BOOK II.] History of Nature. 125 



of Tiberius Ccesar, when twelve Cities of Asia were over- 

 turned in one Night. But Earthquakes were most frequent 

 in the Punic War, when within one Year there were an- 

 nounced at Rome seven-and-fifty l . In which Year, indeed, 

 when the Carthaginians and Romans fought a Battle at the 

 Lake Thrasymenus, none of either army perceived the Oc- 

 currence of a great Earthquake. Neither is this a simple 

 evil Thing, nor doth the Danger consist only in the Earth- 

 quake itself, but that which it portendeth is as bad or worse. 

 Never did the City of Rome experience an Earthquake, but 

 it proved a Warning of some unhappy Event to follow. 



CHAPTER LXXXV. 

 In what Places the Seas have gone back. 



THE same Cause is to be rendered of some new Piece of 

 Ground, when the before-named Wind within the Earth, 

 able to inflate and raise the Ground, was still not of Power 

 sufficient to break forth and escape. For there groweth firm 

 Land not only by that which Rivers bring in (as the Islands 

 Echinades, which were raised up by the River Achelous ; 

 and also by the Nile the greater Part of Egypt, into which, 

 if we believe Homer, from the Island Pharus there was a 

 Course by Sea of a Day and Night's Sailing), but also by the 

 retiring of the Sea; as the same Poet hath written of the 

 Circeice. The like is said to have happened both in the 

 Haven of Ambracia, for the Space of ten thousand Paces ; 

 and also in that of the Athenians for five thousand Paces, 

 near Piraeeum : also at Ephesus, where formerly the Sea 

 flowed near to the Temple of .Diana. Indeed, if we believe 

 Herodotus, it was all a Sea from above Memphis to the 

 Ethiopian Mountains : and likewise from the Plains of Arabia. 

 It was Sea also about Ilium, and all Teuthrania ; and where 

 the River Meander now runneth by Meadows 2 . 



1 Announced by the augurs, and therefore a strong proof of the agita- 

 tion of the public mind. Wern Club. 



2 The records of all nations afford proof of similar facts, which are 

 still more extensively shewn by the discoveries of modern geology. It 



