CHAP. 22.(22.)—INSTANCES OF REMARKABLE ACUTENESS OF HEARING.
We have one instance on record of remarkable acuteness of
hearing; the noise of the battle, on the occasion when Sybaris[1]
was destroyed, was heard, the day on which it took place, at
Olympia.[2] But, as to the victory over the Cimbri,[3] and that
over Perseus, the news of which was conveyed to Rome by the
Castors,[4] they are to be looked upon in the light of visions and
presages proceeding immediately from the gods.
1. It would appear that there is a little confusion here of events. Sybaris, so noted for its luxury and effeminacy, was destroyed by the people of
Crotona, under the command of the athlete Milo, B.C. 510. In B.C. 360,
the Crotoniats were defeated at the river Sagras, by the Locrians and Rhegians, 10,000 in number, although they are said to have amounted to
130,000. Now it was on the occasion of this latter battle, that, according
to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. ii., the noise was heard at Olympia, where the
games were being celebrated. Be it as it may, the story is clearly fabulous.
Evelyn is much more deserving of credit, where we find him stating in his
Diary, that in his garden, at Say's Court, at Deptford, he heard the guns
fired in one of our engagements with the Dutch fleet, at a distance thence
of nearly 200 miles.
2. Ajasson discusses at some length, the possibility of the fact here mentioned, and concludes, that it is not to be credited: he estimates the distance between these two places at 120 miles.—B.
3. As to the miraculous annunciation of the victory of Marius and
Catulus over the Cimbri, see B. ii. c. 58.
4. Meaning, thereby, the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux; who were
said to have announced at Rome the victory gained the day before by
Paulus Æmilius over King Perseus.