BOOK II. xcv. 207-xcvi. 209 



and so great is the consumption of luxury and of the 

 multitudes of mankind ; such a variety of patterned 

 gems, such many-coloured markings in stones, and 

 among them the brilliance of a certain stone <* that 

 only allows actual dayhght to penetrate through it; 

 the profusion of medicinal springs ; the flames of 

 fire flickering up in so many places, unceasing for so 

 many centuries ; the lethal breaths either emitted 

 from chasms or due to the mere formation of the 

 ground, in some places fatal only to birds, as in the 

 region of Soracte near Rome, in others to all hving 

 creatures except man, and sometimes to man also, 

 as in the territory of Sinuessa and of Pozzuoh — the 

 places called breathing holes, or by other people 

 jaws of hell — ditches that exhale a deadly breath; 

 also the place near the Temple of Mephitis at 

 Ampsanctus in the Hirpinian district, on entering 

 wliich people die ; hkewise the hole at HierapoHs in 

 Asia, harmless only to the priest of the Great Mother ; 

 elsewhere prophetic caves, those intoxicated by 

 M'hose exhalations foretell the future, as at the very 

 famous oracle at Delphi. In these matters what 

 other explanation could any mortal man adduce 

 save that they are caused by the divine power of that 

 nature which is difFused throughout the universe, 

 repeatedly bursting out in different ways ? 



XCVI. In some places, the earth trembles when Eanh 

 trodden on — for instance in the Gabii district not far "'^'"■*- 

 from the city of Rome about 200 acres shake when 

 horsemen gallop over them, and similarly in the 

 Reate district. Certain islands are always afloat, Fioating 

 as in the districts of Caecubum and of Reate men- '* " 

 tioned above and Modena and Statonium, and In 

 Lake Vadimo, the dense wood near the springs of 



339 



