and of others just as pleasing? Among these islands is Corsica, of which many have written fairly extensively, after having traveled around it. They have completed their narratives with the fullest diligence, and nothing has been omitted which it would not be superfluous to undertake anew. 3 They describe how the Ligurians gave a beginning to the inhabitants, how towns were built, how Marius and Sulla led colonists there, and how the level waters of the Ligurian Sea lap upon it. But let these things pass.

§ 3.4  Corsica alone brings forth the stone which they call catochitis, which is most worthy to be spoken of, as it is a unique thing. It is larger than other stones used for decorative purposes, and is not so much a gemstone as a common rock. It holds down hands placed upon it, attaching itself to adjoining bodies in such a way that those which it touches stick to it. There is in it I know not what — a kind of very sticky glue, like gum. 5 I have heard that Democritus of Abdera often used this little stone to prove the hidden power of nature in disputes he had against magicians.

§ 4.1  CHAPTER IV: SARDINIA
As for Sardinia (which we read about in Timaeus by the name Sandaliotis, and in Crispus by the name Ichnusa), in what sea it lies, and who the ancestors of the inhabitants were, has been sufficiently celebrated. It is to no purpose, therefore, to write that Sardus was begotten by Hercules, Norax by Mercury, and that the one traveled into this country from Libya, and the other all the way from Tartessus in Spain. Or that the name was given to the land by Sardus, and to the town Nora by Norax. 2 Or that soon after, Aristeus, by ruling in the city of Caralis, which he himself, joining the people of each blood, had founded, united the separate tribes under one custom, they nothing scorning his rule because of its strangeness. So we may pass over these things, as well as Iolaus, who settled the land in those regions, and also the Ilienses and Locrenses, let us note that Sardinia is truly without serpents. 3 But what brings serpents to other places brings the solifuga to the fields of Sardinia. This is a very small creature with the shape of a spider, and it is called by this name because it flees daylight. It is found mostly in silver-mines (for the soil of Sardinia is rich in silver); it crawls secretly, and calls down pestilence on those who sit upon it unawares.

§ 4.4  To this mischief is added the herb sardonia, which prospers quite plentifully in places where springs flow forth. If eaten by people who are ignorant of it, it tightens the muscles and divides the mouth into a rictus, so that those who thus meet death die with the appearance of laughter.

§ 4.5  On the other hand, the waters of Sardinia have various benefits. The lakes have a great abundance of fish. The winter showers are saved for the summer scarcity, for the Sardinian man has much wealth as regards rainy skies. They consume collected water, and it suffices for use where there are no bubbling rills. Springs, hot and wholesome, well up in many places. 6 They offer a cure for broken bones, and for the dispelling of poison inserted by solifugae, and also for the curing of eye diseases. 7 But what cures eyes is also powerful for discovering thieves. For whosoever denies a theft with an oath, and washes his eyes with these waters sees more clearly if he has not perjured himself. If a man falsely denies perfidy, his crime is revealed by blindness; captured by his eyes, he is driven to confess.

§ 5.1  CHAPTER V: SICILY
If we were to pay respect to the progression of history, or of places, after Sardinia, Sicily would call us, firstly because both islands, brought under Roman jurisdiction, were made provinces at the same time, since in the same year Marcus Valerius was appointed praetor of Sardinia, and Gaius Flaminius the praetor of the other. Say in addition that when you come out of the Sicilian Straits the sea bears the name “Sardinian”.

§ 5.2  Sicily — this thing must be especially noted — is shaped like a triangle, by reason of its far-flung promontories. Pachynus guides its view towards the Peloponnese and the southern region; Pelorias, facing the west, watches Italy, and Lilybaeum stretches out towards Africa. Of these, Pelorias stands forth; it is praised for the unparalleled moderation of its soil, which is neither turned into mud by the moisture of swamps, nor cracked open into dust by drought.

§ 5.3  Where Pelorias retreats inland and spreads out in width, there are three lakes. That the first of these is abundant in fish, I do not, for my part, consider marvellous. But near to the lake, the land is thick with trees, and the groves of brushwood nurture wild beasts. Hunters and others on foot are given access by means of paths. Thus the lake offers the double pleasure of fishing and hunting, and can be numbered among the admirable features of this land.

§ 5.4  The holiness of the third lake is proved by an altar which stands in the middle of it and divides the shallows from the deeps. Upon the way proceeding to it, the water is leg-deep. What is beyond it is neither permitted to explore nor touch. He who dares to do so is punished by misfortune, and how quickly he goes to ruin is gauged by how much of himself he immerses in the water. They say that a certain man threw a line as far as he could into these depths, and when he assuaged the labour of recovering it by dipping his arm into the water, his hand became rotten.

§ 5.5  The Pelorian shore is inhabited by the colony Tauromenium, which the men of old called Naxus. The town Messana is placed opposite to Regium in Italy. The Greeks called Regium Ρήγιον, on account of the division. 6 There is a great abundance of tuna fish at Pachynus, and because of this, the catch there is always large.

§ 5.7  The town of Lilybaeum dignifies the Lilybaean tomb of the Sibyl. A long time before the Trojan War, Sicanus the king arrived here with a very large band of Spaniards, and named the place “Sicania”, after himself. After this, Siculus, son of Neptune, named the land “Sicily”. 8 Very many Corinthians, Argives, Ilienses, Dorians and Cretans flocked here. Among them was Daedalus, the expert craftsman. Sicily has its chief city in Syracuse, where the weather is tranquil even when it is winter, and there is no day without sun. Add to this that the Spring of Arethusa is in this city.

§ 5.9  Aetna and Eryx are the highest of the mountains. Aetna is sacred to Vulcan, and Eryx to Venus. There are two gaps in Aetna’s summit, called craters, through which vapour erupts after being noisily discharged. Loud noises precede it, rolled in different directions, with extended roaring, through the seething hiding-places of the caverns, in the bowels of the earth. Balls of fire do not lift themselves on high before internal uproar has occurred.

§ 5.10  This is a marvel; and it is not less marvellous that in the burning heat of Aetna, the stubbornness of nature displays snow mingled with the flames. 11 Although Aetna exudes monstrous heat, the summit is perpetually white, holding on to the appearance of winter. There is an unconquerable violence in both: the heat is not mitigated by the cold, not the cold melted by the heat.

§ 5.12  Two other mountains, Nebrodes and the Neptunian, are praised. On the Neptunian is a watchtower which looks into the Tuscan and Adriatic seas. Nebrodes takes its name from the fallow deer and fawns which wander there in flocks.

§ 5.13  What Sicily produces (whether from the soil or by the genius of man) we may judge as approaching the best. The fruits of the earth are excelled by Centuripan saffron. Comedy was first invented here, and here the badinage of mimicry remained on the stage. The house of Archimedes is here. He, familiar with the science of the stars, was an engineer and a maker of siege engines. Here was Lais, the woman who preferred to choose her country rather than to confess.

§ 5.14  The huge caves bear witness to the race of the Cyclops; the settlements of the Laestrygones are named thus to this day. Of this country was Ceres, the teacher of cultivation and fruit-nurturing. In the same place is the Field of Henna, which is always in flower, and vernal every day. 15 Near to it is the sunken hole out of which Father Dis, as the tale goes, having swallowed the light, came forth to abduct Libera. Between Catina and Syracuse there is rivalry concerning the story of some famous brothers. The two sides choose the brothers’ names to suit themselves: if we listen to the Catinenses, the names were Anapius and Amphinomus; if we were to prefer the Syracusan version, we would believe they were Emantia and Crito. Nevertheless, the locality gives the cause of the deed to the Catinenses. When the fires of Aetna burst out, the two young men lifted up their parents and carried them through the flames, unhurt by the conflagration. Their memory was given to posterity, as the place where their tombs are was named the Field of Piety.

§ 5.16  As far as Arethusa and Alpheus are concerned, it is true that the spring and the river come together. The marvels of Sicily’s rivers are exceedingly various. If someone who has lived unchastely drinks from Diana’s river, which flows into Camerina, the liquid of the wine and the liquid of the water will not join into one substance.

§ 5.17  The River Helbesus, which is in the country of the Segestans, grows hot in the middle of its stream with sudden boilings. The river Acis, although it comes down from Aetna, is colder than all. The zones of the heavens change the River Himera; it is bitter when it flows into the north, and it is sweet when it curls towards the south.

§ 5.18  There is as much strangeness in the salt-mines as is in the waters. If you put salt from Agrigentum in the fire, it is dissolved by the burning; if water draws near, it crackles as though it is being burned. Aetna produces salt of a dark red colour; that found at Pachynus is transparent.

§ 5.19  Other salt-mines, near to Agrigentum and Centuripe, do the work of quarries, for there statues are carved into the likenesses of gods and men. In the place where the hot springs are is an island with an abundance of reeds. They are very good for producing the sounds of all pipes — whether you make praecentoriae, which are for playing before couches of the gods, or vascae, which have more holes than praecentoriae, or maiden-pipes, which are called so because of their clear sound, or gingrinae, which, although they are shorter, nevertheless produce a finer sound, or milvinae, which issue the sharpest sound. These reeds are likewise good for making the Lydian pipes, which are also called turariae, or the Corinthian, or the Aegyptian, or others, which musicians differentiate by function and name.

§ 5.20  In the district of Halesa is a spring which, when the environs are silent, is quiet and tranquil. If pipes are sounded, it rises up, exulting at the singing; it swells beyond its banks as though marveling at the sweetness of the voice.

§ 5.21  The Gelonian Lake, with its foul stench, drives away those who draw near. Also in that place are two springs. One, if a barren woman drinks of it, she is made fertile; the other, if a fertile woman drinks of it, she becomes sterile.
22 The lake at Petra is noxious to serpents and healthful to men. Oil floats on the surface of the Agrigentine Lake. Because of their constant wallowing therein, the fat sticks to the foliage of the reeds. From the reeds’ hair-like fibres is gathered a medicinal ointment for use against the diseases of herdsmen.

§ 5.23  Not far from there is Vulcan’s Hill. Men who are sacrificing to the god go there and strew vine wood upon the altar. Fire is not placed near the heap. If the god is present when they carry in the carved meat, and the sacrifice is approved, the twigs, although green, catch fire. The kindling is done by the deity himself, without any burning breath.

§ 5.24  When they are dining sumptuously, the flame frolics; it wanders on sinuous paths, and he whom it touches is not scorched. It is nothing less than an image, a message that the rite has been correctly and completely performed. In the same Agrigentine field, muddy springs violently well up. The veins of the springs provide water to the streams; thus, in this part of Sicily, the soil is never deficient. The land vomits out land with eternal rejections.

§ 5.25  From Sicily came the first agate stone, found on the banks of the river Achates. Agate is of no small value if it is found there, for the intersecting veins inscribe natural shapes upon it. When it is the best, the images of many things are displayed. The ring of King Pyrrhus (who waged war against the Romans), which was not of obscure fame, came from there. Its gem was an agate, in which the nine Muses, with their distinguishing marks, and Apollo, holding his cithara, could be seen. The figures were not stamped there, but were made by nature.

§ 5.26  Now agate is found in other places. Crete yields what they call coral agate, which is similar to coral, but is smeared all over with specks that sparkle like gold, and it resists the attacks of scorpions. India gives agates which are good for the eyes to look at. They have in them now the shapes of groves, now of animals. If these stones are taken into the mouth, they allay thirst. 27 There are also agates which, after they have been burned, are redolent of myrrh. Blood agates are red with blood-like spots. But the agates which are most sought after, such as the Cyprian ones, have a clearness resembling that of glass; those which have a waxy appearance are abundant and are commonly ignored. The circuit of this entire island is completed in 3000 stadia.

§ 6.1  CHAPTER VI: ISLES OF HEPHAESTUS
In the Sicilian straits are Hephaestus’ Isles, which are twenty-five miles distant from Italy. The Italians call them Vulcan’s Isles, for their earth burns by its very nature. The fires are either borrowed from Aetna, or supplied through some hidden trade. This place was consecrated as the seat of the God of Fire. The islands are seven in number. 2 Lipara is named after King Liparus, who ruled there before Aeolus. They call another of the islands Hiera. It is especially sacred to Vulcan, and it has an exceedingly high hill which blazes most at night.

§ 6.3  The third is Strongyle, the home of Aeolus. It faces towards the sunrise; it is the least angular island, and its flames appear more liquid than those of the rest. Chiefly from the smoke, the inhabitants know three days beforehand which winds will blow; for this reason, Aeolus was believed king of the winds. The others, Didyme, Eriphusa, Phoenicusa and Euonymon are so similar, I have to all intents and purposes described them already.

§ 7.1  CHAPTER VII: WESTERN AND CENTRAL GREECE; THE PELOPONNESE
The third gulf of Europe commences at the Ceraunian mountains, and ends at the Hellespont. On this coast, in the country of the Molossians, where the temple of Dodonaean Jupiter is, is Mount Talarus. It is famous, as Theopompus asserts, for the hundred springs around its roots.

§ 7.2  In Epirus there is a sacred spring which is cold beyond all other waters, and which is observably unique. For if a burning torch is immersed in it, the torch is extinguished, but if you remove the torch to a distance, it rekindles of its own accord.

§ 7.3  Mount Tmarus at Dodona is lofty. Delphi is celebrated for the river Cephisos, for the spring Castalia, and for Mount Parnasus. Acarnania is famous for Mount Aracynthus. The mountain Pindus divides this country from Aetolia, and gives birth to the river Achelous, gifted of old with renown as being among the chief rivers of Greece. This is not unworthy praise, since galactitis is found among the pebbles which glitter on its banks. Galactitis is a little black stone; if it is rubbed, it exudes a white juice tasting of milk. 4 If it is worn by women who are breast-feeding, their breasts become more fruitful. If it is bound to children, it causes them to swallow more saliva, and if it taken into the mouth, it melts. When, however, it is spat out, it kills the gift of memory. Besides by the Nile, this stone is given only by Achelous, and not by any other.

§ 7.5  Near to the town Patrae is a place called Scioessa, which nine hills overshadow with darkness. It is renowned for no other reason than it is almost inaccessible to the rays of the sun.

§ 7.6  In Laconia is the vent called Taenaron. Taenaron is also the name of a promontory facing Africa. Here the shrine of Arion of Methymna is situated. Arion, as his brazen image is witness, was carried hither by a dolphin. The image shows the likeness of his plight and of his true exploit. In addition, the time is designated on the statue. It is the 29th Olympiad, in which the same Arion is written as victor at the Sicilian contest. So the deed itself is proven.

§ 7.7  There is also a town of renowned antiquity called Taenaron. There are several other cities in Laconia. Among them is Leuctra, which is today not unheard of, owing to the disgraceful end the Lacedaemonians made there in times gone by. 8 There is Amyclae, ruined through its own silence; Sparta, notable for the temple of Castor and Pollux, and also for the monuments of that illustrious man Othryades; Therapne, whence first came the cult of Diana; Pitane, which Arcesilaus the Stoic (who was born there) brought into the light by the merit of his own wisdom; Anthia and Cardamyle.

§ 7.9  Where Thyrae is now said to have been is the place where, in the 17th year of Romulus’ reign, a memorable war was fought between the Lacedaemonians and the Argives. Mount Taygetus and the river Eurotas are so well known they do not require a written description.

§ 7.10  Inachus, a river in Achaea, bisects the Argive regions. King Inachus named it after himself. He was the founder of the Argive nobility. Epidaurus’s distinction is the shrine of Aesculapius; those who lie in it obtain remedies for their ills through advice given in dreams.

§ 7.11  In Arcadia is a town called Pallanteum. It is enough to remember that it gave the name to our own Palatine through Evander the Arcadian. In Arcadia also are the mountains Cyllene and Lycaeus. Then there is Maenalus, illuminated by the gods who were nursed there. Mount Erymanthus is not obscure. Among the rivers is Erymanthus, which is cast down from Mount Erymanthus, and Ladon, the former famous because of a fight of Hercules, and the latter because of Pan.

§ 7.12  Varro holds that there is a spring in Arcadia whose draught is death. There is something worth relating about the birds in this same place. Although in other places, blackbirds are dusky, around Cyllene they are a very bright white.

§ 7.13  We should not scorn a rock which Arcadia yields. Its name is asbestos, and it is the colour of iron. If it is set on fire, it cannot be quenched.

§ 7.14  The Isthmus sprouts into the bay of Megara. The Isthmus is famous for the four-yearly games and the temple of Neptune. These games, they say, were instituted in remembrance of the five coasts of the Peloponnese, washed against by five seas: the Ionian in the north, the Sicilian in the west, the Aegean in the south-east, the Myrtoan in the north-east, and the Cretan in the south. The games were stopped by the tyrant Cypselus, but were restored to their former solemnity by the Corinthians in the 49th Olympiad.

§ 7.15  For the rest, the name provides the evidence that the Peloponnesus was ruled by Pelops. It is fashioned like the leaf of a plane-tree, with recesses and promontories. It makes a point of separation between the Ionian and Aegean seas, called the Isthmus because of its narrowness; the thin walk between either shore is not more than four miles.

§ 7.16  Here begins Hellas, which people rightly consider the true Greece. What is now called Attica was previously known as Acte. Athens is situated here. The Scironian Rocks are close to this city. They extend for six miles, and were thus named in honour of Theseus the Avenger and the notable punishment. 17 Ino cast herself and her son Palaemon headlong from these cliffs into the deeps, and increased the gods of the sea.

§ 7.18  We will not pass over the mountains of Attica. There are Icarius, Brilessus, Lycabettus and Aegialus, but first place is by right given, and deservedly, to Hymettus. This is because it is especially abundant in flowers, and the excellent taste of its honey conquers that of all the honeys from its own and other lands.

§ 7.19  The spring Callirhoe is said to be miraculous, yet the waters of another spring, Crunesos, are numbered among the things of no account. The place of judgement for the Athenians is in the Arios pagos [Areopagos]. The plain of Marathon was made famous by report of a most bloody battle fought there.

§ 7.20  Many islands lie opposite to the Attic mainland. Salamis, Sunium, Ceos and Coos are almost suburbs of the city. Coos, as Varro testifies, was the first to make fine garments for women by the science of spinning.

§ 7.21  Boeotia is celebrated for the city of Thebes. Amphion founded Thebes, not by commanding the stones with his lyre (for it is not likely that the deed should be done thus), but by coaxing the wild inhabitants of the rocks (who had uncouth customs) with sweet speech, towards the discipline of civil allegiance.

§ 7.22  This city was glorified by the birth of gods within its walls, as is told by those who celebrate Hercules and Liber in sacred songs. In Thebes is the grove Helicon, the forest Cithaeron, the river Ismenus, and the springs Arethusa, Oedipodia, Psamanthe and Dirce. But before the other springs are Aganippe and Hippucrene. 23 Cadmus, the first inventor of letters, discovered them when he was exploring on horseback, while he was searching out the regions he was taking possession of. The liberty of the poets was thus kindled: in their writings it is set down that one of these springs was opened by the hoof of the winged horse, and that the other, when drunk, gave literary inspiration.

§ 7.24  The island of Euboea makes the haven of Aulis by casting out its coast. This haven is recounted over the ages as the memorial to the Greek confederacy.

§ 7.25  The Boeotians used to be known as the Leleges. The river Cephisos flows through their territory and pours itself into the sea.

§ 7.26  In this land is the Opuntian Bay, the town Larisa, and Delphi. There is also Ramne, in which is a shrine of Amphiaraus and the image of Diana made by Phidias.

§ 7.27  Varro asserts that there are two rivers in Boeotia, which, although they are separated by nature, do not differ in wonderfulness. If a herd of sheep drinks from one of them, their fleeces become coloured. If a herd drinks from the other, any dark fleeces become white. 28 He says in addition that there is an unwholesome well there, whose liquid is death. Whereas the partridges everywhere are certainly free, as are all birds, in Boeotia they are not. They cannot fly where they will, but have boundaries in the very air which they do not dare to cross. They never fly forth from their borders, and thus do not traverse Attic soil. 29 This is peculiarly Boeotian. What is common to all partridges, we will now pursue. Partridges make nests with clever defences. They clothe the exits of the nests with thorny bushes, so the animals which harass them are warded off by the harsh prongs. 30 They cover the eggs with dust, and return to them secretly, lest their frequent comings and goings betray where they are. The females repeatedly move the eggs about to cheat the males, who often crush them with their impatient flattering. The males fight for mates, and it is believed that the losers have to let the victors treat them like females. The females are so agitated by sexual lust, that if a breeze blows from the males, they are made pregnant by the smell. 31 If a man draws near where they nest, the mothers come out voluntarily and offer themselves to whoever is approaching. They assume a weakness of foot or wing (seeming as though they might by and by be caught) and counterfeit a limping walk. This fraud incites their enemies, and baffles them, until, enticed for a long while, they are diverted from the nests. 32 Nor are the chicks more torpid in the art of defensive action. When they begin to perceive that they themselves are seen, they cast themselves on their backs, and lift little clods of earth with their feet. They are so cleverly concealed by these that they escape notice even when seized.

§ 8.1  CHAPTER VIII: THESSALY AND MAGNESIA
Thessaly is also known as Haemonia; Homer calls it Pelasgian Argos. Hellen, the king for whom the Hellenes were named, was born here. Pieria extends from the back of this country to Macedonia. Pieria, after it was conquered, came under the yoke of the Macedonians. There are many towns and rivers there.

§ 8.2  The notable towns are Phthia, Thessalian Larisa, and Thebes. Among the rivers, Peneus is notable. It runs past Ossa and Olympus, and makes Thessalian Tempe, a wooded vale with gently rising hills on either hand. Flowing between Magnesia and Macedonia, wide and wavy, it falls into the Thermaean gulf.

§ 8.3  The Pharsalican plains belong to Thessaly. The storms of civil war thundered in this place. We will leave the famous mountains to others — let those who seek the origin of the Lapiths pursue Pindus and Othrys, and let those to whom it is a delight to devote attention to the dwellings of the centaurs pursue Ossa. 4 Pelium has been given such celebrity by the wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus, that it would be more amazing in me to keep silent on the subject than to discuss it.

§ 8.5  The things that are to be seen at Olympus show that Homer did not celebrate it rashly. First, it rises so high, with a pre-eminent peak, that the inhabitants call the top of it heaven. 6 On the summit is an altar dedicated to Jupiter. If burned offerings of entrails are brought to it, they are neither blown off by windy breath nor washed away by rain, but as the year rolls on, whatever is left there is discovered unchanged; what is consecrated to the god triumphs over time and the corruption of the air. Letters written in the ashes remain until the next year’s ceremony.

§ 8.7  In the country of Magnesia is the town Mothona. When Philip, father of Alexander the Great of Macedonia, blockaded it, he was wounded in the eye by an arrow. The arrow was fired by a townsman named Aster; the arrow was inscribed with his own name, the place of the wound, and the name of whom he attacked. That these people are skilled in the art of archery we can well believe, as Philoctetes came from here — Meliboea is reckoned in the foot of this country. If I went no further on this subject, I would still have the help of the poets. The fountain Libethrius itself is also in Magnesia.

§ 9.1  CHAPTER IX: MACEDONIA
The people who were once known as the Edonii, the land which was once known as Mygdonia, and the Pierian and Emathian territories, are now all called by the uniform name of Macedonia. The divisions which, formerly, were made individually, were united and made into one body under this name. 2 Macedonia is therefore bounded by the Thracian marches. In the south, the Epirotes hold the country of Thessaly, and in the western region are the Dardanians and Illyrians. In the north, Macedonia is beaten by the cold north winds cast down from the mountainous borders. Here Pelagonia and Paeonia protect the country from the Triballi.

§ 9.3  The river Strymon, which runs down from the ridge of Haemus, makes the boundary between Macedonia and Thrace. In order not to speak either of Rhodope (a Mygdonian mountain), or of Athos (which was cut off from the mainland by a distance of a mile and a half, so the Persian fleet could sail through), or of the veins of gold and silver (many of these, of the best quality, are dug up in the fields of Macedonia), I will treat the country of Orestis. 4 People here are called the “Orestae” because of the following tale. After Orestes had fled from Mycenae because of his matricide, he was determined to go far away. So he commanded that his son, who had been born in Emathia from Hermione, with whom he had associated as a companion during all his adventures, be hidden there.

§ 9.5  The boy grew up with the air of one of royal blood, bearing anew his father’s name. Having seized the area which extends to the Macedonian Gulf and the Adriatic Sea, he called the land which he had conquered “Orestis”.

§ 9.6  Phlegra (before the town was built it is said that the soldiery of heaven fought there with the giants) reminds us, as we thoroughly pursue such great proofs of sovereignty, that evidence of divine wars perseveres into this age. 7 If at any time here (as does bechance), the torrents become swollen with rain, and they break their banks with the increased weight of water, throwing themselves into the plain, bones are said to be even now uncovered by the inundation. These bones are in the form of human bones, but larger. Because of their immense size, it is said that they are from the bodies of that monstrous army. This argument is strengthened by the evidence of huge rocks, with which it is believed heaven was assaulted.

§ 9.8  Let us proceed to the remainder of Macedonia, which extends to Thessaly and Athamania. The mountainous heights here are lifted higher than anywhere. There is nothing in any other land which can worthily be compared to such prominences. The assault of the Flood, which covered everything else with moist stagnation, did not reach this inaccessible soil. 9 That these places were above the Flood is made apparent by traces of no small authority which endure here. In the caves hidden in the cliffs, which were eroded by the violence of the water, remnants of shellfish were left behind, and of the many other things which were copiously spat out by the enraged sea. Thus, although this place is inland, it nevertheless has all the appearance of the sea-shore.

§ 9.10  Now I will return to the inhabitants. Emathius, who was the first to obtain leadership in Emathia (whether because the truth about his origins has perished, or because it is indeed so) is thought to have been born from the earth. 11 After him, the name Emathia, having started with him, endured in Macedonia. But Macedo, the maternal grandson of Deucalion, who alone with the family of his house survived the massacre, changed the name and called it Macedonia after himself.

§ 9.12  Caranus, the leader of the Peloponnesian army, followed Macedo. In accord with an oracle, he built a city where he had seen a herd of goats rest, and called it Aegae. It was the custom for the kings to be buried here; another place was not given for the tombs of the more distinguished men among the ancient Macedonians.

§ 9.13  After Caranus, in the 22nd Olympiad, came Perdiccas. He was the first to be named the king of Macedonia. After him was Alexander, son of Amyntas, who was reckoned rich, not without cause. He had so many successes that first of all men he sent gold statues as gifts to Apollo at Delphi and to Jupiter in Elis. 14 He was most indulgently given over to the pleasures of music, so much so that he held by his side with generous gifts many who were skillful instrumentalists. He did this while he lived for the sake of his delight. Pindar the lyric poet was among them.

§ 9.15  Thence followed the reign of Archelaus, who was skilled in war. He was also a pioneer of naval battles. This Archelaus was so great a lover of learning that he entrusted the highest of his confidences to Euripides the tragedian. At his death, Archelaus was not content to bear the cost of the funeral, but shore his hair and showed everyone on his face the sorrow he had conceived in his heart. 16 He won the prizes for the four-horse chariot at the Pythian and the Olympic games. He bore that glory rather with the soul of a Greek than with a royal one.

§ 9.17  After Archelaus, Macedonia was disturbed by dissension, but came to rest during the reign of Amyntas, who had three sons. Alexander succeeded his father, but he was removed, and the wealth of that very ample power which had to be overtaken was first given to Perdiccas. Dying, he left the kingdom to his brother Philip who (as I have said above) lost his right eye at Mothona. This debility was preceded by an omen. For when Philip got married, it is reported that the tibia-players brought from abroad sang of the Cyclops as though in sport.

§ 9.18  This Philip begot Alexander the Great, however much Olympias, his mother, desiring to gain a nobler father for him, claimed that she had been fertilised by a serpent. Nevertheless, Alexander himself behaved in such a way that he was believed to have been born from a god. 19 He travelled over every part of the world, making use of his teachers Aristotle and Callisthenes. He conquered Asia, Armenia, Hiberia, Albania, Cappadocia, Syria, and Egypt. He crossed Mount Taurus and the Caucasus; he subdued the Bactrians. He ruled the Medes and the Persians; he captured India and passed beyond everything which Liber and Hercules had approached. 20 In appearance he was dignified beyond all men, with a long neck, cheerful, shining eyes, and cheeks pleasantly flushed. The rest of his body was not without a certain graceful majesty. This conqueror of all men was nevertheless himself conquered by wine and by temper. In this way, he was taken off in Babylon by the disease of drunkenness, a more humble fate than he had lived. 21 We find that those who came after him were born more for the profit of Roman glory than to the inheritance of so great a name.

§ 9.22  Macedonia produces a stone which is called paeanitis. It is commonly said that this stone brings aid to child-bearing women, both in conceiving and giving birth.

§ 10.1  CHAPTER X: THRACE
Now let us proceed to Thrace, setting sail for the most powerful nations of Europe. Those who sedulously wish to learn of the barbarian Thracians will easily discover that there is disregard of life among them. This is the result of their system of beliefs. 2 Every one of them agrees to a voluntary death, while not a few of them think that their souls return. Others think that their souls are not destroyed by death but become more blessed. Most of them deem childbirths to be sorrowful. Indeed, those who are newly parents receive the birth with weeping. 3 On the contrary, funerals are happy occasions, to such a degree that the deceased are escorted to the pyre with gladness. The men boast about the number of wives they have, and judge many marriages to be an honour. The women hold fast to their modesty. They throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands, and, which is held to be the greatest mark of chastity, walk headlong into the flames. 4 Women of marriageable age do not have their husbands chosen by their parents. Those who are most beautiful prefer to be auctioned off, and with the liberty of appraisal permitted them, they do not marry the man of the highest morals, but the man with the most gifts. Those women who are hindered in this by a repulsive appearance obtain dowries, which they use to get a husband.

§ 10.5  When they feast, both the men and the women roam about the hearths, casting the seeds of their herbs above the flames. The fumes overpower them; their senses are impaired, and in an imitation of drunkenness, they have good sport.

§ 10.6  So much for the customs. Examination of the places and peoples will follow. The Denseletae live near the Strymon, on its right side. Here also, up to the river Mestus, are many tribes of the Bessi. The Mestus runs around the roots of Mount Pangaeus.

§ 10.7  The soil of the Odrysians pours forth the river Hebrus, which runs among the Priantae, the Dolongi, the Thyni, the Corpili, and many other barbarians. It also touches the territory of the Ciconae. Next comes Haemus, six miles high. The Moesians, Getae, Sarmatians, Scythians and many other peoples inhabit its hinder part.

§ 10.8  The Sithonians occupy the Pontic shore; the Sithonians are judged among the foremost peoples as Orpheus the poet was born there. They report that he practised secrets (either religious rites or songs) on the promontory Sperchivum. Nearby is the Bistonian lake. 9 Not far from this lake is the Maronian country, in which is the town Tirida. In Tirida were the stables of Diomedes’ horses, but they have yielded to time, and only traces of the tower endure. 10 Abdera, which Diomede’s sister both founded and named after herself, is not far from there. Later it was the home of Democritus the natural philosopher; therefore (to say truth) it is the more renowned. Abdera became decayed with age, and was restored to even greater beauty in the 31st Olympiad by the Clazomenians from Asia, who claimed what had gone before, and was obliterated, for their own name.

§ 10.11  The advent of Xerxes made Doriscos famous, because the sum of his soldiers were mustered there. Aenus has the tumulus of Polydorus, in the region held by the Aroteres Scythians. A certain city called Gerania (the barbarians call it Cathizon) there is celebrated. They say that the Pygmies were expelled from it by cranes.

§ 10.12  It is indeed obvious that in winter cranes congregate in great numbers in this northern region. It will not grieve me to recall how they direct their journeys. They go forward like a military company under a standard. Lest the strength of the breeze blow them off course, they consume sand, and ballast themselves with small stones to a moderate weight. 13 Then they hasten aloft, so they can mark the lands they are making for, as if from a tall watchtower. A bird confident of the course goes in front of the flock. She castigates idleness of flight with her voice, which gathers the troop together. When she has grown hoarse, another takes her place. 14 Preparing to cross Pontus, they aim for the narrowest passage. This (it is easy to discern by looking) is between Taurica and Paphlagonia — that is, between Carambis and Criumetopon. When they know themselves to have passed the middle of the channel, their feet drop the bundles of small stones. 15 Sailors report that from this circumstance they are often rained upon with stony showers. The cranes do not bring up the sand again before they are settled as securely as possible. The birds are of one mind in caring for those who become weary; indeed, if some falter, they all flock together and continuously bear up the exhausted ones until they recover their strength by resting. They are not less zealous on land. 16 They divide the night watches so that at any one time ten of them are wakeful. The watchers clasp little weights in their claws, which if by chance are let fall, convict them of slackness. When they perceive something to take precautions against, they make a clamour. Their colour reveals their age: they grow dark with old age.

§ 10.17  Let us go to the promontory Ceras Chryseon, famous for the town Byzantium, formerly called Lygos. The town is 711 miles away from Dyrrhachium, for the Adriatic and Propontic Seas extend such a distance.

§ 10.18  In the Ceniensian region, not far from the colony Flaviopolis, is the town Bizye, formerly the territory of king Tereus. It is hateful to swallows, and in turn inaccessible to them. Swallows also refuse to go to Thebes, because its walls have very often been captured. 19 Among other things, swallows have a certain foreknowledge which is thus proved: they do not make for roofs about to fall and scorn houses about to perish. They are certainly not attacked by fearful birds and are not ever prey. Thus, they are sacred. They do not take up food standing, but capture and swallow it in the air.

§ 10.20  There is another isthmus in Thrace, which, by the art of the sea, has a similar narrow passage, and is of equal width. Pactye marks the Propontic shore, and Cardia the bay of Melas. This last was called “Cardia” because it is built in a heart-shape.

§ 10.21  Here is, moreover, the great Hellespont, which is drawn together to a distance of seven stadia, and divides Europe from the Asiatic regions. Here also are two cities: Abydos on the Asian shore, Sestos on the European.

§ 10.22  Next, there are two opposing promontories: Mastusia of the Chersonese, where the third gulf of Europe finishes, and Sigeum of Asia, where the tumulus Cynossema is, which is called the tomb of Hecuba. There is also the tower of Protesilaus, used as a sanctuary.

§ 10.23  On the northern marches of Thrace the Hister is spread. In the east is Pontus and Propontis and in the south, the Aegean Sea.

§ 11.1  CHAPTER XI: CRETE AND THE CYCLADES
There is a rock (it more truly merits to be called a rock than an island) between Tenedus and Chios, whence the Aegean gulf spreads out. It is on the right as people sail to Antandrus. Because, from a distance, it looks similar in shape to a goat, the Greeks call it “Aega”. The Aegean gulf takes its name from this rock. 2 A rock in the shape of a ship projects from Phalarium, a promontory of Corcyra, into which, they believe, Ulysses’ ship was transformed. Cythera, which is five miles away from Malea, went by the name of Porphyris in former times.

§ 11.3  It is easier to speak of the land of Crete than to conclude in which sea it lies. For the Greeks have mixed up the names of the surrounding waters. Some names have been put in place over the top of others, so almost everything has been obscured. Nevertheless, I will arrange my work with a view to clarity as much as I can, lest uncertainties arise.

§ 11.4  East and west, Crete extends in a very long tract. Greece lies on one side, and Cyrene on the other. On the northern side, Crete is lashed by its own part of the seething Aegean -- that is to say, by the Cretan Sea. On the southern side, it is bathed by Libyan and Aegyptian waves. It is not crowded with one hundred cities, as reported by those who prodigally give tongue, but it has great and ambitious towns, the chief of which are Gortyna, Cydonea, Cnosos, Therapnae and Cylissos.

§ 11.5  Dosiades reports that Crete was named after a young maiden called Creta, who was daughter to the Hesperides. Anaximander is of the opinion that it was named after a Cretan king of the Curetes, and Crates holds the view that it was first called Aeria, and soon after Curetus. Not a few also record that it was named Macaronnesus because of the mildness of the climate. Crete was the first to gain power through oars and arrows, and was the first to write down its laws. Crete first taught (the inventor was Pyrrhichos) cavalry squadrons to interweave with mischievous whirlings. From this discipline came military practice.

§ 11.6  The study of music has its origins in Crete, when the Idaean Dactyls changed little measures into the order of verse. They were led to this by the rattling and clanging of bronze.

§ 11.7  Because of the mountain chains Dictynnaeus and Cadistus, Crete appears white. These mountains glisten so that people sailing far off suppose them to be clouds. Ida stands before the others: it sees the sun before the sunrise. Varro, in his work about the shores, affirms that in his time, the tomb of Jupiter was to be visited there.

§ 11.8  The Cretans are very devout in their worship of Diana. In their native language they name her Britomartis, which in our language sounds like “sweet maiden”. No-one is allowed to enter the shrine of this deity unless bare-footed. The shrine displays the work of Daedalus.

§ 11.9  The river Lenaeus flows past Gortyna, where, the Gortynians say, Europa was carried away on the back of a bull. The Gortynians also honour Europa’s brother Adymnus. They say that he is seen thereabouts, and runs to meets people, but that when the day draws towards evening, he offers himself to view with a more majestic appearance.

§ 11.10  The Cnosians number the goddess Minerva among their citizens, and rashly contend with the Atticans that grain was first sown among them.

§ 11.11  The Ager Creticus has many wild goats, but no deer. It has never nourished wolves, foxes or other noxious quadrupeds.

§ 11.12  There are no serpents in Crete. There is an abundance of vines there, and the soil is wondrously kind. Products from trees are copious. In one part of the island, cypress trees which have been cut down send forth new growth. There is a Cretan herb called alimos, which, if chewed, prevents hunger for a day.

§ 11.13  There is also a kind of spider called phalangium. If you research its strength, you will find that it has no vigour of body, but if you research what power it has, you will discover that it can kill a man with its poison.

§ 11.14  The stone Idaeus dactylus is also said to be native to this island. It is the colour of iron, and similar in shape to a human thumb. Crete has no night-owls. If one is imported, it perishes.

§ 11.15  Carystos has hot springs, called the Ellopiae. It has birds called “Carystiae”, which fly through flames with impunity. It also has linen which remains strong in fire. This same place was called Chalcis by men of old, as the author Callidemus details, because bronze was first discovered there.

§ 11.16  The religious rites make it clear that the Titans ruled there a very long time ago, for the Carystians make divine observances in honour of Briareus, as the Chalcidians do for Aegaeon. The Titans’ kingdom comprised almost all of Euboea.

§ 11.17  They say that the Cyclades are so called because they are situated in a circle around Delos (although some jut out further than others), and the Greek word for circle is “cyclos”. Chios[Ios?], because it has the tomb of Homer, surpasses the others.

§ 11.18  It is suitable to observe here that after the first flood, noted to have been in the time of Ogyges, when continual night overshadowed the days for nine months together, Delos, first of all lands, was illuminated by the sun’s beams. Because Delos was the first to be restored to light, the name “Delos” was appointed. 19 The time between Ogyges and Deucalion is given as 600 years. Delos is also known as Ortygia. The most famous of the Cyclades, it is also variously named Asteria (from the cult of Apollo), Lagia or Cynetho (because of the hunting to be had there), and Pyrpile, since both fire-instruments and fire itself were discovered there.

§ 11.20  On this island, quails were first seen. The Greeks call them “ortygae”. These birds are thought to be appointed to the guardianship of Latona. They are not seen in all seasons: they arrive when summer is drawing to a close. When they cross the sea, they put off making an effort through fear of a longer journey; they nourish their strength through slowness of movement. 21 When they can clearly see the land, they gather in large flocks and move more vigourously. Their haste often brings destruction upon sailors. At night, the birds rend ships’ sails, and weigh down the folds of sailcloth, so the ships become unbalanced. Quails never fly on the south wind, for they fear the strength of this swollen breeze. They commonly commit themselves to the northern breezes, as they are stronger and drier. Thus they are better able to carry the quails’ bodies, which are somewhat fat, and, because of this, slow. 22 The bird who leads the flock is called “ortygometra”. When he approaches the land, he is seized by a watching hawk; as a result, the work becomes universal. Having stirred up a leader of another kind, the quails escape the first danger. 23 Their favourite food is the seeds of poisonous plants. For this reason, the tables of wise men spurn them. This is the only animal except man to suffer from the falling sickness.

§ 11.24  So small a channel divides Euboea from the Boeotian continent that it is doubtful whether it ought to be numbered among the islands. For they say that this island is joined to the mainland by a bridge, and that through the ingenuity of this very short construction, it can be visited on foot. Euboea extends to the north by way of the promontory Cenaeum, and by way of two others, it extends to the south. Of these, Geraestos watches Attica, and Caphereus juts out towards the Hellespont. 25 After the fall of Troy, either the wrath of Minerva or (as more certain memory avouches) the star of Arcturus caused grave loss to the Argive fleet here.

§ 11.26  Paros is famous for marble, which occurs most frequently in the town Abdelum. Before it was called Paros it was known as Minoia, for it was conquered by Minos, and as long as it remained under Cretan law they called it Minoia. 27 Besides marble, Paros gives the stone sard, which is in fact superior to marble, but is regarded as being the most worthless among gems.

§ 11.28  Naxos is separated from Delos by 18 miles. The town Strongyle is situated there. Naxos was first called Dionysias, either because it played hostess to Father Liber, or because in the fertility of its vines it conquered all other places.

§ 11.29  There are many others of the Cyclades besides these, but the aforementioned are those which ought to especially be remembered.

§ 11.30  Icaros, which gives the Icarian Sea its name, is one of the Sporades. This isle, between Samos and Myconos, is rendered inhospitable by jutting rocks, and has no harbours. It is infamous for the inhumanity of its shores. Therefore, Varro wishes to believe that Icarus of Crete perished there by shipwreck, and that the name was assigned to the place because of his death.

§ 11.31  In Samos, there has been no citizen more famous than Pythagoras. Offended by the arrogance of the island’s tyrannical regime, he abandoned his house and his country. He arrived in Italy in the time of Brutus the consul, who expelled the kings from the city.

§ 11.32  Melos, which Callimachus called Mellimada, is the roundest of all the islands. It is hard by Aeolia. Carpathus is the reason we call thus the Carpathian gulf. The sky is never so cloudy that Rhodes is not in the sun. The Lemnians worship Vulcan. Thus, the Lemnian metropolis is called Hephaestia. 33 On Lemnos is also the town Myrina, into the forum of which the Macedonian Mount Athos throws a shadow. This is not vainly observed among marvels, since Athos is separated from Lemnos by 86 miles. Truly, Athos is elevated to such a degree that it is judged higher than the place where the rains come from. This belief draws credit from the following: the ashes are never washed way from the altars which stand on the peak, nor are the ash-heaps in any wise destroyed, but remain in the heaps in which they were left.

§ 11.34  The town Acroton was on this summit. The lives of the inhabitants were prolonged by half as much again as those of people living in other lands. For that reason, these men were called “Macrobians” in Greek, which is “long-lived” in our language.

§ 12.1  CHAPTER XII: THE HELLESPONT, THE PROPONTIS, THE BOSPHORUS; DOLPHINS
The fourth gulf of Europe begins at the Hellespont, and ends at the mouth of Maeotis. The entire expanse of this gulf, which divides Europe and Asia, is drawn together into a strait seven stadia wide. 2 This strait is the Hellespont, which Xerxes crossed after making a bridge of ships. From here, a narrow channel extends to the Asian city Priapus. Alexander the Great, on his mission to become master of the world, crossed to this city and conquered it. Thence, the gulf spreads out into open sea. Towards the end of the Propontis, it again draws together. Soon it narrows to half a mile, making the Thracian Bosphorus, over which Darius transported his armies.

§ 12.3  This area harbours very many dolphins. These creatures provide multifarious causes for wonderment. First of all, the seas have nothing more speedy; many of them leap up and fly over the sails of ships. Wherever they go, they go in couples. 4 They beget young; the unborn offspring mature in nine months. The babies are born in summertime, and the mothers nourish them with their teats. When the babies are very young, the mothers take them into their mouths. The mothers follow their babies for some time while they are still weak. Dolphins live for thirty years, as has been investigated in an experiment, wherein some specimens’ tails were chopped off. Dolphins do not have their faces in the same place as other marine creatures do -- they are almost in their stomachs. Unlike other aquatic animals, they can move their tongues. 5 They have sharp dorsal fins, which bristle up when they become angry, and are concealed, as in a sheath, when their minds are in repose. They say that dolphins do not breathe underwater, and they do not take in the breath of life except in the air above. For a voice, they have a moan similar to that of a human being. They are appropriately named “Snubnose”. This name pleases them, and they follow those who call them by it.

§ 12.6  Dolphins hear men’s voices more easily when in the breezes of the north wind; contrariwise, their hearing becomes blocked up when the wind is blowing from the south. They are delighted by music: they rejoice in the songs of the tibia. Wherever there is harmony, they arrive in throngs.

§ 12.7  In Campania, during the reign of the divine Augustus, a boy began to entice a dolphin with broken bread. The habit did so much prevail, that the dolphin trusted the boy enough to take food from his hand. Soon, when his boyish daring grew, the dolphin carried the boy on his back in the Lucrine Lake; after this the boy rode him from the Baian shore all the way to Puteoli. 8 This kept on happening for so long a time -- for many years -- that even while it was still occurring it ceased to be miraculous. But when the boy died, the dolphin perished before the eyes of all, because of the grief of the loss. It would pain me to declare this, if it were not included in the writings of Maecenas and of Fabianus and of many others besides. 9 Soon after, at Hippo Diarrhytus, on the African coast, a dolphin was fed by the people of Hippo, and offered himself to be handled; he was also wont to carry those who were set upon his back. This was not only done by the Hipponians, for even the proconsul of Africa, Flavianus himself, touched this dolphin, and anointed him with oil. The dolphin was sent to sleep for some time by the oil’s strange odour, and was thrown about as though dead; for many months after he defected from his usual observance. 10 At Iasus, a city of Babylon, a dolphin fell in love with a boy, and followed him over-eagerly when he left their accustomed playtime. He shot himself into the sand, and exhausted himself. Alexander the Great interpreted the dolphin’s love to be sacred, and placed the boy in charge of the priesthood of Neptune.

§ 12.11  Hard by the same city, as the author Hegesidemus affirms, another boy by the name of Hermias was similarly riding a dolphin in the sea when he was drowned by the turbulence of the waves. The dolphin carried him back to land, and as though confessing his guilt, showed his repentance by himself dying -- he did not go back out to sea. 12 There are other examples, even if we pass over that of Arion, of whose departure the honesty of the annals has given proof. To these things we may add, that if ever new dolphin babies run riot, a more mature preceptor is given to them by the elder dolphins. The young ones learn from this teacher to baffle the attacks of raiding marine animals, although in those parts, except for seals, such animals are rare.

§ 12.13  There are many tuna in Pontus. They spawn the most there, for nowhere else do they grow to full size more quickly. This certainly is due to the sweet waters. The tuna come in springtime; they enter via the right-hand shore and leave by the left. It is believed this happens because the tuna see more acutely with their right eyes than with their left ones.

§ 13.1  CHAPTER XIII: THE HISTER AND PONTUS
The Hister rises from the German ranges, issuing from a mountain which faces the Rauraci of Gaul. It takes sixty rivers into itself, of which almost all are navigable. It has seven mouths, which flow into Pontus. Of these, the first is Peuce, the second Naracustoma, the third Calonstoma, and the fourth Pseudostoma. The fourth, Borionstoma, and the following mouth, Spilonstoma, run more lazily than the preceding. As for the seventh, it is truly sluggish, and has a marshy appearance; it does not have a name because it does not resemble a river. The first four mouths are so great that for the distance of forty miles, their waters do not mix with the sea. They keep their sweet draught with an uncorrupted taste.

§ 13.2  Throughout the whole of Pontus are a great number of beavers, which they call by another name, “castores”. The beaver is similar to an otter, and is a very powerful animal by reason of its bite. When it attacks a man, it does not relax the gnash of its teeth until it senses the snap of breaking bones. Their testicles are sought after for their healing properties. Thus, when the beaver understands himself to be hemmed in, lest his capture be useful to someone, he devours his own “twins”.

§ 13.3  Pontus also yields gems of different kinds, which we call “Pontic”. Some have golden stars in them, other blood-red stars. They are indeed considered sacred, for they are gathered more for reasons of display than for any purpose. Another kind is not stained with specks, but is overlaid with long lines of colour.

§ 14.1  CHAPTER XIV: THE HYPANIS
The Hypanis rises among the Auchetae; it is the principle river of Scythia. It is clean and wholesome to drink all the way to the borders of the Callipides. Here is the fountain Extampeus, infamous for its bitter waters. Extampeus mixes its waters with those of the clear stream, and turns the river to its own defect, so Hypanis plunges into the sea dissimilar to itself. 2 Thus, tales about the Hypanis are at variance between different peoples. Those who are acquainted with the upper reaches of the river, praise it, while those who know the end of it have good cause to curse it.

§ 15.1  CHAPTER XV: SCYTHIA
The source of the river Borysthenes is among the Neuri. In this river are fishes of excellent flavour, which have no bones except for a very tender cartilage.

§ 15.2  The Neuri, as we have heard, are transformed into wolves. They change back into their former shapes once the time to which this lot is attributed has expired. 3 Mars is the god of these peoples. Swords are worshipped instead of images. As their sacrificial victims they have humans. They feed their altar fires with the bones. Adjacent to the Neuri are the Geloni. They make garments for themselves from the skins of their enemies as well as trappings for their horses. The Agathyrsi border upon the Geloni; they paint themselves blue and dye their hair blue. This is not done indiscriminately, for the more eminent a man is, the more he is tinged with these distinguishing marks. It is an indicator of insignificance to be less coloured.

§ 15.4  Next are the Anthropophagi, whose cursed food is human flesh. The gloomy solitude of the surrounding lands is what created this custom of this impious people. Because of their abominable custom, surrounding nations and fugitives avoid them in fear. For this reason, all the way to the sea they call Tabis, and throughout the length of its shore, which lies in the northeast, the land is without a human, and utterly deserted, until one comes to the land of the Serae.

§ 15.5  The Chalybes and the Dahae, who live in a part of Scythia which is in Asia, are just as cruel as the most brutal peoples. The Albani, who inhabit the coast, and wish themselves to be believed the posterity of Jason, are born with white hair. Their hair is white when it first begins to grow. Thus, the colour of their heads gives this people their name. The pupils in their eyes are a bluish grey, so they see more clearly by night than by day.

§ 15.6  Dogs which excel all other beasts are born among this people. They subdue bulls, overwhelm lions, and hinder whatever they are presented with. For these reasons, they too merit to be spoken of in these chronicles. 7 We read that as Alexander the Great was making for India, two dogs of this kind were sent to him by the king of Albania. One of them scorned the swine and bulls offered to him, as he was offended by such inferior and ignoble prey. He lay still for a long time, and Alexander, through ignorance, ordered him to be killed for a lazy animal. But the other, at the advice of those who had brought the present, despatched a lion sent to him. Soon, seeing an elephant, he rejoiced; first, he cunningly fatigued the beast, and then, to the great wonder of the spectators, threw him to the ground. This kind of dog grows to a very large size, and makes, with awe-inspiring barking, a noise beyond the roaring of lions.

§ 15.8  The above items were specifically about Albanian dogs; the rest concerns the features common to all dogs. Dogs esteem all masters equally, as is well-known from sundry examples. In Epirus a dog recognised his master’s murderer in a crowd, and revealed him by barking. After Jason the Lycian was killed, his dog scorned food, and died from starvation. 9 When the funeral pyre of King Lysimachus was lit, his dog threw himself into the flames, and was consumed by the fire along with his master. The king of the Garamantes was brought back from exile by his two hundred dogs, who fought those who resisted them. The Colophonians and Castabalenses lead their dogs to war, and in battle, build their front lines with them. 10 When Appius Iunius and Publius Sicinius were consuls [28 CE], there was a dog which could not be driven away from his condemned master. The dog accompanied his master into prison; when the man was executed, the dog followed after, howling. When, from pity, the people gave him food, he carried the meat to the mouth of his dead master. Finally, when the body was thrown into the Tiber, the dog swam after it and tried to bear it up.

§ 15.11  Dogs recognise their own names, and remember their journeys. The Indians relegate their female dogs to the forests when they are in season, so they mate with tigers. The offspring from the first conception are judged useless, owing to their excessive savagery; likewise the second. Those from the third conception are reared.

§ 15.12  Egyptian dogs only lap swiftly from the Nile, as they are wary of being ambushed by crocodiles.

§ 15.13  The Essedones are numbered among the Anthropophagi in this part of Asia. They also, by way of their impious food, pollute themselves by murder. Among the Essedones it is a custom to follow the funeral processions of parents with singing. The bereaved children collect a gang of their nearest relatives, rend the very corpses with their teeth, and make a feast of the flesh, mixing it with the flesh of sheep. The parents’ skulls are girded with gold, and are surrendered to the office of drinking-cups.

§ 15.14  The Scythotauri murder foreigners as enemies. The Nomades follow the grazing. The Georgi, situated in Europe, cultivate fields. The Asiatae, also situated in Europe, neither admire others’ property, nor permit others to admire theirs. The Satarchae have condemned the use of gold and silver, and have banished avarice from their common weal forever.

§ 15.15  The customs of the Scythians who live further inland are even more savage. They inhabit caves. Their drinking-cups are not as those of the Essedones, but are made from the skulls of their enemies. They love battles, and drink the blood from the very wounds of those they kill. A man’s honour is proportional to the number of murders he has committed. It is a disgrace among them to have committed none. They ratify treaties by a draught of each others’ blood. This is not so much their own custom, but is usurped from that of the Medes. 16 Indeed, in the war which was waged between Alyattes the Lydian and Astyages, the king of Media, in the 49th Olympiad, the 604th year after the fall of Troy, the oaths of peace were confirmed in this manner.

§ 15.17  Amphitus and Cercius, the charioteers of Castor and Pollux, from whom rose the clan of the Heniochi, established Dioscurias, the city of the Colchi.

§ 15.18  Above the Sauromatae (who are situated in Asia, who gave Mithridates sanctuary, and from whom the Medes had their origin), the Thali have a common boundary with those nations which touch the straits of the Caspian Sea in the east. These straits are miraculously reduced by rain, and increased by heat.

§ 15.19  The Araxes pours out from the Heniochi mountains, and the Phasis pours out from the Moschi mountains. The Araxes raises his head a small distance from the source of the Euphrates and is borne to the Caspian Sea.

§ 15.20  The Arimaspi, who are situated around Gesclithron, are a one-eyed people. Above them and the Riphaean ridge is a country which is continually covered with snow. They call it Pterophoros, as the prolonged fall of hoar-frost there looks like feathers. 21 It is a condemned part of the world. By the nature of things it is immersed in a cloud of eternal fog, and is utterly numbed by the very receptacle of the north wind. Alone of all the lands, it knows not the succession of the seasons; it receives from the heavens nothing other than perpetual winter.

§ 15.22  In Asiatic Scythia the lands are rich, but nevertheless uninhabitable. While these lands abound in gold and gems, the gryphons hold universal sway over them. Gryphons are extremely ferocious birds, and have a rage worse than any madness. Owing to the necessity of facing the gryphons’ cruelty, the approach of visitors is rare. Indeed, the gryphons mangle anyone they see, as though born to punish the rashness of greed. 23 The Arimaspi fight them in order to steal a kind of stone, the nature of which we will not scorn to follow. This place is the native land of the smaragdi which Theophrastus placed third among stones. For although there are Egyptian, Chalchedonian, Medician and Laconian smaragdi, those of principal esteem are Scythian. The eyes can see nothing more pleasing or more useful than these stones. 24 In the first place, they are greener than water-grass and river herbs. Secondly, they restore the tired gaze by the mildness of their colour; smaragdi revive eyes which the brightness of another gemstone has weakened. They do have a disadvantage: although they are difficult indeed to wound, you cannot carve them, lest their beauty be damaged by the pits of the images. 25 The worth of smaragdi is assessed in the following ways: if they are transparent; if, when they are spherical, they colour the things nearest them by the rebounding air; if, when they are concave, they reflect the faces of those looking at them; if they are not altered by shadows either in the light of oil-lamps or in the sunlight. Yet those for which a level surface has been laid facing upwards and smoothed acquire the optimum positions.

§ 15.26  They are found when the Etesian winds are blowing, for then, when the soil blows away, they glitter. The Etesian winds move the sands greatly. Others, of less value, are to be seen in the seams of rocks or in copper mines. They call these cuprous smaragdi. 27 The inferior sort of these have some description of dirt on the inside, similar to lead or hair, or even to salt. The plain ones are praised. But they are efficacious with undiluted green oil, although they are wet by nature.

§ 15.28  Cyneus is also from Scythia. The best glitters with a blue colour. Experienced persons divide these stones into males and females. The brightness of the females is pure, and a fine dust, beautiful to behold, variegates the males with gold-coloured specks.

§ 15.29  Rock-crystal is also to be found in this place. Although the greater part of Europe, and a small part of Asia furnishes rock-crystal, that which Scythia gives is the most precious. Rock-crystal is much used for making drinking-cups, but the cups cannot suffer anything other than cold drinks. 30 Rock-crystal is found in hexagonal shapes. Those selecting crystals aim for the clearest, lest some ingrained redness or cloudiness obscure the lucidity.

§ 15.31  It is thought that ice gathers and makes rock-crystal, but this argument is to no purpose, for if it were so, neither Alabanda in Asia, nor the island of Cyprus would produce this material, for the heat in these places is excessive. Livia, wife of Augustus, dedicated a crystal of 150 pounds in size in the Capitoline treasure-chambers.

§ 16.1  CHAPTER XVI: THE HYPERBOREANS
If the stories which flow all the way from the Hyperboreans to ourselves were rashly believed, we might consider these people to be a falsehood and an invalid rumour. But since the most trustworthy authors and those of sufficient credit make the same reports, nobody should fear fraud. On the subject of the Hyperboreans, I will thus mention the following. They inhabit the land behind Pterophoros, which, I hear, lies above the North Wind. They are a most blessed people.

§ 16.2  Some consider them to reside in Asia rather than in Europe, and believe that they occupy the space midway between the setting of the Antipodean sun and the rising of our sun. Logic refutes this theory, as there is such a vast sea surging between the two worlds. The Hyperboreans, therefore, are to be placed in Europe.

§ 16.3  The hinges of the world are said to be near their land, as well as the uttermost extent of the stars. It is believed that there is six-month-long light there, with the sun disappearing for one day only. However, some think that the sun does not rise daily there, as it does for us, but rises only at the spring equinox, to set again at the autumnal equinox, creating six months of endless day, and another six of continual night. The climate is very mild; the breezes breathe wholesomely, and there are no harmful winds. The homes of the Hyperboreans are forests or groves. The trees furnish them with nourishment from day to day.

§ 16.4  They are ignorant of discord, and are not troubled by disease. Every one of them has the common wish of living innocently. They hasten the onset of death; by willfully killing themselves they prevent a slow demise. 5 When they have had enough of life, after feasting and anointing themselves, they leap headlong into the sea from a well-known cliff. This kind of grave is judged to be the best. It is also said that the Hyperboreans were accustomed to send their most esteemed virgins to take the first of their crops to Delian Apollo. 6 However, since, though the perfidy of their hosts the virgins did not return unimpaired, the Hyperboreans soon took back the sacred dignity of the offerings, which they were wont to escort abroad, within their own borders.

§ 17.1  CHAPTER XVII: THE ARIMPHAEI; TIGERS; LIONS; LEOPARDS
Another Asian people is situated towards the furthest north-east, where the ridges of the Riphaean Mountains end. Similar to the Hyperboreans, they are called the Arimphaei. They too take delight in the budding orchards, as they eat berries. The men and women alike are disgusted by hair, and both sexes shear their heads. They love quietude, and do not love violence. 2 They are thought to be sacred, and even the most ferocious nations account it a sin to lay hands on them. If someone fears danger from his own countrymen and flees to the Arimphaei, he is safe, just as though he were protected in a sanctuary.

§ 17.3  Above the Arimphaei, the Cimmerians and a race of Amazons extend towards the Caspian Sea, which runs into the Scythian ocean after flowing away through the back end of the Asiatic regions.

§ 17.4  A great space intercedes between the Arimphaei and the mouths of the river Oxus, which are held by the Hyrcanians. This people possesses wild forests, which are abundant in savage beasts, and teem with tigers. 5 Their remarkable speed and well-known spots have rendered this kind of beast famous. They shine with a tawny colour. This tawniness in interspersed with strips of black, and on account of the contrast, the whole is most becoming. I do not know whether speed or endurance contributes more to the swiftness of their feet. No distance is so long that they will not traverse it in a short time; nothing can be so far ahead of them that they will not immediately overtake.

§ 17.6  The power of tigresses is especially shown when they are urged on by their maternal feelings, and they pursue those who steal their cubs. Although the thieves arrange to carry away the booty with infinite cunning, and organize a series of fresh horses for themselves, if the sea is not there for their succour, all their daring is in vain. 7 Tigresses are very often observed to dive from the shore in impotent madness if ever they see the plunderers of their cubs sailing back again, as though castigating their own tardiness with voluntary ruin. However, from all the young, one is scarcely ever carried off.

§ 17.8  Panthers are also considered to be in Hyrcania. On the tops of their bodies they are painted with small circles, and the ornaments of their backs may be thus decorated with eye-like circles of a yellow, dusky or white colour. It is reported that cattle are marvellously affected by the smell and sight of panthers. 9 Because of this, in order to safely lay waste the senseless herds which are lost in contemplation, the panthers hide their heads and present the rest of their bodies to view. But the Hyrcanians, as man is ever full of devices, kill them with poison more often than with steel. 10 They smear flesh with aconite, and scatter it at the crossings of paths. This, when eaten, chokes the panthers. They therefore give the name of pardialanches to the plant. But the panthers devour human excrement to guard against the poison, resisting destruction by their own clever device. Their will to live is strong to such a degree that they delay dying a long time after their bowels have been extracted.

§ 17.11  Pards, a second kind of panther, are also in these woods. They have been satisfactorily studied, so we need not extensively pursue them. The offspring of lionesses are degraded by adulterous unions with them. Lions are indeed thereby created, but are inferior.

§ 18.1  CHAPTER XVIII: THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Since we are investigating Pontic matters, it must not be omitted whence the Mediterranean Sea raises its head. For indeed, it is thought that this gulf originates from the straits of Gades, and has no other beginning than the flow of the rushing Ocean. They say that the pervading gush of the Ocean causes the advances and retreats along many Mediterranean shores (for example, as in parts of Italy).

§ 18.2  Those who believe the opposite say that all the flow floods from the mouths of Pontus. This they support by a not unreasonable argument: the seething tide flowing forth from Pontus never goes back again.

§ 19.1  CHAPTER XIX: The BLACK SEA ISLANDS; ISLANDS OF THE SCYTHIAN OCEAN; SCYTHIAN DEER
The island of the Apollonitae is 80 miles away from the Thracian Bosphorus. It is situated on this side of the Hister. From there Marcus Lucullus carried off the Capitoline Apollo to us. Before the Borysthenes is the island of Achilles with its sacred shrine, which no bird enters. If by chance one does fly in, it hurriedly makes its escape.

§ 19.2  Hecataeus names the Northern Ocean “Amalcium” from that part where the Scythian river Propanisus flows into it. In the language of the native people, the name signifies “frozen”. Philemon says that the Cimbri call the area to the promontory Rubeae Morimarusa, that is, the Dead Sea. Whatever is above Rubeae is known as the Cronian Sea.

§ 19.3  The Caspian Sea, on the other side of Pontus, above the Massagetae and the Apalaei Scythians, was proved to be fresh water by Alexander the Great. Soon after, Pompey the Great discovered the same. As Varro, a comrade of his, tells, he himself wished to test the truth of the tale by drinking of it. 4 This is thought to come about through the number of the rivers. So great an abundance of these flow together there that they change the nature of the sea. I will not omit that at the same time the selfsame Great was permitted to come through to Bactria out of India in eight days, all the way to the river Alierus (which flows into the river Oxus), and thence to the Caspian. From the Caspian he proceeded to the river Cyrus, which flows between Armenia and Hiberia. 5 From the Cyrus he pressed on to the Channel of Phasis, in a terrestrial journey of not more than five days, with the ships following after him. Through this excursion, it was proved that it is possible to journey to Pontus all the way from India by water.

§ 19.6  The author Xenophon of Lampsacus states that one may sail from the shore of the Scythians to the island Abalcia in three days. This island is of immense size, and is almost the same as a continent. It is not far separated from the Oeonae islands, the inhabitants of which live on the eggs of sea birds and wild oats.

§ 19.7  Other nearby islands are likewise constituted. The indigenous Hippopodes have human shapes down to the ankles -- but their legs end in equine feet.

§ 19.8  Xenophon also speaks of the Phanesii, the ears of whom expand to great size, so that the rest of their bodies are covered with them. They need no other clothing.

§ 19.9  Before we depart from Scythia, it is an obligation to [not] neglect the singular wild beasts which are found here. There are many deer in this land. We shall, therefore, pursue the subject of deer. When the male of this species is incited during mating time, he rages with a fury of desire. 10 Although they may mate with the females before, the females do not conceive prior to the appearance of the star Arcturus. They do not educate their offspring at adventure. The mothers carefully stow their young, and when they are hidden in the depths of the thickets or foliage, they beat them with their feet so they lie concealed. 11 When their strength has matured enough for speed, the mothers teach by training and running, and accustom their offspring to leap by traversing rough and dangerous paths. When deer hear dogs barking, they choose ways down wind, so their scent retreats with them. Deer marvel at the whistling of shepherd’s pipes. They hear most acutely when their ears are standing straight; when their ears are stooping, they hear nothing. Everything astounds them: they therefore put themselves more easily in the way of being shot by arrows.

§ 19.12  If they swim across seas, they do not seek the shores by looking, but by smell. They place the weak in the last place, and by turns bear up the heads of the weary on their hindquarters.

§ 19.13  Of their antlers, the right one is more efficacious for healing. If you are eager to put serpents to flight, you can burn whichever antler you wish. In addition, the fumes of the burning uncover defects, and reveal whether anyone has the falling sickness. The branches of the antlers grow with age. This growth continues for six years; thereupon the branches do not grow more numerous, but they can become thicker. 14 After deer are castrated their antlers never grow; nor, however, do they fall off. 15 The teeth of deer show their age; in old age either few or none are found. They swallow serpents: with the breath of their noses they drag them out from their burrow lairs. They find dittany; when they have fed on it they cast off arrows which they have received. 16 They also eat the herb which they call cinaris, as an antidote for harmful plants. The rennet of a fawn killed in the uterus of its mother is a marvellous remedy for poisons. It is well known that deer are never febrile. For this reason, ointments made from their marrow settle the burnings of sick men.

§ 19.17  We read that many people who eat deer flesh in the early parts of the day are accustomed to be without fever and to live to great ages. This only happens, however, if the deer which they eat are killed by one wound.

§ 19.18  Alexander the Great tied collars to many deer in order to determine their life-span. After one hundred years they were captured, and did not then show a sign of old age. 19 Those they call “goat-stags” are almost the same in appearance, only they have shaggy flanks and woolly chins with hanging beards. They are not to be seen anywhere except around the Phasis.

§ 20.1  CHAPTER XX: GERMANY
Mount Saevo, which is itself vast, and not less in size than the Riphaen hills, is the beginning of Germania. The Inguaeones hold it. From them, first after the Scythians, the name “Germania” rises. 2 This land is rich in resources, and is frequented by numerous and savage peoples. It extends between the Hercynian forest and the cliffs of the Sarmatae. Where it begins, it is watered by the river Danuvius, where it ends, by the river Rhenus. From its inner parts, the very wide rivers Alba, Guthalus and Vistla flow out into Oceanus.

§ 20.3  The Hercynian forest produces birds whose wings, although night has prevailed and thickened the shadows, flash forth and shine through the darkness. Whence, the men who live there for the most part design their nocturnal excursions so they can use the birds for directing their journeys. The people cast them down in front on the dark paths, and the birds show the way by the guidance of their glittering feathers.

§ 20.4  In this tract and certainly in the whole northern region, bison are extremely common. These wild beasts are similar to cattle, with shaggy necks and bristly manes. They run more swiftly than bulls. When captured, they cannot be tamed. 5 There are also aurochs, whom the ignorant multitude call “bubali”, although bubali, which look almost the same as deer, are native to Africa. Those creatures we formerly called aurochs grow bull-like horns, which extend to so great a size that they are cut off for reason of their conspicuous largeness, and are made into draught-carriers for royal tables.

§ 20.6  There is also a beast called the alces which must be compared to the mule, and which has such a long upper lip that it cannot eat unless retreating into its former footsteps.

§ 20.7  The island Gangavia, above the region of Germania, produces an animal like the alces. But, like the elephant, this creature is not able to bend its hocks, and does not, therefore, lie down when it must sleep. Trees sustain those who are drowsy. Men split these trees so that they are almost falling, so the beasts, supported by their accustomed props, fall. They are thus captured; it is otherwise difficult to seize them, for in that stiffness of knee they have an incomprehensible swiftness. 8 Of the Germanic islands, Gangavia is the greatest, but there is nothing great about it excepting itself.

§ 20.9  Glaesaria gives crystal and amber. The Germans call this amber “glaesum” in their language. The characteristics of this material were only vaguely known before Germanicus Caesar explored all of Germania’s shores. There is a tree, of the pine type, which weeps amber from its middle in autumn. We may in addition understand from the character of the name that amber is the sap of a tree; if you burn it, the smell certainly will indicate pine, whence it is produced. Lest it is believed that the Padanian woods weep this stone, further investigation is worth the effort. The barbarians brought this splendour into Illyria, 10 and it passed to the Transpadani through Pannonian trade; because our people had first seen it there, they also thought it was made there. 11 By a gift, all the trappings of the emperor Nero were adorned with amber. It was not difficult, for at the same time, the king of Germania sent him a gift of 13,000 pounds of it.

§ 20.12  When amber is first formed, it is rough and covered with a rind. After it has been boiled in the fat of a sucking pig, it is polished to produce the gloss which we see. 13 Amber has other names, which stem from its appearance: it is called “melleum” and “Falernum” from its similarity to honey and to wine. It is well known that it snatches leaves and draws chaff to itself. The knowledge of doctors teaches us that it certainly cures many ailments of the vitals. India also has amber, but Germania has the most and the best. In view of the fact that we had come to the island of Glaesaria, we tackled the subject of amber.

§ 20.14  “Gallaica” is to be found in the continent of Germania. It is to be placed before the Arabian variety, for they are conquered by the beauty of the German gem. Indeed, the Arabians say that it is not found anywhere except in the nests of the birds which they call “melancoryphi”. This no-one accepts, since, although it is rare, it may be seen in stones among the German peoples. It is verdant with a pale green colour; in esteem and value it approaches the emerald. Nothing becomes gold more delightfully.

§ 20.15  There are many types of ceraunium. The German variety is white, but it glitters with blue. If you have it in the open air, it draws to itself the brightness of stars.

§ 21.1  CHAPTER XXI: GAUL
Between the Rhenus and the Pyrenees is Gaul. It extends between Oceanus and the Cebenna and Iura mountains. It has outstandingly rich earth, and is well-suited to fruit-bearing. Very much of it is sown with vines and orchards; it is most blessed with every crop useful to living beings. It is well-watered by rivers and springs. Sometimes the springs are sacred and hot. It is infamous because of the rites of its inhabitants, who, it is said, (for I do not ascribe this rash statement to myself) in their detestable rite of sacrifice make the offerings of religion by the offence of a human victim. You may go out from here into whatever part of the world you wish: into Italy and Hispania by land or by sea, and into Africa by sea only. 2 If you seek Thrace, the best and fertile Raetican field greets you, famous for the Brigantine Lake, thence Noricum, cold and less fruitful, where the very fertile land is carried off by the ridges of the Alps.

§ 21.3  Then there is Pannonia, with strong men and fertile soil, flat and productive, surrounded by the famous rivers Dravus and Savus. Then comes Moesia, which our ancestors justly named the barn of Ceres.

§ 21.4  In the part which is Pontic, a herb is seen, which dyes oil they call “Medicum”. When this is set on fire, if you eagerly cover it with water, it blazes up all the more; it cannot be put out by anything other than by casting sand on it.

§ 22.1  CHAPTER XXII: BRITAIN
The Gallic sea-coast used to be the border of the world. But the island of Britannia, from its size, almost merits the name of another world, for it is 800 miles and more in length, as we measure it all the way to the Calidonian angle. That Ulysses was driven into this Calidonian nook is proved by an altar inscribed with Greek letters.

§ 22.2  Britain is surrounded by many islands which are not unheard of. Of these, Hibernia approaches Britain in magnitude. The uncouth customs of this island’s inhabitants make it a savage land; otherwise, it is so rich in pasture that if the cattle are not now and then kept off the feeding grounds, the abundance endangers them.

§ 22.3  In this place there are no snakes, birds are rare and the people unwelcoming and warlike. When they are victorious in battle, they first drink the blood of the slain, then besmear their own faces with it. They consider that which is right and that which is wrong to be the same. {4} If a woman in labour brings forth a male child, she places his first food on her husband’s sword. On its very point, she gently stuffs the beginning of nourishment into the infant’s mouth, and makes barbaric prayers that he meet death not otherwise than under arms in war. {5}Those who strive for style mark the hilts of their swords with teeth of sea-monsters. These have an ivory-white brightness. For the greatest glory for the men is in the splendour of their weapons. There is never a bee among them. If someone scatters dust or stones carried from that land among the hives, the swarms will abandon the honeycombs.

§ 22.4  {6} The sea which flows between this island and Britain is wavy and unquiet, and is unnavigable except for a few days in the whole year. The Hibernians sail in boats of wickerwork, surrounded with a wrapping of cow hide. The sailors abstain from food for as long as they hold their course.

§ 22.5  {7} Those who have calculated honestly and truthfully estimate this sea to be spread out to a width of 120 miles.

§ 22.7  {9} This turbid strait also divides the island Silura from the shore which is held by the Dumnonii, a British tribe. The men of this island even now preserve an old custom: they do not use coins. They give and accept, obtaining the necessities of life by exchange rather than by money. They reverence gods, and the men and women equally declare knowledge of the future.

§ 22.8  {10} The island Tanatus is blown upon by the Gallic strait, and is separated from the British mainland by a narrow channel. It is blessed with fruitful plains and productive soil. It is not only healthful for its own inhabitants, but also for those of other places. Since Tanatus is crawled over by no snake, the earth transported from there and imported somewhere else kills snakes.

§ 22.9  {11} There are many other islands around Britain. Of these, Thule is the farthest away. There, when it is the summer solstice, and the sun is making its crossing down from the star of Cancer, there is no night. Similarly, at the winter solstice, there is almost no day. Above Thule we hear that the sea is sluggish and frozen. {12} For those seeking Thule, the voyage from the Calidonian promontory to the Ebudes islands is two days long. These are five in number, and their inhabitants do not know grain, but live on fish and milk. {13} The islands are ruled by one king, as they are divided from one another by narrow straits. The king has nothing of his own; everything is held in common. {14} For fairness he is restricted by certain laws, and lest avarice divert him from truth, he learns justice in poverty, inasmuch as having no property, he is nourished by the state. {15} He is given no woman for his own, but in times of vicissitude, when troubled, he obtains one on loan. Whence, neither the wish for nor the hope of children is conceded to him. {16} The Orchades provide the second outpost for those journeying. But the Orchades, three in number, are seven days and as many nights further on from the Ebudes. They are vacant of men, have no forests, and tremble with rushy herbs. Others of them are bare of sand and have cliffs. {17} From the Orchades all the way to Thule, the voyage is five days and nights. But Thule is fertile with plentiful, long-lasting fruits. At the beginning of the spring, those who dwell there live on fodder, among the herds, then on milk, and in winter on the fruits of the trees which they saved. They use the women in common: no-one is married.

§ 22.10  {18} The circumference of Britain is 4875 miles. In this space are many great rivers, and hot springs refined with opulent splendour for the use of mortal men. Minerva is the patroness of these springs. In her shrine, the perpetual fires never whiten into ashes. When they dwindle away, they change into stony globules.

§ 22.11  {19} So I may pass over the plentiful and varied abundance of metals in which the soil of Britain is everywhere strong, I will describe the stone gagates. In Britain there is the most, and the best. If you are curious as to its beauty, it is a black jewel; if to its character, it is almost weightless; if to its nature, it burns in water and is quenched by oil. If you are curious as to its power, it detains things close to it when heated by rubbing, like amber.

§ 22.12  {20} For the most part, Britain is held by barbarians. Even from childhood, they are marked by local artists with various figures and images of animals. When a man’s body has been inscribed, the marks of the pigment increase with growth. The wild nations in this place consider nothing to be greater proof of patience than that through the unforgetful scars, their bodies may drink in the most dye.

§ 23.1  CHAPTER XXIII: HISPANIA; THE OCEAN
When we turn back towards the continent, Hispanian subjects summon us. Whether you are considering the wealth of the soil and the crops, or the fruit of the vines, the Hispanian tracts of land can be compared with the best, and are subordinate to none.

§ 23.2  Hispania abounds in all materials — both in splendid riches and in life’s necessities. If you seek silver or gold, Hispania has them; it also has many iron-mines. It yields to none as far as vines are concerned, and its olives conquer all.

§ 23.3  It is divided into three provinces, which were made ours by the Second Punic War. Nothing in this place is idle, and nothing is fruitless. Those parts which do not give harvests thrive with fodder, and even the barrenness of the arid areas supplies materials for seamen’s ropes.

§ 23.4  They do not cook salt there, but gouge it out. They purge cinnabar from the shining sand. They dye wool, in order that they may set down for its red colour the undiluted poison of the coccum.

§ 23.5  In Lusitania there is a promontory which some call Artabrum, and which others call it the Olisiponian. It divides the heaven, lands and seas. In the case of the lands, Hispania’s flank ends. In this way, the promontory divides the climate and the seas, because the Gallic Ocean and the Northern frons begin from its outer edge, while the Atlantic Ocean and the West terminate.

§ 23.6  The town of Olisipo was founded here by Ulysses. Here also is the river Tagus. Tagus is given preference above the other rivers because of its gold-bearing sands.

§ 23.7  In the area close to Olisipo the mares frisk with marvellous fecundity. They conceive after they have been infused by the blast of the west wind; thirsting for males, they are married by the breath of the breezes

§ 23.8  The river Hiberus gives its name to all of Hispania, and the river Baetis to the province. Both are well-known. The Carthage among the Hiberians, which was made a colony, was founded by the Poeni. The Scipiones founded Tarraco, which is the capital of the province Tarraco.

§ 23.9  The Lusitanian shore blossoms with a great number of ceraunium gems. These are preferred to even the Indian variety. The colour of this ceraunium is like an alloy of gold and bronze. Its character is proved by fire. If the stone endures flames without damage, it is thought to be a help against lightning.

§ 23.10  The Cassiterides islands watch the side of Celtiberia, and are fertile in lead. There are also the three Fortunate Islands, of which the name alone is notable.

§ 23.11  Ebusus, which is 700 stadia from Dianium, has no serpents, inasmuch as its earth puts serpents to flight. Colubraria, which is in the direction of the Sucro, is full of snakes.

§ 23.12  The Baleares were the kingdom of Bocchus, and were at one time so plentiful in rabbits that the grain was destroyed. At the beginning of Baetica, which is the outermost end of the known world, there is an island 700 feet from the mainland. The Tyrians, who came there from the Red Sea, named it “Erythrea”. The Poeni named it “Gadir” in their own language, that is, “hedge”. Many monuments prove that on this island Geryon pursued his old age, although certain people think that Hercules carried the cattle off from another island which is in sight of Lusitania.

§ 23.13  The Gaditane strait, which is called after the town Gades, separates the regions, sending the Atlantic swell into our sea. For the Ocean, which the Greeks thus name because of its celerity, bursts in from the sinking of the sun and coasts by with Europe on the left and Africa on the right. He divides the mountains Calpe and Abinna, which they call the Pillars of Hercules, and pours between Mauretania and Hispania. 14 From this very strait, the length of which is 15 miles, and the width scarcely seven, the Ocean opens the entrance to the inner sea from a certain mouth. It mixes with the Mediterranean gulfs, and drives forward towards the Orient. Of these gulfs, that which bathes Hispania is called the Hiberican Sea or the Balearican. That which bathes the province of Narbonensis is called the Gallic Sea, and then the Ligustican Sea. From this point to Sicily is called the Tuscan Sea. The Greeks name it the Ionian or Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Italians the Lower. From Sicily all the way to Crete is the Sicilian Sea. 15 Thence is the Cretan Sea, which continues to Pamphylia and Egypt. The mass of water, after whirling into the northern side, and into the great curves next to Greece and Illyria, is constricted through the Hellespont and into the narrows of the Propontis. The Propontis divides Europe and Asia, and goes through towards Maeotis.

§ 23.16  The reasons for the names of the seas are not uniform. The names of the Asiatic and Phoenician seas stem from the provinces; those of the Carpathian, Aegaean, Icarian, Balearic and Cyprian seas from islands. The names of the Ausonian, Dalmatian, Ligustican and Tuscan seas are from peoples; those of the Adriatic, Argolic, Corinthian and Tyrian seas are from towns, and those of the Myrtoan sea and of the Hellespont from the falls of mortals. The name of the Ionian sea comes from the memory of a king, and that of the Bosphorus from the transit of a cow, or from the narrows or passage fordable by cows. The name of the Euxine comes from the customs of the inhabitants. Formerly, it was called “Axinos”. The Propontis is named for the order of the streams. The Egyptian sea is given to Asia, the Gallic to Europe, and the African to Libya; as each of these seas are closest to these countries, they have come into the quarters of these regions. 17 These ones are in the lands' embrace. However, the Ocean surrounds the farthest lands, and the seas there are named after their own shores: the Arabian, Persian, Indian, Eoian, Serican, Hyrcanian, Caspian, Scythian, German, Gallic, Atlantic, Libycan and Egyptian.

§ 23.18  Around the shores of India, the flowing tides of the Ocean both rush forward very vigorously and make great departures. This is either because they the waters swell up, lifted on high by the force of the heat, or because in that part of the world there is a greater abundance of rivers and springs.

§ 23.19  Even now it is deliberated what should cause the ocean to swell up and to subside again into itself, since it is itself superfluous. It is not unobscure that many theories have been put forward which are rather to show off the genius of their proposers than to seek the truth. But, omitting the doubtful arguments on the question, I have found these opinions the most trustworthy.

§ 23.20  The natural philosophers say that the world is an animal which was pressed together from various elemental bodies, and that it is moved by a ruling spirit. Diffused through every limb, it drives the strength of its eternal mass of waves. 21 Therefore, just as in our own bodies there is movement of air, the nostrils of the world are located in the depths of the Ocean. Through them, breath is sent out or drawn in, both breathing out the seas and calling them back.

§ 23.22  But those who follow the teachings of the stars contend that the movements themselves are provoked by the orbits of the moon, to such a degree that the changes of the waters, between meagreness and plenitude, are in respect of the moon’s growth and reduction. The time is not always the same; just as the moon sinks and rises, the wavering retreats fluctuate.

§ 24.1  CHAPTER XXIV: LIBYA AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS
From Spain we shall sally forth to Libya. For when one leaves the Baetican town Baelon, Tingi comes next, beyond the intervening thirty-three mile strait. Antaeus was Tingi’s first founder; now it is a colony of Mauretania. 2 Hereafter, because the Egyptian Sea finishes in this circuit and the Libyan begins, it seems good to me to call Africa “Libya”. Yet certain people have accepted instead that Libya was named thus after Libya, the daughter of Epaphus, and that Africa was named after Afrus, the son of Hercules the Libyan.

§ 24.3  Lix, also a colony, was established in the same region, in the place where Antaeus’ palace was. Antaeus knew very well how to interweave and disentangle knots on the ground, as though born from Mother Earth. He was vanquished by Hercules in this very spot.

§ 24.4  Lest rumour’s immoderation wound the truth, I will here give an account of the gardens of the Hesperides and the ever-watchful dragon. Out of the sea here is borne an estuary which has a winding channel; its sinuous sides are tortuous to such a degree that to those looking at it from afar, owing to its broken turnings, it resembles the gliding of a snake. 5 Thus it encircles what they call “the gardens”. People, understanding the channel to be the guardian of the apples, paved the way for the fabrication of lies. The island is perforated by the bays of the returning channel, and is situated within the coils of the water. Except for trees similar to wild olive, and an altar sacred to Hercules, nothing other offers by which it might prolong the memory of antiquity. 6 In truth, it is a greater wonder -- more amazing than golden shrubs and leafy -- that although the ground here is lower than the level of the sea, the depression is never overflowed by the approach of the strait. The waves stick to the very edges because of some natural door-bar, and the advancing billows are resisted by the inmost eyebrows of the shores. Without doubt, the level ground remains dry owing to the admirable nature of the place, despite the advent of the downward-flowing waters.

§ 24.7  The town Sala overhangs the river Sala. From here, though the territory of the Autoli people, is the way to the Atlas wilderness. 8 Mount Atlas rises from the middle of sandy desolation. When it rears up, its head plunges above the clouds, into the vicinity of the lunar orbit. Where the mountain stretches towards the ocean (to which it gave its own name), it flows with springs, bristles with groves and is rugged with cliffs. It is a barren waste, and the land is bare and without grass. Where the mountain turns towards Africa, it is blessed with fruits which grow of themselves. It is shaded with tall trees which have an oppressive odour and foliage similar to cypress. The foliage is clothed with a down which is no cheaper than silken fleece. 10 The summit of the range is always snow-covered. Elephants, quadrupeds, serpents and wild beasts have together overtaken the passes. All is silent and concealed throughout the day, which is not without dread. But in the night the mountain shines with fires, and choirs of Aegipans ring on all sides. Songs of tibiae, and the jangling of cymbals are also heard along the sea-coast.

§ 24.11  Mt Atlas is 205 miles away from Lix; Lix is 112 miles away from the Gaditane strait. Mount Atlas was previously inhabited; the appearance of the place indicates former cultivation. All the way to our time the traces of vines and date-palms are extant. 12 The top was traversable for Perseus and Hercules, but is inaccessible to everyone else. Thus the inscription of the altars makes the truth plain. From where Atlas watches the west, woods notorious for wild beasts blockade it for 496 miles between the river Anatis.

§ 24.13  The rivers around Mount Atlas are not to be passed over in silence. Although they are separated by rather wide distances, they nevertheless do certain service to Atlas’ name. 14 Asana has brackish water. Bambotum is crammed with crocodiles and hippopotami. Further on is yet another river which flows with a black colour through the most secret inmost scorched deserts. The deserts never claim this river with their perpetual burning and excessive sun, which is more than fiery heat.

§ 24.15  Both the books of the Carthaginian Hanno and our annals assert these things about Atlas, which the Mauri name Addiris. Juba, the son of Ptolemy [sic], who became master of both kingdoms of Mauretania, also mentions them. Suetonius Paulinus also, who carried the Roman banners above Atlas first and almost alone, reliably established this knowledge.

§ 25.1  CHAPTER XXV: MAURETANIA; ELEPHANTS
Tingitana, one of the Mauretanian provinces, meets the solstitial region. Where it stretches towards the inner sea, seven mountains rise, which, because of their similarity to one another, are called the Brothers. They border upon the strait. 2 Elephants are very numerous in these mountains. This admonishes me to here speak of this type of animal. Elephants have an understanding close to the intelligence of humans. They have memories and keep the discipline of the stars. When the moon begins to shine they seek the rivers in herds. Next, drenched with liquid, they salute the rising of the sun with what movements they can. Then they return to the forests.

§ 25.3  There are two breeds of elephant. The more noble breed is indicated by its larger size. They call the smaller breed “bastards”. An elephant is understood to be young if its teeth are white. Of these teeth, one is always in use. The other is spared, lest, blunted by continual abrasion, it is less effective for fighting. 4 When elephants are pursued by hunters, they break both teeth together, so, having damaged the ivory, they are not sought after. For they understand that this is the cause of their danger. They wander in herds. The eldest by birth leads the herd; the nearest in age collects the followers. 5 When they are about to cross a river, they put the smallest in front, lest the elders wear away the river bed by their ingress, and make deep ruts in the low fords. The females do not mate before they are ten years old, and the males before they are five. In a period of two years, elephants do not mate on more than five days in a year. They do not return to the main herd until they have cleansed themselves with fresh water. 6 Because elephants never fight over females, they know no adultery. The virtue of compassion is in them. If they by chance see a man wandering through the desert, they lead him all the way to known paths. Or if they meet with thronging cattle, they make passage for themselves with their trunks gently and placidly, lest they kill any animal in the way by an accidental collision.

§ 25.7  If ever battle is fought, elephants have a not mediocre care for the injured. They receive the weary and wounded into the middle of the herd. When elephants come into captivity at the hands of men, they are tamed by draughts of barley.

§ 25.8  When they are about to pass over the seas, they will not climb into the ships before an oath is sworn to them about their return. Mauretanian elephants fear Indian elephants, and, as though conscious of their own smallness, scorn to be seen by them. The wombs of elephants do not grow heavy over a period of ten years, as the common people think, but in two, as Aristotle specifies. They do not bring forth more than once, nor more than singly.

§ 25.9  Elephants live for 300 years. They are most intolerant of cold. They eat tree-trunks and swallow stones. They consider dates the most pleasing of foods. They actually flee the odour of a mouse most of all; they even refuse fodder which has been touched by a little mouse. 10 If by chance any of them devour a chamaeleon, a worm which is poisonous to elephants, the elephant heals itself of the pest by eating wild olive. Elephants’ skin is very hard on their backs, and softer on their bellies. They have no bristles or hair. Between elephants and snakes is continual enmity. 11 Indeed, traps are prepared by the following craftiness. The serpents lurk on paths along which the elephants are accustomed to wander. After the leading elephants have passed, the serpents assail the hindmost elephants, so those who preceded them cannot aid them. The serpents first bind the elephants’ feet with knots so their legs are ensnared, and their means of advancing is impeded.

§ 25.12  For the elephants, unless prevented by this hindrance of coils, bring themselves into contact with either trees or rocks, so they may kill the brazen serpents by means of their oppressive weight. 13 The especial cause of this combat, they say, is this. Elephants have rather cold blood, and for this reason, in the scorching heat snakes long for it most avidly. Wherefore, snakes never attack elephants unless they are burdened with water, as when the elephants’ veins are inundated, the serpents may take greater satiety from those they overwhelm. 14 The serpents seek the elephants’ eyes above all, because they know that these alone are vulnerable. They also seek the inner parts of the elephants’ ears, as this place cannot be defended by the trunk. When they drink the blood, and the beasts fall, the snakes are crushed. 15 Thus on both sides the poured blood soaks the land, and whatever tints the earth becomes a pigment which they call cinnabar. Italy first saw elephants in the 472nd year after the founding of Rome, in the Epirote war in Lucania. Because of this, they were called Lucanian cows.

§ 25.16  The colony Caesarea is in Caesarensis. It was founded by the divine Claudius, and was formerly the residence of Bocchus. After a while it was kindly given to Juba as a gift. Caesarensis also has the town Siga, which was inhabited by Syphax.

§ 25.17  We should not depart from Icosium in silence. When Hercules was passing over the spot, twenty men who deserted from his company selected a place and built walls. Lest somebody boast in private that the place was named after himself, the name of the city was given from the number of the builders.

§ 26.1  CHAPTER XXVI: NUMIDIA; THE NATURE OF BEARS
The waters of the river Amsiga are given to Numidia. When they led wandering existences in search of pasturage, the inhabitants of this land were called “Nomads”. Numidia has many noble cities, but Cirta is pre-eminent. Next in importance is Chulli: its purple-dyed fleeces are regarded as equal to the Tyrian.

§ 26.2  This whole region borders on Zeugitana. Where it is wooded, Numidia rears wild beasts; where it is steep and mountainous, it nourishes horses. It is also praised for the excellence of its marble.

§ 26.3  Numidian bears excel others in fierceness, and have longer hair; their reproductive power is equal to those born in any other place. I will speak on this subject without delay.

§ 26.4  Bears do not mate in the same way as do other four-footed beasts. Suited to mutual embraces, they copulate just as human couples. Winter kindles desire in them. The males treat the pregnant mothers with respect and keep to themselves; they sleep in the same dens, but in partitioned private sleeping quarters, divided by trenches. Pregnancy is quite speedy; in fact, the womb gives forth by the 30th day. This precipitate fertility produces unformed offspring. 5 The mother bears bring forth very small lumps of flesh, which are white in colour and have no eyes. Because of the haste and immaturity, the cubs, excepting the outlines of claws, are nothing but undeveloped bloody matter. The mothers gradually shape the cubs by licking and cherishing them. Sometimes they hold them clasped to the breast, so they might be warmed by continual incubation and draw in the breath of life. 6 Meanwhile, the mothers take no food. Indeed, for the first fourteen days they fall into sleep, and cannot be woken even if wounded. When they have given birth, they lie hidden for four months. When they go forth into the open day, they suffer so from the unaccustomed light, you would think them overcome by blindness.

§ 26.7  The head of the bear is feeble; their greatest strength is in their arms and loins. Whence, they sometimes stand on their hind feet. They ambush beehives, as they greatly desire honeycombs; they do not pursue anything more avidly than honey.

§ 26.8  When they have tasted the fruits of the mandrake, they die, but if they fight against the destructive power of the poison, they devour ants to recover their health.

§ 26.9  If bears ever prey on bulls, they know the body parts against which they should above all direct their attacks: they seek the bulls’ horns and noses the most. They seek the horns so that they may exhaust the bulls by their weight, and the nostrils so that they may inflict sharper pains in a tender place.

§ 26.10  When Marcus Messala was consul [61 BCE], Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was curule aedile, and he exhibited 100 Numidian bears and as many Aethiopian hunters in the circus at Rome. This spectacle was recorded amongst his memorable titles.

§ 27.1  CHAPTER XXVII: AFRICA
All Africa begins from the foot of Zeugitanus from the Promontory of Apollo, which is opposite to Sardinia. Advancing to the Promontory of Mercury, which faces the forepart of Sicily, it extends to two projections. One of these is called the Candidan Promontory, and the other, which is in the territory of Cyrenaica, they call Phycus. 2 This last stretches through the Cretan gulf, opposite the island of Crete, which faces Laconian Taenarum.

§ 27.3  The sands of the Catabathmus insinuate into Egypt, to which the Cyrenenses are neighbours. The Catabathmi extend between the two Syrtes, and the shallow and ebbing sea make the place inaccessible. The reason for the diminution and advancement of the salt-water is by no means easy to discover, as its movements are so uncertain; now it resides in hilly shallows, now it floods with unquiet tides. 4 As the author Varro affirms, the ground there is susceptible to penetrating winds; the sudden force of the breath very quickly either removes or swallows down the obstacles.

§ 27.5  All this region is divided from Aethiopia and the ends of Asia by the Nigris river, which gives birth to the Nile, and from Hispania by the strait. On the side which lies towards the south, it is destitute of springs and notorious for thirst; on the other side, which faces north, it has plentiful sources of water.

§ 27.6  In the Byzacene tract, which extends for 200 miles or more, the soil is so exceptionally rich that seed sown there is renewed with its growth of fruit 100 times.

§ 27.7  That many strangers have come together in this place, I give this argument about the cities and places. The promontory Borion, which is smote upon by the north wind, was so named by immigrant Greeks. Hippo, afterwards called Regius, and likewise the other Hippo (called Diarrhytus from the straits flowing between), most noble towns both, were founded by Greek knights.

§ 27.8  The Siculi built the town Clypea, and first named it Aspis, and also Veneria, into which they carried across the rites of Venus Erycina. The Achaeans so designated Tripolis in their own language from the number of the cities, that is, Oea, Sabrata, and Leptismagna.

§ 27.9  The people of Tyre were the founders of Hadrumetum and Carthage. What the veracious books record about Carthage I shall here record. 10 Cato asserts in his senatorial oration that this city was built by the lady Elissa, of the Phoenician house, when King Iapon was master in Libya. She called it Carthada, because it meant “new city” in the Phoenician tongue. Soon, their speech was changed to Punic, and both the former and the latter were respectively called “Elisa” and “Carthage”. Carthage was razed 737 years after it was established. 11 Next, it was given to Italian colonists by Gaius Gracchus, and called by him Iunonia. For some time it was ignoble and had powerless status; at length, 102 years interposing, when M. Antonius and Publius Dolabella were consuls [44 BCE], it came to the renown of the second Carthage, the other beauty of the earth after the city of Rome.

§ 27.12  Verily, as I return towards Africa, it is itself surrounded by its own sea.

§ 27.13  Many beasts, indeed, are in Africa’s interior, but it is principally held by lions, which, as Aristotle holds, alone of that type they call “toothed”, can see as soon as they are born. These may be broken into three sorts: the smaller, which have curly manes, are generally cowardly and unwarlike; the larger, which have smooth hair, are more fierce. But those which are produced by leopards lack manes and remain undistinguished. All equally refrain from gorging. They do so because they drink and catch food on alternate days; oftentimes, if they do not enjoy good digestion, they postpone their usual repast another day. 14 If the consumed flesh is greater than what is right, and they are weighed down, they put their claws into their mouths and voluntarily bring it to light. 15 They also do the same when fleeing in a state of satiety. Weakness of the teeth indicates old age. The indications of mildness are many: they spare those who prostrate themselves, and they rage against men rather than women. They do not kill children except in great hunger. Neither are they separated from mercy: in fact, it is well known by many examples that they have been lenient; when many captives were exposed to several lions, they were repatriated untouched. Also the name of a woman of Gaetula is recorded in the books of Juba, who implored obstructing wild beasts and returned unharmed.

§ 27.16  They mate behind, as do lynxes, camels, elephants, rhinoceros and tigers.

§ 27.17  At the first birth, lionesses bring forth five cubs, then they melt away the number by one with the years passing, and at last the maternal fecundity recedes to one. Then they become barren for eternity.

§ 27.18  The tail and the forehead indicates the courage of a lion, just as the mettle of a horse is to be understood by its ears: Nature gave these marks to each noblest beast. Lions’ greatest strength is in their breasts, and they have especial firmness in the head. When pressed by dogs, they scornfully withdraw and sometimes halt in doubtful retreat, and feign fear. 19 They do this if hemmed in in naked and open plains, but if in woody places, as though not shrinking from witness of their cowardliness, they take themselves away in flight as fast as they can. When they give chase, they aid their pursuits by leaping. When they flee, they cannot leap. When they walk, they close the sharp points of their claws in the sheaths of their paws, lest their sharpness be blunted by the abrasion. In this they are scrupulous to such a degree that they do not run without withdrawing their little curved blades.

§ 27.20  Surrounded by hunters, they gaze at the ground in contemplation, so they might be the less terrified by the sight of the hunting spears. They never look aslant and wish least that they should themselves be observed. They fear the songs of domestic poultry, and the noise of wheels, but fear fire more.

§ 27.21  I have heard of little creatures called leontophoni, which are caught and incinerated. Flesh polluted with a dusting of their ashes, and planted at crossroads may kill lions, if they take never so small a piece thereof. 22 Therefore, lions oppress the leotophoni with a natural hatred. When given opportunity, they kill them; they abstain from biting them, but tear them to pieces with the strength of their paws. Scaevola, son of Publius, first made exhibition of these beasts when he was curule aedile.

§ 27.23  Africa also gives forth hyenas. The necks of these creatures are stiffened with a spine which is one continual unit, and they cannot turn except by an entire revolution of the body. Hyenas possess many marvellous features. First, they range around shepherds’ huts and learn, by assiduous listening, to mimic the human voice, so they may savage men called out in the night by their cunning. 24 They also imitate the sound of people vomiting, and thus devour the dogs attracted by their false retching. If by change dogs out hunting touch the shadow of a hyena while pursuing him, they lose their voices and cannot bark. Hyenas, by way of spying out buried bodies, dig up tombs. It is an easier matter to capture a male hyena, for in the females a more crafty cunning is instilled by birth. Their eyes change colour and have a complex variety. 25 In the pupils of hyenas a stone is found which they call “hyaenia”. It possesses this power: when placed under the tongue of any man whatever, he prophesies the future. Any animal which the hyena walks around three times cannot move. For this reason, they proclaim that the hyena has magical knowledge.

§ 27.26  In a part of Aethiopia, the hyena mates with lionesses. From these unions, monsters named “corocottae” are born. This creature also feigns the voices of men. It never moves the pupils of its orbs, but stares, gazing without blinking. It its mouth it has no gums, and one continual tooth. In order that this is never blunted, it is by nature closed up in a sort of casket.

§ 27.27  Among those which they call “grazers”, Africa has wild asses. Individual male asses rule over herds of females. The males stand in fear of lustful rivals. So it is that they watch over their pregnant females, and if opportunity arises, they bite off the testicles of the new-born colts. The females are thus wary and secrete their offspring in secluded places.

§ 27.28  Africa is so abundant in serpents that it may be deservedly given the palm award for that evil. The cerastae carry four-fold little horns; they display them as bait, and destroy the birds they attract. They diligently hide the rest of their bodies in the sand, so that no sign of them is visible saving that part aforementioned. By this trick they ambush and kill birds, who have been lured by the hope of food.

§ 27.29  The amphisbaena grows twin heads, one in the proper place, and the other where the tail should be. For this reason the snake glides in a circular shape, as the heads, contrary to what is right, strain from both ends.

§ 27.30  Iaculi climb trees, down from which they whirl with great force, and pierce any animal which happens to be exposed to them. The back of the scytale shines outstandingly, and the beauty of its spots gives pause to anything which beholds it. The scytale crawls rather slowly, but through its own marvel it seizes those astounded creatures which it is not otherwise able to overtake. 31 Nevertheless, as bright as its scales may be, it is the first to slough its winter coat. The species of asps are many and varied, and indeed, they have disparate manners of harming. The dispas destroys by thirst; the hypnale kills with sleep. This last is even -- as Cleopatra may bear witness -- purchased for death. 32 The poisons of other serpents, since they are treatable, merit less of fame.

§ 27.32  The haemorrhois brings forth blood with its bites, and, having destroyed the circulation, it lures out whatever is left of life through a stream of blood. Whomever the prester pierces becomes distended, and dies swollen to immense corpulence.

§ 27.33  The sting of the seps is followed by putrefaction. There are also ammodytae, chenchres, elephantiae, chersydri and chamaedracontes. There have been as many deaths as there are names. Scorpions, skinks and lizards are reckoned worms, not serpents. 34 If these monsters hiss, they strike more slowly. They have feelings; they do not rashly stray except in couples. If one is captured or killed, the other, left behind, is maddened. The heads of females are more slender, their bellies more swollen and their venom more harmful. The male is equally smooth, higher, and also meeker.

§ 27.35  The vision of all serpents is dull. They seldom look directly ahead, and not without cause, as they do not have eyes in front, but on their temples, so far back that they hear more readily than they see.

§ 27.36  There was dispute between Aethiopia, Africa and Cyprus as to which yielded the best type of the gem heliotrope. Heliotrope is green in colour, not so vivid, but rather cloudy and restrained, spotted above with crimson stars. 37 The reason for the name is from the effect and power of the stone. When dropped into a copper bowl, it changes the rays of the sun with bloody reflections and casts its splendour outside the water and steals it. Also this is able to be said: that the herb of the same name, mixed and consecrated with the right prayers, takes he by whom it is swallowed away from the sight of men.

§ 27.38  If one intends to journey between the Syrtes by land, one must order it by the stars; otherwise the course will be unclear. For the wind alters the appearance of the crumbling soil; the smallest breeze effects so great a difference that the locales are changed, and no landmarks remain to be recognised, since not only high hills subside into valleys, but valleys are piled over with sand.

§ 27.39  Thus the continent suffers from the nature of its own sea. It does not matter where the storms are, since the elements act together towards the destruction of travellers. The winds rage on land, and the land on the sea.

§ 27.40  The two Syrtes are separated by 250 miles. The smaller is considerably more peaceful. I have heard that when Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Sempronius were consuls [253 BCE], the Roman fleet finally sailed over the shallows between them without coming to harm. In this bay, on the island of Menis, Gaius Marius had a hiding place after the Minturnine Swamps.

§ 27.41  Above the Garamantes used to live the Psylli. They were fortified against harmful venoms by incredible strength of body, and they alone did not perish from the bites of serpents, and although assailed by lethal fangs, endured in unimpaired health. They even offered their newly-born to the serpents. 42 If the child was the fruit of unlawful love, the crimes of the mother were punished by the destruction of the little one; if the mother was chaste, the right of paternal blood protected the child of honourable ancestry from death. Thus they proved the truth of origin by a judging poison. But this people were overrun by the Nassamones and perished. Nothing other than the reputation arising from the vestige of their name remains of the Psylli.

§ 27.43  The Nassamones yield a stone called nassamonite, which is bloody all over and shadowed with black veinlets. We learn that within the inmost recess of Syrtis Major, around the Altars of the Philaeni, lived the Lotus-Eaters, and it is no uncertain claim. From the Altars of the Philaeni, it is not far to the swamp into which the river Triton flows. It is here they believe the goddess of the arts herself was seen.

§ 27.44  Syrtis Major displays a town they call Cyrene, which Battius the Lacedaemonian founded in the 45th Olympiad, when King Marcius held sway over Rome, in the 586th year after the fall of Troy. This place was the homeland and dwelling-place of Callimachus the poet.

§ 27.45  Between Cyrene and the temple of Hammon is a distance of 400 miles. A spring sacred to Sol is near to this temple, which draws the soil into knots of water, and also solidifies ash into clods. In which clods, miraculously, a lake spurts forth, surrounded on every side, contrary to what is expected, with dry fields.

§ 27.46  In this place one collects a stone called horn of Hammon, for it is so twisted and bent that it resembles a ram’s horn. It has a golden radiance, and it is said that it engenders prophetic dreams if placed under the head of somebody who is sleeping.

§ 27.47  There is also a tree by the name melopos, from which moisture flows sluggishly forth. It is called hammoniacum after the place.

§ 27.48  In addition, sirpe grows among the Cyreneans. It has odiferous roots, more like those of a brushwood herb than of a fruit-tree. In the summer time, its stem exudes a dewy grease which sticks to the little beards of feeding billy-goats. When dried, it turns into icicle-like specks, and it is collected for the use of the table, or rather of healing. 49 It was first called “sirpic milk”, since it pours like milk does. Finally, deriving from custom, it was named laser. The seeds have been almost completely rooted up, first by an invasion of barbarians, who laid the fields waste, and later by the inhabitants themselves, by reason of an intolerable excess of tax.

§ 27.50  Africa is on the left of Cyrene, and Aegypt is on the right. In front is the cruel and harbourless sea, and behind, divers nations of barbarians and inaccessible wildernesses, which bear the basilisk, an evil unique in all the lands. 51 It is a serpent, almost half a foot in length; its head is lined, as though with a little white head-band. It is given to the destruction not only of men and other living things, but also of the land itself. Wherever it chooses to make its toxic den is polluted and burned. It devastates vegetation and kills trees, and also contaminates the very breezes. So it is that no bird can fly unharmed over air infected by its unwholesome breath. 52 When it is agitated, it crawls along with one half of its body, and rears the other half up high. Even serpents recoil in terror from its hissing, and when they hear it, they all hurry to flee in any possible direction. 53 Anything that dies from its bite is not devoured by wild beasts or touched by birds. Nevertheless, the basilisk is defeated by weasels, which men in those parts stuff into the caverns in which it takes shelter. Yet it does not lack power even when dead. Indeed, the Pergamenes acquired, for a pretty penny, the remains of a basilisk, so spiders would not spin on their shrine, famous for the workmanship of Apelles, nor birds fly into it. The corpse was placed there suspended in a golden net.

§ 27.54  Around the farthest end of the Syrtes, the river Lethon flows to the town Berenice. They believe this river rushes forth from an underground source, and it is remembered by the old poets for its waters, which induce forgetfulness. Berenice, who was married to the third Ptolemy, built this town in Syrtis Major.

§ 27.55  All the country spread out between Aegypt, Aethiopia and Libya -- as far as it is wooded -- is filled with various types of apes. I hope that anyone offended by the name does not take the following knowledge amiss. 56 For indeed, the value of toil lies in omitting nothing in which the providence of nature is to be seen. Among these apes is a common sort which is seen everywhere. They have the talent of mimicry, by which they come more easily to the hand. They eagerly imitate the gestures of hunters, who purposely leave behind an ointment-box of bird-lime. Because the apes saw the hunters feign the deed, they smear their eyes with it, and thus, with their vision obscured, it is easy to seize them. 57 They exult at the new moon, and are sad when a planet is horned and hollow. They love their young immoderately; indeed, they may more easily lose the cubs they hold dearer and carry in front of themselves, since the neglected ones always stick behind the mothers.

§ 27.58  Cercopitheci have tails: this is the only distinction between them and the apes. The cynocephali are themselves of the number of the apes. They are very frequent in parts of Aethiopia. They leap violently, bite savagely and are thus never tamed.

§ 27.59  Sphinxes are also considered among the apes. They have shaggy heads, rather deep and prominent breasts, and are amenable to forgetfulness of the wild state.

§ 27.60  And there are those they call satyrs, which are exceedingly pleasing in appearance, and restless with gesticulations and movements. Callitriches differ from the others in almost all respects. They have bearded faces and broad tails. It is not hard to catch them, but it is rare to carry them away in captivity, for they will not live otherwhere than in Aethiopia, their own clime.

§ 28.1  CHAPTER XXVIII: THE AMANTES AND THE ASBYTAE
Between the Nassamones and the Trogodytae live the Amantine people. They construct buildings from salt. They raise these like crags from the mountains, secure them with piles of concrete and use them as temples. There is such great abundance of this ore there that they may make their houses from salt. 2 These are the Amantes, who trade precious stones, carbuncles, with the Trogodytae. On this side of the Amantes, nearer to the Nassamones, the '>Asbytae subsist on laser (plant-juice). This nourishes them; for them, it is edible.

§ 29.1  CHAPTER XXIX: THE GARAMANTES
There is a town of the Garamantes called Debris, which has a marvellous spring. Why so? It is alternately cold during the day and hot during the night. Now it rages with fiery steam, now it trembles with icy coldness, through the same channels. 2 It is incredible to note that nature should manufacture such dissonant variety in so short a course. He who wished to investigate in the shadows of night would believe that there was eternal heat in the stream; he who examined it by day would judge the wintry spring to be nothing other than perpetually frozen. 3 For this reason, Debris is not undeservedly celebrated among the nations. The quality of its waters changes according to celestial movements, although contrary to the discipline of the stars. When evening tempers the heat of the world at sunset, the spring begins to heat, and it may be harmful to touch it if you cannot abstain from doing so. 4 With the rising of the sun, when everything is warmed and heated up with its rays, the spring vomits out wintry water, so it cannot be drunk even by people who are thirsty. Who would not wonder at a spring which becomes cold through heat, and becomes heated through cold?

§ 29.5  The chief city of the Garamantic region is Garama. The way to it was for a long time tortuous and impassable, for robbers buried the wells in sand so that, having removed the water by transitory deceit, the way might become notorious for thirst, and debar the arrival of travellers. 6 But during the war in Vespasian’s principate, which was waged against the Oeenses, this difficulty was overcome by the convenient discovery of a shorter passage. 7 Cornelius Balbus subdued the Garamantae, and with this victory was the first to triumph over them. Indeed, he was the first foreigner (inasmuch as he was born at Gades) who attained the glory of a triumph. The cattle of the Garamantae graze with bent necks, for if they direct their faces to the pasture straight on, their horns impede their passage to the ground. We hear that in the neighbourhood of Cercina is an island called Gauloe, where serpents are neither born nor live if brought there. In addition, the dust from there wards off snakes if strewn anywhere in the world. Thrown over scorpions, it kills them immediately.

§ 30.1  CHAPTER XXX: AETHIOPIA
The Aethiopians and the people of Mount Atlas are separated by the Nigris river, which is thought to be part of the Nile. It is similarly green with papyrus and fringed with reeds; it brings forth the same animals and floods at the same seasons. It also returns within its banks at the time when the Nile is content with its own channel.

§ 30.2  The Garamantic Aethiopians do not have private marriage, but permit everyone to have sexual relations in common. Thence it is that only mothers recognise their sons; there is no deference for the paternal name. 3 For who could truly know his father in this extravagance of uncleanliness run riot? The Garamantic Aethiopians are thus counted as degenerate among all peoples. This is not undeserved, seeing that they have overthrown chastity and have destroyed knowledge of descent through their wicked custom.

§ 30.4  The name of the Aethiopians extends widely. In the part of Africa where Libya sees Meroe, there are many and varied nations of them. Of their number are the Nomades, who live on the milk of cynocephali. The Serbotae are twelve feet tall. 5 The Azachaei devour elephants they capture by hunting. The Psambarae have no eared quadrupeds, not even elephants, in their territory. Their nearest neighbours hand over their highest royal power to a dog. They divine his commands by his movements.

§ 30.6  They say that the maritime Aethiopians have four eyes, but the truth is otherwise. In fact, they say this because they see excellently well and aim their arrows very accurately. The Agriophagi hold the ground towards the west, and eat only the flesh of panthers and lions. They have a king who has one eye in his forehead.

§ 30.7  There are also the Pamphagi, who eat everything which is chewable, and anything which happens to be born. There are also the Anthropophagi, whose name expresses their customs.

§ 30.8  They say that the Cynomolgi have canine jaws and prominent snouts. The Artabatitae go prone like four-footed beasts, and rove abroad without abode, like wild animals. The people bordering on Mauretania gather land locusts at a fixed season, and harden them in brine; then they have them as their lone preserver of life. But of these, none exceed forty years of age.

§ 30.9  From this Ocean to Meroe, which the Nile makes with his first embrace, is 620 miles. Beyond Meroe, above the rising of the sun, the Macrobian Aethiopians are said to dwell. Their lives are longer than ours by half. 10 These Macrobii maintain justice, love equality, are healthy and vigorous, and are graced with particular beauty. They ornament themselves with copper and make gold fetters for their criminals. There is a place among them called Heliustrapeza, which is loaded with sumptuous dishes, of which anyone may eat indiscriminately. They consider that they are thus divinely exalted.

§ 30.11  Also in that place is a lake, in which people’s bodies, if bathed, shine as if with olive oil. The water of this lake is extremely health-giving. It is so limpid that fallen fronds do not float on it; immediately the leaves fall, they sink to the bottom because of the thinness of the water.

§ 30.12  Above this are deserted and savage wildernesses all the way to the Arabian gulf. Next, in the farthest Orient, are races of monstrous appearance. Some have hideous visages without noses, and their faces are of a uniform flatness.

§ 30.13  Others have closed up mouths, and can only swallow sustenance into the small holes by way of oaten stalks. Not a few of them lack tongues, and use nods and gestures instead of speech. 14 Certain of these nations, before the time of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Lathyrus, were ignorant of the uses of fire. Aethiopia holds everything from the south-east to the south-west. Whatever of it is under the southern axis blooms with groves, which are at their most verdant in winter. From the middle part, a high mountain overhangs the sea, and quietly flaming on its summits, glows eternally with gentle fire. 15 Among these fires of continual heat there is a great abundance of dragons. True dragons have small mouths, which do not gape open to bite. They have a narrow tube, through which they drag breath and thrust out their tongues. Of course, they do not have their strength in their teeth, but in their tails, and they cause harm by lashing these rather than with their jaws.

§ 30.16  A stone called dracontia is excised from the brains of dragons. But it cannot be pulled out unless the dragon is alive. For if the serpent dies first, the hardness dissolves and vanishes with its life. The kings of the Orient especially glory its use, although, by reason of its hardness, it permits no flattery of artifice. Whatever is noble in it is not made by the hand of man, and it shines with no other colour than with its natural white. 17 The author Sotacus writes that he has even seen this gem, and teaches by what methods it may be stolen. The bravest men search out the pits and retreats of the serpents. Then they stand ready for them when they come out to feed. They run past them as fast as they can and cast before them plants steeped in things which are most powerful for provoking sleep. 18 The dragons are then rendered insensible by sleep, and the men sever their heads. From their daring booty they then carry back the rewards of their rashness.

§ 30.19  The areas held by the Aethiopians are full of wild beasts, one of which they call the nabun. We call it the giraffe. It has a neck like a horse, feet like cattle’s and a head like a camel. It shines with a reddish colour, and is sprinkled on top with white spots. 20 This animal was first shown at Rome at the games of Caesar the Dictator. At almost the same time, monsters called cephi were exhibited there. Their hind feet, from the ankle to sole, resembled human limbs, and their fore feet recalled men’s hands. But they were not seen by us more than once.

§ 30.21  Before the games of Gnaeus Pompeius, the shows of the Romans were ignorant of the rhinoceros. This colour of this beast is like box-wood. On its nose is a single backwards-facing horn, which it sharpens to a point by repeated grinding on stones. It uses it to fight elephants, to which it is equal in length, but shorter in the leg. The rhinoceros instinctively seeks out the elephant’s belly, which it knows is the only part penetrable to its blows.

§ 30.22  The catoblepas is produced close to the river Nigris. It is a sluggish beast of medium size, and bears its burdensome head with difficulty. It has a destructive glance, for whoever encounters its eyes dies immediately.

§ 30.23  The ants here are shaped like huge dogs, and dig up the golden sand with their feet, which are like lions’. They guard it lest someone steal it, enticing and pursuing them to the death.

§ 30.24  Aethiopia engenders the lycaon. It is a wolf with a mane on its neck, of so many colours that they say no colour is absent from it. 25 Aethiopia also engenders the parandrus, which is the size of an ox. It has cloven footprints, branching horns, and a deer-like head. It is the colour of a bear, and has equally shaggy hair. This parandrus, it is asserted, changes its shape when alarmed; when it takes cover, it becomes similar to whatever is near to it, be it white like a stone, green like a thicket, or whatever else it prefers. 26 Cuttle-fish do the same in the sea, and chamaeleons on land. But both the cuttle-fish and the chamaeleon are hairless; it is easier for them, from the slipperiness of their skin, to imitate what is near. It is, then, an extraordinary and remarkable thing that the parandrus’ rough hair should give rise to changes in colour. Because of this, parandri are difficult to catch.

§ 30.27  It is characteristic of Aethiopian wolves that they have the upward thrust of a bird when springing; they are less proficient at running than at leaping. Nevertheless, they never attack men. They are long-haired in winter, and bald in summer; they are called thoae.

§ 30.28  The porcupine is also very common in this place; it is similar to the hedgehog. Its back is bristly with spines, which it frequently shoots out with a voluntary heave, so it might wound attacking dogs with unremitting showers of barbs.

§ 30.29  The pegasus is bird of these skies, but this pegasus has nothing equine about it excepting its ears. The tragopan is another bird, larger than an eagle. Its head is armed, and carries ram-like horns.

§ 30.30  The Aethiopians gather cinnamon. This shrub grows from a short stalk, with small and stunted branches, and is never above two cubits in height. Those which grow more thinly are considered the more select, while those which grow more thickly are scorned.

§ 30.31  It is collected by priests, who slaughter sacrificial victims beforehand. When favourable omens are given, they are careful that their harvest neither anticipates sunrise nor continues past sunset. Whoever holds first place among the priests divides the heaps of twigs with a spear which has been consecrated for that purpose. A portion of 1/3 is dedicated to the sun, and if it has been divided correctly, it ignites spontaneously.

§ 30.32  Among the things we have spoken of, the hyacinthus, which has a shining sky blue colour, is to be found. It is a valuable stone if discovered without blemish, for it is not a little subject to flaws. It is frequently either tempered with a violet colour, or covered with cloudiness, or softened to a white wateriness. The best type is not blunted by too solid a colour, nor over-clear with an eager transparency, but sweetly draws its bloom from both, dyed with the right proportions of light and purple. 33 This stone perceives the winds and changes with the sky: it is not equally bright when the day is cloudy as when it is clear. In addition, the stone is colder when put into the mouth. It is certainly not suitable for carving, as it defies all grinding. Yet it is not utterly invincible; it can be scratched and inscribed by a diamond.

§ 30.34  Chrysoprase is also to be seen in the places hyacinthus is. Light conceals this stone, and shadows reveal it, for this divergence is in it: it glows by night and is pale by day. Out of this same soil we take haematite, which has a bloody redness, and for this reason is called haematite.

§ 31.1  CHAPTER XXXI: LIBYA CONTINUED
The area which is spread out from the Atlas all the way to the Mouth of Canopus, which is the end of Libya and the threshold of Egypt (it was named after Canopus, the helmsman of Menelaus, who was buried on the island which makes the mouth of the Nile), is held by different peoples. These have withdrawn into the secrets of the trackless wilderness. 2 The Atlanteans exist utterly removed from the customs of humans. None have individual appellations, and none have special names. They receive the rising of the sun with curses, and pursue his setting with curses. They are scorched by the burning sky of this region, and hate the god of light. It is affirmed that they do not dream, and that they keep away from all living creatures. 3 The Trogodytae dig pits, and hide themselves in them. They have no love of possessions: they have renounced riches for a voluntary poverty. They boast only one precious stone, which we call hexecontalithos. It is spotted with such diverse markings that the colours of sixty gems can be discerned within its little compass. These men live on the flesh of serpents. They are ignorant of speech, and shriek rather than talk.

§ 31.4  The Augilae only worship the dead. On the first nights of marriage, they force their wives to lay themselves open to adultery. Soon after, they bind them to perpetual chastity with the strictest laws.

§ 31.5  The Gamphasantes abstain from fighting, and shun commerce. None of them permits himself to mingle with foreigners. It is believed that the Blemmyae (not those who live in the vicinity of the Red Sea) are born headless, and have their mouths and eyes in their chests. Satyrs resemble men in nothing other than shape.

§ 31.6  The Aegipans are those which we see to be painted. The Himantopodes, rather than walking, crawl about with weak pushes of their legs, proceeding by sliding more than by stepping. The Pharusii, who were companions of Hercules when he went to the Hesperides, became weary of the journey and settled here. To this place Libya.

§ 32.1  CHAPTER XXXII: AEGYPT
Egypt withdraws inwards towards the south, until it meets the Aethiopians at its rear. The Nile flows around its lower regions. The Nile divides at a place called the Delta, and encircles areas between its rivers, like islands. As we shall declare, it is asserted that the spring the Nile rushes from is almost unknown. 2 Its source is on a mountain of Lower Mauretania which is near to the ocean. This is affirmed by the Punic Books; we have heard that King Juba recorded it. Straightway the Nile makes a lake called Nilides. 3 It is inferred that the Nile begins thence, as the lake produces the same plants, fishes and animals as does the river. And if ever Mauretania, where the source is, is inundated with thick snow or plentiful rains, the flood in Egypt is increased. 4 But when the Nile is discharged from this lake, it is absorbed by the sands, and is hidden in secret underground tunnels. 5 Next, it rushes forth into the sight of Caesariensis, displaying the same characteristics as we noted of its source. Then it sinks down again, and does not rise up before it reaches the Aethiopians after an extended journey. Here it makes the river Nigris, which, as we said above, is the border of Africa. Thence, people call it the Astapus, as the water flows out from the shadows. 6 The Nile embraces many great islands. Of these, the majority are so wide, and so vast in size, that someone could scarcely travel past them in the course of five days, even if he proceeded rapidly.7 The most well-known of these is Meroe. Having been divided around it, the right channel of the river is called Astosapes, and the left Astabores. Then, having traversed great expanses, it becomes violent with obstructing rocks; it is carried by streams of such a size through opposing crags that it falls rather than flows. At length, from the final cataract (for thus the Aegyptians call certain of the Nile's straits), it is safe. 8 Then the river leaves the name Giris behind, and travels along uninterrupted. It is made into seven mouths; turned to the south, it is received into the Aegyptian Sea.

§ 32.9  Those ignorant of astronomy and geography have given a variety of reasons for the floods of the Nile. Some affirm that the Etesian winds force an abundance of clouds to the place where the river begins, and that the spring itself, swelled by the moisture above, has as much magnitude of flood as of fuel the clouds have furnished to the waters. 10 Others say that because the river is struck against by blowing winds, and cannot move forward with its accustomed speed, it becomes swollen, its waters wrestling in the narrows. The more strongly, they say, the contrary winds resist, the higher is the swift river beaten back and elevated into vertices of height. The weight of the torrent presses on, and it is compressed into its original fissure, its violent force rushing together in this way, from one side the elements insistent, from the other the resistant waves springing up, so that a barrier is formed, which causes the departure.

§ 32.11  Not a few affirm that the river's spring, which is called Phialus, is raised by the motions of the heavenly bodies; dragged forth by the shining sunbeams, it is suspended by the heavenly fire. This is not, however, without a certain discipline -- that is, the new moon. 12 The origin of the Nile's flooding is completely drawn from the sun. The first swelling is made when the sun passes through Cancer. Afterwards, when Cancer's thirty parts have been played out, and when the sun enters Leo, and the star Sirius rises, all the waves are discharged, and the entire fluctuation erupts. 13 The priests judge this time to be the world's birthday: that is, between the 20th and the 22nd of July. When the sun passes into Virgo, all the inundation is recalled, and when the sun enters Libra, the river is captured deep inside its own banks. 14 This also they add -- that the flood harms equally whether it rages abundantly or sparingly, since scarceness brings a bare minimum of fertility, and the more eager plenty delays the tillage because of its long-lasting moisture.

§ 32.15  They say that in its greatest excess the Nile rises to 18 cubits, and at its most equable, it is tempered at 16. If it rises to 15, there is no lack of successful harvest, but anything below this causes famine. 16 They also give the Nile this distinction: that it foretells the future. At the battle of Pharsalus, it did not exceed five arm-spans. It is plain that it alone of all rivers breathes forth no breezes. The river begins to belong to the realm of Aegypt from Syene, where the borders of Aethiopia are. Thence, until it falls into the sea, it holds the name of “Nile”. 17 Among all the things possessed by Aegypt which are worthy of mention, the ox they call Apis is especially to be wondered at. They worship him as a god. He is distinguished by a white spot which grows naturally on his right side, recalling the appearance of the horned moon. 18 The length of his life is pre-determined. When the time has elapsed, he is killed by being drowned in the sacred spring, so he does not live longer than is permitted. Soon, not without public mourning, another is sought. When he is discovered, 100 priests follow him to Memphis, so when he has been initiated by way of rites, he may begin to become sacred. 19 The temples which he enters or sleeps in they mystically call “bride-chambers”. Apis gives revealing omens about the future, especially if he takes food from the hands of those seeking counsel. He rejected the right hand of Germanicus Caesar, and thus revealed the danger he was in. Not long after, Caesar was killed. 20 Boys follow Apis in flocks, and suddenly, as though frenzied, tell of things to come. Once a year a female ox is shown to Apis. She herself is not without certain marks. She is found, presented and killed on the same day. 21 The Memphites celebrate the birthday of Apis by a casting of golden bowls. They throw them into an appointed spot in the Nile. The solemnity is carried out over seven days. During this time the crocodiles maintain an armistice with the priests and do not touch anyone washing in the river. But on the eighth day, when the ceremonies are finished, they resume their accustomed atrocities.

§ 32.22  The crocodile is an evil four-footed beast. It thrives equally well both on land and in the river. It does not have a tongue. It moves its upper jaw. Its jaws meet with a horrible tenacity, and its chains of teeth press together like combs. The majority of these creatures grow up to 20 fathoms in size. They bring forth eggs like geese’s eggs. 23 The crocodile marks out a place for its nest with a natural foreknowledge, concealing its young in a place beyond the reach of the Nile’s flood. The male and female take turns at looking after the brood. Except for a gap on its face, the crocodile is armoured. It also has brutal claws.

§ 32.24  During the nights it passes its time in the water, and in the day it rests on the land. Its skin is of great strength, so much so that its back deflects missiles hurled by catapults.

§ 32.25  The strophilos is a small bird. Aiming at hanging bits of meat, it scratches slowly at the mouths of the crocodiles, and bit by bit, coaxing and tickling, it goes all the way in to the beasts’ jaws. When an enhydrus, another kind of ichneumon, notices this, it infiltrates the crocodile and plunders its guts. Then it leaves, having eaten away the beast’s stomach.

§ 32.26  There is also a kind of dolphin in the Nile, whose backs have serrated crests. These dolphins zealously entice the crocodiles into swimming. Submerged, the dolphin swim underneath the crocodiles with fraudulent cunning, and sever their tender bellies, killing them.

§ 32.27  On an island in the Nile live men very small in stature, but with a boldness which extends all the way to offering themselves to opposing crocodiles. For these monsters pursue those who flee, and fear those who make a stand. Therefore, when captured, they become subjugated and enslaved between their own waters. Thoroughly tamed by dread, they are so accommodating and forgetful of their wildness, they carry their conquerors as riders on their backs. 28 Whenever, therefore, the crocodiles detect the smell of this island or this people, they flee far away. Crocodiles have rather dull vision in water. On land it is most acute. They catch no food in the winter; they undergo four months of starvation from the beginning of the cold weather.

§ 32.29  Skinks are also very frequent around the Nile. Indeed, they are similar to crocodiles, but smaller and narrower in shape. They are an indispensable aid to health: physicians infuse drinks with them, thereby destroying the power of poison.

§ 32.30  The hippopotamus is nurtured by this same land and river. It has a horse-like back, mane and neigh, a turned-up nose, cloven hooves, tusks like a wild boar’s and a twisty tail. In the night, it lays waste the grain-fields. With crafty cunning, it proceeds towards these backwards, so that when it goes to return, its deceptive footmarks ensure no ambush is prepared for it. 31 When overfull with excessive feasting, it seeks newly cut reeds, and walks to and fro through them for so long a time, that the sharp ends of the plants wound its feet, and its satiety is lightened by the flow of blood. Then it plasters the area with mud, until the wounds heal into scars. Marcus Scaurus was the first to bring hippopotami and crocodiles to Rome.

§ 32.32  The ibis bird frequents the same banks. It plunders serpents’ eggs, and carries off the choicest of them as food to their own nests. Thus the success of noxious broods is prevented. 33 These birds are not useful only within Aegyptian borders. The swamps of Arabia send forth swarms of winged serpents, whose venom is so quick-acting, that, after a bite, death follows more quickly than pain. The ibis, from an innate wisdom, go out aroused and in readiness for battle and devastate this foreign evil before it reaches the borders of their land. Mobbing the pestilential horde in the air, they devour all of it. For which reason, ibis are deservedly held to be holy, and no-one may injure them. They lay eggs with their mouths. Only Pelusium produces black ibis; all other places breed white ones.

§ 32.34  Concerning the trees which grow only in Aegypt, the Aegyptian fig is particularly worthy of mention. It has leaves like the mulberry, and grows fruit not only on its branches, but on its trunk as well. It is narrow right up to the point of its productiveness. In one year, it bears fruit seven times. Where you pluck a fruit, another bulges out without delay. 35 When its wood is thrown into water, it sinks. When it has sat in the liquid for some time, it is made lighter and rises up. It is dried by moisture, something against the nature of other woods.

§ 32.36  The Aegyptian palm must also be spoken of. It is specifically called adipsos, and so it ought to be, as the fruit, once tasted, wards off thirst. Its aroma is the same as that of the apple. But the fruit only allays thirst if it is plucked before it is ripe, for if it is taken when mature, it steals the senses, hinders the feet, and retards the tongue: taking possession of the faculties of the mind and body, it manufactures the vice of drunkenness.

§ 32.37  Peoples who live where the borders of Aegypt stretch towards Diacecaumen discern the moment in which they say the world recommences its yearly motion by the following method. A sacred grove is chosen, where animals of the most diverse kinds are fenced in. These, when the heavens arrive at the appointed configuration, give vent to their feelings with what outward signs they can. 38 Some howl, some bellow, some shriek and some bray. Some flee together to wallowing-holes. This evidence is as a teacher to them for discerning the beginning of the year. 39 The same peoples say that it was handed down to them by the first ancestors of their tribe that where the sun now sets, it formerly rose.

§ 32.40  Thebes is famous among Aegyptian cities for the number of its gates, to which Arabians and Indians convey cargoes. The region Thebaica is named after this city. 41 Abydos is also famous, formerly for the palace of Memnon, now for the temple of Osiris. The magnitude of its works and its Macedonian founder ennoble Alexandria. The architect Dinocrates, when he had laid it out, held another place in his memory through the agency of its founder. 42 Alexandria was founded in the 112th Olympiad, when Lucius Papirius, son of Spurius, and Gaius Poetelius, son of Gaius, were the Roman consuls [326 BCE]. It was established not far from the mouth of the Nile, which is called Heracleotic by some, and Canopic by others. 43 There is also Pharos, a colony settled by Caesar the dictator. Nocturnal navigation is steered from it by burning lights. For Alexandria is approached by a treacherous harbour, with deceptive shallows and uncertain seas. It admits sailors through three channels only -- Poseidon, Teganus and Taurus. Because of this, machines devised for the office of lighting harbours are called phari.

§ 32.44  The pyramids are pointed towers, above the height of everything which can be manufactured by the hand of man. Having surpassed shadows, they have none. Now let us turn our pen away from Aegypt.

§ 33.1  CHAPTER XXXIII: ARABIA
Above the Pelusiac mouth is Arabia, which extends to the Red Sea. Varro says this sea was named Erythraeum not for the colour alone, but after king Erythras, son of Perseus and Andromeda. The same author affirms that on the shores of this sea is a spring; if sheep drink of it, the colour of their fleeces change. Formerly white, they lose the colour they had until drinking, and afterwards, darken to black. 2 The town Arsinoe is also on the Red Sea. Arabia extends all the way to the rich, spice-bearing land held by the Catibanian and Scaenitan Arabs, also famous for the mountain Cassius. 3 The reason for the name of the Scenitae is considered to be that they live in tents, and do not have other homes. The tents themselves are goat blankets; they say that the covers are woven from the hair of goats. 4 In addition, they abstain entirely from eating pigs’ meat. This kind of animal, if brought here, immediately dies. The Greeks named Arabia Eudaemon, which is “Beata” in our tongue. It is inhabited on a hill made by the hands of men, which is between the rivers Tigris and Eulaeus. This last is so famous for the purity of its flow, that all the kings there drink its waters and no other.

§ 33.5  You may hereby understand that Eudaemon was not vainly named: besides spices, of which it produces a great number, it alone yields frankincense. The whole country does not produce it: in its midst are the Astramitae, in a district of the Sabaei, which is separated from the incense-bearing region by eight days’ journey. It is called Arabia, that is, “sacred”, for so it is understood to signify. 6 The brushwoods are not public property, but, which is a novelty among barbarian nations, are passed by right of inheritance to family successors.

§ 33.7  Whoever, therefore, holds mastery over the grove, the Arabians call “sacred”. These same men, when they either chop down or cut open the grove, neither take part in funerals nor pollute themselves with the company of women. 8 Before the truth was well-known, some used to equate the frankincense tree with the mastic-tree, and others with the terebinth. Then the books which King Juba dedicated to Caesar, son of Augustus, made it plain that it was a tree with twisted twigs and branches like a maple’s, which poured forth juice as does the almond-tree, and that it is cut at the beginning of the dog-days, when the sun is at its hottest.

§ 33.9  Myrrh grows in the same forests. Its roots rejoice when the soil around them is loosened, which produces the same effect as raking grape-vines. When laid bare, the roots flow with thickish tears. The juice which comes forth spontaneously is the more valuable; that elicited by wounds in the bark is judged less so. 10 Its rough bark is twisted into whorls and spikes, and its leaves are similar to those of an olive, though more wrinkled. It grows to a maximum height of five cubits. The Arabians maintain fires with its twigs, the fumes of which are so harmful, that if they did not counteract them with the scent of burned styrax, they would frequently contract incurable diseases. The same Arabians gather cinnamon. This shrub is grown from a short stalk, with small and stunted branches, and is never above two cubits in height. Those which grow more thinly are considered the more select, while those which grow more thickly are thought less useful. It is collected by priests, who slaughter sacrificial victims beforehand. When favourable omens are given, they are careful that their harvest neither anticipates sunrise nor continues past sunset. Whichever of the priests holds first place divides the piles of twigs with a spear which has been consecrated for this service. A portion of 1/3 is dedicated to the sun, and if it has been divided correctly, it is burned by the sunbeams, and taken up by fire.

§ 33.11  Among the same people the phoenix bird is born. It is the size of an eagle, and has plumes projecting from an imposing head into a cone shape. It has tufted cheeks and it neck is a brilliant gold. Its hinder parts are purple, except for the tail, which is of roseate feathers, interspersed with shining sky-blue. 12 It has been proven that the phoenix lives for 540 years. It builds its funeral pyre with cinnamon; it puts it together near Panchaea, and places the heap above the altar in the city of the Sun. 13 Authorities are convinced that its life coincides with the cycle of the Great Year, although many of them say a Great Year lasts not 540 years, but 12,954. 14 When Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius were consuls [36 CE], a phoenix flew into Egypt. It was captured in the 800th year since the founding of the City, by order of the emperor Claudius. It was displayed in the Comitium. This occasion, contrary to enduring censure, is preserved in the city’s records.

§ 33.15  The cinnamolgus is likewise a bird of Arabia. It weaves its nest from cinnamon fruits in the highest trees. Since the nests are inaccessible, owing to the height and fragility of the branches, the inhabitants aim at the heaps with leaden darts. They sell what they pull down for high prices, because merchants esteem this cinnamon more than others.

§ 33.16  The Arabians live far and wide, spread out, with different manners and customs. They have a great deal of hair, wear a headdress on their heads; a part with equal binding around, the beard shaved to their skin. They busy themselves with trade, not buying foreign wares, but selling their own, as they obviously have both rich forests and rich seas.

§ 33.17  Shadows which are on the right for us are on the left for them. Some of them live like savages, and eat snakes; they care neither for the soul nor for the body, and therefore are called “snake-eaters”.

§ 33.18  From this sea-coast king Polycrates carried the first sardonyx gem into our world, where it aroused the firebrand of luxury. But the sardonyx is so well-known by everyone, that I think not much need be said about it. Its surface is esteemed if it is an undiluted red; it is rejected if full of sediment. 19 Its middle is encircled by a white border. The best type neither scatters its colour into the next section, nor itself borrows from the other. The rest ends in black. This, if transparent, is judged faulty: if it wards off clearness, it makes for beauty.

§ 33.20  The Arabian also finds the molochite, which is a richer green than the smaragdus. It has a natural power which wards off danger from infants. The Arabian also finds iris in the Red Sea, which is six-cornered like the crystal. When struck by the rays of the sun, it gives a reddish reflection of the air out of itself, like a rainbow.

§ 33.21  The same Arabians collect androdamas, which has a silvery brightness and equal square sides. You might think it borrows somewhat of the diamond. It is supposed it was named for this reason: it assuages the fury of heated minds, and checks swelling anger.

§ 33.22  We also obtain paederos and arabica from here. Arabica is like ivory: it refuses to be engraved. To those holding it, it is useful against muscle pain. In the paederos, all that is excellent is united: it shines like a crystal vessel, and blushes like purple cloth. It has a golden halo on its outermost edge, which looks as though it were underwater. It affects the eyes with this beauty, and draws the vision, holding the gaze of those who regard it. For its agreeableness, it is also pleasing to the Indians.

§ 33.23  I have said enough about Arabia. Let us return to Pelusium.

§ 34.1  CHAPTER XXXIV: IDUMAEA, IOPPE
From Pelusium, Mount Cassius is also the shrine of Jupiter Cassius. Ostracine is the place renowned for the tomb of Pompey the Great. Idumaea, rich in date-palms, begins from here. Next is Ioppe, which is the oldest town in the entire world, in as much as it was founded before the inundation of the lands. 2 This town displays a rock which to this day retains traces of the chains used to bind Andromeda. Rumour set it about (and not in vain) that she was exposed here to the sea-creature. Marcus Scaurus exhibited the bones of this monster at Rome, among other marvels, during his aedileship. 3 The occurrence was noted in the chronicles, and measurements were preserved in trustworthy books: the length of the ribs exceeded 40 feet, and the monster was loftier than the elephants of India. Furthermore, the vertebrae of its spine were more than half a foot wide.

§ 35.1  CHAPTER XXXV: JUDAEA
Judaea is famous for its waters, but the nature of all these waters is not the same. The river Jordan is exceptionally sweet; it is discharged from the spring Paneas, and flows past the most beautiful regions. Soon it is plunged into Lake Asphaltites, and is tainted by its waters. 2 Asphaltites brings forth bitumen; it is not inhabited by any animals. Nothing can drown in it. Even b

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