118 PLINX'S NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book IT. 



CHAP. 89. (87.) — WHAT TSLATfDS HAYE BEETf TOEMED, AlfD 

 AT WHAT PEEIODS. 



Delos and Ehodes', islands wliicli have now been long 

 famous, are recorded to have risen up in this way. More 

 lately there have been some smaller islands formed ; Anapha, 

 which is beyond Melos ; jN'ea, between Lemnos and the 

 Hellespont ; Halone, between Lebedos and Teos ; Thera' and 

 Therasia, among the Cyclades, in the fourth year of the 

 135th Olympiad^. And among the same islands, 130 years 

 afterwards, Hiera, also called Automate^, made its appear- 

 ance ; also Thia, at the distance of two stadia from the 

 former, 110 years afterwards, in our own times, when M. 

 Junius Silanus and L. Balbus were consuls, on the 8th of 

 the ides of July^. 



(88.) Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the jEolian 

 isles, an island emerged from the sea ; and likewise one near 

 Crete, 2500 paces in extent, and with warm springs in it ; 

 another made its appearance in the third year of the 163rd 

 Olympiad^, in the Tuscan gulf, burning wdth a violent 

 explosion. There is a tradition too that a great number of 

 fishes were floating about the spot, and that those who em- 

 ployed them for food immediately expired. It is said that 

 the Pithecusan isles rose up, in the same way, in the bay 

 of Campania, and that, shortly afterwards, the mountain 

 Epopos, from which flame had suddenly burst forth, was 

 reduced to the level of the neighbouring plain. In the same 

 island, it is said, that a town was sunk in the sea ; that in 



^ It may be remarked, that the accounts of modem travellers and 

 geologists tend to confirm the opinion of the volcanic origin of many of 

 the islands of the Archipelago. 



2 Brotier remarks, that, according to the account of Herodotus, this 

 island existed previous to the date here assigned to it ; Lemaire, i. 412, 

 413 : it is probable, however, that the same name was appHed to two 

 islands, one at least of which was of volcanic origin. 



tr.c. 517, A.c. 237 ; and v.c. 647, a.c. 107 ; respectively. 



^ Hiera, Automata; ab iepd, sacer, et aoro/jiaTr], sponte nascens. 

 Respecting the origin of these islands there would appear to be some 

 confusion in the dates, which it is difficult to reconcile with each other ; 

 it is, I conceive, impossible to decide whether this depends upon an error 

 of our author himself, or of his transcribers. 



5 July 25th, u.C. 771 ; A.C. 19. 



« U.C. 628 ; A.C. 125. 



