Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 264

3437 At the beginning of C. 4.

3438 Which gives name to the modern Fezzan.

3439 Now called Tanet-Mellulen, or the station of Mellulen, on the route from Gadamez to Oserona.

3440 Zaouila or Zala, half way between Augyla and Mourzouk.

3441 Now Gadamez, which, according to Marcus, is situate almost under the same meridian as Old Tripoli, the ancient Sabrata.

3442 According to Marcus this range still bears the name of Gibel-Assoud, which in the Arabic language means the “Black Mountain.”

3443 In a southerly direction. He alludes probably to the Desert of Bildulgerid.

3444 This spring is also mentioned by Pliny in B. ii. c. 106. Marcus suggests that the Debris of Pliny is the same as the Bedir of Ptolemy. He also remarks that the English traveller Oudney discovered caverns hewn out of the sides of the hills, evidently for the purposes of habitation, but of which the use is not known by the present people. These he considers to have been the abodes of the ancient Troglodytæ or “cave-dwellers.” In the Tibesti range of mountains, however, we find a race called the Rock Tibboos, from the circumstance of their dwelling in caves.

3445 Cornelius Balbus Gaditanus the Younger, who, upon his victories over the Garamantes, obtained a triumph in the year B.C. 19.

3446 L. Cornelius Balbus the Elder, also a native of Gades. He obtained the consulship in B.C. 40, the first instance, as we find mentioned by Pliny, B. vii. c. 44, in which this honour had been conferred upon one who was not a Roman citizen.

3447 On the occasion of a triumph by a Roman general, boards were carried aloft on “fercula,” on which were painted in large letters the names of vanquished nations and countries. Here too models were exhibited in ivory or wood of the cities and forts captured, and pictures of the mountains, rivers, and other great natural features of the subjugated region, with appropriate inscriptions. Marcus is of opinion that the names of the places here mentioned do not succeed in any geographical order, but solely according to their presumed importance as forming part of the conquest of Balbus. He also thinks that Balbus did not penetrate beyond the fifteenth degree of north latitude, and that his conquests did not extend so far south as the banks of Lake Tchad.

3448 The site of Garama still bears the name of ‘Gherma,’ and presents very considerable remains of antiquity. It is four days’ journey north of Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan.

3449 Now Tibesti, according to Marcus.

3450 Marcus suggests that this is probably the Febabo of modern geographers, to the N.E. of Belma and Tibesti.

3451 Discera was the Im-Zerah of modern travellers, on the road from Sockna to Mourzouk, according to Marcus, who is of opinion that the places which follow were situate at the east and north-east of Thuben and the Black Mountain.

3452 Om-El-Abid, to the N.W. of Garama or Gherma, according to Marcus, and Oudney the traveller.

3453 The same, Marcus thinks, as the modern Tessava in Fezzan.

3454 Marcus suggests that this may be the modern Sana.

3455 The town of Winega mentioned by Oudney, was probably the ancient Pega, according to Marcus.

3456 The modern Missolat, according to Marcus, on the route from Tripoli to Murmuck.

3457 According to Marcus, this was the Mount Goriano of the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, where, confirming the statement here made by Pliny, they found quartz, jasper, onyx, agates, and cornelians.

3458 Mentioned by Tacitus, B. iv. c. 50. The town of Œa has been alluded to by Pliny in C. 4.

3459 “Past the head of the rock.” Marcus suggests that this is the Gibel-Gelat or Rock of Gelat spoken of by the English travellers Denham, Clapperton, and Oudney, forming a portion of the chain of Guriano or Gyr. He says, that at the foot of this mountain travellers have to pass from Old and New Tripoli on their road to Missolat, the Maxala of Pliny, and thence to Gerama or Gherma, the ancient capital of Fezzan.

3460 As Marcus observes, this would not make it to extend so far south as the sixteenth degree of north latitude.

3461 The Mareotis of the time of the Ptolemies extended from Alexandria to the Gulf of Plinthinethes; and Libya was properly that portion of territory which extended from that Gulf to Catabathmos. Pliny is in error here in confounding the two appellations, or rather, blending them into one. It includes the eastern portion of the modern Barca, and the western division of Lower Egypt. It most probably received its name from the Lake Mareotis, and not the lake from it.

3462 This was a seaport town on the northern coast of Africa, probably about eleven or twelve miles west of Parætonium, sometimes spoken of as belonging to Egypt, sometimes to Marmorica. Scylax places it at the western boundary of Egypt, on the frontier of the Marmaridæ. Ptolemy, like Pliny, speaks of it as being in the Libyan Nomos. The distances given in the MSS. of Pliny of this place from Parætonium are seventy-two, sixty-two, and twelve miles; the latter is probably the correct reading, as Strabo, B. xvii., makes the distance 100 stadia. It is extremely doubtful whether the Apis mentioned by Herodotus, B. ii. c. 18, can be the same place: but there is little doubt, from the words of Pliny here, that it was dedicated to the worship of the Egyptian god Apis, who was represented under the form of a bull.

3463 Now called Zerbi and Jerba, derived from the name of Girba, which even in the time of Aurelius Victor, had supplanted that of Meninx. It is situate in the Gulf of Cabes. According to Solinus, C. Marius lay in concealment here for some time. It was famous for its purple. See B. ix. c. 60.

3464 Now called Kerkéni, Karkenah, or Ramlah.

3465 Now Gherba. It was reckoned as a mere appendage to Cercina, to which it was joined by a mole, and which is found often mentioned in history.

3466 Still called Lampedusa, off the coast of Tunis. This island, with Gaulos and Galata, has been already mentioned among the islands off Sicily; see B. iii. c. 14.

3467 Now Pantellaria. See B. iii. c. 14.

3468 A lofty island surrounded by dangerous cliffs, now called Zowamour or Zembra.

3469 In the former editions the word “Aræ” is taken to refer to the Ægimuri, as meaning the same islands. Sillig is however of opinion that totally distinct groups are meant, and punctuates accordingly. The “Aræ” were probably mere rocks lying out at sea, which received their name from their fancied resemblance to altars. They are mentioned by Virgil in the Æneid, B. i. l. 113, upon which lines Servius says, that they were so called because there the Romans and the people of Africa on one occasion made a treaty.

3470 The greater portion of this Chapter is extracted almost verbatim from the account given by Mela. Ptolemy seems to place the Liby-Egyptians to the south of the Greater and Lesser Oasis, on the route thence to Darfour.

3471 Or “White Æthiopians,” men though of dark complexion, not negroes. Marcus is of opinion that the words “intervenientibus desertis” refer to the tract of desert country lying between the Leucæthiopians and the Liby-Egyptians, and not to that between the Gætulians on the one hand and the Liby-Egyptians and the Leucæthiopians on the other.

3472 Meaning to the south and the south-east of these three nations, according to Marcus. Rennel takes the Leucæthiopians to be the present Mandingos of higher Senegambia: Marcus however thinks that they are the Azanaghis, who dwell on the edge of the Great Desert, and are not of so black a complexion as the Mandingos.

3473 Probably the people of the present Nigritia or Soudan.

3474 Marcus is of opinion that Pliny does not here refer to the Joliba of Park and other travellers, as other commentators have supposed; but that he speaks of the river called Zis by the modern geographers, and which Jackson speaks of as flowing from the south-east towards north-west. The whole subject of the Niger is however enwrapped in almost impenetrable obscurity, and as the most recent inquirers have not come to any conclusion on the subject, it would be little more than a waste of time and space to enter upon an investigation of the notions which Pliny and Mela entertained on the subject.

3475 From γυμνὸς, “naked.”

3476 Mentioned in C. 1 of the present Book.

3477 He refers to the words in the Odyssey, B. i. l. 23, 24.—

Αἰθίοπας τοὶ δίχθα δεδαιάται, ἔσχατοι ἄνδρων·

Οἱ μὲν δυσομένου Ὑπερίονος, οἱ δ’ ἀνιόντος.

“The Æthiopians, the most remote of mankind, are divided into two parts, the one at the setting of Hyperion, the other at his rising.”

3478 A tribe of Æthiopia, whose position varied considerably at different epochs of history. Their predatory and savage habits caused the most extraordinary reports to be spread of their appearance and ferocity. The more ancient geographers bring them as far westward as the region beyond the Libyan Desert, and into the vicinity of the Oases. In the time however of the Antonines, when Ptolemy was composing his description of Africa, they appear to the south and east of Egypt, in the wide and almost unknown tract which lay between the rivers Astapus and Astobores.

3479 Mela speaks of this race as situate farthest to the west. The description of them here given is from Herodotus, B. iv. c. 183-185, who speaks of them under the name of “Atarantes.”

3480 The people who are visited by no dreams, are called Atlantes by Herodotus, the same name by which Pliny calls them. He says that their territory is ten days’ journey from that of the Atarantes.

3481 This also is borrowed from Herodotus. As some confirmation of this account, it is worthy of remark, that the Rock Tibboos of the present day, who, like the ancient Troglodytæ, dwell in caves, have so peculiar a kind of speech, that it is compared by the people of Aujelah to nothing but the whistling of birds. The Troglodytæ of Fezzan are here referred to, not those of the coasts of the Red Sea.

3482 Mela says that they look upon the Manes or spirits of the departed as their only deities.

3483 This is said, in almost the same words, of the Garamantes, by Herodotus. The mistake was probably made by Mela in copying from Herodotus, and continued by Pliny when borrowing from him.

3484 So called from their supposed resemblance in form to the Satyrs of the ancient mythology, who were represented as little hairy men with horns, long ears, and tails. They were probably monkeys, which had been mistaken for men.

3485 Half goat, half man. See the Note 3254 relative to Ægipan, in C. 1 of the present Book, p. 378.

3486 Evidently intended to be derived from the Greek ἱμὰς “a thong,” and πόδες “the feet.” It is most probable that the name of a savage people in the interior bore a fancied resemblance to this word, upon which the marvellous story here stated was coined for the purpose of tallying with the name. From a statement in the Æthiopica of Heliodorus, B. x., Marcus suggests that the story as to the Blemmyæ having no heads arose from the circumstance, that on the invasion of the Persians they were in the habit of falling on one knee and bowing the head to the breast, by which means, without injury to themselves, they afforded a passage to the horses of the enemy.

3487 It must be remembered, as already mentioned, that the ancients looked upon Egypt as forming part of Asia, not of Africa. It seems impossible to say how this supposition arose, when the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez form so natural and so palpable a frontier between Asia and Africa.

3488 It is not improbable that these numbers are incorrectly stated in the MSS. of our author.

3489 Parisot remarks that Pliny is in error in this statement. A considerable part of Lower Egypt lay both on the right and left of the Delta or island formed by the branches of the Nile. It must be remembered, however, that our author has already included a portion of what was strictly Egypt, in his description of Libya Mareotis.

3490 By reason of its triangular form, Δ.

3491 The Ombite nome worshipped the crocodile as the emblem of Sebak. Its capital was Ombos.

3492 This nome destroyed the crocodile and worshipped the sun. Its capital was Apollinopolis Magna.

3493 It worshipped Osiris and his son Orus. The chief town was Thermonthis.

3494 Probably the original kingdom of Menes of This, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. It worshipped Osiris. Its capital was This, afterwards called Abydos.

3495 The nome of Thebes, which was its chief town.

3496 Its capital was Coptos.

3497 Its chief town was Tentyra. This nome worshipped Athor or Venus, Isis, and Typhon. It destroyed the crocodile.

3498 Perhaps the same as the Panopolite or Chemmite nome, which had for its chief town Chemmis or Panopolis. It paid divine honours to a deified hero.

3499 It probably worshipped Typhon. Its capital was Antæopolis.

3500 Probably an offshoot from a nome in the Heptanomis of similar name.

3501 Dedicated to the worship of the wolf. Its chief town was Lycopolis. It should be remarked that these names do not appear to be given by Pliny in their proper geographical order.

3502 Some of these nomes were inconsiderable and of little importance. The Bubastite nome worshipped Bubastis, Artemis, or Diana, of whom it contained a fine temple.

3503 Its chief town was Tanis. In this nome, according to tradition, Moses was born.

3504 Its capital was Athribis, where the shrew-mouse and crocodile were worshipped.

3505 The seat of the worship of the dog-headed deity Anubis. Its capital was Cynopolis; which is to be distinguished from the Deltic city and other places of that name, as this was a nome of the Heptanomis or Middle Egypt, to which also the Hammonian nome belonged.

3506 The border nome of Upper and Middle Egypt.

3507 Its capital was Pachnamunis. It worshipped a goddess corresponding to the Greek Leto, or the Latona of the Romans.

3508 Its capital was Busiris. It worshipped Isis, and at one period was said to have sacrificed the nomad tribes of Syria and Arabia.

3509 Its chief town was Onuphis.

3510 Its chief city was Sais, and it worshipped Neith or Athene, and contained the tomb and a sanctuary of Osiris.

3511 Its capital was Tava.

3512 Its chief town was Naucratis on the coast, the birth-place of Athenæus, the Deipnosophist. By some authors it is made part of the Saitic nome. The names given by Pliny vary very considerably from those found in others of the ancient writers.

3513 The capital of this nome was Heracleopolis, ‘The city of Hercules,’ as Pliny calls it, situate, as he says, on an island, at the entrance of the nome of Arsinoïtes, formed by the Nile and a canal. After Memphis and Heliopolis, it was probably the most important city south of the Thebaid. Its ruins are inconsiderable; a portion of them are to be seen at the modern hamlet of Amasieh.

3514 He probably means Arsinoë or Arsinoïtis, the chief town of the nome of that name, and the city so called at the northern extremity of the Heroöpolite Gulf in the Red Sea. The former is denoted by the modern district of El-Fayoom, the most fertile of ancient Egypt. At this place the crocodile was worshipped. The Labyrinth and Lake Mœris were in this nome. Extensive ruins at Medinet-el-Fayoom, or El-Fares, represent its site. The modern Ardscherud, a village near Suez, corresponds to Arsinoë on the Red Sea. There is some little doubt however whether this last Arsinoë is the one here meant by Pliny.

3515 Memphis was the chief city of this nome, which was situate in Middle Egypt, and was the capital of the whole country, and the residence of the Pharaohs, who succeeded Psammetichus, B.C. 616. This nome rose in importance on the decline of the kingdom of Thebais, but was afterwards eclipsed by the progress of Alexandria under the successors of Alexander the Great.

3516 At which Middle Egypt terminates.

3517 They are more generally looked upon as forming one nome only, and included under the name of Hammonium.

3518 Its chief town was Heroöpolis, a principal seat of the worship of Typhon, the evil or destroying genius.

3519 The same as the nome of Arsinoïtes, the capital of which, Arsinoë, was originally called Crocodilopolis.

3520 Now known as Birket-el-Keroum. This was a vast lake on the western side of the Nile in Middle Egypt, used for the reception and subsequent distribution of a part of the overflow of the Nile. The supposition that it was formed by artificial means is now pretty generally exploded, and it is regarded as of natural formation. It was situate in the nome of Arsinoïtes or Crocodilopolites. Its length seems to be overstated by our author, as at the present day it is only thirty miles in length and five in breadth at the widest part.

3521 And it is generally supposed that they are so up to the present day. The ethnographer Jablonski is of opinion that this river derives its name from the Coptish word tneialei “to rise at stated times.” Servius, the commentator on Virgil, says that it is derived from the two Greek words νέα ἰλὺς “fresh mud,” in allusion to the fresh mud or slime which it leaves after each inundation. Singularly enough, Champollion prefers this silly etymology to that suggested by Jablonski.

3522 An interesting disquisition on the probable sources of the Nile, as viewed by the ancients, is to be found in the Ninth Book of Lucan’s Pharsalia. The Indian word “nilas,” “black,” has also been suggested as its possible origin.

3523 What spot is meant under this name, if indeed it is anything more than the creation of fancy, it is impossible to ascertain with any degree of precision. It is possible however that the ancients may have had some knowledge of Lake Tchad, and the Mountains of the Moon, or Djebel-Kumri, though at the same time it is more than doubtful that the Nile has its source in either of those localities, the former especially.

3524 Perhaps a kind of river lamprey. As to the Coracinus, see B. ix. c. 24, 32, and B. xxxii. c. 19, 24, 34, 44, and 53; and as to the Silurus, B. ix. c. 17, 25, and B. xxxii. c. 31, 36, 40, 43, 44, &c.

3525 The modern Vacur in Northern Africa.

3526 A district which in reality was at least 1200 or 1500 miles distant from any part of the Nile, and probably near 3000 from its real source.

3527 “Spargit.” It is doubtful whether this word means here “waters,” or “divides.” Probably however the latter is its meaning.

3528 This is the third or eastern branch of the river, now known as the Tacazze. It rises in the highlands of Abyssinia, in about 11° 40′ north lat. and 39° 40′ east long., and joins the main stream of the Nile, formed by the union of the Abiad and the Azrek, in 17° 45′ north lat. and about 34° 5′ east long.; the point of junction being the apex of the island of Meroë, here mentioned by Pliny.

3529 Possibly by this name he designates the Bahr-el-Abied, or White River, the main stream of the Nile, the sources of which have not been hitherto satisfactorily ascertained. The Astapus is supposed to have been really the name of the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue River, the third branch of the Nile, the sources of which are in the highlands of Abyssinia, in about 11° 40′ north lat. and 39° 40′ east long.

3530 Or “side of the water that issues from the shades.” As Hardouin says, this does not appear to be a very satisfactory explanation.

3531 Said by Tzetzes to have been derived from the Greek τρίτος, “the third,” because it had three times changed its name: having been called, first, the Ocean; secondly, Aëtus, or the Eagle; and thirdly, Ægyptus.

3532 Or the “Cataracts,” for which it is the Greek name. The most northerly of these cataracts, called the First Cataract, is, and always has been, the southern boundary of Egypt. According to the most recent accounts, these Cataracts are devoid of any stupendous features, such as characterize the Falls of Niagara.

3533 The one now called the First Cataract.

3534 Seven mouths in ancient times, which have now dwindled down to two of any importance, the Damietta mouth on the east, and the Rosetta on the west.

3535 The Etesians are periodical winds, which blow steadily from one quarter for forty days each year, during the season of the Dog-days. The opinion here stated was that promulgated by Thales the philosopher. Seneca refutes it in B. iv. c. 2. of his Quæst. Nat.

3536 This was the opinion of Democritus of Abdera, and of Agatharchidas of Cnidos. It is combated by Diodorus Siculus, B. i., but it is the opinion most generally received at the present day. See the disquisition on the subject introduced in the Ninth book of Lucan’s Pharsalia.

3537 And that the high tide or inundation would be consequently continuous as well.

3538 The principal well for this purpose was called the “Nilometer,” or “Gauge for the Nile.”

3539 On this subject see Pliny, B. xviii. c. 47, and B. xxxvi. c. 11.

3540 Seneca says that the Nile did not rise as usual in the tenth and eleventh years of the reign of Cleopatra, and that the circumstance was said to bode ruin to her and Antony.—Nat. Quæst. B. iv. c. 2.

3541 He means dense clouds, productive of rain, not thin mists. See what is said of the Borysthenes by our author, B. xxxi. c. 30.

3542 Syene was a city of Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank of the Nile just below the First Cataract, and was looked upon as the southern frontier city of Egypt against Æthiopia. It was an important point in the geography and astronomy of the ancients; for, lying just under the tropic of Cancer, it was chosen as the place through which they drew their chief parallel of latitude. The sun was vertical to Syene at the time of the summer solstice, and a well was shown there where the face of the sun was seen at noon at that time. Its present name is Assouan or Ossouan.

3543 If this word means the “Camp,” it does not appear to be known what camp is meant. Most editions have “Cerastæ,” in which case it would mean that at Syene the Cerastes or horned serpent is found.

3544 One of these (if indeed Philæ did consist of more than a single island, which seems doubtful) is now known as Djeziret-el-Birbe, the “Island of the Temple.”

3545 This island was seated just below the Lesser Cataract, opposite Syene, and near the western bank of the Nile. At this point the river becomes navigable downward to its mouths, and the traveller from Meroë or Æthiopia enters Egypt Proper. The original name of this island was “Ebo,” Eb being in the language of hieroglyphics the symbol of the elephant and ivory. It was remarkable for its fertility and verdure, and the Arabs of the present day designate the island as Djesiret-el-Sag, or “the Blooming.”

3546 This is a mistake of Pliny’s, for it was opposite to Syene. Brotier thinks that Pliny intended to write ‘Philæ,’ but by mistake inserted Syene.

3547 Artemidorus, Juba, and Aristocreon.

3548 They were probably made of papyrus, or else of hides, like the British coracles.

3549 The last king of the line of Psammetichus, B.C. 569. He succeeded Apries, whom the Egyptians put to death. He died just before the invasion by Cambyses, having displayed great abilities as a ruler.

3550 There was the Greater Apollinopolis, the modern Edfoo, in the Thebaid, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 25° north, about thirteen miles below the lesser Cataract: its inhabitants were enemies of the crocodile and its worshippers. The remains of two temples there are considered second only to the temple of Denderah as specimens of the sacred structures of Egypt. A Lesser Apollinopolis was in Upper Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, in lat. 27° north. Another Lesser Apollinopolis was a town of the Thebaid in the Coptite Nome, in lat. 26° north, situate between Thebes and Coptos. It was situate at the present Kuss.

3551 Its site is unknown. Hardouin suggests that it is the Eilethuia of Ptolemy, the modern El-Kab.