While this was happening, they began to seekfor one who could endure the weight of sucha task and could succeed a king so great;and Fame, the harbinger of truth, destinedillustrious Numa for the sovereign power.It did not satisfy his heart to knowonly the Sabine ceremonials,and he conceived in his expansive mindmuch greater views, examining the depthand cause of things. His country and his caresforgotten, this desire led him to visitthe city that once welcomed Hercules.Numa desired to know what founder builta Grecian city on Italian shores.One of the old inhabitants, who was wellacquainted with past history, replied:“Rich in Iberian herds, the son of Joveturned from the ocean and with favoring wind'Tis said he landed on Lacinian shores.And, while the herd strayed in the tender grass,he visited the house, the friendly home,of far-famed Croton. There he rested fromhis arduous labors. At the time of hisdeparture, he said, ‘Here in future daysshall be a city of your numerous race.’The passing years have proved the promise true,for Myscelus, choosing that site, marked outa city's walls. Argive Alemon's son,of all men in his generation, hewas most acceptable to the heavenly gods.Bending over him once at dawn, while hewas overwhelmed with drowsiness of sleep,the huge club-bearer Hercules addressedhim thus: ‘Come now, desert your native shores.Go quickly to the pebbly flowing streamof distant Aesar.’ And he threatened illin fearful words, unless he should obey.“Sleep and the god departed instantly.Alemon's son, arising from his couch,pondered his recent vision thoughtfully,with his conclusions at cross purposes.—the god commanded him to quit that land,the laws forbade departure, threatening deathto all who sought to leave their native land.“The brilliant Sun had hidden in the seahis shining head, and darkest Night had thenput forth her starry face; and at that timeit seemed as if the same god Herculeswas present and repeating his commands,threatening still more and graver penalties,if he should fail to obey. Now sore afraidhe set about to move his household godsto a new settlement, but rumors thenfollowed him through the city, and he wasaccused of holding statutes in contempt.“The accusation hardly had been madewhen his offense was evidently proved,even without a witness. Then he raisedhis face and hands up to the gods aboveand suppliant in neglected garb, exclaimed,‘Oh mighty Hercules, for whom alonethe twice six labors gave the privilegeof heavenly residence, give me your aid,for you were the true cause of my offence.’“It was an ancient custom of that landto vote with chosen pebbles, white and black.The white absolved, the black condemned the man.And so that day the fateful votes were given—:all cast into the cruel urn were black!Soon as that urn inverted poured forth allthe pebbles to be counted, every onewas changed completely from its black to white,and so the vote adjudged him innocent.By that most fortunate aid of Herculeshe was exempted from the country's law.“Myscelus, breathing thanks to Hercules,with favoring wind sailed on the Ionian sea,past Sallentine Neretum, Sybaris,Spartan Tarentum, and the Sirine Bay,Crimisa, and on beyond the Iapygian fields.Then, skirting shores which face these lands, he foundthe place foretold the river Aesar's mouth,and found not far away a burial moundwhich covered with its soil the hallowed bonesof Croton.—There, upon the appointed land,he built up walls—and he conferred the nameof Croton, who was there entombed, on hisnew city, which has ever since been calledCrotona.” By tradition it is knownsuch strange deeds caused that city to be built,by men of Greece upon the Italian coast.
Quaeritur interea quis tantae pondera molissustineat tantoque queat succedere regi:destinat imperio clarum praenuntia verifama Numam; non ille satis cognosse Sabinaegentis habet ritus: animo maiora capaciconcipit et, quae sit rerum natura, requirit.Huius amor curae, patria Curibusque relictis,fecit ut Herculei penetraret ad hospitis urbem.Graia quis Italicis auctor posuisset in orismoenia, quaerenti sic e senioribus unusrettulit indigenis, veteris non inscius aevi:“Dives ab Oceano bubus Iove natus Hiberislitora felici tenuisse Lacinia cursufertur et, armento teneras errante per herbas,ipse domum magni nec inhospita tecta Crotonisintrasse et requie longum relevasse laborematque ita discedens “aevo” dixisse “nepotumhic locus urbis erit”; promissaque vera fuerunt.Nam fuit Argolico generatus Alemone quidamMyscelos, illius dis acceptissimus aevi.Hunc super incumbens pressum gravitate soporisclaviger adloquitur: “Lapidosas Aesaris undasi, pete diversi! Patrias, age, desere sedes!”et, nisi paruerit multa ac metuenda minatur;post ea discedunt pariter somnusque deusque.Surgit Alemonides tacitaque recentia mentevisa refert, pugnatque diu sententia secum:numen abire iubet, prohibent discedere leges,poenaque mors posita est patriam mutare volenti.Candidus Oceano nitidum caput abdiderat Sol,et caput extulerat densissima sidereum Nox:visus adesse idem deus est eademque monereet, nisi paruerit, plura et graviora minari.Pertimuit patriumque simul transferre parabatin sedes penetrale novas: fit murmur in urbe,spretarumque agitur legum reus; utque peracta estcausa prior crimenque patens sine teste probatum,squalidus ad superos tollens reus ora manusque“o cui ius caeli bis sex fecere labores,fer, precor” inquit, “opem! nam tu mihi criminis auctor.”Mos erat antiquus niveis atrisque lapillis,his damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa;tunc quoque sic lata est sententia tristis, et omniscalculus inmitem demittitur ater in urnam.Quae simul effudit numerandos versa lapillos,omnibus e nigro color est mutatus in album,candidaque Herculeo sententia numine factasolvit Alemoniden. Grates agit ille parentiAmphitryoniadae, ventisque faventibus aequornavigat Ionium, Sallentinumque Neretumpraeterit et Sybarin Crimisenque et Iapygis arva;vixque pererratis, quae spectant litora, terris,invenit Aesarei fatalia fluminis oranec procul hinc tumulum, sub quo sacrata Crotonisossa tegebat humus, iussaque ibi moenia terracondidit et nomen tumulati traxit in urbem.”Talia constabat certa primordia famaesse loci positaeque Italis in finibus urbis.
Here lived a man, by birth a Samian.He had fled from Samos and the ruling class,a voluntary exile, for his hateagainst all tyranny. He had the giftof holding mental converse with the gods,who live far distant in the highth of heaven;and all that Nature has denied to manand human vision, he reviewed with eyesof his enlightened soul. And, when he hadexamined all things in his careful mindwith watchful study, he released his thoughtsto knowledge of the public.He would speakto crowds of people, silent and amazed,while he revealed to them the originof this vast universe, the cause of things,what is nature, what a god, whence came the snow,the cause of lightning—was it Jupiteror did the winds, that thundered when the cloudwas rent asunder, cause the lightning flash?What shook the earth, what laws controlled the starsas they were moved—and every hidden thinghe was the first man to forbid the useof any animal's flesh as human food,he was the first to speak with learned lips,though not believed in this, exhorting them.—“No, mortals,” he would say, “Do not permitpollution of your bodies with such food,for there are grain and good fruits which bear downthe branches by their weight, and ripened grapesupon the vines, and herbs—those sweet by natureand those which will grow tender and mellow witha fire, and flowing milk is not denied,nor honey, redolent of blossoming thyme.“The lavish Earth yields rich and healthful foodaffording dainties without slaughter, death,and bloodshed. Dull beasts delight to satisfytheir hunger with torn flesh; and yet not all:horses and sheep and cattle live on grass.But all the savage animals—the fierceArmenian tigers and ferocious lions,and bears, together with the roving wolves—delight in viands reeking with warm blood.“Oh, ponder a moment such a monstrous crime—vitals in vitals gorged, one greedy bodyfattening with plunder of another's flesh,a living being fed on another's life!In that abundance, which our Earth, the bestof mothers, will afford have you no joy,unless your savage teeth can gnawthe piteous flesh of some flayed animalto reenact the Cyclopean crime?And can you not appease the hungry void—the perverted craving of a stomach's greed,unless you first destroy another life?“That age of old time which is given the nameof ‘Golden,’ was so blest in fruit of trees,and in the good herbs which the earth producedthat it never would pollute the mouth with blood.The birds then safely moved their wings in air,the timid hares would wander in the fieldswith no fear, and their own credulityhad not suspended fishes from the hook.All life was safe from treacherous wiles,fearing no injury, a peaceful world.“After that time some one of ill advice(it does not matter who it might have been)envied the ways of lions and gulped intohis greedy paunch stuff from a carcass vile.He opened the foul paths of wickedness.It may be that in killing beasts of preyour steel was for the first time warmed with blood.And that could be defended, for I holdthat predatory creatures which attemptdestruction of mankind, are put to deathwithout evasion of the sacred laws:but, though with justice they are put to death,that cannot be a cause for eating them.“This wickedness went further; and the sowwas thought to have deserved death as the firstof victims, for with her long turned-up snoutshe spoiled the good hope of a harvest year.The ravenous goat, that gnawed a sprouting vine,was led for slaughter to the altar firesof angry Bacchus. It was their own faultthat surely caused the ruin of those two.“But why have sheep deserved sad destiny,harmless and useful for the good of manwith nectar in full udders? Their soft woolaffords the warmest coverings for our use,their life and not their death would help us more.Why have the oxen of the field deserveda sad end—innocent, without deceit,and harmless, without guile, born to endurehard labor? Without gratitude is he,unworthy of the gift of harvest fields,who, after he relieved his worker fromweight of the curving plow could butcher him,could sever with an axe that toil worn neck,by which so often with hard work the groundhad been turned up, so many harvests reared.For some, even crimes like these are not enough,they have imputed to the gods themselvesabomination—they believe a godin heaven above, rejoices at the deathof a laborious ox.“A victim freeof blemish and most beautiful in form(perfection brings destruction) is adornedwith garlands and with gilded horns beforethe altar. In his ignorance he hearsone praying, and he sees the very grainhe labored to produce, fixed on his headbetween the horns, and felled, he stains with bloodthe knife which just before he may have seenreflected in clear water. Instantlythey snatch out entrails from his throbbing form,and seek in them intentions of the gods.Then, in your lust for a forbidden foodyou will presume to batten on his flesh,O race of mortals! Do not eat such food!Give your attention to my serious words;and, when you next present the slaughtered fleshof oxen to your palates, know and feelthat you gnaw your fellow tillers of the soil.“And, since a god impels me to speak out,I will obey the god who urges me,and will disclose to you the heavens above,and I will even reveal the oraclesof the Divine Will. I will sing to youof things most wonderful, which never wereinvestigated by the intellectsof ancient times and things which have been longconcealed from man. In fancy I delightto float among the stars or take my standon mighty Atlas' shoulders, and to lookafar down on men wandering here and there—afraid in life yet dreading unknown death,and in these words exhort them and revealthe sequence of events ordained by fate!
Vir fuit hic, ortu Samius, sed fugerat unaet Samon et dominos odioque tyrannidis exsulsponte erat, isque, licet caeli regione remotos,mente deos adiit et quae natura negabatvisibus humanis, oculis ea pectoris hausit,cumque animo et vigili perspexerat omnia cura,in medium discenda dabat coetusque silentumdictaque mirantum magni primordia mundiet rerum causas et, quid natura, docebat,quid deus, unde nives, quae fulminis esset origo,Iuppiter an venti discussa nube tonarent,quid quateret terras, qua sidera lege mearent —et quodcumque latet; primusque animalia mensisarguit imponi, primus quoque talibus oradocta quidem solvit, sed non et credita, verbis:“Parcite, mortales, dapibus temerare nefandiscorpora! Sunt fruges, sunt deducentia ramospondere poma suo tumidaeque in vitibus uvae,sunt herbae dulces, sunt quae mitescere flammamollirique queant; nec vobis lacteus umoreripitur, nec mella thymi redolentia flore:prodiga divitias alimentaque mitia tellussuggerit atque epulas sine caede et sanguine praebet.Carne ferae sedant ieiunia, nec tamen omnes:quippe equus et pecudes armentaque gramine vivunt.At quibus ingenium est inmansuetumque ferumque,Armeniae tigres iracundique leonescumque lupis ursi, dapibus cum sanguine gaudent.Heu quantum scelus est in viscera viscera condicongestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpusalteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto!Scilicet in tantis opibus, quas optima matrumterra parit, nil te nisi tristia mandere saevovulnera dente iuvat ritusque referre Cyclopum,nec, nisi perdideris alium, placare voraciset male morati poteris ieiunia ventris?At vetus illa aetas, cui fecimus aurea nomen,fetibus arboreis et, quas humus educat, herbisfortunata fuit nec polluit ora cruore.Tunc et aves tutae movere per aera pennas,et lepus impavidus mediis erravit in arvis,nec sua credulitas piscem suspenderat hamo:cuncta sine insidiis nullamque timentia fraudemplenaque pacis erant. Postquam non utilis auctorvictibus invidit, quisquis fuit ille, deorumcorporeasque dapes avidam demersit in alvum,fecit iter sceleri, primoque e caede ferarumincaluisse potest maculatum sanguine ferrum(idque satis fuerat), nostrumque petentia letumcorpora missa neci salva pietate fatemur:sed quam danda neci, tam non epulanda fuerunt.Longius inde nefas abiit, et prima putaturhostia sus meruisse mori, quia semina pandoeruerit rostro spemque interceperit anni.Vite caper morsa Bacchi mactatus ad arasdicitur ultoris; nocuit sua culpa duobus!Quid meruistis oves, placidum pecus, inque tuendosnatum homines, pleno quae fertis in ubere nectar,mollia quae nobis vestras velamina lanaspraebetis vitaque magis quam morte iuvatis?Quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque,innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores?Inmemor est demum nec frugum munere dignus,qui potuit curvi dempto modo pondere aratriruricolam mactare suum, qui trita laboreilla, quibus totiens durum renovaverat arvum,tot dederat messes, percussit colla securi.Nec satis est, quod tale nefas committitur: ipsosinscripsere deos sceleri, numenque supernumcaede laboriferi credunt gaudere iuvenci.Victima labe carens et praestantissima forma(nam placuisse nocet) vittis insignis et aurosistitur ante aras auditque ignara precantemimponique suae videt inter cornua fronti,quas coluit, fruges percussaque sanguine cultrosinficit in liquida praevisos forsitan unda.Protinus ereptas viventi pectore fibrasinspiciunt mentesque deum scrutantur in illis:unde (fames homini vetitorum tanta ciborum!)audetis vesci, genus o mortale? Quod, oro,ne facite, et monitis animos advertite nostris!Cumque boum dabitis caesorum membra palato,mandere vos vestros scite et sentite colonos.Et quoniam deus ora movet, sequar ora moventemrite deum Delphosque meos ipsumque recludamaethera et augustae reserabo oracula mentis.Magna nec ingeniis investigata priorumquaeque diu latuere, canam; iuvat ire per altaastra, iuvat terris et inerti sede relictanube vehi validique umeris insistere Atlantispalantesque homines passim ac rationis egentesdespectare procul trepidosque obitumque timentessic exhortari seriemque evolvere fati:
“O sad humanity! Why do you fearalarms of icy death, afraid of Styx,fearful of moving shadows and empty names—of subjects harped on by the poets' tales,the fabled perils of a fancied life?Whether the funeral pile consumes your fleshwith hot flames, or old age dissolves it witha gradual wasting power, be well assuredthe body cannot meet with further ill.And souls are all exempt from power of death.When they have left their first corporeal home,they always find and live in newer homes.“I can declare, for I remember well,that in the days of the great Trojan War,I was Euphorbus, son of Panthous.In my opposing breast was planted thenthe heavy spear-point of the younger sonof Atreus. Not long past I recognisedthe shield, once burden of my left arm, whereit hung in Juno's temple at ancient Argos,the realm of Abas. Everything must change:but nothing perishes. The moving soulmay wander, coming from that spot to this,from this to that—in changed possession livein any limbs whatever. It may passfrom beasts to human bodies, and againto those of beasts. The soul will never die,in the long lapse of time. As pliant waxis moulded to new forms and does not stayas it has been nor keep the self same formyet is the selfsame wax, be well assuredthe soul is always the same spirit, thoughit passes into different forms. Therefore,that natural love may not be vanquished byunnatural craving of the appetite,I warn you, stop expelling kindred soulsby deeds abhorrent as cold murder.—Letnot blood be nourished with its kindred blood!“Since I am launched into the open seaand I have given my full sails to the wind,nothing in all the world remains unchanged.All things are in a state of flux, all shapesreceive a changing nature. Time itselfglides on with constant motion, ever asa flowing river. Neither river northe fleeting hour can stop its constant course.But, as each wave drives on a wave, as eachis pressed by that which follows, and must presson that before it, so the moments fly,and others follow, so they are renewed.The moment which moved on before is past,and that which was not, now exists in Time,and every one comes, goes, and is replaced.“You see how night glides by and then proceedson to the dawn, then brilliant light of daysucceeds the dark night. There is not the sameappearance in the heavens,: when all thingsfor weariness are resting in vast night,as when bright Lucifer rides his white steed.And only think of that most glorious change,when loved Aurora, Pallas' daughter, comesbefore the day and tints the world, almostdelivered to bright Phoebus. Even the diskof that god, rising from beneath the earth,is of a ruddy color in the dawnand ruddy when concealed beneath the world.When highest, it is a most brilliant white,for there the ether is quite purified,and far away avoids infection fromimpurities of earth. Diana's format night remains not equal nor the same!'Tis less today than it will be tomorrow,if she is waxing; greater, if she wanes.“Yes, do you not see how the year moves throughfour seasons, imitating human life:in early Spring it has a nursling's waysresembling infancy, for at that timethe blade is shooting and devoid of strength.Its flaccid substance swelling gives delight,to every watching husbandman, alivein expectation. Then all things are richin blossom, and the genial meadow smileswith tints of blooming flowers; but not as yetis there a sign of vigor in the leaves.“The year now waxing stronger, after Springit passes into Summer, and its youthbecomes robust. Indeed of all the yearthe Summer is most vigorous and mostabounds with glowing and life-giving warmth.“Autumn then follows, and, the vim of liferemoved, that ripe and mellow time succeedsbetween youth and old age, and a few white hairsare sprinkled here and there upon his brow.“Then aged Winter with his tremulous stepfollows, repulsive, strips of graceful locksor white with those he has retained so long.“Our bodies also, always change unceasingly:we are not now what we were yesterdayor we shall be tomorrow. And there wasa time when we were only seeds of man,mere hopes that lived within a mother's womb.But Nature changed us with her skilfull touch,determined that our bodies should not beheld in such narrow room, below the entrailsin our distended parent; and in timeshe brought us forth into the vacant air.“Brought into light, the helpless infant lies.Then on all fours he lifts his body up,feeling his way, like any young wild beast,and then by slow degrees he stands upright,weak-kneed and trembling, steadied by supportof some convenient prop. And soon more strongand swift he passes through the hours of youth,and, when the years of middle age are past,slides down the steep path of declining age.“This undermines him and destroys the strengthof former years: and Milon, now grown old,weeps, when he sees his arms, which once were firmwith muscles big as those of Hercules,hang flabby at his side: and Helen weeps,when in the glass she sees her wrinkled face,and wonders why two heroes fell in loveand carried her away.—O Time,devourer of all things, and envious Age,together you destroy all that existsand, slowly gnawing, bring on lingering death.“Yes, even things which we call elements,do not endure. Now listen well to me,and I will show the ways in which they change.“The everlasting universe containsfour elemental parts. And two of theseare heavy—earth and water—and are bornedownwards by weight. The other two devoidof weight, are air and—even lighter—fire:and, if these two are not constrained, they seekthe higher regions. These four elements,though far apart in space, are all derivedfrom one another. Earth dissolvesas flowing water! Water, thinned still more,departs as wind and air; and the light air,still losing weight, sparkles on high as fire.But they return, along their former way:the fire, assuming weight, is changed to air;and then, more dense, that air is changed againto water; and that water, still more dense,compacts itself again as primal earth.
O genus attonitum gelidae formidine mortis,quid Styga, quid manes et nomina vana timetis,materiem vatum, falsique pericula mundi?Corpora, sive rogus flamma, seu tabe vetustasabstulerit, mala posse pati non ulla putetis!Morte carent animae, semperque priore relictasede novis domibus vivunt habitantque receptae.Ipse ego (nam memini) Troiani tempore belliPanthoides Euphorbus eram, cui pectore quondamhaesit in adverso gravis hasta minoris Atridae:cognovi clipeum, laevae gestamina nostrae,nuper Abanteis templo Iunonis in Argis.Omnia mutantur, nihil interit: errat et illinchuc venit, hinc illuc, et quoslibet occupat artusspiritus eque feris humana in corpora transitinque feras noster nec tempore deperit ullo;utque novis facilis signatur cera figurisnec manet ut fuerat nec formas servat easdem,sed tamen ipsa eadem est: animam sic semper eandemesse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras.Ergo, ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris,parcite, vaticinor, cognatas caede nefandaexturbare animas, nec sanguine sanguis alatur!Et quoniam magno feror aequore plenaque ventisvela dedi: nihil est toto, quod perstet, in orbe.Cuncta fluunt, omnisque vagans formatur imago;ipsa quoque adsiduo labuntur tempora motu,non secus ac flumen, neque enim consistere flumennec levis hora potest, sed ut unda impellitur undaurgeturque eadem veniente urgetque priorem,tempora sic fugiunt pariter pariterque sequunturet nova sunt semper; nam quod fuit ante, relictum est,fitque quod haud fuerat, momentaque cuncta novantur.Cernis et emensas in lucem tendere noctes,et iubar hoc nitidum nigrae succedere nocti.Nec color est idem caelo, cum lassa quietecuncta iacent media, cumque albo Lucifer exitclarus equo rursusque alius, cum praevia lucistradendum Phoebo Pallantias inficit orbem.Ipse dei clipeus, terra cum tollitur ima,mane rubet, terraque, rubet cum conditur ima,candidus in summo est, melior natura quod illicaetheris est terraeque procul contagia fugit.Nec par aut eadem nocturnae forma Dianaeesse potest umquam, semperque hodierna sequente,si crescit, minor est, maior, si contrahit orbem.Quid? non in species succedere quattuor annumadspicis, aetatis peragentem imitamina nostrae?Nam tener ac lactens puerique simillimus aevovere novo est: tunc herba nitens et roboris expersturget et insolida est et spe delectat agrestes.Omnia tunc florent, florumque coloribus almusludit ager, neque adhuc virtus in frondibus ulla est.Transit in aestatem post ver robustior annusfitque valens iuvenis: neque enim robustior aetasulla nec uberior, nec quae magis ardeat, ulla est.Excipit autumnus, posito fervore iuventaematurus mitisque, inter iuvenemque senemquetemperie medius, sparsus quoque tempora canis.Inde senilis hiems tremulo venit horrida passu,aut spoliata suos, aut quos habet, alba capillos.Nostra quoque ipsorum semper requieque sine ullacorpora vertuntur, nec, quod fuimusve sumusve,cras erimus; fuit illa dies, qua semina tantumspesque hominum primae matrisque habitavimus alvo.Artifices natura manus admovit et angicorpora visceribus distentae condita matrisnoluit eque domo vacuas emisit in auras.Editus in lucem iacuit sine viribus infans;mox quadrupes rituque tulit sua membra ferarum,paulatimque tremens et nondum poplite firmoconstitit adiutis aliquo conamine nervis.Inde valens veloxque fuit spatiumque iuventaetransit et emeritis medii quoque temporis annislabitur occiduae per iter declive senectae.Subruit haec aevi demoliturque priorisrobora, fletque Milon senior, cum spectat inanes(illos, qui fuerant solidorum mole tororumHerculeis similes!) fluidos pendere lacertos;Flet quoque, ut in speculo rugas adspexit aniles,Tyndaris et secum, cur sit bis rapta, requirit.Tempus edax rerum, tuque, invidiosa vetustas,omnia destruitis, vitiataque dentibus aevipaulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte.Haec quoque non perstant, quae nos elementa vocamus,quasque vices peragant, (animos adhibete!) docebo.Quattuor aeternus genitalia corpora munduscontinet; ex illis duo sunt onerosa suoquepondere in inferius, tellus atque unda, feruntur,et totidem gravitate carent nulloque prementealta petunt, aer atque aere purior ignis.Quae quamquam spatio distant, tamen omnia fiuntex ipsis et in ipsa cadunt, resolutaque tellusin liquidas rarescit aquas, tenuatus in aurasaeraque umor abit, dempto quoque pondere rursusin superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes.Inde retro redeunt, idemque retexitur ordo;ignis enim densum spissatus in aera transit,hic in aquas, tellus glomerata cogitur unda.
“Nothing retains the form that seems its own,and Nature, the renewer of all things,continually changes every forminto some other shape. Believe my word,in all this universe of vast extent,not one thing ever perished. All have changedappearance. Men say a certain thing is born,if it takes a different form from what it had;and yet they say, that certain thing has died,if it no longer keeps the self same shape.Though distant things move near, and near things far,always the sum of all things is unchanged.“For my part, I cannot believe a thingremains long under the same form unchanged.Look at the change of times from gold to iron,:look at the change in places. I have seenwhat had been solid earth become salt waves,and I have seen dry land made from the deep;and, far away from ocean, sea-shells strewn,and on the mountain-tops old anchors found.Water has made that which was once a plaininto a valley, and the mountain hasbeen levelled by the floods down to a plain.A former marshland is now parched dry sand,and places which endured severest droughtare wet with standing pools. Here Nature hasopened fresh springs, but there has shut them up;rivers aroused by ancient earthquakes haverushed out or vanished, as they lost their depth.“So, when the Lycus has been swallowed bya chasm in the earth, it rushes forthat a distance and is reborn a different stream.The Erasinus now flows down into a cave,now runs beneath the ground a darkened course,then rises lordly in the Argolic fields.They say the Mysus, wearied of his springand of his former banks, appears elsewhereand takes another name, the Caicus.“The Amenanus in Sicilian sandsnow smoothly rolling, at another timeis quenched, because its fountain springs are dry.The water of the Anigros formerlywas used for drinking, but it pours out nowfoul water which you would decline to touch,because (unless all credit is deniedto poets) long ago the Centaurs, thosestrange mortals double-limbed, bathed in the streamwounds which club-bearing Hercules had madewith his strong bow.—Yes, does not Hypanisdescending fresh from mountains of Sarmatia,become embittered with the taste of salt?“Antissa, Pharos, and Phoenician Tyre,were once surrounded by the wavy sea:they are not islands now. Long years agoLeucas was mainland, if we can believewhat the old timers there will tell, but nowthe waves sweep round it. Zancle was a partof Italy, until the sea cut offthe neighboring land with strong waves in between.Should you seek Helice and Buris, thosetwo cities of Achaea, you will findthem underneath the waves, where sailors pointto sloping roofs and streets in the clear deep.“Near Pittheaan Troezen a steep, high hill,quite bare of trees, was once a level plain,but now is a hill, for (dreadful even to tell)the raging power of winds, long pent in deep,dark caverns, tried to find a proper vent,long struggling to attain free sky.Finding no opening from the prison-caves,imperious to their force, they raised the earth,exactly as pent air breathed from the mouthinflates a bladder, or the bottle-hidesstripped off the two-horned goats. The swollen earthremained on that spot and has ever sinceappearance of a high hill hardened bythe flight of time.“Of many strange eventsthat I have heard and known, I will add a few.Why, does not water give and take strange forms?Your wave, O horned Ammon, will turn coldat mid-day, but is always mild and warmat sun-rise and at sun-set. I have heardthat Athamanians kindle wood, if theypour water on it, when the waning moonhas shrunk away into her smallest orb.The people of Ciconia have a streamwhich turns the drinker's entrails into stone,which changes into marble all it raves.The Achaean Crathis and the Sybaris,which flow not far from here, will turn the hairto something like clear amber or bright gold.“What is more wonderful, there are some waterswhich change not only bodies but the minds:who has no knowledge of the Salmacisand of its ill famed waves? Who has notheard of the lakes of Aethiopia:how those who drink of them go raving mador fall in a deep sleep, most wonderfulin heaviness. Whoever quenches thirstfrom the Clitorian spring will hate all wine,and soberly secure great pleasure frompure water. Either that spring has a powerthe opposite of wine-heat, or perhapsas natives tell us, after the famed sonof Amythaon by his charms and herbs,delivered from their base insanitythe stricken Proetides, he threw the restof his mind healing herbs into the spring,where hatred of all wine has since remained.Unlike in nature flows another streamof the country, called Lyncestius: everyonewho drinks of it, even with most temperate care,will reel, as if he had drunk unmixed wine.In Arcadia is a place, called Pheneosby men of old, which is mistrusted forthe twofold nature of its waters. Standin dread of them at night; if drunk at night,they harm you, but in daytime they will dono harm at all.
Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumque novatrixex aliis alias reddit natura figuras:nec perit in toto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo,sed variat faciemque novat, nascique vocaturincipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, moriquedesinere illud idem. Cum sint huc forsitan illa,haec translata illuc, summa tamen omnia constant.Nil equidem durare diu sub imagine eademcrediderim: sic ad ferrum venistis ab auro,saecula, sic totiens versa est fortuna locorum.Vidi ego, quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus,esse fretum, vidi factas ex aequore terras:et procul a pelago conchae iacuere marinae,et vetus inventa est in montibus ancora summis.Quodque fuit campus, vallem decursus aquarumfecit, et eluvie mons est deductus in aequor,eque paludosa siccis humus aret harenis,quaeque sitim tulerant, stagnata paludibus ument.Hic fontes natura novos emisit, at illicclausit, et antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbisflumina prosiliunt aut excaecata residunt.Sic ubi terreno Lycus est epotus hiatu,exsistit procul hinc alioque renascitur ore:Sic modo combibitur, tecto modo gurgite lapsusredditur Argolicis ingens Erasinus in arvis,et Mysum, capitisque sui ripaeque priorispaenituisse ferunt, alia nunc ire Caicum;nec non Sicanias volvens Amenanus harenasnunc fluit, interdum suppressis fontibus aret.Ante bibebatur, nunc, quas contingere nolis,fundit Anigros aquas, postquam, nisi vatibus omniseripienda fides, illic lavere bimembresvulnera, clavigeri quae fecerat Herculis arcus.Quid? non et Scythicis Hypanis de montibus ortus,qui fuerat dulcis, salibus vitiatur amaris?Fluctibus ambitae fuerant Antissa Pharosqueet Phoenissa Tyros, quarum nunc insula nulla est.Leucada continuam veteres habuere coloni:nunc freta circueunt. Zancle quoque iuncta fuissedicitur Italiae, donec confinia pontusabstulit et media tellurem reppulit unda.Si quaeras Helicen et Burin, Achaidas urbes,invenies sub aquis, et adhuc ostendere nautaeinclinata solent cum moenibus oppida mersis.Est prope Pittheam tumulus Troezena, sine ullisarduus arboribus, quondam planissima campiarea, nunc tumulus; nam (res horrenda relatu!)vis fera ventorum, caecis inclusa cavernis,exspirare aliqua cupiens luctataque frustraliberiore frui caelo, cum carcere rimanulla foret toto nec pervia flatibus esset,extentam tumefecit humum, ceu spiritus oristendere vesicam solet aut derepta bicorniterga capro; tumor ille loci permansit et alticollis habet speciem longoque induruit aevo.Plurima cum subeant audita et cognita nobis,pauca super referam. Quid? non et lympha figurasdatque capitque novas? Medio tua, corniger Ammon,unda die gelida est, ortuque obituque calescit.Admotis Athamanas aquis accendere lignumnarratur, minimos cum luna recessit in orbes.Flumen habent Cicones, quod potum saxea redditviscera, quod tactis inducit marmora rebus.Crathis et huic Sybaris, nostris conterminus oriselectro similes faciunt auroque capillos.Quodque magis mirum est, sunt qui non corpora tantum,verum animos etiam valeant mutare liquores.Cui non audita est obscenae Salmacis undaeAethiopesque lacus? Quos siquis faucibus hausit,aut furit, aut patitur mirum gravitate soporem.Clitorio quicumque sitim de fonte levavit,vina fugit gaudetque meris abstemius undis,seu vis est in aqua calido contraria vino,sive, quod indigenae memorant, Amythaone natus,Proetidas attonitas postquam per carmen et herbaseripuit furiis, purgamina mentis in illasmisit aquas odiumque meri permansit in undis.Huic fluit effectu dispar Lyncestius amnis;quem quicumque parum moderato gutture traxit,haud aliter titubat, quam si mera vina bibisset.Est locus Arcadiae (Pheneum dixere priores),ambiguis suspectus aquis, quas nocte timeto:nocte nocent potae, sine noxa luce bibuntur.
So lakes and rivers havenow this, now that effect.“Ortygia oncemoved like a ship that drifts among the waves.Now it is fixed. The Argo was in dreadof the Symplegades, which moved apartwith waves in-rushing. Now immovablethey stand, resisting the attack of winds.“Aetna, which burns with sulphur furnaces,will not be always concentrated fire,nor was it always fiery. If the earthis like an animal and is aliveand breathes out flame at many openings,then it can change these many passagesused for its breathing and, when it is moved,may close these caverns as it opens upsome others. Or if rushing winds are pennedin deepest caverns, and they drive great stonesagainst the rock, and substances which havethe properties of flame and fire are madeby those concussions; when the winds are calmedthe caverns will, of course, be cool again.“Or if some black bitumen catches fireor yellow sulphur burns with little smoke,then surely, when the ground no longer givessuch food and oily nutriment for flamesand they in time have ravined all their store,their greedy nature soon will pine with death—it will not bear such famine but departand, when deserted, will desert the place.“'Tis said that Hyperboreans of Pallenecan cover all their bodies with light plumesby plunging nine times in Minerva's marsh.But I cannot believe another tale:that Scythian women get a like resultby having poison sprinkled on their limbs.“If we give any credit to the thingsproved by experience, we can surely knowwhatever bodies are decayed by timeor by dissolving heat are by such meanschanged into tiny animals—Come now,bury choice bullocks killed for sacrifice,and it is well known by experiencethat the flower-gathering bees are so produced,miraculous, from entrails putrefied.These, like the faithful animals from whichthey were produced, inhabit the green fields,delight in toil, and labor for reward.“The warlike steed, when buried in the ground,is a known source of hornets. If you cutthe bending claws off from the sea-shore craband bury the remainder in the earth,a scorpion will come forth from the dead crabburied there, threatening with its crooked tail.“The worms which cover leaves with their white threads,a thing observable by husbandmen,will change themselves to funeral butterflies.Mud holds the seeds that generate green frogs,at first producing tadpoles with no feet,and soon it gives them legs adapted fortheir swimming, and, so they may be as welladapted to good leaping, their hind legsare longer than the fore-legs. The mother beardoes not bring forth a cub but a limp massof flesh that hardly can be called alive.By licking it the mother forms the limbs,and brings it to a shape just like her own.“Do not the offspring of the honey bees,concealed in cells hexagonal, at firstget life with no limbs, and assume in timeboth feet and wings? Unless the fact were known,could anyone suppose it possiblethat Juno's bird, whose tail is bright with stars;the eagle, armor-bearer of high Jove;the doves of Cytherea; and all birdsemerge from the middle part of eggs?And some believe the human marrow turnsinto a serpent when the spine at lengthhas putrefied in the closed sepulchre.“Now these I named derive their originfrom other living forms. There is one birdwhich reproduces and renews itself:the Assyrians gave this bird his name—the Phoenix.He does not live either on grain or herbs,but only on small drops of frankincenseand juices of amomum. When this birdcompletes a full five centuries of lifestraightway with talons and with shining beakhe builds a nest among palm branches, wherethey join to form the palm tree's waving top.“As soon as he has strewn in this new nestthe cassia bark and ears of sweet spikenard,and some bruised cinnamon with yellow myrrh,he lies down on it and refuses lifeamong those dreamful odors.—And they saythat from the body of the dying birdis reproduced a little Phoenix whichis destined to live just as many years.“When time has given to him sufficient strengthand he is able to sustain the weight,he lifts the nest up from the lofty treeand dutifully carries from that placehis cradle and the parent's sepulchre.As soon as he has reached through yielding airthe city of Hyperion, he will laythe burden just before the sacred doorswithin the temple of Hyperion.“But, if we wonder at strange things like these,we ought to wonder also, when we learnthat a hyena has a change of sex:the female, quitting her embracing male,herself becomes a male.—That animalwhich feeds upon the winds and air, at onceassumes with contact any color touched.“Conquered India gave to the vine crowned Bacchuslynxes, whose urine turns, they say to stones,hardening in air. So coral, too, as soonas it has risen above the sea, turns hard.Below the waves it was a tender plant.“The day will fail me; Phoebus will have bathedhis panting horses in the deep sea waves,before I can include in my discoursethe myriad things transforming to new shapes.In lapse of time we see the nations change;some grow in power, some wane. Troy was once greatin riches and in men—so great she couldfor ten unequalled years afford much blood;now she lies low and offers to our gazebut ancient ruins and, instead of wealth,ancestral tombs. Sparta was famous onceand great Mycenae was most flourishing.And Cecrops' citadel and Amphion's shonein ancient power. Sparta is nothing nowsave barren ground, the proud Mycenae fell,what is the Thebes of storied Oedipusexcept a name? And of Pandion's Athenswhat now remains beyond the name?“Reports come to me that Dardanian Romeis rising, and beside the Tiber's waves,whose springs are high in the Apennines, is layingher deep foundations. So in her growthher form is changing, and one day she willbe the sole mistress of the boundless world.“They say that soothsayers and that oracles,revealers of our destiny, declarethis fate, and, if I recollect it right,Helenus, son of Priam, prophesiedunto Aeneas, when he was in doubtof safety and lamenting for the stateof Troy, about to fall, ‘O, son of a goddess,if you yourself, will fully understandthis prophecy now surging in my mindTroy shall not, while you are preserved to lifefall utterly. Flames and the sword shall giveyou passage. You shall go and bear awayPergama, ruined; till a foreign soil,more friendly to you than your native land,shall be the lot of Troy and of yourself.“Even now I know it is decreed by Fatethat our posterity, born far from Troy,will build a city greater than exists,or ever will exist, or ever hasbeen seen in former times. Through a long lapseof ages other noted men shall makeit strong, but one of the race of Iulus;shall make it the great mistress of the world.After the earth has thoroughly enjoyedhis glorious life, aetherial abodesshall gain him, and immortal heaven shall behis destiny.’
Sic alias aliasque lacus et flumina viresconcipiunt, tempusque fuit, quo navit in undis,nunc sedet Ortygie. Timuit concursibus Argoundarum sparsas Symplegadas elisarum,quae nunc inmotae perstant ventisque resistunt.Nec, quae sulphureis ardet fornacibus, Aetneignea semper erit, neque enim fuit ignea semper.Nam sive est animal tellus et vivit habetquespiramenta locis flammam exhalantia multis,spirandi mutare vias, quotiensque movetur,has finire potest, illas aperire cavernas;sive leves imis venti cohibentur in antrissaxaque cum saxis et habentem semina flammaemateriam iactant, ea concipit ictibus ignem,antra relinquentur sedatis frigida ventis;sive bitumineae rapiunt incendia viresluteave exiguis ardescunt sulphura fumis:nempe ubi terra cibos alimentaque pinguia flammaenon dabit absumptis per longum viribus aevumnaturaeque suum nutrimen deerit edaci,non feret illa famem desertaque deseret ignis.Esse viros fama est in Hyperborea Pallene,qui soleant levibus velari corpora plumis,olim Tritoniacam noviens subiere paludem.Haud equidem credo: sparsae quoque membra venenisexercere artes Scythides memorantur easdem.Siqua fides rebus tamen est addenda probatis,nonne vides, quaecumque mora fluidoque calorecorpora tabescunt, in parva animalia verti?I quoque, delectos mactatos obrue tauros(cognita res usu) de putri viscere passimflorilegae nascuntur apes, quae more parentumrura colunt operique favent in spemque laborant;pressus humo bellator equus crabronis origo est;concava litoreo si demas bracchia cancro,cetera supponas terrae, de parte sepultascorpius exibit caudaque minabitur unca;quaeque solent canis frondes intexere filisagrestes tineae (res observata colonis)ferali mutant cum papilione figuram.Semina limus habet virides generantia ranas,et generat truncas pedibus, mox apta natandocura dat, utque eadem sint longis saltibus apta,posterior superat partes mensura priores.Nec catulus, partu quem reddidit ursa recenti,sed male viva caro est: lambendo mater in artusfingit et in formam, quantam capit ipsa, reducit.Nonne vides, quos cera tegit sexangula, fetusmelliferarum apium sine membris corpora nasciet serosque pedes serasque adsumere pennas?Iunonis volucrem, quae cauda sidera portat,armigerumque Iovis Cythereiadasque columbaset genus omne avium mediis e partibus ovi,ni sciret fieri, quis nasci posse putaret?Sunt qui, cum clauso putrefacta est spina sepulcro,mutari credant humanas angue medullas.Haec tamen ex aliis generis primordia ducunt:una est, quae reparet seque ipsa reseminet, ales.Assyrii phoenica vocant; non fruge neque herbis,sed turis lacrimis et suco vivit amomi.Haec ubi quinque suae complevit saecula vitae,ilicis in ramis tremulaeque cacumine palmaeunguibus et puro nidum sibi construit ore.Quo simul ac casias et nardi lenis aristasquassaque cum fulva substravit cinnama murra,se super imponit finitque in odoribus aevum.Inde ferunt, totidem qui vivere debeat annos,corpore de patrio parvum phoenica renasci.Cum dedit huic aetas vires, onerique ferendo est,ponderibus nidi ramos levat arboris altaefertque pius cunasque suas patriumque sepulcrum,perque leves auras Hyperionis urbe potitusante fores sacras Hyperionis aede reponit.Si tamen est aliquid mirae novitatis in istis,alternare vices et quae modo femina tergopassa marem est, nunc esse marem miremur hyaenam;id quoque, quod ventis animal nutritur et aura,protinus adsimulat, tetigit quoscumque colores.Victa racemifero lyncas dedit India Baccho:e quibus, ut memorant, quidquid vesica remisit,vertitur in lapides et congelat aere tacto.Sic et curalium quo primum contigit aurastempore, durescit: mollis fuit herba sub undis.Desinet ante dies et in alto Phoebus anhelosaequore tinget equos, quam consequar omnia verbisin species translata novas: sic tempora verticernimus atque illas adsumere robora gentes,concidere has. Sic magna fuit censuque virisqueperque decem potuit tantum dare sanguinis annos,nunc humilis veteres tantummodo Troia ruinaset pro divitiis tumulos ostendit avorum.Nunc quoque Dardaniam fama est consurgere Romam,Appenninigenae quae proxima Thybridis undismole sub ingenti rerum fundamina ponit:haec igitur formam crescendo mutat et olimimmensi caput orbis erit. Sic dicere vatesfaticinasque ferunt sortes quantumque recordor,dixerat Aeneae, cum res Troiana labaret,Priamides Helenus flenti dubioque salutis:“Nate dea, si nota satis praesagia nostraementis habes, non tota cadet te sospite Troia!Flamma tibi ferrumque dabunt iter: ibis et unaPergama rapta feres, donec Troiaeque tibiqueexternum patrio contingat amicius arvum.Urbem etiam cerno Phrygios debere nepotes,quanta nec est nec erit nec visa prioribus annis.Hanc alii proceres per saecula longa potentem,sed dominam rerum de sanguine natus Iuliefficiet; quo cum tellus erit usa, fruenturaetheriae sedes, caelumque erit exitus illi.”