Some statements of ancient authors in translations look so meaningless that they make one doubt the adequacy of these ancient authors. Like, for example, the statement from the Russian translation of Strabo’s “Geography” in 1964 - “This area... due to its dryness does not produce rice.” It would seem like nothing special. But “this area” is located near the northern border of the great African Sahara desert and is really dry. The mention of its unsuitability for very moisture-loving rice does not convey any useful information and is therefore meaningless, and the need is not clear. The desire to understand the issue brought unexpected and interesting results. Not everything called ὄρυζα or oryza in ancient texts was real rice.