342 PLINl'a NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXVI. 



tects were, Smilis," Ehoecus,=« and Theodoms, natives of the 

 island and there are still in existence some remains of it; 

 whereas of the Cretan Labyrinth and of that in Italy not a 



vestige is left. ^. ^ ^, . . j 



As to this last, which Porsena, Xmg of Etruria, erected as 

 his intended sepulchre, it is only proper that I should make 

 some mention of it, if only to show that the vanity displayed 

 by foreign monarchs, great as it is, has been surpassed. But 

 as the fabulousness of the story connected with it quite ex- 

 ceeds all bounds, I shaU employ the words given by M. Yarro 

 himself in his account of it :—'' Porsena was buried, says be, 

 " beneath the city of Clusium f in the spot where he tad had 

 constructed a square monument, built of squared stone, i^ach 

 side of this monument was three hundred feet m length and 

 fifty in height, and beneath the base, which was also square, 

 there was an inextricable labyrinth, into which if any one 

 entered without a clew of thread, he could never find his way 

 out. Above this square building there stand five pyramids, 

 one at each corner, and one in the middle, seventy-five teet 

 broad at the base, and one hundred and fifty feet m height. 

 These pyramids are so tapering in their form, that upon the 

 summit of all of them united there rests a brazen globe, and 

 upon that a petasus f from which there hang, suspended by 

 chains, bells, which make a tinkling when agitated by the 

 wind, like what was done atDodona^^ in former times. Upon 

 this globe there are four other pyramids, each one hundred 

 feet in height; and above them is a single platform, on which 

 there are five more pyramids,"^— the height of which Varro has 

 evidently felt ashamed to add ; but, according to the Etruscan 

 fables, it was equal to that of the rest of the building. What 



55 Smilis lived, probably, 200 years before EhcECUs and Theodorus, and 

 was a native of JEgina, not Lemnos. Sillig, however, is mc med to tliink 

 that there were two artists of this name ; the elder a contemporary of 

 Dffidalus, and the maker of several wooden statues. 



5s See B. xxxv. c. 43. " See B. lu. c 8 



58 A round, hroad-brimmed hat, such as we see represented in the sta- 

 tues of Mercury. , , j- • • *^ 



59 Where two brazen vessels were erected on a column, adjoining to 

 which was the statue of a boy with a whip ; which when agitated by the 

 wind struck the vessels, and omens were drawn from the tinkling noise 

 produced, significant of future events, it was supposed. 



60 A building like this, as Niebuhr says, is absolutely impossible, and 

 belongs to the " Arabian Nights." The description in some particulars re- 

 Bembles that of a Chinese pagoda. 



