name mentioned in the last Chapter, calling them by the name of Lor.
[517] Pliny is wrong in placing Artemita in Mesopotamia. It was a city
of Babylonia, in the district of Apolloniatis. The modern Sherbán is
supposed to occupy its site.
[518] Burnouf, having found the name of these people, as he supposes,
in a cuneiform inscription, written “Ayura,” would have them to be
called Aroei. The Orei are also mentioned in B. v. c. 20.
[519] This Antioch does not appear to have been identified.
[520] The mountains of the Gordyæi are mentioned in c. 12.
[521] This, as previously mentioned in a Note to c. 16, was the scene
of the last great battle between Alexander and Darius, and known as
the battle of Arbela. It has been suggested that it may perhaps be
represented by a place now called Karnelis. See p. 27.
[522] According to Ansart, now called the Lesser Zab, and by the
inhabitants the Altun-su, meaning the “Golden river.”
[523] According to Parisot, the modern name is Calicala.
[524] Strabo speaks of the Aborras, or modern Khabur, as flowing in
the vicinity of Anthemusia, the district probably in which the town of
Anthermis was situate. According to Isidorus of Charax, it lay between
Edessa and the Euphrates. Its site does not appear to have been any
further identified. It is called Anthemusia in B. v. c. 21.
[525] In B. v. c. 21.
[526] In B. v. c. 21.
[527] In B. v. c. 21.
[528] This canal, leading from the Euphrates to the Tigris, is by
some thought, according to Hardouin, to have been the river Chobar,
mentioned in Ezekiel, c. i. v. 3.
[529] For Arar-Melik, meaning the “River King,” according to Parisot.
[530] As to the identity of this, see a Note at the beginning of this
Chapter.
[531] Meaning Jupiter Uranius, or “Heavenly Jupiter,” according to
Parisot, who observes that Eusebius interprets _baal_, or _bel_,
“heaven.” According to one account, he was the father of king Ninus and
son of Nimrod. The Greeks in later times attached to his name many of
their legendary fables.
[532] The city of Seleucia ad Tigrin, long the capital of Western
Asia, until it was eclipsed by Ctesiphon. Its site has been a matter
of considerable discussion, but the most probable opinion is, that it
stood on the western bank of the Tigris, to the north of its junction
with the royal canal (probably the river Chobar above mentioned),
opposite to the mouth of the river Delas or Silla (now Diala), and
to the spot where Ctesiphon was afterwards built by the Parthians.
It stood a little to the south of the modern city of Baghdad; thus
commanding the navigation of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the whole
plain formed by those two rivers.
[533] Ammianus, like Pliny, has ascribed its foundation to the
Parthians under Varanes, or Vardanes, of whom, however, nothing is
known. It stood in the south of Assyria, on the eastern or left bank of
the Tigris. Strabo speaks of it as being the winter residence of the
Parthian kings, who lived there at that season, owing to the mildness
of the climate. In modern times the site of this place has been
identified with that called by the Arabs Al Madain, or the “two cities.”
[534] Or Vologeses. This was the name of five kings of Parthia, of the
race of the Arsacidæ, Arsaces XXIII., XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX., XXX. It
was the first of these monarchs who founded the place here mentioned by
Pliny.
[535] Or the “City of Vologesus;” _certa_ being the Armenian for “city.”
[536] Nothing appears to be known of this place; but Hardouin thinks
that it is the same with one called Maarsares by Ptolemy, and situate
on the same river Narraga.
[537] Parisot says that this river is the one set down in the maps as
falling into the Tigris below its junction with the Euphrates, and near
the mouths of the two rivers. He says that near the banks of it is
marked the town of Nabrahan, the Narraga of Pliny.
[538] There is great doubt as to the correct spelling of these names.
[539] Against the attacks of robbers dwelling on the opposite side; the
Attali, for instance.
[540] Or “dwellers in tents,” Bedouins, as we call them.
[541] B. v. c. 20 and 21.
[542] Towards Mahamedieh.
[543] Near Antioch and the Orontes: now Seleukeh, or Kepse, near
Suadeiah.
[544] See B. v. c. 13.
[545] The Mediterranean and the Red Sea; the latter including the
modern Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
[546] Forbiger is of opinion that this is the same as the Didigua or
Didugua of Ptolemy. It was situate below Alpamea. D’Anville takes it to
be the modern Corna.
[547] The modern Turcomania.
[548] Now known as the Plain of Chelat, according to Parisot, extending
between Chelat, a city situate on a great lake and the river Rosso,
falling into the Caspian Sea.
[549] Called Diglith by Josephus. Hardouin states that in his time the
name given to the river by the natives was Daghela. This name is also
supposed to be another form of the Hiddekel of Scripture. See Genesis
ii. 14.
[550] According to Bochart, this was a corruption of the Eastern name
Deghel, from which were derived the forms Deger, Teger, and ultimately
Tigris.
[551] Ritter has identified this with the modern lake Nazuk, in
Armenia, about thirteen miles in length and five in breadth. The water
at the present day is said to be sweet and wholesome.
[552] Seneca, however, in his _Quæst. Nat._ B. vi., represents the
Tigris here as gradually drying up and becoming gradually smaller, till
it disappears.
[553] This spot is considered by Parisot to be the modern city of
Betlis.
[554] A spot where liquid bitumen or naphtha was found.
[555] Or probably Arzarene, a province of the south of Armenia, situate
on the left bank of the Tigris. It derived its name from the lake
Arsene, or the town Arzen, situate on this lake. It is comprehended in
the modern Pashalik of Dyár Bekr.
[556] Now called the Myrád-chaï. See B. v. c. 24. Ritter considers it
to be the southern arm of the Euphrates.
[557] Or Aroei, as Littré suggests. See Note to c. 30 in p. 71.
[558] See c. 17 of the present Book.
[559] The site of this place seems to be unknown. It has been remarked
that it is difficult to explain the meaning of this passage of Pliny,
or to determine the probable site of Apamea.
[560] Hardouin remarks that this is the right arm of the Tigris, by
Stephanus Byzantinus called Delas, and by Eustathius Sylax, which last
he prefers.
[561] According to Ammianus, one of the names of Seleucia on the Tigris
was Coche.
[562] A river of Susiana, which, after passing Susa, flowed into the
Tigris, below its junction with the Euphrates. The indistinctness of
the ancient accounts has caused it to be confused with the Eulæus,
which flows nearly parallel with it into the Tigris. It is pretty
clear that they were not identical. Pliny here states that they were
different rivers, but makes the mistake below, of saying that Susa was
situate upon the Eulæus, instead of the Choaspes. These errors may be
accounted for, it has been suggested, by the fact that there are two
considerable rivers which unite at Bund-i-Kir, a little above Ahwaz,
and form the ancient Pasitigris or modern Karun. It is supposed that
the Karun represents the ancient Eulæus, and the Kerkhah the Choaspes.
[563] In c. 26 of the present Book. The custom of the Persian kings
drinking only of the waters of the Eulæus and Choaspes, is mentioned in
B. xxxi. c. 21.
[564] Or the country “by the river.”
[565] Pliny is the only writer who makes mention of this place. Parisot
is of opinion that it is represented by the modern Digil-Ab, on the
Tigris, and suggests that Digilath may be the correct reading.
[566] Mentioned in the last Chapter.
[567] Now called the Mountains of Luristan.
[568] The name of the district of Chalonitis is supposed to be still
preserved in that of the river of Holwan. Pliny is thought, however, to
have been mistaken in placing the district on the river Tigris, as it
lay to the east of it, and close to the mountains.
[569] From Arbela, in Assyria, which bordered on it.
[570] A great and populous city of Babylonia, near the Tigris, but
not on it, and eight parasangs within the Median wall. The site is
that probably now called Eski Baghdad, and marked by a ruin called the
Tower of Nimrod. Parisot cautions against confounding it with a place
of a similar name, mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 17, a mistake into
which, he says, Hardouin has fallen.
[571] Now called Felongia, according to Parisot. Hardouin considers it
the same as the Sambana of Diodorus Siculus, which Parisot looks upon
as the same as Ambar, to the north of Felongia.
[572] Of this Antiochia nothing appears to be known. By some it has
been supposed to be the same with Apollonia, the chief town of the
district of Apolloniatis, to the south of the district of Arbela.
[573] Also called the Physcus, the modern Ordoneh, an eastern tributary
of the Tigris in Lower Assyria. The town of Opis stood at its junction
with the Tigris.
[574] D’Anville supposes that this Apamea was at the point where the
Dijeil, now dry, branched off from the Tigris, which bifurcation
he places near Samurrah. Lynch, however, has shown that the Dijeil
branched off near Jibbarah, a little north of 34° North lat., and
thinks that the Dijeil once swept the end of the Median wall, and
flowed between it and Jebbarah. Possibly this is the Apamea mentioned
by Pliny in c. 27.
[575] The son of Seleucus Nicator.
[576] More to the south, and nearer the sea.
[577] Previously mentioned in c. 26.
[578] A part of Mount Zagrus, previously mentioned, according to
Hardouin.
[579] Its site appears to be unknown. According to Stephanus, it was
a city of Persia. Forbiger conjectures that it is the same place as
Badaca, mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, B. xix. c. 19; but that was
probably nearer to Susa.
[580] The buryer excepted, perhaps.
[581] In c. 28 of the present Book.
[582] As mentioned in c. 26 of the present Book.
[583] A warlike tribe on the borders of Susiana and the Greater Media.
In character they are thought to have resembled the Bakhtiara tribes,
who now roam over the mountains which they formerly inhabited. It has
been suggested that their name may possibly be connected with the
modern Khuzistan.
[584] Supposed to be the same as the modern Kirmánshah mountains.
[585] As mentioned in a previous Note, (67 in p. 77), Pliny mistakes
the Eulæus for the Choaspes. In c. 26 he says that Susa is on the river
Tigris.
[586] Pliny says this in B. xxxi. c. 21 of both the Eulæus and the
Choaspes.
[587] Most probably the Hedyphon of Strabo, supposed to be the same as
that now called the Djerrabi.
[588] Parisot thinks that this is the modern Jessed, in the vicinity of
the desert of Bealbanet.
[589] Previously mentioned in c. 28.
[590] The modern Tab.
[591] Now called Camata, according to Parisot.
[592] The modern Saurac, according to Parisot. The more general reading
is “Sosirate.”
[593] Our author has nowhere made any such statement as this, for which
reason Hardouin thinks that he here refers to the maritime region
mentioned in c. 29 of the present Book (p. 69), the name of which
Sillig reads as Ciribo. Hardouin would read it as Syrtibolos, and would
give it the meaning of the “muddy district of the Syrtes.” It is more
likely, however, that Pliny has made a slip, and refers to something
which, by inadvertence, he has omitted to mention.
[594] Charax Spasinu, or Pasinu, previously mentioned in c. 26 (see p.
62). The name Charax applied to a town, seems to have meant a fortified
place.
[595] Called “Eudæmon” by Pliny.
[596] The Great, the father of Antiochus Epiphanes.
[597] Though this passage is probably corrupt, the reading employed
by Sillig is inadmissible, as it makes nothing but nonsense. “Et jam
Vipsanda porticus habet;” “and even now, Vipsanda has its porticos.”
[598] Dionysius of Charax. No particulars of him are known beyond those
mentioned by Pliny.
[599] Caius, the son of Marcus Agrippa and Julia, the daughter of
Augustus. He was the adopted son of Augustus.
[600] See B. iii. c. 1, p. 151, in vol. 1.
[601] In B. v. c. 21 and 22.
[602] Who called himself the King of kings, and was finally conquered
by Pompey.
[603] The Mediterranean.
[604] See B. v. c. 12.
[605] Salmasius thinks that this should be written “Nombei;” but
Hardouin remarks that the Nombæi were not of Arabian but Jewish
extraction, and far distant from Mount Libanus.
[606] The only resemblance between them is, that each is a peninsula;
that of Arabia being of far greater extent than Italy. It will be
remarked that here, contrary to his ordinary practice, Pliny makes a
distinction between the Red Sea and the Persian Sea or Gulf.
[607] “In eandem etiam cœli partem nulla differentia spectat.” A glance
at the map will at once show the fallacy of this assertion.
[608] In B. v. c. 12 and 21.
[609] In c. 30 of the present Book.
[610] Mentioned in B. v. c. 21, if, indeed, that is the same Petra.
[611] Omana or Omanum was their chief place, a port on the north-east
coast of Arabia Felix, a little above the promontory of Syagros,
now Ras el Had, on a large gulf of the same name. The name is still
preserved in the modern name Oman.
[612] In Sitacene, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.
[613] Or rather, as Hardouin says, the shore opposite to Charax, and on
the western bank of the river.
[614] Called Core Boobian, a narrow salt-water channel, laid down for
the first time in the East India Company’s chart, and separating a
large low island, off the mouth of the old bed of the Euphrates, from
the mainland.
[615] The great headland on the coast of Arabia, at the entrance of the
bay of Doat-al-Kusma from the south, opposite to Pheleche Island.
[616] This is the line of coast extending from the great headland last
mentioned to the river Khadema, the ancient Achenus.
[617] So called from the city of Arabia Felix, built on its shores.
Strabo says of this city, “The city of Gerra lies in a deep gulf, where
Chaldæan exiles from Babylon inhabit a salt country, having houses
built of salt, the walls of which, when they are wasted by the heat of
the sun, are repaired by copious applications of sea-water.” D’Anville
first identified this place with the modern El Khatiff. Niebuhr finds
its site on the modern Koneit of the Arabs, called “Gran” by the
Persians; but Foster is of opinion that he discovered its ruins in the
East India Company’s Chart, situate where all the ancient authorities
had placed it, at the end of the deep and narrow bay at the mouth of
which are situated the islands of Bahrein. The gulf mentioned by Pliny
is identified by Foster with that of Bahrein.
[618] The modern island of Bahrein, according to Brotier, still famous
for its pearl-fishery.
[619] Now Samaki, according to Ansart. Its ancient name was Aradus.
[620] Hardouin takes this to be that which by the Arabians is called by
the name of Falg.
[621] On the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf.
[622] Considered by modern geographers to be identical in situation
with the Black Mountains and the Cape of Asabi, and still marked by a
town and district named Sabee, close to Cape Mussendom.
[623] In the modern district still called Oman.
[624] On the opposite coast.
[625] He calls it Canis, evidently thinking that “Cynos” was its Greek
appellation only: as meaning the “Dogs’” river.
[626] Or the mountain “with the Three Peaks.”
[627] Stephanus mentions this as an island of the Erythræan Sea. Hardly
any of these places appear to have been identified; and there is great
uncertainty as to the orthography of the names.
[628] From which came the myrrh mentioned by Pliny in B. xii. c. 36.
[629] Or the Tent-Dwellers, the modern Bedouins.
[630] By some geographers identified with the Ocelis or Ocila,
mentioned in c. 26, the present Zee Hill or Ghela, a short distance to
the south of Mocha, and to the north of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
Hardouin says, however, that it was a different place, Acila being in
the vicinity of the Persian Gulf, in which he appears to be correct.
[631] Nothing relative to Numenius beyond this fact has been recorded.
[632] Hardouin and Ansart think that under this name is meant the
island called in modern times Mazira or Maceira.
[633] There seem to have been three mythical personages of this name;
but it appears impossible to distinguish the one from the other.
[634] Or “Dioscoridis Insula,” an island of the Indian Ocean, of
considerable importance as an emporium or mart, in ancient times.
It lay between the Syagrus Promontorium, in Arabia, and Aromata
Promontorium, now Cape Guardafui, on the opposite coast of Africa,
somewhat nearer to the former, according to Arrian, which cannot be the
case if it is rightly identified with Socotorra, 200 miles distant from
the Arabian coast, and 110 from the north-east promontory of Africa.
[635] So called from Azania, or Barbaria, now Ajan, south of Somauli,
on the mainland of Africa.
[636] Now Cape Fartash, in Arabia.
[637] Their country is supposed to have been the Sheba of Scripture,
the queen of which visited king Solomon. It was situate in the
south-western corner of Arabia Felix, the north and centre of the
province of Yemen, though the geographers before Ptolemy seem to give
it a still wider extent, quite to the south of Yemen. The Sabæi most
probably spread originally on both sides of the southern part of the
Red Sea, the shores of Arabia and Africa. Their capital was Saba,
in which, according to their usage, their king was confined a close
prisoner.
[638] The Persian Gulf to the Red Sea.
[639] The modern district of Hadramaut derives its name from this
people, who were situate on the coast of the Red Sea to the east of
Aden. Sabota, their capital, was a great emporium for their drugs and
spices.
[640] Still known as Mareb, according to Ansart.
[641] Hardouin is doubtful as to this name, and thinks that it ought to
be Elaïtæ, or else Læanitæ, the people again mentioned below.
[642] A name which looks very much like “fraud,” or “cheating,” as
Hardouin observes, from the Greek ἀπάτη.
[643] Off the Promontory of Ras-el-Had.
[644] Probably in the district now known as Akra. It was situate on the
eastern coast of the Red Sea, at the foot of Mount Hippus.
[645] See B. v. c. 12, where this town is mentioned.
[646] Whose chief city was Petra, previously mentioned.
[647] Supposed by some writers to have been the ancestors of the
Saracens, so famous in the earlier part of the middle ages. Some of the
MSS., indeed, read “Sarraceni.”
[648] Their town is called Arra by Ptolemy.
[649] Their district is still called Thamud, according to Ansart.
[650] Still called Cariatain, according to Ansart.
[651] A ridiculous fancy, probably founded solely on the similarity of
the name.
[652] A story as probable, Hardouin observes, as that about the
descendants of Minos.
[653] The Arabs of Yemen, known in Oriental history by the name of
Himyari, were called by the Greeks Homeritæ.
[654] An inland city, called Masthala by Ptolemy.
[655] Agatharchides speaks of a town on the sea coast, which was so
called from the multitude of ducks found there. The one here spoken of
was in the interior, and cannot be the same.
[656] Hardouin observes, that neither this word, nor the name
Riphearma, above mentioned, has either a Hebrew or an Arabian origin.
[657] Probably the same place as we find spoken of by Herodotus as
Ampe, and at which Darius settled a colony of Miletians after the
capture of Miletus, B.C. 494.
[658] Hardouin remarks that Mariaba, the name found in former editions,
has no such meaning in the modern Arabic.
[659] Mentioned by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, B. v. l. 165, _et seq._
Sillig, however, reads “Ciani.”
[660] An intimate friend of the geographer Strabo. He was prefect of
Egypt during part of the reign of Augustus, and in the years B.C. 24
and 25. Many particulars have been given by Strabo of his expedition
against Arabia, in which he completely failed. The heat of the sun,
the badness of the water, and the want of the necessaries of life,
destroyed the greater part of his army.
[661] By adoption, as previously stated.
[662] The town of the Calingii, mentioned above.
[663] Or wandering tribes.
[664] Its uses in medicine are stated at length in the last Chapter of
B. xxi.
[665] Another form of the name of Atramitæ previously mentioned, the
ancient inhabitants of the part of Arabia known as Hadramant, and
settled, as is supposed, by the descendants of the Joctanite patriarch
Hazarmaveth.
[666] Arabia at the present day yields no gold, and very little silver.
The queen of Sheba is mentioned as bringing gold to Solomon, _1 Kings_,
x. 2, _2 Chron._ ix. i. Artemidorus and Diodorus Siculus make mention,
on the Arabian Gulf, of the Debæ, the Alilæi, and the Gasandi, in whose
territories native gold was found. These last people, who did not know
its value, were in the habit of bringing it to their neighbours, the
Sabæi, and exchanging it for articles of iron and copper.
[667] B. xii.
[668] The “mitra,” which was a head-dress especially used by the
Phrygians, was probably of varied shape, and may have been the early
form of the eastern turban.
[669] The Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
[670] Or Heroöpolis, a city east of the Delta, in Egypt, and situate
near the mouth of the royal canal which connected the Nile with the
Red Sea. It was of considerable consequence as a trading station upon
the arm of the Red Sea, which runs up as far as Arsinoë, the modern
Suez, and was called the “Gulf” or “Bay of the Heroes.” The ruins of
Heroöpolis are still visible at Abu-Keyscheid.
[671] This place, as here implied, took its name from Cambyses, the son
of Cyrus.
[672] In c. 9 of the preceding Book. “Dictum,” however, may only mean,
“called” the Delta.
[673] Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Tzetzes, mention this, not with
reference to Sesostris, but Necho, the grandson of Sesostris.
[674] Ptolemy Philadelphus, son of Ptolemy Soter, or Lagides.
[675] Now known by the name of Scheib. They derived their name from
the saline flavour and deposition of their waters. These springs were
strongly impregnated with alkaline salts, and with muriate of lime
washed from the rocks which separated the Delta from the Red Sea.
The salt which they produced being greatly valued, they were on that
account regarded as the private property of the kings.
[676] The “not thirsty” route, so called by way of antiphrasis.
[677] See B. v. c. 9.
[678] In c. 26 of the present Book.
[679] Or “narrow necks,” apparently, from the Greek στηναὶ δειραὶ. If
this be the correct reading, they were probably so called from the
narrow strait which ran between them.
[680] An island called Halonnesus has been already mentioned in B. iv.
c. 23. None of these islands appear to have been identified.
[681] See B. xxxvii. c. 32.
[682] This seems to be the meaning, though, literally translated, it
would be, “These were the prefects of kings.”
[683] It obtained this title of πάγχρυσος, or “all golden,” from its
vicinity to the gold mines of Jebel Allaki, or Ollaki, from which the
ancient Egyptians drew their principal supply of that metal, and in the
working of which they employed criminals and prisoners of war.
[684] Or ἐπὶ δειρῆς, “upon the neck.” It was situate on the western
side of the Red Sea, near the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.
[685] Ansart suggests that the modern island of Mehun is here meant.
Gosselin is of opinion that Pliny is in error in mentioning two islands
in the Red Sea as producing the topaz.
[686] Called Theron, as well as Epitheras. It was an emporium on the
coast of the Red Sea for the trade with India and Arabia. It was
chiefly remarkable for its position in mathematical geography, as, the
sun having been observed to be directly over it forty-five days before
and after the summer solstice, the place was taken as one of the points
for determining the length of a degree of a great circle on the earth’s
surface.
[687] From the Greek ἐπὶ θήρας, “for hunting.”
[688] In B. ii. c. 75.
[689] In the same Chapter.
[690] So called from Azania, the adjoining coast of Africa, now known
as that of Ajan. It was inhabited by a race of Æthiopians, who were
engaged in catching and taming elephants, and supplying the markets of
the Red Sea coast with hides and ivory.
[691] Now called Seyrman, according to Gosselin.
[692] Its name was Adule, being the chief haven of the Adulitæ, of
mixed origin, in the Troglodytic region, situate on a bay of the Red
Sea, called Aduliticus Sinus. It is generally supposed that the modern
Thulla or Zulla, still pronounced Azoole, occupies its site, being
situate in lat. 15° 35′ N. Ruins are said to exist there. D’Anville,
however, in his map of the Red Sea, places Adule at Arkeeko, on the
same coast, and considerably to the north of Thulla. According to
Cosmas, Adule was about two miles in the interior.
[693] Pliny gives a further description of this ape in B. viii. c. 21.,
and B. x. c. 72. They were much valued by the Roman ladies for pets,
and very high prices were given for them.
[694] Now called Dahal-Alley, according to Gosselin.
[695] Hardouin, from Strabo, suggests that the reading ought to be
Coracios.
[696] The “False Gates.”
[697] The “Gates.”
[698] D’Anville and Gosselin think that this is the island known as the
French Island.
[699] Ansart thinks that this promontory is that known as Cape de Meta,
and that the port is at the mouth of the little river called Soul or
Soal.
[700] In his Æthiopian expedition. According to Strabo, he had altars
and pillars erected there to record it.
[701] Under the impression entertained by the ancients, that the
southern progress of the coast of Africa stopped short here, and that
it began at this point to trend away gradually to the north-west.
[702] Coro. Salmasius seems with justice, notwithstanding the censures
of Hardouin, to have found considerable difficulty in this passage. If
it is Pliny’s meaning that by sea round the south of the Promontory
of Mossylum there is a passage to the extreme north-western point of
Africa, it is pretty clear that it is not by the aid of a north-west
wind that it could be reached. “Euro,” “with a south-east wind,” has
been very properly suggested.
[703] By this name he means the Æthiopian Troglodytæ. Of course it
would be absurd to attempt any identification of the places here named,
as they must clearly have existed only in the imagination of the
African geographer.
[704] The supposed commencement of the Atlantic, to the west of the
Promontory of Mossylum.
[705] From the Greek ἀσκὸς, a “bladder,” or “inflated skin.” It is not
improbable that the story as to their mode of navigation is derived
only from the fancied origin of their name.
[706] Apparently meaning in the Greek the “jackal-hunters,” θηροθῶες.
For an account of this animal, see B. viii. c. 52, and B. xv. c. 95.
[707] Heliopolis, described in B. v. c. 4.
[708] Considering it as part of Asia.
[709] Conformably with the usage of modern geographers, and, one would
almost think, with that of common sense.
[710] Of the river Nile.
[711] As to Syene and the Catadupi, see B. v. c. 10.
[712] This place was also called in later times Contrapselcis. It was
situate in the Dodecaschœnus, the part of Æthiopia immediately above
Egypt, on an island near the eastern bank of the river, a little above
Pselcis, which stood on the opposite bank. It has been suggested that
this may have been the modern island of Derar. The other places do not
appear to have been identified, and, in fact, in no two of the MSS. do
the names appear to agree.
[713] Or the “Great Wall.”
[714] Meaning, “the people who live in seventy villages.”
[715] Or western side of the Nile, between Syene and Meroë.
[716] Ὕπατον, the “supreme,” or perhaps the “last.”
[717] Dion Cassius also mentions this expedition. From Seneca we learn
that Nero dispatched two centurions to make inquiry into the sources of
the Nile.
[718] Dion Cassius calls him Caius Petronius. He carried on the war in
B.C. 22 against the Æthiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen
Candace. He took many of their towns.
[719] Du Bocage is of opinion that this place stood not far from the
present Ibrim.
[720] Supposed by Du Bocage to have stood in the vicinity of the modern
Dongola.
[721] He was clearly a mythical personage, and nothing certain is known
with respect to him. Tombs of Memnon were shown in several places, as
at Ptolemais in Syria, on the Hellespont, on a hill near the mouth of
the river Æsepus, near Palton in Syria, in Æthiopia, and elsewhere.
[722] Her story has been alluded to in the account of Joppa, B. v. c.
34. Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, though possessing the coasts of
Syria, was fabled to have been king of Æthiopia.
[723] See B. v. c. 10, where Meroë is also mentioned.
[724] Or the sacred “sycamore tree.”
[725] Situate beyond the Great Cataract, and on the western bank.
[726] See the Notes to the preceding Chapter, in p. 95.
[727] Or dog’s-headed ape, described in B. viii. c. 80. It is supposed
to be the baboon.
[728] Hesychius says that it was also called Aëria, probably from the
time of its king Ægyptus, who was called Aërius.
[729] “Ubi desiimus.” This appears to be a preferable reading to “ubi
desinit,” adopted by Sillig, and apparently referring to the river
Nile. It is not improbable that our author here alludes, as Hardouin
says, to his words in the preceding Chapter, “Hinc in ora Æthiopiæ,”
&c. See p. 96.
[730] Ansart thinks that the country of this people was the modern
Kordofan. This, however, could not be the case, if the Macrobii,
_opposite_ to them, dwelt on the African side of the river.
[731] Or “long-livers.”
[732] Mentioned again in c. 2 of the next Book.
[733] Who is mentioned again in B. xxxvi. c. 19.
[734] Ptolemy, however, speaks of Esar and Daron as the names of towns
situate on the island of Meroë.
[735] On the eastern side of the Nile, and bearing no reference, as
Hardouin remarks, to the people of modern Nubia.
[736] There is considerable doubt as to the correctness of these names,
as they are differently spelt in the MSS.
[737] Marcus thinks that these mountains are those which lie to the
west of the Nile, in Darfour, and Dar-Sale, or Dizzela, mentioned by
Salt, in his _Travels in Abyssinia_.
[738] From this it would appear that Pliny, with Dalion, supposed that
the Nile ran down to the southern ocean, and then took a turn along the
coast in a westerly direction; the shore being skirted by Syrtes, or
quicksands, similar to those in the north of Africa.
[739] So called from the Greek—“Eaters of wild beasts.”
[740] The “all-eaters.”
[741] Or the “livers on the milk of the dog.”
[742] In c. 8 of the preceding Book.
[743] They were thence called by the Greeks “Acridophagi.” According
to Agatharchides, these people dwelt in what is modern Nubia, where
Burkhardt found the people subsisting on lizards.
[744] Hardouin remarks, that the length is measured from south-east to
south-west; and the breadth from south to north.
[745] The supposed Southern Ocean, which joins the Atlantic on the west.
[746] Or the “Chariot of the gods,” mentioned also in Book ii. c. 110,
and B. v. c. 1. It is supposed to have been some portion of the Atlas
chain; but the subject is involved in the greatest obscurity.
[747] Or the “Western Horn.” It is not known whether this was Cape de
Verde, or Cape Roxo. Ansart thinks that it is the same as Cape Non. It
is mentioned in c. 1 of B. v. as the “promontorium Hesperium.”
[748] See notes to B. v. c. 1, in vol. i. p. 378.
[749] Marcus says that these islands are those called the “Two
Sisters,” situate to the west of the Isle of Socotra, on the coast of
Africa. They are called by Ptolemy, Cocionati.
[750] The position of this island has been much discussed by
geographers, as being intimately connected with the subject of Hanno’s
voyage to the south of Africa. Gosselin, who carries that voyage no
further south than Cape Non, in about 28° north lat., identifies Cerne
with Fedallah, on the coast of Fez, which, however, is probably much
too far to the north. Major Rennell places it as far south as Arguin,
a little to the south of the southern Cape Blanco, in about 20° 5′
North latitude. Heeren, Mannert, and others, adopt the intermediate
portion of Agadir, or Souta Cruz, on the coast of Morocco, just below
Cape Ghir, the termination of the main chain of the Atlas. If we are to
trust to Pliny’s statement, it is pretty clear that nothing certain was
known about it in his day.
[751] The “Pillars.” Marcus thinks that these were some small islands
near the Isle of Socotra.
[752] Hardouin says that this is not the Atlantis rendered so famous
by Plato, whose story is distantly referred to in B. ii. c. 92 of this
work. It is difficult to say whether the Atlantis of Plato had any
existence at all, except in the imagination.
[753] Medusa and her sisters, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. The
identity of their supposed islands seems not to have been ascertained.
For the poetical aspect of their story, see Ovid’s Met., B. iv.
[754] It is not improbable that these were the skins of a species of
uran-outang, or large monkey.
[755] The Purpurariæ, or “Purple Islands,” probably the Madeira group.
[756] Or Islands of the Blessed—the modern Canaries.
[757] Supposed to be the modern island of Fuerteventura.
[758] Supposed to be that now called Ferro.
[759] Probably the modern Gomera. In B. iv. c. 36, Pliny mentions them
as six in number, there being actually seven.
[760] He does not appear on this occasion to reckon those already
mentioned as belonging to the group of the Fortunatæ Insulæ.
[761] The present Isle of Teneriffe.
[762] Supposed to be that now called Gran Canaria.
[763] The smoothness of its surface.
[764] It is impossible to see clearly what he means. Littré says that
it has been explained by some to mean, that from the Purpurariæ,
or Madeira Islands, it is a course of 250 miles to the west to the
Fortunatæ or Canary Islands; but that to return from the Fortunatæ
to the Purpurariæ, required a more circuitous route in an easterly
direction.
[765] Or Pluvialia, the Rainy Island, previously mentioned.
[766] Salmasius thinks that the sugar-cane is here alluded to. Hardouin
says that in Ferro there still grows a tree of this nature, known as
the “holy tree.”
[767] Or the Lesser Junonia; supposed to be the same as the modern
Lanzarote.
[768] Or “Snow Island,” the same as that previously called Invallis,
the modern Teneriffe, with its snow-capped peak.
[769] So called from its canine inhabitants.
[770] As to the silurus, see B. ix. c. 17.
[771] Hardouin takes this to mean, both as to the continent, with the
places there situate, and the seas, with the islands there found;
the continent being the interior, and the seas the exterior part. It
is much more likely, however, that his description of the _interior_
of the earth is that given in the 2nd Book, while the account of the
exterior is set forth in the geographical notices contained in the 3rd,
4th, 5th, and 6th.
[772] The Straits of Gades or Cadiz.
[773] The Straits of Gades.
[774] Littré has the following remark: “Is it possible that Pliny can
have imagined that the extent of a surface could be ascertained by
adding the length to the breadth?” It is just possible that such may
not have been his meaning; but it seems quite impossible to divine what
it was.
[775] He means to say that the interior is not inhabited beyond a
distance of 250 miles from the sea-coast.
[776] See B. v. c. 9.
[777] He is probably speaking only of that part of Asia which included
Egypt, on the eastern side of the river Nile, according to ancient
geography. His mode, however, of reckoning the breadth of Asia, _i. e._
from south to north, is singular. See p. 104.
[778] On a rough calculation, these aliquot parts in all would make
42643/42900 parts of the unit. It is not improbable that the figures
given above as the dimensions are incorrect, as they do not agree with
the fractional results here given by Pliny.
[779] B. iv. c. 26.
[780] In p. 111.
[781] See end of B. iii.
[782] See end of B. ii.
[783] See end of B. iii.
[784] See end of B. ii.
[785] See end of B. iii.
[786] See end of B. iii.
[787] See end of B. iii.
[788] See end of B. v.
[789] See end of B. ii.
[790] See end of B. v.
[791] See end of B. iii.
[792] See end of B. ii.
[793] See end of B. iii.
[794] The famous Roman historian, a native of Padua. He died at his
native town, in the year A.D. 17, aged 76. Of his Annals, composed in
142, only 35 Books have come down to us.
[795] L. Annæus Seneca, the Roman philosopher and millionnaire. He was
put to death by Nero.
[796] P. Nigidius Figulus, a Roman senator, and Pythagorean
philosopher, skilled in astrology and other sciences. He was so
celebrated for his knowledge, that Aulus Gellius pronounces him, next
to Varro, the most learned of the Romans. He was an active partisan of
Pompey, and was compelled by Cæsar to live at a distance from Rome. He
died in exile, B.C. 44. There is a letter of consolation addressed to
him by Cicero in his Epistles “ad Familiares,” which contains a warm
tribute to his worth and learning.
[797] See end of B. v.
[798] For Hecatæus of Miletus, see end of B. iv. Hecatæus of Abdera
was a contemporary of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Lagides. He is
thought to have accompanied the former in his Asiatic expedition as
far as Syria. He was a pupil of the sceptic Pyrrho, and is called a
philosopher, critic, and grammarian. He was the author of a History of
Egypt, a work on the Hyperborei, and a History of the Jews.
[799] See end of B. iv.
[800] See end of B. iv.
[801] For Eudoxus of Cnidos, see end of B. ii. Eudoxus of Cyzicus
was a geographer and a native of Egypt, who was employed by Ptolemy
Euergetes and his wife Cleopatra in voyages to India. He made attempts
to circumnavigate Africa by sailing to the south, but without success.
He is supposed to have lived about B.C. 130. See B. ii. c. 67 of the
present work.
[802] See end of B. ii.
[803] See end of B. v.
[804] See end of B. iv.
[805] He commanded the fleets of Ptolemy Philadelphia, and of Seleucus
Nicator, by whose orders he paid a visit to the coasts of India. Strabo
speaks of his account of India as the best guide to the geography of
that country.
[806] A native of Miletus—see the tenth Chapter of this Book. He
appears to have written a geographical work on Asia, from which Pliny
derived considerable assistance.
[807] Son of Deinon, the historian; he accompanied Alexander in his
Asiatic expedition, and wrote a history of it. Quintus Curtius censures
him for his inaccuracy. Cicero, Quintilian, and Longinus, also speak in
slighting terms of his performance.
[808] See end of B. ii.
[809] He alludes to the letters of that monarch, and the journals
which were kept on the occasion of his expeditions. In the middle ages
several forged works were current under his name.
[810] See end of B. iv.
[811] See end of B. ii.
[812] See end of B. v.
[813] See end of B. iv.
[814] See end of B. ii.
[815] See end of B. iv.
[816] See end of B. iv.
[817] See end of B. iv.
[818] See end of B. iv.
[819] See end of B. iv.
[820] See end of B. iii.
[821] See end of B. ii.
[822] A Greek writer of uncertain date, who wrote, as Pliny tells us,
(c. 20 of the present Book), a work on the people called Attaci or
Attacori. He also wrote another, describing a voyage, commenced at
Memphis in Egypt.
[823] See end of B. iii.
[824] See end of B. ii.
[825] See end of B. ii.
[826] The admiral of Alexander, who sailed down the river Indus, and
up the Persian Gulf. It is not known when or where he died. After the
death of Alexander, he supported the cause of Antigonus. He left a
history or journal of his famous voyage.
[827] See end of B. v.
[828] Mentioned by Pliny in c. 21. He measured the distances of the
marches of Alexander the Great, and wrote a book on the subject.
[829] See end of B. v.
[830] A native of Soli. He is mentioned by Diogenes Laertius, as
the author of a work on Æthiopia, of which some few fragments
are preserved. Varro and Pliny mention him, also, as a writer on
agriculture.
[831] A writer on geography and botany, again mentioned by Pliny in
B. xx. c. 73. He is supposed to have lived in the first century after
Christ. See also c. 35.
[832] Said to have been a native of Meroë, and to have written a
History of Æthiopia; nothing else seems to be known of him.
[833] The author of a work on India, of which the second Book is quoted
by Athenæus. From what Pliny says, in c. 35, he seems to have also
written on Æthiopia. He is mentioned by Agatharchides as one of the
writers on the East: but nothing more seems to be known of him.
[834] See end of B. iii.
[835] We here enter upon the third division of Pliny’s Natural History,
which treats of Zoology, from the 7th to the 11th inclusive. Cuvier has
illustrated this part by many valuable notes, which originally appeared
in Lemaire’s _Bibliotheque Classique_, 1827, and were afterwards
incorporated, with some additions, by Ajasson, in his translation of
Pliny, published in 1829; Ajasson is the editor of this portion of
Pliny’s Natural History, in Lemaire’s Edition.—B.
[836] This remark refers to the five preceding books, in which these
subjects have been treated in detail.—B.
[837] We have a similar remark in Cicero, De. Nat. Deor, ii. 47.—B.
[838] Ajasson remarks, that trees have two barks, an outer, and an
inner and thinner one; but seems to think that by the word “gemino”
here, Pliny only means that the bark of trees is sometimes double its
ordinary thickness.
[839] It seems to have been the custom among the ancients to place the
newborn child upon the ground immediately after its birth.
[840] Pliny appears to have followed Lucretius in this gloomy view of
the commencement of human existence. See B. v. l. 223, _et seq._
[841] This term of forty days is mentioned by Aristotle, in his Natural
History, as also by some modern physiologists.—B.
[842] We may hence conclude, that the practice of swathing young
infants in tight bandages prevailed at Rome, in the time of Pliny, as
it still does in France, and many parts of the continent; although
it has, for some years, been generally discontinued in this country.
Buffon warmly condemned this injurious system, eighty years ago, but
without effect.—B.
[843] “Feliciter natus;” this appears so inconsistent with what
is stated in the text, that it has been proposed to alter it into
_infeliciter_, although against the authority of all the MSS.; but it
may be supposed, that Pliny, as is not unusual with him, employs the
term ironically.—B.
[844] This reminds us of the terms of the riddle proposed to Œdipus
by the Sphinx: “What being is that, which, with four feet, has two
feet and three feet, and only one voice; but its feet vary, and where
it has most it is weakest?” to which he answered, That it is man, who
is a quadruped (going on feet and hands) in childhood, two-footed in
manhood, and moving with the aid of a staff in old age.
[845] He alludes to the gradual induration of the bones of the head
which takes place in the young of the human species, and imparts
strength to it. Aristotle, in his Hist. Anim., states the general
opinion of the ancients, that this takes place with the young of no
other class of animated beings.
[846] There is little doubt that new forms and features of disease are
continually making their appearance among mankind, and even the same
peoples, and have been from the earliest period; it was so at Rome,
in the days of the Republic and of the Emperors. It is not improbable
that these new forms of disease depend greatly upon changes in the
temperature and diet. The plagues of 1348, 1666, and the Asiatic
cholera of the present day, are not improbably various features of what
may be radically the same disease. At the first period the beverage of
the English was beer, or rather sweet-wort, as the hop does not appear
to have been used till a later period. At the present day, tea and
coffee, supported by ardent spirits, form the almost universal beverage.
[847] Pliny forgets, however, that infants do _not_ require to be
taught how to suck.
[848] According to Cicero, this opinion was more particularly expressed
by Silenus and Euripides. Seneca also, in his Consolation to Marcia,
expresses a very similar opinion. It was a very common saying, that
“Those whom the gods love, die young.” It will be observed that Pliny
here uses the significant word “aboleri,” implying utter annihilation
after death. It will be seen towards the end of this Book, that he
laughed to scorn the notion of the immortality of the soul.
[849] By the use of the word “luctus” he may probably mean “tears;”
but there is little doubt that all animals have their full share of
sorrows, brought upon them either by the tyranny and cruelty of man, or
their own unrestrained passions.
[850] This is said hyperbolically by Pliny. The brutes of the field
have as strong a love of life as man, although they may not be in fear
of death, not knowing what it is. That they know what pain is, is
evident from their instinctive attempts to avoid it.
[851] Under this name he evidently intends to include all systems of
religion, which he held in equal contempt.
[852] Ajasson seems to think that he alludes to man’s craving desire
for posthumous fame; but it is pretty clear that he has in view the
then prevalent notions of the life of the soul after the death of the
body.
[853] Pascal has a similar thought; he says that “Man is a reed, and
the weakest reed of nature.” The machinery of his body is minute
and complex in the extreme, but it can hardly be said that his life
is exposed to as many dangers dependent on the volition of, or on
accidents arising from, other animated beings, as that of minute
insects.
[854] Ajasson refers to various classical authors for a similar
statement. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that it is contrary to
many well-known facts.—B. The cravings of hunger and of the sexual
appetite, are quite sufficient to preclude the possibility of such a
happy state of things among the brutes as Pliny here describes.
[855] It was this feeling that prompted the common saying among the
ancients, “Homo homini lupus”—“Man to man is a wolf;” and most true it
is, that
“Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”
[856] He alludes to the description already given in his geographical
Books, of man taken in the aggregate, and grouped into nations.
[857] These are less known, as being less easy of access to travellers,
and it is accordingly in connection with these, that we always meet
with the most wonderful tales.—B.
[858] This feeling is well expressed in the old and hackneyed adage,
“Omne ignotum pro mirifico”—“Everything that is unknown is taken for
marvellous.”
[859] Cuvier remarks, that Pliny generally employs this kind of
oratorical language when he is entering upon a part of his work in
which he betrays a peculiar degree of credulity, and a total want of
correct judgment on physical topics.—B.
[860] Being debarred from holding converse, the first great tie of
sociality.
[861] Ajasson does not hesitate to style this remark, “ridiculum sane;”
as every one knows that the Greeks were more noted for their lively
imagination, than for the correctness of their observations.—B. Surely
Ajasson must have forgotten the existence of such men as Aristotle and
Theophrastus!
[862] Pliny has previously denominated the Scythians “Anthropophagi;”
and in B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 20, he employs the word as the
proper name of one of the Scythian tribes.—B.
[863] See B. iii. c. 9.
[864] See B. xxxvi. c. 5.
[865] There can be no doubt, that cannibalism has existed at all
times, and that it now exists in some of the Asiatic and Polynesian
islands; but we must differ from Pliny in his opinion respecting the
near connection between human sacrifices and cannibalism; the first
was strictly a religious rite, the other was the result of very
different causes; perhaps, in some cases, the want of food; but, in
most instances, a much less pardonable motive.—B. Still, however, if
nations go so far as to sacrifice human beings, there is an equal
chance that a religious impulse may prompt them to taste the flesh; and
when once this has been done, there is no telling how soon it may be
repeated, and that too for the gratification of the palate. According
to Macrobius, human sacrifices were offered at Rome, down to the time
of Brutus, who, on the establishment of the Republic, abolished them.
We read, however, in other authorities, that in 116, B.C., two Gauls,
a male and a female, were sacrificed by the priests in one of the
streets of Rome, shortly after which such practices were forbidden by
the senate, except in those cases in which they had been ordered by
the Sibylline books. Still we read, in the time of Augustus, of one
hundred knights being sacrificed by his orders, at Perusia, and of
a similar immolation in the time of the emperor Aurelian, A.D. 270.
These, however, were all exceptional cases, and do not imply a custom
of offering human sacrifices.
[866] Pliny, in describing the Riphæan mountains, B. iv. c. 26, calls
them “gelida Aquilonis conceptacula,” “the cold asylum of the northern
blasts;” but we do not find the cavern mentioned in this or any other
passage. The name here employed has been supposed to be derived from
the Greek words, γης κλειθρον, signifying the limit or boundary of the
earth.—B. “Specuque ejus dicto,” most probably means “the place called
its cave,” and not the “cave which I have described,” as Dr. B. seems
to have thought.
[867] They are merely enumerated among other tribes of Scythians,
inhabiting the country beyond the Palus Mæotis. See B. iv. c. 26, and
B. vi. c. 19.—B.
[868] The figures of the Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly
on the friezes and walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no
safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the
earth; hence, for the purpose of scaring depredators, the story was
carefully circulated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and
dragons. There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in
the western world, combined with the knowledge of the existence of gold
in the Uralian chain and other mountains of the East, gave rise to the
stories of the Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that
the Arimaspi were no other than the modern Tsheremis, who dwelt on the
left bank of the Middle Volga, in the governments of Kasan, Simbirsk,
and Saratov, not far from the gold districts of the Uralian range.
[869] It has been conjectured, that these fabulous tales of the combats
of the Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighbouring
tribes of the Issedonæ or Essedones, who were anxious to throw a
mystery over the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the
traffic in their own hands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia,
contain many gold mines, which are still worked, as well as traces of
former workings. The representation of an animal, somewhat similar to
the Griffin, has been found among the sculptures of Persepolis, and
is conceived to have had some allegorical allusion to the religion of
the ancient inhabitants of the place. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 27,
gives an account of the Griffin, and its contests with the Indians, for
the gold, similar to that here given.—B.
[870] We have an account of the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in
Herodotus, B. iv. cc. 13, 15, and 27. Most of the wonderful tales
related in this Chapter may be found in Aulus Gellius, B. ix. c. 4. We
have an account, also, of the Arimaspi in Solinus, very nearly in the
words of Pliny. We have some valuable remarks by Cuvier, on the account
given by Pliny of the Arimaspi and the Griffins, and on the source from
which it appears to have originated, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 16, and
Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 164, 165.—B.
[871] The modern Himalaya range.
[872] Aulus Gellius relates this, among other wonderful tales, which
are contained in his Chapter “On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous
Nations,” B. ix. c. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and
Isigonus, whom he designates as “writers of no mean authority.”—B.
[873] In B. iv. c. 26, and B. vi. c. 29.
[874] One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors, in the
paradise of Odin, was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies.—B.
[875] The variety of the human species to which the term Albino has
been applied, from the whiteness of their hair and skin, is supposed by
Cuvier to be more frequently found in the close valleys of mountainous
districts, and may therefore have been very often met with in Albania,
which is composed of valleys in the Caucasian range.—B.
[876] “Tertio die;” literally, “on the third day.” In reckoning the
time between two periods, the Romans included both of those periods in
the computation, whereas we include but one of them.
[877] In countries where serpents abound, there have been, at all
times, jugglers, who profess to have a supernatural power, by which
they are rendered insensible to the poison of these animals. This is
the case with the Egyptians, and some of the oriental nations. They
remove the poison-fang from the serpent, and in this way render it
perfectly harmless. Some of the feats which were performed by the
magicians in the court of Pharaoh, seem still to be practised in Egypt;
by pressing upon the upper part of the spine, the animal is rendered
rigid, while on removing the pressure, the animal is restored to its
original state. These jugglers were also in the habit, much to the
surprise of the ignorant spectators, of sucking the poison from the
wounds produced by the bite of the serpent, which they accompanied
by various ceremonies and incantations: but it is a well-known fact,
that this may be done with perfect safety, in reference to poisons of
all kinds, provided there be no breach in the cuticle of the mouth or
lips.—B.
[878] See B. xxviii. c. 7. The best account, probably, of the Psylli,
is that found in Lucan’s Pharsalia, B. ix. c. 890, _et seq._
[879] This custom is referred to by Lucan, in his account of the
Psylli, B. ix. l. 890, _et seq._; and by Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c.
57, and B. xvi. c. 27, 28.—B.
[880] Herodotus, B. iv. c. 173, gives a somewhat different account;
see also Aulus Gellius, B. xvi. c. 11, who follows the narrative of
Herodotus. Gellius also gives an account of the Marsi, which is similar
to that of Pliny.—B.
[881] It is scarcely necessary to remark, that this alleged effect of
the human saliva is without foundation. The saliva of a person who has
fasted for some time, is still, in this country, a popular remedy for
ophthalmia. It contains a greater proportion of saline matter than
saliva under ordinary circumstances.—B.
[882] The Nasamones have been enumerated among the inhabitants of
the northern part of Africa, near the Greater Syrtis, v. 5. See also
Herodotus, B. ii. c. 32, and B. vi. c. 172 and 190.—B.
[883] Certain individuals are occasionally met with, whose generative
organs exhibit an unusual formation, so as to give the idea of their
uniting both sexes in the same person; and there are instances, where
parts peculiar to both sexes actually appear to exist, but always in
an imperfect or rudimentary state; all beyond this is undoubtedly
fabulous. See _Todd’s Cyclop. of Anat._ _in loco_.—B.
[884] There are, at the present day, individuals among the negroes,
who profess to have the power of enchantment, which, however, appears
to consist in their possessing the knowledge of various poisons, which
they not unfrequently administer, and by these means obtain great
influence over the minds of the people.—B.
[885] This power of the eye is referred to by Virgil, Ecl. iii. l. 103:
“What eye is it that has fascinated my tender lambs?”
The evil eye is still an article of belief in Egypt and in some parts
of the East. Witchcraft, in various forms, was greatly credited in the
most enlightened parts of Europe, not more than two centuries ago, and
is not yet excluded from the vulgar creed.—B.
[886] It is well known that nothing of this kind was ever observed in
any human eye, nor have we any method of accounting for the origin of
this singular notion.—B. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, says that
he has no doubt whatever that the common expression “no one can say
‘black is my eye’” [or rather “black is the white of my eye”]—meaning
that no one can justly speak ill of me, was derived from the notion
of the _enchanting_, or _bewitching_, eye. He quotes from Reginald
Scott’s “Discovery of Witchcraft:” “Many writers agree with Virgil
and Theocritus in the effect of bewitching eyes, affirming ‘that in
Scythia there are women called the Bythiæ, having two balls, or rather
_blacks_, in the apples of their eyes.’ These, forsooth, with their
angry looks, do bewitch and hurt, not only young lambs, but young
children.” See Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. pp. 44-46.
See also Ennemoser’s Hist. of Magic, vol. ii. pp. 160, 161. _Bohn’s
Editions._
[887] Some of the commentators have supposed, that Pliny, or
Phylarchus, from whom he borrows, was misled by the ambiguity of the
Greek term ἵππος, which signifies either a horse, or a tremulous motion
of the eye. But, even admitting this to be the case, the wonder is
scarcely diminished; for we have the double pupil in one eye, while
this supposed tremulous motion is confined to the other.—B.
[888] In all ages, it has been a prevalent superstition, that those
endowed with magical qualities will not sink in water, encouraged, no
doubt, by the cunning of those who might wish to make the charge a
means of wreaking their vengeance. If they sank, they were to be deemed
innocent, but were drowned; if, on the other hand they floated, they
were deemed guilty, and handed over to the strong arm of the law. In
reference to this usage, Brand says (“Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii.),
“Swimming a witch was another kind of popular ordeal. By this method
she was handled not less indecently than cruelly: for she was stripped
naked and cross bound, the right thumb to the left toe, and the left
thumb to the right toe. In this state she was cast into a pond or
river, in which, if guilty, it was thought impossible for her to sink.”
[889] This is probably the meaning of the word “tabem” here; though it
may possibly signify “rottenness,” or “putrefaction.”
[890] This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now
extant.—B.
[891] Cuvier observes, that these people probably exercise some
deception, analogous to that practised by a Spaniard, who exhibited
himself in Paris, and professed to be incombustible, but who,
eventually, was the dupe of his own quackery, and paid the penalty with
his life. It would appear, that the Hirpi were not confined to one
district, but dispersed over different parts of Italy. See the note of
Heyne, on the prayer of Aruns, Æn. B. xi. l. 785, _et seq._—B.
[892] Plutarch relates these supposed facts in his life of Pyrrhus;
this statement may be considered analogous to what has been recorded
in modern times, respecting the efficacy of the royal touch in curing
certain diseases, especially what has been termed the “King’s evil.”—B.
[893] Horace, Odes, B. i. O. 22, characterises the Hydaspes, a river of
India, by the title of “fabulosus.”—B.
[894] See B. viii. c. 40.
[895] Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xvi. c. 11, and B. xvii. c. 26, refers to
the large size of many of the animals of India; and in B. iv. c. 19, he
especially describes the size and fierceness of the Indian dog.—B.
[896] The _Ficus religiosa_ of Linnæus, the branches of which have the
property of taking root when they are bent down to the ground, and of
forming new stems, which again produce other branches, that may be
bent down in the same way, so as to cover an indefinite space.—B. More
popularly known as the “banyan tree.” See B. xii. c. 11.
[897] The _bambos arundinacea_, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant
of the gramineous kind, which frequently grows to the height of the
tallest trees. The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the
joints are used by the natives to form their canoes. We have an account
of them in Herodotus, B. iii. c. 98.—B. See also B. xvi. c. 65 of this
work.
[898] It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that
of the inhabitants of the temperate zones.—B.
[899] Some practices very similar to these exist in certain parts of
India, by the Fakirs, a peculiar class of devotees, and are regarded
either in the light of religious ceremonies, or of modes of performing
penance.—B.
[900] Henderson states, in his “Biblical Researches,” that there is a
race of people found in the Caucasus, and known as the Ingusch, and
that it is their belief that a race of dæmons exists, which assume the
appearance of armed men, and have the feet inverted.
[901] Cuvier remarks, that these wonderful tales are generally related
of the inhabitants of mountainous districts, as being less known and
less accessible to travellers.—B.
[902] This account probably originated in a species of monkey, with a
projecting muzzle, called, from this circumstance, “cynocephalus,” or
the “Dog’s head.” This account of the cynocephali is repeated by Aulus
Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.—B. The cynocephalus is generally considered to be
the baboon.
[903] So called, ἀπὸ τοῦ μονοῦ κώλου, “from having but one leg.” It
is not improbable that these stories were first told of these nations
from the resemblance of their names to the Greek words having these
significations.
[904] We have no method of explaining the origin of this story. It is
to be regretted, that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous
fables, on the doubtful authority of Ctesias.—B.
[905] From Σκιαποῦς, “making a shadow with his foot.”—B.
[906] Or “dwellers in caves.”
[907] It has been conjectured, that this account may have originated in
the dwarfish stature and short necks of the northern tribes, according
to the usual exaggerated statements of the ancient travellers. Aulus
Gellius also repeats this fable, B. ix. c. 4.—B.
[908] These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental
islands; this name was given them from their salacious disposition,
which, it would seem, they have manifested in reference to even the
human species. We have an account of the Satyrs in Ælian, Hist. Anim.
B. xvi. c. 21.—B.
[909] We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect
account of a large kind of ape; but it seems impossible to refer it to
any particular species.—B.
[910] “Sparrow,” or “ostrich-footed;” it does not appear that the
commentators have attempted to explain this passage; may we not
conjecture that it refers to the Chinese? With respect to the word
employed, it has been generally derived from στροῦθος, “a sparrow;”
Dalechamps, however, as it would appear, with much plausibility,
thinks that it is derived from “struthio,” the ostrich.—B. It is not
improbable, however, that these were so called, from the resemblance of
their gait to that of a sparrow, as they would be unable to step out,
and be obliged to jump from place to place.
[911] Or “wandering tribes.”
[912] On this subject see B. vi. c. 20. It is clear that either silk or
cotton is here alluded to.
[913] In Eastern stories we find not uncommonly, wonderful effects
attributed to the smell of the apple. See the Arabian Nights, _passim_.
[914] Cuvier remarks, that these accounts of the Struthopodes, the
Scyritæ, and the Atomi, are not capable of any explanation, being mere
fables.—B.
[915] From τρεῖς, “three,” and σπιθαμαὶ, “spans,” the span being about
nine inches English.
[916] He alludes to the wars between the Cranes and the Pygmies in the
Iliad, B. iii. l. 3-6. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and
Juvenal.
[917] On the subject of the Pygmies, Cuvier remarks, “I am not
surprised at finding the Pygmies in the works of Homer; but to find
them in Pliny, I am surprised, indeed.”—B.
[918] Or the “long livers,” from the Greek μακρὸς, “long,” and βίος,
“life.”
[919] Of course, there is no truth in this statement; there are,
no doubt, various circumstances in these countries favourable to
longevity; but these are more than counter-balanced by certain
peculiarities in their mode of life, and by the fatal epidemics to
which they are occasionally subject.—B.
[920] Pliny, in B. xxix. c. 38, speaks of the use of vipers’
flesh as an article of diet, and gives some minute directions for
its preparation. It was supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and
restorative, and it has been prescribed for the same purpose by modern
physicians. There is a medal in existence, probably struck by the
Emperor Commodus, in order to commemorate the benefit which he was
supposed to have derived from the use of the flesh of vipers.—B.
[921] See B. ii. c. 75.
[922] The cubitus and the palmus of the Romans, estimated,
respectively, at about one foot and-a-half and three inches; this would
make the height of these people eight feet.—B.
[923] From the Greek Γυμνητὴς, “one who takes much exercise of the
body.”
[924] There appears to be no foundation for this statement.—B.
[925] See B. vi. c. 35.
[926] In many of the warmer climates, where the locusts are of large
size and in great abundance, they are occasionally used as food; but we
have no reason to believe that they constitute the sole, or even the
principal article of the food of any tribe or people.—B.
[927] In warm climates, the females arrive at maturity considerably
earlier than in the more temperate regions, but the age here mentioned
is an exaggeration. The female also, in such climates, ceases to bear
at an earlier age, probably before the fortieth year.—B.
[928] This is the Island of Ceylon, of which Pliny has given an account
in the last Book, c. 24.
[929] Such unnatural unions may have taken place occasionally, but
nothing has ever been produced from them.—B.
[930] This is a still greater exaggeration than that mentioned above,
in Note 95.—B.
[931] Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told
with reference to the race of large apes. He says, however, that some
men have the “os coccygis” greatly prolonged, and mentions a painter
of celebrity in Paris who had this malformation. “But from this to an
actual tail,” says he, “the distance is very great.” In these times
we have the (perhaps doubtful) account by M. de Couret, of the Niam
Niams, a race in Abyssinia or Nubia, with tails at least two inches in
length. Few will fail to recollect Lord Monboddo’s theory, that mankind
originally had tails, but wore them off in lapse of time by climbing up
the trees.
[932] As far as there is any truth in this account, it must refer to
certain kinds of apes: but with respect to the size of the ears, it is,
of course, greatly exaggerated.—B.
[933] Or Cophes, see B. vi. c. 25.
[934] There are many tribes who live on the sea-coast, and who inhabit
a barren country, with a bad climate, whose diet is almost confined to
fish, and who feed their cattle on it. This is the case in some parts
of Iceland, and even, to a certain extent, among the people of the
Hebrides.—B.
[935] Or dog’s-headed ape, the baboon: see B. vi. c. 35, and Note [902],
p. 130.
[936] Perhaps these appearances may be referred to effects of what
is termed “mirage,” a phenomenon which is described by travellers in
different parts of the torrid zone.—B. And in the temperate regions as
well; Switzerland and the Hartz mountains, for instance.
[937] Columella, B. viii. c. 8, speaks of the fecundity of the
Egyptians, but without ascribing any particular cause for it.—B.
[938] “Quinos.” The old reading was “binos,” “two” children only; but
Aristotle, in reference, no doubt, to the same circumstance, says,
Hist. Anim. B. vii., “One woman, at four births, gave birth to twenty
children. For she brought forth five at a time, and the greater part of
them were reared.”
[939] It was a very general opinion, that the waters of the Nile
possess the property of promoting fecundity. Seneca mentions it as an
acknowledged fact, Nat. Quæst. B. iii. c. 25.—B.
[940] There are well-authenticated accounts of four children having
been produced at one birth; but, beyond this, we have no statements in
which we can place much confidence. In a note by Dalechamps, we have
an example of the credulity of the authors who have treated on this
topic, as well modern as ancient.—B. In the recent volumes, however, of
“Notes and Queries,” we find some apparently well-authenticated cases
of women being delivered of five children at a birth. Nathaniel Wanley,
in his “Wonders of the Little World,” also gives some apparently
authentic instances of as many as five children being born at a birth:
but we must be excused giving credit to the story, quoted by him, of
Matilda or Margaret, Countess of Henneberg, who was said to have been
delivered, on the Friday before Palm-Sunday, in 1276, “of 365 children,
half sons and half daughters, with the exception of one, which was
an hermaphrodite, all complete and well-fashioned, of the bigness of
chickens new hatched, saith Camerarius.”
[941] From Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes or Mercury, and Aphrodite
or Venus. According to the poetic story as told by Ovid, Met. B. iv.,
he was united in one body, which bore the characteristics of both
sexes, with the nymph Salmacis.
[942] Two cases of this description are mentioned by Livy, B. xxvii.
c. 37, and B. xxxi. c. 12. In this latter passage, Livy enumerates
the following prodigious births; among the Sabines, two children of
doubtful sex; at Frusino, a lamb with a sow’s head; at Sinuessa, a pig
with a human head; and among the Lucani, a foal with five feet. He
informs us that the hermaphrodites were thrown into the sea.—B.
[943] Cuvier says, “From time to time we do see persons of this nature;
and it is not long ago that such a being was exhibited in Paris, though
certainly not of a nature to have been ‘in deliciis,’ at the present
day.”
[944] Pliny gives further particulars of this theatre in B. xxxvi. c.
24. It was the first stone theatre erected at Rome, and was built B.C.
55, and contained 40,000 spectators.
[945] Solinus, the ape of Pliny, absolutely takes the meaning of this
passage to be, that Eutychis herself was exhibited on the stage by the
orders of Pompey.
[946] For Tralles, in Asia Minor, see B. v. c. 29.
[947] Cuvier speaks of the wife of a porter at the Jardin du Roi, at
Paris, who, to his knowledge, had been the mother of thirty children.
[948] It seems doubtful whether Pliny means that the statue of Alcippe
was also to be seen in the Theatre of Pompey. Tatianus tells the same
story of one Glaucippe, and it is not improbable that under that name
he refers to the same person. He says that a bronze statue of her was
made by Niceretus, the Athenian. Hardouin suggests that this is the
story alluded to by Livy, B. xxvii., and by Valerius Maximus, B. i. c.
6, in their statement that, among other portents, a boy was born with
the head of an elephant.
[949] Cuvier remarks, that it is not an uncommon circumstance, both
in man and in other animals, for an atrophy of the maxillary bones to
cause the nose to sink down, and produce some resemblance to the trunk
of an elephant. To this circumstance, he refers the tales met with, of
women, sows, and dogs having produced elephants; see also Val. Maximus,
B. vi. c. 5.—B.
[950] As to this war, see B. ii. c. 85. The portents observed on this
occasion were collected by the historian Sisenna, as we learn from
Cicero, De Divin. B. ii.
[951] We find that this incredible tale is not only told by Julius
Obsequens, but, according to Dalechamps, by Cornelius Gemma, a
comparatively modern writer.—B.
[952] Cuvier remarks, that, in certain quadrupeds, individuals are
occasionally born with the upper jaw preternaturally small, so much
so, that the lower jaw, by its projection, bears some resemblance to
a human chin. He had seen a case of this description at Geneva, in a
calf, supposed, even by persons of information, to be the produce of an
unnatural connection of a cow with a Savoyard shepherd. This subject is
treated very philosophically by Lucretius, B. v. c. 876, _et seq._ With
respect to the supposed Hippocentaur of Thessaly, Cuvier remarks upon
the successive additions which the story had gained, in the writings of
various authors. Cicero, in various parts of his writings, refers to
the account of the Hippocentaur as a fabulous tale; Tusc. Quæst. B. i.
c. 27; de Nat. Deor. B. i. c. 38, and B. ii. c. 2; De Divin. B. ii. c.
21.—B.
[953] Consuls A.U.C. 581.
[954] See B. iii. c. 9. Hardouin remarks that Aulus Gellius, in copying
from this passage, seems to have read the word “Casini,” as though
it were C. Asinii, meaning that the boy belonged to one C. Asinius.
However, it is pretty clear that the reading adopted is the right one,
Pliny having been careful to give the various localities at which these
wonderful facts occurred.
[955] Phlegon tells us that this happened in the first year of Nero,
and that the name of the youth, while supposed to be a girl, was
Philotis.
[956] See B. v. c. 4, 5.
[957] A case of this description is mentioned by Ambrose Paré. The
individual was brought up as a girl, but, in consequence of a sudden
muscular exertion, the organs of the male were developed, which had
previously been concealed internally. It may be remarked, that a great
proportion of the well-authenticated cases of a supposed change of sex
have been from the female to the male, evidently of the kind mentioned
by Paré, where the male organs have been concealed in childhood, and
become subsequently developed. Cases, however, have occasionally
occurred of the contrary kind, arising probably from the unusual
size of the clitoris; there are also certain cases, where, from the
malformation of the parts, the sex is actually doubtful, or where
even a certain degree of the two may exist, as has been stated above,
in Note 51 to Chapter 2. This paragraph of Pliny is quoted by Aulus
Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.—B.
[958] This does not correspond with the fact, as it exists in our time;
a circumstance which may probably depend upon our improvement in the
obstetrical art. Nor is the opinion, that both twins are less likely to
live, if of different sexes, sanctioned by modern experience.—B.
[959] “Feminas gigni celerius quam mares;” there has been much
discussion among the commentators, both with respect to the meaning of
these words, and the fact to which they are supposed to refer. Hardouin
interprets the phrase, “crescere, perfici, vigere, adolescere;”
Cuvier translates it, “les filles sont portées moins long-temps par
leur mère.” There is, however, no foundation for this opinion as to a
difference in the period of the gestation.—B.
[960] There may be some ground for this opinion; it is maintained by
Aristotle in his Hist. Anim.—B. As also by Galen.
[961] This statement is made upon the authority of Hippocrates, Aphor.
B. v. c. 48, and Aristotle, Hist. Anim.; but is probably without
foundation.—B.
[962] Animals have a certain period for generation, because they are
more immediately affected by the seasons, whereas, in the human race,
the arts of life render these fixed terms unnecessary.—B.
[963] Notwithstanding all the observations of the moderns, the
question is scarcely decided respecting the length of time to which
pregnancy may be prolonged. Cuvier says, that the experiments of
Tessier have shewn, that there is a greater latitude in animals than
had previously been supposed; he also remarks, that the same animals
when domesticated, become less regular in this respect than in the wild
state.—B.
[964] Dalechamps has collected authorities to prove, that a child may
survive, when born even at an earlier period; but this, although not
absolutely impossible, is improbable in the highest degree.—B.
[965] Ajasson expresses himself at a loss to identify this Pomponius;
but thinks that it may have been either Julius Pomponius Græcinus,
consul A.U.C. 759, or L. Pomponius, consul A.U.C. 794, A.D. 41.
[966] Caius Caligula. The name of this woman, who was first his
mistress and then his wife, was Milonia Cæsonia. She was neither
handsome nor young when Caligula first admired her: but was noted for
her extreme licentiousness, and at the time when she first became
intimate with Caligula, had already had three children. She and
her daughter, by him, were put to death on the day on which he was
murdered. Corbulo has been mentioned in B. vi. c. 8.
[967] Celsus, B. ii. c. 1, speaks of the fortieth day, as one of the
critical periods of childhood; the others are the seventh month, the
seventh year, and the period of puberty.—B.
[968] Who appears to have urged the great lapse of time that had
intervened between the death of the alleged father and the birth of his
opponent.
[969] Questions of this nature, of great importance, involving property
and title, have been the subject of judicial consideration in our
times; the longest period to which pregnancy may be protracted seems
still not to be determined, but the general result has been to shorten
it. Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 16, has collected the opinions of many of
the ancients on this subject.—B.
[970] Most of the statements made in this Chapter appear to be taken
from Aristotle’s History of Animals; they are, however, either without
foundation or much exaggerated, and very incorrect.—B.
[971] This opinion, although without foundation, is supported by the
authority of Hippocrates, Aphor. B. v. c. 42.—B.
[972] This singular opinion is referred to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c.
16.—B.
[973] Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 54, mentions the smell of an
extinguished lamp, as producing abortion in a mare.—B.
[974] “Tinctoria mens;” there has been much discussion, whether
the text does not require correction here; and various conjectural
emendations have been proposed, but not with much success. If the word
“tinctoria” was employed by Pliny, it may be regarded as one of those
bold, and somewhat metaphorical expressions, which are not unfrequently
found in his writings.—B.
[975] Valerius Maximus makes the same statement as to the death of
Anacreon, and says that “having lived to an extreme old age, he was
supporting his decayed strength by chewing raisins, when one grain,
more obstinate than the rest, stuck in his parched throat, and so
ended his life.” This story has been looked upon by some of the modern
scholars as a fiction of the poets.
[976] This explanation of the name is given by Aulus Gellius, B.
xvi. c. 6.—B. It is very doubtful what are the roots from which it
is formed; though Pliny evidently thinks that the word is only a
corruption of the Latin “ægre partus,” “born with difficulty;” a notion
savouring of absurdity.
[977] M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, having married
his dissolute daughter, Julia. He was the son of Lucius Agrippa,
and was descended from a very obscure family. He divorced his wife
Marcella, to marry Julia, the widow of Marcellus, and the daughter of
Augustus, by his third wife, Scribonia.
[978] Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa and Julia, was the mother of
the Emperor Caligula; and of a second Agrippina, who became the mother
of Nero, by whose order she was put to death.—B.
[979] Julia, the daughter of Augustus, so notorious for her depravity,
who, as already stated, was the wife of Agrippa.—B. See c. 46 of the
present Book.
[980] From cædo, “to cut,” apparently. The Cæsones were a branch of
the Fabian family. There has been considerable difference of opinion
among the commentators respecting the individuals referred to in this
Chapter. The subject is discussed at length in the Notes of Hardouin,
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 62.—B. So in Macbeth, act v. sc. 7, Macduff says
to Macbeth—
“And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d,
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.”
[981] The commentators are not agreed respecting the origin of this
name; Dalechamps suggests, that it was originally Opiscus, from
ὀπίσθιον, “because one follows close upon another.”—B.
[982] Hardouin says, that this is the case with the hare and the
dasypus, which is a species of hare; but there is probably no
foundation for the statement. Pliny repeats it in a subsequent passage,
B. viii. c. 81.—B.
[983] Pliny evidently considers this a case of superfœtation, and
looks upon it as not uncommon in the human species: whereas it is now
considered impossible.
[984] This refers to the mythological tale of Jupiter and Amphitryon.—B.
[985] See B. v. c. 44.
[986] Most of these statements appear to be taken from Aristotle, Hist.
Anim.—B.
[987] There has been much discussion respecting the meaning of this
passage and the fact to which it refers. Aristotle, Hist. Anim., says,
that marks made on the arm are transmitted for three generations; and
Pliny, in B. xxii. c. 2, informs us, that the Daci and the Sarmatæ
“make written marks upon their bodies.” The same custom prevails among
the lower orders, sailors especially, in our own times. We may also
remark the analogy which it hears to the practice of tattooing, so
general among the Polynesian and other barbarous nations.—B.
[988] The reader may be amused by a perusal of the collection of
wonderful cases of this kind, which has been made by Dalechamps; see
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 65, note 4.—B.
[989] Aristotle, in his History of Animals, relates a similar, but
not the same, story; he says that it occurred in Sicily, though he
afterwards speaks of it as having happened in Elis. It is conjectured
by Ajasson, that the individual might have been born in Sicily, and
have exhibited himself in Elis, as a wrestler. If we are really to
believe that his complexion was that of an Æthiopian, it is much more
probable that his mother may have had connection with a negro.—B.
[990] Few readers will fail here to recall to mind the story about the
clock, in the opening chapter of “Tristram Shandy.”
[991] Dalechamps refers us to a remark of the same kind in Cicero,
Tusc. Quæst. B. i. c. 80; but Ajasson remarks, that the resemblance
mentioned by Cicero refers to the mind and manners, not to the body;
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 67.—B.
[992] Aulus Gellius says, that he was one of the royal family.
[993] This man resembled Antiochus III., surnamed the Great, to
such a degree, that when that monarch had been slain in a tumult by
his people, his wife, Laodice, daughter of Mithridates V., King of
Pontus, put Artemon into a bed, pretending that he was the king,
but dangerously ill. Many persons were admitted to see him; and all
believed that they were listening to the words of their king, when he
recommended to them Laodice and her children.
[994] This circumstance is related by Valerius Maximus, but he speaks
of Vibius as being “ingenuæ stirpis,” “of good family.”—B.
[995] Hardouin expands the words “os probum,” into “liberale, venustum,
gratum, venerandum, probandum,” B. xxxvii. c. 6.—B.
[996] See B. xxxvii. c. 6.
[997] The Latin word “strabo,” means “squinting,” or “having a cast” or
“defect in the eye.”
[998] The word “mimus” was applied by the Romans to a species of
dramatic performance, as well as to the persons who acted in them.
The Roman mimes were imitations of trivial and sometimes indecent
occurrences in life, and scarcely differed from comedy, except in
consisting more of gestures and mimicry than of spoken dialogue. Sylla
was very fond of these performances, and they had more charms for the
Roman populace than the regular drama. As to the mime Salvitto, here
mentioned, see B. xxxv. c. 2.
[999] This anecdote, and the one respecting Spinther and Pamphilus, are
mentioned also by Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 24.—B.
[1000] A celebrated orator and satirical writer of the time of Augustus
and Tiberius. He is mentioned in the Index of authors at the end of B.
xxxvi., where he is called Longulanus, as being a native of Longula,
a town of Latium. It was even thrown in his teeth, that he was the
offspring of adultery, and that this low-born person was his father.
[1001] “Mirmillonis.” Many of the editions make this word to be a
proper name, and “Armentarius” to signify the calling of the person
described, as being a herdsman. The “Mirmillones” were a peculiar class
of gladiators, said to have been so called from their having the image
of a fish, called “mormyr,” on their helmets.
[1002] We assume the sestertium to be equivalent to somewhat more than
eight pounds sterling; this sum will be about £1600.—B.
[1003] “Proscripter animus.” According to Hardouin, this means
“delighting in proscription,” alluding to the well-known proscriptions
of the triumvirate, in which Antony acted so conspicuous a part.—B.
[1004] This opinion is maintained by Hippocrates, and by Aristotle,
Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 8, and is referred to by Lucretius, B. iv. c.
1242, _et seq._—B.
[1005] The case of Livia and that of Agrippina, referred to by Pliny,
are mentioned by Suetonius, in the Life of Augustus, c. 63; and that of
Caligula, c. 7.—B.
[1006] M. Junius Silanus, consul under Claudius, A.D. 46, with Valerius
Asiaticus. He was poisoned by order of the younger Agrippina, that he
might not stand in the way of Nero.
[1007] He is first mentioned in B.C. 168, when he was serving in the
army of Æmilius Paulus, in Macedonia, and was sent to Rome with two
other envoys to announce the defeat of Perseus. He united with the
aristocracy in opposing the measures of the Gracchi; and the speech
which he delivered against Tiberius Gracchus, is spoken of by Cicero in
high terms, as replete with true eloquence.
[1008] He left four sons and two daughters; some writers say three.
The ten individuals, over and above his children and grandchildren,
may have consisted of the wives and husbands of his sons and daughters
_then_ living, as also of others who had died in his lifetime.
[1009] 11th of April.
[1010] See B. iii. c. 8.
[1011] This fact is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13.
There is some variation in the spelling of the name of the son of
Masinissa; Solinus calls him Mathumannus.—B.
[1012] Hardouin gives a detailed account of the children of Cato, by
which it appears that the Licinian branch descended from the issue by
his wife Licinia, and the Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one,
from his son Salonianus, by his second wife, Salonia.—B.
[1013] Volusius Saturninus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a
remarkable instance of longevity; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30.—B.
[1014] This reading seems preferable to sixty-second, adopted by
Sillig; as there would be nothing very remarkable in a man becoming a
father when sixty-two years of age.
[1015] Some of the “simiæ” are subject to a periodical discharge,
analogous to that of the human female; but, according to Cuvier, it is
in smaller quantity, and not at stated periods. The females of various
other animals, when in a state to receive the male, have a discharge
from the same parts, but totally different in its properties, and the
mode in which it makes its appearance. Virgil, Geor. B. iii. l. 280,
_et seq._, refers to this subject.—B.
[1016] Pliny makes some further remarks on these substances in a
subsequent place, see B. x. c. 84; where he says they are produced
without the intercourse of the male; this point has been much
discussed, and is perhaps scarcely yet decided.—B.
[1017] There is no actual resemblance between moles and schirri; they
are produced by different causes, and exist in different parts of the
body. Moles are always formed in the womb, and probably have some
connection with the generative functions; while schirri are morbid
indurations, which make their appearance in various parts of the body.
Hippocrates gives some account of moles, in his work on the Diseases of
Women. They are also noticed by Aristotle.—B.
[1018] All the poisonous and noxious effects which were attributed by
the ancients to the menstrual discharge, are without the slightest
foundation. The opinions entertained on this point by the Jews, may be
collected from Leviticus, c. xv. ver. 19, _et seq._ Pliny enlarges upon
this subject in a subsequent place. See B. xxviii. c. 23.—B.
[1019] Both Josephus, Bell. Jud. B. iv. c. 9, and Tacitus, Hist. B.
v. c. 6, give an account of this supposed action of this fluid on
the bitumen of Lake Asphaltites; the statement is no doubt entirely
unfounded, but it is a curious instance of popular credulity.—B.
[1020] There are still somewhat similar superstitions in existence,
even in this country among others; it is not uncommonly believed that
meat will not take salt from the hands of a female during the discharge
of the catamenia.
[1021] This statement is without foundation.—B.
[1022] The fact is true, that females in whom the menstrual discharge
does not take place, are seldom, if ever, capable of conception; but it
does not depend on the cause here assigned. See the remarks of Cuvier,
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 82, and Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 173.—B.
[1023] Pliny clearly alludes to an opinion expressed by Galen, in which
he says, “that if women while giving suck, have sexual intercourse, the
milk becomes tainted.” Hardouin remarks, that Pliny shows considerable
caution here in bringing forward Nigidius as the propounder of these
opinions, the truth of which he himself seems to have doubted.
[1024] It is generally admitted, that the female is more disposed to
conceive just after the cessation of each periodical discharge. We are
informed by the French historians, that their king, Henry II., and his
wife Catharine, having been childless eleven years, made a successful
experiment of this description, by the advice of the physician Fernel;
see Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 83.—B.
[1025] This is one of the many idle tales referred to by Pliny,
entirely without foundation.—B.
[1026] This account is correct, to the extent that the first teeth that
appear are the two central incisors of the upper jaw; the next are the
two lower central incisors, then the upper lateral incisors, the lower
lateral incisors, and the upper and lower canines. The molars follow a
different order, the lower ones appearing before the upper.—B.
[1027] Hardouin mentions a number of authors who relate cases of this
nature. It is said to have taken place with our king Richard III.
See Shakespeare, Richard III., Act i. Scene 4. An individual of very
different character and fortune, Louis XIV., is said to have been born
with two teeth in the upper jaw.—B.
[1028] A town of Latium; we learn from Livy, B. i. c. 53, that it was
captured and plundered by Tarquinius Superbus, but he makes no mention
of Valeria. See B. iii. c. 9.
[1029] It is stated by Seneca, De Consol. c. 16, that Cornelia survived
a large family of children, all of whom were carried off early in life;
of these the two celebrated Gracchi, Tiberius and Caius, met with
violent deaths. The peculiarity here referred to, probably consisted
in an imperforated hymen, a mal-formation which not very unfrequently
exists, and requires a surgical operation.—B.
[1030] This circumstance is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B.
We learn from Plutarch, that the same was the case also with Pyrrhus,
king of Epirus: Euryphæus also, the Cyrenian, and Euryptolemus, the
king of Cyprus. Herodotus, B. ix., speaks of a skull found on the plain
of Platæa, with a similar conformation.
[1031] Although the teeth, and especially their enamel, form the most
indestructible substance which enters into the composition of the body,
it is not absolutely so; a certain proportion of them consisting of
animal matter, which is consumed, when exposed to a sufficient heat;
the earthy part may also be dissolved by the appropriate chemical
re-agents.—B.
[1032] Powerful acids for instance; but they destroy the enamel. Lord
Bacon recommends the ashes of tobacco as a whitener of the teeth; but
that has been found to have a similar effect.
[1033] We find in Haller, El. Phys. B. ix. c. 2, 4, 8, and in other
physiologists, a minute account of the effects produced by the teeth in
the articulation of the various letters which compose the alphabet.—B.
[1034] See B. iii. c. 3, and B. iv. c. 35. He does not say how many
teeth the Turduli naturally had, but no doubt he is mistaken.
[1035] Pliny repeats this statement in B. xi. c. 63, and extends it
to the females of the sheep, goat, and hog. In the natural condition
of the mouth, the number of the teeth is the same in both sexes; but,
according to the observations of Cuvier, what are called the “wisdom”
teeth, though occasionally deficient in both sexes, are most frequently
so in the female.—B.
[1036] He seems to allude to the younger Agrippina, the mother of
the emperor Domitius Nero; neither her life, her character, nor her
ultimate fate seem, however, to have entitled her to be called a
favourite of Fortune. Her mother, the first Agrippina, grand-daughter
of Augustus, appears, on the other hand, to have been a woman of
virtuous character, and spotless chastity, without a vice, with the
exception, perhaps, of ambition.
[1037] See B. x. c. 10.
[1038] It was one of the tenets of the Stoics, that the world was to be
alternately destroyed by water and by fire. The former element having
laid it waste on the occasion of the flood of Deucalion, the next great
catastrophe, according to them, is to be produced by fire. Pliny has
previously alluded to this opinion, B. ii. c. 110.—B.
[1039] Cuvier remarks, that in the alluvial tracts throughout Europe,
Siberia, and America, and probably also in other parts of the world,
bones have been found, which have belonged to very large animals, such
as elephants, mastodons, and whales; and when discovered, the common
people, and sometimes even anatomists, have mistaken them for the bones
of giants. He especially mentions the case of the bones of an elephant,
found near Lucerne, in the sixteenth century, and supposed by Plater
to have belonged to a man seventeen feet in height. Cuvier conceives
that no man in modern times has exceeded the height of seven feet,
and even these cases are extremely rare; for further information he
refers to his _Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles_. Some of the best
authenticated facts of unusually tall men are in Buffon, Nat. Hist.
vol. ii. p. 276, and vol. iii. p. 427.—B. The skeleton of O’Brien, in
the Museum of the College of Surgeons, in London, is about seven feet
and a half in height.
[1040] The story of the birth of Orion is beautifully told by Ovid,
Fasti, B. v. l. 493. _et seq._ He was often represented by the poets as
of gigantic stature, and after his death was fabled to have been placed
among the stars, where he appears as a giant. It is not improbable
that, like the Cyclopes, Hercules, and Atlas, he may have been one of
the earliest benefactors of mankind, and an assiduous improver of their
condition; whence the story of his gigantic size.
[1041] A gigantic son of Poseidon or Neptune, and Iphimedeia, one of
the Alöeidæ.
[1042] We have an account of this supposed discovery of the body of
Orestes in Herodotus, B. i. c. 68, and a reference to it, with some
pertinent remarks, in Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 10.—B.
[1043] Il. B. v. l. 303, 4, B. xii. l. 449: this opinion of Homer was
adopted by many of the Latin poets; for example, by Virgil, B. xii. l.
900; by Juvenal, Sat. xv. l. 69, 70; and by Horace, Od. B. iii. O. 6,
_sub finem_.
[1044] Columella speaks of Cicero as mentioning this Pollio, and
stating that he was a foot taller than any one else. It is most
probably in Cicero’s lost book, “De Admirandis,” that this mention was
made of him.
[1045] Hardouin supposes that this was not an individual name, but a
term derived from the Hebrew, descriptive of his remarkable size.—B. He
supposes also that not improbably this was the same individual that is
mentioned by Tacitus, Annals, B. xii. c. 12, as Acharus, a king of the
Arabians.
[1046] According to our estimate of the Roman measures, this would
correspond to about nine feet four and a half inches of our standard.—B.
[1047] “Conditorio Sallustianorum.” The more general meaning attributed
to the word “conditorium,” is “tomb” or burial-place. We learn from
other sources that the famous “gardens of Sallust” belonged to the
emperor Augustus, and it is not improbable that there was a museum
there of curiosities, in which these remarkable skeletons were kept.
[1048] “Loculis.” It is not quite clear whether this word has the
meaning here of chest or coffin, or of a niche or cavity made in the
wall of the tomb.
[1049] Among the objects of curiosity which were exhibited by Augustus
to the Roman people, as related by Suetonius, c. 43, was a dwarf named
Lucius, who is there described; but he would appear to be a different
person from any of those here mentioned.—B.
[1050] Seneca also mentions him in his Consolation to Marcia, c. 23.
[1051] The procurator of a province was an officer appointed by the
Cæsar to perform the duties discharged by the quæstor in the other
provinces.
[1052] We have an ingenious dissertation by Ajasson, the object of
which is to show, that the Tacitus here referred to, is not the
historian, but his father, and consequently, that the boy prematurely
born must have been the historian’s brother, not his son.—B.
[1053] It is not clear whether Pliny intended to apply all these three
observations to the female, or only the last of them; it appears,
however, that the remark is, in either case, without foundation.—B. He
appears to intend that his observations should apply more especially to
the strength of the arm.
[1054] This is incorrect; the human body, after death, does not float
until decomposition has commenced, when it becomes more or less
buoyant, in consequence of the formation of gases, which partially
distend the cavities; but we do not observe any difference in the two
sexes in this respect.—B.
[1055] This statement is altogether incorrect.—B.
[1056] The total abstinence from liquids in dropsy, was a point much
insisted upon by medical practitioners, even in modern times; but it is
now generally conceived to have been derived from a false theory, and
not to be essential to the cure of the disease, while it imposes upon
the patient a most severe privation. A moderate use of fluids is even
favourable to the operation of the remedies that are employed in this
disease.—B.
[1057] From the Greek ἀγελαστὸς, “one who does not laugh.” Cicero
refers to this peculiarity in the character of Crassus, in his treatise
De Finibus, B. v. c. 92; and in the Tusc. Quest. B. iii. c. 3, he
informs us, on the authority of Lucilius, that Crassus never laughed
but once in his life.—B. And then, on seeing a donkey eating thistles;
upon which he exclaimed, “Similem habent labia lactucam,” “Like lips,
like lettuce.”
[1058] “Without passion;” equivalent to our English word
“apathetical.”—B.
[1059] The daughter of M. Antony by Octavia. She was the mother of
Germanicus Cæsar, and the grandmother of the emperor Caligula, whom she
lived to see on the throne, and who is supposed to have hastened her
death. She was celebrated for her beauty and chastity—a rare virtue in
those days.
[1060] Pliny, B. xxxi. c. 45, says, that this state of the bones is
found in fishermen, from their being exposed to the action of the sea
and salt water; but both the fact and the supposed cause are without
foundation.—B.
[1061] “Cornei.”
[1062] It would appear that the Samnites were not only one of the
most warlike people, with whom the Romans had to contest in the
infancy of their state, but that they were particularly celebrated as
gladiators.—B.
[1063] The gladiators, called Samnites, were armed with the peculiar
“scutum,” or oblong shield, used by the Samnites, a greave on the left
leg, a sponger on the breast, and a helmet with a crest.
[1064] The term “nervus” was generally applied by the ancients to the
sinews or tendons; they had a very indistinct knowledge of what are
properly called the “nerves.”—B.
[1065] Pintianus suggests another reading here, which would appear to
be much more consistent with probability. “Inermi dextrâ superatum, et
uno digito postremo correptum in castra,” &c.—“Conquered him with the
right hand, and that unarmed, and then with a single finger dragged him
to the camp.”
[1066] “Rusticellus.”
[1067] Philonides has been already mentioned, B. ii. c. 73, as being in
the habit of going from Sicyon to Elis in nine hours.—B.
[1068] We may consult the learned notes of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. iii.
p. 99, respecting the exact distances here indicated by Pliny. We
may remark, that a stadium is about one-eighth of a mile, according
to which estimate, Philippides must have gone 142 miles in two days,
and the other 150 miles in one day; as it is implied, that these
journeys were performed on foot, even the former of them is obviously
impossible.—B. Query, however, as to this last assertion; according to
recent pedestrian feats, it does not appear to be absolutely impossible.
[1069] See B. ii. c. 72.
[1070] This feat is no less incredible than those mentioned above.—B.
[1071] We have an account of this journey of Tiberius in Dion Cassius.
Val. Maximus, B. v. c. 6, also enumerates this among the extraordinary
examples of fraternal affection.—B. We learn also from Suetonius, that
on learning the accident, a fall from his horse, which had happened to
his brother Drusus, Tiberius took horse at Ticinum, and travelled night
and day till he reached his brother, who was then in Germany, near the
Rhine. He accompanied the body to Rome, preceding it on foot all the
way. There is extant a “Consolation to Livia Augusta,” written on this
occasion, some have thought, by Pedo Albinovanus, but it is more likely
to have been the work of Ovid.
[1072] This statement must have been in some of his lost works.
[1073] Pliny probably here refers to a passage in the Acad. Quæst. B.
iv. c. 81, where Cicero speaks of a person who could see objects, it
was said, at a distance of 1800 stadia, equal exactly to 125 miles.—B.
[1074] The actual distance between the promontory of Sicily and the
nearest part of Carthage is between fifty and sixty miles. The acute
vision of Strabo is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B.
[1075] See also B. xxxvi. c. 4. He was a Lacedæmonian sculptor, who,
according to Athenæus, also executed embossed work on vases.
[1076] His works in ivory were said to have been so small, that they
could scarcely be seen without placing them on black hair.
[1077] Cicero, Acad. Quæst. B. iv. c. 120, speaks of “one Myrmecides,
a maker of minute objects of art;” Ælian, Vac. Hist. B. i. c. 17, also
speaks of these minute performances of Myrmecides, and styles them “a
waste of time.” Pliny, in a subsequent part of his work, B. xxxi. c. 4,
speaks of similar minute works, executed by these artists in marble;
but the account which he gives is scarcely credible.—B.
[1078] See B. xxxvi. c. 5.
[1079] It would appear that there is a little confusion here of events.
Sybaris, so noted for its luxury and effeminacy, was destroyed by the
people of Crotona, under the command of the athlete Milo, B.C. 510.
In B.C. 360. the Crotoniats were defeated at the river Sagras, by the
Locrians and Rhegians, 10,000 in number, although they are said to
have amounted to 130,000. Now it was on the occasion of this _latter
battle_, that, according to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. ii., the noise was
heard at Olympia, where the games were being celebrated. Be it as it
may, the story is clearly fabulous.
Evelyn is much more deserving of credit, where we find him stating in
his Diary, that in his garden, at Say’s Court, at Deptford, he heard
the guns fired in one of our engagements with the Dutch fleet, at a
distance thence of nearly 200 miles.]
[1080] Ajasson discusses at some length, the possibility of the fact
here mentioned, and concludes, that it is not to be credited: he
estimates the distance between these two places at 120 miles.—B.
[1081] As to the miraculous annunciation of the victory of Marius and
Catulus over the Cimbri, see B. ii. c. 58.
[1082] Meaning, thereby, the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux; who were
said to have announced at Rome the victory gained the day before by
Paulus Æmilius over King Perseus.
[1083] This circumstance is mentioned by Pausanias, in his Attica.
She was an Athenian hetæra, or courtesan, beloved by Aristogiton, or,
according to Athenæus, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchus, the
son of Pisistratus, she was put to the torture, being supposed to have
been privy to the conspiracy; but she died under her sufferings without
making any disclosure, and, according to one account, bit off her
tongue, that no secret might be betrayed by her. The Athenians erected
in her honour a bronze statue of a lioness (in reference to her name),
without a tongue, in the vestibule of the Acropolis.
[1084] This story is related by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also
alluded to by Cicero, Tus. Quæst. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. B.
ii. c. 33; but he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what
Pliny states of his biting off his tongue.—B. He was a philosopher of
Abdera, of the school of Democritus, and flourished about B.C. 340.
Towards Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted
the part of a base flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by
order of Nicocreon, king of Cyprus.
[1085] This statement is also made by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7.
Xenophon, Cyropædia, B. v., speaks of the retentive memory of Cyrus,
but considerably qualifies the account here given: he says that Cyrus
knew the names of all his commanders or prefects, and of all those to
whom he had occasion to give particular orders.—B.
[1086] This account is similar to that given by Val. Maximus, B.
viii. c. 7, and by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii. c. 7. We have a learned
dissertation by Ajasson, in which he discusses the possibility of one
individual understanding so great a number of languages, as well as the
question, whether it is possible that so great a number of languages
were spoken by the subjects of Mithridates. His conclusions greatly
tend to prove both these points; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 295.—B.
[1087] This invention is referred to by Cicero, De Nat. Deor., B. ii.
c. 86. Cicero also speaks of the remarkable powers of memory possessed
by Charmidas and Metrodorus, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 88, and Tusc. Quæst.
B. i. c. 24.—B.
[1088] Ajasson gives an account of some of the principal writers in
what has been termed the science of Mnemonics, or artificial memory:
he particularly commends the lectures of Aimé of Paris on the subject;
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 310, _et seq._—B.
[1089] This circumstance is related by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B.
[1090] This is not always the case. In dreams we often recollect past
events and localities; we know in what part of the world we are, and
even remember the substance of former dreams, and the fact that we have
dreamt of a similar subject before.
[1091] The conqueror of Syracuse, and five times consul at Rome. He was
Born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, B.C. 208,
in the vicinity of Venusia.
[1092] Ajasson remarks concerning the number of battles in which
Cæsar is said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much
exceeded by some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an
individual, “who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so
reigned much too long,” was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles.—B.
[1093] Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from
their strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated.
[1094] This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch
mentions a similar circumstance with respect to Pompey.—B.
[1095] Or Bacchus.—“Father Liber” is the name always given to him by
Pliny.
[1096] “Magnus.” Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa,
Sylla saluted him with the name of “Magnus,” which surname he ever
afterwards retained.—B.
[1097] Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to be
granted to any one who was not either consul or prætor.—B.
[1098] Sertorius had joined the party of Marius and Cinna, in
opposition to that of Sylla. He fled into Spain, and maintained the war
successfully in that country, until he was treacherously assassinated
by one of his supposed partisans. This may appear a sufficient reason
for his not being mentioned by Pompey.—B.
[1099] “Toties imperator antequam miles.” He had been raised to the
highest rank without passing through the various gradations of military
life.—B.
[1100] Speaking of this honorary crown, Pliny says, B. xvi. c. 4, “At
the present day it is not given to the victor himself, but proclamation
is made that he confers the crown upon his country.”
[1101] It is noticed by the commentators, that Aulus Gellius, speaking
of this building, calls it the Temple of Victory, B. x. c. 1; the
error, it is supposed, may have arisen from Pompey having placed a
statue of Victory in the Temple.—B.
[1102] 29th of September.
[1103] Pliny, referring to these events, in a subsequent place, B.
xxvii. c. 6, says that it took place “pridie Kalend. Octob. die
natalis sui.” Plutarch informs us, that the triumph lasted two days, a
circumstance which may assist us in reconciling these dates. The same
author gives a very minute detail of all the transactions here referred
to.—B.
[1104] According to the chronology ordinarily adopted, this would be in
the year of the City 692.—B.
[1105] By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work,
the ancients often designated not the large tract to which we now apply
the name, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the
Ægean sea.—B.
[1106] See B. xiv. c. 5.
[1107] Val. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time.—B.
[1108] We meet with a passage in Livy, B. xxxix. c. 44, illustrative
of this view of Cato’s character. In Cicero’s treatise, De Senectute,
where Cato bears a prominent part, frequent allusion is made to the
strictness and even severity of his principles, although the general
impression which we receive of his character and manners is highly
interesting, and, upon the whole, not unamiable.—B.
[1109] Plutarch says, that nearly fifty impeachments were brought
against him, the last when he was eighty-six years of age.—B.
[1110] There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining who was
the individual here referred to; the subject is discussed at some
length by Hardouin, who shows that it is probable, that it was Lucius
Cæcilius, who was slain in a battle with the Gauls, A.U.C. 470, and in
the consulship of Dolabella and Domitius.—B.
[1111] The name of this consul has been the subject of much discussion
among the commentators. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, has been referred to, as
calling him Atermius; but in some of the best editions, he is named
Aterius. The tribunate of Dentatus took place A.U.C. 299, fifty-five
years after the expulsion of the kings.—B.
[1112] When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally
engaged, he took possession of some part of his armour and dress, which
might bear testimony to the victory; this was termed the “spolium.”—B.