| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 5.10 | Plin. Nat. 5.11 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 5.12 |
Egypt, besides its boast of extreme antiquity, asserts that it contained, in the reign of King Amasis [Note], 20,000 inhabited cities: in our day they are still very numerous, though no longer of any particular note. Still however we find the following ones mentioned as of great renown—the city of Apollo [Note]; next, that of Leucothea [Note]; then Great Diospolis [Note], otherwise Thebes, known to fame for its hundred gates; Coptos [Note], which from its proximity to the Nile, forms its nearest emporium for the merchandise of India and Arabia; then the town of Venus [Note], and then another town of Jupi-
ter [Note]. After this comes Tentyris [Note], below which is Abydus [Note], the
royal abode of Memnon, and famous for a temple of Osiris [Note],
which is situate in Libya [Note], at a distance from the river of
seven miles and a half. Next to it comes Ptolemais [Note], then
Panopolis [Note], and then another town of Venus [Note]
Dogs [Note], and that of Hercules already mentioned [Note]. We next come to Arsinoë [Note], and Memphis [Note], which has been previously mentioned; between which last and the Nome of Arsinoïtes, upon the Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids, the Labyrinth [Note] on Lake Mœris, in the construction of which no wood was employed, and the town of Crialon [Note]. Besides these, there is one place in the interior, on the confines of Arabia, of great celebrity, the City of the Sun [Note].
(10.) With the greatest justice, however, we may lavish our praises upon Alexandria, built by Alexander the Great on the shores of the Egyptian Sea, upon the soil of Africa, at twelve miles' distance from the Canopic Mouth and near Lake Mareotis [Note]; the spot having previously borne the name of Rhacotes. The plan of this city was designed by the architect Dinochares [Note], who is memorable for the genius which he displayed in many ways. Building the city upon a wide space [Note] of ground fifteen miles in circumference, he formed it in the circular shape of a Macedonian chlamys [Note], uneven at the edge, giving it an angular projection on the right and left; while at the same time he devoted one-fifth part of the site to the royal palace.
Lake Mareotis, which lies on the south side of the city, is connected by a canal which joins it to the Canopic mouth, and serves for the purposes of communication with the interior. It has also a great number of islands, and is thirty
miles across, and 150 in circumference, according to Claudius Cæsar. Other writers say that it is forty schœni in length, making the schœnum to be thirty stadia; hence, according to them, it is 150 miles [Note] in length and the same in breadth.
There are also, in the latter part of the course of the Nile, many towns of considerable celebrity, and more especially those which have given their names to the mouths of the river—I do not mean, all the mouths, for there are no less than twelve of them, as well as four others, which the people call the False Mouths [Note]. I allude to the seven more famous ones, the Canopic [Note] Mouth, next to Alexandria, those of Bolbitine [Note], Sebennys [Note], Phatnis [Note], Mendes [Note], Tanis [Note], and, last of all, Pelusium [Note]. Besides the above there are the towns of Butos [Note],
Pharbæthos [Note], Leontopolis [Note], Athribis [Note], the town of Isis [Note], Busiris [Note], Cynopolis [Note], Aphrodites [Note], Sais [Note], and Naucratis [Note], from which last some writers call that the Naucratitic Mouth, which is by others called the Heracleotic, and mention it instead [Note] of the Canopic Mouth, which is the next to it.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 5.10 | Plin. Nat. 5.11 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 5.12 |
