BOOK VII. XIX. 79-xx. 83 



hard, unbending severity of nature, and takes away 

 the emotions natural to humanity ; persons of this 

 sort are called ' apathetic ' by the Greeks, who have 

 known many men of the kind, and among them 

 surprising to say, chiefly founders of schools of 

 philosophy, Diogenes the Cynic, Pyrrho, HeracUtus, 

 Timo — the last indeed going as far as to hate the 

 whole human race. But these small pecuharities of 

 nature are kno\vn to occiu' variously in many per- 

 sons, for instance in the case of Drusus's daughter 

 Antonia never spitting, in the poct and ex-consul 

 Pomponius never belching. Persons whose bones are 

 by nature soUd," a rather rare class, are called ' horny.' 



XX. \'arro in his account of cases of remarkable ExcepHonai 

 strength records that one Tritanus, famous in the ^^''"^^- 

 gladiatorial exercise with the Samnite equipment, was 

 sUghtly built but of exceptional strength, and that his 

 son, a soldier of Pompey the Great, had a chequered 

 criss-cross of sinews aU over his body, even in his 

 arms and hands ; and moreover that once he clial- 

 lenged one of the enemy to single combat, defeated 

 him without a weapon in his hand, and finaUy took 

 hold of him with a single finger and carried him off" 

 to the camp. Vinnius Valens served as captain in 

 the Imperial Guard of the late lamented Augustus ; 

 he was in the habit of holding carts laden with wine- 

 sacks up in the air until they were emptied, and of 

 catching hold of wagons with one hand and stopping 

 them by throwing his v.eight against the efforts of 

 the teams drawing them, and doing other marveUous 

 exploits which can be seen carved on his monument. 

 Marcus Varro Ukewise states : ' RusticeUus, who was 

 nicknamed Hercules, used to Uft his mule ; Fufius 

 Salvius uscd to walk up a hidder with tAvo hundred- 



559 



