BOOK MI. XVI. 74-76 



that the body of Orestes dug up " at the command of 

 an oracle measured 10 ft. 6 in. Moreover, the famous 

 bard Homer nearly 1000 years ago never ceased to 

 lament that mortals were smaller of stature than in 

 the old days. In the case of Naevius PoUio the 

 annals do not record his height, but thcy show that 

 it was deemed portentous, because he was almost 

 killed by the people flocking round him. The tallest 

 person our age has seen was a man named Gabbara 

 brought from Arabia in the principate of liis late 

 Majesty Claudius who was 9 ft. 9 in. in height. 

 Under his late Majesty Augustus there were two 

 persons 6 in. taller, whose bodies on account of this 

 remarkable height were preserved in the tomb in 

 Sallust*s Gardens ; their names were Pusio and 

 Secundilla. WTien the same emperor was head of the 

 state the smallest person was a dwarf 2 ft. 5 in. high 

 named Conopas, the pet of his granddaughter JuHa, 

 and the smallest female was Andromeda, a freed- 

 woman of Julia Augusta. Marcus Varro states 

 that the Knights of Rome Manius Maximus and 

 Marcus TulHus were 3 ft. high, and we have ourselves 

 seen their bodies preserved in coffins. It is a matter 

 of common knowledge that persons are born LS in. 

 high and some taller, who complete their hfes course 

 at the age of three. 



We find in the rccords that at Salamis the son of 

 Euthymenes grew to 4 ft. 6 in. in his third year ; 

 he walked slowly, was dull of sense, became sexually 

 quite mature, had a bass voice, and was carried off 

 by a sudden attack of paralysis when he turned 

 three. We ourselves recently saw almost all these 

 features except sexual maturity in a son of the Knight 

 of Rome Comelius Tacitus, Deputy Finance Minister 



555 



