Of the seven wise men, Thales of Miletus declared water to be the principle of all things; Heraclitus, fire; the priests of the Magi, water and fire; Euripides, pupil of Anaxagoras (whom the Athenians called the stage-philosopher), air and earth; and he said that earth, sown from the seeds of heavenly rains, had produced the offspring of peoples and of all the living creatures in the world, and that the things born from it, when, compelled by the necessity of time, they were dissolved, returned to it; and that those which arose from the air likewise returned to the regions of the sky, and did not receive destruction, but, changed by dissolution, fell back into that property in which they had been before. Pythagoras, however, Empedocles, Epicharmus, and the other natural philosophers and philosophers, proposed these principles to be four: air, fire, earth, water; and that their coherence among themselves, by natural figuration, from the distinctions of kinds effects the qualities. §1
We observe, however, that not only are things born produced from these, but all things cannot be nourished, nor grow, nor be preserved, without their power. For bodies cannot have life without the redundance of breath, unless the air flowing in makes increases and remittances continuously, by augmenting. Of heat, if there be not a just tempering in the body, there will be no animal spirit, nor firm erection, and the powers of food cannot have the temper for cooking. Likewise, unless the members of the body be nourished by earthly food, they will fail, and thus they will be deserted by the mixture of the earthly principle. §2
Living beings, indeed, if they be without the power of moisture, bloodless and drained by the liquor of the principles, will dry up within. Therefore the divine mind did not establish the things that would be properly necessary to peoples as difficult and dear, such as are pearls, gold, silver, and the rest which neither body nor nature desires; but those things without which the life of mortals cannot be safe, it poured forth, ready to hand, through all the world. Therefore of these, if any breath chance to fail in the body, for restoring it, the air assigned supplies that. The equipment for aids of heat is furnished by the onset of the sun, and fire, discovered, makes life the safer. Likewise the earthly fruit, furnishing foods in superfluous abundance, nourishes desires, and by feeding continuously, nurses living beings. Water, however, not only for drinking, but by supplying by use unbounded necessities, furnishes uses welcome because it is freely given. §3
Therefore also those who discharge priesthoods in the customs of the Egyptians show that all things rest upon the power of liquid. So when the jar of water is brought back to the temple and shrine with chaste religion, then, prostrating themselves on the ground with hands raised to heaven, they give thanks to the divine benignity for its invention. Since therefore, both by natural philosophers and by philosophers and by priests, it is judged that all things rest upon the power of water, I have thought that, since in the first seven volumes the reasonings of buildings have been set forth, in this it is fitting to write on the inventions of water, what virtues it has in the properties of places, by what reasonings it is conducted, and how beforehand it is to be proved. For it is most necessary, both for life and for delights and for daily use. §4
This will be easier if there be open springs flowing forth. But if they do not flow out, the heads are to be sought under ground and gathered. They will be tried thus: let one lie down on his teeth (prone) before the sun has risen, in the places in which it is to be sought; and, with the chin placed on the ground and propped, let these regions be surveyed. For thus the sight will not err, being loftier than it should, while the chin is unmoved, but with a balanced height, by a fixed determination, will designate the regions. Then, in those places where moist exhalations will be seen curling up and rising into the air, there let digging be. For this sign cannot be made in a dry place. §5
Those who seek water should also consider of what kind the places are. For there are certain ones in which it is born. In chalk, the supply is thin and meager and not deep; and the taste will be not of the best. In loose sand, a thin supply will be found, in lower places; it will be muddy and unpleasant. In black earth, sweats and slender drops are found, which, gathered from wintry storms, settle in close and solid places: these have the best taste. In gravel, middling and not fixed veins are found; these too are of an extraordinary pleasantness. Likewise in coarse male sand and in carbuncular sand, the supplies are more certain and stable, and of good taste. In red stone, they are copious and good, if they do not slip away and liquefy through the crevices. But beneath the roots of mountains, and in flinty rocks, they are more abundant and flowing, and these are colder and more healthful. In plain springs, however, they are salty, heavy, lukewarm, and not pleasant, unless those which, flowing from mountains under the earth, burst out in the middle of plains, and there, covered by the shades of trees, furnish the pleasantness of mountain springs. §6
Now the signs by which those things are found springing up on the kinds of lands above written, are: the slender rush, the wandering willow, the alder, the agnus-castus, the reed, ivy, and others of the same kind, which cannot be born of themselves without moisture. They are wont, however, also to grow in hollows, which, settling, receive beyond the rest of the field the rain-waters from the fields through the winter, and, on account of their capacity, preserve the moisture longer. These are not to be trusted; but in regions and lands, not hollows, where those signs grow not sown but naturally self-produced, there it is to be sought. §7
In those places in which such indications of discovery shall appear, the following trials shall be made. Let the place be dug wide every way not less than three feet, deep five feet, and in it, about sunset, let a little bronze bowl or vessel of lead, or a basin, be placed. Of these, whatever is to hand, let it be anointed within with oil and placed inverted, and the top of the digging be covered with reeds or branches; above let earth be heaped. Then on the following day let it be opened; and if drops and sweats be in the vessel, that place will have water. §8
Likewise, if an unbaked clay vessel be placed in that digging, covered in the same way, if the place have water, when it is opened the vessel will be moist, and already will be dissolved by moisture. Also if a fleece of wool be placed in the digging, but on the following day water shall be pressed from it, it will signify that place to have a supply. No less, if a lamp be trimmed and full of oil and lit, placed in that place and covered, and on the next day it be not burnt out, but have remnants of oil and wick, and itself be found moist, it will indicate that place to have water, because all warmth draws moistures to itself. Likewise in that place if a fire has been made, and the earth, thoroughly heated and scorched, has given out of itself a misty vapor, that place will have water. §9
When these things have been so tried, and the signs above written have been found, then a well is to be sunk in that place; and if the head of water has been found, several are to be dug round about, and through galleries all to be led into one place. But these things are chiefly to be sought in mountains and northern regions, because in these both more pleasant and more healthful and more abundant waters are found. For they are turned away from the sun's course, and in these places first there are frequent trees and woodlands, and the mountains themselves have their shades as obstructions, and the rays of the sun do not reach the earth in a straight line, nor can dry up moistures. §10
The intervals of mountains most of all receive rains, and on account of the frequency of woods, the snows are preserved longer by the shades of trees and mountains; then, liquefied, they are filtered through the veins of the earth, and so arrive at the lowest roots of mountains, from which, flowing forth, they burst as the belchings of springs. In the plains, on the contrary, there cannot be supplies. For those that are, cannot have healthfulness, because the vehement onset of the sun, through the want of any interposition of shades, snatches away, by exhausting, the boiling moisture from the plains' flatness; and if there be any waters visible, whatever is lightest and thinnest and of subtle healthfulness, the air, drawing it off, scatters into the onset of the sky; and whatever are the heaviest and hardest and unpleasant parts, these are left in the plain springs. §11
Therefore the water which is gathered from rains has more healthful virtues, because it is chosen out of all the thinnest and most subtle parts of all springs, and then, sifted through the exercise of the air, by liquefying in the storms, arrives at the earth. Also rains do not often run together in plains but in mountains or close to the mountains, because moistures risen from the earth at sunrise in the morning, when they have gone forth, into whatever part of the sky they are inclined, push forward the air; then, when they are moved, by reason of the emptiness of the place, they receive behind themselves waves of the rushing air. §12
The air, indeed, which rushes pushing forth the moisture wherever by the force of its breath, makes, by its onrush and growing waves, winds. By winds, wherever the gathered moistures are borne, they are gathered from springs, rivers, marshes, and the sea, with the warmth of the sun, and exhausted, and thus lifted aloft as clouds. Then, when they are borne by the wave of the air, when they have come to the mountains, by their collision and by gales, on account of their fullness and weight, they are scattered by liquefying, and so are diffused over the lands. §13
That steam and mists and moisture arise from the earth, this reasoning seems to cause: that it has in it both burning heats and immense breaths and coolings and a great abundance of waters. Thence when, cooled by night, the sun at rising strikes with its onset the orb of the earth, and the blasts of winds rise through the darkness, from moist places the clouds go forth on high. But as for the air, that, being thoroughly heated by the sun, by its turnings lifts moistures from the earth, one may take an example from baths. §14
For no vaults, which are of caldaria, can have springs above themselves; but the ceiling there, thoroughly heated by the vapor of fire from the furnaces, seizes the water from the pavements and carries it up into the curvatures of the vaults and holds it, because warm vapor always thrusts itself into the height. And at first it does not let it go, because of its slightness; but as soon as it has more moisture gathered, it cannot sustain it on account of its weight, but drops above the heads of bathers. Likewise by the same reasoning the heavenly air, when from the sun it takes warmth, drawing moistures up from all places, gathers them to the clouds. For so the earth, struck by heat, casts out moisture, as the body of a man also pours out sweats from heat. §15
Indices of this are the winds: of which those produced from the coldest parts, the north and the northeaster, blow thinned by drynesses in the air; but the south wind and the rest, which attack from the sun's course, are most moist, and always bring rains, because, thoroughly heated, they come from fiery regions, and, licking all lands, they snatch the moistures, and so pour them on the northern regions. §16
That this is so may be proved by the heads of rivers, which, painted in the chorographies of the orb of the earth, and also in writings, are found most numerous and greatest coming forth from the north. And first in India the Ganges and Indus rise from Mount Caucasus; in Syria the Tigris and Euphrates; in Asia likewise in Pontus, the Borysthenes, Hypanis, Tanais; in Colchis, the Phasis; in Gaul, the Rhone; in Celtica, the Rhine; on this side of the Alps, the Timavus and Po; in Italy, the Tiber; in Mauretania (which ours call Mauretania), the Dyris (from Mount Atlas), which, rising from the northern region, advances through the west to the lake of Heptagonus, and, with its name changed, is called Agger; then from the lake Heptabolos, flowing under the desert mountains through southern places, streams and flows into the marsh which is called that which encircles Meroe (which is the kingdom of the southern Ethiopians); and from these marshes, winding about itself through the rivers Astasobas and Astoboas and many others, it reaches the cataract through the mountains, and from there, precipitating itself through the north, reaches between Elephantis and Syene and the Theban plains, and there it is called the Nile. §17
From Mauretania that the head of the Nile flows forth is chiefly known from this: that on the other side of Mount Atlas there are other heads, likewise flowing forth to the west into the Ocean, and there are born ichneumons, crocodiles, and other like beasts and fishes, except hippopotami. §18
Since therefore all rivers of ample magnitudes in the descriptions of the orb of the earth are seen to flow forth from the north, and the plains of Africa, which are in the southern parts subject to the sun's course, have their moistures latent within and neither frequent springs nor many streams; it remains that far better heads of springs are found which face the north or northeast, unless they have fallen upon a sulphurous or aluminous or bituminous place. For then they are altered, and, either hot or cold, with bad odor and taste, pour forth springs. §19
For there is no property of hot water, but cold water, when, running along, it falls into a burning place, boils, and, thoroughly heated, goes out through veins beyond the earth. For this reason it cannot abide long, but in a short space becomes cold. For if it were naturally hot, its heat would not be cooled. Its taste, odor, and color, however, are not restored, because it has been dipped and mixed, on account of its natural rareness. §20
There are, however, some hot springs from which flows water of the best taste, which in drinking is so sweet that neither the Spring of the Camenae nor the Marcian is missed. These are perfected by nature by these reasonings: when in the depth, through alum or bitumen or sulphur, fire is kindled, by its burning it heats the earth which is above, and thence sends up into the upper places a fiery vapor; and so, if there spring, in those places which are above, springs of sweet water, they, meeting with that vapor, boil between the veins, and so flow forth with uncorrupted taste. §21
There are also cold springs, of bad odor and taste, which, born in places below through burning places, pass out, and, from thence, running through a long space of earth, arrive cool above ground with taste, odor, and color corrupted, as on the Tiburtine road the river Albula, and in the Ardean territory the cold springs of the same odor (which are called sulphurous), and in other similar places. Though these are cold, they seem, in aspect, to boil, because when they have fallen deep into a burning place, with moisture and fire colliding, they, struck with a vehement shock, receive into themselves strong breaths, and so, inflated, driven by the force of the wind, bubble forth through the springs. But of those which are not open but confined in rocks, by the narrow veins, by the vehemence of the breath, they are forced up to the highest mounds. §22
So those who think that, at the height which the mounds are, they have heads of springs by digging, when they open wider their diggings, are deceived. For as a bronze vessel, not to the top of its lips full but holding of its full capacity two parts of three of water, with a cover placed on it, when it is touched by the vehement fervor of fire, is compelled to boil, the water, however, on account of its natural rareness receiving into itself a strong inflation of heat, not only fills the vessel but, lifted with breaths, grows and overflows; but with the cover taken off, the inflations being sent forth into the open air, it again settles to its place; so too those heads of springs, when they are pressed in by straits, belch up at the top the bubblings of water with breath; but as soon as they are opened more widely, being spent through the rarities of liquid power, they settle and are restored to the property of level. §23
All hot water, moreover, is indeed medicamentous for this reason, that, thoroughly cooked in crooked things, it receives another virtue for use. For sulphurous springs refresh labors of the nerves by heating through and burning out the vitiated moistures from bodies with their heats. Aluminous, when bodies have received their members dissolved by paralysis or by some such force of disease, refresh, by soothing through the open veins, with cooling, by the contrary force of heat, and thus continuously restore the old turnings of the members. Bituminous heal, by draughts, the vices of the interior of the body by purging. §24
There is also a kind of cold water which is nitrous, as at Pinna Vestina, at Cutilia, and in other like places, which by draughts cleanses, and passing through the bowels, also diminishes swellings of scrofula. But where gold, silver, iron, bronze, lead, and the rest of similar things are dug, abundant springs are found, but these are most faulty. For they have, like hot springs, sulphur, alum, bitumen; and these, when they enter the body by draughts, passing through the veins and touching the nerves and joints, harden them by inflation. Therefore the nerves, swollen by inflation, contract from length, and thus make men diseased of nerves or gouty, because their veins' rarities have been tinged by the hardest and thickest and coldest things. §25
There is also a kind of water which, having not enough clearness, has, from itself as it were a flower, floating on the top, a color like that of purple glass. This is observed especially at Athens. For there from such places and springs are brought spouting fountains into the city and into the Piraeus, of which no one drinks for this reason; but they use them for washings and the rest of things; they drink however from wells, and thus avoid their defects. At Troezen this cannot be avoided, because no other kind of water is found at all except what the Cibdeli have; and so in that state, either all, or the greater part, are faulty in the feet. In the Cilician state of Tarsus there is a river named Cydnos, in which the gouty, soaking their legs, are relieved of pain. §26
There are also many other kinds which have their own properties, as in Sicily the river Himeras, which, when it has gone from its source, is divided into two parts. The part that flows toward Etruria, because it runs through the sweet juice of the earth, is of infinite sweetness; the other part that runs through that land whence salt is dug, has a salt taste. Likewise at Paraetonium, and on the road to Ammon, and at Casius near Egypt, there are marsh-lakes which are so salty that they have congealed salt upon them. There are also in very many other places springs and rivers and lakes which, running through salt-mines, are necessarily made salt. §27
Others, flowing through fat veins of the earth, burst forth anointed with oil, as at Soli (a town of Cilicia) a river called Liparis, in which those swimming or washing are anointed from the water itself. Similarly in Ethiopia a lake which makes those who swim in it anointed, and in India one which under a clear sky emits a great quantity of oil; also at Carthage a spring on top of which oil floats, of the odor like citron-filings, with which oil even the cattle are wont to be anointed. At Zacynthus, and about Dyrrachium and Apollonia, there are springs which vomit forth great quantities of pitch with the water. At Babylon, a lake of very ample size, which is called λίμνη ἀσφαλτῖτις (the Asphaltian lake), has liquid bitumen floating on top, and with this bitumen, and with brick of testaceous work, Semiramis compassed the wall of Babylon. Likewise at Joppa in Syria, and in Nomad Arabia, there are lakes of immense size, which throw out enormous masses of bitumen, which are plundered by those who dwell around. §28
This is not to be marveled at. For there are frequent quarries of hard bitumen there. When therefore through bituminous earth the force of water breaks out, it draws it with itself, and when it has gone out beyond the earth, it separates and so casts the bitumen away from itself. Further, in Cappadocia, on the road between Mazaca and Tyana, there is an ample lake, into which, if a part either of a reed or of another kind be lowered, and on the following day be taken out, the part that has been drawn out will be found stony; but the part which has remained beyond the water abides in its own property. §29
In the same fashion at Hierapolis in Phrygia there boils up a multitude of hot waters, from which, through ditches led about gardens and vineyards, they admit it; and after a year it is made into a crust of stone. So every year, on right and left, making margins of earth, they admit it and produce, with these crusts, enclosures in the fields. This seems to be done naturally because in those places, in that earth in which it is born, a juice lies beneath similar to the nature of rennet; then when the mingled power goes out through springs beyond the earth, by the heat of the sun and air it is compelled to congeal, as is seen also in the grounds of salt-pans. §30
Likewise there are springs coming forth from the bitter juice of the earth, that are vehemently bitter, as in Pontus the river Hypanis. It flows from its source about forty miles of the sweetest taste, then when it has come to a place which is from the mouth one hundred and sixty miles, there is mixed with it a little spring very small; this when it pours in, then makes the great bulk of the river bitter, because through that kind of earth and veins whence sandarac is dug, that water, by oozing through, is made bitter. §31
These things of unlike tastes are perfected by the property of the earth, as is seen also in fruits. For if the roots of trees or vines or of the rest of the seeds, not receiving juice from the proprieties of the earth, were to put forth fruits, the tastes of all things would be of one kind in all places and regions. But we observe in the island Lesbos the Protropum wine, in Maeonia the Catacecaumenite, in Lydia the Tmolitan, in Sicily the Mamertine, in Campania the Falernian, between Terracina and Fundi the Caecuban, and in many other places, kinds of wines and virtues produced in countless multitude. These cannot be produced otherwise than when the earthly moisture, with its proper qualities of taste infused in the roots, nourishes the material through which, going forth to the top, it pours out the taste proper to the place and its kind. §32
Further, if the earth were not of various kinds of moistures and dispersed, not only in Syria and Arabia would reeds and rushes and all herbs have odors, nor would the frankincense-trees be there, nor give berries of pepper, nor lumps of myrrh, nor at Cyrene in ferules would laser be born; but in every region of the earth, of the same kind, all would be produced. These varieties, however, in regions and places, the inclination of the world effects, and the onset of the sun, which, running its course nearer or farther, makes such qualities of earth and moisture. Not only in these things, but also in flocks and herds. These would not be so differently produced, unless the proprieties of each single land were tempered in the kinds of its moistures to the power of the sun. §33
There are in Boeotia the rivers Cephisus and Melas; in Lucania the Crathis; at Troy the Xanthus; and in the fields of the Clazomenians and Erythraeans and Laodiceans, springs. At these rivers, when flocks are prepared in their seasons of the year for the conception of bringing forth, during that time they are driven daily to drink; and from this, however white they be, they produce in some places grayish-white, in others black, in others raven-black offspring. Thus the property of the liquor, when it has gone into the body, seeds with itself the tinct of each kind's quality. Therefore, because in the plains of Troy, nearest the river, red cattle and grayish-white flocks are born, for that reason the Ilians are said to have called that river Xanthus. §34
There are also found kinds of water deadly, which, running through a maleficent juice of the earth, receive into themselves a venomous force; as the spring of Terracina, which was called Neptunian, is said to have been, from which those who had drunk imprudently were deprived of life. Wherefore the ancients are said to have blocked it up. And in Thrace, the lake Chrobs, from which not only those who have drunk die but also those who have washed. Likewise in Thessaly there is a flowing spring from which no flock tastes, nor any beast comes near, near which spring there stands a tree blooming with purple flowers. §35
No less in Macedonia, in the place where Euripides is buried, on right and left of the monument two streams meet in one, at one of which those who arrive are wont to lunch, because of the goodness of its water; but to the stream that is on the other side of the monument no one approaches, because it is said to have deadly water. Likewise in Arcadia there is a region named Nonacris, which has, in the mountains, coldest moistures dropping from the rock. This water is called Στυγὸς ὕδωρ (water of the Styx), which neither silver nor bronze nor iron vessel can sustain, but it leaps and scatters. Nothing else can preserve and contain it except a mule's hoof, by which also it is recorded by Antipater to have been carried into the province where Alexander was, through his son Iollas, and by him, with that water, the king is said to have been killed. §36
Likewise in the Alps, in the kingdom of Cottius, there is a water, from which those who taste at once fall down. And in the Faliscan district, on the Campanian way, in the plain of Cornetum, there is a grove in which a spring rises, where the bones of birds and lizards and the rest of serpents are seen lying about. Likewise there are some acid veins of springs, as in Lyncestus, and in Italy at Velinus, in Campania at Teanum, and in many other places, which have this virtue, that by their draughts they break up the stones that are born in the bladders in the bodies of men. §37
That this is naturally so, seems for this reason, that an acid juice lies beneath in that earth, through which the veins going out are tinged with sharpness, and so when they have entered the body, they scatter the concretions in bodies from the settling of waters. Why these things are broken up by acids we may thus observe. If an egg be placed in vinegar for a longer time, its shell will soften and be dissolved. Likewise lead, which is most yielding and heaviest, if placed in a vessel and vinegar poured on it, this being covered and sealed, will be so treated that the lead shall be dissolved, and shall be made cerussa. §38
By the same reasonings bronze, which is of a firmer nature, similarly treated, will be dissipated and made verdigris. Likewise pearl. No less, flinty rocks, which neither iron nor fire can dissolve of itself, when heated by fire, sprinkled with vinegar, split and are dissolved. Therefore, when we see these things before our eyes so to be, let us reason that by the same reasonings, through acids, on account of the sharpness of their juice, even the stone-afflicted can by the nature of things similarly be cured. §39
There are also springs as though mixed with wine, as is one of Paphlagonia, from which those drinking that water without wine become drunk. Among the Aequiculi in Italy, and in the Alps among the nation of the Medulli, there is a kind of water which those who drink are made with swollen throats. §40
In Arcadia, however, is the well-known state Clitor, in whose fields is a cave flowing with water, from which those who drink become abstemious from wine. At this spring there is inscribed on the stone an epigram to this purport, in Greek verses: that it is not fit for washing, but also is hostile to vines, because at that spring Melampus, by sacrifices, cleansed the frenzy of Proetus's daughters, and restored the minds of those virgins to their old sanity. The epigram, moreover, is this which is subscribed: 'Herdsman, if at noontide with your flocks weariness and thirst oppress you on your way from the bounds of Clitor, then from that spring take a draught, and by its watery nymphs set all your goat-flock to rest; but do not throw yourself into the baths, lest the very breeze harm you while you are within pleasant intoxication: flee my vine-hating spring, where Melampus, when he had freed Proetus's daughters from grievous madness, cast away all the secret purification, when from Argos he came to the rough hills of Arcady.' §41
Likewise in the island Cea there is a spring from which those who drink imprudently become foolish, and there an epigram is inscribed to this purport: pleasing is that draught of the spring, but he who drinks will have stony senses. The verses are these: 'Sweet is the gush of cold drink that wells from this spring; yet he who drinks from it is made stony in mind.' §42
At Susa, which is the city of the kingdom of the Persians, there is a little spring, from which those who drink lose their teeth. Likewise there is an inscribed epigram, by which they signify this meaning: that this water is excellent for washing, but if drunk, shakes out the teeth from the roots. These are the verses in Greek: 'O stranger, you behold a stream-like water, from which, to wash with the hands, is not harmful to men; but if you send into the hollow belly its shining water, touching only the tip of your long lip, in that very day, saw-like, the teeth of your banquet fall upon the ground, leaving empty the seats of the jaws.' §43
There are also in some places proprieties of springs which produce those born there with extraordinary voices for singing, as at Tarsus, at Magnesia, and in other such regions. Also, Zama is a city of the Africans, whose walls King Juba hedged with a double wall, and there he established his royal house for himself. Twenty miles from it is the town Ismuc, whose fields are bounded by an incredible boundary. For though Africa be the parent and nurse of wild beasts, chiefly of serpents, in the fields of that town none are born; and if at some time one be brought and placed there, it at once dies; nor that only, but also the earth from these places, if it be carried elsewhere, the same. This kind of earth is said to be also in the Balearic islands. But another more wondrous virtue that earth has, which I so learned. §44
Gaius Iulius, son of Masinissa, whose were the possessions of the whole town's lands, served with his father under Caesar. He used my hospitality. So in daily intercourse it had to be about philology we discussed. Meanwhile, when there was conversation between us about the power of water and its virtues, he set forth that in that land there were such springs that those who were born there had extraordinary voices for singing; and for that reason they always bought over-seas boys of beauty and girls of age, and joined them together, so that those who should be born from them might have not only extraordinary voice but also form not ungraceful. §45
Since so great a variety is distributed by nature on unlike things, and the human body is in some part earthly, and in it are many kinds of moistures (as of blood, milk, sweat, urine, tears), if therefore in so small a particle of the earthly so great a discrepancy of tastes is found, it is not to be wondered at if also in the magnitude of the earth innumerable varieties of juices may be found, through whose veins the force of water, running, tinged, arrives at the issues of springs; and so from that unequal and various springs are perfected in their own kinds, on account of the discrepancy of places and the qualities of regions and the unlike proprieties of the earths. §46
Of these matters there are some which I have inspected for myself, others I have found written in Greek books, of which writings the authors are these: Theophrastus, Timaeus, Posidonius, Hegesias, Herodotus, Aristides, Metrodorus, who with great vigilance and unbounded zeal, have dedicated in writing the proprieties of places, the virtues of waters, with their qualities from the inclination of the sky and regions, so distributed. Of whom, following the steps, in this book I have written what I thought enough concerning the varieties of waters, that from these prescriptions men may more easily choose the springs of water from which they may be able to bring fountains for use into cities and municipalities. §47
For nothing out of all things seems to have so great necessities for use as water, because the nature of all animals, if it be deprived of the use of grain, or of trees, or meat, or fish, or even any of these, can still, by using the other things for food, maintain life; but without water, neither body of animals nor any virtue of food can be born nor preserved nor prepared. Wherefore with great diligence and industry are springs to be sought and chosen for the healthfulness of human life. §48
Now the trials and proofs of these are to be provided thus. If they are flowing forth and open, before they are begun to be led, let those be looked at, and the attention be turned to the members of the men who dwell around those springs; and if they be of strong bodies, sleek colors, with legs not faulty, eyes not blear, they will be most approved. Likewise if a new spring be dug, and that water, sprinkled in a Corinthian vessel, or of another kind which is of good bronze, leaves no stain, it is the best. Likewise, in a bronze vessel, if that water, when boiled and afterwards rested and poured off, no sand or mud is found on the bottom of the vessel, that water will be approved in the same manner. §49
Likewise, if legumes thrown into a vessel with that water placed at the fire are quickly cooked through, they will indicate the water to be good and healthful. No less, too, if that water which is in the spring be clear and transparent, and wherever it has come or flowed, neither moss springs up nor rush, nor is the place sullied by any filth but has a clean appearance; by these signs it is betokened to be thin and of the highest healthfulness. §50
Now I shall unfold how the conducting to dwellings and walls ought to be made. The reasoning of this is, first, leveling. This is done by dioptrae or water-levels or the chorobate; but it is more diligently done by the chorobate, because dioptrae and levels deceive. The chorobate is a rule about twenty feet long. It has in its extremities supports perfected of equal measure and joined at the heads of the rule to the square; and between the rule and the supports, from hinges, cross-pieces attached, which have lines drawn exactly perpendicular, and plumb-lines hanging from the rule, at each side one, which, when the rule is placed and they equally and alike touch the lines of the drawing, indicate a leveled setting. §51
If wind hinders, and the lines cannot by their motions give a certain signification, then let it have on its upper part a channel five feet long, a finger wide, one and a half finger deep, and let water be poured in; and if the water equally touches the lips of the channel at the top, it will be known to be leveled. Likewise by that chorobate, when it has been thus leveled, it will be known how much slope it has had. §52
Perhaps one who has read the books of Archimedes will say that true leveling from water cannot be done, because he holds that water is not level but has the shape of a sphere, and there has its center where the orb of earth has. However, whether the water be flat or spherical, it is necessary that, at the extreme ends on right and left, when the rule is leveled, the water sustain the rule equally; but if it be inclined to one side, on the side which is higher, the channel of the rule at the top will not hold the water at the lips. For it is necessary that wherever water be poured, it have in the middle an inflation and curvature, but the extreme ends on right and left are leveled among themselves. The chorobate's exemplar will be drawn at the end of the volume. And if the slope be great, the descent of the water will be the easier. But if there are hollows in the intervals, substructures must come to the rescue. §53
Aqueducts are made in three kinds: by streams through built channels, or through leaden pipes, or through earthen tubes. Of which these are the reasonings. If through channels, that the structure be as solid as possible, and let the bottom of the stream have levelings sloping not less than one quarter-of-a-foot per hundred feet; and let these structures be vaulted over, that the sun may touch the water as little as possible. When it has come to the walls, let a castellum be made, and, joined to the castellum, a triple reservoir for receiving the water; let there be placed in the castellum three pipes equally divided among joined receptacles, so that when it overflows from the outer ones, it may redound into the middle receptacle. §54
Likewise from the middle pipes shall be placed to all pools and fountains; from the other to baths, so that they may every year pay a tax to the people; and from the third to private houses, that it may not be lacking in the public. For they cannot divert it, when they have their own channels from the heads. The reasons why I have distributed it thus are also these: that those who conduct it privately into their houses may, by their taxes through the publicans, maintain the conducts of waters. §55
But if mountains intervene between the walls and the source, it must be done thus, that galleries be dug under the earth, and be leveled to the slope above written; and if the rock be tufa or stone, a channel be cut in it; but if the ground be earthen or sandy, walls with a vault be built in the gallery, and thus the water be led through; and wells so be made as to stand apart between two acti (plethron lengths). §56
But if it is to be conducted through leaden pipes, first let a castellum be built at the source; then let the bore of the pipes be determined proportionately to the abundance of water; and let these pipes be placed from the castellum to the castellum which shall be in the walls. The pipes be cast not less than ten feet long. If they are hundred-inch (of one hundred digit breadth), they should weigh, each, 1200 pounds; if eighty-inch, 960 pounds; if fifty-inch, 600 pounds; if forty-inch, 480 pounds; if thirty-inch, 360; if twenty-inch, 240; if fifteen-inch, 180; if ten-inch, 120; if eight-inch, 100; if five-inch, 60. From the breadth of the sheets, how many digits wide they are before they are bent into a round, the pipes take their names of magnitudes. For what sheet shall be of fifty digits, the pipe perfected from that sheet shall be called fifty-inch; and similarly the rest. §57
Now the conducting that is to be through leaden pipes will have this expedient: if the source has a head above the walls, and the middle mountains be not higher so as to interrupt, but there be intervals, it is necessary to raise substructures to the level as in channels and rivulets. If however it is not a long circuit, let circumlocutions be made; but if there be continuous valleys, the course shall be directed in the inclined place. When it has come to the bottom, let it be built up not too high, that the level may be as long as possible. This will be the venter, which the Greeks call κοιλίαν. Then when it has come opposite the slope, from the long space of the venter it gently swells so as to be forced up to the height of the top of the slope. §58
But if no venter be made in the valleys, and no substructure be made to level, but there be a knee, the water will burst forth and dissolve the joints of the pipes. Also in the venter, colliquiae (vents) must be made, through which the force of breath may be relaxed. So those who conduct water through leaden pipes, with these reasonings, may most beautifully effect it, because descents, circuits, venters, and forcings up may be made by this reasoning, when there will be levelings of slope from the heads to the walls. §59
Also it is not useless to place castella every two hundred actus, that if at any place a defect shall have been made, not the whole and every work may be broken up, and in what places it is made be more easily found; but let those castella be neither in the descent nor in the level of the venter nor at the pressings-up nor altogether in valleys, but in a perpetual level. §60
But if we wish to do it at less cost, thus must it be done. Let the earthen pipes be made not less than two digits thick in wall; but these pipes be so made that on one side they have a tongue, so that one may enter another and fit. Their joints must be smeared with quicklime kneaded with oil; and in the downward levels of the venter a stone of red rock is to be placed at the very knee, pierced through, so that the last pipe from the descent may be fitted in the stone, and the first of the leveled venter also; in the same way, opposite the slope, and the last of the leveled venter may cling in the cavity of the red rock, and the first of the pressing-up be fitted in the same manner. §61
Thus, with the level-plane of the pipes, at the descents and pressings-up it will not be lifted. For a vehement breath is wont to arise in the conducting of water, so that it even breaks through rocks, unless at first the water be let in gently and sparingly from the source, and at the knees or turnings be held by bindings or the weight of ballast. All the rest shall be placed as with leaden pipes. Likewise, when first the water is let in from the source, let ashes be let in before it, that if there are joints not sufficiently smeared they may be smeared with the ashes. §62
Earthenware pipe conduits have these advantages: first, in the work, that if any defect be made, anyone can mend it. Also water from earthenware pipes is much more healthful than through lead pipes, for lead is seen to be faulty because cerussa is born from it; and this is said to be noxious to human bodies. Therefore, whatever is born of it, if that is faulty, it is not doubtful that that itself also is not salubrious. §63
An example we may take from the workmen in lead, who have their bodies' colors occupied with paleness. For when, in casting lead, the smelt is made, a vapor from it, settling in the members of the body, and daily burning, takes out of their members the virtues of the blood. Therefore by no means does water appear to be conducted through leaden pipes, if we wish to have it healthful. And that a better taste comes from earthenware pipes, our daily eating may indicate, because all, though they have tables furnished with silver vessels, yet, for the integrity of the taste, use earthenware. §64
But if there are no springs from which we may make conducts of water, it is necessary to dig wells. In the digging of wells, however, the reasoning is not to be despised; but by keen sagacity and great diligence, the natural reasonings of things are to be considered, because the earth has many and various kinds within itself. For it, like other things, is composed of four principles. And first it is of itself earthy, and has from moisture of water, springs; likewise heats, whence also sulphur, alum, bitumen are born; and immense breaths of air, which, when heavy, through the crevices of the earth, arrive at the digging of wells, and there, when they meet the diggers, by the natural force of vapor stop up the vital breaths in their nostrils, so that those who do not quickly escape thence are there killed. §65
But the reasonings by which this may be avoided shall be done thus. Let a lit lamp be lowered; and if it continues burning, it will be descended to without danger; but if the light be snatched away by the force of vapor, then on the right and left along the well let flues be dug. So, as through nostrils, the breaths will be dispersed from the flues. When these things have been thus unfolded, and one has come to the water, then let it be fenced with building, lest the vein be stopped up. §66
But if the places shall be hard, or the veins too deep, then supplies must be received from roofs or higher places by Signine works. In Signine works, these things are to be done: that sand first be prepared, most pure and rough; the rubble of flint be broken, not heavier than a pound; let lime, as vehement as possible, be mixed with mortar so that five parts of sand answer to two of lime. Let the trench, to the levelling of the height which is to be, be rammed with wooden and iron-shod levers. §67
With the walls rammed, let what is earthy in the middle be emptied to the lowest levelling of the walls. This being leveled, let the floor be rammed to the thickness which shall be established. If these be made double or triple, so that by percolations they may be transposed, they will make the use of water much more healthful and sweet. For the mud, when it has where to settle, will become clearer, and without odor will preserve the taste; if not, it will be necessary to add salt, and so thin it. What I could on the virtue and variety of water, and what uses it has, and by what reasonings it is led and tested, in this volume I have put; but on gnomonic matters and the reasonings of sundials, I shall write in the next. §68