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[5] Amid the reed-beds and thickets of the Mesopotamian rivers lions range in countless numbers; and during the moderate winter, which is there very mild, they are always harmless. But when the sun's rays have brought the season of burning heat, in regions parched by drought they are tormented both by the sultry breath of the sun and by crowds of gnats, swarms of which fill all parts of that land. And since these same insects make [p. 453] for the eyes, as the moist and shining parts of the body, and settling along the eyelids bite them, those same lions, after suffering long torture, either plunge into the rivers, to which they flee for protection, and are drowned, or after losing their eyes, which they dig out by constantly scratching them with their claws, become frightfully savage. And were it not for this, the entire Orient would be overrun by such beasts.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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