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[7] About this matter it will be in place to give a brief explanation. Among the animals consecrated by ancient religious observance, the better known are Mnevis and Apis. 1 Mnevis 2 is consecrated to the Sun, but about him there is nothing noteworthy to be said; Apis to the moon. 3 Apis, then, is a bull distinguished by natural marks of various forms, 4 and most of all conspicuous for the image of a crescent moon on his right side. When this bull, after its destined span of life, 5 is plunged in the sacred fount 6 and dies (for it is not lawful for him to prolong his life beyond the time prescribed by the secret authority of the mystic books), there is slain with the same ceremony a cow, which has been found with special marks and presented to him. After his death another Apis is sought amid public mourning; [p. 279] and if it has been possible to find one, complete with all its marks, it is taken to Memphis, famed for the frequent presence of the god Aesculapius.

1 Cf. Diod. Sic. i. 21, 10; Hdt. iii. 27, 28; Strabo, xvii. 1, 31; Pliny, N.H. viii. 184 ff.

2 Older than Apis, but later neglected; his shrine was in Heliopolis.

3 Later also to the Sun; Macrob. i. 21, 20.

4 There were twenty-nine in all.

5 Twenty-five years.

6 Its location was a secret known only to the priests.

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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