to the other, can bridge
the time, and, though not many, there are some written notes still to be
found. I must attribute the discrepancy to the wars and hatreds which
sprang up and divided the people, so that one would not listen to what
the others wished to say, and the truth was lost.

Besides which, in the conflagration which consumed the towns, most of
the records were destroyed, and are no longer to be referred to. And it
may be that even when they were proceeding, the causes of the change
were not understood. Therefore, what I am now about to describe is not
to be regarded as the ultimate truth, but as the nearest to which I
could attain after comparing the various traditions. Some say, then,
that the first beginning of the change was because the sea silted up the
entrances to the ancient ports, and stopped the vast commerce which was
once carried on. It is certainly true that many of the ports are silted
up, and are now useless as such, but whether the silting up preceded the
disappearance of the population, or whether the disappearance of the
population, and the consequent neglect caused the silting, I cannot
venture to positively assert.

For there are signs that the level of the sea has sunk in some places,
and signs that it has become higher in others, so that the judicious
historian will simply state the facts, and refrain from colouring them
with his own theory as Silvester has done. Others again maintain that
the supply of food from over the ocean suddenly stopping caused great
disorders, and that the people crowded on board all the ships to escape
starvation, and sailed away, and were no more heard of.

It has, too, been said that the earth, from some attractive power
exercised by the passage of an enormous dark body through space, became
tilted or inclined to its orbit more than before, and that this, while
it lasted, altered the flow of the magnetic currents, which, in an
imperceptible manner, influence the minds of men. Hitherto the stream of
human life had directed itself to the westward, but when this reversal
of magnetism occurred, a general desire arose to return to the east. And
those whose business is theology have pointed out that the wickedness of
those times surpassed understanding, and that a change and sweeping away
of the human evil that had accumulated was necessary, and was effected
by supernatural means. The relation of this must be left to them, since
it is not the province of the p