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from the sea, and about 100 stadia in diameter. It has
received the name of the Stony Plain, from the circumstance of its being covered with stones the size of the fist,
from beneath which an abundant herbage springs up for
the pasturage of cattle. In the midst of it are water, salt-
springs, and salt. The whole both of this district and that
above it is exposed to the wind, but in this plain the black
north, note a violent and horrible wind, rages especially: for they
say that sometimes the stones are swept and rolled along, and
men hurled from their carriages and stripped both of their
arms and garments by the force of the tempest. Aristotle
tells us that these stones being cast up by the earthquakes
designated brastai, note and falling on the surface of the earth, roll
into the hollow places of the districts; but Posidonius, that
the place was formerly a lake, which being congealed during
a violent agitation, became divided into numerous stones,
like river pebbles or the stones by the sea-shore, which
they resemble both as to smoothness, size, and appearance.
Such are the causes assigned by these two [writers]; however,
neither of their opinions is credible, note for these stones could
neither have thus accumulated of themselves, nor yet have
been formed by congealed moisture, but necessarily from the
fragments of large stones shattered by frequent convulsions.
Aeschylus having, however, learnt of the difficulty of accounting for it, or having been so informed by another, has explained it away as a myth. He makes Prometheus utter the
following, whilst directing Hercules the road from the Caucasus to the Hesperides:
There you will come to the undaunted army of the Ligurians, where,
resistless though you be, sure am I you will not worst them in battle; for
it is fated that there your darts shall fail you; nor will you be able to
take up a stone from the ground, since the country consists of soft mould;
but Jupiter, beholding your distress, will compassionate you, and overshadowing the earth with a cloud, he will cause it to hail round stones,
which you hurling against the Ligurian army, will soon put them to
flight! note
Posidonius asks, would it not have been better to have
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].