162 pliny's natxjeax histoet. [Book VII. 



fully aware that there are men in the Circus, who a,re able to 

 keep on running for a distance of one hundred and sixty miles; 

 and that -lately, in the consulship of Fonteius and Vipstanus,*^ 

 there was a chUd eight years of age, who, between morning and 

 evening, ran a distance of seventy-five nules.'^ "We become all 

 the more sensible of these wonderful instances of swiftness, 

 upon reflecting that Tiberius Nero, when he made all possible 

 haste to reach his brother Drusus, who was then sick in Ger- 

 many, reached him in three stages, travelling day ajid night 

 on the road; the distance of each stage was two hundred 

 miles." 



CHAP. 21. (21.) INSTANCES OF ACTJTENESS OF SIGHT. 



Instances of acuteness of sight are to be found stated, which, 

 indeed, exceed all belief. Cicero informs us," that the Iliad 

 of Homer was written on a piece of parchment so small as to be 

 enclosed in a nut-shell. He makes mention also of a man who 

 could distinguish objects at a distance of one hundred and thirty- 

 five miles." M. Varro says, that the name of this man was 

 Strabo ; and that, during the Punic war, from Lilybseum, the 

 promontory of Sicily, he was in the habit of seeing the fleet 

 come out of the harbour of Carthage, and could even count the 

 number of the vessels." Callicrates*" used to carve ants and 



^2 See B. ii. c. 72. 



*' This feat is no less incredible tlian those mentioned above. — B. 



** "We have an account of this journey of Tiberius in Dion Cassius. 

 Val. Maximus, B. v. c. 6, also enumerates this among the extraordinary 

 examples of fraternal affection. — B. We learn also nom Suetonius, that 

 on learning the accident, a fall from his horse, which had happened to his 

 brother Drusus, Tiberius took horse at Ticinum, and travelled night and 

 day till he reached his brother, who was then in Germany, near the Ehine. 

 He accompanied the body to Rome, preceding it on foot all the way. There 

 is extant a " Consolation to Li via Augusta," written on this occasion, some 

 have thought, by Pedo Albinovanus, but it is more likely to have been the 

 work of Ovid. 



^ This statement must have been in some of his lost works. 



*' Pliny probably here refers to a passage in the Acad. Quaest. B. iv. c. 

 81, where Cicero speaks of a person who could see objects, it was said, at 

 a distance of 1800 stadia, equal exactly to 125 miles. — B. 



*' The actual distance between the promontory of Sicily and the nearest 

 part of Carthage is between fifty and sixty miles. The acute vision of 

 Strabo is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8. B. 



*8 See also B. xxxvi. c. 4. He was a Lacedsemonian sculptor, who, 

 according to Athenaeus, also executed embossed work on vases. 



