at
people, albeit disordered and without law. Of the said city of Babylon
the first king which began to make wars was Ninus, son of Belus,
descended from Asshur, son of Shem, which Ninus built the great city
of Nineveh; and then after him reigned Semiramis, his wife, in
Babylon, which was the most cruel and dissolute woman in the world,
and she was in the time of Abraham.

Sec. 3.--_How the world was divided into three parts, and of the first
called Asia._ Sec. 4.--_Of the second part of the world called Africa,
and its boundaries._

Sec. 5.--_Of the third part of the world called Europe, and its
boundaries._

* * * * This Europe was first inhabited by the descendants of Japhet,
the third son of Noah, as we shall make mention hereafter in our
treatise; and also according to Escodio, master in history, Noah in
person, with Janus his son, which he begat after the Flood, came into
this part of Europe into the region of Italy, and there ended his
life; and Janus abode there, and from him were descended great lords
and peoples, and he did many things in Italy.

Sec. 6.--_How King Atlas, born in the fifth degree from Japhet, son of
Noah, first came into Europe._

Sec. 7.--_How King Atlas first built the city of Fiesole._

[Sidenote: De Vulg. El. i. 8: 11-13.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 61-63. Par. xv. 126.]

* * * * This Atlas, with Electra his wife, and many followers, by
omens and the counsel of Apollinus his astrologer and master, arrived
in Italy in the country of Tuscany, which was entirely uninhabited by
human beings, and searching by the aid of astronomy through all the
confines of Europe for the most healthy and best situated place which
could be chosen by him, he took up his abode on the mount of Fiesole,
which seemed to him strong in position and well situated. And upon
that rock he began and built the city of Fiesole, by the counsel of
the said Apollinus, who found out by astronomical arts that Fiesole
was in the best and most healthy place that there was in the said
third part of the world called Europe. Since it is well-nigh midway
between the two seas which encircle Italy, to wit, the sea of Rome and
Pisa, which Scripture calls the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic Sea or
Gulf, which to-day is called the Gulf of Venice, and, by reason of the
said seas, and by the mountains which surround it, better and more
healthy winds prevail there than in other places, and also by reason
of the stars which rule ov