“Currant verba licet, manus est velocius illis;
Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus.”
xiv. 208.
“Swift though the words, (the pen still swifter sped)
The hand has finished, ere the tongue has said.”
[2]It seems probable that this was the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, at least of any consequence. Dio, indeed, and other ancient authors speak of it as burning before; but still they describe it as covered with trees and vines, so that the eruptions must have been inconsiderable.
[3]The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world would eventually be destroyed by fire, and all things would fall into original chaos, not excepting even the national gods themselves from the destruction of this general conflagration.
[4]The allusion, otherwise obscure, is to the fact that some friends of Catullus had filched a set of table-napkins, which had been given to him by Veranius and Fabius, and substituted others in their place.
[5]“Sesculysses” and “Flextabula;” literally, Ulysses and a Half, and Bend-table.
[6]Pliny the younger, in one of his letters (iii. 5), where he enumerates all his uncle’s publications, informs us, that he wrote “a piece of criticism in eight books, concerning ambiguity of expression.” Melmoth’s Pliny, i. 136.
[7]His real name was Tyrtamus, but in consequence of the beauty of his style, he acquired the appellation by which he is generally known from the words ?e??? f?as??. Cicero refers to him in Brutus, 121; Orator, 17; and on various other occasions.
[8]“Spartum;” this plant was used to make bands for the vines and cables for ships.
[9]The term Mundus is used by Pliny, sometimes to mean the earth and its immediate appendages, the visible solar system; and at other times the universe; while in some instances it is used in a rather vague manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above designations. I have usually translated it by the term world, as approaching nearest to the sense of the original.
[10]The astronomy of our author is derived mainly from Aristotle.
[11]This theory of the “music of the spheres” was maintained by Pythagoras, but was derided by Aristotle.
[12]The letter ?, in the constellation of the triangle; but except in this one case, the constellations have no visible resemblance to the objects of which they bear the name.
[13]Iliad, iii. 277, and Od. xii. 323.
[14]The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian deities that were engraved on rings.
[15]His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious.
[16]According to the most approved modern chronology, the middle of the 109th olympiad corresponds to the 211th year of the City, or 542 B.C.
[17]Nothing is known respecting the nature of these instruments.
[18]This is said by Livy to have occurred to Servius Tullius while he was a child; lib. i. cap. 39; and by Virgil to Ascanius, Æn. ii. 632-5.
[19]By adding its deified emperors to the number of its divinities.
[20]Probably these mountains were a western branch of the Ural chain.
[21]From the Greek pte??f????, “wing-bearing” or “feather-bearing.”
[22]This legendary race was said to dwell in the regions beyond Boreas, or the northern wind, which issued from the RiphÆn mountains, the name of which was derived from ??pa? or “hurricanes” issuing from a cavern, and which these heights warded off from the Hyperboreans and sent to more southern nations. Hence they never felt the northern blasts, and enjoyed a life of supreme happiness and undisturbed repose. “Here,” says Humboldt, “are the first views of a natural science which explains the distribution of heat and the difference of climates by local causes—by the direction of the winds—the proximity of the sun, and the action of a moist or saline principle.”
[23]Pindar says, in the “Pythia,” x. 56, “The Muse is no stranger to their manners. The dances of girls and the sweet melody of the lyre and pipe resound on every side, and wreathing their locks with the glistening bay, they feast joyously. For this sacred race there is no doom of sickness or of disease; but they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the exacting Nemesis.”
[24]Pomponius Mela, who asserts that the sun rises here at the vernal and sets at the autumnal equinox, is right in his position, and Pliny is incorrect.
[25]Britain was spoken of by some of the Greek writers as superior to all other islands in the world. Dionysius, in his Periegesis, says, “that no other islands whatsoever can claim equality with those of Britain.”
[26]Said to have been so called from the whiteness of its cliffs opposite the coast of Gaul.
[27]The distance here given by Pliny is far too great, the shortest distance, from Dover to Calais, being 21 miles.
[28]Probably the Grampian range is here referred to.
[29]The people of South Wales.
[30]The Orkney Islands.
[31]Probably the islands now known as the Shetlands.
[32]The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous in the extreme. The common, and apparently the best founded opinion, is that Thule is the island of Iceland.
[33]Like others of the ancient writers, Pliny falls into the error of considering Atlas, not as an extensive chain of mountains, but as an isolated mountain, surrounded by sands. With reference to its height, the whole range declines considerably from west to east; the highest summits in Morocco reaching to nearly 13,000 feet, in Tunis not 5000.
[34]It is now universally agreed among the learned that the island of Taprobana is the modern Ceylon.
[35]A general term, probably, for the great peninsula of India, below the Ganges.
[36]It is probable that the passage here referred to is from Cape Comorin to Ceylon, and not from Cape Ramanan Cor, the nearest part of the continent.
[37]Possibly the word “Radijah,” or “Rajah,” denoting the rank which he held, may have been here taken by Pliny for his name.
[38]Probably Cape Ramanan Cor, which is in reality the nearest point to the coast of Ceylon.
[39]He alludes to coral reefs, no doubt.
[40]The Romans evidently misunderstood their language, for, as Gosselin remarks, it is quite impossible that the Pleiades should be a constellation unknown at that time to the people of Ceylon; but, on the other hand, it would be equally true that the Great Bear was concealed from them.
[41]This also originated in misapprehension of their language on the part of the Romans.
[42]In Ceylon seven months in the year the shadows fell to the north, and during the remaining five to the south.
[43]The SerÆ here spoken of must not be taken for the Seres or supposed Chinese.
[44]Or “Bacchus.” This means that he wears a long robe with a train; much like the dress, in fact, which was worn on the stage by tragic actors.
[45]We may hence conclude, that the practice of swathing young infants in tight bandages prevailed at Rome, in the time of Pliny, as it still does in France.
[46]This reminds us of the terms of the riddle proposed to Œdipus by the Sphinx: “What being is that, which, with four feet, has two feet and three feet, and only one voice; but its feet vary, and when it has most it is weakest?” to which he answered, That it is man, who is a quadruped in childhood, two-footed in manhood, and moving with the aid of a staff in old age.
[47]This is contrary to facts now well known.
[48]It was this feeling that prompted the common saying among the ancients, “Homo homini lupus”—“Man to man is a wolf;” and most true it is, that “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”
[49]The figures of the Gryphons or Griffins are found not uncommonly on the friezes and walls at Pompeii. In the East, where there were no safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth; hence, for the purpose of scaring depredators, the story was carefully circulated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and dragons. There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in the western world, combined with the knowledge of the existence of gold in the Uralian chain and other mountains of the East, gave rise to the stories of the Griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that the Arimaspi were no other than the modern Tsheremis, who dwelt on the left bank of the Middle Volga, not far from the gold districts of the Uralian range. It has been conjectured, that the fabulous tales of the combats of the Arimaspi with the Griffins, were invented by the neighboring tribes of the Essedones, who were anxious to throw a mystery over the origin of the gold, that they might preserve the traffic in their own hands. The Altai Mountains, in the north of Asia, contain many gold mines, which are still worked, as well as traces of former workings.
[50]We have an account of the Arimaspi, and of Aristeas, in Herodotus, B. iv.
[51]One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors, in the paradise of Odin, was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies.
[52]It is well known that nothing of this kind was ever observed in any human eye.
[53]In all ages, it has been a prevalent superstition, that those endowed with magical qualities will not sink in water, encouraged, no doubt, by the cunning of those who might wish to make the charge a means of wreaking their vengeance. If they sank, they were to be deemed innocent, but if they floated, they were deemed guilty, and handed over to the strong arm of the law.
[54]This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now extant.
[55]Cuvier observes, that these people probably exercise some deception, analogous to that practised by a Spaniard, who exhibited himself in Paris, and professed to be incombustible, but who, eventually, was the dupe of his own quackery, and paid the penalty with his life.
[56]Plutarch relates these supposed facts in his life of Pyrrhus; they remind us of the supposed efficacy of the royal touch in curing the disease termed the “King’s evil.”
[57]Popularly known as the “banyan tree.”
[58]The bambos arundinacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the grass kind, which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees. The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the natives to form their canoes. We have an account of them in Herodotus, B. iii.
[59]It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the inhabitants of the temperate zones.
[60]This account probably originated in a species of monkey generally considered to be the baboon, with a projecting muzzle, called, from this circumstance, “cynocephalus,” or the “Dog’s head.” This account of the cynocephali is repeated by Aulus Gellius. It is a pity that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous fables, on the doubtful authority of Ctesias.
[61]These are the great apes, which are found in some of the Oriental islands. We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect account of a large kind of ape; but it seems impossible to refer it to any particular species.
[62]Can these be the Chinese?
[63]Either silk or cotton.
[64]Cuvier remarks, that these accounts are not capable of any explanation, being mere fables.
[65]Iliad, B. iii. l. 3-6. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenal.
[66]Pliny, elsewhere, speaks of the use of vipers’ flesh as an article of diet, and gives some minute directions for its preparation. It was supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been prescribed for the same purpose by modern physicians. There is a medal in existence, probably struck by the Emperor Commodus, in order to commemorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use of the flesh of vipers.
[67]Cuvier remarks that this story must have been originally told with reference to the race of large apes.
[68]The dog-faced ape—the baboon.
[69]The gladiators called Samnites, were armed with the peculiar “scutum,” or oblong shield, used by the Samnites, a greave on the left leg, a sponger on the breast, and a helmet with a crest.
[70]Philippides must have gone one hundred and forty-two miles in two days, and the other one hundred and fifty miles in one day.
[71]This statement must have been in some of his lost works.
[72]His works in ivory were said to have been so small, that they could scarcely be seen without placing them on a black surface.
[73]Or Bacchus.—“Father Liber” is the name always given to him by Pliny.
[74]“Magnus.” Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylla saluted him with the name of “Magnus,” which surname he ever afterwards retained. He also says that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to any one who was not either consul or prÆtor.
[75]When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armor and dress, which might bear testimony to the victory; this was termed the “spolium.” The words “hasta pura,” or victor’s spear, signify a lance without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained the first victory in a battle; it was also regarded as an emblem of supreme power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over another.
[76]Among the Jews and other nations of antiquity, it was considered an essential point for the priests to be without blemish, perfect and free from disease.
[77]Some of these are given by Valerius Maximus. It is very doubtful, however, if Greece did not greatly excel Rome in this respect.
[78]This remark is not found in any of CÆsar’s works now extant.
[79]Cuvier remarks, that this account of the elephant’s superior intelligence is exaggerated, it being no greater than that of the dog, if, indeed, equal to it. The opinion may perhaps have arisen from the dexterity with which the animal uses its trunk; but this is to be ascribed not to its own intelligence, but to the mechanical construction of the part. The Indians, from whom we presume that Pliny derived his account, have always regarded the elephant with a kind of superstitious veneration.
[80]Plutarch informs us, that Pompey had resolved to have his chariot drawn by four elephants, but, finding the gate too narrow, he was obliged to use horses.
[81]However ill adapted the elephant may appear, from its size and form, for this feat, we have the testimony of Seneca, Suetonius, Dion Cassius, and Ælian, to the truth of the fact. Suetonius tells us that a horseman ascended a tight rope on an elephant’s back.
[82]Plutarch, in his treatise on the Shrewdness of Animals, tells us that this wonderful circumstance happened at Rome. But it would be curious to know in what way the elephant showed that he was “conning” over his lesson.
[83]Ælian informs us, that he had seen an elephant write Latin characters. Hardouin remarks, that the Greek would be ??t?? ??? t?d ???a?a, ?af??? te ?e?t? ??????a.
[84]Probably the great quantity of fossil ivory which has been found may have given rise to this tale.
[85]Tables and bedsteads were not only covered or veneered with ivory among the Romans, but, in the later times, made of the solid material, as we learn from Ælian and AthenÆus.
[86]It is scarcely necessary to remark, that these statements respecting the sagacity of the elephant in connection with their teeth, are without foundation.
[87]There are coins extant struck to commemorate this victory, in which there is the figure of an elephant.
[88]This remark is incorrect; when the water is sufficiently deep, they swim with ease; and if the end of the trunk remains exposed to the atmosphere, they can dive below the surface, or swim with the body immersed.
[89]Although these stories of the generosity and clemency of the lion are in a great measure fabulous, still the accounts of those who have had the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of different animals, agree in ascribing to the lion less ferocity and brutality, in proportion to its size and strength, than to other animals of the same family.
[90]The description of the giraffe, here given, is sufficiently correct, but we have a more minute account of it by Dion Cassius, B. xliii. In the time of the Emperor Gordian, ten of these animals were exhibited at Rome at once; a remarkable fact, when we bear in mind that so few have ever been imported into Europe or America. The Giraffe is figured in the mosaic at PrÆneste and, under it, is inscribed its name—nabi. It has been found that the giraffe is unable to bear the winters of Europe and the United States.
[91]It seems impossible to identify Pliny’s description with any known animal, and it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the leucrocotta agree with those of the Indian antelope, while others seem to resemble those of the hyÆna.
[92]It has been conjectured, that Ctesias took his description from the hieroglyphic figures in his time, probably common in the East, and still found in the ruins of Nineveh and Persepolis.
[93]This account of the basilisk’s eye, like that of the catoblepas, is entirely devoid of foundation.
[94]Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person who is suddenly silent upon the entrance of another; “Lupus est tibi visus.”—“You have seen a wolf.”
[95]This literally means “changing the skin;” it was applied by some ancient medical writers to a peculiar form of insanity, where the patient conceives himself changed into a wolf.
[96]It is rather curious to find Pliny censuring others for credulity; the fact is he loses no opportunity of a hit at the Greeks, to whom, after all, he is greatly indebted.
[97]Lucan mentions the jaculus, B. ix. l. 720, and l. 822. In the last passage he says: “Behold! afar, around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce serpent—Africa calls it the jaculus—wreathes itself, and then darts forth, and through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight: nothing does venom there affect, death seizes him through the wound. It was then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how sluggishly whizzes the flight of the Scythian arrow.”
[98]The tongue of the crocodile is flat, and adheres to the lower jaw, so as to be incapable of motion.
[99]The water of the Nile abounds with small leeches, which attach to the throat of the crocodile, and, as it has no means of removing them, it allows the trochilus to enter its mouth for this purpose also.
[100]Although this account is sanctioned by all the ancient naturalists, it is called in question by Cuvier and other modern writers.
[101]The animal here referred to was not the dolphin but the Squalus centrina, or spinax of LinnÆus.
[102]Cuvier says that no antlers are added after the eighth year.
[103]This is mentioned by Aristotle, but it is quite unfounded. Without doubt the story arose from the fact that the stag in September rubs the velvet off his horns against the trees, until it hangs in strings from the antlers. These are at first greenish in color, then brown as they grow dry and fall off.
[104]Buffon remarks, such tales are without foundation, the life of the stag being not more than thirty or forty years.
[105]One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients to our times; the chameleon feeds on insects, which it seizes by means of its long flexible tongue; the quantity of food which it requires appears, however, to be small in proportion to its bulk.
[106]This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon, which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick’s poem of the Chameleon. The animal assumes various shades or tints, but the changes depend upon internal or constitutional causes, not upon any external object.
[107]This is, of course, without foundation, the honey being the sole object sought.
[108]We learn from Strabo, Ind. Hist. B. xv., that, in catching the monkey, the hunters took advantage of the propensity of these animals to imitate any action they see performed. “Two modes,” he says, “are employed in taking this animal, as by nature it is taught to imitate every action, and to take to flight by climbing up trees. When the hunters see an ape sitting on a tree, they place within sight of it a dish full of water, with which they rub their eyes; and then slyly substituting another in its place, full of bird-lime, retire and keep upon the watch. The animal comes down from the tree, and rubs its eyes with the bird-lime, in consequence of which the eyelids stick together, and it is unable to escape.” Ælian also says, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 25, that the hunters pretend to put on their shoes, and then substitute, in their place, shoes of lead; the animal attempts to imitate them, and, the shoes being so contrived, when it has once got them on, it finds itself unable to take them off, or to move, and is consequently taken.
[109]It is said that the Emperor Charles V. had a monkey that played chess with him.
[110]This account is given by Suetonius, Life of Julius CÆsar, c. 61. Cuvier suggests that the hoofs may have been notched, and that the sculptor probably exaggerated the peculiarity, so as to produce the resemblance to a human foot.
[111]We here find Pliny tripping, for he has previously said, that man is the only animated being that sheds tears. In this Book, also, he represents the lion as shedding tears.
[112]There were four parties or factions of the charioteers who were named from the color of their dress.
[113]The famous Bologna sausages are made, it is said, of asses’ flesh.
[114]This peculiarity in their mode of taking their food is mentioned by Herodotus, who ascribed it to the extraordinary length of the horns.
[115] ?a? ???ea ?a?a[**diacrit?]
???f??’ ?a??e??, st???sa? d’ ?f?pe??e t?p?ta?.
Odyssey, B. iv. l. 427. “And to throw on fair coverlets of purple, and to lay carpets upon them.”
[116]“I have macerated unbleached flax in vinegar saturated with salt, and after compression have obtained a felt, with a power of resistance quite comparable with that of the famous armor of Conrad of Montferrat; for neither the point of a sword, nor even balls discharged from fire-arms, were able to penetrate it.” Memoir on the substance called Pilina, by Papadopoulo-Vretos.
[117]The “gausapa,” or “gausapum,” was a kind of thick cloth, very woolly on one side, and used especially for covering tables and beds, and making cloaks to keep out the wet and cold. The wealthier Romans had it made of the finest wool, and usually of a purple color. It seems also to have been sometimes made of linen, but still with a rough surface.
[118]From ?f?a??a, “napped on both sides.” They probably resemble our baizes or druggets, or perhaps the modern blanket.
[119]About the time of Augustus, the Romans began to exchange the “toga,” which had previously been their ordinary garment, for the more convenient “lacerna” and “pÆnula,” which were less encumbered with folds, and better adapted for the usual occupations of life.
[120]According to the commonly received account, Tanaquil was the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, and a native of Etruria; when she removed to Rome, and her husband became king, her name was changed to Caia CÆcilia.
[121]The prÆtexta is described by Varro as a white toga, with a purple band or border; it was worn by boys until their seventeenth year, and by young women until their marriage.
[122]The trabea differed from the prÆtexta, in being ornamented with stripes (trabes) of purple, whence its name.
[123]Helen is introduced, Iliad, B. iii. l. 125, weaving an embroidered garment, in which were figured the battles of the Greeks and Trojans. It was probably somewhat of the nature of modern tapestry.
[124]The first sum amounts to about $23,000, the latter to $115,000.
[125]These are all, of course, excessive exaggerations.
[126]Hardouin remarks, that the Basques of his day were in the habit of fencing their gardens with the ribs of the whale, which sometimes exceeded twenty feet in length; and Cuvier says, that at the present time, the jaw-bone of the whale is used in Norway for the purpose of making beams or posts for buildings.
[127]Hardouin, with excessive credulity, says that it is no fable, that the nereids and tritons had a human face; and says that no less than fifteen instances, ancient and modern, had been adduced, in proof that such was the fact. He says that this was the belief of Scaliger, and quotes the book of Aldrovandus on Monsters. But, as Cuvier remarks, it is impossible to explain these stories of nereids and tritons, on any other grounds than the fraudulent pretences of those who have exhibited them, or asserted that they have seen them. “It was only last year,” he says, “that all London was resorting to see a wonderful sight in what is commonly called a mermaid. I myself had the opportunity of examining a very similar object: it was the body of a child, in the mouth of which they had introduced the jaws of a sparus, or ‘gilt-head,’ while for the legs was substituted the body of a lizard.” “The body of the London mermaid,” he says, “was that of an ape, and a fish attached to it supplied the place of the hind legs.”
[128]In his description of the dolphin Pliny has confused the peculiarities of the seal, the porpoise, the flying-fish and the squalus, with those of the dolphin.
[129]He implies that the dolphin knows that it is “simus,” or “flat-nosed,” for which reason it is particularly fond of being called “Simo,” or “flat-nose,” a piece of good taste and intelligence remarkable even in a dolphin.
[130]Ovid tells the story of Arion more fully, and in beautiful language, in the Fasti, B. ii. l. 92.
[131]According to Cuvier the fore-feet were here taken for horns, being in the turtle long, narrow, and pointed.
[132]“Fremitu.” From their lowing noise, the French have also called these animals “veaux de mer,” and we call them “sea-calves.” Lopez de Gomara, one of the more recent writers on Mexico, in his day, gave an account of an Indian sea-calf, or manati, as it was called by the natives, that had become quite tame, and answered readily to its name; and although not very large, it was able to bear ten men on its back. He also tells us of a much more extraordinary one, which Aldrovandus says he himself had seen at Bologna, which would give a cheer for the Christian princes when asked, but would refuse to do so for the Turks.
[133]There are specimens of about 6000 kinds of fishes, in the Cabinet du Roi in Paris.
[134]He means, that in consequence of the lucrative nature of this fishery, it thence obtained the name of the “golden” horn.
[135]Seneca has two passages on this subject, which strongly bespeak the barbarous tastes of the Romans. He says: “A mullet even, if just caught, is thought little of, unless it is allowed to die in the hand of your guest. They are carried about enclosed in globes of glass, and their color is watched as they die—ever changing by the struggles of death into various shades and hues.” And again: “There is nothing, you say, more beautiful than the colors of the dying mullet; as it struggles and breathes forth its life, it is first purple, and then a paleness gradually comes over it; and then, placed as it is between life and death, an uncertain hue comes over it.”
[136]Seneca speaks of this cruel custom of pickling fish alive. “Other fish, again, they kill in sauces, and pickle them alive. There are some persons who look upon it as quite incredible that a fish should be able to live underground. How much more so would it appear to them, if they were to hear of a fish swimming in sauce, and that the chief dish of the banquet was killed at the banquet, feeding the eye before it does the gullet?”
[137]Juvenal, Sat. iv. l. 15, speaks of a mullet being bought for 6000 sesterces, a thousand for every pound, and Suetonius tells us that in the reign of Tiberius three mullets were sold for 30,000 sesterces. It is in allusion to this kind of extravagance that Juvenal says, in the same Satire, that it is not unlikely that the fisherman could be bought as a slave for a smaller sum than the fish itself. At the above rate, each of these mullets sold for nearly $400 of our money.
[138]?p? t?? ??e?? ??a?. “From holding back ships.”
[139]This division of the bloodless fish, made first by Aristotle, into the mollusca, testacea, and crustacea, has been followed by naturalists almost down to the present day.
[140]Probably this is merely the reproduction of the story of the nautilus with exaggerated details.
[141]It is now known, thanks to the research of Swammerdam, that the black points at the extremity of the great horns of the land snail, and at the base of them in the water snail, are eyes.
[142]All this theory is, of course, totally imaginary. The pearl itself is nothing else but a diversion, so to speak, of the juices, whose duty it is to line the interior of the shell, to thicken and so amplify it; and consequently, the pearl is the result of some malady. It is possible for them to be found in all shell-fish; but they have no beauty in them, unless the interior of the shell, or, as we call it, the mother-of-pearl, is lustrous and beautiful itself. Hence the finest of them come from the east, and are furnished by the kind of bivalve, called by LinnÆus, “Mytilus margaritiferus,” which has the most beautiful mother-of-pearl in the interior that is known. The parts of the Indian sea which are mentioned by Pliny, are those in which the pearl oyster is still found in the greatest abundance.
[143]Procopius tells a wonderful story in relation to this subject. He says, that the sea-dogs are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea; that when the sea-dogs are pressed by hunger, they go in quest of prey, and then return to the shell-fish and gaze upon it. A certain fisherman, having watched for the moment when the shell-fish was deprived of the protection of its attendant sea-dog, which was seeking its prey, seized the shell-fish, and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon aware of the theft, and making straight for the fisherman, seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, upon which he was immediately torn to pieces by its protector.
[144]These alabaster boxes for unguents mentioned elsewhere by Pliny were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they were called a?aast?a, from a, “not,” and ?a?s?a?, “to be held.” Such was the offer made to our Saviour, of an “alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.” Seneca says that the Roman matrons were not satisfied unless they had two or three patrimonies suspended from each ear.
[145]The pearls as fully bespoke the importance of the wearer, as the lictor did of the magistrate whom he was preceding. The honor of being escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other members of the imperial family.
[146]Tavernier speaks of a remarkable pearl, that was found at Catifa, in Arabia (the fishery alluded to by Pliny), and which he bought for the sum of $500,000, of our money. It is pear-shaped, the elenchus of the ancients, regular, and without blemish. The diameter is .63 of an inch, at the largest part, and the length from two to three inches. It is now in the possession of the Shah of Persia.
[147]The Roman consuls were clothed with the toga prÆtexta, the color of which was Syrian purple. All children of free birth wore the prÆtexta, edged with purple, and the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator’s toga distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave, or narrow hem.
[148]“Xerxen togatum,” or “the Roman Xerxes,” in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice.
[149]An absurd tradition, invented to palliate the disgrace of his defeat.
[150]If there was any foundation at all for the story, there can be little doubt that a trick was played for the purpose of imposing upon Caligula’s superstitious credulity, and that the rowers as well as the diving sailors were in the secret.
[151]“Delay.”
[152]Of this work, begun by Ovid during his banishment in Pontus, and probably never completed, only a fragment of one hundred and thirty-two lines has come down to us.
[153]Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fish-ponds of BaiÆ, where the Emperor’s fish were in the habit of making their appearance when called by name.
[154]“Inaures.” He probably means ornaments suspended from the gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done.
[155]The seat of the worship of the half-fish goddess, Addirga, Atergatis, Astarte, or Derceto.
[156]Theophrastus reckons coral among the precious stones, and Pliny would seem to be at a loss whether to consider it as an animal or a vegetable.
[157]From the Greek ?e??e?ta?, “cut short.”
[158]It is at the spawning season that this milky liquid is found in the oyster; a period at which the meat of the fish is considered unwholesome as food. We have a saying that the oyster should never be eaten in the months without an r; that the same, too, was the opinion in the middle ages is proved by the Leonine line: “Mensibus erratis vos ostrea manducatis.”
“In the r’d months you may your oysters eat.”
[159]Literally, “Having beautiful eyebrows.”
[160]Those of RutupÆ, the present Richborough in Kent, were highly esteemed by the Romans. See Juvenal, Sat. 4. l. 141.
[161]They probably gave the name of “oyster” to some other shell-fish of large size. In Cook’s Voyages we read of cockles in the Pacific, which two men were unable to carry.
[162]From t???, “thrice,” and d????, “to bite.”
[163]Ajasson, however, remarks that many persons are unable to digest oysters in an uncooked state.
[164]Father Lobo, in his account of Abyssinia, says that when the ostrich is running at great speed, it throws the stones behind with such violence, that they would almost seem to be thrown at those in pursuit.
An ostrich, Cuvier says, will swallow anything, but it is by no means able to digest everything. He says, that he has seen ostriches with the stomach ruptured by nails which they have swallowed, or dreadfully torn by pieces of glass.
[165]All these relations are neither more nor less than so many absurd fables or allegories, but the description given is exactly that of a bird which does exist—the golden pheasant.
[166]Five hundred and thirty-two years.
[167]This erroneous notion is still entertained by the French peasantry.
[168]Cuvier remarks, that this is not a very good reason; but we have not yet been able to find a better.
[169]Cuvier denies this story, but says, that when the foster-mother is a very small bird, the young cuckoo will take the whole of her head in his beak when receiving food.
[170]Our Jackdaw probably, the Corvus graculus. It has been said, that in its admiration of shining objects, it will take up a burning coal; a trick which has before now caused conflagrations.
[171]Picus, the son of Saturn, king of Latium. He was skilled in augury, and was said to have been changed into a woodpecker.
[172]Valerius Maximus says, that seventeen members of this family fell at the battle of CannÆ.
[173]M. Mauduit, in a learned discussion many pages in length, satisfactorily shows that this is not entirely fabulous, but that the wild swan of the northern climates really is possessed of a tuneful note or cadence. Of course, the statement that it only sings just before its death, must be rejected as fabulous.
[174]The “mother of the quails.” Frederic II., in his work, De Arte Venandi, calls the “rallus,” or “rail,” the “leader of the quails.”
[175]Either hemlock or hellebore.
[176]This bird in reality builds no nest, but lays its eggs in holes on the water side. The objects taken for its nest are a zoophyte called halcyonium by LinnÆus, and similar in shape to a nest.
[177]Not moss, Cuvier says, but blades of grass and the silken fibres of the poplar and other aquatic trees.
[178]“Without feet.” This was supposed to be the case with the martinet, the Hirundo apus of LinnÆus.
[179]By nestling in the dust. Throwing dust over the body was one of the ancient modes of purification.
[180]“Lustrant,” “perform a lustration.” This was done by the Romans with a branch of laurel or olive, and sometimes bean-stalks were used.
[181]This is the jay, the Corvus glandarius of LinnÆus; but they are not more apt at speaking than the other kinds.
[182]These are merely freaks of Nature.
[183]Britannicus, the son of Claudius, and Nero, his stepson.
[184]The nephew and son of Tiberius.
[185]Festus says that the “fane of Rediculus was without the Porta Capena; it was so called because Hannibal, when on the march from Capua, turned back (redierit) at that spot, being alarmed at certain portentous visions.”
[186]Albert Magnus says that swallows can be tamed.
[187]The trunk of the gnat, Cuvier says, contains five silken and pointed threads, which together have the effect of a sting.
[188]They respire by orifices in the sides of the body, known to naturalists as stigmata. The whole body, Cuvier says, forms in a measure, a system of lungs.
[189]The various noises made by insects are in reality not the voice, as they are not produced by air passing through a larynx.
[190]They have a nourishing fluid, which is of a white color, and acts in place of blood.
[191]All insects have a brain, a sort of spinal marrow, and nerves; they have no fat except when in the chrysalis state; but they have a fibrous flesh of a whitish color. They have also viscera, trachea, nerves, and a most complicated organization.
[192]Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely necessary, and that they do not depend on the greater or less abundance. The king of the ancients is what we know as the queen bee.
[193]They do not work, but are the males of the hive.
[194]The queen has a sting, like the working bees, but uses it less frequently.
[195]The true version is, that after killing the insect they bury it with their eggs as food for their future young.
[196]Cuvier says that some have been known nearly a foot long, but not more.
[197]Julius Obsequens speaks of a pestilence there, created by the dead bodies of the locusts, which caused the death of 8000 persons.
[198]It is in reality their larvÆ that they thus bring out to dry. The working ants, or neutrals, are the ones on which these labors devolve; the males and females are winged, the working ants are without wings.
[199]By this is probably meant the Canis corsac, the small fox of India, by some mistake represented by travellers as an ant.
[200]This vase of Semiramis was her drinking bowl, in much the same sense that the great cannon at Dover was Queen Elizabeth’s “pocket pistol.”
[201]The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474.
[202]From the words et’ a??a[**diacrit?], “one after another.”
[203]By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine coin.
[204]The first person mentioned in Roman history as having the cognomen “Dives,” is Publius Licinius Crassus. As he attained the highest honors of the state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so opprobriously spoken of by Pliny.
[205]Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down his throat.
[206]According to some authorities, he was a Lydian. He derived his wealth from his gold mines in the neighborhood of CelÆnÆ in Phrygia, and would appear, in spite of Pliny’s reservation, to have been little less than a king. His five sons accompanied Xerxes; but Pythius, alarmed by an eclipse of the sun, begged that the eldest might be left behind. Upon this, Xerxes had the youth put to death, and his body cut in two, the army being ordered to march between the portions, which were placed on either side of the road. His other sons were all slain in battle, and Pythius passed the rest of his life in solitude.
[207]So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced them.
[208]“Æris Metalla.” The word “Æs” does not correspond to our word “brass;” the brass of the moderns being a compound of copper and zinc, while the “Æs” of the ancients was mostly composed of copper and tin, and therefore is more correctly designated by the word “bronze.” Mr. Westmacott says that the ancient “Æs” has been found, upon analysis, to contain no zinc, but in nearly every instance to be a mixture of copper and tin, like our bronze. Beckmann says, on the other hand, that the mixture of zinc and copper now called “brass,” first discovered by ores, abundant in zinc, was certainly known to the ancients.
[209]The colleges of the priests and of the augurs being the first two associated bodies.
[210]B.C. 146.
[211]Pisistratus. These statues are mentioned elsewhere by Pliny as being the workmanship of Praxiteles.
[212]The Luperci were the priests of Pan, who, at the celebration of their games, called Lupercalia, were in the habit of running about the streets of Rome, with no other covering than a goat’s skin tied about the loins.
[213]Pliny has forgotten the gilded chariot, with six horses, which Cneius Cornelius dedicated in the Capitol, two hundred years before Augustus; there is also an ancient inscription which mentions chariots of this description.
[214]By one Leptines, at Laodicea.
[215]The mode in which the fingers were placed, so as to serve the purpose here indicated, is supposed to have been by their forming the letters which were the Roman numerals for the figures in question.
[216]The Colossus at Rhodes was begun by Chares, but he committed suicide, in consequence of having made some mistake in the estimate; the work was completed by Laches, also an inhabitant of Lindos.
It remained on the spot where it was thrown down for nearly nine hundred years, until the year 653 A.D., when Moavia, khalif of the Saracens, after the capture of Rhodes, sold the materials; it is said that it required nine hundred camels to remove the pieces.
The Bartholdi statue of “Liberty enlightening the World” is even larger than the Colossus at Rhodes.
[217]St. Jerome informs us, that Vespasian removed the head of Nero, and substituted that of the Sun with seven rays.
[218]There is no work of Phidias now in existence; the sculptures in the Parthenon were, however, executed by his pupils and under his immediate directions, so that we may form some judgment of his genius and taste. There is a foot in the British Museum, said to be the work of Phidias.
[219]Praxiteles held a high rank among the ancient sculptors, and may be considered as second to Phidias alone.
[220]Pliny has here confounded two artists of the same name; the Polycletus who was the successor of Phidias, and was not much inferior to him in merit, and Polycletus of Argos, who lived 160 years later, and who also executed many capital works, some of which are here mentioned. It appears that Cicero, Vitruvius, Strabo, Quintilian, Plutarch, and Lucian have also confounded these two artists; but Pausanias, who is very correct in the account which he gives us of all subjects connected with works of art, was aware of the distinction; and it is from his observations that we have been enabled to correct the error into which so many eminent writers had fallen.
[221]Myron was born at EleutherÆ, in Boeotia; but having been presented by the Athenians with the freedom of their city, he afterwards resided there, and was always designated an Athenian.
[222]A person engaged in the five contests of quoiting, running, leaping, wrestling, and hurling the javelin.
[223]Competitors in boxing and wrestling.
[224]The lines of Horace are well known, in which he says, that Alexander would allow his portrait to be painted by no one except Apelles, nor his statue to be made by any one except Lysippus.
[225]Two copies of this Ganymede are still in existence at Rome.
[226]There were two artists of this name, both natives of Samos. This one is the elder Theodorus, and is mentioned by Pausanias as having been the first to fuse iron for statues.
[227]What would Pliny say, if he could see and hear the revolvers, rifles, mortars and Gatling guns of our day!
[228]Holbein and Mignard did the same, and Charles Felu of Antwerp, born without arms, paints most successfully with his feet.
[229]“Inussisse;” meaning that he executed it in encaustic.
[230]“Penicillus.” This was the hair-pencil or brush, which was used by one class of painters, in contradistinction to the stylus or cestrum used for spreading the wax-colors. Painters with the brush used what we should term “water-colors;” oil-colors, in our sense of the word, being unknown to the ancients.
[231]???seta? t?? ????? ? ??seta?. This line is attributed by Plutarch to Apollodorus.
[232]The “Chief of the Galli,” or high-priest of Cybele.
[233]Achilles, which were awarded to Ulysses in preference to Ajax.
[234]Which would make the course of study extend over a period of twelve years.
[235]Dr. Smith says: “The most natural explanation of this difficult passage seems to be, that down the middle of the first line of Apelles, Protogenes drew another, so as to divide it into two parallel halves, and that Apelles again divided the line of Protogenes in the same manner.”
[236]The Latin form of which, as given by Erasmus, is “Nulla dies abeat quin linea ducta supersit.” “Let no day pass by, without an outline being drawn, and left in remembrance.”
[237]“Ne sutor ultra crepidam.” “Let not the shoemaker go beyond his last.”
[238]See Matthew xiii. 57; Mark vi. 4. “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.”
[239]Odyss. B. vi. 1. 102.
[240]Sir Joshua Reynolds discovers in the account here given “an artist-like description of the effect of glazing, or scumbling, such as was practised by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters.”
[241]A service of three dishes.
[242]The ancient writers abound in praises of this wonderful statue. Lucian, however, has given the most complete and artistic description of it. It was supposed by the ancients, to represent Venus as standing before Paris, when he awarded to her the prize of beauty; but it has been well remarked, that the drapery in the right hand, and the vase by the side of the figure, indicate that she has either just left or is about to enter the bath. It was ultimately carried to Constantinople, where it perished by fire in the reign of Justinian. It is doubtful whether there are any copies of it in existence. There is, however, a so-called copy in the gardens of the Vatican, and another in the Glyptothek, at Munich. It is supposed that Cleomenes, in making the Venus de Medici, imitated the Cnidian Venus in some degree.
[243]This group is generally supposed to have been identical with the LaocoÖn still to be seen in the Court of the Belvedere, in the Vatican at Rome; having been found, in 1506, in a vault beneath the spot known as the Place de Sette Sale, by Felix de Eredi, who surrendered it, in consideration of a pension, to Pope Julius II. The group, however, is not made of a single block, which has caused some to doubt its identity: but it is not improbable, that when originally made, its joints were not perceptible to a common observer. The spot, too, where it was found was actually part of the palace of Titus. It is most probable that the artists had the beautiful episode of LaocoÖn in view, as penned by Virgil, Æn. B. II.
[244]So called from ?e??s???, a “small spit,” in consequence of their tapering form.
[245]Meaning, probably, that in the Egyptian language, the same word is used as signifying a “spit” and a “ray” of light; for it is generally agreed that the word “obeliscus” is of Greek origin.
[246]This, Hardouin says, was the same obelisk that was afterwards erected by Constantine, son of Constantine the Great, in the Circus Maximus at Rome; whence it was removed by Pope Sextus V., in the year 1588, to the Basilica of the Lateran.
[247]Evidently a stupendous monument, or rather aggregate of buildings, erected by Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, in memory of his wife and sister, ArsinoË.
