Chap. 16.] EXAMPLES OF UNIISUAL SIZE. 157 



do not inform us what was the height of jN'sevius Pollio ;^' but 

 "we learn from them that he nearly lost his life from the rush 

 of the people to see him, and that he was looked upon as a 

 prodigy. The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was 

 one Gabbaras^^ by name, who was brought from Arabia by 

 the Emperor Claudius ; his height was nine feet and as many 

 inches. ^^ In the reign of Augustus, there were two persons, 

 Posio and Secundilla by name, who were half a foot taller 

 than him ; their bodies have been preserved as objects of curi- 

 osity in the museum of the Sallustian family.^" 



In the reign of the same emperor, there was a man also, 

 remarkable for his extremely diminutive stature, being only 

 two feet and a palm in height ; his name was Conopas, and he 

 was a great pet with Julia, the grand- daughter of Augustus. 

 There was a female also, of the same size, Andromeda by name, 

 a freed- woman of Julia Augusta. We leaim from Varro, that 

 Manius Maximus and M. TuUius, members of our equestrian 

 order, were only two cubits in height ; and I have myself 

 seen them, preserved in their coffins.-^ It is far from an un- 

 kno^Ti fact, that children are occasionally born a foot and a 

 half in height, and sometimes a little more ; such children, 

 however, have finished their span of existence by the time they 

 are three years old.-- 



^■^ Columella speaks of Cicero as mentioning this Pollio, and stating that 

 tie was a foot taller than any one else. It is most probably in Cicero's lost 

 book, " De Admirandis," that this mention was made of him. 



^8 Hardouin supposes that this was not an individual name, but a term 

 ierived from the Hebrew, descriptive of his remarkable size. — B. He 

 supposes also that not improbably this was the same individual that is men- 

 tioned by Tacitus, Annals, B. xii. c. 12, as Acharus, a king of the Arabians. 



'9 According to our estimate of the Roman measures, this would corre- 

 spond to about nine feet four and a half inches of our standard. — B. 



-'^ "Conditorio Sallustianorum." The more general meaning attributed 

 to the word " conditorium," is " tomb" or burial-place. AVe learn from 

 Dther sources that the famous " gardens of Sallust" belonged to the em- 

 peror Augustus, and it is not improbable that there was a museum there of 

 curiosities, in which these remarkable skeletons were kept. 



2^ " Loculis." It is not quite clear whether this word has the meaning 

 here of chest or coffin, or of a niche or cavity made in the wall of the 

 tomb. 



'- Among the objects of curiosity which were exhibited by Augustus to 

 the Roman people, as related by Suetonius, c. 43, was a dwarf named 

 Lucius, who is there described ; but he would appear to be a ditferent per- 

 son from any of those here mentioned. — B. 



