464 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



147 ; and is known to grow in Southern Europe and in Britain (Pers., and Engl. bot. pi. 393). By 

 European colonists, was carried prior to 1670 (Jossel.) to Northeast America, where I have met with 

 it along roadsides ; was also carried to Southern Brazil, where it was observed by Aug. Saint-Hilaire 

 (A. Dec), and myself, in the environs of Rio Janeiro. 



" 13 B. C." (Sm. b. d.), Herod accompanied by his friend Nicolaus of Damascus visiting Rome 

 and Augustus. Dates of superior quality presented by them were termed by Augustus " nicolai," — a 

 name that continued in use in the middle ages. 



Euphorbia simplex of Tropical Arabia. The " barba jovis " consisting according to Nicolaus 

 of Damascus plant, ii. 9 of a stem without leaves or fruit, — may be compared: E. simplex was 

 observed by Forskal among the mountains of Yemen, and called " dahan ; " by myself, on the 

 Desert hills at Aden and Muscat, a green cylindrical sprout, like a terminal twig of E. tirucalli, but 

 upright, a foot or more high, and sometimes with a few branches. 



Sodada decidua of Tropical Arabia. The fruit of the " myrobalanorum arboris " described by 

 Nicolaus of Damascus plant, ii. 17 as at first " dulces, consequenter pontici, et in completione amari," 

 — maybe compared: S. decidua was observed by Forskal p. 81 everywhere in Yemen, a thorny 

 shrub called "sodad," its fruit "ruber nuce coryli major," and before ripening cooked and eaten by 

 the Banyans. 



Leptadetiia reticulata of Tropical Hindustan. A large twining Asclepiaceous plant with corky 

 much-cracked bark (Graham) ; and the " mediannus " described by Nicolaus of Damascus i. 13 as a 

 plant all bark, — may be compared : L. reticulata was observed by Law, and Graham, "common in 

 hedges about Surat and in the Southern Mahratta country ; " by Retz obs. ii. 15, Roxburgh, and 

 Wight, in other parts of Hindustan ; is termed by Roxburgh " asclepias suberosa." 



" 12 B. C " (Dio, and Clint.), Lepidus succeeded as " pontifex maximus" by Augustus ; and the 

 pontifical books numbering about " two thousand " burned, with the sole exception of the " Sybilline 

 Oracles." 



C. Julius Hyginus of Spain, a pupil of Alexander Polyhistor, and freedman of Augustus, having 

 charge of the Palatine library (Sueton., and Sm. b. d.). 



Daphne cneonim of the West Mediterranean countries. Called in Italy " neoro " (Lenz), and 

 possibly the "cneoron" identified by Pliny xxi. 29 with the CAS I AM of Hyginus, — and further 

 enumerated as coronary : the " casiae dapbnitidis " is mentioned by Marcellus 25 • D. cneorum, is 

 described by Linnaeus ; and is known to grow on the mountains of Austria, Italy, and Southern 

 France (Poll., Jacq. austr. pi. 426, Lam. fl. fr., and Pers. ; see D. Gnidium). 



" In or about B. C. 10 " (Sueton , and C. O. Muell. edit. Fest.), the grammarian Verrius Flac- 

 cus appointed tutor over the two grandchildren of Augustus. — Verrius died in the reign of Tiberius 

 (Sm. b. d.). A portion of his lexicon has been preserved through abridgments by Pompeius Festus, 

 and Paulus Diaconus. 



"9 B. C." (Abyss, chron., and C. Mull, geogr. min. p. xcvii), accession of Za-Bazen as king of 

 Abyssinia. — He reigned "sixteen" years. 



"8 B. C." (Dio, and Clint.), the empire for another "ten years" accepted by Augustus ; and 

 the name of the month Sextilis changed by the Senate to " augustus." The Calendar also corrected 

 by Augustus (Blair), " by ordering the twelve ensuing years to pass without intercalation." 



"6 B. C. = ' kian-ping,' 1st year of Gai-ti or Hiao-nga'i-ti, of the Han" or Seventh dynasty 

 (Chinese chron. table). 



"The same year" (Dio, and Clint.), the tribunician power for "five years" conferred on Tibe- 

 rius ; and his retirement to Rhodes, — where he remained " seven years." 



Apollonius before the time of Archigenes lived long at Alexandria, perhaps Apollonius Mus a 

 cotemporary of Strabo. Apollonius Herophileus — is quoted by Andromachus (see Sm. b. d.). 



Pluchea Dioscoridis of the Upper Nile. Called in Egypt " barn uf " (Forsk.) ; and the KONY- 

 ZHC:eYLUAOYC prescribed by Apollonius for pain in the head — (Galen comp. med. ii. 1), may 

 be compared : the "barnuf " is mentioned by Eltamini, and Ebn Baitar : P. Dioscoridis was observed 

 by Forskal p. 148, and Delile, cultivated for its fragrance in Lower Egypt, and escaping from gardens 

 naturalized along the Nile ; by Rauwolf pi. 54, at Tripoli in Syria. 



"5 B. C." (according to Clinton iv. p. [4, see also Matth. ii. 16 to 22, Luke i. 5 to ii. 39, and 

 Sulpic. sacr. hist. ii. 39), "the most probable" date of the Nativity. 



To Strabo xvii. 1. 34 visiting the Pyramids, the niunmu/ites abounding in the subjacent rock 

 were pointed out as the "food of the workmen." — The same legend that is repeated by the Arabs to 

 travellers to the present clay. 



Ascending the Nile in company with Aelius Gallus' now third Roman prefect, Strabo heard the 

 sound uttered by the broken colossus on the plain of Thebes. This statue of Amenophis III,— 

 some seventy years later, became an object of pilgrimage ; as recorded in history, and shown by 

 Greek and Roman inscriptions covering the base ; certificates of visitors who had " heard Memnon" 



