Chap. 16.] 
EXAMPLES OP UNUSUAL SIZE. 
157 
do not inform ns what was the height of ^N'aevius Pollio but 
we learn from them that he nearly lost his life from the rush 
of the people to see him, and that he was looked upon as a 
prodigy. The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was 
one Gabbaras^^ by name, who was brought from Arabia by 
the Emperor Claudius ; his height was nine feet and as many 
inches. In the reign of Augustus, there were two persons, 
Posio and Secundilla by name, who were half a foot taller 
than him ; their bodies have been preserved as objects of curi- 
osity in the museum of the Sallustian family. 
In the reign of the same emperor, there was a man also, 
remarkable for his extremely diminutive stature, being only 
two feet and a palm in height ; his name was Conopas, and he 
was a great pet with Julia, the grand- daughter of Augustus. 
There was a female also, of the same size, Andromeda by name, 
a freed- woman of Julia Augusta. We learn from Yarro, that 
Manius Maximus and M. Tullius, members of our equestrian 
order, were only two cubits in height ; and I have myself 
seen them, preserved in their cojSins."^ It is far from an un- 
known fact, that children are occasionally born a foot and a 
half in height, and sometimes a little more ; such children, 
however, have finished their span of existence by the time they 
are three years old.^''^ 
Columella speaks of Cicero as mentioning this Pollio, and stating that 
he was a foot taller than any one else. It is most probably in Cicero's lost 
book, " De Admirandis," that this mention was made of him. 
1^ Hardouin supposes that this was not an individual name, but a term 
derived from the Hebrew, descriptive of his remarkable size. — B. He 
supposes also that not improbably this was the same individual that is men- 
tioned by Tacitus, Annals, B. xii. c. 12, as Acharus, a king of the Arabians. 
^9 According to our estimate of the Eoman measures, this would corre- 
spond to about nine feet four and a half inches of our standard. — B. 
20 " Conditorio Sallustianorum." The more general meaning attributed 
to the word " conditorium," is " tomb" or burial-place. We learn from 
other sources that the famous gardens of Sallust" belonged to the em- 
peror Augustus, and it is not improbable that there was a museum there of 
curiosities, in which these remarkable skeletons were kept. 
21 " Loculis." It is not quite clear whether thi§ word has the meaning 
here of chest or coffin, or of a niche or cavity made in the wall of the 
tomb. 
22 Among the objects of curiosity which were exhibited by Augustus to 
the Eoman people, as related by Suetonius, c. 43, was a dv/arf named 
Lucius, who is there described ; but he would appear to be a ditferent per- 
son from any of those here mentioned.— B. 
