§3.30.1τῷ δὲ ἔθνει τούτῳ χώρα παρήκει κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος πολλὴ καὶ κατὰ τὰς τῆς νομῆς ποικιλίας ἀγαθή· ἔρημος δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ παντελῶς ἄβατος, οὐκ ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς σπανίζουσα τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλʼ ἐν τοῖς ὕστερον χρόνοις ἔκ τινος ἐπομβρίας ἀκαίρου πλῆθος φαλαγγίων καὶ σκορπίων ἐξενέγκασα.
Bordering on this nation there extends a land that is vast and excellent in the variety of its pastures; but it is a desert and completely impassable, not having been destitute of the human race from the beginning, but in later times, owing to some untimely heavy rains, having produced a multitude of tarantulas and scorpions.
§3.30.2τοσοῦτο γὰρ ἱστοροῦσιν ἐπιπολάσαι τῶν εἰρημένων θηρίων πλῆθος ὥστε τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἀνθρώπους τὸ μὲν πρῶτον πανδημεὶ κτείνειν τὸ τῇ φύσει πολέμιον, ἀπεριγενήτου δὲ τοῦ πλήθους ὄντος καὶ τῶν δηγμάτων ὀξεῖς τοῖς πληγεῖσι τοὺς θανάτους ἐπιφερόντων, ἀπογνόντας τὴν πάτριον γῆν τε καὶ δίαιταν φυγεῖν ἐκ τῶν τόπων.
For they record ¦p.v.1.p.307 that so great a multitude of the aforementioned beasts swarmed over it that the inhabitants at first, with all their people, killed what was by nature their enemy, but since the multitude was unconquerable and the bites brought swift deaths to those who were bitten, they despaired of their ancestral land and way of life and fled from those places.
οὐ χρὴ δὲ θαυμάζειν οὐδὲ ἀπιστεῖν τοῖς λεγομένοις, πολλὰ τούτων παραδοξότερα κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην γεγονότα διὰ τῆς ἀληθοῦς ἱστορίας παρειληφότας.
But we ought not to wonder or disbelieve what is said, since we have received through true history that many things far more wonderful than these have happened throughout the whole inhabited world.
§3.30.3περὶ γὰρ τὴν Ἰταλίαν μυῶν πλῆθος ἀρουραίων ἐγγεννηθὲν τοῖς πεδίοις ἐξέβαλέ τινας ἐκ τῆς πατρίου χώρας, κατὰ δὲ τὴν Μηδίαν ἐπιπολάσαντες ἀμύθητοι στρουθοὶ καὶ τὰ σπέρματα τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀφανίζοντες ἠνάγκασαν εἰς ἑτερογενεῖς τόπους μεταστῆναι, τοὺς δὲ καλουμένους Αὐταριάτας βάτραχοι τὴν ἀρχέγονον σύστασιν ἐν τοῖς νέφεσι λαμβάνοντες καὶ πίπτοντες ἀντὶ τῆς συνήθους ψεκάδος ἐβιάσαντο τὰς πατρίδας καταλιπεῖν καὶ καταφυγεῖν εἰς τοῦτον τὸν τόπον ἐν ᾧ νῦν καθίδρυνται.
For in Italy a multitude of field mice, having bred in the plains, expelled certain people from their ancestral land; and in Media a countless number of ostriches, swarming over it and destroying the seeds of the people, forced them to migrate to lands of a different kind; and as for those called Autariatae, frogs, receiving their primordial generation in the clouds and falling instead of the usual rain, forced them to abandon their homelands and flee to this place where they are now settled.
§3.30.4καὶ μὴν τίς οὐχ ἱστόρησεν Ἡρακλεῖ τῶν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀθανασίας ἄθλων συντελεσθέντων ἕνα καταριθμούμενον καθʼ ὃν ἐξήλασεν ἐκ τῆς Στυμφαλίδος λίμνης τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἐπιπολασάντων ὀρνίθων ἐν αὐτῇ;
And indeed, who has not recorded, as one numbered among the labors performed by Heracles for the sake of immortality, that in which he drove out from the Stymphalian lake the multitude of birds that had swarmed in it?
ἀνάστατοι δὲ κατὰ τὴν Λιβύην πόλεις τινὲς ἐγένοντο πλήθους λεόντων ἐπελθόντος ἐκ τῆς ἐρήμου.
And some cities in Libya became desolate when a multitude of lions attacked from the desert.
Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἡμῖν εἰρήσθω πρὸς τοὺς ἀπιστως διὰ τὸ παράδοξον πρὸς τὰς ἱστορίας διακειμένους· πάλιν δʼ ἐπὶ τ ὰσυνεχῆ τοῖς προειρημένοις μεταβησόμεθα.
¦p.v.1.p.308 Let these things, then, be said by us for the sake of those who are disbelievingly disposed towards histories because of what is marvelous; and we shall return again to the topics following those previously mentioned.