414 pltnt's natural histoet. [Book V. 



The Nile begins to increase at tlie next new moon after 

 tHe summer solstice, and rises slowly and gradually as the 

 sun passes through the sign of Cancer ; it is at its greatest 

 height while the sun is passing through Leo, and it falls as 

 slowly and gradually as it arose while he is passing through 

 the sign of Virgo. It has totally subsided between its 

 banks, as we learn from Herodotus, on the hundredth day, 

 when the sun has entered Libra. While it is rising it has been 

 pronounced criminal for kings or prefects even to sail upon 

 its waters. The measure of its increase is ascertained by 

 means of wells^ Its most desirable height is sixteen cubits^ ; 

 if the waters do not attain that height, the overflow is not 

 universal ; but if they exceed that measure, by their slowness 

 in receding they tend to retard the process of cultivation. 

 In the latter case the time for sowing is lost, in consequence 

 of the moisture of the soil ; in the former, the ground is so 

 parched that the seed-time comes to no purpose. The country 

 has reason to make careful note of either extreme. When 

 the water rises to only twelve cubits, it experiences the 

 horrors of famine ; when it attains thirteen, hunger is still 

 the result ; a rise of fourteen cubits is productive of glad- 

 ness ; a rise of fifteen sets all anxieties at rest ; while an 

 increase of sixteen is productive of unbounded transports of 

 joy. The greatest increase known, up to the present time, 

 is that of eighteen cubits, which took place in the time 

 of the Emperor Claudius ; the smallest rise was that of five, 

 in the year of the battle of Pharsalia^, the river by this 

 prodigy testifying its horror, as it were, at the murder of 

 Pompeius Magnus, When the waters have reached their 

 greatest height, the people open the embankments and admit 

 them to the lands. As each district is left by the waters, 

 the business of sowing commences. This is the only river 

 in existence that emits no vapours'*. 



The Nile first enters the Egyptian territory at Syene*, on 



* The principal well for this purpose was called the " NHometer," or 

 *' Gauge for the Nile." 



- On this subject see Pliny, B. xviii. c. 47, and B. xxxvi. c. 11. 



3 Seneca says that the Nile did not rise as usual in the tenth and 

 eleventh years of the reign of Cleopatra, and that the circumstance was 

 said to bode ruin to her and Antony. — Nat. Qusest. B. iv. c. 2. 



■* He means dense clouds, productive of rain, not thin mists. See what 

 is said of the Borysthencs by our author, B. xxxi. c. 30. 



' Syene waa a city of Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank of the N''« 



