Ammianus Marcellinus, History

§ 22.9.7 for some have maintained that since the image of the goddess fell from heaven, the city was named from pesein, which is the Greek word meaning “to fall.” Others say that Ilus, son of Tros, king of Dardania, gave the place that name. But Theopompus asserts that it was not Ilus who did it, but Midas, the once mighty king of Phrygia.

§ 22.9.8 Then, after Julian had worshipped the deity and propitiated her with victims and vows, he returned to Ancyra. And as he continued his journey from there, the multitude annoyed him, some demanding the return of what had been wrested from them by violence, others complaining that they had unjustly been forced onto the boards of senators, while some, without regard to their own danger, exerted themselves to the point of madness to involve their opponents in charges of high treason.

§ 22.9.9 But he, a judge more severe than a Cassius, or a Lycurgus, weighed the evidence in the cases with impartial justice and gave every man his due, never deviating from the truth, and showing particular severity towards calumniators, whom he hated because he had experienced the impudent madness of many such folk even to the peril of his life, while he was still a humble private citizen.

§ 22.9.10 Of his patience in such matters it will suffice to give this single example, although there are many others. A certain man with great vehemence charged an enemy of his, with whom he was at bitter odds, of being guilty of high treason; and when the emperor ignored it, he repeated the same charge day after day. At last, on being asked who it was that he accused, he replied that it was a wealthy citizen. On hearing this, the emperor said with a smile: “On what evidence have you come to this conclusion?”

§ 22.9.11 And the man answered: “He is making himself a purple robe out of a silk cloak”; and when after this he was bidden to depart in silence, but unpunished, as a low fellow making a serious charge against another of the same sort, he was none the less insistent. Whereupon Julian, wearied and disgusted with the man's conduct, seeing his treasurer nearby, said to him: “Have a pair of purple shoes given to this dangerous chatterbox, to take to his enemy (who he says, so far as I can understand, has had a cloak of that colour sewn for him), in order that he may be able to learn what insignificant rags amount to without great power.”

§ 22.9.12 But, although such conduct was laudable and worthy of imitation by good rulers, it was on the contrary hard and censurable that under his rule anyone who was sought by the curiales, even though protected by special privileges, by length of service in the army, or by proof that he was wholly ineligible by birth for such a position, could with difficulty obtain full justice; so that many of them through fear bought immunity from annoyance by secret and heavy bribes.

§ 22.9.13 Thus proceeding on his way and arriving at the Gates, a place which separates the Cappadocians from the Cilicians, he received with a kiss the governor of the province, Celsus by name, whom he had known since his student days in Athens, gave him a seat in his carriage, and took him with him into Tarsus.

§ 22.9.14 But hastening from there to visit Antioch, fair crown of the Orient, he reached it by the usual roads; and as he neared the city, he was received with public prayers, as if he were some deity, and he wondered at the cries of the great throng, who shouted that a lucky star had risen over the East.

§ 22.9.15 Now, it chanced that at that same time the annual cycle was completed and they were celebrating, in the ancient fashion, the festival of Adonis (beloved by Venus, as the poet's tales say), who was slain by the death-dealing tusk of a boar -a festival which is symbolic of the reaping of the ripe fruits of the field. And it seemed a gloomy omen, as the emperor now for the first time entered the great city, the residence of princes, that on all sides melancholy wailing was heard and cries of grief.

§ 22.9.16 It was here that he gave a proof of his patience and mildness, slight, it is true, but surprising. He hated a certain Thalassius, a former assistant master of petitions, who had plotted against his brother Gallus. When this man had been prohibited from greeting the emperor and attending at court among the other dignitaries, some enemies of his, with whom he had a suit in the forum, gathered together next day a huge throng of his remaining foes and approaching the emperor, shouted: “ Thalassius, your majesty's enemy, has lawlessly robbed us of our goods.”

§ 22.9.17 But, although Julian believed that this was an opportunity to ruin the man, he replied: “I know that the person to whom you refer has given me just cause for offence, but it is proper for you to keep silence until he gives satisfaction to me, his opponent of higher rank.” And he ordered the prefect who was sitting in judgement not to listen to their charge until he himself was reconciled with Thalassius, which shortly happened.

§ 22.10.1 Passing the winter there to his heart's content, he was meanwhile carried away by no incitements of the pleasures in which all Syria abounds; but as if for recreation devoting his attention to cases at law, not less than to difficult and warlike affairs, he was distracted by many cares, as with remarkable willingness to receive information he deliberated how he might give each man his due by righteous decisions, bringing the guilty to order with moderate punishments and protecting the innocent with the safety of their property.

§ 22.10.2 And, although in arguing cases he was sometimes untimely, asking at some inopportune moment what the religion of each of the litigants was, yet it cannot be found that in the decision of any suit he was inconsistent with equity, nor could he ever be accused because of a man's religious views, or for any other cause, of having deviated from the straight path of justice.

§ 22.10.3 For that is desirable and proper judgement, when, after examination of all the circumstances, just is distinguished from unjust; and that he might not depart from this, he was as careful as of dangerous rocks. Now this he was able to accomplish for the reason that, recognising the hastiness of his somewhat excitable disposition, he allowed his prefects and associates freely to curb his impulses, when they led him away from what was fitting, by a timely admonition; and at times he showed that he regretted his errors and was glad to be corrected.

§ 22.10.4 And when the defenders of causes greeted him with the greatest applause, declaring that he understood perfect justice, he is said to have replied with emotion: “I should certainly rejoice and show my joy, if I were praised by those whom I knew to have also the power to blame me in case I was wrong in deed or word.”

§ 22.10.5 But it will suffice, in place of many examples of the clemency that he showed in judicial processes, to set down this one, which is neither out of place nor ill-chosen. When a certain woman had been brought before the court, and contrary to her expectation saw that her accuser, who was one of the court servants that had been discharged, wore his girdle, she loudly complained at this act of insolence. Whereupon the emperor said: “Go on with your charge, woman, if you think that you have been wronged in any way; for this man has thus girt himself in order to go through the mire the more easily; it can do little harm to your cause.”

§ 22.10.6 And these and similar instances led to the belief, as he himself constantly affirmed, that the old goddess of Justice, whom Aratus takes up to heaven because she was displeased with the vices of mankind, had returned to earth during his reign, were it not that sometimes Julian followed his own inclination rather than the demands of the laws, and by occasionally erring clouded the many glories of his career.

§ 22.10.7 For after many other things, he also corrected some of the laws, removing ambiguities, so that they showed clearly what they demanded or forbade to be done. But this one thing was inhumane, and ought to be buried in eternal silence, namely, that he forbade teachers of rhetoric and literature to practise their profession, if they were followers of the Christian religion.

§ 22.11.1 At about that same time, that notorious state-secretary Gaudentius, who (as I said before) had been sent to Africa by Constantius to oppose Julian there, and also Julianus, a former vice-governor, an intemperate partisan of the same faction, were brought back in chains and punished with death.

§ 22.11.2 Then, too, Artemius, sometime military commander in Egypt, since the Alexandrians heaped upon him a mass of atrocious charges, suffered capital punishment. After him the son of Marcellus, at one time commander of the cavalry and infantry, was publicly executed, on the ground that he had aspired to the throne. Finally, even Romanus and Vincentius, tribunes of the first and the second corps of the targeteers, were convicted of designs beyond their powers and exiled.

§ 22.11.3 Hardly had a brief time elapsed, when the Alexandrians, on learning of the death of Artemius, whom they dreaded, for fear that he would return with his power restored (for so he had threatened) and do harm to many for the wrong that he had suffered, turned their wrath against the bishop Georgius, who had often, so to speak, made them feel his poisonous fangs.

§ 22.11.4 The story goes that he was born in a fullery at Epiphania, a town of Cilicia, and flourished to the ruin of many people. Then, contrary to his own advantage and that of the commonwealth, he was ordained bishop of Alexandria, a city which on its own impulse, and without ground, is frequently roused to rebellion and rioting, as the oracles themselves show.

§ 22.11.5 To the frenzied minds of these people Georgius himself was also a powerful incentive by pouring, after his appointment, into the ready ears of Constantius charges against many, alleging that they were rebellious against his authority; and, forgetful of his calling, which counselled only justice and mildness, he descended to the informer's deadly practices.

§ 22.11.6 And, among other matters, it was said that he maliciously informed Constantius also of this, namely, that all the edifices standing on the soil of the said city had been built by its founder, Alexander, at great public cost, and ought justly to be a source of profit to the treasury.

§ 22.11.7 To these evil deeds he had added still another, which soon after drove him headlong to destruction. As he was returning from the emperor's court and passed by the beautiful temple of the Genius, attended as usual by a large crowd, he turned his eyes straight at the temple, and said: “How long shall this sepulchre stand?” On hearing this, many were struck as if by a thunderbolt, and fearing that he might try to overthrow even that building, they devised secret plots to destroy him in whatever way they could.

§ 22.11.8 And lo! on the sudden arrival of the glad news that told of the death of Artemius, all the populace, transported by this unlooked-for joy, grinding their teeth and uttering fearful outcries, made for Georgius and seized him, maltreating him in divers ways and trampling upon him; then they dragged him about spread-eagle fashion, and killed him.

§ 22.11.9 And with him Dracontius, superintendent of the mint, and one Diodorus, who had the honorary rank of count, were dragged about with ropes fastened to their legs and both killed; the former, because he overthrew an altar, newly set up in the mint, of which he had charge; the other, because, while overseer of the building of a church, he arbitrarily cut off the curls of some boys, thinking that this also was a fashion belonging to the pagan worship.

§ 22.11.10 Not content with this, the inhuman mob loaded the mutilated bodies of the slain men upon camels and carried them to the shore; there they burned them on a fire and threw the ashes into the sea, fearing (as they shouted) that their relics might be collected and a church built for them, as for others who, when urged to abandon their religion, endured terrible tortures, even going so far as to meet a glorious death with unsullied faith; whence they are now called martyrs. And these wretched men who were dragged off to cruel torture might have been protected by the aid of the Christians, were it not that all men without distinction burned with hatred for Georgius.

§ 22.11.11 The emperor, on hearing of this abominable deed, was bent upon taking vengeance, but just as he was on the point of inflicting the extreme penalty upon the guilty parties, he was pacified by his intimates, who counselled leniency. Accordingly, he issued an edict expressing, in the strongest terms, his horror at the outrage that had been committed, and threatened extreme measures in case in the future anything was attempted contrary to justice and the laws.

§ 22.12.1 Meanwhile, Julian was preparing a campaign against the Persians, which he had long before planned with lofty strength of mind, being exceedingly aroused to punish their misdeeds in the past, knowing and hearing as he did that this savage people for almost three score years had branded the Orient with the cruelest records of murder and pillage, and had often all but annihilated our armies.

§ 22.12.2 He was inflamed besides with a twofold longing for war, first, because he was tired of inactivity and dreamed of clarions and battle; and then, exposed as he had been in the first flower of his youth to warfare with savage nations, while his ears were still warm with the prayers of kings and princes who (as it was believed) could more easily be vanquished than led to hold out their hands as suppliants, he burned to add to the tokens of his glorious victories the surname Parthicus.

§ 22.12.3 But his idle and envious detractors, seeing these mighty and hasty preparations, cried out that it was shameful and ruinous that through the exchange of one man for another so many untimely disturbances should be set on foot; and they devoted all their efforts to putting off the campaign. And they repeatedly said, in the presence of those who they thought could repeat to the emperor what they had heard, that if he did not conduct himself with more moderation in his excessive prosperity and success, like plants that grow rank from too great fertility, he would soon find destruction in his own good fortune.

§ 22.12.4 But though they kept up this agitation long and persistently, it was in vain that they barked around a man as unmoved by secret insults, as was Hercules by those of the Pygmies, or by those of the Lindian peasant Thiodamas.

§ 22.12.5 But Julian, being a man of uncommonly high spirit, no less carefully considered the importance of his campaign, and used every effort to make corresponding preparations.

§ 22.12.6 Nevertheless, he drenched the altars with the blood of an excessive number of victims, sometimes offering up a hundred oxen at once, with countless flocks of various other animals, and with white birds hunted out by land and sea; to such a degree that almost every day his soldiers, who gorged themselves on the abundance of meat, living boorishly and corrupted by their eagerness for drink, were carried through the squares to their lodgings on the shoulders of passers-by from the public temples, where they indulged in banquets that deserved punishment rather than indulgence; especially the Petulantes and the Celts, whose wilfulness at that time had passed all bounds.

§ 22.12.7 Moreover, the ceremonial rites were excessively increased, with an expenditure of money hitherto unusual and burdensome. And, as it was now allowed without hindrance, everyone who professed a knowledge of divination, alike the learned and the ignorant, without limit or prescribed rules, were permitted to question the oracles and the entrails, which sometimes disclose the future; and from the notes of birds, from their flight, and from omens, the truth was sought with studied variety, if anywhere it might be found.

§ 22.12.8 While these things were thus going on, as if in time of peace, Julian devoted to many interests, entered upon a new way of consultation, and thought of opening the prophetic springs of the Castalian fount; this, it is said, Caesar Hadrian had blocked up with a huge mass of stones, for fear that (as he himself had learned from the prophetic waters that he was destined to become emperor), others also might get similar information. And Julian, after invoking the god, decided that the bodies which had been buried around the spring, should be moved to another place, under the same ceremonial with which the Athenians had purified the island of Delos.

§ 22.13.1 At that same time, on the twenty-second of October, the splendid temple of the Daphnaean Apollo, which that hot-tempered and cruel king Antiochus Epiphanes had built, and with it the statue of the god, a copy of that of the Olympian Zeus and of equal size, was reduced to ashes by a sudden fire.

§ 22.13.2 The unexpected destruction of this shrine by so terrible an accident inflamed the emperor with such anger, that he ordered stricter investigations than usual to be made, and the greater church at Antioch to be closed. For he suspected that the Christians had done the deed, aroused by jealousy and unwillingness to see the temple enclosed by a magnificent colonnade.

§ 22.13.3 It was said, however, though on very slight evidence, that the cause of the burning of the temple was this: the philosopher Asclepiades, whom I have mentioned in the history of Magnentius, when he had come to that suburb from abroad to visit Julian, placed before the lofty feet of the statue a little silver image of the Dea Caelestis, which he always carried with him wherever he went, and after lighting some wax tapers as usual, went away. From these tapers after midnight, when no one could be present to render aid, some flying sparks alighted on the woodwork, which was very old, and the fire, fed by the dry fuel, mounted and burned whatever it could reach, at however great a height it was.

§ 22.13.4 In that year also, just as the winter season was at hand, there was such a fearful scarcity of water that some brooks dried up, as well as springs which had before over-flowed with plentiful jets of water; but later these were restored to their former condition.

§ 22.13.5 Then, on the second of December, just before evening, the rest of Nicomedia was wholly destroyed by an earthquake, as well as a good part of Nicaea.

§ 22.14.1 Although these disasters filled the prince with sorrow and anxiety, yet he did not neglect the urgent duties that remained to be done before the longed-for time of battle arrived. All the same, amid such weighty and serious affairs, it did seem superfluous, that with no satisfactory reason for such a measure, but merely from a desire for popularity, he wished to lower the price of commodities; although sometimes, when this matter is not properly regulated, it is wont to cause scarcity and famine.

§ 22.14.2 And, although the senate at Antioch clearly pointed out that this could not be done at the time when he ordered it, he in no wise gave up his plan, since he resembled his brother Gallus, though without his cruelty. Therefore raging against them one by one as recalcitrant and stubborn, he composed an invective, which he entitled The Antiochian — or Misopogon, in which he enumerated in a hostile spirit the faults of the city, including more than were justified. After this, finding that he was the object of many jests, he was forced at the time to disregard them, but was filled with suppressed wrath.

§ 22.14.3 For he was ridiculed as a Cercops, as a dwarf, spreading his narrow shoulders and displaying a billy- goat's beard, taking mighty strides as if he were the brother of Otus and Ephialtes, whose height Homer describes as enormous. He was also called by many a slaughterer instead of high-priest, in jesting allusion to his many offerings; and in fact he was fittingly criticised because for the sake of display he improperly took pleasure in carrying the sacred emblems in place of the priests, and in being attended by a company of women. But although he was indignant for these and similar reasons, he held his peace, kept control of his feelings, and continued to celebrate the festivals.

§ 22.14.4 Finally, on a previously appointed festal day, he ascended Mount Casius, a wooded hill rising on high with a rounded contour, from which at the second cock-crow the sun is first seen to rise And as he was offering sacrifice to Jove, he suddenly caught sight of a man lying flat upon the ground, and in suppliant words begging for life and pardon. And when Julian asked who he was, the man answered that he was the ex-governor Theodotus of Hierapolis; that when in company with other dignitaries he was escorting Constantius as he set out from his city, he shamefully flattered him, in the belief that he would unquestionably be victorious, begging him with feigned tears and wailing to send them the head of Julian, that ungrateful rebel, just as he remembered that the head of Magnentius had been paraded about.

§ 22.14.5 Upon hearing this, the emperor answered: “I heard of this speech of yours long ago from the mouths of many; but go to your home carefree, relieved of all fear by the mercy of your prince, who (as the philosopher advised) of his own accord and willingly strives to diminish the number of his enemies and increase that of his friends.”

§ 22.14.6 When he left there after completing the sacred rites, a letter was presented to him from the governor of Egypt, reporting that after laborious search for a new Apis bull, they had finally, after a time, been able to find one, which (in the belief of the people of that region) is an indication of prosperity, fruitful crops, and various blessings.

§ 22.14.7 About this matter it will be in place to give a brief explanation. Among the animals consecrated by ancient religious observance, the better known are Mnevis and Apis. Mnevis is consecrated to the Sun, but about him there is nothing noteworthy to be said; Apis to the moon. Apis, then, is a bull distinguished by natural marks of various forms, and most of all conspicuous for the image of a crescent moon on his right side. When this bull, after its destined span of life, is plunged in the sacred fount and dies (for it is not lawful for him to prolong his life beyond the time prescribed by the secret authority of the mystic books), there is slain with the same ceremony a cow, which has been found with special marks and presented to him. After his death another Apis is sought amid public mourning; and if it has been possible to find one, complete with all its marks, it is taken to Memphis, famed for the frequent presence of the god Aesculapius.

§ 22.14.8 And when he has been led into the city by a hundred priests and conducted to his chamber, he begins to be an object of worship; and it is said that by manifest signs he gives indications of coming events; and some of those who approach him he evidently rejects by unfavourable signs, as once (so we read) he turned away from Caesar Germanicus when he offered him food, and thus prophesied what soon after came to pass.

§ 22.15.1 Accordingly, since the occasion seems to demand it, let us touch briefly on matters Egyptian, of which I discoursed at length in connection with the history of the emperors Hadrian and Severus, telling for the most part what I myself had seen.

§ 22.15.2 The Egyptian nation is the most ancient of all, except that in antiquity it vies with the Scythians. It is bounded on the south by the Greater Syrtes, the promontories Phycus and Borion, by the Garamantes and various other nations. Where it looks directly east it extends to Elephantine and Mero, cities of the Aethiopians, to the Catadupi and the Red Sea, and to the Scenitic Arabs, whom we now call the Sercacens. On the north it forms part of the boundless tract from which Asia and the provinces of Syria take their beginning. On the west its boundary is the Issiac Sea, which some have called the Parthenian.

§ 22.15.3 Now it will be in place to touch briefly on the most helpful of all rivers, the Nile, which Homer calls the Aegyptus, and then to describe other remarkable things to be found in those lands.

§ 22.15.4 The origin of the sources of the Nile (so at least I am wont to think) will be unknown also to future ages, as it has been up to the present. But, since the poets' tales and dissenting geographers give varying accounts of this unknown subject, I shall succinctly set forth such of their views as in my opinion approach the truth.

§ 22.15.5 Some natural philosophers affirm that in the tracts lying beneath the north, when the cold winters freeze everything, great masses of snow are congealed; that afterwards when these are melted by the heat of the blazing sun, they form clouds filled with flowing moisture, which are then driven towards the south by the Etesian winds, and when melted by the excessive warmth, are believed to cause the rich overflow of the Nile.

§ 22.15.6 Others assert that it is by the Aethiopian rains, which are said to fall in abundance in those regions in the season of torrid heat, that its floods are raised at the appointed season of the year; but both these reasons seem to be out of harmony with the truth. For it is reported that in the land of the Aethiopians rains fall either not at all or at long intervals of time.

§ 22.15.7 Another, more widespread opinion is, that when the Prodromoi blow and after them the Etesians for forty-five consecutive days, since they drive back the course of the river and check its speed, it swells with overflowing waves; and while the contrary wind blows against it, it increases more and more, since on the one side the force of the wind hurls it back and on the other the flow of its perennial springs forces it onward; and rising high it covers everything, and hiding the ground, over the low-lying plains it has the appearance of a sea.

§ 22.15.8 But King Juba, relying upon the testimony of Punic books, thinks that the Nile rises in a mountain situated in Mauritania and looking down upon the ocean, and he says that this is proved by the fact that in those marshes are found fishes, plants, and animals like those of the Nile.

§ 22.15.9 But the river, flowing through the regions of Aethiopia, and going under various names, which many nations have given it in its course over the earth, swelling with its rich flood, comes to the cataracts, which are steep rocks, from which it plunges headlong rather than flows; for which reason the Ati, who formerly lived nearby, since their hearing was impaired by the continual roar, were forced to change their abode to a quieter spot.

§ 22.15.10 Flowing more gently from there, through seven mouths, each of which has the appearance of an uninterrupted river, and is equally usable, it empties into the sea without being increased by any tributaries in Egypt. And besides many streams which flow from the main channel and fall into others nearly as great, seven are full of surges and navigable, and to them the ancients gave the following names: the Heracleotic, Sebennytic, Bolbitic, Pathmitic, Mendesian, Tanitic, and Pelusiac.

§ 22.15.11 Rising, then, in the quarter which has been mentioned, it passes from the marshes as far as the cataracts and forms many islands, some of which (it is said) extend over such wide-spread spaces that the stream hardly leaves each of them behind on the third day.

§ 22.15.12 Of these two are famous, namely Mero and Delta, the latter clearly so-called from the form of the triangular letter. But when the sun has begun to ride through the sign of the Crab, the river increases until it passes into the Balance; then, flowing at high water for a hundred days, the river becomes smaller, and as the weight of its waters decreases, it shows the plains that before were navigable for boats now suitable for riders on horseback.

§ 22.15.13 However, too great a rise of the Nile is as harmful to the crops as too small a one is unfruitful. For if it soaks the land for too long a time with an excess of water, it delays the cultivation of the fields; but if the rise is too small, it threatens a bad harvest. No landowner has ever wished for a higher rise than sixteen cubits. But if there is a more moderate rise, seeds sown on a place where the soil is very rich sometimes return an increase of nearly seventy-fold. And it is the only river that does not raise a breeze.

§ 22.15.14 Egypt abounds also in many animals, some of which are terrestrial, some aquatic; and there are others which live both on land and in the water, and hence are called amphibious. And on the dry plains roebucks feed and antelopes and spinturnicia, laughable for their utter ugliness, and other monsters, which it is not worth while to enumerate.

§ 22.15.15 Now among aquatic animals crocodiles abound everywhere in that region, a destructive four-footed monster, a curse to the land, accustomed to both elements. It has no tongue, and moves only its upper jaw; its teeth are arranged like those of a comb, and whatever it meets it persistently attacks with destructive bites. It produces its young from eggs resembling those of geese.

§ 22.15.16 And, if besides the claws with which it is armed it also had thumbs, its strength would be great enough to overturn even ships; for it sometimes attains a length of eighteen cubits. At night it remains quiet in the water; in the daytime it suns itself on land, trusting to its hide, which is so strong that its mail-clad back can hardly be pierced by the bolts of artillery.

§ 22.15.17 Now, savage as these same beasts always are, during the seven festal days on which the priests at Memphis celebrate the birthday of the Nile, as if by a kind of military truce they lay aside all their fierceness and become mild.

§ 22.15.18 Besides those that lose their lives through accident, some are destroyed by creatures resembling dolphins, which are found in that same river and with sawlike dorsal fins tear the crocodiles' soft bellies; and others die in the following manner.

§ 22.15.19 The trochilus, a little bird, as it looks for bits of food, flutters and plays about the crocodile as it lies outstretched, and pleasantly tickling its cheeks, makes its way as far as its throat. Seeing this going on, a water rat, a kind of ichneumon, enters the opening of the crocodile's mouth, to which the bird has shown the way, and after lacerating its belly and tearing its vitals to pieces, forces its way out.

§ 22.15.20 Yet daring as this monster is towards those who run from it, when it sees that it has a daring opponent it is most timorous. It has sharper sight when on land, and during the four winter months it is said to take no food.

§ 22.15.21 Hippopotami also, or river- horses, are produced in those parts, animals sagacious beyond all unreasoning beasts, with cloven hooves like horses and short tails. Of their cunning it will suffice for the present to give two instances.

§ 22.15.22 This monster makes its lair amid a thick growth of high and rough reeds and with watchful care looks about for a time of quiet; when free means are offered, it goes forth to feed upon the cornfields. And when it has finally begun to return, gorged with food, it walks backward and makes several paths, for fear that hunters, following the lines of one direct course, may find and stab it without difficulty.

§ 22.15.23 Also, when by excessive greed it has made its belly bulge and grown sluggish, it rolls its thighs and legs on freshly cut reeds, in order that the blood flowing from its wounded feet may relieve its repletion; and it keeps the injured parts covered with mud until the raw places scab over.

§ 22.15.24 This monstrous and once rare kind of beast the Roman people first saw when Scaurus was aedile, the father of that Scaurus in whose defence Cicero spoke and bade the Sardinians also to conform with the authority of the whole world in their judgement of so noble a family; and for many ages after that more hippopotami were often brought to Rome. But now they can nowhere be found, since, as the inhabitants of those regions conjecture, they were forced from weariness of the multitude that hunted them to take refuge in the land of the Blemmyae.

§ 22.15.25 Among Egyptian birds, the variety of which is countless, the ibis is sacred, harmless, and beloved for the reason that by carrying the eggs of serpents to its nestlings for food it destroys and makes fewer those destructive pests.

§ 22.15.26 These same birds meet the winged armies of snakes which issue from the marshes of Arabia, producing deadly poisons, and before they leave their own lands vanquish them in battles in the air, and devour them. And it is said of those birds that they lay their eggs through their beaks.

§ 22.15.27 Egypt also breeds innumerable serpents, surpassing all their destructive kind in fierceness: basilisks, amphisbaenae, scytalae, acontiae, dipsades, vipers, and many others, all of which are easily surpassed in size and beauty by the asp, which never of its own accord leaves the bed of the Nile.

§ 22.15.28 Many and great things there are in that land which it is worth while to see; of these it will be in place to describe a few. Everywhere temples of vast size have been erected. The Pyramids have been enrolled among the seven wonders of the world, and of their slow and difficult construction the historian Herodotus tells us. These are towers higher than any others which can be erected by human hands, extremely broad at the base and tapering to very pointed summits.

§ 22.15.29 The figure pyramid has that name among geometers because it narrows into a cone after the manner of fire, which in our language is called pyr;for their size, as they mount to a vast height, gradually becomes slenderer, and also they cast no shadows at all, in accordance with a principle of mechanics.

§ 22.15.30 There are also subterranean fissures and winding passages called syringes, which, it is said, those acquainted with the ancient rites, since they had fore-knowledge that a deluge was coming, and feared that the memory of the ceremonies might be destroyed, dug in the earth in many places with great labour; and on the walls of these caverns they carved many kinds of birds and beasts, and those countless forms of animals which they called hierographic writing.

§ 22.15.31 Then comes Syene, where at the solstice, to which the sun extends its summer course, its rays surround all upright bodies and do not allow their shadows to extend beyond the bodies themselves. At that time if one fixes a stake upright in the earth, or looks at a man or a tree standing anywhere, he will observe that the shadows are lost in the outer circumference of the figures. The same thing is said to happen at Mero, a part of Aethiopia lying next to the equinoctial circle, where for ninety days the shadows fall on the side opposite to ours, for which reason those who dwell there are called Antiscii.

§ 22.15.32 But since there are many such wonders, which extend beyond the plan of my little work, let me refer them to lofty minds, since I wish to tell a few things about the provinces.

§ 22.16.1 In early times Egypt is said to have had three provinces: Egypt proper, Thebais, and Libya. To these later times have added two: Augustamnica being taken from Egypt, and Pentapolis from the dryer part of Libya.

§ 22.16.2 Now Thebais has these among cities that are especially famous: Hermopolis, Coptos and Antino, which Hadrian founded in honour of his favourite Antinous; for hundred-gated Thebes everyone knows.

§ 22.16.3 In Augustamnica is the famous city of Pelusium, which Peleus, the father of Achilles, is said to have founded, being bidden by order of the gods to purify himself in the lake which washes the walls of that city, when after the murder of his brother, Phocus by name, he was hounded by the dread forms of the furies; also Cassium, where is the tomb of Pompey the Great, and Ostracine, and Rhinocorura.

§ 22.16.4 In Pentapolis- Libya is Cyrene, an ancient city, but deserted, founded by the Spartan Battus, and Ptolemais, and Arsinoe, also called Teuchira, and Darnis and Berenice, which two they call Hesperidae

§ 22.16.5 But in dry Libya are Paraetonion, Chaerecla, Neapolis, and a few small towns.

§ 22.16.6 Egypt itself, which from the time when it was joined with the Roman empire has been governed by prefects in place of kings, is adorned by the great cities of Athribis, Oxyrynchus, Thumis, and Memphis, to say nothing of many lesser towns.

§ 22.16.7 But the crown of all cities is Alexandria, which is made famous by many splendid things, through the wisdom of its mighty founder and by the cleverness of the architect Dinocrates. The latter, when laying out its extensive and beautiful walls, for lack of lime, of which too little could at the time be found, sprinkled the whole line of its circuit with flour, which chanced to be a sign that later the city would abound with a plentiful store of food.

§ 22.16.8 There healthful breezes blow, the air is calm and mild, and as the accumulated experience of many ages has shown, there is almost no day on which the dwellers in that city do not see a cloudless sun.

§ 22.16.9 Since this coast in former times, because of its treacherous and perilous approaches, involved seafarers in many dangers, Cleopatra devised a lofty tower in the harbour, which from its situation is called the Pharos and furnishes the means of showing lights to ships by night; whereas before that, as they came from the Parthenian or the Libyan sea past flat and low shores, seeing no landmarks of mountains or signs of hills, they were dashed upon the soft, tenacious sandbanks and wrecked.

§ 22.16.10 This same queen built the Heptastadium, remarkable alike for its great size and for the incredible speed with which it was constructed, for a well-known and sufficient reason. The island of Pharos, where Proteus, as Homer relates in lofty language, lived with his herd of seals, lay a mile from the shore of the city, and was subject to tribute by the Rhodians.

§ 22.16.11 When they had come one day to collect this tax, which was excessive, the queen, who was ever skilled in deception, under pretence of a solemn festival, took the same tax-collectors with her to the suburbs, and gave orders that the work should be completed by unremitting toil. In seven days, by building dams in the sea near the shore, the same number of stadia were won for the land; then the queen rode to the spot in a carriage drawn by horses, and laughed at the Rhodians, since it was on islands and not on the mainland that they imposed a duty.

§ 22.16.12 There are besides in the city temples pompous with lofty roofs, conspicuous among them the Serapeum, which, though feeble words merely belittle it, yet is so adorned with extensive columned halls, with almost breathing statues, and a great number of other works of art, that next to the Capitolium, with which revered Rome elevates herself to eternity, the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent.

§ 22.16.13 In this were invaluable libraries, and the unanimous testimony of ancient records declares that 700,000 books, brought together by the unremitting energy of the Ptolemaic kings, were burned in the Alexandrine war, when the city was sacked under the dictator Caesar.

§ 22.16.14 At a distance of twelve miles from Alexandria is Canopus, which, according to the statements of ancient writers, got its name from the burial there of Menelaus' steersman. The place is most delightful because of its beautiful pleasure-resorts, its soft air and healthful climate, so that anyone staying in that region believes that he is living outside of this world, as oftentimes he rears the winds that murmur a welcome with sunny breath.

§ 22.16.15 But Alexandria herself, not gradually (like other cities), but at her very origin, attained her wide extent; and for a long time she was greviously troubled by internal dissensions, until at last, many years later under the rule of Aurelian, the quarrels of the citizens turned into deadly strife; then her walls were destroyed and she lost the greater part of the district called Bruchion, which had long been the abode of distinguished men.

§ 22.16.16 From there came Aristarchus, eminent in thorny problems of grammatical lore, and Herodian, a most accurate investigator in science and Saccas Ammonius, the teacher of Plotinus, and numerous other writers in many famous branches of literature. Among these Didymus Chalcenterus was conspicuous for the abundance of his diversified knowledge, although in those six books in which he sometimes unsuccessfully criticises Cicero, imitating the scurrilous writers of Silli, he makes the same impression on learned ears as a puppy-dog barking from a distance with quavering voice around a lion roaring awfully.

§ 22.16.17 And although very many writers flourished in early times as well as these whom I have mentioned, nevertheless not even today is learning of various kinds silent in that same city; for the teachers of the arts show signs of life, and the geometrical measuring-rod brings to light whatever is concealed, the stream of music is not yet wholly dried up among them, harmony is not reduced to silence, the consideration of the motion of the universe and of the stars is still kept warm with some, few though they be, and there are others who are skilled in numbers; and a few besides are versed in the knowledge which reveals the course of the fates.

§ 22.16.18 Moreover, studies in the art of healing, whose help is often required in this life of ours, which is neither frugal nor sober, are so enriched from day to day, that although a physician's work itself indicates it, yet in place of every testimony it is enough to commend his knowledge of the art, if he has said that he was trained at Alexandria.