BOOK I CH. XxxviI § 101. 207

ra towatra b:8docxnwow’, and Arnobius uses similar language, Aegyptiorwm videtis aenigmata quod mutorum animantium formas divinis inseruerint causis, II 15.
quam—caperent: Subj. after Indefinite Relative.
velut: cf. § 2 n.
ibes: cf. Juv. xv 3 saturam serpentibus ibin with Mayor’s n. and the passage from Herod. quoted in my n. on § 82. In the notes to Rawlinson’s Herod. (Vol. 11 p. 125) it is stated that the Turks still consider it a sin to kill an ibis, and that Cuvier found the skin of a snake in the stomach of a mummied ibis. Plut.1.c. mentions another reason for gratitude to the ibis, to which C. also alludes 1 126.
vim serpentium: see § 54 n.
cum sint: ‘ being tall birds’, &., explains how they were able to kill the snakes, Roby § 1728.
cum—interficiunt. The Pres. and Perf. Ind. are used with cum to express ‘ identity of action’ (Roby § 1729). In killing the snakes they are averting the plague.
volucres angues: Herodotus (l.c. and mr 107 foll.) tells wonderful stories about the winged snakes, which guard the frankincense of Arabia and invade Egypt every spring, but are met and killed by the ibises. Sir G. Wilkinson (in Rawlinson, p. 124) discusses what amount of truth there may be in his account.
ex vastitate—invectas: ‘brought from the Libyan desert by the south-west wind’ (or more strictly W.S.W. blowing from Carthage to Sicily). This is in disagreement with Herod. and others, who represent them as coming from the east; Aelian H. A. 11 38 makes the black ibis guard the eastern, and the white ibis the southern, frontier. On the use of the abstract vastitas for concrete, see Draeg. § 8.
possum: see n. on longum est § 19.
ichneumonum: the ‘mangouste’ or ‘herpestes’, see Art. in Eng. Cycl. under the latter heading; and Rawlinson’s Herod. m 67 n. Its utilitas was to destroy the eggs of the crocodile, which led to frequent quarrels between the people of Heracleopolis, the principal seat of the ichneumon-worship, and Crocodilopolis where the uéilitas of the crocodile was similarly honoured. Extraordinary tales are told about it, as that it covers itself with a cuirass of mud before attacking the asp (Arist. H. A. 1x 6), and that it enters the mouth of the sleeping crocodile and devours its heart and entrails (Strabo, xvir 39).
crocodilorum: see Herod. 11 68 foll. with Rawlinson’s nn. Diodorus tells us that the reply made to the question why creatures so injurious to men were worshipped, was that they formed a rampart to the country, and prevented invaders from crossing the Nile; another answer was that a crocodile had rendered a service to one of their ancient kings; Plut. on the other hand explains their worship as symbolical; the crocodile is piynya Oecd as being Gyhwooos and therefore silent, and as watching his prey,
208 BOOK I CH. XXXVI § 101.
himself unseen in the water, dare Br€erew pr Breropevor, 6 TO TPdTa Oe@ oupBeBnker, Isid. c. 75, p. 381.
faelium : see Herod. 11 66,67 with the notes in Rawlinson’s ed. and the exhaustive note in Mayor’s Juvenal, xv 7. The word appears to be used for a kind of weasel in Varro and Columella, but in other writers it stands for the Gr. at\oupos, the tame cat of the Egyptians ; see the graphic descrip- tion in Plin. WY. //. x ¢. 94 faeles quidem quo silentio, quam levibus vestigiis obrepunt avibus! quam occulte speculatae in musculos exsiliunt ! excrementa sua effossa obruunt terra. Even the Greek word is ambiguous, for though it is plain from the mummies and pictures that the sacred animal of Egypt was our cat, yet Plut. /s¢d. p. 381 A calls it yadq, on the other hand Diod. 1 87 describes the atAovpos as useful mpos ras domidas Oavacipa Saxvovoas kat tad\dAa Saxeta Tav épretov. The statement that it killed snakes is probably due to some confusion in the mind of Diod., but Sir G. Wilkinson (Birch’s ed. Vol. 1 106, 111 289) mentions that it is even now held in great favour by the Egyptians because it destroys scorpions and other reptiles. According to the old paintings it was employed as a retriever (ib. 11 p 106).
longus: ‘tedious’, for the personal use cf. Quint. v 7 26 longus testis, and x 1118.
tamen beluas. Fully expressed the thought is ‘ridiculous (¢7ridentur above) as these animal gods are, still there is more to be said for them than for the Epicurean gods’. For a similar elliptical use of tamen=‘at any rate’ Sch. compares Div. 11 80 Etrusct tamen dabant auctorem disciplinae. Nos quem? with Giese’s n.; Verr. Act. 1 1 2 st reticeat et absit, tamen impudentiae suae pudentem exitum quaesisse videatur; see also Munro on Lucr. 11 859, 111 553, IV 952. So duws in Greek. For the position of tamen cf. § 81 n.
§ 102. nihil habet negotii: cf. § 45, and on the change from pl. deorum, to sing., § 50 Balbe soletis, &e.
quasi pueri delicati—existimat : ‘like spoilt children, thinks nothing better than idleness’. It is not cessatio however but otivm, which is the proper contrary of negotium, and Ep. did not deny that activity might be essential to human happiness, cf. Plut. Trang. c. 2, p. 465.
Ch. Xxxvir. exercitatione ludicra: ‘some active game’, see Madv. Fin. 1 69. [Is it not rather some game which simulates real life? J. S. R.]
deum—possit : in ov. rect. this would be deus sic torpet ut, st se com- moverit, beatus esse non possit ‘such is the nature of the divine cnertia that movement would destroy the happiness which is of the essence of deity’. In order that this may be stated as an opinion, not a fact, volumus is added to the Ist clause, and vereamur to the 2nd, but the latter is improperly made the governing verb, so as apparently to give the measure of sic, whereas it ought to have been introduced parenthetically (quem ad moduin nos veremur), cf. Roby § 1746, Madv. § 357 obs. 2, and my n. on dizerit § 20, for examples of similar confusion, For exx. of adversative asyndeton