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iron mined from it no less transfers the iron mined from other material to where it is moved, unless it is anointed with onion juice, as it seems to the natural philosophers. But again, when the magnet is anointed with goat's blood, it recovers its attractive power. 4.14 The origin of pepper, according to the ancients and Ctesias of Cnidus, is as follows: there is a nation in Azoume, Bessadai by name, having small and very weak bodies, with large and unshorn heads, and straight hair, contrary to the nature of the Indians. They live in underground caves and know how to walk on cliffs because of their familiarity with the place. These people gather the pepper, plucking it from stunted shrubs that grow alongside bushes. But Maximus says: "It is a plant in India, first of all without thorns, cultivated like a vine climbing on a tree or on a stake, and it bears its fruit in clusters like the terebinth, and has a rather long, ivy-like leaf. When planted, it begins to bear fruit after three years, and dies after eight years. When harvested, it is not by roasting that it becomes black, but from being set in the sun; whence it happens that what is cooled in the shade remains white. 4.15 That the high priests were called pontifices among the Romans, just as in Athens of old all the interpreters of the ancestral sacred rites and high priests—administrators of the whole—were named gephyraioi, on account of their performing sacred rites to the Palladium on the bridge of the river Spercheios. For the Romans call a bridge pontem, and the bridge-timbers pontilia. whence they were supposedly called praxiergiai as if telestai (performers of rites). For this is what pontifex means, from being capable in works. 4.16 On the eighteenth day before the Calends of February, Varro says a battle of winds occurs, but Democritus says that the south-west wind comes with rain. 4.17 The philosophers say the Dioscuri are the hemisphere below the earth and above the earth; and they die in turn according to the myth, as if being carried to the antipodes in turn. Those around Epimenides made the Dioscuri into a myth as male and female, calling the one Aion, like the monad, and the other Physis, as the dyad; for from the monad and the dyad all life-creating and soul-creating number has sprung. It should be known that on this day the Kids set and a turning occurs, according to Philip. 4.18 On the fifteenth day before the Calends of February, Democritus says the Dolphin sets and for the most part a turning occurs. On the thirteenth day before the Calends of February, Euktemon says Cancer sets, but Callippus says Aquarius rises, whom Hipparchus calls Deucalion ... in glens and ravines of the mountains. On the twelfth day before the Calends of February, Eudoxus says Aquarius rises. On the eleventh day before the Calends of February, Caesar says the sun is in Aquarius, but Eudoxus says it rises and signifies rains. And on the tenth day before the Calends of February, Democritus says the south-west wind blows. 4.19 That Fabius the senator was condemned by the senate, because he was shown to possess silver beyond the amount specified by law. For no one was permitted to possess more than his station, nor for ordinary people to use silk clothing, even if they were wealthy, but this was reserved for the patricians alone as an exception. 4.20 They called Domitian master, but not king, on account of his tyrannical nature. 4.21 Some of the natural philosophers consider Hera to be water, and Zeus to be fire; and that fruits are born from the mixture of moisture and heat. But they also theologize her as the Moon, as she is set over the moist substance, and that Ares was born from her

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αὐτοῦ μεταλλευθεὶς σίδηρος οὐδὲν ἧττον τὸν ἐξ ἄλλης ὕλης μεταλλευθέντα σίδηρον εἰς ὃ κινεῖται μεταφέρει, πλὴν εἰ μὴ χυλῷ κρομμύων ἀλιφῇ, ὡς τοῖς φυσικοῖς δοκεῖ. αὖθις δὲ τραγείῳ αἵματι χριόμενος ὁ μάγνης τὴν ἑλκτικὴν ἀναδέχεται δύναμιν. 4.14 Ἡ γένεσις τοῦ πιπέρεως κατὰ τοὺς παλαιοὺς καὶ Κτησίαν τὸν Κνίδιον τοιαύτη· ἔθνος ἐστὶ κατὰ τὴν Ἀζούμην, Βησσάδαι τοὔνομα, σώμασι σμικροῖς καὶ ἀδρανεστάτοις κεχρημένοι, κεφαλαῖς μεγάλαις καὶ ἀκάρτοις καὶ παρὰ τὴν Ἰνδῶν φύσιν ἁπλόθριξιν· σπηλαίοις δὲ ἐνοικοῦσιν ὑπογείοις καὶ κρημνοβατεῖν ἐπιστάμενοι διὰ τὴν τοῦ τόπου συντροφίαν. οὗτοι ἀπὸ δενδρυφίων κολοβῶν ταῖς θάμνοις παραφυομένων τὸ πέπερι δρεπόμενοι συνάγουσιν. ὁ δὲ Μάξιμός φησι· «φυτόν ἐστι ἐν τῇ Ἰνδίᾳ πρῶτον μὲν ἀνάκανθον, φυτουργούμενον δὲ ὡς ἄμπελος ἀναδενδρὰς ἢ ὑπὸ χάρακα, φέρει δὲ τὸν καρπὸν βοτρυώδη ὡς τερέβινθος, ἔχει δὲ φύλλον κισσῶδες ὑπόμακρον· φυτευόμενον δὲ τριετὲς ἄρχεται καρποφορεῖν, θνήσκει δὲ ὀκταετές· τρυγηθὲν δὲ οὐ φρυγόμενον μελαίνεται, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ ἐν τῷ ἡλίῳ διατίθεσθαι· ὅθεν συμβαίνει τὸ σκιόψυκτον λευκὸν διαμένειν. 4.15 Ὅτι ποντίφικες οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις ἐλέγοντο, καθάπερ ἐν Ἀθήναις τὸ πάλαι γεφυραῖοι πάντες οἱ περὶ τὰ πάτρια ἱερὰ ἐξηγηταὶ καὶ ἀρχιερεῖς- διοικηταὶ τῶν ὅλων-ὠνομάζοντο, διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς γεφύρας τοῦ Σπερχειοῦ ποταμοῦ ἱερατεύειν τῷ Παλλαδίῳ. πόντην γὰρ οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι τὴν γέφυραν καλοῦσι, καὶ ποντίλια τὰ γεφυραῖα ξύλα. ὅθεν καὶ πραξιεργίαι δῆθεν ἐκαλοῦντο ὡσανεὶ τελεσταί. τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει τὸ πόντιφεξ ἀπὸ τοῦ δυνατοῦ ἐν ἔργοις. 4.16 Τῇ πρὸ δέκα ὀκτὼ Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων ἀνεμομαχίαν ὁ Βάρρων λέγει γίνεσθαι, ∆ημόκριτος δὲ τὸν λίβα μετὰ ὄμβρου φησὶ γίνεσθαι. 4.17 Οἱ φιλόσοφοί φασι ∆ιοσκόρους εἶναι τὸ ὑπὸ γῆν καὶ ὑπὲρ γῆν ἡμισφαίριον· τελευτῶσι δὲ ἀμοιβαδὸν μυθικῶς, οἱονεὶ ὑπὸ τοὺς ἀντίποδας ἐξ ἀμοιβῆς φερόμενοι. οἱ δὲ περὶ Ἐπιμενίδην ἄρρενα καὶ θήλειαν ἐμύθευσαν τοὺς ∆ιοσκόρους, τὸν μὲν αἰῶνα, ὥσπερ μονάδα, τὴν δὲ φύσιν, ὡς δυάδα, καλέσαντες· ἐκ γὰρ μονάδος καὶ δυάδος ὁ πᾶς ζωογονικὸς καὶ ψυχογονικὸς ἐξεβλάστησεν ἀριθμός. ἰστέον δὲ κατὰ ταύτην τὴν ἡμέραν τοὺς ἐρίφους δύεσθαι καὶ τροπὴν γίνεσθαι κατὰ Φίλιππον. 4.18 Πρὸ δεκαπέντε Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων ὁ ∆ημόκριτος λέγει δύεσθαι τὸν δελφῖνα καὶ τροπὴν ὡς ἐπὶ πολὺ γίνεσθαι. πρὸ δεκατριῶν Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων ὁ μὲν Εὐκτήμων τὸν καρκῖνον δύεσθαι, ὁ δὲ Κάλλιππος τὸν ὑδροχόον ἀνίσχειν λέγει, ὃν ∆ευκαλίωνα Ἵππαρχος καλεῖ ... βήσσαις καὶ χαράδραις τῶν ὀρῶν. πρὸ δεκαδύο Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων Εὔδοξος τὸν ὑδροχόον ἀνίσχειν λέγει. πρὸ δεκαμιᾶς Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων τὸν ἥλιον ἐν ὑδροχόῳ γενέσθαι ὁ Καῖσαρ λέγει, ὁ δὲ Εὔδοξος ἀνίσχειν αὐτὸν καὶ βροχὰς σημαίνειν· τῇ δὲ πρὸ δέκα Καλενδῶν Φεβρουαρίων ὁ ∆ημόκριτος ἄνεμον λίβα πνεῦσαι λέγει. 4.19 Ὅτι Φάβιος ὁ βουλευτὴς κατεδικάσθη ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς, ὅτι παρὰ τὸν διωρισμένον τῷ νόμῳ ἄργυρον ἐδείκνυτο κεκτημένος. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐφεῖτο παρὰ τὴν ἀξίαν κεκτῆσθαί τινι, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ σηρικῇ χρῆσθαι ἐσθῆτι τοῖς τυχοῦσι, κἂν εὔποροι εἶεν, μόνοις δὲ τοῖς πατρικίοις τοῦτο κατ' ἐξαίρετον ἀνενήνεκτο. 4.20 Τὸν ∆ομετιανὸν δεσπότην ἐκάλουν, ἀλλ' οὐ βασιλέα, διὰ τὸ τυραννικὸν αὐτοῦ. 4.21 Τὴν Ἥραν ἔνιοι τῶν φυσικῶν τὸ ὕδωρ εἶναι ἀξιοῦσι, τὸν δὲ ∆ία τὸ πῦρ· μίξει δὲ ὑγρότητος καὶ θερμότητος τίκτεσθαι τοὺς καρπούς. ἀλλὰ καὶ Σελήνην αὐτὴν θεολογοῦσιν, οἷα ἐπὶ τῆς ὑγρᾶς οὐσίας τεταγμένην, καὶ τὸν Ἄρεα ἐξ αὐτῆς τεχθῆναι