Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

(33.) Polybius has stated, that in a straight line from the Straits of Gades to the mouth of the Mæotis, it is a distance of three thousand four hundred and thirty-seven miles and a half, and that, starting from the same point, the distance in a straight line to Sicily is twelve hundred and fifty miles, from thence to Crete three hundred and seventy-five, to Rhodes one hundred and eighty-seven and a half, to the Chelidonian Islands the same distance, to Cyprus two hundred and twenty-five, and from thence to Seleucia Pieria, in Syria, one hundred and fifteen miles: the sum of all which distances amounts to two thousand three hundred and forty miles. Agrippa estimates this same distance, in a straight line from the Straits of Gades to the Gulf of Issus, at three thousand three hundred and forty miles; in which computation, however, I am not certain that there is not some error in the figures, seeing that the same author has stated that the distance from the Straits of Sicily to Alexandria is thirteen hundred and fifty miles. Taking the whole length of the sea-line throughout the gulfs above-men- tioned, and beginning at the same point, he makes it ten thousand and fifty-eight miles; to which number Artemidorus has added seven hundred and fifty-six: the same author, including in his calculation the shores of the Mæotis, makes the whole distance seventeen thousand three hundred and ninety miles. Such is the measurement given by men who have penetrated into distant countries, unaided by force of arms, and have, with a boldness that exhibits itself in the times of peace even, challenged, as it were, Fortune herself.

  I shall now proceed to compare the dimensions of the various parts of the earth, however great the difficulties which may arise from the discrepancy of the accounts given by various authors: the most convenient method, however, will be that of adding the breadth to the length. Following this mode of reckoning, the dimensions of Europe will be eight thousand two hundred and ninety-four miles; of Africa, to adopt a mean between all the various accounts given by authors, the length is three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four miles, while the breadth, so far as it is inhabited, in no part exceeds two hundred and fifty miles. But, as Agrippa, including its deserts, makes it from Cyrenaica, a part of it, to the country of the Garamantes, so far as was then known, a further distance of nine hundred and ten miles, the entire length, added together, will make a distance of four thousand six hundred and eight miles. The length of Asia is generally admitted to be six thousand three hundred and seventy-five miles, and the breadth, which ought, properly, to be reckoned from the Æthiopian Sea to Alexandria, near the river Nile, so as to run through Meroë and Syene, is eighteen hundred and seventy-five. It appears then that Europe is greater than Asia, by a little less than one half of Asia, and greater than Africa by as much again of Africa and one-sixth. If all these sums are added together, it will be clearly seen that Europe is one-third, and a little more than one-eighth part of one-third, Asia one-fourth and one-four- teenth part of one-fourth, and Africa, one-fifth and one-sixtieth part of one-fifth of the whole earth.

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  CHAP. 39.

  DIVISION OF THE EARTH INTO PARALLELS AND SHADOWS OF EQUAL LENGTH.

  To the above we shall add even another instance of ingenious discovery by the Greeks, and indeed of the most minute skilfulness; that so nothing may be wanting to our investigation of the geographical divisions of the earth, and the various countries thereof which have been pointed out; that it may be the better understood, too, what affinity, or relationship as it were, exists between one region and another, in respect to the length of their days and nights, and in which of them the shadows are of equal length, and the distance from the pole is the same. I shall therefore give these particulars as well, and shall state the divisions of the whole earth in accordance with the various sections of the heavens. The lines or segments which divide the world are many in number; by our people they are known as “circuli” or circles, by the Greeks they are called “paralleli” or parallels.

  (34.) The first begins at that part of India which looks towards the south, and extends to Arabia and those who dwell upon the borders of the Red Sea. It embraces the Gedrosi, the Carmanii, the Persæ, the Elymæi, Parthyene, Aria, Susiane, Mesopotamia, Seleucia surnamed Babylonia, Arabia as far as Petra, Cœle Syria, Pelusium, the lower parts of Egypt called the Chora of Alexandria, the maritime parts of Africa, all the cities of Cyrenaica, Thapsus, Adrumetum, Clupea, Carthage, Utica, the two Hippo’s, Numidia, the two Mauritanias, the Atlantic Sea, and the Pillars of Hercules. Within the meridian of this parallel, on the middle day of the equinox, the pin of the dial, usually called the gnomon, if seven feet in length, throws a shadow at mid-day no more than four feet long: the longest day and night are fourteen equinoctial hours respectively, the shortest being only ten.

  The next circle or parallel begins with the western parts of India, and runs through the middle of Parthia, through Persepolis, the nearer parts of Persis, the nearer Arabia, Judæa, and the people who live near Mount Libanus, and it embraces Babylon, Idumæa, Samaria, Hierosolyma, Ascalon, Joppa, Cæsarea in Phoenicia, Ptolemais, Sidon, Tyre, Berytus, Botrys, Tripolis, Byblus, Antiochia, Laodicea, Seleucia, the maritime parts of Cilicia, the southern parts of Cyprus, Crete, Lilybæum in Sicily, and the northern parts of Africa and Numidia. In these regions, at the time of the equinox, a gnomon of thirty-five feet in length gives only a shadow twenty-four feet long; and the longest day and night are respectively fourteen equinoctial hours, and one-fifth of an hour, in length.

  The third circle or parallel begins at the part of India which lies in the vicinity of Mount Imaiis, and runs through the Caspian Gates and the nearer parts of Media, Cataonia, (appadocia, Taurus, Amanus, Issus, the Passes of Cilicia, Soli, Tarsus, Cyprus, Pisidia, Side in Pamphylia, Lycaonia, Patara in Lycia, Xanthus, Caunus, Rhodes, Cos, Halicarnassus, Cnidos, Doris, Chios, Delos, the middle of the Cyclades, Gythium, Malea, Argos, Laconia, Elis, Olympia, Messenia in Peloponnesus, Syracuse, Catina, the middle of Sicily, the southern parts of Sardinia, Carteia, and Gades. A gnomon, one hundred inches in length, throws a shadow seventy-seven inches long; the length of the longest day is fourteen equinoctial hours and a half, plus one thirtieth of an hour.

  Under the fourth circle or parallel lie those parts of India which are on the other side of the Imaiis, the southern parts of Cappadocia, Galatia, Mysia, Sardis, Smyrna, Sipylus, Mount Tmolus, Lydia, Caria, Ionia, Tralles, Colophon, Ephesus, Miletus, Chios, Samos, the Icarian Sea, the northern part of the Cyclades, Athens, Megara, Corinth, Sicyon, Achaia, Patræ, the Isthmus, Epirus, the northern parts of Sicily, the eastern parts of Gallia Narbonensis, and the sea-coast of Spain, from New Carthage westward. In these districts a gnomon of twenty-one feet throws a shadow of sixteen feet in length; the longest day contains fourteen equinoctial hours and two-thirds of an hour.

  Under the fifth zone are included, from the entrance to the Caspian Sea, the Bactri, Iberia, Armenia, Mysia, Phrygia, the Hellespont, Troas, Tenedos, Abydos, Scepsis, Ilium, Mount Ida, Cyzicus, Lampsacus, Sinope, Amisus, Heraclea in Pontus, Paphlagonia, Lemnos, Imbros, Thasos, Cassandria, Thessaly, Macedonia, Larissa, Amphipolis, Thessalonica, Pella, Edessa, Berœa, Pharsalia, Carystus, Eubœa in Bœotia, Chalcis, Delphi, Acarnania, Ætolia, Apollonia, Brudisium, Tarentum, Thurii, Locri, Rhegium, the Lucani, Neapolis, Puteoli, the Tuscan Sea, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, and the middle of Spain. A gnomon, seven feet in length, in these countries gives a shadow of six feet, and the length of the day is fifteen equinoctial hours.

  The sixth division, in which Rome is included, embraces the Caspian nations, Caucasus, the northern parts of Armenia, Apollonia on the Rhyndacus, Nicomedia, Nicæa, Chalcedon, Byzantium, Lysimachia, the Chersonnesus, the Gulf of Melas, Abdera, Samothracia, Maronea, Ænus, Bessica, Thracia, Mædica, Pæonia, the Illyrii, Dyrrhachium, Canusium, the extreme parts of Apulia, Campania, Etruria, Pisæ, Luna, Luca, Genua, Liguria, Antipolis, Massilia, Narbo, Tarraco, the middle parts of Hispania Tarraconensis, and thence through Lusitania. A gnomon of nine feet here throws a shadow eight feet long; the greatest length of the day is fifteen
equinoctial hours, plus one-ninth part of an hour, or, according to Nigidius, one-fifth.

  The seventh division begins on the other side of the Caspian Sea, and the line runs above Callatis, and through the Bosporus, the Borysthenes, Tomi, the back part of Thrace, the Triballi, the remainder of Illyricum, the Adriatic Sea, Aquileia, Altinum, Venetia, Vicetia, Patavium, Verona, Cremona, Ravenna, Ancona, Picenum, the Marsi, the Peligni, the Sabini, Umbria, Ariminum, Bononia, Placentia, Mediolanum, all the districts at the foot of the Apennines, and, beyond the Alps, Gallia Aquitanica, Vienna, the Pyrenæan range, and Celtiberia. A gnomon thirty-five feet in length here throws a shadow of thirty-six feet, except in some parts of Venetia, where the shadow just equals the length of the gnomon; the longest day is fifteen equinoctial hours, plus three-fifths of an hour.

  Thus far we have set forth the results of observations made by the ancients. The remaining part of the earth has been divided, through the careful researches of those of more recent times, by three additional parallels. The first runs from the Tanais through the Mæotis and the country of the Sarmatæ, as far as the Borysthenes, and so through the Daci and part of Germany, and the Gallic provinces, as far as the shores of the ocean, the longest day being sixteen hours.

  The second parallel runs through the country of the Hyperborei and the island of Britannia, the longest day being seventeen hours in length.

  The last of all is the Scythian parallel, which runs from the Riphæan range to Thule, in which, as we have already stated, the year is divided into days and nights alternately, of six months’ duration. The same authors have also placed before the first parallel, which we have here given, two other parallels or circles; the first running through the island of Meroë and the city of Ptolemais which was built on the Red Sea for the chase of the elephant; where the longest day is twelve hours and a half in length; and the second passing through Syene in Egypt, in which the longest day is thirteen hours in length. The same authors have also added half an hour to each of the parallels, till they come to the last.

  Thus far on the Geography of the earth.

  SUMMARY. — Towns mentioned, eleven hundred and ninety-four. Nations, five hundred and seventy-six. Noted rivers, one hundred and fifteen. Famous mountains, thirty-eight. Islands, one hundred and eight. Peoples or towns no longer in existence, ninety-five. Remarkable events, narratives, and observations, two thousand two hundred and fourteen.

  ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED. — M.Agrippa, M. Varro, Varro Atacinus, Cornelius Nepos, Hyginus, L. Vetus, Mela Pomponius, Domitius Corbulo, Licinius Mucianus, Claudius Cæsar, Arruntius, Sebosus, Fabricius Tuscus, T. Livius, Seneca, Nigidius.

  FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED. — King Juba, Hecatæus, Hellenicus, Damastes, Eudoxus, Dicæarchus, Bæton, Timosthenes, Patrocles, Demodamas, Clitarchus, Eratosthenes, Alexander the Great, Ephorus, Hipparchus, Panætius, Callimachus, Artemidorus, Apol- lodorus, Agathocles, Polybius, Eumachus, Timæus Siculus, Alexander Polyhistor, Isidorus, Amometus, Metrodorus, Posidonius, Onesicritus, Nearchus, Megasthenes, Diognetus, Aristocreon, Bion, Dalion, the Younger Simonides, Basilis, Xenophon of Lampsacus.

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  BOOK VII. MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.

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  CHAP. 1.

  MAN.

  SUCH then is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, more remarkable seas, islands, and cities which it contains. The nature of the animated beings which exist upon it, is hardly in any degree less worthy of our contemplation than its other features; if, indeed, the human mind is able to embrace the whole of so diversified a subject. Our first attention is justly due to Man, for whose sake all other things appear to have been produced by Nature; though, on the other hand, with so great and so severe penalties for the enjoyment of her bounteous gifts, that it is far from easy to determine, whether she has proved to him a kind parent, or a merciless step-mother.

  In the first place, she obliges him alone, of all animated beings, to clothe himself with the spoils of the others; while, to all the rest, she has given various kinds of coverings, such as shells, crusts, spines, hides, furs, bristles, hair, down, feathers, scales, and fleeces. The very trunks of the trees even, she has protected against the effects of heat and cold by a bark, which is, in some cases, twofold. Man alone, at the very moment of his birth cast naked upon the laked earth, does she abandon to cries, to lamentations, and, a thing that is the case with no other animal whatever, to tears: this, too, from the very moment that he enters upon existence. But as for laughter, why, by Hercules! — to laugh, if but for an instant only, has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and then it is looked upon as a miracle of precocity. Introduced thus to the light, man has fetters and swathings instantly put upon all his limbs, a thing that falls to the lot of none of the brutes even that are born among us. Born to such singular good fortune, there lies the animal, which is destined to command all the others, lies, fast bound hand and foot, and weeping aloud! such being the penalty which he has to pay on beginning life, and that for the sole fault of having been born. Alas! for the folly of those who can think after such a beginning as this, that they have been born for the display of vanity!

  The earliest presage of future strength, the earliest bounty of time, confers upon him nought but the resemblance to a quadruped. How soon does man gain the power of walking? How soon does he gain the faculty of speech? How soon is his mouth fitted for mastication? How long are the pulsations of the crown of his head to proclaim him the weakest of all ani- mated beings? And then, the diseases to which he is subject, the numerous remedies which he is obliged to devise against his maladies, and those thwarted every now and then by new forms and features of disease. While other animals have an instinctive knowledge of their natural powers; some, of their swiftness of pace, some of their rapidity of flight, and some again of their power of swimming; man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught; he can neither speak, nor walk, nor eat, and, in short, he can do nothing, at the prompting of nature only, but weep. For this it is, that many have been of opinion, that it were better not to have been born, or if born, to have been annihilated at the earliest possible moment.

  To man alone, of all animated beings, has it been given, to grieve, to him alone to be guilty of luxury and excess; and that in modes innumerable, and in every part of his body. Man is the only being that is a prey to ambition, to avarice, to an immoderate desire of life, to superstition, — he is the only one that troubles himself about his burial, and even what is to become of him after death. By none is life held on a tenure more frail; none are more influenced by unbridled desires for all things; none are sensible of fears more bewildering; none are actuated by rage more frantic and violent. Other animals, in fine, live at peace with those of their own kind; we only see them unite to make a stand against those of a different species. The fierceness of the lion is not expended in fighting with its own kind; the sting of the serpent is not aimed at the serpent; and the monsters of the sea even, and the fishes, vent their rage only on those of a different species. But with man, — by Hercules! most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.

  (1.) We have already given a general description of the human race in our account of the different nations. Nor, indeed, do I now propose to treat of their manners and customs, which are of infinite variety and almost as numerous as the various groups themselves, into which mankind is divided; but yet there are some things, which, I think, ought not to be omitted; and more particularly, in relation to those peoples which dwell at a considerable distance from the sea; among which, I have no doubt, that some facts will appear of an astounding nature, and, indeed, incredible to many. Who, for instance, could ever believe in the existence of the Æthiopians, who had not first seen them? Indeed what is there that does not appear marvellous, when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible, until they ha
ve been actually effected? But it is the fact, that every moment of our existence we are distrusting the power and the majesty of Nature, if the mind, instead of grasping her in her entirety, considers her only in detail. Not to speak of peacocks, the spotted skins of tigers and panthers, and the rich colours of so many animals, a trifling thing apparently to speak of, but of inestimable importance, when we give it due consideration, is the existence of so many languages among the various nations, so many modes of speech, so great a variety of expressions; that to another, a man who is of a different country, is almost the same as no man at all. And then, too, the human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned, that among so many thousands of men, there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another, a result which no art could possibly have produced, when confined to so limited a number of combinations. In most points, however, of this nature, I shall not be content to pledge my own credit only, but shall confirm it in preference by referring to my authorities, which shall be given on all subjects of a nature to inspire doubt. My readers, however, must make no objection to following the Greeks, who have proved them- selves the most careful observers, as well as of the longest standing.

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  CHAP. 2.

  THE WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

  We have already stated, that there are certain tribes of the Scythians, and, indeed, many other nations, which feed upon human flesh. This fact itself might, perhaps, appear incredible, did we not recollect, that in the very centre of the earth, in Italy and Sicily, nations formerly existed with these monstrous propensities, the Cyclopes, and the Læstrygones, for example; and that, very recently, on the other side of the Alps, it was the custom to offer human sacrifices, after the manner of those nations; and the difference is but small between sacrificing human beings and eating them.