Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/463

B. vn c. ii. 1. CIMBRI. 449 gustus the caldron held most sacred by tkem, supplicating his friendship, and an amnesty for past offences ; and having ob- tained their request, they returned home. Indeed, it would have been ridiculous for them to have departed from their country in a pet, on account of a natural and constant phe- nomenon, which recurs twice every day. It is likewise evi- dently a fiction, that there ever occurred an overwhelming flood-tide, for the ocean, in the influences of this kind which it experiences, receives a certain settled and periodical in- crease and decrease. 1 Neither is it true, as has been related, 2 that the Cinibri take arms against the flood-tides, or that the Kelts, as an exercise of their intrepidity, suffer their houses to be washed away by them, and afterwards rebuild them ; and that a greater number of them perish by water than by war, as Ephorus relates. For the regular order the flood-tides observe, and the notoriety of the extent of the country sub- ject to inundation by them, could never have given occasion for such absurd actions. For the tide flowing twice every day, how could any one think for an instant that it was not a natural and harmless phenomenon, and that it occurs not only on their coasts, but on all others bordering on the ocean ? Is not this quite incredible? Neither is Clitarchus to be trusted, 3 when he says that their cavalry, on seeing the sea flowing in, rode off at full speed, and yet scarcely escaped by flight from being overtaken by the flood ; for we know, by experience, that the tide does not come in with such impetu- osity, but that the sea advances stealthily by slow degrees. And we should think, besides, that a phenomenon of daily occurrence, which would naturally strike the ear of such as 1 The French translation has happily paraphrased, not translated, this passage as follows : " For although it is true that the ocean has tides of more or less height, still they occur periodically, and in an order con- stantly the same." '* Aristotle, Ethics, Eudem. lib. iii. cap. 1, Nicolas of Damascus, and ^Elian, Var. Histor. lib. xii. cap. 23, have attributed the like extravagant proceedings to the Kelts or Gauls. Nicolas of Damascus, Reliq. pp. 272, 273, says that the Kelts resist the tides of the ocean with their swords in their hands, till they perish in the waters, in order that they may not seem to fear death by taking the precaution to fly. 3 It i3 probable that Clitarchus obtained his information from the Gauls. As for the sudden influx of the tide, there are several other ex- amples of the kind, in which the troops surprised were not so successful in getting off. VOL. i. 2 G