PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



esset terra, simul omnia adparerent cunctis, noctesque 

 non fierent inaequales, nam aeque aliis quam in 

 medio sitis paria duodecim horarum intervalla 

 cernerentur, quae nunc non in omni parte simili 

 modo congruunt. 



181 LXXIII. Ideo nec nox diesque, quamvis eadem, 

 toto orbe simul est oppositu globi noctem aut ambitu 

 diem adferente. multis hoc cognitum experimentis, 

 in Africa Hispaniaque turrium Hannibalis, in Asia 

 vero propter piraticos terrores simili specularimi 

 praesidio excitato, in quis praenuntios ignes sexta 

 hora diei accensos saepe conpertum est tertia noctis a 

 tergo ultimis visos. eiusdem Alexandri eursor 

 Philonides ex Sicyone Elin mille et ducenta stadia 

 novem diei confecit horis, indeque, quamvis decHvi 

 itinere, tertia noctis hora remensus est saepius. 

 causa, quod eunti cum sole iter erat, eundem remeans 

 obvium contrario praetervertebat occursu. qua de 

 causa ad occasum navigantes quamvis brevissimo 

 die vincunt spatia nocturnae navigationis ut solem 

 ipsum comitantes. 



182 LXXIV. Vasaque horoscopica non ubique eadem 

 sunt usui, in trecenis stadiis, aut ut longissime in 

 quingentis, mutantibus semet umbris sohs. itaque 

 umbilici (quem gnomonem appellant) umbra in 

 Aegypto meridiano tempore aequinocti die paulo 



» Cf. VII 20. 



* Starting at daybreak, i.e. took 1.5 hours home as against 

 9 hours out. Taking the mille passuum of 8 stades (see D. 

 Ant. s.vv.) at W of an EngHsh mile, we get for the outward 

 joumey a pace of just over 1.5 miles an hour. But perhaps the 

 length of the route is overestimated at 1200 stades, about 

 136 miles, as the distance from Sicyon to Elis measures only 

 about 80 miles in a straight hne on the map. Elia Ues higher 



