354 
ploy's natueal history. [BookVIII. 
the little serpents at Tirynthus,^^ which are said to spring from 
out of the earth. In Syria, also, and especially on the banks 
of the Euphrates, the serpents never attack the Syrians when 
they are asleep, and even if they happen to bite a native who 
treads upon them, their venom is not felt ; but to persons of 
any other country they are extremely hostile, and fiercely at- 
tack them, causing a death attended with great torture. On 
this account, the Syrians never kill them. On the contrary, 
on Latmos, a mountain of Caria, as Aristotle tells us, strangers 
are not injured by the scorpions, while the natives are killed 
by them. Eut I must now give an account of other animals 
as well, and of the productions of the eaxth.^"^ 
SuMMAEY. — Eemarkable events, narratives, and observations, 
seven hundred and eighty- seven. 
iloMAN ATTTHOEs Q,roTED. — Muciauus,^^ Procilius,^^ Verrius 
Flaccus,^^ L. Piso,"^^ Cornelius Yalerianus,^^ Cato the Censor,''^ Ee- 
nestella,^^ Trogus,"^^ the Eegister of the Triumphs, "^^ Columella, 
65 See B. iv. c. 9. 66 gee B. v. c. 31. 
6"' More especially of trees, plants, flowers, medicinal substances, metals, 
and gems, which form the most prominent subjects of the remaining Books 
after the eleventh, which concludes the account of the animals. — B. 
See end of B. ii. 
69 A Roman historian, and a contemporary of Cicero. He is thought to 
have written on early Roman history, as Yarro quotes his account of the 
Curtian Lake, and on the later history of Rome, as we have seen Pliny 
referring to him in c. 2, respecting Pompey's triumph on his return from 
Africa. He was held in high estimation by Pomponius Atticus, but seems 
not to have been so highly esteemed as a writer by Cicero. 
"^0 See end of B. iii. "'^ See end of B. ii. 
■^2 Of this writer nothing seems to be known. He probably flourished 
in the reign of Tiberius or Caligula. 
'3 See end of B. iii. 
A Roman historian, who flourished in the reign of Augustus, and 
died A.D. 21, in the seventieth year of his age. His great work was called 
" Annales," and extended to at least twenty-two books, and seems to have 
contained much minute, though not always accurate, information with re- 
gard to the internal afi*airs of the city ; only a few fragments remain, 
which bear reference to events subsequent to the Carthaginian wars. He 
is also thought to have written a work called "Epitomae." A treatise 
was published at Vienna, in 1510, in two Books, " On the Priesthood and 
Magistracy of Rome," under the name of Fenestella ; but it is in reahty 
the composition of Andrea Domenico Fiocchi, a Florentine jurist of the 
fourteenth century. 
See end of B. vii. "^6 See end of B. v. ^ 
" L. Junius Moderatus Columella. He was a native of Gades, or Cadiz, 
