Figure 24:

                     Gaius Plinius Secundus/ Pliny the Elder: Naturalis Historia, 77 AD

 

Latin text by Bill Thayer

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/home.html

 

English translation by John Bostock and H. T. Riley

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc

 

There is also another English translation by Philemon Holland, 1601

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/index.html

 

 

Liber II

 

LV 142

 

Fulgetrum prius cerni quam tonitrua audiri, cum simul fiant, certum est, nec mirum, quoniam lux sonitu velocior, ictum autem et sonitum congruere ita modulante natura, sed sonitum profecti esse fulminis, non inlati, etiamnum spiritum ociorem fulmine, ideo quati prius omne et adflari quam percuti, nec quemquam tangi qui prior viderit fulmen aut tonitrua audierit. laeva prospera existimantur, quoniam laeva parte mundi ortus est. nec tamen adventus spectatur quam reditus, sive ab ictu resilit ignis sive opere confecto aut igne consumpto spiritus remeat.

 

It is certain that the lightning is seen before the thunder is heard, although they both take place at the same time. Nor is this wonderful, since light has a greater velocity than sound. Nature so regulates it, that the stroke and the sound coincide; the sound is, however, produced by the discharge of the thunder, not by its stroke. But the air is impelled quicker than the lightning, on which account it is that everything is shaken and blown up before it is struck, and that a person is never injured when he has seen the lightning and heard the thunder. Thunder on the left hand is supposed to be lucky, because the east is on the left side of the heavens. We do not regard so much the mode in which it comes to us, as that in which it leaves us, whether the fire rebounds after the stroke, or whether the current of air returns when the operation is concluded and the fire is consumed.

 

 

XCVI 209

 

Quaedam vero terrae ad ingressus tremunt, sicut in Gabiensi agro non procul urbe Roma iugera ferme ducenta equitantium cursu; similiter in Reatino. quaedam insulae semper fluctuantur, sicut in agro Caecubo et eodem Reatino, Mutinensi, Statoniensi, in Vadimonis lacu, ad Cutilias aquas opaca silva, quae numquam die ac nocte eodem loco visitur, in Lydia quae vocantur Calaminae, non ventis solum, sed etiam contis quo libeat inpulsae, multorum civium Mithridatico bello salus. sunt et in Nymphaeo parvae, Saliares dictae, quoniam in symphoniae cantu ad ictus modulantium pedum moventur. in Tarquiniensi lacu magno Italiae duae nemora circumferunt, nunc triquetram figuram edentes, nunc rotundam conplexu ventis inpellentibus, quadratam numquam.

 

There are certain lands which shake when any one passes over them; as in the territory of the Gabii, not far from the city of Rome, there are about 200 acres which shake when cavalry passes over it: the same thing takes place at Reate.

There are certain islands which are always floating, as in the territory of the Cæcubum, and of the above-mentioned Reate, of Mutina, and of Statonia. In the lake of Vadimonis and the waters of Cutiliæ there is a dark wood, which is never seen in the same place for a day and a night together. In Lydia, the islands named Calaminæ are not only driven about by the wind, but may be even pushed at pleasure from place to place, by poles: many citizens saved themselves by this means in the Mithridatic war. There are some small islands in the Nymphæus, called the Dancers, because, when choruses are sung, they are moved by the motions of those who beat time. In the great Italian lake of Tarquinii, there are two islands with groves on them, which are driven about by the wind, so as at one time to exhibit the figure of a triangle and at another of a circle; but they never form a square

 

 

Liber VII

 

Lvi 204 (Chap. 57)

 

musicam Amphion, fistulam et monaulum Pan Mercuri, obliquam tibiam Midas in Phrygia, geminas tibias Marsyas in eadem gente, Lydios modulos Amphion, Dorios Thamyras Thrax, Phrygios Marsyas Phryx, citharam Amphion, ut alii, Orpheus, ut alii, Linus. septem chordis primum cecinit III ad IIII primas additis Terpander, octavam Simonides addidit, nonam Timotheus. cithara sine voce cecinit Thamyris primus, cum cantu Amphion, ut alii, Linus. citharoedica carmina conposuit Terpander. cum tibiis canere voce Troezenius Ardalus instituit. saltationem armatam Curetes docuere, pyrrichen Pyrrus, utramque in Creta.

 

Amphion was the inventor of music; Pan, the son of Mercury, the music of the reed, and the flute with the single pipe; Midas, the Phrygian, the transverse flute; and Marsyas, of the same country, the double-pipe. Amphion invented the Lydian measures in music; Thamyris the Thracian, the Dorian, and Marsyas the Phrygian, the Phrygian style. Amphion, or, according to some accounts, Orpheus, and according to others, Linus, invented the lyre. Terpander, adding three to the former four, increased the number of strings to seven; Simonides added an eighth, and Timotheus a ninth. Thamyris was the first who played on the lyre, without the accompaniment of the voice; and Amphion, or, as some say, Linus, was the first who accompanied it with the voice. Terpander was the first who composed songs expressly for the lyre; and Ardalus, the Trœzenian, was the first who taught us how to combine the voice with the music of the pipe. The Curetes taught us the dance in armour, and Pyrrhus, the Pyrrhic dance, both of them in Crete.

 

 

Liber X

 

xlii 81 (Chap. 43)

 

Lusciniis diebus ac noctibus continuis XV garrulus sine intermissu cantus densante se frondium germine, non in novissimis digna miratu ave. primum tanta vox tam parvo in corpusculo, tam pertinax spiritus; deinde in una perfecta musica scientia: modulatus editur sonus et nunc continuo spiritu trahitur in longum, nunc variatur inflexo, nunc distinguitur conciso, copulatur intorto, promittitur revocato,

 

The song of the nightingale is to be heard, without intermission, for fifteen days and nights, continuously, when the foliage is thickening, as it bursts from the bud; a bird which deserves our admiration in no slight degree. First of all, what a powerful voice in so small a body! its note, how long, and how well sustained! And then, too, it is the only bird the notes of which are modulated in accordance with the strict rules of musical science. At one moment, as it sustains its  breath, it will prolong its note, and then at another, will vary it with different inflexions; then, again, it will break into distinct chirrups, or pour forth an endless series of roulades.

 

xlii 85

sed hae tantae tamque artifices argutiae a XV diebus paulatim desinunt, nec ut fatigatas possis dicere aut satiatas. mox aestu aucto in totum alia vox fit, nec modulata aut varia; mutatur et color. postremo hieme ipsa non cernitur. linguis earum tenuitas illa prima non est quae ceteris avibus. pariunt vere primo, cum plurimum, sena ova.

 

But these modulations, so clever and so artistic, begin gradually to cease at the end of the fifteen days; not that you can say, however, that the bird is either fatigued or tired of singing; but, as the heat increases, its voice becomes altogether changed, and possesses no longer either modulation or variety of note. Its colour, too, becomes changed, and at last, throughout the winter, it totally disappears. The tongue of the nightingale is not pointed at the tip, as in other birds. It lays at the beginning of the spring, six eggs at the most.

 

 

Liber XI

 

lxxxix 219 (Chap. 88)

 

Inter hos latent arteriae, id est spiritus semitae; his innatant venae, id est sanguinis rivi. arteriarum pulsus in cacumine maxime membrorum evidens, index fere morborum, in modulos certos legesque metricas per aetates — stabilis aut citatus aut taruds — discriptus ab Herophilo medicinae vate miranda arte; nimiam propter suptilitatem desertus, observatione tamen crebri aut languidi ictus gubernacula vitae temperat.

 

Among the nerves lie concealed the arteries, which are so many passages for the spirit; and upon these float the veins, as conduits for the blood. The pulsation of the arteries is more especially perceptible on the surface of the limbs, and afford indications of nearly every disease, being either stationary, quickened, or retarded, conformably to certain measures and metrical laws, which depend on the age of the patient, and which have been described with remarkable skill by Herophilus, who has been looked upon as a prophet in the wondrous art of medicine. These indications, however, have been hitherto neglected, in consequence of their remarkable subtilty and minuteness, though, at the same time, it is by the observation of the pulse, as being fast or slow, that the health of the body, as regulating life, is ascertained.

 

cxii 271 (Chap. 112)

 

vox in homine magnam voltus habet partem. agnoscimus ea prius quam cernamus non aliter quam oculis, totidemque sunt hae, quot in rerum natura mortales, et sua cuique sicut facies. hinc illa gentium totque linguarum toto orbe diversitas, hinc tot cantus et moduli flexionesque, sed ante omnia explanatio animi, quae nos distinxit a feris et inter ipsos quoque homines discrimen alterum, aeque quam a belvis, fecit.

 

The voice, in man, contributes in a great degree to form his physiognomy, for we form a knowledge of a man before we see him by hearing his voice, just as well as if we had seen him with our eyes. There are as many kinds of voices, too, as there are individuals in existence, and each man has his own peculiar voice, just as much as his own peculiar physiognomy. Hence it is, that arises that vast diversity of nations and languages throughout the whole earth: in this, too, originate the many tunes, measures, and inflexions that exist. But, before all other things, it is the voice that serves to express our sentiments, a power that distinguishes us from the beasts; just as, in the same way, the various shades and differences in language that exist among men have created an equally marked difference between us and the brutes.