CHAP. 93. (91.)—LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN SWALLOWED UP. And not to speak of bays and gulfs, the earth feeds on itself; it has devoured the very high mountain of Cybotus, with the town of Curites; also Sipylus in Magnesia[582], and formerly, in the same place, a very celebrated city, which was called Tantalis; also the land belonging to the cities Galanis and Gamales in Phœnicia, together with the cities themselves; also Phegium, the most lofty ridge in Æthiopia[583]. Nor are the shores of the sea more to be depended upon. CHAP. 94. (92.)—CITIES WHICH HAVE BEEN ABSORBED BY THE SEA. The sea near the Palus Mæotis has carried away Pyrrha and Antissa, also Elice and Bura[584] in the gulf of Corinth, traces of which places are visible in the ocean. From the island Cea it has seized on 30,000 paces, which were suddenly torn off, with many persons on them. In Sicily also the half of the city of Tyndaris, and all the part of Italy which is wanting[585]; in like manner it carried off Eleusina in Bœotia[586]. CHAP. 95. (93.)—OF VENTS[587] IN THE EARTH. But let us say no more of earthquakes and of whatever may be regarded as the sepulchres of cities[588]; let us rather speak of the wonders of the earth than of the crimes of nature. But, by Hercules! the history of the heavens themselves would not be more difficult to relate:—the abundance of metals, so various, so rich, so prolific, rising up[589] during so many ages; when, throughout all the world, so much is, every day, destroyed by fire, by waste, by shipwreck, by wars, and by frauds; and while so much is consumed by luxury and by such a number of people:—the figures on gems, so multiplied in their forms; the variously-coloured spots on certain stones, and the whiteness of others, excluding everything except light:—the virtues of medicinal springs, and the perpetual fires bursting out in so many places, for so many ages:—the exhalation of deadly vapours, either emitted from caverns[590], or from certain unhealthy districts; some of them fatal to birds alone, as at Soracte, a district near the city[591]; others to all animals, except to man[592], while others are so to man also, as in the country of Sinuessa and Puteoli. They are generally called vents, and, by some persons, Charon’s sewers, from their exhaling a deadly vapour. Also at Amsanctum, in the country of the Hirpini, at the temple of Mephitis[593], there is a place which kills all those who enter it. And the same takes place at Hierapolis in Asia[594], where no one can enter with safety, except the priest of the great Mother of the Gods. In other places there are prophetic caves, where those who are intoxicated with the vapour which rises from them predict future events[595], as at the most noble of all oracles, Delphi. In which cases, what mortal is there who can assign any other cause, than the divine power of nature, which is everywhere diffused, and thus bursts forth in various places?