136 
PLIIfT's KATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book IL 
Aids QeoSoaia^. !N"ear JSTonacris, in Arcadia, tlie Styx^, which 
is not unlike it either in odour or in colour, instantly de- 
stroys those who drink it. Also in Librosus, a hill in the 
country of the Tauri, there are three springs which inevi- 
tably produce death, but without pain. In the territory 
of the Carrinenses in Spain^, two springs burst out close 
together, the one of which absorbs everything, the other 
throvi^s them out. In the same country there is another 
spring, which gives to all the fish the appearance of gold, 
although, when out of the water, they do not differ in any 
respect from other fish. In the territory of Como, near the 
Larian lake, there is a copious spring, which always swells 
up and subsides again every hour"^. In the island of Cydo- 
nea^, before Lesbos, there is a warm fountain, which flows 
only during the spring season. The lake Sinnaus^, in Asia, 
is impregnated with wormwood, which grows about it. At 
Colophon, in the cave of the Clarian Apollo, there is a pool, 
by the drinking of which a power is acquired of uttering 
wonderful oracles ; but the lives of those who drink of it are 
shortened''. In our own times, during the last years of 
Nero's life, we have seen rivers flowing backwards, as I have 
stated in my history of his times ^. 
And indeed who can be mistaken as to the fact, that all 
springs are colder in summer than in winter^, as well as 
1 Literally, Jovis ciiltus ; as interpreted by Hardouin, *' tanquam si 
dixeris, divinum Jovis munus hunc fontem esse." Lemaire, i. 447. 
2 Seneca af&rms its poisonous nature ; Nat. Qusest. iii. 25. Q. Curtius 
refers to a spring in Macedonia of the same name, " quo pestiferum virus 
emanat." x. 10. 
3 There appears to be some uncertainty respecting the locahty of this 
district ; see the remarks of Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 447. 
4 " Hunc fontem describit eximie Phnius jun. hb. iv. epist. ult. Est 
ad orientalem Larii lacus plagam, Lago di Como, x mill. pass, a Como." 
Hardouin, Lemaire, i. 448. 
s Our author, in a subsequent passage, v. 39, speaks of Cydonea, " cum 
fonte caHdo." 
6 According to Hardouin, i. 448, there is a considerable variation in 
the MSS. with respect to this name : he informs us that " ^vvads urbs 
est Magnae Phrygise Ptolemseo, v. 2." 
7 Tacitus gives an account of this oracle as having been visited by 
Germanicus ; Ann. ii. 54. 
8 Our author refers to this history in the First book of the present work. 
9 " Comparatos scihcet cum aeris externi temperie." Alexandre in 
Lemaire, i. 448. 
