A friend came to me inquiring about this verse -
73 Ab occidente litora Esseni fugiunt usque qua nocent, gens sola et in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum. in diem ex aequo convenarum turba renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortuna fluctibus agit. ita per saeculorum milia -- incredibile dictu -- gens aeterna est, in qua nemo nascitur. tam fecunda illis aliorum vitae paenitentia est! infra hos Engada oppidum fuit, secundum ab Hierosolymis fertilitate palmetorumque nemoribus, nunc alterum bustum. inde Masada castellum in rupe, et ipsum haut procul Asphaltite. et hactenus Iudaea est.
A rough translattion - The Essenes flee the shores from the west all the way, which (the shores) hurt [them], and [they are] an alone (unique) people in the entire world, amazing beyond others, without any women, with all to come having been abdicated, without money, an ally of the palms [of hands] (a figurative metaphor for writers). To this day disorder is constantly being born out of the plains of coming together...
It's not perfect, (I copied and pasted what I had thrown together quickly for him...) but there is a problem with the meaning of infra. Some argue it means downstream, some argue physically below, any ideas? Thanks again.
Pliny
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whiteoctave
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