13^ Pliny's natueal history. 



[Book II. 



Atos Qeodncria\ Near Nonacris, in Arcadia, tlie Styx^, which' 

 is not unlike it either in odour or in colour, instantly de- 

 stroys those who drink it. Also in Librosus, a hill in the 

 country of the Tauri, there are three springs which inevi- 

 tably produce death, but without pain. In the territory 

 of the Carrinenses in Spaing two springs burst out close 

 together, the one of which absorbs everything, the other 

 throws them out. In the same country there is another 

 spring, which gives to all the fish the appearance of o-old, 

 although, when out of the water, they do not differ in^any 

 respect from other fish. In the territory of Como, near the 

 Larian lake, there is a copious spring, which always swells 

 up and subsides again every hour\ In the island of Cydo- 

 nea^ before Lesbos, there is a warm fountain, which flows 

 only during the spring season. The lake Sinnaus*', in Asia, 

 is nnpreguated with wormwood, which grows about it. At 

 Colophon, in the cave of the Clarian Apollo, there is a pool 

 by the drinking of which a power is acquired of uttering 

 wonderful oracles ; but the lives of those who drink of it are 

 shortened^ In our own times, during the last years of 

 Nero's life, we have seen rivers flowing backwards, as I have 

 stated in my history of his times ^. 



And indeed who can be mistaken as to the fact, that all 

 sprmgs are colder in summer than in winter^, as well as 



1 LiteraUy, Jovis cultus ; as interpreted by Hardoum, "tanquam si 

 dixeris, divmum Jovis muuus himc foutem esse." Lemaire, i. 447 



2 Seneca affii^ms its poisonous nature ; Nat. Qua5st. iii. 25.' Q Curtius 

 refers to a spring in Macedonia of the same name, " quo pestifarum vii-us 

 emanat." x. 10. 



3 There appears to be some uncertainty respecting the locality of this 

 district ; see the remarks of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 447. 



^ "Hunc fontem describit exhnie Phnius jun. hb. iv. epist. ult. Est 

 ad orientalem Larii laeus plagam, Lago di Como, x mill. pass, a Como." 

 Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 448. 



» Our author, in a subsequent passage, v. 39, speaks of Cydonea, " cum 

 fonte cahdo." 



6 According to Hardouin, i. 448, there is a considerable variation in 

 the MSS. with respect to this name : he informs us that " 'Svvads urbs 

 est Magnse Phrygise Ptolemseo, v. 2." 



7 Tacitus gives an account of this oracle as having been visited by 

 Germanicus ; Ann. ii. 54. 



8 Our author refers to this history in the First book of the present work. 

 '' " Comparatos scihcet cimi aeris extemi temperie." Alexandre in 



Lemaii'e, i. 448. 



