Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

4471

Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 2.48.7

nan It has a length of about five hundred stades and a width of about sixty, and its water is so ill-smelling and so very bitter that it cannot support fish or any of the other animals which commonly live in water. And although great rivers of remarkable sweetness empty into it, the lake gets the better of them by reason of its evil smell, and from its centre it spouts forth once a year a great mass of asphalt, which sometimes extends for more than three plethra, and sometimes for only two; and when this occurs the barbarians who live about the lake usually call the larger flow a "bull" and to the smaller one they give the name "calf.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

7 results
1. Cicero, Pro Flacco, 67 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 67. Italia et ex omnibus nostris provinciis Hierosolymam exportari soleret, Flaccus sanxit edicto ne ex Asia exportari liceret. quis est, iudices, qui hoc non vere laudare possit? exportari aurum non oportere cum saepe antea senatus tum me consule gravissime iudicavit. huic autem barbarae superstitioni resistere severitatis, multitudinem Iudaeorum flagrantem non numquam in contionibus pro re publica contemnere gravitatis summae fuit. at Cn. Pompeius captis Hierosolymis victor ex illo fano nihil attigit.
2. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 2.48.9, 19.98, 19.99.3 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 2.48.9.  Yet the land is good for the growing of palms, wherever it happens to be traversed by rivers with usable water or to be supplied with springs which can irrigate it. And there is also found in these regions in a certain valley the balsam tree, as it is called, from which they receive a substantial revenue, since this tree is found nowhere else in the inhabited world and the use of it for medicinal purposes is most highly valued by physicians. •  That part of Arabia which borders upon the waterless and desert country is so different from it that, because both of the multitude of fruits which grow therein and of its other good things, it has been called Arabia Felix. 19.99.3.  For this liquid by its nature supports heavy bodies that have the power of growth or of breathing, except for solid ones that seem to have a density like that of silver, gold, lead, and the like; and even these sink much more slowly than do these exact bodies if they are cast into other lakes. The barbarians who enjoy this source of income take the asphalt to Egypt and sell it for the embalming of the dead; for unless this is mixed with the other aromatic ingredients, the preservation of the bodies cannot be permanent.
3. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 5.71 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
4. Plutarch, Table Talk, 4.6.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
5. Tacitus, Histories, 5.6-5.10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 5.6.  Their land is bounded by Arabia on the east, Egypt lies on the south, on the west are Phoenicia and the sea, and toward the north the people enjoy a wide prospect over Syria. The inhabitants are healthy and hardy. Rains are rare; the soil is fertile; its products are like ours, save that the balsam and the palm also grow there. The palm is a tall and handsome tree; the balsam a mere shrub: if a branch, when swollen with sap, is pierced with steel, the veins shrivel up; so a piece of stone or a potsherd is used to open them; the juice is employed by physicians. of the mountains, Lebanon rises to the greatest height, and is in fact a marvel, for in the midst of the excessive heat its summit is shaded by trees and covered with snow; it likewise is the source and supply of the river Jordan. This river does not empty into the sea, but after flowing with volume undiminished through two lakes is lost in the third. The last is a lake of great size: it is like the sea, but its water has a nauseous taste, and its offensive odour is injurious to those who live near it. Its waters are not moved by the wind, and neither fish nor water-fowl can live there. Its lifeless waves bear up whatever is thrown upon them as on a solid surface; all swimmers, whether skilled or not, are buoyed up by them. At a certain season of the year the sea throws up bitumen, and experience has taught the natives how to collect this, as she teaches all arts. Bitumen is by nature a dark fluid which coagulates when sprinkled with vinegar, and swims on the surface. Those whose business it is, catch hold of it with their hands and haul it on shipboard: then with no artificial aid the bitumen flows in and loads the ship until the stream is cut off. Yet you cannot use bronze or iron to cut the bituminous stream; it shrinks from blood or from a cloth stained with a woman's menses. Such is the story told by ancient writers, but those who are acquainted with the country aver that the floating masses of bitumen are driven by the winds or drawn by hand to shore, where later, after they have been dried by vapours from the earth or by the heat of the sun, they are split like timber or stone with axes and wedges. 5.7.  Not far from this lake is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there, and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility. In fact, all the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, turn black, become sterile, and seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after they have reached their usual mature form. Now for my part, although I should grant that famous cities were once destroyed by fire from heaven, I still think that it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground and poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil and climate are deleterious. The river Belus also empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply. 5.8.  A great part of Judea is covered with scattered villages, but there are some towns also; Jerusalem is the capital of the Jews. In it was a temple possessing enormous riches. The first line of fortifications protected the city, the next the palace, and the innermost wall the temple. Only a Jew might approach its doors, and all save the priests were forbidden to cross the threshold. While the East was under the dominion of the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, the Jews were regarded as the meanest of their subjects: but after the Macedonians gained supremacy, King Antiochus endeavoured to abolish Jewish superstition and to introduce Greek civilization; the war with the Parthians, however, prevented his improving this basest of peoples; for it was exactly at that time that Arsaces had revolted. Later on, since the power of Macedon had waned, the Parthians were not yet come to their strength, and the Romans were far away, the Jews selected their own kings. These in turn were expelled by the fickle mob; but recovering their throne by force of arms, they banished citizens, destroyed towns, killed brothers, wives, and parents, and dared essay every other kind of royal crime without hesitation; but they fostered the national superstition, for they had assumed the priesthood to support their civil authority. 5.9.  The first Roman to subdue the Jews and set foot in their temple by right of conquest was Gnaeus Pompey; thereafter it was a matter of common knowledge that there were no representations of the gods within, but that the place was empty and the secret shrine contained nothing. The walls of Jerusalem were razed, but the temple remained standing. Later, in the time of our civil wars, when these eastern provinces had fallen into the hands of Mark Antony, the Parthian prince, Pacorus, seized Judea, but he was slain by Publius Ventidius, and the Parthians were thrown back across the Euphrates: the Jews were subdued by Gaius Sosius. Antony gave the throne to Herod, and Augustus, after his victory, increased his power. After Herod's death, a certain Simon assumed the name of king without waiting for Caesar's decision. He, however, was put to death by Quintilius Varus, governor of Syria; the Jews were repressed; and the kingdom was divided into three parts and given to Herod's sons. Under Tiberius all was quiet. Then, when Caligula ordered the Jews to set up his statue in their temple, they chose rather to resort to arms, but the emperor's death put an end to their uprising. The princes now being dead or reduced to insignificance, Claudius made Judea a province and entrusted it to Roman knights or to freedmen; one of the latter, Antonius Felix, practised every kind of cruelty and lust, wielding the power of king with all the instincts of a slave; he had married Drusilla, the grand-daughter of Cleopatra and Antony, and so was Antony's grandson-in‑law, while Claudius was Antony's grandson. 5.10.  Still the Jews' patience lasted until Gessius Florus became procurator: in his time war began. When Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, tried to stop it, he suffered varied fortunes and met defeat more often than he gained victory. On his death, whether in the course of nature or from vexation, Nero sent out Vespasian, who, aided by his good fortune and reputation as well as by his excellent subordinates, within two summers occupied with his victorious army the whole of the level country and all the cities except Jerusalem. The next year was taken up with civil war, and thus was passed in inactivity so far as the Jews were concerned. When peace had been secured throughout Italy, foreign troubles began again; and the fact that the Jews alone had failed to surrender increased our resentment; at the same time, having regard to all the possibilities and hazards of a new reign, it seemed expedient for Titus to remain with the army.
6. Strabo, Geography, 14.2.28 14.2.28. When the poet says,Masthles in turn led the Carians, of barbarian speech, we have no reason to inquire how it is that, although he knew so many barbarian tribes, he speaks of the Carians alone as of barbarian speech, but nowhere speaks of barbarians. Thucydides, therefore, is not correct, for he says that Homer did not use the term 'barbarians' either, because the Hellenes on their part had not yet been distinguished under one name as opposed to them; for the poet himself refutes the statement that the Hellenes had not yet been so distinguished when he says,My husband, whose fame is wide through Hellas and mid- Argos. And again,And if thou dost wish to journey through Hellas and mid- Argos. Further, if they were not called barbarians, how could they properly be called a people of barbarian speech? So neither Thucydides is correct, nor Apollodorus the grammarian, who says that the general term was used by the Hellenes in a peculiar and abusive sense against the Carians, and in particular by the Ionians, who hated them because of their enmity and the continuous military campaigns; for it was right to name them barbarians in this sense. But I raise the question, Why does he call them people of barbarian speech, but not even once calls them barbarians? Because, Apollodorus replies, the plural does not fall in with the metre; this is why he does not call them barbarians. But though this case does not fall in with metre, the nominative case does not differ metrically from that of Dardanians: Trojans and Lycians and Dardanians. So, also, the word Trojan, inof what kind the Trojan horses are. Neither is he correct when he says that the language of the Carians is very harsh, for it is not, but even has very many Greek words mixed up with it, according to the Philip who wrote The Carica. I suppose that the word barbarian was at first uttered onomatopoetically in reference to people who enunciated words only with difficulty and talked harshly and raucously, like our words battarizein, traulizein, and psellizein; for we are by nature very much inclined to denote sounds by words that sound like them, on account of their homogeneity. Wherefore onomatopoetic words abound in our language, as, for example, celaryzein, and also clange, psophos, boe, and crotos, most of which are by now used in their proper sense. Accordingly, when all who pronounced words thickly were being called barbarians onomatopoetically, it appeared that the pronunciations of all alien races were likewise thick, I mean of those that were not Greek. Those, therefore, they called barbarians in the special sense of the term, at first derisively, meaning that they pronounced words thickly or harshly; and then we misused the word as a general ethnic term, thus making a logical distinction between the Greeks and all other races. The fact is, however, that through our long acquaintance and intercourse with the barbarians this effect was at last seen to be the result, not of a thick pronunciation or any natural defect in the vocal organs, but of the peculiarities of their several languages. And there appeared another faulty and barbarian-like pronunciation in our language, whenever any person speaking Greek did not pronounce it correctly, but pronounced the words like barbarians who are only beginning to learn Greek and are unable to speak it accurately, as is also the case with us in speaking their languages. This was particularly the case with the Carians, for, although the other peoples were not yet having very much intercourse with the Greeks nor even trying to live in Greek fashion or to learn our language — with the exception, perhaps, of rare persons who by chance, and singly, mingled with a few of the Greeks — yet the Carians roamed throughout the whole of Greece, serving on expeditions for pay. Already, therefore, the barbarous element in their Greek was strong, as a result of their expeditions in Greece; and after this it spread much more, from the time they took up their abode with the Greeks in the islands; and when they were driven thence into Asia, even here they were unable to live apart from the Greeks, I mean when the Ionians and Dorians later crossed over to Asia. The term barbarize, also, has the same origin; for we are wont to use this too in reference to those who speak Greek badly, not to those who talk Carian. So, therefore, we must interpret the terms speak barbarously and barbarously-speaking as applying to those who speak Greek badly. And it was from the term Carise that the term barbarize was used in a different sense in works on the art of speaking Greek; and so was the term soloecise, whether derived from Soli, or made up in some other way.
7. Vergil, Aeneis, 6.440-6.441 6.440. Into the billowy deep. Aeneas now 6.441. Discerned his sad face through the blinding gloom

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
alexander jannaeus	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
alexander of aphrodisias	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
anthropogeography	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
antigonus i monophthalmus	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211, 212
apollonius molon	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
armenia,armenians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
asphalt,and embalming (egypt)	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 212
asphaltites/asphaltitis,lake,in diodorus siculus	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
asphaltites/asphaltitis,lake	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
balsam (opobalsam),and the hasmoneans	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
balsam (opobalsam),medical use of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 212
balsam (opobalsam),of gilead'	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
balsam (opobalsam)	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 212
barbarians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
bezalel bar-kochva	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
britannia,britons	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
celts	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
dead sea	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88, 94
dead sea and area,and the hasmonean dynasty	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
dead sea and area,in aristotle	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
dead sea and area,in strabo	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
dead sea and area,name of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
dead sea and area,salt,collection and quarrying,salt,descriptions of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
dead sea and area	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211, 212, 221
demetrius poliorcetes	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211, 221
egypt	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 212
en gedi,fortresses connecting to jericho	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
ethnography	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88, 94
germania,germani	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
gibson,s.	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
gilead	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
gomorrah	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
gottwald,n.	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
hasmonean dynasty,dead sea territory of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
hasmonean dynasty,fortresses and settlements of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
hasmonean dynasty	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
hieronymous of cardia (history)	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211, 212, 221
hyrcanus i (john hyrcanus)	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
idumaea	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 212, 221
jericho,connection to en gedi	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
jerusalem	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
judea	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
masada	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
nabataea/nabataeans,asphalt,selling of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211
nabataea/nabataeans	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 211, 221
numidians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
pannonians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
parthians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
persians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
pontos	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
posidonius,dead sea,description	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
posidonius	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
rome,romans	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88, 94
sodom	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 88
spaniards	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
strabo,dead sea description of	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
taylor,j. e.	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221
thracia,thracians	Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 94
zoara (of arabia)	Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 221