BOOK X\'l. Lxxxvi. 236-Lxxxix. 239 



of Masurius is understood to be of the same age as 

 the city. Its roots spread right across the Municipal 

 Offices as far as the Forum of Caesar. With this 

 there grew a cypress of equal age, which about the 

 closing period of Nero's principate fell down and 

 was left lying. 



LXXXVlI. But on the Vatican Hill thcre is a holm- 

 oak that is older than the city ; it has a bronze tablct 

 on it with an inscription written in Etruscan charac- 

 ters, indicating that even in those days the tree was 

 deemed venerable. The people of TivoU also date 

 their origin far before the city of Rome ; and 

 they have three holm-oaks still hving that date 

 even earher than their founder Tiburnus, the cere- 

 mony of whose installation is said to have taken 

 place near them ; but tradition relates that he 

 was the son of Amphiaraus, who died in battle 

 before Thebes a generation before the Trojan 

 war. 



LXXXVIII. Authorities say that there is a plane- oidtreestn 

 tree at Delphi that was planted by the hand of Aga- ^ZTmnor. 

 memnon, and also another at Caphya, a place in 

 Arcadia. There are trees at the present day growing 

 on the tomb of Protesilaus on the shore of the Dar- 

 danelles opposite the city of the Trojans, which in 

 every period since the time of Protesilaus, after 

 they have grown big enough to command a view 

 of Ihum, wither away and then revive again ; while 

 the oaks on the tomb of Ilus near the city are said to 

 have been planted at the date when the place first 

 began to be called Ihum. 



LXXXIX. It is said that at Argos there still 

 survives the ohve to which Argus tethered lo after 

 she had been transformed into a heifer. West of 



541 



