Res Gestae

Among Egyptian birds, the variety of which is countless, the ibis is sacred, harmless, and beloved for the reason that by carrying the eggs of serpents to its nestlings for food it destroys and makes fewer those destructive pests.[*](Cf. Cic., Nat. Deo. i. 36, 101.)

These same birds meet the winged armies of snakes which issue from the marshes of Arabia, producing deadly poisons, and before they leave their own lands vanquish

Egypt also breeds innumerable serpents, surpassing all their destructive kind in fierceness: basilisks, amphisbaenae, scytalae, acontiae, dipsades, vipers, and many others,[*](The basilisk was found principally in the Cyrenaica and got its name from a white spot on its head, resembling a diadem; Pliny, N.H. viii. 78. The amphisbaenae were so-called from moving forwards and backward. The scytalae were long and slender like a staff (σκυτάλη). The acontiae are called by Pliny (viii. 85) by the Latin name iaculus, javelin. The dipsades caused excessive thirst (δίψος). These snakes are not found in Egypt in modern times, and the ibis has gone to its native Aethiopia.) all of which are easily surpassed in size and beauty by the asp, which never of its own accord leaves the bed of the Nile.[*](Apparently a misunderstanding of Lucan, xi. 704 f., ipsa caloris egens gelidum non transit in orbem sponte sua Niloque tenus metitur harenas, needing heat, the asp never of its own accord passes into cold regions, but traverses the desert as far as the Nile and no farther (Lucan, L.C.L., p. 557).)

Many and great things there are in that land which it is worth while to see; of these it will be in place to describe a few. Everywhere temples of vast size have been erected. The Pyramids have been enrolled among the seven wonders of the world,[*](The lists of these vary; see Gellius, I, p. 10, note 2, L.C.L.) and of their slow and difficult construction the historian Herodotus tells us.[*](ii. 124.) These are towers higher than any others which can be erected by human hands, extremely broad at the base and tapering to very pointed summits.

The figure pyramid has that name among geometers because it narrows into a cone after the manner of fire, which in our language is called πῦρ; for their size, as they mount to a vast height, gradually becomes slenderer,

There are also subterranean fissures and winding passages called syringes,[*](σύριγγες, xvii. 7, 11, note.) which, it is said, those acquainted with the ancient rites, since they had fore-knowledge that a deluge was coming, and feared that the memory of the ceremonies might be destroyed, dug in the earth in many places with great labour; and on the walls of these caverns they carved many kinds of birds and beasts, and those countless forms of animals which they called hierographic writing.[*](Described in xvii. 4, 8 ff.)

Then comes Syene,[*](Modern Assouan.) where at the solstice, to which the sun extends its summer course, its rays surround all upright bodies and do not allow their shadows to extend beyond the bodies themselves.[*](That is, they cast no shadows. Macrobius, Somn. Scip. ii. 7, 15, limits this to eo die quo sol certain parter ingreditur Cancri, hora dies sexta; Strabo also limits the time to midday (xvii. 1, 48; L.C.L., viii. p. 129).) At that time if one fixes a stake upright in the earth, or looks at a man or a tree standing anywhere, he will observe that the shadows are lost in the outer circumference of the figures. The same thing is said to happen at Meroë, a part of Aethiopia lying next to the equinoctial circle, where for ninety days the shadows fall on the side opposite to ours, for which reason those who dwell there are called Antiscii.[*](From ἀντί, against, opposite, and σκιά, shadow. Ammianus means that the locality is so far south that the sun for a time casts shadows southwards; cf. Pliny, N.H. ii. 183, per eos dies xc in meridiem umbras iaci, the shadows are turned towards the south. )

But since there are many such wonders, which extend beyond the plan of my