Res Gestae

But King Juba,[*](The one whom Julius Caesar led in triumph; Octavian later made him his friend and restored his kingdom to him; Pliny, N.H. v. 16.) relying upon the testimony of Punic books, thinks that the Nile rises in a mountain situated in Mauritania and looking down upon the ocean, and he says that this is proved by the fact that in those marshes[*](Those from which the river flows. ) are found fishes, plants, and animals like those of the Nile.

But the river, flowing through the regions of Aethiopia, and going under various names, which many nations have given it in its course over the earth, swelling with its rich flood, comes to the cataracts, which are steep rocks, from which it plunges headlong rather than flows; for which reason the Ati, who formerly lived nearby, since their hearing was impaired by the continual roar, were forced to change their abode to a quieter spot.

Flowing more gently from there, through seven

Rising, then, in the quarter which has been mentioned, it passes from the marshes[*](Ammianus seems to accept King Juba’s opinion; cf. section 8, above.) as far as the cataracts and forms many islands, some of which (it is said) extend over such wide-spread spaces that the stream hardly leaves each of them behind on the third day.

Of these two are famous, namely Meroë and Delta, the latter clearly so-called from the form of the triangular letter.[*](Greek δ (inverted on our maps).) But when the sun has begun to ride through the sign of the Crab, the river increases until it passes into the Balance[*](That is, from the summer solstice until the autumnal equinox.) ; then, flowing at high water for a hundred days, the river becomes smaller, and as the weight of its waters decreases, it shows the plains that before were navigable for boats now suitable for riders on horseback.