148 pLiinr's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book VII. 



of opening his mouth, and the spasmodic contraction of his 

 tongue, and his hurried and indistinct utterance when speaking. 

 Oassius Severus, 70 the celebrated orator, had it thrown in his 

 teeth how strongly he resembled Armentarius, the gladiator. 71 

 Toranius, a slave-dealer, sold to Antony, while he was one of 

 the Triumvirs, two boys of remarkable beauty, as being twins, 

 so strong was their resemblance ; whereas, in reality, one of them 

 was born in Asia, and the other beyond the Alps. The fraud, 

 however, having been soon afterwards discovered through the 

 difference in the language of the youths, Antony, who was 

 greatly exasperated, violently upbraided the dealer, and, among 

 other things, complained that he had fixed the price at so high 

 a sum as two hundred thousand sesterces. 72 The crafty slave- 

 merchant, however, made answer that that was the very reason 

 for his having set so high a price upon them ; for, as he said, 

 there would have been nothing particularly striking in the re- 

 semblance of the boys, if they had been born of the same mo- 

 ther, whereas, children found to be so exactly like each other, 

 though natives of different countries, ought to be deemed 

 above all price ; an answer which produced such a reasonable 

 feeling of surprise and admiration in the mind of the pro- 

 scriber, 73 that he who was but just before frantic under the 

 injury he had received, was led to set a higher value on no 

 part whatever of all the property in his possession. 



CHAP. 11. (13.) WHAT MEN AEE SUITED FOR GENERATION. 

 INSTANCES OF VERY NUMEROUS OFFSPRING. 



There exists a kind of peculiar antipathy between the bodies 



70 A celebrated orator and satirical writer of the time of Augustus and 

 Tiberius. He is mentioned in the Index of authors at the end of B. xxxvi., 

 where he is called Longulanus, as being a native of Longula, a town of 

 Latium. It was even thrown in his teeth, that he was the off spring of 

 adultery, and that this low-born person was his father. 



71 " Mirmillonis." Many of the editions make this word to be a proper 

 name, and "Armentarius" to signify the calling of the person described, 

 as being a herdsman. The " Mirmillones" were a peculiar class of gladi- 

 ators, said to have been so called from their having the image of a fish, 

 called " mormyr," on their helmets. 



^ 72 We assume the sestertium to be equivalent to somewhat more than 

 eight pounds sterling; this sum will be about 1600. B. 



73 ^ Proscripter animus." According to Hardouin, this means " delight- 

 ing in proscription," alluding to the well-known proscriptions of the 

 triumvirate, in which Antony acted so conspicuous a part. B. 



