Book I.] DEDICATION. 11 



the learned generally, nothing was ever thought more scan- 

 dalous. Feeling myself, therefore, secure against these vile 

 slanderers \ a name elegantly composed by Cato, to express 

 their slanderous and vile disposition (for what other object 

 have they, but to wrangle and breed quarrels ?), I will pro- 

 ceed with my projected work. 



And because the public good requires that you should be 

 spared as much as possible from all trouble, I have subjoined 

 to this epistle the contents of each of the following books', 

 and have used my best endeavours to prevent your being 

 obliged to read them all through. And this, which was 

 done for your benefit, will also serve the same purpose for 

 others, so that any one may search for what he wishes, and 

 may know where to find it. This has been already done 

 among us by Valerius Soranus, in his work which he enti- 

 tled " On Mysteries'." 



The 1st book is the Preface of the Work, dedicated to 

 Titus Vespasian Ca?sar. 



The 2nd is on the World, the Elements, and the Heavenly 

 Bodies^. 



The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th books are on Greography, in 

 which is contained an account of the situation of the 

 different countriesj the inhabitants, the seas, towns, 

 harbours, mountains, rivers, and dimensions, and the 

 various tribes, some of which still exist and others have 

 disappeared. 



The 7th is on Man, and the Inventions of Man. 



The 8th on the various kinds of Land Animals. 



The 9th on Aquatic Animals. 



The 10th on the various kinds of Birds. 



1 " Vitiligatores." 



^ The table of contents, which occupies no less than 124 pages in 

 Lemaire's edition, I have omitted, in consequence of its length ; the ob- 

 ject which the author proposed to efiect by the table of contents will be 

 gained more completely by an alphabetical index. 



3 " 'ETToirTidojv." For an account of Valerius Soranus see Hardouin's 

 Index Auctorum, in Lemaire, i. 217. 



•* To the end of each book of the Natural History is appended, in the 

 original, a copious Hst of references to the soiirces from which the author 

 derived his information. These are very numerous ; in the second book 

 they amount to 45, in the third to 35, in the 4th to 53, in the fifth to 60, 

 in the sixth to 54, and they are in the same proportion ia the remaining 

 books. 



