Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/431

Rh PLINIUS. some singular details. He then brings forward a variety of examples (chiefly of Romans) of persons distinguished for remarkable mental powers, moral greatness, courage, wisdom, &c., preserving some interesting anecdotes respecting the persons ad- duced. Then follow some notices of those most distinguished in the sciences and arts, and of persons remarkable for their honours or good for- tune, in connection with which he does not forget to point out how the most prosperous condition is frequently marred by adverse circumstances. He then mentions a number of instances of great lon- gevity. Men's liability to disease draws from him some pettish remarks, and even some instances which he mentions of resuscitation from apparent death only lead to the observation : haec est conditio mortalium ; ad has et ejusmodi occaaiones fortunae yiynimur^ uti de liomine ne morti quidem debeat credi (vii. 52). Sudden death he looks upon as an especially remarkable phaenomenon, and at the same time the happiest thing that can happen to a man. The idea of a future existence of the soul he treats as ridiculous, and as spoiling the greatest blessing of nature— death (c. 55 or 56). It must have been in some peculiar sense, then, that he be- lieved in apparitions after death (c. 52 or 53). The remainder of the book is occupied with a di- gression on the most remarkable inventions of men, and the authors of them. He remarks that the first thing in which men agreed by tacit consent was the use of the alphabet of the lonians ; the second the employment of barbers ; the third marking the hours. The eighth book is occupied with an account of terrestrial animals. They are not enumerated in any systematic manner. There is, indeed, some approximation to an arrangement according to size, the elephant being the first in the list and the dormouse the last, but mammalia and reptiles, quadrupeds, serpents, and snails, are jumbled up together. For trustworthy information regarding the habits and organisation of animals the reader will commonly look in vain : a good part of almost every article is erroneous, false, or fabulous. Pliny's account is, of course, filled with all the most extra- ordinary stories that he had met with, illustrating the habits or instinct of the ditferent animals. The elephant he even believes to be a moral and reli- gious animal, and to worship the sun and moon (viii. 1). His entertaining account of the elephant and the lion will give somewhat favourable samples of the style in which he discusses natural history (viii. 1—11, IG). The reader of the seventh book will be prepared to find in the eighth the most ex- traordinary and impossible creatures figuring by the side of the lion and the horse. Thus we have the achlis, without joints in its legs (c. 16) ; winged horses armed with horns (c. 30) ; the mantichora, with a triple row of teeth, the face and ears of a man, the body of a lion, and a tail which pierces like that of a scorpion (ib.) ; the monoceros, with the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, and a black horn on its forehead two cubits long (c. 31) ; the catoblepas, whose eyes are instantly fatal to any man who meets their glance (c. 32) ; and the basilisk, pos- sessed of powers equally remarkable (c. 33). Pliny certainly was not the man to throw out the taunt : mirum est quo procedat Graeca credulitas (viii. 22 or 34). He cites Ctesias with as much confidence as Aristotle ; and it is not unlikely that in some PLINIUS. 419 instances he has transformed the symbolical animals sculptured at Persepolis into real natural pro- ductions. With his usual proneness to ramble off into digressions, his account of the sheep furnishes him with an opportunity for giving a variety of details regarding different kinds of clothing, and the novelties or improvements introduced in it (viii. 48 or 73). In the ninth book he proceeds to the different races inhabiting the water, in which element he believes that even more extraordinary animals are produced than on the earth, the seeds and germs of living creatures being more intermingled by the agency of the winds and waves, so that he assents to the common opinion that there is nothing pro- duced in any other part of nature which is not found in the sea, while the latter has many things peculiar to itself. Thus he finds no difficulty in believing that a live Triton, of the commonly re- ceived form, and a Nereid, had been seen and heard on the coast of Spain in the reign of Tiberius, and tliat a great number of dead Nereids had been found on the beach in the reign of Augustus, to say nothing of sea-elephants and sea-goats. The story of Arion and the dolphin he thinks amply confirmed by numerous undoubted instances of the attach- ment shown by dolphins for men, and especially boys. It seems that these creatures are remark- ably apt at answering to the name Simon, which they prefer to any other (c. 8). Pliny, however, rightly terms whales and dolphins beluae, not pisCes^ though the only classification of marine animals is one according to their integuments (ix. 12 or 14, 13 or 15). His account of the ordinary habits of the whale is tolerably accurate ; and indeed, gene- rally speaking, the ninth book exhibits much less of the marvellous and exaggerated tiian some of the others. He recognises seventy-four different kinds of fishes, with thirty of Crustacea (14 or 16). The eagerness with which pearls, purple dye, and shell-fish are sought for excites Pliny to vehement objurgation of the luxury and rapacity of the age (c. 34). On the supposed origin of pearls, and the mode of extracting the purple dye, he enters at considerable length (c. 34 — 41). Indeed, as he sarcastically remarks : abunde tradata est ratio qua se virorum jvjcta feminarumque forma credit amplis- simam fieri. The tenth book is devoted to an account of birds, beginning with the largest — the ostrich. As to the phoenix even Pliny is sceptical ; but he has some curious statements about eagles, and several other birds. The leading distinction which he recognises among birds is that depending on the form of the feet (x. 11 or 13). Those, also, which have not talons but toes, are subdivided into oscines and alites, the fonner being distin- guished by their note, the latter by their different sizes (c. 19 or 22). He notices that those with crooked talons are usually carnivorous ; that those which are heavy feed on grain or fruits ; those that fly high, on flesh (c. 47). The validity of augury he does not seem to question. Though he had found no difficulty in winged horses (viii. 21), he regards as fabulous winged Pegasi with horses' heads. The substance of the bird when hatched he states to be derived from the white of the egg, the yolk serving as its food (c. 53). From his account of eggs he digresses into a general dis- cussion of the phaenomena of generation in animals of all kinds (c. 62, &c.), in connection with which K R 2