BOOK II. AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS. (continued 2)

But if it burst from the cavity of a cloud which is more depressed, but less capacious than what produces a squall, and is accompanied by noise, it is called a whirlwind, and throws down everything which is near it. The same, when it is more burning and rages with greater heat, is called a blasting wind390, scorching and, at the same time, throwing down everything with which it comes in contact. (49.) Typhon never comes from the north, nor have we Ecnephias when it snows, or when there is snow on the ground. If it breaks the clouds, and, at the same time, catches fire or burns, but not until it has left the cloud, it forms a thunder-bolt. It differs from Prester as flame does from fire; the former is diffused in a gust, the latter is condensed with a violent impulse391. The whirlwind, when it rebounds, differs from the tornado in the same manner as a loud noise does from a dash.

The squall differs from both of them in its extent, the clouds being more properly rent asunder than broken into pieces. A black cloud is formed, resembling a great animal, an appearance much dreaded by sailors. It is also called a pillar, when the moisture is so condensed and rigid as to be able to support itself. It is a cloud of the same kind, which, when drawn into a tube, sucks up the water392.

CHAP. 51. (50.)—OF THUNDER393; IN WHAT COUNTRIES IT DOES NOT FALL, AND FOR WHAT REASON.

Thunder is rare both in winter and in summer394, but from different causes; the air, which is condensed in the winter, is made still more dense by a thicker covering of clouds, while the exhalations from the earth, being all of them rigid and frozen, extinguish whatever fiery vapour it may receive. It is this cause which exempts Scythia and the cold districts round it from thunder. On the other hand, the excessive heat exempts Egypt; the warm and dry vapours of the earth being very seldom condensed, and that only into light clouds. But, in the spring and autumn, thunder is more frequent, the causes which produce summer and winter being, in each season, less efficient. From this cause thunder is more frequent in Italy, the air being more easily set in motion, in consequence of a milder winter and a showery summer, so that it may be said to be always spring or autumn. Also in those parts of Italy which recede from the north and lie towards the south, as in the district round our city, and in Campania, it lightens equally both in winter and in summer, which is not the case in other situations.

CHAP. 52. (51.)—OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LIGHTNING395 AND THEIR WONDERFUL EFFECTS.

We have accounts of many different kinds of thunder-storms. Those which are dry do not burn objects, but dissipate them; while those which are moist do not burn, but blacken them. There is a third kind, which is called bright lightning396, of a very wonderful nature, by which casks are emptied, without the vessels themselves being injured, or there being any other trace left of their operation397. Gold, copper, and silver are melted, while the bags which contain them are not in the least burned, nor even the wax seal much defaced. Marcia, a lady of high rank at Rome, was struck while pregnant; the fœtus was destroyed, while she herself survived without suffering any injury398. Among the prognostics which took place at the time of Catiline’s conspiracy, M. Herennius, a magistrate of the borough of Pompeii, was struck by lightning when the sky was without clouds399.

CHAP. 53. (52.)—THE ETRURIAN400 AND THE ROMAN OBSERVATIONS ON THESE POINTS.

The Tuscan books inform us, that there are nine Gods who discharge thunder-storms, that there are eleven different kinds of them, and that three of them are darted out by Jupiter. Of these the Romans retained only two, ascribing the diurnal kind to Jupiter, and the nocturnal to Summanus401; this latter kind being more rare, in consequence of the heavens being colder, as was mentioned above. The Etrurians also suppose, that those which are named Infernal burst out of the ground; they are produced in the winter and are particularly fierce and direful, as all things are which proceed from the earth, and are not generated by or proceeding from the stars, but from a cause which is near at hand, and of a more disorderly nature. As a proof of this it is said, that all those which proceed from the higher regions strike obliquely, while those which are termed terrestrial strike in a direct line. And because these fall from matter which is nearer to us, they are supposed to proceed from the earth, since they leave no traces of a rebound; this being the effect of a stroke coming not from below, but from an opposite quarter. Those who have searched into the subject more minutely suppose, that these come from the planet Saturn, as those that are of a burning nature do from Mars. In this way it was that Volsinium, the most opulent town of the Tuscans, was entirely consumed by lightning402. The first of these strokes that a man receives, after he has come into possession of any property, is termed Familiar403, and is supposed to prognosticate the events of the whole of his life. But it is not generally supposed that they predict events of a private nature for a longer space than ten years, unless they happen at the time of a first marriage or a birth-day; nor that public predictions extend beyond thirty years404, unless with respect to the founding of colonies405.

CHAP. 54. (53.)—OF CONJURING UP THUNDER.

It is related in our Annals, that by certain sacred rites and imprecations, thunder-storms may be compelled or invoked406. There is an old report in Etruria, that thunder was invoked when the city of Volsinium had its territory laid waste by a monster named Volta407. Thunder was also invoked by King Porsenna. And L. Piso408, a very respectable author, states in the first book of his Annals, that this had been frequently done before his time by Numa, and that Tullus Hostilius, imitating him, but not having properly performed the ceremonies, was struck with the lightning409. We have also groves, and altars, and sacred places, and, among the titles of Jupiter, as Stator, Tonans, and Feretrius, we have a Jupiter Elicius410. The opinions entertained on this point are very various, and depend much on the dispositions of different individuals. To believe that we can command nature is the mark of a bold mind, nor is it less the mark of a feeble one to reject her kindness411. Our knowledge has been so far useful to us in the interpretation of thunder, that it enables us to predict what is to happen on a certain day, and we learn either that our fortune is to be entirely changed, or it discloses events which are concealed from us; as is proved by an infinite number of examples, public and private. Wherefore let these things remain, according to the order of nature, to some persons certain, to others doubtful, by some approved, by others condemned. I must not, however, omit the other circumstances connected with them which deserve to be related.

CHAP. 55. (54.)—GENERAL LAWS OF LIGHTNING.

It is certain that the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard, although they both take place at the same time. Nor is this wonderful, since light has a greater velocity than sound. Nature so regulates it, that the stroke and the sound coincide412; the sound is, however, produced by the discharge of the thunder, not by its stroke. But the air is impelled quicker than the lightning413, on which account it is that everything is shaken and blown up before it is struck, and that a person is never injured when he has seen the lightning and heard the thunder. Thunder on the left hand is supposed to be lucky, because the east is on the left side of the heavens414. We do not regard so much the mode in which it comes to us, as that in which it leaves us, whether the fire rebounds after the stroke, or whether the current of air returns when the operation is concluded and the fire is consumed. In relation to this object the Etrurians have divided the heavens into sixteen parts415. The first great division is from north to east; the second to the south; the third to the west, and the fourth occupies what remains from west to north. Each of these has been subdivided into four parts, of which the eight on the east have been called the left, and those on the west the right divisions. Those which extend from the west to the north have been considered the most unpropitious. It becomes therefore very important to ascertain from what quarter the thunder proceeds, and in what direction it falls. It is considered a very favourable omen when it returns into the eastern divisions. But it prognosticates the greatest felicity when the thunder proceeds from the first-mentioned part of the heavens and falls back into it; it was an omen of this kind which, as we have heard, was given to Sylla, the Dictator. The remaining quarters of the heavens are less propitious, and also less to be dreaded. There are some kinds of thunder which it is not thought right to speak of, or even to listen to, unless when they have been disclosed to the master of a family or to a parent. But the futility of this observation was detected when the temple of Juno was struck at Rome, during the consulship of Scaurus, he who was afterwards the Prince of the Senate416.

It lightens without thunder more frequently in the night than in the day417. Man is the only animal that is not always killed by it, all other animals being killed instantly, nature having granted to him this mark of distinction, while so many other animals excel him in strength. All animals fall down on the opposite side to that which has been struck; man, unless he be thrown down on the parts that are struck, does not expire. Those who are struck directly from above sink down immediately. When a man is struck while he is awake, he is found with his eyes closed; when asleep, with them open. It is not considered proper that a man killed in this way should be burnt on the funeral pile; our religion enjoins us to bury the body in the earth418. No animal is consumed by lightning unless after having been previously killed. The parts of the animal that have been wounded by lightning are colder than the rest of the body.

CHAP. 56. (55.)—OBJECTS WHICH ARE NEVER STRUCK.

Among the productions of the earth, thunder never strikes the laurel419, nor does it descend more than five feet into the earth. Those, therefore, who are timid consider the deepest caves as the most safe; or tents made of the skins of the animal called the sea-calf, since this is the only marine animal which is never struck420; as is the case, among birds, with the eagle; on this account it is represented as the bearer of this weapon421. In Italy, between Terracina and the temple of Feronia, the people have left off building towers in time of war, every one of them having been destroyed by thunderbolts.

CHAP. 57. (56.)—SHOWERS OF MILK, BLOOD, FLESH, IRON, WOOL, AND BAKED TILES422.

Besides these, we learn from certain monuments, that from the lower part of the atmosphere423 it rained milk and blood, in the consulship of M’ Acilius and C. Porcius, and frequently at other times424. This was the case with respect to flesh, in the consulship of P. Volumnius and Servius Sulpicius, and it is said, that what was not devoured by the birds did not become putrid. It also rained iron among the Lucanians, the year before Crassus was slain by the Parthians, as well as all the Lucanian soldiers, of whom there was a great number in this army. The substance which fell had very much the appearance of sponge425; the augurs warned the people against wounds that might come from above. In the consulship of L. Paulus and C. Marcellus it rained wool, round the castle of Carissanum, near which place, a year after, T. Annius Milo was killed. It is recorded, among the transactions of that year, that when he was pleading his own cause, there was a shower of baked tiles.

CHAP. 58. (57.)—RATTLING OF ARMS AND THE SOUND OF TRUMPETS HEARD IN THE SKY.

We have heard, that during the war with the Cimbri, the rattling of arms and the sound of trumpets were heard through the sky, and that the same thing has frequently happened before and since426. Also, that in the third consulship of Marius, armies were seen in the heavens by the Amerini and the Tudertes, encountering each other, as if from the east and west, and that those from the east were repelled427. It is not at all wonderful for the heavens themselves to be in flames428, and it has been more frequently observed when the clouds have taken up a great deal of fire.

CHAP. 59. (58.)—OF STONES THAT HAVE FALLEN FROM THE CLOUDS429. THE OPINION OF ANAXAGORAS RESPECTING THEM.

The Greeks boast that Anaxagoras430, the Clazomenian, in the second year of the 78th Olympiad, from his knowledge of what relates to the heavens, had predicted, that at a certain time, a stone would fall from the sun431. And the thing accordingly happened, in the daytime, in a part of Thrace, at the river Ægos. The stone is now to be seen, a waggon-load in size and of a burnt appearance; there was also a comet shining in the night at that time432. But to believe that this had been predicted would be to admit that the divining powers of Anaxagoras were still more wonderful, and that our knowledge of the nature of things, and indeed every thing else, would be thrown into confusion, were we to suppose either that the sun is itself composed of stone, or that there was even a stone in it; yet there can be no doubt that stones have frequently fallen from the atmosphere. There is a stone, a small one indeed, at this time, in the Gymnasium of Abydos, which on this account is held in veneration, and which the same Anaxagoras predicted would fall in the middle of the earth. There is another at Cassandria, formerly called Potidæa433, which from this circumstance was built in that place. I have myself seen one in the country of the Vocontii434, which had been brought from the fields only a short time before.

CHAP. 60. (59.)—THE RAINBOW.

What we name Rainbows frequently occur, and are not considered either wonderful or ominous; for they do not predict, with certainty, either rain or fair weather. It is obvious, that the rays of the sun, being projected upon a hollow cloud, the light is thrown back to the sun and is refracted435, and that the variety of colours is produced by a mixture of clouds, air, and fire436. The rainbow is certainly never produced except in the part opposite to the sun, nor even in any other form except that of a semicircle. Nor are they ever formed at night, although Aristotle asserts that they are sometimes seen at that time; he acknowledges, however, that it can only be on the 14th day of the moon437. They are seen in the winter the most frequently, when the days are shortening, after the autumnal equinox438. They are not seen when the days increase again, after the vernal equinox, nor on the longest days, about the summer solstice, but frequently at the winter solstice, when the days are the shortest. When the sun is low they are high, and when the sun is high they are low; they are smaller when in the east or west, but are spread out wider; in the south they are small, but of a greater span. In the summer they are not seen at noon, but after the autumnal equinox at any hour: there are never more than two seen at once.

CHAP. 61.—THE NATURE OF HAIL, SNOW, HOAR, MIST, DEW; THE FORMS OF CLOUDS.

I do not find that there is any doubt entertained respecting the following points. (60.) Hail is produced by frozen rain, and snow by the same fluid less firmly concreted, and hoar by frozen dew439. During the winter snow falls, but not hail; hail itself falls more frequently during the day than the night, and is more quickly melted than snow. There are no mists either in the summer or during the greatest cold of winter. There is neither dew nor hoar formed during great heat or winds, nor unless the night be serene. Fluids are diminished in bulk by being frozen, and, when the ice is melted, we do not obtain the same quantity of fluid as at first440.

(61.) The clouds are varied in their colour and figure according as the fire which they contain is in excess or is absorbed by them.

CHAP. 62. (62.)—THE PECULIARITIES OF THE WEATHER IN DIFFERENT PLACES.

There are, moreover, certain peculiarities in certain places. In Africa dew falls during the night in summer. In Italy, at Locri, and at the Lake Velinum, there is never a day in which a rainbow is not seen441. At Rhodes and at Syracuse the sky is never so covered with clouds, but that the sun is visible at one time or another; these things, however, will be better detailed in their proper place. So far respecting the air.

CHAP. 63. (63.)—NATURE OF THE EARTH.

Next comes the earth, on which alone of all parts of nature we have bestowed the name that implies maternal veneration. It is appropriated to man as the heavens are to God. She receives us at our birth, nourishes us when born, and ever afterwards supports us; lastly, embracing us in her bosom when we are rejected by the rest of nature, she then covers us with especial tenderness; rendered sacred to us, inasmuch as she renders us sacred, bearing our monuments and titles, continuing our names, and extending our memory, in opposition to the shortness of life. In our anger we imprecate her on those who are now no more442, as if we were ignorant that she is the only being who can never be angry with man. The water passes into showers, is concreted into hail, swells into rivers, is precipitated in torrents; the air is condensed into clouds, rages in squalls; but the earth, kind, mild, and indulgent as she is, and always ministering to the wants of mortals, how many things do we compel her to produce spontaneously! What odours and flowers, nutritive juices, forms and colours! With what good faith does she render back all that has been entrusted to her! It is the vital spirit which must bear the blame of producing noxious animals; for the earth is constrained to receive the seeds of them, and to support them when they are produced. The fault lies in the evil nature which generates them. The earth will no longer harbour a serpent after it has attacked any one443, and thus she even demands punishment in the name of those who are indifferent about it themselves444. She pours forth a profusion of medicinal plants, and is always producing something for the use of man. We may even suppose, that it is out of compassion to us that she has ordained certain substances to be poisonous, in order that when we are weary of life, hunger, a mode of death the most foreign to the kind disposition of the earth445, might not consume us by a slow decay, that precipices might not lacerate our mangled bodies, that the unseemly punishment of the halter may not torture us, by stopping the breath of one who seeks his own destruction, or that we may not seek our death in the ocean, and become food for our graves, or that our bodies may not be gashed by steel. On this account it is that nature has produced a substance which is very easily taken, and by which life is extinguished, the body remaining undefiled and retaining all its blood, and only causing a degree of thirst. And when it is destroyed by this means, neither bird nor beast will touch the body, but he who has perished by his own hands is reserved for the earth.

But it must be acknowledged, that everything which the earth has produced, as a remedy for our evils, we have converted into the poison of our lives. For do we not use iron, which we cannot do without, for this purpose? But although this cause of mischief has been produced, we ought not to complain; we ought not to be ungrateful to this one part of nature446. How many luxuries and how many insults does she not bear for us! She is cast into the sea, and, in order that we may introduce seas into her bosom, she is washed away by the waves. She is continually tortured for her iron, her timber, stone, fire, corn, and is even much more subservient to our luxuries than to our mere support. What indeed she endures on her surface might be tolerated, but we penetrate also into her bowels, digging out the veins of gold and silver, and the ores of copper and lead; we also search for gems and certain small pebbles, driving our trenches to a great depth. We tear out her entrails in order to extract the gems with which we may load our fingers. How many hands are worn down that one little joint may be ornamented! If the infernal regions really existed, certainly these burrows of avarice and luxury would have penetrated into them. And truly we wonder that this same earth should have produced anything noxious! But, I suppose, the savage beasts protect her and keep off our sacrilegious hands447. For do we not dig among serpents and handle poisonous plants along with those veins of gold? But the Goddess shows herself more propitious to us, inasmuch as all this wealth ends in crimes, slaughter, and war, and that, while we drench her with our blood, we cover her with unburied bones; and being covered with these and her anger being thus appeased, she conceals the crimes of mortals448. I consider the ignorance of her nature as one of the evil effects of an ungrateful mind.

CHAP. 64. (64.)—OF THE FORM OF THE EARTH.

Every one agrees that it has the most perfect figure449. We always speak of the ball of the earth, and we admit it to be a globe bounded by the poles. It has not indeed the form of an absolute sphere, from the number of lofty mountains and flat plains; but if the termination of the lines be bounded by a curve450, this would compose a perfect sphere. And this we learn from arguments drawn from the nature of things, although not from the same considerations which we made use of with respect to the heavens. For in these the hollow convexity everywhere bends on itself, and leans upon the earth as its centre. Whereas the earth rises up solid and dense, like something that swells up and is protruded outwards. The heavens bend towards the centre, while the earth goes from the centre, the continual rolling of the heavens about it forcing its immense globe into the form of a sphere451.

CHAP. 65. (65.)—WHETHER THERE BE ANTIPODES?

On this point there is a great contest between the learned and the vulgar. We maintain, that there are men dispersed over every part of the earth, that they stand with their feet turned towards each other, that the vault of the heavens appears alike to all of them, and that they, all of them, appear to tread equally on the middle of the earth. If any one should ask, why those situated opposite to us do not fall, we directly ask in return, whether those on the opposite side do not wonder that we do not fall. But I may make a remark, that will appear plausible even to the most unlearned, that if the earth were of the figure of an unequal globe, like the seed of a pine452, still it may be inhabited in every part.

But of how little moment is this, when we have another miracle rising up to our notice! The earth itself is pendent and does not fall with us; it is doubtful whether this be from the force of the spirit which is contained in the universe453, or whether it would fall, did not nature resist, by allowing of no place where it might fall. For as the seat of fire is nowhere but in fire, nor of water except in water, nor of air except in air, so there is no situation for the earth except in itself, everything else repelling it. It is indeed wonderful that it should form a globe, when there is so much flat surface of the sea and of the plains. And this was the opinion of Dicæarchus, a peculiarly learned man, who measured the heights of mountains, under the direction of the kings, and estimated Pelion, which was the highest, at 1250 paces perpendicular, and considered this as not affecting the round figure of the globe. But this appears to me to be doubtful, as I well know that the summits of some of the Alps rise up by a long space of not less than 50,000 paces454. But what the vulgar most strenuously contend against is, to be compelled to believe that the water is forced into a rounded figure455; yet there is nothing more obvious to the sight among the phænomena of nature. For we see everywhere, that drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes, and when they are covered with dust, or have the down of leaves spread over them, they are observed to be completely round; and when a cup is filled, the liquid swells up in the middle. But on account of the subtile nature of the fluid and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained by our reason than by our sight. And it is even more wonderful, that if a very little fluid only be added to a cup when it is full, the superfluous quantity runs over, whereas the contrary happens if we add a solid body, even as much as would weigh 20 denarii. The reason of this is, that what is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while what is poured on it slides off from the projecting surface. It is from the same cause456 that the land is not visible from the body of a ship when it may be seen from the mast; and that when a vessel is receding, if any bright object be fixed to the mast, it seems gradually to descend and finally to become invisible. And the ocean, which we admit to be without limits, if it had any other figure, could it cohere and exist without falling, there being no external margin to contain it? And the same wonder still recurs, how is it that the extreme parts of the sea, although it be in the form of a globe, do not fall down? In opposition to which doctrine, the Greeks, to their great joy and glory, were the first to teach us, by their subtile geometry, that this could not happen, even if the seas were flat, and of the figure which they appear to be. For since water always runs from a higher to a lower level, and this is admitted to be essential to it, no one ever doubted that the water would accumulate on any shore, as much as its slope would allow it. It is also certain, that the lower anything is, so much the nearer is it to the centre, and that all the lines which are drawn from this point to the water which is the nearest to it, are shorter than those which reach from the beginning of the sea to its extreme parts457. Hence it follows, that all the water, from every part, tends towards the centre, and, because it has this tendency, does not fall.

CHAP. 66.—HOW THE WATER IS CONNECTED WITH THE EARTH. OF THE NAVIGATION OF THE SEA AND THE RIVERS.

We must believe, that the great artist, Nature, has so arranged it, that as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by itself and without moisture, nor, on the other hand, can the water subsist unless it be supported by the earth, they are connected by a mutual union. The earth opens her harbours, while the water pervades the whole earth, within, without, and above; its veins running in all directions, like connecting links, and bursting out on even the highest ridges; where, forced up by the air, and pressed out by the weight of the earth, it shoots forth as from a pipe, and is so far from being in danger of falling, that it bounds up to the highest and most lofty places. Hence the reason is obvious, why the seas are not increased by the daily accession of so many rivers458.

(66.) The earth has, therefore, the whole of its globe girt, on every side, by the sea flowing round it. And this is not a point to be investigated by arguments, but what has been ascertained by experience.

CHAP. 67. (67.)—WHETHER THE OCEAN SURROUNDS THE EARTH.

The whole of the western ocean is now navigated, from Gades and the Pillars of Hercules, round Spain and Gaul. The greater part of the northern ocean has also been navigated, under the auspices of the Emperor Augustus, his fleet having been carried round Germany to the promontory of the Cimbri459; from which spot they descried an immense sea, or became acquainted with it by report, which extends to the country of the Scythians, and the districts that are chilled by excessive moisture460. On this account it is not at all probable, that the ocean should be deficient in a region where moisture so much abounds. In like manner, towards the east, from the Indian sea, all that part which lies in the same latitude461, and which bends round towards the Caspian462, has been explored by the Macedonian arms, in the reigns of Seleucus and Antiochus, who wished it to be named after themselves, the Seleucian or Antiochian Sea. About the Caspian, too, many parts of the shores of the ocean have been explored, so that nearly the whole of the north has been sailed over in one direction or another. Nor can our argument be much affected by the point that has been so much discussed, respecting the Palus Mæotis, whether it be a bay of the same ocean463, as is, I understand, the opinion of some persons, or whether it be the overflowing of a narrow channel connected with a different ocean464. On the other side of Gades, proceeding from the same western point, a great part of the southern ocean, along Mauritania, has now been navigated. Indeed the greater part of this region, as well as of the east, as far as the Arabian Gulf, was surveyed in consequence of Alexander’s victories. When Caius Cæsar, the son of Augustus465, had the conduct of affairs in that country, it is said that they found the remains of Spanish vessels which had been wrecked there. While the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno published an account of a voyage which he made from Gades to the extremity of Arabia466; Himilco was also sent, about the same time, to explore the remote parts of Europe. Besides, we learn from Corn. Nepos, that one Eudoxus, a contemporary of his467, when he was flying from king Lathyrus, set out from the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades468. And long before him, Cælius Antipater469 informs us, that he had seen a person who had sailed from Spain to Æthiopia for the purposes of trade. The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then a proconsul in Gaul470, had a present made to him by the king of the Suevi, of certain Indians, who sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by tempests into Germany471. Thus it appears, that the seas which flow completely round the globe, and divide it, as it were, into two parts472, exclude us from one part of it, as there is no way open to it on either side. And as the contemplation of these things is adapted to detect the vanity of mortals, it seems incumbent on me to display, and lay open to our eyes, the whole of it, whatever it be, in which there is nothing which can satisfy the desires of certain individuals.

CHAP. 68. (68.)—WHAT PART OF THE EARTH IS INHABITED.

In the first place, then, it appears, that this should be estimated at half the globe473, as if no portion of this half was encroached upon by the ocean. But surrounding as it does the whole of the land, pouring out and receiving all the other waters, furnishing whatever goes to the clouds, and feeding the stars themselves, so numerous and of such great size as they are, what a great space must we not suppose it to occupy! This vast mass must fill up and occupy an infinite extent. To this we must add that portion of the remainder which the heavens474 take from us. For the globe is divided into five parts475, termed zones, and all that portion is subject to severe cold and perpetual frost which is under the two extremities, about each of the poles, the nearer of which is called the north, and the opposite the south, pole. In all these regions there is perpetual darkness, and, in consequence of the aspect of the milder stars being turned from them, the light is malignant, and only like the whiteness which is produced by hoar frost. The middle of the earth, over which is the orbit of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and is consumed by being so near the heat. There are only two of the zones which are temperate, those which lie between the torrid and the frigid zones, and these are separated from each other, in consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies. It appears, therefore, that the heavens take from us three parts of the earth; how much the ocean steals is uncertain.

And with respect to the part which is left us, I do not know whether that is not even in greater danger. This same ocean, insinuating itself, as I have described it, into a number of bays, approaches with its roaring476 so near to the inland seas, that the Arabian Gulf is no more than 115 miles from the Egyptian Sea477, and the Caspian only 375 miles from the Euxine. It also insinuates itself into the numerous seas by which it separates Africa, Europe, and Asia; hence how much space must it occupy? We must also take into account the extent of all the rivers and the marshes, and we must add the lakes and the pools. There are also the mountains, raised up to the heavens, with their precipitous fronts; we must also subtract the forests and the craggy valleys, the wildernesses, and the places, which, from various causes, are desert. The vast quantity which remains of the earth478, or rather, as many persons have considered it, this speck of a world479 (for the earth is no more in regard to the universe), this is the object, the seat of our glory—here we bear our honours, here we exercise our power, here we covet wealth, here we mortals create our disturbances, here we continually carry on our wars, aye, civil wars, even, and unpeople the earth by mutual slaughter. And not to dwell on public feuds, entered into by nations against each other, here it is that we drive away our neighbours, and enclose the land thus seized upon within our own fence480; and yet the man who has most extended his boundary, and has expelled the inhabitants for ever so great a distance, after all, what mighty portion of the earth is he master of? And even when his avarice has been the most completely satisfied, what part of it can he take with him into the grave?

CHAP. 69. (69.)—THAT THE EARTH IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD.

It is evident from undoubted arguments, that the earth is in the middle of the universe481, but it is the most clearly proved by the equality of the days and the nights at the equinox482. It is demonstrated by the quadrant483, which affords the most decisive confirmation of the fact, that unless the earth was in the middle, the days and nights could not be equal; for, at the time of the equinox, the rising and setting of the sun are seen on the same line, and the rising of the sun, at the summer solstice, is on the same line with its setting at the winter solstice; but this could not happen if the earth was not situated in the centre.

CHAP. 70. (70.)—OF THE OBLIQUITY OF THE ZONES484.

The three circles485, which are connected with the above-mentioned zones, distinguish the inequalities of the seasons; these are, the solstitial circle, which proceeds from the part of the Zodiac the highest to us and approaching the nearest to the district of the north; on the other side, the brumal, which is towards the south pole; and the equinoctial, which traverses the middle of the Zodiac.

CHAP. 71.—OF THE INEQUALITY OF CLIMATES.

The cause of the other things which are worthy of our admiration depends on the figure of the earth itself, which, together with all its waters, is proved, by the same arguments, to be a globe. This certainly is the cause why the stars of the northern portion of the heavens never set to us, and why, on the other hand, those in the south never rise, and again, why the latter can never be seen by the former, the globe of the earth rising up and concealing them. The Northern Wain is never seen in Troglodytice486, nor in Egypt, which borders on it487; nor can we, in Italy, see the star Canopus488, or Berenice’s Hair489; nor what, under the Emperor Augustus, was named Cæsar’s Throne, although they are, there490, very brilliant stars. The curved form of the earth is so obvious, rising up like a ridge, that Canopus appears to a spectator at Alexandria to rise above the horizon almost the quarter of a sign; the same star at Rhodes appears, as it were, to graze along the earth, while in Pontus it is not seen at all; where the Northern Wain appears considerably elevated. This same constellation cannot be seen at Rhodes, and still less at Alexandria. In Arabia, in the month of November, it is concealed during the first watch of the night, but may be seen during the second491; in Meroë it is seen, for a short time, in the evening, at the solstice, and it is visible at day-break, for a few days before the rising of Arcturus492. These facts have been principally ascertained by the expeditions of navigators; the sea appearing more elevated or depressed in certain parts493; the stars suddenly coming into view, and, as it were, emerging from the water, after having been concealed by the bulging out of the globe494. But the heavens do not, as some suppose, rise higher at one pole, otherwise495 its stars would be seen from all parts of the world; they indeed are supposed to be higher by those who are nearest to them, but the stars are sunk below the horizon to those who are more remote. As this pole appears to be elevated to those who are beneath it; so, when we have passed along the convexity of the earth, those stars rise up, which appear elevated to the inhabitants of those other districts; all this, however, could not happen unless the earth had the shape of a globe.

CHAP. 72.—IN WHAT PLACES ECLIPSES ARE INVISIBLE, AND WHY THIS IS THE CASE.

Hence it is that the inhabitants of the east do not see those eclipses of the sun or of the moon which occur in the evening, nor the inhabitants of the west those in the morning, while such as take place at noon are more frequently visible496. We are told, that at the time of the famous victory of Alexander the Great, at Arbela497, the moon was eclipsed at the second hour of the night, while, in Sicily, the moon was rising at the same hour. The eclipse of the sun which occurred the day before the calends of May, in the consulship of Vipstanus and Fonteius498, not many years ago, was seen in Campania between the seventh and eighth hour of the day; the general Corbulo informs us, that it was seen in Armenia, between the eleventh and twelfth hour499; thus the curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different objects from the inhabitants of its different parts. If the earth had been flat, everything would have been seen at the same time, from every part of it, and the nights would not have been unequal; while the equal intervals of twelve hours, which are now observed only in the middle of the earth, would in that case have been the same everywhere.

CHAP. 73. (71.)—WHAT REGULATES THE DAYLIGHT ON THE EARTH.

Hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same, in all parts of the earth, at the same time; the intervention of the globe producing night, and its turning round producing day500. This is known by various observations. In Africa and in Spain it is made evident by the Towers of Hannibal501, and in Asia by the beacons, which, in consequence of their dread of pirates, the people erected for their protection; for it has been frequently observed, that the signals, which were lighted at the sixth hour of the day, were seen at the third hour of the night by those who were the most remote502. Philonides, a courier of the above-mentioned Alexander, went from Sicyon to Elis, a distance of 1200 stadia, in nine hours, while he seldom returned until the third hour of the night, although the road was down-hill503. The reason is, that, in going, he followed the course of the sun, while on his return, in the opposite direction, he met the sun and left it behind him. For the same reason it is, that those who sail to the west, even on the shortest day, compensate for the difficulty of sailing in the night and go farther504, because they sail in the same direction with the sun.

CHAP. 74. (72.)—REMARKS ON DIALS, AS CONNECTED WITH THIS SUBJECT.

The same dial-plates505 cannot be used in all places, the shadow of the sun being sensibly different at distances of 300, or at most of 500 stadia506. Hence the shadow of the dial-pin, which is termed the gnomon, at noon and at the summer solstice, in Egypt, is a little more than half the length of the gnomon itself. At the city of Rome it is only ¹⁄₉ less than the gnomon, at Ancona not more than ¹⁄₃₅ less, while in the part of Italy which is called Venetia, at the same hour, the shadow is equal to the length of the gnomon507.

CHAP. 75. (73.)—WHEN AND WHERE THERE ARE NO SHADOWS.

It is likewise said, that in the town of Syene, which is 5000 stadia south of Alexandria508, there is no shadow at noon, on the day of the solstice; and that a well, which was sunk for the purpose of the experiment, is illuminated by the sun in every part. Hence it appears that the sun, in this place, is vertical, and Onesicritus informs us that this is the case, about the same time, in India, at the river Hypasis509. It is well known, that at Berenice, a city of the Troglodytæ, and 4820 stadia beyond that city, in the same country, at the town of Ptolemais, which was built on the Red Sea, when the elephant was first hunted, this same thing takes place for forty-five days before the solstice and for an equal length of time after it, and that during these ninety days the shadows are turned towards the south510. Again, at Meroë, an island in the Nile and the metropolis of the Æthiopians, which is 5000 stadia511 from Syene, there are no shadows at two periods of the year, viz. when the sun is in the 18th degree of Taurus and in the 14th of Leo512. The Oretes, a people of India, have a mountain named Maleus513, near which the shadows in summer fall towards the south and in winter towards the north. The seven stars of the Great Bear are visible there for fifteen nights only. In India also, in the celebrated sea-port Patale514, the sun rises to the right hand and the shadows fall towards the south. While Alexander was staying there it was observed, that the seven northern stars were seen only during the early part of the night515. Onesicritus, one of his generals, informs us in his work, that in those places in India where there are no shadows, the seven stars are not visible516; these places, he says, are called “Ascia517,” and the people there do not reckon the time by hours518.

CHAP. 76. (74.)—-WHERE THIS TAKES PLACE TWICE IN THE YEAR AND WHERE THE SHADOWS FALL IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS.

Eratosthenes informs us, that in the whole of Troglodytice, for twice forty-five days in the year, the shadows fall in the contrary direction519.

CHAP. 77. (75.)—WHERE THE DAYS ARE THE LONGEST AND WHERE THE SHORTEST.

Hence it follows, that in consequence of the daylight increasing in various degrees, in Meroë the longest day consists of twelve æquinoctial hours and eight parts of an hour520, at Alexandria of fourteen hours, in Italy of fifteen, in Britain of seventeen; where the degree of light, which exists in the night, very clearly proves, what the reason of the thing also obliges us to believe, that, during the solstitial period, as the sun approaches to the pole of the world, and his orbit is contracted, the parts of the earth that lie below him have a day of six months long, and a night of equal length when he is removed to the south pole. Pytheas, of Marseilles521, informs us, that this is the case in the island of Thule522, which is six days’ sail from the north of Britain. Some persons also affirm that this is the case in Mona, which is about 200 miles from Camelodunum523, a town of Britain.

CHAP. 78. (76.)—OF THE FIRST DIAL.

Anaximenes the Milesian, the disciple of Anaximander, of whom I have spoken above524, discovered the theory of shadows and what is called the art of dialling, and he was the first who exhibited at Lacedæmon the dial which they call sciothericon525.

CHAP. 79. (77.)—OF THE MODE IN WHICH THE DAYS ARE COMPUTED.

The days have been computed by different people in different ways. The Babylonians reckoned from one sunrise to the next; the Athenians from one sunset to the next; the Umbrians from noon to noon; the multitude, universally, from light to darkness; the Roman priests and those who presided over the civil day, also the Egyptians and Hipparchus, from midnight to midnight526. It appears that the interval from one sunrise to the next is less near the solstices than near the equinoxes, because the position of the zodiac is more oblique about its middle part, and more straight near the solstice527.

CHAP. 80. (78.)—OF THE DIFFERENCE OF NATIONS AS DEPENDING ON THE NATURE OF THE WORLD.

To these circumstances we must add those that are connected with certain celestial causes. There can be no doubt, that the Æthiopians are scorched by their vicinity to the sun’s heat, and they are born, like persons who have been burned, with the beard and hair frizzled528; while, in the opposite and frozen parts of the earth, there are nations with white skins and long light hair. The latter are savage from the inclemency of the climate, while the former are dull from its variableness529. We learn, from the form of the legs, that in the one, the fluids, like vapour, are forced into the upper parts of the body, while in the other, being a gross humour, it is drawn downwards into the lower parts530. In the cold regions savage beasts are produced, and in the others, various forms of animals, and many kinds of birds531. In both situations the body grows tall, in the one case by the force of fire, and in the other by the nutritive moisture.

In the middle of the earth there is a salutary mixture of the two, a tract fruitful in all things, the habits of the body holding a mean between the two, with a proper tempering of colours; the manners of the people are gentle, the intellect clear532, the genius fertile and capable of comprehending every part of nature. They have formed empires, which has never been done by the remote nations; yet these latter have never been subjected by the former, being severed from them and remaining solitary, from the effect produced on them by their savage nature.

CHAP. 81. (79.)—OF EARTHQUAKES.

According to the doctrine of the Babylonians, earthquakes and clefts of the earth, and occurrences of this kind, are supposed to be produced by the influence of the stars, especially of the three to which they ascribe thunder533; and to be caused by the stars moving with the sun, or being in conjunction with it, and, more particularly, when they are in the quartile aspect534. If we are to credit the report, a most admirable and immortal spirit, as it were of a divine nature, should be ascribed to Anaximander the Milesian, who, they say, warned the Lacedæmonians to beware of their city and their houses535. For he predicted that an earthquake was at hand, when both the whole of their city was destroyed and a large portion of Mount Taygetus, which projected in the form of a ship, was broken off, and added farther ruin to the previous destruction. Another prediction is ascribed to Pherecydes, the master of Pythagoras, and this was divine; by a draught of water from a well, he foresaw and predicted that there would be an earthquake in that place536. And if these things be true, how nearly do these individuals approach to the Deity, even during their lifetime! But I leave every one to judge of these matters as he pleases. I certainly conceive the winds to be the cause of earthquakes; for the earth never trembles except when the sea is quite calm, and when the heavens are so tranquil that the birds cannot maintain their flight, all the air which should support them being withdrawn537; nor does it ever happen until after great winds, the gust being pent up, as it were, in the fissures and concealed hollows. For the trembling of the earth resembles thunder in the clouds; nor does the yawning of the earth differ from the bursting of the lightning; the enclosed air struggling and striving to escape538.

CHAP. 82. (80.)—OF CLEFTS OF THE EARTH.

The earth is shaken in various ways, and wonderful effects are produced539; in one place the walls of cities being thrown down, and in others swallowed up by a deep cleft540; sometimes great masses of earth are heaped up, and rivers forced out, sometimes even flame and hot springs541, and at others the course of rivers is turned. A terrible noise precedes and accompanies the shock542; sometimes a murmuring, like the lowing of cattle, or like human voices, or the clashing of arms. This depends on the substance which receives the sound, and the shape of the caverns or crevices through which it issues; it being more shrill from a narrow opening, more hoarse from one that is curved, producing a loud reverberation from hard bodies, a sound like a boiling fluid543 from moist substances, fluctuating in stagnant water, and roaring when forced against solid bodies. There is, therefore, often the sound without any motion. Nor is it a simple motion, but one that is tremulous and vibratory. The cleft sometimes remains, displaying what it has swallowed up; sometimes concealing it, the mouth being closed and the soil being brought over it, so that no vestige is left; the city being, as it were, devoured, and the tract of country engulfed. Maritime districts are more especially subject to shocks. Nor are mountainous tracts exempt from them; I have found, by my inquiries, that the Alps and the Apennines are frequently shaken. The shocks happen more frequently in the autumn and in the spring, as is the case also with thunder. There are seldom shocks in Gaul and in Egypt; in the latter it depends on the prevalence of summer, in the former, of winter. They also happen more frequently in the night than in the day. The greatest shocks are in the morning and the evening; but they often take place at day-break, and sometimes at noon. They also take place during eclipses of the sun and of the moon, because at that time storms are lulled. They are most frequent when great heat succeeds to showers, or showers succeed to great heat544.

CHAP. 83. (81.)—SIGNS OF AN APPROACHING EARTHQUAKE.

There is no doubt that earthquakes are felt by persons on shipboard, as they are struck by a sudden motion of the waves, without these being raised by any gust of wind. And things that are in the vessels shake as they do in houses, and give notice by their creaking; also the birds, when they settle upon the vessels, are not without their alarms. There is also a sign in the heavens; for, when a shock is near at hand, either in the daytime or a little after sunset, a cloud is stretched out in the clear sky, like a long thin line545. The water in wells is also more turbid than usual, and it emits a disagreeable odour546.

CHAP. 84. (82.)—PRESERVATIVES AGAINST FUTURE EARTHQUAKES.

These same places547, however, afford protection, and this is also the case where there is a number of caverns, for they give vent to the confined vapour, a circumstance which has been remarked in certain towns, which have been less shaken where they have been excavated by many sewers. And, in the same town, those parts that are excavated548 are safer than the other parts, as is understood to be the case at Naples in Italy, the part of it which is solid being more liable to injury. Arched buildings are also the most safe, also the angles of walls, the shocks counteracting each other; walls made of brick also suffer less from the shocks549. There is also a great difference in the nature of the motions550, where various motions are experienced. It is the safest when it vibrates and causes a creaking in the building, and where it swells and rises upwards, and settles with an alternate motion. It is also harmless when the buildings coming together butt against each other in opposite directions, for the motions counteract each other. A movement like the rolling of waves is dangerous, or when the motion is impelled in one direction. The tremors cease when the vapour bursts out551; but if they do not soon cease, they continue for forty days; generally, indeed, for a longer time: some have lasted even for one or two years.

CHAP. 85. (83.)—PRODIGIES OF THE EARTH WHICH HAVE OCCURRED ONCE ONLY.

A great prodigy of the earth, which never happened more than once, I have found mentioned in the books of the Etruscan ceremonies, as having taken place in the district of Mutina, during the consulship of Lucius Martius and Sextus Julius552. Two mountains rushed together, falling upon each other with a very loud crash, and then receding; while in the daytime flame and smoke issued from them; a great crowd of Roman knights, and families of people, and travellers on the Æmilian way, being spectators of it. All the farm-houses were thrown down by the shock, and a great number of animals that were in them were killed; it was in the year before the Social war; and I am in doubt whether this event or the civil commotions were more fatal to the territory of Italy. The prodigy which happened in our own age was no less wonderful; in the last year of the emperor Nero553, as I have related in my history of his times554, when certain fields and olive grounds in the district of Marrucinum, belonging to Vectius Marcellus, a Roman knight, the steward of Nero, changed places with each other555, although the public highway was interposed.

CHAP. 86. (84.)—WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING EARTHQUAKES.

Inundations of the sea take place at the same time with earthquakes556; the water being impregnated with the same spirit557, and received into the bosom of the earth which subsides. The greatest earthquake which has occurred in our memory was in the reign of Tiberius558, by which twelve cities of Asia were laid prostrate in one night. They occurred the most frequently during the Punic war, when we had accounts brought to Rome of fifty-seven earthquakes in the space of a single year. It was during this year559 that the Carthaginians and the Romans, who were fighting at the lake Thrasimenus, were neither of them sensible of a very great shock during the battle560. Nor is it an evil merely consisting in the danger which is produced by the motion; it is an equal or a greater evil when it is considered as a prodigy561. The city of Rome never experienced a shock, which was not the forerunner of some great calamity.

CHAP. 87. (85.)—IN WHAT PLACES THE SEA HAS RECEDED.

The same cause produces an increase of the land; the vapour, when it cannot burst out forcibly lifting up the surface562. For the land is not merely produced by what is brought down the rivers, as the islands called Echinades are formed by the river Achelous, and the greater part of Egypt by the Nile, where, according to Homer, it was a day and a night’s journey from the main land to the island of Pharos563; but, in some cases, by the receding of the sea, as, according to the same author, was the case with the Circæan isles564. The same thing also happened in the harbour of Ambracia, for a space of 10,000 paces, and was also said to have taken place for 5000 at the Piræus of Athens565, and likewise at Ephesus, where formerly the sea washed the walls of the temple of Diana. Indeed, if we may believe Herodotus566, the sea came beyond Memphis, as far as the mountains of Æthiopia, and also from the plains of Arabia. The sea also surrounded Ilium and the whole of Teuthrania, and covered the plain through which the Mæander flows567.

CHAP. 88. (86.)—THE MODE IN WHICH ISLANDS RISE UP.

Land is sometimes formed in a different manner, rising suddenly out of the sea, as if nature was compensating the earth for its losses568, restoring in one place what she had swallowed up in another.

CHAP. 89. (87.)—WHAT ISLANDS HAVE BEEN FORMED, AND AT WHAT PERIODS.

Delos and Rhodes569, islands which have now been long famous, are recorded to have risen up in this way. More lately there have been some smaller islands formed; Anapha, which is beyond Melos; Nea, between Lemnos and the Hellespont; Halone, between Lebedos and Teos; Thera570 and Therasia, among the Cyclades, in the fourth year of the 135th Olympiad571. And among the same islands, 130 years afterwards, Hiera, also called Automate572, made its appearance; also Thia, at the distance of two stadia from the former, 110 years afterwards, in our own times, when M. Junius Silanus and L. Balbus were consuls, on the 8th of the ides of July573.

(88.) Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the Æolian isles, an island emerged from the sea; and likewise one near Crete, 2500 paces in extent, and with warm springs in it; another made its appearance in the third year of the 163rd Olympiad574, in the Tuscan gulf, burning with a violent explosion. There is a tradition too that a great number of fishes were floating about the spot, and that those who employed them for food immediately expired. It is said that the Pithecusan isles rose up, in the same way, in the bay of Campania, and that, shortly afterwards, the mountain Epopos, from which flame had suddenly burst forth, was reduced to the level of the neighbouring plain. In the same island, it is said, that a town was sunk in the sea; that in consequence of another shock, a lake burst out, and that, by a third, Prochytas was formed into an island, the neighbouring mountains being rolled away from it.

CHAP 90.—LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN SEPARATED BY THE SEA.

In the ordinary course of things islands are also formed by this means. The sea has torn Sicily from Italy575, Cyprus from Syria, Eubœa from Bœotia576, Atalante and Macris577 from Eubœa, Besbycus from Bithynia, and Leucosia from the promontory of the Sirens.

CHAP. 91. (89.)—ISLANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN UNITED TO THE MAIN LAND.

Again, islands are taken from the sea and added to the main land; Antissa578 to Lesbos, Zephyrium to Halicarnassus, Æthusa to Myndus, Dromiscus and Perne to Miletus, Narthecusa to the promontory of Parthenium. Hybanda, which was formerly an island of Ionia, is now 200 stadia distant from the sea. Syries is now become a part of Ephesus, and, in the same neighbourhood, Derasidas and Sophonia form part of Magnesia; while Epidaurus and Oricum are no longer islands579.

CHAP. 92. (90.)—LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN TOTALLY CHANGED INTO SEAS.

The sea has totally carried off certain lands, and first of all, if we are to believe Plato580, for an immense space where the Atlantic ocean is now extended. More lately we see what has been produced by our inland sea; Acarnania has been overwhelmed by the Ambracian gulf, Achaia by the Corinthian, Europe and Asia by the Propontis and Pontus. And besides these, the sea has rent asunder Leucas, Antirrhium, the Hellespont, and the two Bosphori581.

CHAP. 93. (91.)—LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN SWALLOWED UP.

And not to speak of bays and gulfs, the earth feeds on itself; it has devoured the very high mountain of Cybotus, with the town of Curites; also Sipylus in Magnesia582, and formerly, in the same place, a very celebrated city, which was called Tantalis; also the land belonging to the cities Galanis and Gamales in Phœnicia, together with the cities themselves; also Phegium, the most lofty ridge in Æthiopia583. Nor are the shores of the sea more to be depended upon.

CHAP. 94. (92.)—CITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY THE SEA.

The sea near the Palus Mæotis has carried away Pyrrha and Antissa, also Elice and Bura584 in the gulf of Corinth, traces of which places are visible in the ocean. From the island Cea it has seized on 30,000 paces, which were suddenly torn off, with many persons on them. In Sicily also the half of the city of Tyndaris, and all the part of Italy which is wanting585; in like manner it carried off Eleusina in Bœotia586.

CHAP. 95. (93.)—OF VENTS587 IN THE EARTH.

But let us say no more of earthquakes and of whatever may be regarded as the sepulchres of cities588; let us rather speak of the wonders of the earth than of the crimes of nature. But, by Hercules! the history of the heavens themselves would not be more difficult to relate:—the abundance of metals, so various, so rich, so prolific, rising up589 during so many ages; when, throughout all the world, so much is, every day, destroyed by fire, by waste, by shipwreck, by wars, and by frauds; and while so much is consumed by luxury and by such a number of people:—the figures on gems, so multiplied in their forms; the variously-coloured spots on certain stones, and the whiteness of others, excluding everything except light:—the virtues of medicinal springs, and the perpetual fires bursting out in so many places, for so many ages:—the exhalation of deadly vapours, either emitted from caverns590, or from certain unhealthy districts; some of them fatal to birds alone, as at Soracte, a district near the city591; others to all animals, except to man592, while others are so to man also, as in the country of Sinuessa and Puteoli. They are generally called vents, and, by some persons, Charon’s sewers, from their exhaling a deadly vapour. Also at Amsanctum, in the country of the Hirpini, at the temple of Mephitis593, there is a place which kills all those who enter it. And the same takes place at Hierapolis in Asia594, where no one can enter with safety, except the priest of the great Mother of the Gods. In other places there are prophetic caves, where those who are intoxicated with the vapour which rises from them predict future events595, as at the most noble of all oracles, Delphi. In which cases, what mortal is there who can assign any other cause, than the divine power of nature, which is everywhere diffused, and thus bursts forth in various places?

CHAP. 96. (94.)—OF CERTAIN LANDS WHICH ARE ALWAYS SHAKING, AND OF FLOATING ISLANDS.

There are certain lands which shake when any one passes over them596; as in the territory of the Gabii, not far from the city of Rome, there are about 200 acres which shake when cavalry passes over it: the same thing takes place at Reate.

(95.) There are certain islands which are always floating597, as in the territory of the Cæcubum598, and of the above-mentioned Reate, of Mutina, and of Statonia. In the lake of Vadimonis and the waters of Cutiliæ there is a dark wood, which is never seen in the same place for a day and a night together. In Lydia, the islands named Calaminæ are not only driven about by the wind, but may be even pushed at pleasure from place to place, by poles: many citizens saved themselves by this means in the Mithridatic war. There are some small islands in the Nymphæus, called the Dancers599, because, when choruses are sung, they are moved by the motions of those who beat time. In the great Italian lake of Tarquinii, there are two islands with groves on them, which are driven about by the wind, so as at one time to exhibit the figure of a triangle and at another of a circle; but they never form a square600.

CHAP. 97. (96.)—PLACES IN WHICH IT NEVER RAINS.

There is at Paphos a celebrated temple of Venus, in a certain court of which it never rains; also at Nea, a town of Troas, in the spot which surrounds the statue of Minerva: in this place also the remains of animals that are sacrificed never putrefy601.

CHAP. 98.—THE WONDERS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES COLLECTED TOGETHER.

Near Harpasa, a town of Asia, there stands a terrific rock, which may be moved by a single finger; but if it be pushed by the force of the whole body, it resists602. In the Tauric peninsula, in the state of the Parasini, there is a kind of earth which cures all wounds603. About Assos, in Troas, a stone is found, by which all bodies are consumed; it is called Sarcophagus604. There are two mountains near the river Indus; the nature of one is to attract iron, of the other to repel it: hence, if there be nails in the shoes, the feet cannot be drawn off the one, or set down on the other605. It has been noticed, that at Locris and Crotona, there has never been a pestilence, nor have they ever suffered from an earthquake; in Lycia there are always forty calm days before an earthquake. In the territory of Argyripa the corn which is sown never springs up. At the altars of Mucius, in the country of the Veii, and about Tusculum, and in the Cimmerian Forest, there are places in which things that are pushed into the ground cannot be pulled out again. The hay which is grown in Crustuminium is noxious on the spot, but elsewhere it is wholesome606.

CHAP. 99. (97.)—CONCERNING THE CAUSE OF THE FLOWING AND EBBING OF THE SEA.

Much has been said about the nature of waters; but the most wonderful circumstance is the alternate flowing and ebbing of the tides, which exists, indeed, under various forms, but is caused by the sun and the moon. The tide flows twice and ebbs twice between each two risings of the moon, always in the space of twenty-four hours. First, the moon rising with the stars607 swells out the tide, and after some time, having gained the summit of the heavens, she declines from the meridian and sets, and the tide subsides. Again, after she has set, and moves in the heavens under the earth, as she approaches the meridian on the opposite side, the tide flows in; after which it recedes until she again rises to us. But the tide of the next day is never at the same time with that of the preceding; as if the planet was in attendance608, greedily drinking up the sea, and continually rising in a different place from what she did the day before. The intervals are, however, equal, being always of six hours; not indeed in respect of any particular day or night or place609, but equinoctial hours, and therefore they are unequal as estimated by the length of common hours, since a greater number of them610 fall on some certain days or nights, and they are never equal everywhere except at the equinox. This is a great, most clear, and even divine proof of the dullness of those, who deny that the stars go below the earth and rise up again, and that nature presents the same face in the same states of their rising and setting611; for the course of the stars is equally obvious in the one case as in the other, producing the same effect as when it is manifest to the sight.

There is a difference in the tides, depending on the moon, of a complicated nature, and, first, as to the period of seven days. For the tides are of moderate height from the new moon to the first quarter; from this time they increase, and are the highest at the full: they then decrease. On the seventh day they are equal to what they were at the first quarter, and they again increase from the time that she is at first quarter on the other side. At her conjunction with the sun they are equally high as at the full. When the moon is in the northern hemisphere, and recedes further from the earth, the tides are lower than when, going towards the south, she exercises her influence at a less distance612. After an interval of eight years, and the hundredth revolution of the moon, the periods and the heights of the tides return into the same order as at first, this planet always acting upon them; and all these effects are likewise increased by the annual changes of the sun613, the tides rising up higher at the equinoxes, and more so at the autumnal than at the vernal; while they are lower614 about the winter solstice, and still more so at the summer solstice; not indeed precisely at the points of time which I have mentioned, but a few days after615; for example, not exactly at the full nor at the new moon, but after them; and not immediately when the moon becomes visible or invisible, or has advanced to the middle of her course, but generally about two hours later than the equinoctial hours616; the effect of what is going on in the heavens being felt after a short interval; as we observe with respect to lightning, thunder, and thunderbolts.

But the tides of the ocean cover greater spaces and produce greater inundations than the tides of the other seas; whether it be that the whole of the universe taken together is more full of life than its individual parts, or that the large open space feels more sensibly the power of the planet, as it moves freely about, than when restrained within narrow bounds. On which account neither lakes nor rivers are moved in the same manner. Pytheas617 of Massilia informs us, that in Britain the tide rises 80 cubits618. Inland seas are enclosed as in a harbour, but, in some parts of them, there is a more free space which obeys the influence619. Among many other examples, the force of the tide will carry us in three days from Italy to Utica, when the sea is tranquil and there is no impulse from the sails620. But these motions are more felt about the shores than in the deep parts of the seas, as in the body the extremities of the veins feel the pulse, which is the vital spirit, more than the other parts621. And in most estuaries, on account of the unequal rising of the stars in each tract, the tides differ from each other, but this respects the period, not the nature of them; as is the case in the Syrtes.

CHAP. 100.—WHERE THE TIDES RISE AND FALL IN AN UNUSUAL MANNER.

There are, however, some tides which are of a peculiar nature, as in the Tauromenian Euripus622, where the ebb and flow is more frequent than in other places, and in Eubœa, where it takes place seven times during the day and the night. The tides intermit three times during each month, being the 7th, 8th and 9th day of the moon623. At Gades, which is very near the temple of Hercules, there is a spring enclosed like a well, which sometimes rises and falls with the ocean, and, at other times, in both respects contrary to it. In the same place there is another well, which always agrees with the ocean. On the shores of the Bætis624, there is a town where the wells become lower when the tide rises, and fill again when it ebbs; while at other times they remain stationary. The same thing occurs in one well in the town of Hispalis625, while there is nothing peculiar in the other wells. The Euxine always flows into the Propontis, the water never flowing back into the Euxine626.

CHAP. 101. (98.)—WONDERS OF THE SEA.

All seas are purified at the full moon627; some also at stated periods. At Messina and Mylæ a refuse matter, like dung628, is cast up on the shore, whence originated the story of the oxen of the Sun having had their stable at that place. To what has been said above (not to omit anything with which I am acquainted) Aristotle adds, that no animal dies except when the tide is ebbing. The observation has been often made on the ocean of Gaul; but it has only been found true with respect to man629.

CHAP. 102. (99.)—THE POWER OF THE MOON OVER THE LAND AND THE SEA.

Hence we may certainly conjecture, that the moon is not unjustly regarded as the star of our life630. This it is that replenishes the earth631; when she approaches it, she fills all bodies, while, when she recedes, she empties them. From this cause it is that shell-fish grow with her increase632, and that those animals which are without blood more particularly experience her influence; also, that the blood of man is increased or diminished in proportion to the quantity of her light; also that the leaves and vegetables generally, as I shall describe in the proper place633, feel her influence, her power penetrating all things.

CHAP. 103. (100.)—THE POWER OF THE SUN.

Fluids are dried up by the heat of the sun; we have therefore regarded it as a masculine star, burning up and absorbing everything634.

CHAP. 104.—WHY THE SEA IS SALT.

Hence it is that the widely-diffused sea is impregnated with the flavour of salt, in consequence of what is sweet and mild being evaporated from it, which the force of fire easily accomplishes; while all the more acrid and thick matter is left behind; on which account the water of the sea is less salt at some depth than at the surface. And this is a more true cause of the acrid flavour, than that the sea is the continued perspiration of the land635, or that the greater part of the dry vapour is mixed with it, or that the nature of the earth is such that it impregnates the waters, and, as it were, medicates them636. Among the prodigies which have occurred, there is one which happened when Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, was expelled from his kingdom; that, for the space of one day, the water in the harbour became sweet.

(101.) The moon, on the contrary, is said to be a feminine and delicate planet, and also nocturnal; also that it resolves humours and draws them out, but does not carry them off. It is manifest that the carcases of wild beasts are rendered putrid by its beams, that, during sleep, it draws up the accumulated torpor into the head, that it melts ice, and relaxes all things by its moistening spirit637. Thus the changes of nature compensate each other, and are always adequate to their destined purpose; some of them congealing the elements of the stars and others dissolving them. The moon is said to be fed by fresh, and the sun by salt water.

CHAP. 105. (102.)—WHERE THE SEA IS THE DEEPEST.

Fabianus638 informs us that the greatest depth of the sea is 15 stadia639. We learn from others, that in the Euxine, opposite to the nation of the Coraxi, at what is called the Depths of the Euxine640, about 300 stadia641 from the main land, the sea is immensely deep, no bottom having been found.

CHAP. 106. (103.)—THE WONDERS OF FOUNTAINS AND RIVERS.

It is very remarkable that fresh water should burst out close to the sea, as from pipes. But there is no end to the wonders that are connected with the nature of waters. Fresh water floats on sea water, no doubt from its being lighter; and therefore sea water, which is of a heavier nature642, supports better what floats upon it. And, in some places, different kinds of fresh water float upon each other; as that of the river which falls into the Fucinus; that of the Addua into the Larius; of the Ticinus into the Verbanus; of the Mincius into the Benacus; of the Ollius into the Sevinus; and of the Rhone into the Leman lake643 (this last being beyond the Alps, the others in Italy): all which rivers passing through the lakes for many miles, generally carry off no more water than they bring with them. The same thing is said to occur in the Orontes, a river of Syria, and in many others.

Some rivers, from a real hatred of the sea, pass under it, as does Arethusa, a fountain of Syracuse, in which the substances are found that are thrown into the Alpheus; which, after flowing by Olympia, is discharged into the sea, on the shore of the Peloponnesus644. The Lycus in Asia645, the Erasinus in Argolis, and the Tigris646 in Mesopotamia, sink into the earth and burst out again. Substances which are thrown into the fountain of Æsculapius at Athens647 are cast up at the fountain of Phalerum. The river which sinks into the ground in the plain of Atinum648 comes up again at the distance of twenty miles, and the Timavus does the same in Aquileia649.

In the lake Asphaltites, in Judæa, which produces bitumen, no substance will sink, nor in the lake Arethusa650, in the Greater Armenia: in this lake, although it contains nitre, fish are found. In the country of the Salentini, near the town of Manduria, there is a lake651 full to the brim, the waters of which are never diminished by what is taken out of it, nor increased by what is added. Wood, which is thrown into the river of the Cicones652, or into the lake Velinus in Picenum, becomes coated with a stony crust, while in the Surius, a river of Colchis, the whole substance becomes as hard as stone. In the same manner, in the Silarus653, beyond Surrentum, not only twigs which are immersed in it, but likewise leaves are petrified; the water at the same time being proper for drinking. In the stream which runs from the marsh of Reate654 there is a rock, which continues to increase in size, and in the Red Sea olive-trees and green shrubs are produced655.

There are many springs which are remarkable for their warmth. This is the case even among the ridges of the Alps656, and in the sea itself, between Italy and Ænaria, as in the bay of Baiæ, and in the Liris and many other rivers657. There are many places in which fresh water may be procured from the sea, as at the Chelidonian Isles, and at Arados, and in the ocean at Gades. Green plants are produced in the warm springs of Padua, frogs in those of Pisa, and fish in those of Vetulonia in Etruria, which is not far from the sea. In Casinas there is a cold river called Scatebra, which in summer is more full of water658. In this, as in the river Stymphalis, in Arcadia, small water-mice are produced. The fountain of Jupiter in Dodona, although it is as cold as ice, and extinguishes torches that are plunged into it, yet, if they be brought near it, it kindles them again659. This spring always becomes dry at noon, from which circumstance it is called Ἀναπαυόμενον660: it then increases and becomes full at midnight, after which it again visibly decreases. In Illyricum there is a cold spring, over which if garments are spread they take fire. The pool of Jupiter Ammon, which is cold during the day, is warm during the night661. In the country of the Troglodytæ662, what they call the Fountain of the Sun, about noon is fresh and very cold; it then gradually grows warm, and, at midnight, becomes hot and saline663.

In the middle of the day, during summer, the source of the Po, as if reposing itself, is always dry664. In the island of Tenedos there is a spring, which, after the summer solstice, is full of water, from the third hour of the night to the sixth665. The fountain Inopus, in the island of Delos, decreases and increases in the same manner as the Nile, and also at the same periods666. There is a small island in the sea, opposite to the river Timavus, containing warm springs, which increase and decrease at the same time with the tides of the sea667. In the territory of Pitinum, on the other side of the Apennines, the river Novanus, which during the solstice is quite a torrent, is dry in the winter668.

In Faliscum, all the water which the oxen drink turns them white; in Bœotia, the river Melas turns the sheep black; the Cephissus, which flows out of a lake of the same name, turns them white669; again, the Peneus turns them black, and the Xanthus, near Ilium, makes them red, whence the river derives its name670. In Pontus, the river Astaces waters certain plains, where the mares give black milk, which the people use in diet. In Reate there is a spring called Neminia, which rises up sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, and in this way indicates a change in the produce of the earth671. There is a spring in the harbour of Brundisium that yields water which never becomes putrid at sea. The water of the Lyncestis, which is said to be acidulous, intoxicates like wine672; this is the case also in Paphlagonia673 and in the territory of Calenum674. In the island of Andros, at the temple of Father Bacchus, we are assured by Mucianus, who was thrice consul, that there is a spring, which, on the nones of January, always has the flavour of wine; it is called Διὸς Θεοδοσία675. Near Nonacris, in Arcadia, the Styx676, which is not unlike it either in odour or in colour, instantly destroys those who drink it. Also in Librosus, a hill in the country of the Tauri, there are three springs which inevitably produce death, but without pain. In the territory of the Carrinenses in Spain677, two springs burst out close together, the one of which absorbs everything, the other throws them out. In the same country there is another spring, which gives to all the fish the appearance of gold, although, when out of the water, they do not differ in any respect from other fish. In the territory of Como, near the Larian lake, there is a copious spring, which always swells up and subsides again every hour678. In the island of Cydonea679, before Lesbos, there is a warm fountain, which flows only during the spring season. The lake Sinnaus680, in Asia, is impregnated with wormwood, which grows about it. At Colophon, in the cave of the Clarian Apollo, there is a pool, by the drinking of which a power is acquired of uttering wonderful oracles; but the lives of those who drink of it are shortened681. In our own times, during the last years of Nero’s life, we have seen rivers flowing backwards, as I have stated in my history of his times682.

And indeed who can be mistaken as to the fact, that all springs are colder in summer than in winter683, as well as these other wonderful operations of nature; that copper and lead sink when in a mass, but float when spread out684; and of things that are equally heavy, some will sink to the bottom, while others will remain on the surface685; that heavy bodies are more easily moved in water686; that a stone from Scyros, although very large, will float, while the same, when broken into small pieces, sinks687; that the body of an animal, newly deprived of life, sinks, but that, when it is swelled out, it floats688; that empty vessels are drawn out of the water with no more ease than those that are full689; that rain-water is more useful for salt-pits than other kinds of water690; that salt cannot be made, unless it is mixed with fresh water691; that salt water freezes with more difficulty692, and is more readily heated693; that the sea is warmer in winter694 and more salt in the autumn695; that everything is soothed by oil, and that this is the reason why divers send out small quantities of it from their mouths, because it smoothes any part which is rough696 and transmits the light to them; that snow never falls in the deep part of the sea697; that although water generally has a tendency downwards, fountains rise up698, and that this is the case even at the foot of Ætna699, burning as it does, so as to force out the sand like a ball of flame to the distance of 150 miles?

CHAP. 107.—THE WONDERS OF FIRE AND WATER UNITED.

And now I must give an account of some of the wonders of fire, which is the fourth element of nature; but first those produced by means of water.

CHAP. 108. (104.)—OF MALTHA.

In Samosata, a city of Commagene700, there is a pool which discharges an inflammable mud, called Maltha701. It adheres to every solid body which it touches, and moreover, when touched, it follows you, if you attempt to escape from it. By means of it the people defended their walls against Lucullus, and the soldiers were burned in their armour702. It is even set on fire in water. We learn by experience that it can be extinguished only by earth.

CHAP. 109. (105.)—OF NAPHTHA.

Naphtha is a substance of a similar nature703 (it is so called about Babylon, and in the territory of the Astaceni, in Parthia704), flowing like liquid bitumen. It has a great affinity to fire, which instantly darts on it wherever it is seen705. It is said, that in this way it was that Medea burned Jason’s mistress; her crown having taken fire, when she approached the altar for the purpose of sacrificing706.

CHAP. 110. (106.)—PLACES WHICH ARE ALWAYS BURNING.

Among the wonders of mountains there is Ætna, which always burns in the night707, and for so long a period has always had materials for combustion, being in the winter buried in snow, and having the ashes which it has ejected covered with frost. Nor is it in this mountain alone that nature rages, threatening to consume the earth708; in Phaselis, the mountain Chimæra burns, and indeed with a continual flame, day and night709. Ctesias of Cnidos informs us, that this fire is kindled by water, while it is extinguished by earth and by hay710. In the same country of Lycia, the mountains of Hephæstius, when touched with a flaming torch711, burn so violently, that even the stones in the river and the sand burn, while actually in the water: this fire is also increased by rain. If a person makes furrows in the ground with a stick which has been kindled at this fire, it is said that a stream of flame will follow it. The summit of Cophantus, in Bactria712, burns during the night; and this is the case in Media and at Sittacene713, on the borders of Persia; likewise in Susa, at the White Tower, from fifteen apertures714, the greatest of which also burns in the daytime. The plain of Babylon throws up flame from a place like a fish-pond715, an acre in extent. Near Hesperium, a mountain of the Æthiopians716, the fields shine in the night-time like stars; the same thing takes place in the territory of the Megalopolitani. This fire, however, is internal717, mild, and not burning the foliage of a dense wood which is over it718. There is also the crater of Nymphæum719, which is always burning, in the neighbourhood of a cold fountain, and which, according to Theopompus, presages direful calamities to the inhabitants of Apollonia720. It is increased by rain721, and it throws out bitumen, which, becoming mixed with the fountain, renders it unfit to be tasted; it is, at other times, the weakest of all the bitumens. But what are these compared to other wonders? Hiera, one of the Æolian isles, in the middle of the sea, near Italy, together with the sea itself, during the Social war, burned for several days722, until expiation was made, by a deputation from the senate. There is a hill in Æthiopia called Θεῶν ὄχημα723, which burns with the greatest violence, throwing out flame that consumes everything, like the sun724. In so many places, and with so many fires, does nature burn the earth!

CHAP. 111. (107.)—WONDERS OF FIRE ALONE.

But since this one element is of so prolific a nature as to produce itself, and to increase from the smallest spark, what must we suppose will be the effect of all those funeral piles of the earth725? What must be the nature of that thing, which, in all parts of the world, supplies this most greedy voracity without destroying itself? To these fires must be added those innumerable stars and the great sun itself. There are also the fires made by men726, those which are innate in certain kinds of stones, those produced by the friction of wood727, and those in the clouds, which give rise to lightning. It really exceeds all other wonders, that one single day should pass in which everything is not consumed, especially when we reflect, that concave mirrors placed opposite to the sun’s rays produce flame more readily than any other kind of fire; and that numerous small but natural fires abound everywhere. In Nymphæum there issues from a rock a fire which is kindled by rain; it also issues from the waters of the Scantia728. This indeed is a feeble flame, since it passes off, remaining only a short time on any body to which it is applied: an ash tree, which overshadows this fiery spring, remains always green729. In the territory of Mutina fire issues from the ground on the days that are consecrated to Vulcan730. It is stated by some authors, that if a burning body falls on the fields below Aricia731, the ground is set on fire; and that the stones in the territory of the Sabines and of the Sidicini732, if they be oiled, burn with flame. In Egnatia733, a town of Salentinum, there is a sacred stone, upon which, when wood is placed, flame immediately bursts forth. In the altar of Juno Lacinia734, which is in the open air, the ashes remain unmoved, although the winds may be blowing from all quarters.

It appears also that there are sudden fires both in waters and even in the human body; that the whole of Lake Thrasymenus was on fire735; that when Servius Tullius, while a child, was sleeping, flame darted out from his head736; and Valerius Antias informs us, that the same flame appeared about L. Marcius, when he was pronouncing the funeral oration over the Scipios, who were killed in Spain; and exhorting the soldiers to avenge their death. I shall presently mention more facts of this nature, and in a more distinct manner; in this place these wonders are mixed up with other subjects. But my mind, having carried me beyond the mere interpretation of nature, is anxious to lead, as it were by the hand, the thoughts of my readers over the whole globe.

CHAP. 112. (108.)—THE DIMENSIONS OF THE EARTH.

Our part of the earth, of which I propose to give an account, floating as it were in the ocean which surrounds it (as I have mentioned above737), stretches out to the greatest extent from east to west, viz. from India to the Pillars consecrated to Hercules at Gades, being a distance of 8568 miles738, according to the statement of Artemidorus739, or according to that of Isidorus740, 9818 miles. Artemidorus adds to this 491 miles, from Gades, going round by the Sacred Promontory, to the promontory of Artabrum741, which is the most projecting part of Spain.

This measurement may be taken in two directions. From the Ganges, at its mouth, where it discharges itself into the Eastern ocean, passing through India and Parthyene, to Myriandrus742, a city of Syria, in the bay of Issus, is a distance of 5215 miles743. Thence, going directly by sea, by the island of Cyprus, Patara in Lycia, Rhodes, and Astypalæa, islands in the Carpathian sea, by Tænarum in Laconia, Lilybæum in Sicily and Calaris in Sardinia, is 2103 miles. Thence to Glades is 1250 miles, making the whole distance from the Eastern ocean 8568 miles744.