Natural History

Front matter

CONTENTS OF PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY DIVIDED INTO THIRTY-SEVEN BOOKS

Preface:

This is in the form of a covering letter from Pliny, to accompany the gift of his treatise on Natural History to his friend Vespasian Caesar (i.e. the ruling Emperor Vespasian's son, Titus, his successor as Princeps, who had already been vested with Imperium and Tribunicia Potestas). The reference to him in §3 dates the passage: see above. The author goes on to say that this dedication places the work outside the class of books intended for the general reader, and invites serious criticism. The subject does not admit of an elevated style—the treatise is a plain record of the facts of Nature, designed for utility and not for entertainment. Its compilation has occupied the leisure left to the author by the claims of public duty. The authorities drawn upon are faithfully recorded. The matter-of-fact title, in place of some fanciful label, indicates the author's aim, and the practical object of the work is aided by the table of contents that forms Book I, enabling the reader to turn to any particular subject that he desires to look up.

Book 1

BOOK I

TABLE OF CONTENTS AND AUTHORITIES

Book II. Contents (i-iii) The world, is it finite? is it one? its shape; its motion; reason for its name. (iv) The elements. (v) God. (vi) The planetstheir nature. (vii) Eclipses, solar and lunar. Night. (viii-x) The starstheir magnitude; astronomical discoveries. (xi) The moon's motion.(xii-xvi). Motions of the planets; theory of their light; causes of apparent recession and approach; general properties of planets; reason for changes of colour. (xvii) The sun's motion; reason for inequality of days. (xviii) Thunderbolts, why attributed to Jove. (xix) The starstheir distances apart. (xx) Music from the stars. (xxi) Dimensions of the world. (xxii, xxiii) Shooting stars. Comets; their nature, position and kinds. (xxiv) Identification of stars--method of Hipparchus. (xxv-xxxv) Sky portentsrecorded instances torches, shafts, skybeams, sky-yawning, colours of the sky, sky-flame, sky-wreaths, sudden rings, prolonged solar eclipses, several suns, several moons, daylight at night, burning shield; an unique sky-portent. (xxxvi) Disruption of stars. (xxxvii) The `Castores.' (xxxviii) The air. (xxxix-xli). Fixed seasons. Rise of dogstar. Regular effect of seasons. (xlii, iii) Irregular seasons. Rain storms. Showers of stones, their reason. Thunderbolts and lightnings. (xliv-viii) Echoits reason. Windstheir Winds, natures and behaviour. (xlix, i). Cloud-burst, typhoon, whirlwinds, presteres, tornadoes, other portentous kinds of storms. (li-vi) Thunderboltswhat countries immune from them and why; their kinds, their peculiarities; Tuscan and Roman observances connected with; method of calling down; general properties; what objects never struck. (lvii) Showers of milk, blood, flesh, iron, wool, bricks. (lviii) Portents.(lix) Stones falling from the skyAnaxagoras as to. (lx) Rainbow. (lxi). Nature of hail, snow, frost, cloud, dew. (lxii) Local peculiarities of the sky. (lxiii-v) Nature of the earth; its shape; antipodesdo they exist? (lxvi-viii) Waterhow linked with earth? Rivers--their reason. Is the earth surrounded by the ocean? What portion of the earth is inhabited? (lxix). The earth at the centre of the world. (lxx) Obliquity of zones. Inequality of climates. (lxxii) Eclipseswhere invisible, and why? (lxxiii) Reason for daylight on earth; gnomonics of daylight. (xxv-vii). Absence of shadowswhere and when? where twice yearly? where shadows travel in opposite direction? Where days are longest and shortest? (lxxviii) The first clock. (lxxix) How days are observed. (lxxx) Racial difference and latitude. (lxxxi-vi) Earthquakes. Chasms. Signs of impending earthquake. Precautions against impending earthquakes. Records of unique earth portents. Marvels of earthquake. (lxxxvii-xciv) treat of sea, where occurred? Emergence of islands reason for; instances and dates of. Disruption of straits. Junction of islands with mainland. Total inundation. Shrinkage of land areas. Cities engulfed by sea. (xcv) Air-holes. (xcvi) Continuous earth-tremors. Islands in constant agitation. (xcvii) Places where rain does not fall. (xcviii) Collection of earth marvels. (xcix f.) Rise and fall of tidesreason for. Where do irregular tides occur? (ci-cv) Marvels of the sea: influence of the moon on earth and sea; of the sun; why is the sea salt? where is it deepest? (cvi) Remarkable properties of springs and rivers. (cvii-cx) Combined marvels of fire and water: mineral pitch; naphtha; regions constantly glowing. (cxi) Marvels of fire alone. (cxii) Dimensions of entire earth. (cxiii) Harmonic principle of the world.Total: 417 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Marcus Varro, Sulpicius Gallus, the Emperor Titus Caesar, Quintus Tubero, Tullius Tiro, Lucius Piso, Titus Livy, Cornelius Nepos, Sebosus, Caelius Antipater, Fabianus, Antias, Mucianus, Caecina On the Tuscan System, Tarquitius ditto, Julius Aquila ditto, Sergius Paullus. Foreign authorities; the Pythagorean writers, Hipparchus, Timaeus, Sosigenes, Petosiris, Nechepsus, Posidonius, Anaximander, Epigenes, Eudoxus, Democritus, Critodemus, Thrasyllus, Serapion On Sun-dials, Euclid, Coeranus the philosopher, Dicaearchus, Archimedes, Onesicritus, Eratosthenes, Pytheas, Herodotus, Aristotle, Ctesias, Artemidorus of Ephesus, Isidore of Charax, Theopompus.

Book III. Contents: sites, races, seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, dimensions, present and past populations of (iii) Baetica, (iv) North-east Spain, (v) Province of Narbonne, (vi-x) Italy to the southernmost point, (ix the Tiber, Rome), (xi-xiv) 64 islands (including the Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily), (xv-xxii) Italy from the south to Ravenna (the Po), Transpadane Italy, (xxiii) Istria, (xxiv) the Alps and Alpine races, (xxv-xxx) Illyria, Liburnia, Dalmatia, Noricum, Pannouia, Moesia, Ionian and Adriatic islands.Totals: ... famous rivers; famous mountains; ... islands; ... extinct towns or races; ... facts, researches and observations.

Authorities: Turanius Gracilis, Cornelius Nepos, Livy, Cato the Censor, Marcus Agrippa, Marcus Varro, His Late Majesty Augustus, Varro of Atax, Antias, Hyginus, Lucius Vetus, Pomponius Mela, the elder Curio, Caelius, Arruntius, Sebosus, Licinius Mucianus, Fabricius Tuscus, Lucius Ateius, Ateius Capito, Verrius Flaccus, Lucius Piso, Gellianus, Valerian. Foreign authorities: Artemidorus, Alexander the Learned, Thucydides, Theophrastus, Isidorus, Theopompus, Metrodorus of Scepsis, Callicrates, Xenophon of Lampsacns, Diodorus of Syracuse, Nymphodorus, Calliphanes, Timagenes.

Book IV. Contents: sites, races, seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, dimensions, present and past populations of (i-iv) Epirus, (v-x) Achaia, (xi-xiii) Greece, (xiv-xviii) Thessaly, Magnesia, Macedonia, Thrace, (xix-xxiii) islands off these coasts, including Crete, Euboea, the Cyclades, the Sporades, (xxiv) Dardanelles, Black Sea, Sea of Azoy, (xxv. f.) Dacia, Sarmatia, Seythia, (xxvii) Islands of black Sea, (xxviii f.) Germany, (xxx) North Sea Islands, 96 including Britain, (xxxi-xxxiii) Belgium, Lyonnaise, Aquitaine, (xxxiv) North-eastern Spain, (xxxv) Western Spain and Portugal. (xxxvi) Atlantic islands. (xxxvii) Dimensions of the whole of Europe.Totals ... towns and races; ... famous rivers; ... famous mountains; ... islands; extinct towns or races; ... facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Cato the Censor, Marcus Varro, Marcus Agrippa, His Late Majesty Augustus, Varro of Atax, Cornelius Nepos, Hyginus, Lucius Vetus, Pomponius Mela, Licinius Mucianus, Fabricius Tuscus, Ateius Capito, Ateius the scholar. Foreign authorities: Polybius, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Damastes, Eudoxus, Dicaearchus, Timosthenes, Eratosthenes, Ephorus, Crates the philologist, Serapion of Antioch, Callimachus, Artemidorus, Apollodorus, Agathocles, Timaeus of Sicily, Myrsilus, Alexander the Learned, Thucydides, Dosiades, Anaximander, Philistides of Mallus, Dionysius, Aristides, Callidemus, Menaechmus, Aglaosthenes, Anticides, Heraclides, Philemon, Xenophon, Pytheas, Isidore, Philonides, Xenagoras, Astynomos, Staphylus, Aristocritus, Metrodorus, Cleobulus, Posidonius.

Book V. Contents:sites, races, seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, dimensions, present and past populations of (i-viii) the Mauritanias, Numidia, Africa, the Syrtes, Cyrenaiea, African islands, remote parts of Africa, (ix-xi) EgyptChora, Thebaid, Nile, (xii) Arabian coast of Egyptian Sea, (xiii-xix) Idumea, Syria, Palestine, Samaria, Judaca, Phoenicia, Hollow Syria, Syria of Antioch, (xx-xxxiii) Euphrates, Cilicia and adjoining races, Isaurica, Omauads, Pisidia, Lycaonia, Pamphylia, Taurus Mountain, Lyci, Caria, Ionia, Aeolid, Troad and adjoining races, (xxxiv-ix) Islands on Asiatic coast (212) including Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, (xl-xliii) Dardanelles, Mysia, Phrygia, Galatia and adjoining races, Bithynia.Totals: ... towns and races; ... famous dyers; ... famous mountains; 118 islands; ... extinct towns and races; facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Agrippa, Suetonius Paulinus, Marcus Varro, Varro of Atax, Cornelius Nepos, Hyginus, Lucius Vetus, Mela, Domitius Corbulo, Licinins Mucianus, Claudius Caesar, Arruntius, Livy junior, Sebosus, TriumphsOfficial records. Foreign authorities: King Juba, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Damastes, Dicaearchus, Baeto, Timosthenes, Philonides, Xenagoras, Astynomus, Staphylus, Dionysius, Aristotle, Aristocritus, Ephorus, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus, Panaetius, Serapio of Antioch, Callimachus, Agathocles, Polybius, Timaeus the mathematician, Herodotus, Myrsilus, Alexander the Learned, Metrodorus, Posidonius's Circumnavigation or Round Guide, Sotades, Pindar, Aristarchus of Sicyon, Eudoxus, Antigenes, Callicrates, Xenophon of Lampsacus, Diodorus of Syracuse, Hanno, Himilco, Nymphodorus, Calliphanes, Artemidorus, Megasthenes, Isidore, Cleobulus, Aristocreon.

Book VI. Contents:sites, races, seas, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, dimensions, present and past populations of (i) Pontus, Mariandyni, (ii) Paphlagonia, (iii, viii) Cappadocia, (iv) region of Themiscyra and its races, Heniochi, (v) Colic region and races, Achaean races, other races in the same area, (vi-xii) Cimmerian Bosphorus, Maeotis and adjacent races, Lesser Armenia, Greater Armenia, River Cyrus, River Araxes, Albania, Iberia and adjoining Gates of Caucasia, (xiii) Black Sea Islands, (xiv) races towards the Scythian Ocean, (xv-xix) Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea, Adiabene, Media, Caspian Gates, races round Hyrcanian Sea, Scythian races, (xx-xxxvi) regions towards the Eastern Sea, China, India (Ganges, Indus), Taprobane, Arians and adjoining races, voyages to India, Carmania, Persian Gulf, Parthian kingdoms, Mesopotamia, Tigris, Arabia, Gulf of Red Sea, Trogodyte country, Ethiopia, Islands of Ethiopian Sea. (xxxvii) The Fortunate Islands. (xxxviii f.) Lands compared by measurements, division of lands into parallels and equal shadows.Totals: 1195 towns; 576 races, 115 famous rivers, 38 famous mountains, 108 islands, 95 extinct towns and races; 2214 facts and investigations and observations.

Authorities: Marcus Agrippa, Marcus Varro, Varro of Atax, Cornelius Nepos, Hyginus, Lucius Vetus, Pomponius Mela, Domitius Corbulo, Licinius Mucianus, Claudius Caesar, Arruntius, Sebosus, Fabricius Tuscus, Titus Livy junior, Seneca, Nigidius. Foreign authorities: King Juba, Hecataeus, Hellanicus, Damastes, Eudoxus, Dicaearchus, Baeto, Timosthenes, Patrocles, Demodamas, Clitarchus, Eratosthenes, Alexander the Great, Ephorus, Hipparchus, Panaetius, Callimachus, Artemidorus, Apollodorus, Agathocles, Polybius, Timaeus of Sicily, Alexander the Learned, Isidore, Amometus, Metrodorus, Posidonius, Onesicritus, Nearchus, Megasthenes, Diognetus, Aristocreon, Bion, Dalion, the younger Simonides, Basilis, Xenophon of Lampsacus.

Book VII. Contents: (ii f.) Remarkable racial bodily configurations; monstrous births. (iv-xi) Human generation: periods of pregnancy from 7 months to 13 shown by famous examples; significant prenatal indications of sex in the pregnant; monstrous births, cases of surgical delivery; meaning of vopiscus; human conception; human generation; cases of likeness; cases of very numerous progeny. (xii) Age-limit of procreation. (xiii) Exceptional periods of pregnancy. (xiv) Theory of generation. (xv) Investigation as to teeth; as to infants. (xvi f.) Instances of exceptional size. Premature births. (xviii-xxiii) Bodily distinctions, exceptional strength, remarkable speed, exceptional sight, marvellous hearing, bodily endurance. (xxiv-xxvi) Memory, mental rigour, clemency, magnanimity. (xxvii) Supremely distinguished exploits. (xxviii-xxxi) Three supreme virtues in the same person, supreme innocence, supreme bravery, exceptional talents. Who are the wisest men? (xxxii) The most useful rules of conduct. (xxxiii) Divination. (xxxiv-vi). The man deemed the best, the most chaste matrons; instances of extreme piety. (xxxvii-ix) Cases of eminence in the sciences and arts, astronomy, philology, medicine, geometry, architecture, painting, sculpture in bronze, in marble, in ivory; engraving. (xl-xlvi) Remarkable prizes of mankind; supreme happiness; rarity of its continuance in families; remarkable cases of change of fortune; twice proscribed; remarkable cases of honours; ten supremely happy things in the case of a single person; misfortunes of his late Majesty Augustus. (xlvii f.) Whom the gods have judged happiest; what man they have commanded to be worshipped as a god in his lifetime. A remarkable flash of lightning. (xlix) Cases of exceptional longevity. (l) Various modes of birth. (ii) Diseases in various cases. (lii-lvi) Death; cases of the dead coming to life again; instances of sudden death; burial; ghosts; the soul. (lvii-lx) Discoveries in life; matters on which there was the earliest agreement of the races; ancient literature; date of earliest barbers, earliest time-pieces.Total: 747 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Verrius Flaccus, Gnaeus Gellius, Licinius Mucianus, Masurins Sabinus, Agrippina wife of Claudius, Marcus Cicero, Asinius Pollio, Marcus Varro, Messala Rufus, Cornelius Nepos, Virgil, Livy, Cordus, Melissus, Sebosus, Cornelius Celsus, Valerius Maximus, Trogus, Nigidius Figulus, Pomponius Atticus, Pedianus Asconius, Fabianus, Cato the Censor, Official Records, Fabius Vestalis. Foreign authorities: Herodotus, Aristeas, Baeton, Isigonus, Crates, Agatharchides, Calliphanes, Aristotle, Nymphodorus, Apollonides, Phylarchus, Damon, Megasthenes, Ctesias, Tauron, Eudoxus, Onesicritus, Clitarchus, Duris, Artemidorus, the medical authors Hippocrates and Asclepiades, Hesiod, Anacreon, Theopompus, Hellanicus, Damastes, Ephorus, Epigenes, Berosus, Petosiris, Nechepsus, Alexander the Learned, Xenophon, Callimachus, Democritus, the historian Diyllus, Strato's Reply to Ephorus's 'Heuremata,' Heraclides of Pontus, the Tragoedumena of Asclepiades, Phulostephanus, Hegesias, Archemachus, Thucydides, Mnesigiton, Xenagoras, Metrodorus of Scepsis, Anticides, Critodemus.

Book VIII. Contents: (i-xi) Elephants, their sense; when first harnessed; their docility; remarkable achievements of; instinctive sense of dangers in wild animals; elephants, when first seen in Italy; fights between elephants; modes of capture; modes of domestication; their propagation, and general physiology; native habitat; hostility between elephants and great snakes. (xii) Intelligence of animals. (xiii) Great snakes. (xiv) Serpents of remarkable size. (xv f.) Animals of Scythia; of the north; bisons, bears, the elk, the achlisf the varieties, their characteristics; with lions in the circus at Lionstheir mode of with the largest number first harnessed lions to a among the exploits of lions. (xxii) Man recognised and rescued by a great snake. (xxiii f.) Panthers, resolution of senate and laws as to African; who first showed African panthers at Rome, and when? who showed the largest number? (xxv) Tigers; when was a tiger first seen at Rome? nature of tigers; tiger-cubs. (xxvi-xxx) Camels; their kinds. The giraffe; when first seen at Rome. The spotted lynx. The cephi. The rhinoceros. The lynx and the sphynxes. The crocottae [hyena?]. The long-tailed monkeys. (xxxi-iv) Land animals of India; ditto of Ethiopia; a creature the sight of which brings death; basilisksnakes; wolves; source of the fabulous werewolf. (xzxv-xl) Snakes, species of; the ichneumon; the crocodile; the African lizard; the hippopotamus: who first showed this animal, and the crocodile at Rome. (xli-iii). Drugs obtained from animals; warnings of dangers from animals; races destroyed by animals. (xliv f.) Hyenas; corocottae; mantichorae. (xlvi) Wild asses. (xlvii-ix) Amphibious species: beavers, otters, the sea-calf, geckoes. (1) Stags. (ii f.) Chameleon; other species that change colour--reindeer, lycaon, jackal (liii) The porcupine, (liv) Bears; their reproduction. (lv-viii) Mice, Black Sea and Alpine; hedgehogs, lion-killer, lynxes, badgers, squirrels. (lix f.) Snails; lizards. (lx-lxiii). Dogs, nature of; instances of relation to masters; nations that have kept dogs of war; dog-breeding; cures for rabies. (lxiv-vii) Nature of horsesequine psychology; remarkable four-in-hands; horse-breeding; cases of conception by wind. (lxviii) Asses; breeding in their case. (lxix) Nature of mules and other draft-animals. (lxx f.) Oxen, breeding of. Apis in Egypt. (lxxii-v) Nature of sheeptheir breeding; kinds of wool and of colours; kinds of cloth. (lxxvi f.) Goats, their nature and breeding; swine, ditto. (lxxviii f.) Wild pigs. Who originated menageries? (lxxx-ii) Apes. Hares, their kinds. Half-wild animals. (lxxxiii) What animals do not occur in what places? which in what places harm only strangers? which in what places only natives?Total: 787 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Mucianus, Procilius, Verrius Flaccus, Lucius Piso, Cornelius Valerianus, Cato the ex-Censor, Fenestella, Trogus, Official Records, Columella, Virgil, Varro, Lucilius, Metellus Scipio, Cornelius Celsus, Nigidius, Trebius Niger, Pomponius Mela, Mamilius Sura. Foreign authorities: King Juba, Polybius, Herodotus, Antipater, Aristotle, Demetrius's Natural History, Democritus, Theophrastus, Euanthes, Scopas's Olympic Victors, King Hiero, King Attalus, King Philometor, Ctesias, Doris, Philisto, Archytas, Phylarchus, Amphilochus of Athens, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollodorus of Lemnos, Aristophanes of Miletus, Antigonus of Cumae, Agathocles of Chios, Apollonius of Pergamum, Aristander of Athens, Bacchius of Miletus, Bio of Soil, Chaeareas of Athens, Diodorus of Priene, Dio of Colophon, Epigenes of Rhodes, Euagon of Thasos, Euphronius of Athens, Hegesias of Maronea, Menander of Priene and Menander of Heraclea, the poet Menecrates, Androtion On Agriculture, Aeschrion ditto, Lysinachus ditto, Dionysius's translation of Mago, Diophanes's summary of Dionysius, King Archelaus, Nicander.

Book IX. Subjectthe nature of aquatic animals. (i) Extreme size of marine animals, reason for. (ii) Monsters of the Indian Sea. (iii) Which are the largest in each Ocean? (iv) Tritons and Nereids, shapes of. Sea elephants, shapes of. (v) Whales, grampuses. (vi) Do fishes breathe? do they sleep? (vii-x) Dolphins, persons loved by; places where they fish in partnership with men; other curious facts as to. (xi) Porpoises. (xii f.) Tortoiseskinds of water-tortoise; mode of capture; who invented cutting tortoise-shells (xiv) Aquatic animals arranged by species. (xv) Sea-calves or sealswhich species are hairless? mode of reproduction. (xvi) How many kinds of fish? (xvii-xix). The largest fishes; tunny-fry, young tunny, full-grown tunny; tunny divided and pickled, salted tunny slices, chopped tunny; amia-tunny, mackerel-tunny. (xx) Fishes in the Black Seawhich species not found in it, which enter in from elsewhere, which leave it. (xxi) Why fishes leap out of the water. The sword-fish. (xxii) Augury from fishes a fact. (xxiii-v) Species of that have no males; that have a stone in the head; that hibernate in winter; that are only caught on certain days in winter; that hide in summer; that are liable to planet-stroke. (xxvi-xxx) Mullet, sturgeon, pike, cod, wrasse, lamprey; varieties of mullet; the sargus. (xxxi f.) Remarkable prices for fish. Different kinds popular in different places. (xxxiii) Gills in various species; scales ditto. (xxxiv f.) Fish with voice, fish without gills; fish that go ashore. Seasons for catching fish. (xxxvi) Classification of fish by shape. Difference between turbot and sparrow-turbot. Long fishes. (xxxvii) Fins and mode of swimming. (xxxviii) Eels. (xxxix) Lampreys. (xl) Kinds of flat-fish. (xli) The remora and how it operates. (xlii) What fish change colours. (xhii) Swallow-fish. The fish that shines by night. The homed fish. The weever. (xliv) The bloodless fishes. The so-called soft fishes. (xlv) The sepia fish. The cuttle-fish. The small scallops, flying fish. (xlvi-ix) The polyps, including the sailing polyp. The sailor-fish. (l-lii) Shell-fish: lobster, varieties of crab, the sea-pen's guard, sea-urchins, snails, scallops. Varieties of shell. (liii) Quantity of delicacies supplied by the sea. (liv-lix) Pearlshow do they grow and where, how found; varieties of large pearltheir remarkable features, their nature, instances of their occurrence, when first used at Rome. (lx-lxv) Nature of varieties of purplethe purple-fish; kinds of purple-fish; how used to supply dye for woollens; date of use of purple at Borne, date of purple stripe and purple-bordered robe; purple dyed dresses; dying amethyst; Tyrian, vegetable-scarlet, kermes-scarlet. (lxvi) The sea-pen sea-pen's guard. (lxvii) Perception of aquatic animals: the electric ray, stingray, scolopendrae, shad, ramming-fish. (lxviii f.) Species intermediate between animal and vegetable: sea-nettles; sponges, their kinds and habitat; sponges, living creatures. (lxx) Sea-bitches. (lxxi) Flint-shell fish; marine animals without senses; other low species. (lxxii) Venomous marine animals. (lxxiii) Diseases of fishes. (lxxiv-vii) Their reproduction curious, reproductive methods; species both oviparous and viviparous; delivery by rupture of the stomach, afterwards closing up; species possessing matrix; self-fertilizing species. (lxxviii) Longest life of fish. (lxxix-lxxxi) First inventor of fish-ponds; oysters; who invented lamprey-ponds. Notable fish-ponds; who first invented snail-ponds. (lxxxiii) Land fishes. (lxxxiv) Mouse-fish in the Nile. (lxxxv) Flower-fish, mode of catching. (lxxxvi) Starfish. (lxxxvii) Remarkable species of finger-fish. (lxxxviii) Instances of hostility and friendship between aquatic animals.Total: 650 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Turranins Gracilis, Trogus, Maecenas, Alfius Flavus, Cornelius Nepos, the Mimes of Laberius, Fabianus, Fenestella, Mucianus, Aelius Stilo, Sebosus, Melissus, Seneca, Cicero, Aemilius Macer, Corvinus Messala, Trebius Niger, Nigidius. Foreign authorities: Aristotle, King Archelaus, Callimachus, Democritus, Theophrastus, Thrasyllus, Hegesidemus, Sudines, Alexander the Learned.

Book X. Subjectthe nature of birds. (i f.) The ostrich, the phoenix. (iii-vi) Eagles, their species; their nature; when adopted as regimental badges; self-immolation of eagle on maiden's funeral pyre. (vii) The vulture. (viii) Lmmergeier, sea-eagle (1) (ix-xi) Hawks: the buzzard; use of hawks by fowlers where practised; the only bird that is killed by its own kind; what bird produces one egg at a time. (xii) Kites. (xiii) Classification of birds by species. (xiv-xvi) Birds of ill-omen; in what months crows are not a bad omen; ravens; the horned owl. (xvii) Extinct birds; birds no longer known. (xviii) Birds hatched tail first. (xix) Night-owls. (xx) Mars's woodpecker. (xxi) Birds with hooked talons. (xxii-v) Birds with toes: peacocks; who first killed the peacock for food; who invented fattening peacocks; poultrymode of castrating; a talking cock. (xxvi-xxxii) The goose who first introduced goose-liver (foie gras); Commagene goose; fox-goose, love-goose, heath-cock, bustard; cranes; storks; rest of reflexed-claw genus; swans. (xxxiii-v) Foreign migrant birds: quails, tongue-birds, ortolan, horned owl; native migrant birds and their destinationsswallows, thrushes, blackbirds, starlings; birds that moult in retirement: turtle-dove, ring-dove. (xxxvi) Non-migrant birds: half-yearly and quarter-yearly visitors: wit.walls, hoopoes. (xxxvii-xl) Mernnon's hens, Meleager's sisters (guinea-hens), Seleucid hens, ibis. (xli) Where particular species not known. (xlii-v) Species that change colour and voice: the divination-bird class; nightingale, black-cap, robin, red-start, chat, golden oriole. (xlvi) The breeding season. (xlvii) Kingfishers: sign of fine weather for sailing. (xlviii) Remainder of aquatic class. (xlix-li) Craftsmanship of birds in nest-making; remarkable structures of swallows; sand-martins; thistle-finch; bee-eater; partridges. (lii f.) Pigeonsremarkable structures of, and prices paid for; (liv f.) Varieties of birds' flight and walk; footless martins or swifts. (lvi) Food of birds. Goat-suckers, spoon-bill. (lvii) Intelligence of birds; gold-finch, bull-bittern, yellow wagtail. (lviii-lxl) Talking birds: parrots, acorn-pies; riot at Rome caused by talking crow. (lxi) Diomede's birds. (lxii) What animals learn nothing. (lxiii) Birds, mode of drinking; the sultana hen. (lxiv) The long-legs. (lxv f.) Food of birds. Pelicans. (lxvii f.) Foreign birds: coots, pheasants, Numidian fowl, flamingos, heath-cock, bald crow or cormorant, Ted-beaked or Alpine crow, bare-footed crow or ptarmigan. (lxix) New species: small cranes. (lxx) Fabulous birds. (lxxi) Who invented fattening of chickens, and which consuls first prohibited? who first invented aviaries? Aesop's stewpan. (lxxiii-lxxx) Reproduction of birds: oviparous creatures other than birds; kinds and properties of eggs; defective hatching and its cures; Augusta's augury from eggs; what sort of hens the best? their diseases and remedies; kinds of small heron; nature of puff-eggs, addled eggs, wind-eggs; best way of preserving eggs. (lxxxi f.) The only species of bird that is viviparous and suckles its young. Oviparous species of land animals. Reproduction of snakes. (lxxxui-vii) Reproduction of all land animals; posture of animals in the uterus; animal species whose mode of birth is still uncertain; salamanders; species not reproduced by generation; species whose generated offspring is unfertile; sexless species. (lxxxviii-xc) Senses of animals: all have sense of touch, also taste; species with exceptional sight, smell, hearing; moles; have oysters hearing? which fishes hear most clearly? which fishes have keenest sense of smell? (xci-iii) Difference of food in animals: which live on poisonous things? which on earth? which do not die of hunger of thirst? (xciv) Variety of drink. (xcv f.) Species mutually hostile; facts as to friendship and affection between animals; instances of affection between snakes. (xcvii f.) Sleep of animals; which species sleep?Total: 794 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Manilius, Cornelius Valerian, Records, Umbricius Melior, Masurius Sabinus, Antistins Labeo, Trogus, Cremutius, Marcus Varro, Aemilius Macer, Melissus, Mucianus, Nepos, Fabius Pictor, Titus Lucretius, Cornelius Celsus, Horace, Deculo, Hyginus, the Sasernae, Nigidius, Mamilius Sura. Foreign authorities: Homer, Phemonoe, Philemon, Boethus's Ornithogonia, Hylas's Auguries, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Callimachus, Aeschylus, King Hiero, King Philometor, Archytas of Tarentum, Amphilochus of Athens, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollodorus of Lemnos, Aristophanes of Miletus, Antigonus of Cumae, Agathocles of Chios, Apollonius of Peruamum Aristander of Athens, Bacchius of Miletus, Bion of Soli, Chaereas of Athens, Diodorus of Priene, Dion of Colophon, Democritus, Diophanes of Nicaea, Epigenes of Rhodes, Evagon of Thasos, Euphronius of Athens, Juba, Androtion On Agriculture, Aeschrio ditto, Lysimachus ditto, Dionysius's translation of Mago, Diophanes's epitome of Dionysius, Nicander, Onesicritus, Phylarchus, Hesiod.

Book XI. Subjectthe kinds of insects. (i) Nature's subtlety in this department. (ii) Do insects breathe? have they blood? (iii) Their bodies. (iv-xxiii) Beesstructure of their comb; its materials, gum, pitch-wax, bee-glue, bee-bread (sandarack, serintkus); flowers from which materials derived; instances of bee-lovers; drones; nature of honey; the best honey; unique local varieties of honey; test of varieties; heather (heath, sisyrus); reproduction of bees; their system of royalty; swarming sometimes actually a good omen; kinds of bees; diseases of bees; enemies of bees; beekeeping; replenishment of stock. (xxiv) Wasps and hornets. What animals reproduce from another species? (xxv-viii) Assyrian silkworm: chrysalis, larva; inventor of silk fabric; silkworm of Cos; manufacture of Coan silk. (xxviii f.) Spiderswhich varieties make webs; material used in webs; mode of reproduction. (xxx ff.) Scorpions; geckoes; grasshopperstheir lack of mouth and vent. (xxxiii) Insects' wings. (xxxiv-vi) Beetles; glow-worms; other kinds of beetle; locusts; ants. (xxxvii-ix) Chrysalises, gadflies, butterflies; animals born from wood or in wood; animals of human refuse; which is the smallest animal? summer animals. (xl) Ventless animal. (xli-iii) Moths, beetles, gnats; snow-animal; fire-animal (pyrallis or pyrotos); mayflies. (xliv-xcviii) Nature and account of all animals arranged according to the parts of the body: species possessing caps; crested species. (xlv-li) Varieties of hornwhich species can move the horns; heads, headless species; hair; bones of head; brain; earswhich species have none, which hear without ears or apertures; face, brow, eyebrow. (lii-lvii) Eyes: what animals without eyes, what with only one eye; varieties of eyes; method of sight; species that see by night; structure of pupil; species that do not close the eyes; species whose eyes after being destroyed grow again; eyelashesspecies that lack, species with lashes on only one lid; species with no eyelids. (lviii-lx) Cheekbones; nostrils; cheeks, lips, chin, jaws. (lxi-iv) Teethkinds of; species with teeth in one jaw only; with hollow teeth; snakes' teeth, snakes' poison; which bird has teeth; remarkable facts as to teeth; age of ruminants indicated by teeth. (lxv) Tonguetongueless species; croaking of frogs; palate. (lxvi-viii) Tonsils; uvula, epiglottis, windpipe, gullet, nape, neck, backbone, throat, jaws, stomach. (lxix-lxxi) Heart, blood, life; which species has largest heart, which smallest, which two hearts; when inspection of heart of victims began; (lxxii) Lungswhich species has largest, which smallest, which no internal organ besides lungs; cause of speed in animals. (lxxiii-vi) Liverhead of internal organs; its inspection by augurs; species with two livers, and their habitats; gallwhat species have two, and where; what animals have none, which have gall elsewhere than in liver; its function; species whose gall grows and shrinks in size with moon; observation of these species by augurs, and marvellous portents. (lxxvii) Diaphragm; nature of laughter. (lxxviii) Stomach; species that have none; the only species that vomit. (lxxix) Smaller intestines, entrails, stomach, great gut; why some animals have voracious appetites. (lxxx-iii) Caul, spleenspecies without spleen. Kidneys; habitat of species with four kidneyswith none; chest; ribs; bladderanimals without bladder; entrails; membranes. (lxxxiv-viii) Bellythe 'parts,' the womb, sows' womb, paps; what species have suet, what tallow; nature of each; what species have no fat; marrow; species that have none; bones; prickles; species that have neither hones nor prickles; cartilages; sinews; species without sinews. (lxxxix-xcii) Arteries, veins; species with neither veins nor arteries; blood; sweat; species whose blood thickens most quickly, whose blood does not coagulate; which species has the thickest blood, the thinnest, none at all, none at certain seasons of the year; whether blood is dominant factor in body. (xciii f.) Back; hair and integument of back; species having hair inside mouth and under feet. (xcv-xcvii) Paps; which birds have paps; noteworthy points about animals' udders; milk; which the only animal that gives suck while in motion; biestings; cheese; species whose milk does not form cheese; curdled milk; kinds of food obtained from milk; kinds of cheese. (xcviii-cxiii) Differences in limbs between man and other animals; the fingers; arms; resemblance to monkeys; nails; knees and thighs; which parts of human body associated with ritual; dilated veins; gait, feet and legs; hooves; feet of birds; feet of animals, between 2 and 100 ; dwarfs ; genital organs; hermaphrodites; testicles; three kinds of half-man; tails; voices of animals; limbs of subsequent growth. (cxiv) Marks of vitality and character derived from conformation of limbs in man. (cxv) Respiration; nutrition; animals that from eating poison do not die, but kill those who taste them. (cxvii-ix) Causes of indigestion in man; remedies for indigestion; cause of corpulence, and mode of reduction; things whose taste allays hunger and thirst.Total: 2700 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Marcus Varro, Hyginus, Scrofa, Saserna, Cornelius Celsus, Aemilius Macer, Virgil, Columella, Julius Aquila's Eiruscan System, Tarquitius ditto, Umbricius Meior ditto, Cato the ex-Censor, Calvinus, Trogus, Melissus, Fabianus, Mucianus, Nigidius, Mamilius, Oppius. Foreign authorities: Aristotle, Democritus, Neoptolemus's Production of Honey, Aristomachus ditto, Philiscus ditto, Nicander, Menecrates, Dionysins's translation of Mago, Empedocles, Callimachus, King Attaius, Venomous Animals by Apollodorus, Hippocrates, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Asclepiades, Themiso, Posidonius the Stoic, Menander of Priene, Menander of Heraclea, Euphronius of Athens, Theophrastus, Hesiod, King Philometor.

Book XII. Contents: treestheir various qualities. (i, ii) In praise of trees. (iii-lxiii) Foreign trees. (iii-vi) Planewhen and whence first introduced into Italy; their nature; remarkable products; dwarf planes; who first introduced the pruning of garden trees. (vii) Assyrian apple, instructions for planting. (viii-xvii) Indian trees; ebony, when first seen at Rome; its kinds; Indian thorn; Indian fig; beautiful unnamed Indian trees; Indians' flax-trees; plantain tree, its fruit bananas; pepper trees, kinds of pepper, defective pepper, ginger, nut-leaf, wolf-plant or Chiron's box-thorn, macir, sugarcane. (xviii f.) Trees of the Arian race, ditto of Gedrosia, ditto of Ilyrcania, ditto of Bactria; myrrh plant or gain-plant (malacha, maldacum); germander. Modes of adulteration, tests and prices specified for all scents or spices. (xx f.) Trees of Persia; trees of islands in Persian Gulf; cotton-tree. (xxii-iv) Cynas tree; trees used in East for making linen; locality with no deciduous trees; modes in which trees form fruits. (xxv-xxix) Costus; nard, its 12 varieties; hazelwort; amomum, amomis, cardamon. (xxx-xxxii) The incense-producing district, incense-bearing trees; nature and kinds of incense. (xxxiii-v) Myrrh: trees that produce it; nature and kinds of myrrh. (xxxvi-xl) Mastic; ladanum, scorbus, styptic, bratus tree; stobrum tree. (xli) Arabia, why happy. (xlvi-xlvii) Cinnamon, cinnamomum, cinnamon-shrub; wild cinnamon, cancamum, aloe-wood; serichatuxn, gabalium; behennut; Egyptian date. (xlviii-lxi) Scented reed, scented rush; Hammonian gum-tree; fragrant moss; cyprus; calycotome or erysisceptrum; cat-thyme; balsam, balsam-juice, balsam-wood sigma; galbannm; all-heal; bear's-foot: cinnamon-leaf; grape-plant; moss, vine-flower, wild vine; fir or larch; cinnamon comacton.Total: 468 facts, investigations and observations.

Authorities: Marcus Varro, Mucianus, Virgil, Fabianus, Sebosus, Pomponius Mela, Flavius Procilius, Hyginus, Trogus, Claudius Caesar, Cornelius Nepos, Greek Treatise on Medicine by Sextius Niger, Cassius Hemina, Lucius Piso, Tuditanus, Antias. Foreign authorities: Theophrastus, Herodotus, Callisthenes, Isogonus, Clitarchus, Anaximenes, Duris, Nearchus, Onesicritus, Polycritus, Olympiodorus, Diognetus, Nicobulus, Anticlides, Chares of Mitylene, Menaechmus, Dorotheus of Athens, Lycus, Antaeus, Ephippus, Dinon, Adimantus, Ptolemy son of Lagus, Marsyas of Macedon, Zoilus of Macedon, Democritus, Amphilochus, Aristomachus, Alexander the Learned, Juba, Apollodorus On Scents; the physicians Heraclides, Botrys, Archedemus, Dionysius, Democedes, Euphron, Mnesides, Diagoras and Jollas; Heraclides of Tarentum, Xenocrates of Ephesus.