Latin Texts & Translations

If any of the above-mentioned facts have the appearance of being incredible to a person, I would have him know that there is no department of Nature which presents greater marvels than this, independently of the numerous peculiarities which have been already mentioned ^[Note] in an earlier part of this work. Ctesias informs us that, in India, there is a lake of standing water, upon which nothing ^[Note] will float, every object instantly sinking to the bottom. Cælius says that in the waters of Lake Avernus, ^[Note] in our own part of the world, the very leaves of the trees even will sink; and, according to Varro, these waters are fatal to such birds as fly towards them.

On the other hand, again, in the waters of Lake Apuscidamus, ^[Note] in Africa, nothing will sink; the same, too, Apion tells

us, with the fountain of Plinthia in Sicily, as also a certain lake in Media, and the well of Saturn. The spring of Limyra ^[Note] not unfrequently makes its way through the neighbouring localities, and when it does so, is always portentous of some coming event. It is a singular thing too, that the fish always accompany its waters on these occasions; the inhabitants of the adjoining districts being in the habit of consulting them by offering them food. When the fishes seize it with avidity, the answer is supposed to be favourable; but if, on the other hand, they reject the food, by flapping it with their tails, the response is considered to be unfavourable. The river Holcas, in Bithynia, runs close to Bryazus, ^[Note] the name of a temple and of a divinity there worshipped; persons guilty of perjury, it is said, cannot endure contact with its waters, which burn like flame. ^[Note]

The sources, too, of the Tamaricus, ^[Note] a river of Cantabria, are considered to possess certain powers of presaging future events: they are three in number, and, separated solely by an interval of eight feet, unite in one channel, and so form a mighty stream. These springs are often dry a dozen times in the day, sometimes as many as twenty, without there being the slightest trace of water there: while, on the other hand, a spring close at hand is flowing abundantly and without intermission. It is considered an evil presage when persons who wish to see these springs find them dry: a circumstance which happened very recently, for example, to Lartius Licinius, ^[Note] who held the office of legatus after his prætorship; for at the end of seven days after his visit he died.

In Judæa there is a river ^[Note] that is dry every Sabbath day.