PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



BOOK III 



I, So much as to the situation and the marvels of 

 land and water and of the stars, and the plan and 

 dimensions of the universe. 



Now to describe its parts, although this also is aeography 

 considered an endless task, not Hghtly undertaken °^ "^ ""^ 

 without some adverse criticism, though in no field 

 does enquiry more fairly claim indulgence, only 

 granting it to be by no means wonderful that one 

 born a human being should not possess all human 

 knowledge. For this reason I shall not follow any 

 single authority, but such as I shall judge most 

 rehable in their several departments, since I have 

 found it a characteristic common to virtually all of 

 them that each gave the most careful description of the 

 particular region in which he personally was MTiting. 

 Accordingly I shall neither blame norcriticise anyone. 

 The bare names of places will bc set down, and with 

 the greatest brevity available, their celebrity and 

 its reasons being deferrcd to their pi-oper sections; 

 for my topic now is the world as a wliole. Therefore 

 I should like it to be understood that I specify the 

 bare names of the places without their record, as 

 they were in the beginning before they had achieved 



