Note 40 — OF THE POPULOUSNESS OF ANCIENT NATIONS.[39]
Reading edition
Columella says (lib. 3, cap. 8) that in Egypt and Africa the bearing of twins was frequent and even customary; gemini partus familiares, ac pæne solennes sunt. If this was true, there is a physical difference both in countries and ages, for travellers make no such remarks of these countries at present; on the contrary, we are apt to suppose the northern nations more fertile. As those two countries were provinces of the Roman Empire, it is difficult, though not altogether absurd, to suppose that such a man as Columella might be mistaken with regard to them.