BOOK VII. vin. 45-M. 48 



unhappy by lameness, a lifetime passed amidst 

 warfare and ever exposed to the approach of death, 

 bv the misfortune caused to the world by his whole 

 progeny but especially due to his two daugliters" 

 who became the mothers of the emperors Gaius 

 CaHgula and Domitius Nero, the two firebrands of 

 mankind ; and also by the shortness of his Hfe, as he 

 was cut off at the age of fifty during the agony 

 caused him by his wife's ^ adulteries and diu-ing 

 his irksome subjection to his father-in-law Augustus. 

 Nero also, who was emperor shortly before and whose 

 entire rule showed him the enemy of mankind, is 

 stated in his mother Agrippina's memoirs to have 

 been born feet first. It is Nature's method for a 

 human being to be born head first, and it is the 

 custom for him to be carried to burial feet first. 



IX. It is a better omen when the mother dies in 

 giving birth to the child ; instances are the birth of the 

 elder Scipio Africanus and of the first'' of the Caesars, 

 who got that name from the surgical operation per- 

 formed on his mother ; the origin of the family name 

 Caeso is also the same. Also Manilius who entered 

 Carthage with his army was born in the same manner. 

 X. The name \'opiscus used to be given to cases of a 

 twin born after being retained in the womb when the 

 other twin had been kihed by premature deHvery — 

 for extremely remarkable though infrequent cases 

 of this occur. 



XI. Few animals except woman ever have sexual 

 intercourse when pregnant — at all events super- 

 fetation only occurs with animals in very few cases. 

 In the records of tlie medical profession and of 

 writers who have been interested in collecting such 

 occurrences, there is a case of miscarriage in which 



537 



