Book 17
3.8
Gabinius, the Roman historian, indulges in relating marvellous stories of Mauretania. He speaks of a sepulchre of Antaeus at Lynx, and a skeleton of sixty feet in length, which Sertorius exposed, and afterwards covered it with earth.Plutarch Sertorius. His stories also about elephants are fabulous. He says, that other animals avoid fire, but that elephants resist and fight against it, because it destroys the forests; that they engage with men in battle, and send out scouts before them; that when they perceive their enemies fly, they take to flight themselves; and that when they are wounded, they hold out as suppliants branches of a tree, or a plant, or throw up dust.
3.9
Next to Mauretania is the country of the Masesylii, beginning from the river Molocath, and ending at the promontory which is called Tretum,Ebba-Ras. the boundary of the country of the Masaesyli and of the Masylies. From Metagonium to Tretum are 6000 stadia; according to others, the distance is less.
