Naturalis Historia 9/10
This work is from 9/10/25, but is being posted later because I finally am getting this site up and running! I sourced the Latin from Perseus Tufts, and referenced a translation by H. Rackham. I worked on this bit for two weeks, and split it into two chunks. I started with this:
principio terrarum mauretaniae appellantur, usque ad c. caesarem germanici filium regna, saevitia eius in duas divisae provincias. promunturium oceani extumum ampelusia nominatur a graecis. oppida fuere lissa et cottae ultra columnas herculis, nunc est tingi, quondam ab antaeo conditum, postea a claudio caesare, cum coloniam faceret, appellatum traducta iulia. abest a baelone oppido baeticae proximo traiectu [xxx]. ab eo [xxv] in ora oceani colonia Augusti iulia constantia zulil, regum dicioni exempta et iura in baeticam petere iussa. ab ea [xxxv] colonia a claudio caesare facta lixos, vel fabulosissime antiquis narrata: ibi regia antaei certamenque cum hercule et hesperidum horti. adfunditur autem aestuarium e mari flexuoso meatu, in quo dracones custodiae instar fuisse nunc interpretantur. amplectitur intra se insulam, quam solam e vicino tractu aliquanto excelsiore non tamen aestus maris inundant. exstat in ea et ara herculis nec praeter oleastros aliud ex narrato illo aurifero nemore.
They called the beginning of the North African coast Mauretania, even in the time of Caesar, son of Germanicus, his ferocity having divided the kingdoms into two provinces. The Greeks named the outer promontory of the ocean Ampelusia. Beyond the Columns of Hercules stood the towns Lissa and Cotta, but now the town there is Tingi. Formerly founded by Antaeus, afterwards taken by Claudius Caesar when he made a colony named Traducta Julia. Distant from Baelo, the nearest town to travel, Baeticae, is 30 miles. 25 miles from there, in the mouth of the ocean before the colony of Augustus, is Julia Constantia Zulil, exempt from the power of the kings and having been ordered to attack the laws into Baetica. 35 miles from Tingi, there is a colony made by Claudius Caesar— Lixus, indeed the most celebrated in ancient stories; there the palace of Antaeus and the struggle with Hercules and in the Gardens of the Hesperides. The tidal inlet is poured out from the curving sea channel, which is now interpreted to be the image of a guarding serpent. It embraces an island inside itself, which stands alone out of the neighboring space—the area of the which is quite a bit elevated—however, the angry sea never boils over it. The altar of Hercules stands forth on it and not before it from the gold bearing wood out of that story but another olive tree.
Some notes that I had: First off, I have discovered I love the word promontory, I did not previously know it existed, it comes straight from the Latin, it means like jetty or bluff or sticking-out-thing. Just thought it was cool. Second, Tingi is the city we call Tangier in the modern day! I thought that was super cool, and it feels really awesome to have been in Morocco this summer where all these towns are that Pliny is talking about. Third, I looked up several translations to check, and all said that that town name was Traducta Julia, which personally, is extremely confusing because traducta is a participle. Did nobody want to translate it or something? I am not sure. It doesn’t exactly fit with anything in the sentence. My Latin teacher suggested it was the equivalent of New York, like, ‘traded-over Julia.’ I kind of like that, so I’m sticking with it, as it makes the most sense. Finally, that second-to-last sentence gave me so much grief, I understand what it is saying but it was difficult to translate it while keeping it as close to the Latin as I could, because it makes much more sense in Latin grammatically. I did my best!
The next section is as follows:
minus profecto mirentur portentosa graeciae mendacia de his et amne lixo prodita qui cogitent nostros nuperque paulo minus monstrifica quaedam de iisdem tradidisse, praevalidam hanc urbem maioremque magna carthagine, praeterea ex adverso eius sitam et prope inmenso tractu ab tingi, quaeque alia cornelius nepos avidissime credidit. ab lixo [xl] in mediterraneo altera Augusti colonia est babba, iulia campestris appellata, et tertia banasa [lxxv] p., valentia cognominata. ab ea [xxxv] volubile oppidum, tantundem a mari utroque distans. at in ora a lixo [l] amnis sububus, praeter banasam coloniam defluens, magnificus et navigabilis. ab eo totidem milibus oppidum sala, eiusdem nominis fluvio inpositum, iam solitudinibus vicinum elephantorumque gregibus infestum, multo tamen magis autololum gente, per quam iter est ad montem africae vel fabulosissimum atlantem.
Certainly those who think like us do not wonder about the portentous lies of Greece about this and the sprung-up River of Lixus. And recently, news about these strange events has been delivered in smaller amounts, that this city is much stronger and greater than great Carthage, and situated away from their enemies, a near immeasurable haul from Tingi, and other things which Cornelius believed readily. Second, 40 miles from Lixus in the mediterranean colony of Augustus is Babba, called Julia Campestris, and third, Banasa, 75 miles away, given the name Valentia. From there 35 miles, a twisting town, just as distant from the sea in both directions. But in the mouth, from Lixus 50 miles, the Sububus River, flowing before the colony of Banasa, great and navigable. From there just as many miles, the town Sala, given the same name as the river it is placed on, yet in the unsafe vicinity of the solitary flock of elephants, however, to a much greater extent in the unsafe vicinity of the Autololes people, through whom is the journey to Mount Atlas, indeed the most fabled in Africa.
I don’t really have notes for this section, I translated it on paper so I didn’t leave comments, but it was fairly straightforward. I hope you’re excited to hear about the most fabled mountain in Africa next!
