LIBER II · CAPUT 88
LANDS WHICH HAVE BEEN SEPARATED BY THE SEA
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
ante nos et iuxta Italiam inter Aeolias insulas, item iuxta Cretam emersit MM.D passuum una cum calidis fontibus, altera Olympiadis CLXIII anno tertio in Tusco sinu, flagrans haec violento cum flatu, proditurque memoriae, magna circa eam multitudine piscium fluitante confestim expirasse quibus ex his cibus fuisset. sic et Pithecussas in Campano sinu ferunt ortas, mox in his montem Epopon, cum repente flamma ex eo emicuisset, campestri aequatum planitiei. in eadem et oppidum haustum profundo, alioque motu terrae stagnum emersisse, et alio provolutis montibus insulam extitisse Prochytam.
Namque et hoc modo insulas rerum natura fecit: avellit Siciliam Italiae, Cyprum Syriae, Euboeam Boeotiae, Euboeae Atalanten et Macrian, Besbicum Bithyniae, Leucosiam Sirenum promunturio.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Opposite to us, and near to Italy, among the Æolian isles, an island emerged from the sea; and likewise one near Crete, 2500 paces in extent, and with warm springs in it; another made its appearance in the third year of the 163rd Olympiad, in the Tuscan gulf, burning with a violent explosion. There is a tradition too that a great number of fishes were floating about the spot, and that those who employed them for food immediately expired. It is said that the Pithecusan isles rose up, in the same way, in the bay of Campania, and that, shortly afterwards, the mountain Epopos, from which flame had suddenly burst forth, was reduced to the level of the neighbouring plain. In the same island, it is said, that a town was sunk in the sea; that in consequence of another shock, a lake burst out, and that, by a third, Prochytas was formed into an island, the neighbouring mountains being rolled away from it.
In the ordinary course of things islands are also formed by this means. The sea has torn Sicily from Italy, Cyprus from Syria, Eubœa from Bœotia, Atalante and Macris from Eubœa, Besbycus from Bithynia, and Leucosia from the promontory of the Sirens.