Pliny the Elder, Natural History 8.36

First, apologies for not posting recently! Here’s a quick piece of Pliny to get things moving again.

Megasthenes scribit in India serpentes in tantam magnitudinem adolescere, ut solidos hauriant cervos taurosque, Metrodorus circa Rhyndacum amnem in Ponto, supervolantes ut quamvis alte perniciterque alites haustu raptas absorbeant.

Megasthenes writes that in India snakes grow to such a great size that they swallow stags and bulls whole. Metrodorus writes that in the region of the river Rhyndacus in Pontus they grow to such a size that they catch birds and devour them by swallowing, even if the birds are flying high and swiftly above them.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 8.80

Happy Hallowe’en!

homines in lupos verti rursusque restitui sibi falsum esse confidenter existimare debemus aut credere omnia quae fabulosa tot saeculis comperimus.

We ought to judge with confidence that it is a falsehood that humans can be turned into wolves and then be restored to their own form; or else we ought to believe all the tales which we have learned, through so many centuries, to be the stuff of fiction.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.19

haut procul urbe Roma in Faliscorum agro familiae sunt paucae quae vocantur Hirpi. hae sacrificio annuo, quod fit ad montem Soractem Apollini, super ambustam ligni struem ambulantes non aduruntur, et ob id perpetuo senatus consulto militiae omniumque aliorum munerum vacationem habent.

Not far from the city of Rome, in the territory of the Falisci, there are a few families who are called Hirpi. At the annual sacrifice performed by these families, which happens in honour of Apollo on Mount Soracte, they walk on a burning heap of wood but are not burnt. For this reason, by a decree of the senate in perpetuity, they are exempt from military service and all other duties.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 37.81-82

In the course of discussing opals, Pliny mentions Catullus 52.

magnitudo abellanam nucem aequat, insignis etiam apud nos historia, siquidem exstat hodieque huius generis gemma, propter quam ab Antonio proscriptus est Nonius senator, filius Strumae Noni eius, quem Catullus poeta in sella curuli visum indigne tulit, avusque Servili Noniani, quem consulem vidimus. ille proscriptus fugiens hunc e fortunis omnibus anulum abstulit secum. certum est sestertio vicies tum aestimatum, sed mira Antoni feritas atque luxuria propter gemmam proscribentis, nec minus Noni contumacia proscriptionem suam amantis, cum etiam ferae abrosa parte corporis, propter quam periclitari se sciant, et relicta redimere se credantur.

The opal’s size is the same as a hazelnut’s, and there is a remarkable story we tell about it: there still exists today a gem of this kind, because of which the senator Nonius was proscribed by Antony – this man was the son of that Nonius Struma whom the poet Catullus was indignant at seeing in the curule chair, and was the grandfather of Servilius Nonianus, whom we have seen as consul. On being proscribed, Nonius fled, taking with him, out of all his fortune, just this ring. It is certain that, at that time, it was valued at two million sesterces, but how amazingly cruel and luxurious was Antony that he should proscribe a man for the sake of a gem! And no less amazing was Nonius’ obstinacy – to love the cause of his own proscription – especially since wild beasts are believed to tear off a part of their body which they know puts them in danger, and by leaving it behind set themselves free.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 36.12

Hipponax again.

Hipponacti notabilis foeditas voltus erat, quam ob rem imaginem eius lascivia iocosam hi proposuere ridentium circulis; quod Hipponax indignatus destrinxit amaritudinem carminum in tantum, ut credatur aliquis ad laqueum eos conpulisse.

The ugliness of Hipponax’s face was notable. Because of this, these men [two artists from Chios, called Bupalus and Athenis], in a playful spirit, set up an amusing statue of him for the assembled company to laugh at. Hipponax was indignant at this and poured out all the vitriol of his poems upon them, to such an extent that some people believe he drove them to hang themselves.

Pliny the Elder, Natural History 35.109

Pliny is discussing a painter by the name of Nicomachus.

nec fuit alius in ea arte velocior. tradunt namque conduxisse pingendum ab Aristrato, Sicyoniorum tyranno, quod is faciebat Telesti poetae monimentum praefinito die, intra quem perageretur, nec multo ante venisse, tyranno in poenam accenso, paucisque diebus absolvisse et celeritate et arte mira.

There was no one else swifter in that art. For they say that he took a commission from Aristratus, tyrant of Sicyon, to paint a monument which he was making for the poet Telestes, and they agreed a date for its completion; Nicomachus arrived not much before that date, by which time the tyrant had become angry and was threatening him with a penalty. Within a few days he carried out the work with astonishing speed and skill.

Aelian, Varia Historia 10.10

To start us off, here is a passage from Aelian, one of the ancient world’s greatest Random Readers!

ὅτε ὑπήρχετο ἡ γραφικὴ τέχνη, καὶ ἦν τρόπον τινὰ ἐν γάλαξι καὶ σπαργάνοις, οὕτως ἄρα ἀτέχνως εἴκαζον τὰ ζῷα ὥστε ἐπιγράφειν αὐτοῖς τοὺς γραφέας· “τοῦτο βοῦς. ἐκεῖνο ἵππος. ἐκεῖνο δένδρον.”

When the art of painting was just beginning, and it was, in a manner of speaking, unweaned and in its baby-clothes, animals were so unskilfully represented that the painters would write inscriptions on them: “This is an ox. That is a horse. That is a tree.”

Pliny the Elder says something similar about the earliest artists at Natural History 35.5:

inventam liniarem a Philocle Aegyptio vel Cleanthe Corinthio primi exercuere Aridices Corinthius et Telephanes Sicyonius, sine ullo etiamnum hi colore, iam tamen spargentes linias intus. ideo et quos pinxere adscribere institutum.

The first to practise line-drawing (which was invented by Philocles the Egyptian, or by Cleanthes the Corinthian) were Aridices the Corinthian and Telephanes the Sicyonian; without yet using any colours, these men nonetheless shaded the inside of the outline with lines. Therefore it was also their custom to put the name of the people they painted.