Chap. 89.] 
TREES PLANTED BY HEKCULES. 
43] 
days it was an object of religious veneration. Tlie foundation 
of the town of Tibur, too, dates many years before that of the 
€ity of Eome : there are three holm-oaks there, said to be 
more ancient than Tiburnus even, who was the founder of 
that place ; the tradition is that in their vicinity he was inau- 
gurated. Tradition states also that he was a son of Amphi- 
araiis, who died before Thebes, one generation before the period 
of the Trojan war. 
CHAP. 88. TEEES PLANTED BY AGAMEMNON THE FIRST YEAR OF THE 
TROJAN AVAR : OTHER TREES WHICH DATE FROM THE TIME THAT 
THE PLACE WAS CALLED ILIUM, ANTERIOR TO THE TROjAN WAR. 
There are some authors, too, who state that a plane-tree at 
Delphi was planted by the hand of Agamemnon, as also another 
at Caphyse, a sacred grove in Arcadia. At the present day, 
facing the city of Ilium, and close to the Hellespont, tliere are 
trees growing over the tomb^^ of Protesilaiis there, which, in 
all ages since that period, as soon as they have grown of suffi- 
cient height to behold Ilium, have withered away, and then 
begun to flourish again. Near the city, at the tomb of Ilus, 
there are some oaks^^ which are said to have been planted 
there when the place was first known by the name of Ilium. 
CHAP. 89. TREES PLANTED AT ARGOS BY HERCULES I OTHERS 
PLANTED BY APOLLO. A TREE MORE ANCIENT THAN ATHENS 
ITSELF. 
A t Argos^^ an olive-tree is said to be still in existence, to 
which Argus fastened lo, after she had been changed into a 
cow. In the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus, there are certain 
altars called after Jupiter surnamed Stratios ; two oaks there 
were planted by Hercules. In the same country, too, is the 
port of Amycus,^^ rendered famous by the circumstance that 
King Eebryx was slain there. Since the day of his death his 
tomb has been covered by a laurel, which has obtained the 
name of the frantic laurel," from the fact that if a portion 
of it is plucked and taken on board ship, discord and quarrel- 
62 See B. iv. c. 18. Of course, tkis story must be regarded as fabulous 
63 Quercus. 
6^ These are fables founded upon the known longevity of trees, which, 
as Fee remarks, Pliny relates with a truly "infantine simplicity." 
6^ See B. V. c. 43. 
