Note 69 — THE ESSENES.

Pliny, whom Solinus copies, simply says that the Essenes live in the society of palm-trees (socia palmarum), to form an antithesis with the appellation a solitary community (sola gens); and this is perfectly correct. But Solinus’ alteration of it into “palm-berries are their food” (palmis victitant) is incorrect, inasmuch as they lived from the cultivation of the land, bees, &c. ↑