[p. 32]fruits and trees, and have the most genial climate, and enjoy
the purest waters, both celestial and terrestrial. For neither are
they much burnt up by the heat, nor dried up by the drought and want
of rain, nor do they suffer from the cold; since they are well watered
from abundant showers and snow, and the fruits of the season, as might
be supposed, grow in abundance, both such as are raised from seed
that has been sown, and such plants as the earth produces of its own
accord, the fruits of which the inhabitants make use of, training
them from their wild state and transplanting them to a suitable soil;
the cattle also which are reared there are vigorous, particularly
prolific, and bring up young of the fairest description; the inhabitants
too, are well fed, most beautiful in shape, of large stature, and
differ little from one another either as to figure or size; and the
country itself, both as regards its constitution and mildness of the
seasons, may be said to bear a close resemblance to the spring. Manly
courage, endurance of suffering, laborious enterprise, and high spirit,
could not be produced in such a state of things either among the native
inhabitants or those of a different country, for there pleasure necessarily
reigns. For this reason, also, the forms of wild beasts there are
much varied. Thus it is, as I think, with the Egyptians and Libyans.
PART 13
But concerning those on the right hand of the summer risings of the
sun as far as the Palus Maeotis (for this is the boundary of Europe
and Asia), it is with them as follows: the inhabitants there differ
far more from one another than those I have treated of above, owing
to the differences of the seasons and the nature of the soil. But
with regard to the country itself, matters are the same there as among
all other men; for where the seasons undergo the greatest and most
rapid changes, there the country is the wildest and most unequal;
and you will find the greatest variety of mountains, forests, plains,
and meadows; but where the seasons do not change much there the country
is the most even; and, if one will consider it, so is it also with
regard to the inhabitants; for the nature of some is like to a country
covered with trees and well watered; of some, to a thin soil deficient
in water; of others, to fenny and marshy places; and of
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