Latin Texts & Translations

SUCH then is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, more remarkable seas, islands, and cities which it contains. ^[Note] The nature of the animated beings which exist upon it, is hardly in any degree less worthy of our contemplation than its other features; if, indeed, the human mind is able to embrace the whole of so diversified a subject. Our first attention is justly due to Man, for whose sake all other things appear to have been produced by Nature; though, on the other hand, with so great and so severe penalties for the enjoyment of her bounteous gifts, that it is far from easy to determine, whether she has proved to him a kind parent, or a merciless step-mother.

In the first place, she obliges him alone, of all animated beings, to clothe himself with the spoils of the others; while, to all the rest, she has given various kinds of coverings, such as shells, crusts, spines, hides, furs, bristles, hair, down, feathers, scales, and fleeces. ^[Note] The very trunks of the trees even, she has protected against the effects of heat and cold by a bark, which is, in some cases, twofold. ^[Note] Man alone, at the very moment of

his birth cast naked upon the laked earth, ^[Note] does she abandon to cries, to lamentations, and, a thing that is the case with no other animal whatever, to tears: this, too, from the very moment that he enters upon existence. ^[Note] But as for laughter, why, by Hercules!—to laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day ^[Note] from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity. Introduced thus to the light, man has fetters and swathings instantly put upon all his limbs, ^[Note] a thing that falls to the lot of none of the brutes even that are born among us. Born to such singular good fortune, ^[Note] there lies the animal, which is destined to command all the others, lies, fast bound hand and foot, and weeping aloud! such being the penalty which he has to pay on beginning life, and that for the sole fault of having been born. Alas! for the folly of those who can think after such a beginning as this, that they have been born for the display of vanity!

The earliest presage of future strength, the earliest bounty of time, confers upon him nought but the resemblance to a quadruped. ^[Note] How soon does man gain the power of walking? How soon does he gain the faculty of speech? How soon is his mouth fitted for mastication? How long are the pulsations of the crown of his head to proclaim him the weakest of all ani-

mated beings? ^[Note] And then, the diseases to which he is subject, the numerous remedies which he is obliged to devise against his maladies, and those thwarted every now and then by new forms and features of disease. ^[Note] While other animals have an instinctive knowledge of their natural powers; some, of their swiftness of pace, some of their rapidity of flight, and some again of their power of swimming; man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught; he can neither speak, nor walk, nor eat, ^[Note] and, in short, he can do nothing, at the prompting of nature only, but weep. For this it is, that many have been of opinion, that it were better not to have been born, or if born, to have been annihilated ^[Note] at the earliest possible moment.

To man alone, of all animated beings, has it been given, to grieve, ^[Note] to him alone to be guilty of luxury and excess; and that in modes innumerable, and in every part of his body. Man is the only being that is a prey to ambition, to avarice, to

an immoderate desire of life, ^[Note] to superstition, ^[Note]—he is the only one that troubles himself about his burial, and even what is to become of him after death. ^[Note] By none is life held on a tenure more frail; ^[Note] none are more influenced by unbridled desires for all things; none are sensible of fears more bewildering; none are actuated by rage more frantic and violent. Other animals, in fine, live at peace with those of their own kind; we only see them unite to make a stand against those of a different species. The fierceness of the lion is not expended in fighting with its own kind; the sting of the serpent is not aimed at the serpent; ^[Note] and the monsters of the sea even, and the fishes, vent their rage only on those of a different species. But with man,—by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man. ^[Note]

(1.) We have already given ^[Note] a general description of the human race in our account of the different nations. Nor, indeed, do I now propose to treat of their manners and customs, which are of infinite variety and almost as numerous as the various groups themselves, into which mankind is divided; but yet there are some things, which, I think, ought not to be omitted;

and more particularly, in relation to those peoples which dwell at a considerable distance from the sea; ^[Note] among which, I have no doubt, that some facts will appear of an astounding nature, and, indeed, incredible to many. Who, for instance, could ever believe in the existence of the Æthiopians, who had not first seen them? Indeed what is there that does not appear marvellous, when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? ^[Note] How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they have been actually effected? ^[Note] But it is the fact, that every moment of our existence we are distrusting the power and the majesty of Nature, if the mind, instead of grasping her in her entirety, considers her only in detail. Not to speak of peacocks, the spotted skins of tigers and panthers, and the rich colours of so many animals, a trifling thing apparently to speak of, but of inestimable importance, when we give it due consideration, is the existence of so many languages among the various nations, so many modes of speech, so great a variety of expressions; that to another, a man who is of a different country, is almost the same as no man at all. ^[Note] And then, too, the human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned, that among so many thousands of men, there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another, a result which no art could possibly have produced, when confined to so limited a number of combinations. In most points, however, of this nature, I shall not be content to pledge my own credit only, but shall confirm it in preference by referring to my authorities, which shall be given on all subjects of a nature to inspire doubt. My readers, however, must make no objection to following the Greeks, who have proved them-

selves the most careful observers, as well as of the longest standing. ^[Note]

We have already stated, that there are certain tribes of the Scythians, and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon human flesh. ^[Note] This fact itself might, perhaps, appear incredible, did we not recollect, that in the very centre of the earth, in Italy and Sicily, nations formerly existed with these monstrous propensities, the Cyclopes, ^[Note] and the Læstrygones, for example; and that, very recently, on the other side of the Alps, it was the custom to offer human sacrifices, after the manner of those nations; ^[Note] and the difference is but small between sacrificing human beings and eating them. ^[Note]

In the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern re-

gions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind arises, and the place which is called its cave, ^[Note] and is known by the name of Geskleithron, the Arimaspi are said to exist, whom I have previously mentioned, ^[Note] a nation remarkable for having but one eye, and that placed in the middle of the forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with the Griffins, a kind of monster, with wings, as they are commonly ^[Note] represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally desirous to get possession of it. ^[Note] Many authors have stated to

this effect, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus and Aristeas of Proconnesus. ^[Note]

Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount Imaus, ^[Note] the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose feet are turned backwards, ^[Note] relatively to their legs: they possess wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately with the wild beasts. We learn from Bæton, whose duty it was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them before any of the neighbouring kings; nor could any of them be brought before Alexander himself.

The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned ^[Note] as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, according to the account of Isigonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human skulls, ^[Note] and placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their breasts, like so many napkins. The same author relates, that there is, in Albania, a certain race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour, and who have white hair from their earliest childhood, ^[Note] and that these people see better in the night than in the day. He states also

that the Sauromatæ, who dwell ten days' journey beyond the Borysthenes, only take food every other day. ^[Note]

Crates of Pergamus relates, that there formerly existed in the vicinity of Parium, in the Hellespont, a race of men whom he calls Ophiogenes, and that by their touch they were able to cure those who had been stung by serpents, extracting the poison by the mere imposition of the hand. ^[Note] Varro tells us, that there are still a few individuals in that district, whose saliva effectually cures the stings of serpents. The same, too, was the case with the tribe of the Psylli, ^[Note] in Africa, according to the account of Agatharchides; these people received their name from Psyllus, one of their kings, whose tomb is in existence, in the district of the Greater Syrtes. In the bodies of these people there was by nature a certain kind of poison, which was fatal to serpents, and the odour of which overpowered them with torpor: with them it was a custom to expose children immediately after their birth to the fiercest serpents, and in this manner to make proof of the fidelity of their wives, the serpents not being repelled by such children as were the offspring of adultery. ^[Note] This nation, however, was almost entirely extirpated by the slaughter made of them by the

Nasamones, who now occupy their territory. ^[Note] This race, however, still survives in a few persons who are descendants of those who either took to flight or else were absent on the oc- casion of the battle. The Marsi, in Italy, are still in possession of the same power, for which, it is said, they are indebted to their origin from the son of Circe, from whom they acquired it as a natural quality. But the fact is, that all men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents, and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat, and more particularly so, if it should happen to be the saliva of a man who is fasting. ^[Note]

Above the Nasamones, ^[Note] and the Machlytæ, who border upon them, are found, as we learn from Calliphanes, the nation of the Androgyni, a people who unite the two sexes in the same individual, and alternately perform the functions of each. Aristotle also states, that their right breast is that of a male, the left that of a female. ^[Note]

Isigonus and Nymphodorus inform us that there are in Africa certain families of enchanters, ^[Note] who, by means of their charms, in the form of commendations, can cause cattle to perish, trees to wither, and infants to die. Isigonus adds, that

there are among the Triballi and the Illyrii, some persons of this description, who also have the power of fascination with the eyes, and can even kill those on whom they fix their gaze for any length of time, more especially if their look denotes anger; the age of puberty is said to be particularly obnoxious to the malign influence of such persons. ^[Note]

A still more remarkable circumstance is, the fact that these persons have two pupils in each eye. ^[Note] Apollonides says, that there are certain females of this description in Scythia, who are known as Bythiæ, and Phylarchus states that a tribe of the Thibii in Pontus, and many other persons as well, have a double pupil in one eye, and in the other the figure of a horse. ^[Note] He also remarks, that the bodies of these persons will not sink in water, ^[Note] even though weighed down by their garments.

Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much unlike them, the Pharnaces of Æthiopia, whose perspiration is productive of consumption ^[Note] to the body of every person that it touches. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the remark, that the glances of all women who have a double pupil is noxious. ^[Note]

To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man, in common with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh, thought fit to produce poisons as well in every part of his body, and in the eyes even of some persons, taking care that there should be no evil influence in existence, which was not to be found in the human body. Not far from the city of Rome, in the territory of the Falisci, a few families are found, who are known by the name of Hirpi. These people perform a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, on which occasion they walk over a burning pile of wood, without being scorched even. On this account, by virtue of a decree of the senate, they are always exempted from military service, and from all other public duties. ^[Note]

Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such was the case with King Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right foot cured diseases of the spleen, merely by touching the patient. ^[Note] We are also informed, that this toe could not be re-

duced to ashes together with the other portions of his body; upon which it was placed in a coffer, and preserved in a temple.

India, and the region of Æthiopia more especially, abounds in wonders. ^[Note] In India the largest of animals are produced; their dogs, ^[Note] for example, are much bigger than those of any other country. ^[Note] The trees, too, are said to be of such vast height, that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water; which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, that a single fig-tree ^[Note] is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men. ^[Note] It is a well-known fact, that many of the people here are more than five cubits in height. ^[Note] These people never expectorate, are subject to no pains, either in the head, the teeth, or the eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body; so well is the heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution. Their philosophers, who are called Gymnosophists, remain in one posture, with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun, from its rising to its setting, and, during the whole of the day, they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one foot, first one and then the other. ^[Note] According to the ac-

count of Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, there is a race of men who have their feet turned backwards, ^[Note] with eight toes on each foot. ^[Note]

On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men who have the heads of dogs, ^[Note] and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts. Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by hunting and catching birds. According to the story, as given by Ctesias, the number of these people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand: and the same author tells us, that there is a certain race in India, of which the females are pregnant once only in the course of their lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the instant they are born. He speaks also of another race of men, who are known as Monocoli, ^[Note] who have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility. ^[Note] The same people are also called Sciapodæ,: ^[Note] because they are in the habit of lying on their backs, during the time of the extreme heat, and protect themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These people, he says, dwell not very far from the Troglodytæ; ^[Note] to the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without necks, and have eyes in their shoulders., ^[Note]

Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr, ^[Note] an animal of extraordinary swiftness. These go sometimes on four feet, and sometimes walk erect; they have also the features of a human being. On account of their swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught, except when they are either aged or sickly. Tauron gives the name of Choromandæ to a nation which dwell in the woods and have no proper voice. These people screech in a frightful manner; their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green colour, and their teeth like those of the dog. ^[Note] Eudoxus tells us, that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet a cubit in length; while those of the women are so remarkably small, that they are called Struthopodes. ^[Note]

Megasthenes places among the Nomades ^[Note] of India, a people who are called Scyritæ. These have merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils, and flexible feet, like the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down ^[Note] plucked from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the

nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor drink; when they go upon a long journey they only carry with them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and wild apples, ^[Note] that they may not be without something to smell at. But an odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys them. ^[Note]

Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami ^[Note] and the Pygmies are said to exist; two races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, twenty-seven inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere, and a perpetual spring, being sheltered by the mountains from the northern blasts; it is these people that Homer ^[Note] has mentioned as being waged war upon by cranes. It is said, that they are in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with arrows, and there destroy the eggs and the young of those birds; that this expedition occupies them for the space of three months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle, indeed, says, that they dwell in caves; but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other writers. ^[Note]

Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live to their four hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the same is the case also with the Æthiopian Macrobii, ^[Note] the Seræ, and the inhabitants of Mount Athos. ^[Note] In the case of these

last, it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers, which they use as food; ^[Note] in consequence of which, they are free also from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their garments.

According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there is no shadow, ^[Note] the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits and two palms, ^[Note] and their life is prolonged to one hundred and thirty years; they die without any symptoms of old age, and just as if they were in the middle period of life. Crates of Pergamus calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one hundred years, by the name of Gymnetæ; ^[Note] but not a few authors style them Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by the name of Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who live to their two hundredth year; their hair is white in youth, and becomes black in old age. ^[Note] On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the country of the Macrobii, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and their females have children once only during their lives. This circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live ^[Note] on locusts, ^[Note] and are very swift of foot. Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to them. Their women are capable of bearing children in the seventh year of their age, and become old at forty. ^[Note]

Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobane, ^[Note] life is prolonged to an extreme length, while, at the same time, the body is exempt from weakness. According to Durisis, some of the Indians have connection with beasts, and from this union a mixture of half man, half beast, is produced. ^[Note] Among the Calingæ, a nation also of India, the women conceive at five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth year. ^[Note] In other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails, ^[Note] and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have ears so large as to cover the whole body. ^[Note]

The Oritæ are divided from the Indians by the river Arabis; ^[Note] they are acquainted with no food whatever except fish, which they are in the habit of tearing to pieces with their nails, and drying in the sun. ^[Note] Crates of Pergamus states, that the Troglodytæ, who dwell beyond Æthiopia, are able to outrun the horse; and that a tribe of the Æthiopians, who are known as the Syrbotæ, exceed eight cubits in height.

There is a tribe of Æthiopian Nomades dwelling on the banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about

twenty days' journey from the ocean. These people are called Menismini; they live on the milk of the animal which we call cynocephalus, ^[Note] and rear large flocks of these creatures, taking care to kill the males, except such as they may preserve for the purpose of breeding. In the deserts of Africa, men are frequently seen to all appearance, and then vanish in an instant. ^[Note] Nature, in her ingenuity, has created all these marvels in the human race, with others of a similar nature, as so many amusements to herself, though they appear miraculous to us. But who is there that can enumerate all the things that she brings to pass each day, I may almost say each hour? As a striking evidence of her power, let it be sufficient for me to have cited whole nations in the list of her prodigies. Let us now proceed to mention some other particulars con- nected with Man, the truth of which is universally admitted.

(3.) That three children are sometimes produced at one birth, is a well-known fact; the case, for instance, of the Horatii and the Curiatii. Where a greater number of children than this is produced at one birth, it is looked upon as portentous, except, indeed, in Egypt, where the water of the river Nile, which is used for drink, is a promoter of fecundity. ^[Note] Very recently, towards the close of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, now deified, a certain woman of the lower orders, at Ostia, whose name was Fausta, brought into the world, at one birth, two male children and two females, a presage, no doubt, of the famine which shortly after took place. We find it stated, also, that in Peloponnesus, a woman was delivered of five ^[Note] children at a birth four successive times, and that the greater part of all these children survived. Trogus informs us, that in

Egypt, ^[Note] as many as seven children are occasionally produced at one birth. ^[Note]

Individuals are occasionally born, who belong to both sexes; such persons we call by the name of hermaphrodites; ^[Note] they were formerly called Androgyni, and were looked upon as monsters, ^[Note] but at the present day they are employed for sensual purposes. ^[Note]

Pompeius Magnus, among the decorations of his theatre, ^[Note] erected certain statues of remarkable persons, which had been executed with the greatest care by artists of the very highest

reputation. Among others, we here read an inscription to the following effect: "Eutychis, ^[Note] of Tralles, ^[Note] was borne to the funeral pile by twenty of her children, having had thirty in all." ^[Note] Also, Alcippe ^[Note] was delivered of an elephant ^[Note]—but then that must be looked upon as a prodigy; as in the case, too, where, at the commencement of the Marsian war, ^[Note] a female slave was delivered of a serpent. ^[Note] Among these monstrous births, also, there are beings produced which unite in one body the forms of several creatures. For instance, Claudius Cæsar informs us, in his writings, that a Hippocentaur was born in Thessaly, but died on the same day: and indeed I have seen one myself, which in the reign of that emperor was brought to him from Egypt, preserved in honey. ^[Note] We have a case,

also, of a child at Saguntum, which returned immediately into its mother's womb, the same year in which that place was destroyed by Hannibal.

(4) The change of females into males is undoubtedly no fable. We find it stated in the Annals, that, in the consulship of P. Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus, ^[Note] a girl, who was living at Casinum ^[Note] with her parents, was changed into a boy; and that, by the command of the Aruspices, he was con- veyed away to a desert island. Licinius Mucianus informs us, that he once saw at Argos a person whose name was then Arescon, though he had been formerly called Arescusa: that this person had been married to a man, but that, shortly after, a beard and marks of virility made their appearance, upon which he took to himself a wife. He had also seen a boy at Smyrna, ^[Note] to whom the very same thing had happened. I myself saw in Africa one L. Cossicius, a citizen of Thysdris, ^[Note] who had been changed into a man the very day on which he was married to a husband. ^[Note] When women are delivered of twins, it rarely

happens but that either the mother herself, or one, at least, of the twins perishes. ^[Note] If, however, the twins should happen to be of different sexes, it is less probable that both of them will survive. Female children are matured more quickly than males, ^[Note] and become old sooner. Of the two, male children most frequently are known to move in the womb; ^[Note] they mostly lie on the right side of the body, females on the left. ^[Note]

In other animals the period of gestation and of birth is fixed and definite, while man, on the other hand, is born at all seasons of the year, ^[Note] and without any certain period of gestation; ^[Note] for one child is born at the seventh month, another at the eighth, and so on, even to the beginning of the tenth and eleventh. Those children which are born before the seventh month are never known to survive; ^[Note] unless, indeed, they hap-

pen to have been conceived the day before or the day after the full moon, or at the change of the moon. In Egypt it is not an uncommon thing for children to be born at the eighth month; and in Italy, too, children that are born at this period live just as long as others, notwithstanding the opinions of the ancients to the contrary. There are great variations in this respect, which occur in numerous ways. Vestilia, for instance, who was the wife of C. Herdicius, and was afterwards married, first, to Pomponius, ^[Note] and then to Orfitus, very eminent citizens, after having brought forth four children, always at the seventh month, had Suillius Rufus at the eleventh month, and then Corbulo at the seventh, both of whom became consuls; after which, at the eighth month, she had Cæsonia, who became the wife of the Emperor Caius. ^[Note] As for children who are born at the eighth month, the greatest difficulty with them is to get them over the first forty days. ^[Note] Pregnant women, on the other hand, are in the greatest danger during the fourth and the eighth month, and abortions during these periods are fatal. Masurius informs us, that L. Papirius, the prætor. on one occasion, when the next but one in succession was urging his suit at law, decided against him, in favour of the heir, ^[Note] although his mother declared that her period of gestation had lasted thirteen months—upon the ground that it did not appear that there was any fixed and definite period of gestation. ^[Note]

On the tenth day after conception, pains are felt in the head, vertigo, and dimness of the sight; these signs, together with loathing of food and rising of the stomach, indicate the formation of the future human being. If it is a male that is conceived, the colour of the pregnant woman is more healthy, ^[Note] and the birth less painful: the child moves in the womb upon the fortieth day. In the conception of a child of the other sex, all the symptoms are totally different: the mother experiences an almost insupportable weight, there is a slight swelling of the legs and the groin, and the first movement of the child is not felt until the ninetieth day. But, whatever the sex of the child, the mother is sensible of the greatest languor at the time when the hair of the fœtus first begins to grow, and at the full moon; at which latter time it is that children newly born are exposed to the greatest danger. In addition to this, the mode of walking, and indeed everything that can be mentioned, is of consequence in the case of a woman who is pregnant. Thus, for instance, women who have used too much salted meat will bring forth children without nails: parturition, too, is more difficult, if they do not hold their breath. It is fatal, too, to yawn during labour; ^[Note] and abortion ensues, if the female should happen to sneeze just after the sexual congress. (7.) It is a subject for pity, and even for a feeling of shame, when one reflects that the origin of the most vain of all animated beings is thus frail: so much so, indeed, that very often the smell even of a lamp just extinguished is a cause of abortion. ^[Note] From such beginnings as these springs the tyrant,

from such the murderous dispositions of men. Thou man, who placest thy confidence in the strength of thy body, thou, who dost embrace the gifts of Fortune, and look upon thyself, not only as her fosterling, but even as her own born child, thou, whose mind is ever thirsting for blood, ^[Note] thou who, puffed up with some success or other, dost think thyself a god—by how trifling a thing might thy life have been cut short! Even this very day, something still less even may have the same effect, the puncture, for instance, of the tiny sting of the serpent; or even, as befell the poet Anacreon, ^[Note] the swallowing of the stone of a raisin, or of a single hair in a draught of milk, by which the prætor and senator, Fabius, was choked, and so met his death. He only, in fact, will be able to form a just estimate of the value of life, who will always bear in mind the extreme frailty of its tenure.

It is contrary to nature for children to come into the world with the feet first, for which reason such children are called Agrippæ, meaning that they are born with difficulty. ^[Note] In this manner, M. Agrippa ^[Note] is said to have been born; the

only instance, almost, of good fortune, out of the number of all those who have come into the world under these circumstances. And yet, even he may be considered to have paid the penalty of the unfavourable omen produced by the unnatural mode of his birth, in the unfortunate weakness of his legs, the misfortunes of his youth, a life spent in the very midst of arms and slaughter, and ever exposed to the approaches of death; in his children, too, who have all proved a very curse to the earth, and more especially, the two Agrippinas, who were the mothers respectively of Caius and of Domitius Nero, ^[Note] so many firebrands hurled among the human race. In addition to all this, we may add the shortness of his life, he being cut off in his fifty-first year, the distress which he experienced from the adulteries of his wife, ^[Note] and the grievous tyranny to which he was subjected by his father-in-law. Agrippina, too, the mother of Nero, who was lately Emperor, and who proved himself, throughout the whole of his reign, the enemy of the human race, has left it recorded in writing, that he was born with his feet first. It is in the due order of nature that man should enter the world with the head first, and be carried to the tomb in a contrary fashion.

Those children, whose birth has cost the mother her life, are evidently born under more favourable auspices; for such was the case with the first Scipio Africanus; the first, too, of the Cæsars was so named, from his having been removed by an incision in his mother's womb. For a similar reason, too, the Cæsones were called by that name. ^[Note] Manilius, also, who entered Carthage with his army, was born in a similar manner.

A child used to be called Vopiscus, ^[Note] who, when twins had been conceived, had been retained in the womb and born alive, the other having perished by abortion. There are, too, some very remarkable instances of this kind, although they are singularly rare and uncommon.

Few animals, except the female of the human species, receive the male when pregnant. In only one or two species, and no more, does superfœtation ever take place. ^[Note] Cases are to be found stated in the journals of physicians, and of others who have paid particular attention to the subject, in which twelve embryos ^[Note] have been removed at a single abortion. When, however, but a very short time has intervened between two conceptions, the embryos both of them proceed to maturity; as was seen to be the case with Hercules and his brother Iphicles. ^[Note] This was the case also with the woman who brought forth two children at a birth, one of whom bore a resemblance to her husband, and the other to her paramour. So too, with a female slave in Proconnesus, ^[Note] who was delivered of two children at one birth, one of whom bore a strong resemblance to her master, and the other to her master's steward, with both of whom she had had connection on the same day; with another woman who was delivered of two children at a birth, the one after the usual period of gestation, the other an em-

bryo only five months old: and again, with another female, who, having been delivered of one child at the end of seven months, in due course, two months afterwards, brought forth twins. ^[Note]

It is universally known that well-formed parents often produce defective children; and on the other hand, defective parents children who are well formed, or else imperfect in the same part of the body as the parents. It is a well-known fact also, that marks, moles, and even scars, are reproduced in members of the same family in successive generations. The mark which the Daci make on their arms for the purpose of denoting their origin, is known to last even to the fourth generation. ^[Note]

(12.) We have heard it stated that three members of the family of the Lepidi have been born, though not in an uninterrupted succession, with one of the eyes covered with a membrane. ^[Note] We observe, too, that some children strongly resemble their grandfather, and that of twins one child is like the father, while the other resembles the mother; and have known cases where a child that was born a year after another, resembled him as exactly as though they had been twins. Some women have children like themselves, some like their husband, while others again bear children who resemble neither the one nor the other. In some cases the female children resemble the father, and the males the mother. The case of Nicæus, the celebrated wrestler of Byzantium, is a well-known and un-

doubted instance. His mother was the produce of an act of adultery, committed with a male of Æthiopia; and although she herself differed in no way from the ordinary complexion of other females, he was born with all the swarthy complexion of his Æthiopian grandfather. ^[Note]

These strong features of resemblance proceed, no doubt, from the imagination of the parents, over which we may reasonably believe that many casual circumstances have a very powerful influence; such, for instance, as the action of the eyes, the ears, or the memory, or impressions received at the moment of conception. A thought ^[Note] even, momentarily passing through the mind of either of the parents, may be supposed to produce a resemblance to one of them separately, or else to the two combined. Hence it is that the varieties are much more numerous in the appearance of man than in that of other animals; seeing that, in the former, the rapidity of the ideas, the quickness of the perception, and the varied powers of the intellect, tend to impress upon the features peculiar and diversified marks; while in the case of the other animals, the mind is immovable, and just the same in each and all individuals of the same species. ^[Note] A man named Artemon, one of the common people, ^[Note] bore so strong a resemblance to Antiochus, the king of Syria, that his queen Laodice, after her husband Antiochus was slain, acted the farce of getting this man ^[Note] to recommend

her as the successor to the crown. Vibius, a member of the plebeian order, ^[Note] and Publieius as well, a freedman who had formerly been a slave, so strongly resembled Pompeius Magnus in appearance as to be scarcely distinguishable from him; they both had that ingenuous countenance ^[Note] of his, and that fine forehead, ^[Note] which so strongly bespoke his noble descent. It was a similar degree of resemblance to this, that caused the surname of his cook, Menogenes, to be given to the father of Pompeius Magnus, he having already obtained that of Strabo, on account of the cast in his eye, ^[Note] a defect which he had contracted through imitating a similar one in his slave. Scipio, too, had the name of Serapion given him, after the vile slave of a pig-jobber: and after him, another Scipio of the same family was surnamed Salvitto, after a mime ^[Note] of that name. In the same way, too, Spinther and Pamphilus, who were respectively actors of only second and third rate parts, gave their names to Lentulus and Metellus, who were at that time colleagues in the consulship; so that, by a very curious but disagreeable coincidence, the likenesses of the two consuls were to be seen at the same moment on the stage.

On the other hand again, L. Plancus, the orator, bestowed his surname on the actor Rubrius: the player, Burbuleius, again, gave his name to the elder Curio, and the player, Menogenes, to Messala, the censor. ^[Note] There was a certain fisherman, too, a native of Sicily, who bore a strong resemblance to the proconsul, Sura, not only in his features, but in the mode even

of opening his mouth, and the spasmodic contraction of his tongue, and his hurried and indistinct utterance when speaking. Cassius Severus, ^[Note] the celebrated orator, had it thrown in his teeth how strongly he resembled Armentarius, the gladiator. ^[Note] Toranius, a slave-dealer, sold to Antony, while he was one of the Triumvirs, two boys of remarkable beauty, as being twins, so strong was their resemblance; whereas, in reality, one of them was born in Asia, and the other beyond the Alps. The fraud, however, having been soon afterwards discovered through the difference in the language of the youths, Antony, who was greatly exasperated, violently upbraided the dealer, and, among other things, complained that he had fixed the price at so high a sum as two hundred thousand sesterces. ^[Note] The crafty slave-merchant, however, made answer that that was the very reason for his having set so high a price upon them; for, as he said, there would have been nothing particularly striking in the resemblance of the boys, if they had been born of the same mother, whereas, children found to be so exactly like each other, though natives of different countries, ought to be deemed above all price; an answer which produced such a reasonable feeling of surprise and admiration in the mind of the proscriber, ^[Note] that he who was but just before frantic under the injury he had received, was led to set a higher value on no part whatever of all the property in his possession.

There exists a kind of peculiar antipathy between the bodies

of certain persons, which, though barren with respect to each other, are not so when united to others; ^[Note] such, for instance, was the case with Augustus and Livia. ^[Note] Certain individuals, again, both men and women, produce only females, others males; and, still more frequently, children of the two sexes alternately; the mother of the Gracchi, for instance, who had twelve children, and Agrippina, the mother of Germanicus, who had nine. Some women, again, are barren in their youth, while to others it is given to bring forth once only during their lives. Some women never go to their full time, or if, by dint of great care and the aid of medicine, they do give birth to a living child, it is mostly a girl. Among other instances of rare occurrence, is the case of Augustus, now deified, who, in the year in which he departed this life, witnessed the birth of M. Silanus, ^[Note] the grandson of his granddaughter: having obtained the government of Asia, after his consulship, he was poisoned by Nero, on his accession to the throne.

Q. Metellus Macedonicus, ^[Note] leaving six children, left eleven grandsons also, with daughters-in-law and sons-in-law, ^[Note] twenty-seven individuals in all, who addressed him by the name and title of father. In the records of the times of the Emperor Augustus, now deified, we find it stated that, in his twelfth consulship, Lucius Sylla being his colleague, on the

third day before the ides of April, ^[Note] C. Crispinus Hilarus, a man of a respectable family of the plebeian order, living at Fæsulæ, ^[Note] came to the Capitol, to offer sacrifice, attended by eight children (of whom two were daughters), twenty-eight grandsons, nineteen great-grandsons, and eight granddaughters, who all followed him in a lengthened train.

Women cease to bear children at their fiftieth year, and, with the greater part of them, the monthly discharge ceases at the age of forty. But with respect to the male sex, it is a well-known fact, that King Masinissa, when he was past his eighty-sixth year, had a son born to him, whom he named Metimanus, ^[Note] and that Cato the Censor, after he had completed his eightieth year, had a son by the daughter of his client, Salonius: a circumstance from which, while the descendants of his other sons were surnamed Liciniani, those of this son were called Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one. ^[Note] It is equally well known, too, that L. Volusius Saturninus, ^[Note] who lately died while prefect of the city, had a son when he was past his seventy-second year, ^[Note] by Cornelia, a member of the family of the Scipios, Volusius Saturninus, who was afterwards consul. Among the lower classes of the people, we not uncommonly meet with men who become the fathers of children after the age of seventy-five.

Among the whole range of animated beings, the human fe-

male is the only one that has the monthly discharge, ^[Note] and in whose womb are found what we term "moles." These moles consist of a shapeless mass of flesh, devoid of all life, and capable of resisting either the edge or the point of the knife; they are movable in the body, and obstruct the menstrual discharge; sometimes, too, they are productive of fatal consequences to the woman, in the same manner as a real fœtus; while, at other times, they remain in the body until old age; in some cases, again, they are discharged, in consequence of an increased action of the bowels. ^[Note] Something of a very similar nature is produced in the body of the male, which is called a "schirrus;" ^[Note] this was the case with Oppius Capito, a man of prætorian rank.

It would indeed be a difficult matter to find anything which is productive of more marvellous effects than the menstrual discharge. ^[Note] On the approach of a woman in this state, must will become sour, seeds which are touched by her become sterile, grafts wither away, garden plants are parched up, and the fruit will fall from the tree beneath which she sits. Her very look, even, will dim the brightness of mirrors, blunt the edge of steel, and take away the polish from ivory. A swarm of bees, if looked upon by her, will die immediately;

brass and iron will instantly become rusty, and emit an offensive odour; while dogs which may have tasted of the matter so discharged are seized with madness, and their bite is venomous and incurable.

In addition to this, the bitumen which is found at certain periods of the year, floating on the lake of Judæa, known as Asphaltites, a substance which is peculiarly tenacious, and adheres to everything that it touches, can only be divided into separate pieces by means of a thread which has been dipped in this virulent matter. ^[Note] It is said that the ant, even an insect so extremely minute, is sensible of its presence, and rejects the grains which it has been carrying, and will not return to them again. ^[Note]

This discharge, which is productive of such great and singular effects, occurs in women every thirty days, and in a greater degree every three months. ^[Note] In some individuals it occurs oftener than once a month, and in others, again, it never takes place. Women of this nature, however, are not capable of bearing children, because it is of this substance that the infant is formed. ^[Note] The seed of the male, acting as a sort of leaven, causes it to unite and assume a form, and in due time it acquires life, and assumes a bodily shape. The consequence is, that if the flow continues during pregnancy, the child will be weak, or else will not live; or if it does, it will be full of gross humours, Nigidius says.

(16.) The same author is also of opinion, that the milk of a woman who is giving suck will not become impure, if she should happen to become pregnant again by the same man. ^[Note]

Conception is generally said to take place the most readily, either at the beginning or the end of the menstrual discharge. ^[Note] It is said, too, that it is a certain sign of fecundity in a woman, when her saliva becomes impregnated with any medicament which has been rubbed upon her eye-lids. ^[Note]

It is a matter beyond doubt, that in young children the front teeth are produced at the seventh month, and, nearly always, those in the upper jaw the first. These are shed in the seventh year, and are then replaced by others. ^[Note] Some infants are even born with teeth: ^[Note] such was the case with Manius Curius, who, from this circumstance, received the name of Dentatus; and also with Cn. Papirius Carbo, both of them distinguished men. When this phenomenon happened in the case of a female, it was looked upon in the time of the kings as an omen of some inauspicious event. At the birth of Valeria, under such circumstances as these, it was the answer of the

soothsayers, that any city to which she might happen to be carried, would be destroyed; she was sent to Suessa Pometia, ^[Note] at that time a very flourishing place, but the prediction was ultimately verified by its destruction. Some female children are born with the sexual organs closed, ^[Note] a thing of very unfa- vourable omen; of which Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, is an instance. Some persons are born with a continuous bone in the mouth, in place of teeth; this was the case with the upper jaw of the son of Prusias, the king of Bithynia. ^[Note]

The teeth are the only parts of the body which resist the action of fire, and are not consumed along with the rest of it. ^[Note] Still, however, though they are able thus to resist flame, they become corroded by a morbid state of the saliva. The teeth are whitened by certain medicinal agents. ^[Note] They are worn down by use, and fail in some persons long before any other part of the body. They are necessary, not only for the mastication of the food, but for many other purposes as well. It is the office of the front teeth to regulate the voice and the speech; by a certain arrangement, they receive, as if in concert, the stroke communicated by the tongue, while by their structure in such regular order, and their size, they cut short, moderate, or soften

the utterance of the words. When they are lost, the articulation becomes altogether confused and indistinct. ^[Note]

In addition to this, it is generally supposed that we may form prognostics from the teeth. The number of teeth allotted to all men, with the exception of the nation of the Turduli, ^[Note] is thirty-two; those persons who have a greater number, are thought to be destined to be long-lived. Women have fewer teeth than men. ^[Note] Those females who happen to have two canine teeth on the right side of the upper jaw, have promise of being the favourites of fortune, as was the case with Agrippina, ^[Note] the mother of Domitius Nero: when they are on the left side, it is just the contrary. It is the custom of most nations not to burn the bodies of children who die before they have cut their teeth. We shall have more to say on this subject when we give an account of the different parts of the body. ^[Note]

We find it stated that Zoroaster was the only human being who ever laughed on the same day on which he was born. We hear, too, that his brain pulsated so strongly that it repelled the hand when laid upon it, a presage of his future wisdom.

It is a well-known fact, that, at the age of three years, the body of each person is half the height that it will ever attain. Taking it all in all, it is observed that in the human race, the stature is almost daily becoming less and less, and that sons are rarely taller than their parents, the fertility of the seed

being dried up by the heat of that conflagration to which the world is fast approaching. ^[Note] A mountain of the island of Crete having been burst asunder by the action of an earthquake, a body was found there standing upright, forty-six cubits in height; ^[Note] by some persons it is supposed to have been that of Orion; ^[Note] while others again are of opinion that it was that of Otus. ^[Note] It is generally believed, from what is stated in ancient records, that the body of Orestes, which was disinterred by command of an oracle, was seven cubits in height. ^[Note] It is now nearly one thousand years ago, that that divine poet Homer was unceasingly complaining, that men were of less stature in his day than they had formerly been. ^[Note] Our Annals

do not inform us what was the height of Nævius Pollio; ^[Note] but we learn from them that he nearly lost his life from the rush of the people to see him, and that he was looked upon as a prodigy. The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was one Gabbaras ^[Note] by name, who was brought from Arabia by the Emperor Claudius; his height was nine feet and as many inches. ^[Note] In the reign of Augustus, there were two persons, Posio and Secundilla by name, who were half a foot taller than him; their bodies have been preserved as objects of curiosity in the museum of the Sallustian family. ^[Note]

In the reign of the same emperor, there was a man also, remarkable for his extremely diminutive stature, being only two feet and a palm in height; his name was Conopas, and he was a great pet with Julia, the grand-daughter of Augustus. There was a female also, of the same size, Andromeda by name, a freed-woman of Julia Augusta. We learn from Varro, that Manius Maximus and M. Tullius, members of our equestrian order, were only two cubits in height; and I have myself seen them, preserved in their coffins. ^[Note] It is far from an unknown fact, that children are occasionally born a foot and a half in height, and sometimes a little more; such children, however, have finished their span of existence by the time they are three years old. ^[Note]

We find it stated by the historians, that the son of Euthymenes of Salamis had grown to be three cubits in height, at the age of three years; that he was slow of gait and dull of comprehension; that at that age he had attained puberty even, and his voice had become strong, like that of a man. We hear, also, that he died suddenly of convulsions of the limbs, at the completion of his third year. ^[Note] myself, not very long ago, was witness to exactly similar appearances, with the exception of the state of puberty, in a son of Cornelius Tacitus, a member of the equestrian order, and procurator ^[Note] of Belgic Gaul. ^[Note] The Greeks call such children as these, εχτραπέλοι; we have no name for them in Latin.

(17.) It has been observed, that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line; the right side of the body, too, is generally stronger than the left; though in some, the strength of the two sides is equal; while in others again, the left side is the strongest. This, however, is never found to be the case in women. ^[Note]

Males are heavier than females, and the bodies of all animals are heavier when they are dead than when alive; they also weigh more when asleep than when awake. The dead bodies of men float upon the back, those of women with the

face downwards; as if, even after death, nature were desirous of sparing their modesty. ^[Note]

(18.) We find it stated, that there are some men whose bones are solid, and devoid of marrow, ^[Note] and that one mark of such persons is the fact that they are never thirsty, and emit no perspiration. At the same time, we know that by the exercise of a resolute determination, any one may resist the feeling of thirst; a fact which was especially exemplified in the case of Julius Viator, a Roman of equestrian rank, but by birth one of the Vocontii, a nation on terms of alliance with us. Having, in his youth, been attacked by dropsy, and forbidden the use of liquids by his physicians, ^[Note] use with him became a second nature, and so, in his old age, he never took any drink at all. Other persons also, have, by the exercise of a strong determination, laid similar restraints upon themselves.

(19.) It is said that Crassus, the grandfather of Crassus, who was slain by the Parthians, was never known to laugh; from which circumstance he obtained the name of Agelastus. ^[Note] There are other persons again, who have never been seen to weep. Socrates, who was so famous for his wisdom, always appeared with the same countenance, and was never known to appear either more gay or more sad than ordinary. This even tenor of the mind, however, sometimes degenerates into a sort of harshness, and a rigorous and inflexible sternness of nature, entirely effacing all the human affections. The Greeks, among whom there have been many persons of this description, are in

the habit of calling them απαθεῖς. ^[Note] A very remarkable thing, too, is the fact, that among these persons are to be found some of the greatest masters of philosophy. Diogenes the Cynic, for instance, Pyrrho, Heraclitus, and Timon, which last allowed himself to be so entirely carried away by this spirit, as to become a hater of all mankind. Less important peculiarities of nature, again, are to be observed in many persons; Antonia, ^[Note] for instance, the wife of Drusus, was never known to expectorate; and Pomponius, the poet, a man of consular rank, was never troubled with eructation. Those rare instances of men, ^[Note] whose bones are naturally solid and without marrow, are known to us as men "of horn." ^[Note]

Varro, speaking of persons remarkable for their strength, gives us an account of Tributanus, a celebrated gladiator, and skilled in the use of the Samnite ^[Note] arms; ^[Note] he was a man of meagre person, but possessed of extraordinary strength. Varro makes mention of his son also, who served in the army of Pompeius Magnus. He says, that in all parts of his body, even in the arms and hands, there was a network of sinews, ^[Note] extending across and across. The latter of these men, having been challenged by an enemy, with a single finger of the right hand, and that unarmed, ^[Note] vanquished him, and then

seized and dragged him to the camp. Vinnius Valens, who served as a centurion in the prætorian guard of Augustus, was in the habit of holding up waggons laden with casks, until they were emptied; and of stopping a carriage with one hand, and holding it back, against all the efforts of the horses to drag it forward. He performed other wonderful feats also, an account of which may still be seen inscribed on his monument. Varro, also, gives the following statement: "Fusius, who used to be called the ' bumpkin ^[Note] Hercules,' was in the habit of carrying his own mule; while Salvius was able to mount a ladder, with a weight of two hundred pounds attached to his feet, the same to his hands, and two hundred pounds on each shoulder." I myself once saw,—a most marvellous display of strength,—a man of the name of Athanatus walk across the stage, wearing a leaden breast-plate of five hundred pounds weight, while shod with buskins of the same weight. When Milo, the wrestler, had once taken his stand, there was not a person who could move him from his position; and when he grasped an apple in his hand, no one could so much as open one of his fingers.

It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between Athens and Lacedæmon, in two days, until Amystis, the Lacedæmonian courier, and Philonides, ^[Note] the courier of Alexander the Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day, a distance of thirteen hundred and five stadia. ^[Note] In our own times, too, we are

fully aware that there are men in the Circus, who are able to keep on running for a distance of one hundred and sixty miles; and that lately, in the consulship of Fonteius and Vipstanus, ^[Note] there was a child eight years of age, who, between morning and evening, ran a distance of seventy-five miles. ^[Note] We become all the more sensible of these wonderful instances of swiftness, upon reflecting that Tiberius Nero, when he made all possible haste to reach his brother Drusus, who was then sick in Germany, reached him in three stages, travelling day and night on the road; the distance of each stage was two hundred miles. ^[Note]

Instances of acuteness of sight are to be found stated, which, indeed, exceed all belief. Cicero informs us, ^[Note] that the Iliad of Homer was written on a piece of parchment so small as to be enclosed in a nut-shell. He makes mention also of a man who could distinguish objects at a distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles. ^[Note] M. Varro says, that the name of this man was Strabo; and that, during the Punic war, from Lilybæum, the promontory of Sicily, he was in the habit of seeing the fleet come out of the harbour of Carthage, and could even count the number of the vessels. ^[Note] Callicrates ^[Note] used to carve ants and

other small animals in ivory, so minute in size, that other persons were unable to distinguish their individual parts. Myrmecides ^[Note] also was famous in the same line; ^[Note] this man made, of similar material, a chariot drawn by four horses, which a fly could cover with its wings; as well as a ship which might be covered by the wings of a tiny bee. ^[Note]

We have one instance on record of remarkable acuteness of hearing; the noise of the battle, on the occasion when Sybaris ^[Note] was destroyed, was heard, the day on which it took place, at Olympia. ^[Note] But, as to the victory over the Cimbri, ^[Note] and that over Perseus, the news of which was conveyed to Rome by the Castors, ^[Note] they are to be looked upon in the light of visions and presages proceeding immediately from the gods.

Of patience in enduring pain, that being too frequently the lot of our calamitous fate, we have innumerable instances related. One of the most remarkable instances among the female sex is that of the courtesan Leæna, who, although put to the torture, refused to betray the tyrant-slayers, Harmodius and Aristogiton. ^[Note] Among those of men, we have that of Anaxarchus, who, when put to the torture for a similar reason, bit off his tongue and spit it into the face of the tyrant, thus destroying the only hope ^[Note] of his making any betrayal.

It would be far from easy to pronounce what person has been the most remarkable for the excellence of his memory, that blessing so essential for the enjoyment of life, there having been so many who have been celebrated for it. King Cyrus knew all the soldiers of his army by name: ^[Note] L. Scipio the names of all the Roman people. Cineas, the ambassador of king Pyrrhus, knew by name all the members of the senate and the equestrian order, the day after his arrival at Rome.

Mithridates, ^[Note] who was king of twenty-two nations, administered their laws in as many languages, and could harangue each of them, without employing an interpreter. There was in Greece a man named Charmidas, who, when a person asked him for any book in a library, could repeat it by heart, just as though he were reading. Memory, in fine, has been made an art; which was first invented by the lyric poet, Simonides, ^[Note] and perfected by Metrodorus of Scepsis, so as to enable persons to repeat word for word exactly what they have heard. ^[Note] Nothing whatever, in man, is of so frail a nature as the memory; for it is affected by disease, by injuries, and even by fright; being sometimes partially lost, and at other times entirely so. A man, who received a blow from a stone, forgot the names of the letters only; ^[Note] while, on the other hand, another person, who fell from a very high roof, could not so much as recollect his mother, or his relations and neighbours. Another person, in consequence of some disease, forgot his own servants even; and Messala Corvinus, the orator, lost all recollection of his own name. And so it is, that very often the memory appears to attempt, as it were, to make its escape from us, even while the body is at rest and in perfect health. When sleep, too, comes over us, it is cut off altogether; so much so, that the mind, in its vacancy, is at a loss to know where we are. ^[Note]

The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigour of mind in any man ever born, was that of Cæsar, the Dictator. I am not at present alluding to his valour and courage, nor yet his exalted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigour of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated that he was able to write or read, and, at the same time, to dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four letters at once, and those on the most important business; and, indeed, if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven. He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only commander who exceeded M. Marcellus, ^[Note] in this respect, he having fought only thirty-nine. ^[Note] In addition, too, to the victories gained by him in the civil wars, one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles. For my own part, however, I am not going to set it down as a subject for high renown, what was really an outrage committed upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under the strong influence of necessity; and, indeed, he himself confesses as much, in his omission to state the number of persons who perished by the sword in the civil wars.

With much more justice we may award credit to Pompeius Magnus, far having taken from the pirates ^[Note] no less than eight hundred and forty-six vessels: though at the same time, over and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must with equal justice give Cæsar the peculiar credit of a remark-

able degree of clemency, a quality, in the exercise of which, even to repentance, he excelled all other individuals whatsoever. The same person has left us one instance of magnanimity, to which there is nothing that can be at all compared. While one, who was an admirer of luxury, might perhaps on this occasion have enumerated the spectacles which he exhibited, the treasures which he lavished away, and the magnificence of his public works, I maintain that it was the great proof, and an incomparable one, of an elevated mind, for him to have burnt with the most scrupulous carefulness the papers of Pompeius, which were taken in his desk at the battle of Pharsalia, and those of Scipio, taken at Thapsus, without so much as reading them. ^[Note]

But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown of the Roman Empire, as to the victorious career of a single individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of all the triumphs and titles of Pompeius Magnus: the splendour of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father Liber ^[Note] even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partizan of Sylla, but in behalf of the republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa, and reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share of the spoil the title of " Great," ^[Note] he was decreed the honours of a triumph; and he, though only of equestrian rank, ^[Note] a thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the triumphal chariot: immediately after which, he hastened to the west, where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised upon the Pyrenees, that he had, by his victories, reduced to subjection eight hundred and seventy-six cities, from the Alps to the borders of Farther Spain; at the same time he most

magnanimously said not a word about Sertorius. ^[Note] After having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot, having proved himself a general thus often before having been a soldier. ^[Note] After this, he was dispatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back to his country the following titles of honour, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred games—for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective countries. ^[Note] These honours then did he award to the City, in the temple of Minerva, ^[Note] which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained: "Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred and seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight hundred and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses, and having conquered all the country from the Mæotis to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to Minerva." Such, in few words, is the sum of his exploits in the East. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph which he obtained, the third day before the calends ^[Note] of October, ^[Note] in the consulship of M. Piso and

M. Messala; ^[Note] "After having delivered the sea-coast from the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judæa, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes."

The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre. ^[Note] If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Cæsar, who has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may say, without an end.

Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues. Cato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family, ^[Note] is generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest of human endowments, for he was the most talented orator, the most talented general, and the most talented politician; ^[Note] all which merits, if they were not perceptible before him, still shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio Æmilianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the part of many others under which Cato laboured: ^[Note] in cones-

quence of which it was, what must be owned to be a peculiarity in Cato's career, that he had to plead his own cause no less than four and forty times; ^[Note] and yet, though no person was so frequently accused, he was always acquitted.

A minute enquiry by whom the greatest valour has ever been exhibited, would lead to an endless discussion, more especially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted. Q. Ennius admired T. Cæcilius Denter ^[Note] and his brother to such a degree, that on their account he added a sixteenth book to his Annals. L. Siccius Dentatus, who was tribune of the people in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and A. Aterius, ^[Note] not long after the expulsion of the kings, has also very numerous testimonies in his favour. This hero fought one hundred and twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and was graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body, without one on the back. The same man also carried off thirty-four spoils, ^[Note] was eighteen times presented with the victor's spear, ^[Note] and received twenty-five pendants, ^[Note] eighty-three

torcs, ^[Note] one hundred and sixty bracelets, ^[Note] twenty-six crowns, (of which fourteen were civic, eight golden, three mural, and one obsidional), a fisc ^[Note] of money, ten prisoners, and twenty oxen altogether. ^[Note] He followed in the triumphal processions of nine generals, who mainly owed their victories to his exertions; besides all which, a thing that I look upon as the most important of all his services, he denounced to the people T. Romilius, ^[Note] one of the generals of the army, at the end of his consulship, and had him convicted of having made an improper use of his authority. ^[Note]

The military honours of Manlius Capitolinus would have been no less splendid than his, if they had not been all effaced at the close of his life. Before his seventeenth year, he had

gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown; he also gained six civic crowns, thirty seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the fore-part of his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of the horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in the shoulders and the thigh. Besides all this, unaided, he saved the Capitol, when it was attacked by the Gauls, and through that, the state itself; a thing that would have been the most glorious act of all, if he had not so saved it, in order that he might, as its king, become its master. ^[Note] But in all matters of this nature, although valour may effect much, fortune does still more.

No person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled M. Sergius, ^[Note] although his great-grandson, Catiline, tarnished the honours of his name. In his second campaign he lost his right hand; and in two campaigns he was wounded three and twenty times; so much so, that he could scarcely use either his hands or his feet; still, attended by a single slave, he afterwards served in many campaigns, though but an invalided soldier. He was twice taken prisoner by Hannibal, (for it was with no ordinary enemy that he would engage,) and twice did he escape from his captivity, after having been kept, without a single day's intermission, in chains and fetters for twenty months. On four occasions he fought with his left hand alone, two horses being slain under him. He had a right hand made of iron, and attached to the stump, after which he fought a battle, and raised the siege of Cremona, defended Placentia, and took twelve of the enemy's camps in Gaul. All this we learn from an oration of his, which he delivered when, in his prætorship, his colleagues attempted to exclude him from the sacred rites, on the ground of his infirmities. ^[Note] What heaps upon heaps of crowns would he have piled up, if he had only had other enemies! For, in matters of this nature, it is of the first importance to consider upon what times in especial the valour of

each man has fallen. What civic crowns did Trebia, what did the Ticinus, what did Lake Thrasymenus afford? What crown was there to be gained at Cannæ, where it was deemed the greatest effort of valour to have escaped ^[Note] from the enemy? Other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but Sergius ^[Note] conquered even Fortune herself. ^[Note]

Among so many different pursuits, and so great a variety of works and objects, who can select the palm of glory for transcendent genius? Unless perchance we should agree in opinion that no more brilliant genius ever existed than the Greek poet Homer, whether it is that we regard the happy subject of his work, or the excellence of its execution. For this reason it was that Alexander the Great—and it is only by judges of such high estate that a sentence, just and unbiassed by envy, can be pronounced in the case of such lofty claims—when he found among the spoils of Darius, the king of Persia, a casket for perfumes, ^[Note] enriched with gold, precious stones, and pearls, covered as he was with the dust of battle, deemed it beneath a warrior to make use of unguents, and, when his friends were pointing out to him its various uses, exclaimed, "Nay, but by Hercules! let the casket be used for preserving the poems of Homer;" that so the most precious work of the human mind might be placed in the keeping of the richest work of art. It was the same conqueror, too, who gave directions that the

descendants and house of the poet Pindar ^[Note] should be spared, at the taking of Thebes. He likewise rebuilt the native city ^[Note] of Aristotle, uniting to the extraordinary brilliancy of his exploits this speaking testimony of his kindliness of disposition.

Apollo impeached by name the assassins of the poet Archilochus ^[Note] at Delphi. While the Lacedemonians were besieging Athens, Father Liber ordered the funeral rites to be performed for Sophocles, the very prince of the tragic buskin; repeatedly warning their king, Lysander, in his sleep, to allow of the burial of his favourite. Upon this, the king made enquiry who had lately died in Athens; and understanding without any difficulty from the Athenians to whom the god referred, he allowed the funeral rites to be performed without molestation.

Dionysius the tyrant, who otherwise manifested a natural propensity for cruelty and pride, sent a vessel crowned with garlands to meet Plato, that high-priest of wisdom; and on his disembarcation, received him on the shore, in a chariot drawn by four white horses. Isocrates was able to sell a single oration of his for twenty talents. ^[Note] Æschines, the great Athenian orator, after he had read to the Rhodians the speech which he had made on the accusation of Demosthenes, read the defence made by Demosthenes, through which he had been driven into exile among them. When they expressed their admiration of it, "How much more," said he, "would you have admired it, if you had heard him deliver it him-

self;" ^[Note] a striking testimony, indeed, given in adversity, to the merit of an enemy! The Athenians sent their general, Thucydides, into banishment, but recalled him as their historian, admiring his eloquence, though they had punished his want of valour. ^[Note] A strong testimony, too, was given to the merit of Menander, the famous comic poet, by the kings of Egypt and Macedonia, in sending to him a fleet and an embassy; though, what was still more honourable to him, he preferred enjoying the converse of his literary pursuits to the favour of kings.

The nobles too of Rome have given their testimonies in favour of foreigners, even. Cn. Pompeius, after having finished the war against Mithridates, when he went to call at the house of Posidonius, the famous teacher of philosophy, forbade the lictor to knock at the door, as was the usual custom; ^[Note] and he, to whom both the eastern and the western world had yielded submission, ordered the fasces to be lowered before the door of a learned man. Cato the Censor, after he had heard the speech of Carneades, ^[Note] who was one of the embassy sent

from Athens, of three men famous for their learning, gave it as his opinion, that the ambassadors ought to be dismissed as soon as possible, because, in consequence of his ingenious method of arguing, it became extremely difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood. ^[Note] What an extraordinary change too in our modes of thinking! This Cato constantly gave it out as his decided opinion that all Greeks ought to be expelled from Italy, while, on the other hand, his great-grandson, Cato of Utica, upon his return from his military tribuneship, brought back with him a philosopher, and a second one ^[Note] when he returned from his embassy to Cyprus; ^[Note] and it is a very remarkable fact, that the same language which had been proscribed by one of the Cato's, was introduced among us by the other. But let us now give some account of the honours of our own countrymen.

The elder Africanus ordered that the statue of Ennius should be placed in his tomb, and that the illustrious surname, which he had acquired, I may say, as his share of the spoil on the conquest of the third part of the world, should be read over his ashes, along with the name of the poet. ^[Note] The Emperor Augustus, now deified, forbade the works of Virgil to be burnt, in opposition to the modest directions to that effect, which the poet had left in his will: a prohibition which was a greater compliment paid to his merit, than if he himself had recommended his works.

M. Varro ^[Note] is the only person, who, during his lifetime, saw

his own statue erected. This was placed in the first public library that was ever built, and which was formed by Asinius Pollio with the spoils of our enemies. ^[Note] The fact of this distinction being conferred upon him by one who was in the first rank, both as an orator and a citizen, and at a time, too, when there was so great a number of men distinguished for their genius, was not less honourable to him, in my opinion, than the naval crown which Pompeius Magnus bestowed upon him in the war against the pirates. The instances that follow among the Romans, if I were to attempt to reckon them, would be found to be innumerable; for it is the fact that this one nation has furnished a greater number of distinguished men in every branch than all the countries of the world taken together. ^[Note]

But what atonement could I offer to thee, Marcus Tullius, ^[Note] were I to be silent respecting thy name? or on what ground am I to pronounce thee as especially pre-eminent? On what, indeed, that can be more convincing than the most abundant testimony that was offered in thy favour by the whole Roman people? Contenting myself with the selection only of such of the great actions of the whole of your life, as were performed during your consulship.—You speak, and the tribes surrender the Agrarian law, or, in other words, their very subsistence; ^[Note] you advise them to do so, and they pardon Roscius, ^[Note] the author of the

law for the regulation of the theatres, and, without any feelings of resentment, allow a mark to be put upon themselves by allotting them an inferior seat; you entreat, and the sons of proscribed men blush at having canvassed for public honours: before your genius, Catiline took to flight, and it was you who proscribed M. Antonius. Hail then to thee, who wast the first of all to receive the title of Father of thy country, ^[Note] who wast the first of all, while wearing the toga, to merit a triumph, and who didst obtain the laurel for oratory. Great father, thou, of eloquence and of Latin literature! as the Dictator Cæsar, once thy enemy, wrote in testimony of thee, ^[Note] thou didst require a laurel superior to every triumph! How far greater and more glorious to have enlarged so immeasurably the boundaries of the Roman genius, than those of its sway!

(31.) Those persons among the Romans, who surpass all others in wisdom, have the surnames of Catus and Corculus ^[Note] given to them. Among the Greeks, Socrates was declared by the oracle of the Pythian Apollo to be superior to all others in wisdom.

Again, men have placed on an equality with those of the oracles the precepts uttered by Chilon, ^[Note] the Lacedæmonian. These have been consecrated at Delphi in letters of gold, and are to the following effect: "That each person ought to know himself, and not to desire to possess too much;" ^[Note] and "That misery is the sure companion of debt and litigation." He died of

joy, on hearing that his son had been victorious in the Olympic games, and all Greece assisted at his funeral rites.

A spirit of divination, and a certain communion with the gods, of the most exalted nature, was manifested-among women, in the Sibyl, and among men, in Melampodes, ^[Note] the Greek, and in Marcius, ^[Note] the Roman.

Scipio Nasica is the only individual who, since the commencement of the Roman era, has been declared, by a vote of the senate, confirmed by oath, to be the most excellent of men. ^[Note] And yet, the same person, when he was a candidate for office, was twice stigmatized by a repulse of the Roman people. He was not allowed, in fine, to die in his native country, ^[Note]—no, by Hercules! no more than Socrates, who was declared by Apollo to be the wisest of men, was permitted to die outside of a prison.

Sulpicia, the daughter of Paterculus, and wife of Fulvius Flaccus, has been considered, in the judgment of matrons, to have been the chastest of women. She was selected from one hundred Roman ladies, who had been previously named, to dedicate a statue of Venus, in obedience to the precepts contained in the Sibylline books. ^[Note] Again, Claudia gave strong proof of her piety and virtue, on the occasion of the introduction into Rome of the Mother of the gods. ^[Note]

Infinite is the number of examples of affection which have been known in all parts of the world; but one in particular occurred at Rome, to which no other can possibly be compared. A woman of quite the lower class, and whose name has consequently not come down to us, having lately given birth to a child, obtained permission to visit her mother, ^[Note] who was confined in prison; but was always carefully searched by the gaoler before being admitted, to prevent her from intro-

ducing any food. At last, however, she was detected nourishing her mother with the milk of her breast; upon which, in consideration of the marvellous affection of the daughter, the mother was pardoned, and they were both maintained for the rest of their days at the public charge; the spot, too, was consecrated to Piety, a temple to that goddess being built on the site of the prison, in the consulship ^[Note] of C. Quintius and M. Acilius, where the theatre of Marcellus ^{[Note] [Note]} now stands.

The father of the Gracchi, on finding [two] serpents in his house, consulted the soothsayers, and received an answer to the effect, that he would survive if the serpent of the other sex was put to death.—"No," said he, "rather kill the serpent of my own sex, for Cornelia is still young, and may yet bear children." ^[Note] Thus did he shew himself ready, at the same moment, to spare his wife and to benefit the state; and shortly after, his wish was accomplished. M. Lepidus died of regret for his wife, Apuleia, after having been divorced from her. ^[Note] P. Rupilius, ^[Note] who was at the time affected by a slight disease, instantly expired, upon news being brought to him that his brother had failed in obtaining the consulship. P. Catienus Plotinus was so much attached to his patron, that on finding himself named heir to all his property, he threw himself on the funeral pile.

Innumerable are the men who have excelled in the various arts; we may, however, take a cursory survey of them, by citing the names of the principal ones. Berosus excelled in astrology; and on account of his divinations and predictions, a public statue was erected in his honour by the Athenians. Apollodorus, for his skill as a grammarian, had public honours decreed him by the Amphictyonic Council of Greece. Hip- pocrates excelled in medicine; before its arrival, he predicted the plague, which afterwards came from Illyria, and sent his pupils to various cities, to give their assistance. As an acknowledgment of his merit, Greece decreed him the same honours as to Hercules. ^[Note] King Ptolemy rewarded a similar degree of skill in the person of Cleombrotus of Ceos, by a donation of one hundred talents, at the Megalensian games, ^[Note] he having succeeded in saving the life of King Anti- ochus. ^[Note] Critobulus also rendered himself extremely famous, by extracting an arrow ^[Note] from the eye of King Philip with so

much skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no defect to be seen. ^[Note] Asclepiades of Prusa, however, acquired the greatest fame of all—he founded a new sect, treated with disdain the promises of King Mithridates conveyed to him by an embassy, discovered a method of successfully treating diseases by wine, ^[Note] and, breaking in upon the funeral ceremony, saved the life of a man, who was actually placed ^[Note] on the funeral pile. He rendered himself, however, more celebrated than all, by staking his reputation as a physician against Fortune herself, and asserting that he did not wish to be so much as looked upon as a physician, if he should ever happen in any way to fall sick; and he won his wager, for he met his death at an extreme old age, by falling down stairs. ^[Note]

M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a remarkable homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics, by giving orders that Archimedes was to be the only person who should not be molested; his commands, however, were disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence of one of the soldiers. ^[Note] Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian, ^[Note] was rendered fa-

mous by the admirable construction of the temple of Diana at Ephesus; Philon, by the construction of the basin at Athens, which was capable of containing one thousand vessels; ^[Note] Cte- sibius, by the invention of pneumatics and hydraulic machines; and Dinochares, ^[Note] by the plan which he made of the city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same monarch, too, by public edict, declared that no one should paint his portrait except Apelles, and that no one should make a marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or a bronze one except Lysippus. ^[Note] These arts have all been rendered glorious by many illustrious examples.

King Attalus gave one hundred talents, ^[Note] at a public auction, for a single picture of Aristides, the Theban painter. ^[Note] Cæsar, the Dictator, purchased two pictures, the Medea and the Ajax of Timomachus, for eighty talents, ^[Note] it being his intention to dedicate them in the temple of Venus Genetrix. King Candaules gave its weight in gold for a large picture by Bularchus, the subject of which was the destruction of the Magnetes. Demetrius, who was surnamed the "taker of cities," ^[Note] refused to

set fire to the city of Rhodes, lest he should chance to destroy a picture of Protogenes, which was placed on that side of the walls against which his attack was directed. Praxiteles ^[Note] has been ennobled by his works in marble, and more especially by his Cnidian Venus, which became remarkable from the insane love which it inspired in a certain young man, ^[Note] and the high value set upon it by King Nicomedes, who endeavoured to procure it from the Cnidians, by offering to pay for them a large debt which they owed. The Olympian Jupiter day by day bears testimony to the talents of Phidias, ^[Note] and the Capitoline Jupiter and the Diana of Ephesus to those of Mentor; ^[Note] to which deities, also, were consecrated vases made by this artist.

The highest price ever given for a man born in slavery, so far as I am able to discover, was that paid for Daphnus, the grammarian, who was sold by Natius of Pisaurum ^[Note] to M. Scaurus, the first man in the state, for seven hundred thousand sesterces. ^[Note] In our day, no doubt, comic actors have fetched a higher price, but then they were purchasing their own freedom. In the time of our ancestors, Roscius, the actor, gained five hundred thousand sesterces annually. Perhaps, too, a person might in the present instance refer to the case of

the army commissary ^[Note] in the Armenian war, which was of late years undertaken in favour of Tiridates; which officer, in our own time, received his manumission from Nero for the sum of thirteen million sesterces; ^[Note] but, in this case, the consideration was the profit to be derived from the war, ^[Note] and it was not the value of the man that was paid for. And so, too, when Lutorius Priscus bought of Sejanus, the eunuch, Pæzon, for fifty million sesterces, ^[Note] the price was given, by Hercules! rather to gratify the passion of the purchaser, than in commendation of the beauty of the slave. Universal sorrow and consternation then reigning, the public were too much pre-occupied with it to put a stop to a bargain of so scandalous a nature. ^[Note]

Of all nations of the earth, the Romans have, without doubt, excelled every other in the display of valour. ^[Note] The human judgment cannot, however, possibly decide what man has enjoyed the highest degree of happiness, seeing that every one defines a state of prosperity in a way different from another, and entirely in conformity with his own notions. If we wish to form a true judgment and come to a decision, casting aside all the allurements and illusions of fortune, we are bound to say that no mortal is happy. Fortune has dealt well, and, indeed, indulgently, to him who feels that he has a right to say that he is not unhappy. For if there is nothing else, at all events, there is the fear lest fortune should fail at last; which fear itself, when it has once fastened upon us, our happiness is no longer unalloyed. And then, too, is it not the case that there is no mortal who is always wise? Would that there were

many to be found, who could feel a conviction that this is false, and that it had not been enunciated by an oracle itself, as it were! Mortals, vain as they are, and ingenious in deceiving themselves, calculate in the same way as the Thracians, who, according to their experience of each day, deposit in an urn a black or a white pebble; at the close of their life, these pebbles are separated, and from the relative number of each kind, they form their conclusions. ^[Note] But really, may not that very day that has been complimented with a white pebble, have contained in itself the germ of some misfortune? How many a man has got into trouble by the very power which has been bestowed upon him? How many have been brought to ruin and plunged into the deepest misery by their own blessings? or rather, by what have been looked upon too fondly as blessings, for the hour during which they were in the full enjoyment of them. But most true it is, that it is the day after, that is the judge of the day before; and after all, it is only the last day that is to set its stamp on the whole; the consequence is, that we can put our trust in none of them. And then, too, is it not the fact that the blessings of life would not be equal to its evils, even though they were equal in number? For what pleasure is there that can compensate for the slightest grief? Alas! what a vain and unreasonable task we impose upon ourselves! We trouble ourselves with counting the number of days, when it is their weight ^[Note] that ought to be taken into consideration.

During the whole course of ages, we find only one woman, and that, Lampido, the Lacedæmonian, who was the daughter of a king, the wife of a king, and the mother of a king. ^[Note]

Berenice was the only woman who was daughter, sister, and mother of conquerors in the Olympian games, ^[Note] The family of the Curios ^[Note] has been the only one to produce three orators in succession; that of the Fabii alone has given three chiefs of the senate in succession, Fabius Ambustus, his son Fabius Rullianus, and his grandson Quintus Fabius Gurges. ^[Note]

As to examples of the vicissitudes of Fortune, they are innumerable. For what great pleasures has she ever given us, which have not taken their rise in misfortunes? And what extraordinary misfortunes have not taken their first rise in great pleasures? (43.) It was fortune that preserved the Senator, M. Fidustius, ^[Note] who had been proscribed by Sylla, for a period of thirty-six years. And yet he was proscribed a second time; for he survived Sylla, even to the days of Antony, and, as it appears, was proscribed by him, for no other reason but because he had been proscribed before.

Fortune has determined that P. Ventidius alone should enjoy the honour of a triumph over the Parthians, and yet the same individual, when he was a child, she led in the triumphal procession of Cneius Pompeius, the conqueror of Asculum. ^[Note] Indeed, Masurius says, that he had been twice led in triumph; and according to Cicero, he used to let out mules for the bakers of the camp. ^[Note] Most writers, indeed, admit that his younger days were passed in the greatest poverty, and that he wore the hob-nailed shoes ^[Note] of the common soldier. Balbus Cornelius,

also, the elder, was elected to the consulate; ^[Note] but he had previously been accused, and the judges had been charged to discuss the point whether he could or not lawfully be scourged with rods; he being the first foreigner, ^[Note]—born even on the very shores of the ocean,—who obtained that honour, which our ancestors denied even to the people of Latium. ^[Note] Among other remarkable instances, also, we have that of L. Fulvius, ^[Note] the consul of the rebellious Tusculani, who, immediately upon his coming over to the Romans, obtained from them the same honour. He is the only individual who, in the same year in which he had been its enemy, enjoyed the honour of a triumph in Rome, and that too, over the people whose consul he had previously been. Down to the present time, L. Sylla is the only man who has claimed to himself the surname of "Happy;" ^[Note] a name which he derived, forsooth, from the bloodshed of the citizens and the oppression of his country! But what claim had he on which to found his title to this happiness? Was it the power which he had of proscribing and massacreing so many thousands of his fellow-citizens? Oh interpretation most disgraceful, and which must stamp him as "Unhappy" ^[Note] to all future time! Were not the men who perished in those times, of the two, to be looked upon as the more fortunate—seeing that with them we sympathize, while there is no one who does not

detest Sylla? And then, besides, was not the close of his life more horrible than the sufferings which had been experienced by any of those who had been proscribed by him? his very flesh eating into itself, and so engendering his own punishment. ^[Note] And this, although he may have thought proper to gloss it over by that last dream of his, ^[Note] in the very midst of which he may be said, in some measure, to have died; and in which, as he pretended, he was told that his glory alone had risen superior to all envy; though at the same time, he confessed that it was still wanting to his supreme happiness, that he had not dedicated the Capitol. ^[Note]

Q. Metellus, in the funeral oration which he made in praise of his father, L. Metellus, who had been pontiff, twice consul, ^[Note] dictator, master of the horse, one of the quindecemvirs for dividing the lands, ^[Note] and the first who had elephants in his triumphal procession, ^[Note] the same having been taken in the first

Punic war, has left it written to the effect that his father had attained the ten greatest and best things, in the search after which wise men have spent all their lives. For, as he states, he was anxious to become the first warrior, the best orator, the bravest general, that the most important of all business should be entrusted to his charge, that he should enjoy the very highest honours, that he should possess consummate wisdom, that he should be regarded as the most distinguished senator, that he should by honourable means acquire a large fortune, that he should leave behind him many children, and that he should be the most illustrious person in the state. To refute this assertion, would be tedious and indeed unnecessary, seeing that it is contradicted more than sufficiently by the single fact, that Metellus passed his old age, deprived of his sight, which he had lost in a fire, while rescuing the Palladium from the temple of Vesta; ^[Note] a glorious action, no doubt, although the result was unhappy: on which account it is, that although he ought not to be called unfortunate, still he cannot be called fortunate. The Roman people, however, granted him a privilege which no one else had ever obtained since the foundation of the city, that of being conveyed to the senate- house in a chariot whenever he went to the senate: ^[Note] a great distinction, no doubt, but bought at the price of his sight.

(44.) The son also, of the same Q. Metellus, who has given the above account of his father, is considered himself to have been one of the rarest instances of human felicity. ^[Note] For, in ad-

dition to the very considerable honours which he obtained, and the surname which he acquired from the conquest of Macedonia, he was carried to the funeral pile by his four sons, ^[Note] one of whom had been prætor, three of them consuls, two had obtained triumphs, and one had been censor; each of which honours falls to the lot of a very few only. And yet, in the very full-blown pride of his dignity, as he was returning from the Campus Martius at mid-day, when the Forum and the Capitol are deserted, he was seized by the tribune, Caius Atinius Labeo, ^[Note] surnamed Macerion, whom, during his censorship, he had ejected from the senate, and was dragged by him to the Tarpeian rock, for the purpose of being precipitated there from. The numerous band, however, who called him by the name of father, flew to his assistance, though tardily, and only just, as it were, at the very last moment, to attend his funeral obsequies, seeing that he could not lawfully offer resistance, or repel force by force in the sacred case of a tribune; ^[Note] and he was just on the very point of perishing, the victim of his virtues and the strictness of his censorship, when he was saved by the intervention of another tribune,—only obtained with the greatest difficulty,—and so rescued from the very jaws of death. He afterwards had to subsist on the bounty of others, his property having been consecrated ^[Note] by the very man whom he had

degraded; and who, as if that had not satiated his vengeance, still farther wreaked his malice upon him, by throwing a rope around his neck, ^[Note] and twisting it with such extreme violence that the blood flowed from out of his ears. ^[Note] And for my part, too, I should look upon it as in the number of his misfortunes, to have been the enemy of the second Africanus; indeed, Macedonicus, in this instance, bears testimony against himself; for he said to his sons, "Go, my children, render the last duties to Scipio; you will never witness the funeral of a greater citizen than him;" and this speech he made to his sons, one of whom had already acquired the surname of Balearicus, and another of Diadematus, ^[Note] he himself at the time bearing that of Macedonicus.

Now, if we take into account the above injury alone, can any one justly pronounce that man happy, whose life was thus endangered by the caprice of an enemy, and that enemy, besides, not an Africanus? What victories over enemies could possibly be counterbalanced by such a price as this? What honours, what triumphs, did not Fortune cancel, in suffering a censor to be dragged through the middle of the city—indeed, that was his only resource for gaining time ^[Note]—dragged to that

Capitol, whither he himself, in his triumph, had forborne to drag in a similar manner even the very captives whom he had taken in his conquests? This crime, too, must be looked upon as all the greater, from its having so nearly deprived Macedonicus of the honours of his funeral, so great and so glorious, in which he was borne to the pile by his triumphant children, he himself thus triumphing, as it were, in his very obsequies. Most assuredly, there is no happiness that can be called unalloyed, when the terror of our life has been interrupted by any outrage, and much more by such an outrage as this. As for the rest, I really am at a loss whether we ought most to commend the manners of the age, ^[Note] or to feel an increased degree of indignation, that, among so many members of the family of the Metelli, such wicked audacity as that of C. Atinius remained unpunished.

In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class, ^[Note] if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejection from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle, ^[Note] and the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in opposition to his own requests; the hatred produced by the proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate ^[Note] with some among the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal

share of influence, he himself being entirely borne down by the power of Antony; his illness ^[Note] at the battle of Philippi; his flight, and his having to remain three days concealed in a marsh, ^[Note] though suffering from sickness, and, according to the account of Agrippa and Mecænas, labouring under a dropsy; his shipwreck ^[Note] on the coast of Sicily, where he was again under the necessity of concealing himself in a cave; his desperation, which caused him even to beg Proculeius ^[Note] to put him to death, when he was hard-pressed by the enemy in a naval engagement; ^[Note] his alarm about the rising at Perusia; ^[Note] his anxiety at the battle of Actium; ^[Note] the extreme danger he was in from the falling of a tower during the Pannonian war ^[Note] seditions so numerous among his soldiers; so many attacks by dangerous diseases; ^[Note] the suspicions which he entertained

respecting the intentions of Marcellus; ^[Note] the disgraceful banishment, as it were, of Agrippa; ^[Note] the many plots against his life; ^[Note] the deaths of his own children, ^[Note] of which he was accused, and his heavy sorrows, caused not merely by their loss; ^[Note] the adultery ^[Note] of his daughter, and the discovery of her parricidal designs; the insulting retreat of his son-in-law, Nero; ^[Note] another adultery, that of his grand-daughter; ^[Note] to

which there were added numerous other evils, such as the want of money to pay his soldiers; the revolt of Illyria; ^[Note] the necessity of levying the slaves; the sad deficiency of young men; ^[Note] the pestilence that raged in the City; ^[Note] the famine in Italy; the design which he had formed of putting an end to his life, and the fast of four days, which brought him within a hair's breadth of death. And then, added to all this, the slaughter of Varus; ^[Note] the base slanders ^[Note] whispered against his authority; the rejection of Posthumous Agrippa, after his adoption, ^[Note] and the regret to which Augustus was a prey after his banishment; ^[Note] the suspicions too respecting Fabius, to the effect that he had betrayed his secrets; and then, last of all, the machinations of his wife and of Tiberius, the thoughts of which occupied his last moments. In fine, this same god, ^[Note] who was raised to heaven, I am at a

loss to say whether deservedly or not, died, leaving the son of his own enemy his heir. ^[Note]

In reference to this point, two oracles of Delphi may come under our consideration, which would appear to have been pronounced as though in order to chastise the vanity of man. These oracles were the following: by the first, Pedius was pronounced to be the most happy of men, who had just before fallen in defence of his country. ^[Note] On the second occasion, when it had been consulted by Gyges, at that time the most powerful king in the world, it declared that Aglaiis of Psophis ^[Note] was a more happy man than himself. ^[Note] This Aglaiis was an old man, who lived in a poor petty nook of Arcadia, and cultivated a small farm, though quite sufficient for the supply of his yearly wants; ^[Note] he had never so much as left it, and, as was quite evident from his mode of living, his desires being of the most limited kind, he had experienced but an extremely small share of the miseries of life.

While still surviving, and in full possession of his senses, by the command of the same oracle, and with the sanction of Jupiter, the supreme Father of the gods, Euthymus, ^[Note] the pugilist, who had always, with one exception, been victorious in the Olympic games, was deified. He was a native of Locri,

in Italy. I find that Callimachus, ^[Note] considering it a more wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same day, ordered sacrifices to be offered up to him, which was accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his death. Nothing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable, as this mark of approval given by the gods.

Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of us from the moment of his birth, ^[Note] tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to make mention of this subject, while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides other particulars with reference to the phœnix and the Nymphs of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives ^[Note] one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius, ^[Note] the king of the Tartessii; ten more to Cinaras, ^[Note] the king of Cyprus, and two

hundred to Ægimius . ^[Note] Theopompus gives one hundred and fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus; according to Hellenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in Ætolia, have completed their two hundredth year; and his account is confirmed by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation, who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Arcadia have lived three hundred years; Alexander Cornelius, that there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years. Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred. ^[Note] All these statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaintance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another; others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each. Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have lived as many as one thousand years.

Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades ^[Note] reigned eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned sixty years, ^[Note] and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and unwittingly the father of Adonis, by his own daughter Myrrha (or Smyrna), in consequence of the anger of Venus or Aphrodite. He was said to have founded the city of Cinyra in Cyprus.

eight. ^[Note] Quintus Fabius Maximus was an augur for sixty- three years. ^[Note] M. Perperna, and more recently, L. Volusius Saturninus, survived all those whose suffrages each had solicited on the occasion of his consulship; ^[Note] Perperna lived ninety-eight years, and left after him only seven of those whose names, when censor, he had enrolled. Connected with this fact, it also suggests itself, and deserves to be remarked, that it has happened only once, that five successive years have ever passed without the death of a senator taking place; this was the case from the occasion on which the censors Flaccus and Albinus performed the lustration, in the year of the City 579, until the time of the succeeding censors. ^[Note]. M. Valerius Corvinus completed one hundred years, forty-six of which intervened between his first and sixth consulship. ^[Note] He occupied the curule chair twenty-one times, ^[Note] a thing that was never the case with any one besides. The pontiff Metellus also attained the same age. ^[Note]

Among women also, Livia, the wife of Rutilius, exceeded her ninety-sixth year; during the reign of Claudius, Statilia, a member of a noble family, died at the age of ninety-nine; Terentia, the wife of Cicero, lived one hundred and three years, and Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, one hundred and fifteen; she had fifteen children. ^[Note]

Lucceia, an actress in the mimes, performed on the stage

when one hundred years old, and Galeria Copiola returned to the stage, to perform in the interludes, ^[Note] at the votive games which were celebrated for the health of the deified Augustus, in the consulship of C. Poppæus and Q. Sulpicius. ^[Note] She had made her first appearance when eight years of age, just ninety-one years before that time, when M. Pomponius was ædile of the people, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo. ^[Note] When Pompeius Magnus dedicated his great theatre, he brought her upon the stage, as being quite a wonder, considering her old age. Asconius Pedianus informs us, that Sammula also lived one hundred and ten years. I consider it less wonderful that Stephanio, who was the first to dance on the stage in comedy descriptive of Roman manners, should have ^[Note] danced at the two secular games, those celebrated by the deified Augustus, and by Claudius Cæsar, in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval that elapsed between them was no more than sixty-three years; ^[Note] indeed, he lived a considerable time after the last period. We are informed by Mutianus, that, on the peak of Mount Tmolus, which is called Tempsis, the people live one hundred and fifty years, and that T. Fullonius, of Bononia, was set down as of the same age, in the registration which took place under the censorship of Claudius Cæsar; and this appeared to be confirmed by comparing the present with former registrations, as well as many other proofs that he had been alive at certain periods—for that prince greatly interested himself in ascertaining the exact truth of the matter.

The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me

some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes ^[Note] used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus ^[Note] that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos ^[Note] transmitted to us, and called by them "tartemorion," ^[Note] from the division of the signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life, in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years They maintain that, reckoning from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which periods they call by the name of "anaphoræ;" ^[Note] they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun. ^[Note] To theirs the school of Æsculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period. These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years which is termed the "climacteric," ^[Note] and never hardly, when born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year.

First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty; and to this consideration may be added the experience of the very last census, which was made four years ago, under the direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son. ^[Note] I shall not search through the registers; ^[Note] I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum, ^[Note] one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus, and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty, and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium, ^[Note] in which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M. Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian tribe, ^[Note] was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of

one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.

Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas ^[Note] were born on the same night, ^[Note] and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus ^[Note] and C. Licinius Calvus were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come into the world at the same moment.

P. Cornelius Rufus, ^[Note] who was consul with M. Curio, lost his sight while he was asleep and dreaming that that accident had befallen him. On the other hand, Jason, of Pheræ, when he was labouring under an abscess and had been given up by the physicians, determined to end his life in battle, where he received a wound in the chest, and found, at the hands of the enemy, a remedy for his disease. ^[Note] Q. Fabius Maximus, ^[Note] the

consul, having engaged in battle with the Allobroges and the Arverni, at the river Isara, on the sixth day before the ides of August, and having slain there one hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy, found himself cured, during the engage. ment, of a quartan fever.

This gift of life, which is bestowed upon us by nature, is extremely uncertain and frail, whatever portion of it may be allotted to us. The measure is, indeed, but scanty and brief, even when it is the largest, if we only reflect upon the extent of eternity. And then, besides, if we take into account our sleep during the night, we can only be properly said to live half the period of our life; seeing that just one half of it is passed, either in a state resembling death, or else of bodily suffering, if we are unable to sleep. Added to this, we ought not to reckon the years of infancy, during which we are not sensible of our existence, nor yet the years of old age, which is prolonged only for the punishment of those who arrive at it. There are so many kinds of dangers, so many diseases, so many apprehensions, so many cares, we so often invoke death, that really there is nothing that is so often the object of our wishes. Nature has, in reality, bestowed no greater blessing on man than the shortness of life. The senses become dull, the limbs torpid, the sight, the hearing, the legs, the teeth, and the organs of digestion, all of them die before us, and yet we reckon this state as a part of our life. The solitary instance of Xenophilus, the musician, ^[Note] who lived one hundred and five years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as a kind of miracle; for, by Hercules! all other men are subject, at certain fixed periods, to recurring and deadly attacks by heat or cold, in every part of the body, a thing that is not the case with other animals; and these attacks, too, return not only at regular hours, but on certain days and certain nights—sometimes the third day, sometimes the fourth, sometimes every day throughout the year.

And then, too, there is another kind of fatal disease, that which is produced by over-exertion of the mental faculties. ^[Note] Nature has appointed certain laws as well for our maladies; quartan fevers never commence at the winter solstice, nor yet during the winter months; some diseases never attack us after the sixtieth year; some again disappear at the age of puberty, especially in females; ^[Note] while aged persons are but seldom affected by the plague. There are some diseases which attack whole nations; others prevail among classes; some among slaves, ^[Note] others among the higher ranks, and others among other classes of society. It has been remarked, in reference to this subject, that the plague always takes a course from the south towards the west, ^[Note] and scarcely ever in an opposite direction; it never appears in the winter, or lasts longer than three months.

And now to speak of the premonitory signs of death. Among these are laughter, in madness ^[Note] in cases of delirium, ^[Note] the patient carefully folding the fringe or the plaits of the bed-

clothes; ^[Note] insensibility to the attempts of those who would rouse them from sleep; and involuntary discharges from the body, which it is not necessary here to particularize; but the most unequivocal signs of all, are certain appearances of the eyes and the nose, a lying posture with the face continually upwards, an irregular and feeble motion of the pulse, ^[Note] and the other symptoms, which have been observed by that prince of physicians, Hippocrates. At the same time that there are innumerable signs of death, there are none of health and safety; so much so, that Cato the Censor, when speaking to his son in relation to those who appear to be in good health, declared, as though it had been the enunciation of some oracle, ^[Note] that precocity in youth is a sign of an early death. ^[Note]

The number of diseases is infinite. Pherecydes of Scyros died from vast numbers of worms issuing from his body. ^[Note] Some persons are distressed by a perpetual fever; such was the case with C. Mæcenas; during the last three years of his life, he could never get a single moment's sleep. ^[Note] Antipater of Sidon, the poet, was attacked with fever every year, and that only on his birthday; he died of it at, an advanced age. ^[Note]

Aviola, ^[Note] a man of consular rank, came to life again when on the funeral pile; but, by reason of the violence of the flames, no assistance could be rendered him, in consequence of which he was burnt alive. The same thing is said to have happened to L. Lamia, a man of prætorian rank. Messala, Rufus, ^[Note] and many other authors, inform us, that C. Ælius Tubero, who had filled the office of prætor, was also rescued from the funeral pile. Such then is the condition of us mortals: to these and the like vicissitudes of fortune are we born; so much so, that we cannot be sure of any thing, no, not even that a person is dead. With reference to the soul of man, we find, among other instances, that the soul of Hermotinus of Clazomenæ was in the habit of leaving his body, and wandering into distant countries, whence it brought back numerous accounts of various things, which could not have been obtained by any one but a person who was present. The body, in the meantime, was left apparently lifeless. ^[Note] At last, however, his enemies, the Cantharidæ, ^[Note] as they were called, burned the body, so that the soul, on its return, was deprived of its sheath, as it were. It is stated also, that in Pro-

connesus, ^[Note] the soul of Aristeas was seen to fly out of his mouth, under the form of a raven; ^[Note] a most fabulous story, however, which may be well ranked with the one that follows. It is told of Epimenides ^[Note] of Cnossus, that when he was a boy, being fatigued by heat and walking, he fell asleep in a cave, where he slept for fifty-seven years; and that when he awoke, as though it had been on the following day, he was much astonished at the changes which he saw in the appearance of every thing around him: after this, old age, it is said, came upon him in an equal number of days with the years he had slept, but his life was prolonged to his hundred and fifty-seventh year. ^[Note] The female sex appear more especially disposed to this morbid state, ^[Note] on account of the misplacement of the womb; ^[Note] when this is once corrected, they immediately come to themselves again. The volume of Heraclides ^[Note] on this subject, which is highly esteemed among the Greeks, contains the account of a female, who was restored to life, after having appeared to be dead for seven days.

Varro informs us, ^[Note] that when he was one of the "viginti. viri," or twenty commissioners, ^[Note] appointed to superintend the division of the lands at Capua, a man who had been carried to the funeral pile, returned on foot from the Forum to his own house, and that the very same thing happened also at Aquinum. He states also, that Corfidius, who had married his maternal aunt, came to life again, after the funeral had been all arranged, and that he afterwards attended the funeral of the person who had so arranged his own. He gives in addition some other marvellous relations, the whole of which it may be as well to set forth; he says that there were two brothers, members of the equestrian order, and named Corfidius: ^[Note] it so happened that the elder of these was seen to breathe his last to all appearance, and on opening his will, it was found that he had named his brother his heir, who accordingly ordered his funeral. In the meanwhile, however, he who had been thought to be dead, clapping his hands, ^[Note] summoned the servants, and told them that he was just come from his brother's house, who had placed his daughter in his charge; in addition to which, he had mentioned to him the place where he had secretly buried some gold, and had requested that the funeral preparations which had been made, might be employed for himself. While he was stating to this effect, the servants of his brother came in the greatest haste, and informed them that he was dead: the gold too,

was found in the place just as he had stated. But throughout the whole of our lives we are perpetually hearing of such predictions as these; they are not, however, worth collecting, seeing that they are almost always false, as we shall illustrate by the following remarkable instance.

In the Sicilian war, Gabienus, the bravest of all Cæsar's naval commanders, was taken prisoner by Sextus Pompeius, who ordered his throat to be cut; after which, his head almost severed from his body, he lay the whole of the day upon the seashore. Towards evening, with groans and entreaties, he begged the crowds of people who had assembled, that they would prevail upon Pompeius to come to him, or else send one of his most confidential friends, as he had just returned from the shades below, and had some important news to communicate. Pompeius accordingly sent several of his friends, to whom Gabienus stated that the good cause and virtuous partisans of Pompeius were well pleasing to the infernal deities, and that the event would shortly prove such as he wished: that he had been ordered to announce to this effect, and that, as a proof of its truthfulness, he himself should expire the very moment he had fulfilled his commission; and his death actually did take place.

We have instances also of men who have been seen after their burial; but, for the present, we are treating of the operations of nature, and not of miracles.

Among the things that are looked upon as more especially singular, though of frequent occurrence, is sudden death, a thing that, in fact, is the greatest happiness of life, and, as we will shew, only a natural occurrence. Verrius has given many instances of it; we will limit ourselves by only making a selection. Besides Chilo, who has been already mentioned, ^[Note] Sophocles, ^[Note] and Dionysius, ^[Note] the tyrant of Sicily, both of them, died

of joy, on learning that they had obtained the prize for tragedy. After the defeat at Cannæ, a mother died of joy, on seeing that her son had returned in safety, she having heard a false report of his death. ^[Note] Diodorus, the professor of logic, ^[Note] died of mortification, because he could not immediately answer some question which had been put to him by Stilpo, by way of joke.

Two of the Cæsars, ^[Note] one of whom was at the time prætor, and the other had previously discharged that office, and was the father of the Dictator Cæsar, died without any apparent cause, in the morning, while putting on their shoes; the former at Pisæ, the latter at Rome. Quintus Fabius Maximus died during his consulship, on the day before the calends of January, ^[Note] and in his place C. Rebilus got himself elected consul for only a few hours. ^[Note] The same thing happened also to the senator, C. Volcatius Gurges; these were all of them so well, and in such perfect health, that they were actually preparing to go from home. Q. Æmilius Lepidus, ^[Note] just as he was leaving his house, struck his great toe against the threshold of his chamber door. C. Aufustius, having gone from home, was proceeding to the senate-house, when he stumbled in the Comitium, ^[Note] and expired. Their ambassador, who had just been pleading the cause of the Rhodians in the senate, to the admiration of every

one, suddenly expired at the door of the senate-house, just as he was about to retire. Cn. Bæbius Tamphilus, ^[Note] who had been prætor also, expired while he was enquiring of a boy ^[Note] what time it was: Aulus Pompeius ^[Note] died just after saluting the gods in the Capitol; and M. Juventius Thalna, ^[Note] the consul, while he was sacrificing. C. Servilius Pansa expired at the second hour of the day, ^[Note] while he was standing in the Forum, near a shop there, ^[Note] and leaning on the arm of his brother, Publius Pansa: the judge Bæbius, while he was giving an order for an enlargement of bail: ^[Note] M. Terentius Corax, while he was making an entry in his note-book in the Forum: only last year too, a member of the equestrian order at Rome, while whispering in the ear of a man of consular rank, before the ivory Apollo, in the Forum ^[Note] of Augustus; ^[Note] and, what is more singular than all, C. Julius, the physician, while he was applying, with his probe, ^[Note] some ointment to the eye of a patient. Aulus Manlius Torquatus, a man of consular rank, died in the act of reaching a cake at dinner; L. Tuscius Valla, the physician, while he was taking a draught of honeyed wine; ^[Note]

Ap. Saufeius, while, on his return from the bath, after drinking some honeyed wine and water, he was swallowing an egg: P. Quinctius Scapula, while he was dining with Aquilius Gallus: Decimus Saufeius, the scribe, while he was breakfasting at his house. Corn. Gallus, ^[Note] who had filled the office of Prætor, and Titus Haterius, ^[Note] a man of equestrian rank, died in the venereal act; and, a thing that was especially remarked by those of our day, two members of the equestrian order expired in the embraces of the same actor of pantomimes, Mysticus by name, who was remarkable for his singular beauty.

But the most perfect state, to all appearance, of security from death, was that of which we have an account given by the ancients, in the case of M. Ofilius Hilarus. He was an actor, and after having been very greatly applauded by the people, was giving, on his birthday, an entertainment. During dinner he called for a cup of warm drink; at the same time, looking at the masque which he had worn during the day, he placed upon it the chaplet, ^[Note] which he had taken from his own head; and in that position he remained rigidly fixed, without moving, no one being aware of what had taken place, until the person who was reclining next to him reminded him that the drink was getting cold; upon which he was found to be dead.

These are instances of persons dying a happy death; ^[Note] but,

on the other hand, there are innumerable cases also of unfortunate ends. L. Domitius, ^[Note] a member of a most illustrious family, having been conquered at Massilia by Cæsar, and taken prisoner by him at Corfinium, being weary of life, took poison; but, immediately after, he used every possible exertion to prolong his life. We find it stated in our Annals, that Felix, a charioteer of the red party, ^[Note] being placed on the funeral pile, some one of the number of his admirers threw himself upon the pile; a most silly piece of conduct. Lest, however, this circumstance might be attributed to the great excellence of the dead man in his art, and so redound to his glory, the other parties all declared that he had been overpowered by the strength of the perfumes. Not long ago, M. Lepidus, a man of very noble birth, who died, as I have stated above, ^[Note] of chagrin caused by his divorce, was hurled from the funeral pile by the violence of the flames, and in consequence of the heat, could not be replaced upon it; in consequence of which, his naked body was burnt with some other pieces of brushwood, in the vicinity of the pile.

The burning of the body after death, among the Romans, is not a very ancient usage; for formerly, they interred it. ^[Note] After it had been ascertained, however, in the foreign wars, that bodies which had been buried were sometimes disinterred, the custom of burning them was adopted. Many families, how-

ever, still observed the ancient rites, as, for example, the Cor- nelian family, no member of which had his body burnt before Sylla, the Dictator; who directed this to be done, because, having previously disinterred the dead body of Caius Marius, he was afraid that others might retaliate on his own. ^[Note] The term "sepultus" ^[Note] applies to any mode whatever of disposing of the dead body; while, on the other hand, the word "humatus" is applicable solely when it is deposited in the earth.

After burial come the different quiddities as to the existence of the Manes. All men, after their last day, ^[Note] return to what they were before the first; and after death there is no more sensation left in the body or in the soul than there was before birth. But this same vanity of ours extends even to the future, and lyingly fashions to itself an existence even in the very moments which belong to death itself: at one time it has conferred upon us the immortality of the soul; at another transmigration; and at another it has given sensation to the shades below, and paid divine honours to the departed spirit, thus making a kind of deity of him who has but just ceased to be a man. As if, indeed, the mode of breathing with man was in any way different from that of other animals, and as if there were not many other animals to be found whose life is longer than that of man, and yet for whom no one ever presaged anything of a like immortality. For what is the actual substance of the soul, when taken by itself? Of what material does it consist? Where is the seat of its thoughts? How is it to

see, or hear, or how to touch? And then, of what use is it, or what can it avail, if it has not these faculties? Where, too, is its residence, and what vast multitudes of these souls and spirits ^[Note] must there be after the lapse of so many ages? But all these are the mere figments of childish ravings, and of that mortality which is so anxious never to cease to exist. It is a similar piece of vanity, too, to preserve the dead bodies of men; just like the promise that he shall come to life again, which was made by Democritus; ^[Note] who, however, never has come to life again himself. Out upon it! What downright madness is it to suppose that life is to recommence after death! or indeed, what repose are we ever to enjoy when we have been once born, if the soul is to retain its consciousness in heaven, and the shades of the dead in the infernal regions? This pleasing delusion, and this credulity, quite cancel that chief good of human nature, death, and, as it were, double the misery of him who is about to die, by anxiety as to what is to happen to him after it. And, indeed, if life really is a good, to whom can it be so to have once lived?

How much more easy, then, and how much more devoid of all doubts, is it for each of us to put his trust in himself, and guided by our knowledge of what our state has been before birth, to assume that that after death will be the same.

Before we quit the consideration of the nature of man, it appears only proper to point out those persons who have been the authors of different inventions. Father Liber ^[Note] was the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented

the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession. Ceres ^[Note] introduced corn, the acorn having been previously used by man for food; it was she, also, who introduced into Attica the art of grinding corn ^[Note] and of making bread, and other similar arts into Sicily; and it was from these circumstances that she came to be regarded as a divinity. She was the first also to establish laws; ^[Note] though, according to some, it was Rhadamanthus. I have always been of opinion, that letters were of Assyrian origin, but other writers, Gellius, ^[Note] for instance, suppose that they were invented in Egypt by Mercury: others, again, will have it that they were discovered by the Syrians; and that Cadmus brought from Phœnicia sixteen letters into Greece. To these, Palamedes, it is said, at the time of the Trojan war, added these four, θ, ξ, φ, and χ. Simonides, ^[Note] the lyric poet, afterwards added a like number, ζ, η, ψ, and ω; the sounds denoted by all of which are now received into our alphabet. ^[Note]

Aristotle, on the other hand, is rather of opinion, that there were originally eighteen letters, ^[Note] α β γ δ ε ζ ι κ λ μ ν ο π ρ ς τ υ φ, and that two, θ namely and χ, were introduced by Epicharmus, ^[Note] and not by Palamedes. Aristides says, that a certain person of the name of Menos, in Egypt, invented letters fifteen years before the reign of Phoroneus, ^[Note] the most ancient of all the kings of Greece, and this he attempts to prove by the monuments there. On the other hand, Epigenes, ^[Note] a writer of very great authority, informs us that the Babylonians have a series of observations on the stars, for a period of seven hundred and twenty thousand years, inscribed on baked bricks. Berosus and Critodemus, who make the period the shortest, give it as four hundred and ninety thousand years. ^[Note] From

this statement, it would appear that letters have been in use from all eternity. The Pelasgi were the first to introduce them into Latium.

The brothers Euryalus and Hyperbius, ^[Note] were the first who constructed brick-kilns and houses at Athens; before which, caves in the ground served for houses. Gellius ^[Note] is inclined to think that Toxius, the son of Cælus, was the first inventor of mortar, it having been suggested to him by the nest of the swallow. Cecrops ^[Note] gave to a town the name of Cecropia, after himself; this is now the citadel of Athens. Some persons will have it, that Argos had been founded before this period by King Phoroneus; others, again, that Sicyon had been previously built; while the Egyptians declare that their own city, Diospolis, had been in existence long before them. Cinyra, ^[Note] the son of Agriopas, ^[Note] invented tiles and discovered

copper-mines, ^[Note] both of them in the island of Cyprus; he also invented the tongs, the hammer, the lever, and the anvil. Wells were invented by Danaus, ^[Note] who came from Egypt into that part of Greece which had been previously known as Argos Dipsion.

The first stone-quarries were opened by Cadmus at Thebes, or else, according to Theophrastus, in Phœnicia. Walls were first built by Thrason; ^[Note] according to Aristotle, towers were first erected by the Cyclopes, ^[Note] but according to Theophrastus, by the Tirynthii. The Egyptians invented weaving; ^[Note] the

Lydians of Sardis the art of dyeing wool. ^[Note] Closter, the son of Arachne, invented the spindle for spinning wool; ^[Note] Arachne herself, linen cloth and nets; ^[Note] Nicias of Megara, the art of fulling cloth; ^[Note] and Tychius, the Bœotian, the art of making shoes. ^[Note] The Egyptians will have it that the medical art was first discovered among them, while others attribute it to Arabus, the son of Babylonis and Apollo; botany and pharmacy are ascribed to Chiron, the son of Saturn and Philyra. ^[Note]

Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was the first to fuse and temper copper, while Theophrastus ascribes the art to Delas, the Phrygian. ^[Note] Some persons ascribe the working

of copper to the Chalybes, others to the Cyclopes. Hesiod says, that iron was discovered in Crete, by the Idæan Dactyli. ^[Note] Erichthonius, the Athenian, or, as some people say, Æacus, discovered silver. ^[Note] Gold mines, and the mode of fusing that metal, were discovered by Cadmus, the Phœnician, at the mountain of Pangæus, ^[Note] or, according to other accounts, by Thoas or Eaclis, in Panchaia; ^[Note] or else by Sol, the son of Oceanus, whom Gellius mentions as having been the first who employed honey in medicine. Midacritus ^[Note] was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris. ^[Note] The Cyclopes invented the art of working iron. ^[Note] Choræbus, the Athenian, was the first who made earthen vessels; ^[Note] but Anacharsis, the

Scthian, or, according to others, Hyperbius, the Corinthian, first invented the potter's wheel. Dædalus ^[Note] was the first person who worked in wood; it was he who invented the saw, the axe, the plummet, the gimlet, glue, and isinglass; ^[Note] the square, the level, the turner's lathe, and the key, were invented by Theodorus, of Samos. ^[Note] Measures and weights were invented by Phidon, of Argos, ^[Note] or, according to Gellius, by Palamedes. Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, was the first to strike fire from the flint, and Prometheus taught us how to preserve it, in the stalk of giant-fennel. ^[Note]

The Phrygians first taught us the use of the chariot with four wheels; ^[Note] the Carthaginians the arts of merchandize, ^[Note] and Eumolpus, the Athenian, ^[Note] the cultivation of the vine, and of trees in general. Staphylus, the son of Silenus, ^[Note] was the first to mix water with wine; olive-oil and the oil-press, as also honey, we owe to Aristæus, the Athenian; ^[Note] the use of oxen and the

plough to Buzyges, the Athenian, ^[Note] or, according to other accounts, to Triptolemus. ^[Note]

The Egyptians were the first who established a monarchical government, and the Athenians, after the time of Theseus, a democracy. Phalaris, ^[Note] of Agrigentum, was the first tyrant ^[Note] that existed; the Lacedæmonians were the introducers of slavery; ^[Note] and the first capital punishment inflicted was ordered by the Areiopagus. ^[Note] The first battles were fought by the Africans against the Egyptians, with clubs, which they are in the habit of calling phalange. Prœtus and Acrisius ^[Note] were the first to use shields, in their contests with each other; or, as some say, Chalcus, the son of Athamas. Midias, the Messenian, invented the coat of mail, and the Lacedæmonians the helmet, the sword, and the spear. ^[Note] Greaves and crests were first used by the Carians; Scythes, the son of Jupiter, it is said, invented the bow and arrows, though some say that arrows were invented by Perses, the son of Perseus. ^[Note] Lances were invented by the Ætolians; the javelin, with the

thong ^[Note] attached, by Ætolus, ^[Note] the son of Mars; the spear of the light infantry ^[Note] by Tyrrhenus; the dart ^[Note] by Penthesilea, the Amazon; the axe by Pisæus; the hunting-spear, and the scorpion to hurl missiles, by the Cretans; ^[Note] the catapulta, the balista, ^[Note] and the sling, by the Syrophœnicians. ^[Note] Pisæus, the Tyrrhenian, was the first to invent the brazen trumpet, ^[Note] and Artemon, of Clazomenæ, the use of the testudo. ^[Note] The batter-

ing-horse, for the destruction of walls, which is at the present day styled the "ram," was invented by Epeus, at Troy. ^[Note] Bellerophon was the first who mounted the horse; ^[Note] bridles and saddles for the horse were invented by Pelethronius. ^[Note] The Thessalians, who are called. Centauri, and who dwell along Mount Pelion, were the first to fight on horse—Back. The people of Phrygia were the first who used chariots with two horses; Erichthonius first used four. ^[Note] Palamedes, during the Trojan war, was the first who marshalled an army, and invented watchwords, ^[Note] signals, and the use of sentinels. Sinon, at the same period, invented the art of correspondence by signals. Lycaon was the first to think of making a truce, and Theseus a treaty of alliance.

The art of divination by means of birds ^[Note] we owe to Car,

from whom Caria derives its name; Orpheus extended it to other animals. Delphus taught us the art of divining by the inspection of entrails; Amphiaraüs ^[Note] divination by fire; and Tiresias, the Theban, presages from the entrails of birds. We owe to Amphictyon ^[Note] the interpretation of portents and of dreams, and to Atlas, ^[Note] the son of Libya, the art of astrology, or else, according to other accounts, to the Egyptians or the Assyrians. Anaximander, ^[Note] the Milesian, invented the astronomical sphere; and Æolus, the son of Hellen, gave us the theory of the winds.

Amphion was the inventor of music; ^[Note] Pan, the son of Mercury, the music of the reed, and the flute with the single pipe; Midas, the Phrygian, ^[Note] the transverse flute; ^[Note] and Marsyas,

of the same country, the double-pipe. ^[Note] Amphion invented the Lydian measures in music; Thamyris the Thracian, the Dorian, and Marsyas the Phrygian, the Phrygian style. ^[Note] Amphion, or, according to some accounts, Orpheus, and according to others, Linus, invented the lyre. ^[Note] Terpander, adding three to the former four, increased the number of strings to seven; Simonides added an eighth, and Timotheus a ninth. ^[Note] Thamyris was the first who played on the lyre, without the accompaniment of the voice; and Amphion, or, as some say, Linus, was the first who accompanied it with the voice. Terpander was the first who composed songs expressly for the lyre; and Ardalus, the Trœzenian, was the first who taught us how to combine the voice with the music of the pipe. ^[Note] The Curetes taught us the dance in armour, ^[Note] and Pyrrhus, the Pyrrhic dance, both of them in Crete.

We are indebted to the Pythian oracle for the first heroic verse. ^[Note] A very considerable question has arisen, as to what was the origin of poetry; it is well known to have existed before the Trojan war. Pherecydes of Scyros, in the time of King Cyrus, was the first to write in prose, and Cadmus, the Milesian, was the first historian. ^[Note]

Lycaon ^[Note] first instituted gymnastic games, in Arcadia; Acastus funereal games, ^[Note] at Iolcos; ^[Note] and, after him, Theseus instituted them at the Isthmus. ^[Note] Hercules first instituted the athletic contests at Olympia. ^[Note] Pythus invented the game of ball. ^[Note] Painting was invented in Egypt by Gyges, the Lydian, ^[Note] or, according to Aristotle, in Greece, by Euchir, a

kinsman ^[Note] of Dædalus; according to Theophrastus, again, it was invented by Polygnotus, the Athenian.

Danaüis was the first who passed over in a ship from Egypt to Greece. ^[Note] Before his time, they used to sail on rafts, ^[Note] which had been invented by King Erythras, ^[Note] to pass from one island to another in the Red Sea. There are some writers to be found, who are of opinion that they were first thought of by the Mysians and the Trojans, for the purpose of crossing the Hellespont into Thrace. Even at the present day, they are made in the British ocean, of wicker-work covered with hides; ^[Note] on the Nile they are made of papyrus, rushes, and reeds.

We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; ^[Note] Hegesias says it was

Paralus, Ctesias, ^[Note] Semiramis, ^[Note] and Archemachus, Ægeon. According to Damastes, ^[Note] the Erythræi ^[Note] were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides, ^[Note] Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks; ^[Note] and, according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen; Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty. ^[Note] Hippus, the Tyrian, was the first who invented merchant-ships; the Cyrenians, the pinnace; the Phœnicians, the passage—Boat; the Rhodians, the skiff; and the Cyprians, the cutter. ^[Note]

We are indebted to the Phœnicians for the first observation of the stars in navigation; the Copæ invented the oar, and the Platæans gave it its broad blade. ^[Note] Icarus was the person who invented sails, ^[Note] and Dædalus the mast and yards; the Samians, or else Pericles, the Athenian, transports for horses, ^[Note] and the Thracians, long covered vessels, ^[Note]—Before which time they used to fight only from the prow or the stern. Pisæus, the Tyrrhenian, added the beak to ships; ^[Note] Eupalamus, the anchor; Anacharsis, that with two flukes; Pericles, the Athenian, grappling-irons, and hooks like hands; ^[Note] and Tiphys, ^[Note] the helm and rudder. Minos was the first who waged war by means of ships; Hyperbius, the son of Mars, the first who killed an animal; and Prometheus, the first who slew the ox. ^[Note]

There was at the very earliest ^[Note] period a tacit consent among all nations to adopt the letters now used by the Ionians. ^[Note] (58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same with the modern Latin, ^[Note] is proved by the ancient Delphic inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library, having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva; this inscription is as follows:

ναυσικρατης ανεθετο τηι διος κορηι. ["Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus."] ^[Note]

The next point upon which all nations appear to have agreed, was the employment of barbers. ^[Note] The Romans, however, were more tardy in the adoption of their services. According to Varro, they were introduced into Italy from

Sicily, in the year of Rome 454, ^[Note] having been brought over by P. Titinius Mena: before which time the Romans did not cut the hair. The younger Africanus ^[Note] was the first who adopted the custom of shaving every day. The late Emperor Augustus always made use of razors. ^[Note]

(60.) The third point of universal agreement was the division of time, a subject which afterwards appealed to the reasoning faculties. We have already stated, in the Second Book, ^[Note] when and by whom this art was first invented in Greece; the same was also introduced at Rome, but at a later period. In the Twelve Tables, the rising and setting of the sun are the only things that are mentioned relative to time. Some years afterwards, the hour of midday was added, the summoner ^[Note] of the consuls proclaiming it aloud, as soon as, from the senate-house, he caught sight of the sun between the Rostra and the Græcostasis; ^[Note] he also proclaimed the last hour, when the

sun had gone down from the Mænian column ^[Note] to the prison. This, however, could only be done in clear weather, but it was continued until the first Punic war. The first sun-dial is said to have been erected among the Romans twelve years before the war with Pyrrhus, by L. Papirius Cursor, ^[Note] at the temple of Quirinus, ^[Note] on which occasion he dedicated it in pursuance of a vow which had been made by his father. This is the account given by Fabius Vestalis; but he makes no mention of either the construction of the dial or the artist, nor does he inform us from what place it was brought, or in whose works he found this statement made.

M. Varro ^[Note] says that the first sun-dial, erected for the use of the public, was fixed upon a column near the Rostra, in the time of the first Punic war, by the consul M. Valerius Messala, and that it was brought from the capture of Catina, in Sicily: this being thirty years after the date assigned to the dial of Papirius, and the year of Rome 491. The lines in this dial did not exactly agree with the hours; ^[Note] it served, however, as the regulator of the Roman time ninety-nine years, until Q. Marcius Philippus, who was censor with L. Paulus, placed one near it, which was more carefully arranged: an act which was most gratefully acknowledged, as one of the very best of his censorship. The hours, however, still remained a matter of uncertainty, whenever the weather

happened to be cloudy, until the ensuing lustrum; at which time Scipio Nasica, the colleague of Lænas, by means of a clepsydra, was the first to divide the hours of the day and the night into equal parts: and this time-piece he placed under cover and dedicated, in the year of Rome 595; ^[Note] for so long a period had the Romans remained without any exact division of the day. We will now return to the history of the other animals, and first to that of the terrestrial.

SUMMARY.—Remarkable events, narratives, and observations, seven hundred and forty-seven.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Verrius Flaccus, ^[Note] Cneius Gellius, ^[Note] Licinius Mutianus, ^[Note] Massurius Sabinius, ^[Note] Agrippina, the wife of Claudius, ^[Note] M. Cicero, ^[Note] Asinius Pollio, ^[Note] M. Varro, ^[Note] Messala Rufus, ^[Note] Cornelius Nepos, ^[Note] Virgil, ^[Note] Livy, ^[Note] Cordus, ^[Note] Melis-

sus, ^[Note] Sebosus, ^[Note] Cornelius Celsus, ^[Note] Maximus Valerius, ^[Note] Trogus, ^[Note] Nigidius Figulus, ^[Note] Pomponius Atticus, ^[Note] Pedianus Asconius, ^[Note] Fabianus, ^[Note] Cato the Censor, ^[Note] the Register of the Triumphs, ^[Note]Fabius Vestalis. ^[Note]

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Herodotus, ^[Note] Aristeas, ^[Note] Bæton, ^[Note] Isigonus, ^[Note] Crates, ^[Note] Agatharchides, ^[Note] Calliphanes, ^[Note] Aristotle, ^[Note] Nymphodorus, ^[Note] Apollonides, ^[Note] Phylarchus, ^[Note] Damon, ^[Note] Megasthenes, ^[Note] Ctesias, ^[Note] Tauron, ^[Note] Eudoxus, ^[Note] Onesicritus, ^[Note] Clitarchus, ^[Note] Duris, ^[Note] Artemidorus, ^[Note] Hippocrates ^[Note] the physician,

Asclepiades ^[Note] the physician, Hesiod, ^[Note] Anacreon, ^[Note] Theopompus, ^[Note] Hellanicus, ^[Note] Damastes, ^[Note] Ephorus, ^[Note] Epigenes, ^[Note] Berosus, ^[Note] Petosiris, ^[Note] Necepsos, ^[Note] Alexander Polyhistor, ^[Note] Xenophon, ^[Note] Callimachus, ^[Note] Democritus, ^[Note] Diyllus ^[Note] the historian, Strabo, ^[Note] who wrote against the Euremata of Ephorus, Heraclides Ponticus, ^[Note] Aclepiades, ^[Note] who wrote the Tragodoumena, Philostephanus, ^[Note] Hegesias, ^[Note] Archima-

chus, ^[Note] Thucydides, ^[Note] Mnesigiton, ^[Note] Xenagoras, ^[Note] Metrodorus ^[Note] of Scepsos, Anticlides, ^[Note] Critodemus. ^[Note]