BOOK V. 1. ia-13 



nights; and in the middle of this space he places 

 Moimt Atlas, which all other authorities give as 

 situated at the farthest point of Mauretania. 



The first occasion on which the armed forces of Rcmun 

 Rome fought in Mauretania was in the principate f,^'^'^ 

 of Claudius, when King Ptolemy had been put to A/nca. 

 death by CaUgula and his freedman Aedemon was 

 seeking to avenge him ; and it is an accepted fact 

 that our troops went as far as Mount Atlas in pur- 

 suit of the routed natives. And not only were the 

 ex-consuls and generals drawn from the senate who 

 commanded in that campaign able to boast of having 

 penetrated the Atlas range, but this distinction was 

 also shared by the Knights of Rome who subse- 

 quently governed the country. The province con- 

 tains, as we have said, five Roman colonies, and, §^2fE. 

 to judge by common report, the place might well be 

 thought to be easily accessible ; but upon trial this 

 criterion is discovered to be for the most part ex- 

 ceedingly fallacious, because persons of high position, 

 although not incHned to search for the truth, are 

 ashamed of ignorance and consequently are not 

 reluctant to tell falsehoods, as creduUty is never 

 more easily let do^\Ti than when a false statement is 

 attested by an authority of weight. For my own 

 part I am less surprised that some things are outside 

 the knowledge of gentlemen of the equestrian order, 

 some of whom indeed nowadays actually get into 

 the senate, than that anything should be unknown 

 to luxury, which acts as an extremely great and 

 powerful stimulus, inasmuch as forests are ransacked 

 for ivory and citrus-wood and all the rocks of 

 GaetuHa explored for the murex and for purple. 

 The natives, however, inform us that on the coast 



227 



