192 PLIlsVs IfATTJEAL HISTOllY. [Book XIIT. f 
land in the Janiculum, came to a coffer, in whicli E'uma liad I 
been buried, the former king of Eome, and that in this coffer j 
were also found some books^^ of his. This took place in the f 
consulship of Publius Cornelius Cethegus, the son of Lucius, 1 
and of M. BEebius Tamphilus, the son of Quintus, the interval 
between whose consulship and the reign of Numa was five 
hundred and thirty-five years. These books were made of ' 
paper, and, a thing that is more remarkable still, is the fact 
that they lasted so many years buried in the ground. In 
order, therefore, to establish a fact of such singular import- 
ance, I shall here quote the words of Hemina himself — Some 
persons expressed wonder how these books could have possibly 
lasted so long a time — this was the explanation that Teren- 
tius gave : ' In nearly the middle of the coffer there lay a square 
stone, bound on every side with cords enveloped in wax 
upon this stone the books had been placed, and it was through 
this precaution, he thought, that they had not rotted. The 
books, too, were carefully covered with citrus leaves,^^ and it I 
was through this, in his belief, that they had been protected 
from the attacks of worms.' In these books were written 
certain doctrines relative to the Pythagorean philosophy ; they 
were burnt by Q. Petilius, the prcetor, because they treated 
of philosophical subjects. "^^ 
Piso, who had formerly been censor, relates the same facts 
in the First Book of his Commentaries, but he states in addition, 
that there were seven books on Pontifical Eights, and seven on 
the Pythagorean philosophy. Tuditanus, in his Eourteenth 
Book, says that they contained the decrees of E"uma : Yarro, in 
the Seventh Book of his Antiquities of Mankind," states that 
they were twelve in number ; and Antias, in his Second Book, 
says that there were twelve written in Latin, on pontifical 
29 This story, no doubt, deserves to be rejected as totally fabulous, even 
though we have Hemina' s word for it. 
See B. xvi. c. 70. 
21 B. xii. c. 7, and B. xiii. c. 31. It was thought that the leaves 
and juices of the cedar and the citrus preserved books and linen from the 
attacks of noxious insects. 
^■^ And because, as Livy says, their doctrines were inimical to the then 
existing religion. 
23 Val. Maximus says that there were some books written in Latin, on 
the pontifical rights, and others in Greek on philosophical subjects. 
2^ Humanee Antiquitates. 
