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[11] The principle of this thing for the time it will suffice to illustrate with these two examples: by a vulture they represent the word “nature,” because, as natural history records, no males can be found among these birds; 1 and under the figure of a bee making honey they designate “a king,” showing by this imagery that in a ruler sweetness should be combined with a sting as well; 2 and there are many similar instances.

1 The females were said to be impregnated by the south or the east winds; Aelian, Hist. Anim. ii. 46; cf. Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 93.

2 Seneca, De Clem. i. 19, 2 ff., compares a king to a bee.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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