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VII

[7arg] Marcus Varro, I remember, writes that of the rivers which flow outside 1 the limits of the Roman empire the Nile is first in size, the Danube second, and next the Rhone.

OF all the rivers which flow into the seas included within the Roman empire, which the Greeks call [p. 235] “the inner sea,” it is agreed that the Nile is the greatest. Sallust wrote 2 that the Danube is next in size; but Varro, when he discussed the part of the earth which is called Europe, placed 3 the Rhone among the first three rivers of that quarter of the earth, by which he seems to make it a rival of the Danube; for the Danube also is in Europe.

1 This was true in Varro's time.

2 Hist. iii. 80, Maur.

3 Ant. Hum. xiii, fr. 6, Mirsch.

The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1927.

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