Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae, 9.4.14


      ... What I write below is taken directly from the same book of [Pliny's] Natural History (7.36), which make it very clear that one should neither reject nor mock the very famous ditties of the ancient poets about Caenis and Caeneus. "Women turned into men," says Pliny, "is not the work of fiction. We read in the ancient records that, in the consulate of Q. Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus [i.e. 171 BC], a girl at Casino was turned into a boy under his parents' direction and then shipped off to a desert island at the haruspices' injunction. Licinius Mucianus reported that he had seen at Argos one Arescontes, previously named Arescusa, who had even been taken in marriage before then growing a beard, developing to manhood, and taking a wife. A similar case was reported of a boy Mucianus had seen at Zmyrna. I myself have seen in Africa a person turned into a man on the wedding day, a citizen of Thysdritanos named L. Cossitius, and he was still living when I reported this."
—— trans by RTM

     
     
     

Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 9.4.14
de feminis repente versis in mares

Verba igitur haec, quae infra posui, [sc. Plinii Secundi] sunt ex eo libro [septimo naturalis historiae] sumpta, quae profecto faciunt, ut neque respuenda neque ridenda sit notissima illa veterum poetarum de Caenide et Caeneo cantilena. "Ex feminis," inquit, "mutari in mares non est fabulosum. Invenimus in annalibus Q. Licinio Crasso C. Cassio Longino consulibus Casini puerum factum ex virgine sub parentibus iussuque haruspicum deportatum in insulam desertam. Licinius Mucianus prodidit visum esse a se Argis Arescontem, cui nomen Arescusae fuisset, nubsisse etiam, mox barbam et virilitatem provenisse uxoremque duxisse; eiusdem sortis et Zmyrnae puerum a se visum. Ipse in Africa vidi mutatum in marem die nuptiarum L. Cossitium civem Thysdritanum, vivebatque, cum proderem haec." (Plin. NH 7.36)