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PLINY
NATURAL HISTORY
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN TEN VOLUMES VOLUME X LIBRI XXXVI-XXXVII
BY
D. E. EICHHOLZ, M.A.,
READER IN CLASSIOS, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD MOMLXXI
VUES YS eR BO OINBOMS CA Toons Pun e cat CPDUAMISCOG OS Poit AMAR Gr SOM n Me rnt v e E P s nr NUES EPOD.
:
Le
THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D.
EDITED BY E. H. WARMINGTON, M.A., F.R.HIST.SOC.
FORMER EDITORS . 1 T. E. PAGE, c.H., LITT.D. t E. CAPPS, rH.D., LL.D. tW. H. D. ROUSE, LiTT.D. TL. A. POST, r.n.p.
PLINY NATURAL HISTORY
X
LIBRI XXXVI-XXXVII
419
© The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1962
American ISBN 0-674—99461-2 British ISDN 0 434 99419 7
First printed 1962 Reprinted 1971
Printed in Great Britain
r CONTENTS
PAGE PREFACE . . . . . . ^4 4 4 4 . ele vii INTRODUCTION Er tO we om. SS de uu NEL He ix BOOK XXXVII X a5 x oo X. 7:39 WO X) Geo & & 4 1 BOOK XXXVII , 4 we x e X ROW & ^ & de & 1805 INDEX OF ARTISTS ^. wh. Xe dams Xe e £9) 4 ow. 4 OD MUSEOGRAPHIC INDEX "/OC IIIS.
INDEX OF ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING ood ds ABO
INDEX OF MINERALS D c x m» tus ue wu m *R uu web
PREFACE
I wisn to record my debt to Dr. Stanley Smith, some time Reader in Palaeontology in the University of Bristol, who first attracted my attention to the problems of ancient mineralogy. When he died in 1955 we were engaged on work which had led us on occasion to discuss certain passages in Books XXXVI and XXXVII. Where I have summarized his views on such passages in my notes, I have added his name. It gives me pleasure to be able to pay this tribute, however small, to a distinguished scientist.
I wish also to thank Dr. F. C. Phillips of the Uni- versity of Bristol, who has patiently answered my questions about gemstones, Dr. John Harris of Christ Church, Oxford, who has generously provided me with a wide range of information concerning Ancient Egypt, and Professor W. Beare of the University of Bristol, who has kindly read the proofs. I should mention, however, that I alone must bear the responsibility for the errors that remain in spite of their help.
vil
INTRODUCTION
Tue text printed in this edition is largely identical with Mayhoff's, but differs from it in some 120 instances. Sometimes a different reading has been preferred, particularly if it improves the sense; and not infrequently Mayhoff's emendations have been rejected as superfluous or unsuitable. Several pas- sages omitted or bracketed by Mayhoff as inter- polations have been allowed to stand in the text. In this respect, Mayhoff appears to attach too much importance to D, which in spite of its superiority is sometimes careless or facile. He does not, however, refrain from curtailing even B. The present text is more conservative than Mayhoff's, and so conforms to recent tendencies. Nevertheless, some new readings have been offered in passages which seem to invite or demand a remedy.
The difficulty of identifying the stones mentioned by classical authors is well known. Nomenclature in itself is often misleading. In Pliny, for example, chrysoprasus is not chrysoprase, nor is topazus topaz or sapphirus sapphire. Basanites (v.l. basaltes) is probably never basalt. Smaragdus includes many stones that are not emeralds, and carbunculus some that may not be carbuncles. Jaspis embraces many stones that are not jaspers, while of genuine jaspers it includes at the most the green variety. For reasons such as these, Latin names of stones have usually been retained in the translation.
1X
INTRODUCTION
Interpretation is rendered even more difficult by Pliny’s lax use of certain terms.
A perplexing word is pinguis and its derivatives (see Vol. VII, pp. xi-xii). In XXXVII. 66 pingu seems to mean ‘rich’ (in colour); in 69 and 70 pinguiter and pingues should mean ' massively,’ ‘massive '; in 105 pinguitudo must mean ' greasy ap- pearance ' (cf. in 94 pingues), while in 115 pingui is * dull.’
Again in XXXVII. 79 crassitudine might be ‘ opacity,’ but is probably just ' thickness, whereas in 106 crassiores is ‘ opaque,’ but crassius (with nitent) should mean ‘ with a duller lustre.’ In 21 crassitudine is translated as ' bulk.’
Nitor and fulgor can be puzzling. Although both usually refer to lustre, they are sometimes used of brilliance in colour, as in XXXVII. 129 (nztor), and in 121, 125 and 156 ( fulgor).
REFERENCES TO A THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF STONES
A few brief references to such a theory call for some explanation.
In XXXVI. 161, we are told that lapis specularis (selenite) is formed when a liquid is frozen and petrified ‘by an exhalation in the earth’ (terrae quadam anima). In the first three books of the Meteorologica Aristotle describes the characteristics and manifestations of two exhalations (avafupudacets), one of which is dry, smoky and potentially fiery, while the other is moist, cool and potentially frosty (for it
x
INTRODUCTION
forms hoar-frost, 347a 12 ff.). At the end of the third book Aristotle describes the effects produced by the two exhalations when they are trapped under- ground. Under these conditions, the cool, moist exhalation, to which Pliny refers in. the present passage, produces metals (378a 26 ff.), certainly as their material cause and probably (though this is not explicitly stated) as their effective cause as well.
Aristotle does not mention the formation and hardening of stones by the cool exhalation, but that such an idea eventually arose in the Lyceum is not improbable. For again at the end of Meteorologica III (378a 21 ff.) he states that the dry exhalation pro- duces by combustion (€xzrupodca) not only coloured earths, but also stones that cannot be fused, only to show later in Meteorologica IV (388b 26 ff.) that infusible stones can be produced also by cooling. This fact seems to have been accepted by Theo- phrastus, who asserts (de Lap. 3) that it is possible for some stones to be produced by heating or by cooling. He cautiously refrains from ascribing any particular stones to the latter process. Nor did he know of selenite, unless by chance he includes it under yóios. Pliny's statement clearly originated with a later and more dogmatic thinker. It is preceded by a reference to Spain which immediately calls to mind the Stoic philosopher Posidonius (c. 135-50 B.C.), who studied Spanish mines (Strabo III. 2, 4) and who was keenly interested in the formation of stones, as is shown by a passage of Diodorus Siculus (II. 52, 1-4), which is probably derived from him. Seneca (N.Q. II. 54, 1) confirms that the two
xi
INTRODUCTION
exhalations played a part in the physical theories of Posidonius.!
The dry exhalation is at work in forming stones in XXXVII. 21, where Pliny records the view that myrrhine is a liquid compacted underground by heat (umorem sub terra putant calore densari: in XXXVII. 48 the dry exhalation is called more precisely calorzs anima). Aristotle, as we have seen, ascribed the formation of infusible stones and coloured earths to the dry exhalation, and Theophrastus mentions it explicitly in connection with coloured earths (de Lap. 50). Obviously both of them regarded the dry exhalation as a hardening and as a colouring agent. Whether they extended its colouring activities to brightly coloured gems and gem-like stones we can- not tell: there is no reason why they should not have done so, although the cautious Theophrastus might well have refused to commit himself. Posidonius was bolder, if we can trust the evidence of Diodorus in the passage already cited (II. 52, 1-4). Here the brilliantly coloured gemstones of India and neigh- bouring countries are envisaged as very pure rock- crystal compacted not by cold but by fire and‘ tinted in many colours by an exhalation ' (Badfvae 9€ zroAv- udpdws avabupidoe mvevdparos), which is especially strong in these regions. Diodorus does not mention myrrhine (fluor-spar), which during the greater part of Posidonius' lifetime was probably still a rarity in the western world, but Juba or Xenocrates or who-
1 For Diodorus and Seneca, see K. Reinhardt, Poseidonius, pp. 132-133, 172, where Reinhardt's comments do not seem to have been questioned in the controversies aroused by his book.
xii
INTRODUCTION
ever was responsible for the view expressed by Pliny seems to have been influenced by the general theory of Posidonius, a theory which Pliny, had he cared to do so, might have applied widely to many brightly coloured stones. Pliny, however, was not greatly interested in suchspeculations.! He introduces them only incidentally as isolated curiosities. In this instance he happens to have used a source which reflects an interest in the true nature of myrrhine. In general, when he is discussing stones, he is largely concerned with moral, practical and historical con- siderations, and does not fail to mention, however scornfully, the supposed magical properties of gem- stones which claimed the attention of writers such as Sotacus from the 3rd century B.c. onwards.
Another passage which may ultimately owe some- thing to Posidonius is XXXVII. 23, where rock- crystal is said to have been compacted by intense frost.? This, however, was a common idea because KpvoTaAAos means both ice and crystal, and the theme must have been frequently discussed, as is
1 He may also have been sceptical: his statement concern- ing the formation of rock-crystal (XXXVII. 23) is followed by certe, ‘at any rate.’ However, his view as to the formation of selenite leaves him with no doubts whatsoever (manifesto apparet, XXXVI. 161) because observation seems to support it.
? Reading concretum for concreto. Unless Pliny has mis- understood the idea, he must mean that the frost is the hardening agent, not the material that is subjected to harden- ing, for this latter is a umor (XX XVII. 26). Both Diodorus (l.c.) and Seneca (N.Q. IIT. 25, 10) agree that ‘cold’ is the effective cause of ordinary rock-crystal. With gelu vehemen- wore concretum compare Seneca’s phrase longioris frigoris perlinacta spissatur.
xii
INTRODUCTION
clear from the number of authorities cited by Pliny. In the Alps at least, rock-crystal was, it seems, thought to occur at or near the surface (XXXVII. 27). Hence the effective cause would be not the cool exhalation trapped underground, but the cold air above ground. That this topic interested Posi- donius is suggested by a passage in Seneca (N.Q. III. 25, 10), which may well have been derived from him.
Seneca in this passage confronts us with a fresh point. He describes the material of rock-crystal as ‘rain water containing a very little earthy matter ' (aqua caelestis minimum im se terrent habens). Pliny, however, calls lapis specularis and myrrhine in their original state simply ‘a liquid’ (umor) and rock- crystal caelestis umor (XXXVII. 26). Similarly Diodorus states that the rock-crystals which are tinted by an exhalation are of ' pure water' (éé Udaros kaÜapob) . We may suspect that Seneca's description is the more accurate, and that Diodorus and Pliny (or Pliny's authorities) are speaking loosely. A similarly loose use of language occurs already in Theophrastus, who in the first sentence of his book de Lapidibus states that all stones, including the more uncommon kinds (2.e., gemstones), are of earth, and later (de Lap. 27) describes a stone that was partly a smaragdus and partly an zaspis, ‘ as though the transformation from water (c£ téaros) was not yet complete. Pliny in his rendering (XXXVII. 75) translates é£ déaros as umore. We can hardly suppose that Theophrastus was guilty of a flagrant inconsistency. Consequently by ' water ' in this context he must mean water in which earthy
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INTRODUCTION
particles were suspended;! and even the ‘ pure water ' of Diodorus is probably a rhetorical exaggera- tion which must be modified in this sense. It is, however, just conceivable that Posidonius did not accept the fundamental distinction made by Theo- phrastus (de Lap. 1) that stones are of earth and metals of water.
Thus we find in Pliny random allusions to a theory regarding the formation of transparent and semi- transparent stones. According to this theory, which appears to have been developed by Posidonius, the raw material of such stones was water, possibly im- pregnated with earthy particles; and this liquid was compacted either by cold in the atmosphere or by one or other of two exhalations, colours being imparted to coloured stones by the dry exhalation, which also hardened them. The theory as a whole must have been unknown to Pliny. Nevertheless, the interest in natural phenomena which Posidonius aroused was strong enough to flourish in succeeding generations,” and thus left its mark on Pliny's sources.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. C. Bailey, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects, London 1932. (Part II includes the
! We may add in this connection that he was strangely impressed (probably through the influence of the physician Diocles of Carystus) by the belief that the lyncurtum gemstone was formed by the urine of the lynx (de Lap. 28, quoted by Pliny XXXVII. 52). Theophrastus may have supposed that the raw material of gemstones in general was similarly com- pounded.
? See A. D. Nock in the Journal of Roman Studies, vol. XLIX (1959), p. 14.
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INTRODUCTION
text, with a translation and notes, of N.H. XXXVI, 126-203.)
Sydney H. Ball, 4 Roman Book on Precious Stones, Los Angeles, 1950. (This contains a translation of N.H. XXXVII with introductory chapters and a commentary, but the commentary is affected by the translation, which is merely a modernization of Philemon Holland’s version.)
C. E. N. Bromehead, ‘ Geology in Embryo,’ Proceed- ings of the Geologists’ Association, lvi, part 2 (1945), pp. 85-134.
A. Furtwangler, Die antiken. Gemmen, Leipzig and Berlin, 1900.
K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, The Elder Phny’s Chapters on the llistory of Art, London, 1896. (This includes the text, with a translation and notes, of N.H. XXXVI. 9-44, 90, 95, 177, 184, and XXXVII. 8.)
C. W. King, Precious Stones and Gems, London, 1865.
A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, ord edition, London, 1948.
G. F. H. Smith, Gemstones, 18th edition, revised by F. C. Phillips, London, 1958.
Theophrastus, De Lapidibus, edited with Introduc- tion, Translation and Commentary by D. E. Eichholz, Oxford, 1965.
L. Urliehs, Chrestomathia Pliniana, Berlin, 1857. (This includes the text with notes of N.H. XXXVI. 9-43, 64-125.)
E. H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Itoman Empire and. India, Cambridge, 1928.
Max Wellmann, ' Die Stein- und Gemmenbücher der
xvi
INTRODUCTION
Antike,’ Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Medizin, iv, part 4
(1935), pp. 86 ff.
THE MANUSCRIPTS OF BOOKS XXXVI- XXXVII (CHIEFLY FROM MAYHOFFT)
*" OLpER ’ MaNuscRIPT
B codex Bambergensis, 10th century, ends at XXXVII. 205 (the end of the work).
Later Manuscripts Ist family
V codex Leidensis Vossianus, 11th century or earlier, ends at XXXVI. 97.
EF codex Leidensis (Lipsii), 11th century, ends at XXXVII. 199.
R codex Florentinus Riceardianus, about a.p. 1100, ends at XXXVI. 157.
d codex Parisinus latinus 6797, 18th century, ends at XXXVII. 199 (XXXVII having been added in a second hand).
T codex Toletanus, 13th century, ends at XXXVI. 204.
h codex Parisinus 6801, 15th century, ends at XXXVII. 199.
2nd family
a codex Vindobonensis CCXXXIV, 12th or 13th century, ends at XXXVII. 203. L codex Laurentianus plut. LXXXII. 1. 2 sive
xvii
INTRODUCTION
Slaglosianus, early 13th century, ends at XXXVIT. 199.
man. Dal. codex a Dalecampio in margine citatus.
cod. Poll. codex Monacensis Pollinganus, a.p. 1459, ends at XXXVII. 199.
Index. The index of subject-matter and authors in Book I of the Historia Naturalis.
xviii
PLINY : NATURAL HISTORY
BOOK XXXVI
VOL. X.
poms
PLINII NATURALIS HISTORIAE
LIBER XXXVI
I. Lapidum natura restat, hoc est praecipua morum insania, etiam ut gemmae cum sucinis atque crystallinis murrinisque sileantur. omnia namque
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
BOOK XXXVI
I. Irremains for us to deal with the nature of stones Stones
or, in other words, the prime folly in our behaviour, to be considered as such even though no reference be
quae usque ad hoc volumen tractavimus hominum genita causa! videri possunt: montes natura sibi fecerat ut? quasdam compages telluris visceribus
made to gems, amber and vessels of rock-crystal and XXXVII. fluor-spar. For everything that we have investi- xxxvu. gated up to the present volume may be deemed to ?1-72.
densandis, simul ad fluminum impetus domandos fluctusque frangendos ac minime quietas partes coercendas durissima sui materia. caedimus hos trahimusque nulla alia quam deliciarum causa, quos transcendisse quoque mirum fuit. in portento prope maiores habuere Alpis ab Hannibale exsuperatas et postea a Cimbris: nunc ipsae caeduntur in mille genera marmorum. promunturia aperiuntur mari, et rerum natura agitur in planum; evehimus ea quae separandis gentibus pro terminis constituta erant, navesque marmorum causa fiunt, ac per
1 genita causa BVR: causa genita dT. 2 ut Frohner: et codd.
^ murrina seem generally to have been carved from fluor- spar, although in some cases large pieces of agate may have been used. See XXXVII. 21-22 and notes ad loc. The spelling of the word varies from passage to passage even in the same manuscript.
2
have been created for the benefit of mankind. Mountains, however, were made by Nature for her- self to serve as a kind of framework for holding firmly together the inner parts of the earth, and at the same time to enable her to subdue the violence of rivers, to break the force of heavy seas and so to curb her most restless elements with the hardest material of which she is made. We quarry these mountains and haul them away for a mere whim; and yet there was a time when it seemed remarkable even to have succeeded in crossing them. Our fore-
fathers considered the scaling of the Alps by Hanni- 218 s.c. bal and later by the Cimbri to be almost unnatural. 101 s.c.
Now these selfsame Alps are quarried into marble of a thousand varieties.
Headlands are laid open to the sea, and nature is flattened. We remove the barriers created to serve as the boundaries of nations, and ships are built specially for marble. And so, over the waves of the
3
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
fluctus, saevissimam rerum naturae partem, huc illuc portantur iuga, maiore etiamnum venia ! quam cum ad frigidos potus vas petitur in nubila caeloque proximae rupes cavantur, ut bibatur glacie. secum quisque cogitet, et quae ? pretia horum audiat, quas vehi trahique moles videat, et quam sine iis multorum sit beatior vita. ista facere, immo verius pati mortales quos ob usus quasve ad voluptates alias nisi ut inter maculas lapidum iaceant, ceu vero non tenebris noctium, dimidia parte vitae cuiusque, gaudia haec auferentibus!
II. Ingens ista reputantem subit etiam antiquitatis rubor. exstant censoriae leges Claudianae ? in cenis glires 5 et alia dictu minora adponi vetantes: marmora invehi, maria huius rei causa transiri quae vetaret, lex nulla lata est. dicat fortassis aliquis: non enim invehebantur. id quidem falso. cccrx columnas M. Scauri aedilitate ad scaenam theatri temporari et vix mense uno futuri in usu viderunt portari silentio legum. sed publicis nimirum indulgentes volup-
1 venia codd.: vesania edd. veli.
? glacie VRdh Mayhoff: glacies B.
3 et quae B: quae VRd
4 vita plerique codd.: vita, ad quamque multorum neces sit necesse edd. velt. cum cod. h.
5 Claudianae B: glandia ceter? codd.
$ glires B: gliresque V?Rdh.
¢ That is, from rock-crystal. xp/oraM s means both ' ice’ and * rock-crystal ", and the latter was commonly supposed to be ice that had been subjected to excessive freezing: cf. XXXVII. 23, 26.
4
BOOK XXXVI. 1. 2-1. 5
sea, Nature’s wildest element, mountain ranges are transported to and fro, and even then with greater justification than we can find for climbing to the clouds in search of vessels to keep our drinks cool, and for hollowing out rocks that almost reach the heavens, so that we may drink from ice.^ When we hear of the prices paid for these vessels, when we see the masses of marble that are being conveyed or hauled, we should each of us reflect, and at the same time think how much more happily many people live without them. That men should do such things, or rather endure them, for no purpose or pleasure ex- cept to lie amid spotted marbles, just as if these delights were not taken from us by the darkness of night, which is half our life's span!
II. When we think of these things we feel our- selves blushing prodigiously with shame even for the men of former times. There exist the laws passed by Claudius in his censorship forbidding dormice and other trifles too insignificant to mention to be served at dinner.? But no law was ever passed forbidding us to import marble and to traverse the seas for its sake. Perhaps it may be said ‘Of course not. No marbles were being imported.’ That suggestion at least is
Marble.
untrue. In the aedileship of Marcus Scaurus there 58 ».c.
was the spectacle of 360 columns being taken to the
stage of an improvised theatre that was intended to $50, 113-
be used barely for a month, and the laws were silent. Of course, it was the official pleasures of the community for which some allowance was being
> If the reading of B is correct, the Claudius in question may have been Gaius Claudius Pulcher, who was censor in 169 n.c. At this period several sumptuary laws were passed.
5
«J
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
tatibus. id ipsum cur? aut qua magis via inrepunt vitia quam publica? quo enim alio modo in privatos usus venere ebora, aurum, gemmae? aut quid omnino diis reliquimus? verum esto, indulserint publicis voluptatibus. etiamne tacuerunt, maximas earum atque adeo duodequadragenum pedum Lucul- lei marmoris in atrio Scauri conlocari? nec clam id occulteque factum est. satisdare ! sibi damni infecti coegit redemptor cloacarum, cum in Palatium eae traherentur. non ergo in tam malo exemplo moribus caveri? utilius fuerat? tacuere tantas moles in
privatam domum trahi praeter fictilia deorum
fastigia! III. nec potest videri Scaurus rudi et
huius mali inprovidae civitati obrepsisse quodam vitii? rudimento. iam L. Crassum oratorem illum, qui primus peregrini marmoris columnas habuit in eodem Palatio Hymettias tamen nec plures sex aut longiores duodenum pedum, M. Brutus in iurgiis ob id Venerem Palatinam appellaverat. nimirum ista
omisere moribus victis, frustraque interdicta quae
1 gatisdare B: satisdari VRdh.
? caveri B: cavere VRd.
35 vitii BR: viti V: vitae edd. velt. * Palatio B: atrio V?dTh, edd. velit.
* Blue-grey marble from Mt. Hymettus near Athens. 6
BOOK XXXVI. rir. 5-111. 8
made by our laws. But why should this, of all ex- cuses, have been made? Or what route is more commonly taken by vices in their surreptitious approach than the official one? How else have ivory, gold and precious stones come to be used in private life? Or what have we left entirely to the gods? Very well; some allowance was being made for the pleasures of the community. Were not the laws silent also when the largest of those columns,
which were each fully 38 feet long and of Lucullean § 49.
marble, were placed in the hall of Scaurus' house? And there was no secrecy or concealment. A sewer contractor forced Scaurus to give him security against possible damage to the drains when the columns were being hauled to the Palatine. Would it aot have been more expedient, therefore, when so harmful a precedent was being set, to afford some security for our morals? The laws were still silent when these great masses of marble were dragged to a private house past the earthenware pediments of temples! III. Nor can we suppose that Scaurus surprised with an elementary lesson in vice a com- munity that was untutored and unable to foresee the consequences of the mischief. It was before
this that during a quarrel the orator Lucius Crassus, Consul in 95
having been the first to install, also on the Palatine, xi columns of foreign marble, columns which were after all merely of Hymettus marble ? and not more than six in number or more than 12 feet each in length, was in consequence nicknamed by Marcus Brutus the Palatine Venus. Of course these matters were disregarded because morals had already lost the battle; and when it was seen that there was no
7
10
11
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
vetuerant cernentes nullas potius quam inritas esse leges maluerunt. haec atque quae secuntur meliores esse nos probabunt. quis enim hodie tantarum columnarum atrium habet? sed priusquam de marmoribus dicamus, hominum in iis praeferenda ! iudicamus pretia. ante igitur artifices percense- bimus.
IV. Marmore scalpendo primi omnium inclaruerunt Dipoenus et Scyllis,? geniti in Creta insula etiamnum Medis imperantibus priusque quam Cyrus in Persis regnare inciperet. hoc est Olympiade circiter
quinquagensima. hi Sicyonem se contulere, quae .
diu fuit officinarum omnium talium patria. deorum simulacra publice locaverant iis Sicyonii, quae priusquam absolverentur, artifices iniuriam questi abiere in Aetolos. protinus Sicyonem fames invasit ac sterilitas maerorque dirus. remedium petentibus Apollo Pythius respondit: si Dipoenus et Scyllis deorum simulacra perfecissent. quod magnis merce- dibus obsequiisque impetratum est. fuere autem simulacra ea Apollinis, Dianae, Herculis, Minervae, quod de? caelo postea tactum est. Cum hi essent, iam fuerat in Chio insula Melas scalptor, dein filius eius Micciades ac deinde nepos Archermus, cuius filii
1 praeferenda BR Mayhoff: proferenda dh Sillig: praever- tenda cont. Mayhoff.
2 Scyllis B: Scylus VRd; e£ similiter infra. |
3 quod de Urlichs: quo de B!: quod e aliquot codd.
8
BOOK XXXVI. nr. 8-1v. 11
effective way of banning what had been expressly forbidden, it seemed preferable to have no laws at all rather than laws that were of no avail. These events and those that have followed them in our time will show that we are better men. For who ‘nowadays possesses a hall equipped with such large columns? However, before we speak of marbles, I am of the opinion that we should display the merits of the men who have worked in this material. First, then, we shall make a survey of artists.
IV. The very first men to make a name as sculp- tors in marble were Dipoenus and Scyllis, who were born in the island of Crete while Media was still a great power and Cyrus had not yet come to the throne of Persia. Their date falls approximately in the 50th Olympiad. They made their way to Sicyon, which was for long the motherland of all such industries. The men of Sicyon had given them a contract in the name of the state for making statues of gods; but before these were finished the artists complained that they had been wronged and went away to Aetolia. Sicyon was instantly stricken with famine, barrenness and fearful affliction. When the people begged the oracle for relief, Apollo of Delphi replied that relief would come ‘ if Dipoenus and Scyllis completed the images of the gods.’ This they were prevailed upon to do thanks to the payment of high fees and high compliments. The statues, incidentally, were those of Apollo, Diana, Hercules and Minerva, the last of which was later struck by lightning.
Before the time of Dipoenus and Scyllis there had already lived in the island of Chios a sculptor Melas, who was succeeded by his son Micciades and his
9
Marble statues.
580-577 B.C.
The Chian
school.
12
13
14
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Bupalus et Athenis vel clarissimi in ea scientia fuere Hipponactis poetae aetate, quem certum est Lx olympiade fuisse. quodsi quis horum familiam ad proavum usque retro agat, inveniat artis eius originem cum olympiadum initio coepisse. Hipponacti nota- bilis foeditas voltus erat; quam ob rem imaginem eius lascivia iocorum ! hi proposuere ridentium circulis, quod Hipponax indignatus destrinxit amari- tudine ? carminum in tantum, ut credatur aliquis ad laqueum eos conpulisse. quod falsum est. conplura enim in finitimis insulis simulacra postea fecere, sicut in Delo, quibus subiecerunt carmen non vitibus tantum censeri Chion, sed et operibus Archermi filiorum. ostendunt et Iasii Dianam manibus eorum factam. in ipsa Chio narrata est operis eorum Dianae facies in sublimi posita, cuius voltum intrantes tristem, abeuntes exhilaratum putant. Romae eorum signa sunt in Palatina aede Apollinis in fastigio et omnibus fere? quae fecit divus Augustus. patris quoque eorum et Deli fuere opera et in Lesbo insula. Dipoeni quidem Ambracia, Argos, Cleonae operibus refertae fuere.
Omnes autem candido tantum marmore usi sunt e
1 jiocorum Rh Sillig: iocosam O. Jahn, Mayhoff: locorum ceteri codd.
? amaritudine ego; cf. Ovid. Tr. II, 563: amaritudinem codd
3 omnibus fere codd.: operibus fori cont. Mayhoff.
IO
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 11-14
grandson Archermus; and the sons of Archermus, named Bupalus and Athenis, were quite the most eminent masters of the art at the time of the poet Hipponax, who is known to have been alive in the 60th Olympiad. Now if we trace their lineage back to the time of their great-grandfather, we find that the beginnings of this art coincide in time with the 1st Olympiad. Hipponax had a notoriously ugly face; and because of this they made impudent jokes much to the amusement of the groups of companions to whom they exhibited his likeness. This angered Hipponax, who rebuked them so violently in his mordant lampoons that he is believed by some to have driven them to hang themselves. But this is untrue because later they made several statues in neighbouring islands, for example in Delos; and to their pedestals they attached verses to the effect that ‘Chios is esteemed not merely for its vines, but also for the works of the sons of Archermus.’ Moreover the people of Iasos proudly display a Diana made by them. In Chios itself there is stated to be a face of Diana which is their work. It is set in a lofty posi- tion, and people entering the building imagine that her expression is stern, but when they leave they fancy that it has become cheerful. At Rome there are statues by them on the angles of the pedi- ment of the temple of Apollo on the Palatine and on almost all the buildings for which the emperor Augustus of Revered Memory was responsible. There were works by their father too at Delos and in the island of Lesbos. As for Dipoenus, Ambracia, Argos and Cleonae were full of his productions.
All these artists used only white marble from the
II
776-773 B.C.
Parian marble.
15
16
17
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Paro insula, quem lapidem coepere lychniten appellare, quoniam ad lucernas in cuniculis caede- retur, ut auctor est Varro, multis postea candi- dioribus repertis, nuper vero etiam in Lunensium lapicidinis. sed in Pariorum mirabile proditur, glaeba lapidis unius cuneis dividentium soluta, imaginem Sileni intus extitisse.
Non omittendum hanc artem tanto vetustiorem fuisse quam picturam aut statuariam, quarum utraque cum Phidia coepit octogensima tertia olym- piade, post annos circiter cccxxxit. et ipsum Phidian tradunt scalpsisse marmora, Veneremque eius esse Romae in Octaviae operibus eximiae pulchritudinis. Alcamenen Atheniensem, quod certum est, docuit in primis nobilem, cuius sunt opera Athenis complura in aedibus sacris praeclarumque Veneris extra muros, quae appellatur “Adpodiry ev k«vyrois. huic summam manum ipse Phidias inposuisse dicitur. eiusdem! discipulus fuit Agoracritus Parius, et aetate gratus, itaque e suis operibus pleraque nomini eius donasse fertur. certavere autem inter se ambo discipuli Venere facienda, vicitque Alcamenes non opere, sed civitatis suffragiis contra peregrinum suo faventis. quare Agoracritus ea lege signum suum vendidisse
1 ejusdem B: ipse celer? codd.
———
* Although Parian marble was quarried under these condi- tions, lychnites should mean ' lamp-like,’ a term which might well refer to the luminous quality of the surface of this marble.
> The main feature of these buildings, dedicated by Augustus to his sister, was a series of porticoes (XXXVI. 24, 34, 35) surrounding the temples of Jupiter Stator and Juno (XXXVI. 42). The buildings included a library, a curia (XXXVI. 28) and scholae (XXXVI. 22), that is, an assembly hall and lecture rooms.
12
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 14-17
island of Paros, a stone which they proceeded to call ‘ lychnites,’ since, according to Varro, it was quarried in galleries by the light of oil lamps.* However, many whiter varieties have been discovered since their time, some indeed only recently, as is the case with the Luna quarries. As for the quarries of Carrara Paros, there is an extraordinary tradition that once, "^"!le. when the stone-breakers split a single block with their wedges, a likeness of Silenus was found inside.
We should not forget to mention that this art is much older than that of painting or of bronze statu-
ary, both of which arose with Pheidias in the 83rd 448-445 s.c.
Olympiad, that is, about 332 years later. It is
reported that Pheidias himself carved in marble and Born c. 500
that the exceptionally beautiful Venus in Octavia's "*
Buildings ? at Rome is his. What is certain is that a pupil of his was the Athenian Alcamenes, a parti- cularly famous sculptor, several of whose works are to be seen at Athens in the temples, while outside the walls there is the celebrated statue of Venus, which in Greek is known as Aphrodite of the Gardens. Pheidias himself is said to have put the finishing touches to this. Another of his pupils was Agora- critus of Paros, who pleased him, moreover, because of his youthful good looks, and consequently Pheidias is said to have allowed him to pass as the author of several of his own works. However that may be, the two pupils competed with each other in making a Venus, and Aleamenes won the contest, not indeed through his skill, but through the votes of his fellow- citizens, who supported their kinsman at the expense of his foreign rival. Consequently, Agoracritus is reported to have sold his statue under a proviso that
I3
18
19
20
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
traditur, ne Athenis esset, et appellasse Nemesin. id positum est Rhamnunte pago Atticae, quod M. Varro omnibus signis praetulit. est et in Matris Magnae delubro eadem civitate Agoracriti opus. Phidian clarissimum esse per omnes gentes quae Iovis Olympii famam intellegunt nemo dubitat, sed ut laudari merito sciant etiam qui opera eius non videre, proferemus argumenta parva et ingenii tantum. neque ad hoc Iovis Olympii pulchritudine utemur, non Minervae Athenis factae amplitudine, cum sit ea cubitorum xxvi—ebore haec et auro con- stat—sed in scuto eius Amazonum proelium caelavit intumescente ambitu, in! parmae eiusdem concava parte deorum et Gigantum dimicationes, in soleis vero Lapitharum et Centaurorum. adeo momenta omnia capacia artis illi fuere. in basi autem quod caelatum est ILavócpas yéveow appellant: dii adsunt nascenti? xx numero. Victoria praecipue mirabili, periti mirantur et serpentem ac? sub ipsa cuspide aeream sphingem. haec sint obiter dicta de artifice numquam satis laudato, simul ut noscatur illam magnificentiam aequalem fuisse et in parvis. Praxitelis aetatem inter statuarios diximus, qui
1 ambitu, in Michaelis: ambitum BV?: ambitu Rdh.
? adsunt nascenti Urlichs, E. Sellers: sunt nascentis R: sunt nascentes BVd, Sillig: sunt nascenti....s Mayhoff, qui faventes vel dona ferentes excidisse suspicatur.
3 ac transp. ante sphingem Urlichs, qui et legit aureum (aeream codd.), sed Plinium ipsum erravisse putat Sillig.
? Indignation. A fragment of the head is in the British Museum.
» Reading uncertain.
¢ This figure of Nike was 6 feet high and stood on Athene’s outstretched hand (Pausanias I. 24, 5).
14
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 17-20
it should not remain in Athens, and to have called it Nemesis.2 It was set up within Attica in the deme of Rhamnus, and Marcus Varro preferred it to any other statue. In the same township there is also a work by Agoracritus in the shrine of the Great Mother. That Pheidias is the most famous sculptor among all peoples who appreciate the fame of his Olympian Jupiter is beyond doubt, but in order that even those who have not seen his works may be assured that his praises are well-earned I shall pro- duce evidence that is insignificant in itself and suffi- cient only to prove his inventiveness. ‘To do so, I shall not appeal to the beauty of his Olympian Jupiter or to the size of his Minerva at Athens, even though this statue, made of ivory and gold, is 26 cubits in height. But rather, I shall mention her shield, on the convex border of which he engraved a Battle of the Amazons, and on the hollow side Combats of Gods and Giants; and her sandals, on which he depicted Combats of Lapiths and Centaurs. So truly did every detail lend itself to his art. On the pedestal there is carved what is entitled in Greek the Birth of Pandora, with twenty gods assisting at the birth.2 Although the figure of Victory is especially remarkable, connoisseurs admire also the snake, as well as the bronze sphinx that crouches just beneath her spear. These are things which should be stated in passing with regard to an artist who has never been praised enough. At the same time, they make us realize that the grandeur of his notions was maintained even in small matters.
Praxiteles is an artist whose date I have mentioned among those of the makers of bronze statues, but in
I5
Pheidias.
Praziteles :
flor. 364—361 B.C. (XXXIV.
21
22
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
marmoris gloria superavit etiam semet. opera eius sunt Athenis in Ceramico, sed ante omnia est non solum Praxitelis, verum in toto orbe terrarum Venus, quam ut viderent, multi navigaverunt Cnidum. duas fecerat simulque vendebat, alteram velata specie, quam ob id praetulerunt quorum condicio erat, Coi, cum ! eodem pretio detulisset, severum id ac pudicum arbitrantes; reiectam Cnidii emerunt, inmensa differentia famae. voluit eam? a Cnidiis postea mercari rex Nicomedes, totum aes alienum, quod erat ingens, civitatis dissoluturum se promittens. omnia perpeti maluere, nec inmerito; illo enim signo Praxiteles nobilitavit Cnidum. aedicula eius tota aperitur, ut conspici possit undique effigies deae,? favente ipsa, ut creditur, facta. nec minor ex quacumque parte admiratio est. ferunt amore captum quendam, cum delituisset noctu, simulacro cohaesisse, eiusque cupiditatis esse indicem maculam. sunt in Cnido et alia signa marmorea inlustrium artificum, Liber pater Bryaxidis et alter Scopae et Minerva, nec maius aliud Veneris Praxiteliae speci- men quam quod inter haec sola memoratur. eiusdem est et Cupido, obiectus a Cicerone Verri ille, propter 1 eum Sillig: tum B: cum etiam VRd.
? eam Bd: etiam ceter? codd. * deae VRdh Mayhoff: dea B Sillig.
16
BOOK XXXVI. rv. 20-22
the fame of his work in marble he surpassed even himself. There are works by him at Athens in the Cerameicus; and yet superior to anything not merely by Praxiteles, but in the whole world, is the Venus, which many people have sailed to Cnidus to see. He had made two figures, which he put up for sale together. One of them was draped and for this reason was preferred by the people of Cos, who had an option on the sale, although he offered it at the same price as the other. This they considered to be the only decent and dignified course of action. The statue which they refused was purchased by the people of Cnidus and achieved an immeasurably
greater reputation. Later King Nicomedes was VIL 127.
anxious to buy it from them, promising so to dis- charge all the state's vast debts. The Cnidians, however, preferred to suffer anything but this, and rightly so; for with this statue Praxiteles made Cnidus a famous city. The shrine in which it stands is entirely open so as to allow the image of the god- dess to be viewed from every side, and it is believed to have been made in this way with the blessing of the goddess herself. The statue is equally admirable from every angle. There is a story that a man once fell in love with it and hiding by night embraced it, and that a stain betrays this lustful act. In Cnidus there are also other marble figures by notable artists,
a Father Liber by Bryaxis, a Father Liber and a 530. Minerva by Scopas; but there is no greater proof of $251.
the excellence of Praxiteles’ Venus than the fact that amidst these works it alone receives mention. To Praxiteles belongs also a Cupid, with which Cieero taunted Verres, ' the famous Cupid for the
17
à
denm CNRC CALL. ee ee an cun
23
24
25
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
quem Thespiae visebantur, nunc in Octaviae scholis positus; eiusdem et alter nudus in Pario colonia Propontidis, par Veneri Cnidiae nobilitate et iniuria; adamavit enim Alcetas Rhodius atque in eo quoque simile amoris vestigium reliquit. Romae Praxitelis opera sunt Flora, Triptolemus, Ceres in hortis Servilianis, Doni Eventus et Bonae Fortunae simu- lacra in Capitolio, item Maenades et quas Thyiadas vocant et Caryatidas, et Sileni in Pollionis Asini monimentis et Apollo et Neptunus. Praxitelis filius Cephisodotus et artis heres fuit. cuius laudatum est Pergami symplegma! nobile digitis corpori verius quam marmori inpressis. Romae eius opera sunt Latona in Palatii delubro, Venus in Pollionis Asini monumentis et intra Octaviae porticus in Iunonis aede Aesculapius ac Diana.
Scopae laus cum his certat. is fecit Venerem et Pothon, qui Samothrace? sanctissimis caerimoniis coluntur, item Apollinem Palatinum, Vestam seden- tem laudatam in Servilianis hortis duosque campteras
1 symplegma ed. Basiliensis (1525) e codd. Hermolai Barbari: symplegam B!: symplega B*h.
2 Samothrace plerique codd.: Samotrace B: Samothracae coni. Mayhoff coll. X X XVII. 181.
9 Cic. Verr. IV. 2, 4; IV. 60, 135. * I.e. Persephone. The Gardens of Servilius were on the road to Ostia.
18
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 22-25
sake of which men visited Thespiae,'" and which now stands in Octavia's Rooms. To him belongs, moreover, another Cupid, which is naked, at Parium, the colony on the Sea of Marmara, a work that matches the Venus of Cnidus in its renown, as well as in the outrageous treatment which it suffered. For Alcetas, a man from Rhodes, fell in love with it and left upon it a similar mark of his passion. At Rome the works of Praxiteles are a Flora," a Triptolemus and a Ceres in the Gardens of Servilius, images of Success and Good Fortune on the Capitol, and likewise the Maenads, the so-called Thyiads and Caryatids and the Sileni in the Collection of Asinius Pollio,* as well as an Apollo and a Neptune. The son of Praxiteles, Cephisodotus, inherited also his skill His Persons Grappling at Pergamum is highly praised, being notable for the fingers, which seem genuinely to sink into living flesh rather than into dead marble. At Rome his works are the Latona in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, a Venus in the Collection of Asinius Pollio, and the Aesculapius and Diana in the temple of Juno within the Porticoes of Octavia.
These artists are rivalled in merit by Scopas. He made a Venus and a figure of Desire, which are worshipped with the most solemn rites in Samoth- race. He was responsible also for the Apollo on the Palatine and the much praised Seated Vesta in the Gardens of Servilius, along with the two turning- posts? on either side of her, of which there are
¢ Cf. XXXVI. 33-34. The collection seems to have been housed in his Bibliotheca, the first public library to be estab- lished in Rome.
4 Columns marking the turning-point in a stadium.
19
$ 15.
Scopas: flor.
26
27
28
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
circa eam, quorum pares in Asini monimentis sunt, ubi et canephoros eiusdem. sed in maxima digna- tione delubro Cn. Domitii in circo Flaminio Neptunus ipse et Thetis atque Achilles, Nereides supra delphi- nos et cete aut hippocampos sedentes, item Tritones chorusque Phorci et pistrices ac multa alia marina, omnia eiusdem manu, praeclarum opus, etiam si totius vitae fuisset. nunc vero praeter supra dicta quaeque nescimus Mars etiamnum est sedens colossiaeus eiusdem manu ! in templo Bruti Callaeci apud circum eundem, praeterea Venus in eodem loco nuda, Praxiteliam illam antecedens et quemcumque alium locum nobilitatura.
Romae quidem multitudo ? operum et iam ? obli- teratio ac magis officiorum negotiorumque acervi omnes a contemplatione tamen * abducunt, quoniam otiosorum et in magno loci silentio talis admiratio est. qua de causa ignoratur artifex eius quoque Veneris quam Vespasianus imperator in operibus Pacis suae dicavit antiquorum dignam fama. par haesitatio est
1 manu Janus: manci B: om. ceter? codd. ? multitudo B: magnitudo plerique codd. ? et iam Mayhoff: etiam codd.
4 tamen B: tali Rd'Th: talium edd. velt.
^ [t is uncertain which Domitius built this temple.
’ To whom the temple was dedicated.
c Sea-gods; cf. Virgil Aen. V. 240.
4 Possibly ‘there still exists, but ettamnum meaning ‘moreover’ is not unusual in Pliny (cf. § 137, alius etiamnum pyrites) and suits the present context.
* This Brutus celebrated a triumph over the Callaeci (of Galicia in Spain) in 132 5.c.
20
BOOK XXXVI. 1v. 25-28
facsimiles in the Collection of Asinius, where there is also his Girl Carrying a Sacred Basket. But most highly esteemed is his composition in the shrine built by Cn. Domitius^ in the Flaminian Circus. There is Neptune himself, and with him. are Thetis and Achilles. "There are Nereids riding on dolphins and mighty fish or on sea-horses, and also Tritons, . ' Phorcus' band,’ ^ swordfish and a host of other sea creatures, all by the hand of the one man, a magnifi- cent achievement even if it had occupied his whole career. As it is, apart from the works mentioned above and those unknown to us, there is furthermore ? the colossal seated statue of Mars by the same artist in the temple built by Brutus Callaecus;? also in the Cireus, as well as his naked Venus in the same place, a work that surpasses the Venus of Praxiteles and would have brought fame to any locality but Rome. At Rome, indeed, the great number of works of art and again their consequent effacement/ from our memory, and, even more, the multitude of official functions and business activities must, after all, deter anyone from serious study, since the apprecia- tion involved needs leisure and deep silence in our surroundings. Hence we do not know the maker even
of the Venus dedicated by the emperor Vespasian a.v. 69-79. in the precincts of his temple of Peace, although it $10».
deserves to rank with the old masters. Equally there is doubt as to whether the Dying Children of Niobe
J Obliteratio could mean * defacement,’ e.g., of inscriptions, but cf. XX XIV, 47 (obliteratio) and XXXVI, 42 (obliterari).
9 The idea latent in iamen is ‘ (Study is impossible) in spite of the beauties of the works which have just been mentioned and which clearly deserve such study.’ -
21I
29
30
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
in templo Apollinis Sosiani, Niobae liberos morientes Scopas an Praxiteles fecerit; item Janus pater, in suo templo dicatus ab Augusto ex Aegypto advectus, utrius manu! sit, iam quidem et auro occultatus. similiter in curia Octaviae quaeritur de Cupidine fulmen tenente; id demum adfirmatur, Alcibiaden esse, principem forma in ea aetate. multa in eadem schola sine auctoribus placent: Satyri quattuor, ex quibus unus Liberum patrem palla velatum umeris ? praefert, alter Liberam similiter, tertius ploratum infantis cohibet, quartus cratere alterius sitim sedat, duaeque Aurae velificantes sua veste. nec minor quaestio est in Saeptis, Olympum et Pana, Chironem cum Achille qui fecerint, praesertim cum capitali satisdatione fama iudicet dignos.
Scopas habuit aemulos eadem aetate Dryaxim et Timotheum et Leocharen, de quibus simul dicendum est, quoniam pariter caelavere Mausoleum. sepul- chrum hoc est ab uxore Artemisia factum Mausolo, Cariae regulo, qui obiit olympiadis cvi1 anno secundo.
1 manu VRh: manus Bd. ? umeris Janus, Mayhoff, E. Sellers: umeri B: ueneris VRdTh: ulnis S?//jg.
* The Apollo b. ought from Seleuceia in Syria by C. Sosius, who in 38 B.c. was Antony's legate in Syria.
> Probably a Hermes.
¢ This is most improbable.
? Libera, the sister of Liber, was usually identified with Persephone, but in this instance was probably taken to be Ariadne. The figure was no doubt that of a Maenad.
* Lit. pronounces them worth the pledging of one’s life; cf. XXXIV. 38.
J 352-349 B.c., but Mausolus died in 353 B.c., not in 351 B.o.
22
BOOK XXXVI. Iv. 28-30
in the temple of the Sosian Apollo? was the work of Scopas or of Praxiteles. Similarly, we cannot tell which of the two carved the Father Janus * which was dedicated in its rightful temple by Augustus after being brought here from Egypt; and now a covering of gilt has hidden its secret still more. Equally, there is a controversy about the Cupid Holding a Thunderbolt in the Hall of Octavia. Only one thing is stated with conviction, namely that the figure is that of Alcibiades," the most handsome youth of that time. ln the same salon there are many pleasing works of which the authors are unknown, for example, the Four Satyrs, of whom one is carrying on his shoulders Father Liber dressed in a robe and another is likewise carrying Ariadne,? while a third stops a child crying and a fourth gives a drink to another child out of a mixing-bowl; and the Two Breezes, who are spreading their cloaks like sails. "There is just as much dispute as to the makers of the Olympus and Pan and the Chiron With Achilles in the Voting Enclosure, even though their fame pronounces them to be so valuable that their keepers must answer for their safety with their lives.^
The contemporaries and rivals of Scopas were
$ 15.
Contem-
poraries of
Dryaxis, Timotheus and Leochares, whom we must Scopas.
discuss along with him because together with him they worked on the carvings of the Mausoleum. This is the tomb that was built by Artemisia for her husband Mausolus, the viceroy of Caria, who died in the second year of the 107th Olympiad./ These
which was, however, the date of Artemisia's death. His status was that of satrap in the service of the king of Persia: hence regulus.
23
The Mauso-
leum.
3l
32
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
opus id ut esset inter septem miracula, hi maxime fecere artifices. patet ab austro et septentrione sexagenos ternos! pedes, brevius a frontibus, toto circumitu pedes ccccxxxx, attollitur in altitudinem xxv ? cubitis, cingitur columnis xxxvi. pteron voca- vere circumitum. ab oriente caelavit Scopas, a septentrione Bryaxis, a meridie Timotheus, ab occasu Leochares, priusque quam peragerent, regina ? obiit. non tamen recesserunt nisi absoluto, iam id gloriae ipsorum artisque monimentum iudicantes; hodieque certant manus. accessit et quintus artifex. namque supra pteron pyramis altitudinem * inferiorem aequat, viginti quattuor gradibus in metae cacumen se contrahens; in summo est quadriga marmorea, quam fecit Pythis. haec adiecta cxxxx pedum altitudine totum opus includit. Timothei manu Diana Romae est in Palatio Apollinis delubro, cui signo caput reposuit Avianius Evander.
In magna admiratione est Hercules Menestrati et
! sexagenos ternos codd.: CX XS vel CX XI vel CXIII (pro LXIII) coni. Mayhoff.
2 XXV cod. B Sillig, Mayhoff: XXXX Urlichs: XXXV Detlefsen. An X X XXV?
? regina plerique codd.: regina artemisia quae mariti memoriae id opus exstrui iusserat cod. h, edd. velt.
4 altitudinem O. Jahn: altitudine codd.
9 The figure is far too small. The length over the stylobate is 127 feet, and the width 108 feet. Hence one of Mayhoff's conjectures may beright. On the other hand Pliny may have halved the correct length, thinking that it had to be divided between the two sides.
> Again the figure is too small. Pliny is presumably giving the height of the pteron, that is, half the total height of the building (see § 31). If, as seems likely, Pliny's figure of 140 feet for the total height is more or less correct (see p. 25,
24
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 30-32
artists were chiefly responsible for making the structure one of the seven wonders of the world. On the north and south sides it extends for 63 feet," but the length of the facades is less, the total length of the facades and sides being 440 feet. The building rises to a height of 25 cubits^ and is enclosed by 36 columns. The Greek word for the surrounding colonnade is ' pteron,’ “a wing.’ The east side was carved by Scopas, the north by Bryaxis, the south by Timotheus and the west by Leochares; and before they completed their task, the queen died. How- ever, they refused to abandon the work without finishing it, since they were already of the opinion that it would be a memorial to their own glory and that of their profession; and even to-day they are con- sidered to rival each other in skill. With them was associated a fifth artist. For above the colonnade there is a pyramid as high again as the lower structure and tapering in 24 stages to the top of its peak. At the summit there is a four-horse chariot of marble, and this was made by Pythis. The addition of this chariot rounds off the whole work and brings it to a height of 140 feet." There is a Diana by Timotheus at Rome in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, a statue for which a head was made as a replacement by Avianius Evander.
The Hercules of Menestratus is greatly admired, and so too is the Hecate in the precinct behind the
n. ^), the height of the pteron would have been about 45 cubits, so that for XXV the correct reading may be XXXXV.
* This figure may be approximately correct. T. Fyfe and R. E. Wycherley (Oaford Classical Dictionary 8.v. Mausoleum) Buggest that the height was about 134 feet.
25
Hor. Sat. I. 3, 90-1.
33
34
35
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Hecate Ephesi in templo Dianae post aedem, in cuius contemplatione admonent aeditui parcere oculis; tanta marmoris radiatio est. non postferuntur et Charites in propylo Atheniensium, quas Socrates fecit, alius ille quam pictor, idem ut aliqui putant.! nam Myronis illius, qui in aere laudatur, anus ebria est Zmyrnae in primis incluta.
Pollo Asinius, ut fuit acris vehementiae, sic quoque spectari monumenta sua voluit. in iis sunt Centauri Nymphas gerentes Arcesilae, Thespiades Cleomenis, Oceanus et Iuppiter Heniochi,? Appiades Stephani, Hermerotes Taurisci, non caelatoris illius, sed Tralliani, Iuppiter hospitalis Papyli, Praxitelis ? discipuli, Zethus et Amphion ae Dirce et taurus vinculumque ex eodem lapide, a Rhodo advecta opera Apollonii et Taurisci. parentum hi certamen de se fecere, Menecraten videri professi, sed esse natu- ralem Ártemidorum. eodem loco Liber pater Eutychidis laudatur, ad Octaviae vero porticum Apollo Philisci Rhodii in delubro suo, item Latona et Diana et Musae novem et alter Apollo nudus. eum qui citharam in eodem templo tenet Timarchides
1 non postferuntur. . . putant in parenthest Mayhoff.
? Heniochi Janus: eniochi B.
3 Praxitelis: fraxitelis B: praxiteli Vd: Pasitelis com. Urlichs.
? Lit. ' of Thespiae', a town not far from Helicon.
5 More probably, ' terminal busts of Eros.’
* Probably identical with the Farnese Bull, and, like the Laocoon (§ 37), carved from several blocks of stone.
26
BOOK XXXVI. 1v. 32-35
temple of Diana at Ephesus. In studying this statue people are warned by the sacristans to be careful of their eyes; so intense is the glare of the marble. As highly esteemed, too, are the Graces in the Propylaeum at Athens. These were the work of Socrates, who was not the same man as Socrates the painter, although some think that he was. As for the famous Myron, who is so highly praised for his bronzes, his Tipsy Old Woman at Smyrna is espe- cially renowned.
Asinius Pollio, being an ardent enthusiast, was accordingly anxious for his collection to attract sightseers. In it are the Centaurs Carrying Nymphs by Arcesilas, the Muses of Helicon? by Cleomenes, the Oceanus and Jupiter by Heniochus, the Nymphs of the Appian Water by Stephanus, the double busts of Hermes and Eros ? by Tauriscus (not the well-known worker in metal and ivory, but a na- tive of Tralles), the Jupiter Patron of Strangers by Papylus, the pupil of Praxiteles, and a composition by Apollonius and Tauriscus which was brought from Rhodes, namely Zethus and Amphion, and then Dirce and the bull with its rope, all carved from the same block of stone." These two artists caused a dispute as to their parentage, declaring that their putative father was Menecrates and their real father Artemi- dorus. In the same galleries there is a Father Liber by Eutychides which is warmly praised, and close by the Portico of Octavia an Apollo by Philiscus of Rhodes standing in the temple of Apollo, and further- more a Latona, a Diana, the Nine Muses, and another Apollo, which is naked. The Apollo With His Lyre in the same temple was made by Timarchides, and
2]
XXXV,.137.
XXXIV. 57.
§ 23.
$ 41.
XXXIII. 156.
36
37
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
fecit, intra Octaviae vero porticus aedem Iunonis ipsam deam Dionysius et Polycles aliam, Venerem eodem loco Philiscus, cetera signa Praxiteles.! iidem Polycles et Dionysius, Timarchidis filii, Iovem, qui est in proxima aede, fecerunt, Pana et Olympum luctantes eodem loco Heliodorus, quod est alterum in terris symplegma nobile, Venerem lavantem sese? Daedalsas, stantem Polycharmus. ex bonore ap- paret in magna auctoritate habitum Lysiae opus quod in Palatio super arcum divus Augustus honori Octavi patris sui dicavit in aedicula columnis ador- nata, id est quadriga currusque et Apollo ae Diana ex uno lapide. in hortis Servilianis reperio laudatos Calamidis Apollinem illius caelatoris, Dercylidis pyctas, Amphistrati Callisthenen historiarum scrip- torem. nec deinde multo plurium fama est, quo- rundam claritati in operibus eximiis obstante numero artificum, quoniam nee unus occupat gloriam nec plures pariter nuncupari possunt, sicut in Laocoonte, qui est in Titi imperatoris domo, opus omnibus et picturae et statuariae artis praeferendum. ex uno lapide eum ac liberos draconumque mirabiles nexus
1 Praxiteles BVRh Sillig, Mayhoff: Pasiteles dT Urlichs, Detlefsen, E. Sellers; an recte?
2 sese Daedalsas D Mayhoff: sese dedalsa VRd: se sed et aliam Sllig.
9 The reading is uncertain, but the name may be Bithynian. A well-known Bithynian chieftain was named Doedalsus (E. R. Bevan, the House of Seleucus, vol. I, pp. 81-82).
> A pupil of Aristotle, who accompanied Alexander to Asia and wrote a history of his campaigns. He was executed on a charge of treason in 327 B.C.
* Possibly * cannot be named at the same time.'
28
BOOK XXXVI. iv. 35-37
in the temple of Juno that stands within the Portico § 43. of Octavia the image of the goddess herself was made
by Dionysius, although there is another by Polycles, while the Venus in the same place was executed by Philiseus and the other statues by Praxiteles. Polycles and Dionysius, who were the sons of Tim- archides, were responsible also for the Jupiter in the § 43. adjacent temple, while in the same place the Pan and Olympus Wrestling, which is the second most famous grappling group in the world, was the work of § 24. Heliodorus, the Venus Bathing of Daedalsas, and the Venus Standing of Polycharmus. It is clear from the honour accorded to it that a work much esteemed was that of Lysias which Augustus of Revered Memory dedicated in honour of his father Octavius in a niche embellished with columns upon
the arch on the Palatine. This work consists of a team of four horses with a chariot and Apollo with Diana all carved from one block of marble. In the Gardens of Servilius I find that works much admired § 2 are the Apollo by the eminent engraver Calamis, the XXXIII Doxers by Dercylides, and the historian Callisthenes ^ by Amphistratus. Beyond these men, there are not a great many more that are famous. "The reputation of some, distinguished though their work may be, has been obscured by the number of artists engaged with them on a single task, because no individual monopolizes the credit nor again can several of them be named on equal terms." This is the case with the Laocoon in the palace of General Titus, a work superior to any painting and any bronze. Laocoon, his children and the wonderful clasping coils of the
.* Discovered in 1506, and now in the Vatican.
29
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
de consilii sententia fecere summi artifices Hage-
38 sander et Polydorus et Athenodorus Rhodii. simi-
liter Palatinas domos Caesarum replevere probatis- simis signis Craterus cum Pythodoro, Polydeuces cum Hermolao, Pythodorus alius cum Artemone, at! singularis Aphrodisius Trallianus. Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed
39 propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.? in-
honorus est nec in templo ullo Hercules, ad quem Poeni omnibus annis humana sacrificaverant victima, humi stans ante aditum porticus ad nationes. sitae fuere et Thespiades ad aedem Felicitatis, quarum unam amavit eques Romanus Iunius Pisciculus, ut tradit Varro, admirator et Pasitelis, qui et quinque volumina scripsit nobilium operum in toto orbe.
40 natus hic in Graeca Italiae ora et civitate Romana
donatus cum iis oppidis, lovem fecit eboreum in Meteli aede, qua campus petitur. accidit ei, cum in navalibus, ubi ferae Africanae erant, per caveam intuens leonem caelaret, ut ex alia cavea
1 at Mayhoff: et codd. ? similiter . . . celebrata transp. post scriptorem (§ 36)
Urlichs.
ot
9 It is composed of five blocks.
» [,e,, Melkart.
¢ Built by Augustus, it contained statues representing all the nations.
4? A contemporary of Pompey (XXXIII. 156).
30
BOOK XXXVI. 1v. 37-40
snakes were carved from a single block ¢ in accordance with an agreed plan by those eminent craftsmen Hagesander, Polydorus and Athenodorus, all of Rhodes. Similarly, the imperial mansions on the Palatine were filled with excellent statues made by pairs of artists, Craterus and Pythodorus, Polydeuces and Hermolaus, another Pythodorus and Artemon, and individually by Aphrodisius of Tralles. The Pantheon of Agrippa was embellished by Diogenes of Athens; and among the supporting members of this temple there are Caryatids that are almost in a class of their own, and the same is true of the figures on the angles of the pediment, which are, however, not so well known because of their lofty position. A work that is without honour and stands in no temple is the Hercules " before which the Carthaginians were wont to perform human sacrifices every year. This stands at ground-level in front of the entrance to the Portico of the Nations.^ Formerly too there were statues of the Muses of Helicon by the temple of Prosperity, and a Roman knight, Junius Pisciculus, fell in love with one of them, according to Varro, who incidentally was an admirer of Pasiteles,7 a sculptor who was also the author of a treatise in five volumes on the World's Famous Masterpieces. He was a native of Magna Graecia and received Roman citizen- ship along with the communities of that region. The
ivory Jupiter in the temple of Metellus at the ap- s 4s.
proaches to the Campus Martius is his work. Once, he was at the docks, where there were wild beasts from Africa, and was making a relief of a lion, peering as he did so into the cage at his model, when it so happened that a leopard broke out of another cage
31
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY BOOK XXXVI. rv. 40-43
and caused serious danger to this most conscientious of artists. He is said to have executed a number of works, but their titles are not recorded. Arcesilaus XXXV.
panthera erumperet, non levi periculo diligentissimi artificis. fecisse opera complura dicitur; quae
41 fecerit, nominatim non refertur. Arcesilaum quoque ins D : magnificat Varro, cuius se marmoream habuisse too is highly praised by Varro, who states that he ; Ls once possessed a work of his, namely Winged Cupids leaenam aligerosque ludentes cum ea Cupidines, ; : Ni reli li Playing with a Lioness, of whom some were holding dE T d ce Ioan Ene ent, ail cornu Cogerene it with cords, some were making it drink from a horn, bibere, alii calciarent soccis, omnes ex uno lapide. and some were putting slippers on its feet, all the
figures having been carved from one block. Varro relates also that it was Coponius who was responsible for the fourteen figures of the Nations that stand
idem et a Coponio quattuordecim nationes, quae 42 sunt circa Pompeium,! factas auctor est. Invenio et
Canachum laudatum inter statuarios fecisse mar- :
morea. nec Sauram atque Batrachum obliterari around Pompey's theatre. I find that Canachus, xxxiv. 50, :of la O ; :cib who was much admired as à maker of bronzes, also
LM RN i M pornos executed figures in marble. Nor should we forget
inclusa, DoOXIODe: aps Lacones. quidam et opibus Sauras and Batrachus, who built the temples that are
praepotentes fuisse eos putant ac sua inpensa con- enclosed by the Porticoes of Octavia. They were
mere natives of Sparta. And yet, some people actually suppose that they were very rich and erected the temples at their own expense because they
struxisse, inscriptionem sperantes, qua negata hoc tamen alio modo usurpasse. sunt certe etiam nune
misAGGenlà.L t5 03 o m cA S lone om VeLid latam d xs xIdsdd ds. ir a EI dan AME erem, a wma 99 -MASC 4 a. ai Tetas. aad a Lal. Lo cot St 8 N SIUE ki ee or c ur -— °
in columnarum spiris inscalptae nominum eorum honed to bel tb E Mp
43 argumento lacerta atque rana. in Iovis aede ex iis HOD to be tonoureo Dy-an Inscription ; and the story : s feminei is that, although this was refused, they attained their pictura cultusque reliquus omnis femineis argumentis object in another way. At any rate, on the moulded constat; erat enim facta Iunoni, sed, cum inferrentur basesaf tie. coluiminscthiere are still -Dy-existenoe
carvings of a lizard and a frog in token of their names."
signa, permutasse geruli traduntur, et id ? religione One of these temples is that of Jupiter, in which the
, Pompeium VRdh: Pompei theatrum Brotier. subjects of the paintings and of all the other embell-
id om. B Sihg. ishments are concerned with women. For it had been
paras SR Speer LM MC RM CE EM CM ECCE intended as the temple of Juno; but, according to the
@ These statues May have stood within the theatre, or else tradition, the porters interchanged the cult-images in the portico that adjoined the stage. This portico is not to Ai 7 .
be confused with Augustus’ porticus ad nationes (X XX VI. 39). when they were installing them, and this ede ement
The theatre, the first permanent theatre in Rome, was com- wae preserved as a matter of religious scruple, in the
pleted in 55 B.c. and stood in the Campus Martius. belief that the gods themselves had allotted their
? cavpa, @ lizard, and Barpaxos, a frog. dwelling-places in this way. Similarly, therefore,
33
32 VOL. X. C
44
45
46
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
custoditum, velut ipsis diis sedem ita partitis. ergo et in Iunonis aede cultus est qui Iovis esse debuit.
Sunt et in parvolis marmoreis famam consecuti Myrmecides, cuius quadrigam cum agitatore operuit alis musca, et Callicrates, cuius formicarum pedes atque alia membra pervidere non est.
V. Haec sint dicta de marmoris scalptoribus summaque claritate artificum, quo in tractatu subit mentem non fuisse tum auctoritatem maculoso marmori. fecere et e Thasio, Cycladum insularum aemulo,! et e Lesbio; lividius hoc paulo. versicolores quidem maculas et in totum marmorum apparatum etiam Menander, diligentissimus luxuriae interpres, primus et raro attigit. columnis demum utebantur in templis, nec lautitiae causa—nondum enim ista intellegebantur—sed quia firmiores aliter statui non poterant. sic est inchoatum Athenis templum Iovis Olympii, ex quo Sulla Capitolinis aedibus advexerat columnas. fuit tamen inter lapidem atque marmor differentia iam et apud Homerum; dicit enim marmoreo saxo percussum, sed hactenus, regias
2 aemulo ego: aeque BVRd Sillig: una aeque h: aequo Mayhoff. |
2 The temples were built by Q. Caecilius Metellus Mace- donicus after his triumph in 146 B.c.
> Presumably, this was done as an experiment. . * In particular, Parian marble (XXXVI. 14).
@ [n particular, that of Jupiter, which had been burnt down in 83 B.c. Sulla arranged for its reconstruction, but the
34
BOOK XXXVI. tv. 43-v. 46
the embellishments in the temple of Juno are those that were destined for the temple of Jupiter.¢
Fame has been won in the making also of marble miniatures, namely by Myrmecides, whose Four- horse Chariot and Driver were covered by the wings of a fly,? and by Callicratides, whose ants have feet and other parts too small to be discerned.
V. So much for the sculptors in marble and the White marble
artists who have achieved the greatest fame. In
discussing this subject, however, I am reminded that “%-
in those times no value was attached to marble with markings. Apart from the marble of the Cyclades, sculptors worked in that of Thasos, which rivals it, and of Lesbos, which has a slightly more bluish tinge. Markings of various colours and decorations of marble in general are first mentioned by that most accurate exponent of the details of high living,
Menander, and even he rarely alludes to them. «c. 342-290 Marble columns were certainly used in temples, not, *”
however, as an embellishment, since embellishments as such were not yet appreciated, but merely because there was no way of erecting strongercolumns. Thus they are a feature of the unfinished temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens, from which Sulla brought columns to be used for temples on the Capitol.? However, ordinary stone and marble were distin- guished already in Homer,’ for he speaks of a man being struck by a piece of marble; but this is as far ashegoes. Hedecorates even his royal palaces, how-
greater part of the work was carried out by Catulus, who does not seem to have used these pillars.
* But uapuapos in Homer (Jl. XII. 380, XVI. 735; Od. IX. 499) seems to mean no more than a shining stone.
35
47
48
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
quoque domus, cum lautissime, praeter aes, aurum, electrum, | argentum ebore tantum adornans. primum, ut arbitror, versicolores istas maculas Chiorum lapicidinae ostenderunt, cum exstruerent muros, faceto in id M. Ciceronis sale—omnibus enim ostentabant ut magnificum :—multo, inquit, magis mirarer, si Tiburtino lapide fecissetis. et, Hercules, non fuisset picturis honos ullus, non modo tantus, aliqua marmorum auctoritate.
VI. Secandi in crustas nescio an Cariae fuerit in- ventum. antiquissima, quod equidem inveniam, Halicarnasi domus Mausoli Proconnesio marmore exculta est latericiis parietibus. is obiit olympiadis cvr1 1 anno secundo, urbis Romae cp111.*
VII. Primum Romae parietes crusta marmoris operuisse totos domus suae in Caelio monte Cornelius Nepos tradit Mamurram, Formiis natum equitem Romanum, praefectum fabrum C. Caesaris in Gallia, ne quid indignitati desit, tali auctore inventa re. hic namque est Mamurra Catulli Veroniensis car- minibus proscissus, quem, ut res est, domus ipsius
1 CVII cod. B?: CVI cod. T: cui VR: C Gelen, Brotier. 2 CDIII cod. B (CCCCIII cod. V): CCCLXXV Brotier.
¢ Electrum here refers not to amber, but to an alloy of gold and silver.
" Chian marble occurs in a wide range of colours. Grey and red are common, and the stone is often delicately veined.
¢ Travertine, a yellowish-white calcareous tufa ($ 167) from Tivoli, near Rome.
¢ A white marble, used also in St. Sophia at Istanbul.
36
BOOK XXXVI. v. 46-vrr. 48
ever sumptuously, only with ivory, apart from metals— bronze, gold, electrum® and silver. In my opinion, the first specimens of our favourite marbles with their parti-coloured markings appeared from the quarries of Chios when the people of that island were building their walls. Hence the witty remark made at the expense of this work by Cicero. It was their practice to show it as a splendid structure to all their visitors; and his remark to them was ‘ I should be much more amazed if you had made it of stone from Tibur.’ And, heaven knows, painting would not have been valued at all, let alone so highly, had marbles enjoyed any considerable prestige.
Chian marble.
VI. The art of cutting marble into thin slabs may marbie
possibly have been invented in Caria. instance, so far as I can discover, is that of the palace of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, the brick walls of which were decorated with marble from the island of Marmara.* He died in the second year of the 107th
The earliest "e"eer.
Olympiad * and in the 408rd year after the founding § 30.
of Rome.
VH. The first man in Rome to cover with marble veneer whole walls in his house, which was on the Caelian Hill, was, according to Cornelius Nepos,/ Mamurra, a Roman Knight and a native of Formiae, who was Gaius (Julius) Caesar's chief engineer in Gaul. That such a man should have sponsored the invention is enough to make it utterly improper. For this is the Mamurra who was reviled by Catullus of Verona in his poems, the Mamurra whose house, as a matter of fact, proclaims more clearly than Catullus
* The date is incorrect: see p. 22, n. f. / The historian, who was a friend of Cicero and Atticus.
37
49
50
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
clarius quam Catullus dixit habere quidquid habuisset Comata Gallia. namque adicit idem Nepos primum totis aedibus nullam nisi e marmore columnam habuisse et omnes solidas e Carystio aut Luniensi VIII. M. Lepidus Q. Catuli in consulatu conlega primus omnium limina ex Numidico marmore in domo posuit magna! reprensione. is fuit consul anno urbis ncuxxvr? hoc primum invecti Numidici marmoris vestigium invenio, non in columnis tamen crustisve, ut supra Carystii, sed in massa ac vilissimo liminum usu. post hunc Lepidum quadriennio L. Lucullus consul fuit, qui nomen, ut ex re apparet, Luculleo marmori dedit, admodum delectatus illo, primusque Romam invexit, atrum alioqui, cum cetera maculis aut coloribus commendentur. nascitur autem in Chio ? insula, solumque paene hoc marmor ab amatore nomen accepit. inter hos primum, ut arbitror, marmoreos parietes habuit scaena M. Scauri, non facile dixerim secto an solidis glaebis polito, sicuti est hodie Iovis Tonantis aedis in Capitolio. nondum enim secti marmoris vestigia invenio in Italia.
1 magna plerique codd.: magnam B!: magna cum cont. Mayhoff.
2 DCLXXVI dT cod. Poll.: DCLXVI BVRh.
8 Chio Hardouin: heo B: Melo Sillig, Mayhoff: millo aut nilo aut ilo ceteri codd.
« Pliny is paraphrasing Catullus XXIX. 3-4. 39
BOOK XXXVI. vu. 48-vri.. 50
himself that he ‘ possesses all that Shaggy Gaul possessed.'^ Incidentally Nepos adds also that he was the first to have only marble columns in his whole house and that these were all solid columns of
Carystus or Luna marble. VIII. Marcus Lepidus, Ciépoutino
who was consul with Quintus Catulus, was the very first to lay down door-sills of Numidian marble in his house;^ and for this he was sharply criticized. He
was consul in the 676th year after the founding of the 78 ».c.
city. This is the first indication that I can find of the importing of Numidian marble. The marble, how- ever, was not in the form of columns or slabs, like that of Carystus mentioned above, but came in blocks to be used in the most sordid manner—as door-sills! Four years after the consulship of this Lepidus came
that of Lucius Lucullus, who gave his name, as is 74 ».c.
evident from the facts, to Lucullean marble. He took a great delight in this marble and introduced it to Rome, although it is in general black and all other marbles are favoured because of their markings or colours. It is found in the island of Chios ¢ and is almost the only marble to have derived its name from that of a devotee. Of these men, it was Marcus
Scaurus, in my opinion, whose stage was the first 5 5.
structure to have marble walls, though I am not pre- pared to say whether these were of veneer or of solid polished blocks, as, for instance, is the case to-day with the walls of the temple of Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol. For I find no evidence of marble veneer in Italy that is as early as this.
» A yellow marble with red veins quarried at Simitthus (Henschir Schemtu) in W. Tunisia. * Reading uncertain.
39
51
52
53
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
IX. Sed quisquis primus ! invenit secare luxuriam- que ? dividere, inportuni ingenii fuit. harena hoc? fit et ferro videtur fieri, serra in praetenui linea pre- mente harenas versandoque tractu ipso secante. Aethiopica haec maxime probatur, nam id quoque accessit, ut ab Aethiopia usque peteretur quod secaret * marmora, immo vero etiam in Indos, quo margaritas quoque peti severis moribus indignum erat. haec proxime laudatur; mollior tamen quae Aethiopica. illa nulla scabritie secat, Indica non aeque levat, sed combusta ea polientes marmora fricare iubentur. simile et Naxiae vitium est et Coptitidi, quae vocatur Aegyptia. haec fuere anti- qua genera marmoribus secandis. postea reperta est non minus probanda ex quodam Hadriatici maris vado, aestu nudante, observatione non facili. iam quidem quacumque harena secare e fluviis omnibus fraus artificum ausa est, quod dispendium admodum pauci intellegunt. crassior enim harena laxioribus segmentis terit et plus erodit marmoris maiusque opus scabritia politurae relinquit; ita sectae attenu-
1 primus BR cod. Poll.: primum dh edd. velt.
? Juxuriamque codd., Sillig: luxuriaque J. Müller, Mayhoff: luxuriaeque con?. Mayhoff.
5 hoc Rdh: non B. * secaret Piniianus, Mayhoff: faceret codd., edd. velt., Sillig.
9? Wire rope and sand are used nowadays.
> Ymery powder: cf. $ 54. So too, probably, the Indian variety, but this may include common corundum (Warming- ton, op. cit., p. 247).
* Probably finely ground quartz-sand. So too, perhaps, the Ethiopian sand.
40
BOOK XXXVI. 1x. 51-53
IX. But whoever first discovered how to cut marble and carve up luxury into many portions was a man of misplaced ingenuity. The cutting of the marble is effected apparently by iron, but actually by sand, for the saw merely presses the sand upon a very thinly traced line, and then the passage of the instrument, owing to the rapid movement to and fro, is in itself enough to cut the stone.^ The Ethiopian variety of this sand is the most highly esteemed; for, to make matters worse, material for cutting marble is sought from as far afield as Ethiopia; and, moreover, men go in search of it even to India, which it was once an affront to strict morality to visit even for pearls. The Indian is the next most highly praised, but the Ethiopian is finer and cuts without leaving any roughness. The Indian does not give the stone such a smooth surface. However, people engaged in polishing marble are strongly recommended to rub marble with it when it has been calcined. There is a similar fault in the Naxian sand? and in that of Coptos, which is known as the Egyptian variety. These were the kinds used for cutting marble in early times. Later there was discovered an equally valuable sand from a sandbank in the Adriatic which is uncovered only at low tide. Consequently, its position is not easy to mark. Now also fraudulent craftsmen dare to cut slabs with any kind of sand from any river, a waste which very few clients perceive. For in fact the coarser the sand, the less accurate the sections it grinds, the more marble it wears away, and owing to the rough surfaces produced, the more work it leaves for those responsible for polishing the slabs. Hence the cut slabs are made thinner. Again, for pol-
41
54
55
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
antur crustae. rursus Thebaica polituris accom- modatur et quae fit e poro lapide aut e pumice. X. Signis e marmore poliendis gemmisque etiam scalpendis atque limandis Naxium diu placuit ante alia. ita vocantur cotes in supra (dicta?! insula genitae. vicere postea ex Armenia invectae.
XI. Marmorum genera et colores non attinet dicere in tanta notitia nec facile est enumerare in tanta multitudine. quoto cuique enim loco non suum marmor invenitur? et tamen celeberrimi generis dicta sunt in ambitu terrarum cum gentibus suis. non omnia autem in lapicidinis gignuntur, sed multa et sub terra sparsa, pretiosissimi quidem generis, sicut Lacedaemonium viride cunctisque hilarius, sicut et Augusteum ac deinde Tibereum,? in Aegypto Augusti ac Tiberii primum principatu reperta. differentia eorum est ab ophite, cum sit illud serpentium maculis simile, unde et nomen accepit, quod haec maculas diverso modo colligunt, Augusteum undatim crispum in vertices, Tibereum
1 in supra (dicta» ego; cf. XX XVI. 65: in Cypro codd.: in Creta con. lanus.
? Tibereum B: Tiberium aliquot codd.: Tiberianum h cod. Poll.: Tibereium comi. Mayhoff.
* Again finely ground quartz-sand.
’ Poros is a Greek term used vaguely of building stone that possesses no special merits in respect of colour or surface. Normally it seems to be applied to limestone other than marble. See p. 106, n. *.
* The large deposits on Naxos are still exploited. The Armenian emery may have come from a district in Russian Armenia, 30 miles S. of Elisavetpol (the name has probably been altered by the present régime). The reading in supra
42
BOOK XXXVI. 1x. 53-X1. 55
ishing marble, sand from the Thebaid is suitable, as well as powder made from limestone? or pumice. X. lor smoothing marble statues and also for en- graving and filing down gems the Naxian stone was for long the favourite. This is the name given to the whetstones found in the island referred to above. Later, those imported from Armenia were preferred.
XI. It is not important to mention the colours and species of marbles when they are so well known, nor is it easy to list them when they are so numerous. For there are few places for which a characteristic marble is not found to exist. Even so, the most famous kinds have already been mentioned, along with the peoples whose names they bear, in the course of our circuit of the world. Not all of them occur in quarries, but many are found scattered also beneath the earth's surface, some indeed being very valuable, like the green Lacedaemonian,? which is brighter than any other marble, or the Augustean and, more re- cently, the Tiberian, which were found in Egypt for the first time during the principates of Augustus and Tiberius respectively.^ From serpentine, the mark- ings of which resemble snakes—hence its name— these stones differ in that their markings are grouped differently. Those of the Augustean curl over like waves so as to form coils, while the Tiberian has
dicta insula makes sense, but is open to the objection that it is preceded not by the name of the island, but only by its adjec- tive Nazium. There is, however, a parallel instance in XXXVII. 66, where in ea insula (sc. Cypro) refers to the adjective Cyprit.
¢ Green porphyry (verde antico).
* These may have been varieties of coarse granite.
43
Emery.
Varieties of coloured marbles.
Sg. ^ad 07;
27 B.C. —-À.D. 14 ; A.D. 14- 37.
56
57
58
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
sparsa, non convoluta, canitie. neque ex ophite columnae nisi parvae admodum inveniuntur. duo eius genera: molle candidi, nigricantis? durum.? dicuntur ambo capitis dolores sedare adalligati et serpentium ictus. quidam phreneticis ac lethargicis adalligari iubent candicantem. contra serpentes autem a quibusdam praecipue laudatur ex iis quem tephrian appellant a colore cineris. vocatur et Memphites a loco, gemmantis naturae. huius usus conteri et iis quae urenda sint aut secanda ex aceto inlini; obstupescit ita corpus nec sentit cruciatum. rubet porphyrites in eadem Aegypto; ex eodem candidis intervenientibus punctis leptopsephos voca- tur. quantislibet molibus caedendis sufficiunt lapi- cidinae. statuas ex eo Claudio Caesari procurator eius in urbem ex Aegypto advexit Vitrasius ? Pollio, non admodum probata novitate; nemo certe postea imitatus est. invenit eadem Aegyptus in Aethiopia quem vocant basaniten,* ferrei coloris atque duritiae, unde et nomen ei dedit. numquam hie maior repertus est quam in templo Pacis ab imperatore 4 nigricantis J. Müller, Mayhoff: nigricans codd., Sillig.
2 durum h J. Müller, Mayhoff: duri ceteri codd., Sillig: an
recte ? 3 Vitrasius Hardouin: vitriasius aut vitriarius codd. 4 basaniten B: basalten (-te V) VRdh edd. veit.
9* From Téópa, ashes.
’ Lit. ‘ the fine’ or ‘ subtle pebble,’ perhaps because of its delicate markings. The Romans used the quarries at Gebel Dokhan, between Asiut and the Red Sea.
44
BOOK XXXVI. x1. 56-38
scattered greyish-white spots which are not rolled into coils. Another difference is that only quite
small columns made of serpentine are to be found. Serpentine.
It has two varieties: one is soft and white, the other hard and dark. When worn as amulets, both are said to relieve headaches and snakebites. Some authorities recommend the white variety as an amulet to be worn by sufferers from delirium or a coma. But as an antidote to snakebites some praise parti- cularly the variety of serpentine known as ‘ teph- rias * from its ashen colour. Another stone, named
from its place of origin, is the Memphis stone, which Dolomite (2).
is like a gem. ‘The method of using this is to grind it to powder and to smear it mixed with vinegar on places which need to be cauterized or lanced; thus the body is numbed and feels no severe pain. In
Egypt too there is red porphyry, of which a variety mperiat mottled with white dots is known as "leptopsephos.' ? »erphyry.
The quarries supply masses of any size to be cut away. Statues of this stone were brought from Egypt to the emperor Claudius in Rome by his official agent Vitrasius Pollio, an innovation that did not meet with much approval. No one at least has since followed his example. The Egyptians also
discovered in Ethiopia what is called ' basanites,’ a Greywacte.
stone which in colour and hardness resembles iron: hence the name they have given it.^ No larger specimen of this stone has ever been found than that dedicated by the emperor Vespasian in the temple of
‘From fácavos, ‘touchstone,’ but the explanation is forced, and basanites is really a transliteration of the Egyptian word, bekhen. Bekhen was not basalt, but the greywacke of the Wadi Hammamet.
45
60
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Vespasiano Augusto dicatus argumento Nili, sedecim liberis circa ludentibus, per quos totidem cubita summi incrementi augentis se amnis eius intelle- guntur. non absimilis illi narratur in Thebis delubro Serapis, ut putant, Memnonis statuae dicatus, quem cotidiano solis ortu contactum radiis crepare tradunt.
XII. Onychem in Arabiae tantum montibus nec usquam aliubi nasci putavere nostri veteres, Sudines in Carmania.| potoriis primum vasis inde factis, dein pedibus lectorum sellisque, Nepos Cornelius tradit magno fuisse miraculo, cum P. Lentulus Spinther amphoras ex eo Chiorum magnitudine cadorum ostendisset, post quinquennium deinde xxxi pedum longitudinis columnas vidisse se. variatum in hoc lapide et postea est, namque pro miraculo insigni quattuor modicas in theatro suo Cornelius Balbus posuit; nos ampliores xxx vidimus in cenatione, quam Callistus Caesaris Claudi liber- torum, potentia notus, sibi exaedificaverat. hunc
1 Carmania Bd: Germania celer? codd.
9 argumento is taken as an ablative. If it is dative (cf. statuae dicatus below), the meaning is '* devoted by Vespasian to the subject of the Nile. This implies that Vespasian com- missioned the work for his temple of Peace, which is unlikely. Outside Egypt the work would lose much of its significance.
> About 84 metres. According to Pliny (V. 58), this was the tustum. incrementum, 12 cubits meant famine, 16 brought luxuries, and a higher level shortened the sowing season. Cf. XVIII. 167-168.
¢ The ‘ speaking’ Memnon is one of two seated statues at Thebes, each at least 64 feet high, representing Amenophis (Amenhotep) ILI of Dynasty XVIII.
4 Pliny probably misunderstood his source, which no doubt contained the phrase 'Apdfiov ópos, the name given to the
46
BOOK XXXVI. xr. 58-xir. 6o
Peace, the subject of which is the Nile,* with sixteen § 102. of the river-god's children playing around him, these denoting the number of cubits reached by the river in flood at its highest desirable level. ^ Not unlike this, we are told, is the block in the shrine of Serapis at Thebes chosen for a statue of what is supposed to be Memnon; and this is said to creak every day at dawn as soon as the sun's rays reach it.^
XII. Onyx marble was supposed by our old Onyz marble. authorities to occur in the mountains of Arabia 4 and nowhere else. Sudines, however, thought that it occurred in Carmania. At first only drinking- vessels were made of it, and then the feet of couches and the frames of chairs. Cornelius Nepos records that it was considered quite extraordinary when Publius Lentulus Spinther exhibited wine jars of consu in 57 onyx marble big enough to hold 9 Chian gallons,/ P but that only five years later he himself saw columns 32 feet long. There were striking changes in the history of the stone even after this, for the four small columns placed by Cornelius Balbus in his theatre 13 ».c. caused a sensation, whereas I have seen thirty quite large ones in the dining-room which the emperor Claudius’ freedman, the notoriously powerful Cal- 4.». 41-54. listus, built for himself. This stone is sometimes
hills on the east (?.e., the Arabian) side of the Nile. Hence the onyx marble here mentioned is the same as that found circa Thebas Aegyptias (XXXVI. 61).
* An astrologer, who wrote on the mystic properties of stones about 240 s.c. He lived at the court of Attalus I of Pergamum. | |
/ Cadus here stands for metretes. The Attic metretes was roughly equivalent to 81 gallons. The Chian measure is un- known, but must have been similar.
47
61
62
6
o2
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
aliqui lapidem alabastriten vocant, quem cavant et ad vasa unguentaria, quoniam optume servare in- corrupta dicatur. idem et ustus emplastris convenit. nascitur circa Thebas Aegyptias et Damascum Syriae. hic ceteris candidior, probatissimus vero in Carmania, mox in India, iam quidem et in Syria Asiaque, vilissimus autem et sine ullo nitore in Cappadocia. probantur quam maxime mellei coloris, in vertices maculosi atque non tralucidi. vitia in iis corneus colos aut candidus et quidquid ! simile vitro est.
XIII. Paulum distare ab eo in unguentorum fide multi existimant lygdinos, in Paro repertos ampli- tudine qua lances craterasque non excedant, antea ex Arabia tantum advehi solitos, candoris eximii. magnus et duobus contrariae inter se naturae honos, corallitico in Asia reperto mensurae non ultra bina cubita, candore proximo ebori et quadam similitudine. e diverso niger est Alabandicus terrae suae nomine, quamquam et Mileti nascens, ad purpuram tamen magis aspectu declinante. idem liquatur igni fundi- turque ad usum vitri. Thebaicus lapis interstinctus aureis guttis invenitur in Africae parte Aegypto
1 quiequid VRd: quod B?.
9 J.e., aAaBaorpa, which were made also of glass.
’ Possibly a marble even whiter than most of the Parian marble, but perhaps not a marble at al].
¢ Almandine could have been fused without much difficulty into a black glass. For almandine, see X XXVII. 92 and notes.
48
BOOK XXXVI. xm. 6o-xin. 63
called ‘ alabastrites,’ for it is hollowed out to bé used also as unguent jars * because it is said to be the best means of keeping unguents fresh. It is suitable too, when burnt, for plasters. It occurs in the neigh- bourhood of Thebes in Egypt and of Damascus in Syria. The latter variety is whiter than the rest, but that of Carmania is the most excellent. Next comes the Indian, and then of course there is that of Syria and the province of Asia, while the least valu- able is the Cappadocian, which has no lustre whatso- ever. The specimens most warmly recommended are the honey-coloured, marked with spirals, and opaque. <A colour resembling that of horn, or else gleaming white, and any suggestion of a glassy look are serious faults in onyx marble.
XIII. Many people consider that for the preserv- ation of unguents there is little to choose between onyx marble and the ' lygdinus," which is found in zygdinus. Paros in pieces no larger than a dish or mixing bowl, although in earlier times it was normally imported only from Arabia. It is of an exceptionally brilliant whiteness. Two stones of a directly opposed charac- ter are also greatly esteemed. There is the coral cora stone found in the province of Asia in sizes not "eene. exceeding two cubits, with a white colour close to that of ivory and a certain resemblance to it in appearance. On the other hand, the stone named after Alabanda, its place of origin, although it occurs Almandine. also at Miletus, is black. In appearance, however, this stone tends rather to have a reddish tinge. It can, moreover, be melted by fire and fused to serve as glass. The Thebaic stone mottled with gold Red granite. spots is found in a part of Africa that has been assigned
49
64
65
66
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
adscripta, coticulis ad terenda collyria quadam utilitate naturali conveniens, circa Syenen vero Thebaidis syenites, quem antea pyrrhopoecilon vocabant.
XIV. Trabes ex eo fecere reges quodam certamine, obeliscos vocantes Solis numini sacratos. radiorum eius argumentum in effigie est, et ita significatur nomine Aegyptio. primus omnium id instituit Mesphres,! qui regnabat in Solis urbe, somnio iussus; hoc ipsum inscriptum in eo, etenim scalpturae illae effigiesque quas videmus Aegyptiae sunt litterae. postea et alii excidere reges. statuit eos in supra dicta urbe Sesothes quattuor numero, quadragenum octonum cubitorum longitudine, Rhamsesis autem, quo regnante Ilium captum est, cxxxx * cubitorum. idem ? digressis inde ubi fuit Mnevidis regia posuit alium, longitudine quidem cxx cubitorum, sed pro- digiosa crassitudine, undenis per latera cubitis. opus id fecisse dicuntur cxx hominum. ipse rex, cum surrecturus esset verereturque ne machinae ponderi non sufficerent, quo maius periculum curae artificum
1 Mesphres Zoega, Sillig; cf. 869: Mespheres D Mayhoff.
? CXXXX cod. B: XL codd. La.
3 most idem lac. indicat Mayhoff.
¢ I.e. ‘ mottled red.’
* Pliny is right. T'ekhen means both ‘sunbeam’ and * obelisk.’ |
* Perhaps Senwosret I of Dynasty XII, but possibly Ramses II.
¢ Mnevis was not a king, but a god worshipped in the form of a bull.
* The proportions are not abnormal. In general, the height is about ten times the maximum breadth, which is at the base.
5o
BOOK XXXVI. xir. 63-x1v. 66
to Egypt and is naturally well adapted for use as stones on which to grind eye-salves. The granite of Syene is found in the neighbourhood of Aswan in the Thebaid and in earlier times was known as ' pyrrhopoecilos.'? |
XIV. Monoliths of this granite were made by the zyyptian kings, to some extent in rivalry with one another. ?»esks.
They called them obelisks and dedicated them to the Sun-god. An obelisk is a symbolic representation of the sun's rays, and this is the meaning of the Egyptian word for it.2 The first of all the kings to
undertake such a task was Mesphres, who ruled at rhutmose
Heliopolis, the city of the Sun, and was commanded to do so in a dream. This very fact is inscribed on 2 the obelisk; for those carvings and symbols that we see are Egyptian letters. Later, other kings also cut obelisks. Sesothes* set up four of them in the city just mentioned, these being 48 cubits in height,
while Ramses, who ruled at the time of the capture Romer Ir of Troy, erected one of 140 cubits. Ramses also Jr
erected another at the exit from the precinct where the palace of Mnevis? once stood, and this is 120 cubits high, but abnormally thick,’ each side measur- ing 11 cubits. The completion of this work is said to have required 120,000 men. When the obelisk was about to be erected, the king feared that the scaf- folding / would not be strong enough for the weight, and in order to force an even greater danger upon
f Machinae may mean ‘hoists.’ Anyhow, Pliny’s ideas were anachronistic. The Egyptians probably hauled the obelisk up an earth ramp and tipped it into a trench filled with loose sand, which was then removed so as to allow the obelisk to settle on to its base.
5I
M,
68
que;
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
denuntiaret, filium suum adalligavit cacumini, ut salus eius apud molientes prodesset et lapidi. hac admiratione operis effectum est, ut, cum oppidum id expugnaret Cambyses rex ventumque esset incendiis ad crepidines obelisci, extingui iuberet molis reve- rentia qui nullam habuerat urbis. sunt et alii duo, unus a Zmarre positus, alter a Phio sine notis, quadragenum octonum cubitorum. — Alexandriae statuit unum Ptolemaeus Philadelphus octoginta cubitorum. ceciderat ! eum Necthebis ? rex purum, maiusque opus in devehendo statuendove multo extitit? quam in excidendo. a Satyro architecto aliqui devectum tradunt rate, Callixenus a Phoenice, fossa perducto usque ad iacentem obeliscum Nilo, navesque duas in latitudinem patulas pedalibus ex eodem lapide ad rationem geminati per duplicem mensuram ponderis oneratas ita, ut subirent obelis- cum pendentem extremitatibus suis in ripis utrim- postea egestis laterculis adlevatas naves excepisse onus; statutum autem in sex taleis* e monte eodem, et artificem donatum talentis L. hic
1 ceciderat BRd Detlefsen: exciderat cod. Poll, Sillig, Mayhoff.
2 Necthebis codd.: Nectanebis Urlichs.
3 multo extitit ego: multo est VRd: multum est DB: multo Sillig: inventum est Urlichs, Mayhoff.
4 taleis ego: talis codd.
9 Pepil of Dynasty VI, but his appearance in this context is an anomaly. |
* A Rhodian who described some of the great ships of the Ptolemies. He flourished about 155 B.C.
52
BOOK XXXVI. xiv. 66-68
the attention of the workmen, he himself tied his son to the pinnacle, intending that the stone should share the benefit of his deliverance at the hands of the labourers. This work was so greatly admired that when Cambyses was storming the city and the conflagration had reached the base of the obelisk, he ordered the fires to be put out, thus showing his respect for the mighty block when he had felt none for the city itself. There are also two other obelisks here, one set up by Zmarres, and the other by Phius:* both lack inscriptions and are 48 cubits in height. At Alexandria Ptolemy Philadelphus erec- ted one of 80 cubits. This had been hewn unin- scribed by King Necthebis, and it proved to be a greater achievement to carry it down the river and erect it than to have quarried it. According to some authorities, it was carried downstream by the engineer Satyrus on a raft; but according to Cal- lixenus,’ it was conveyed by Phoenix, who by digging a canal brought the waters of the Nile right up to the place where the obelisk lay. Two very broad ships were loaded with cubes of the same granite as that of the obelisk, each cube measuring one foot, until calculations showed that the total weight of the blocks was double that of the obelisk, since their total cubic capacity was twice as great. In this way, the ships were able to come beneath the obelisk, which was suspended by its ends from both banks of the canal. Then the blocks were unloaded and the ships, riding high, took the weight of the obelisk. It was erected on six stone baulks from the same quarries, and the deviser of the scheme received 50 talents for his services. The obelisk was once in the
53
029-521 B.C.
Ramses II, Usermaatré,
280-247 B.O.
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
fuit in Arsinoeo positus a rege supra dicto munus
69 amoris in coniuge ! eademque sorore Arsinoe. inde
eum navalibus incommodum Maximus quidam prae- fectus Aegypti transtulit in forum, reciso cacumine, dum vult fastigium addere auratum, quod postea omisit. et alii duo sunt Alexandreae ad portum in Caesaris templo, quos excidit Mesphres ? rex, quadra- genum binum cubitorum.
Super omnia accessit difficultas mari Romam
70 devehendi, spectatis admodum navibus. divus
Augustus eam quae priorem advexerat miraculi gratia Puteolis perpetuis navalibus dicaverat; in- cendio consumpta ea est. divus Claudius aliquot per annos adservatam qua C. Caesar inportaverat, omnibus quae umquam in mari visa? sunt mira- biliorem, in ipsa turribus Puteolis e pulvere exaedi- ficatis, perductam Ostiam portus gratia mersit. alia ex hoc cura navium quae Tiberi subvehant, quo experimento patuit non minus aquarum huic amni 71 esse quam Nilo. is autem obeliscus quem divus Augustus in circo magno statuit excisus est a rege
1 amoris in coniuge codd., Sillig: amoris, coniuge Mayhoff: amoris in coniugem, efc. Pintianus, | Án recie?
2 Mesphres B; cf. § 64: Mestires Vdh. ? visa BRd: visae cod. h.
2 Thutmose III of Dynasty XVIII. Cf.$64. One of these is Cleopatra's Needle in London; the other is in New York.
54
BOOK XXXVI. xiv. 68-71
Arsinoeum, having been placed there by the king to whom we previously referred as a tribute to his affection for his wife and sister Arsinoe. From there, because it was in the way of the dockyards, it was moved to the market-place by a certain Maximus, a governor of Egypt, who cut off the point, intending to add a gilt pinnacle in its place, a plan which he later abandoned. There are two other obelisks at Alex- andria in the precinct of the temple of Caesar near the harbour. These were cut by King Mesphres? and measure 42 cubits.
Above all, there came also the difficult task of ovetisks at transporting obelisks to Rome by sea. The ships ^"""*
used attracted much attention from sightseers. "That which carried the first of two obelisks was solemnly laid up by Augustus of Revered Memory in a perma- nent dock at Pozzuoli to celebrate the remarkable achievement; but later it was destroyed by fire. The ship used by the Emperor Gaius for bringing a third was carefully preserved for several years by
Claudius of Revered Memory, for it was the most XVI. s01- amazing thing that had ever been seen at sea. Then e
caissons made of cement ° were erected in its hull at Pozzuoli; whereupon it was towed to Ostia and sunk there by order of the emperor, so to contribute to his harbour-works. Then there is another prob- lem, that of providing ships that can carry obelisks up the Tiber; and the successful experiment shows that the river has just as deep a channel as the Nile. The obelisk placed by Augustus of Revered Memory
^ Pulvis is a local earth of volcanic origin (pozzolana), which was the essential ingredient of a hard and durable cement (XXXV. 166).
55
12
73
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Psemetnepserphreo, quo regnante Pythagoras in Aegypto fuit, Lxxxv? pedum et dodrantis praeter basim eiusdem lapidis; is vero, quem in campo Martio, novem pedibus minor, a Sesothide. in- scripti ambo rerum naturae interpretationem Aegyp- tiorum philosophia continent. XV. Ei qui est in campo divus Augustus addidit mirabilem usum ad deprendendas solis umbras dierumque ac noctium ita magnitudines, strato lapide ad longitudinem obelisci, cui par fieret umbra brumae confectae die sexta hora paulatimque per regulas, quae sunt ex aere inclusae, singulis diebus decresceret ac rursus augesceret, digna cognitu res, ingenio? Facundi Novi mathe- matici. is apici auratam pilam addidit, cuius vertice umbra colligeretur in se ipsam, alias enormiter iaculante apice, ratione, ut ferunt, à capite hominis intellecta. haec observatio * xxx iam fere annis non congruit, sive solis ipsius dissono cursu et caeli aliqua
1 Psemetnepserphreo Janus, Mayhoff: Spemetnepserphreo B: Psemetnepherphreo Urlichs. Am rectvus ?
2 LXXXV cod. B: CXXV aut X XCV celeri codd.
3 ingenio BVRd: et ingenio Th: invento cont. Mayhoff.
* observatio Bd: deservatio VR.
9 Pliny seems to have confused these two obelisks. That of the Circus Maximus (now in the Piazza del Popolo) was that of Seti I (Dynasty XIX) and his son Ramses II (1348-1282 B.0.), one of whose names was Sessurà: hence ' Sesothis ' or, more frequently, ‘Sesostris.” The obelisk of the Campus Martius (now in Monte Citorio) is that of Psammetichus II (594-589 3.c., Dynasty XXVI) ‘ Psemetnepserphreus’ is a corrupt form of two of his names, Psamtik and Neferibré.
* Pliny may have thought that the hieroglyphs of birds and other animals had something to do with natural history.
* Ad longitudinem here should mean 'in conformity with
56
BOOK XXXVI. xiv. 71-xv. 73
in the Circus Maximus was cut by King Psemetnep- serphreus, who was reigning when Pythagoras was in Egypt, and measures 85 feet and 9 inches, apart from its base, which forms part of the same stone. The obelisk in the Campus Martius, however, which is 9 feet less, was cut by Sesothis.^ Both have in- scriptions comprising an account of natural science according to the theories of the Egyptian sages. XV. The one in the Campus was put to use in a re- markable way by Augustus of Revered Memory so as to mark the sun's shadow and thereby the lengths of days and nights. A pavement was laid down for a distance appropriate to the height ^ of the obelisk so that the shadow cast at noon on the shortest day of the year might exactly coincide with it. Bronze rods let into the pavement were meant to measure the shadow day by day as it gradually became shorter and then lengthened again. This device deserves to be carefully studied, and was contrived by the mathematician Novius Facundus. He placed on the pinnacle a gilt ball, at the top of which the shadow would be concentrated, for otherwise the shadow cast by the tip of the obelisk would have lacked definition. He is said to have understood the principle from observing the shadow cast by the human head. The readings thus given have for about thirty years past failed to correspond to the calendar, either because the course of the sun itself is anomalous and has been altered by some change
the height (lit. length),’ and not ' exactly equivalent to the height, for in this case the pavement would have been too short,as Pliny must have known from studying the principles of the gnomon (II. 182; VII. 213—214).
57
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
ratione mutato sive universa tellure a centro suo aliquid emota (ut deprehendi et aliis in locis accipio) sive urbis tremoribus ibi tantum gnomone intorto sive inundationibus Tiberis sedimento molis facto, quamquam ad altitudinem inpositi oneris in terram
74 quoque dicuntur acta fundamenta. Tertius est
75
Romae in Vaticano Gai et Neronis principum circo— ex omnibus unus omnino fractus est ! in molitione *— quem? fecerat Sesosidis filius Nencoreus. eiusdem remanet et alius centum cubitorum, quem post caecitatem visu reddito ex oraculo Soli sacravit. XVI. Dicantur obiter et pyramides in eadem Aegypto, regum pecuniae otiosa? ac stulta osten- tatio, quippe cum faciendi eas causa a plerisque tradatur, ne pecuniam successoribus aut aemulis insidiantibus praeberent aut ne plebs esset otiosa. multa circa hoc vanitas hominum illorum fuit.
BOOK XXXVI. xv. 73-xv1. 76
in the behaviour of the heavens or because the whole earth has shifted slightly from its central position, a phenomenon which, I hear, has been detected also in other places. Or else earth-tremors in the city may have brought about a purely local displacement of the shaft or floods from the Tiber may have caused the mass to settle, even though the foundations are said to have been sunk to a depth equal to the height of the load they have to carry. The third obelisk in Rome stands in the Vatican Circus that was built by the emperors Gaius and Nero.* It was the only one of the three that was broken during its removal." It was made by Nencoreus,° the son of Sesosis; and there still exists another that belongs to him: it is 100 cubits in height and was dedicated by him to the Sun-god in accordance with an oracle after he had been stricken with blindness and had then regained
his sight.
XVI. In Egypt too are the pyramids, which must The _ be mentioned, if only cursorily. They rank as a ?#7amids. superfluous and foolish display of wealth on the part of the kings, since it is generally recorded that their motive for building them was to avoid providing funds for their successors or for rivals who wished to plot against them, or else to keep the common folk occupied. Much vanity was shown by these kings in regard to such enterprises, and the remains of several unfinished pyramids^ are still in existence. There is one in the nome of Arsinoe, and there are two in that of Memphis, not far from the labyrinth, a
76 vestigia complurium incohatarum extant. una est in Arsinoite nomo, duae in Memphite, non procul labyrintho, de quo et ipso dicemus, totidem ubi fuit
1 fractus est BV Rd: factus est cod. Parisinus 6803: factus est aut factus vell. edd.
2 in molitione Rd: immolitione V: in immolatione B: in imitatione cod. h, cod. Parisinus 6803.
3 quem BVRd: eius quem cod. h.
4 otiosa codd.: odiosa Perizonvus.
M M M— À 9 A ee
* It now stands before St. Peter's.
’ The obelisk is not known to have been damaged, but Pliny may have been misled. Although the reading is doubtful, the alternative reading factus (est) in «mtatione evus quem fecerat, etc., is far less convincing, even though there is reason to sup- pose that this obelisk is Roman and not Pharaonic. 4 Pliny's authority may have mistaken ruined pyramids for ¢ Perhaps Amenemhet II, Nebkauré, son of Senwosret I of incomplete structures. ‘Several’ is, if anything, an under-
Dynasty XII. Cf. § 65. statement: at least 26 major pyramids are known. 58 59
77
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
Moeridis lacus, hoc est fossa grandis, sed ! Aegyptiis inter mira ac memoranda narrata. barum cacumina ? extra aquam eminere dicuntur. reliquae tres, quae orbem terrarum inplevere fama, sane conspicuae undique adnavigantibus, sitae sunt in parte Africae monte saxeo sterilique inter Memphim oppidum et quod appellari diximus Delta, a Nilo minus 1111 milia passuum, a Memphi vii p, vico adposito quem vocant Busirin; in eo sunt adsueti scandere illas.
XVII. Ante est sphinx vel magis narranda, de qua siluere, numen accolentium. Harmain regem putant in ea conditum et volunt invectam videri; est autem saxo naturali elaborata. rubrica? facies monstri colitur. capitis per frontem ambitus centum duos pedes colligit, longitudo pedum ccxru * est, altitudo a ventre ad summam aspidem in capite, rxis.?
1 sed codd.: et Urlichs e cont. Iani.
2 CC cubita post cacumina suppl. Mayhoff.
3 rubrica B: rubricata cont. Warmington.
4 CCXLIII cod. B: CXLIII edd.: pedum . . . altitudo om.
celeri codd. 56 LXIS cod. B: LXII VRd.
* Lake Moeris, now represented by the much smaller Birket Karin in the Fayüm, was almost certainly not artificial. The two ‘ pyramids,’ which stood at the edge of the lake, were the pedestals of two large statues of Amenemhet III, of Dynasty XII, who may have been responsible for regulating the flow of water between the Nile and the lake, and vice versá.
> T.e., as opposed to the ‘ Arabian’ side: see p. 46, n. 4%, and p. 62, n. *.
¢ The Sphinx may represent King Chephren (Dynasty IV), the builder of one of the three pyramids, in the guise of the Sun-god. It was restored in Dynasty XVIII and at this time was identified with the Sun-god Harmachis (hence perhaps Harmais). Subsequently it was buried by drifting sand and
60
BOOK XXXVI. xvi. 76-xvit. 77
work which also will be described. Two more stand xxxv1. 84. in a position once occupied by Lake Moeris, which is merely a vast excavation, but is nevertheless re- corded by the Egyptians as one of their remarkable and memorable achievements.? "The points of these pyramids are said to tower above the surface of the water. The other three pyramids, the fame of which he pyra- has reached every part of the world, are of course dud iue visible to travellers approaching by river from any /¥)- direction. "They stand on a rocky hill in the desert on the African side of the river between the city of Memphis and what, as we have already explained, is known as the Delta, at a point less than 4 miles v. 48. from the Nile, and 74 miles from Memphis. Close by is a village called Busiris, where there are people who are used to climbing these pyramids. XVII. In front of them is the Sphinx, which 74e Sphinz. deserves to be described even more than they, and yet the Egyptians have passed it over in silence. The inhabitants of the region regard it as a deity. They are of the opinion that a King Harmais is buried inside it and try to make out that it was brought to the spot: it is in fact carefully fashioned from the native rock.^ The face of the monstrous creature is painted with ruddle as a sign of reverence. The circumference of the head when measured across the forehead amounts to 102 feet, the length is 243 feet,? and the height from the paunch to the top of the asp on its head is 611 feet.
not uncovered until the Ptolemaic period, or even later. This would account for the silence of the Egyptians, and incidentally of Herodotus and Strabo.
4 See apparatus. The length of the Sphinx is about 240 feet.
61
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY BOOK XXXVI. xvi. 78-81
78 Pyramis amplissima ex Arabicis lapicidinis constat. The largest pyramid is made of stone from stone fhe pyramid from the Arabian quarries.^ It is said that 360,000 % “™”?*
men took 20 years to build it. The time taken to build all three was 88 years and 4 months. The
cccLx milia hominum annis xx eam construxisse pro- duntur. tres vero factae annis rxxxvii, mensibus
* .* * 1 ! 79 unt. qui de iis scripserunt’—sunt Herodotus, Euhe- authors who have written about them, namely Hero- Hat. ii. 124. merus, Duris Samius, Aristagoras, Dionysius, Artemi- | dotus, Euhemerus, Duris of Samos, Aristagoras, dorus, Alexander polyhistor, Butoridas, Antisthenes, Dionysius, Ártemidorus, Alexander Polyhistor, But-
oridas, Antisthenes, Demetrius, Demoteles and Apion, are not all agreed as to which kings were responsible for their construction, since chance,
Demetrius, Demoteles, Apion—inter omnes eos non constat, a quibus factae sint, iustissimo casu obli-
Linen: tantae vanitatis auctions aliqui ex iis with the greatest justice, has caused those who prodiderunt in raphanos et alium ac cepas moc * inspired such a mighty display of vanity to be for- talenta erogata. amplissima septem iugera optinet gotten. Some of the writers mentioned record that
1600 talents were spent on radishes, garlic and onions alone. The largest pyramid covers an area of nearly 5 acres. Lach of the four sides has an equal measure-
80 soli. quattuor angulorum paribus intervallis DCCLXxxI11 pedes singulorum laterum, altitudo a
cacumine ad solum pedes oe colligit, ambitus | ment from corner to corner of 783 feet; the height cacuminis pedes xvis. alterius intervalla singula per from ground-level to the pinnacle amounts to 725 quattuor angulos pedes pcciv1is comprehendunt. feet," while the circumference of the pinnacle is 161
feet. As for the second pyramid, each of its sides The pyramid from corner to corner totals 7574 feet. The third is de enl]
smaller than those already mentioned, but on the *
tertia minor quidem praedictis, sed multo spectatior, Aethiopicis lapidibus adsurgit cccix111 pedibus inter
81 angulos. vestigia aedificationum ? nulla exstant, other hand is far more splendid, with its Ethiopian Mx d harena late pura circa, lentis similitudine, qualis in stone 4 towering to a height of 363 feet along its slop- iagicesrant VEdli: menpsedat B AMayiof. ing sides between the corners. No traces of the build- ? MDC RdT: CCDC cod. V: MD cod. B. ing operations survive. All around far and wide there ? aedificationum VRd: interaedificationum B: in terra aed. is merely sand shaped like lentils,’ such as is found in cont. Ianus.
sloping sides, as with the pyramid of Mycerinus. The original
* Pliny means limestone from ‘the Arabian Hills’ (see perpendicular height was 481 feet.
. 46, n. 2) on the E. side of the Nile. Only the casing was ; : E de of this li ipn cei ccc aa y 8 eru lower part of this pyramid was faced with Aswan A "i pony ‘all three were built within a period of 88 years * The ‘lentils’ are nummulites, small fossils from the dis- Bu uu s integrated limestone casing of the pyramids (Stanley Smith).
¢ This figure is meant to apply to the height along the 62 63
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY BOOK XXXVI. xvi. 81-xvii. 83
most of Africa.^ ‘The crucial problem is to know
maiore parte Africae. quaestionum summa est, how the masonry was laid to such a great height.
quanam ratione in tantam altitudinem subiecta sint hs : caewieata: gl miro ae sale daggerdds «cum Some think that ramps of soda and salt were piled
against the structure as it was raised; and that crescente opere et peracto fluminis inrigatione after its completion these were flooded and dis- dilutis; alii lateribus e luto factis ! exstructos pontes, solved by water from the river. Others hold that
bridges were built of mud bricks and that when the
peracto opere lateribus in privatas domos distributis, work was finished the bricks were allotted to indivi-
Nilum enim non putant rigare potuisse multo humili- uis eas orem. in pyramide maxima est intus puteus LXXXVI duals for building their own houses." For it is bi . 8 To admi bi considered impossible that the Nile, flowing at a Seren Saal a cals eo PST far lower level, could have flooded the site. "Within suram altitudinis earum omnemque similem depre- the largest pyramid is a well 86 cubits deep, into
which water from the river is supposed to have been
hendere invenit Thales Milesius umbram metiendo, qua hora par esse corpori solet. haec sunt pyra- brought by a channel. The method of measuring midum miracula, supremumque illud, ne quis regum the height of the pyramids and of taking any similar
. ce i sak measurement was devised by Thales of Miletus, the c. 585 n.c.
opes miretur, minimam ex iis, sed laudatissimam, a procedure being to measure the shadow at the hour Rhodopide meretricula factam. Aesopi fabellarum at which its length is expected to be equal to the philosophi conserva quondam et contubernalis haec height of the body that is throwing it. Such are the fuit, maiore miraculo, tantas opes meretricio esse wonders of the pyramids; and the last and greatest conquisitas. of these wonders, which forbids us to marvel at the ; : wealth of kings, is that the smallest but most greatly 83 XVIII. Magnificatur et alia turris a rege facta in admired of these pyramids was built by Rhodopis, a insula Pharo portum optinente Alexandriae, quam mere prostitute. She was once the fellow-slave and
concubine of Aesop, the sage who composed the Fables; and our amazement is all the greater when ! lateribus e luto factis Vdh: lateribus B. we reflect that such wealth was acquired through
prostitution.° XVIII. Another towering structure built by a The Pharos
constitisse pccc talentis tradunt, magno animo, ne
9 Or does im maiore parte Africae mean ‘on most of the
African side of the Nile’? Cf. § 76. ; king is also extolled, namely the one that stands on ^5, ria. b duel & ramp and embankments of brick and earth Pharos, the island th At commands: the: harbour at were used. ; ticism. talents. We should not fail to mention the generous 64 : D
VOL. X.
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY BOOK XXXVI. xvi. 83-xix. 85
quid omittamus, Ptolemaei regis, quo in ea permiserit spirit shown by King Ptolemy,’ whereby he allowed Sostrati Cnidii architecti structura ipsa nomen the name of the architect, Sostratus of Cnidos, to be inscribed on the very fabric of the building. It serves, in connection with the movements of ships at night, to show a beacon so as to give warning of shoals and indicate the entrance to the harbour. Similar beacons now burn brightly in several places,
inscribi. usus eius nocturno navium cursu ignes ostendere ad praenuntianda vada portusque in- troitum, quales iam compluribus locis flagrant, sicut Ostiae ac Ravennae. periculum in continuatione
ignium, ne sidus existimetur, quoniam e longinquo for instance at Ostia and Ravenna. The danger lies similis flammarum aspectus est. hicidem architectus in the uninterrupted burning of the beacon, in case primus omnium pensilem ambulationem Cnidi fecisse it should be mistaken for a star, the appearance of traditur. the fire from a distance being similar. The same 84 XIX. Dicamus et labyrinthos, vel portentosis- architect is said to have been the very first to build a simum humani inpendii opus, sed non, ut existimari promenade supported on piers: this he did at Cnidos.
XIX. We must mention also the labyrinths, quite Labyrinths. the most abnormal achievement on which man has spent his resources, but by no means a fictitious one, as might well be supposed. One still exists in Egypt, in the nome of Heracleopolis. This, the
potest, falsum. durat etiam nune in Aegypto in Heracleopolite nomo qui primus factus est ante annos, ut tradunt, 111 pc a Petesuchi rege sive Tithoe, quamquam Herodotus totum opus xii regum esse
dicit novissimique Psammetichi. causas faciendi first ever to be constructed, was built, according to
varie interpretantur, Demoteles regiam Moteridis tradition, 3600 years ago by King Petesuchis or King
fuisse, Lyceas sepulchrum Moeridis, plures Soli Tithoes,? although Herodotus attributes the whole Hat. ii, 148, 85 sacrum id exstructum, quod maxime creditur. hine work to the ' twelve kings,’ the last of whom was
utique sumpsisse Daedalum exemplar eius labyrinthi Psammetichus. Various reasons are suggested for
quem fecit in Creta non est dubium, sed centensimam its construction. Demoteles supposes it to have
been the palace of Moteris, and Lyceas the tomb of Moeris, while many writers state that it was erected as a temple to the Sun-god, and this is the general Sn aaa belief. Whatever the truth may be, there is no ^ Ptolemy Philadelphus built the Pharos in the first half of doubt that Daedalus adopted it as the model for the Zhe Cretan
tantum portionem eius imitatum, quae itinerum ambages occursusque ac recursus inexplicabiles con-
the 3rd century s.c. Its total height was about 400 feet, labyrinth built by him in Crete, but that he repro- ^nt and cur el ow cli 68, n. 4. duced only a hundredth part of it containing passages
¢ Perhaps the Palace of Minos at Cnossos, as seen in its that wind, advance and retreat in a bewilderingly ruined state. intricate manner. It is not just a narrow strip of
66 67
86
87
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
tinet, non—ut in pavimentis puerorumve ludicris campestribus videmus—brevi lacinia milia passuum plura ambulationis continente,! sed crebris foribus inditis ad fallendos occursus redeundumque in errores eosdem. secundus hic fuit ab Aegyptio labyrinthus, tertius in Lemno, quartus in Italia, omnes lapide polito fornicibus tecti, Aegyptius, quod miror equi- dem, introitu lapidibus ? e Paro columnisque, reliqua ? e syenite molibus compositis, quas dissolvere ne saecula quidem possint, adiuvantibus Heracleopolitis, quod opus invisum mire respectavere.*
Positionem operis eius singulasque partes enarrare non est, cum sit in regiones divisum atque praefec- turas, quas vocant nomos, xxi? nominibus eorum totidem vastis domibus adtributis, praeterea templa omnium Aegypti deorum contineat superque Nemesis
1 continente cont. Mayhoff: continentem codd.
2 Japidibus ego: lapidis BRdT Sillig, Mayhoff (num hoc est Latine loqui?): lapide V (?).
3 reliqua B: relique VdT: reliquis R(?)h.
^ mire respectavere ego: mire spectavere B Mayhoff: mire infestavere Vd Sillig.
6 XXI Ianus: XXL cod. B: XVI ceteri codd.
— ee
¢ Pliny is referring to the Lusus Troiae, the ceremonial ‘ride’ performed by boys in the Campus Martius. Virgil (Aen. V. 588 ff.) compares the manoeuvres to the Cretan labyrinth. Does Pliny imply that the course was marked out on the ground?
* This was really the exceptionally white limestone of Egypt, which Theophrastus (de Lap. 7) compares to Parian marble in its colour and solidity. Cf. XX XVI. 132.
* Or possibly ‘the 21 names of the nomes each being allotted to a vast hall’; but the word-order is against this rendering.
4 Nemesis is perhaps the Greek equivalent of Nemare (or some such word), one of the names of Amenemhet III of
68
BOOK XXXVI. xix. 85-87
ground comprising many miles of ' walks ' or ‘ rides,’ such as we see exemplified in our tessellated floors or in the ceremonial game played by our boys in the Campus Martius,* but doors are let into the walls at frequent intervals to suggest deceptively the way ahead and to force the visitor to go back upon the very same tracks that he has already followed in his wanderings. This Cretan labyrinth was the next in succession after the Egyptian, and there was a third in Lemnos and a fourth in Italy, all alike being roofed with vaults of carefully worked stone. There is a feature of the Egyptian labyrinth which I for my part find surprising, namely an entrance and columns made of Parian marble. The rest of the structure is of Aswan granite, the great blocks of which have been laid in such a way that even the lapse of cen- turies cannot destroy them. Their preservation has been aided by the people of Heracleopolis, who have shown remarkable respect for an achievement that they detest.
The ground-plan and the individual parts of this building cannot be fully described because it is di- vided among the regions or administrative districts known as nomes, of which there are 21, each having a vast hall allotted to it by name.* Besides these halls, it contains temples of all the Egyptian gods; and, furthermore, Nemesis? placed within the 40 shrines Dynasty XII. The ‘labyrinth,’ at Hawara in the Fayüm, was his mortuary temple. Since he was associated with Lake Moeris (p. 60, n. ^), Lyceas was not far wrong in supposing the labyrinth to be sepulchrum Moeridis (X XXVI. 84). Excava- tions have revealed that the temple was unusually large and
complicated. It consisted of a series of halls or shrines arranged in rows.
69
The Egyptian Labyrinth.
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY BOOK XXXVI. xix. 87-90
XL aediculis incluserit pyramides complures quadra- several pyramids, each with a height of 40 cubits and genarum ulnarum senas radice doo)pas optinentes. an area at the base of 4 acres.^ It is when he is al- fessi iam eundo? perveniunt ad viarum illum in- ready exhausted with walking that the visitor reaches 88 explicabilem errorem, quin et cenacula clivis excelsa, the bewildering maze of passages. Moreover, there porticusque descenduntur nonagenis gradibus; intus are rooms in lofty upper storeys reached by inclines, columnae? porphyrite lapide, deorum simulacra, and porches from which flights of 90 stairs lead down regum statuae, monstrificae effigies. quarundam to the ground. Inside are columns of imperial por- domuum talis est situs ut adaperientibus fores phyry, images of gods, statues of kings and figures of tonitrum intus terribile existat, maiore autem in monsters. Some of the halls are laid out in such a parte transitus est per tenebras. aliae rursus extra way that when the doors open there is a terrifying murum labyrinthi aedificiorum moles; pteron appel- rumble of thunder within: incidentally, most of the lant. inde aliae perfossis cuniculis subterraneae building has to be traversed in darkness. Again, 89 domus. refecit unus omnino pauca ibi Chaeremon, there are other massive structures outside the wall spado Necthebis regis, p ante Alexandrum Magnum of the labyrinth: the Greek term for these is ‘ pteron,’ annis. id quoque traditur, fulsisse trabibus spinae or a ‘wing.’ Then there are other halls that have oleo incoctae, dum in fornices quadrati lapides been made by digging galleries underground. The adsurgerent. few repairs that have been made there were carried 90 EtdeCretico labyrintho satis dictum est. Lemnius out by one man alone, Chaeremon, the eunuch of similis illi columnis tantum cr memorabilior fuit, King Necthebis, 500 years before the time of Alex- quarum in officina turbines ita librati pependerunt ander the Great. There is a further tradition that ut puero cireumagente tornarentur. architecti fecere he used beams of acacia boiled in oil to serve as xrrr. es. Zmilis 5 et Rhoecus et Theodorus indigenae. ex- supports while square blocks of stone were being lifted into the vaults. ; S bas 5 o dh. What has already been said must suffice for the 8 columnae Urlichs: columna de cod. h, cod. Poll.: columna Cretan labyrinth likewise. The Lemnian,’ which Phe Lemnian BVRd. was similar to it, was more noteworthy only in virtue rit. * dum in Mayhoff: dum codd. _ of its 150 columns, the drums of which were so well * Zmilis Ianus: Zmilus VRdh: milus B. balanced as they hung in the workshop that a child
————
was able to turn them on the lathe. The architects
* An arura was roughly equivalent to a tugerum and was Ee were Zmilis, Rhoecus and Theodorus, all natives of xxxv. 153.
thus approximately two-thirds of an acre.
* Nectanebo II (Nekthoreb), the last Pharaoh. He reigned labyrinth’ mentioned earlier by Pliny (XXXIV. 83), with
360-343 3B.c.: hence Urlichs reads L for D. : é ¢ Possibly another ruined palace, but it seems more likely ae A dd e. e both natives of Samos, are
that this is really the temple of Hera at Samos, the ' Samian
7° 7I
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
stantque adhuc reliquiae eius, cum Cretici Italicique
91 nulla vestigia exstent. namque et Italicum dici
convenit, quem fecit sibi Porsina, rex Etruriae, sepulchri causa, simul ut externorum regum vanitas quoque Italis superetur. sed cum excedat omnia fabulositas, utemur ipsius M. Varronis in expositione ea! verbis: Sepultus sub urbe Clusio, in quo loco monimentum reliquit lapide quadrato quadratum, singula latera pedum trecenum;? alta quinquagenum. in qua basi quadrata intus labyrinthum inextricabile, quo si quis introierit sine glomere lini, exitum in-
92 venire nequeat. supra id quadratum pyramides
stant quinque, quattuor in angulis et in medio una, imae latae pedum quinum septuagenum, altae centenum quinquagenum, ita fastigatae ut in summo orbis aeneus et petasus unus omnibus sit inpositus, ex quo pendeant exapta catenis tintinabula, quae vento agitata longe sonitus referant, ut Dodonae 93 olim factum. supra quem orbem quattuor pyramides insuper singulae stant altae pedum centenum. supra quas uno solo quinque pyramides. quarum altitudinem Varronem puduit adicere; fabulae Etruscae tradunt eandem fuisse quam totius operis ad eas, vesana dementia, quaesisse gloriam inpendio
1 ea Mayhoff: ex codd. 2 trecenum V: tricenum BRd Sillig, Mayhoff. * According to Strabo (VII. frag. 3), there was a bronze bowl at Dodona, with a figure above it holding a whip. When the whip was moved by the wind it struck the bowl and made it ring like a bell.
12
BOOK XXXVI. xix. 90-93
Lemnos. There still exist remains of this labyrinth, although no traces of the Cretan or the Italian now
survive. For it is appropriate to call ' Italian,’ as ne ration well as ‘ Etruscan,’ the labyrinth made by King “vm.
Porsena of Etruria to serve as his tomb, with the result at the same time that even the vanity of foreign kings is surpassed by those of Italy. But since irresponsible story-telling here exceeds all bounds, I shall in describing the building make use of
the very words of Marcus Varro himself: ' He is 116-23 n.c.
buried close to the city of Clusium, in a place where he has left a square monument built of squared blocks of stone, each side being 300 feet long and 50 feet high. Inside this square pedestal there is a tangled labyrinth, which no one must enter without a ball of thread if he is to find his way out. On this square pedestal stand five pyramids, four at the corners and one at the centre, each of them being 75 feet broad at the base and 150 feet high. They taper in such a manner that on top of the whole group there rests a single bronze disk together with a conical cupola, from which hang bells fastened with chains: when these are set in motion by the wind, their sound carries to a great distance, as was formerly the case at Dodona.^ On this disk stand four more pyramids, each 100 feet high, and above these, on a single platform, five more.’ The height of these last pyramids was a detail that Varro was ashamed to add to his account; but the Etruscan stories relate that it was equal to that of the whole work up to their level, insane folly as it was to have courted fame by spending for the benefit of none and to have ex-
73
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
nulli profuturo, praeterea fatigasse regni vires, ut tamen laus maior artificis esset.
XX. Legitur et pensilis hortus, immo vero totum oppidum Aegyptiae Thebae, exercitus armatos subter! educere solitis regibus nullo oppidanorum sentiente; etiamnum hoc minus mirum quam quod flumine medium oppidum interfluente. quae si fuissent, non dubium est Homerum dicturum fuisse, cum centum portas ibi praedicaret.
XXI. Graecae magnificentiae vera admiratio ex- stat templum Ephesiae Dianae cxx ? annis factum a tota Ásia. in solo id palustri fecere, ne terrae motus sentiret aut hiatus timeret, rursus ne in lubrico atque instabili fundamenta tantae molis locarentur, calcatis ea substravere carbonibus, dein velleribus lanae. universo templo longitudo est ccccxxv pedum, latitudo ccxxv,? columnae cxxvi a singulis regibus factae Lx pedum altitudine, ex iis xxxv1 caelatae, una a Scopa. operi praefuit Chersiphron architectus. 96 summa miraculi epistylia tantae molis attolli potuisse;
1 subter VRdT: sub terra B Detlefsen. ? CXX cod. BT: CCXX VRdh. 3 COXXV cod. B: CCXX cod. à: CX X VRdTh.
¢ Presumably the legend was inspired by one or other of the royal tombs. See Journal of Hellenic Studies, VY (1885), 207 ff., where a misguided attempt is made to reconstruct the building from Varro’s description. Another unsuccessful solution appears in the Journal of the British School at Athens, XLVI (1951), 117 ff.
> Pliny is referring to Rome, likewise an wrbs pensilis (XXXVI. 104), but resting on water-channels and sewers.
74
BOOK XXXVI. xix. 93-xx1. 96
hausted furthermore the resources of a kingdom; and the result, after all, was more honour for the designer than for the sponsor.
XX. We read also of a hanging garden, and, more than this, of a whole hanging town, Thebes in Egypt. The kings used to lead forth their armies in full array beneath it without being detected by any of the inhabitants. Even so, this is less remarkable than would have been the case had a river flowed through the middle of the town.” If any of this had been true, Homer would certainly have mentioned it when he spoke so emphatically of the hundred gates at Thebes.
XXI. Of grandeur as conceived by the Greeks areal ^and remarkable example still survives, namely the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the building of which occupied all Asia Minor for 120 years. It was built on marshy soil so that it might not be subject to earthquakes or be threatened by subsidences. On the other hand, to ensure that the foundations of so massive a building would not be laid on shifting, unstable ground, they were underpinned with a layer of closely trodden charcoal, and then with another of sheepskins with their fleeces unshorn. The length of the temple overall is 425 feet, and its breadth 225 feet. There are 127 columns, each constructed by a different king and 60 feet in height. Of these, 36 were carved with reliefs, one of them by Scopas. The architect in charge of the work was Chersiphron. The crowning marvel was his success
The 'hanging town’ may have been inspired by the vast hypostyle halls of the temples at Karnak and Luxor. ¢ Real, as opposed to the legendary marvels just described.
75
The hanging town, Thebes.
Il. IX, 381.
The Temple of Diana at Ephesus.
97
98
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
id consecutus ille est aeronibus harenae plenis, molli clivo super capita columnarum exaggerato, paulatim exinaniens imos ut sensim opus in loco sederet. difficillime hoc contigit in limine ipso quod foribus inponebat; etenim ea maxima moles fuit nec sedit in cubili, anxio artifice mortis destinatione suprema. tradunt in ea cogitatione fessum nocturno tempore in quiete vidisse praesentem deam cui templum fieret hortantem ut viveret: se composuisse lapidem. atque ita postera luce apparuit; pondere ipso correctus videbatur. cetera eius operis ornamenta plurium librorum instar optinent, nihil ad specimen naturae pertinentia.
XXII. Durat et Cyzici delubrum, in quo tubulum ! aureum commissuris omnibus politi lapidis subiecit artifex, eboreum Iovem dicaturus intus coronante
eum marmoreo Apolline. translucent ergo iuncturae
! tubulum ego: milium B: millum Mayhoff: filum h Sillig: in illud aut illud aut illut aut illum ceteri codd.
—M MÀ —— er ——— HÀ a
9 Possibly ‘ such massive architraves.'
' A locus desperatus. Filum, read by cod. h and the old editors, has little authority; and a thread would not allow light to penetrate through a joint (translucent). We should expect relucent. Since, moreover, it would not allow air to penetrate, afflatu simulacra refovent must be twisted into meaning ' re- animate the statues with & glow, a rendering unparalleled both for afflatus and for refovere. Slender gold pipes would have allowed streaks of light to enter. They could also have allowed a refreshing breeze to reach the statues, thus enabling us to take afflatu, eíc., in the proper sense. But probably there
76
BOOK XXXVI. xxi. 96-xx11. 98
in lifting the architraves of this massive building * into place. This he achieved by filling bags of plaited reed with sand and constructing a gently graded ramp which reached the upper surfaces of the capitals of the columns. Then, little by little, he emptied the lowest layer of bags, so that the fabric gradually settled into its right position. But the greatest difficulty was encountered with the lintel itself when he was trying to place it over the door; for this was the largest block, and it would not settle on its bed. The architect was in anguish as he debated whether suicide should be his final decision. The story goes that in the course of his reflections he became weary, and that while he slept at night he saw before him the goddess for whom the temple was being built: she was urging him to live because, as she said, she herself had laid the stone. And on the next day this was seen to be the case. The stone appeared to have been adjusted merely by dint of its own weight. The other embellishments of the building are enough to fill many volumes, since they are in no way related to natural forms.
XXII. At Cyzicus too there survives a temple; and here a small gold tube® was inserted into every vertical joint of the dressed stonework by the architect, who was to place within the shrine an ivory statue of Jupiter with a marble Apollo crown- ing him. Consequently very fine filaments of light
was misunderstanding on Pliny’s part or misrepresentation on the part of his original source. The device may have been merely one or more fine-meshed gilded grilles inserted within the cella wall at such a height that they could not be seen from the ground.
77
Curiosities of
Cyzicus.
99
100
101
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
tenuissimis capillamentis lenique adflatu simulacra refovent, et praeter ingenium artificis ipsa materia ingenii quamvis occulta in pretio operis intellegitur. XXIII. Eodem in oppido est lapis fugitivus appel- latus; Argonautae eum pro ancora usi reliquerant ibi. hune e prytaneo—ita vocatur locus—saepe profugum vinxere plumbo. eadem in urbe iuxta portam quae Thracia ! vocatur turres septem accep- tas voces numeroso repercussu multiplicant. nomen huic miraculo Echo est a Graecis datum. quidem locorum natura evenit ac plerumque con- valium; ibi casu accidit, Olympiae autem arte, mirabili modo, in porticu, quam ob id heptaphonon appellant, quoniam septiens eadem vox redditur. Cyzici et buleuterium vocant aedifieium amplum, sine ferreo clavo ita disposita contignatione ut eximantur trabes sine fulturis ac reponantur. quod item Romae in ponte sublicio religiosum est, post- eaquam Coclite Horatio defendente aegre revolsus est.
XXIV. Verum et ad urbis nostrae miracula transire conveniat pcccque 2 annorum dociles scrutari vires et
et hoc
1 Thracia R edd.: trachia dT: tracia BFa. ? DCCCque BR: nongentorumque dh edd. vet.
¢ The oldest of the bridges crossing the Tiber at Rome. Sublica means ' a pile.’
48
BOOK XXXVI. xxir. 98-xxiv. roi
shine through the interstices and a gentle refreshing breeze plays on the statues. Apart from the ingenuity of the architect, the very material of his device, hidden though it may be, is appreciated as enhancing the value of the whole work.
AXIII. In the same city is the so-called Runaway Stone, which the Argonauts used as an anchor and left there. This has frequently strayed from the Presidents' House (this being the name of the place where it is kept), and so it has been fastened with lead. Inthis city too, close to the so-called Thracian Gate, there are seven towers that repeat with numerous reverberations any sounds that strike upon them. The Greek term for this remarkable phenomenon is ‘Echo.’ It is caused of course by the configuration of the landscape and generally of deep valleys; but at Cyzicus it occurs by pure chance, while at Olympia it is produced artificially in a remarkable manner within the portico known as ‘The Seven Voices, so called because the same sound re-echoes seven times. At Cyzicus, more- over, there is a large building called the Council House, the rafters of which have no iron nails and are so arranged that beams can be removed and replaced without scaffolding. This is the case also with the Sublician Bridge? in Rome, where there has been a solemn ban on the use of nails ever since it was torn down with such difficulty while Horatius Cocles was defending it.
XXIV. But this is indeed the moment for us to pass on to the wonders of our own city, to review the resources derived from the experiences of 800 years, and to show that here too in our buildings we have
79
The build- ings of Rome.
102
103
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
sic quoque terrarum orbem victum ostendere. quod accidisse totiens paene, quot referentur miracula, apparebit; universitate vero acervata et in quendam unum cumulum coiecta non alia magnitudo exurget ! quam si mundus alius quidam in uno loco narretur. nec ut? cireum maximum a Caesare dictatore ex- structum longitudine stadiorum trium, latitudine unius, sed cum aedificiis iugerum quaternum, ad sedem ccL, inter magna opera dicamus: non inter magnifica basilicam Pauli columnis e Phrygibus mirabilem forumque divi Augusti et templum Pacis Vespasiani Imp. Aug., pulcherrima operum quae umquam vidit orbis? non et? tectum diribitori* ab Agrippa facti,? cum theatrum ante texerit Romae Valerius Ostiensis architectus ludis Libonis? pyra- midas regum miramur, cum solum tantum foro exstruendo us [M] ® Caesar dictator emerit et, si quem inpensa " moveat ? captis avaritia animis, us [cxLviri] ?
exurget B: exurgit F: exsurgit Rd'Ta. nec ut FdTa: ne ut B: ne vel (et) cont. Mayhoff. et Sillig: ut B (vidit. . . tectum om. ceteri codd.). diribitori Sillig (e coni. Iani): dilibitori B: ultori Rd. facti R: factis B: factum dh.
|m| Janus: M cod. B: millies d(?): milies Silig. inpensa BF Urlichs: inpensae Rdh S2l/ig. moveat Mayhoff: movent codd.
oxrvin| cod. B: oxrvm Sillig.
4$ otl DD m
pel]
o 0o a A
¢ Tt is uncertain how far Julius Caesar was responsible for the final form of the Circus Maximus.
* The Basilica Aemilia on the N. side of the Forum was perhaps built in 179 B.c. and was frequently restored in later times. The columns of marble from Synnada in Phrygia
8o
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. ror-103
vanquished the world; and the frequency of this occurrence will be proved to match within a little the number of marvels that we shall describe. If we imagine the whole agglomeration of our buildings massed together and placed on one great heap, we shall see such grandeur towering above us as to make us think that some other world were being described, all concentrated in one single place. Even if we are not to include among our great achievements the Circus Maximus built by Julius Caesar,’ three furlongs in length and one in breadth, but with nearly three acres of buildings and seats for 250,000, should we not mention among our truly noble buildings the Basilica of Paulus, so remarkable for its columns from Phrygia, or the Forum of Augustus * of Revered Memory or the Temple of Peace? built by his Imperial Majesty the Emperor Vespasian, buildings the most beautiful the world has ever seen? Should we not mention also the roof of Agrippa's Ballot Office, although at Rome long before this the architect
Valerius of Ostia had roofed a whole theatre for 63 mc.
Libo's games? We admire the pyramids of kings
when Julius Caesar gave 100,000,000 sesterces merely 54 s.c.
for the ground on which his forum was to be built,
and Clodius, who was killed by Milo, paid 14,800,000 52 s.c.
belonged to one of several restorations. This white marble has crimson or purple markings.
* His Forum, containing the temple of Mars Ultor, was dedicated in 2 B.C.
4 The Temple of Peace, surrounded by the Forum Ves- pasiani, was dedicated in A.D. 75.
* This building, with a roof of exceptionally wide span (XVI. 201), was finished by Augustus in 7 B.C. Votes cast in elections were counted here by the diribitores.
8x
104
105
106
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
domo empta Clodius, quem Milo occidit, habitaverit. quod equidem non secus ac regum insaniam miror; itaque et ipsum Milonem us [Dbcc|! aeris alieni debuisse inter prodigia animi humani duco.? sed tum senes aggeris vastum spatium, substructiones Capitolii mirabantur, praeterea cloacas, opus omnium dictu maximum, subfossis montibus atque, ut paullo ante retulimus, urbe pensili subterque navigata M. Agrippae in aedilitate post consulatum. per- meant conrivati septem amnes cursuque praecipiti torrentium modo rapere atque auferre omnia coacti, insuper imbrium mole concitati vada ac latera quatiunt, aliquando Tiberis retro infusus recipitur, pugnantque diversi aquarum impetus intus, et tamen obnixa firmitas resistit. trahuntur moles superne? tantae non succumbentibus cavis?! operis, pulsant ruinae sponte praecipites aut inpactae incendiis, quatitur solum terrae motibus, durant tamen a Tarquinio Prisco annis ncc prope inexpugnabiles, non
1 HS [noc] Detlefsen: H. Dco cod. B.
* duco RFdh: dico Ba.
? superne Janus: supernae B: internae ceter? codd. 4 cavis Reines: cautis B: causis cetero codd.
^ In its N.E. sector, from the Colline Gate to the Esquiline Gate, the Servian Wall was strengthened with a large earth rampart.
> Possibly ' beneath which Marcus Agrippa travelled by boat’ if M. Agrippae is taken as a dative of the agent with navigata. But this rendering is less effective.
^ In 33 B.c. the Cloaca Maxima was cleaned, and Agrippa as aedile inspected it from a boat.
82
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 103-106
sesterces (if references to expenditure can impress anyone now that miserliness has become an obsession) just for the house in which he lived. This amazes me for my part just as much as the mad schemes of kings; and therefore I regard the fact that Milo himself incurred debts amounting to 70,000,000 sesterces as one of the oddest manifestations of the human character. But at that time elderly men still admired the vast dimensions of the Rampart,* the substructures of the Capitol and, furthermore, the city sewers, the most noteworthy achievement of all, seeing that hills were tunnelled and Rome, as we mentioned a little earlier, became a ' hanging ' city, beneath which mer. travelled in boats® during Mar- cus Agrippa’s term as aedile after his consulship.^ Through the city there flow seven rivers meeting in one channel. These, rushing downwards like moun- tain torrents, are constrained to sweep away and re- move everything in their path, and when they are thrust forward by an additional volume of rain water
they batter the bottom and sides of the sewers. Sometimes the backwash of the Tiber floods the sew- ers and makes its way along them upstream. Then the raging flood waters meet head on within the sew- ers, and even so the unyielding strength of the fabric resists thestrain. Inthestreets above, massive blocks of stone are dragged along, and yet the tunnels do not cave in. They are pounded by falling buildings, which collapse of their own accord or are brought crashing to the ground by fire. The ground is shaken by earth tremors; but in spite of all, for 700 years from the time of Tarquinius Priscus, the channels have remained well-nigh impregnable. We should
83
The Cloaca Maxima and its branches. § 94.
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
omittendo memorabili exemplo vel magis, quoniam
107 celeberrimis rerum conditoribus omissum est. cum
108
109
110
id opus Tarquinius Priscus plebis manibus faceret, essetque labor incertum maior an longior,’ passim conscita nece Quiritibus taedium fugientibus, novum, inexcogitatum ante posteaque remedium invenit ille rex, ut omnium ita defunctorum corpora figeret cruci spectanda civibus simul et feris volucribusque laceranda. quam ob rem pudor Romani nominis proprius, qui saepe res perditas servavit in proeliis, tunc quoque subvenit, sed illo tempore inposuit iam erubescentibus,? cum puderet vivos, tamquam pudi- turum esset extinctos. amplitudinem cavis eam fecisse proditur, ut vehem faeni large onustam trans- mitteret.
Parva sunt cuncta quae diximus, et omnia uni comparanda miraculo, antequam nova attingam. | M. Lepido Q. Catulo cos., ut constat inter diligentissimos auctores, domus pulchrior non fuit Romae quam Lepidi ipsius, at, Hercules, intra annos xxxv eadem centensimum locum non optinuit.? computet in hac aestimatione qui volet marmorum molem, opera
1 maior an longior Ba: an longior Rd: longior an peri- culosior h, cod. Poll., edd. vett.
? inposuit iam erubescentibus ego: inposuit iam erubescens
dTh: in post vitam erubescens (vi pro in Mayhoff) B Mayhoff. $ optinuit Ba: continuit ceter? codd.
¢ An exaggeration, but one sector is 4-2 metres high and 3:2 wide. No part of the existing structure seems to be older than the 3rd century B.C.
84
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 106-110
not fail to mention an occasion that is all the more worthy of record because the best-known historians have overlooked it. "Tarquinius Priscus was carrying out the work using the common folk as his labourers, and it became doubtful whether the toil was to be more notable for its intensity or for its duration. Since the citizens were seeking to escape from their exhaustion by committing suicide wholesale, the king devised a strange remedy that was never contrived except on that one occasion. He crucified the bodies of all who had died by their own hands, leaving them to be gazed at by their fellow-citizens and also torn to pieces by beasts and birds of prey. Consequently, the sense of shame, which is so charac- teristic of the Romans as a nation and has so often restored a desperate situation on the battlefield, then too came to their aid; but this time it imposed upon them at the very moment when they blushed for their honour, since they felt ashamed while alive under the illusion that they would feel equally ashamed when dead. ‘Tarquin is said to have made the tunnels large enough to allow the passage of a waggon fully loaded with hay.
The works that we have so far mentioned amount in all tolittle; and before we touch upon fresh topics we will show that just one marvel by itself bears comparison with them all. Our most scrupulous authorities are agreed that in the consulship of Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus as fine a house as any in Rome was that of Lepidus himself; but, I swear, within 35 years the same house was not among the first hundred. Confronted by this assessment, any- one who so wishes may count the cost of the masses
85
78 B.C.
111
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
pictorum, inpendia regalia et cum pulcherrima laudatissimaque certantes centum domus posteaque ab innumerabilibus aliis in hune diem victas. pro- fecto incendia puniunt luxum, nec tamen effici potest ut mores aliquid ipso homine mortalius esse intellegant.
Sed omnes eas duae domus vicerunt. bis vidimus urbem totam cingi domibus principum Gai et Neronis, huius quidem, ne quid deesset,! aurea. nimirum sic habitaverant illi qui hoc imperium fecere tantum, ad devincendas gentes triumphosque referendos ab aratro aut foco exeuntes, quorum agri quoque minorem modum optinuere quam sellaria istorum!
112 subit vero? cogitatio, quota portio harum fuerint
areae illae quas invictis imperatoribus decernebant publice ad exaedificandas? domos; summusque illarum honos erat, sicut in P. Valerio Publicola, primo consule cum L. Bruto, post tot merita et fratre eius, qui bis in eodem magistratu Sabinos devicerat, adici decreto ut domus eorum fores extra aperirentur
1 deesset edd.: esset aut esse codd.
? subit vero edd. veit., Mayhoff: subiit vero B: subituquo d: subituque R; unde subit utique coni. Mayhoff.
8 exaedificandas B: aedificandas Rd Th.
? Gaius (A.D. 37-41) extended the palace of Tiberius towards the Forum, where the Temple of Castor and Pollux was in- cluded so as to form part of the main entrance. The Domus
86
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. r10-112
of marble, the paintings, the regal budgets, the cost, in fact, of a hundred houses, each of which rivalled one that had been the finest and the most highly appreciated in its time, houses that were themselves to be surpassed by countless others right up to the presentday. Fires, we may be sure, are punishments inflicted upon us for our extravagance; and even so, human nature cannot be made to understand that there are things more mortal than man himself. However, all these houses were surpassed by two. Twice have we seen the whole city girdled by imperial palaces, those of Gaius and Nero, the latter's palace, to crown all, being indeed a House of Gold.* Such, doubtless, were the dwellings of those who made this empire great, who went straight from plough or hearth to conquer nations and win triumphs, whose very lands occupied a smaller space than those emperors’ sitting-rooms! Indeed, one begins to reflect how small in comparison with those palaces were the building-sites formally granted by the state to invincible generals for their private houses. The highest distinction that these houses displayed was one accorded, for example, after his many services to
Publius Valerius Publicola, the first of our consuls 509 s.c.
along with Lucius Brutus, and to his brother, who— also as consul—inflicted two crushing defeats on the Sabines. I refer to the additional decree which provided that the doors of their houses should be made to open outwards so that the portals could be flung open on to the public highway. This was the
Aurea, in which cuncta auro lita . . . erant (Suetonius, Nero, 31), was a vast range of buildings extending from the Palatine to the Esquiline built by Nero after the fire of A.D. 64.
97
113
114
115
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
et ianua in publicum reiceretur. hoc erat claris- simum insigne inter triumphales quoque domos.
Non patiar istos duos Gaios vel duos Nerones! ne hac quidem gloria famae frui, docebimusque etiam insaniam eorum victam privatis opibus? M. Scauri, cuius nescio an aedilitas maxime prostraverit mores maiusque sit Sullae malum tanta privigni potentia quam proscriptio tot milium. in aedilitate hie sua fecit opus maximum omnium quae umquam fuere humana manu facta, non temporaria mora, verum etiam aeternitatis destinatione. theatrum hoc fuit; scaena ei triplex in altitudinem cccrx columnarum in ea civitate quae sex Hymettias non tulerat sine probro civis amplissimi. ima pars scaenae e marmore fuit, media e vitro, inaudito etiam postea genere luxuriae, summa e tabulis inauratis; columnae, ut diximus, imae duodequadragenum pedum. signa aerea inter columnas, ut indicavimus, fuerunt iii numero; cavea ipsa cepit hominum LxXx, cum Pompeiani theatri totiens multiplicata urbe tantoque maiore populo sufficiat large xxxx sedere? relicus apparatus tantus Attalica veste, tabulis pictis,
1 duos Gaios vel duos Nerones Rdh S?//;g: duos Nerones D: duos Janus, Mayhoff.
2 opibus Bh: operibus Rd.
3 sedere codd.: sedi Hermolaus Barbarus, Urlichs: sede Ianus, coll. § 102.
Lonen e RO RN EM nm ere ar ——
? Lit. ' the great power of the stepson,’ ?.e. Scaurus. > * Attalic’ fabrics were interwoven with gold thread (VIII. 196).
88
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 112-115
most notable mark of distinction in the houses even of men who had celebrated a triumph.
I shall not allow these two birds of a feather, two Scaurus’ Gaiuses or two Neros as you please, to enjoy méme unchallenged even renown such as this; and so I shall show that even their madness was outdone by the resources of a private individual, Marcus Scaurus, whose aedileship may perhaps have done more than 58 Bo. anything to undermine morality, and whose powerful ascendancy may have been a more mischievous achievement on the part of his stepfather Sulla than the killing by proscription of so many thousands of people. As aedile he constructed the greatest of all the works ever made by man, a work that surpassed not merely those erected for a limited period but even those intended to last for ever. This was his theatre, which had a stage arranged in three storeys with 360 columns; and this, if you please, in a com- munity that had not tolerated the presence of six columns of Hymettus marble without reviling a §7. leading citizen. ‘The lowest storey of the stage was of marble, and the middle one of glass (an extrava- gance unparalleled even in later times), while the top storey was made of gilded planks. The columns of the lowest storey were, as I have stated, each 38 $6. feet high. The bronze statues in the spaces between the columns numbered 3000, as I mentioned earlier. XXXIV. 36. As for the auditorium, it accommodated 80,000; and yet that of Pompey's theatre amply meets all require- § 41. ments with seats for 40,000 even though the city is so many times larger and the population so much more numerous than it was at that time. "The rest of the equipment, with dresses of cloth of gold,? scene
89
116
117
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
cetero choragio? fuit ut, in Tusculanam villam reportatis quae superfluebant cotidiani usus deliciis, incensa villa ab iratis servis concremaretur us |ccc|.? Aufert animum et a destinato itinere degredi ?
cogit contemplatio tam prodigae mentis aliamque conectit maiorem insaniam e ligno. C. Curio, qui bello civili in Caesarianis partibus obiit, funebri patris munere cum opibus apparatuque non posset superare Scaurum—unde enim illi vitricus Sulla et Metella mater proscriptionum sectrix? unde M. Scaurus pater, totiens princeps civitatis et Mariani sodalicii rapinarum provincialium sinus? cum iam ne ipse quidem Scaurus sibi par esse posset, quando hoc certe incendi illius praemium habuit convectis ex orbe terrarum rebus, ut nemo postea par esset insaniae illi—ingenio ergo * utendum suo Curioni et aliquid excogitandum fuit. operae pretium est scire quid invenerit, et gaudere moribus nostris ac verso * modo nos vocare maiores. theatra iuxta duo
! choragio Budé: chora B: corago Rd.
? fcoo| Janus, Mayhoff: coo cod. B: cco Sillig.
? degredi B!: digredi B* edd. veit., Sillig.
4 ergo BT: erat aliquot codd. 5 verso B: nostro Rd edd. veti.: vestrum F.
4 He was killed in 49 B.c. while fighting against Juba in Africa.
* [.e. maiores. Compared with men like Scaurus and Curio, Pliny and his contemporaries live like the men of old. Therefore in relation to them they are mazores in respect of morality, but minores (^ younger ’) in point of time.
go
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 115-117
paintings and other properties was on so lavish a scale that when the surplus knick-knacks that could be put to ordinary use were taken to Scaurus’ villa at Tusculum and the villa itself set on fire and burnt down by the indignant servants, the loss was esti- mated at 30,000,000 sesterces.
Thoughts of this wasteful behaviour distract our attention and force us to leave our intended course, since with this theatre they cause us to associate another, even more frenzied, fantasy in wood. Gaius Curio, who died during the Civil War while fighting on Caesar's side,* could not hope, in the entertain- ment which he provided in honour of his father’s funeral, to outstrip Scaurus in the matter of costly embellishments. lor where was he to find a step- father like Sulla or a mother like Metella, who speculated by buying up the property of the pro- scribed, or a father like Marcus Scaurus, who was for so long a leader in the government and acted for Marius and his cronies as their receiver of goods plundered from the provinces? Even Scaurus himself could no longer have matched his own achievement, for since he had collected his material from all parts of the world, he gained at any rate
Curio's theatres.
52 B.d.
one advantage from that fire, namely that it was $115.
impossible in the future for anyone to emulate his madness. Curio, therefore, had to use his wits and devise some ingenious scheme. It is worth our while to be acquainted with his discovery, and so to be thankful for our modern code of morality and call ourselves ' elders and betters,® reversing the usual meaning of the term. He built close to each other two very large wooden theatres, each poised and
OI
118
119
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
fecit amplissima ! ligno, cardinum singulorum versa- tili suspensa libramento, in quibus utrisque ante- meridiano ludorum spectaculo edito inter sese aversis, ne invicem obstreperent scaenae, repente circumactis—ut constat, post primos? dies etiam sedentibus aliquis *—cornibus in se coeuntibus facic- bat amphitheatrum gladiatorumque proelia edebat, ipsum magis auctoratum populum Romanum circum- ferens. quid enim miretur quisque in hoc primum, inventorem an inventum, artificem an auctorem, ausum aliquem hoc excogitare an suscipere an iubere?? super omnia erit populi sedere ausi furor tam infida instabilique sede. | en hic est ille terrarum victor et totius domitor orbis, qui gentes, regna diribet, iura exteris mittit, deorum quaedam im- mortalium generi humano portio, in machina pendens et ad periculum suum plaudens! quae vilitas ani- marum ista aut quae querela de Cannis! quantum mali potuit aceidere! hauriri urbes terrae hiatibus publicus mortalium dolor est: ecce populus Romanus 1 amplissima B: amplissime F: amplissima e Rdh.
? constat BFdh: contra stat R: contra starent Hermolaus
Barbarus, Sillig.
$ post primos B: postremos R: postremo h, cod. Poll. edd. vett., Sillag.
4 dies etiam sedentibus aliquis BdT (die . . . aliquibus h, cod. Poll.): iam die discedentibus tabulis edd. vett., Sllig.
5 an iubere BRdh: parere an iubere edd. vett., Sillig.
$ diribet B1: diriget D*: diriperet Rdh.
02
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 117-119
balanced on a revolving pivot. During the forenoon, a performance of a play was given in both of them and they faced in opposite directions so that the two casts should not drown each other's words. Then all of a sudden the theatres revolved (and it is agreed that after the first few days they did so with some of the spectators actually remaining in their seats), their corners met? and thus Curio provided an amphitheatre in which he produced fights between gladiators, though they were less in chancery than the Roman people itself as it was whirled around by Curio. Truly, what should first astonish one in this, the inventor or the invention, the designer or the sponsor, the fact that a man dared to plan the work, or to undertake it, or to commission it? What will prove to be more amazing than anything is the mad- ness of a people that was bold enough to take its place in such treacherous, rickety seats. Here we have the nation that has conquered the earth, that has subdued the whole world, that distributes tribes and kingdoms, that despatches its dictates to foreign peoples, that is heaven's representative, so to speak, among mankind, swaying on a contraption and applauding its own danger! Whata contempt for life this showed! What force now have our complaints of the lives lost at Cannae! What a disaster it could have been! When the earth yawns and cities are engulfed, whole communities grieve. Here the entire Roman people, as if on board two frail boats,
¢ A geometrical impossibility: there must have been a gap between the two theatres when they faced each other. Possibly the gap was filled by inserting sections of movable flooring. |
93
216 B.C,
120
121
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
universus, veluti duobus navigiis inpositus, binis cardinibus sustinetur et se ipsum depugnantem spectat, periturus momento aliquo luxatis machinis! et per hoc quaeritur tribuniciis contionibus gratia, ut pensiles tribus quatiat, in rostris quid non ausurus apud eos quibus hoc persuaserit! vere namque confitentibus populus Romanus funebri munere ad tumulum patris eius depugnavit universus. variavit hane suam magnificentiam fessis turbatisque cardi- nibus et amphitheatri forma custodita novissimo die diversis duabus per medium scaenis athletas edidit raptisque e contrario repente pulpitis eodem die victores e gladiatoribus suis produxit. nec fuit rex Curio aut gentium imperator, non opibus insignis, ut qui nihil in censu habuerit praeter discordiam principum.
Sed dicantur vera aestimatione invicta miracula. Q. Marcius Rex, iussus a senatu aquarum Appiae, Anienis, Tepulae ductus reficere, novam a nomine suo
* As he had already caused them to shake and sway in his theatres.
* Curio was originally an optimate, but when he became tribune in 50 5.c., Caesar purchased his support with a very large bribe. As tribune he served Caesar well by vetoing measures intended to favour Pompey, and proposing others for Caesar’s benefit.
¢ The firsts Roman aqueduct, built by Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 B.c.
4? Begun in 272 B.c. and known as Anio Vetus after the building of the Anio Novus (see X X XVI. 122, below).
94
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 119-121
was supported by a couple of pivots, and was enter- tained with the spectacle of its very self risking its life in the fighting arena, doomed, as it was, to perish at some moment or other if the framework were wrenched out of place. And the aim, after all, was merely to win favour for the speeches that
Curio would make as tribune, so that he might con- 50 s.c.
tinue to agitate the swaying voters, since on the speaker's platform he would shrink from nothing in addressing men whom he had persuaded to submit to such treatment. For, if we must confess the truth, it was the whole Roman people that struggled for its life in the arena at the funeral games held at his father's tomb. When the pivots of the theatres were worn and displaced he altered this ostentatious display of his. He kept to the shape of the amphi- theatre, and on the final day gave athletic displays on the two stages as they stood back to back across the middle of the arena. Then suddenly the plat- forms were swept away on either side, and during the same day he brought on those of his gladiators who had won their earlier contests. And Curio was not a king nor an emperor nor, indeed, was he particu- larly rich, seeing that his only financial asset was the feud that had arisen between the heads of state."
But we must go on to describe marvels which are un- The aque-
surpassed in virtue of their genuine value. Quintus Marcius Rex, having been ordered by the senate to repair the conduits of the Aqua Appia," the Anio, and the Tepula,’ drove underground passages through the mountains and brought to Rome a new
* The Tepula was constructed in 127 B.c. and could not have been repaired by Marcius Rex in 144 B.o.
95
122
123
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
appellatam cuniculis per montes actis intra praeturae suae tempus adduxit; Agrippa vero in aedilitate adiecta Virgine aqua ceterisque conrivatis atque emendatis lacus pcc fecit, praeterea salientes! p;? castella cxxx, complura et cultu magnifica, operibus iis signa ccc aerea aut marmorea inposuit, columnas e marmore cccc, eaque omnia annuo spatio. adicit ipse aedilitatis suae conmemoratione et ludos diebus undesexaginta factos et gratuita praebita balinea CcLXX, quae nunc Romae ad infiniium auxere numerum. vicit antecedentes aquarum ductus novissimum inpendium operis incohati a C. Caesare et peracti a Claudio, quippe a xxxx lapide ad eam excelsitatem, ut omnes urbis montes lavarentur, influxere Curtius atque Caeruleus fontes et Anien novus,? erogatis 4 in id opus us [WMWD].? quod si quis diligentius aestumaverit abundantiam aquarum in publico, balineis, piscinis, euripis, domibus, hortis,
1 salientes Budé: psallentes B: sapientes aut sapientis ceteri codd.
? D cod. B: cui Fh: CVI cod. R.
3 novus Brotier: novos codd.
* erogatis Detlefsen: erogatos B: erogata aut erogat celeri codd.: erogatum Gelen.
5 [MmMp| Janus: [mmm| D cod. D, Mayhoff: wwMp Sillig.
———————————————Ó———— M —— à ——— SE
? Marcius Rex was praetor in 144 and 143 B.c., his term of office being extended to enable him to complete the Aqua Marcia. It passed underground through the Sabine Hills in the neighbourhood of Tivoli.
’ Completed in 19 s.c. and wrongly associated by Pliny with the works undertaken by Agrippa as aedile in 33 B.C.
¢ Presumably cóipp? marking the course taken by the channels.
? These two springs fed the Aqua Claudia, which, like the
96
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 121-123
water-supply called by his own name and completed XXXI. 41.
within the period of his praetorship." Agrippa,
moreover, as aedile added to these the Aqua Virgo,’ Xxxt. 42.
repaired the channels of the others and put them in order, and constructed 700 basins, not to speak of 500 fountains and 130 distribution-reservoirs, many of the latter being richly decorated. He erected on these works 300 bronze or marble statues and 400 marble pillars;^ and all of this he carried out in a year. He himself in the memoirs of his aedileship adds that in celebration games lasting for 59 days
were held, and the bathing establishments were Dio Case
thrown open to the publie free of charge, all 170 of them, a number which at Rome has now been in- finitely increased. But all previous aqueducts have been surpassed by the most recent and very costly
ius,
work inaugurated by the Emperor Gaius and com- 4-5. 37-41. pleted by Claudius, inasmuch as the Curtian and ^4». 41-54.
Caerulean Springs,“ as well as the Anio Novus, were made to flow into Rome from the 40th milestone * at such a high level as to supply water to all the seven hills of the city, the sum spent on the work amounting to 350,000,000 sesterces. If we take into careful consideration the abundant supplies of water in public buildings, baths, pools,/ open channels, private houses,
Anio Novus, was begun by Gaius Caligula in A.D. 38 and com- pleted by Claudius in A.D. 52.
* I.e., the 40th milestone on the Via Sublacensis, which ran up the valley of the Anio. The aqueducts, of course, took a far more circuitous route so as to maintain a gentle gradient.
f Piscina is used of fish-ponds and bathing pools. It is just possible, though in this context hardly likely, that Pliny is using the word in the strictly technical sense of ‘ settling- tanks ’ (see Frontinus, De Aquae Ductu, passim).
97 VOL. X. E
124
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
suburbanis villis, spatia aquae ! venientis, exstructos arcus, montes perfossos, convalles aequatas, fatebitur nil magis mirandum fuisse in toto orbe terrarum. Eiusdem Claudi inter maxime ? memoranda equidem duxerim, quamvis destitutum montem perfossum ad lacum l'ucinum emittendum
successoris odio, inenarrabili profecto impendio et operarum multi- tudine per tot annos, cum aut conrivatio aquarum, qua terrenus mons erat, egereretur in verticem machinis aut silex caederetur quantaque? intus in tenebris fierent, quae neque concipi animo nisi ab iis qui videre neque enarrari humano sermone
possunt! nam portus Ostiensis opus praetereo, item
vias per montes excisas, mare Tyrrhenum a Lucrino molibus seclusum, tot pontes tantis inpendiis factos. et inter plurima alia Italiae ipsius miracula marmora in lapicidinis crescere auctor est Papirius l'abianus, naturae rerum peritissimus, exemptores quoque ad-
! spatia aquae Mayhoff: spatia quae F: spatiaque dTh: spatia B Sullig.
? maxime Gelen: maxima codd. ? quantaque B: omniaque Rdh.
¢ The channel was intended to carry the waters of the
Fucine Lake, a large lake in Central Italy, into the River Liris. The work, opened by Claudius with great ceremony in A.D. 52, was a failure. Later modifications were only a partial success. Claudius employed 30,000 men for 11 years on the project.
* This was the usual method, employed, for example, in
98
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 123-125
gardens and country estates near the city; if we con- sider the distances traversed by the water before it arrives, the raising of arches, the tunnelling of moun- tains and the building of level routes across deep val- leys, we shall readily admit that there has never been anything more remarkable in the whole world. One of the most remarkable achievements of the same emperor, Claudius, neglected, though it was, by his malicious successor, is, in my opinion at least, the channel that he dug through a mountain to drain the Fucine Lake." This, I need hardly say, entailed the expenditure of an indescribably large sum of money and the employment for many years of a horde of workers because, where earth formed the interior of the mountain, the water channel had to be cleared by lifting the spoil to the top of the shafts on hoists ^ and everywhere else solid rock had to be cut away, and operations underground (and how vast they were !) had to be carried out in darkness, operations which only those who witnessed them can envisage and no human utterance can describe. Incidentally, I must
The draining of the Iucine Lake.
forbear to mention the harbour works at Ostia, and § 70.
likewise the roads driven through hills in cuttings, the
moles that were built to separate the Tyrrhenian Sea Virg. Geor.
from the Lucrine Lake, and all the bridges erected at such great cost. Among the many marvels of Italy itself is one for which the accomplished natural scien- tist Papirius Fabianus ^ vouches, namely that marble actually grows in its quarries; and the quarrymen, moreover, assert that the scars on the mountain
excavating the channels of aqueducts. Only the scale was unusual. * The younger Seneca was a pupil of his.
99
3
126
127
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
firmant compleri sponte illa montium ulcera. quae si vera sunt, spes est numquam defutura luxuriae. XXV. A marmoribus degredienti ! ad reliquorum lapidum insignes naturas quis dubitet in primis magnetem occurrere? quid enim mirabilius aut qua in parte naturae maior inprobitas? dederat vocem saxis, ut diximus, respondentem homini, immo vero et obloquentem. quid lapidis rigore pigrius? ecce sensus manusque tribuit illi. quid ferri duritia pugnacius? pedes ei? inpertivit et mores. trahitur namque magnete lapide, domitrixque illa rerum omnium materia ad inane nescio quid currit atque, ut propius venit, adsilit? tenetur amplexuque haeret. sideritim ob id alio nomine vocant, quidam Heraclian.^ magnes appellatus est ab inventore, ut auctor est Nicander—in Ida? repertus, namque et passim in- veniuntur, in’ Hispania quoque;—invenisse autem fertur clavis crepidarum, baculi cuspide haerentibus,
1 degredienti B! R: degrediente P: digredienti B?dh.
2 pedes ei Sillig (e cont. Jani): pedes et B: cedet sed dT.
? adsilit B: assistit (adsistit F) ceter? codd.
4 Heraclian cod. a Detlefsen: Heraclion B S:lig, Mayhoff: Heracleon dh.
5 Ida codd.: India edd. vett. ex Isid. XVI. v. 2.
9 repertus h: reperto BRd: ut reperio Mayhoff.
7 in Bd: ut in cefer? codd.
« Supposed instances of this regeneration of stone or of metallic ores were & favourite theme of the collectors of mirabilia; and the idea persisted until recent times. Pre- sumably the quarries in question were those of Luna (Carrara): see XXXVI. 48.
* Pliny’s rhetoric gives the magnet ‘ hands’ with which to clasp the iron.
* The idea that the magnet creates a vacuum which causes, or helps to cause, the movement of the iron is exploited by
I0o
BOOK XXXVI. xxiv. 125-xxv. 127
sides fill up of their own accord. If this is true, there is reason to hope that there will always be marble sufficient to satisfy luxury's demands.
XXV. As we pass from marble to the other re- markable varieties of stone, no one can doubt that it is the magnet that first of all comes to mind. For what is more strange than this stone? In what field has Nature displayed a more perverse wilfulness? She has given to rocks a voice which, as I have ex- plained, echoes that of Man, or rather interrupts it as wel. What is more impassive than the stiffness of stone? And yet we see that she has endowed the magnet with senses and hands. What is more recalcitrant than the hardness of iron? We see that she has bestowed on it feet and instincts. For iron is attracted by the magnet, and the substance that van- quishes all other things rushes into a kind of vacuum * and, as it approaches the magnet, it leaps towards it and is held by it and clasped in its embrace. And so the magnet is called by the Greeks by another name, the ‘iron stone,’ and by some of them the ' stone of Heracles.'^ According to Nicander, it was called ' magnes ' from the name of its discover, who found it on Mount Ida.* Incidentally, it is to be found in many places, including Spain. However, the story goes that Magnes discovered the stone when the nails of his sandals and the tip of his staff stuck to it
Lucretius (VI. 998-1041) and Plutarch (Plat. Quaest. VII. 7). Cf. XXXVII. 48, and p. 200, n. 4.
? Pliny clearly supposed that the magnet was called Heraclia because of the force exerted by it, but the name may have been derived from the Lydian town of Heraclea, which was not far from Magnesia.
* From an unknown poem of Nicander of Colophon.
IOI
Magnetite.
§ 100.
128
129
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
cum armenta pasceret. quinque genera magnetis Sotacus demonstrat: Aethiopicum et a Magnesia Macedoniae contermina a Boebe ! loleum petentibus dextra, tertium in Hyetto Boeotiae, quartum circa Alexandriam Troadem, quintum in Magnesia Asiae. differentia ? prima, mas sit an femina, proxima in colore. nam qui in Magnesia Macedonica repe- riuntur rufi nigrique sunt, Boeoti vero rufi coloris plus habent quam nigri. is qui Troade? invenitur niger est et feminei sexus ideoque sine viribus, deterrimus autem in Magnesia Asiae, candidus neque attrahens ferrum similisque pumici. con- pertum tanto meliores esse, quanto sint magis eaerulei. Aethiopico palma* datur pondusque argento rependitur. invenitur hic in Aethiopiae Zmiri; ita vocatur regio harenosa. ibi et haematites magnes sanguinei coloris sanguinemque reddens, si teratur, sed et crocum. in adtrahendo ferro non eadem haematiti natura quae magneti. Aethiopici
1 a Boebe Sillig: abo ebone BR: abebonie d: ab Euboea Mayhoff.
2 differentia B?ha: differentiam B'RFd: differentia est Mayhoff.
3 Troade codd.: in Troade edd. vett., Mayhoff.
4 palma B: in summa aut summa ceteri codd.: laus summa edd. velt.
5 The author of a work on stones. He lived in the early part of the 3rd century B.C. > Reading with Sillig a Boebe, which makes good sense. The place was about 15 miles N.N.W. of Ioleos (mod. Volos). ¢ Many specimens of magnetite are not permanently ‘magnetic.’ These were Pliny's ' females '!
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BOOK XXXVI. xxv. 127-129
as he was pasturing his herds. Sotacus * describes five kinds of magnet: an Ethiopian; another from Magnesia, which borders on Macedonia and is on the traveller's right as he makes for Volos from Boebe; ^ a third from Hyettus in Boeotia; a fourth from the neighbourhood of Alexandria in the Troad; and a fifth from Magnesia in Asia Minor. The most im- portant distinction is between the male and female varieties," while the next lies in their colour. Those found in the Magnesia that is close to Macedonia are red and black, whereas the Boeotian have more red than black in them. Those found in the Troad are black and female, and therefore exert no force,? while the most worthless kind is that of Magnesia in Asia Minor, which is white, has no power of attracting iron and resembles pumice.? It has been ascertained that, the bluer a magnet is, the betteritis. The palm goes to the Ethiopian variety, which in the market is worth its weight in silver. It is found in the sandy district of Ethiopia known as Zmiris. There, too, is found the haematite magnet, which is blood-red in colour and, when ground, produces not only blood- red but also saffron-yellow powder.^ But haematite has not the same property of attracting iron as the magnet. The test of an Ethiopian magnet is its
4 Possibly not all the five varieties were magnetite. The last stone (‘the worst, ‘like pumice’), from Magnesia in Asia Minor, was probably the variety of tale which is called payváris Atos by Theophrastus (de Lap. 41). However, magnetite is found to-day at Manisa, the ancient Magnesia, 25 miles E.N.E. of Smyrna. Sotacus was no doubt confused as io the matter (Stanley Smith).
* Possibly red and brown haematite found together; possibly goethite, a species of brown haematite.
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PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
argumentum est, quod magneta quoque alium ad se
130 trahit. omnes autem hi oculorum medicamentis
prosunt ad suam quisque portionem, maximeque epiphoras sistunt. sanant et adusta cremati tritique. alius rursus in eadem Aethiopia non procul mons? ferrum omne abigit respuitque. de utraque natura saepius diximus.
XXVI. Lapidem e Syro insula fluctuari ? tradunt, eundem comminutum mergi.
BOOK XXXVI. xxv. 129-XxviI. 131
ability to attract another magnet to itself. All mag- nets, incidentally, are useful for making up eye-salves if each is used in its correct quantity, and arc particu- larly effective in stopping acute watering of the eyes. They also cure burns when ground and calcined. Also in Ethiopia and at no great distance is another moun- tain, (the ore from) which on the contrary repels and rejects all iron. Both of these properties have already been discussed by me on several occasions.?
XXVI. It is said that a stone from the island of Pumice. Syros floats on the waves, but that it sinks when it
has been broken into small pieces.? XXVII. At Assos in the Troad we find the Sarco- Phe Sarco-
134 XXVII. In Asso Troadis sarcophagus lapis fissili vena scinditur. corpora defunctorum condita in eo absumi constat intra xL diem exceptis dentibus.
Mucianus specula quoque et strigiles et vestes et phagus stone,
calciamenta inlata mortuis lapidea fieri auctor est. eiusdem generis et in Lycia saxa sunt et in oriente, quae viventibus quoque adalligata erodunt corpora.
1 mons plerique codd.: magnes Mayhoff ex cont. Urlichs: mons gignit lapidem theameden qui h edd. vett., Sillig. ? fluctuari (fluctuare h) codd.: fluitare Pintianus.
-— -
¢ * All magnets will attract other magnets if unlike poles are presented to one another" (Bailey).
» Bailey here recalls that magnets repel each other when like poles are brought together. There is no need to read magnes for mons with Mayhoff. For the form of the expres- sion, cf. IT. 211, duo sunt montes, etc. The fact that a moun- tain has not already been mentioned is, in Pliny, not a serious objection. The phrase gignit lapidem theameden (haematiten ?) qui read by h seems to be an interpolation.
€ J.e., sympathia (natural affinity or attraction) and an&- pathia (natural antipathy or aversion). Cf. XXVIII. 84 and 147; XXXVII. 59.
4 Probably pumice, which may have been carried by currents to Syra (anc. Syros) from the volcanic islands of the Thera group, where floating pumice can be seen to-day.
104
phagus stone, which splits along a line of cleavage. Itis well known thatcorpses buried in it are consumed within a period of forty days, except for the teeth.* Mucianus / vouches for the fact that mirrors, scrapers, clothes and shoes placed upon the dead bodies are turned to stone as well. There are similar stones both in Lycia and in the East; and these, when attached even to living persons, eat away their bodies.
* No stone could consume a body in so short a time or petrify objects under such conditions. The stone of Assos was probably a fissile limestone. Lime, as Bailey suggests, may have been thrown into the coffin to aid decomposition. Water seeping through the coffin may have deposited calcium carbonate on the objects (Bailey), or the lime may have become slaked with moisture from the decomposing body and have been deposited on the objects, gradually forming a hard crust (Stanley Smith).
f Mucianus, governor of Syria in A.D. 69, helped Vespasian to become emperor. He compiled a volume of mirabilia, many of which no doubt had come to his notice during his residence in the East.
105
132
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PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
XXVIII. Mitiores autem servandis corporibus nec absumendis chernites! ebori simillimus, in quo Darium conditum ferunt, Parioque similis candore et duritia, minus tantum ponderosus, qui porus vocatur. Theophrastus auctor est et tralucidi lapidis in Aegypto, quem Chio similem ait. fortassis tunc fuerit, quoniam et desinunt et novi reperiuntur.
Assius gustatu salsus podagras lenit, pedibus in vas ex eo cavatum inditis. praeterea omnia crurum vitia in iis lapicidinis sanantur, cum in metallis omnibus crura vitientur.? eiusdem lapidis flos appellatur, in farinam mollis? ad quaedam perinde efficax. est autem similis pumici rufo. admixtus cerae Cypriae mammarum vitia sanat, pici autem resinaeve strumas et panos discutit. prodest et phthisicis
1 chernites Hermolaus Barbarus (ex Theophrasto): chemites plerique codd.: chirites cod. a. Fortasse Chemmites.
2 vitientur edd.: vitiantur auf vicientur aut videntur codd.
8 mollis codd.: molitus cont. Mayhoff.
te an
4 Pliny’s description is drawn from Theophrastus (de Lap. 6), who implies that the stone is Egyptian. It was probably the onyx marble discussed earlier (XXXVI. 59-61). Theo- phrastus also supplied Hermolaus Barbarus with the reading chernites. The manuscripts of Pliny have chemites, for which it would be tempting to read Chemmites, for Chemmis (later Panopolis) lay in a region where onyx marble could have occurred and Strabo (XVII. 1, 41) states that stone working flourished there. But the evidence of all the manuscripts of Theophrastus is strongly supported by XXXVII. 191, where similarly, but on different grounds, chemitis must be replaced by chernitis (see p. 320, n. °).
>’ Almost certainly Darius III (336-330 ».0.).
^ Again from Theophrastus (de Lap. 7), and again an Egyptian stone, presumably the exceptionally white lime- stone found, for example, in the Tura quarries E. of the Nile
106
BOOK XXXVI. xxvii. 132-133
XXVIII. However, there are stones that are gentler in their effects in that they preserve a body without consuming it, for example, the ‘ chernites,'? which closely resembles ivory and is said to be the material of which the coffin of Darius ° is said to have been made, and, again, a stone called ' porus,' which is similar to Parian marble in whiteness and hardness, only not so heavy.^ "Theophrastus is our authority also for a translucent Egyptian stone said by him to be similar to Chian marble./ Such a stone may have existed in his time: stones cease to be found and new ones are discovered in turn.
The stone of Assos, which has a salty taste, relieves gout if the feet are plunged into a vessel hollowed out of it. Moreover, all affections of the legs are cured in the quarries where it is hewn, whereas in all mines the legs are attacked by ailments. Belong- ing to the same stone is what is called the efflore- scence, which is soft enough to form powder and is just as effective as the stone for certain purposes.* It looks, incidentally, like reddish pumice. Combined with Cyprian wax it cures affections of the breasts, and, if mixed with pitch or resin, disperses scro- fulous sores and superficial abscesses. Taken as an
near Memphis. Cf. p. 68, n. *. term for ‘ limestone.’
? Usually identified with obsidian, which does not occur in Egypt, and therefore more likely to be basalt, which may, when freshly hewn, display transparent crystals (Stanley Smith). Pliny omits to mention that the stone was black (de Lap. 7).
* The powdery efflorescence may well be gypsum produced by the action of sulphuric acid, which in its turn would have resulted from the decomposition of pyrites upon the limestone (Stanley Smith).
vopos is the usual Greek
107
Stone for cofins.
White lime-
stone,
Basalt?
134
135
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
linctu. cum melle vetera ulcera ad cicatrices per- ducit, excrescentia erodit et a bestiarum morsu repugnantia curationi suppurata siccat. fit cata- plasma ex eo podagricis mixto fabae lomento.
XXIX. Idem ‘Theophrastus et Mucianus esse aliquos lapides qui pariant credunt; Theophrastus et ebur fossile candido ! et nigro colore? inveniri et ossa e terra nasci invenirique lapides osseos.
Palmati circa Mundam in Hispania, ubi Caesar dictator Pompeium vicit, reperiuntur idque quotiens fregeris. sunt et nigri quorum auctoritas venit in marmora, sicut Taenarius. Varro nigros ex Africa firmiores esse tradit quam in Italia, e diverso albos Coranos duriores quam Parios, idem Luniensem silicem serra secari, "Tusculanum dissilire igni, Sabinum fuscum addito oleo etiam lucere. idem
1 candido BRh: e candido Mayhoff. 2 colore inveniri R(?)h: inveniri Fda Mayhoff (inveniri... nasci om. B).
?^ He is referring to eagle-stones (XX XVI. 149-151).
* Fosse merely means ‘dug up.’ Fossil ivory has been identified with bone turquoise (odontolite). The appearance of bone turquoise, however, does not readily suggest an organic substance. It is more likely that Theophrastus (de Lap. 37) had in mind bones of a less altered character, like those which have been found in large deposits at Pikermi in Attica (Stanley Smith).
* Not in any extant work.
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BOOK XXXVI. xxviii. r33-XXIX. 135
electuary it is also good for consumption. When blended with honey, it causes scars to form over chronic sores, reduces excrescences of flesh and dries up matter discharging from a bite when it will not yield to other treatment. In cases of gout a plaster is made of it with an admixture of bean-meal.
XXIX. Theophrastus, again, and Mucianus ex- Some curious
press the opinion that there are certain stones that give birth to other stones.? Theophrastus states also that fossil ivory coloured black and white is found,” that bones are produced from the earth and that stones resembling bones come to light.^
In the neighbourhood of Munda in Spain, the place
where Julius Caesar defeated Cn. Pompeius, occur 45 3.0.
stones containing the likeness of a palm branch, which appears whenever they are broken. There
are also black stones, like that of Cape Matapan, that $158.
have come to be esteemed as much as any marble. Varro states that black stones from Africa are harder than the Italian, but that, on the other hand, the white stone of Cora is harder than that of Paros. He mentions too that Carrara stone’ can be cut with a saw, that Tusculan stone is split by fire and that the dark Sabine variety actually becomes bright / if oil is poured on it. Varro also assures us
? Perhaps andalusite (Bailey).
* Silex is here used as a general term for any hard stone. Of. § 124.
/ The meaning is uncertain: ‘will yield a flame even’ (Bostock and Riley); ‘actually gleams’ (Bailey); but the former rendering gives an unnatural sense to lucere, while the latter statement is not sufficiently remarkable to justify eliam. For the rendering adopted, cf. § 136 (end).
The Tusculan and Sabine stones were calcareous tufas.
109
136
137
138
PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY
molas versatiles Volsinis inventas; aliquas et sponte motas invenimus in prodigiis. XXX. nusquam hic utilior quam in Italia gignitur lapisque, non saxum, est. in quibusdam vero provinciis omnino non in- venitur. sunt quidam in eo genere molliores, qui et cote levantur, ut procul intuentibus ophites videri possit, neque est alius firmior, quando et lapidis natura ligno similiter imbres solesque aut hiemes non patitur in aliis generibus atque aliis. sunt et qui lunam non tolerent et qui vetustate robiginem trahant coloremve candidum oleo mutent.
Molarem quidam pyriten vocant, quoniam pluri- mus sit ignis illi, sed est alius spongiosior tantum et alius! etiamnum pyrites similitudine aeris. in Cypro eum reperiri volunt metallis quae sint circa Aca- manta, unum argenteo colore, alterum aureo. cocuntur varie, ab aliis iterum tertiumque in melle donec consumatur liquor, ab aliis pruna prius, dein in ? melle, ac postea lavantur ut aes. usus eorum in medicina excalfacere, siccare, discutere, extenuare et duritias in pus vertere. utuntur et crudis tusisque ad strumas atque furunculos. pyritarum etiamnum
1 gpongiosior tantum et alius B: om. celeri codd.: tactu pro tantum cont. Mayhoff. 2 dein in Janus: dein codd.
9 The statement is far from clear and has caused some discussion. Did Varro mean that rotary mills were invented at Volsinii or that stones suitable for them were found there? Probably neither, if Pliny has understood him correctly. In this context he is surely reporting a curiosity. Round mill. stones were found, ready for use in their natural state.
In Greece and Italy lava was normally the material of which millstones were made.
IIO
BOOK XXXVI. xxix. 135-xxx. 138
that rotary querns have been found at Bolsena;* and we find in records of miraculous occurrences that some querns have even moved of their own accord. XXX. Nowhere are more serviceable millstones to be found than in Italy, for here they are proper stones and not lumps of rock. In certain provinces, however, they are not found at all. Some stones of this kind are quite soft and can be smoothed also with a whetstone, so that from a distance they may be mistaken for serpentine. No other stones are more durable than millstones; for, as with wood, it is characteristic of stones of one sort or another to be unable to stand rain, sun or wintry weather. Some are affected even by the moon, while others acquire a patina in course of time or lose their white colour when treated with oil.
Some people call a millstone ' pyrites,' or 'fire- stone,' because there is a great amount of fire in it. However, there is another ' pyrites ' which is similar, only more porous, and yet another which resembles copper. It is claimed that in the mines near Acamas in Cyprus two kinds of pyrites are found, one having the colour of silver and the other of gold. "There are several ways of roasting the mineral. Some roast it two or three times with honey until the moisture is consumed, whereas others