Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED., INTRODUCTION.

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INTRODUCTION.

Thus far have I treated of the position and the wonders of the earth, of the waters, the stars, and the proportion of the universe and its dimensions. I shall now proceed to describe its individual parts; although indeed we may with reason look upon the task as of an infinite nature, and one not to be rashly commenced upon without incurring censure. And yet, on the other hand, there is nothing which ought less to require an apology, if it is only considered how far from surprising it is that a mere mortal cannot be acquainted with everything. I shall therefore not follow any single author, but shall employ, in relation to each subject, such writers as I shall look upon as most worthy of credit. For, indeed, it is the characteristic of nearly all of them, that they display the greatest care and accuracy in the description of the countries in which they respectively flourished; so that by doing this, I shall neither have to blame nor contradict any one.

The names of the different places will here be simply given, and as briefly as possible; the account of their celebrity, and the events which have given rise thereto, being deferred to a more appropriate occasion; for it must be remembered that I am here speaking of the earth as a whole, and I wish to be understood as using the names without any reference whatever to their celebrity, and as though the places themselves were in their infancy, and had not as yet acquired any fame through great events. The name is men- tioned, it is true, but only as forming a part of the world and the system of the universe.

The whole globe is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Our description commences where the sun sets and at the Straits of Gades¹, where the Atlantic ocean, bursting in, is poured forth into the inland seas. As it makes its entrance from that side, Africa is on the right hand and Europe on the left; Asia lies between them²; the boundaries being the rivers Tanais³ and Nile. The Straits of the ocean, of which I have just spoken, extend fifteen miles in length and five⁴ in breadth, measured from the village of Mellaria⁵ in Spain to the Album Promontorium⁶ or White Promontory in Africa, as we learn from Turranius Gracilis, who was born in that vicinity. Titus Livius and Cornelius Nepos however have stated the breadth, where it is least, to be seven miles, and where greatest, ten; from so small a mouth as this does so immense an expanse of water open upon us! Nor is our astonishment diminished by the fact of its being of great depth; for, instead of that, there are numerous breakers and shoals, white with foam, to strike the mariner with alarm. From this circumstance it is, that many have called this spot the threshold of The Inland Sea.

At the narrowest part of the Straits, there are mountains placed to form barriers to the entrance on either side, Abyla⁷ in Africa, and Calpe⁸ in Europe, the boundaries formerly of the labours of Hercules⁹. Hence it is that the inhabitants have called them the Columns of that god; they also believe that they were dug through by him; upon which the sea, which was before excluded, gained admission, and so changed the face of nature.

1 Now the Straits of Gibraltar.

2 This is said more especially in reference to the western parts of Asia, the only portion which was perfectly known to the ancients. His meaning is, that Asia as a portion of the globe does not lie so far north as Europe, nor so far south as Africa.

3 Now the Don. It was usually looked upon as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Pliny's meaning seems to be, that the Tanais divides Asia from Europe, and the Nile, Asia from Africa, the more especially as the part to the west of the Nile was sometimes considered as belonging to Asia. It has been however suggested that he intends to assign these rivers as the extreme eastern boundaries of the internal or Mediterranean sea.

4 At no spot are the Straits less than ten miles in width; although D'Anville makes the width to be little less than five miles. This passage of our author is probably in a corrupt state.

5 This probably stood near the site of the town of Tarifa of the present day.

6 Probably the point called 'Punta del Sainar' at the present day.

7 Now called Ximiera, Jebel-el-Mina, or Monte del Hacho.

8 The Rock of Gibraltar.

9 The fable was that they originally formed one mountain, which was torn asunder by Hercules, or as Pliny says, "dug through."

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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INTRODUCTION.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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INTRODUCTION.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.