MARVELLOUS BIRTHS

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Ex feminis mutari in mares non est fabulosum. invenimus in annalibus P. Licinio Crasso C. Cassio Longino cos. Casini puerum factum ex virgine sub parentibus iussuque haruspicum deportatum in insulam desertam. Licinius Mucianus prodidit visum a se Argis Arescontem, cui nomen Arescusae fuisse, nupsisse etiam, mox barbam et virilitatem provenisse uxoremque duxisse; eiusdem sortis et Zmyrnae puerum a se visum. ipse in Africa vidi mutatum in marem nuptiarum die L. Consitium civem Thysdritanum, vivebatque cum proderem haec.

.....editis geminis raram esse aut puerperae aut puerperio praeterquam alteri vitam; si vero utriusque sexus editi sint gemini, rariorem utrique salutem. feminas celerius gigni quam mares, sicuti celerius senescere. saepius in utero moveri mares et in dextera fere geri parte, in laeva feminas.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

The change of females into males is undoubtedly no fable. We find it stated in the Annals, that, in the consulship of P. Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus, a girl, who was living at Casinum with her parents, was changed into a boy; and that, by the command of the Aruspices, he was conveyed away to a desert island. Licinius Mucianus informs us, that he once saw at Argos a person whose name was then Arescon, though he had been formerly called Arescusa: that this person had been married to a man, but that, shortly after, a beard and marks of virility made their appearance, upon which he took to himself a wife. He had also seen a boy at Smyrna, to whom the very same thing had happened. I myself saw in Africa one L. Cossicius, a citizen of Thysdris, who had been changed into a man the very day on which he was married to a husband. When women are delivered of twins, it rarely happens but that either the mother herself, or one, at least, of the twins perishes. If, however, the twins should happen to be of different sexes, it is less probable that both of them will survive. Female children are matured more quickly than males, and become old sooner. Of the two, male children most frequently are known to move in the womb; they mostly lie on the right side of the body, females on the left.