Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXVI. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF STONES., CHAP. 23.—THE FUGITIVE STONE. THE SEVEN-FOLD ECHO. BUILDINGS ERECTED WITHOUT THE USE OF NAILS.

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CHAP. 23.—THE FUGITIVE STONE. THE SEVEN-FOLD ECHO. BUILDINGS ERECTED WITHOUT THE USE OF NAILS.

In the same city also, there is a stone, known as the "Fugi- tive Stone;"¹ the Argonautæ, who used it for the purposes of an anchor, having left it there. This stone having repeatedly taken flight from the Prytanæum,² the place so called where it is kept, it has been fastened down with lead. In this city also, near the gate which is known as the "Trachia,"³ there are seven towers, which repeat a number of times all sounds that are uttered in them. This phenomenon, to which the name of "Echo," has been given by the Greeks, depends upon the peculiar conformation of localities, and is produced in valleys more particularly. At Cyzicus, however, it is the effect of accident only; while at Olympia, it is produced by artificial means, and in a very marvellous manner; in a portico there, which is known as the "Heptaphonon,"⁴ from the circumstance that it returns the sound of the voice seven times.

At Cyzicus, also, is the Buleuterium,⁵ a vast edifice, constructed without a nail of iron; the raftering being so contrived as to admit of the beams being removed and replaced without the use of stays. A similar thing, too, is the case with the Sublician Bridge⁶ at Rome; and this by enactment, on religious grounds, there having been such difficulty experienced in breaking it down when Horatius Cocles⁷ defended it.

1 "Lapis Fugitivus."

2 A public place where the Prytanes or chief magistrates assembled, and where the public banquets were celebrated.

3 Or "Narrow" gate, apparently. Dion Cassius, B. 74, tells a similar story nearly, of seven towers at Byzantium, near the Thracian Gate; and "Thracia" is given by the Bamberg MS. It is most probable that the two accounts were derived from the same source.

4 ᾿επτάφωνον "seven times vocal," Plutarch also mentions this portico.

5 βουλευτήριον the "senate house" or "council-chamber."

6 It was the most ancient of the bridges at Rome, and was so called from its being built upon "sublices," or wooden beams. It was originally built by Ancus Martius, and was afterwards rebuilt by the Pontifices or pontiffs. We learn from Ovid, Fasti, B. v. 1. 621, that it was still a wooden bridge in the reign of Augustus. In the reign of Otho it was carried away by an inundation. In later times it was also known as the Pons Æmilius, from the name of the person probably under whose superintendence it was rebuilt.

7 See B, xxxiv. c. 11.

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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CHAP. 23.—THE FUGITIVE STONE. THE SEVEN-FOLD ECHO. BUILDINGS ERECTED WITHOUT THE USE OF NAILS.

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

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CHAP. 23.—THE FUGITIVE STONE. THE SEVEN-FOLD ECHO. BUILDINGS ERECTED WITHOUT THE USE OF NAILS.

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