From: kraft@ccat.sas.upenn.edu (Robert Kraft) Subject: Pliny's statements reconsidered To: orion@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 22:58:19 -0400 (EDT) All these claims and counterclaims have caused me to take a closer look at the Latin of Pliny's passage about the Essenes to see if it really says all that is claimed for it. This reassessment will need some input from those better versed in Latin than I am, but for what it is worth here are some comments for discussion: Pliny (the elder), Natural History 5.73 [Latin in Menahem Stern, Englished here by RAK, with notes]: The context is a survey of southern Palestine-Judea (apart from Galilee and Perea), divided into ten districts (5.70) from Jericho (with its palm trees) to Emmaus, Lydda, Joppa, Acraba, Gophna, Timna, Betholeptephe, Orine (where Jerusalem was located), and Herodium. In 5.71, Pliny describes the source of the Jordan, and its flow through lake Galilee/Genesara southward to the Dead Sea ("Asphalites"), which is then described in 5.72, ending with a brief survey of sites to the east and south of it. 01 From/towards the west, 02 Essenes flee the banks/shores 03 to the point that they harm; 04 a race/group set apart (isolated) 05 and in the entire world beyond all others extraordinary/unique -- 06 without any women, 07 stifling every urge, 08 without money, 09 consort of palms. 10 In a day, 11 from an equal number of associates a crowd is reconstituted, 12 bloated by the multitude of those whom, 13 exhausted in life, to their customs 14 fortune drives in waves; 15 thus through thousands of years/ages -- 16 incredible to report -- 17 a race/group is eternal 18 in which noone is born! 19 Below them, there had been a town Engada 20 second to Jerusalem [Jerico?] in fertility 21 and the forests of palm-groves, 22 but now another (a second) killing-field/graveyard. 23 Then comes Masada, a cliff fortress, 24 and itself not very far from the Asphalt Lake. 25 Thusfar Judea. Latin and Notes: 1 Ab occidente [Pliny has already described the Mediterranean coastal areas from Egypt to Syria, and has moved on inland to Idumea, Samaria, Galilee, Judea proper, and Perea -- pointing out along the way that Jericho has lots of water and palm groves (70); he then traces the Jordan from Panias in the north through the Genesara lake (Galilee) to the Dead Sea (71); then he locates the Dead Sea in relation to nomadic Arabia (to the east = ab oriente) and to Machaerus and the spring of Callirhoe (south = a meridie); so now there remains the area west of the Dead Sea] 2-3 litora Esseni fugiunt usque qua nocent [literally something like "Essenes flee the banks/shores (usually of lakes and rivers) to the point that they harm" -- Pliny is not explicit about why they flee (elsewhere, Pliny sometimes talks of people fleeing odors, fumes, snakes, etc. -- but not here), nor is it clear to me how to read the "usque qua nocent" -- are the banks/shores considered harmful, and if so why? Commerce? Socialization? Fumes? It is an awkward (to me) sequence of words, and does not necessarily mean what Rackham takes it to mean in the Loeb edition. My suspicion is that it doesn't have anything to do with fumes, and that perhaps Pliny didn't have a clear idea of what it meant in his source] 4-5 gens sola et in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira [this is pretty straightforward, "a race/group set apart (isolated) and in the entire world beyond all others extraordinary/unique"] 6-9 sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum [mostly straightforward -- this "gens" is "without any women, stifling every urge, without money, consort of palms"; I would doubt that the "socia palmarum" requires literal palm trees in Pliny's understanding -- it may simply be an idiom describing the solitariness and lack of social contamination of this people]. In discussing this passage, Mark Dunn wrote [among other things]: > I did want to question the statement made by Kraft that he "would > doubt that the [use of] 'socia palmarum' requires palm trees in > Pliny's understanding -- it may simply be an idiom describing the > solitariness and lack of social contamination of this people." Let me elaborate a bit. Pliny is amazed at the non-procreative survival of this "gens" which he here calls "socia" (associate, companion, etc.). Socius/socia can also mean marriage partner, and it seemed possible, even probable, that Pliny (and/or his source) had this nuance in mind here --this strange "gens" has no human mate, but cohabits with the palms (why not with the rocks?). What I expected to find here was not a reference to trees, but to the uniqueness or exemplary nature of the group, and indeed, my Latin dictionary lists "palmaris, -e" in that sense ("excellent, admirable"), but I don't find any such uses elsewhere in Pliny. Perhaps his source said something of that sort (societas palmare?), and he misinterpreted -- I don't know if "palmaris" is sufficiently old in that meaning to serve such a hypothesis. (I also rejected, "out of hand" as it were, reading "palmarum" as referring to the human hand rather than the tree, and thus finding an ironic, perhaps, homosexual twist to Pliny's language about these non-procreative people.) In the end, I convinced myself that "a companion people of palm trees" need not depend on the known presence of real trees to make Pliny's rhetorical point. Maybe a further search of early Latin literature would reveal whether "palm" gets used this way by other authors of the period. Something to do, sometime. 10-14 In diem ex aequo convenarum turba renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortuna fluctibus agit. [From here, Pliny talks about flocks of adherents who have tired of their lifestyles joining the Essenes and thus keeping their numbers full] 15-18 Ita per saeculorum milia -- incredibile dictu -- gens aeterna est in qua nemo nascitur! [Pliny's amazement that "through thousands of years/ages a race/group is eternal in which noone is born"] 19 Infra hos Engada oppidum fuit [next in Pliny's survey, moving towards the south (at least) as we shall see -- perhaps note the problem above with the significance of the "shores/banks" from which the Essenes fled? --"there had been a town Engada"] 20-22 secundum ab Hierosolymis fertilitate palmetorumque nemoribus, nunc alterum bustum ["second to Jerusalem in fertility and the forests of palm-groves, but now another (a second) killing-field/graveyard"; it has been suggested that the text should read "Jerico" rather than "Jerusalem" -- note that the "palm groves" had already been mentioned in connection with Jerico] 23-24 Inde Masada castellum in rupe, et ipsum haut procul Asphaltite ["then comes Masada, a cliff fortress, and itself not very far from the Asphalt Lake"] 25 Et hactenus Iudaea est ["Thusfar Judea"]. Note that Pliny does not refer to the Essenes as being at a named place, but sees them as a "gens" identified with an area to the (north-?) west of the Dead Sea, for some reason avoiding the nearby banks (of Jordan and/or Dead Sea?), and distinct from Jericho. He does not claim that they were Jewish, or that they were obliterated in the recent catastrophe that demolished Jerusalem/Jericho and Engedi, but suggests that they live on as a "gens aeterna"! He does not necessarily claim that they had palm trees of their own, or for that matter, anything of their own. That Pliny had any first hand knowledge of this rather "romantic" Essene presence is doubtful to me, but that the blurry/muddled tradition he reports is not completely irrelevant for discussions about ancient Qumran and its environs also seems to me reasonable. But I wouldn't want to build much on this part of Pliny's reporting! //end//