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[1] At that same time fearful earthquakes throughout Asia, Macedonia, and Pontus with their repeated shocks shattered numerous cities and mountains. Now among the instances of manifold disaster was pre-eminent the collapse of Nicomedia, the metropolis of Bithynia; and of the misfortune of its destruction I shall give a true and concise account.
[2] On the twenty-fourth of August, at the first break of day, thick masses of darkling clouds overcast the face of the sky, which had just before been brilliant; the sun’s splendour was dimmed, and not even objects near at hand or close by could be discerned, so restricted was the range of vision, as a foul, dense mist rolled up and settled over the ground.
[3] Then, as if the supreme deity were hurling his fateful bolts
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and raising the winds from their very quarters,
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a mighty tempest of raging gales burst forth; and at its onslaught were heard the groans of the smitten mountains and the crash of the wave-lashed shore; these were followed by whirlwinds and waterspouts, which, together with a terrific earthquake, completely overturned the city and its suburbs.
[4] And since most of the houses were carried down the slopes of the hills, they fell one upon another, while everything resounded with the vast roar of their destruction. Meanwhile the highest points re-echoed all manner of outcries, of those seeking their wives, their children, and whatever near kinsfolk belonged to them.
[5] Finally, after the second hour, but well before the third, the air, which was now bright and clear, revealed the fatal ravages that lay concealed. For some who had been crushed by the huge bulk of the debris falling upon them perished under its very weight; some were buried up to their necks in the heaps of rubbish, and might have survived had anyone helped them, but died for want of assistance; others hung impaled upon the sharp points of projecting timbers.
[6] The greater number were killed at one blow, and where there were just now human beings, were then seen confused piles of corpses. Some were imprisoned unhurt within slanting houseroofs, to be consumed by the agony of starvation. Among these was Aristaenetus, vice-governor of the recently created diocese which Constantius, in honour of his wife, Eusebia, had named Pietas; by this kind of mishap he slowly panted out his life amid torments.
[7] Others, who were overwhelmed by the sudden magnitude of the disaster, are still hidden under the same ruins; some who with fractured skulls or amputated arms or legs hovered between life and death, imploring the aid of others in the same case, were abandoned, despite their pleas and protestations.
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[8] And, the greater part of the temples and private houses might have been saved, and of the population as well, had not a sudden onrush of flames, sweeping over them for five days and nights, burned up whatever could be consumed.
[9] I think the time has come to say a few words about the theories which the men of old have brought together about earthquakes; for the hidden depths of the truth itself have neither been sounded by this general ignorance of ours, nor even by the everlasting controversies of the natural philosophers, which are not yet ended after long study.
[10] Hence in the books of ritual
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and in those which are in conformity with the pontifical priesthood,
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nothing is said about the god that causes earthquakes, and this with due caution, for fear that by naming one deity instead of another,
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since it is not clear which of them thus shakes the earth, impieties may be perpetrated.
[11] Now earthquakes take place (as the theories state, and among them Aristotle
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is perplexed and troubled) either in the tiny recesses of the earth, which in Greek we call
σύριγγαι,
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under the excessive pressure of surging waters; or at any rate (as Anaxagoras asserts) through the force of the winds, which penetrate the innermost parts of the earth; for when these strike the solidly cemented walls and find no outlet, they violently shake those stretches of land under which they crept when swollen. Hence it is generally observed that during an earthquake not a breath of wind is felt where we are,
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because the winds are busied in the remotest recesses of the earth.
[12] Anaximander says that when the earth dries up after excessive summer drought, or after soaking rainstorms, great clefts open, through which the upper air enters with excessive violence; and the earth, shaken by the mighty draft of air through these, is stirred from its very foundations. Accordingly such terrible disasters happen either in seasons of stifling heat or after excessive precipitation of water from heaven. And that is why the ancient poets and theologians call Neptune (the power of the watery element) Ennosigaeos
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and Sisichthon.
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[13] Now earthquakes take place in four ways; for they are either
brasmatiae,
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or upheavings, which lift up the ground from far within, like a tide and force upward huge masses, as in Asia Delos came to the surface, and Hiera, Anaphe, and Rhodes, called in former ages Ophiusa and Pelagia, and once drenched with a shower of gold;
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also Eleusis
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in Boeotia, Vulcanus in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and many more islands. Or they are
climatiae
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which rush along to one side and obliquely, levelling cities, buildings, and mountains. Or they are
chasmatiae, or gaping, which with their intensive movement suddenly open abysses and swallow up parts of the earth; as in the Atlantic Ocean an island more extensive than all Europe,
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and in the Crisaean Gulf,
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Helice and Bura; and in the Ciminian district of Italy the town of Saccumum;
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these were all sunk into the deep abysses of Erebus, and lie hidden in eternal darkness.
[14] Among these three sorts of earthquakes the
mycematiae
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are heard with a threatening roar, when the elements break up into their component parts and clash of their own accord, or slide back when the ground settles. For then of necessity the crashing and rumbling of the earth must resound like the bellowing of a bull. But to return to the episode which we began.
Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.
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