Pliny
The Natural History
Translated with Copious Notes and Illustrations by the late
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. and H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Late Scholar of Clare Hall, Cambridge
Published by Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, London, 1855
The chapter numbers do not correspond with more recent translations of Pliny, therefore I have used only the book number and chapter title with each excerpt and have appended the current Loeb references in parentheses. All footnotes for these excerpts are from the nineteenth century translation.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: The wonderful forms of different nations.
(Refer to Book VII. 11 - 12 in Loeb edition..)
Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount Imaus,(1) the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose feet are turned backwards,(2) relatively to their legs: they possess wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately with the wild beasts. We learn from Baeton, whose duty it was to take the measurements of the routes of Alexander the Great, that this people cannot breathe in any climate except their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them before any of the neighboring kings; nor could any of them be brought before Alexander himself.
(1) The modern Himalaya range.
(2) Aulus Gellius relates this, among other wonderful tales, which are contained in his chapter “On the Miraculous Wonders of Barbarous Nations.” B. ix. C. 4. He cites, among his authorities, Aristeas and Isigonus, whom he designates as “writers of no mean authority.” – B
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: Instances of remarkable agility.
(Refer to Book VII. 84 in Loeb edition..)
It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between Athens and Lacedaemon, in two days, until Amystis, the Lacedoaemonian courier, and Philonides, the courier of Alexander the Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day, a distance of thirteen hundred and five stadia.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: Men of remarkable genius
(Refer to Book VII. 107 - 109 in Loeb edition..)
Among so many different pursuits, and so great a variety of works and objects, who can select the palm of glory for transcendent genius? Unless perchance we should agree in opinion that no more brilliant genius ever existed than the Greek poet Homer, whether it is that we regard the happy subject of his work, or the excellence of its execution. For this reason it was that Alexander the Great – and it is only by judges of such a high estate that a sentence, just and unbiased by envy, can be pronounced in the case of such lofty claims – when he found among the spoils of Darius, the king of Persia, a casket for perfumes,(1) enriched with gold, precious stones, and pearls, covered as he was with the dust of battle, deemed it beneath a warrior to make use of unguents, and, when his friends were pointing out to him its various uses, exclaimed, “Nay, but by Hercules! let the casket be used for preserving the poems of Homer;” that so the most precious work of the human mind might be placed in the keeping of the richest work of art. It was the same conqueror, too, who gave directions that the descendants and house of the poet Pindar(2) should be spared at the taking of Thebes. He likewise rebuilt the native city(3) of Aristotle, uniting to the extraordinary brilliancy of his exploits this speaking testimony of his kindliness of disposition.
(1) Pliny informs us in Book xiii that the art of making perfumes originated with the Persians. – B.
(2) The city was taken by him by assault, and all its buildings, with the exception of the house of Pindar, leveled to the ground; most of the inhabitants were slaughtered, and the rest sold as slaves.
(3) Stagirus, or Stagira, a town of Macedonia, in Chalcidice, on the Strymonic Gulf. It was a colony of Andros, founded 656 B.C., and originally called Orthagoria. It was destroyed by Philip, and, according to some accounts, was rebuilt by him, as having been the native place of Aristotle.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: Names of Men who have excelled in the arts, astrology, grammar, and medicine.
(Refer to Book VII. 124 in Loeb edition..)
Critobulus also rendered himself extremely famous, by extracting an arrow(1) from the eye of King Philip with much skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no defect to be seen.(2)
(1) It was on this occasion that a label was said to have been fastened on the arrow, inscribed, “to Philip’s right eye.” The inhabitants were permitted to depart, however, when the city was taken, with one garment to each person.
(2) This accident occurred to Philip, at the siege of Methone, of which we have a brief account in Diodorus Siculus, B. xvi. c. 7, and in Justin, B. vii. c. 6; but neither of these authors makes any mention of Critobulus. Quintus Curtius, B. ix. c. 5, informs us, that Critobulus exhibited great skill in relieving Alexander the Great from the effects of a dangerous wound, which he received in India; but he does not refer to the fact here mentioned. – B.
Complete chapter from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: Geometry and Architecture.
(Refer to Book VII. 125 in Loeb edition..)
M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a remarkable homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics, by giving orders that Archimedes was to be the only person who should not be molested; his commands, however, were disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence of one of the soldiers. Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian, was rendered famous by the admirable construction of the temple of Diana at Ephesus; Philon, by the construction of the basin at Athens, which was capable of containing one thousand vessels; Ctechines; and Dinochares, by the plan which he made of the city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same monarch, too, by public edict, declared that no one should paint his portrait except Apelles, and that no one should make a marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or a bronze one except Lysippus.* These arts have all been rendered glorious by many illustrious examples.
*Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, mentions the restrictions made in favour of Lysippus, but not does not extend it to Apelles; he does not speak of Pyrgoteles.
Excerpt from Natural History, Book VII – Chapter: The inventions of various things.
(Refer to Book VII. 207 - 208 in Loeb edition..)
We learn from Philostephanus, that Jason was the first person who sailed in a long vessel; Hegesias says it was Paralus, Ctesias, Semiramis, and Archemachus, Aegaeon. According to Damastes, the Erythraei were the first to construct vessels with two banks of oars; according to Thucydides, Aminocles, the Corinthian, first constructed them with three banks of oars; according to Aristotle, the Carthaginians, those with four banks; according to Mnesigiton, the people of Salamis, those with five banks; and according to Xenagoras, the Syracusans, those with six; those above six, as far as ten, Mnesigiton says were first constructed by Alexander the Great. From Philostephanus, we learn that Ptolemy Soter made them as high as twelve banks; Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, with fifteen, Ptolemy Philadelphus, with thirty; and Ptolemy Philopater, who was surnamed Tryphon, with forty.*
*The position of the rowers, in the vessels of the ancients, and, more especially, the mode in which the ranks, or “ordines.” were disposed with respect to each other has been a subject of much discussion. From the incidental remarks in the classical writers, and from the representations which still remain, particularly those on Trajan’s Column, and on certain coins, it would appear that they were disposed in stages, one above the other, and provided with oars of different lengths, in proportion to their distance from the water. But, although we may conceive that this was the case with two or three rows, it is impossible that a greater number could have been disposed in this manner. – B.