Solinus: DE MIRABILIBUS MUNDI C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847)

I. De origine urbis Romæ et temporibus ejus, de diebus intercalaribus, de genitura hominis, et his quæ memorabilia in hominibus fuere, de alectorio lapide.

1. On the origin of the city of Rome and its times, on intercalary days, on human geniture, and those things which were memorable in men, on the alectorian stone.

Sunt, qui videri velint, Romæ vocabulum ab Evandro primum datum, quum oppidum ibi offendisset, quod extructum antea Valentiam dixerat juventus Latina: servataque significatione impositi prius nominis, Romam Græce Valentiam nominatam: quam Arcades quoniam in excelsa habitassent parte montis, derivatum deinceps ut tutissima urbium arces vocarentur. Heraclidi placet, Troja capta quosdam ex Achivis in ea loca, ubi nunc Roma est, devenisse per Tiberim, deinde suadente Rome, nobilissima captivarum, quæ his comes erat, incensis navibus, posuisse sedes, instruxisse mœnia, et oppidum ab ea Romen vocavisse. Agathocles scribit Romen non captivam fuisse, ut supradictum est; sed ab Ascanio natam, Æneæ neptem, appellationis istius causam fuisse.

There are those who would have it appear that the name of Rome was first given by Evander, when he came upon a town there which the Latin youth had previously called Valentia when it was built; and, the signification of the earlier imposed name being preserved, Rome in Greek was named “Valentia”; which, since the Arcadians had dwelt on the lofty part of the hill, was thereafter derived so that the citadels of cities, as the safest, were called “arces.” It pleases Heraclides that, when Troy was taken, certain of the Achaeans came down into those places where Rome now is by way of the Tiber, and then, at the persuasion of Rhome, the noblest of the captive women, who was their companion, the ships having been set on fire, they established their seats, built walls, and called the town Rhome after her. Agathocles writes that Rhome was not a captive, as was said above, but born from Ascanius, granddaughter of Aeneas, and that she was the cause of that appellation.

Traditur etiam proprium Romæ nomen, et verum magis, quod nunquam in vulgum venit, sed vetitum publicari, quandoquidem quo minus enuntiaretur, cerimoniarum arcana sanxerunt, ut hoc pacto noticiam eius aboleret fides placite taciturnitatis. Denique Valerius Soranus, quod contra interdictum id eloqui ausus foret; ob meritum profanæ vocis neci datum. Inter antiquissimas sane religiones sacellum colitur Angeronæ, cui sacrificatur ante diem duodecimum kalendarum januariarum: quæ diva præsul silentii istius prænexo obsignatoque ore simulachrum habet.

It is also handed down that Rome has a proper name—and a truer one—which never came into the common crowd, but was forbidden to be published, since the arcana of the ceremonies sanctioned that it not be uttered, so that in this way the knowledge of it might be abolished by the faith of agreed taciturnity. Finally, Valerius Soranus, because he dared to speak it contrary to the interdict, was given over to death for the desert of a profane utterance. Assuredly, among the most ancient rites a shrine of Angerona is venerated, to whom sacrifice is offered on the twelfth day before the Kalends of January (December 21): this goddess, the patroness of that silence, has an image with the mouth bound and sealed.

De temporibus Urbis conditæ ambiguitatum quæstiones excitavit, quod quædam ibi multo ante Romulum culta sint. Quippe ante aram Hercules, quam voverat, si amissas boves reperisset, punito Caco, Patri Inventori dicavit. Qui Cacus habitavit locum, cui Salinæ nomen est, ubi Trigemina nunc porta.

Questions of ambiguities about the times of the City’s founding have been stirred up, because certain things there were worshiped long before Romulus. For indeed, earlier, Hercules dedicated the altar—which he had vowed, if he should recover the lost oxen—Cacus having been punished, to the Father-Inventor. This Cacus dwelt in the place which has the name Salinae, where now is the Trigemina Gate.

Hic ut Gellius tradit, quum ab Tarchone Tyrreno, ad quem legatus venerat missu Marsyæ regis, socio Megale Phryge, custodiæ foret datus, frustratus vincula, et unde venerat redux, præsidiis amplioribus occupato circa Vulternum et Campaniam regno, dum attrectat etiam quæ concesserant in Arcadum jura, duce Hercule, qui tunc forte aderat, oppressus est. Megalen Sabini receperunt, disciplinam augurandi ab eo docti.

Here, as Gellius relates, when by Tarchon the Tyrrhenian— to whom he had come as a legate sent by King Marsyas— together with his associate Megale the Phrygian, he had been consigned to custody, having foiled his bonds and returned back to whence he had come, the realm around the Volturnus and Campania having been occupied with stronger garrisons, while he was even laying hands on those things which had been conceded into the rights of the Arcadians, with Hercules as leader, who then by chance was present, he was crushed. The Sabines received Megale, having been taught from him the discipline of augury.

Suo quoque numini idem Hercules instituit aram, quæ Maxima apud pontifices habetur, quum se ex Nicostrata, Evandri matre, quæ a vaticinio Carmentis dicta est, immortalem comperisset fore: conseptum etiam intra quod ritus sacrorum, factis bovicidiis, docuit Potitios. Hoc sacellum Herculi in boario foro est, in quo argumenta et convivii et majestatis ipsius remanent: nam divinitus illo neque canibus neque muscis ingressus est. Et enim cum viscerationem sacricolis daret, Myagrum deum dicitur imprecatus; clavam vero in aditu reliquisse, cuius olfactum refugerent canes; id usque nunc durat.

Hercules likewise established an altar to his own divinity (numen), which is held among the pontifices as the Ara Maxima, when he had learned from Nicostrata, the mother of Evander—who, on account of vaticination, is called Carmentis—that he would be immortal: he also taught the Potitii the enclosed precinct within which the rites of the sacra, with ox-slaughters performed, were to be done. This little shrine of Hercules is in the Forum Boarium, in which proofs both of the banquet and of his majesty remain: for, by divine agency, neither dogs nor flies have entered there. And indeed, when he gave the distribution of entrails to the worshipers, he is said to have invoked the god Myagrum; and he left his club at the entrance, at whose smell dogs would flee; this endures even to this day.

Aedem etiam quæ Saturni ærarium fertur, comites ejus condiderunt in honorem Saturni, quem cultorem regionis illius cognoverunt extitisse. Iidem et montem Capitolinum Saturnium nominaverunt. Castelli quoque, quod excitaverant, portam Saturniam apellaverunt, quæ postmodum Pandana vocitata est.

The temple also which is called the Treasury of Saturn, his companions founded in honor of Saturn, whom they learned had been a cultivator of that region. The same men also named the Capitoline hill Saturnian. They likewise called the gate of the fort which they had raised the Saturnian Gate, which afterwards was commonly called the Pandana.

Pars infima et Capitolini montis habitaculum Carmenti fuit, ubi et Carmentis nunc fanum est, a qua Carmentali portæ nomen datum est. Palatinum nemo dubitaverit, quin Arcades habeat auctores, a quibus primum Pallanteum oppidum: quod aliquandiu Aborigines habitatum, propter incomodum vicinæ paludis, quam præterfluens Tiberis fecerat, profecti Reate, postmodum reliquerunt. Sunt, qui velint a balatibus ovium mutata littera, vel a Pale pastorali dea, aut, ut Silenus probat, a Palantho Hyperborei filia, quam Hercules ibi compresisse visus est, nomen monti adaptatum.

The lowest part and habitation of the Capitoline hill belonged to Carmentis, where even now there is the shrine of Carmentis, from whom the Carmental Gate received its name. As for the Palatine, no one will doubt that it has the Arcadians as founders, by whom at first the town Pallanteum was established: which for some time was inhabited by the Aborigines, but, because of the inconvenience of the neighboring marsh which the Tiber flowing past had made, having set out for Reate, they afterward left it. There are those who would have it that, with a letter changed, the name was fitted to the hill from the bleatings of sheep, or from Pales the pastoral goddess, or, as Silenus approves, from Palantho, daughter of the Hyperborean, whom Hercules is said to have embraced there.

Sed quamquam ista sic congruant palam est, prospero illi augurio deberi Romani nominis gloriam, maxime quum annorum ratio faciat cardinem veritati: nam ut affirmat Varro, auctor diligentissimus, Romam condidit Romulus, Marte genitus et Rhea Silvia: vel, ut nonnulli, Marte et Ilia: dictaque est primum Roma Quadrata, quod ad æquilibrium foret posita.

But although these things thus agree, it is clear that to that prosperous augury the glory of the Roman name is owed, especially since the reckoning of years makes the hinge for truth: for, as Varro, a most diligent author, affirms, Rome was founded by Romulus, begotten of Mars and Rhea Silvia: or, as some, by Mars and Ilia: and it was first called Roma Quadrata, because it had been set according to the level.

Ea incipit a silva, quæ est in area Apollinis, et ad supercilium scalarum Caci habet terminum, ubi tugurium fuit Faustuli. Ibi Romulus mansitavit qui auspicato murorum fundamenta jecit duodeviginti natus annos, undecimo kalendas maias, hora post secundam ante tertiam plenam: sicut Lucius Tarruntius prodidit, mathematicorum nobilissimus, Jove in piscibus, Saturno, Venere, Marte, Mercurio in Scorpione, Sole in Tauro, Luna in Libra constitutis. Et observatum deinceps, ne qua hostia Parilibus cæderetur, ut dies ista a sanguine purus esset, cujus significationem de partu Iliæ tractam volunt.

It begins from the grove which is in the precinct of Apollo, and has its boundary at the brow of the steps of Cacus, where the hut of Faustulus was. There Romulus dwelt, who, having taken the auspices, laid the foundations of the walls, eighteen years old, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, at the hour after the second and before the third complete: just as Lucius Tarruntius, most renowned of the astrologers, has reported, with Jove in Pisces, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Mercury in Scorpio, the Sun in Taurus, the Moon in Libra. And it was thereafter observed that no victim be slain at the Parilia, that this day might be pure from blood, whose signification they wish to have been drawn from the childbirth of Ilia.

Idem Romulus regnavit annos septem et triginta. De Cæninensibus egit primum triumphum, et Acroni regi eorum detraxit spolia, qua Jovi Feretrio primus suspendit, et opima dixit. Rursum de Antemnatibus triumphavit.

The same Romulus reigned for 37 years. He celebrated his first triumph over the Caeninenses, and stripped the spoils from Acron, their king—spoils which he was the first to suspend to Jupiter Feretrius, and he declared them the spolia opima. Again he triumphed over the Antemnates.

De Veientibus tertio. Apud Capreæ paludem nonis quintilibus apparere desiit. Ceteri reges quibus locis habitaverunt, dicemus.

He triumphed over the Veientes for the third time. At the Goat Marsh he ceased to appear on the Nones of Quintilis. We shall say in what places the other kings dwelt.

Tatius in arce, ubi nunc est ædes Junonis Monetæ: qui anno quinto, postquam ingressus Urbem fuerat, a Laurentibus interemptus, septima et vicesima olympiade hominem exivit. Numa in colle primum Quirinali. Deinde propter ædem Vestæ in Regia, quæ adhuc ita appellatur: qui regnavit annis tribus et quadraginta, sepultus sub Janiculo.

Tatius on the citadel, where now is the temple of Juno Moneta: who, in the fifth year after he had entered the City, was slain by the Laurentes, and in the twenty-seventh Olympiad departed this life. Numa on the hill first, the Quirinal. Then near the temple of Vesta in the Regia, which is still so called: he reigned forty-three years, buried beneath the Janiculum.

Tullus Hostilius in Velia, ubi postea deum Penatium ædes facta est: qui regnavit annos duos et triginta, obiit olympiade quinta et tricesima. Ancus Martius, in summa Sacra via, ubi ædes Larum est: qui regnavit annos quatuor et viginti, obiit olympiade prima et quadragesima. Tarquinius Priscus ad Mugoniam portam supra summam Novam viam: qui regnavit annos septem et triginta.

Tullus Hostilius on the Velia, where afterward a temple of the Penates was made: he reigned 32 years, he died in the 35th Olympiad. Ancus Martius, at the summit of the Sacred Way, where the temple of the Lares is: he reigned 24 years, he died in the 41st Olympiad. Tarquinius Priscus at the Mugonian Gate above the top of the Nova Via: he reigned 37 years.

Servius Tullius Esquiliis supra clivum Urbium: qui regnavit annos duos et quadraginta. Tarquinius Superbus, et ipse Esquiliis supra clivum Pullium ad Fagutalem lacum: qui regnavit annos quinque et viginti.

Servius Tullius on the Esquiline above the Clivus Urbium: who reigned forty-two years. Tarquinius Superbus, he too on the Esquiline above the Clivus Pullius at the Fagutal lake: who reigned twenty-five years.

Cincio Romam duodecima olympiade placet conditam; Pictori octava; Nepoti et Lutatio, opinionem Erathostenis et Appollodori comprobantibus, olympiadis septimæ anno secundo: Pomponio Attico et M. Tullio olympiadis sextæ anno tertio. Collatis igitur nostris et Græcorum temporibus, invenimus, incipiente olympiade septima Romam conditam, anno post Ilium captum quadringentesimo tricesimo tertio. Quippe certamen Olympicum, quod Hercules in honorem atavi materni Pelopis ediderat, intermissum Iphitus Eleus instauravit, post excidium Trojæ, anno quadringentesimo ocatavo.

Cincius is pleased that Rome was founded in the twelfth Olympiad; to Pictor, the eighth; to Nepos and Lutatius, approving the opinion of Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, in the second year of the seventh Olympiad; to Pomponius Atticus and M. Tullius, in the third year of the sixth Olympiad. Therefore, comparing our times with those of the Greeks, we find that, with the seventh Olympiad beginning, Rome was founded in the 433rd year after Ilium was captured. Indeed, the Olympic contest, which Hercules had put on in honor of his maternal forefather Pelops, having been intermitted, Iphitus the Eleian restored in the 408th year after the destruction of Troy.

Ergo ab Iphito numeratur olympias prima. Ita sex mediis olympiadibus interjectis, quibus singulis anni quaterni imputantur cum septima cœptante, Roma condita sit, inter exortum Urbis et Trojam captam, jure esse annos quadringentos et triginta tres constat. Huic argumento illud accedit, qui cum Caius Pompeius Gallus et Quintus Verannius Urbis conditæ anno octingentesimo primo fuerint consules, consulatu eorum olympias septima et ducentesima actis publicis annotata est.

Therefore from Iphitus the first Olympiad is counted. Thus, with six intermediate Olympiads interposed, to each of which 4 years are reckoned, with the seventh beginning, Rome was founded; it is established by right that between the rise of the City and the capture of Troy there are 433 years. To this argument there is added this fact: that when Caius Pompeius Gallus and Quintus Verannius were consuls in the 801st year from the founding of the City, in their consulship the 207th Olympiad was recorded in the public acts.

Quarter ergo multiplicatis sex et ducentis olympiadibus erunt anni octingenti viginti quatuor, quibus de septimæ olympiade annectendus primus annus est, ut in solido colligantur octingenti viginti quinque. Ex qua summa detractis viginti annos, et quatuor olympiadum retro sex, manifeste anni octingenti et unus reliqui fient. Quapropter cum octingentesimo primo anno Urbis conditæ ducentesima septima olympias computetur, par est Romam septimæ olympiadis anno primo credi conditam.

Therefore, with two hundred and six Olympiads multiplied by four, there will be 824 years, to which the first year of the seventh Olympiad must be annexed, so that in the whole 825 are gathered. From which total, with twenty-four years subtracted, clearly 801 years remain. Wherefore, since in the 801st year from the City’s founding the 207th Olympiad is reckoned, it is fitting to believe that Rome was founded in the first year of the seventh Olympiad.

In qua regnatum est annis ducentis quadraginta tribus.

In which there was rule for 243 years.

Decemviri creati anno trecentesimo secundo. Primum Punicum bellum anno quadringentesimo octogesimo nono. Secundum quingentesimo tricesimo quinto.

The decemvirs were created in the year 302. The First Punic War in the year 489. The Second in 535.

Tertium sexcentesimo quarto. Sociale sexcentesimo sexagesimo secundo. Ad Hircium et Caium Pansam consules anni septingenti et decem: quorum consulatu Cæsar Augustus est consul creatus, octavum decimum annum agens: qui principatum ita ingressus est, ut vigilantia illius uon modo securum, verum etiam tutum imperium esset.

The third, in year 604. The Social War, in year 662. To Hirtius and Gaius Pansa as consuls, year 710: in whose consulship Caesar Augustus was created consul, being in his 18th year: who entered upon the principate in such a way that, through his vigilance, the empire was not only secure but also safe.

Quod tempus ferme solum repertum est, quo plurimum et arma cessaverint, et ingenia floruerint, scilicet ne inerti justitio languerent virtutis opera, bellis quiescentibus.

This period has been found almost the only one in which, for the most part, both arms ceased and talents flourished, namely lest the works of virtue should languish in inert cessation, with the wars being quiet.

Tunc ergo primum cursus anni perspecta ratio est, quæ a rerum origine profunda caligine tegebatur. Nam ante Augustum Cæsarem incerto modo annum computabant, qui apud Ægyptios quatuor mensibus terminabatur, apud Arcadas tribus, apud Acarnanas sex, in Italia apud Lavinios tredecim, quorum annus trecentis septuaginta et quatuor diebus ferebatur. Romani initio annum decem mensibus computaverunt, a Martio auspicantes, adeo ut ejus die prima de annis vestalibus ignes accenderent, mutarent veteribus virides laureas, senatus et populus comitia agerent, matronæ servis suis cœnas ponerent, sicuti Saturnalibus domini: illæ, ut per honores promptius obsequium provocarent; hi quasi gratiam repensarent perfecti laboris: maximeque hunc mensem principem testatur fuisse, quod qui ab hoc quintus erat, quintilis dictus est, deinde numero decurrente, december solemnem circuitum finiebat intra diem trecentesimum quartum: tunc enim iste munerus explebat annum, ita ut sex menses tricenum dierum essent, quatuor reliqui tricenis et singulis expedirentur.

Then therefore for the first time the method of the course of the year was clearly seen, which from the origin of things had been covered in deep obscurity. For before Augustus Caesar they computed the year in an uncertain way: among the Egyptians it was limited to four months, among the Arcadians to three, among the Acarnanians to six, in Italy among the Lavinians to thirteen, whose year was reckoned at 374 days. The Romans at the beginning computed the year by ten months, taking auspices from March, to such a degree that on its first day they would light the fires for the Vestal yearly rites, change out the old for fresh green laurels, the senate and people would hold the comitia, matrons would set dinners for their slaves, just as masters do at the Saturnalia: the former, in order to call forth readier obedience by honors; the latter, as though repaying a favor for work completed. And this month is especially attested to have been the chief, because the one which was fifth from this was called Quintilis; then, as the numbering ran on, December finished the solemn circuit within the 304th day: for then this reckoning fulfilled the year, in such a way that six months were of thirty days, the remaining four were set at thirty-one each.

Sed quum ratio illa ante Numam a luna cursu discreparet, lunari computatione annum peræquarunt, quinquaginta et uno die auctis. Ut ergo perficerent duodecim menses, de sex mensibus superioribus detraxerunt dies singulos, eosque quinquaginta istis et uno diebus adnexuerunt, factique quinquaginta septem divisi sunt in duos menses, quorum alter novem et viginti, alter octo et viginti dies detinebant. Sic annus habere quinque atque quinquaginta et trecentos dies cœpit.

But since that reckoning before Numa diverged from the course of the moon, they equalized the year by lunar computation, increased by fifty-one days. Therefore, in order to complete twelve months, they subtracted single days from the six earlier months, and they added those to these fifty-one days; and the fifty-seven thus made were divided into two months, of which one contained twenty-nine days, the other twenty-eight. Thus the year began to have 355 days.

Postmodum, quum perspicerent, temere annum clausum intra dies, quos supra diximus, quandoquidem appareret, solis meatum non ante trecentesimum sexagesimum quintum diem, abundante insuper quadrantis particula, zodiacum conficere decursum; quadrantem illum et decem dies addiderunt, ut ad liquidum annus trecentis diebus sexaginta quinque et quadrante constaret, hortante observatione imparis numeri, quem Pythagoras monuit præponi in omnibus oportere. Unde propter dies impares, diis superis et januarius dicatur et martius: propter pares februarius, quasi ominosus, diis inferis deputatur. Quum itaque hæc definitio toto orbe placuisset, custodiendi quadrantis gratia, a diversis gentibus varie intercalabatur, nec unquam tamen ad liquidum fiebat temporum peræquatio.

Afterwards, when they perceived that the year had been recklessly closed within the days we mentioned above, since it appeared that the sun’s passage does not complete the circuit of the zodiac before the three-hundred sixty-fifth day, with a surplus besides of a quarter-part fraction, they added that quarter and ten days, so that the year might consist precisely of three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter, the observation of the odd number urging it on, which Pythagoras admonished ought to be preferred in all things. Whence, on account of odd days, both January and March are said to belong to the gods above; on account of even days February, as if ominous, is assigned to the gods below. When therefore this determination had pleased the whole world, for the sake of preserving the quarter, intercalation was made variously by different peoples, nor yet was the equalization of the times ever brought to a clear exactness.

Græci ergo singulis annis undecim dies et quadrantem detrahebant, eosque octies multiplicatos in anno nonum reservabant, ut contractus nonagenarius numerus in tres menses per tricenos dies scinderetur: qui anno nono restituti efficiebant dies quadringentos quadraginta quatuor, quos embolimos, vel hyperballontas nominabant.

Therefore the Greeks subtracted eleven days and a quarter each year, and, multiplied eight times, they reserved them in the ninth year, so that the contracted number of ninety might be split into three months of thirty days apiece: which, restored in the ninth year, made four hundred forty-four days, which they named embolimos, or hyperballontas.

Quod quum in initio Romani probassent, contemplatione parilis numeri offensi neglectum brevi perdiderunt, translata in sacerdotes intercalandi potestate: qui plerumque gratificantes rationibus publicanorum, pro libidine sua subtrahebant tempora, vel augebant. Quum hæc sic forent constituta, modusque intercalandi interdum cumulatior, interdum fieret imminutior, vel omnino dissimulatus præteriretur, nonnunquam accidebat ut menses qui fuerant transacti hieme, modo æstivum, modo autumnale tempus inciderent. Itaque Cæsar universam hanc inconstantiam, incisa temporum turbatione, composuit, et, ut statum certum præteritus error acciperet, dies viginti et unum et quadrantem simul intercalavit: quo pacto regradati menses, de cetero statuta ordinis sui tempora detinerent.

Although the Romans at the beginning had approved this, being offended by the contemplation of an even number, they shortly lost it through neglect, the power of intercalating having been transferred to the priests: who, for the most part gratifying the calculations of the publicans, subtracted times at their own libido, or increased them. When these things were thus constituted, and the mode of intercalating sometimes became more cumulate, sometimes more diminished, or altogether, being dissimulated, was allowed to pass by, it would sometimes happen that months which had been spent in winter fell now in the summer season, now in the autumnal. Therefore Caesar, the disturbance of the times having been cut into, composed all this inconstancy, and, that the past error might receive a fixed status, intercalated at once twenty-one days and a quarter: by which pact the months, having been brought back, thereafter would hold the times established of their own order.

Ille ergo annus solus trecentos quatuor et quadraginta dies habuit: alii deinceps trecentenos sexagenos quinos et quadrantem, et tunc quoque vitium admissum est per sacerdotes. Nam quum præceptum esset, anno quarto ut intercalarent unum diem, et oporteret confecto quarto anno id observari ante quam quintus auspicaretur, illi incipiente quarto intercalarunt, non desinente. Sic per annos sex et triginta quum novem dies tantummodo sufficere debuissent, duodecim sunt intercalati.

Therefore that year alone had three hundred forty-four days; the others thereafter had three hundred sixty-five and a quarter, and even then a fault was committed by the priests. For whereas it had been prescribed that in the fourth year they should intercalate one day, and it ought, with the fourth year completed, to be observed before the fifth was auspicated, they intercalated at the beginning of the fourth, not at its end. Thus over thirty-six years, whereas only nine days ought to have sufficed, twelve were intercalated.

Quod reprehensum Augustus reformavit, jussitque annos duodecim sine intercalatione decurrere, ut tres illi dies, qui ultra novem necessarios temere fuerant intercalati, hoc modo possent repensari. Ex qua disciplina omnium postea temporum fundata ratio est.

Which, having been censured, Augustus reformed, and he ordered twelve years to run without intercalation, so that those three days, which had been rashly intercalated beyond the nine required, might in this way be compensated. From this discipline the reckoning of all subsequent times was established.

Verum quum hoc, et multa alia Augusti temporibus debeantur, qui pæne sine exemplo rerum potitus est, tanta et tot in vita ejus inveniuntur adversa, ut non sit facile discernere, calamitosior an beatior fuerit. Primum, quod apud avunculum in petitione magisterii equitum prælatus est ei Lepidus tribunus, cum quadam auspicantium cœptorum nota; mox triumviratus collegium præ gravi potestate Antonii; Philippensis inde proscriptionis invidia; abdicatio Postumi Agrippæ post adoptionem; deinde desiderio ejus insignis pœnitentia; naufragia Sicula; turpis ibi in spelunca occultatio; seditiones militum plurimæ; Perusina cura; detectum filiæ adulterium, et voluntas parricidalis; nec minore dedecore neptis infamia; incusatæ mortes filiorum: et amissis liberis non solus orbitatis dolor; Urbis pestilentia, fames Italiæ, bellum Illyricum, angustiæ rei militaris, corpus morbidum, contumeliosa dissensio privigni Neronis, uxoris etiam et Tiberii cogitationes parum fidæ, atque in hunc modum plura. Hujus tamen suprema quasi lugeret seculum, penuria insequuta est frugum omnium; ac ne fortuitum, quod acciderat, videretur, imminentia mala non dubiis signis apparuerunt: nam Fausta quædam ex plebe, partu uno edidit quatuor geminos, mares duos, totidemque feminas, monstruosa fecunditate portendens futura calamitatis indicium: quamvis Trogus auctor affirmet in Ægypto septenos uno utero simul gigni: quod ibi minus mirum, quum fœtifero potu Nilus, non tantum terrarum, sed etiam hominum, materna fecundet arva.

Yet although this, and many other things, are owed to the times of Augustus, who almost without example obtained mastery of affairs, so great and so many adversities are found in his life that it is not easy to discern whether he was more calamitous or more blessed. First, that before his uncle, in his candidacy for the mastership of the horse, Lepidus the tribune was preferred to him, with a certain mark upon the auspices of his undertakings; next, in the triumvirate, the collegium was under the grave power of Antony; then the odium of the Philippian proscription; the disowning of Agrippa Postumus after adoption; then, a conspicuous repentance with longing for him; Sicilian shipwrecks; a shameful hiding there in a cave; very many mutinies of the soldiers; the Perusine distress; his daughter’s adultery discovered, and a parricidal intention; and, with no less disgrace, the infamy of his granddaughter; the deaths of his sons brought into accusation: and, his children lost, not the sorrow of bereavement alone; a pestilence of the City, a famine of Italy, the Illyrian war, straits of the military establishment, a morbid body, the contumelious dissension of the stepson Nero, the not very faithful designs of his wife also and of Tiberius, and many more in this manner. Yet at his last, as though the age were mourning, a scarcity of all grains followed; and, lest what had occurred might seem fortuitous, impending evils appeared by no doubtful signs: for a certain Fausta from the plebs, in a single birth, brought forth four twins, two males and just as many females, by monstrous fecundity portending a token of coming calamity: although the author Trogus affirms that in Egypt seven are begotten at once in one womb: which there is less marvelous, since by its procreative draught the Nile, with maternal nurture, fertilizes the fields not only of the lands but also of human beings.

Legimus Cnæum Pompeium Eutychidem feminam Asia exhibitam, quam constabat tricies enixam, quum viginti ejus liberis in theatro suo publicasse. Unde competens hoc loco duco super hominis generatione tractare.

We read that Gnaeus Pompeius exhibited a woman Eutychis from Asia, who was held to have given birth thirty times, while he publicly displayed twenty of her children in his own theater. Whence I deem it fitting in this place to treat concerning the generation of man.

Etenim quum de animalibus, quæ digna dictu videbuntur, prout patria cujusque admonebit, simus notaturi, jure ab eo potissimum ordiemur, quod rerum natura sensus judicio, et rationis capacitate præposuit omnibus. Itaque, ut Democritus physicus ostendit, mulier solum animal menstruale est, cujus profluvia non parvis spectata documentis, inter monstrifica merito numerantur. Contactæ his fruges non germinabunt, acescent musta, morientur herbæ, amittent arbores fœtus, ferrum rubigo corripiet, nigrescent æra. Si quid canes inde ederint, in rabiem efferabuntur nocituri morsibus, quibus lymphaticos faciunt.

For indeed, since we are about to note concerning animals those things which will seem worthy of mention, as the homeland of each will suggest, by right we shall begin above all from that which the nature of things has set before all by the judgment of sense and the capacity of reason. And so, as Democritus the natural philosopher shows, woman is the only menstruating animal, whose outflows, observed by no small evidences, are rightly numbered among monstrous-portentous things. Grain touched by these will not germinate, musts will turn acid, herbs will die, trees will lose their offspring (fruit), rust will seize iron, bronzes will blacken. If dogs eat any of it, they will be driven into rabies, ready to harm with their bites, by which they make people frantic.

Parva hæc sunt: bitumen in Judæa Asphaltites gignit lacus, adeo lentum mollitie glutinosa, ut a se nequeat separari: enimvero si abrumpere partem velis, universitas sequetur: scindique non potest, quoniam in quantum ducatur, extenditur; sed ubi admota fuerint cruore illo polluta fila, sponte dispergitur, et applicita tabe diducitur paulo ante corpus unum, fitque de tenacitate connexa contagione partitio repentina. Habet plane illud in se solum salutare, quod avertit sidus Helenæ perniciosissimum navigantibus. Ceterum ipsæ feminæ, quibus munus est necessitatis hujusmodi, quamdiu sunt in sua lege, non innocentibus oculis contuentur; aspectu specula vitiant, ita ut hebetetur visu fulgor offensus, et solitam æmulationem vultus exstinctu splendor amittat, faciesque obtusi nitoris quadam caligine nubiletur.

These are small things: in Judaea the Asphaltites lake produces bitumen, so slow in gluey softness that it cannot be separated from itself; indeed if you should wish to break off a part, the whole will follow; nor can it be cleft, since to whatever extent it is drawn, it is extended; but when threads stained with that gore have been brought near, it disperses of its own accord, and by the applied taint the body that a little before was one is drawn apart, and from a tenacity knit together, by contagion there is a sudden partition. It clearly has this one thing healthful in itself, that it averts the star of Helen, most pernicious to those navigating. Moreover, the women themselves, to whom belongs the office of a necessity of this kind, so long as they are in their own law, do not look with innocent eyes; by their gaze they vitiate mirrors, so that the brilliance, offended by the sight, is dulled, and the accustomed emulation of the face loses its splendor by extinction, and the countenance is clouded with a certain dimness of blunted luster.

Mulierum aliæ in æternum steriles sunt; aliæ mutatis conjugiis exuunt sterilitatem. Nonnullæ tantum semel pariunt; quædam aut feminas, aut mares semper. Post annum quinquagesimum fecunditas omnium conquiescit; nam in annum octogesimum viri generant, sicuti Masinissa rex Mathumannum filium octogesimum et sextum annum agens genuit.

Some women are sterile in perpetuity; others, with marriages changed, cast off sterility. Some bear only once; certain ones always bear either females or males. After the 50th year the fecundity of all ceases; for men beget into the 80th year, just as Masinissa the king, being in his 86th year, begot his son Mathumannus.

Cato octogesimo exacto, ex filia Salonii clientis sui avum Uticensis Catonis procreavit. Compertum et illud est, quod inter duos conceptus quum intercessit paululum temporis, uterque residet, sicut in Hercule et Iphicle apparuit, fratre ejus, qui gestati eodem onere, intervallis tamen, quibus concepti fuerant, nati videntur. Et de Proconensi ancilla, quæ e duplici adulterio geminos edidit, utrumque patri suo similem.

Cato, his eightieth year completed, begot from the daughter of Salonius, his client, the grandfather of Cato of Utica. It has also been ascertained that, when a little time has intervened between two conceptions, each remains, as appeared in Hercules and Iphicles, his brother, who, though gestated under the same burden, nevertheless seem to have been born at the intervals at which they had been conceived. And there is the case of a Proconnesian handmaid, who, from a double adultery, bore twins, each resembling his own father.

Hic Iphicles Iolaum creat, qui Sardiniam ingressus, palantes incolarum animos ad concordiam eblanditus, Olbiam, atque alia Græca oppida exstruxit. Iolenses ab eo dicti, sepulcro ejus templum addiderunt, quod imitatus virtutem patrui, malis plurimis Sardiniam liberasset.

Here Iphicles begot Iolaus, who, having entered Sardinia, by blandishment coaxing the wandering minds of the inhabitants to concord, constructed Olbia and other Greek towns. The Iolenses, named from him, added a temple to his sepulcher, because, having imitated the virtue of his paternal uncle, he had freed Sardinia from very many evils.

Ante omnia sobolem cogitantibus sternutatio post coitus cavenda, ne prius semen excutiat impulsus repentinus, quam penetralibus se matris insinuet humor paternus. Quod si naturalis materia hæserit, decimus a conceptu dies dolore gravidas admonebit. Jam inde incipiet et capitis inquietudo, et caligine visus hebetabitur.

Before all things, for those thinking on offspring, sneezing after coitus is to be avoided, lest a sudden impulse shake out the seed before the paternal humor insinuates itself into the mother’s inner chambers. But if the natural material has adhered, the tenth day from conception will admonish the pregnant by pain. From then there will also begin a restlessness of the head, and the vision will be dulled by dimness.

Ciborum quoque fastidiis stomachi claudetur cupido.

The stomach’s desire will also be shut by aversions to foods.

Convenit inter omnes, corda primum ex universa formari carne, eaque in diem quintum et sexagesimum crescere, dein minui; ex ossibus spinas. Ea propter capital est, si pars alterutra noceatur. Plane si corpusculum in marem figuretur, melior est color gravidis, et pronior partitudo uteri; denique a quadragesimo dic motus.

It is agreed among all that the hearts are first formed out of the entire flesh, and that they grow until the 65th day, then lessen; from the bones, the spines. For that reason it is mortal if either part is harmed. Clearly, if the little body is figured into a male, the color is better for the pregnant, and the partition of the uterus is more inclined; finally, from the 40th day, movement.

Alter sexus nonagesimo primum die palpitat. Et concepta femina gestantis vultum pallore inficit: crura quoque præpedit languida tarditate. In utroque sexu quum capilli germinant, incommodum majus est: fitque pleniluniis auctior agritudo, quod tempus etiam editis semper nocet.

The other sex first palpitates on the 91st day. And when a female has been conceived, she suffuses the pregnant woman’s face with pallor: she also hampers the legs with a languid slowness. In both sexes, when the hair sprouts, the discomfort is greater: and the sickness becomes more intense at full moons, which time also always harms those already born.

Quum salsiores escas edit gravida, unguiculis caret partus. At quum prope ad uterum liberandum venerint momenta maturitatis, enitenti spiritum retinere plurimum congruit, quandoquidem letali mora oscitatio suspendit puerperia. Contra naturam est, in pedes procedere nascentes: quapropter velut ægre parti appellantur Agrippæ. Ita editi minus prospere vivunt, et de vita ævo brevi cedunt.

When a pregnant woman eats saltier foods, the offspring lacks nails. But when the moments of maturity have come close to the freeing of the womb, it is very well-suited for the woman straining in labor to hold her breath, since yawning, with a deadly delay, suspends deliveries. It is against nature for those being born to come forth feet-first; wherefore, as if hardly borne, they are called Agrippae. Thus brought forth, they live less prosperously, and with a brief span they depart from life.

Denique in uno Marco Agrippa felicitatis exemplum est, nec tamen usque eo inoffensæ, ut non plura adversa pertulerit, quam secunda: nam et misera pedum valetudine, et aperto conjugis adulterio, et aliquot infelicitatis notis præposteri ortus omen luit.

Finally, in Marcus Agrippa alone there is an example of felicity, yet not to such an extent unoffended that he did not endure more adverse things than favorable: for both by a miserable health of the feet, and by the open adultery of his spouse, and by several marks of infelicity he paid the omen of a preposterous birth.

Feminis perinde est infausta nativitas, si concretum virginal fuerit, quo pacto genitalia fuere Corneliæ, quæ editis Gracchis ostentum hoc piavit sinistro exitu liberorum. Rursum, necatis matribus, natus est auspicatior, sicut Scipio Africanus prior, qui defuncta parente, quod excisus utero in diem venerat, primus Romanorum: Cæsar dictus est. E geminis, si remanente altero, alter abortivo fluxu exciderit, alter, qui legitime natus est, Vopiscus nominatur.

For women likewise the nativity is ill-omened, if the virginal membrane has been concreted, in which manner the genitals of Cornelia were; who, the Gracchi having been born, expiated this portent by the sinister end of her children. Again, with the mothers slain, the one born is more auspicious, as Scipio Africanus the elder, who, his parent being deceased, because he had come on the day cut from the womb, the first of the Romans: was called Caesar. Of twins, if, the other remaining, one has fallen out by abortive flux, the other, who has been lawfully born, is named Vopiscus.

Quidam et cum dentibus procreantur, ut Cnæus Papirius Carbo, et M. Curius, Dentatus ob id cognominatus. Quidam vice dentium continui ossis armantur soliditate, qualem filium Bithynorum rex Prusias habuit. Ipsum dentium numerum discernit qualitas sexus, quum in viris plures sint, in feminis pauciores.

Some are even begotten with teeth, as Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, and M. Curius, surnamed Dentatus on that account. Some, in place of teeth, are equipped with the solidity of a continuous bone, such a son as King Prusias of the Bithynians had. The very number of the teeth is distinguished by the quality of sex, since in men they are more, in women fewer.

Quos kunñdontaw vocant, quibus gemini procedunt ab dextera parte, fortunæ blandimenta promittunt: quibus ab læva, versa vice.

Those whom they call kunñdontaw, for whom twins come forth from the right side, promise the blandishments of Fortune; for those for whom they come from the left, the reverse.

Nascentium vox prima vagitus est: lætitiæ enim sensus differtur in quadragesimum diem. Itaque unum novimus, eadem hora risisse, qua erat natus, scilicet Zoroastrem, mox optimarum artium peritissimum. At Crassus avus ejus, quem rapuerunt bella Parthica, quod nunquam riserit, Agelastus cognominabatur.

The first voice of the newborn is a wail: for the sense of joy is deferred to the fortieth day. And so we know of one who laughed at the same hour in which he was born, namely Zoroaster, soon most expert in the best arts. But Crassus, his grandfather, whom the Parthian wars snatched away, because he had never laughed, was surnamed Agelastus.

Inter alia Socratis magna, præclarum illud est, quod in eodem vultus tenore etiam adversis interpellantibus perstitit. Heraclitus et Diogenes Cynicus nihil unquam de rigore animi remiserunt, calcatisque turbinibus fortuitorum, adversum omnem dolorem vel misericordiam uniformi duravere proposito. Pomponium pœtam consularem virum nunquam ructasse, habetur inter exempla.

Among the great things of Socrates, that illustrious one is this: that he persisted in the same tenor of countenance even when interrupted by adversities. Heraclitus and Diogenes the Cynic never remitted anything of the rigor of mind, and, the whirlwinds of chance trampled underfoot, they endured with a uniform purpose against every pain or pity. That Pomponius, the poet, a consular man, never belched, is held among the examples.

Antoniam Drusi non spuisse, percelebre est. Nonnullos nasci accepimus concretis ossibus, eosque neque sudare, neque consuesse sitire, qualis Syracusanus Lygdamis fertur, qui tertia et tricesima olympiade primus ex Olympico certamine pancratii coronam reportavit; cujusque ossa deprehensa sunt medullam non habere.

It is very celebrated that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, did not spit. We have received that some are born with concreted bones, and that they neither sweat nor are wont to thirst—such as Lygdamis of Syracuse is reported to have been, who in the 33rd Olympiad was the first to carry off a crown from the Olympic contest of the pankration; and his bones were discovered to have no marrow.

Maximam virium substantiam nervos facere certissimum est, quantoque fuerint densiores, tanta propensius angescere firmitatem. Varro, in relatione prodigiosæ fortitudinis, annotavit Trittannum gladiatorem natura Samnitem fuisse, qui, et rectis et transversis nervis, non modo crate pectoris, sed et manibus cancellatis, et brachiis, omnes adversarios levi tactu, pæne securis congressionibus vicerit. Ejus filium, militem Cnæi Pompeii pari modo natum, ita sprevisse hostem provocantem, ut inermi eum dextra et superaret, et captum digito uno in castra imperatoris sui reportaret.

It is most certain that the greatest substance of strength is made by the nerves (that is, the sinews), and the denser they are, so much the more readily does firmness grow. Varro, in a report of prodigious fortitude, noted that Trittannus the gladiator, by nature a Samnite, with his nerves both straight and crosswise, not only with the lattice-work of the chest, but also with interlaced hands and with his arms, overcame all adversaries with a light touch, in contests almost carefree. His son, a soldier of Gnaeus Pompeius, born in like manner, so despised a challenging foe that with his unarmed right hand he both overpowered him and, having captured him, carried him back to his commander’s camp with a single finger.

Milonem quoque Crotoniensem egisse omnia, supra quam homo valet. Etiam hoc proditur, quod ictu nudæ manus taurum fecit victimam: eumque solidum, qua mactaverat die, absumpsit solus non gravatim. Super hoc nihil dubium: nam factum elogium exstat.

Milo of Croton too accomplished everything beyond what a man is capable of. It is also handed down that with a blow of his bare hand he made a bull a victim: and that whole, on the very day he had slaughtered it, he consumed alone without difficulty. On this point there is nothing doubtful: for an elogium, an inscription of the deed, exists.

Victor ille omnium certaminum quæ obivit, alectoria usus traditur, qui lapis specie crystallina, fabæ modo, in gallinaceorum ventriculis invenitur, aptus, ut dicunt, prœliantibus. Milon porro Tarquinii Prisci temporibus emicuit.

That victor of all the contests which he undertook is said to have used an alectorian, a stone of crystalline appearance, bean-shaped, found in the stomachs of cocks, fit, as they say, for combatants. Milo, moreover, shone forth in the times of Tarquinius Priscus.

Jam vero qui deflexum animum referat ad similitudinum causas, quantum artificis naturæ ingenium deprehendet! Interdum enim ad genus spectant, et per sobolem in familias transitus faciunt: sicut plerumque parvuli modo nævos, modo cicatrices, modo qualescumque originis suæ notas ferunt: ut in Lepidis, quorum tres, intervulsa tamen serie, ex eadem domo, obducto membrana oculo, similes geniti reperiuntur: vel in Byzantino nobili pugile, qui, quum matrem haberet adulterio ex Æthiope conceptam, quæ nihil patri comparandum reddidisset, ipse Æthiopem avum regeneravit. Sed hoc minus mirum, si respiciamus ad ea, quæ spectata sunt inter externos.

Now indeed, whoever turns a mind bent toward the causes of likenesses, how great an ingenuity of Nature the Artificer will he discern! For at times they have regard to the stock, and through the offspring make transitions into families: just as very often little ones bear now moles, now scars, now whatever marks of their origin: as in the Lepidi, of whom three, though the sequence had been torn with gaps, from the same house, with an eye overdrawn by a membrane, are found to have been born alike; or in the noble Byzantine pugilist, who, although he had a mother conceived in adultery from an Ethiopian, who had rendered nothing comparable to the father, he himself reproduced his Ethiopian grandfather. But this is less marvelous, if we look back to those things which have been observed among foreigners.

Regem Antiochum Artemon quidam e plebe Syriatica sic facie æmula mentiebatur, ut postmodum Laodice uxor regia, objecto populari isto, tamdiu dissimulaverit defunctum maritum, quoad ex arbitratu ejus regni successor ordinaretur. Inter Cnæum Pompeium et Cn. Vibium, humili loco natum, tantus error exstitit de paribus lineamentis, ut Romani Vibium Pompeii nomine, Pompeium Vibii vocabulo cognominarent. Oratorem Lucium Plancum Rubrius histrio sic implevit, ut et ipse Plancus a populo vocaretur.

A certain Artemon of the Syrian plebs so counterfeited King Antiochus with a rivaling visage, that afterward Laodice, the royal wife, by putting forward that man of the populace, dissimulated her husband’s death until a successor of the kingdom should be ordained at her arbitration. Between Gnaeus Pompeius and Gnaeus Vibius, born of humble station, so great an error arose concerning their equal lineaments, that the Romans surnamed Vibius by the name of Pompeius, and Pompeius by the appellation of Vibius. Rubrius the actor so fulfilled the orator Lucius Plancus, that he too was called Plancus by the people.

Armentarius myrmillo, et Cassius Severus orator, ita se mutuo reddiderunt, ut, si quando pariter viderentur, dignosci non possent, nisi discrepantiam habitus indicaret. Marcus Messalla censorius et Menogenes, e face vulgari, hoc fuerunt uterque, quod singuli, nec alium Messallam quam Menogenem, nec Menogenem alium quam Messallam putaverunt. Piscator ex Sicilia, proconsuli Suræ præter alia etiam rictu oris comparabatur: ita in eadem vocis impedimenta, et tardatæ sonum lingua naturalibus offendiculis congruebant.

Armentarius the Murmillo, and Cassius Severus the orator, made themselves so mutually alike that, if ever they were seen together, they could not be distinguished, unless the discrepancy of attire indicated it. Marcus Messalla the Censor and Menogenes, of the common torch, were each such that individuals thought Messalla to be none other than Menogenes, and Menogenes none other than Messalla. A fisherman from Sicily was compared to the proconsul Sura, besides other points, even by the gape of the mouth: so much did the same impediments of the voice, and the sound of a slowed tongue, agree in natural little hindrances.

Interdum non modo inter externos, sed etiam inter conductos ex diversissima Parte orbis miraculo indiscreti vultus fuere. Denique quum Antonio jam triumviro Thoranius quidam eximios forma pueros, velut geminos, trecentis sestertiis vendidisset, quorum alterum de Transalpina Gallia, alterum ex Asia comparaverat, adeoque una res viderentur, ut solus sermo fidem panderet, atque ideo inrisum se Antonius gravaretur, non infacete Thoranius, id vel præcipue, quod emptor criminabatur, pretiosius probavit: neque enim mirum, si forent pares gemini: illud nullis posse taxationibus æstimari, quod tantis spatiis diversitas separata, plus quam geminos atulisset. Quo responso adeo Antonius mitigatus est, ut deinceps nihil se habere carius in substantia jactitaret.

Sometimes not only among foreigners, but even among those hired from the most diverse part of the world, there were marvels of indistinguishable visage. Finally, when to Antony, already a triumvir, a certain Thoranius had sold boys outstanding in form, as if twins, for 300 sesterces, of whom he had procured one from Transalpine Gaul and the other from Asia, and they seemed so one and the same that only speech would disclose the truth, and therefore Antony was vexed as being mocked, Thoranius, not without wit, proved even—indeed especially—the very point the purchaser faulted to be more precious: for it is no marvel if twins are equal; that is something which can be estimated by no appraisals, namely that a diversity separated by such vast distances had produced something more than twins. By this reply Antony was so mollified that thereafter he boasted he had nothing dearer in his estate.

Nunc si de ipsis hominum formis requiramus, liquido manifestabitur, nihil de se antiquitatem mendaciter prædicasse, sed corruptam degeneri successione sobolem nostri temporis per nascentium detrimenta decus veteris proceritudinis perdidisse. Licet ergo plerique definiant, nullum posse excedere longitudinem pedum septem, quod intra mensuram istam Hercules fuerit, deprehensum tamen est Romanis temporibus sub divo Augusto, Pusionem et Secundillam denos pedes et amplius habuisse proceritatis, quorum reliquiæ adhuc in conditorio Sallustianorum videntur: postmodum, divo Claudio principe. Gabbaram nomine, ex Arabia advectum, novem pedum et totidem unciarum.

Now, if we inquire about the very forms of men, it will be clearly manifest that antiquity proclaimed nothing mendacious about itself, but that the offspring of our time, corrupted by a degenerate succession, has lost, through the detriments of those being born, the honor of ancient stature. Although therefore many define that no one can exceed a length of seven feet, because Hercules was within this measure, yet it was found in Roman times under the deified Augustus that Pusion and Secundilla possessed ten feet and more of height, whose remains are still seen in the sepulcher of the Sallustians; afterward, under the deified emperor Claudius, one by the name Gabbaras, brought from Arabia, [measured] nine feet and as many inches.

Sed ante Augustum annis mille ferme non apparuit forma hujusmodi, sicut nec post Claudium visa est. Quis enim jam ævo isto non minor parentibus suis nascitur? Priscorum autem testantur molem etiam Orestis suprema, cujus ossa olympiade quinquagesima et octava Tegea inventa a Spartanis oraculo monitis, discimus implesse longitudinem cubitorum septem.

But before Augustus, for almost 1,000 years, no form of this kind appeared, just as it was not seen after Claudius. For who now in this age is not born smaller than his parents? Moreover, the bulk of the ancients is attested also by the remains of Orestes, whose bones—found at Tegea in the 58th Olympiad by the Spartans, warned by an oracle—we learn to have attained a length of 7 cubits.

Scripta quoque, quæ ex antiquitate memorias accersunt in fidem veri, hoc etiam receperunt, quod bello Cretico, quum elata flumina plus quam vi amnica terras copissent, post discessum fluctuum inter plurima humi discidia humanum corpus repertum sit cubitum trium atque triginta: cujus inspectandi cupidine L. Flaccum legatum, Metellum etiam ipsam impendio captos miraculo, quod auditu refutaverant, oculis potitos. Non omiserim Salamine Euthymenis filium crevisse in triennio tria cubita sublimitatis, sed incessu tardum, sensu hebetem, robusta voce, pubertate festina, statimque obsessum morbis plurimis, immoderatis ægritudinum suppliciis compensasse præcipitem incrementi celeritatem. Mensuræ ratio bifariam convenit: nam quantus manibus expansis inter digitos longissimus modus est, tantum constat esse inter calces et verticem, Ideoque physici hominem minorem mundum judicaverunt.

Writings too, which from antiquity summon memories into the credit of truth, have also recorded this: that in the Cretan war, when the swollen rivers had overflowed the lands beyond any riverine force, after the withdrawal of the waves, amid the many rifts of the ground a human body was found of thirty-three cubits; with desire of inspecting which, L. Flaccus the legate, and even Metellus himself, were exceedingly captivated by the marvel, and obtained with their eyes what they had refuted upon hearing. I would not omit that at Salamis the son of Euthymenes grew in three years three cubits of height, but was slow in gait, dull in sense, with a robust voice, precocious in puberty, and at once beset by very many diseases, having compensated by the immoderate torments of illnesses for the headlong speed of his growth. The rule of measure agrees twofold: for as great as, with the hands outspread, the longest span between the fingers is, so much is agreed to be between the heels and the crown; and therefore the natural philosophers judged man a lesser world.

Parti dextera habilior adscribitur modus, lævæ firmitas major: unde altera gesticulationibus promptior est, altera oneri ferendo accommodatior. Pudoris disciplinam etiam inter defuncta corpora natura discrevit: ac si quando cadavera necatorum fluctibus evehuntur, virorum supina, prona fluitant feminarum.

To the right part a more dexterous mode is ascribed, to the left a greater firmness: whence the one is readier for gesticulations, the other more accommodated for bearing a burden. Nature has also distinguished the discipline of modesty even among deceased bodies: and if ever the cadavers of the slain are carried up by the billows, the men float supine, the women prone.

Verum ut ad pernicitatis titulum transeamus, primam palmam velocitatis Ladas quidam adeptus est, qui ita supra cavum pulverem cursitavit, ut in arenis pendentibus nulla indicia relinqueret vestigiorum. Polymnestor Milesius puer, quum a matre locatus esset ad caprarios pastus, ludicro leporem consequutus est, et ob id statim productus a gregis domino, olympiade sexta et quadragesima, ut Bocchus auctor est, victor in stadio meruit coronam. Philippides biduo mille ducenta quadraginta stadia ab Athenis Lacedæmonem decucurrit.

But to pass over to the title of swiftness, the first palm of velocity was obtained by a certain Ladas, who ran so above the loose powder that on the hanging sands he left no traces of footprints. Polymnestor, a Milesian boy, when he had been hired out by his mother to goat-herds for pasturage, in a game overtook a hare, and on account of this was straightway brought forward by the master of the flock, and, in the 46th Olympiad (as Bocchus is the authority), as victor in the stadion he earned the crown. Philippides, in two days, ran down 1,240 stadia from Athens to Lacedaemon.

Anystis Lacon, et Philonides, Alexandri Magni cursores, Elin ab usque Sicyone mille ducenta stadia uno die transierunt. Fonteio Vipsanioque consulibus, in Italia novem annos puer natus, quinque et septuaginta millia passuum a meridie transivit ad vesperum.

Anystis the Laconian and Philonides, runners of Alexander the Great, in one day traversed 1,200 stadia from Elis all the way to Sicyon. In the consulship of Fonteius and Vipsanius, in Italy, a boy nine years old covered 75,000 paces from midday to evening.

Visu deinde plurimum potuit Strabo nomine, quem perspexisse per centum quinque et triginta millia passuum, Varro significat, solitumque exeunte e Carthagine classe Punica numerum navium manifestissime ex Lilybetana specula nolare. Cicero tradit Iliadum Homeri ita subtiliter in membranis scriptam, ut testa nucis clauderetur. Callicrates formicas ex ebore sic scalpsit, ut portio earum a ceteris secerni nequiverit.

Then in eyesight Strabo by name could do very much, whom Varro indicates to have seen clearly across 135 miles, and who was accustomed, when the Punic fleet was sailing out of Carthage, to note most manifestly from the Lilybaean watchtower the number of ships. Cicero hands down that the Iliads of Homer were written on membranes (parchments) so subtly that they could be enclosed in a nutshell. Callicrates carved ants from ivory in such a way that a portion of them could not be separated from the rest.

Apollonides perhibet, in Scythia feminas nasci, quæ bityæ vocantur, eas in oculis pupillas geminas habere, et perimere visu, si forte quem iratæ aspexerint.

Apollonides asserts that in Scythia women are born who are called Bityae; that they have twin pupils in their eyes, and that they slay by their gaze, if by chance they look upon someone in anger.

Prævaluisse fortitudine apud Romanos L. Sicinium Dentatum, titulorum numerus ostendit. Tribunus hic plebi fuit non multo post exactos reges, Spurio Tarpeio, A. Haterio, consulibus. Idem ex provocatione octies victor, quadraginta et quinque adversas habuit cicatrices, in tergo nullam notam: et spolia ex hoste tricies et quater cepit.

That L. Sicinius Dentatus prevailed in fortitude among the Romans, the number of titles shows. He was tribune of the plebs not long after the kings were driven out, when Spurius Tarpeius and A. Haterius were consuls. The same man was eight times victor in single combat by challenge, had forty-five scars on the front, no mark on his back, and took spoils from the enemy thirty-four times.

In phaleris, hastis puris, armillis, coronis, trecenta duodecim dona meruit: novem imperatores, qui opera ejus vicerant, triumphantes prosequutus. Post hunc Marcus Sergius duobus stipendiis primis adverso corpore ter et vicies vulneratus: secundo stipendio in prœlio dextram perdidit. Qua de causa postea sibi manum ferream fecit: et quum neutra pæne idonea ad prœliandum valeret, una die quater pugnavit, et vicit sinistra, duobus equis eo insidente confossis.

In phalerae, pure spears, bracelets, and crowns, he earned three hundred and twelve gifts: he escorted nine commanders, who had conquered by his exertion, as they triumphed. After him Marcus Sergius, in his first two terms of service, was wounded three and twenty times in the front of the body: in his second term of service he lost his right hand in battle. For which cause he afterward made himself an iron hand: and when scarcely either was fit for fighting, in one day he fought four times, and conquered with the left, though two horses, as he sat upon them, were run through.

Ab Hannibale bis captus refugit, quum viginti mensibus, quibus captivitatis sortem perferebat, nullo momento sine compedibus fuerit et catenis. Omnibus asperrimis prœliis, quæ tempestate illa Romani experti sunt, insignitus donis militaribus, a Thrasymeno, Trebia, Ticinoque coronas civicas retulit: Cannensi quoque prœlio, de quo refugisse eximium opus virtutis fuit, solus accepit coronam. Beatus profecto tot suffragiis gloriarum, nisi heres in posteritatis ejus successione Catilina tantas adoreas odio damnati nominis obumbrasset!

Twice captured by Hannibal he escaped, although for twenty months, during which he was enduring the lot of captivity, he was at no moment without shackles and chains. In all the very harshest battles which the Romans in that season experienced, decorated with military gifts, from Lake Trasimene, the Trebia, and the Ticinus he brought back civic crowns: in the battle of Cannae also, from which to have fled back was an extraordinary work of virtue, he alone received a crown. Blessed indeed by so many suffrages of glories, were it not that Catiline, the heir in the succession of his posterity, overshadowed such great victories with the odium of a damned name!

Quantum inter milites Sicinius, aut Sergius, tantum inter duces, immo, ut verius dicam, inter omnes homines, Cæsar dictator enituit. Hujus ductibus undecies centum triginta et duo millia cæsa sunt hostium: nam quantum bellis civilibus fuderit, noluit annotari. Signi, collatis quinquagies et bis dimicavit: M. Marcellum solus supergressus, qui novies et tricies pari modo fuerat prœliatus.

As much as Sicinius or Sergius excelled among soldiers, so much among commanders—or rather, to speak more truly, among all men—the dictator Caesar shone forth. Under his leadership 1,132,000 of the enemy were cut down; for how many he routed in the civil wars he did not wish to have recorded. With standards joined, he fought in pitched battle fifty-two times, surpassing M. Marcellus alone, who in the same manner had fought thirty-nine times.

Ad hæc nullus celerius scripsit: nemo velocius legit. Quaternas etiam epistolas perhibetur simul dictasse. Benignitate adeo præditus, ut quos armis subegerat, clementia magis vicerit.

In addition to these things, no one wrote more swiftly; no one read more speedily. He is even reported to have dictated four letters at the same time. So endowed with benignity, that those whom he had subdued by arms he rather conquered by clemency.

Cyrus memoriæ bono inclaruit, qui in exercitu, cui numerosissimo præfuit, nominatim singulos alloquebatur. Fecit hoc idem in populo Romano L. Scipio. Sed et Cyrum et Scipionem consuetudine credamus profecisse.

Cyrus became illustrious for the good of his memory, who, in the army, which he commanded most numerous, addressed individuals by name. L. Scipio did this same thing among the Roman people. But let us believe that both Cyrus and Scipio advanced by practice.

Cineas Pyrrhi legatus, postero die quam ingressus Romam fuerat, et equestrem ordinem et senatum propriis nominibus salutavit. Rex Ponticus Mithridates duabus et viginti gentibus, quibus imperitabat, sine interprete jura dixit. Memoriam et arte fieri palam factum est, sicut Metrodorus philosophus, qui temporibus Diogenis Cynici fuit, in tantum se meditatione assidua provexit, ut a multis simul dicta, non modo sensuum, sed etiam verborum ordinibus detineret.

Cineas, Pyrrhus’s envoy, on the next day after he had entered Rome, greeted both the equestrian order and the senate by their proper names. Mithridates, the Pontic king, to twenty-two nations over which he held command, pronounced judgments without an interpreter. It has been made plain that memory is produced also by art, as the philosopher Metrodorus, who was in the times of Diogenes the Cynic, advanced himself by assiduous meditation to such a degree that he retained things spoken by many at once, not only the sequences of sense, but even the order of the words.

Nihil tamen in homine aut metu, aut casu, aut morbo facilius intercipi, sæpe perspectum est. Qui lapide ictus fuerat, accepimus oblitum litterarum. Messallam certe Corvinum post ægritudinem, quam pertulerat, percussum proprii nominis oblivione, quamlibet alias ei sensus vigeret.

Nevertheless, it has often been observed that nothing in man is more easily intercepted, whether by fear, by accident, or by disease. We have received that one who had been struck by a stone became oblivious of his letters. Certainly Messalla Corvinus, after the illness which he had endured, was smitten with oblivion of his own name, although otherwise his senses were vigorous.

Memoriam metus perimit: invicem vocis interdum est incitamentum, quam non solum acuit, sed etiam, si nunquam fuerit, extorquet. Denique cum olympiade octava et quinquagesima victor Cyrus intrasset Sardis Asiæ oppidum, ubi tunc Cresus latebat, Atys filius regis, mutus ad id locorum, in vocem erupit vi timoris: exclamasse enim dicitur: " Parce patri meo, Cyre, et hominem te esse vel casibus disce nostris! "

Fear annihilates memory; in turn it is sometimes an incitement of voice, which it not only sharpens, but even, if it has never existed, it extorts. Finally, when in the 58th Olympiad Cyrus the victor had entered Sardis, a town of Asia, where Croesus was then lying hidden, Atys, the king’s son, mute up to that time, burst into voice by the force of fear: for he is said to have exclaimed: " Spare my father, Cyrus, and learn, even from our misfortunes, that you are a man! "

Tractare de moribus superest, quorum excellentia maxime in duobus enituit. Cato princeps Porciæ gentis, senator optimus, imperator optimus, optimus orator, causam tamen quadragies et quater dixit, diversis odiorum simultatibus appetitus, semper absolutus. Unde Scipionis Æmiliani laus propensior, qui præter bona, quibus Cato clarus fuit, etiam publico amore præcessit.

It remains to treat of morals, whose excellence shone most in two. Cato, chief of the Porcian gens, best senator, best commander, best orator, nevertheless pleaded his case forty-four times, assailed by diverse feuds of hatreds, always acquitted. Whence the praise of Scipio Aemilianus is the more ample, who, besides the good qualities in which Cato was illustrious, also surpassed in public love.

Vir optimus Nasica Scipio judicatus est, non privato tantum testimonio, sed totius senatus sacramento: quippe quod inventus dignior non fuit, cui præcipuæ religionis crederetur ministerium, quum oraculum moneret arcessi sacra deum Matris Pessinunte.

Nasica Scipio was judged the best man, not by private testimony only, but by the sacrament of the whole senate: for indeed none was found more worthy, to whom the ministry of a preeminent religion might be entrusted, when the oracle advised that the sacred things of the Mother of the gods be summoned from Pessinus.

Plurimi inter Romanos eloquentia floruerunt; sed hoc bonum hereditarium nunquam fuit, nisi in familia Curionum; in qua tres serie continua oratores fuere. Magnum hoc habitum est sane eo seculo, quo facundiam præcipue et humana et divina mirata sunt: quippe tunc percussores Archilochi pœtæ Apollo prodidit, et latronum facinus deo coarguente detectum. Quumque Lysandcr Lacedæmonius Athenas obsideret, ubi Sophoclis tragici inhumatum corpus jacebat, identidem Liber pater ducem monuit per quietem, sepeliri delicias suas sineret: nec prius destitit, quam Lysander cognito qui obisset diem, et quid a numine posceretur, inducias bello daret, usque dum congruæ supremis talibus exsequiæ ducerentur.

Very many among the Romans flourished in eloquence; but this good was never hereditary, except in the family of the Curiones; in which three orators were in an unbroken succession. This was accounted great indeed in that age, in which eloquence was especially admired both by human and by divine beings: for then Apollo exposed the slayers of the poet Archilochus, and the crime of the robbers was detected with the god convicting them. And when Lysander the Lacedaemonian was besieging Athens, where the unburied body of Sophocles the tragic poet lay, again and again Father Liber warned the leader in sleep to allow his delight to be buried: nor did he desist before Lysander, having learned who had met his day, and what was being asked by the numen, granted a truce in the war, until fitting obsequies for such a one were conducted.

Pindarum lyricum e convivii loco, cui imminebat ruina, ne cum ceteris interiret, forinsecus Castor et Pollux vocarunt, inspectantibus universis: quo effectum, ut solus impendens periculum evaderet.

Pindar the lyric poet, from the place of the banquet, upon which an imminent collapse was hanging, lest he perish with the rest, Castor and Pollux called outside, with all looking on: whereby it was effected that he alone escaped the impending danger.

Numerandus post deos Cn. Pompeius Magnus, intraturus Posidonii domum, clarissimi tunc sapientiæ professoris, percuti ex more a lictore fores vetuit, submissisque fascibus, quamlibet confecto Mithridatico bello, et orientis victor, sententia propria cessit januæ litterarum. Africanus prior Quinti Ennii statuam imponi sepulcro suo jussit. Uticensis Cato unum cx tribunatu militum philosophum, alium ex Cypria legatione Romam advexit, professus, plurimum se eo facto senatui et populo contulisse, quamlibet proavus ejus sæpissime censuisset Græcos Urbe pellendos.

To be numbered after the gods, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, when about to enter the house of Posidonius, at that time a most illustrious professor of wisdom, forbade the doors to be struck by the lictor according to custom; and, the fasces lowered, although the Mithridatic war was completed, and he was victor of the East, by his own judgment he yielded to the doorway of letters. The earlier Africanus ordered the statue of Quintus Ennius to be set upon his tomb. Cato of Utica brought to Rome one philosopher from his military tribunate, another from the Cyprian legation, declaring that by that deed he had contributed very greatly to the senate and the people, although his great-grandfather had very often opined that the Greeks should be driven from the City.

Dionysius tyrannus vittatam navem Platoni obviam misit; ipse, cum albis quadrigis egredientem in littore occurrens honoratus est.

Dionysius the tyrant sent a filleted ship to meet Plato; he himself, meeting him on the shore as he was disembarking, honored him with a white four-horse chariot.

Perfectam prudentiam soli Socrati oraculum Delphicum adjudicavit. Pietatis documentum nobilius quidem in Metellorum domo refulsit, sed eminentissimum in plebeia puerpera reperitur. Humilis hæc, atque ideo famæ obscurioris, quum ad patrem, qui supplicii causa claustris pœnalibus continebatur, ægre obtinuissct ingressus, exquisita sæpius a janitoribus, ne forte parenti cibum subministraret, alere eum uberibus suis deprehensa est: quæ res et locum et factum consecravit: nam qui morti destinabatur, donatus filiæ, in memoriam tanti præconii, reservatus est: locus dicatus suo numini, Pietatis sacellum est.

The Delphic oracle adjudged perfect prudence to Socrates alone. A nobler document of Pietas indeed shone forth in the house of the Metelli, but the most eminent is found in a plebeian mother in childbed. This woman, humble, and therefore of more obscure fame, when to her father, who for the sake of punishment was confined by penal bars, she had with difficulty obtained entrance, having been frequently searched by the janitors, lest by chance she supply food to her parent, was discovered to be nourishing him with her own breasts: which matter consecrated both the place and the deed; for he who had been destined for death, granted to his daughter, was spared in memory of so great a proclamation; the place, dedicated to its own divinity, is the Shrine of Pietas.

Navis a Phrygia gerula sacrorum, dum sequitur vittas castitatis, contulit Claudiæ principatum pudicitiæ. At Sulpitia Paterculi filia, M. Fulvii Flacci uxor, censura omnium matronarum e centum probatissimis haud temere dilecta est, quæ simulacrum Veneris, ut Sibyllini libri monebant, dedicaret. Quod attinet ad titulum felicitatis, necdum repertus est, qui felix censeri jure debuerit: namque Cornelius Sulla dictus potius est, quam fuit Felix. Solum certe beatum cortina Aglaum judicavit, qui in angustissimo Arcadiæ angulo pauperis soli dominus, nunquam egressus paterni cespitis terminos invenitur.

A ship from Phrygia, bearer of sacred rites, while it followed the fillets of chastity, conferred upon Claudia the primacy of chastity. But Sulpicia, daughter of Paterculus, wife of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, by the censure of all the matrons, from a hundred most approved, was by no means lightly chosen to dedicate the image of Venus, as the Sibylline Books advised. As for the title of felicity, there has not yet been found one who ought by right to be deemed “Felix”; for Cornelius Sulla was called rather than was Felix. The oracular tripod judged Aglaus alone blessed, who, in the narrowest corner of Arcadia, master of a poor patch of soil, is found never to have gone beyond the boundaries of his father’s turf.

II. De Italia. In ea de boa angue, de lupis, de lyncibus, de lyncurio alpide, de lapide curalio, de gemma sytite, de gejentana gemma, de mutis cicadis, de Diomedis avibus.

2. On Italy. In it: on the boa serpent, on wolves, on lynxes, on the Alpine lyncurium, on the coral stone, on the sytite gem, on the gejentana gem, on mute cicadas, on the birds of Diomedes.

De homine satis dictum habeo. Nunc, ut ad destinatum revertamur, ad locorum commemorationem stilus dirigendus est, atque adeo principaliter in Italiam,cujus decus jam in Urbe contigimus. Sed Italia tanta cura omnibus dicta, præcipue M. Catoni, ut jam inveniri non possit, quod non veterum auctorum præsumpserit diligentia, largiter in laudem excellentis terra materia suppetente, dum scriptores præstantissimi reputant locorum salubritatem, cœli temperiem, ubertatem soli, aprica collium, opaca nemorum, innoxios saltus, vitium olearumque proventus, nobilia pecuaria, tot amnes, lacus tantos, bifera violaria, inter hæc Vesuvium flagrantis animæ spiritu vaporantem, tepentes fontibus Baias, colonias tam frequentes, tam assiduam novarum urbium gratiam, tam clarum decus veterum oppidorum, quæ primum Aborigines, Aurunci, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, totius postremo Græciæ advenæ, et in summa, victores Romani condiderunt: ad hæc laterum portuosa, orasque patentibus gremiis commercio orbis accommodatas.

I have said enough about man. Now, that we may return to what was intended, the style must be directed to the commemoration of places, and indeed principally to Italy,whose ornament we have already touched upon in the City. But Italy has been spoken of with such care by all, especially by M. Cato, that now nothing can be found which the diligence of the ancient authors has not anticipated, ample material being at hand for the praise of that excellent land, while the most outstanding writers reckon the healthfulness of the places, the temperateness of the sky, the fertility of the soil, the sunny slopes of the hills, the shaded depths of the groves, harmless glades, the yields of vines and olives, noble herds, so many rivers, such great lakes, twice-bearing violet-beds, among these Vesuvius exhaling with the breath of a burning spirit, Baiae warmed by springs, colonies so numerous, so continual a favor of new cities, so bright a glory of ancient towns, which first the Aborigines, the Aurunci, the Pelasgi, the Arcadians, the Siculi, and at last immigrants from all Greece, and, in fine, the conquering Romans founded: in addition, coasts rich in harbors, and shores with open bosoms accommodated to the commerce of the world.

Verum ne prorsus intacta videatur, in ea, quæ minus trita sunt, animum intendere haud absurdum videtur, et parcius depavita levibus vestigiis inviare: nam quis ignorat vel dicta, vel condita, a Jano Janiculum, a Saturno Latium, atque Saturniam, a Danæ Ardeam, a comitibus Herculis Polieon, ab ipso in Campania Pompeios, quia victor ex Hispania pompam boum duxerat? In Liguria quoque Lapidarios campos, quod ibi eo dimicante. creduntur pluisse saxa: regionem Ionicam ab Ione Naulochi filia, quam procaciter, insidentem vias Hercules, ut ferunt, interemit: Archippen a Marsya rege Lydorum, quod hiatu terræ haustum, dissolutum est in lacum Fucinum; ab Iasone templum Junonis Argivæ; a Pelopidis Pisas; a Cleolao, Minois filio, Daunios; Iapygas a Iapyge Dædali filio; Tyrrhenos a Tyrrheno Lydiæ rege; Coram a Dardanis; Agyllam a Pelasgis, qui primi in Latium litteras intulerunt; ab Haleso Argivo Phaliscam; a Phalerio Argivo Phalerios; Fescenninum quoque ab Argivis; portum Parthenium a Phocensibus; Tibur, sicut Cato facit testimonium, a Catillo Arcade præfecto classis Evandri; sicut Sextius ab Argiva juventute.

But, lest it seem wholly untouched, it does not appear absurd to direct the mind to those things which are less trodden, and to make one’s way more sparingly, with light footsteps, through the less-grazed: for who is ignorant that either named, or founded, were the Janiculum by Janus, Latium and Saturnia by Saturn, Ardea by Danaë, Polieon by the companions of Hercules, Pompeii in Campania by Hercules himself, because, a victor from Spain, he had led a pomp of oxen? In Liguria too, the Lapidarian Fields, because there, while he was fighting, stones are believed to have rained down; the Ionian region from Io, daughter of Naulochus, whom, impudently occupying the roads, Hercules, as they say, slew; Archippe from Marsyas, king of the Lydians, which, swallowed by a yawning of the earth, was dissolved into Lake Fucinus; the temple of Argive Juno from Jason; Pisa from the Pelopids; the Daunians from Cleolaus, son of Minos; the Iapygians from Iapyx, son of Daedalus; the Tyrrhenians from Tyrrhenus, king of Lydia; Cora from the Dardanians; Agylla from the Pelasgi, who first brought letters into Latium; Falisca from Halesus the Argive; the Phalerii from Phalerus the Argive; Fescennium also from the Argives; the port Parthenium from the Phocaeans; Tibur, as Cato bears witness, from Catillus the Arcadian, prefect of Evander’s fleet; and likewise Sextius from Argive youth.

Catillus enim Amphiarai filius, post prodigialem patris apud Thebas interitum Œclei avi jussu, cum omni fœtu ver sacrum missus tres liberos in Italia procreavit, Tiburtum, Coram, Catillum, qui depulsis ex oppido Siciliæ veteribus Sicanis, a nomine Tiburti fratris natu maximi urbem vocaverunt. Mox in Bruttiis ab Ulyxe exstructum templum Minervæ. Insula Ligea appellata ab ejecto ibi corpore sirenis ita nominatæ; Parthenope a Parthenopæ sirenis sepulcro, quam Augustus postea Neapolin esse maluit. Præneste, ut Zenodotus, a Præneste Ulyxis nepote Latini filio; ut Prænestini sonant libri, a Cæculo, quem juxta ignes fortuitos invenerunt, ut fama est, Digitorum sorores.

For Catillus, the son of Amphiaraus, after the prodigious death of his father at Thebes, by the order of Oecles his grandsire, having been sent out with all the offspring of the ver sacrum, begot three sons in Italy—Tiburtus, Coram, Catillus—who, after driving from the town the ancient Sicani of Sicily, named the city from the name of their eldest brother Tiburtus. Next, in the Bruttii a temple of Minerva was built by Ulysses. The island was called Ligea from the body of the Siren so named cast ashore there; Parthenope from the tomb of the Siren Parthenope, which Augustus later preferred to be Neapolis. Praeneste, as Zenodotus says, from Praenestes, the grandson of Ulysses, son of Latinus; as the books of the Praenestines sound, from Caeculus, whom, near chance fires, the Sisters of the Digitorum found, as the story goes.

Notum est, a Philocteta Petiliam constitutam: Arpos et Beneventum a Diomede, Patavium ab Antenore, Metapontum a Pyliis, Scyllaceum ab Atheniensibus, Sybarim a Trœzeniis, et a Sagari Ajacis Locri filio, Salentinos a Lyctiis, Anconam a Siculis, Gabios a Galato et Bio, Siculis fratribus; ab Heraclidis Tarentum, insulam Tensam ab Ionibus, Pæstum a Dorensibus: a Myscello Achæo Crotonam, Regium a Chalcidensibus, Cauloniam et Terinam a Crotonirensibus, a Nariciis Locros, Heretum a Græcis in honorem Heræ (sic enim Junonem Græci vocant); Ariciam ab Archilocho Siculo, unde et nomen, ut Heminæ placet, tractum. Hoc in loco Orestes oraculo monitus simulacrum Scythicæ Dianæ, quod de Taurica extulerat, prius quam Argos peteret, consecravit. A Zanclensibus Metaurum locatum, a Locrensibus Metapontum, quod nunc Vibo dicitur.

It is known, that Petilia was constituted by Philoctetes: Arpos and Beneventum by Diomedes, Patavium by Antenor, Metapontum by the Pylians, Scyllaceum by the Athenians, Sybaris by the Troezenians, and by Sagarus, son of Ajax the Locrian; the Salentines by the Lyctians, Ancona by the Siculi, Gabii by Galatus and Bios, Sicel brothers; by the Heraclids, Tarentum, the island Tensa by the Ionians, Paestum by the Dorians: by Myscellus the Achaean, Crotona, Rhegium by the Chalcidians, Caulonia and Terina by the Crotoniates, by the Naricians, Locri, Heretum by the Greeks in honor of Hera (for thus the Greeks call Juno); Aricia by Archilochus the Sicel, whence also the name, as Hemina is pleased to think, is drawn. In this place Orestes, warned by an oracle, consecrated the statue of Scythian Diana, which he had carried out of Taurica, before he sought Argos. By the Zanclaeans Metaurus was placed, by the Locrians Metapontum, which is now called Vibo.

Bocchus absolvit Gallorum veterem propaginem Umbros esse; Marcus Antonius refert eosdem, quod tempore aquosæ cladis imbribus superfuerint, Umbrios Græce nominatos. Liciniano placet, a Messapo Græco Messapiæ datam originem, versam postmodum in nomen Calabriæ, quam in exordio Œnotri frater Peucetius Peucetiam nominarat. Par sententia est inter auctores, a gubernatore Æneæ appellatum Palinurum, a tubicine Misenum, a consobrina Leucosiam insulam a nutrice Caietam, ab uxore Lavinium, quod post Trojæ excidium, sicut Cosconius perhibet, quarto anno exstructum est.

Bocchus determines that the ancient offshoot of the Gauls were the Umbrians; Marcus Antonius reports that these same, because at the time of the aqueous catastrophe they survived the rains, were named “Umbri” in Greek. Licinianus holds that Messapia received its origin from the Greek Messapus, afterwards turned into the name Calabria, which at the beginning of the Oenotrian people Peucetius, brother of Oenotrus, had named Peucetia. There is a like opinion among the authors: that Palinurus was so called from Aeneas’s helmsman, Misenum from the trumpeter, the island Leucosia from a cousin, Caieta from the nurse, and Lavinium from the wife, which, after the destruction of Troy, as Cosconius asserts, was built in the fourth year.

Nec omissum sit, Æneam æstate ab Ilio capto secunda, Italicis littoribus appulsum, ut Hemina tradit, sociis non amplius sexcentis, in agro Laurenti posuisse castra: ubi dum simulacrum, quod secum ex Sicilia advexerat, dedicat Veneri matri, quæ Frutis dicitur, a Diomede Palladium suscipit, tribusque mox annis cum Latino regnat socia potestate, quingentis jugeribus ab eo acceptis. Quo defuncto, summam biennio adeptus, apud Numicum parere desivit anno septimo, Patrisque Indigetis ei nomen datum. Deinde constituta ab Ascanio Longa Alba, Fidenæ, Antium, Nola a Tyriis, ab Eubœensibus Cumæ: ibidem Sibyllæ sacellum est, sed ejus, quæ rebus Romanis quinquagesima olympiade interfuit, cujusque librum ad Cornelium usque Sullam pontifices nostri consulebant.

Nor should it be omitted that Aeneas, in the second summer after Ilium was captured, as Hemina hands down, having been brought to land on the Italian shores, with companions no more than 600, pitched camp in the Laurentine territory: where, while he dedicates to Venus his mother the image which he had carried with him from Sicily, she who is called Frutis, he receives from Diomedes the Palladium, and soon for three years he reigns with Latinus in associated power, having received from him 500 iugera. Upon his death, having obtained the supreme authority for two years, at the Numicus he ceased to appear in the seventh year, and the name of Father Indiges was given to him. Then, established by Ascanius were Alba Longa, Fidenae, Antium; Nola by the Tyrians, and by the Euboeans Cumae: in the same place there is a little shrine of the Sibyl, but of her who took part in Roman affairs in the 50th Olympiad, and whose book our pontiffs consulted down to Cornelius Sulla.

Tunc enim una cum Capitolio igni absumptus est: nam priores duo, Tarquinio Superbo parcius pretium offerente quam postulabatur, ipsa exusserat. Hujus sepulcrum in Sicilia adhuc manet. Delphicam autem Sibyllam ante Trojana bella vaticinatam Bocchus autumat, cujus plurimos versus operi suo Homerum inseruisse manifestat.

Then indeed it was consumed by fire together with the Capitol; for the previous two, with Tarquinius Superbus offering the price more sparingly than was demanded, she herself had burned. Her tomb still remains in Sicily. Bocchus avers that the Delphic Sibyl prophesied before the Trojan wars, and he makes clear that Homer inserted very many of her verses into his work.

Hanc Herophile Erythrea annis aliquot intercedentibus consequuta est, Sibyllaque appellata est de scientiæ parilitate, quæ inter alia magnifica Lesbios amissuros imperium maris multo ante præmonuit, quam id accideret. Ita Cumanam tertio fuisse post has loco, ipsa ævi series probat. Ergo Italia, in qua Latium antiquum antea a Tiberis ostiis ad usque Lirim amnem pertinebat, universa consurgit a jugis Alpium, porrecta ad Reginum verticem, et litora Bruttiorum, quo in maria meridiem versus protenditur.

Herophile the Erythraean, after several intervening years, succeeded her, and was called Sibyl by reason of parity of knowledge; and among other magnificent things she forewarned long beforehand that the Lesbians would lose dominion of the sea, before that came to pass. Thus that the Cumaean was third in place after these, the very series of time proves. Therefore Italy, in which ancient Latium formerly extended from the mouths of the Tiber up to the river Liris, as a whole rises from the ridges of the Alps, stretched out to the Rhegian headland and the shores of the Bruttii, where it is extended into the seas toward the south.

Inde procedens paulatim, se Apennini montis dorso attollit, extenta inter Tuscum et Adriaticum, id est inter Superum mare et Inferum, similis querneo folio, proceritate amplior, quam latitudine. Ubi longius abiit, in cornua duo scinditur, quorum alterum Ionium respectat æquor, alterum Siculum. Inter quas prominentias non uno margine accessum insinuati freti recipit, sed linguis projectis sæpius, ac procurrentibus, distinctum promontoriis pelagus accipit.

Thence, proceeding little by little, it lifts itself upon the back of the Apennine mountain, stretched between the Tuscan and the Adriatic, that is, between the Upper Sea and the Lower, similar to an oak leaf, greater in length than in breadth. Where it has gone farther, it is split into two horns, of which the one looks toward the Ionian level sea, the other toward the Sicilian sea. Between these prominences it admits the approach of the insinuating strait not with a single margin, but, with tongues often thrust out and running forward, it receives an open sea divided by promontories.

Ibi, ut sparsim notemus, arces Tarentinæ, Scyllacea regio cum Scylleo oppido, et Cratæide flumine Scylæ matre, ut vetustas fabulata est, Regini saltus, Pæstanæ valles, Sirenum saxa, amœnissimus Campaniæ tractus, Phlegræi campi, Circæ domus, Tarracina insula ante circumflua immenso mari, nunc ævo nectente addita continenti, diversamque fortunam a Reginis experta, quos fretum medium a Siculis vi abscidit: Formiæ etiam Læstrigonibus habitatæ, multa præterea pollentissimis ingeniis edissertata, quæ præterire, quam inferius exsequi, tutius duximus. Verum Italiæ longitudo, quæ ab Augusta Prætoria per Urbem Capuamque porrigitur usque ad oppidum Regium, decies centena et viginti millia passuum colligit: latitudo ubi plurimum quadringenta decem; ubi minimum, centum sex et triginta: arctissima est ad portum, quem Hannibalis Castra dicunt: neque enim excedit quadraginta millia. Umbilicum, ut Varro tradit, in agro Reatino habet.

There, to note here and there, the citadels of Tarentum, the Scyllacean region with the town Scylleum, and the river Crataeis, mother of Scylla, as antiquity has fabled, the passes of Regium, the Paestan valleys, the rocks of the Sirens, the most delightful tract of Campania, the Phlegraean fields, Circe’s house, the island of Tarracina formerly surrounded by the immense sea, now, time knitting, added to the continent, and having experienced a different fortune from the Reggians, whom the strait between cut off by force from the Sicilians: Formiae too, inhabited by the Laestrygones, and many things besides, elaborated by most powerful talents, which we have judged safer to pass over than to pursue below. But the length of Italy, which from Augusta Praetoria through the City and Capua extends as far as the town of Regium, amounts to 1,020,000 paces: its breadth where greatest is 410 thousand; where least, 136; it is narrowest at the harbor which they call “Hannibal’s Camp,” for it does not exceed 40 thousand. Its navel, as Varro relates, it has in the Reatine countryside.

At in solidum spatium circuitus universi vicies quadragies noviesque centena sunt. In quo ambitu adversa Locrensium fronte ortus a Gadibus finitur Europæ sinus primus: nam secundus a Lacinio auspicatus, in Acroceraunio metas habet.

But in aggregate extent the circuit of the whole amounts to 6,900. Within which ambit, with the front of the Locrians opposite, the first bay of Europe, having arisen from Gades, is bounded; for the second, having taken its inception from Lacinium, has its bounds at the Acroceraunian.

Ad hæc Italia Pado clara est, quem mons Vesulus superantissimus inter juga Alpium gremio suo fundit, visendo fonte in Ligurum finibus, unde se primum Padus proruit, subversusque cuniculo rursus in agro Vibonensi extollitur, nulli amnium inferior claritate, a Græcis dictus Eridanus. Intumescit exortu Canis tabefactis nivibus, et liquentibus brumæ pruinis, auctusque aquarum accessione, triginta flumina in Adriaticum defert mare.

Moreover, Italy is renowned for the Padus (the Po), which Mount Vesulus, most towering among the ridges of the Alps, pours forth from its bosom, with a source worth seeing within the borders of the Ligurians; whence the Padus first rushes out, and, having gone beneath by a little tunnel, again rises in the Vibonese territory, inferior to no rivers in renown, called Eridanus by the Greeks. It swells at the rising of the Dog, as the snows waste away and the hoar-frosts of winter grow liquid; and, increased by the accession of waters, it carries thirty rivers into the Adriatic Sea.

E memorabilibus inclytum et insigniter per omnium vulgatum ora, quod perpaucæ familiæ sunt in agro Faliscorum, quos Hirpos vocant. Hi sacrificium annuum ad montem Soractis Apollini faciunt: id operantes gesticulationibus religiosis, impune insultant ardentibus lignorum struibus, in honorem divinæ rei flammis parcentibus. Cujus devotionis mysterium munificentia senatus honorata, Hirpis perpetuo consulto omnium munerum vacationem dedit.

And among memorable things it is illustrious and notably spread upon the lips of all, that there are very few families in the land of the Falisci, whom they call the Hirpi. These make an annual sacrifice to Apollo at Mount Soracte: performing this with religious gestures, they with impunity leap upon burning piles of wood, the flames sparing them in honor of the divine power. The mystery of this devotion, honored by the munificence of the Senate, obtained for the Hirpi, by a perpetual decree, an exemption from all public duties.

Gentem Marsorum serpentibus illæsam esse, nihil mirum: a Circæ filio hi genus ducunt, et de avita potentia deberi sibi sciunt servitium venenorum: ideo venena contemnunt. Cœlius Æetæ tres filias dicit, Angitiam, Medeam, et Circen: Circen Circeios insedisse montes, carminum maleficiis varias imaginum facies mentientem: Angitiam vicina Fucino occupavisse, ibique salubri scientia adversus morbos resistentem, quum dedisset hominem vivere, deam habitam: Medeam ab Jasone Buthroti sepultam, filiumque ejus Marsis imperasse. Sed quamvis Italia habeat hoc præsidium familiare, a serpentibus non penitus libera est.

That the nation of the Marsi is unharmed by serpents is no wonder: they draw their lineage from the son of Circe, and from ancestral potency they know that the servitude of venoms is owed to them; therefore they contemn poisons. Coelius says that Aeetes had three daughters, Angitia, Medea, and Circe: that Circe settled the Circaean mountains, by the malefic rites of incantations counterfeiting various forms of appearances; that Angitia occupied the region near Lake Fucinus, and there, with salubrious science, stood against diseases—when she had granted a man to live, she was held a goddess; that Medea was buried by Jason at Buthrotus, and that her son ruled the Marsi. But although Italy has this household safeguard, it is not entirely free from serpents.

Denique Amunclas, quas Amyclas ante Græci condiderant, serpentes fugavere. Illic frequens vipera insanabili morsu: brevior hæc ceteris, quam in aliis advertimus orbis partibus, ac propterea, dum despectui est, facilius nocet.

Finally, the Amunclas, which the Greeks had formerly founded as Amyclae, drove the serpents to flight. There the viper is frequent, with an incurable bite: this one is shorter than the others, as we have observed in other parts of the world, and therefore, while it is held in contempt, it injures more easily.

Calabria chelydris frequentissima, et boam gignit, quem anguem ad immensam molem ferunt convalescere. Captat primo greges bubulos, et quæ plurimo lacte rigua bos est, ejus se uberibus innectit, suctuque continuo saginata longo in seculo, ita fellebri satietate ultimo extuberatur, ut obsistere magnitudini ejus nulla vis queat; et postremo depopulatis animantibus regiones, quas ohsederit, cogit ad vastitatem. Denique divo Claudio principe, ubi Vaticanus ager est, in alvo occisæ boæ spectatus est solidus infans.

Calabria is most teeming with chelydri, and it begets the boa, a snake which they report to grow to an immense mass. At first it preys upon herds of oxen, and whichever cow is abundantly replete with milk, it fastens itself to her udders; and, fattened by continuous sucking over a long span, it is at last puffed out with such bile-full satiety that no force can withstand its magnitude; and finally, with the living creatures depopulated, it drives the regions which it has besieged into desolation. Finally, under the deified Claudius as princeps, where the Vatican field is, a whole infant was observed in the belly of a slain boa.

Italia lupos habet, et quod cum ceteris simile non sit, homo, quem prius viderint, conticescit, et anticipatus obtutu nocentis aspectus, licet clamandi voluntatem habeat, non habet vocis ministerium. Sciens de lupis multa prætereo. Spectatissimum illud est: caudæ animalis hujus villus amatorius inest perexiguus, quem spontivo damno amittit, quum capi metuit: nec habet potentiam, nisi viventi detrahatur.

Italy has wolves; and, that it may not be similar with the rest, a man, whom they have first seen, falls utterly silent; and his aspect, anticipated by the gaze of the harmful creature, although he may have the will to cry out, does not have the ministry of the voice. Knowing many things about wolves I pass them by. Most notable is this: in the tail of this animal there is a very tiny amatory hair, which it loses by a spontaneous forfeiture when it fears being captured; nor does it have potency unless it be plucked from a living one.

Cœunt lupi toto anno non amplius dies duodecim. Vescuntur in fame terram. At hi, quos cervarios dicimus, quamvis post longa jejunia repertas ægre carnes mandere cœperint, ubi quid casu respiciunt obliviscuntur, et immemores præsentis copiæ eunt quæsitum quam reliquerant satietatem.

Wolves come together to mate for no more than twelve days in the whole year. In starvation they feed on earth. But those whom we call cervarii, although after long fasts they have begun with difficulty to chew the meats they have found, when by chance they look back at something, they forget, and, unmindful of the present plenty, go to seek the satiety which they had left behind.

In hoc animalium genere nominantur et lynces, quarum urinas coire in duritiem pretiosi calculi fatentur, qui naturas lapidum exquisitius sunt persequuti. Istud etiam ipsas lynces persentiscere hoc documento probatur, quod egestum liquorem illico arenarum tumulis, quantum valent, contegunt, invidæ scilicet ne talis egeries transeat in nostrum usum, ut Theophrastus perhibet. Lapidi isti ad succinum color est, pariter spiritu attrahit propinquantia, dolores renum placat, medetur regio morbo; Græce lyngurium dicitur.

In this genus of animals are also named lynxes, whose urines, those who have more exquisitely pursued the natures of stones confess, cohere into the hardness of a precious calculus. This too is proved by the following indication, that the lynxes themselves perceive it: the liquid once voided they immediately cover, as much as they are able, with mounds of sand—envious, to wit, lest such an egestion pass into our use, as Theophrastus asserts. This stone has a color like to amber, and likewise by its spirit it attracts things that approach, it soothes pains of the kidneys, it heals the royal disease; in Greek it is called lyngurium.

Cicadæ apud Reginos mutæ, nec usquam alibi: quod silentium miraculo est, nec immerito, quum vicinæ quæ sunt Locrensium, ultra ceteras sonent. Causas Granius tradit, quum obmurmurarent illic Herculi quiescenti, deum jussisse ne streperent: itaque ex eo cœptum silentium permanere.

Among the people of Rhegium the cicadas are mute, and nowhere else: this silence is a marvel, and not without reason, since those of the neighboring Locrians sound beyond the rest. Granius reports the causes: when they were murmuring there at Hercules as he was resting, the god ordered that they not rattle; and thus the silence begun from that time endures.

Ligusticum mare frutices procreat, qui quantisper fuerint in aquarum profundis fluxi sunt, tactu prope carnulento; deinde, ubi in supera attolluntur, natalibus saxis derogati, lapides fiunt. Nec qualitas illis tantum sed et color vertitur: nam puniceo protinus rubescunt. Ramuli sunt, quales arboris visimus, ad semipedem frequentius longi.

The Ligurian sea produces shrubs, which, so long as they have been in the depths of the waters, are pliant, almost of a fleshy touch; then, when they are lifted up into the upper regions, detached from their natal rocks, they become stones. And not only their quality but also their color is changed: for straightway they redden with a Tyrian-crimson hue. The little branches are such as we have seen on a tree, more commonly up to half a foot long.

Rarum est pedaneos deprehendi. Excuduntur ex illis multa gestamina; habet enim, ut Zoroastres ait, materia hæc quamdam potestatem, ac propterea, quidquid inde fit, ducitur inter salutaria; curalium alias dicunt; nam Metrodorus gorgian nominat. Idem quod resistat typhonibus et fulminibus affirmat.

It is rare to find ones a foot long. From them many wearables are wrought; for this material, as Zoroaster says, has a certain power, and therefore whatever is made from it is counted among salutary things; they also call it “curalium”; for Metrodorus names it “gorgian.” The same man affirms that it resists typhons and thunderbolts.

Eruitur gemma in parte Lucanie, facie adeo jucunda, ut languentes intrinsecus stellas, et subnubilo renidentes, croceo colore perfundat. Ea quoniam in littore Syrtium inventa primum est, syrtites vocatur. Est et veietana a loco dicta, cui nigricolor facies propria, quam ad gratiam varietatis albi limites intersecant notis candicantibus.

A gem is dug up in a part of Lucania, with an appearance so pleasing that it bathes with a saffron color the stars faint within, and those gleaming back under a slight cloud-cover. Since it was first found on the shore of the Syrtes, it is called syrtites. There is also the Veietana, named from the place, whose characteristic face is black-colored, which white boundaries intersect, with whitening marks, to the grace of variety.

Insula, quæ Apuliæ oram videt, tumulo ac delubro Diomedis insignis est, et Diomedeas aves sola nutrit: nam hoc genus alitis præterquam ibi nusquam gentium est, idque solum poterat memorabile judicari, nisi accederent non omittenda. Forma illis pæne quæ fulicis, color candidus, ignei oculi, ora dentata; congreges volitant, nec sine ratione pergendi; duces duo sunt, qui regant cursum: alter agmen anteit, alter insequitur; ille ut ductu certum iter dirigat, hic ut instantia urgeat tarditatem, Hæc in meantibus disciplina est. Quum fœtificum adest tempus, rostro scrobes excavant; deinde surculis inversum superpositis, imitantur texta cratium: sic contegunt subtercavata, et ne operimenta desint, si forte lignorum cassa venti auferunt, hanc struicem comprimunt terra, quam egesserant, quum puteos excitassent.

An island that looks upon the shore of Apulia is distinguished by a tumulus and a shrine of Diomedes, and it alone nourishes the Diomedean birds: for this kind of winged creature is nowhere else in the world, and that alone could be judged memorable, were there not also things not to be omitted added. Their form is almost that of the coot, their color white, their eyes fiery, their beaks toothed; flocking they fly, nor without a plan of proceeding; there are two leaders to govern the course: one goes before the column, the other follows; the former, that by guidance he may direct a sure route; the latter, that by pressing urgency he may drive on slowness. This is their discipline when they are on the move. When the time for breeding is at hand, with the beak they hollow pits; then, with little twigs laid crosswise above, they imitate the woven work of hurdles: thus they cover the hollows beneath; and lest coverings be lacking, if by chance the winds carry off the wickerwork of sticks, they compress this heap with the earth which they had thrown out when they had dug the pits.

Sic nidos moliuntur bifori accessu, nec fortuitu: adeo ut ad plagas cœli metentur exitus, vel ingressus. Aditus, qui mittiit ad pastus, in ortum destinatur; qui excipit revertentes, versus occasui est: ut lux et morantes excitet, et receptui non denegetur. Levaturæ alvum adversis flatibus subvolant, quibus proluvies longius auferatur.

Thus they construct their nests with a two-doored access, and not fortuitously: to such a degree that they apportion the exits and the entrances according to the quarters of the sky. The entrance that sends out to pastures is destined toward the Orient; the one that receives the returning is turned toward the Occident: so that light both excites those lingering, and is not denied on the return. When they are about to relieve the belly, they fly up into the adverse winds, by which the discharge is carried farther away.

Judicant inter advenas: qui Græcus est, propius accedunt, et quantum intelligi datur, ut civem blandius adulantur; si quis erit gentis alterius, involant et impugnant. Ædem sacram omni die celebrant studio ejusmodi: aquis imbuunt plumas, alisque impendio madefactis confluunt rorulentæ: ita ædem excusso humore purificant: tunc pinnulis superplaudunt: inde disceditur quasi peracta religione. Ob hoc credunt Diomedis socios aves factos.

They pass judgment among strangers: whoever is Greek, they approach more closely and, so far as it can be understood, they more suavely adulate him as a fellow-citizen; if anyone be of another nation, they swoop in and assail. They celebrate the sacred temple every day with zeal of this sort: they imbue their feathers with waters, and, their wings exceedingly drenched, they flock together dewy; thus they purify the temple by shaking off the moisture; then with their little pinions they beat above; thereafter they depart as though the religion were accomplished. On this account they believe that the companions of Diomedes were made birds.

Sane ante adventum Ætoli ducis nomen Diomediæ non habebant, inde sic dictæ.

Indeed, before the arrival of the Aetolian leader they did not have the name Diomedeae; from that they are thus called.

Italicus excursus per Liburnos, quæ gens Asiatica est, procedit in Dalmatiæ pedem, Dalmatia in limitem lllyricum, in quo sinu Dardani sedes habent, homines ex Trojana prosapia in mores barbaros efferati. At ex altera parte per Ligurum oram in Narbonensem provinciam pergit, in qua Phocenses quondam fugati Persarum adventu, Massiliam urbem olympiade quadragesima quinta condiderunt. Et C. Marius bello Cimbrico, factis manu fossis, invitavit mare, perniciosamque ferventis Rhodani navigationem temperavit: qui amnis præcipitatus Alpibus primo per Helvetios ruit, occursantium aquarum agmina secum trahens, auctuque magno, ipso quod invadit freto turbulentior; nisi quod fretum ventis excitatur, Rhodanus sævit et quum serenum est: atque ideo inter tres Europæ maximos fluvios et hunc computant.

The Italian projection, running along the Liburni—an Asiatic nation—proceeds to the foot of Dalmatia, and Dalmatia to the Illyrian frontier; in whose bay the Dardani have their seats, men of Trojan lineage brutalized into barbarian customs. But on the other side, along the shore of the Ligurians, it goes into the province of Narbonensis, in which the Phocaeans, once put to flight at the arrival of the Persians, founded the city of Massilia in the 45th Olympiad. And Gaius Marius, in the Cimbrian War, by fosses made by hand invited the sea and moderated the pernicious navigation of the seething Rhodanus (Rhone): which river, hurled headlong from the Alps, at first rushes through the Helvetii, dragging with it the ranks of converging waters, and, with great augmentation, is more turbulent than the very strait which it invades—save that, whereas the strait is stirred by winds, the Rhodanus rages even when the weather is serene; and therefore they reckon this too among the three greatest rivers of Europe.

Aquæ quoque Sextiliæ eo loco claruerunt, quondam hiberna consulis, postea excultæ mœnibus: quarum calor olim acrior, exhalatus per tempora evaporavit, nec jam par est famæ priori. Si Græcias cogitemus, præstat respicere litus Tarentinum: unde a promontorio, quod Acran Iapygian vocant, Achaiam destinantibus, citissima navigatio est.

The Sextilian waters too were renowned in that place, once the consul’s winter-quarters, later cultivated and fortified with walls: whose heat, once harsher, has breathed out and evaporated over time, and is now not equal to its former fame. If we consider the Greeces, it is better to look to the Tarentine shore: whence, from the promontory which they call the Iapygian Acra, for those bound to Achaia, the voyage is most rapid.

III. Corsica. In ea de catochite lapide.

3. Corsica. On the catochite stone in it.

Flectendus hinc stilus est: terrarum vocant aliæ, et longum est, ut memoratim insularum omnium oras legamus, quascumque promontoria Italica prospectant: quamvis sparsæ recessibus amœnissimis, et quodam naturæ quasi spectaculo expositæ, non erant omittendæ; sed quantum residendum est, si dilatis, quæ præcipua sunt, per quamdam desidiam, aut Pandatariam, aut Prochytam dicamus, aut Iluam ferri feracem, aut Caprariaus, quam Græci Aàgilon dicunt, aut Planasiam de facie supinitatis sic vocatam, vel Columbariam avium hoc nominis matrem, vel Ithacesiam Ulyxis, ut proditur, speculam, vel Enariam, Inarimen ab Homero nominatam, aliasque lætas non secus, inter quas Corsicam plurimi in dicendo latius circumvecti, plenissima narrandi absolverant diligentia, nihilque omissum, quod retractanti non sit supervacuum: ut exordium incolis Ligures dederint, ut oppida structa sint, ut colonias ibi deduxerint Marius et Sulla, ut ipsam Ligustici sinus æquor alluat. Sed hæc facessant.

From here the stylus must be bent: others call them “lands,” and it would be a long task to read in order the shores of all the islands which the Italian promontories look upon: although scattered with most pleasant recesses, and set forth, as it were, for a certain spectacle of nature, they ought not to be omitted; but how much must one sit and linger, if, the chief matters being deferred, through a kind of sloth we should speak of either Pandataria, or Prochyta, or Ilva fertile in iron, or Capraria, which the Greeks call Aàgilon, or Planasia, so named from the appearance of supineness, or Columbaria, the mother of birds of this name, or Ithacesia, the watch-post of Ulysses, as is handed down, or Enaria, called Inarime by Homer, and other islands no less cheerful; among which, as for Corsica, many, having in speech voyaged more widely around it, have completed the matter with the fullest diligence of narration, and nothing has been omitted which would not be superfluous for one going over it again: how they gave the beginning to Ligurian inhabitants, how towns were built, how Marius and Sulla led colonies there, how the very sea of the Ligustic Gulf washes it. But let these things be gone.

Verum ager Corsicanus, quod in eo agro unicum est, solus edit, quem katoxÛthn vocant, lapidem fatu dignissimum. Major est ceteris, qui ad ornatum destinantur, nec tam gemma, quam cautes. Idem impositas manus detinet ita se junctis corporibus annectens, ut cum ipso hæreant, quibus tangitur: sic ei inest velut de glutino lentiore nescio quid, parque gummi.

Yet the Corsican land, which in that land is unique, alone brings forth a stone, which they call katoxÛthn, most deserving of folly. It is larger than the others that are destined for ornament, and is not so much a gem as a crag. This same stone detains the hands laid upon it, so fastening itself to joined bodies that the parts with which it is touched cling to it: thus there is in it, as it were, I know not what of a more sluggish glue, and an equal of gum.

Accipimus Democritum Abderiten ostentatione scrupuli hujus frequenter usum, ad probandam occultam naturæ potentiam in certaminibus, quæ contra magos habuit.

We are told that Democritus the Abderite frequently employed the ostentatious display of this pebble, to prove the occult potency of nature, in the contests which he had against the magi.

IV. Sardinia. In ea de solifuga, et herba Sardonia.

4. Sardinia. In it about the solifuge, and the Sardonic herb.

Sardinia quoque, quam apud Timæum SandaliÇtin legimus, 'Ixnoèsan apud Crispum, in quo mari sita sit, quos incolarum auctores habeat, satis celebre est. Nihil ergo attinet dicere, ut Sardus Hercule, Norax Mercurio, procreati, quum alter a Libya, alter ab usque Tartesso Hispaniæ, in hosce fines permeavissent, a Sardo terra, a Norace Noræ oppido nomen datum. Mox Aristæum regnando his proximum in urbe Caralis, quam condiderat ipse, conjuncto populo utriusque sanguinis, sejuges usque ad se gentes ad unum morem conjugasse, imperium ex insolentia nihil aspernatas.

Sardinia too—which in Timaeus we read as SandaliÇtin, and in Crispus as 'Ixnoèsan—as to in which sea it is situated and what founders of its inhabitants it has, is sufficiently celebrated. There is therefore no need to say that Sardus, begotten by Hercules, and Norax, begotten by Mercury—when the one had come from Libya and the other from as far as Tartessus in Spain into these borders—the land took its name from Sardus, and the town of Nora from Norax. Soon Aristaeus, ruling next to these in the city of Caralis, which he himself had founded, the people of both bloods having been joined together, yoked the peoples, previously separate down to his time, to one custom, not at all spurning authority out of insolence.

Sed ut hæc et Iolaum, qui ad id locorum agros ibi insedit, præterea et Ilienses, et Locrenses transeamus, Sardinia est quidem absque serpentibus, sed quod aliis locis serpens, hoc solifuga Sardis agris. Animal perexiguum, qua aranei forma, solifuga dicta, quod solem fugiat. In metallis argentariis plurima est: nam solum illud argenti dives est.

But, that we may pass over these things and Iolaus, who about that time settled fields there, and besides the Ilienses and the Locrenses, Sardinia is indeed without serpents; but what in other places is a serpent, this is the solifuga in the Sardinian fields. A very tiny animal, in the form of a spider, called “sun-fleeing” because it flees the sun. In the silver mines it is most abundant: for that soil alone is rich in silver.

Occultim reptat, et per imprudentiam supersedentibus pestem facit. Huic incommodo accedit et herba Sardonia, quæ in defluviis fontaneis provenit justo largius. Ea si edulio fuerit nescientibus, nervos contrahit, rictu diducit ora, ut, qui mortem oppetunt, facie ridentium intereant.

It creeps secretly, and through the imprudence of the remiss it brings a pest. To this inconvenience there is added also the Sardonic herb, which grows in the outflows of springs too lavishly. If this shall have been an edible for the unknowing, it contracts the sinews, draws the mouths apart in a rictus, so that those who meet death perish with the face of the laughing.

Contra quidquid aquarum est, varie commodis servit. Stagna pisculentissima, hibernæ pluviæ in æstivam penuriam reservantur: nam homo Sardus opem plurimam de imbrido cœlo habet. Hoc collectaneum depascitur, ut sufficiat usui, ubi defecerint scaturigines.

By contrast, whatever waters there are serve various conveniences. The most fish-laden pools and the hibernal rains are reserved against aestival penury; for the Sardinian man has very great aid from the rainy heaven. This collected supply is consumed, so that it may suffice for use, when the springs have failed.

Fontes calidi et salubres aliquot locis effervescunt, qui medelas afferunt, aut solidant ossa fracta, aut abolent a solifugis insertum venenum, aut etiam ocularias dissipant ægritudines; sed qui oculis medentur, et coarguendis valent furibus: nam quisquis sacramento raptum negat, lumina aquis attrectat: ubi perjurium non est, cernit clarius; si perfidia abnuit, detegitur facinus cæcitate, et captus oculis admissum tenebris fatetur.

Hot and salubrious springs effervesce in several places, which bring remedies, either they make firm broken bones, or they abolish the venom inserted by sun-fleeing creatures, or even dissipate ocular sicknesses; but those which heal the eyes are also strong for convicting thieves: for whoever by an oath denies a thing snatched in robbery, he touches his lights (eyes) to the waters: where there is no perjury, he sees more clearly; if perfidy denies, the crime is uncovered by blindness, and, taken in the eyes, he confesses the deed by the darkness.

V. Sicilia. In ea memorabilia soli et aquarum. Item de achate lapide.

5. Sicily. In it things memorable of the soil and of the waters. Likewise concerning the agate stone.

Si respiciamus ad ordinem temporum, vel locorum, post Sardiniam res vocant Siculæ. Primo, quod utraque insula in Romanum arbitratum redacta, iisdem temporibus facta est provincia: cum eodem anno Sardiniam M. Valerius, alteram C. Flaminius prætor sortiti sunt. Adde, quod freto Siculo excipitur nomen Sardi maris. Ergo Sicilia, quod cum primis assignandum est, diffusis prominentibus triquetra specie figuratur.

If we look back to the order of times, or of places, after Sardinia matters call to Sicily. First, because both islands, having been reduced to Roman authority, became a province in the same period: since in the same year M. Valerius, as praetor, drew Sardinia by lot, and C. Flaminius the other island. Add that the name of the Sardinian Sea is taken up by the Sicilian strait. Therefore Sicily, which is to be assigned among the very first, is figured, with its promontories spread out, in a triquetral form.

Pachynus adspectus in Peloponnesum, et meridianam plagam dirigit; Pelorias adversa vespero Italiam videt; Lilybæum in Africam extenditur. Inter quæ Pelorias præstat, laudata unico soli temperamento, quod neque humido in lutum madefiat, neque fatiscat in pulverem siccitate. Ea ubi introrsum recedit, et in latitudinem panditur, tres lacus obtinet: quorum unus quod piscium copiosus est, non equidem ad miraculum duxerim, sed quod ei proximans condensus arbustis inter virgultorum opaca feras nutriat, et admissis venantibus per terrenos tramites, quibus pedestris accessus excipit, duplicem piscandi venandique præbeat voluptatem, numeratur inter eximia.

Pachynus looks toward the Peloponnese and points to the southern quarter; Pelorias, facing the evening sky, looks upon Italy; Lilybæum stretches out toward Africa. Among these, Pelorias excels, praised for a unique tempering of the soil, such that it neither, when wet, is soaked into mud, nor, through dryness, gapes into powdery dust. Where this draws back inward and spreads out in breadth, it holds three lakes: of which one, because it is abundant in fish, I would not indeed count as a marvel, but because a place adjoining it, thick-set with groves, amid the shaded brushwood nourishes wild beasts, and, with hunters admitted along earthen tracks, by which a pedestrian access receives one, it affords a twofold delight of fishing and hunting, it is numbered among the remarkable.

Tertium ara sacrum approbat, qua in media sita, brevia dividit a profundis. Qua ad eam pergitur, aqua crurum tenus pervenit: quod ultra est, nec explorari licet, nec attingi; et si fiat, qui id ausus sit, malo plectitur, quantamque sui partem gurgiti intimaverit, tantam it perditum. Ferunt quemdam in hæc alta quam longissime jecisse lineam, eam ut recuperaret dum demerso brachio nisum adjuvat, cadaver manum factam.

A third point a sacred altar attests, which, situated in the middle, divides the shallows from the depths. Where one goes to it, the water reaches up to the shins; what lies beyond may neither be explored nor touched; and if it be done, whoever has dared is punished with a misfortune, and as great a part of himself as he has put within the whirlpool, so great a part goes to ruin. They report that a certain man cast a line into these depths as far as possible, and, in order to recover it, while, his arm plunged in, he aided the strain, his hand was made a cadaver.

Peloritana ora habitatur colonia Taurominia, quam prisci Naxum vocabant; oppido Messana; Regio Italiæ opposito, quod Regium a dehiscendi argumento „R®gion Græci dictitabant. Pachyno multa thynnorum inest copia, echinis et omnibus mari nantibus pisculentissimum, ac propterea semper captura larga. Lilybitano Lilybæum oppidum decus est, et Sibyllæ sepulcrum.

The Peloritan shore is inhabited by the colony Taurominia, which the ancients called Naxos; the town Messana; Rhegium, opposite to it in Italy, which, from the indication of splitting asunder, the Greeks used to call „R®gion. At Pachynus there is a great abundance of tunnies, and it is most fish-rich in sea-urchins and in all things that swim in the sea, and therefore always has a large catch. To the Lilybaean [promontory] Lilybaeum the town is an ornament, and the Sibyl’s sepulcher.

Sicaniæ diu ante Trojana bella Sicanus rex nomen dedit, advectus cum amplissima Iberorum manu; post Siculus Neptuni filius. In hanc plurimi Corinthiorum, Argivorum, Iliensium, Dorensium, Cretensium confluxerunt. Inter quos et Dædalus fabræ artis magister.

Sicania long before the Trojan wars received its name from King Sicanus, who came with a very large band of Iberians; afterward from Siculus, son of Neptune. Into this there converged very many of the Corinthians, Argives, Ilians, Dorians, and Cretans. Among whom too was Daedalus, master of the craftsman’s art.

Principem urbium Syracusas habet; in qua etiam cum hiberno conduntur serena, nullo non die sol est. Adde quod Arethusa fons in hac urbe est. Eminet montibus Ætna et Eryce.

It has Syracuse as the chief of cities; in which, even when the serene skies are shut in by winter, the sun is present on every day. Add that the fountain Arethusa is in this city. Among its mountains, Aetna and Eryx tower.

Vulcano Ætna sacer est, Eryx Veneri. In Ætnæ vertice hiatus duo sunt, crateres nominati, per quos eructatus erumpit vapor, præmisso prius fremitu, qui per æstuantes cavernarum latebras longo mugitu intra terræ viscera diu volvitur, nec ante se flammarum globi attollunt, quam interni strepitus antecedant. Mirum hoc est; nec illud minus, quod in illa ferventis naturæ pervicacia mixtas ignibus nives præfert, et licet vastis exundet incendiis, apicis canitie perpetua brumalem detinet faciem.

Aetna is sacred to Vulcan, Eryx to Venus. On the summit of Aetna there are two openings, called craters, through which belched-out vapor bursts forth, a roar first sent ahead, which through the seething hiding-places of the caverns is rolled for a long time within the bowels of the earth with a long bellowing; nor do globes of flames lift themselves before the internal noises have gone before. This is marvelous; and no less is this: that in the pertinacity of that fervent nature it displays snows mingled with the fires, and although it overflows with vast conflagrations, the hoary whiteness of the peak maintains a wintry aspect perpetually.

Itaque, invicta in utroque violentia, nec calor frigore mitigatur, nec frigus calore dissolvitur. Laudant alios montes duos, Nebroden et Neptunium: e Neptunio specula est in pelagus Tuscum, et Adriaticum; Nebroden damæ et hinnuli gregatim pervagantur: inde Nebrodes. Quidqquid Sicilia gignit sive soli sive hominis ingenio, proximum est his, quæ optima judicantur, nisi quod fœtus terræ Centuripino croco vincitur.

Therefore, with the violence in each unconquered, neither is heat mitigated by cold, nor is cold dissolved by heat. They praise two other mountains, Nebroden and Neptunium: from Neptunium there is a lookout over the Tuscan sea and the Adriatic; on Nebroden hinds and fawns roam in herds: hence (the name) Nebrodes. Whatever Sicily produces either by the nature of the soil or by the genius of man is next to those things which are judged the best, except that the fruit of the earth is surpassed by Centuripine saffron.

Hic primum inventa comœdia. Hinc et cavillatio mimica in scena stetit. Hinc domo Archimedes, qui juxta siderum disciplinam machinarius commentator fuit.

Here first comedy was discovered. Hence too mimetic cavillation stood upon the stage. Hence, by home, came Archimedes, who, according to the discipline of the stars, was a mechanician-commentator.

Hinc Lais illa, quæ eligere patriam maluit, quam fateri. Gentem Cyclopum testantur vasti specus. Læstrigonum sedes adhuc sic vocantur.

From here was that Lais, who preferred to choose a fatherland rather than to confess it. The vast caves bear witness to the nation of the Cyclopes. The seats of the Laestrygonians are still thus called.

Ceres inde magistra sationis frumentariæ. Hic ibidem campus Ennensis in floribus semper, et in omni vernus die. Quem propter est demersum foramen, quo Ditem patrem ad raptus Liberæ exeuntem fama est lucem hausum.

Ceres thence the instructress of the sowing of grain. Here in the same place the Ennaean plain, always in flowers, and on every day vernal. On account of which there is a sunken aperture, by which Dis the Father, going out to the rape of Libera, is said to have drunk in the light.

Inter Catinam et Syracusas certamen est de illustrium fratrum memoria, quorum nomina sibi diversæ partes adoptant. Si Catinenses audiamus, Anapis fuit, et Amphinomus; si quod malunt Syracusæ, Emantiam putabimus, et Critonem. Catinensis tamen regio causam dedit facto, in quam se quum Ætnæ incendia protulissent, juvenes duo sublatos parentes evexerunt in flammas illæsi ignibus.

Between Catania and Syracuse there is a contest over the memory of illustrious brothers, whose names different parties adopt for themselves. If we listen to the Catanians, they were Anapis and Amphinomus; if, as Syracuse prefers, we shall suppose them Emantias and Criton. The Catanian region, however, supplied the cause by the deed: when the fires of Aetna had advanced into it, two youths, having taken up their parents, bore them into the flames, unharmed by the fires.

Horum memoriam ita posteritas munerata est, ut sepulcri locus nominaretur Campus piorum.

The memory of these was in such wise rewarded by posterity, that the place of the sepulcher was named the Field of the Pious.

De Arethusa, et Alpheo verum est hactenus, quod conveniunt fons et amnis. Fluminum miracula abunde varia sunt. Dianam, qui ad Camerinam fluit, si habitus impudice hauserit, non coibunt in corpus unum latex vineus et latex aquæ. Apud Segestanos Helbesius in medio flumine subita exæstuatione fervet.

About Arethusa and Alpheus it is true thus far, that the spring and the river meet. The miracles of rivers are abundantly various. The Diana, which flows toward Camerina, if it has been drawn with attire immodest, the vinous liquid and the water-liquid will not coalesce into one body. Among the Segestans the Helbesius in midstream boils with a sudden seething.

Acidem, quamvis demissum Ætna, nullus frigore antevertit. Himeræum cœlestes mutant plagæ: amarus denique est, dum in aquilonem fluit, dulcis ubi ad meridiem flectitur. Quanta in aquis, tanta novitas in salinis.

Acis, although sent down from Aetna, no river outstrips in cold. The Himeran [river] the celestial zones change: it is bitter, in fine, while it flows toward the North Wind, sweet when it turns to the South. As great a novelty in the waters, so great a novelty in the salterns.

Salem Agrigentinum si igni junxeris, dissolvitur ustione; cui si liquor aquæ proximaverit, crepitat, veluti torreatur. Purpureum Enna mittit: in Pachyno translucidus invenitur. Cetera salinarum metalla, quæ sunt aut Agrigento, aut Centuripiis proximantia, funguntur cautium ministerio: nam illinc excuduntur signa ad facies hominum, vel deorum.

If you join Agrigentine salt to fire, it is dissolved by scorching; if a liquid of water draws near to it, it crackles, as though it were being roasted. Enna sends a purple kind; at Pachynus it is found translucent. The other metals of the salt-works, which are either at Agrigentum or neighboring to Centuripi, perform the service of graving-stones: for from them images are struck out to the likenesses of men or of gods.

Thermitanis locis insula est arundinum ferax, quæ accommodatissimæ sunt in omnem sonum tibiarum; seu præcentorias facias, quarum locus est ad pulvinaria præcinendi; seu vascas, quæ foraminum numeris præcentorias antecedunt; seu puellatorias, quibus a sono clariore vocamen datur; sive gingrinas, quæ breviores licet, subtilioribus tamen modis insonant; aut milvinas, qua in accentus exeunt acutissimos; aut Lydias, quas et turarias dicunt; vel Corinthias, vel Ægyptias, aliasve a musicis per diversas officiorum et nominum species separatas. In Halesina regione fons alias quietus et tranquillus quum siletur, si insonent tibiæ exsultabundus ad cantus elevatur, et quasi miretur vocis dulcedinem, ultra margines intumescit. Gelonium stagnum tetro odore abigit proximantes.

In the Thermitan districts there is an island abounding in reeds, which are most well-suited to every sound of pipes; whether you make precentorial ones, whose place is for chanting before the pulvinaria; or vascas, which surpass the precentorial in the numbers of holes; or puellatorial ones, to which a name is given from a clearer sound; or gingrinas, which, though shorter, nevertheless sound in more subtle modes; or milvinas, which pass into the sharpest accents; or Lydian ones, which they also call turariae; or Corinthian, or Egyptian, and others separated by musicians into diverse species of offices and of names. In the Halesine region a spring otherwise quiet and tranquil, when there is silence; if pipes sound, exultant it is raised at the songs, and as if it marveled at the sweetness of the voice, it swells beyond its banks. The Gelonian pool drives away those who approach with a foul odor.

Ibi et fontes duo: alter, de quo si sterilis sumpserit, fecunda fiet; alter, quem si fecunda hauserit, vertitur in sterilitatem. Stagnum Petrensium serpentibus noxium est, homini salutare. In lacu Agrigentino oleum supernatat: hoc pingue hæret arundinum comis de assiduo volutabro, e quarum capillamentis legitur unguentum medicum contra armentarios morbos.

There also are two springs there: one, from which if a sterile woman shall have taken a draught, she will become fecund; the other, from which if a fecund woman shall have drawn, she is turned into sterility. The pool of the Petrensians is noxious to serpents, salutary to man. In the Agrigentine lake oil floats on top: this grease clings to the locks of the reeds from continual wallowing, and from whose filaments a medicinal unguent is gathered against herd-diseases.

Nec longe inde collis Vulcanius, in quo, qui divinæ rei operantur, ligna vitea super aras struunt, nec ignis apponitur in hanc congeriem: quum prosicias intulerunt, si adest deus, si sacrum probatur, sarmenta licet viridia sponte concipiunt, et nullo inflagrante habitu, ab ipso numine fit accendium. Ibi epulantes alludit flamma, quæ flexuosis excessibus vagabunda, quem contigerit, non adurit: nec aliud est quam imago nuntia perfecti rite voti. Idem ager Agrigentinus eructat limosas scaturigines, et ut venæ fontium sufficiunt ripis subministrandis, ita in hac Siciliæ parte, solo nunquam deficiente, æterna rejectatione terram terra evomit.

Nor far from there is a Vulcanian hill, on which those who officiate in divine service pile vine-wood upon the altars, and no fire is applied to this heap: when they have brought in the cut portions, if the god is present, if the sacred rite is approved, the brushwood, though green, of its own accord takes fire, and with no inflamed aspect the kindling is effected by the numen itself. There, while they feast, the flame plays, which, wandering with sinuous excursions, does not scorch whom it has touched: nor is it anything other than a herald image announcing a vow duly perfected. The same Agrigentine land belches forth muddy gushings, and as the veins of springs suffice for supplying the banks, so in this part of Sicily, the soil never failing, by an eternal rejection the earth vomits out earth.

Achatem lapidem Sicilia primum dedit in Achatæ fluminis ripis repertum, non vilem, quum ibi tantum inveniretur: quippe interscribentes eum venæ naturalibus sic notant formis, ut, quum optimus est, varias præferat rerum imagines. Unde annulus Pyrrhi regis, qui adversus Romanos bella gessit, non ignobilis famæ fuit, cujus gemma achates erat, in quo novem Musæ cum insignibus suis singulæ, et Apollo tenens citharam videbatur, non impressis figuris, sed ingenitis. Nunc diversis locis apparet.

Sicily first produced the agate stone, found on the banks of the river Achates, not a base one, since it was then found only there: for the veins, inscribing it, thus mark it with natural forms, that, when it is at its best, it displays various images of things. Whence the ring of King Pyrrhus, who waged wars against the Romans, was of no ignoble fame, whose gem was agate, in which the nine Muses, each with her own insignia, and Apollo holding the cithara, were seen, not with figures impressed, but inborn. Now it appears in diverse places.

Dat Creta, quem curaliachatem vocant, curalio similem, sed illitum guttis auro micantibus, et scorpionum ictibus resistentem. Dat India reddentem nunc nemorum, nunc animalium facies, quem vidisse oculis favet, quique intra os receptus sedat sitim. Sunt et qui usti redolent myrrhæ odorem, hæmachates sanguineis maculis irrubescit; sed qui maxime probantur, vitream habent perspicuitatem, ut Cyprius: nam, qui sunt facie cerea, abundantes trivialiter, negliguntur.

Crete gives one which they call coral-agate, similar to coral, but anointed with drops gleaming like gold, and resisting the stings of scorpions. India gives one that renders now the visages of groves, now of animals, which to have seen is favorable to the eyes, and which, when taken into the mouth, allays thirst. There are also those which, when burned, exhale the odor of myrrh; the haemachates blushes with sanguine spots; but those which are most approved have a vitreous perspicuity, as does the Cyprian; for those which are of a waxy appearance, being commonly abundant, are disregarded.

Omnis ambitus hujus insulæ clauditur stadiorum tribus millibus.

The whole circuit of this island is enclosed within three thousand stadia.

VI. Volcaniæ insulæ.

6. Vulcanian islands.

In freto Siculo Hephestiæ insulæ quinque et viginti millibus passuum ab Italia absunt. Itali Vulcanias vocant: nam et ipsæ natura soli ignea per occulta commercia, aut mutuantur Ætnæ incendia, aut subministrant. Hic dicta sedes deo ignium.

In the Sicilian strait the Hephaestian islands are 25 miles distant from Italy. The Italians call them the Vulcanian islands: for they themselves, the nature of the soil being igneous, through hidden commerce either borrow Aetna’s fires or supply them. Here the seat of the god of fires is said to be.

Numero sunt septem. Liparæ nomen rex dedit Liparus, qui eam ante Æolum rexit. Alteram Hieram vocaverunt: ea præcipue Vulcano sacrata est, et plurimum colle eminentissimo nocte ardet.

They are seven in number. Liparus the king gave the name Lipara, who ruled it before Aeolus. Another they called Hiera: it is especially consecrated to Vulcan, and it burns very much by night on its most eminent hill.

Strongyle tertia, Æoli domus, vergitur ad exortus solis, minime angulosa, quæ flammis liquidioribus differt a ceteris. Hæc causa efficit, quod ex ejus fumo potissimum incolæ præsentiscunt, quinam flatus in triduo pertendant. Quo factum, ut Æolus rex ventorum crederetur.

Strongyle, the third, the house of Aeolus, faces toward the rising of the sun, least angular, which differs from the others by more liquid flames. This circumstance brings it about that from its smoke, above all, the inhabitants have a presentiment which winds will prevail within three days. Whence it came about that Aeolus was believed the king of the winds.

Ceteras Didymen, Ericusam, Phœnicusam, Euonymon, quoniam similes sunt, dictas habe.

As for the others—Didyme, Ericusa, Phœnicusa, Euonymon—since they are similar, consider them as so named.