Solinus: DE MIRABILIBUS MUNDI C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847)
Solinus•DE MIRABILIBUS MUNDI C.L.F. Panckoucke edition (Paris 1847)
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De Hispania est excursus in Libyam: nam Belone progressos, quod Bæticæ oppidum est, ultra interjaceus fretum trium et triginta millium passuum Tingi excipit, Mauritaniæ nunc colonia, sed cujus primus auctor Antæus fuit. Porro, quod in illo ambitu Ægyptium finitur pelagus, et Libycum incipit, placuit, ut Africam, Libyam diceremus. Quidam tamen Libyam a Libye Epaphi filia, Africam autem ab Afro, Libyis Herculis filio, potius dictam receperunt.
From Spain there is an excursion into Libya: for, having advanced from Belon, which is a town of Baetica, beyond, across the interjacent strait of 33 miles, Tingis receives them, now a colony of Mauretania, but whose first founder was Antaeus. Moreover, because in that circuit the Egyptian sea is finished and the Libyan begins, it has pleased us to call Africa “Libya.” Some, however, have accepted rather that Libya is named from Libye, daughter of Epaphus, but Africa from Afer, Hercules’ son among the Libyans.
Nam de hortis Hesperidum, et pervigili dracone, ne famæ licentia vulneretur fides, ratio hæc est. Flexuoso meatu æstuarium e mari fertur, adeo sinuosis lateribus tortuosum, ut visentibus procul lapsus angueos fracta vertigine mentiatur; idque quod hortos appellavere, circumdat; unde pomorum custodem interpretantes, struxerunt iter ad mendacium fabulandi. Sed hæc insula insinuata sinibus alvei recurrentis, et in quibusdam æquoris spiris sita, præter arbores oleastri similes, et aram sacram Herculi, aliud nihil præfert, quo propaget vetustatis memoriam.
Now concerning the gardens of the Hesperides and the ever‑vigilant dragon, lest credibility be wounded by the license of report, this is the rationale. An estuary is borne in from the sea in a flexuous course, so tortuous with sinuous flanks that, to those viewing from afar, with broken eddying it feigns serpentine glidings; and it surrounds that which they have called the gardens; whence, interpreting a guardian of the apples, they constructed a path to the mendacity of fabling. But this island, insinuated into the bays of the returning channel and set in certain coils of the water, besides trees like the wild‑olive and an altar sacred to Hercules, presents nothing else by which it might propagate the memory of antiquity.
But beyond the golden shrubs and the metals putting forth foliage, this is more marvelous: although the ground, being at a lower balance, lies sunk more deeply, never nevertheless does it, with the advance of the strait, get overflowed; rather, by the obstacle of a natural bar the water clings at the very edges, and at the innermost brows of the shores the waves, as they press in, are of themselves resisted: surely a spectacle—the genius of the place— the plain remains dry, although down-sloping waters come on. Sala, a town, overhangs the river Sala. From this there is a route through the nation of the Autololes into the Atlantic solitudes.
Atlas mons e media arenarum consurgit vastitate, et eductus in viciniam lunaris circuli, ultra nubila caput condit: qua ad Oceanum extenditur, cui a se nomen dedit, manat fontibus, nemoribus inhorrescit, rupibus asperatur, squalet jejunio, humo nuda, nec herbida: qua Africæ contraversus est, felix nascentibus sponte frugibus, arboribus proceris opacissimus, quarum odor gravis, comæ cupressi similes vestiuntur lanugine, sericis velleribus nihil viliore. In eo latere et herba euphorbia copiosa, cujus succus ad oculariam proficit claritatem, nec mediocriter percellit vim venenorum. Vertex semper nivalis.
Mount Atlas rises out of the midst of the vastness of sands, and lifted into the neighborhood of the lunar circle, it hides its head beyond the clouds: where it stretches toward the Ocean, to which it gave its own name, it flows with springs, bristles with groves, grows rough with crags, is squalid with barrenness, the soil bare and not grassy: where it is turned toward Africa, it is happy in crops springing up of their own accord, most shaded with tall trees, whose odor is heavy; their tresses, like those of the cypress, are clothed with a down, in no way cheaper than silken fleeces. On that side too the plant euphorbia is abundant, whose sap advances ocular clarity, and not moderately strikes down the power of poisons. The summit is always snowy.
Its woodland has been occupied by quadrupeds, and by serpents and wild beasts, and along with these by elephants. The whole is silent by day, nor is its solitude without horror; it shines with nocturnal fires: on all sides it resounds with the choruses of the Aegipans: songs of pipes are also heard, and the ringing of cymbals, along the sea-coast. It is distant from Lixus by 205 miles: Lixus is 112 miles from the Gaditan Strait.
Formerly inhabited, as the aspect of the place indicates, once worked by cultivation, in which even now a vestige of the vine and of palms exists. The summit accessible to Perseus and to Hercules, inaccessible to the rest: thus the inscription of the altars openly makes faith (attests). On the side where it faces the setting, between it and the river Anatis, for 496 miles, woods infamous for beasts beset the way.
Amnes circa eum non tacendi: qui licet separentur intervallis amplioribus, transierunt tamen in quoddam Atlantici nominis ministerium. Asana marino haustu, Bambothum crocodilis et hippopotamis refertum. Ultra adhuc amnis, qui atro colore exit per intimas et exustas solitudines, quæ torrente perpetuo, et sole nimio, plus quam ignito, nunquam ab æstu vindicantur.
The rivers around it are not to be passed over in silence: although they are separated by wider intervals, they have nevertheless passed into a certain service of the Atlantic name. The Asana, with a marine draught; the Bambothus, stuffed with crocodiles and hippopotami. Beyond, further, a river which issues with a black color through the inmost and scorched solitudes, which, by a perpetual torrent and by an excessive sun, more than ignited, are never delivered from the heat.
These things about Atlas, whom the Moors call Adderim, have been recorded by the books of Hanno the Carthaginian and by our annals; also by Juba, son of Ptolemy, who gained the kingdom of both Mauretanias. Suetonius Paulinus likewise set the finishing hand to this knowledge, he who beyond the Atlas was the first, and almost the only one, to bear the Roman standards around.
XXVI. Mauritania. In ea de elephantis, de pugna eorum et draconum.
26. Mauretania. In it, on elephants, and on their combat with dragons.
Hi montes elephantis frequentissimi, submonent a principio hoc animantium genus dicere. Igitur elephanti juxta sensum humanum intellectus habent, memoria pollent, siderum servant disciplinam. Luna nitescente gregatim amnes petunt, mox exspersi liquore, solis exortum motibus, quibus possunt, salutant: deinde in saltus revertuntur.
These mountains, most crowded with elephants, admonish us from the outset to speak of this genus of living beings. Therefore elephants have an intellect in accordance with human sense, are puissant in memory, and keep the discipline of the stars. When the Moon is shining, they seek the rivers gregariously; soon, sprinkled with the liquid, they salute the rising of the Sun with motions as they are able: then they return into the forest glades.
Duo eorum genera sunt: nobiliores indicat magnitudo, minores nothos dicunt. Candore dentium intelligitur juventas: quorum alter semper in ministerio est, alteri parcitur, ne hebetatus assiduo repercussu, minus vigeat, si fuerit dimicandum. Quum venatu premuntur, pariter affligunt utrosque, ut ebore damnato non requirantur: hanc enim sibi causam inesse periculi sentiunt.
There are two kinds of them: magnitude indicates the more noble; the smaller they call nothos. Youth is understood by the whiteness of the teeth: of which one is always in service, the other is spared, lest, dulled by assiduous impact, it should be less vigorous, if there should be fighting. When they are pressed by the hunt, they injure both alike, so that, with the ivory condemned, they may not be sought; for they feel that this is the cause of the danger to themselves.
Inest illis clementiæ bonum: quippe si per deserta vagabundum hominem forte viderint, ductus usque ad notas vias præbent; vel, si confertis pecoribus occursitent, itinera sibi blanda et placida manu faciunt, ne quod obvium animal interimant. At conflictu fortuito si quando pugnatur, non mediocrem habent curam sociorum: nam fessos vulneratosque in medium receptant. Quum captivitate venerint in manus hominum, mansuescunt hausto hordei succo.
In them there is the good of clemency: indeed, if they should by chance see a man wandering through deserts, they provide guidance as far as the known roads; or, if they encounter close-packed herds, they make paths for themselves with a coaxing and placid hand, lest they slay any animal that meets them. But if ever there is fighting from a chance conflict, they have no small care for their companions: for they receive the weary and the wounded into the middle. When by captivity they have come into the hands of men, they grow tame upon a draught of barley-juice.
Those about to cross seas do not go aboard ships until an oath concerning their return is exacted from them. The Moors fear Indian elephants, and, conscious of their own smallness, they disdain to be seen by them. They do not become gravid for ten years, as the vulgar say, but for two years, as Aristotle defines; nor do they beget more than once, nor more than single offspring.
No hirsuteness of bristles at all. Between these and dragons there is continual discord. Finally, ambushes are prepared by this stratagem: serpents lurk beside the pathways, along which the elephants roam on their accustomed tracks; and thus, letting the foremost pass by, they attack the hindmost, lest those who have gone ahead be able to help. And first they tie up the feet with knots, so that, the legs noosed, they impede the faculty of walking; for elephants, unless forestalled by this delay of coils, press themselves either against trees or against rocks, so that by their leaning weight they crush and kill the snakes. The chief cause of the fighting is that, as they say, a colder blood is in elephants; and on that account they are most greedily seized by the dragons when the heat is torrential.
Finally, they never attack except when weighed down by drink, so that, with the veins more copiously irrigated, they may take a greater satiety from the overpowered. Nor do they aim at anything more than the eyes, which alone they know to be assailable, or the inner parts of the ears, because that place alone cannot be defended by the proboscis. And so, when they have drunk up the blood, while the beasts rush headlong, the dragons are overwhelmed.
Elephantes Italia anno U. C. quadringentesimo septuagesimo secundo in Lucanis primum bello Epirotico vidit, et boves Lucas inde dixit. Cæsariensi colonia Cæsaria inest, a divo Claudio deducta, Bocchi prius regia, postmodum Jubæ indulgentia populi Romani dono data. Inest et oppidum Siga, quod habitatum Syphaci fuit.
Elephants Italy saw in the Lucanian country for the first time in the Epirotic war, in the year 472 U. C., and from that called them Lucanian oxen. In Caesariensis there is the colony Caesarea, settled by the deified Claudius, formerly the royal residence of Bocchus, afterward by the indulgence of the Roman people given as a gift to Juba. There is also the town Siga, which was inhabited by Syphax.
Nor let us depart from Icosium in silence; for when Hercules was passing those parts, twenty men, who had defected from his retinue, chose a grove, threw up ramparts; and, lest anyone should boast privately with a name imposed from himself, a name was given to the city from the number of the founders.
Quod est a flumine Amsaga, Numidiæ datur. Hujus incolæ quamdiu errarunt pabulationibus vagabundis, Nomades dicti sunt. Urbes in ea quam plurimæ nobilesque, sed Cirta eminet, dein Chulli purpurario fuco Tyriis velleribus comparatæ. Omnis hæc regio finibus in Zeugitanum limitem desinit.
What lies from the river Amsaga is assigned to Numidia. Its inhabitants, so long as they wandered in roving foragings, were called Nomads. The cities in it are very many and noble; but Cirta stands out, then Chullu, comparable to Tyrian fleeces for its purple dye. This whole region ends at the border of Zeugitania.
Numidici ursi forma ceteris præstant, rabie duntaxat et villis profundioribus: nam genitura par est quoquo loco genitis. Eam protinus dixero. Cúunt non itidem, quo quadrupedes aliæ; sed apti amplexibus mutuis, velut humanis conjugationibus copulantur.
Numidian bears surpass the others in form, only in savagery and in thicker coats: for their geniture is equal to those born in whatever place. Of this I will speak forthwith. They do not come together in the same way as other quadrupeds; but, being apt for mutual embraces, they are coupled as in human conjugal unions.
Winter arouses the desire of Venus. The males revere the pregnant females with the honor of seclusion, and, although in the same dens, yet they are divided for lying-apart, partitioned by trenches. For them the time of Lucina is more hasty: indeed the thirtieth day frees the womb; whence it comes about that precipitate fecundity creates misshapen births.
They bring forth very small pieces of flesh, which have a white color, no eyes, and, from hasty immaturity, nothing but crude bloody ichor, save for the lineaments of the claws. These they gradually shape by licking, and sometimes they warm them pressed to the breast; so that, heated by constant brooding, they draw the breath of life. Meanwhile, no food at all.
Truly, for the first fourteen days the mothers collapse into sleep, such that they cannot be roused even by wounds. Having been delivered, they lie hidden for four months. Soon, having gone out into the free daylight, they suffer such an unfamiliarity with the light that you would think them clogged up with blindness.
The head in bears is feeble, the greatest force in the arms and in the loins: whence they sometimes stand upon the hind feet. They lie in wait for the hives of bees, they especially desire the honeycombs, nor do they seize anything more greedily than honey. When they have tasted the apples of mandrake, they die; but they go to meet the ill, lest the evil should convalesce into perdition, and they devour ants to recover health.
M. Messala consule, Domitius Ænobarbus curulis ædilis ursos Numidicos centum, et totidem Æthiopas venatores in Circo Romano edidit: idque spectaculum inter memorabiles titulos annotatur.
XXVIII. Africa cum Cyrenaiea regione. In ea de leonibus, de leontophona, de hyæna, de lapide hyænio, de crocotta, de onagris, de serpentibus, de gemma heliotropio, de Psyllis, de lapide nasamonite, de lapide cornu Hammonis, de arbore melopo, de lacte sirpicio, de serpente basilico, de genere simiarum.
28. Africa with the Cyrenaic region. In it: on lions, on the leontophonos, on the hyena, on the hyenic stone, on the crocotta, on onagers, on serpents, on the gem heliotrope, on the Psylli, on the nasamonite stone, on the stone Horn of Ammon, on the tree melopo, on the milk sirpicio, on the basilisk serpent, on the simian kind.
Omnis Africa a Zeugitano pede incipit, promontorio Apollinis Sardiniæ contraversa: promontorio Mercurii procedens in frontem Sicanam. Proinde extenta in duas prominentias, quarum altera promontorium Candidum dicitur; alteram, quæ est in Cyrenaica regione, Phucuntem vocant. Ea per sinum Creticum opposita Cretæ insulæ, contra Tænaron Laconicæ excurrit.
All Africa begins at the Zeugitane foot, the Promontory of Apollo lying over against Sardinia: with the Promontory of Mercury it advances toward the Sicilian front. Accordingly it is stretched out into two projections, one of which is called the White Promontory; the other, which is in the Cyrenaic region, they call Phucuntem. It, along the Cretan Gulf, set opposite the island of Crete, runs out toward Taenarum of Laconia.
Insinuated to Egypt by the sands of the Catabathmus, next to which are the Cyrenaeans, it stretches between the two Syrtes, which the shoaly and reciprocal sea makes inaccessible: the ebbings or risings of whose brine it is not easy to detect, so with uncertain motions now it swells into ridgy shallows, now it is inundated by unquiet tides; and Varro is authority that the land there, perflable with winds penetrating, under the sudden force of a most rapid blast either belches the seas back out, or reabsorbs them. All this tract is cleft off from Ethiopia and the limits of Asia by the river Niger, which begets the Nile, and from Spain by the strait: on the side where it inclines toward the south, lacking springs and infamous for thirst; on the other side, where it faces the north, abundant in waters. In the Byzacene countryside, which extends two hundred thousand paces or more, the clods are so very fat that seeds cast there are reborn with an increase of a hundredfold crop.
We will give, from cities and places, an argument that very many foreigners assembled there. The promontory Borion, which is smitten by the north wind, the Greek newcomers so called. Hippo, later called Regius, and likewise another Hippo, named Diarrhytus from the strait flowing between—a most noble pair of towns—were founded by Greek horsemen.
The Sicels build the city Clypea, and first name it Aspida. Also Veneria, into which they transferred the rites of Venus Erycina. The Achaeans designate Tripolis in their own tongue from the number of three cities, Oea, Sabrata, Leptis Magna. To the Philaeni brothers, from a desire for praise, a Grecian appellation was given.
For Adrymetum and for Carthage the founder is a people from Tyre; but what veracious books have handed down about Carthage I will render in this place. That city, as Cato asserts in a senatorial oration, when King Japon was gaining control of affairs in Libya, a woman, Elissa, of the house of Phoenix, built, and she called it Carthada, which in the mouth of the Phoenicians expresses “new city.” Soon, the speech having been turned into the Punic word, both she was called Elissa, and it Carthage: which, after seven hundred and thirty-seven years, is razed from when it had been established.
Then it was given by C. Gracchus to Italian colonists, and called Junonia, for some time ignoble, in a humble and languid condition; at length, into the celebrity of a Second Carthage, with 102 years interposed, under the consulship of M. Antonius and P. Dolabella, it shone forth, the second ornament of the world after the city of Rome.
Verum, ut ad Africam redeam, interna ejus plurimæ quidem bestiæ, sed principaliter leones tenent: qui, ut Aristoteles perhibet, soli ex eo genere, quod dentatum vocant, vident protinus atque nascuntur. Quorum trifarium genus scinditur: nam breviores, et jubis crispi, plerumque ignavi sunt et imbelles; longiores, et coma simplici, acres magis ac potentes; at hi, quos creant pardi, in plebe remanent, jubarum inopes. Pariter omnes parcunt a sagina, primum quod alternis diebus potum, alternis cibum capiunt, ac frequenter, si digestio non est insequuta, solitæ cibationi superponunt diem: tum, quod carnes justo amplius devoratas, quum gravantur, insertis in ora unguibus sponte protrahunt.
But, to return to Africa, its interior is indeed held by very many beasts, but chiefly by lions: who, as Aristotle avers, alone among that kind which they call “toothed,” see straightway as soon as they are born. Their race is split threefold: for the shorter ones, with curly manes, are commonly cowardly and unwarlike; the longer, with a simple (straight) mane, are more fierce and powerful; but those whom pards beget remain among the common herd, lacking manes. Alike they all spare themselves from stuffing: first, because on alternate days they take drink, and on alternate days food; and often, if digestion has not followed, they add a day to the customary feeding; then, because flesh devoured beyond the due measure, when they are weighed down, they voluntarily pull out by inserting their claws into their mouths.
Nor are they separated from mercy: indeed, by continual examples it is evident that they have spared, since many of the captives, on meeting several lions, have returned to their homeland untouched. The name, too, of a Gaetulian woman is recorded in the books of Juba, who, having adjured the beasts she encountered, returned unpunished. They urinate turned away; and not they only, but also lynxes, camels, elephants, rhinoceroses, and tigers.
Lionesses at the first litter bring forth five cubs; then, with each birth, they reduce the number by one in the following years; but at last, when maternal fecundity has fallen back to one, they become sterile forever. The spirits of lions are indicated by the brow and the tail, just as equine movements are understood from the ears. For nature has given these marks to each creature most well-born.
The greatest force is in the breast, the principal firmness in the head. When they are pressed by dogs; they retreat contemptuously, and, halting at times, by an ambiguous recess they disguise fear; and they do this, if in open and bare plains they are driven: for in wooded places, as though they did not dread a witness of their cowardice, they withdraw themselves by flight as much as they can. When they pursue, they aid their effort with a leap: when they flee, they are not able to leap.
As they go, they shut the points of their claws within the sheaths of their bodies, lest the acuminate tips be blunted by attrition. They observe this so strictly that they run only with their little sickles turned away. Hemmed in by hunters, they fix their gaze upon the ground, so that they are less terrified by the sight of the hunting-spears.
Leontophonas vocari accepimus bestias modicas, quæ captæ exuruntur, ut earum cineris aspergine carnes pollutæ jactæque per compita concurrentium semitarum leones necent, si quantulumcumque ex illis sumpserint. Propterea leones naturali eas premunt odio, atque ubi facultas data est, morsu quidem abstinent, sed dilancinatas exanimant pedum nisibus.
We have learned that small beasts are called Leontophonas, which, when captured, are burned, so that by the aspersion of their ashes, meats made impure and cast at the crossroads of intersecting footpaths may slay lions, if they shall have taken ever so small a bit from them. Therefore lions oppress them with a natural hatred, and whenever opportunity is given, they refrain indeed from biting, but render them exanimate, torn to pieces, by the thrusts of their feet.
Hyænam quoque mittit Africa, cui cum spina riget collum continua unitate, flectique non quit, nisi toto corpore circumacto. Multa de ea mira: primum, quod sequitur stabula pastorum, et auditu assiduo addiscit vocamen, quod exprimere possit imitatione vocis humanæ, ut in hominem astu accitum nocte sæviat. Vomitus quoque humanos mentitur, falsisque singultibus sollicitatos canes sic devorat; qui forte si venantes umbram ejus, dum sequuntur, contigerint, latrare nequeunt, voce perdita.
Africa also sends the hyena, whose neck is stiff with the spine in continuous unity, and it cannot be bent, unless the whole body be turned around. Many wonders about it: first, that it follows the folds of shepherds, and by assiduous hearing learns a call, which it can express by imitation of the human voice, so that by craft it may, at night, rage against a man called to it. It also counterfeits human vomit, and with false retchings thus devours dogs enticed; and if perchance, while hunting, they should touch its shadow as they pursue, they cannot bark, their voice being lost.
The same hyena, in its search for buried bodies, digs up tombs. Moreover, it is easier to capture the male; for the females have an innate, more crafty astuteness. A manifold variegation is present in the eyes, and a change of colors; in whose pupils a stone is found, which they call hyenium, endowed with this power: when placed under the tongue of whatever man possesses it, it predicts the future.
Inter ea, quæ dicunt herbatica, eadem Africa onagros habet, in quo genere singuli imperitant gregibus feminarum. Æmulos libidinis suæ metuunt: inde est, quod gravidas suas servant, ut expositos mares, si qua facultas fuerit, truncatos mordicus privent testibus. Quod caventes feminæ, in secessibus partus occulunt.
Among those things which they call herbatica, that same Africa has onagers, in which kind single males command herds of females. They fear rivals of their libido: hence it is that they keep watch over their pregnant females, so that, the males being exposed, if any opportunity should occur, with a bite they deprive them of the testicles, truncating them. To guard against this, the females hide their births in retreats.
Africa serpentibus adeo facunda est, ut mali hujus merito illi potissimum palma detur. Cerastæ præferunt quadrigemina cornicula, quorum intentatione, veluti esca inlice, sollicitatas aves perimunt: nam reliqua corporis de industria arenis tegunt, nec ullum indicium sui præbent, nisi ex ea parte, quæ invitatis dolo pastibus necem præpetum aucupetur. Amphisbæna consurgit in caput geminum: quorum alterum in loco suo est, alterum in ea parte, qua cauda: quæ causa efficit, ut capite utrinque secus nitibundo serpat tractibus circulatis.
Africa is so abundant in serpents that for this evil the palm is deservedly awarded to it. The Cerastes display fourfold little horns, by the brandishing of which, as with a bait-enticement, they dispatch birds that have been lured in: for they purposely cover the rest of the body with sands, and offer no indication of themselves, except in that part with which, by feed deceitfully proffered, they hunt the death of the winged. The Amphisbaena rises into a twin head: of which one is in its proper place, the other in that part where the tail is; which circumstance brings it about that, with a head on either side, it creeps, bracing itself, with circular tractions.
The jaculi go up into trees, whence, whirled with the greatest force, they penetrate whatever animal chance has made to be in their way. The Scytale shines with so great a variety of back that, by the grace of its markings, it delays those who see it; and since it is more sluggish at crawling, those whom it cannot overtake it captures, astonished at its marvel. Yet by this very sheen of its scales it is the first to lay aside its winter slough.
There are more numerous and diverse species of asps, but with disparate effects for harming: the dipsas kills by thirst; the hypnale, which kills by sleep—Cleopatra too as witness—is bought for death. The venom of others, since it admits remedies, merits less repute. The haemorrhois by its bite draws forth blood, and, the interchanges of the veins dissolved, whatever of the soul there is, it calls out through the gore.
They have affections: they do not readily wander abroad except as conjugal pairs; if one is captured or killed, whichever survives becomes beside itself. The heads are more subtle in the females, the bellies more swollen, the pest (venom) more noxious. The male is uniformly rounded, higher as well and gentler.
De gemma heliotropio inter Æthiopiam, Africam, Cyprum certamen fuit, quænam mitteret generis hujus eminentissimam: deprehensumque est documentis plurimis Æthiopicam aut Libycam, palmam tenere. Viridi colore est non ita acuto, sed nubilo magis et presso, stellis puniceis superspersa. Causa nominis de effectu lapidis est et potestate.
Concerning the gem heliotrope there was a contest among Ethiopia, Africa, and Cyprus as to which would send forth the most eminent of this kind; and it was discovered by very many proofs that the Ethiopian or Libyan holds the palm. It is of a green color, not so sharp, but rather more cloudy and dense, oversprinkled with puniceous stars. The reason of the name is from the effect and the power of the stone.
When cast into bronze basins, it alters the rays of the sun by a blood-red reflection, and even outside the water it casts off and averts the splendor of the bronze. It is also said to have this power: that the herb of the same name, when mixed and consecrated with legitimate incantations, removes from the eyes of passers-by whoever shall carry it.
Inter Syrtes, quamvis terra pergentibus, iter sideribus destinatur; nec aliter cursus patescit: nam putris soli faciem aura mutat, et minimo licet vento, tantam diversitatem flatus efficit, ut subinde perversis sitibus locorum, nulla indicia agnitioni relinquantur: quum modo quæ fuerant tumulis ardua, in valles residunt: modo quæ vallibus pressa, cútu pulveris aggerantur. Ita etiam continens naturam maris sui patitur: nec interest, ubi potius sint procellæ, quum ad exitium viantium elementis congruentibus, in terris flabra sæviant, in mari terræ. Utræque Syrtes ducentis quinquaginta millibus passuum separantur. Aliquanto clementior, quæ minor est.
Between the Syrtes, although for those proceeding by land, the route is determined by the stars; nor otherwise does the course lie open: for the breeze changes the face of the crumbling soil, and though the wind be very slight, it brings about so great a diversity of blowing, that, with the sites of places continually distorted, no indications are left for recognition: since now what had been high on mounds sink down into valleys; now what had been pressed in valleys are heaped up by the impulse of the dust. Thus even the mainland suffers the nature of its own sea: nor does it matter where the storms are rather, since, for the destruction of wayfarers, the elements conspiring, on land the blasts rage, at sea the lands. The two Syrtes are separated by 250 miles. Somewhat more clement is the one that is smaller.
Supra Garamantas Psy1li fuerunt, contra noxium virus muniti incredibili corporis firmitate. Soli morsibus anguium non interibant, et quamvis dente letali appetiti, incorrupta durabant sanitate. Recens etiam editos serpentibus offerebant: si essent partus adulteri, matrum crimina plectebantur interitu parvulorum; si pudici, probos ortus a morte paterni sanguinis privilegium tuebatur.
Above the Garamantes were the Psylli, fortified against noxious venom by incredible firmness of body. They alone did not perish from the bites of serpents, and although assailed by the deadly tooth, they endured with health uncorrupted. They even offered the newborn to serpents: if the births were adulterous, the mothers’ crimes were punished by the death of the little ones; if chaste, the privilege of the paternal blood protected the honorable births from death.
Nasamonitem lapidem Nasamones dant, sanguineum universum, nigris venulis adumbratum. In intimo recessu Syrtis majoris, circa Philænorum aras, Lotophagos fuisse discimus, nec incertum est. A Philænorum aris non procul palus est, quam Triton amnis influit, ubi speculatam se artium deam crediderunt.
The Nasamones supply the Nasamonian stone, entirely blood-red, shaded with black venules. In the innermost recess of the Greater Syrtis, around the altars of the Philaeni, we learn that the Lotus-eaters were, nor is it doubtful. Not far from the altars of the Philaeni there is a marsh, into which the river Triton flows, where they believed that the goddess of the arts had kept watch.
Major Syrtis ostentat oppidum, Cyrenas vocant, quod Battus Lacedæmonius olympiade quinta et quadragesima, rege Martio res Romanas tenente, anno post Trojam captam quingentesimo octogesimo sexto condidit: quæ domus Callimacho pútæ fuit patria. Inter hoc oppidum et templum Hammonis, millia passuum quadringenta sunt. Templo fons proximat Soli sacer, qui humoris nexibus humum favillaticam stringit, et in cespitem solidat.
The Greater Syrtis displays a town, which they call Cyrene, which Battus the Lacedaemonian founded in the 45th Olympiad, with King Martius holding the Roman affairs, in the 586th year after Troy was taken: a house which was the fatherland of Callimachus the poet. Between this town and the temple of Ammon there are 400 miles. Near the temple is a spring sacred to Sol, which by the bonds of moisture compresses the ashy ground and solidifies it into turf.
Apud Cyrenenses præterea sirpe gignitur, odoratis radicibus, virgulto herbido magis, quam arbusto: cujus e culmo exsudat stato tempore pingue roscidum, idque pascentium hircorum inhæret barbulis: ubi quum arefactum inolevit guttis stiriacis, legitur ad usum mensarum, vel medelis. Dictum est primum lac sirpicum, quoniam manat in modum lacteum: deinde usu derivante laser nominatum. Quæ germina initio barbaricæ impressionis vastatis agris, postea ob intolerandam vertigalis nimietatem, ferme penitus ipsi accolæ eruerunt.
Among the Cyrenaeans, moreover, the sirpe is produced, with fragrant roots, more a grassy bush than a tree: from whose stalk at a set time there oozes a rich, dewy sap, and this clings to the beards of grazing he-goats; when, once dried, it has adhered with styracine drops, it is gathered for the use of tables, or for remedies. It was first called sirpic milk, since it flows in a milky manner; then, usage diverting the term, it was named laser. These shoots, at the beginning of the barbarian incursion, after the fields had been laid waste, later, on account of the intolerable excess of the tax-tribute, the inhabitants themselves almost utterly rooted out.
Serpens est pæne ad semipedem longitudinis, alba quasi mitrula lineatus caput, nec hominis tantum vel aliorum animantiam exitiis datus, sed terræ quoque ipsius, quam polluit et exurit, ubicumque ferale sortitur receptaculum. Denique exstinguit herbas, necat arbores, ipsas etiam corrumpit auras, ita ut æra nulla alitum impune transvolet, infectum spiritu pestilenti. Quum movetur, media corporis parte serpit, media arduus est, et excelsus.
There is a serpent almost a half-foot in length, its head lined as if with a little white mitre, given for the destruction not only of man but also of other living creatures, and even of the earth itself, which it defiles and burns up wherever it obtains a deadly lodging. In fine, it extinguishes the grasses, kills trees, and even corrupts the very airs, so that no bird flies across the air with impunity, the air infected with a pestilential breath. When it moves, with one half of its body it creeps, with the other it is upreared and lofty.
The power, however, is not lacking even when it is dead. In fact, the Pergamenians purchased the relics of a basilisk for a large sum of sesterces. So that the temple, distinguished by the hand of Apelles, might neither be woven over by spiders nor have birds fly in, they placed its cadaver there, suspended in a golden net.
Circa extimum Syrtium cornum Berenicen civitatem alluit Lethon amnis, inferna, ut putant, exundatione prorumpens, et apud pristinos vates latice memoratus oblivionis. Hanc Berenicen Berenice munivit, quæ Ptolemæo tertio fuit nupta, et in majori Syrti locavit.
Around the outer horn of the Syrtes the river Lethon washes the city Berenice, bursting forth, as they suppose, by an infernal inundation, and among the ancient bards it is mentioned for its water of oblivion. This Berenice was fortified by Berenice, who was married to Ptolemy III, and she located it in the Greater Syrtis.
Omne autem latifundium, quod inter Ægyptum, Æthiopiam, Libyamque diffunditur, quacumque lucis opacum est, varium implevit simiarum genus. Nec quisquam offensus nomine, cognitionem gravetur. Enimvero pretium operæ est, nihil omittere, in quo naturæ spectanda sit providentia.
Moreover, the whole broad expanse which is spread between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya, wherever it is shaded from the light, a various race of apes has filled. Nor let anyone, offended by the name, be deterred from knowledge. Indeed, it is worth the effort to omit nothing wherein the providence of nature is to be beheld.
Plebes simiarum in his est, quas passim videmus, non sine ingenio æmulandi; quo facilius, in manus veniunt: nam dum avide venantium gestus affectant, relicta consulto visci unguilla, quod mendacio factum vident, oculos suos oblinunt; ita visu obducto pronum est eas corripi. Exsultant nova luna, tristes sunt cornuto et cavo sidere. Immoderate fútus amant, adeo ut catulos facilius amittant quos impendio diligunt, et ante se gestant, quoniam neglecti ponte matrem semper hærent.
The common sort of apes is among those which we see everywhere, not without an ingenium for emulation; whereby the more easily they come into our hands: for while they eagerly mimic the gestures of the hunters, with a little dab of birdlime deliberately left, seeing that this has been done by a deceit, they smear their own eyes; thus, with their sight covered, it is easy to seize them. They exult at the new moon, they are sad at the horned and hollow star. They love copulation immoderately, to such a degree that they more easily lose their young, whom they exceedingly cherish, and they carry them before themselves, since those neglected behind always cling to the mother.
Among the monkeys are counted also sphinxes, shaggy of hair, with somewhat prominent and deep-hanging breasts, docile unto an oblivion of ferocity. There are also those they call satyrs, with a very pleasing face, restless with gesticulating motions. The Callithriches differ from the others in almost their whole aspect: on the face there is a beard, the tail is broad. To capture these is not arduous, but to bring them out is rare: for they do not live in any other than the Ethiopian—that is, their own—climate.
Inter Nasamonas, et Troglodytas gens Amantum est, quæ salibus domos exstruunt: quos in modum cautium e montibus excitatos, ad usum ædium cæmentitiis nectunt struicibus. Tanta ibi hujusce venæ copia est, ut tecta faciant e salinis. Hi sunt Amantes, qui commercium cum Troglodytis habent carbunculi gemmæ. Citra Amantes propiores Nasamonibus Asbystæ lasere vivunt Hoc aguntur, hoc illis dulce est.
Between the Nasamones and the Troglodytes is the tribe of the Amantes, who build houses out of salts: which, raised from the mountains in the manner of rocks, they bind for the use of dwellings with cementitious courses. So great there is a supply of this vein that they make roofs out of the salines. These are the Amantes, who have commerce with the Troglodytes in the carbuncle gem. On this side of the Amantes, closer to the Nasamones, the Asbystae live on laser; by this they are busied, this is sweet to them.
XXX. Garamantum fons, et iter Garamanticum. ltem pecora Garamantica, et natura insulæ Gaulús.
30. The spring of the Garamantes, and the Garamantian route. Likewise the Garamantian herds, and the nature of the island Gaulus.
Garamanticum oppidum est Debris fonte miro: qui denique alternis vicibus die frigeat, nocte efferveat, ac per eadem venarum commercia, interdum ignito vapore æstuet, interdum glaciali algore inhorrescat. Incredibile memoratu, ut in articulo temporis natura tam dissonam sui faciat varietatem! Idque qui percontari velit, tenebris inesse fluori illi æternam facem credat; qui rimetur die brumales scatebras, nunquam aliud æstimet, quam perpetuo rigere.
There is a Garamantian town at Debris with a wondrous spring: which, in alternate turns, is cold by day, effervesces by night, and, through the same commerce of veins, sometimes seethes with ignited vapor, sometimes shudders with glacial chill. Incredible to relate, that at the very juncture of time nature should make so dissonant a diversity of itself! And whoever would inquire into this would believe that in the darkness there is within that flow an eternal torch; whoever probes by day the brumal gushings would never suppose anything other than that it freezes perpetually.
Whence not undeservedly Debris is illustrious among the nations, whose water, by a celestial vertigo, changes its quality, though in a manner contrary to the discipline of the stars: for when evening tempers the world from heat, from sunset it begins to grow so hot that, unless you refrain from touching it, it is noxious to have come in contact; again, when the sunrise has brightened and all things are made fervid by the rays, it spews forth such glacial gushings that it forbids its flow to be drawn. Who then would not be astonished at a spring that grows cold with heat, grows hot with cold! Garama is the head of the Garamantic region, to which the journey was long inextricable and trackless: for brigands would cover the wells with sands, so that, by a temporary fraud, with the waters withdrawn, the road—infamous for thirst—might remove the access of wayfarers.
But under Vespasian as emperor, in the war that was waged with the Oeans, this difficulty was dissolved, a shortcut of a shorter route having been found. Cornelius Balbus subdued the Garamantes, and was the first to celebrate a triumph from this victory. Indeed, he was the first of foreigners, being born at Gades, to attain to the glory of the triumphal name.
XXXI. Æthiopes, et in eorum locis ac gentibus mira, de draconibus, de dracontia lapide, de camelopardalo, de cephis, de rhinocerote, de catoblepa, de formicis Æthiopicis, de Lycaone, de parandro, de lupis Æthiopicis, de hystrice, de ave pegaso. de ave tragopane, de hyacintho lapide, de chrysopasto lapide, de lapide hæmatite.
31. Ethiopians, and in their regions and nations marvels: about dragons, about the dracontia stone, about the camelopard, about the cephi, about the rhinoceros, about the catoblepas, about Ethiopian ants, about Lycaon, about the parandrus, about Ethiopian wolves, about the porcupine, about the bird pegasus. about the bird tragopan, about the hyacinth stone, about the chrysopastus stone, about the haematite stone.
Æthiopes, et gentes Atlanticæ, Nigri flumine dividuntur, quem patrem putant Nili. Sic papyro viret, sic calamo prætexitur, animalia eadem edit, isdem temporibus exundat, intra ripas tunc quoque redit, quum contentus est alveo suo Nilus. Garamantici Æthiopes matrimonia privatim nesciunt, sed vulgo omnibus in venerem licet.
Ethiopians, and the Atlantic peoples, are divided by the river Niger, which they think the father of the Nile. In like manner it is green with papyrus, in like manner bordered with reed; it produces the same animals, overflows at the same times, and then too returns within its banks, when the Nile is content with its own channel. The Garamantian Ethiopians do not know private marriages, but in common venery is permitted to all.
Hence it is that mothers only recognize their sons; there is no reverence for the paternal name. For who, indeed, would know the true father in this luxury of incest lasciviously wantoning? Therefore the Garamantic Ethiopians are held degenerate among all peoples: and not undeservedly, for, with the discipline of chastity afflicted, they have lost the knowledge of succession by a wicked rite.
Their nearest neighbors hand over the supreme regal power to a dog: from its movements they augur what it commands. They say the maritime Ethiopians have four eyes; but the report is otherwise, namely, that they both see exceedingly well and most manifestly aim their arrow-shots. Toward the west the Agriophagi hold the land, who eat only the flesh of panthers and lions, endowed with a king who has a single eye in his forehead.
The Artabatitae, prone and four-footed, and not otherwise than wild beasts, roam without dwellings. Bordering on Mauretania, at a set time they gather land-locusts, and, hardened by brine, have them alone as a bulwark of life; but of these none surpasses the fortieth year of age. From the Ocean’s tide to Meroë, which island the Nile makes by its first embrace, there are 620 miles.
Ultra Meroen super exortus solis Macrobii Æthiopes vocantur: dimidio enim eorum protentior, quam nostra vita est. Hi Macrobii justitiam colunt, amant æquitatem, plurimum valent robore, præcipua decent pulchritudine, ornantur ære, auro vincula faciunt noxiorum. Locus apud eos est ÑHlÛou trãpeza, opiparis epulis semper refertus, quibus indiscretim omnes vescuntur: nam et divinitus eas augeri ferunt.
Beyond Meroë, farther toward the rising of the sun, they are called the Macrobian Ethiopians: for their lifespan is extended by a half beyond our own. These Macrobii cultivate justice, love equity, are most powerful in strength, are graced with exceptional beauty, are adorned with bronze, and they make chains of gold for the guilty. There is among them a place, the ÑHlÛou trãpeza, always filled with sumptuous banquets, on which all without distinction feed: for they say that these too are increased by divine agency.
There is also in the same place a lake, in which bodies, when drenched, shine as if with oil. From this lake the drink is most healthful. Indeed it is so liquid that it does not even carry along fallen leaves, but immediately, by the tenuity of the liquid, sends the leaves that have slipped down to the bottom.
All Ethiopia extends from the wintry east to the wintry west. Whatever of it shines beneath the meridian pivot of light—regions which are most verdant in winter. On the southern side a lofty mountain overhangs the sea, ardent with native fire through eternity, and restless with its ridges blazing: among which conflagrations, in the heat upon the ridges, there is a great abundance of dragons.
Exciditur e cerebris draconum dracontias lapis, sed lapis non est, nisi detrabatur viventibus: nam si obeat prius serpens, cum anima simul evanescit, duritie soluta. Usu ejus orientis reges præcipue gloriantur, quanquam nullum lenocinium artis admittat soliditate, et quidquid in eo nobile est, non manus faciunt, nec alterius quam naturæ candor sit, quo reluceat. Auctor Sotacus gemmam hanc etiam visam sibi scribit, et, quibus intercipiatur modis, edocet.
The Dracontias stone is excised from the brains of dragons; but it is not a stone unless it is drawn off from them while living: for if the serpent dies first, it vanishes along with the soul, its hardness dissolved. In its use the kings of the East especially glory, although by reason of its solidity it admits no allurement of art, and whatever in it is noble, hands do not make, nor has it any brightness other than that of nature, by which it shines. The authority Sotacus writes that this gem has even been seen by himself, and he instructs by what methods it is obtained.
Men most outstanding in audacity explore the pits of serpents, and their retreats: then, having waited for them as they go out to feed, and, when they have glided past at impetuous speeds, they throw in medicated grasses, as much as can to incite sleep: thus, with them lulled by sleep, they cut the stones out of their heads, and, for the sake of spoils, having dared headlong, they carry back the prey of their temerity.
Quæ locorum Æthiopes tenent, feris plena sunt, e quibus quam nabun vocant, nos camelopardalim dicimus, collo equi similem, pedibus bubulis, capite camelino, nitore rutilo, albis maculis superspersa. Hoc animal Romæ Circensibus dictatoris Cæsaris primum publicatum.
The regions which the Ethiopians hold are full of wild beasts, among which they call the nabun, which we call the camelopard; like a horse in neck, with ox-like feet, with a camel-like head, with a ruddy sheen, oversprinkled with white spots. This animal at Rome was first exhibited at the Circus by the dictator Caesar.
Ante ludos Cneii Pompeii rhinocerotem Romana spectacula nesciebant: cui bestiæ color huxeus, in naribus cornu unicum et repandum, quod subinde attritum cautibus in mucronem excitat, eoque adversus elephantos prúliatur, par ipsis longitudine, brevior cruribus, naturaliter alvum petens, quam solam intelligit ictibus suis perviam.
Before the games of Gnaeus Pompeius, the Roman spectacles did not know the rhinoceros: whose color is boxwood-like, with a single, backward-curving horn in its nostrils, which, repeatedly worn against rocks, it rouses into a point; and with it it engages in battle against elephants, equal to them in length, shorter in the legs, naturally aiming at the belly, which alone it understands to be passable to its blows.
Mittit et tarandum, boum magnitudine, bisulco vestigio, ramosis cornibus, capite cervino, ursino colore et pariter villo profundo. Hunc tarandum affirmant habitum metu vertere, et quum delitescat, fieri assimilem cuicumque rei proximaverit, sive illa saxo alba sit, seu frutecto virens, sive quam aliam præferat qualitatem. Faciunt hoc idem in mari polypi, in terra chamæleontes; sed et polypus, et chamæleon glabra sunt, ut sit pronius cutis lævitatem proximanti æmulari: in hoc novum est ac singulare, hirsutiam pili colorum vices facere.
It also sends forth the tarandus, of the size of oxen, with a cloven footprint, branching horns, a cervine head, and, in ursine color and likewise, a deep shaggy pelt. They affirm that this tarandus changes its appearance from fear, and, when it lies concealed, becomes similar to whatever thing it has approached, whether that be a white rock, or greenery in a thicket, or whatever other quality it displays. The same thing is done in the sea by polypuses (octopuses), and on land by chameleons; but both the polypus and the chameleon are glabrous, so that the smoothness of the skin is more prone to emulate what is near: in this creature it is new and singular that the hairiness of the coat effects the alternations of colors.
Ethiopes legunt cinnamum. Id frutectum situ brevi nascitur, remo humili et depresso, nunquam ultra duas ulnas altitudinis: quod gracilius provenit, eximium magis ducitur: quod in crassitudinem extuberatur, despectui est. Verum legitur per sacerdotes hostiis prius cæsis: quæ quum litaverunt, observatur, ut messis nec ortum solis anticipet, nec egrediatur occasum.
The Ethiopians gather cinnamon. That shrubbery is born in a short site, with a low and depressed shoot, never beyond two cubits of height: what comes forth more slender is considered the more exceptional: what swells into thickness is held in contempt. But it is gathered by priests, the victims first having been slain: when they have obtained favorable omens, it is observed that the harvest neither anticipates the rising of the sun, nor goes beyond the setting.
Inter ea, quæ diximus, nitore cærulo hyacinthus invenitur, lapis pretiosus, si quidem inculpabilis inveniatur: est enim vitiis non parce obnoxius: nam plerumque aut violaceo diluitur, aut nubilo obducitur, aut albicantius in aquaticum eliquescit. Optimus in illo tenor, si nec densiore fuco sit obtusior, nec propensa perspicuitate detectior, sed ex utroque temperamento lucis et purpuræ fucatum suaviter florem trahat. Hic est, qui sentit auras, et cum cúlo facit; nec æqualiter rutilat, quum aut nubilosus est, aut serenus dies.
Among the things we have mentioned, the hyacinth is found with cerulean luster, a precious stone—if indeed it be found unimpeachable; for it is not a little liable to defects: most often either it is diluted into a violaceous hue, or it is overcast with cloudiness, or, becoming more whitish, it eliquesces into an aquatic tint. Its best tenor is, if it be neither duller through a denser dye nor, by a forward perspicuity, more laid bare, but from a temperament of both, of light and purple, tinctured, it gently draws a bloom. This is the sort that feels the breezes and keeps accord with the sky; nor does it shine equally, whether the day is cloudy or serene.
XXXII. De intimis gentibus Libyæ, de lapide hexecontalitho.
32. On the innermost peoples of Libya, on the hexecontalithus stone.
Quod ab Atlante ad usque Canopitanum ostium panditur, ubi Libyæ finis est, et Ægyptium limen, dictum a Canopo Menelai gubernatore ibi sepulto in ea insula, quæ ostium Nili facit, gentes tenent dissonæ, quæ in aviæ solitudinis secretum recesserunt. Ex his Atlantes ab humano ritu prorsus exsulant. Nulli proprium vocabulum, nulli speciale nomen.
That which is spread out from Atlas as far as the Canopic mouth, where Libya’s boundary is and Egypt’s threshold—so named from Canopus, Menelaus’s helmsman, buried there on the island that forms the mouth of the Nile—is held by dissonant peoples who have withdrawn into the secrecy of pathless solitude. Of these, the Atlantes are utterly exiled from human custom. To none a proper appellation, to none a special name.
They receive the risings of the sun with dire imprecations, they follow its settings with dire imprecations; scorched on every side by the star of the torrid zone, they hate the god of light. They affirm that they do not see dreams, and that they abstain entirely from all animals. The Troglodytes excavate caves; in them they are sheltered.
Homines isti carnibus vivunt serpentium; ignarique sermonis, stridunt potius, quam loquuntur. Augylæ vero solos colunt inferos. Feminas suas primis noctibus nuptiarum adulteriis cogunt patere: mox ad perpetuam pudicitiam legibus stringunt severissimis.
These people live on the flesh of serpents; and, ignorant of speech, they hiss rather than speak. The Augylae, however, worship only the infernal deities. They compel their women, on the first nights of their weddings, to submit to adulteries; soon after they bind them to perpetual chastity by the most severe laws.
The Aegipans are that which we see depicted. The Himantopodes, with slack efforts of their legs, crawl rather than advance, and they accomplish the act of proceeding by sliding rather than by stepping. The Pharusii, when they had been companions to Hercules as he proceeded to the Hesperides, from the tedium of the journey settled down here.
XXXIII. Ægyptus. In ea de origine et natura Nili, de tauro Apide de crocodilo, de scinco, de hippopotamo, de ave ibide, et serpentibus Arabicis, de ficu Agyptia, de palma Ægyptia, de disciplina Ægyptiorum, et urbibus inclytis.
33. Egypt. In it, on the origin and nature of the Nile, on the bull Apis, on the crocodile, on the skink, on the hippopotamus, on the bird ibis, and on the Arabian serpents, on the Egyptian fig, on the Egyptian palm, on the discipline of the Egyptians, and on the illustrious cities.
Ægyptus ad meridiem introrsus recedit, quoad prætendant Æthiopes a tergo. Inferiorem ejus partem Nilus circumfluit, qui scissus a loco, cui Delta nomen est, ad insulæ faciem spatia amplectitur interamna, et incerto pæne fonte decurrens proditur, ut loquemur. Originem habet a monte inferioris Mauritaniæ, qui Oceano propinquat.
Egypt recedes inward toward the south, as far as the Ethiopians extend behind it. Its lower part the Nile encircles, which, split at the place named the Delta, with the aspect of an island embraces the interfluvial spaces; and, running down from an almost uncertain source, it is reported—as we shall say. It has its origin from a mountain of Lower Mauretania, which is near the Ocean.
Nilum autem jam inde conjiciunt, quod hoc stagnum in herbis, piscibus, belluis nihil minus procreet, quam in Nilo videmus; ac si quando Mauritania, unde origo ejus est, aut nivibus densioribus, aut imbribus largioribus irrigatur, incrementa exundationis in Ægypto augentur. Sed effusus hoc lacu arenis sorbetur, et cuniculis cæcis absconditur; deinde in Cæsariensis pede prorumpens amplior, eadem indicia præfert, quæ in exortu notavimus: rursusque subsidit, nec se prius reddit, quam post intervalla itineris extenti contingat Æthiopas. Ubi exit, Nigrim facit fluvium, quem supra diximus terminum esse limitis Africani.
But from this point they already conjecture the Nile, because this pool produces in herbs, fishes, and wild beasts nothing less than we see in the Nile; and whenever Mauretania, whence its origin is, is irrigated either by denser snows or by more bountiful rains, the increments of the inundation in Egypt are increased. But, having poured out into this lake, it is drunk up by the sands and is concealed in blind burrows; then, bursting forth larger at the foot of Caesariensis, it presents the same indications which we noted at its source; and again it subsides, nor does it render itself before, after intervals of extended journey, it reaches the Ethiopians. Where it issues, it makes the river Niger, which we said above is the boundary of the African limit.
The natives call it Astapus, namely “water flowing forth from darkness.” It surrounds many and great islands, most of which are so diffused and of such vast magnitude that it scarcely passes them in a five-day course, although there it is borne at a swift pace. The most noble of these is Meroe, around which, when it is divided, by the right channel it is named Astosapes, by the left Astabores.
Then too, after traversing great far reaches, when first it is roughened by encountering crags, it is lifted in such masses amid the obstacles of the cliffs that it is believed to rush headlong rather than to flow: and at length it is safe from the last cataract; for thus the Egyptians name certain of its barriers. Leaving, however, behind itself this name, by which it is called the Nigris, soon it goes on unhindered. It is swallowed up by seven mouths, and, looking toward the south, is received by the Egyptian sea.
Ignorant of the stars or of the places, they have given various causes for its overflows. Some affirm that the Etesian winds drive a density of clouds thither, whence this river takes its inception, and that the very fountain, fattened with supernal moisture, has so much substance for inundation as fodder the clouds have furnished to the liquid. Others relate that, beaten back by the blasts of the winds, when it cannot advance the flow of its accustomed speed, it swells with the waters struggling in a narrow; and the more intensely the opposing breaths have resisted, by so much the rebounded speed is lifted more loftily into the vertices of height: since neither does the usual course attenuate the channel, and with the river now packed, upon its original veins the weights of torrents supervene; thus, the violence concurring, on the one side of the pressing element, on the other of the resisting, with the waves exulting a mass is gathered which produces the overflows.
Some affirm that its source, which is called Phialus, is stirred by the motions of the stars, and, drawn forth by glowing rays, is suspended by celestial fire—yet not without a fixed discipline of law, that is, with the moons waxing. But that the whole origin of the overflow is conceived from the sun, and that the first onsets of swelling occur when the sun is carried through Cancer: afterward, when thirty of its parts have been traversed, upon its entrance into Leo, when the rising of Sirius has been aroused, with all the current driven forward, such force of the river bursts forth. This time the priests have judged to be the birthday of the world, that is, between the thirteenth day before the Kalends of August and the eleventh.
Then all its overflows are recalled when it passes into Virgo, and it takes itself entirely within its banks when it has entered Libra. They add this as well: that it harms equally, whether it swells more abundantly or more sparingly; since scantiness brings the least measure of fertility, while a more lavish abundance hinders cultivation by enduring moisture. Then its greatest overflows rise to eighteen cubits, the most just are moderated at sixteen; nor are yields lacking at fifteen, but whatever is within that makes famine.
Diminishers grant to it also this majesty, that it portends things to come, since in the Pharsalic war it did not exceed five cubits. Now this is evident: it alone, out of all rivers, exhales no airs. It begins to be under Egyptian dominion at Syene, in which are the borders of the Ethiopians; and from there, until it is admitted into the sea, it holds the name of the Nile.
Inter omnia, quæ Ægyptus habet digna memoratu, præcipue bovem mirantur: Apim vocant. Hunc ad instar colunt numinis, insignem notæ albæ macula, quæ dextero ejus lateri ingenita, corniculantis lunæ refert faciem. Statu ævi spatium est, quod ut affuit, profundo sacri fontis immersus necatur, ne diem longius trahat., quam licebit.
Among all the things that Egypt has worthy of remembrance, they especially marvel at a bull: they call him Apis. Him they worship after the manner of a divinity, distinguished by a mark, a white spot which, inborn on his right flank, recalls the face of a horned (crescent) moon. A fixed term of age is established; when it has arrived, he, plunged into the depth of the sacred spring, is slain, lest he prolong his day any further than is permitted.
Soon another, not without public lamentation, is sought, whom, when found, a hundred priests escort to Memphis, so that he may begin, having there been initiated into the sacred rites, to become sacred. The shrines into which he enters or upon which he lies they mystically call bridal chambers. He gives every manifestation concerning the future; this is the greatest, if he takes food from the hand of the consultants.
Finally, having turned away from Germanicus Caesar’s right hand, he revealed the impending things, and not long after the Caesar was extinguished. Boys follow Apis in flocks, and suddenly, as if lymphatic, they pre-chant the things to come. A cow is shown to him, a female, once in the year, and she herself not without certain insignia; and when she has been both found and offered, on the same day she is given to death.
They celebrate the birthday of Apis at Memphis by the casting of a golden patera, which they throw into the Nile’s standing whirlpool. This solemnity is conducted for seven days: during which days the crocodiles have a certain truce with the priests, and do not touch those bathing. But on the eighth day, the ceremonies now completed, as if the license to rage had been restored, they resume their accustomed ferocity.
Crocodilus malum quadrupes et in terra, et in flumine pariter valet, linguam non habet, maxillam movet superiorem; morsus ejus horribili tenacitate conveniunt, stipante se pectinatim serie dentium. Plerumque ad viginti ulnas magnitudinis evalescit. Qualia anseres edit ova.
The crocodile, an evil quadruped, prevails equally both on land and in the river; it does not have a tongue, it moves the upper jaw; its bites close with horrible tenacity, with a pectinate series of teeth crowding together. For the most part it attains to a magnitude of up to twenty ulnae. It lays eggs such as geese lay.
By natural providence it measures out a place for the nest, nor does it brood its young anywhere except where the waters of the Nile, as they grow, cannot reach. In incubating the brood the male and the female keep turns. Besides the hiatus of the mouth, it is armed also with the enormity of its claws.
By nights it lives in the water, by day it rests on the ground. It is surrounded by a very great firmness of skin, to such an extent that a blow, when a projectile from any siege-engine is driven at it, rebounds from its back. Trochilos, a tiny bird: while it seeks the leftovers of the beast’s food, it gradually scratches the mouth of this creature, and, with a coaxing tickle from its scratching, little by little makes an approach for itself all the way into the throat.
Sunt delphines in Nilo, quorum dorsa serratas habent cristas. Hi delphines crocodilos studio eliciunt ad natandum, demersique astu fraudulento tenera ventrium subternatantes secant, et interimunt. Præterea habitant in insula Nili homines forma perexigui, sed audacia usque eo perditi, ut crocodilis se offerant obvios: nam hæc monstra fugientes insequuntur, formidant resistentes.
There are dolphins in the Nile, whose backs have serrated crests. These dolphins, by stratagem, lure crocodiles out to swim, and, having dived, by fraudulent cunning, swimming beneath, they cut the tender bellies and kill them. Moreover, on an island of the Nile there dwell men of very small form, but so far gone in audacity that they offer themselves to meet crocodiles: for these monsters pursue those who flee, and dread those who resist.
Therefore they are captured, and, subjugated, they even serve within their own waters; and, thoroughly tamed by fear, they so comply that, forgetful of their atrocity, they carry their conquerors, riding, upon their back. Therefore this island and this people, wherever they have perceived them by the indication of odor, they flee far away. In the water they see more obtusely; on land, most acutely.
Hippopotamus in eodem flumine ac solo nascitur, equino dorso et juba et hinnitu, rostro resimo, ungulis bifidis, aprugineis dentibus, cauda tortuosa. Noctibus segetes depascitur, ad quas pergit aversus astu doloso, ut fallente vestigio revertenti nullæ insidiæ præparentur. Idem quum distenditur nimia satietate, arundines recens cæsas petit, per quas tamdiu obversatur, quoad stirpium acuta pedes vulnerent, ut profluvio sanguinis levetur sagina: plagam deinde cúno oblinit, usque dum vulnus conducatur in cicatricem.
The hippopotamus is born in the same river and soil, with an equine back and mane and neighing, a snub snout, cloven hoofs, boar-like teeth, a tortuous tail. At night it grazes down the crops, to which it proceeds backward with crafty astuteness, so that, its track misleading, no ambushes may be prepared for it when it returns. The same creature, when it is distended with excessive satiety, seeks reeds newly cut, against which it keeps rubbing so long until the sharp points of the stumps wound its feet, so that by a profluent outflow of blood its gorging is relieved: then it daubs the wound with mud, until the wound is drawn together into a scar.
Nor, however, do those birds do good only within Egyptian borders: for wherever the Arabian marshes send forth swarms of winged serpents, whose venom is so swift that death follows the bite before pain, by the sagacity in which they excel for this, the birds, aroused, all go into battle array, and before an external evil lays waste their own boundaries, they meet in the air the pestilent bands: there they devour the whole column; for which merit they are sacred and unharmed. They bring forth by the mouth. Pelusium sends only black ones; the remaining region white.
De arboribus, quas sola fert Aegyptus, præcipua est ficus Aegyptia, foliis moro comparanda, poma non ramis tantum gestitans, sed et caudice, usque adeo fecunditati suæ angusta est. Uno anno septies fructum sufficit: unde pomum si decerpseris, alterum sine mora protuberat. Materies ejus in aquam missa subsidit; deinde quum diu desederit in liquore, levior facta sustollitur; et versa vice, quod natura in alio ligni genere non recipit, fit humore sicca.
Concerning the trees which Egypt alone bears, the chief is the Egyptian fig, with leaves comparable to the mulberry, bearing fruits not only on the branches but even on the trunk, so straitened by its own fecundity. In a single year it supplies fruit seven times: whence, if you pluck one fruit, another without delay swells forth. Its timber, when sent into water, sinks; then, when it has sat long in the liquid, made lighter it is lifted up; and, in reverse—what nature admits in no other kind of wood—it becomes dry by means of moisture.
Palma quoque Ægyptia dicenda res est, proprie adipsos vocatur, ut dici oportuit eam, quæ gustata arcet sitim. Odor ei idem, qui et malis cydoniis; sed demum sitim sedat, si prius quam maturuerit, decerpatur: nam si matura sumatur, sensum intercipit, gressum præpedit, linguam retardat, obsessisque officiis mentis et corporis, vitium facit ebrietatis.
The Egyptian palm too must be mentioned: it is properly called adipsos, as it ought to be said of that which, when tasted, wards off thirst. Its odor is the same as that of quinces; but it only allays thirst if it is plucked before it has ripened: for if it is taken ripe, it intercepts sensation, hampers the step, slows the tongue, and, with the functions of mind and body besieged, produces the defect of drunkenness.
Ægyptium limitem, qua ad Diacecaumenem tendit, incolunt populi, qui momentum, quo reparari mundum ad motus ferunt annuos, hoc studio deprehendunt. Eligitur sacer lucus, in quo conseptant animalia diversissimi generis. Ea, ubi ad statum modum cúlestis pervenit disciplina, sensus suos significationibus produnt, quibus possunt: alia ululant, alia mugiunt, quædam stridunt, quædam rudunt, nonnulla simul confugiunt ad volutabra.
Peoples inhabit the Egyptian border, where it tends toward Diacecaumenem, who by this method detect the moment at which they assert the world is renewed to its annual motions. A sacred grove is chosen, in which they pen animals of the most diverse kinds. These, when the celestial regimen has reached its fixed measure, disclose their perceptions by such significations as they can: some howl, others bellow, certain ones shriek, certain ones bray, and some all at once take refuge in the wallowing-pools.
Inter Aegyptias urbes numero portarum Thebæ nobiles, ad quas commercia Arabes Indique subvehunt: hinc regio Thebaica. Abydos et ipsa nobilis, olim Memnonis regia, nunc Osiridis fano exculta. Alexandriam et operis ipsius magnitudo, et auctor Macedo nobilitant: quam metatus Dinocrates architecton alterum a conditore in memoria locum detinet.
Among the Egyptian cities Thebes is renowned for the number of its gates, to which the Arabs and the Indians convey their commerce: hence the Thebaic region. Abydos too is itself notable, once the royal seat of Memnon, now adorned with the shrine of Osiris. Alexandria is made famous both by the magnitude of the work itself and by its author, the Macedonian: which city, having been meted out by Dinocrates the architect, holds in memory a second place after its founder.
Moreover Alexandria was founded in the 112th Olympiad, under the Roman consuls Lucius Papirius Spurius, son of Spurius, and Gaius Pútilius, son of Gaius, not far from the mouth of the river Nile, which some call the Heracleotic, others the Canopic. There is also Pharos, a colony led out by Dictator Caesar, from which, with torches kindled, the nocturnal navigation is directed: for Alexandria is approached by a treacherous access, with deceptive shallows, a blind sea, and admits sailors by only three channels, Teganus, Posideus, Taurus. Hence therefore in harbors they call pharos the machines fabricated for the service of giving light ahead.
XXXIV. Arabia. In ea mira, de fontibus, de moribus et habitu populorum, de Eulæo flumine, de thure, myrrha, de cinnamo, de phúnice ave, de cinnamolgis avibus, de gemma sardonyche, de lapide molochite, de iride, de andradamante lapide, de pæderote lapide, de gemma Arabica.
34. Arabia. In it, marvels: concerning the springs, concerning the morals and habit of the peoples, concerning the river Eulaeus, concerning frankincense, myrrh, concerning cinnamon, concerning the Phoenix bird, concerning the cinnamolgi birds (cinnamon-gatherers), concerning the gem sardonyx, concerning the stone molochite, concerning the Iris, concerning the andradamante stone, concerning the paederote stone, concerning the Arabian gem.
Ultra Pelusiacum ostium Arabia est, ad Rubrum pertinens mare, quod Erythræum ab Erythra rege Persei et Andromedæ filio, non solum a colore appellatum. Varro dicit, qui affirmat, in litore maris istius fontem esse, quem si oves biberint, mutent vellerum qualitatem, et antea candidæ amittant quod fuerint usque ad haustum, ac furvo postmodum nigrescant colore. Rubri autem maris Arsinoe oppidum.
Beyond the Pelusiac mouth is Arabia, reaching to the Red Sea, which is called the Erythraean not only from its color, but from Erythras, a king, the son of Perseus and Andromeda. Varro says—he asserts—that on the shore of that sea there is a spring, which, if sheep drink of it, they change the quality of their fleeces, and those that previously were white lose what they had been up to the draught, and afterward blacken with a dusky color. Moreover, on the Red Sea is the town Arsinoe.
Verum hæc Arabia procedit ad usque illam odoriferam et divitem terram, quam Catabani et Scenitæ tenent Arabes, nobiles monte Casio: qui Scenitæ causam nominis inde ducunt, quod tentoriis succedunt, nec alias domos habent; ipsa autem tentoria cilicina sunt: ita nuncupant velamenta caprarum pilis texta. Præterea suillis carnibus prorsus abstinent. Sane hoc animalis genus, si invectum illo fuerit, moritur illico.
But this Arabia extends all the way to that odoriferous and wealthy land, which the Catabani and the Scenitae, Arabs, hold, notable for Mount Casius: the Scenitae derive the reason for their name from this, that they take shelter in tents and have no other houses; moreover the tents themselves are Cilician: thus they so designate coverings woven from the hairs of goats. Besides, they wholly abstain from swine-flesh. Indeed this kind of animal, if brought in there, dies immediately.
Eudæmonem non frustra cognominatam hinc capessas, quod præter odores, quos creat plurimos, sola thus mittit, nec tamen universa: nam in medio ejus sunt Atramitæ, pagus Sabæorum, a quo octo mansionibus regio thurifera disterminatur: Arabia appellatur, id est sacra: hoc enim significari interpretantur. Virgulta hæc non sunt publica, sed quod inter barbaros novum, in jus posterorum per successiones transeunt familiarum. Ergo quicumque dominatum istius tenent nemoris, Arabice sacri vocantur.
You may from this grasp why it has been surnamed Eudaemon not in vain: that, besides the odors which it creates in great number, it alone sends frankincense—yet not the whole; for in its middle are the Atramitae, a pagus of the Sabaeans, from which the thuriferous region is separated by eight mansions (stages). It is called Arabia, that is, “sacred”: for they interpret that this is what is signified. These shrubs are not public, but—what is novel among barbarians—pass into the right of descendants through the successions of families. Therefore whoever hold the lordship of that grove are called in Arabic “sacri.”
Those same men, when they either reap or cut into those groves, do not attend funerals, nor are they polluted by congress with women. This tree, before reliable report had fully disclosed it, some compared to the lentisk, others to the terebinth, until it was made public by the books which King Juba wrote to Caesar, the son of Augustus, that it has twisted osier, branches to the quality of the maple, that it pours forth sap in the manner of the almond, and that it is cut at the rising of the Dog-star, in the most blazing suns.
The trunk bent into a whorl and rough-bristling with spines; the leaf, though more crisp, yet similar to the olive; in greatest height it is raised to five cubits of stature. The Arabs feed their fires with its twigs; from whose smoke, quite noxious, unless they counter it with the odor of burned storax, they for the most part contract incurable diseases.
Apud eosdem nascitur phúnix avis, aquilæ magnitudine, capite honorato in conum plumis exstantibus, cristatis faucibus, circa colla fulgore aureo, postera parte purpureus absque cauda, in qua roseis pennis cæruleus interscribitur nitor. Probatum est, quadraginta et quingentis eum durare annis. Rogos suos struit cinnamis, quos prope Panchaiam concinnat, in Solis urbem strue altaribus superposita.
Among those same there is born the phoenix bird, of the magnitude of an eagle, with the head dignified into a cone by projecting feathers, with a crested throat, around the neck with a golden brilliance, on the posterior part purple apart from the tail, in which a cerulean sheen is inscribed among rosy feathers. It has been proved that it endures for 540 years. It piles its own pyres with cinnamons, which it arranges near Panchaia, into the City of the Sun, with the pile set upon the altars.
Since among the authors a confirmed belief is that the life of this creature brings about the revolution of the Great Year; although the majority of them say that the Great Year consists not of 540 but of 12,954 years. Accordingly, in the consulship of Plautius Sextius and Publius Apronius, the phoenix flew into Egypt; and, having been captured, in the 800th year from the founding of the City, by order of the emperor Claudius it was exhibited in the Comitium. This occurrence, apart from the Censor’s register, which remains, is also contained in the City’s records.
Cinnamolgos perinde Arabiæ avis in excellentissimis lucis texit nidos e fruticibus cinnatmorum; ad quos quoniam non est pervenire propter ramorum altitudinem et fragilitatem, accolæ illas congeries plumbatis petunt jaculis, dejectasque pretiis vendunt amplioribus, quod hoc cinnamum magis, quam alia, mercatores probent. Arabes longe lateque diffusi, diversis moribus vivunt et cultibus. Plurimis crinis intonsus, mitrata capita, pars rasa in cutem barba.
Cinnamolgos likewise, a bird of Arabia, weaves nests in the most lofty groves from cinnamon shrubs; and since it is not possible to reach them because of the height and fragility of the branches, the inhabitants assail those piles with lead-weighted javelins, and, once cast down, sell them at higher prices, because merchants approve this cinnamon more than the others. The Arabs, spread far and wide, live with diverse morals and cults. For very many the hair is unshorn, their heads mitred, a part has the beard shaved to the skin.
They are devoted to commerce, they do not buy alien goods, they sell their own: indeed they are rich both in forests and in the sea. The shadows which are on our right are on their left. A part of them, for whom the fare is harsh, eat serpents, with no care either of mind or of body, and therefore they are named Ophiophagi.
Ex istius litoris sinu Polycrati regi advecta sardonyx gemma, prima in orbe nostro luxuriæ excitavit facem. Nec multum de ea disserendum puto, adeo sardonyx in omnium venit conscientiam. Superficies ejus probatur, si meracius rubeat; arguitur, si fuerit fæculentior; medietas circumitur limite candidante; optima est, si nec colorem suum spargat in proximum, nec ipse ex altero mutuetur; reliqua nigro finiuntur.
From the bay of that shore a sardonyx gem, conveyed to King Polycrates, first kindled the torch of luxury in our world. Nor do I think there is much to be discoursed about it, so fully has sardonyx come into the consciousness of all. Its surface is approved, if it reddens more purely; it is arraigned, if it is more feculent; the middle is encircled by a whitening boundary; it is best if it neither sheds its own color into the adjoining part, nor itself borrows from the other; the remaining parts are finished with black.
Et molochitem Arabs invenit, virentem crassius quam smaragdus, contra infantum pericula ingenita vi resistentem. Invenit et iridem in mari Rubro, sicut crystallum sexangulatam. Quæ radiis icta solis, rutilo æris repercussu cúlestis arcus ex sese jacit speciem.
And the Arab discovered molochite, green, thicker than emerald, resisting by innate force against the dangers of infants. He also found the iris-stone in the Red Sea, hexagonal like crystal. Which, when struck by the rays of the sun, with the ruddy reflection of bronze, casts from itself the appearance of the celestial arc.
Pæderotem et Arabicam inde sumimus. Arabica aspectu eburnea est, radi abnuit; contra nervorum molestias prodest habentibus. In pæderote congruit quidquid eximium est, quadam decoris prærogativa; crystallinum lucet, rubet purpuram, in orarum extimis corona crocea velut e liquido renitente; hac suavitate oculos afficit, visum illicit, detinet intuentes; hac etiam gratia Indis placet.
From there we take the paederote and the Arabic. The Arabic is ivory in aspect, it refuses rays; it profits those who have troubles of the nerves. In the paederote whatever is select harmonizes, by a certain prerogative of decorum; it shines crystalline, it reddens purple, and at the extreme edges of its borders a saffron corona appears, as if from a liquid shining back; with this sweetness it affects the eyes, allures the sight, and holds those who gaze; by this grace it also pleases the Indians.
A Pelusio Casius mons est, et delubrum Jovis Casii, atque ita Ostracinæ locus Pompeii Magni sepulcro inclytus. Idumæa inde incipit palmis opima. Deinde Joppe oppidum antiquissimum orbe toto, utpote ante inundationem terrarum conditum, Id oppidum saxum ostentat, quod vinculorum Andromedæ vestigia adhuc retinet; quam expositam belluæ non irritus rumor circumtulit: quippe ossa monstri illius M. Scaurus inter alia miracula in ædilitate sua Romæ publicavit.
From Pelusium there is Mount Casius, and a shrine of Jupiter Casius, and so at Ostracina a place renowned for the tomb of Pompey the Great. From there Idumaea begins, rich in palms. Then Joppe, a town most ancient in the whole world, inasmuch as it was founded before the inundation of the lands. That town displays a rock which still retains the traces of Andromeda’s chains; and the report was not idle that she was exposed to the beast: indeed Marcus Scaurus, among other marvels, made public at Rome in his aedileship the bones of that monster.
It is a matter known to the Annals: the measures, too, are contained in veracious books, namely that the length of the ribs exceeded 40 feet, and that the loftiness was more eminent than that of Indian elephants; moreover, the little vertebrae of the spine themselves in breadth surpassed a half‑foot.
XXXVI. Judæa. In ea de Asphaltite lacu, de balsamo, de gente Hessenorum.
36. Judea. In it, about the Asphaltite lake, about balsam, about the people of the Essenes.
Which Asphaltites produces bitumen, has no animal life, nothing can be submerged in it: even bulls and camels float there with impunity. There is also the lake of Gennesar, extended to 16,000 paces, surrounded by very many and celebrated cities, itself equal to the best. But the lake of Tiberias is preferred to all, salubrious with a native warmth, and effective for health in its use.
In hac terra balsamum nascitur, quæ silva intra terminos viginti jugerum usque ad victoriam nostram fuit: ac quum Judæa potiti sumus, ita luci illi propagati sunt, ut jam nobis latissimi colles sudent balsama. Similes vitibus stirpes habet, malleolis digeruntur, rastris nitescunt, aqua gaudent, amant amputari, tenacibus foliis sempiterno inumbrantur. Lignum caudicis attrectatum ferro sine mora emoritur: ea propter aut vitro, aut cultellis osseis, sed in solo cortice artifici plaga vulneratur, ex qua eximiæ suavitatis gutta manat.
In this land balsam grows, a grove which remained within the bounds of twenty iugera up to our victory: and when we gained possession of Judaea, those groves were so propagated that now for us the very broad hills sweat balsam. It has stocks similar to vines, they are set out by slips, they are made clean with rakes, they delight in water, they love to be pruned, they are shaded perpetually by tenacious leaves. The wood of the stem, if touched by iron, dies without delay: for that reason either with glass, or with little knives of bone, but in the bark alone an artisan’s cut is inflicted, from which a drop of exceptional sweetness/fragrance flows.
Longo ab Hierosolymis recessu tristis sinus panditur, quem de cúlo tactum testatur humus nigra, et in cinerem soluta. Duo ibi oppida, Sodomum nominatum alterum, alterum Gomorrhum, apud quæ pomum quod gignitur, habeat licet specimen maturitatis, mandi tamen non potest: nam fuliginem intrinsecus favillaciam ambitio tantum extimæ cutis cohibet, quæ vel levi pressa actu fumum exhalat, et fatiscit in vagum pulverent.
At a long remove from Jerusalem a gloomy bay is opened up, which the black soil, loosened into ash, attests to have been heaven‑struck. Two towns are there, the one named Sodom, the other Gomorrah, near which the fruit that is produced, although it has the semblance of maturity, nevertheless cannot be eaten: for within, a sooty cindrous matter is confined only by the encircling of the outermost skin, which, even when pressed with a light touch, exhales smoke and crumbles into wandering dust.
Interiora Judææ, quæ occidentem contuentur, Esseni tenent, qui præditi memorabili disciplina recesserunt a more gentium universarum, majestatis, ut reor, providentia ad hunc morem destinati. Nulla ibi femina. Venere se penitus abdicarunt.
The inner regions of Judaea, which look toward the west, are held by the Essenes, who, endowed with a memorable discipline, have withdrawn from the custom of all nations, destined, as I think, by the providence of majesty to this manner. No woman there. They have utterly renounced sexual intercourse.
The place itself is devoted to pudicity: to which, although very many hasten from every side of the nations, no one is admitted unless the pledge of chastity and the merit of innocence attend him; for he who is guilty even of a slight fault, although he should wish with utmost effort to obtain entrance, is by divine agency removed. Thus, through the immense expanse of ages, incredible to say, there is an eternal race, with childbearings at a standstill. Engadda was a town below the Essenes, but it has been razed.
Transeo Damascum, Philadelphiam, Raphianam, Scythopoli primos incolas, et auctorem dabo. Liber pater quum humo nutricem tradidisset, condidit hoc oppidum, ut sepulturæ titulum etiam urbis múnibus ampliaret. Incolæ deerant; e comitibus suis Scythas delegit, quos ut animi firmaret ad promptam resistendi volentiam, præmium loci nomen dedit.
I pass over Damascus, Philadelphia, Raphia; for Scythopolis I will give the first inhabitants, and the founder. Father Liber, when he had consigned his nurse to the earth, founded this town, so that he might enlarge the title of sepulture even by the munificence of a city. Inhabitants were lacking; from his companions he chose Scythians, whom, in order to strengthen in spirit to a ready willingness for resisting, he gave the name of the place as a reward.
In Seleucia alter Casius mons est, Antiochiæ propinquus, cujus e vertice vigilia adhuc quarta conspicitur globus solis, et brevi corporis circumactu radiis caliginem dissipantibus, illinc nox, hinc dies cernitur. Talis e Casio specula est, ut lucem prius videas, quam auspicetur dies.
In Seleucia there is another Mount Casius, near Antioch, from whose summit the globe of the sun is still seen at the fourth watch; and with a brief turning of the body, as the rays dissipate the murk, there night, here day is discerned. Such is the lookout from Casius, that you see the light before the day is inaugurated.
XXXVIII. De fluminibus Tigri et Euphrate. Item de lapidibus zmilanthi, sagda, myrrhite, mithridace, tecolitho, hammochryso, ætite, pyrite, chalazia, echite, dionysia, de glossopetra, gemma solis, crine Veneris, selenite, meconite, myrmecite, chalcophthongo, siderite, phlogite, anthracia, enhydro.
38. On the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Likewise on the stones zmilanthus, sagda, myrrhites, mithridax, tecolithus, hammochrysus, aetite, pyrite, chalazia, echites, dionysia, on the glossopetra, the gem of the Sun, the hair of Venus, selenite, meconite, myrmecite, chalcophthongus, siderite, phlogite, anthracia, enhydros.
Euphratem fundit Armenia major, ortum supra Zizamam sub radicibus montis, quem Capoten accolæ nominant, Scythis proximum. Hic receptis in se aliquot amnibus convalescit, et stipatus convenis aquis, luctatur cum Tauri montis objectu, quem apud Elegeam scindit, resistat licet duodecim millibus passuum latitudine; longisque excursibus dextera Comagenen, Arabiam læva relinquit; deinde prælabens plurimas gentes, Babyloniam, quondam Chaldæorum caput, dividit. Mesopotamiam opimat inundationis annuæ excessibus, ad instar Ægyptii amnis terras contegens, invecta soli fecunditate, isdem ferme temporibus, quibus Nilus exit, sole scilicet in parte Cancri vicesima constituto; tenuatur quum, jam Leone decurso, ad extima Virginis curricula facit transitum.
Greater Armenia pours forth the Euphrates, its rise above Zizama beneath the roots of the mountain which the inhabitants call Capoten, near the Scythians. This river, having received several streams into itself, grows strong, and, packed with gathered waters, struggles with the obstacle of Mount Taurus, which it cleaves near Elegea, although it resists with a breadth of twelve thousand paces; and in long excursions it leaves Commagene on the right, Arabia on the left; then, gliding past very many nations, it bisects Babylonia, once the head of the Chaldaeans. It enriches Mesopotamia with the excesses of its annual inundation, covering the lands after the manner of the Egyptian river, with fertility brought upon the soil, at almost the same times at which the Nile goes forth, namely when the sun is set in the twentieth part of Cancer; it is thinned when, Leo now run through, it makes its passage to the extremities of Virgo’s courses.
Which the gnomonists contend happens with similar parallels, which the equality of the normal line makes equal in the positioning of the lands. Whence it appears that these two rivers, set by the measure of the same perpendicular, although they remain in different regions, have the same causes of increase.
At first it flows sluggishly, and not under its own name; but when it has entered the borders of the Medes, it is at once called Tigris: for thus the Medes name the arrow. It flows into Lake Arethisa, which sustains every weight: whose fish never mingle themselves with the channel of the Tigris, just as neither do the river’s fish cross into the pool of Arethisa, through which, different in color, it goes with winged course. Soon, with the Taurus resisting, it sinks into a deep cavern, and, gliding beneath it, on its other side near Zomada it darts forth, dragging with it reeds and a very great quantity of refuse; then again and again it hides itself, and again it is restored.
Sagda a Chaldæis usque ad nos fluxit, haud facilis repertu, nisi, ut perhibent, ipsa se capessendam daret: namque ingenita spiritus efficacia supermeantes naves e profundo petit, et carinis ita tenaciter adcorporatur, ut, nisi abrasa parte ligni ægre separetur. Ea sagda apud Chaldæos propter effectus, quos ex ea sciunt, habetur in loco principe, ceteris propter gratiam magis complacet jucundissime virens.
Sagda has come down to us from the Chaldaeans, not easy to find, unless, as they report, it were to give itself to be seized: for by the inborn efficacy of its spirit it seeks from the deep the ships sailing above, and so tenaciously fastens itself to the keels that, unless a part of the wood be shaved off, it is scarcely separated. This sagda among the Chaldaeans, on account of the effects which they know from it, is held in a principal place; to others it is more pleasing for its grace, being most pleasantly green.
Myrrhites Parthis familiaris est. Hunc si visu æstimes, myrrhæ color est, et non habet, quo afficiat aspectum; si penitus explores, et attritu incites ad calorem, spirat nardi suavitatem. In Perside lapidum tanta copia est, tantaque diversitas, ut longum pæne sit ipsis vocabulis immorari.
Myrrhites is familiar to the Parthians. If you judge this by sight, it has the color of myrrh, and it has nothing with which to affect the sight; if you explore it thoroughly, and by rubbing incite it to heat, it breathes the suavity of nard. In Persia there is such a copiousness of stones, and such diversity, that it would be almost too lengthy to linger over the very vocabulary.
Aetites et fulvus est, et tereti positione alterum lapidem intrinsecus cohibens: cujus crepitu sonorus est, quum movetur, quamlibet tinnitum illum non internum scrupulum facere; sed spiritum scientissimi dicant. Hunc ætitem Zoroastres præfert omnibus, maximamque illi tribuit potestatem. Invenitur autem in nidis aquilæ, aut in litoribus Oceani: in Perside tamen plurimus.
Aetites is tawny, and, with a rounded configuration, confines within itself another stone: it is sonorous with a rattle when it is moved, although that tinkling is not caused by an internal scruple (little stone), but, the most learned say, by a spirit, a breath of air. Zoroaster prefers this aetites before all others, and attributes to it the greatest power. It is found in the nests of the eagle, or on the shores of the Ocean: in Persia, however, it is most plentiful.
Dionysias is dusky, sprinkled with ruddy marks. The same, if mixed with water and ground, is redolent of wine, and—what in that odor is marvelous—resists ebriety. The glossopetra, during waning moons, falls from the sky, similar to a human tongue, of no moderate power, as the magi report, who think that lunar motions are excited by it.
The Sun’s gem is very bright, in the aspect of a fulgid star, and it casts rutilant rays from itself. The Hair of Venus glistens black, displaying in its internal ducts the likeness of reddish hairs. Selenite is translucent with a white and honeyed radiance, containing the image of the Moon, which they report, according to the course of that star itself, to be diminished or increased each day.