PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



ceteri in aqua. ipsa dura, fruticosa, spinosis foliis, 

 caule geniculato, cubitali et maiore aliquando, alia 

 albicans, alia nigra, radice odorata ; et sativa quidem 

 est, sed sponte nascitur in asperis et saxosis et in 

 litoribus maris durior nigriorque, folio apii. 



20 IX. Ex his candidam nostri centum capita vocant. 

 omnes eiusdem effectus, caule et radice in cibos Grae- 

 corum receptis utroque modo, sive coquere libeat sive 

 cruda vesci. portentosum est quod de ea traditur, 

 radicem eius alterutrius sexus similitudinem referre, 

 raro inventu,^ set si viris contigerit mas, amabiles 

 fieri. ob hoc et Phaonem Lesbium dilectum a 

 Sappho, multa circa hoc non Magorum solum vanitate 



21 sed etiam Pvthagoricorum. sed in medico usu 

 praeter supra dicta auxihatur inflationibus, tormini- 

 bus, cordis vitiis, stomacho, iocineri, praecordiis in 

 aqua mulsa, lieni in posca, item ex mulsa renibus, 

 stranguriae, opisthotonis, spasmis, lumbis, hydro- 

 picis, comitialibus, mulierum mensibus, sive subsidant 



22 sive abundent, vulvarumque omnibus vitiis. extra- 

 hit infixa corpori cum melle. strumas, parotidas, 



^ inventu /ere omnes codd. : invento R et Mayhoff, qui 

 inveniri coni. 



' Or " hard," " tough." The adjective durus has both 

 meanings, and so much ambiguity is caused in a botanical 

 context. 



* Whatever the correct reading may be, thLs phrase could 

 be taken either with what follows, as in the translation, or 

 with the preceding sentence, when " sometimes " must be 

 understood before " grows." 



' See Dioscorides III. 21. With Wellmann's reading the 

 7rpo<f>TJTai caUed erynge a love charm ((fxepTo?). This seems to 

 suggest that Pliny identified the Tj-po^rjrat with the Magi. 



308 



