Chap. 24.] ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, ETC. 53 



Thus much we learn from the ancient writers ; it has fallen 

 to our lot, however, to obtain a still more accurate knowledge 

 of these people ; for during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, 

 an embassy came from even this distant island to Rome. The 

 circumstances under which this took place were as follow : 

 Annius Plccamus had farmed from the treasury the revenues 

 arising from the Red Sea. A certain freedman of his, while 

 sailing around Arabia, was carried away by a gale, from the 

 north beyond the coast of Carmania. In the course of fifteen 

 days he had drifted to Hippuros, a port of Taprobane, where 

 he was most kindly and hospitably received by the king ; and 

 having, after a study of six months, become well acquainted 

 with the language, was enabled to answer all his enquiries re- 

 lative to the Romans and their emperor. But of all that he 

 heard, the king was more particularly struck with surprise at 

 our rigid notions of justice, on ascertaining that among the 

 money found on the captive, the denarii were all of equal 

 weight, although the different figures on them plainly showed 

 that they had been struck in the reigns of several emperors. 

 By this circumstance in especial, the king was prompted to form 

 an alliance with the Romans, and accordingly sent to Rome an 

 embassy, consisting of four persons, the chief of whom was 

 Rachias.^^ 



From these persons we learned that in Taprobane there are 

 five hundred towns, and that there is a harbour that lies facing 

 the south, and adjoining the city of Palaesimundus,^^ the most 

 famous city in the isle, the king's place of residence, and con- 

 taining a population of two hundred thousand. They also in- 

 formed us that in the interior there is a lake called Megisba, three 

 hundred and seventy-five miles in circumference, and containing 

 islands which are fertile, though for pasturage only. In this lake 

 they informed us two rivers take their rise, one of which, called 

 Palaesimundus, flows into the harbournear the city of that name, 

 by three channels, the narrowest of which is five stadia in width, 

 the largest fifteen ; while the other, Cydara by name, takes a di- 

 rection northward, towards the Indian coast. "We learned also 



^^ Parisot suggests that the word "Raclijah," or "Rajah," denoting 

 the rank which he held, may have been here taken by Pliny for his name. 



^9 Ptolemy says that the ancient name of the island was Simundi, or 

 Palfesimundi, but speaks of no such city as the one here mentioned, nor 

 indeed of any other of the locahties described by Pliny. 



