142 PLIOT^S NATIJEAL HISTOBY. [Book VII. 
from such the murderous dispositions of men. Thou man, who 
placest thy confidence in the strength of thy hody, thou, who 
dost embrace the gifts of Fortune, and look upon thyself, not 
only as her fosterling, but even as her own born child, thou, 
whose mind is ever thirsting for blood,^^ thou who, puffed up 
with some success or other, dost think thyself a god — by how 
trifling a thing might thy life have been cut short ! Even 
this very day, something still less even may have the same 
effect, the puncture, for instance, of the tiny sting of the ser- 
pent ; or even, as befell the poet Anacreon,^* the swallowing | 
of the stone of a raisin, or of a single hair in a draught of milk, \ 
by which the prsetor and senator, Eabius, was choked, and 
so met his death. He only, in fact, will be able to form a 
just estimate of the value of life, who will always bear in 
mind the extreme frailty of its tenure. 
CHAP. 6. (8.) ^MONSTROUS BIETHS. 
It is contrary to nature for children to come into the world 
with the feet first, for which reason such children are called 
AgrippsD, meaning that they are born with difficulty .^^ In 
this manner, M. Agrippa*^ is said to have been born ; the 
*3 " Tinctoria mens there has been much discussion, whether the text 
does not require correction here ; and various conjectural emendations have 
been proposed, but not with much success. If the word " tinctoria" was 
employed by Pliny, it may be regarded as one of those bold, and somewhat 
metaphorical expressions, which are not unfrequently found in his 
writings. — B. 
*^ Valerius Maximus makes the same statement as to the death of 
Anacreon, and says that " having lived to an extreme old age, he was 
supporting his decayed strength by chewing raisins, when one grain, more 
obstinate than the rest, stuck in his parched throat, and so ended his life." 
This story has been looked upon by some of the modern scholars as a 
fiction of the poets. 
*5 'fhis explanation of the name is given by Aulus GeUius, B. xvi. c. 6. 
— B. It is very doubtful what are the roots from which it is formed ; 
though Pliny evidently thinks that the word is only a corruption of the 
Latin *'segre partus," "born with dijficulty;" a notion savouring of ab- 
surdity. 
*s M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus, having married 
his dissolute daughter, Julia. He Avas the son of Lucius Agrippa, and was 
descended from a very obscure family. He divorced his wife Marcella, to 
marry Julia, the widow of Marcellus, and the daughter of Augustus, by 
his third wife, Scribonia. 
