Hail to thee, Nature, thou parent of all things! and do thou deign to show thy favour unto me, who, alone of all the citizens of Rome, have, in thy every department,[3500] thus made known thy praise.[3501]
Summary.—Facts, narratives, and observations, one thousand three hundred.
Roman Authors quoted.—M. Varro,[3502] the Register of the Triumphs,[3503] Mæcenas,[3504] Iacchus,[3505] Cornelius Bocchus.[3506]
Foreign Authors quoted.—King Juba,[3507] Xenocrates[3508] the son of Zeno, Sudines,[3509] Æschylus,[3510] Philoxenus,[3511] Euripides,[3512] Nicander,[3513] Satyrus,[3514] Theophrastus,[3515] Chares,[3516] Philemon,[3517] Demostratus,[3518] Zenothemis,[3519] Metrodorus,[3520] Sotacus,[3521] Pytheas,[3522] Timæus[3523] the Sicilian, Nicias,[3524] Theochrestus,[3525] Asarubas,[3526] Mnaseas,[3527] Theomenes,[3528] Ctesias,[3529] Mithridates,[3530] Sophocles,[3531] King Archelaüs,[3532] Callistratus,[3533] Democritus,[3534] Ismenias,[3535] Olympicus,[3536] Alexander[3537] Polyhistor, Apion,[3538] Horus,[3539] Zoroaster,[3540] Zachalias.[3541]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say, that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses, the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to infer “that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state, and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause.”
[2] The Echeneis remora of Linnæus. See B. ix. c. 41.
[3] He alludes to the “rostra,” or metal beaks, with which the prows of the ships of war were furnished.
[4] An absurd tradition, no doubt, invented, probably, to palliate the disgrace of his defeat.
[5] From the delay caused by the stoppage of the prætorian ship.