[1292] The text is ἐν τοῖς παραδόξοις, which Gosselin renders, “Les ouvrages qui traitent des choses merveilleuses.”
[1293] Strabo’s argument is here so weak, that one can hardly believe it can have ever been seriously made use of.
[1294] This method of explaining the ebb and flow of the sea, by comparing it to the respiration of animals, is not so extraordinary, when we remember that it was the opinion of many philosophers that the universe was itself an animal. Pomponius Mela, (De Situ Orbis, lib. iii. c. 1,) speaking of the tides, says, “Neque adhuc satis cognitum est, anhelitune suo id mundus efficiat, retractamque cum spiritu regerat undam undique, si, ut doctioribus placet, unum (_lege_ universum) animal est; an sint depressi aliqui specus, quo reciprocata maria residant, atque unde se rursus exuberantia attollant: an luna causas tantis meatibus præbeat.”
[1295] Thirty degrees.
[1296] The Persian Gulf.
[1297] Alcolea.
[1298] Some MSS. read 50 stadia.
[1299] This is the sense of the text, πᾶσαν τὴν κύκλῳ παρωκεανῖτιν.
[1300] We are not aware that the Ebro passes through any lake.
[1301] This is probably a description of the appearance of the Druids. Tacitus, (Ann. lib. xiv. 30,) speaking of the consternation into which the Druids of Anglesey threw the Roman soldiers who had disembarked there, says, “Druidæque circum, preces diras, sublatis ad cœlum manibus, fundentes, novitate adspectus perculere milites, ut, quasi hærentibus membris, immobile corpus vulneribus præberent.” Immediately before these words he thus describes the women, “Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis in _modum furiarum_, quæ veste ferali, crinibus dejectis, faces præferebant.”