Pliny the Skeptic

В отношении астрологических предсказаний он замечает, что даже несмотря на то, что люди могут рождаться “в один и тот же час”, человеческие судьбы у всех разные. (VII, 50)

About the afterlife: “ Какую форму имеет душа сама по себе? Из какого вещества она состоит? Где у нее мышление? Каким образом она видит, слышит или кто ее волнует? Кто имеет выгоду от нее или в чем счастье без нее? Каково, наконец, ее местообитание и сколь велико количество отделившихся за столько веков душ словно теней? Все это плод детских фантазий и страстного желания человека никогда не прекращать своего существования. ” (VII, 56)

Цитируя рассказ греческого автора Эванта об оборотнях, он добавляет: “ Удивительно, до чего доходит легковерие греков, поскольку нет лжи более постыдной, нежели та, которую невозможно опровергнуть. ” (VIII, 34)

Some say the reason no one has ever seen a vulture’s nest is because they nest in the opposite hemisphere; but in fact it is because they nest high up in mountains. (X, 7)

Regarding a bird called the sangualis, while some say it has not been seen in Rome since the time of Mucius, “for my part 1 think it much more likely that in the general slackness that prevails they have not been recognized. " (10. 8) (Pliny is warning here that when interest in knowledge wanes, false inferences are more common; a topical observation? )

He says “I know for a fact” that owls landing on roofs are not portents of evil. (X, 16)

“A story is told about the mournful song of swans at their death—a false story as I judge on the strength of a certain number of experiences. ” (X, 32)

While soothsayers claim the settling of a swarm of bees is an evil omen, a swarm settled in Drusus’s camp when he had a victory at Arbalo. (XI, 18)

“And I think that the story about screech-owls, that they drop milk from their teats into the mouths of babies, is a fabrication. ” (XI, 95)

“For my part I am surprised that Aristotle not only believed but published his belief that our bodies contain premonitory signs of our career.... ” (XI, 114)

Timaeus says that leaves fall from trees when the sun is in Scorpio because at that time of year a venom falls on them from out of the sky; “but then we may justly wonder why the same influence is not operative against all these trees. Most trees shed their leaves in autumn, but some lose them later…” (16. 34)

When discussing Asclepiades, who Pliny considers a fraudulent doctor, he states that the knowledge of remedies is best acquired by personal examination and actual experience. (26. 7)

He will not, he says, mention love-philtres or abortives, “unless it be by way of warning or denunciation, especially as I have utterly condemned all faith in such practices. ” (25. 7)

The plant vervain is used by some for telling the future, “but it is the magicians that give utterance to such ridiculous follies... . ” (25. 59)

He calls statements Theophrastus has made about an aphrodisiac “fabulous, ” a plant which is supposed to allow a man to make love seventy times in a row—then Pliny notes (with regret? ) that Theophrastus has failed to name the plant. (26. 63)

With respect to the peony [plant], and the need to pull it up at night, and likelihood of being attacked by the woodpecker of Mars while doing so and of getting hemorrhoids: “I hold to be a fundamental lie, calculated to exaggerate the facts. ” (27. 60)

“Shameless beyond belief is the treatment prescribed by very famous authorities” which suggests that human semen cures the scorpion sting. (28. 13)

Examples of Pliny’s disdain for magicians include: “Such is the clever cunning of the Magi in wrapping up their frauds... ” (29. 12) “But all these are nothing compared with a mixture that the lying Magi assert makes men invincible... ” (29. 19); “Here moreover we have quite the most blatant instance of effrontery on the part of the Magi... ” (37. 60)

He doubts that owl egg really helps grow hair, “Who in any case could have tried it, particularly on the hair? ” (29. 26)

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