BOOK VII. IV. 36-v. 38 



IV. Transformation of females into males is not an ctiange of 

 idle story. We find in thc Annals that in the "'"^' 

 consulship'' of Pubhus Licinius Crassus and Gaius 

 Cassius Long-inus a girl at Casinum was changed 



into a boy, under the observation of the pai*ents, 

 and at the order of the augurs was conveyed 

 away to a desert island. Licinius Mucianus has 

 recorded that he personally saw at Argos a man 

 named Arescon who had been given the name of 

 Arescusa and had actually married a husband, and 

 then had gro^ra a beard and developed mascuhne 

 attributes and had taken a wife ; and that he had 

 also seen a boy vrith. the same record at Smyrna. 

 I myself saw in Africa a person who had turned into a 

 male on the day of marriage to a husband ; this was 

 Lucius Constitius, a citizen of Thysdritum. . . .^ 

 (It is said that) at the birth of twins neither the 

 mother nor more than one of the two children usually 

 hvcs, but that if twins are born that are of different 

 sex it is even more unusual for either to be saved ; 

 that females are born more quickly than males, just 

 as they grow older more quickly ; and that movement 

 in the womb is more frequent in the case of males, 

 and males are usually carried on the right side, 

 females on the left. 



V. All the other animals have a fixed season both Human re- 

 for copulation and for bearing offspring, but human vroducucm. 

 reproduction takes place all the year round and the 

 period of gestation varies — in one case it may exceed 



six months, in another seven, and it may even cxceed 

 ten ; a cliild born before the seventh month is usually 

 still born. Only those conceived the day before or 

 the day after full moon, or whcn there is no moon, 

 are born in the seventh month. It is a common thing 



531 



