Note 14 — Chapter X
Reading edition
Melp. ρπζ.—Sallust has observed of this coast and its inhabitants:—
“Mare sævum, importuosum. Ager frugum fertilis, bonus pecori, arbori infecundus: cœlo, terraque penuria aquarum: genus hominum salubri corpore, velox, patiens laborum: plerosque senectus dissolvit, nisi qui ferro, aut a bestiis interiere. Nam morbus haud sæpe quenquam superat, ad hoc malefici generis plurima animalia.”—(Bell. Jugurth. § 17.)
This account agrees very well with that of Herodotus; but the description which Sallust afterwards gives of the country where the Philænean altars were placed, conveys too much the idea of a flat sandy plain.