Kitap 3
16
But since I have told what I have learned about a birth after a year in Homer and about the eleventh month, I think I ought not to omit what I read in the seventh book of the Natural Histoy of Plinius Secundus. But because that story might seem to be beyond belief, I have quoted Pliny's own words: vii. 40. Masurius makes the statement Fr. 24, Huschke; Memor. 21, Jur. Civ. 31, Bremer. that the praetor Lucius Papirius, when an heir in the second degree The heir or heirs in the second degree inherited only in case the heirs in the first degree died, or were otherwise incompetent. brought suit for the possession of an inheritance, decided against him, although the mother That is, the mother of the heir in the first degree. said that she had been pregnant for thirteen months; and the reason for his decision was that it seemed to him that no definite period of gestation had been fixed by law. In the same book of Plinius Secundus are these words: vii. 42. Yawning during childbirth is fatal, just as to sneeze after coition produces abortion.
17
The statement of men of the highest authority that Plato bought three books of Philolaus the Pythagorean, and that Aristotle purchased a few books of the philosopher Speusippus, at prices beyond belief.
