Chapter 386

1461By the term “longa navis,” here used, Pliny probably designates a vessel which was propelled by a number of rowers, ranged side by side, in contradistinction to the small skiffs which were moved along, either by a sail or a single pair of oars, and were more of a rounded form.—B.

1462Ctesias has already been referred to, in c. 2 of the present Book.—B.

1463One of her most remarkable exploits was her expedition against India, of which we have an account in Diodorus Siculus, B. ii.; he says that she fitted out a fleet of between 2000 and 3000 vessels.—B.

1464From the account of Damastes, given by Hardouin, he was a native of Sigæum, whose works appear to have been held in considerable estimation by the ancients.—B.

1465There were at least three ancient cities of the name Erythræ, but the one most noted was situate on the coast of the Ægean Sea, opposite to the Isle of Chios.—B.

1466The passage in Thucydides here referred to, is in B. i. c. 13.—B.

1467There appears to be much uncertainty respecting the statements made in the concluding part of this paragraph, in consequence of the variation of the MSS.—B.

1468The position of the rowers, in the vessels of the ancients, and, more especially, the mode in which the ranks, or “ordines,” were disposed with respect to each other, has been a subject of much discussion. From the incidental remarks in the classical writers, and from the representations which still remain, particularly those on Trajan’s Column, and on certain coins, it would appear that they were disposed in stages, one above the other, and provided with oars of different lengths, in proportion to their distance from the water. But, although we may conceive that this was the case with two or three rows, it is impossible that a greater number could have been disposed in this manner.—B.

1469It is not easy to determine what was the construction and form of the four kinds of vessels here mentioned, which he designates respectively by the terms “lembus,” “cymba,” “celes,” and “cercurus.” The “lembus” is mentioned by Livy, B. xxiv. c. 40, as a vessel with two benches of oars, “biremis;” and in B. xl. c. 4, he describes it as a small vessel used for towing large ships. The “cymba” has been supposed to have been a still smaller vessel, answering to our idea of a common boat; the “celes,” we may suppose, was named from “celer,” being especially adapted for quick motion, and the “cercurus” fromκερκὸς, “a tail,” from its long narrow form, or from its having a tail-like appendage attached to it.—B.

1470Hardouin conjectures, that the cities of Copæ and Plateæ derived their names, respectively, from the inventions here ascribed to them,κωπὴandπλατὴ.—B.

1471Pausanias ascribes this invention to Dædalus; Diodorus, B. v. c. 1, to Æolus, who gave his name to the Æolian islands.—B.

1472“Hippagus.”—B.

1473“Tecta longa;” Cæsar, Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 56, says that the Massilians fitted out long ships, of which eleven were “tectæ.”—B.

1474Ships of war had their prows armed with brazen beaks, to which sharp spears were attached; these were used in their naval engagements as instruments of attack, and, when the vessels were captured, were considered the trophies of victory. The tribunal, in the Roman Forum, from which the orators harangued the people, obtained its name of “Rostra,” from its being ornamented with the beaks of captured ships.—B.

1475The “harpago” and the “manus ferrea” are mentioned by Cæsar, Bell. Civ. B. i. c. 57, and by Livy, B. xxx. c. 10; Quintus Curtius also speaks of them, but considers them as only different names for the same instrument, B. iv. c. 2, 12.—B.

1476Tiphys was the pilot of the vessel of the Argonauts; he died before the expedition reached Colchis.—B.

1477Hardouin remarks upon this passage, that Pliny probably means to speak of the persons who first killed oxen or other animals for what may be styled profane purposes; as they had long before this been employed for sacrifice.—B.

1478Herodotus, B. v. c. 59, says that the Phœnician letters were very similar to the Ionian; and we are informed by Hardouin, that Scaliger, in his Dissertation upon an ancient inscription on a column discovered in the Via Appia, and removed to the Farnese Gardens, has proved that the Ionians borrowed their letters from the Phœnicians.—B.

1479Herodotus confirms this opinion by a reference to an ancient tripod at Thebes, written in what he terms Cadmæan letters, having a strong resemblance to those used by the Ionians.—B.

1480Tacitus, Ann. B. ix. c. 14, says, “The Latin letters have the same form as the most ancient Greek ones.”—B.

1481There is scarcely a letter of this inscription which has not been controverted, and no two editions hardly agree.—B.

1482Probably the earliest existing reference to the practice of shaving is in Genesis, xli. 14, where Joseph is said to have shaved and changed his raiment, when brought from prison into the presence of Pharaoh; in this case, we may presume that it was the head, and perhaps not the beard, which was shaven.—B.

1483The ancients had two methods of arranging the beard; in one it was cut close to the skin, in the other it was trimmed by means of a comb, and left of a certain length. These two methods are alluded to by Plautus, Capt. ii. 2, 16:—B. “Now the old fellow is in the barber’s shop; at this very instant is the other handling the razor—but whether to say that he is going to shave him close, or to trim him through the comb, I know not.”

1484Varro, De Re Rus. B. ii., states this fact in almost the same words. He remarks, in continuation, that the old statues prove that there were formerly no barbers, by the length of their beard and hair.—B.

1485“Africanus sequens;” he was the son of Paulus Æmilius, the conqueror of Perseus, and the adopted son of Scipio Africanus. In consequence of his conquest of Carthage, he was named Africanus the Younger. His custom of shaving is alluded to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 4. From the remarks of these writers, we may conclude that the Romans were not generally in the habit of shaving until after the age of forty.—B.

1486“Cultus.” Suetonius gives a different account of the method in which Augustus managed his beard. After remarking upon his carelessness as to his personal appearance, he says, that Augustus sometimes cropped, “tonderet,” and sometimes shaved, “raderet,” his beard. Dion. Cassius mentions the period when Augustus began to shave, the consulship of L. Marcius Censorinus and C. Calvicius Sabinus,A.U.C.714; he was then in his twenty-fourth year.—B.

1487In B. ii. c. 78; where Pliny says, that the first clock was made at Lacedæmon, by Anaximander; he was the contemporary of Servius Tullius, who commenced his reign 577B.C.—B.

1488“Accensus;” he was one of the public servants of the magistrates, and was so called from his office of summoning the people to the public meetings (acciere).—B.

1489See also B. xxxiii. c. 6. This was a place in Rome appropriated to the Greek ambassadors; it is mentioned by Cicero, in a letter to his brother, Quintus, B. ii. c. 1.—B. It stood on the right side of the Comitium, being allotted to the Greeks from the allied states, for the purpose of hearing the debates in the comitia curiata.

1490This column is supposed to have stood near the end of the Forum, on the Capitoline Hill. It was C. Mænius (in whose honour it was erected) who defeated the Antiates, and adorned the Forum with the “rostra,” or beaks of their ships, from which the “rostrum,” or orator’s stage, took its name. His statue was placed on the column. He was consul inB.C.338. See B. xxxiv. c. 11.

1491Hardouin supposes that this event took place in the consulship of Papirius Cursor,A.U.C.461,B.C.292. According to the commonly received Chronology, Pyrrhus came into Italy,B.C.280, twelve years after the consulship of Papirius Cursor.—B.

1492According to Censorinus, in his treatise, De Die Natali, it was difficult to decide which was the most ancient dial in Rome; some writers agreeing with Pliny, that it was the one in the Temple of Quirinus, others that in the Capitol, and others the one in the Temple of Diana, on the Aventine.—B.

1493Marcus conjectures, that this account of the dial was contained in the work of Varro, De Rebus Humanis, referred to by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 2, but not now extant.—B.

1494Owing to the circumstance of the dial having been adapted to the latitude of Catina, now Catania, about four degrees south of Rome.—B.

1495Vitruvius describes this instrument. Marcus, Ajasson, vol. vi. pp. 218, 219, gives us an account of two kinds of clepsydræ, or water-clocks, which were constructed by the Greeks.—B. See also the account of clocks in Beckmann’s History of Inventions, vol. i.

1496See end of B. iii.

1497He was a contemporary of the Gracchi, and was author of a History of Rome, down toB.C.145 at least; supposed to have been very voluminous and full in its details of the legendary history of the Roman nation. Livy probably borrowed extensively from it.

1498See end of B. ii.

1499A hearer of Ateius Capito, and celebrated as a jurist under Tiberius and later emperors. From him a school of legists, called the Sabiniani, took their rise. He wrote some works on the Civil Law. Pliny quotes him, as we have seen, in c.4, to show the possibility of gestation being to the thirteenth month.

1500Daughter of the elder Agrippina and Germanicus, and the mother of Nero. Her memoirs of her life are quoted by Tacitus, but we have no remains of them.

1501The great Roman orator and philosopher.

1502A distinguished orator, poet, and historian of the Augustan age. He was an active partisan of Cæsar, and the patron of Horace and Virgil, whose property he saved from confiscation. He wrote a history of the civil war in seventeen books, but none of his works have come down to us. His tragedies are highly spoken of by Virgil and Horace.

1503See end of B. ii.

1504Nothing whatever seems to be known relative to this author, who is mentioned in c.53of this Book. See the Note to that passage.

1505See end of B. ii.

1506The author of the Æneid and the Georgics, the friend of Augustus, Pollio, and Mæcenas, one of the most virtuous men of ancient time, and the greatest probably of the Latin poets.

1507See end of B.vi.

1508Cremutius Cordus, a Roman historian, who was impeached before Tiberius, by two of his clients, for having praised Brutus, and styled Cassius “the last of the Romans,” his real offence being the freedom with which, in his work, he had spoken against Sejanus. He starved himself to death, and the senate ordered his works to be burnt. Some copies, however, were preserved by his daughter, Marcia, and his friends.

1509C. Mæcenas Melissus, a native of Spoletum. He was of free birth, but exposed in his infancy, and presented to be reared by Mæcenas. He was afterwards manumitted, and obtained the favour of Augustus, who employed him to arrange the library in the portico of Octavia. At an advanced age he commenced the composition of a collection of jokes and bon-mots. He also wrote plays of a novel character, which he styled “Trabeatæ.”

1510See end of B. ii.

1511A. Cornelius Celsus, the celebrated writer on medicine. Little is known of his age or origin, or even his profession. It is supposed, however, that he lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius. His treatises on Medicine and Surgery are still used as hand-books for the medical student, and his style is much admired for its purity.

1512Or Valerius Maximus. He is supposed to have lived in the time of Tiberius, and wrote nine books on memorable deeds and sayings, which still survive, and are replete with curious information.

1513Trogus Pompeius, the Roman Historian, on whose work Justin founded his history. His grandfather, who was of the Gaulish tribe of the Vocontii, received the citizenship of Rome during the war against Sertorius; and his father was a private secretary of Julius Cæsar. Except as set forth in the pages of Justin, no portion of his history, except a few scattered fragments, exists. The quotations from him in Pliny, are thought to have been all taken from a treatise of his, “De Animalibus,” mentioned by Charisius, and not from his historical works.

1514See end of B.vi.

1515The friend and correspondent of Cicero, descended from one of the most ancient equestrian families of Rome. His surname was, probably, given to him from his long residence at Athens, and his intimate acquaintance with the Greek language and literature. Though, generally, of a virtuous character, he neglected no means of making money, and was, consequently, a man of great opulence. He wrote a book of Annals, or rather an Epitome of Roman History, which, like the rest of his works, has perished.

1516He lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, and is mentioned by the Eusebian Chronicle, as becoming blind in his seventy-third year, during the reign of Vespasian, and attaining the age of eighty-five. He wrote a work on the Life of Sallust, another on the Censurers of Virgil, and commentaries on the speeches of Cicero, of which alone a few portions are still extant, and are of considerable value in a historical as well as a grammatical point of view.

1517Probably Papirius Fabianus. See end of B. ii.

1518See end of B. iii.

1519See end of B. v.

1520Nothing whatever is known relative to this author.

1521See end of B. ii.

1522He is said to have written an epic poem, called Arimaspeia, full of marvellous stories respecting the Arimaspi and the golden regions. See c.2of the present Book, and Note1319in p. 211, where some further particulars relative to him will be found.

1523See end of B. v.

1524He was a native of Nicæa, in Bithynia, and the author of some works, characterized as being full of incredible stories. Cyril, however, says, that he was born at Cittium, and Gellius styles him a writer of no small authority. He is generally looked upon as belonging to the class of writers called Paradoxographi.

1525See end of B. iv.

1526Or Agatharchus, a Greek grammarian of Cnidos. He was, as we learn from Strabo, attached to the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and wrote several historical and geographical works. He was living in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, who diedB.C.146. His works, which were very numerous, are enumerated by Photius.

1527See end of B. iii.

1528See end of B. ii.

1529See end of B. iii.

1530Strabo, in B. ii. speaks of a Periplus of Europe, written by a person of this name. There was also a physician called Apollonides, a native of Cos, who practised at the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, where he was eventually put to death.

1531A Greek historian of the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, and said by different authors to have been a native of Athens, Naucratis in Egypt, and Sicyon. He wrote a work on history, of considerable value, though his credit as an historian has been violently attacked by Polybius.

1532Of Cyrene, an author of uncertain date. He wrote a work on the philosophers.

1533See end of B. v.

1534See end of B. ii.

1535Nothing is known of this writer.

1536For Eudoxus of Cnidos, see end of B. ii: and for Eudoxus of Cyzicus, see end of B.vi.

1537See end of B. ii.

1538See end of B.vi.

1539Of Samos, a descendant of Alcibiades, who flourished in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus. When a boy, he gained a pugilistic victory at Olympia. He eventually became tyrant of Samos; but nothing further is known of his career. From what Pliny says, in c. 40. of B. iii., he is supposed to have been living in the yearB.C.281. He was the author of a history of Greece, and other historical works, of which, however, we possess no remains.

1540See end of B. ii.

1541Of Cos, the father of the medical art, and in many respects the most celebrated physician of ancient or modern times. It is supposed that he flourished in the fifth century before Christ. A great number of medical works, still extant, have been attributed to him: but there were many other physicians who either had, or assumed, this name.

1542Of Prusa, in Bithynia. He is mentioned in c. 37 of this Book. See Note1170in p. 183.

1543Of Ascra, in Bœotia, the earliest of the Greek poets, with the exception of Homer. His surviving works, are his “Works and Days,” and the “Theogony.”

1544Of Teos, in Asia Minor, famous for his amatory and lyric poems; he died at the age of eighty-five. Pliny mentions the supposed mode of his death, in c.5, of the present Book.

1545See end of B. ii.

1546See end of B. iv.

1547See end of B. iv.

1548See end of B. iv.

1549See end of B. ii.

1550A priest of Belus, at Babylonia, and a historian of the time of Alexander the Great. He wrote a History of Babylonia, of which some fragments are preserved by the ecclesiastical writers.

1551See end of B. ii.

1552See end of B. ii.

1553See end of B. iii.

1554See end of B. iv.

1555See end of B. iv.

1556See end of B. ii.

1557An Athenian, who wrote a history of Greece and Sicily in twenty-six or twenty-seven books, coming down toB.C.298, from which time Psaon of Platæa continued it.

1558Of Lampsacus, a Peripatetic philosopher, and tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He succeeded Theophrastus,B.C.288, as head of that school. He devoted himself to the study of natural science, and appears to have held a pantheistic system of philosophy. By Cudworth, Leibnitz, and others, he has been charged with atheism. The “Euremata” of Ephorus, here mentioned, was a book which treated of inventions.

1559See end of B. iv.

1560Of Tragilus, in Thrace, a disciple and contemporary of Isocrates. His book, here mentioned, treated on the subjects chosen by the Greek tragic writers, and the manner in which they had dealt with them.

1561Of Cyrene, the friend or disciple of Callimachus. He flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, aboutB.C.249. He wrote works on places in Asia, on Rivers, and on Islands; but none of his compositions have survived.

1562A native of Magnesia, who wrote on rhetoric and history, probably in the early part of the third centuryB.C.Strabo speaks but slightingly of him; and Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus agree in looking upon him as a downright blockhead. Upon the other hand, Varro rather admires his style. The history of Alexander the Great was his favourite theme; and he is represented by Aulus Gellius as dealing rather largely in the marvellous.

1563Mentioned by Athenæus as having written a history of Eubœa.

1564See end of B. iii.; and see c.31of the present Book, and Note1133in p. 175.

1565Nothing whatever appears to be known of this writer.

1566See end of B. iv.

1567See end of B. iii.

1568See end of B. iv.

1569See end of B. ii.

1570Cuvier remarks, that this account of its 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 may presume that Pliny derived his account, have always regarded the elephant with a kind of superstitious veneration.—B.

1571Some would read this “Amilo,” and others “Annulo.” Hardouin considers it the same with the river Valo, which is mentioned by Ptolemy, B. iv. c. 1, and said to have its rise in the mountains known as the Seven Brothers, and mentioned in B. v. c. 1.

1572“Præ se ferentes,” probably alluding to the use which the animal makes of its trunk in seizing and carrying bodies.—B.

1573“Alienæ religionis.” The meaning of this is doubtful. It may mean “differences in religion,” or “religious feeling in others,” or perhaps, to judge from the context, “the religious regard for their oath which others feel.”

1574“Veluti tellure precibus alligata,” one of the harsh metaphorical expressions occasionally occurring in Pliny, which it is very difficult to translate, and even perhaps fully to comprehend.—B.

1575“Nothi.”

1576Cuvier remarks, that there are two kinds of elephants, one of which attains sixteen feet, and is chiefly known in Cochin China and Tonquin, while those that are domesticated in India are seldom more than half that height. They are supposed, however, to be only varieties of the same species. Pliny, in B. vi. c. 22, gives an account of the uses which the Indians made of the elephant, and of their different sizes, but he does not state there that it is the smaller ones only that are employed in agriculture.—B.

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