[3.6.1] Quidam existimant: The idea that the climate and rainfall of a geographical region provides the water for rivers is found earlier in Anaxagoras (A42.5), Aristotle, especially focusing on mountains as sources of rivers (Mete.350a19-350b21), Posidonius (cited at Strabo, 17.3.10), and Vitruvius (8.1.6-7). It appears that the Presocratics in general developed the notion that the the origin of rivers could be traced back to rainfall, cf. Brutsaert 2005: 562-3. Seneca’s language at the opening of 3.6 is made to echo that of 3.5 (forms of emittere, terra, quidquid, rursus), but now the focus is on rainfall as the ultimate source of river water as opposed to the earth’s own springs. For Setaioli 2000: 432-33, Seneca’s denial of Posidonius’ theory (F223 EK = 66 Th) would denote an intermediary source, probably Asclepiodotus, although it seems clear that Seneca has a broad understanding of meteorological issues and probably is drawing from a large quantity of sources as well as a lifetime of reading, not simply one source text, cf. Hine 2011: 39 on the question of sources and predecessors: “Seneca’s memory could well have been stocked with many of the ideas and theories that are found in Nat., though that is not to deny that he would also have read or reread particular works when he set about writing something like Nat.”. Of course, most rivers are dependent on rainfall, so Seneca’s attempts to refute this theory in 3.7.1-4 may strike the modern student of hydrology as less than convincing, see Thomas 2000: 5 “Put simply, the source of all surface water is rainfall”.
quidquid ex imbribus terra concipit: concipere here meaning “to absorb, catch” (OLD 1), but the language is also evocative of childbirth and the traditional idea of the earth-mother conceiving life in part through rainfall (cf. Wright 1995: 57-61; Boedeker 1984: 10-18 offers a valuable overview of the Greek sources). Ovid had used this language when the pastoral deities wept for Marsyas, creating the homonymous stream: madefactaque terra caducas / concepit lacrimas ac venis perbibit imis / quas ubi fecit aquam, vacuas emisit in auras (Met. 6.396-8). Cicero remarks on the earth’s fertility at N.D. 2.26.1; Vitr. 3.pr.1 cites Euripides as a follower of Anaxagoras for the idea: aera et terram, eamque e caelestium imbrium conceptionibus inseminatam fetus gentium et omnium animalium in mundo procreavisse; cf. Pseudo-Seneca’s H.O. 34, 1327 has the phrase terra concipiat feras.
id illam rursus emittere: For additional examples of quidquid…id in Senecan prose, cf. Dial. 5.26.4, 12.8.4, Ben. 2.14.5. For more on this language, cf. 3.5 supra.
hoc argumenti loco ponunt: Seneca uses this same expression when discussing Thales’ theory about earthquakes at NQ 6.6.2: illud argumenti loco ponit aquas esse in causa quibus hic orbis agitetur, quod… The first use of argumenti…loco is Caesar B.C. 1.67.2: alii, quod pridie noctu conclamatum esset Caesaris castris, argumenti sumebant loco non posse clam exiri. Quintilian often has argumentum ponere (e.g. 4.2.108, 5.12.6, 5.12.14), and Seneca three times in the NQ employs inter argumenta…ponere (1.4.2, 1.5.9, 6.31.1).
quod paucissima flumina: quod completes the thought begun by the anticipatory hoc (cf. Ker 2011: xliv for this use of hoc as one of Seneca’s “recurring structures”), which is common in Seneca (e.g. Herc. F. 313-4, 411-2, Dial. 12.8.1). In similar language, although with a different tone and context, Ovid writes: flumina pauca vides de magnis fontibus orta: / plurima collectis multiplicantur aquis (Rem. 97-8).
locis quibus rarus est imber: Seneca will go on to discuss Ethiopia here and in 4a.2.1, where it is a place where, nulli imbres sunt aut rari. Columella will employ a similar phrase when discussing warm regions (rari sunt imbres, 2.11.3), as does Tacitus (Hist. 5.6).
[3.6.2] ideo siccas aiunt Aethiopiae solitudines: As early as Homer, the Ethiopians are mentioned as occupying the furthest reaches of the known world (Il. 23.205, Od. 1.22, Od. 4.84), but their lands are usually believed to be exceptional fertile. By Herodotus (3.25), Ethiopia is usually considered to be the area of northern Sudan (3.97), but even in Herodotus’ account it is not perceived as a particularly arid region (there is even a magical spring of water, 3.23). For Romans, Ethiopia is dry, cf. Sal. Jug. 19.6, Plin. Nat. 13.47 and desolate, Nat. 5.8.43, where Pliny writes of the solitudines beyond the Ethiopians. Seneca elsewhere comments on the wastelands of Africa: per medias Africae solitudines (Ep. 104.33), ex Africae solitudinibus (Ep. 115.8). Seneca writes of the Ethiopians at Herc. F. 38 (referring to etymology of the name), Dial. 5.20.2 about their longevity, and elsewhere in the NQ about their geography (1.pr.9), climate (4a.2.1, 4a.2.18, 5.18.2 - discussing when it does rain in Ethiopia), and as a source for the Nile (4a.2.4 , 4a.2.17, 6.8.3-5). It is possible that Nero wished to venture a military campaign in Ethiopia, cf. Doody 2013: 297-8; Braund 2013: 96-8. For more on the Ethiopians in ancient thought, cf. Snowden 1970; Romm 1992: 45-60; and Seldon 2013.
paucosque inveniri in interiore Africa fontes: Seldon 2013 claims that the Romans believed Africa and Ethiopia were distinct regions on either side of Egypt. Seneca may be writing more generally here about the African continent, cf. Plin. Nat. 3.3: terrarum orbis universus in tres dividitur partes, Europam, Asiam, Africam. Pliny places the Aethiopes in the interior of Africa at Nat. 5.43. The repetition of in- seems to concentrate the search in the center of this cola.
fervida natura caeli: Cf. Cicero’s description of the Stoic principle of fire: Iam vero reliqua quarta pars mundi: ea et ipsa tota natura fervida est et ceteris naturis omnibus salutarem inpertit et vitalem calorem (N.D. 2.27) and Seneca connects fervida with fire when discussing the elements at Dial. 4.19.1. Seneca writes about the stormy “nature of the sky” in Corsica at Dial. 12.6.5: quid ad caeli naturam intemperantius?, and the wet nature of the atmosphere during springtime at NQ 5.9.1: ob umidam caeli naturam.
aestiva: Seneca has Hercules travel through solis aestivi plagas (Herc. F. 235) to refer to Africa, and Ben. 4.5.3 features language analogous to this sentence when discussing rivers in flood: quaedam [flumina] aestatis diebus mirabile incrementum trahunt ut arida et ferventi subiecta caelo loca subita vis aestivi torrentis inriget?
squalidae: Seneca is particularly fond of this adjective, employing it to describe mythological figures such as Charon (Herc. F. 765) and the Furies (Med. 14) as well as an imagined world without animals or mankind (orbis iacebit squalido turpis situ, Phaed. 471). Of geographical regions (here it modifies harenae), it seems to mean “barren” (OLD 3) as at NQ. 1.pr.8: ea qua extat late squalidum et aut ustum aut rigentem; 4a.2.9 of the Egyptian land that is not flooded and lies sterile ac squalidum; and 5.18.5 of the winds which ab omni parte ne quid esset situ squalidum effudit.
sine arbore, sine cultore: Parallel structure and the end-rhyming of –ore make for a memorable description. Ovid writes of Scythia as a land triste solum, sterilis, sine fruge, sine arbore (Met. 8.789), a line in his mind when he writes of his place of exile: nudos sine fronde, sine arbore, campos (Tr. 3.10.75). Seneca also has sine cultore at Dial. 6.18.5.
harenae iacent raris imbribus sparsae: Vergil famously has sparsa…harena of his fighting bull at G. 3.234, which he then repeats at A. 12.106 in a simile about Aeneas. Curtius describes Egypt as a place: terra caeloque aquarum penuria est, steriles harenae iacent (4.7.6). Seneca will later describe the region between Egypt and Ethiopia as harenarum inculta vastitas iaceat (1.pr.9). At Ben. 7.31.4 Seneca writes of the benefits of the gods, including that they spargunt opportunis imbribus terras.
quos statim conbibunt: Seneca will quote a passage from Ovid’s Met. that employs this verb (conbibitur, Met. 15.275) at NQ 3.26.4. Seneca uses it at Oed. 494, Ep. 49.1 and Ep. 123.15. That the sands are thirsty (bibula) is a poetic commonplace from Lucretius (2.376) to Vergil (G. 1.114), and Ovid (Her. 19.201).
contra constat: The intransitive use of constat means “it is apparent” (OLD 9a). Seneca’s strong con-con-con alliteration, followed by the guttural g sounds of Germaniam Galliamque, brings the reader to a strong stop.
Germaniam: For more on the rivers of Germany, cf. Mela 3.29, Pliny Nat. 4.100, and Tacitus Ger. 1.1-3, 5.1, 26.3 for the fecundity of the soil. Tacitus purposefully downplays the geographical importance of rivers in his Germania, cf. Tan 2014: 192-4. Seneca connects Germany with rivers twice in the NQ: when discussing the source of the Danube (4a.1.2) and when he writes of the political boundaries of the world: Rhenus Germaniae modum faciat (1.pr.9). He only mentions Germany eight times in his corpus. Strabo strongly connects the Germans with the Rhine (4.3-5). For more on Roman attitudes to the Rhine, cf. Franconi 2017.
Galliamque: Caesar famously split Gaul into three parts (Gal. 1.1.1-2), according to the rivers Garonne, Marne, and Seine, and often identifies tribes by the rivers they inhabit (Gal. 4.10.3). Strabo does something similar (4.3.4-5). For more on the rivers and geography of Gaul, cf. Campbell 2012: 23. For more on the ethnographic tradition of Gaul, cf. Riggsby 2006: 47-71, who stresses that the multiple rivers of Gaul evoked “themes of mobility and fluidity” in Caesar’s ethnography (58). Roman perspectives on the Rhône has been the subject of a special issue of Gallia 56 (1999).
proxime ab illis Italiam abundare rivis: Strabo devotes 5.1.1-12 to the Po Vally and the foothills of the Alps. Rivers in the north of Italy benefit from snow and ice melt of the Alps making for maximum flow in the spring and early summer with the Po (Padus) especially important to the Cisalpine region (Campbell 2012: 29, 302-9; esp. 303 for the numerous additional rivers of this region). The etymology of abundare (ab + undo) makes it especially appropriate to Seneca’s discussion of water (NQ 3.14.1, 3.28.2, 4a.1.1, 5.7.2).
abundare fluminibus: Making the distinction between larger rivers (flumen) and smaller streams (rivus), while stressing the abundance of both with the repetition of abundare (following the reading of Z, and not the abundare fluminibus et rivis of Skutsch and Vottero). Lucretius has these words together three times (1.282, 5.261-2, 6.267).
caelo umido utuntur: In contrast to the fervida natura caeli of Ethiopia above. Seneca will later explain about the rains of spring: qui ver aquosum est ex pluvialibus aquis locisque ob umidam caeli naturam… NQ 5.9.1. Columella writes about the caelo umido of February and March (2.10.19, 2.10.20). Seneca elsewhere has uti+caelo when discussing climate (Dial. 4.15.5, NQ 6.27.4).
ne aestas quidem: Again contrasting with the paene semper aestiva [natura caeli] of Ethiopia. Seneca remarks that the snows of Mt. Aetna are such that ne aestas quidem solvit (Ep. 79.4).
imbribus caret: Ovid remarks on Egypt: dicitur Aegyptos caruisse iuvantibus arva / imbribus, Ars 1.647-8. Vitruvius remarks on southern winds and their tendency to bring rain (sunt umidissimi et semper adportant imbres, 8.2.5). Seneca connects wet exhalations from the earth with the production of rain, which is an Aristotelian idea (Mete. 369a10-4), at NQ 2.12.4 (cf. Hine 1981: ad loc. for more on that passage).
