CHAP. 43. (29.)—NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN EXTERMINATED BY ANIMALS.
We have accounts, too, no less remarkable, in reference even
to the most contemptible of animals. M. Varro informs us,
that a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, and one in
Thessaly, by mice; that the inhabitants of a district in
Gaul were driven from their country by frogs,[1] and a place
in Africa by locusts;[2] that the inhabitants of Gyarus,[3]
one of the Cyclades, were driven away by mice;[4] and the
Amunclæ, in Italy, by serpents. There is a vast desert tract
on this side of the Æthiopian Cynamolgi,[5] the inhabitants of
which were exterminated by scorpions and venomous ants.[6]
and Theophrastus informs us, that the people of Rhœteum[7]
were driven away by scolopendræ.[8] But we must now return
to the other kinds of wild beasts.
1. Other instances are mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, B. iii. Justin, B.
xv. c. 2, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 41.—B. Showers of frogs
are a thing not unknown in England even. They are probably caused by
whirlwinds acting upon waters which are the haunt of these animals.
2. The ravages of locusts have been known in all ages; their destructive
effects in Egypt and Judea, have formed the subject of a very elaborate
dissertation by Bochart, in his work on the "Animals of Scripture," Part
i. B. iv. c. 3 and 4.—B.
3. Used as a place of banishment by the Romans. See B. iv. c. 28, and
c. 82, of the present Book.
4. See c. 82 of the present Book, and B. x. c. 85.—B.
5. The "dog-milkers." See B. vi. c. 35.
6. "Solipugis." There has been much discussion as to the word here
employed by Pliny, and the animal which he intends to designate. The
solipugus, solpugus, solipuga, or solipunga, probably different names of
the same animal, is mentioned by various writers; among others, by Lucan,
Phars. B. ix. 1. 837; Diodorus Siculus, B. iii.; Strabo, B. xvi.; and Ælian,
Hist. Anim. B. xvii. c. 40. It is again referred to in B. xxix. c. 16. The
description given is, however, too indefinite to enable us to identify it with
any known animal; it would almost seem to indicate something between
the spider and the ant.—B. We still hear in modern times of the venomous
and destructive nature of the red ants on the coast of Guinea; and it is not
improbable that it is to these that Pliny alludes.
7. See B. v. c. 33.
8. This is mentioned by Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. xv. c. 26.—B. The
scolopendra is one of the multipede insects.