PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



parvas, rarius febrem, stomachum faucesque invasit, ^ 

 oeissime exanimans. 



7 y. Diximus elephantiasim ante Pompei Magni 

 aetatem non accidisse in Italia, et ipsam a facie 

 saepius incipientem, in nare prima veluti lenticula, 

 mox inarescente ^ per totum corpus maculosa variis 

 coloribus et inaequali cute, alibi crassa, aHbi tenui, 

 dura alibi ceu scabie aspera, ad postremum vero 

 nigrescente et ad ossa carnes adprimente, intumes- 



8 centibus digitis in pedibus manibusque. Aegypti 

 peculiare hoc mahmi et, cum in reges incidisset, 

 populis funebre, quippe in balineis soHa tempera- 

 bantur humano sanguine ad medicinam eam. et hic 

 quidem morbus celeriter in Italia restinctus est, sicut 

 et ille quem gemursam appellavere prisci inter 

 digitos pedum nascentem, etiam nomine oblitterato. 



9 \T. Id ipsum mirabile, aHos desinere in nobis, 

 alios durare, sicuti colum. Ti. Caesaris principatu 

 inrepsit id malum, nec quisquam id prior imperatore 

 ipso sensit, magna civitatis ambage, cum in edicto 

 eius excusantis valetudinem legeret nomen incog- 



^ faucesque invasit VR : paucisque E r : faucesque cum 

 invasit d(?) vulg., Detlefsen : faucesque ut invasit Mayhoff, 

 qui VIII L5S, IX 122, 152, 153, XV 85, XVIII 115, XX 38, 

 XXX 63, XXXI 109, XXXIII 29, XXXVI 127 confert. 



^ inarescente Detlefsen cum codd. : increscente lanus, 

 Mayhoff. 



" In spite of the vulgate cuin before invasit, and of Mayhoffs 

 formidable list of parallel passages in support of ut, which he 

 substitutes for cum, I am inclined to believe that a new 

 sentence begins after aufert ; in other words that two forms of 

 the disease are mentioned, one which kills by producing coma, 

 the other in which death is due to sufFocation and clioking. 



270 



