Chap. 89.] TEEES PLANTED BY HERCULES. 43 J 



days it was an object of religious veneration. The foundation 

 of the town of Tibur, too, dates many years before that of the 

 City of Rome : there are three holm-oaks there, said to be 

 more ancient than Tiburnus even, who was the founder of 

 that place ; the tradition is that in their vicinity he was inau- 

 gurated. Tradition states also that he was a son of Amphi- 

 araus, who died before Thebes, one generation before the period 

 of the Trojan war. 



CHAP. 88. TEEES PLANTED BY AGAMEMNON THE ETEST YEAE OF THE 



TEOJAN WAE : OTHER TEEES WHICH DATE FROM THE TIME THAT 

 THE PLACE WAS CALLED ILIUM, ANTERIOR TO THE TEOJAN WAR. 



There are some authors, too, who state that a plane-tree at 

 Delphi was planted by the hand of Agamemnon, as also another 

 at Caphyae, a sacred grove in Arcadia. At the present day, 

 lacing the city of Ilium, and close to the Hellespont, there are 

 trees growing over the tomb 63 of Protesilaiis there, which, in 

 all ages since that period, as soon as they have grown of suffi- 

 cient height to behold Ilium, have withered away, and then 

 begun to nourish again. Near the citj^, at the tomb of Ilus, 

 there are some oaks 63 which are said to have been planted 

 there when the place was first known by the name of Ilium. 



CHAP. 89. TREES PLANTED AT ARGOS BY HERCULES I OTHERS 



PLANTED BY APOLLO. A TREE MORE ANCIENT THAN ATHENS 

 ITSELF. 



At Argos 64 an olive-tree is said to be still in existence, to 

 which Argus fastened Io, after she had been changed into a 

 cow. In the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, there are certain 

 altars called after Jupiter surnamed Stratios ; two oaks there 

 were planted by Hercules. In the same country, too, is the 

 port of Amycus, 65 rendered famous by the circumstance that 

 King Bebryx was slain there. Since the day of his death his 

 tomb has been covered by a laurel, which has obtained the 

 name of the " frantic laurel," from the fact that if a portion 

 of it is plucked and taken on board ship, discord and quarrel- 



62 See B. iv. c, 18. Of course, this story must be regarded as fabulous. 



63 Quercus. 



64 These are fables founded upon the known longevity of trees, which, 

 as Fee remarks, Pliny relates with a truly "infantine simplicity." 



e^ See B. v. c. 43. 



