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{ Tag Archives } pyramids

The pyramids of Porsena’s tomb.

Pliny the Elder, quoting Varro (Naturalis Historia 36.19): supra id quadratum pyramides stant quinque, quattuor in angulis et in medio una, imæ latæ pedum quinum septuagenum, altæ centenum quinquagenum ita fastigatæ, ut in summo orbis aëneus et petasus unus omnibus sit inpositus […] supra quem orbem quattuor pyramides insuper singulæ stant altæ pedum centenum, supra […]

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Pyramids at Heracleopolis.

Pliny on the Labyrinth at Heracleopolis (Naturalis Historia 36.19) praeterea templa omnium Aegypti deorum contineat superque Nemesis XL aediculis incluserit pyramides complures quadragenarum ulnarum senas radice ἀρούρας optinentes. Additionally, it would contain temples of all the gods of Egypt, and of Nemesis as well; among its forty shrines it would have included many pyramids, each […]

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Stupid pyramids.

I’ve been wanting to post these little translations I do for my dictionary, partly for feedback on quality, partly to talk about the texts themselves. In his Natural History, 36.16, Pliny gives us his opinion of the pyramids: Dicantur obiter et pyramides in eadem Ægypto, regum pecuniæ otiosa ac stulta ostentatio. And the pyramids, also […]

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