Res Gestae

Now far within Persia lies Gedrosia, on the right reaching the frontiers of the Indi; it is made fertile by the Artabius, in addition to smaller streams. Here the Arbitani mountains come to an

But we would not give a detailed account of the seacoast at the extremities of Persia, and wander too far from our subject. So it will be enough to say that the sea extending from the Caspian mountains along the northern side to the above-mentioned strait is 9000 stadia;[*](See Strabo, xi. 7 ff., who, however, does not give the distance.) but the southern frontier, from the mouths of the river Nile to where Carmania begins, is reckoned at 14,000 stadia.

Among these many men of differing tongues there are varieties of persons, as well as of places. But, to describe their bodily characteristics and their customs in general, they are almost all slender, somewhat dark, or of a leaden pallor, with eyes grim as goats’, eyebrows joined and curved in the form of a half-circle, not uncomely beards, and long, shaggy hair. All of them without exception, even at banquets and on festal days, appear girt with swords; an old Greek custom which, according to the trustworthy testimony of Thucydides,[*](i. 6, 1-3.) the Athenians were the first to abandon.

Most of them are extravagantly given to venery, and are hardly contented with a multitude of concubines;[*](Cf. Hdt. i. 135.) they are

Except for the kings’ tables, they have no fixed hours for meal-times, but every man’s belly is, as it were, his sundial;[*](Cf. the parasite in the comedy Boeotia; Gell. iii. 3, 6.) when this gives the call, they eat whatever is at hand, and no one, after he is satisfied, loads himself with superfluous food.[*](Cf. Hdt. i. 133.)

They are immensely moderate and cautious, so much so that they sometimes march through an enemy’s gardens and vineyards without coveting or touching anything, through fear of poison or magic arts.

Besides this, one seldom sees a Persian stop to pass water or step aside in response to a call of nature;[*](Cf. Hdt. i. 133; Xenophon, Cyrop. viii. 8, 11.) so scrupulously do they avoid these and other unseemly actions.

On the other hand, they are so free and easy, and stroll about with such a loose and unsteady gait, that one might think them effeminate; but, in fact, they are most gallant warriors, though rather crafty than courageous, and to be feared only at long range. They are given to empty words, and talk madly and extravagantly. They are boastful, harsh and offensive, threatening in adversity and prosperity alike, crafty, haughty, cruel, claiming the power of life and death over slaves and commons. They flay men alive, either bit by bit or all at once, and no servant who waits upon them, or stands at table, is allowed to open his mouth, either to speak or to spit; to such a degree,

They stand in special fear of the laws, among which those dealing with ingrates and deserters are particularly severe; and some laws are detestable, namely, those which provide that because of the guilt of a single person all his relatives are put to death.[*](For example, when a king is assassinated.)

For the office of judge, upright men of proved experience are chosen, who have little need of advice from others; therefore they ridicule our custom, which at times places eloquent men, highly skilled in public law, behind the backs of judges without learning.[*](To prompt them.) But that one judge was forced to take his seat on the skin of another who had been condemned to death for injustice[*](See Hdt. v. 25; Val. Max. vi. 3, ext. 3; Diod. Sic. xv. 10.) is either a fiction of antiquity, or, if once customary, has long since been given up.

Through military training and discipline, through constant exercise in warfare and military manoeuvres, which we have often described, they cause dread even to great armies; they rely especially on the valour of their cavalry, in which all the nobles and men of rank undergo hard service; for the infantry are armed like the murmillones,[*](A kind of gladiator, see xvi. 12, 49, note. They were armed in the Gallic manner with a small oblong buckler, but without greaves or arm-guard.) and they obey orders like so many horse-boys. The whole throng of them always follows in the rear, as if doomed to perpetual slavery, without ever being supported by pay or gifts. And this nation, so bold and so well trained for the dust of Mars, would have brought many other peoples under the yoke in addition to those whom they fully subdued, were they not

Most of them are so covered with clothes gleaming with many shimmering colours, that although they leave their robes open in front and on the sides, and let them flutter in the wind, yet from their head to their shoes no part of the body is seen uncovered. To the use of golden armlets and neckchains, gems, and especially pearls, of which they possess a great number, they first became accustomed after their victory over Lydia and Croesus.[*](546 B.C.)

It remains for me to speak briefly about the origin of this gem.[*](I.e. pearls.) Among the Indians and the Persians pearls are found in strong, white sea-shells, being conceived at a definite time of the year by mixture with dew. For at that time they desire, as it were, a kind of copulation, and by often opening and shutting quickly they take in moisture by sprinkling with moonlight. Thereby becoming pregnant, they each bear two or three small pearls, or else uniones,[*](Uniones is applied to large pearls, of which only one is found in a single shell. Pliny, N.H. ix. 112, says that they are called uniones because one never finds two pearls of such similarity that they cannot be told from each other. Solinus, 53, 27, end, says it is because one never finds two of them together. But Aelian, Hist. Anim. x. 13, says that in one shell sometimes one such pearl is found, sometimes two, sometimes as many as twenty. Cf. Shakespeare, Hamlet, V. ii. 253, And in the cup a union shall he throw. ) so called because the shell-fish, when opened, sometimes yield only one pearl, but in that case they are of greater size.

And it is a proof that they are of ethereal origin, rather than that they are conceived and fed from nourishment derived from the sea, that when drops of morning dew fall upon these gems, they make them brilliant and round, but the dew of evening, on the contrary, makes them irregular, red, and sometimes spotted; and they become large or small under varying conditions, according to the quality of what they have taken in. Very often the

Their taking is difficult and dangerous, and their price is high, for the reason that they avoid shores that are usually frequented, to escape the snares of the pearlfishers, as some believe, and hide amid solitary rocks and the lairs of sea-hounds.[*](I.e. sharks.)

That this kind of gem is found and gathered in the lonely bays of the Britannic Sea,[*](Cf. Tac., Agr. 12; Pliny, N.H. ix. 116; Solin. 56, 3, 28.) although of less value than these, is well known to us.