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

VII. Europæ sinus tertius. In eo de locorum Græciæ admirabilibus; de fluminibus, de fontibus; de merulis, de perdicibus; de lapide galactite, de lapide asbesto; de Arione.

7. The third gulf of Europe. In it, on the marvels of the places of Greece; on rivers, on springs; on blackbirds, on partridges; on the galactite stone, on the asbestos stone; on Arion.

Tertius Europæ sinus incipit a Cerauniis montibus, desinit in Hellespontum. In eo apud Molossos, ubi Dodonæi Jovis templum, Tomarus mons est, circa radices nobilis centum fontibus, ut Theopompo placet. In Epiro fons est sacer, frigidus ultra omnes aquas, et spectatæ diversitatis: nam si ardentem in eum mergas facem, exstinguit; si procul ac sine igne admoveas, suopte ingenio inflamat.

The third gulf of Europe begins at the Ceraunian Mountains and ends at the Hellespont. In it, among the Molossians, where the temple of Dodonaean Jove is, there is Mount Tomarus, famed around its roots for a hundred springs, as Theopompus holds. In Epirus there is a sacred spring, colder beyond all waters, and of observed diversity: for if you plunge a burning torch into it, it extinguishes; if you bring the torch near from afar and without fire, by its own nature it inflames.

Dodone Tomaro celsa est. Delphi Cephiso flumine, Castalio fonte, Parnassi jugis celebres. Acarnania Aracyntho eminet.

Dodona is lofty with Tomarus. Delphi are celebrated for the river Cephisus, the Castalian fount, and the ridges of Parnassus. Acarnania stands out with Aracynthus.

Hanc ab Ætolia Pindus dividit, qui Acheloum parit, cum primis Græciæ amnibus præditum veteri claritate. Nec injuria, quum inter calculos, quibus ripæ ejus micant, inveniatur galactites, qui scrupulus ipse ater si teratur, reddit succum album ad lactis saporem. Feminis nutrientibus illigatus fecundat ubera, subnexus parvulis largiusculos haustus facit salivarum.

This from Aetolia Pindus divides, which begets the Achelous, endowed, among the foremost rivers of Greece, with ancient renown. Nor unjustly, since among the pebbles with which its banks glitter there is found the galactites, which, the pebble itself, black, if it be ground, yields a white juice with the savor of milk. Fastened to nursing women it makes the breasts fruitful; tied beneath little children it produces more copious draughts of saliva.

Intra os receptus liquescit; quum solvitur tamen, memoriæ bonum perimit. Quem post Nilum Achelous dat, nec alter alius.

Received within the mouth it liquefies; when it is dissolved, however, it destroys the good of memory. Which the Achelous gives after the Nile, and no other besides.

Propter oppidum Patras Scioessa locus novem collium opacitate umbrosus, et radiis solis ferme invisus, nec aliam ob causam memorabilis. In Laconica spiraculum est Tænaron. Est et Tænaron promontorium adversum Africæ, in quo fanum est Methymnæi Arionis, quem delphine eo advectum imago testis est, ad effigiem casus et veri operis expressa ære: præterea tempus signatum: olympiade enim undetrigesima, qua in certamine Siculo idem Arion victor scribitur, id ipsum gestum probatur.

Near the town Patras, Scioessa, a place shaded by the opacity of nine hills, and almost unseen to the rays of the sun, and memorable for no other cause. In Laconia there is a spiracle, Tænaron. There is also Tænaron, a promontory opposite Africa, on which there is a fane of Arion of Methymna; an image bears witness that he was conveyed thither by a dolphin, wrought in bronze to the likeness of the event and of the true deed: besides this, the time is marked: for in the 29th Olympiad, in which in the Sicilian contest that same Arion is recorded as victor, this very deed is proved to have been done.

Est et oppidum Tænaron nobili vetustate: præterea aliquot urbes, inter quas Leuctræ, non obscuræ jam pridem Lacedæmoniorum fœdo exitu. Amiclæ silentio suo quondam pessundatæ. Sparta insignis cum Pollucis et Castoris templo, tum etiam Othryadis illustris viri titulis. Therapnæ, unde primum cultus Dianæ. Pitane, quam Archesilas stoicus inde ortus prudentiæ suæ merito in lucem extulit.

There is also the town of Taenarum, of noble antiquity; moreover several cities, among which Leuctra, by no means obscure now long since through the shameful outcome of the Lacedaemonians. Amyclae, once undone by its own silence. Sparta, distinguished both by the temple of Pollux and Castor, and also by the inscriptions of the illustrious man Othryades. Therapnae, whence first the cult of Diana. Pitane, which Archesilas the Stoic, sprung from there, brought to light by the merit of his prudence.

Anthia et Cardamyle, ubi quondam fuere Thyræ, nunc locus dicitur, in quo anno septimo decimo regni Romuli inter Laconas et Argivos memorabile bellum fuit. Jam Taygeta mons, et flumen Eurotas notiora sunt, quam ut stilo egeant.

Anthia and Cardamyle, where once were Thyrae, now a site so called, in which, in the seventeenth year of the reign of Romulus, there was a memorable war between the Laconians and the Argives. Now Mount Taygetus and the river Eurotas are too well-known to need the stylus.

Inachus Achaiæ amnis Argolicum secat tractum, quem rex Inachus a se nominavit, qui exordium Argivæ nobilitati primus dedit. Epidauro decus est Æsculapii sacellum, cui incubantes ægritudinem remedia capessunt de monitis somniorum. Pallanteum Arcadiæ, quod Palatio nostro per Evandrum Arcada appellationem dederit, sat est admonere: in qua montes Cyllene et Lycæus Mænalus etiam diis alumnis inclaruerunt; inter quos nec Erymanthus in obscuro est.

Inachus, a river of Achaia, cuts the Argolic tract, which King Inachus named after himself, he who first gave the beginning to Argive nobility. At Epidaurus the shrine of Aesculapius is an ornament, in which, by lying in incubation, the sick take up remedies for their ailment from the admonitions of dreams. Of Pallanteum in Arcadia it is enough to mention that, through Evander the Arcadian, it gave the appellation to our Palatine; in which the mountains Cyllene and Lycaeus, and Maenalus as well, have become illustrious by their divine fosterlings; among which neither Erymanthus is in obscurity.

Inter flumina, Erymanthus Erymantho monte demissus, et Ladon, ille Herculis pugna, hic Pane clara sunt. Varro perhibet fontem in Arcadia esse, cujus interimat haustus. In eadem parte de avibus hoc solum non indignum relatu, quod cum aliis locis merula furva sit, circa Cyllenem candidissima est.

Among the rivers, Erymanthus, sent down from Mount Erymanthus, and Ladon—the former is renowned for the fight of Hercules, the latter for Pan. Varro relates that there is a spring in Arcadia, whose draught kills. In the same quarter, concerning birds this alone is not unworthy of report: that whereas in other places the blackbird is dusky, around Cyllene it is most snow-white.

Nec lapidem spreverimus, quem Arcadia mittit: asbesto nomen est, ferri colore; qui, accensus semel, exstingui nequitur.

Nor should we scorn the stone which Arcadia sends: its name is asbestos, iron in color; which, once kindled, cannot be extinguished.

In Megarensium sinum Isthmos exit, ludis quinquennalibus et delubro Neptuni inclytus: quos ludos eapropter institutos ferunt, quod sinibus quinque Peloponnesi oræ alluuntur: a septentrione, Ionio; ab occidente,Siculo; a brumali oriente, Ægæo; a solstitiali oriente, Myrtoo; a meridie, Cretico. Hoc spectaculum per Cypselum tyrannum intermissum, Corinthii, olympiade quadragesima nona solemnitati pristinæ reddiderunt.

Into the Megarians’ gulf the Isthmus opens, renowned for quinquennial games and a shrine of Neptune: they say these games were instituted for this reason, that the shores of the Peloponnese are washed by five gulfs: from the north, the Ionian; from the west,the Sicilian; from the wintry east, the Aegean; from the solstitial east, the Myrtoan; from the south, the Cretan. This spectacle, interrupted by the tyrant Cypselus, the Corinthians, in the forty-ninth Olympiad, restored to its pristine solemnity.

Ceterum Peloponneson Pelopi regnatam, nomen indicio est. Ea ut platani folium recessibus et prominentibus figurata, divortium facit inter Ionium et Ægæum mare, quatuor non amplius millibus dispescens utrumque litus, excursu tenui, quem Isthmon dicunt, ob angustias. Hinc Hellas incipit, quam proprie veram habent Græciam.

Moreover, that the Peloponnese was ruled by Pelops, the name is the evidence. It, shaped like the leaf of a plane tree with recesses and prominences, makes a separation between the Ionian and the Aegean Sea, dividing both shores by not more than 4 miles, by a slender projection which, on account of its narrowness, they call the Isthmus. From here Hellas begins, which they properly hold to be the true Greece.

Quæ nunc Attice, Acte prius dicta. Ibi Athenæ, cui urbi saxa Scironia propinqua sunt, porrecta sex millibus passuum, ob honorem ultoris Thesei, et memoriam nobilis pœnæ, sic nominata. Ex istis rupibus Ino se cum Palæmone filio in profunda præcipitem jaculata auxit maris numina.

Which is now Attica, formerly called Acte. There is Athens, to which city the Scironian rocks are near, stretching for six miles, thus named in honor of Theseus the avenger and in memory of the noble punishment. From these cliffs Ino, having hurled herself headlong with her son Palaemon into the depths, increased the divinities of the sea.

Nec Atticos montes in partem tacebimus. Est Icarius, est Brilessus, est Lycabethus et Ægialus; sed Hymetto meritissime ac jure attribuitur principatus, quod apprime florulentus, eximio mellis sapore et externos omnes et suos vincit. Callirhoen stupent fontem, nec ideo Cruneson fontem alterum nullæ rei numerant.

Nor shall we keep the Attic mountains silent. There is Icarius, there is Brilessus, there is Lycabettus and Aegialus; but to Hymettus, most deservedly and by right, the primacy is attributed, because, pre-eminently abounding in flowers, by the exceptional savor of its honey it surpasses both foreign and domestic kinds. They marvel at the spring Callirrhoe, nor for that reason do they reckon the other spring Cruneson a thing of no account.

Atheniensibus judicii locus Arios pagos. Marathon campus factus memorabilis opinione prœlii cruentissimi. Multæ quidem insulæ objacent Atticæ continenti, sed suburbanæ ferme sunt, Salamis, Sunium, Ceos, Coos, quæ, ut Varro testis est, subtilioris vestis amicula arte lanificæ scientiæ prima in ornatum feminarum dedit.

For the Athenians the place of judgment is the Areopagus. The plain of Marathon was made memorable by the renown of a most bloodstained battle. Many indeed islands lie off the Attic continent, but they are almost suburban—Salamis, Sunium, Ceos, Coos—which, as Varro is witness, first gave to the adornment of women little wraps of more subtle cloth, by the art of wool-working.

Bœotia Thebis enitet. Thebas condidit Amphion, non quod lyra saxa duxerit, neque enim par est ita gestum videri, sed quod affatus suavitate homines rupium incolas, et incultis moribus rudes, ad obsequii civilis pellexerit disciplinam. Urbs ista numinibus apud se ortis gloriatur, ut perhibent qui sacris carminibus Herculem et Liberum celebrant.

Boeotia shines with Thebes. Thebes was founded by Amphion, not because with a lyre he led stones—for it is not fitting that the deed be seen thus—but because by the sweetness of his address he enticed men, inhabitants of the crags and rough with uncultivated manners, to the discipline of civil obedience. That city boasts of divinities born among it, as those testify who celebrate Hercules and Liber with sacred songs.

Apud Thebas Helicon lucus est, Cithæron saltus, amnis Ismenus; fontes Arethusa, Œdipodia, Psamate, Dirce; sed ante alios Aganippe et Hipocrene, quos Cadmus, litterarum primus repertor, quoniam equestri exploratione deprehendisset, dum rimatur, quænam insideret loca; incensa est licentia pœtarum, ut utrumque pariter disseminaretur, et quod aperta foret alitis equi ungula, et quod poti inspirationem facerent litterariam.

By Thebes there are the grove Helicon, the woodland Cithaeron, the river Ismenus; the fountains Arethusa, Oedipodia, Psamate, Dirce; but before the others Aganippe and Hippocrene, which Cadmus, the first discoverer of letters, since he had detected by equestrian exploration, while he was probing what places might be occupied; the license of poets took fire, so that both alike might be disseminated—both that the hoof of the winged horse had opened them, and that for the drinker they produce literary inspiration.

Eubœa insula laterum objectu efficit Aulidis portum, seculis traditum Graiæ conjurationis memoria. Bœoti idem sunt, qui Leleges fuerunt, per quos defluens Cephisos amnis in maria conditur. In hac continentia Opuntius sinus, Larissa oppidum, Delphi, Rhamne quoque, in qua Amphiarai fanum, et Phidiacæ signum Dianæ. Varro opinatur duo in Bœotia esse flumina, natura licet separi, miraculo tamen non discrepante: quorum alterum, si ovillum pecus debibat, pullum fieri coloris quod induerit; alterius haustu, quæcumque vellerum fusca sunt, in candidum verti.

The island Euboea, by the projection of its flanks, makes the harbor of Aulis, handed down through the ages in memory of the Greek conspiracy. The Boeotians are the same who were the Leleges, through whose territory the river Cephisus, flowing down, is lost in the seas. On this continuous coast are the Opuntian gulf, the town Larissa, Delphi, and also Rhamne, in which is the shrine of Amphiaraus, and a Phidiac statue of Diana. Varro opines that there are two rivers in Boeotia, although different in nature, yet not differing in marvel: of which the one, if a sheep-flock drank it, would become swarthy, whatever color it had assumed; by a draught of the other, whatever of the fleeces are dusky are turned to white.

Addit videri ibi puteum pestilentem, cujus liquor mors est haurientibus.

He adds that there seems to be there a pestilent well, whose liquid is death to those who draw it.

Perdices sane, quum ubique liberæ sint, ut aves universæ, in Bœotia non sunt, nec quum volant sui juris, sed in ipso ære, quas transire non audeant, metas habent; inde ultra notatos jam terminos nunquam exeunt, nec in Atticum solum transmeant. Hoc Bœotiis proprium: nam quæ communia sunt omnibus, generatim persequemur.

Partridges indeed, although everywhere free, as birds universally, are not so in Bœotia, nor, when they fly, are they of their own right, but in the very air they have bounds which they do not dare to cross; hence they never go beyond the limits already marked, nor do they cross over into Attic soil. This is proper to the Bœotians: for the things which are common to all, we shall pursue by kinds.

Concionantur a perdicibus nidi munitione solerti: spineis enim fruticibus ac surculis receptus suos vestiunt, ut animalia, quæ infestant, arceantur asperis surculorum. Ovis stragulum pulvis est, ad quæ clanculo revertuntur, ne indicium loci conversatio frequens faciat. Plerumque feminæ transvehunt partus, ut mares fallant, qui eos affligunt impatientius sæpissime adulantes.

They are contrived by partridges with a clever fortification of the nest: for with thorny shrubs and twigs they clothe their refuges, so that the animals which infest them may be warded off by the asperity of the twigs. For the eggs the bedding is dust, to which they return secretly, lest frequent resort make an indication of the place. For the most part the females transport the young, to deceive the males, who vex them too impatiently, very often adulating.

Dimicatur circa connubium, victosque credunt feminarum vice venerem sustinere: ipsas libido sic agitat, ut si ventus a masculis flaverit, fiant prægnantes odore. Tunc si quis hominum, ubi incubant, propinquabit, egressæ matres venientibus sese sponte offerunt, et simulata debilitate vel pedum, vel alarum, quasi statim capi possint, gressus fingunt tardiores. Hoc mendacio sollicitant obvios, et eludunt, quoad profecti longius a nidis avocentur.

There is fighting about connubium, and they believe that the vanquished, in the role of females, sustain Venus; the females are so agitated by libido that, if a breeze shall have blown from the males, they become pregnant by the odor. Then, if any human, where they brood, approaches, the mothers, having gone out, of their own accord offer themselves to those coming, and with feigned debility either of the feet or of the wings, as if they could be captured immediately, they feign slower steps. By this mendacity they entice passers-by, and they elude them, until, having gone farther away from the nests, they are drawn off.

Nec in pullis studium segnius ad cavendum: quum enim visos se persentiscunt, resupinati glebulas pedibus attollunt, quarum obtentu tam callide proteguntur, ut lateant etiam deprehensi.

Nor is the zeal in the chicks any slower for being on guard: for when they thoroughly perceive that they are seen, lying on their backs they lift little clods with their feet, by the cover of which they are so cleverly protected that even when detected they lie hidden.

VIII. [De Thessalia et Magnesia. Philippus oculum damnatus]

8. [On Thessaly and Magnesia. Philip condemned to lose an eye]

Thessalia eadem est et Hæmonia, quam Homerus Argos Pelasgicon nominat; ubi genitus Hellen, a quo rege Hellenes nominati. Hujus a tergo Pieria ad Macedoniam protenditur, quæ devicta sub Macedonum venit jugum. Multa ibi oppida, multa flumina.

Thessaly is the same as Haemonia, which Homer names Pelasgian Argos; where Hellen was begotten, from which king the Hellenes were named. Behind it Pieria extends toward Macedonia, which, conquered, came under the yoke of the Macedonians. Many towns there, many rivers.

De oppidis egregia sunt Phthia, Larissa Thessala, et Thebæ. De amnibus Peneus, qui præter Ossam Olympumque decurrens colle dextra lævaque molliter curvo, nemorosis convallibus Thessalica facit Tempe, undisque apertior Macedoniam ac Magnesiam interluens, in Thermæum sinum decidit. Thessaliæ sunt Pharsalici campi, in quibus civilium bellorum detonuerunt procellæ. Ac ne in montes notos eamus, Pindum et Othryn agitent, qui Lapitharum originem prosequuntur; Ossam, quos Centaurorum stabulis immorari juvat. Pelion autem nuptiale convivium Thetidis atque Pelei in tantum notitiæ obtulit, ut taceri de eo magis mirum sit.

Among the towns, distinguished are Phthia, Thessalian Larissa, and Thebes. Among the rivers, the Peneus, which, running past Ossa and Olympus, with a hill softly curved on the right and left, makes the Thessalian Tempe with its wooded valleys, and, broader in its waters as it flows between Macedonia and Magnesia, falls into the Thermaic gulf. To Thessaly belong the Pharsalian fields, in which the tempests of civil wars have thundered. And, so as not to go into well-known mountains, let Pindus and Othrys be handled, which trace the origin of the Lapiths; and Ossa, which the stables of the Centaurs are glad to inhabit. Pelion, moreover, brought the nuptial banquet of Thetis and Peleus into such notoriety that to keep silence about it is the more marvelous.

In regione Magnesia Mothona oppidum situm est, quod quum obsideret Philippus Macedonis Magni pater, damnatus est oculum jactu sagittæ, quam jecerat Aster oppidanus inscriptam suo nomine, loco vulneris, nomine quem petebat. Populum istum callere arte sagittaria credere possumus vel de Philocteta, quoniam Melibœa in hoc pede computatur. Sed ne transeamus præsidium pœtarum, fons Libethrius et ipse Magnesiæ est.

In the region of Magnesia the town of Mothona is situated, which, when Philip, father of the Great Macedonian, was besieging, was the condemnation of his eye by the cast of an arrow, which Aster, a townsman, had hurled, inscribed with his own name—and, at the very place of the wound, the name he was targeting. We can believe that this people are skilled in the art of archery even from Philoctetes, since Meliboea is reckoned in this district. But, lest we pass over the poets’ safeguard, the Libethrian spring too is in Magnesia.

IX. Macedonia cum regibus, de natura Olympi montis, et lapide pæanite.

9. Macedonia with its kings, on the nature of Mount Olympus, and on the paeanite stone.

Qui Edonii olim populi, quæque Mygdonia erat terra, aut Pierium solum, vel Emathium, nunc omne uniformi vocabulo Macedonica res est; et partitiones, quæ specialiter antea sejugabantur, Macedonum nomini contributæ, factæ sunt corpus unum. Igitur Macedoniam præcingit Thracius limes; meridiana Thessali et Epirotæ tenent; a vesperali plaga Dardani sunt et Illyrii; qua septentrione tunditur, Pœonia ac Pelagonia protegitur; a Triballis, montanis excessibus aquilonio frigori objecta. Inter ipsam et Thraciam Strymon amnis facit terminum, qui ab Hæmi jugis irrigat.

Those who were once the Edonian peoples, and the land which was Mygdonia, or the Pierian soil, or Emathia, now all, under a uniform appellation, are the Macedonian state; and the partitions, which previously were specifically segregated, having been contributed to the name of the Macedonians, have been made one body. Therefore a Thracian boundary girds Macedonia; the southern parts are held by the Thessalians and the Epirotes; on the western quarter are the Dardanians and the Illyrians; where it is buffeted by the north, it is protected by Paeonia and Pelagonia; on the side of the Triballi, by mountainous out-juttings it is exposed to the Aquilonian cold. Between it and Thrace the river Strymon makes the boundary, which flows from the ridges of Haemus.

Verum ut sileam aut Rhodopen Mygdonium montem, aut Athon classibus Persicis navigatum, continentique abscissum mille quingentorum passuum longitudine, simul de auri venis et argenti, quæ optimæ in agris Macedonum et plurimæ eruuntur, Orestidem dicam. Populi sunt, qui ut Orestæ dicerentur, inde cœptum. A Mycenis profugus matricida, quum abscessus longius destinasset, natum sibi in Emathia parvulum de Hermiona, quam in omnes casus sociam adsciverat, hic mandaverat occulendum.

But that I may be silent either about Rhodope, the Mygdonian mountain, or Athos, sailed by Persian fleets and cut off from the mainland to a length of 1,500 paces, and at the same time about the veins of gold and silver, which in the fields of the Macedonians are of the best quality and are extracted in great number, let me speak of Orestis. There are peoples who, so that they might be called Orestae, took their beginning from that source. The matricide, a fugitive from Mycenae, when he had determined a farther withdrawal, had a tiny son born to him in Emathia by Hermione, whom he had taken as a companion in all contingencies; he had ordered that here the child be concealed.

Adolevit puer in spiritum regii sanguinis, nomen patris sui referens; occupatoque quidquid esset, quod procedit in Macedonicum sinum, et Adriaticum salum, terram, cui imperitaverat, Orestidem dixit.

The boy grew into the spirit of royal blood, bearing his father’s name; and, having occupied whatever there was that projects into the Macedonian gulf and the Adriatic main, he called the land over which he had exercised command Orestis.

Admonet Phlegra, ubi, antequam oppidum fieret, rumor est, militia mundi dimicatum cum gigantibus,ut penitus persequamur, quantis probationibus ibidem imperii indicia divinæ expeditionis in hoc seculo perseveraverint. Illic si quando, ut accidit, nimbis torrentes excitantur, et aucta aquarum pondera ruptis obicibus valentius se in campos ruunt, eluvione ossa etiam nunc ferunt detegi, ad instar quæ sunt e corporibus humanis, sed modo grandiora, quæ ob enormem magnitudinem monstrosi exercitus jactitant exstitisse, idque adjuvatur argumento saxorum immanium, quibus oppugnandamimpetitum cœlum crediderunt.

Phlegra gives reminder, where, before it became a town, the report is that, in the warfare of the world, it was fought with the Giants, that we may thoroughly pursue by how great probations there in the same place the indicia of sovereignty of the divine expedition have persevered in this age. There, if ever, as happens, by rain-storms torrents are stirred up, and the increased weights of the waters, the barriers having been broken, rush more powerfully into the plains, they say that by the flood bones even now are uncovered, in likeness to those which are from human bodies, but only larger, which on account of the enormous magnitude they vaunt to have belonged to a monstrous army; and this is aided by the argument of immense rocks, with which they believed the sky to have been assaulted for besieging it.

Pergam ad residua, quæ in Thessaliam et Athamaniam contendunt. Sunt enim arrectiora, quam usquam proceritas montana attolli valet; nec est in terris omnibus, quod merito ad istas eminentias comparetur: quippe quas solas diluvialis irruptio, quum universa obduceret humido situ, inaccessas reliquit. Durant vestigia non languidæ fidei, quibus apparet, hos locos superstites undosæ tempestati fuisse: nam in latebrosis rupium cavaminibus, quæ fluctuum confligiis tunc adesa sunt, reduviæ conchyliorum residerunt, et alia multa, quæ affatim mari incito exspuuntur: ita ut, sint licet facie mediterranea, appareant tamen specie litorali.

I shall proceed to the remaining matters that bear toward Thessaly and Athamania. For they are more upreared than anywhere montane procerity can be lifted; nor is there in all lands anything that can deservedly be compared to these eminences: indeed the diluvial irruption, when it covered everything with a humid condition, left these alone inaccessible. Traces—of no languid credibility—endure, by which it appears that these places were survivors of the billowy tempest: for in the hidden caverns of the cliffs, which were then gnawed by the collisions of the waves, relics of shellfish have settled, and many other things which the stirred-up sea spits out in abundance: so that, although of inland aspect, yet they appear of littoral character.

Nam Olympum ab Homero non per audaciam celebratum docent quæ in eo visitantur. Primum excellenti vertice tantus attollitur, ut summa ejus cœlum accolæ vocent. Ara est in cacumine, Jovi dicata, cujus altaribus si qua de extis inferuntur, nec difflantur ventosis spiritibus, nec humentibus pluviis diluuntur: sed volvente anno cujusmodi relicta fuerint, ejusmodi reperiuntur; et omnibus tempestatibus a corruptelis aurarum vindicatur, quidquid ibi semel est deo consecratum.

For the things that are visited there teach that Olympus was celebrated by Homer not by audacity. First, it is raised with so excellent a summit that the dwellers call its top the neighbor of heaven. There is an altar on the peak, dedicated to Jove, on whose altars, if any portions from the entrails are offered, they are neither blown away by windy spirits nor washed off by moist rains; but as the year rolls on, of whatever sort they were left, of the same sort they are found; and in all weathers whatever has once been consecrated there to the god is vindicated from the corruptions of the airs.

Litteræ in cinere scriptæ ad usque alteram anni cærimoniam permanent.

Letters written in ash remain until the next ceremony of the year.

Nunc de incolis reddam. Emathius, qui primus in Emathia accepit principatum, seu quia indago originis ejus ævo disperiit, seu quia ita res est, genuinus terræ habetur. Post hunc in Macedonis exortum Emathiæ nomen perstitit: sed Macedo Deucalionis maternus nepos, qui solus quum domus suæ familia morti publicæ superfuerat, vertit vocamen, Macedoniamque a se dixit.

Now I will render about the inhabitants. Emathius, who first in Emathia received the principate, whether because the tracing of his origin has perished with time, or because the matter is thus, is held to be a native of the land. After him, at the rise of the Macedonians, the name of Emathia persisted; but Macedon, the maternal grandson of Deucalion, who, when only the family of his house had survived the public death, changed the appellation, and called it Macedonia after himself.

Macedonem Caranus insequitur dux Peloponnesiæ multitudinis, qui juxta responsum dictum deo, ubi caprarium pecus resedisse adverterat, urbem condidit, quam dixit Ægeas, in qua sepeliri reges mos erat: nec alter excellentium virorum bustis apud Macedones priscos dabatur locus. Succedit Carano Perdicca, vigesima secunda olympiade, primus in Macedonia rex nominatus, cui Alexander Amyntæ filius Dives habitus, nec immerito: ita enim affluenter successus ejus ampliandis opibus proficiebant, ut ante omnes Apollini Delphos, Jovi Eliden statuas aureas dono miserit. Voluptati aurium indulgentissime deditus: sicut plurimos qui fidibus sciebant, dum vivit, in usum oblectamenti donis tenuit liberalibus, inter quos et Pindarum lyricum.

Caranus is followed by Perdiccas, leader of a Peloponnesian multitude, who, according to an oracle spoken by the god, when he had noticed a goat-herd’s flock had settled, founded a city which he called Aegeae, in which it was the custom that the kings be buried; nor was any other place granted for the tombs of distinguished men among the ancient Macedonians. Caranus is succeeded by Perdiccas, in the 22nd Olympiad, the first to be named king in Macedonia; after whom Alexander, son of Amyntas, was accounted the Rich—and not without cause: for so abundantly did his successes contribute to the enlarging of his resources that, before all others, he sent golden statues as a gift to Apollo at Delphi and to Jupiter at Elis. Most indulgently devoted to the pleasure of the ears, he likewise kept, so long as he lived, very many who were skilled on the lyre, for the use of oblectation by liberal gifts, among whom also Pindar the lyric poet.

Ab hoc Archelaus regnum excepit, prudens rei bellicæ, navalium etiam commentor prœliorum. IIic Archelaus in tantum litterarum mire amator fuit, ut Euripidi tragico consiliorum summam concrederet: cujus suprema non contentus prosequi sumptu funeris, crines tonsus est, et mœrorem, quem animo conceperat, vultu publicavit. Idem Archelaus Pythias et Olympicas palmas quadrigis adeptus, Græco potius animo, quam regali, gloriam illam præ se tulit.

From him Archelaus received the kingdom, prudent in military affairs, a deviser also of naval engagements. This Archelaus was so wondrous a lover of letters that he entrusted to Euripides the tragic poet the supreme direction of counsels; and for him, not content to accompany the last rites with the expense of a funeral, he had his hair shorn, and made public on his countenance the grief which he had conceived in his soul. The same Archelaus, having won the Pythian and Olympic palms with four-horse chariots, bore that glory with a Greek spirit rather than a regal one.

Post Archelaum Macedonica res dissensione jactata in Amyntæ regno stetit, cui tres filii; sed Alexander patri succedit. Quo exempto, Perdiccæ primum data copia amplissimæ potestatis indipiscundæ: qui obiens hereditarium regnum fratri Philippo reliquit, quem captum oculo dextro apud Mothonam supra diximus; cujusque debilitatis omen præcesserat: nam quum nuptias ageret, acciti tibicines carmen Cyclopium quasi de colludio concinuisse traduntur. Philippus Magnum procreat, quamlibet Olympias, Alexandri mater, nobiliorem ei patrem acquirere affectaverit, quum se coitu draconis consatam affirmaret.

After Archelaus, the Macedonian state, tossed by dissension, came to a stand in the reign of Amyntas, who had three sons; but Alexander succeeds his father. He being removed, the first opportunity was given to Perdiccas of acquiring the most ample power; who, dying, left the hereditary kingdom to his brother Philip, whom, as we said above, was deprived of his right eye at Methone; and an omen of this debility had preceded: for when he was celebrating his nuptials, the pipers, having been summoned, are reported to have sung, as if by collusion, a Cyclopean song. Philip procreates the Great, although Olympias, Alexander’s mother, strove to acquire for him a more noble father, since she affirmed that she had conceived by intercourse with a dragon.

Ita tamen ipse egit, ut deo genitus crederetur. Peragravit orbem, rectoribus Aristotele et Callisthene usus; subegit Asiam, Armeniam, Iberiam, Albaniam, Cappadociam, Syriam, Ægyptum; Taurum Caucasumque transgressus est; Bactros domuit; Medis et Persis imperavit; cepit Indiam, emensus omnia. Liber et Hercules accesserant.

Yet he so conducted himself that he was believed to be begotten of a god. He traversed the world, employing as directors Aristotle and Callisthenes; he subdued Asia, Armenia, Iberia, Albania, Cappadocia, Syria, Egypt; he crossed the Taurus and the Caucasus; he tamed the Bactrians; he ruled over the Medes and the Persians; he took India, having traversed all things. Liber and Hercules had been matched.

Forma supra hominem augustiore, cervice celsa, lætis oculis et illustribus, malis ad gratiam rubescentibus, reliquis corporis non sine majestate quadam decoris. Victor omnium, vino et ira victus: sicut morbo vinolentiæ apud Babylonem humiliore, quam vixerat, fortuna exemptus est. Post quem qui fuerunt, magis segetem Romanæ gloriæ, quam ad hereditatem tanti hominis, ortos invenimus.

Of a form more august than a man’s, with a lofty neck, eyes cheerful and bright, cheeks blushing to charm, and in the other parts of the body a comeliness not without a certain majesty. Conqueror of all, he was conquered by wine and by wrath: just so, by the disease of drunkenness at Babylon, he was taken away by a fortune humbler than that in which he had lived. After him, those who came we find to have sprung up rather as a harvest for Roman glory than for the inheritance of so great a man.

Macedonia lapidem gignit, quem pæanitem vocant. Hunc eumdem et concipere et parere et parturientibus opitulari, fama prodiga est. Circa Tiresiæ sepulcrum plurimus invenitur.

Macedonia produces a stone, which they call paeanite. Of this same stone the report is lavish that it both conceives and bears, and that it aids women in labor. Around the tomb of Tiresias it is found in great quantity.

X. Thracia cum moribus gentium. In ea de gruibus, de hirundinibus, de isthmo.

10. Thrace together with the customs of the peoples. In it, about cranes, about swallows, about the isthmus.

Nunc in Thraciam locus pergere, et ad validissimas Europæ gentes vela vertere: quas qui sedulo experiri velint, non difficulter deprehendent, Thracibus barbaris inesse contemptum vitæ ex quadam naturalis sapientiæ disciplina. Concordant omnes ad interitum voluntarium, dum nonnulli eorum putant, obeuntium animas reverti; alii non exstingui, sed beatas magis fieri. Apud plurimos luctuosa sunt puerperia; denique recens natum fletu parens excipit; contraversum læta sunt funera, adeo ut exemptos gaudi prosequantur.

Now it is time for the discourse to proceed into Thrace, and to turn the sails toward the most mighty peoples of Europe: which those who should wish to examine sedulously will not with difficulty discover to have in the barbarian Thracians a contempt of life arising from a certain discipline of natural wisdom. All agree upon voluntary demise; while some of them think that the souls of those departing return; others that they are not extinguished, but rather become blessed. Among very many, childbeds are matters of mourning; finally the parent receives the newborn with weeping; contrariwise funerals are joyful, to such a degree that they accompany those taken away with rejoicing.

Uxorum numero se viri jactitant, et honoris loco judicatur multiplex matrimonium. Quæ feminæ tenaces sunt pudicitiæ, insiliunt defunctorum rogos conjugum, et, quod maximum insigne ducunt castitatis, præcipites in flammas eunt. Nupturæ non parentum arbitrio transeunt ad maritos, sed quæ præ aliis specie valent, subhastari volunt, et licentia taxationis admissa, non moribus nubunt, sed præmiis; quas formæ premit dedecus, dotibus emunt quibus conjungantur.

Men boast of the number of their wives, and multiple marriage is judged a mark of honor. The women who are tenacious of chastity leap onto the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands, and, what they reckon the greatest badge of chastity, they go headlong into the flames. Those about to be married pass to husbands not by the decision of parents, but those who prevail over others in appearance wish to be put up at auction; and, the license of appraisal having been admitted, they wed not for morals but for rewards; those whom the disgrace of their looks oppresses purchase with dowries those to whom they may be joined.

Uterque sexus epulantes focos ambiunt, herbarum, quas habent, semine ignibus superjacto; cujus nidore perculsi, pro lætitia habent imitari ebrietatem sensibus sauciatis. De ritu ista sunt; de locis et populis, quæ sequuntur.

Both sexes, banqueting, circle the hearths, with the seed of the herbs which they have cast upon the fires; struck by the odor of this, they count it for joy to imitate ebriety, their senses being wounded. Of the rite these things are; concerning the places and the peoples, what follow.

Strymonem accolunt dextro latere Denselatæ; Bessorum quoque multa nomina ad usque Nestum amnem, qui radices Pangæi circumfluit. Hebrum Odrysarum solum fundit, qui fluvius excurrit inter Priantas, Doloncos, Thynos, Corpilos, aliosque barbaros tangit, et Ciconas. Deinde Hæmus sex millibus passuum arduus, cujus aversa Mœsi, Getæ, Sarmatæ, Scythæ, et plurimæ insidunt nationes.

On the right bank of the Strymon dwell the Denselatae; likewise many names of the Bessi up to the river Nestus, which flows around the roots of Pangaeus. The Hebrus drains the soil of the Odrysae, a river that runs out between the Priantae, the Dolonci, the Thyni, touches the Corpili and other barbarians, and the Cicones. Then Haemus, steep for six thousand paces, on whose far side the Moesi, Getae, Sarmatae, Scythae, and very many nations are settled.

Ponticum litus Sithonia gens obtinet, quæ nato ibi Orpheo vate inter principes judicatur: quem sive sacrorum, sive cantuum, secreta in Sperchivo promontorio agitasse tradunt. Deinde stagnum Bistonium. Nec longe regio Maronea, in qua Tirida oppidum fuit, equorum Diomedis stabulum; sed cessit ævo, solumque turris vestigium adhuc durat.

The Sithonian nation holds the Pontic shore, which, with the vates Orpheus born there, is adjudged among the foremost; they hand down that he practiced the secrets, whether of sacred rites or of songs, on the Sperchian promontory. Then the Bistonian lake. And not far off is the district of Maronea, in which was the town Tirida, the stable of the horses of Diomedes; but it yielded to time, and only the trace of a tower still endures.

Inde non procul urbs Abdera, quam Diomedis soror et condidit, et a se sic vocavit. Mox Democriti domus physici; ac, si verum rimere, ideo nobilior. Hanc Abderam, olympiade prima et tricesima senio collapsam, Clazomenii ex Asia ad majorem faciem restitutam, oblitteratis quæ præcesserant, nomini suo vindicaverunt.

Thence not far is the city Abdera, which the sister of Diomedes both founded and named after herself. Soon, the house of Democritus the physicist; and, if you probe the truth, for that reason the more notable. This Abdera, having collapsed into decrepitude in the 31st Olympiad, the Clazomenians from Asia restored to a larger form, and, the things that had preceded being obliterated, they claimed it for their own name.

Locum Doriscon illustrem reddidit Xerxis adventus, quod ibi recoluit militis sui numerum. Polydori tumulum ostendit Aenus in parte, quam aratores Scythæ celebrant.

The arrival of Xerxes made the place Doriscon illustrious, because there he reviewed the number of his soldiery. Aenus shows the tumulus of Polydorus in the part which the Scythian ploughmen frequent.

Quondam urbem Geraniam, Cathizon barbari vocant: unde a gruibus Pygmæos ferunt pulsos. Manifestum sane est, in septentrionalem plagam hieme grues frequentissimas convolare. Nec piguerit meminisse, quatenus expeditiones suas dirigant.

The city once called Gerania, the barbarians call Cathizon: whence they report the Pygmies were driven by cranes. It is manifest indeed that in winter the cranes, in very great numbers, fly together to the septentrional region. Nor will it be irksome to remember whither they direct their expeditions.

Sub quodam militiæ eunt signo, et ne pergentibus ad destinata vis flatuum renitatur, arenas devorant, sublatisque lapillulis ad moderatam gravitatem saburrantur. Tunc contendunt in altissima, ut de excelsiori specula metentur quas petant terras. Fidens meatu præit catervas; volatus desidiam castigat voce, quæ cogit agmen; ea ubi obraucata est, succedit alia.

Under a certain military standard they go; and, lest to those proceeding to their destined places the force of the winds should resist, they devour sands, and, little pebbles having been taken up, they are ballasted to a moderated gravity. Then they strive into the loftiest heights, so that from a more exalted watchtower they may measure what lands they seek. The one confident in his course goes before the cohorts; the flight chastises sloth with a voice which drives the column; when that is made hoarse, another succeeds.

Pontum transituræ angustias captant; et quidem eas, nam promptum est oculis deprehendere, quæ inter Tauricam sunt et Paphlagoniam, id est inter Carambim, et Krioè m¡tvpon. Quum contra medium alveum adventasse se sciunt, scrupulorum sarcina pedes liberant: ita nautæ prodiderunt, compluti sæpe ex illo casu imbre saxatili. Arenas non prius revomunt, quam securæ sedis suæ fuerint. Concors cura omnium pro fatigatis adeo, ut si quæ defecerint, congruant universæ, lassatasque sustollant, usque dum vires otio reciperentur.

Being about to cross the Pontus, they aim for the narrows; and indeed those which are between Taurica and Paphlagonia, that is, between Carambis and Krioè m¡tvpon. When they know that they have come opposite the mid-channel, they free their feet from the burden of scruples (small stones): thus sailors have reported, often drenched by a stony rain from that occurrence. They do not bring the sands back up before they are secure of their seat. The concordant care of all for the fatigued is such that, if any should fail, all together fall in with them and lift up the wearied, until their strength is recovered by repose.

Nec in terra cura segnior. Excubias nocte dividunt, ut exsomnis sit decima quæque. Vigiles ponduscula digitis amplectuntur, quæ, si forte exciderint, somnum coarguant.

Nor on land is their care more remiss. They divide the watches by night, so that every tenth is sleepless. The sentries clasp little weights with their fingers, which, if by chance they should fall out, may convict them of sleep.

Quod cavendum erit, clangore indicant. Ætatem in illis prodit color: nigrescunt senectute.

What must be guarded against, they signal by clangor. Age in them is betrayed by color: they blacken with old age.

Veniamus ad promontorium Ceras Chryseon Byzantio oppido nobile, antea Lygos dictum: quod a Dyrrachio abest septingentis undecim millibus passuum: tantum enim patet inter Adriaticum mare et Propontidem.

Let us come to the promontory Ceras Chryseon, renowned for the town Byzantium, formerly called Lygos: which is 711 miles distant from Dyrrachium: for so much extends between the Adriatic Sea and the Propontis.

In Ceniensi regione non longe a Flaviopoli colonia Bizye oppidum, quondam arx Terei regis, invisum hirundinibus, et deinceps alitibus illis inaccessum: quanquam et Thebas, quod illa mœnia sæpius capta sint, negentur subire. Nam inter cetera habere illas quiddam præscium, inde noscitur quod lapsura non petunt culmina, et aspernantur peritura quoquo modo tecta. Minime certe a diris avibus impetuntur, nec unquam præda sunt, ut sacræ. Cibos non sumunt resistentes, sed in ære capiunt escas, et hauriunt.

In the Ceniensian region, not far from Flaviopolis, a colony, lies the town Bizye, once the citadel of King Tereus, hateful to swallows, and thereafter inaccessible to those birds: although Thebes also, because those walls were more often captured, they are said not to enter. For among other things they are held to have something prescient; from this it is known that they do not seek rooftops that are about to fall, and they spurn roofs destined to perish in whatever way. Certainly they are by no means attacked by dire birds, nor are they ever prey, as being sacred. They do not take their foods while standing still, but in the air they seize their morsels and gulp them down.

Alter Isthmos in Thracia est similibus angustiis, et pari latitudine arcti maris, cujus litora urbes utrinque secus ostentant. Propontidis oram insignit Pactye, Melanem sinum Cardia: quod in cordis faciem sita sit, dicta Cardia est. Omnis Hellespontus stringitur in stadia septem, quibus ab Europa Asiaticam plagam vindicat.

Another Isthmus is in Thrace with similar narrows, and with an equal breadth of a constricted sea, whose shores cities display on both sides along it. The shore of the Propontis is marked by Pactye; Cardia marks the Melanian bay: because it is situated in the shape of a heart, it is called Cardia. The whole Hellespont is tightened to seven stadia, by which it sets apart the Asiatic region from Europe.

Hic quoque urbes duæ, Abydos Asiæ est, Sestos Europæ. Deinde contraria inter se promontoria: Mastusia Cherronesi, ubi finitur Europee sinus tertius, Sigeum Asiæ, in quo tumulus est Cynossema dictus, Hecubæ sepulcrum, et turris Protesilai delubro data. Finibus Thraciæ a septentrione Ister obtenditur, ab oriente Pontus ac Propontis, a meridie Ægæum mare.

Here too there are two cities: Abydos belongs to Asia, Sestos to Europe. Then there are promontories opposite each other: Mastusia of the Chersonese, where the third bay of Europe ends; Sigeum of Asia, in which there is a mound called Cynossema, the tomb of Hecuba, and the tower of Protesilaus dedicated to a shrine. At the borders of Thrace, on the north the Ister is set as a barrier, on the east the Pontus and the Propontis, on the south the Aegean Sea.

XI. Claræ insulæ, et in insulis clara. In Creta herba alimos, animal phalangium, lapis Idæus dactylus. In Carysto aves Carystiæ, item carbasum.

11. Famous islands, and on the islands, famous things. In Crete, the herb alimos, the animal phalangium, the stone the Idaean dactyl. In Carystus, the Carystian birds, likewise carbasus (fine linen).

In Delo tempora diluviorum, et aves coturnices.

On Delos, the times of deluges, and quail-birds.

Inter Tenedum et Chium, qua Ægæus sinus panditur, ab dextera Antandrum navigantibus saxum est: hoc enim verius quam insula meruit cognominari. ld quoniam visentibus procul capræ simile creditur, quam Græce aäga nuncupant, Ægæus sinus dictus est. A Phalario Corcyræ promontorio ad navis effigiem scopulus eminet, in quem transfiguratam Ulyxis navem crediderunt.

Between Tenedos and Chios, where the Aegean gulf spreads out, on the right for those sailing from Antandrus there is a rock: for this has more truly deserved to be designated a rock rather than an island. Since to those viewing it from afar it is thought similar to a goat, which in Greek they call aäga, the Aegean gulf has been named. From the Phalarian promontory of Corcyra a crag stands out in the likeness of a ship, into which they believed the ship of Ulysses was transfigured.

Cytheræ, quæ a Malea abest quinque millibus passuum, Porphyris antea nomen fuit.

Cythera, which is distant from Malea by 5 miles, previously had the name Porphyris.

Pronius est Cretam dicere, quam absolvere in quo mari jaceat. Ita enim circumflui illius nomina Græci permiscuerunt, ut dum aliis alia inferunt, pæne oblimaverint universa. Quantam potest tamen in designando operam locabimus, ne quid hæreat sub ancipiti.

It is easier to name Crete than to determine in which sea it lies. For the Greeks have so commingled the names of the circumfluent waters that, while they assign different appellations to different parts, they have almost muddied the whole. Nevertheless, we shall expend as much effort as we can in delineating, lest anything stick under ambiguity.

Inter ortum porrigitur et occasum tractu longissimo, hinc Græcia, inde Cyrenis objacentibus: a septentrione Ægæis et suis, id est Creticis æstibus verberatur: ab austro Libycis undis perfunditur et Ægyptiis, non stipata centum urbibus, sicut perhibent qui prodige lingua largiti sunt, sed magnis et ambitiosis oppidis: quorum principatus est penes Gortynam, Cydoneam, Gnoson, Therapnas, Cylisson. Dosiades eam a Crete nympha Hesperidos filia, Anaximander a Crete rege Curetum, Crates Aeriam prius dictam, mox Curetin, nonnulli etiam a temperie cœli Mak‹rvn n°son appellatam prodiderunt. Prima mari potuit remis et sagittis.

It stretches between east and west in a very long reach, with Greece lying opposite on one side and Cyrene on the other: on the north it is beaten by the Aegean swells and its own, that is, the Cretan surges; on the south it is bathed by the Libyan and Egyptian waves; not crowded with a hundred cities, as those have alleged who have been lavish with prodigal tongue, but with great and ambitious towns, whose primacy is held by Gortynam, Cydoneam, Gnoson, Therapnas, Cylisson. Dosiades reported it named from Crete, a nymph, daughter of the Hesperides; Anaximander, from Crete, a king of the Curetes; Crates [said it was] first called Aeria, then Curetis; some also have handed down that, from the temperateness of the climate, it was called the Island of the Blessed. It was the first to have power at sea by oars and arrows.

Prima litteris jura junxit. Pyrrho repertore equestres turmas prima docuit lascivas vertigines implicare: ex qua disciplina bellicæ rei ratio convaluit. Studium musicum inde cœptum, quum Idæi Dactyli modulos crepitu ac tinnitu æris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent.

It first joined laws to letters. With Pyrrhus as discoverer, it first taught the equestrian squadrons to execute involved, wanton wheelings; from which discipline the method of the military art grew strong. The musical study then began, when the Idaean Dactyls transferred the measures, discovered by the clashing and ringing of bronze, into a versified order.

Albet jugis montium Dictynnæi et Cadisti, qui ita excandescunt, ut eminus navigantes magis putent nubila. Præter ceteros Ida est, qui ante solis ortum solem videt. Varro, in opere quod de litoralibus est, etiam suis temporibus affirmat sepulcrum Jovis ibi visitatum.

It gleams white with the ridges of the mountains Dictynnaeus and Cadistus, which so incandesce that sailors from afar rather take them for clouds. Above the rest is Ida, which sees the sun before the sun’s rising. Varro, in the work which is on the littorals, affirms that even in his own times the sepulchre of Jove there was visited.

Cretes Dianam religiosissime venerantur, Britomarten gentiliter nominantes, quod sermone nostro sonat virginem dulcem. Ædem numinis præterquam nudus vestigia nullus licito ingreditur. Ea ædes ostentat manus Dædali.

The Cretans venerate Diana most religiously, calling her in their native tongue Britomartis, which in our speech sounds “sweet virgin.” Into the temple of the divinity no one lawfully enters except barefoot. That temple displays the handiwork of Daedalus.

Gortynam amnis Lethæus præterfluit, quo Europam tauri dorso Gortyni ferunt vectitatam. Idem Gortyni et Atymnum colunt, Europæ fratrem: ita enim memorant. Videtur hic, et occurrit, sed die jam vesperato augustiori se facie visendum offerens.

The Lethean river flows past Gortyna, along which the Gortynians say that Europa was conveyed on a bull’s back. These same Gortynians also cultivate Atymnius, the brother of Europa: for thus they recount. He is seen here and he appears, but when the day is now toward evening, offering himself to be seen with a more august aspect.

Gnosii Minervam civem deam numerant, primumque apud se fruges satas audacter cum Atticis contendunt. Ager Creticus silvestrium caprarum copiosus est, cervo eget. Lupos, vulpes, aliaque quadrupedum noxia nusquam educat.

The Gnossians count Minerva a citizen-goddess, and they boldly contend with the Attics that among them grain was first sown. The Cretan land is copious in wild goats, but lacks the stag. It nowhere rears wolves, foxes, and other noxious quadrupeds.

Serpens nulla, larga vitis, mira soli indulgentia, arborarii proventus abundantes: nam in hujus tantum insula: parte repullulant cæsæ cupressi.

No serpent, a bountiful vine, wondrous indulgence of the soil, arboreal yields abundant: for in this island alone: in this part felled cypresses sprout again.

Herba Ílimow dicitur; ea admorsa diurnam fament prohibet; proinde et hæc Cretica est. Sphalangion, aranei genus est; si nisum quæras, nulla vis est; si potestatem, ictum hominem veneno interficit. Lapis quoque Idæus dactylus dicitur insulæ isti familiaris, coloris ferrei, humano pollici similis.

The herb is called Ílimow ; when chewed it prevents daytime hunger; accordingly this too is Cretan. Sphalangion is a kind of spider; if you ask about nisus, there is no force; if about potency, it kills a man it strikes with its venom. There is also the Idaean stone called the Dactyl, peculiar to that island, iron-colored, similar to a human thumb.

Avem noctuam Creta non habet; et si invehatur, emoritur.

Crete does not have the owl; and if it is brought in, it dies.

Carystos aquas calentes habet, Hellopias vocant; et Carystias aves, quæ flammas impune involant; carbasa etiam, quæ inter ignes valent. Calchis eadem habita est apud priscos, ut Callidemus auctor est, ære ibi primum reperto. Titanas in ea antiquissime regnasse ostendunt ritus religionum.

Carystus has hot waters, they call them Hellopian; and Carystian birds, which fly into flames with impunity; carbasa also, which are serviceable amid fires. Chalcis was held the same among the ancients, as Callidemus is authority, bronze having been first discovered there. The rites of religion show that the Titans reigned there in the most ancient times.

Briareo enim rem divinam Carystii faciunt, sicut Ægæoni Calchidenses: nam omnis ferme Eubœa Titanum fuit regnum.

For the Carystians perform a sacred rite to Briareus, just as the Chalcidians to Aegaeon; for nearly all Euboea was the kingdom of the Titans.

Cycladas autumant inde dictas, quod licet spatiis longioribus a Delo projectæ, in orbem tamen circa Delum sitæ sunt (et orbem kæklon Graii loquuntur). Ios Homeri tumulo ceteras antecedit.

They assert that the Cyclades are named from this, because although cast forth at rather longer intervals from Delos, nevertheless they are situated in a circle around Delos (and the Greeks call a circle kæklon). Ios, by the tomb of Homer, surpasses the others.

Meminisse hoc loco par est, post primum diluvium Ogygi temporibus notatum, quun novem et amplius mensibus diem continua nox inumbrasset, Delon ante omnes terras radiis solis illuminatam, sortitamque ex eo nomen, quod prima reddita foret visibus. Inter Ogygum sane et Deucalionem medium ævum sexcentis annis datur. Eadem est Ortygia, quæ clarissima in Cycladum numero multifarie traditur; nunc Asteria a cultura Apollinis; nunc a venatibus Lagia, vel Cynetho; Pyrpile etiam, quoniam et ignitabula ibi et ignis inventa sunt.

It is fitting to remember in this place that, after the first deluge, marked in the times of Ogyges, when for nine months and more a continuous night had overshadowed the day, Delos, before all lands, was illuminated by the rays of the sun, and obtained from this its name, because it was the first to be restored to sight. Indeed, between Ogyges and Deucalion the intervening age is assigned as six hundred years. The same is Ortygia, which is variously handed down as most illustrious among the number of the Cyclades; now Asteria from the cult of Apollo; now, from hunts, Lagia, or Cynetho; also Pyrpile, since both fire-kindling implements and fire were found there.

In hac primum visæ coturnices aves, quas ortygas Græci vocant. Has easdem in Latonæ tutela æstimant constitutas. Nec semper apparent.

In this place quails were first seen, birds which the Greeks call ‘ortygas’. These same they esteem to have been set under the tutelage of Latona. Nor do they always appear.

Adveniendi habent tempora, æstate depulsa, Quum maria tranant, impetus differunt, et metu spatii longioris, vires suas nutriunt tarditate. Ubi terram persentiscunt, cœunt catervatim, deinde globatæ vehementius properant; quæ festinatio plerumque exitium portat navigantibus: accidit enim in noctibus, ut vela incidant, et præponderatis sinibus alveos vertant. Austro nunquam exeunt: nam metuunt vim flatus tumidioris.

They have times for arriving, when summer has been driven off; when they swim across the seas, they defer their impetus, and, from fear of the longer expanse, they nourish their strength by slowness. When they perceive land, they come together in troops, then, globed in a mass, they hasten more vehemently; which hurry for the most part brings ruin to mariners: for it happens by night that they fall upon the sails, and, with the bellies of the sails over-weighted, they overturn the hulls. They never set out with Auster: for they fear the force of the more swelling blast.

Plurimum se aquilonibus credunt, ut corpora pinguiuscula atque eo tarda, facilius provehat siccior et vehementior spiritus. Ortygometra dicitur, quæ gregem ductitat; eam terræ proximantem accipiter speculatus rapit, ac propterea opera est universis ut sollicitent ducem generis externi, per quem frustrentur prima discrimina. Cibos gratissimos habent semina venenorum: quam ob causam eam damnavere prudentium mensæ. Solum hoc animal præter hominem morbum patitur comitialem.

They entrust themselves for the most part to the north winds, since their bodies, rather plump and therefore slow, are more easily borne forward by a drier and more vehement breath. The one that leads the flock is called the Ortygometra; a hawk, having kept watch, snatches her as she draws near the land, and therefore it is the concern of them all to entice a leader of an alien kind, through whom they may thwart the first dangers. They reckon as their most pleasing foods the seeds of poisons; for which cause the tables of the prudent have condemned it. This animal alone, besides man, suffers the comitial disease (epilepsy).

XII. Eubœa. Paros, lapis Sarda. Naxos, Icaros, Melos, Carpathus, Rhodos, Lemnos.

12. Euboea. Paros, the sard stone. Naxos, Icaria, Melos, Carpathus, Rhodes, Lemnos.

Eubœa tam modico æstu dividua est a Bœotiæ continente, ut dubitandum sit, an numerari inter insulas debeat: nam latæ quam vocant terræ ponte jungitur, et per fabricam brevissimæ machinæ aditur pede. Cenæo promontorio vadit in septentrionem, duobus aliis in meridiem extenditur; quorum Geræstos spectat Atticam, Caphereus prominet in Hellespontum, ubi post Ilii excidium Argivam classem vel Minervæ ira, vel quod certior prodit memoria, sidus Arcturi gravibus affecit casibus.

Euboea is so slightly divided by the tide from the mainland of Boeotia that it is to be doubted whether it ought to be numbered among the islands: for it is joined by the bridge of what they call the “Broad Land,” and by the construction of a very short contrivance it is approached on foot. With the promontory Cenaeum it goes toward the north, and with two others it extends to the south; of these Geraistos looks toward Attica, Caphereus projects into the Hellespont, where, after the destruction of Ilium, the Argive fleet—either by the wrath of Minerva, or, as a more certain memory hands down, by the star Arcturus—was afflicted with grievous disasters.

Marmore Paros nobilis, Abdelo oppido frequentissima; prius tamen Minoia, quam Paros dicta: nam subacta a Minoe, quoad in Creticis mansit legibus, Minoiam loquebantur. Præter marmor dat et Sardam lapidem, qui marmore quidem præstat, inter gemmas vero vilissimus ducitur.

Paros is noble for marble, most frequented at the town of Abdelo; previously, however, it was called Minoia rather than Paros: for, having been subdued by Minos, so long as it remained under Cretan laws, they spoke of it as Minoia. Besides marble it also yields the Sard stone, which indeed surpasses marble, but among gems is accounted the cheapest.

Naxon a Delo duodeviginti millia passuum separant, in qua Strongyle oppidum; sed Naxos Dionysia prius, quam Naxos dicta, vel quod hospita Libero patri, vel quod fertilitate vitium vincat ceteras. Sunt præterea Cyclades plurimæ, sed in supra dictis præcipuum est, quod memoriæ debentur.

Eighteen thousand paces separate Naxos from Delos, in which is the town Strongyle; but Naxos was formerly called Dionysia rather than Naxos, either because it is hospitable to Liber Pater, or because by the fertility of its vines it surpasses the others. There are moreover very many Cyclades besides, but among those set forth above are the principal ones that are owed to memory.

De Sporadibus est Icaros, quæ Icario mari nomen dedit. Hæc inter Samum et Myconum procurrentibus saxis inhospita, ac nullis sinibus portuosa, ob inhumana litorum infamis est. Vult ergo Varro, Icarum Cretem ibi naufragio interiisse, et de exitu hominis impositum nomen loco.

Among the Sporades is Icaros, which gave its name to the Icarian Sea. This island, between Samos and Mykonos, with rocks jutting forward, inhospitable and harborless with no bays, is infamous on account of the inhumanity of its shores. Varro therefore maintains that Icarus the Cretan perished there in a shipwreck, and that from the man’s end the name was imposed upon the place.

Nam in Samo nobilius nihil quam Pythagoras civis, qui mox offensus fastu tyrannico, relicta domo patria Bruto consule, qui reges Urbe exegit, Italiam advectus est.

For in Samos there was nothing more noble than Pythagoras, a citizen, who, soon offended by tyrannical pride, with his native home left behind, Brutus as consul, who drove the kings out of the City, was borne to Italy.

Melos, quam Callimachus Memallidam dixit, omnium insularum rotundissima est, juxta Æoliam. Nam Carpathus, a qua Carpathium sinum dicimus. Nunquam ita cœlum nubilum est, ut in sole Rhodos non sit.

Melos, which Callimachus called Memallida, is the most rotund of all islands, next to Aeolia. For Carpathus, from which we name the Carpathian gulf. Never is the sky so cloudy that Rhodes is not in the sun.

Lemnii Vulcanum colunt, ideo in Lemno metropolis Hephæstia. Præterea oppidum Myrina, in cujus forum mons Athos et Macedonia umbram jacit. Quod non frustra inter miracula notaverunt, quum Athos a Lemno sex et octoginta millibus passuum separetur.

The Lemnians worship Vulcan; therefore in Lemnos the metropolis is Hephaestia. Besides, there is the town Myrina, upon whose forum Mount Athos and Macedonia cast a shadow. This they have not without reason noted among the marvels, since Athos is separated from Lemnos by 86 miles.

Est sane Athos sublimis adeo, ut æstimetur altior, quam unde imbres cadunt. Quæ opinio eo fidem concepit, quod in aris, quas cacumine sustinet, nunquam cineres eluantur, nec quidquam ex aggeribus suis perdant, sed in quo relicti cumulo permaneant. In summo eo oppidum Acrothon fuit, in quo dimidio longior, quam in aliis terris incolentium ætas prorogabatur: ideo inde homines, MakrobÛouw Græci, nostri appellavere Longævos.

Athos is indeed so sublime that it is reckoned higher than the level whence rains fall. This opinion has conceived credibility from the fact that on the altars which it supports on its summit the ashes are never washed away, nor do they lose anything from their embankments, but remain in the heap in which they were left. At its very top there was the town Acrothon, in which the lifespan of the inhabitants was prolonged by a half beyond that in other lands: therefore the men from there the Greeks called MakrobÛouw, our people called Long-Lived.

XIII. Hellespontus, Propontis, Bosphoros. In his de delphinis, de thunnis.

13. The Hellespont, the Propontis, the Bosporus. In these, on dolphins, on tunnies.

Quartus Europæ sinus Hellesponto incipit, Mæotidis ostio terminatur. Atque omnis hæc latitudo, quæ Europam Asiamque dividit, in septem stadiorum angustias stringitur. Hic est Hellespontus: hac Xerxes ponte navibus facto permeavit.

The fourth gulf of Europe begins at the Hellespont, and is terminated at the mouth of the Maeotis. And all this breadth, which divides Europe and Asia, is constricted into narrows of seven stadia. Here is the Hellespont: across it Xerxes crossed, with a bridge made of ships.

Tenuis deinde Euripus porrigitur ad Asiæ urbem Priapum, qua Magnus Alexander potiundi orbis amore transcendit, et potitus est. Inde diffusus æquore patentissimo rursus stringitur in Propontidem: mox in quingentos passus coarctatur, fitque Bosporus Thracius, qua Darius copias transportavit.

A slender Euripus then stretches to the Asian city Priapus, where Alexander the Great, from love of gaining possession of the world, crossed over—and gained it. Thence, spread out into a most open sea, it is again narrowed into the Propontis; soon it is contracted to five hundred paces, and becomes the Thracian Bosporus, where Darius transported his forces.

Hæc profunda delphinas plurimos habent, in quibus causæ miraculi multiformes. Ante omnia nihil velocius habent maria, sic ut plerumque salientes transvolent vela navium. Quoquo eant, conjuges evagantur.

These deep waters have very many dolphins, in whom the causes of miracle are multiform. Before all things the seas have nothing swifter, such that, for the most part, leaping, they fly across the sails of ships. Wherever they go, their consorts roam abroad.

Catulos edunt. Decimus mensis maturum facit partum: Lucinam æstivus dies solvit. Uberibus fœtus alunt.

They bear cubs. The tenth month renders the birth mature: a summer day releases Lucina. They nourish the offspring at the udders.

Teneros in faucibus receptant. Invalidos aliquantisper prosequuntur. In tricesimum annum vivunt, quod exploratum est in experimentum caudis amputatis.

They receive the tender young into their throats. They for a while escort the invalids. They live into the thirtieth year, which has been ascertained by the experiment of amputated tails.

Ora non quo ceteræ belluæ loco habent, sed ferme in ventribus. Contra naturam aquatilium soli linguas movent. Aculeatæ sunt pinnæ dorsuales: quum ira subjacet, inhorrescunt; quum animi conquieverunt, quibusdam receptaculis operiuntur.

Their mouths are not in the place where the other beasts have them, but almost in their bellies. Contrary to the nature of aquatic animals, they alone move their tongues. The dorsal fins are aculeate: when anger lies beneath, they bristle; when their spirits have settled, they are covered by certain receptacles.

Spirare eos in aquis negant, et vitales auras, non nisi in ære supero, reciperare. Pro voce gemitus est similis humano. Certum habent vocabulum, quo accepto vocantes sequuntur: nam proprie Simones nominantur.

They deny that they breathe in the waters, and that they recover the vital breezes only in the upper air. In place of a voice there is a groan similar to a human’s. They have a certain vocable, which, when received, they follow those calling; for they are properly named Simones.

Voces hominum aquilonis flatu celerius hauriunt; contra austro spirante auditus obstruuntur. Mulcentur musica; gaudent cantibus tibiarum; ubicumque symphonia est, gregibus adventant. Divo Augusto principe in Campania delphinem puer fragmentis panis primo illexit, et in tantum consuetudo valuit, ut alendum se etiam manui ipsius Crederet.

They take in human voices more swiftly with the blast of the north wind; conversely, when the south wind is blowing, their hearing is obstructed. They are soothed by music; they delight in the songs of pipes; wherever there is symphony, they approach in shoals. Under the Deified Augustus as princeps, in Campania a boy at first lured a dolphin with fragments of bread, and the familiarity prevailed to such a degree that it even trusted itself to be fed by his very hand.

Mox, quum prolusisset puerilis audacia, intra spatia eum Lucrini lacus vectitavit: unde effectum, ut a Baiano litore equitantem puerum Puteolos usque veheret. Hoc per annos plurimos tamdiu gestum, donec assiduo spectaculo desineret miraculum esse, quod gerebatur. Sed ubi obiit puer, sub oculis publicis desiderio ejus et mœrore delphin interiit.

Soon, when boyish audacity had made its prelude, he conveyed him within the confines of Lake Lucrinus; whence it came about that from the Baian shore he would carry the boy, riding, all the way to Puteoli. This was done for very many years, so long until, by the assiduous spectacle, that which was being done ceased to be a miracle. But when the boy died, under the public eyes, the dolphin perished from longing for him and grief.

Pigeret hoc asseverare, ni Mæcenatis et Fabiani, multorumque præterea esset litteris comprehensum. In Africano mox litore apud Hipponem Diarrhyton delphin ab Hipponensibus pastus est, tractandumque se præbuit, impositos quoque frequenter gestitavit. Nec populi tantum manibus acta res est, nam et proconsul Africæ Flavianus ipse eum contigit, unguentis etiam delibuit; qua odoris novitate obsopitus, aliquantisper pro exanimi jactitatus est, multisque mensibus descivit a solita conversatione.

I should be loath to assert this, were it not contained in the writings of Maecenas and Fabianus, and of many others besides. Soon on the African shore, at Hippo Diarrhytus, a dolphin was fed by the people of Hippo, and offered itself to be handled, and even frequently was eager to carry those placed upon it. Nor was the matter accomplished only by the hands of the populace, for Flavianus, the proconsul of Africa, himself touched it, and even anointed it with unguents; lulled to sleep by the novelty of that odor, it for a while was tossed as though lifeless, and for many months fell away from its accustomed converse.

Apud Jasum urbem Babylonem puerum delphinus adamavit, quem dum post assueta colludia recedentem impatientius sequitur, arenis invectus hæsit. Alexander Magnus amorem illum numinis fuisse interpretatus, præfecit puerum Neptuni sacerdotio. Juxta eamdem urbem, ut Hiegesidemus auctor est, alium puerum Hermian nomine, per maria similiter insidentem, quum undosior fluctus necavisset, delphin ad terram revexit; et, velut fateretur reatum, pœnitentiam suam morte multavit, nec reverti voluit amplius in profunda.

At the city of Iasus a dolphin fell in love with a boy named Babylon; and while it, more impatiently, followed him as he withdrew after the accustomed play, carried onto the sands it stuck fast. Alexander the Great, interpreting that love to have been of a divinity, appointed the boy to the priesthood of Neptune. Near the same city, as Hiegesidemus is author, a certain other boy, by name Hermias, likewise riding upon the seas, when a rougher wave had killed him, a dolphin carried him back to land; and, as if confessing its guilt, it punished its own penitence with death, nor was it willing any longer to return into the depths.

Suppetunt et alia exempla, ut Arionem transeamus, cujus exitum annalium comprobavit fides. Ad hæc si quando lasciviunt novi fœtus, a majoribus datur adultior gregi custos, quo magistro discant eludere impetus incursantium belluarum: quanquam ibi præter phocas rara bellua est.

Other examples are at hand, to pass over Arion, whose outcome the faith of the annals has verified. Moreover, whenever the new offspring frolic, the elders assign to the herd a more adult guardian, under whose mastership they may learn to elude the impetus of incursing beasts: although there, apart from seals, a beast is rare.

Plurimus thynnus in Ponto, nec alibi pæne fœtificant:nusquam enim citius adolescunt, scilicet ob aquas dulciores. Ingrediuntur veris tempore; intrant dextero, lævo exeunt. Hoc inde accidere credunt, quod dexteris oculis acutius cernant, quam sinistris.

Very many tuna in the Pontus, and they scarcely breed elsewhere:nowhere indeed do they grow up faster, evidently on account of the sweeter waters. They enter in the season of spring; they go in on the right, they go out on the left. They believe that this happens for this reason, that they discern more sharply with the right eyes than with the left.

XIV. Flumen Istrum. Fiber Ponticus.

14. The River Ister. The Pontic Beaver.

Gemma Pontica.

Pontic Gem.

Ister Germanicis jugis oritur, effusus monte, qui Rauracos Galliæ adspectat. Sexaginta amnes in se recipit, ferme omnes navigabiles. Septem ostiis Pontum influit: quorum primum Peuce, secundum Naracustoma, tertium Calonstoma, quartum Pseudostoma: nam Borionstoma, ac deinde Stenonstoma, languidiora sunt ceteris.

The Ister rises from Germanic ridges, poured forth from a mountain which looks toward the Rauraci of Gaul. It receives into itself sixty rivers, almost all navigable. By seven mouths it flows into the Pontus: of which the first is Peuce, the second Naracustoma, the third Calonstoma, the fourth Pseudostoma: for Borionstoma, and then Stenonstoma, are more sluggish than the rest.

Septimum vero pigrum, ac palustri specie, non habet quod amni comparetur. Priora quatuor ita magna sunt, ut per longitudinem quadraginta millium passuum non misceantur æquori, dulcemque haustum incorrupto detineant sapore.

The seventh, however, sluggish and of a marshy aspect, has nothing that can be compared to a river. The first four are so great that, for a length of forty miles, they do not mix with the sea, and they hold a sweet draught with incorrupt savor.

Per universum Pontum fiber plurimus, quem alio vocabulo dicunt castorem. Lytris similis est, animal morsu potentissimum, adeo ut quum hominem invadit, conventum dentium non prius laxet, quam concrepuisse persenserit fracta ossa. Testiculi ejus appetuntur in usum medelarum: idcirco quum urgeri se intelligit, ne captus prosit, ipse geminos suos devorat.

Throughout the whole Pontus the beaver is very plentiful, which by another term they call the castor. It is similar to otters, an animal most powerful in its bite, to such a degree that, when it attacks a man, it does not relax the meeting of its teeth before it has perceived by the crack that the bones have been broken. Its testicles are sought after for use in remedies: therefore, when it realizes that it is being pressed, lest, when captured, it be of benefit, it devours its own pair.

Mittit Pontus et gemmas, quas a patria Ponticas dicimus, genere diverso: quippe aliæ aureas, aliæ sanguineas habent stellas, et eæ quidem inter sacras habentur: nam quæ ostentationi potius, quam usui deliguntur, non guttis aspersæ sunt, sed longis colorum ductibus liniantur.

Pontus also sends gems, which from their fatherland we call Pontic, of diverse kind: indeed some have golden, others sanguine stars, and these indeed are held among the sacred: for those which are selected for ostentation rather than for use are not sprinkled with drops, but are lined with long strokes of colors.

XV. Amnis Hypanis, et fons Exampeus.

15. The River Hypanis, and the spring Exampeus.

Hypanis oritur inter Auchetas, Scythicorum amnium princeps, purus et haustu saluberrimus, usque dum Callipidum terminis inferatur, ubi fons Exampeus infamis est amara scaturigine: qui Exampeus liquido admixtus fluori, amnem vitio suo vertit, adeo ut dissimilis sibi in maria condatur. Ita inter gentium opiniones fama de Hypane discordat: qui in principiis eum norunt, prædicant; qui in fine experti sunt, non injuria execrantur.

Hypanis rises among the Auchetae, the chief of the Scythian rivers, pure and most salubrious for drinking, until it is brought within the borders of the Callipidae, where the spring Exampeus is infamous for its bitter upwelling; when this Exampeus is mixed with the limpid flow, it turns the river by its own taint, to such a degree that, unlike itself, it is received into the seas. Thus, among the opinions of the nations, the report about the Hypanis is discordant: those who have known it at its beginnings commend it; those who have experienced it at its end, not unjustly, execrate it.

XVI. Scythicarum gentium varia miracula. In his de natura canum, de smaragdo lapide, de cyaneo lapide, de crystallo.

16. Various marvels of the Scythian nations. Among these, on the nature of dogs, on the emerald stone, on the cyanean stone, on crystal.

Apud Neuros nascitur Borysthenes flumen, in quo pisces egregii saporis, et quibus ossa nulla sunt, nec aliud quam cartilagines tenerrimæ. Verum Neuri, ut accepimus, statis temporibus, in lupos transfigurantur; deinde exacto spatio, quod huic sorti attributum est, in pristinam faciem revertuntur. Populis istis deus Mars est: pro simulacris enses colunt. Homines victimas habent.

Among the Neuri the Borysthenes river rises, in which are fish of excellent savor, and in these there are no bones, nothing other than most tender cartilages. But indeed, the Neuri, as we have received, at stated times are transfigured into wolves; then, once the span allotted to this lot has elapsed, they return to their former appearance. For those peoples their god is Mars: in place of images they venerate swords. They have humans as victims.

Ossibus adolent ignes focorum.

They feed the hearth-fires with bones.

Geloni ad hos proximant. De hostium cutibus et sibi indumenta faciunt, et equis suis tegmina. Gelonis Agathyrsi colliminantur, cærulo picti colore, fucatis in cærulum crinibus.

The Geloni are proximate to these. From the skins of enemies they make garments for themselves, and coverings for their horses. The Agathyrsi border upon the Geloni, painted with cerulean color, with their hair dyed cerulean.

Nec hoc sine differentia: nam quanto quis anteit, tanto propensiore nota tingitur, ut sit indicium humilitatis minus pingi.

Nor is this without distinction: for the more someone surpasses, the more prominently with a mark he is dyed, so that to be less painted is an indication of lowliness.

Post Anthropophagi, quibus execrandi cibi sunt humana viscera. Quem morem impiæ gentis adjacentium terrarum prodit tristissima solitudo, quas ob nefarium ritum finitimæ nationes metu profugæ reliquerunt. Et ea causa est, ut usque ad mare; quod Tabin vocant, per longitudinem ejus oræ, quæ æstivo orienti objacet, sine homine terra sit, et immensa deserta, quoad perveniatur ad Seras.

After the Anthropophagi, for whom human viscera are accursed food. This custom of an impious people is betrayed by the most sorrowful solitude of the adjacent lands, which neighboring nations, fleeing in fear, have abandoned on account of the nefarious rite. And this is the cause, that all the way to the sea; which they call Tabin, along the length of its shore which faces the summer orient, the land is without man, and there are immense deserts, until one arrives at the Seres.

Chalybes et Dahæ in parte Asiaticæ Scythiæ crudelitate ab immanissimis nihil discrepant.

The Chalybes and the Dahae in a part of Asiatic Scythia differ in cruelty not at all from the most savage.

At Albani in ora agentes, qui posteros se Jasonis credi volunt, albo crine nascuntur, canitiem habent auspicium capillorum: ergo capitis color genti nomen dedit. Glauca oculis inest pupula: ideo nocte plus, quam die cernunt. Apud hos populos nati canes feris anteponuntur, frangunt tauros, leones premunt, detinent quidquid objectum est: ex quibus causis meruerunt etiam annalibus tradi.

But the Albani, living on the coast, who wish to be believed the descendants of Jason, are born with white hair; grayness is the first token of their hair: therefore the color of the head has given the nation its name. A glaucous pupil is in their eyes: therefore at night they see more than by day. Among these peoples, dogs born there are preferred for wild beasts; they break bulls, press lions, they hold fast whatever is set against them: for which reasons they have even deserved to be recorded in the annals.

Legimus petenti Indiam Alexandro, a rege Albaniæ dono duos missos, quorum alter sues sibi et ursos oblatos usque eo sprevit, ut offensus degeneri præda, ignavo similis diu accubaret: quem per ignorantiam velut inertem Alexander exstingui imperavit. Alter vero monitu eorum, qui donum prosequuti fuerant, leonem missum necavit; mox, viso elephanto, notabiliter exsultans, belluam primum astu fatigavit, deinde cum summo spectantium horrore terræ afflixit. Hoc genus canes crescunt ad formam amplissimam, terrificis latratibus ultra rugitus insonantes.

We read that, as Alexander was seeking India, two were sent as a gift by the king of Albania, of whom the one so scorned pigs and bears that were offered to him that, offended by such degenerate prey, he lay for a long time like an ignoble sluggard; whom Alexander, through ignorance, ordered to be put to death as inert. The other, however, at the monition of those who had escorted the gift, killed the lion that was sent; soon, on seeing an elephant, notably exulting, he first wearied the beast by astuteness, then, to the utmost horror of the onlookers, dashed it to the earth. Dogs of this kind grow to a very great size, their terrifying bark resounding beyond roars.

Hæc sunt de canibus Albanis: reliqua communia universis. Dominos æqualiter omnes canes diligunt, sicut exemplis patet. In Epiro denique domini percussorem in cœtu agnitum latratu canis prodidit.

These are the things about the Alban dogs: the remaining points are common to all. All dogs equally love their masters, as is evident from examples. In Epirus, finally, a dog, having recognized in an assembly the assailant of his master, exposed him by its barking.

Jaso Lycio interfecto, canis ipsius aspernatus cibum inedia obiit. Lysimachi regis canis flammis se injecit, accenso rogo domini, et pariter ibi absumptus est. Garamantum regem ducenti canes ab exsilio reduxerunt prœliati adversum resistentes.

Jason having been slain by Lycius, his dog, spurning food, died of starvation. The dog of King Lysimachus hurled himself into the flames when his master’s pyre had been kindled, and there likewise was consumed. Two hundred dogs brought back the king of the Garamantes from exile, fighting in battle against those who resisted.

Colophonii et Castabalenses, canibus in bella productis, primas acies instruebant. Appio Junio, P. Sicinio consulibus, damnatum dominum canis, quum abigi non posset, comitatus in carcerem, mox percussum ululatu prosequutus est: quumque ex miseratione populi Romani potestas ei cibi fieret, ad os defuncti escam tulit: ultimo dejectum in Tiberim cadaver adnatans sustentare conatus est. Canes soli nomina sua recognoscunt; itinerum meminerunt.

the Colophonians and the Castabalans, with dogs led forth into wars, were arraying the front battle-lines. In the consulship of Appius Junius and Publius Sicinius, when a dog could not be driven away, he accompanied his condemned master into prison, and soon, when he was struck down, followed him with a howl; and when, out of the compassion of the Roman people, permission of food was granted to him, he brought food to the mouth of the deceased; at last, when the corpse was cast down into the Tiber, swimming up he tried to support it. Dogs alone recognize their own names; they remember their routes.

Indi coitus tempore in saltibus religant canes feminas, ut cum his tigrides cœant, quarum ex primis conceptibus ob nimiam feritatem inutiles partus judicant, itidem secundos, tertios educant. Aegyptii canes e Nilo nunquam nisi currentes lambitant, dum a crocodilis insidias cavent.

The Indians, at the time of mating, in the forest glades tie up female dogs, so that tigers may mate with them; of whose first conceptions they judge the births useless because of excessive ferocity, but they rear the second and the third. The Egyptians’ dogs lap from the Nile never except while running, while they guard against ambushes from crocodiles.

Inter Anthropophagos in Asiatica parte numerantur Essedones, qui et ipsi nefandis funestantur inter se cibis. Essedonum mos est, parentum funera prosequi cantibus, et proximorum corrogatis cœtibus, cadavera ipsa dentibus lancinare, ac pecudum mixta carnibus dapes facere: capitum etiam ossa auro incincta in poculorum tradere ministerium. Scythotauri pro hostiis cædunt advenas.

Among the Anthropophagi in the Asiatic part are numbered the Essedones, who likewise are defiled among themselves by nefarious foods. The custom of the Essedones is to accompany the funerals of their parents with songs, and, their closest having been mustered into gatherings, to lacerate the corpses themselves with their teeth, and to make banquets with flesh mixed with that of cattle; they even hand over the bones of the heads, encircled with gold, to the service of drinking-cups. The Scythotauri cut down newcomers as sacrificial victims.

Nomades pabula sequuntur. Georgi in Europa siti, agros exercent. Axiacæ perinde in Europa siti, neque mirantar aliena, neque sua diligunt.

Nomads follow pastures. The Georgi, situated in Europe, cultivate the fields. The Axiacae, likewise situated in Europe, neither marvel at alien things nor love their own.

Satarchæ usu auri argentique damnato, in æternum se a publica avaritia vindicarunt. Scytharum interius habitantium asperior ritus est: specus incolunt; pocula non ut Essedones, sed de inimicorum capitibus moliuntur; amant prœlia; interemptorum cruorem e vulneribus ipsis bibunt. Numero cædium honor crescit, quarum expertem esse apud eos probrum est.

With the use of gold and silver condemned, the Satarchae have vindicated themselves forever from public avarice. Among the Scythians dwelling more inland, the rite is harsher: they inhabit caves; their cups, not as the Essedones, but they fashion from the heads of enemies; they love battles; they drink the blood of the slain from the very wounds. With the number of slaughters their honor grows, to be without which is a disgrace among them.

Haustu mutui sanguinis fœdus sanciunt, non suo tantum more, sed Medorum quoque usurpata disciplina. Bello denique, quod gestum est olympiade nona et quadragesima, anno post Ilium captum sexcentesimo quarto, inter Alyattem Lydum et Astyagem Mediæ regem, hoc pacto firmata sunt jura pacis.

They sanction a pact by a draught of mutual blood, not by their own custom only, but with the discipline of the Medes likewise appropriated. In the war, finally, which was waged in the 49th Olympiad, in the 604th year after Ilium was captured, between Alyattes the Lydian and Astyages, king of Media, by this pact the rights of peace were made firm.

Colchorum urbem Dioscoriadem Amphitus et Cercius aurigæ Castoris et Pollucis condiderunt, a quibus Heniochorum gens exorta est. Ultra Sauromatas in Asia sitos, qui Mithridati latebram, et quibus originem Medi dederunt, confines sunt Thalli, his nationibus quas ab oriente contingunt. Caspii maris fauces: quæ fauces mirum in modum maciantur imbribus, crescunt æstibus.

The city of the Colchians, Dioscurias, was founded by Amphitus and Cercius, the charioteers of Castor and Pollux, from whom the nation of the Heniochi arose. Beyond the Sauromatae situated in Asia, who afforded Mithridates a hiding place, and to whom the Medes gave their origin, are adjacent the Thalli, to these nations which they touch on the east. The straits of the Caspian Sea: which straits, in a wondrous manner, are maculated by rains, and swell with tides.

Heniochorum montes Araxem; Moschorum, Phasidem fundunt. Sed Araxes brevibus intervallis ab Euphratis ortu caput tollit, ac deinde in Caspium fertur mare. Arimaspi circa Gesclithron positi, unocula gens est.

The mountains of the Heniochi pour forth the Araxes; those of the Moschi, the Phasis. But the Araxes, at a short remove from the origin of the Euphrates, lifts its head, and then is borne into the Caspian Sea. The Arimaspi, situated around Gesclithron, are a one-eyed nation.

Ultra Hos et Riphæum jugum regio est assiduis obsessa nivibus: Pterophoron dicunt, quippe casus continuantium pruinarum quiddam ibi exprimit simile pinnarum. Damnata pars mundi, et a rerum natura in nubem æternæ caliginis mersa, ipsisque prorsus aquilonis conceptaculis rigentissima. Sola terrarum non novit vices temporum, nec de cœlo aliud accipit, quam hiemem sempiternam.

Beyond these and the Rhipaean ridge there is a region besieged by incessant snows: they call it Pterophoron, for indeed the fall of continuous hoarfrosts there produces something like feathers. A condemned part of the world, and by the nature of things plunged into a cloud of eternal gloom, and most stiff-frozen in the very receptacles of the North Wind. Alone among the lands it does not know the changes of the seasons, nor does it receive from the sky anything other than everlasting winter.

In Asiatica Scythia terræ sunt locupletes, inhabitabiles tamen: nam quum auro et gemmis affluant, grypes tenent universa, alites ferocissimæ, et ultra omnem rabiem sævientes: quarum immanitate obsistente ad venas divites accessus difficilis ac rarus est: quippe visos discerpunt, velut geniti ad plectendam avaritiæ temeritatem. Arimaspi cum hi, dimicant, ut intercipiant lapides, quorum non aspernabimur persequi qualitatem.

In Asiatic Scythia the lands are opulent, yet uninhabitable: for although they overflow with gold and gems, griffins hold the whole, winged creatures most ferocious, raging beyond all rabid fury: with their monstrous savagery opposing, access to the rich veins is difficult and rare: for they tear to pieces those whom they see, as though born to chastise the rashness of avarice. With these the Arimaspi fight, to intercept the stones, whose quality we shall not disdain to pursue.

Smaragdis hic locus patria est, quibus tertiam inter lapides dignitatem Theophrastus dedit: nam licet sint et Aegyptii, et Chalcedonii, et Medici, et Laconici, præcipuus est honor Scythicis. Nihil his jucundius, nihil utilius vident oculi. In primis virent ultra aquaticum gramen, ultra amnicas herbas; deinde obtutus fatigatos coloris reficiunt lenitate: nam visus, quos alterius gemmæ fulgor retuderit, smaragdi recreant, et exacuunt.

This place is the fatherland of emeralds (smaragds), to which Theophrastus gave the third dignity among stones: for although there are Egyptian, Chalcedonian, Median, and Laconian ones, the chief honor belongs to the Scythian. The eyes behold nothing more pleasant, nothing more useful than these. In the first place, they are green beyond watery grass, beyond riverine herbs; then they refresh tired gazes by the gentleness of their color: for eyes which the brilliance of another gem has blunted, emeralds recreate and sharpen.

Nec aliam ob causam placuit, ut non sculperentur, ne offensum decus, imaginum lacunis corrumperetur: quanquam qui verus est, difficulter vulneretur. Probantur hoc pacto. si adspectus transmittant; si quum globosi sunt, proxima sibi inficiant ære repercusso; aut quum concavi sunt, inspectantium facies æmulentur; si neque umbra, neque lucernis, neque sole mutentur.

Nor for any other cause was it decided that they not be sculpted, lest their grace, once offended, be corrupted by the lacunae of images; although that which is genuine is with difficulty wounded. They are proved in this way: if they transmit the gaze; if, when they are globular, they stain what is nearest to them by the repercussion of bronze; or when they are concave, they emulate the faces of those inspecting; if they are changed neither by shadow, nor by lamps, nor by the sun.

Optimos tamen sortiuntur situs, quibus planities resupina est et extenta; inveniuntur etesiis flantibus: tunc enim detecto solo facillime internitent: nam etesiæ plurimum arenas movent. Alii minus nobiles in commissuris saxorum, vel in metallis ærariis apparent, quos chalcosmaragdos nuncupant. Vitiosi eorum intrinsecus quasdam sordes habent, vel plumbo, vel capillamentis, vel etiam sali similes.

They nevertheless obtain the best sites where the plain is turned upward and stretched out; they are found when the Etesian winds are blowing: for then, with the soil laid bare, they most easily sparkle, since the Etesian winds move the sands exceedingly. Others, less noble, appear in the joints of rocks, or in copper mines, which they call chalcosmaragds. The faulty ones have within certain dregs, resembling either lead, or little hair-like filaments, or even salt.

Laudantur austeri. Mero et viridi proficiunt oleo, quamvis natura imbuuntur.

They are praised as austere. They profit from pure wine and green oil, although they are imbued by nature.

Et cyaneus e Scythia est optimus, si cærulo coruscabit: cujus gnari in marem et feminam genus dividunt. Feminis nitor purus est; mares punctillis ad gratiam interlucentibus auratilis pulviculus variat.

And the cyanus from Scythia is best, if it will coruscate with cerulean; those knowledgeable divide its genus into male and female. In the females the luster is pure; the males are variegated by a little golden powder, with tiny points shining through for grace.

Istic et crystallus, quem licet pars major Europæ et particula Asiæ subministret, pretiosissimum tamen Scythia edit. Multus ad pocula destinatur, quamlibet nihil aliud quam frigidum pati possit. Sexangulus invenitur.

There too is crystal, which, although the greater part of Europe and a small portion of Asia supply, nevertheless Scythia brings forth in the most precious kind. Much of it is destined for cups, although it can endure nothing other than cold. It is found six-angled.

Qui eligunt, purissimum captant, ne quid rufum, ne nubilum, vel spumis obsitum arceat perspicuitatem: tum ne duritia justo propensior obnoxium fragilitati magis faciat. Putant glaciem coire, et in crystallum corporari; sed frustra: nam si ita foret, nec Alabanda Asiæ, nec Cypros insula hanc materiam procrearent, quibus regionibus incitatissimus calor. Livia Augusti ad magnitudinem centum et quinquaginta librarum inter Capitolina donaria crystallum dicavit.

Those who select it aim at the most pure, lest anything reddish, or cloudy, or overlaid with spume, shut out its perspicuity; then too, lest a hardness more inclined than is just make it the more liable to fragility. They think that ice coalesces and is embodied into crystal; but in vain: for if it were so, neither Alabanda of Asia nor the island of Cyprus would beget this material, regions in which the most vehement heat prevails. Livia, wife of Augustus, dedicated a crystal among the Capitoline offerings to the magnitude of 150 pounds.

XVII. De Hyperboreis, et Hyperboreæ regionibus.

17. On the Hyperboreans, and the Hyperborean regions.

Fabula erat de Hyperboreis, et rumor irritus, si quæ illinc ad nos usque fluxerunt, temere forent credita. Sed quum probissimi auctores, et satis vero idonei sententias pares faciant, nullus falsum reformidet. De Hyperboreis rem loquemur.

It was a tale about the Hyperboreans, and an empty rumor, if whatever has flowed thence all the way to us were to be rashly believed. But since the most upright authors, and in truth sufficiently fit ones, make their judgments agree, let no one dread falsehood. We shall speak on the matter of the Hyperboreans.

Incolunt pone Pterophoron, quam ultra aquilonem accipimus jacere. Gens beatissima. Eam Asiæ quidam magis, quam Europæ dederunt.

They inhabit beyond Pterophoron, which we take to lie beyond Aquilon. A most blessed nation. Some have assigned it to Asia rather than to Europe.

Alii statuunt mediam inter utrumque solem, antipodum occidentem, et nostrum renascentem; quod aspernatur ratio, tam vasto mari duos orbes interfluente. Sunt igitur in Europa, apud quos mundi cardines esse credunt, et extimos siderum ambitus, semestrem lucem, aversum uno tantum die solent; quanquam exsistant, qui putant non quotidie ibi solem, ut nobis, sed vernali æquinoctio exoriri, autumnali occidere: ita sex mensibus infinitum diem, sex aliis continuam esse noctem. De cœlo magna clementia; auræ spirant salubriter: nihil noxii flatus habent.

Others set it in the middle between the two suns—the occident of the antipodes and our re-nascent one—which reason spurns, with so vast a sea flowing between the two orbs. They are therefore in Europe, among whom they believe the hinges of the world to be, and the outermost circuits of the stars; they are accustomed to a semiannual light, with it turned away for only a single day; although there exist those who think that the sun does not rise there daily, as for us, but at the vernal equinox rises, at the autumnal sets: thus for six months an unbounded day, for the other six a continuous night. From the sky, great clemency; the breezes blow healthfully: they have nothing of noxious breath.

Domus sunt nemora, vel luci. In diem victum arbores subministrant. Discordiam nesciunt.

Their homes are groves, or sacred groves. The trees supply victuals for the day. They do not know discord.

Ægritudine non inquietantur. Ad innocentiam omnibus æquale votum. Mortem accersunt, et voluntario interitu castigant obeundi tarditatem: quos satietas tenet vitæ, epulati delibutique, de rupe nota præcipitem casum in maria destinant.

They are not disquieted by sickness. For innocence there is in everyone an equal vow. They summon death, and by a voluntary demise they castigate the tardiness of dying: those whom satiety of life holds, having feasted and been anointed, they direct a headlong fall from a well-known cliff into the seas.

Hoc sepulturæ genus optimum arbitrantur. Aiunt etiam solitos per virgines probatissimas primitiva frugum Apollini Delio missitare. Verum hæ quoniam perfidia hospitum non illibatæ revenissent, devotionis, quam peregre prosequebantur, pontificium mox intra fines suos receperunt.

They consider this kind of sepulture the best. They say also that they were wont, through most approved virgins, to send the firstfruits of their grain to Delian Apollo. But since these, on account of the perfidy of their hosts, had not returned undefiled, they soon received back within their own borders the priestly office of the devotion which they were prosecuting abroad.

XVIII. De Arimphæis, et aliis Scytharum gentibus, de tigridibus, de pantberis, de pardis.

18. On the Arimphaei, and other tribes of the Scythians, on tigers, on panthers, on pards.

Altera in Asia gens ad initium orientis æstivi, ubi deficiunt Riphæorum montium juga. Hyperboreis similes dicunt Arimphæos. Et ipsi frondibus arbustorum gaudent; baccas edunt. Juxta viros ac feminas tædet crinium.

Another people in Asia is at the commencement of the estival sunrise, where the ridges of the Riphaean mountains fail. They say the Arimphaei are similar to the Hyperboreans. They too rejoice in the fronds of shrubs; they eat berries. Among both men and women, they are tired of hair.

Ita uterque sexus comas tondet. Amant quietem, non amant lædere. Sacri habentur, attrectarique eos, etiam a ferocissimis nationibus nefas ducitur.

Thus both sexes crop their hair. They love quiet; they do not love to harm. They are held sacred, and for them to be touched, even by the most ferocious nations, is deemed impious.

Quicumque periculum a suis metuit, si ad Arimphæos transfugerit, tutus est, velut asylo tegatur.

Whoever fears danger from his own people, if he flees for refuge to the Arimphaei, is safe, as though he were protected by an asylum.

Ultra hos Cimmerii, et gens Amazonum porrecta ad Caspium mare, quod delapsum per Asiaticæ plagæ terga Scythicum irrumpit oceanum.

Beyond these, the Cimmerians, and the nation of the Amazons extended toward the Caspian Sea, which, having descended along the backs of the Asiatic tract, bursts into the Scythian Ocean.

Sed magnis deinde spatiis intercedentibus, ostia Oxi fluminis Hyrcani habent, gens silvis aspera, copiosa immanibus feris, fœta tigribus: quod bestiarum genus insignes maculis notæ, et pernicitas memorabile reddiderunt. Fulvo nitent: hoc fulvum nigrantibus segmentis interundatum, varietate apprime decet. Pedum motum nescio velocitas, an pervicacia magis adjuvet.

But then, with great spaces intervening, at the mouths of the river Oxus dwell the Hyrcanians, a people rough with forests, abundant in monstrous wild beasts, fruitful in tigers: which kind of beast its markings, distinguished with spots, and its swiftness have made memorable. They shine fulvous: this fulvous hue, undulated with black segments, is especially becoming by its variety. I do not know whether speed, or rather tenacity, more aids the movement of their feet.

Nihil tam longum est, quod non brevi penetrent; nihil adeo antecedit, ut non illico assequantur. Ac maxime potentia earum probatur, quum maternis curis incitantur. Quum catulorum insistunt raptoribus, succedant sibi equites licet, et fuga quantalibet, astu quantolibet, amoliri prædam velint, ni in præsidio maria fuerint, frustra est ausum omne.

Nothing is so long that they do not penetrate it in short order; nothing so far ahead that they do not immediately overtake it. And their potency is most proved when they are incited by maternal cares. When they press upon the abductors of their cubs, let horsemen succeed one another as they will, and with whatever flight, with whatever cunning, they may wish to carry off the prey: unless the seas have been their safeguard, every venture is in vain.

Notantur frequentissime, si quando latrones suos asportatis catulis renavigantes vident, in litore irrita rabie cernuari, velut propriam tarditatem voluntaria castigantes ruina: quanquam de fœtu universo vix unus queat subtrahi.

They are most frequently noted, whenever they see their brigands sailing back with the cubs carried off, to pitch headlong on the shore in ineffectual rabies, as though chastising their own tardity by a voluntary ruin; although from the entire litter scarcely a single one can be stolen away.

Pantheræ quoque numerosæ sunt in Hyrcania, minutis orbiculis superpictæ, ita ut oculatis ex fulvo circulis; vel cærula, vel alba distingatur tergi supellex. Tradunt odore earum et contemplatione armenta mire affici, atque ubi eas persentiscant, properato convenire, nec terreri nisi sola oris torvitate: quam ob causam pantheræ absconditis capitibus, quæ corporis reliqua sunt, spectanda præbent, ut pecuarios greges stupidos in obtutum populentur secura vastatione. Sed Hyrcani, ut hominibus intentatum nihil est, frequentius eas veneno, quam ferro, necant.

Panthers too are numerous in Hyrcania, over-painted with minute little orbicles, so that, with ocellated circles upon a tawny ground, the back’s furnishing is distinguished either cerulean or white. They relate that herds are wondrously affected by their odor and their contemplation, and that, when they perceive them, they hasten together, nor are they frightened save by the grimness of the face alone: for which cause the panthers, with their heads concealed, present the remaining parts of the body to be looked at, so that they may plunder the herdsmen’s flocks, stupefied into gazing, with a secure ravaging. But the Hyrcanians, since for men nothing is unattempted, kill them more often with poison than with iron.

Aconito carnes illinunt, atque ita per compita spargunt semitarum: quas ubi esæ sunt, fauces earum angina obsidentur. Ideo gramen pardalianchen appellaverunt. Sed pantheræ adversus hoc virus excrementa humana devorant, et suopte ingenio pesti resistunt.

They smear meats with aconite, and thus scatter them along the crossroads of the footpaths: when these have been eaten, their throats are beset by angina. Therefore they have named the grass “pardalianches.” But the panthers, against this poison, devour human excrement, and by their own innate ingenuity resist the pest.

Lenta illis vivacitas, adeo ut ejectis interaneis mortem diu differant. In his silvestribus et pardi sunt, secundum a pantheris genus, noti satis, nec latius exsequendi. Quorum adulterinis coitibus degenerantur partus leænarum, et leones quidem procreantur, sed ignobiles.

Their vivacity is slow, to such an extent that, even with their entrails ejected, they defer death for a long time. Among these forest-dwellers are also pards, a genus second to panthers, well enough known, and not to be pursued at greater length. By their adulterine couplings the offspring of lionesses are degenerated, and lions indeed are procreated, but ignoble.

XIX. Unde mediterranea maria oriantur.

19. Whence the inland seas arise.

Quoniam in Ponticis rebus sumus, non erit omittendum, unde mcditerranea maria caput attollant. Existimant enim quidam sinus istos a Gaditano freto nasci, nec aliam esse originem, quam eliquia irrumpentis Oceani: cujus spiritu pervadente apud aliquot mediterranea litora, sicut in Italiæ parte, fieri accessus, vel recessus. Qui contrarium sentiunt, omnem illum fluorem aiunt a Ponticis faucibus inundare, idque fulciunt argumento non inani, quod æstus e Ponto profluus nunquam reciprocetur.

Since we are in Pontic matters, it should not be omitted whence the mediterranean seas lift up their head. For certain men think these bays are born from the Gaditan strait, and that there is no other origin than the leavings of the Ocean breaking in: by whose spirit, pervading along several mediterranean shores, as in a part of Italy, there occur advances and recesses. Those who feel the contrary say that all that flow inundates from the Pontic jaws, and they support it with a not empty argument, that the tide flowing out from the Pontus is never reciprocated.

XX. De insulis Scythicis, de oceano Septentrionali, de spatiis inter Scythas et lndos, de formis hominum, de cervis, de tragelaphis.

20. On the Scythian islands, on the Northern Ocean, on the distances between the Scythians and the Indians, on the forms of men, on deer, on tragelaphs.

Insula Apollinitarum octogintis millibus passuum abest a Bosphoro Thracio citra Istrum sita, ex qua Marcus Lucullus Apollinem Capitolinum nobis extulit. Ante Borusthenem Achillis insula est, cum æde sacra, quam ædem nulla ingreditur ales; et quæ forte advolaverit, raptim fugam properat.

The Island of the Apollinites is 800 miles distant from the Thracian Bosporus, situated on this side of the Ister, from which Marcus Lucullus brought forth for us the Capitoline Apollo. Before the Borysthenes is Achilles’ island, with a sacred temple, which temple no bird enters; and any that by chance has flown toward it hastens swiftly to flight.

Oceanum Septentrionalem ex parte, qua a Paropamiso amne Scythiæ alluitur, Hecatæus Amalchium appellat, quod gentis illius lingua significat congelatum. Philemon a Cimbris ad promontorium Rubeas Morimarusam dicit vocari, hoc est Mortuum mare.

The Northern Ocean, in the part where it washes Scythia from the river Paropamisus, Hecataeus calls Amalchium, which in the language of that nation signifies “frozen.” Philemon says that from the Cimbri to the promontory Rubeas it is called Morimarusa, that is, the Dead Sea.

Ultra Rubeas id quidquid est, Cronium nominant. Mare autem Caspium ex altero Ponti latere ultra Massagetas et Apalæos Scythas, esse in Asiatica plaga dulce haustu Alexandro Magno probatum est, mox Pompeio Magno, qui bello Mithridatico, sicut commilito ejus Varro tradit, ipsis haustibus periclitari fidem voluit. Id evenire produnt e numero fluminum, quorum tanta copia ibi confluit, ut naturam maris vertant.

Beyond the Rubeae, that, whatever it is, they call the Cronian. But the Caspian Sea, on the other side of the Pontus, beyond the Massagetae and the Apalaean Scythians, is in the Asiatic quarter—its sweetness to the draught was proven by Alexander the Great, and later by Pompey the Great, who in the Mithridatic war, as his fellow-soldier Varro records, wished to test the truth by the draughts themselves. They report this comes about from the number of rivers, of which so great a multitude flows together there that they turn the nature of the sea.

Non omiserim, quod per idem tempus eidem Magno licuit ex India diebus octo ad Bactros usque Dalerum flumen, quod influit Oxum amnem, pervenire; deinde in mare Caspium; inde per Caspium ad Cyri amnis penetrare fluentum, qui et Iberiæ Armeniæ fines interluit. Itaque a Cyro, diebus non amplius quinque itinere terreno subvectis navibus, ad alveum Phasidis pertendit: per cujus excursus in Pontum usque Indos advehi liquido probatum est.

I would not omit that, at that same time, it was possible for that same Alexander the Great to reach from India in eight days as far as the Bactrians, up to the river Dalerus, which flows into the stream Oxus; then into the Caspian Sea; thence through the Caspian to penetrate to the flow of the river Cyrus, which also interlaves the borders of Iberia and Armenia. And so from the Cyrus, with the ships conveyed by a land journey of not more than five days, he aimed for the channel of the Phasis: by whose outlets into the Pontus it has been clearly proved that Indians are conveyed even there.

Auctor est Xenophon Lampsacenus, a litore Scytharum in insulam Abalciam triduo navigari: ejus magnitudinem immensam, et pæne similem continenti: nec longe Oæones separari; quas qui habitent, vivant ovis avium marinarum, et avenis vulgo nascentibus; perinde alias propter constitutas æque insulas, quarum Hippopodes indigenæ humana usque ad vestigium forma in equinos pedes desinunt; esse et Phannesiorum, quorum aures adeo in effusam magnitudinem dilatentur, ut viscerum reliqua illis contegant, nec amiculum aliud sit, quam ut membra membranis aurium vestiant. Antequam digredimur ab Scythia, religio est præterire, quænam ibi sint feræ peculiares.

Xenophon of Lampsacus is authority, that from the shore of the Scythians one sails in three days to the island Abalcia: its magnitude immense, and almost similar to the continent: and that the Oaeones are not far separated; those who inhabit them live on the eggs of marine birds and on oats commonly growing; likewise that there are other islands set near by as well, in which the natives, the Hippopodes, their human form down to the instep ends in equine feet; and that there are also the Phannesii, whose ears are so dilated into a flowing magnitude that they cover the rest of the viscera, nor is there any other garment than that they clothe their limbs with the membranes of their ears. Before we depart from Scythia, it is a scruple to pass over what peculiar wild beasts there are there.

Cervi plurimi in hac terra. Igitur cervos persequamur. Mares generis hujusce quum statum tempus venerem incitavit, sæviunt rabie libidinis efferati.

There are very many deer in this land. Therefore, let us pursue the deer. The males of this kind, when the set time has incited Venus, rage, made wild by the rabid frenzy of libido.

Feminæ, licet prius conserantur, non concipiunt ante Arcturi sidus. Nec qualibet partus suos educant. Teneros studiose occulunt, et absconditos inter profunda fruticum, vel herbarum, pedum verbere castigant ad latendum.

The females, although they are coupled earlier, do not conceive before the star of Arcturus. Nor do they rear their offspring just anywhere. They studiously conceal the tender ones, and, hidden among the depths of shrubs or of grasses, they chastise them with the lash of their feet to make them lie low in hiding.

Quum maturuit ad fugam robur, exercitio docent cursus, et assuescunt salire per abrupta. Acceptis canum latratibus, secundo vento vias dirigunt, ut odor cum ipsis recedat. Mirantur sibilum fistularum.

When the strength for flight has matured, by exercise they train in running, and they grow accustomed to leap over abrupt places. When they have caught the barkings of the dogs, with a favorable wind they direct their ways, so that the odor may recede with them. They marvel at the sibilation of pipes.

Rectis auribus acutissime audiunt, submissis nihil. Stupent omnia: propterea facilius obvios se præbent sagittantibus. Si maria tranant, non aspectu petunt litora, sed olfactu: infirmos ponunt in ultimo, et lassorum capita clunibus per vices sustinent.

With ears erect they hear most acutely; with them lowered, nothing. They are stupefied at everything: therefore they more easily present themselves in the way to archers. If they swim the seas, they seek the shores not by sight, but by smell: they place the infirm in the rear, and support the heads of the weary with their haunches by turns.

E cornibus quod dextrum fuerit efficacius est ad medelam; si fugare angues gestias, utrum velis, uras; quæ ustrina præterea nidore vitium aperit ac detegit, si cui inest morbus comitialis. Pro ætate ramulos augent. Id incrementum in sexennes perseverat; deinceps numerosiora non possunt fieri cornua, possunt crassiora.

Of the horns, the right-hand one is more efficacious for healing; if you are eager to drive away serpents, whichever you wish, you burn; and the burnings, moreover, by their odor disclose and detect the defect, if anyone has the comitial disease (epilepsy). In proportion to age they increase their little branches (tines). That increment persists for six years; thereafter the horns cannot become more numerous, they can become thicker.

Quæ quidem castratis nunquam crescunt, nec tamen decidunt. Dentes monstrant senectutem, quum aut pauci inveniuntur, aut nulli. Serpentes hauriunt, et spiritu narium extrahunt de latebris cavernarum.

These indeed in the castrated never grow, nor yet do they fall off. The teeth show old age, when either few are found, or none. They draw in serpents, and with the breath of the nostrils they extract them from the hiding-places of caves.

Dictamnum ipsi prodiderunt, dum ex eo pasti excutiunt accepta tela. Herbam quoque, quam cynaren vocant, contra noxia edunt gramina. Adversum venena mirificum est hinnulei coagulum, occisi in matris utero.

They themselves have divulged dittany, since, having fed on it, they shake off the missiles they have received. They also eat the herb which they call cynara against noxious grasses. Marvelous against poisons is the rennet of a fawn, killed in its mother’s womb.

Patuit nunquam eos febrescere: quam ob causam confecta ex medullis eorum unguina sedant calores hominum languentium. Legimus plurimos matutinis diebus cervinam carnem degustare solitos, sine febribus longævos fuisse: quod demum proderit, si uno vulnere fuerint interfecti. Ad dignoscendam vivacitatem Alexander Magnus torques plurimis cervis innexuit, qui post annum centesimum capti, necdum senii judicium præferebant.

It has been evident that they never grow feverish: for which cause unguents confected from their marrow sedate the heats of languishing men. We read that very many, accustomed to taste venison in the morning, were long-lived without fevers: which, however, will profit only if they were slain with a single wound. To distinguish their vivacity, Alexander the Great fastened torques to many stags, which, captured after the 100th year, did not yet display the indication of old age.

Eadem pæne specie sunt, quos tragelaphos dicunt, sed non alibi, quam circa Phasidem apparent: tantum quod illi villosos habent armos, et menta promissis hirta barbis.

They are almost of the same appearance, those whom they call tragelaphs, but they appear nowhere except around the Phasis: only that those have shaggy shoulders and chins rough with long, hanging beards.

XXI. Germania. In ea de avibus Hercyniis, de bisontibus, de uris, de alce.

21. Germany. In it, on the Hercynian birds, the bisons, the uruses, the elk.

Item de alce Gangaviæ insulæ, de succino, de callaico lapide, de ceraunio albo.

Likewise concerning the elk of the island of Gangavia, concerning amber, concerning the Callaic stone, concerning the white ceraunium.

Mons Sevo ipse ingens, nec Riphæis minor collibus, initium Germaniæ facit. Ingævones tenent, a quibus primis post Scythas nomen Germanicum consurgit. Dives virorum terra, frequens populis numerosis, et immanibus.

Mount Sevo, immense itself, nor lesser than the Riphaean hills, makes the beginning of Germany. The Ingvaeones hold it, from whom, first after the Scythians, the Germanic name rises. A land rich in men, crowded with peoples, numerous and monstrous.

Extenditur inter Hercynium saltum et rupes Sarmatarum. Ubi incipit, Danubio; ubi desinit, Rheno perfunditur. De internis ejus partibus, Albis, Guthalus, Vistula, amnes latissimi præcipitant in Oceanum.

It stretches between the Hercynian Forest and the crags of the Sarmatians. Where it begins, it is bathed by the Danube; where it ends, by the Rhine. As for its inner parts, the Elbe, the Guthalus, the Vistula—very broad rivers—rush headlong into the Ocean.

Saltus Hercynius aves gignit quarum pinnæ per obscurum emicant et interlucent, quamvis densa nox denset tenebras. Inde homines plerumque nocturnos excursus sic destinant, ut illis utantur ad præsidium itineris dirigendi, præjactisque per opaca callium rationem viæ moderentur indicio plumarum refulgentium.

The Hercynian Forest brings forth birds whose pinions flash through the obscurity and shine through, although dense night densifies the darkness. From this, men for the most part arrange nocturnal excursions in such a way that they use them as a safeguard for directing the journey, and, having cast them ahead through the dark places of the narrow paths, they regulate the course of the way by the indication of the refulgent feathers.

In hoc tractu sane, et in omni septentrionali plaga bisontes frequentissimi, qui bovis feri similes, setosi colla, jubas horridi, ultra tauros pernicitate, capti assuescere manu nesciunt.

In this tract indeed, and in every northern region, bison are most frequent, who are like the wild ox, with bristly necks, shaggy in their manes, beyond bulls in fleetness; when captured, they do not know how to grow accustomed to the hand.

Sunt et uri, quos imperitum vulgus vocat bubalos: quum bubali pæne ad cervinam faciem in Africa procreentur. Istis porro, quos uros dicimus, taurina cornua in tantum modum protenduntur, ut dempta ob insignem capacitatem inter regias mensas potuum gerula fiant.

There are also aurochs, which the unlearned common crowd calls buffaloes: whereas buffaloes are bred in Africa with a face almost deer-like. In these, moreover, which we call uros (aurochs), the taurine horns are extended to such a degree that, once removed, on account of their remarkable capacity, they become drink-bearing vessels among royal tables.

Est et alces mulis comparanda, adeo propenso labro superiore, ut nisi recedens in posteriora vestigia pasci non queat.

There is also the elk, to be compared with mules, with so overhanging an upper lip that, unless receding into its hind tracks, it cannot feed.

Gangavia insula a regione Germaniæ emittit animal, quale alces, sed cujus suffragines, ut elephantis, flecti nequeunt: propterea non cubat, quum dormiendum est, tamen somnulentam arbor sustinet, quæ ad prope casuram secatur, ut fera, dum assuetis fulmentis innititur, faciat ruinam. Ita capitur; alioqui difficile est eam mancipari: nam in illo rigore poplitum incomprehensibili fuga pollet. De Germanicis insulis Cangavia maxima est, sed nihil in ea magnum, præter ipsam.

Gangavia island, off the region of Germany, brings forth an animal like the elk, but whose pastern-joints, as in the elephant, cannot be bent: therefore it does not lie down when it must sleep; nevertheless a somnolent tree supports it, which is cut so near to collapse that the wild beast, while it leans upon its accustomed supports, brings about a fall. Thus it is captured; otherwise it is difficult to be brought into ownership: for in that stiffness of the hams it excels in incomprehensible flight. Of the Germanic islands Cangavia is the greatest, but there is nothing great in it, except itself.

Nam Glesaria dat crystallum, dat et succinum, quod succinum Germani gentiliter vocant glæsum. Qualitas materiæ istius summatim antea, Germanico autem Cæsare, omnes Germaniæ oras scrutante, comperta arbor est pinei generis, cujus mediale autumni tempore succino lacrymat. Succum esse arboris, de nominis significatione capessas: verum unde profluit, si usseris, odor indicabit.

For Glesaria gives crystal, and gives amber too, which amber the Germans in their native tongue call glaesum. The quality of this material has been summarized earlier; but with Germanicus Caesar scrutinizing all the coasts of Germany, a tree was discovered of the pine kind, whose inner part at the mid-time of autumn weeps amber. That it is the sap of a tree you may gather from the signification of the name; but whence it flows, if you burn it, the odor will indicate.

Pretium operæ est ire longius, ne Padanæ silvæ credantur lapidem flevisse. Hanc speciem in Illyricum barbari intulerunt: quæ quum per Pannonica commercia usu ad Transpadanos homines foret devoluta, quod ibi primum nostri viderant, ibi etiam natam putaverunt. Munere Neronis principis apparatus omnis succino inornatus est: nec difficulter, quum per idem tempus tredecim millia librarum rex Germaniæ donum ei miserit.

It is worth the effort to go farther, lest the Padan forests be believed to have wept stone. The barbarians brought this kind into Illyricum; and as, through Pannonian commerce, it had been carried into use among the Transpadane people, because our people had first seen it there, they also supposed it was born there. By the favor of the emperor Nero the whole apparatus was adorned with amber; and it was no hard matter, since about the same time the king of Germany sent him as a gift thirteen thousand pounds.

Rude primum nascitur et corticosum, deinde incoctum adipe lactentis suis expolitur ad quem videmus nitorem. Pro facie habet nomina: melleum dicitur et Falernum: utrumque de similitudine aut vini, aut utique mellis. In aperto est, quod rapiat folia, quod trahat paleas: quod vero medeatur multis vitalium incommodis, medentium docuit disciplina.

At first it is born rude and bark-like; then, imbued with the fat of a suckling pig, it is polished to the luster we see. For its appearance it has names: it is called “honeyed” and “Falernian,” both from a resemblance either to wine or, at any rate, to honey. It is manifest that it snatches leaves and draws straws; and that it remedies many afflictions of the vital parts, the discipline of physicians has taught.

Et India habet succinum; sed Germania plurimum optimumque.

And India has amber; but Germany has the most and the best.

Quoniam ad insulam Glæsariam veneramus, a succino cœptum. Nam in Germaniæ continentibus callaica reperitur, quam gemmam Arabicis anteponunt: vincit enim gratia. Arabes quidem dicant non alibi eam deprehendi, quam in nidis avium, quas melancoryphos vocant: quod nullus recepit, quum apud Germaniæ populos (quamvis rara ) in saxis tamen pareat.

Since we had come to the island Glaesaria, we began with amber. For on the mainlands of Germany the callaica is found, a gem which they set before the Arabian ones: for it surpasses in grace. The Arabs indeed say that it is discovered nowhere else than in the nests of birds, which they call melancoryphos: which no one has accepted, since among the peoples of Germany (although rare ) it nevertheless appears in rocks.

Honore et pretio ad smaragdos, viret pallidum; nihil jucundius aurum decet.

In honor and price next to emeralds, it is green, pale; nothing more pleasant befits gold.

Cerauniorum porro genera divrsa sunt; Germanicum candidum est: splendet tamen cærulo, et si sub divo habeas, fulgorem rapit siderum.

Of the ceraunia, moreover, the kinds are diverse; the Germanic is candid-white: yet it shines with a cerulean hue, and if you keep it under the open sky, it snatches the radiance of the stars.

XXII. Gallia, et ex ea itinerarium. Item de oleo Medico.

22. Gaul, and from it an itinerary. Likewise on Median oil.

Galliæ inter Rhenum et Pyrenæum, item inter Oceanum et montes Cebennam ac Juram porriguntur, felices præpinguibus glebis, accommodæ proventibus fructuariis: pleræque consitæ vitibus et arbustis, omni ad usum animantium fœtu beatissimæ; riguæ aquis fluminum, et fontium; sed fontaneis interdum sacris, ac vaporantibus. Infamantur ritu incolarum, qui, ut aiunt (veri enim periculum non ad me recipio), detestabili sacrorum ritu, injuria religionis, humanis litant hostiis. Ex isto sinu quoquo orbis velis, exeas; in Hispanias, et in Italiam terra marique; in Africam mari tantum; si Thracia sit petenda, excipit ager Rhæticus opimus, et ferax; inde Noricus, qua subducitur a jugis Alpium, admodum lætus; dehinc Pannonia solo plano uberique, Dravo Savoque inclytis amnibus circumflua; mox Mœsiæ, quas majores nostri jure Cereris horreum nominabant, in quarum parte, quæ Pontica est, apparet herba, qua inficitur oleum, quod vocant Medicum.

Gaul stretches between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, likewise between the Ocean and the mountains the Cévennes and the Jura, happy in exceedingly rich soils, well-suited to fruit-bearing yields: for the most part planted with vines and orchard-trees, most blessed with every produce for the use of living creatures; watered by the waters of rivers and of springs; but the spring-waters sometimes sacred and steaming. They are ill-famed for the rite of the inhabitants, who, as they say (for I do not take upon myself the peril of the truth), with a detestable rite of sacred things, to the injury of religion, sacrifice with human victims. From this gulf, whithersoever of the world you wish, you may go forth; to the Spains, and to Italy by land and by sea; to Africa by sea only; if Thrace is to be sought, the Rhaetian land, rich and fertile, receives you, and productive; thence Noricum, where it is drawn down from the ridges of the Alps, very luxuriant; then Pannonia with level and rich soil, surrounded by the illustrious rivers the Dravus and the Savus; soon the Moesias, which our ancestors with good right called the granary of Ceres, in a part of which, which is Pontic, there appears an herb with which oil is dyed, which they call Median.

Hoc ad incendium excitatum si obruere aqua gestias, ardet magis, nec alio sopitur, quam jactu pulveris.

If, when this has been roused to a conflagration, you are eager to overwhelm it with water, it burns the more, nor is it quenched by any other means than by a casting of dust.

XXIII. Britannia. In ea de lapide gagate, et de gentibus barbaris, insulisque circa eam claris.

23. Britain. In it, about the jet-stone, and about the barbarian peoples, and the islands famous around it.

Finis erat orbis ora Gallici litoris, nisi Britannia insula non qualibet amplitudine nomen pæne orbis alterius mereretur. Octingenta et amplius millia passuum longa detinet: ita ut eam in Calidonicum usque angulum metiamur: in quo recessu Ulyxem Calidoniæ appulsum manifestat ara Græcis litteris scripta Votum. Multis insulis nec ignobilibus circumdatur: quarum Hibernia ei proximat magnitudine, inhumana incolarum ritu aspero: alioquin ita pabulosa, ut pecua ibi nisi interdum a pascuis arceantur, in periculum agat satias.

The boundary of the world was the margin of the Gallic shore, unless the island Britain, by no commonplace amplitude, would almost merit the name of another world. It extends to a length of 800 and more miles, such that we measure it as far as the Caledonian angle; in which recess an altar, with “Votum” written in Greek letters, makes manifest that Ulysses, having put in to Caledonia, was there. It is surrounded by many islands not inglorious; of these Hibernia (Ireland) comes next to it in magnitude, inhuman in the harsh rite of its inhabitants; otherwise so pasture-rich that the cattle there, unless at times they are kept away from the grazing, satiety drives them into danger.

Illic nullus anguis, avis rara, gens inhospita, et bellicosa. Sanguine interemptorum hausto prius victores vultus suos oblinunt. Fas ac nefas eodem loco ducunt.

There is no serpent there; a bird is rare; the people are inhospitable and bellicose. Having first quaffed the blood of the slain, the victors smear their own faces. They hold right and wrong in the same account.

Puerpera, si quando marem edidit, primos cibos gladio imponit mariti, inque os parvuli summo mucrone auspicium alimentorum leviter infercit, et gentilibus votis optat, non aliter quam in bello et inter arma mortem oppetat. Qui student cultui, dentibus mari nantium belluarum insigniunt ensium capulos: candicant enim ad eburnam claritatem: nam præcipua viris gloria eat in armorum nitela. Apes non habent: advectum inde pulverem si quis sparserit inter alvearia, examina favos deserunt.

The woman in childbed, if ever she has brought forth a male, places his first foods upon her husband’s sword, and into the little one’s mouth with the very tip of the blade she lightly inserts an auspice of nourishment, and with gentile vows she prays that he may meet death no otherwise than in war and among arms. Those who are devoted to adornment mark the sword-hilts with the teeth of beasts that swim the sea: for they gleam white to an ivory brightness; since the foremost glory for men goes in the sheen of arms. They do not have bees: if anyone should scatter imported dust from there among the beehives, the swarms abandon the honeycombs.

Mare quod Hiberniam et Britanniam interluit, undosum inquietumque toto in anno, nonnisi pauculis diebus est navigabile. Navigant autem vimineis alveis, quos circumdant ambitione tergorum bubulorum: quantocumque tempore cursus tenebit, navigantes escis abstinent. Freti latitudinem in centum viginti millia passuum diffundi, qui fidem ad verum ratiocinati sunt, æstimarunt.

The sea which flows between Hibernia and Britain, wave-tossed and restless throughout the whole year, is navigable only on very few days. They sail, moreover, in wicker hulls, which they surround with a sheathing of ox-hides; and for whatever length of time the voyage will hold, the sailors abstain from victuals. The breadth of the strait spreads to 120 miles, as those who have reasoned toward the truth have estimated.

Siluram quoque insulam ab ora, quam gens Britanna Dumnonii tenent, turbidum fretum distinguit. Cujus homines etiamnum custodiunt morem vetustum: nummum refutant; dant res, et accipiunt; mutationibus necessaria potius quam pretiis parant. Deos percolunt; scientiam futurorum pariter viri ac feminæ ostentant.

Silura also, the island, is distinguished from the shore, which the British tribe the Dumnonii hold, by a turbid strait. Whose people still keep the ancient custom: they refuse coin; they give things, and receive; by exchanges they procure necessities rather than by prices. They worship the gods; men and women alike display knowledge of future things.

Adtanatos insula adspiratur freto Gallico, a Britanniæ continente æstuario tenui separata, frumentariis campis felix et gleba uberi, nec tantum sibi, verum et aliis salubris locis: nam quum ipsa nullo serpatur angue, asportata inde terra quoquo gentium invecta sit, angues necat.

The island Adtanatos is breathed upon by the Gallic strait, separated from the continent of Britain by a slight estuary, fortunate in grain-bearing fields and in a rich glebe, and healthful not only to itself, but to other places as well: for since it is itself traversed by no serpent, earth carried from there, wherever in the world it is conveyed, kills serpents.

Multæ et aliæ circum Britanniam insula, e quibus Thyle ultima, in qua æstivo solstitio sole de Cancri sidere faciente transitum nox pæne nulla: brumali solstitio dies adeo conductus, ut ortus junctus sit occasui. A Calidoniæ promontorio Thylen petentibus bidui navigatione perfecta excipiunt Hebudes insulæ, quinque numero, quarum incolæ nesciunt fruges, piscibus tantum et lacte vivunt. Rex unus est universis: nam quotquot sunt, omnes angusta interluvie dividuntur.

Many other islands also lie around Britain, of which Thule is the farthest, in which, at the summer solstice, the sun making its passage from the sign of Cancer, the night is almost none: at the winter solstice the day is so contracted that sunrise is joined to sunset. From the promontory of Caledonia, for those seeking Thule, when a navigation of two days has been completed, the Hebudes islands receive them, five in number, whose inhabitants are unacquainted with grain; they live only on fish and milk. There is one king for all: for however many there are, all are divided by narrow straits.

Rex nihil suum habet, omnia universorum: ad æquitatem certis legibus stringitur; ac ne avaritia devertat a vero, discit paupertate justitiam, utpote cui nihil sit rei familiaris: verum alitur de publico. Nulla illi datur femina propria, sed per vicissitudines, in quamcumque commotus fuerit, usurariam sumit. Unde ei nec votum, nec spes conceditur liberorum.

The king has nothing of his own; everything is of all: he is bound to equity by fixed laws; and lest avarice turn him aside from what is true, he learns justice by poverty, since he has nothing of household property: rather, he is sustained from the public. No woman of his own is given to him, but by turns, whichever one he has been moved toward, he takes on loan for use. Whence neither vow nor hope of children is granted to him.

Secundam a continenti stationem Orcades præbent: sed Orcades ab Hebudibus porro sunt septem dierum, totidemque noctium cursu, numero tres. Vacant homine; non habent silvas, tantum junceis herbis inhorrescunt. Cetera earum nudæ arenæ. Ab Orcadibus Thylen usque quinque dierum ac noctium navigatio est.

The Orkneys provide the second station from the continent; but the Orkneys are, moreover, from the Hebudes at a course of seven days and as many nights, three in number. They are vacant of man; they have no forests, they only bristle with rushy herbs. The rest of them are bare sands. From the Orkneys up to Thule is a navigation of five days and nights.

Sed Thyle larga et diutina pomona copiosa est. Qui illic habitant, principio veris inter pecudes pabulis vivunt, deinde lacte. In hiemem compereunt arborum fructus.

But Thule is copious in bountiful and long-lasting fruit. Those who dwell there, at the beginning of spring, live among the flocks on fodder, then on milk. For the winter they store up the fruits of the trees.

Utuntur feminis vulgo; certum matrimonium nulli. Ultra Thylen pigrum et concretum mare. Circuitus Britanniæ quadragies octies septuaginta quinque millia passuum sunt.

They use women in common; a fixed marriage for none. Beyond Thule, a sluggish and concreted sea. The circumference of Britain is forty-eight times seventy-five thousand paces.

In quo spatio magma et multa flumina, fontes calidi opiparo exculti apparatu ad usus mortalium: quibus fontibus præsul est Minervæ numen, in cujus æde perpetui ignes nunquam canescunt in favillas, sed ubi ignis tabuit, vertit in globos saxeos.

In which expanse there are great and many rivers, hot springs adorned with opulent apparatus for the uses of mortals: over which springs the numen of Minerva is presiding, in whose temple perpetual fires never grow gray into ashes, but when the fire has melted away, it turns into stony globes.

Præterea, ut taceam metallorum largam variamque copiam, quibus Britanniæ solum undique generum pollet venis locupletibus, gagates hic plurimus optimusque est lapis: si decorem requiras, nigro gemmeus; si naturam, aqua ardet, oleo restinguitur; si potestatem, attritu calefactus applicita detinet, atque succinum. Regionem partim tenent barbari, quibus per artifices plagarum figuras, jam inde a pueris variæ animalium effigies incorporantur, inscriptisque visceribus hominis incremento pigmenti notæ crescunt: nec quidquam mage patientiæ loco nationes feræ ducunt, quam ut per memores cicatrices plurimum fuci artus bibant.

Moreover, to be silent about the abundant and various supply of metals, with which the soil of Britain on all sides abounds in wealthy veins, gagates is here most plentiful and best as a stone: if you seek its decor, gemlike in black; if its nature, it burns in water, is quenched by oil; if its power, warmed by attrition it holds fast things applied, and amber as well. Part of the region is held by barbarians, in whom, through the artificers, the figures of wounds, already from boyhood, various effigies of animals are incorporated, and, the inner parts of the body inscribed, by the increase of the pigment the marks grow: nor do the wild nations count anything more in the place of endurance than that, through memorial scars, the limbs drink very much dye.

XXIV. Hispania. In ea de ceraunio rubro, de Gaditano freto et Mediterraneo mari, de Oceano.

24. Spain. In it, on the red ceraunium, on the Gaditan Strait and the Mediterranean Sea, on the Ocean.

Reversos ad continentem res Hispanienses vocant. Terrarum plaga comparanda optimis, nulli posthabenda frugum copia et soli ubere, sive vinearum proventus respicere, sive arborarios velis. Omni materia affluit, quæcumque aut pretio ambitiosa est, aut usu necessaria.

Turning back to the continent, we call the matters Spanish. A tract of lands to be compared with the best, to be deferred to none in abundance of crops and richness of soil, whether you look to the yield of the vineyards or wish for orchards. It overflows with every material, whatever is either coveted for its price or necessary for use.

Argentum vel aurum requiras, habet; ferrariis nunquam deficit; nec cedit vitibus, vincit olea. Dividua est provinciis tribus, secundo Punico bello nostra facta. Nihil in ea otiosum, nihil sterile.

If you seek silver or gold, it has them; it never fails in ironworks; nor does it yield in vines—the olive prevails. It is divided into three provinces, having been made ours in the Second Punic War. Nothing in it is idle, nothing barren.

Quidquid cujuscumque modi negat messem, viget pabulis: etiam quæ arida sunt ab sterilitate, rudentum materias nauticis subministrant. Non coquunt ibi sales, sed effodiunt. Depurgant in minium nitelas pulveris.

Whatever, of whatever kind, denies a harvest thrives for fodder: even those things which are dry from sterility supply to seafaring men the materials for ropes. They do not boil salts there, but dig them out. They depurate glittering particles of dust into minium.

Fucant vellera, ut ad ruborem merum deputent cocci venenum. In Lusitania promontorium est, quod Artabrum alii, Olysipponense, dicunt. Hoc cœlum, terras, maria distinguit: terris, Hispaniæ latus finit; cœlum et maria hoc modo dividit, quod a circuitu ejus incipiunt Oceanus Gallicus, et fons septentrionalis, oceano Atlantico et occasu terminatis.

They dye fleeces, so that they assign to sheer redness the coccus-venom. In Lusitania there is a promontory which some call Artabrum, others the Olisippan. This distinguishes sky, lands, seas: for the lands, it bounds the side of Hispania; it divides sky and seas in this way, that from its circuit the Gallic Ocean and the septentrional source begin, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Occident.

Ibi oppidum Olysippone Ulyxi conditum; ibi Tagus flumen. Tagum ob arenas auriferas ceteris ibi amnibus prætulerunt. In proximis Olysipponis equæ lasciviunt mira fecunditate: nam aspirante favonio vento concipiunt, et sitientes viros aurarum spiritu maritantur.

Ibi the town Olysippo, founded by Ulysses; there the river Tagus. The Tagus they preferred to the other rivers there on account of its auriferous sands. In the vicinity of Olysippo the mares play the wanton with marvelous fecundity: for with the Favonius wind breathing they conceive, and, thirsting for males, are mated by the breath of the breezes.

Iberus amnis toti Hispaniæ nomen dedit, Bætisprovinciæ: uterque nobilis. Carthaginem apud Iberos, quæ mox colonia facta est, Pœni condiderunt; Tarraconem Scipiones: ideo est caput provinciæ Tarraconensis.

The river Iberus gave its name to all Spain, the Baetis to the province: each renowned. The Carthaginians founded Carthage among the Iberians, which soon was made a colony; the Scipios, Tarraco: therefore it is the capital of the province Tarraconensis.

Lusitanum litus floret gemma ceraunio plurimum, quam etiam Indicis præferunt. Hujus ceraunii color est e pyropo; qualitas igni probatur: quem si sine detrimento sui perferat, adversum vim fulgurum creditur opitulari. Cassiterides insulæ spectant adversum Celtiberiæ latus: plumbi fertiles, et tres Fortunatæ, e quibus solum vocabulum signandum fuit.

The Lusitanian shore flourishes most in the ceraunium gem, which they even prefer to the Indian ones. The color of this ceraunium is that of pyrope; its quality is proved by fire: if it endure that without detriment to itself, it is believed to aid against the force of thunderbolts. The Cassiterides islands face toward the side of Celtiberia: rich in lead; and the three Fortunate [Islands], of which only the name needed to be indicated.

Ebusus e Balearibus, quæ a Dianio abest septingenta stadia, serpentem non habet: utpote cujus terra serpentes fuget. Colubraria, Sucronem versus, fœta est anguibus. Bocchoris regnum Baleares fuerunt, usque ad eversionem frugum cuniculis animalibus quondam copiosæ. In capite Bæticæ, ubi extremus est noti orbis terminus, insula a continenti septingentis passibus separatur: quam Tyrii a Rubro profecti mari, Erythræam: Pœni lingua sua Gadis, id est sepem, nominarunt.

Ebusus, among the Balearics, which is 700 stades distant from Dianium, has no serpent: inasmuch as its soil puts serpents to flight. Colubraria, toward Sucron, is teeming with snakes. The Balearics were the kingdom of Bocchoris, once abundant, until the overthrow of their crops by the animals called cuniculi (rabbits). At the head of Baetica, where is the furthest limit of the known world, an island is separated from the mainland by 700 paces: which the Tyrians, having set out from the Red Sea, named Erythraean; in their own tongue the Punics named it Gadis, that is, a hedge.

In hac Geryonem ævum agitavisse plurimis monumentis probatur, tametsi quidam putent, Herculem boves ex alia insula abduxisse, quæ Lusitaniam contuetur.

In this island, that Geryon spent his lifetime is proved by very many monuments, although some think that Hercules led away the cattle from another island, which looks toward Lusitania.

Sed Gaditanum fretum a Gadibus dictum, Atlanticus æstus in nostrum mare discidio orbis immittit. Nam Oceanus, quem Graii sic nominant de celeritate, ab occasu solis irrumpens, lævo latere Europam radit, Africam dextro, scissisque Calpe et Abinna montibus, quas dicunt columnas Herculis, inter Mauros funditur, et Hispaniam: ac freto isti, cujus quindecim millia passuum efficit longitudo, latitudo vix septem, quodam ostio aperit limen interni æquoris mixtus mediterraneis sinibus; quos ad usque orientem propellit. Horum qui Hispanias perfundit, Ibericus fertur, et Balearicus; qui Narbonensem provinciam, Gallicus; mox Ligusticus; ab eo ad Siciliam Tuscus, quem Græci Ionium vel Tyrrhenum, Itali Inferum vocant; a Sicilia Cretam usque Siculus; inde Creticus, qui in Pamphyliam et Ægyptum pertendit; quæ aquarum moles torto in septentrionem prius latere, anfractibus magnis juxta Græcias et Illyricum per Hellespontum in angustias stringitur Propontidis: quæ Propontis Europam Asiamque discriminans, ad Mæotidem pervenit.

But the Gaditanian strait, named from Gades, lets the Atlantic surge into our sea by a rift of the world. For the Ocean, which the Greeks so name on account of its swiftness, bursting in from the setting of the sun, grazes Europe on the left flank, Africa on the right; and with the mountains Calpe and Abinna split—those which they call the Pillars of Hercules—it pours between the Moors and Spain; and by that strait, whose length makes 15 miles, width scarcely 7, with a certain mouth it opens the threshold of the inner plain of waters, mingled with Mediterranean bays; which it drives on as far as the east. Of these, the one that bathes the Spains is called the Iberic and the Balearic; the one that bathes the Narbonensian province, the Gallic; next the Ligustic; from it to Sicily, the Tuscan, which the Greeks call Ionian or Tyrrhenian, the Italians Inferum; from Sicily as far as Crete, the Sicilian; thence the Cretic, which stretches into Pamphylia and Egypt; which mass of waters, its left side first bent toward the north, in great windings near the Greeces and Illyricum, through the Hellespont is tightened into the narrows of the Propontis: which Propontis, discriminating Europe and Asia, reaches to the Maeotis.

Causas nominum non uniformis dedit ratio; Asiaticum et Phœnicium a provinciis dictum; ab insulis Carpathium, Ægæum, Icarium, Balearicum, Cyprium; a gentibus Ausonium, Dalmaticum, Ligusticum, Tuscum; ab oppidis Adriaticum, Argolicum, Corinthium, Tyrium; a casibus hominum Myrtoum, Hellespontus; a memoria regis Ionium: a bovis transitu, vel angustis etiam meatibus boum perviis, Bosporus; a moribus accolarum, Euxinus, Axinus ante appellatus; ab ordine fluenti, Propontis: Ægyptium pelagus Asiæ datur; Gallicum, Europæ; Africum, Libyæ: his ut quæque proxima sunt, venerunt in partes partium. Hæc in gremiis terrarum.

The causes of the names were not supplied by a uniform rationale; the Asiatic and the Phoenician are said from provinces; from islands, the Carpathian, Aegean, Icarian, Balearic, Cyprian; from peoples, the Ausonian, Dalmatian, Ligustic, Tuscan; from towns, the Adriatic, Argolic, Corinthian, Tyrian; from the fortunes of men, the Myrtoan, the Hellespont; from the memory of a king, the Ionian: from the crossing of an ox, or even from narrow channels passable for oxen, the Bosporus; from the manners of the neighboring dwellers, the Euxine, formerly called Axine; from the flowing order, the Propontis: the Egyptian sea is assigned to Asia; the Gallic, to Europe; the African, to Libya: to these, as each is nearest, they have come into the parts of the parts. These are in the bosoms of the lands.

Oras autem extimas Oceanus amplectitur, qui a litoribus suis Arabicus, Persicus, Indicus, Eous, Sericus, Hyrcanus, Caspius, Scythicus, Germanicus, Gallicus, Atlanticus, Libycus, Æthiopicus dicitur. Cujus accessus incrementa circa litora Indiæ vehementissime proruunt, maximosque ibi exitus faciunt: sive quod suspensus altius sustollatur vi caloris, seu quod in ea parte orbis et fontium et fluminum copia sit effusior. Dubitatur etiamnum quibus ex causis intumescat Oceanus, vel quatenus, quum superfluus sibi fuerit, rursus in se residat.

But the Ocean embraces the outermost shores, which from its coasts is called the Arabic, Persian, Indian, Eastern (Eous), Seric, Hyrcanian, Caspian, Scythian, Germanic, Gallic, Atlantic, Libyan, Aethiopic. Its advances and increments around the shores of India rush forward most vehemently and there make the greatest recessions: whether because, being suspended higher, it is heaved up by the force of heat, or because in that part of the world the supply of springs and rivers is more abundantly poured forth. It is still doubted from what causes the Ocean swells, or to what extent, when it has been excessive for itself, it settles back again into itself.

Nec in obscuro est, plura pro ingeniis disserentium, potius quam pro veritatis fide expressa. Sed omisso ancipiti concurrentium quæstionum, has opiniones probatissimas invenimus. Physici aiunt mundum animal esse, eumque ex variis elementorum corporibus conglobatum, moveri spiritu, regi mente; quæ utraque diffusa per membra omnia, æternæ molis vigorem exerceant.

Nor is it obscure that more has been set forth according to the talents of the discoursing parties rather than according to the good faith of truth expressed. But, setting aside the two-edgedness of the competing questions, we have found these opinions most approved: the physicists say that the world is an animal, and that, conglobated from the various bodies of the elements, it is moved by spirit, ruled by mind; both of which, diffused through all the members, exercise the vigor of the eternal mass.

Sicut ergo in corporibus nostris commercia sunt spiritalia, ita in profundis Oceani nares quasdam mundi constituta, per quas emissi anhelitus, vel reducti, modo inflent maria, modo revocent. At hi, qui siderum sequuntur disciplinam, contendunt meatus istos commoveri lunæ cursibus: adeo ut vicissitudines inter maciem aquarum et plenitudinem, respiciant adauctus ejus, vel eliquia; neque eodem semper tempore, sed prout illa aut minuatur, aut crescat, variari alternantes recursus.

Thus, just as in our bodies there are spiritual interchanges, so in the depths of the Ocean certain nostrils of the world are established, through which breaths, sent forth or drawn back, at one time inflate the seas, at another recall them. But those who follow the discipline of the stars maintain that these channels are set in motion by the courses of the Moon: to such an extent that the vicissitudes between the leanness of the waters and their fullness look to its increases or its wanings; nor always at the same time, but, as it is either diminished or grows, the alternating returns vary.