Chapter Secret Tribunal to Serbonian Bog of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

a solid mass. Herodotos (Greek History, ii. 6) tells us that whole armies, deceived by the appearance, have been engulfed in the bog.

A gulf profound as that Serbonian Bog
Betwixt Damiataand mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, ii. 592, etc. (1665).

N. B.—Diodorus Siculus (Bibliotheca Historia, i, 30) says, “Many, missing their way, have been swallowed up in this bog, together with whole armies.” Dr. Smith says, “When Darius Ochus was on his way to Egypt, this bog was the scene of at least a partial destruction of the Persian army.” (See also Lucan: Pharsalia, viii. 539; Classical Dictionary, article “Serbonis Lacus.”)