120 plint's NATUEAL HISTOET. [Book II. 



all, if we are to believe Plato \ for an immense space where 

 the Atlantic ocean is now extended. More lately we see 

 what has been produced by our inland sea ; Acarnania has 

 been overwhelmed by the Ambracian gulf, Achaia by the 

 Corinthian, Europe and Asia by the Propontis and Pontus. 

 And besides these, the sea has rent asunder Leucas, Antir- 

 rhium, the Hellespont, and the two Bosphori^. 



CHAP. 93. (91.) — LANDS WHICH HATE BEEN 

 SWALLOWED UP. 



And not to speak of bays and gulfs, the earth feeds on 

 itself; it has devoured the very high mountain of Cybotus, 

 with the town of Curites ; also Sipylus in Magnesia^, and 

 formerly, in the same place, a very celebrated city, which 

 was called Tantalis ; also the land belonging to the cities 

 G-alanis and Gamales in Phoenicia, together with the cities 

 themselves ; also PEegium, the most lofty ridge in ^Ethiopia*. 

 Nor are the shores of the sea more to be depended upon. 



CHAP. 94. (92.) — CITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY 

 THE SEA. 



The sea near the Palus Maeotis has carried away Pyrrha 

 and Antissa, also Elice and Bura* in the gulf of Corinth, 

 traces of which places are visible in the ocean. Prom the 



^ This celebrated narrative o^Plato is contained in his Timseus, Op. ix. 

 p. 296, 297 ; it may be presumed that it was not altogether a fiction on 

 the part of the author, but it is, at this time, impossible to determine 

 what part of it was derived from ancient traditions and what from the 

 fertile stores of his own imagination. It is referred to by various ancient 

 writers, among others by Strabo. See also the remarks of Brotier in 

 Lemaire, i. 416, 417. 



2 Many of these changes on the surface of the globe, and others men- 

 tioned by our author in this part of his work, are alluded to by Ovid, in 

 liis beautiful abstract of the Pythagorean doctrine, Metam. xv. passim. 



3 See Aristotle, Meteor, ii. 8, and Strabo, i. For some account of the 

 places mentioned in this chapter the reader may consult the notes of 

 Hardouin in loco. 



■* Poinsinet, as I conceive correctly, makes the following clause the 

 commencement of the next chapter. 



» See Ovid, Metam. xv. 293-295 ; also the remarks of Hardouin in 

 Lemaire, i. 418. 



