Naturalis historia 6.87

6.87

mare id colore perviridi, praeterea fruticosum arboribus, iubas earum gubernaculis deterentibus. septentriones vergiliasque apud nos veluti in novo caelo mirabantur, ne lunam quidem apud ipsos nisi ab octava in XVI supra terram aspici fatentes; Canopum lucere noctibus, sidus ingens et clarum. sed maxime mirum iis erat umbras suas in nostrum caelum cadere, non in suum, solemque a laeva oriri et in dexteram occidere potius quam e diverso.

From these persons we learned that in Taprobane there are five hundred towns, and that there is a harbour that lies facing the south, and adjoining the city of Palæsimundus, the most famous city in the isle, the king's place of residence, and containing a population of two hundred thousand. They also informed us that in the interior there is a lake called Megisba, three hundred and seventy-five miles in circumference, and containing islands which are fertile, though for pasturage only. In this lake they informed us two rivers take their rise, one of which, called Palesimundus, flows into the harbournear the city of that name, by three channels, the narrowest of which is five stadia in width, the largest fifteen; while the other, Cydara by name, takes a direction northward, towards the Indian coast. We learned also that the nearest point of the Indian coast is a promontory known as Coliacum, distant from the island four days' sail, and that midway between them lies the island of the Sun. They stated also that those seas are of a deep green tint; besides which, there are numerous trees growing at the bottom, so much so, that the rudders of the vessels frequently break off portions of their foliage. They were much astonished at the constellations which are visible to us, the Greater Bear and the Pleiades, as though they had now beheld a new expanse of the heavens;