Pliny, Natural History, 35 (b) (original) (raw)

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- Book 35 , sections 101-202

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Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter. � �

[101] L Protogenes also flourished at the same time, as has been said. He was born at Caunus, in a community that was under the dominion of Rhodes. At the outset he was extremely poor, and extremely devoted to his art and consequently not very productive. Who his teacher was is believed to be unrecorded. Some people say that until the age of fifty he was also a ship-painter, and that this is proved by the fact that when he was decorating with paintings, on a very famous site at Athens, the gateway of the temple of Athena, where he depicted his famous Paralus and Hammonias, which is by some people called the Nausicaa, he added some small drawings of battleships in what painters call the 'side-pieces,' in order to show from what commencement his work had arrived at the pinnacle of glorious display. [102] Among his pictures the palm is held by his Ialysus, which is consecrated in the Temple of Peace in Rome. It is said that while painting this he lived on soaked lupins, because he thus at the same time both sustained his hunger and thirst and avoided blunting his sensibilities by too luxurious a diet. For this picture he used four coats of paint, to serve as three protections against injury and old age, so that when the upper coat disappeared the one below it would take its place. In the picture there is a dog marvellously executed, so as to appear to have been painted by art and good fortune jointly: the artist's own opinion was that he did not fully show in it the foam of the panting dog, although in all the remaining details he had satisfied himself, which was very difficult. [103] But the actual art displayed displeased him, nor was he able to diminish it, and he thought it was excessive and departed too far from reality - the foam appeared to be painted, not to be the natural product of the animal's mouth; vexed and tormented, as he wanted his picture to contain the truth and not merely a near-truth, he had several times rubbed off the paint and used another brush, quite unable to satisfy himself. Finally he fell into a rage with his art because it was perceptible, and dashed a sponge against the place in the picture that offended him, and the sponge restored the colours he had removed, in the way that his anxiety had wished them to appear, and chance produced the effect of nature in the picture!

[104] It is said that Nealces also following this example of his achieved a similar success in representing a horse's foam by dashing a sponge on the picture in a similar manner, in a representation of a man clucking in his cheek to soothe a horse he was holding. Thus did Protogenes indicate the possibilities of a stroke of luck also.

It was on account of this Ialysus that king Demetrius, in order to avoid burning a picture, abstained from setting fire to Rhodes {305/4 BC} when the city could only be taken from the side where the picture was stored, and through consideration for the safety of a picture lost the chance of a victory! [105] Protogenes at the time was in his little garden on the outskirts of the city, that is in the middle of the camp of Demetrius, and would not be interrupted by the battles going on, or on any account suspend the works he had begun, had he not been summoned by the king, who asked him what gave him the assurance to continue outside the walls. He replied that he knew the king was waging war with the Rhodians, not with the arts. The king, delighted to be able to safeguard the hands which he had spared, placed guard-posts to protect him, and, to avoid repeatedly calling him from his work, actually though an enemy came to pay him visits, and quitting his aspirations for his own victory, in the thick of battles and the battering down of walls, looked on at the work of an artist. And even to this day the story is attached to a picture of that date that Protogenes painted it with a sword hanging over him. [106] The picture is the one of a Satyr, called the Satyr Reposing, and to give a final touch to the sense of security felt at the time, the figure holds a pair of flutes.

Other works of Protogenes were a Cydippe, Tlepolemus, a Philiscus the Tragic Poet in Meditation, an Athlete, a portrait of King Antigonus, and one of the Mother of Aristotle the philosopher. Aristotle used to advise the artist to paint the achievements of Alexander the Great, as belonging to history for all time. The impulse of his mind however and a certain artistic capriciousness led him rather to the subjects mentioned. His latest works were pictures of Alexander and of Pan. He also made bronze statues, as we have said.

[107] In the same period there was also Asclepiodorus, who was admired by Apelles for his proportions. For a picture of the Twelve Gods the tyrant Mnason paid him three hundred minas per god. The same patron paid Theomnestus twenty minas for each of the heroes in a picture.

[108] To the list of these artists must also be added Nicomachus son and pupil of Aristides. He painted a Rape of Persephone, a picture formerly in the shrine of Minerva on the Capitol, just above the chapel of Juventas {"Youth "}; and there was also in the Capitol, where it was placed by imperator Plancus, his Victory hurrying her Chariot aloft. He was the first painter who represented Odysseus wearing a felt skull-cap. [109] He also painted an Apollo and Artemis, and the Mother of the Gods seated on a Lion, and likewise a fine picture of Bacchants with Satyrs prowling towards them, and a Scylla that is now in the Temple of Peace in Rome. No other painter was ever a more rapid worker. Indeed it is recorded that he accepted a commission from the tyrant of Sicyon Aristratus to paint by a given date a monument that he was erecting to the poet Telestes, and that he only arrived not long before the date; the wrathful tyrant threatened to punish him, but in a few days he finished the work with a speed and an artistic skill that were both remarkable. [110] Among his pupils were his brother Ariston and his son Aristides and Philoxenus of Eretria, who painted for king Cassander {306-297 BC} a picture that holds the highest rank, containing a battle between Alexander and Darius. He also painted a picture with a wanton subject showing three Sileni at their revels. Imitating the rapidity of his master he introduced some shorthand methods of painting, executed with still more rapidity of technique.

[111] With these artists is also reckoned Nicophanes, an elegant and finished painter with whom few can be compared for gracefulness, but who for tragic feeling and weight of style is far from Zeuxis and Apelles. Perseus, the pupil to whom Apelles dedicated his volumes on the art of painting, had belonged to the same period.� Aristides of Thebes also had as his pupils his sons Niceros and Ariston, the latter the painter of a Satyr Crowned with a Wreath and Holding a Goblet; and other pupils of Aristides were Antorides and Euphranor - about the latter we shall speak later on { 35.128 }.

{37.} L [112] For it is proper to append the artists famous with the brush in a minor style of painting. Among these was Piraeicus, to be ranked below few painters in skill; it is possible that he won distinction by his choice of subjects, inasmuch as although adopting a humble line he attained in that field the height of glory. He painted barbers' shops and cobblers' stalls, asses, viands and the like, consequently receiving a Greek name meaning 'painter of sordid subjects'; in these however he gives exquisite pleasure, and indeed they fetched bigger prices than the largest works of many masters. [113] On the other hand 'a picture by Serapio,' says Varro, 'covered the whole of the Maenian Balconies at the place Beneath the Old Shops.' Serapio was a most successful scene-painter, but he could not paint a human being. On the contrary, Dionysius painted nothing else but people, and consequently has a Greek name meaning 'Painter of Human Beings.' [114] Callicles also made small pictures, and so did Calates of subjects taken from comedy; both classes were painted by Antiphilus, who executed the famous picture of Hesione and an Alexander and a Philippus with Athena which are now in the school in Octavia's Porticoes, and in Philippus' Portico a Father Liber { or Dionysus }, a Young Alexander, Hippolytus alarmed by the Bull rushing upon him, and in Pompeius' Portico a Cadmus and Europa. He also painted a figure in an absurd costume known by the joking name of Gryllus, the name consequently applied to every picture of that sort. He was himself born in Egypt and a pupil of Ctesidemus.

[115] It is proper also not to pass over the painter of the temple at Ardea, especially as he was granted the citizenship of that place and honoured with an inscription on the picture, consisting in the following verses:
One Marcus Plautius, a worthy man,
Adorned, with paintings worthy of this place,
The shrine of Juno, Queen of the Spouse supreme.
This Marcus Plautius, as men know, was born
In Asia wide. Now, and hereafter always,
� Ardea applauds him for this work of art.

[116] These lines are written in the antique Latin script. Nor must Spurius Tadius also, of the period of the deified Augustus, be cheated of his due, who first introduced the most attractive fashion of painting walls with pictures of country houses and porticoes and landscape gardens, groves, woods, hills, fish-ponds, canals, rivers, coasts, and whatever anybody could desire, together with various sketches of people going for a stroll or sailing in a boat or on land going to country houses riding on asses or in carriages, and also people fishing and fowling or hunting or even gathering the vintage. [117] His works include splendid villas approached by roads across marshes men tottering and staggering along carrying women on their shoulders for a bargain, and a number of humorous drawings of that sort besides, extremely wittily designed. He also introduced using pictures of seaside cities to decorate uncovered terraces, giving a most pleasing effect and at a very small expense.

[118] But among artists great fame has been confined to painters of pictures only, a fact which shows the wisdom of early times to be the more worthy of respect, for they did not decorate walls, merely for owners of property, or houses, which would remain in one place and which could not be rescued from a fire. Protogenes was content with a cottage in his little garden; Apelles had no wall-frescoes in his house; it was not yet the fashion to colour the whole of the walls. With all these artists their art was on the alert for the benefit of cities, and a painter was the common property of the world.

[119] A little before the period of the deified Augustus, Arellius also was in high esteem at Rome, had he not prostituted his art by a notorious outrage, by always paying court to any woman he happened to fall in love with, and consequently painting goddesses, but in the likeness of his mistresses; and so his pictures included a number of portraits of harlots. [120] Another recent painter was Famulus, a dignified and severe but also very florid artist; to him belonged a Minerva who faced the spectator at whatever angle she was looked at. Famulus used to spend only a few hours a day in painting, and also took his work very seriously, as he always wore a toga, even when in the midst of his easels. The Golden House was the prison that contained his productions, and this is why other examples of his work are not extant to any considerable extent. After him in esteem were Cornelius Pinus and Attius Priscus, who painted the temples of Honour and Virtue for the Emperor Vespasian's restoration of them; Priscus was nearer in style to the artists of old days.

{38.} L [121] In speaking of painting one must not omit the famous story about Lepidus. During his Triumvirate, when entertained by the magistrates of a certain place, he was given lodging in a house buried in trees; and the next day he complained to them in threatening language that he had been robbed of sleep by the singing of the birds; however the authorities had a picture of a large snake made on an extremely long strip of parchment and fixed it up round the wood, and the story goes that this at once frightened the birds into silence, and that subsequently it was possible to keep them in check.

{39.} L [122] It is not agreed who was the inventor of painting in wax and of designs in encaustic. Some people think it was a discovery of Aristides, subsequently brought to perfection by Praxiteles, but there were encaustic paintings in existence at a considerably earlier date, for instance those of Polygnotus, and Nicanor and Mnasilaus of Paros. Also Elasippus of Aegina has inscribed on a picture enekaën {'burnt in'}, which he would not have done if the art of encaustic painting had not been invented.

{40.} L [123] It is recorded also that Pamphilus, the teacher of Apelles, not only painted in encaustic but also taught it to Pausias of Sicyon, the first artist who became famous in this style. Pausias was the son of Bryetes, and started as his father's pupil. He himself also did some wall-painting with the brush at Thespiae, when some old paintings by Polygnotus were being restored, and he was deemed to come off very second best in comparison with the original artist, having entered into competition in what was not really his line. [124] Pausias also first introduced the painting of panelled ceilings, and it was not customary before him to decorate arched roofs in this way. He used to paint miniatures, and especially children. His rivals explained this practice as being due to the slow pace of his work in painting; and consequently to give his work also the reputation of speed he finished a picture in a single day, a picture of a boy which was called in Greek Hemeresios, meaning "One-day Boy". [125] In his youth he fell in love with a fellow-townswoman named Glycera, who invented chaplets of flowers, and by imitating her in rivalry he advanced the art of encaustic painting so as to reproduce an extremely numerous variety of flowers. Finally he painted a portrait of the woman herself, seated and wearing a wreath, which is one of the very finest of pictures; it is called in Greek� Stephanoplocos, "Girl making Wreaths", or by others� Stephanopōlis, "Girl selling Wreaths", because Glycera had supported her poverty by that trade. A copy (in Greek� apographon) of this picture was bought by Lucius Lucullus at Athens for two talents {88/7 BC}; it had been made by Dionysius at Athens. [126] But Pausias also did large pictures, for instance the Sacrifice of Oxen which formerly was to be seen in Pompeius' Portico. He first invented a method of painting which has afterwards been copied by many people but equalled by no one; the chief point was that although he wanted to show the long body of an ox he painted the animal facing the spectator and not standing sideways, and its great size is fully conveyed. [127] Next, whereas all painters ordinarily execute in light colour the parts they wish to appear prominent and in dark those they wish to keep less obvious, this artist has made the whole ox of a black colour and has given substance to the shadow from the shadow itself, with quite remarkable skill that shows the shapes standing out on a level surface and a uniform solidity on a broken ground. Pausias also passed his life at Sicyon, which was for a long period a native place of painting. But all the pictures there had to be sold to meet a debt of the community, and were removed from the ownership of the state to Rome by Scaurus as aedile {58 BC}.

[128] After Pausias, Euphranor the Isthmian distinguished himself far before all others, in the 104th Olympiad {364-361 BC}; he has also appeared in our account of statuaries. His works included colossal statues, works in marble, and reliefs, as he was exceptionally studious and diligent, excelling in every field and never falling below his own level. This artist seems to have been the first fully to represent the lofty qualities of heroes, and to have achieved good proportions, but he was too slight in his structure of the whole body and too large in his heads and joints. [129] He also wrote books about proportions and about colours. Works of his are a Cavalry Battle, the Twelve Gods, and a Theseus, in respect of which he said that Parrhasius's Theseus had lived on a diet of roses, but his was a beef-eater. There is a celebrated picture by him at Ephesus, Odysseus Feigning Madness and yoking an ox with a horse, with men in cloaks reflecting, and the leader sheathing his sword.

[130] Contemporaries of Euphranor were Cydias, for whose picture of the Argonauts the orator Hortensius paid 144,000 sesterces, and made a shrine for its reception at his villa at Tusculum. Euphranor's pupil was Antidotus. Works by the latter are a Combatant with a Shield at Athens and a Wrestler and a Trumpeter which has been exceptionally praised. Antidotus himself was more careful in his work than prolific, and severe in his use of colours; his chief distinction was being the teacher of the Athenian Nicias, who was an extremely careful painter of female portraits. [131] Nicias kept a strict watch on light and shade, and took the greatest pains to make his paintings stand out from the panels. Works of his are: a Nemea, brought to Rome from Asia by Silanus and deposited in the Senate-house as we have said { 35.27 }, and also the Father Liber { or Dionysus } in the shrine of Concord, a Hyacinthus with which Caesar Augustus was so delighted that when he took Alexandria {30 BC} he brought it back with him - and consequently Tiberius Caesar dedicated this picture in the temple of Augustus - and a Dana�; while at Ephesus there is the tomb of a megabyzus or priest of Diana of Ephesus, [132] and at Athens there is a Necyomantea of Homer. The last the artist refused to sell to king Attalus for 60 talents, and preferred to present it to his native place, as he was a wealthy man. He also executed some large pictures, among them a Calypso, an Io and an Andromeda; and also the very fine Alexander in Pompeius' Porticoes and a Seated Calypso are assigned to him.

[133] In drawings of animals he was most successful with dogs. It is this Nicias of whom Praxiteles used to say, when asked which of his own works in marble he placed highest, 'The ones to which Nicias has set his hand' - so much value did he assign to his colouring of surfaces. It is not quite clear whether it is another artist of the same name or this Nicias whom some people put in the 112th Olympiad. {332-329 BC}.

[134] With Nicias is compared Athenion of Maronea, and sometimes to the disadvantage of the former. Athenion was a pupil of Glaucion of Corinth; he is more sombre in his colour than Nicias and yet therewithal more pleasing, so that his extensive knowledge shines out in his actual painting. He painted a Cavalry Captain { Phylarch } in the temple at Eleusis and at Athens the group of figures which has been called the Family Group, and also an Achilles Disguised in Female Dress detected by Odysseus, a group of six figures in a single picture, and a Groom with a Horse, which has specially contributed to his fame. If he had not died in youth, there would have been nobody to compare with him.

[135] Heraclides of Macedon is also a painter of note. He began by painting ships, and after the capture of King Perseus {168 BC} he migrated to Athens, where at the same period was the painter Metrodorus, who was also a philosopher and a great authority in both fields. Accordingly when Lucius Paulus after conquering Perseus requested the Athenians to send him their most esteemed philosopher to educate his children, and also a painter to embellish his triumphal procession, the Athenians selected Metrodorus, stating that he was most distinguished in both of these requirements alike, as to which Paulus also held the same view. [136] Timomachus of Byzantium in the period of Caesar's dictatorship painted an Ajax and a Medea, placed by Caesar in the temple of Venus Genetrix {46 BC}, having been bought at the price of 80 talents (Marcus Varro rates the Attic talent at 6000 denarii). Equal praise is given to Timomachus's Orestes, his Iphigenia among the Tauri and his Gymnastic-Master Lecythion; also his Noble Family and his Two Men wearing the Pallium, whom he has represented as about to converse; one is a standing figure and the other seated. It is in his painting of a Gorgon however that his art seems to have given him most success.

[137] Pausias's son and pupil Aristolaus was one of the painters of the very severe style; to him belong an Epaminondas, a Pericles, a Medea, a Virtue, a Theseus, a figure representing the Athenian People, and a Sacrifice of Oxen. Some persons also admire Nicophanes, who was likewise a pupil of Pausias, for his careful accuracy which only artists can appreciate, though apart from that he is hard in his colouring and lavish in his use of ochre. As for Socrates, he is justly a universal favourite; popular pictures by him are his group of Asclepius with his daughters Hygieia {"Health"}, Aegle, Panacea and Iaso, and his Sluggard, bearing the Greek name of Oknos {"Laziness"}, and represented as twisting a rope of broom which an ass is nibbling.

[138] Having so far pointed out the chief painters in both branches, we will also mention those of the rank next to the first: Aristoclides who decorated the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Antiphilus who is praised for his Boy Blowing a Fire, and for the apartment, beautiful in itself, lit by the reflection from the fire and the light thrown on the boy's face; and likewise for his Spinning-room, in which all the women are busily plying their tasks, and his Ptolemy Hunting, but, most famous of all, his Satyr with Leopard's Skin, called in Greek the Man Shading his Eyes. Aristophon did an Ancaeus Wounded by the Boar, with Astypalaea sharing his grief, and a picture crowded with figures, among them Priam, Helen, Credulity, Odysseus, Deiphobus, Craft. [139] Androbius painted a Scyllus Cutting the Anchor-ropes of the Persian Fleet, Artemon a Dana� admired by the Robbers, a Queen Stratonice, and a Heracles and Deianira; but the finest of all his works, now in Octavia's Buildings, are his Heracles Ascending to Heaven with the consent of the Gods after his mortal remains were burnt on Mount Oeta in Doris, and the story of Laomedon in the matter of Heracles and Poseidon. Alcimachus painted Dioxippus, who won the All-round Bout {pancration} at Olympia 'without raising any dust,' akoniti as the Greek word is. Coenus painted pedigrees.

[140] Ctesilochus a pupil of Apelles became famous for a saucy burlesque painting which showed Zeus in labour with Dionysus, wearing a woman's nightcap and crying like a woman, while goddesses act as midwives; Cleon for his Cadmus, Ctesidemus for his Storming of Oechalia and his Laodamia. Ctesicles won notoriety by the insult he offered to queen Stratonice, because as she did not give him an honourable reception he painted a picture of her romping with a fisherman with whom gossip said she was in love, and put it on exhibition at the harbour of Ephesus, himself making a hurried escape on shipboard. The Queen would not allow the picture to be removed, the likeness of the two figures being admirably expressed. Cratinus painted the Comic Actors in the Processional Building at Athens, Eutychides a Chariot and Pair driven by Victory. [141] Eudorus is famous for a scene-painting - he also made bronze statues - and Hippys for his Poseidon and his Victory. Habron painted a Friendship and a Concord and figures of gods, Leontiscus an Aratus with the Trophies of Victory, and a Harpist Girl, Leon a Sappho, Nearchus Aphrodite among the Graces and the Cupids, and a Heracles in Sorrow Repenting his Madness, Nealces an Aphrodite. This Nealces was a talented and clever artist, [142] inasmuch as when he painted a picture of a naval battle between the Persians and the Egyptians, which he desired to be understood as taking place on the river Nile, the water of which resembles the sea, he suggested by inference what could not be shown by art: he painted an ass standing on the shore drinking, and a crocodile lying in wait for it. [143] Oenias has done a Family Group, Philiscus a Painter's Studio with a boy blowing the fire, Phalerion a Scylla, Simonides an Agatharchus and a Mnemosyne, Simus a Young Man Reposing, a Fuller's Shop Celebrating the Quinquatrus, and also a Nemesis of great merit; [144] Theorus a Man Anointing Himself, and also Orestes killing his Mother and Aegisthus, and the Trojan War in a series of pictures now in Philippus' Portico at Rome and a Cassandra, in the shrine of Concord, a Leontion Epicurus's mistress in Contemplation, a King Demetrius; Theon a Madness of Orestes, a Thamyras the Harper; Tauriscus a Man throwing a Quoit, a Clytemnestra, a Young Pan, a Polynices Claiming the Sovereignty, and a Capaneus.

[145] Among these artists the following remarkable case is not to be left out; the man who ground the colours for the painter Nealces, Erigonus, attained such proficiency on his own account that he actually left behind him a famous pupil, Pasias, the brother of the painter Aeginetas. It is also a very unusual and memorable fact that the last works of artists and their unfinished pictures such as the Iris of Aristides, the Tyndareus' Children of Nicomachus, the Medea of Timomachus and the Aphrodite of Apelles which we have mentioned { 35.92 }, are more admired than those which they finished, because in them are seen the preliminary drawings left visible and the artists' actual thoughts, and in the midst of approval's beguilement we feel regret that the artist's hand while engaged in the work was removed by death.

[146] There are still some artists who are not undistinguished but who only need be mentioned in passing - Aristocydes, Anaxander, Aristobulus of Syria, Arcesilas son of Tisicrates, Coroebus the pupil of Nicomachus, Charmantides, the pupil of Euphranor, Dionysodorus of Colophon, Dicaeogenes resident at the court of King Demetrius, Euthymides, the Macedonian Heraclides and Milon of Soli, pupils of Pyromachus, the sculptor of the human figure, Mnasitheus of Sicyon, Mnasitimus the son and pupil of Aristonides, Nessus son of Habron, Polemon of Alexandria, Theodorus of Samos and Stadius, both pupils of Nicosthenes, Xenon of Sicyon, pupil of Neocles.

[147] There have also been women artists - Timarete the daughter of Micon who painted the extremely archaic panel picture of Artemis at Ephesus, Irene daughter and pupil of the painter Cratinus who did the Maiden at Eleusis, a Calypso, an Old Man and Theodorus the Juggler, and painted also Alcisthenes the Dancer; Aristarete the daughter and pupil of Nearchus, who painted an Asclepius. When Marcus Varro was a young man, Iaia of Cyzicus, who never married, painted pictures with the brush at Rome (and also drew with the cestrum or graver on ivory), chiefly portraits of women, as well as a large picture on wood of an Old Woman at Neapolis, and also a portrait of herself, done with a looking-glass. [148] No one else had a quicker hand in painting, while her artistic skill was such that in the prices she obtained she far outdid the most celebrated portrait painters of the same period, Sopolis and Dionysius, whose pictures fill the galleries. A certain Olympias also painted; the only fact recorded about her is that Autobulus was her pupil.

{41.} L [149] In early days there were two kinds of encaustic painting, with wax and on ivory with a graver or cestrum (that is a small pointed graver); but later the practice came in of decorating battleships. This added a third method, that of employing a brush, when wax has been melted by fire; this process of painting ships is not spoilt by the action of the sun nor by salt water or winds.

{42.} L [150] In Egypt they also colour cloth by an exceptionally remarkable kind of process. They first thoroughly rub white fabrics and then smear them not with colours but with chemicals that absorb colour. When this has been done, the fabrics show no sign of the treatment, but after being plunged into a cauldron of boiling dye they are drawn out a moment later dyed. And the remarkable thing is that although the cauldron contains only one colour, it produces a series of different colours in the fabric, the hue changing with the quality of the chemical employed, and it cannot afterwards be washed out. Thus the cauldron which, if dyed fabrics were put into it, would undoubtedly blend the colours together, produces several colours out of one, and dyes the material in the process of being boiled; and the dress fabrics when submitted to heat become stronger for wear than they would be if not so heated.

{43.} L [151] Enough and more than enough has now been said about painting. It may be suitable to append to these remarks something about the plastic art. It was through the service of that same earth that modelling portraits from clay was first invented by Butades, a potter of Sicyon, at Corinth. He did this owing to his daughter, who was in love with a young man; and she, when he was going abroad, drew in outline on the wall the shadow of his face thrown by a lamp. Her father pressed clay on this and made a relief, which he hardened by exposure to fire with the rest of his pottery; and it is said that this likeness was preserved in the Shrine of the Nymphs until the destruction of Corinth by Mummius {146 BC}. [152] Some authorities state that the plastic art was first invented by Rhoecus and Theodorus at Samos, long before the expulsion of the Bacchiadae from Corinth {581/0 BC}, but that when Damaratus, who in Etruria became the father of Tarquinius king of the Roman people {c. 616-578 BC}, was banished from the same city, he was accompanied by the modellers Eucheir, Diopus and Eugrammus, and they introduced modelling to Italy. The method of adding red earth to the material or else modelling out of red chalk, was an invention of Butades, and he first placed masks as fronts to the outer gutter-tiles on roofs; these at the first stage he called prostypa, but afterwards he likewise made ectypa. It was from these that the ornaments on the pediments of temples originated. Because of Butades modellers get their Greek name of plastae.

{44.} L [153] The first person who modelled a likeness in plaster of a human being from the living face itself, and established the method of pouring wax into this plaster mould and then making final corrections on the wax cast, was Lysistratus of Sicyon, the brother of Lysippus of whom we have spoken. Indeed he introduced the practice of giving likenesses, the object aimed at previously having been to make as handsome a face as possible. The same artist also invented taking casts from statues, and this method advanced to such an extent that no figures or statues were made without a clay model. This shows that the knowledge of modelling in clay was older than that of casting bronze.

{45.} L [154] Most highly praised modellers were Damophilus and Gorgasus, who were also painters; they had decorated the shrine of Ceres in the Circus Maximus at Rome with both kinds of their art, and there is an inscription on the building in Greek verse in which they indicated that the decorations on the right hand side were the work of Damophilus and those on the left were by Gorgasus. Varro states that before this shrine was built everything in the temples was Etruscan work; and that when this shrine was undergoing restoration the embossed work of the walls was cut out and enclosed in framed panels; and that the figures also were taken from the pediment and dispersed. [155] Chalcosthenes also executed at Athens some works in unbaked clay, at the place named the Ceramicus {"Potters Quarter"}, after his workshop. Marcus Varro records that he knew at Rome an artist named Possis who made fruit and grapes in such a way that nobody could tell by sight from the real things. Varro also speaks very highly of Arcesilaus, who was on terms of intimacy with Lucius Lucullus, and says that his sketch-models of clay used to sell for more, among artists themselves, than the finished works of others; [156] and that this artist made the Statue of Venus Genetrix in Caesar's forum {46 BC} and that it was erected before it was finished as there was a great haste to dedicate it; and that the same artist had contracted with Lucullus to make a statue of Happiness { Felicitas } for 1,000,000 sesterces, which was prevented by the death of both parties; and that when a Roman knight Octavius desired him to make a wine-bowl he made him a model in plaster for the price of a talent. He also praises Pasiteles, who said that modelling was the mother of chasing and of bronze statuary and sculpture, and who, although he was eminent in all these arts, never made anything before he had made a clay model. [157] He also states that this art had already been brought to perfection by Italy and especially by Etruria; that Vulca was summoned from Veii to receive the contract from Tarquinius Priscus {c. 616-578 BC} for a statue of Jupiter to be consecrated in the Capitol, and that this Jupiter was made of clay and consequently was regularly painted with cinnabar; and that the four-horse chariots about which we spoke above on the pediment of the temple were modelled in clay; and that the figure of Hercules, which even today retains in the city the name of the material it is made of, was the work of the same artist. For these were the most splendid images of gods at that time; and we are not ashamed of those ancestors of ours for worshipping them in that material. For they used not formerly to work up silver and gold even for gods.

{46.} L [158] Statues of this kind are still to be found at various places. In fact even at Rome and in the municipal towns there are many pediments of temples, remarkable for their carving and artistic merit and intrinsic durability, more deserving of respect than gold, and certainly less baneful. At the present day indeed, even in the midst of our present rich resources the preliminary libation is made at sacrifices not from fluorspar or crystal vessels but with small ladles of earthenware, thanks to the ineffable kindness of Mother Earth, if one considers her gifts in detail, [159] even though we omit her blessings in the various kinds of corn, wine, fruit, herbs and shrubs, drugs and metals, all the things that we have so far mentioned. Nor do our products even in pottery satisfy our needs with their unfailing supply, with jars invented for our wine, and pipes for water, conduits for baths, tiles for our roofs, baked bricks for our house-walls and foundations, or things that are made on a wheel, because of which King Numa established a seventh Guild, the Potters. [160] Indeed moreover many people have preferred to be buried in earthenware coffins, for instance Marcus Varro who was interred in the Pythagorean style {26 BC}, in leaves of myrtle, olive and as black poplar; the majority of mankind employs earthenware receptacles for this purpose. Among table services Samian pottery is still spoken highly of; this reputation is also retained by Arretium in Italy, and, merely for cups, Surrentum, Hasta, and Pollentia, and by Saguntum in Spain and Pergamum in Asia Minor. [161] Also Tralles in Asia Minor and Mutina in Italy have their respective products, since even this brings nations fame, and their products also, so distinguished are the workshops of the potter's wheel, are carried to and fro across land and sea. In a temple at Erythrae even today are on view two wine-jars which were dedicated on account of their fine material, owing to a competition between a master potter and his apprentice as to which would make thinner earthenware. The pottery of Cos is most famous for this, but that of Hadria is most substantial; while there are also some instances of severity also in relation to pottery. [162] We find that Quintus Coponius was found guilty of bribery because he made a present of a jar of wine to a person who had the right to a vote. And so that luxury also may contribute some importance to earthenware, the name of a service of three dishes, we are told by Fenestella, used to denote the most luxurious possible banquet: one dish was of lamprey, a second of pike and a third of a mixture of fish. Clearly manners were already on the decline, though nevertheless we can still prefer them even to those of the philosophers of Greece, inasmuch as it is recorded that at the auction held by the heirs of Aristotle {c. 322 BC} seventy earthenware dishes were sold. [163] We have already stated when on the subject of birds that a single dish cost the tragic actor Aesopus 100,000 sesterces, and I have no doubt that readers felt indignant; but, good heavens, Vitellius when emperor {69 AD} had a dish made that cost 1,000,000 sesterces, and to make which a special furnace was constructed out in open country, as luxury has reached a point when even earthenware costs more than vessels of fluorspar. [164] It was owing to this dish that Mucianus in his second consulship, in a protest {70 AD} which he delivered, reproached the memory of Vitellius for dishes as broad as marshes, although this particular dish was not more disgraceful than the poisoned one by which Cassius Severus when prosecuting Asprenas charged him with having caused the death of 130 guests. [165] Artistic pottery also confers fame on towns, for instance Regium and Cumae. The priests of the Mother of the Godsgalli castrate themselves, if we accept the account of Marcus Caelius, with a piece of Samian pottery, the only way of avoiding dangerous results; and Caelius proposed as a penalty for an abominable offence that the guilty person should have his tongue cut out in the same way, just as if he were already himself inveighing against the same Vitellius in anticipation. What is there that experience cannot devise? For it employs even broken crockery, making it more solid and durable by pounding it up and adding what is called Signia lime {opus signinum}, a kind of material used in a method which experience has also invented for making pavements.

{47.} L [166] But there are other inventions also that belong to Earth herself. For who could sufficiently marvel at the fact that the most inferior portion of the earth's substance, which is in consequence designated dust, on the hills of Puteoli, encounters the waves of the sea and as soon as it is submerged turns into a single mass of stone that withstands the attacks of the waves and becomes stronger every day, especially if it mixed with broken quarry-stone from Cumae? [167] In the Cyzicus district also the nature of the earth is the same, but there not dust but the earth itself is cut out in blocks of any size wanted and plunged into the sea; and when drawn out, it is of the consistency of stone. The same is said to take place in the neighbourhood of Cassandrea and it is stated that in a fresh water spring at Cnidus earth becomes petrified in less than eight months. On the coast from Oropus to Aulis all the earth that the sea touches is turned into rocks. The finest portion of the sand from the Nile is not very different from the dust of Puteoli, not to be used for an embankment against the sea and to act as a breakwater against waves, but for the purpose of subduing men's bodies for the exercises of the wrestling school. [168] At all events it used to be imported from there for Patrobius, a freedman of the emperor Nero, and moreover I also find that this sand was carried with other military commodities for Alexander the Great's generals Craterus, Leonnatus and Meleager, though I shall not say more about this part of the subject any more than, by heaven, I shall mention the use of earth in making ointments, employed by our young men while ruining their vigour of mind by exercising their muscles.

{48.} L [169] Moreover, are there not in Africa and Spain walls made of earth that are called framed walls, because they are made by packing in a frame enclosed between two boards, one on each side, and so are stuffed in rather than built, and do they not last for ages, undamaged by rain, wind and fire, and stronger than any quarry-stone? Spain still sees the watchtowers of Hannibal and turrets of earth placed on the mountain ridges. From the same source is also obtained the substantial sods of earth suitable for the fortifications of our camps and for embankments against the violent flooding of rivers. At all events everybody knows that party-walls can be made by coating hurdles with clay, and are thus built up as if with raw bricks.

{49.} L [170] Bricks should not be made from a sandy or gravelly soil and far less from a stony one, but from a marly and white soil or else from a red earth; or even with the aid of sand, at all events if coarse male sand is used. The best time for making bricks is in spring, as at midsummer they tend to crack. For buildings, only bricks two years old are recommended; moreover the material for them when it has been pounded should be well soaked before they are moulded.

[171] Three kinds of bricks are made: the 'didoron,' the one employed by us, eighteen inches long and a foot wide, second the 'tetradoron' and third the 'pentadoron,' doron being an old Greek word meaning the palm of the hand from which comes doron, meaning a gift, because a gift was given by the hand. Consequently the bricks get their names from four or five palms' length as the case may be. Their breadth is in all cases the same. In Greece the smaller kind is used for private structures and the larger in public buildings. At Pitana in Asia Minor as also in the city states of Maxilua and Callet in Further Spain bricks are made which when dried will not sink in water, being made of pumice-like earth, which is an extremely useful material when it is capable of being worked. [172] The Greeks preferred brick walls except in places permitting of a stone structure, as brick walls last for ever if built exactly perpendicular. Consequently that was how they built both public works and kings' palaces -the wall at Athens that faces towards Mount Hymettus, at Patrae the shrines of Zeus and of Heracles (although the columns and architraves with which they surrounded these were of stone), and the royal palace of Attalus at Tralles and likewise the palace of Croesus at Sardis {560-546 BC}, which they converted into a house of elders, and that of Mausolus at Halicarnassus {c377-353 BC}, buildings still standing. [173] Murena and Varro in their aedileship had some plaster work on brick walls at Sparta cut away, and because of the excellence of its painting had it enclosed in wooden frames and brought to Rome to decorate the Assembly-place {comitium}. It was in itself a wonderful piece of work, yet its transfer caused even more admiration. In Italy also there is a brick wall at Arretium and at Mevania. Structures of this sort are not erected in Rome, because an eighteen inch wall will only carry a single storey, and there is a regulation forbidding any partition exceeding that thickness: nor does the system used for party-walls permit of it.

{50.} L [174] Let this be what we say about bricks. Among the other kinds of earth the one with the most remarkable properties is sulphur, which exercises a great power over a great many other substances. Sulphur occurs in the Aeolian Islands between Sicily and Italy, which we have said are volcanic, but the most famous is on the island of Melos. It is also found in Italy, in the territory of Neapolis and Campania, on the hills called the Leucogaei. It is there dug out of mineshafts and dressed with fire. [175] There are four kinds: live sulphur, the Greek name for which means 'untouched by fire,' which alone forms as a solid mass - for all the other sorts consist of liquid and are prepared by boiling in oil; live sulphur is dug up, and it is translucent and of a green colour; it is the only one of all the kinds that is employed by doctors. The second kind is called 'clod-sulphur,' and is commonly found only in fullers' workshops. The third kind also is only employed for one purpose, for smoking woollens from beneath, as it bestows whiteness and softness; this sort is called egula. The fourth kind is specially used for making lamp-wicks. For the rest, sulphur is so potent that when put on the fire it detects epilepsy by its smell. Anaxilaus even made a sport with it by putting some in a cup of wine and placing a hot coal underneath and handing it round at dinner-parties, when by its reflection it threw on their faces a dreadful pallor as though they were dead. [176] Its property is calorific and concoctive, but it also disperses abscesses on the body, and consequently is used as an ingredient in plasters and poultices for such cases. It is also remarkably beneficial for the kidneys and loins if in cases of pain it is applied to them with grease. In combination with turpentine it also removes lichenous growths on the face and leprosy; so it is called harpax, owing to the speed with which it has to be applied, which is caused by the need for immediate removal. [177] Used as an electuary it is good for cases of asthma, and also purulent expectoration after coughing and as a remedy for the sting of scorpions. Live sulphur mixed with soda and pounded in vinegar and used as a liniment removes cutaneous eruptions, and also eggs of lice, and in combination with vinegar mixed with realgar it is useful on the eyelids. Sulphur also has a place in religious ceremonies, for the purpose of purifying houses by fumigation. Its potency is also perceptible in hot springs of water, and no other substance is more easily ignited, showing that it contains a powerful abundance of fire. Thunderbolts and lightning also have a smell of sulphur, and their actual light has a sulphurous quality.

{51.} L [178] Near to the nature of sulphur is also that of bitumen. In some places it is a slime and others an earth, the slime being emitted, as we have said, from the Lake of Judea and the earth being found in the neighbourhood of the seaside town of Sidon in Syria. Both of these varieties get thickened and solidify into a dense consistency. But there is also a liquid sort of bitumen, for instance that of Zacynthus and the kind imported from Babylon; at the latter place indeed it also occurs with a white colour. The bitumen from Apollonia also is liquid, and all of these varieties are called by the Greeks pissasphalt, from its likeness to vegetable-pitch and bitumen. [179] There is also an unctuous bitumen, of the consistency of oil, found in Sicily, in a spring at Agrigentum, the stream from which is tainted by it. The inhabitants collect it on tufts of reeds, as it very quickly adheres to them, and they use it instead of oil for burning in lamps, and also as a cure for scab in beasts of burden. Some authorities also include among the varieties of bitumen naphtha about which we spoke in Book II { 2.235 }, but its burning property and liability to ignition is far removed from any practical use. [180] The test of bitumen is that it should be extremely brilliant, and that it should be massive, with an oppressive smell; when quite black, its brilliance is moderate, as it is commonly adulterated with vegetable pitch. Its medical effect is that of sulphur, as it is astringent, dispersive, contractive, and agglutinating. Ignited it drives away snakes by us smell. Babylonian bitumen is said to be serviceable for cataract and film in the eye, and also for leprosy lichen and itch. It is also used as a liniment for gout; while all varieties of it are used to fold back eyelashes that get in the way of sight, and also to cure toothache, when smeared on with soda. [181] Taken as a draught with wine it alleviates an inveterate cough and shortness of breath; and it is also given in the same way in cases of dysentery, and arrests diarrhoea. Drunk however with vinegar it dissolves and brings away coagulated blood. It reduces pains in the loins and also in the joints, and applied with barley-meal it makes a special kind of plaster that bears its name. It stops a flow of blood, closes up wounds, and unites severed muscles. It is employed also for quartan fevers, the dose being a drachma of bitumen and an equal weight of wild mint pounded up with an obol of myrrh. [182] Burnt bitumen detects cases of epilepsy, and mixed with wine and beaver-oil its scent dissipates suffocations of the womb; its smoke when applied from beneath relieves prolapsus of the womb; and drunk in wine it hastens menstruation. Among other uses of it, it is applied as a coating to copper and bronze vessels to make them fireproof.

We have stated that it also used to be the practice to employ it for staining copper and bronze and coating statues. It has also been used as a substitute for lime, the walls of Babylon being cemented with it. In smithies also it is in favour for varnishing iron and the heads of nails and many other uses.

{52.} L [183] Not less important or very different is the use made of alum, by which is meant a salt exudation from the earth. There are several varieties of it. In Cyprus there is a white alum and another sort of a darker colour, though the difference of colour is only slight; nevertheless the use made of them is very different, as the white and liquid kind is most useful for dying woollens a bright colour whereas the black kind is best for dark or sombre hues. Black alum is also used in cleaning gold. [184] All alum is produced from water and slime, that is, a substance exuded by the earth; this collects naturally in a hollow in winter and its maturity by crystallisation is completed by the sunshine of summer; the part of it that separates earliest is whiter in colour. It occurs in Spain, Egypt, Armenia, Macedonia, Pontus, Africa, and the islands Sardinia, Melos, Lipara and Strongyle; the most highly valued is in Egypt and the next best in Melos. The alum of Melos also is of two kinds, fluid and dense. The test of the fluid kind is that it should be of a limpid, milky consistency, free from grit when rubbed between the fingers, and giving a slight glow of colour; this kind is called in Greek 'phorimon' in the sense of 'abundant.' Its adulteration can be detected by means of the juice of a pomegranate, as this mixed with it does not turn it black if it is pure. The other kind is the pale rough alum which may be stained with oak-gall also, and consequently this is called 'paraphoron,' perverted or adulterated alum. [185] Liquid alum has an astringent, hardening and corrosive property. Mixed with honey it cures ulcers in the mouth, pimples and eruptions; this treatment is carried out in baths containing two parts of honey to one of alum. It reduces odour from the armpits and perspiration. It is taken in pills against disorders of the spleen and discharge of blood in the urine. Mixed with soda and camomile it is also a remedy for scabies.

[186] One kind of solid alum which is called in Greek schiston, 'splittable,' splits into a sort of filament of a whitish colour, owing to which some people have preferred to give it in Greek the name of trichitis, 'hairy alum.' This is produced from the same ore as copper, known as copperstone, a sort of sweat from that mineral, coagulated into foam. This kind of alum has less drying effect and serves less to arrest the detrimental humours of the body, but it is extremely beneficial as an ear-wash, or as a liniment also for ulcers of the mouth and for the teeth, and if it is retained in the mouth with saliva; or it forms a suitable ingredient in medicines for the eyes and for the genital organs of either sex. It is roasted in crucibles until it has quite lost its liquidity. [187] There is another alum of a less active kind, called in Greek strongyle, 'round alum.' Of this also there are two varieties, the fungous which dissolves easily in any liquid and which is rejected as entirely worthless, and a better kind which is porous and pierced with small holes like a sponge and of a round formation, nearer white in colour, possessing a certain quality of unctuousness, free from grit, friable, and not apt to cause a black stain. This is roasted by itself on clean hot coals till it is reduced to ash. [188] The best of all kinds is that called Melos alum, after the island of that name, as we said; no other kind has a greater power of acting as an astringent, giving a black stain and hardening, and none other has a closer consistency. It removes granulations of the eyes, and is still more efficacious in arresting defluxions when calcined, and in that state also it is applied to itchings on the body. Taken as a draft or applied externally it also arrests haemorrhage. It is applied in vinegar to parts from which the hair has been removed and changes into soft down the hair that grows in its place. [189] The chief property of all kinds of alum is their astringent effect, which gives it its name in Greek. This makes them extremely suitable for eye troubles, and effective in arresting haemorrhage. Mixed with lard it checks the spread of putrid ulcers - so applied it also dries ulcers in infants and eruptions in cases of dropsy - and, mixed with pomegranate juice, it checks ear troubles and malformations of the nails and hardening of scars, and flesh growing over the nails, and chilblains. Calcined with vinegar or gallnuts to an equal weight it heals gangrenous ulcers, and, if mixed with cabbage juice, pruritus, or if with twice the quantity of salt, serpiginous eruptions, and if thoroughly mixed with water, it kills eggs of lice and other insects that infest the hair. [190] Used in the same way it is also good for burns, and mixed with watery fluid from vegetable pitch for scurf on the body. It is also used as an injection for dysentery, and taken in the mouth it reduces swellings of the uvula and tonsils. It must be understood that for all the purposes which we have mentioned in the case of the other kinds the alum imported from Melos is more efficacious. It has been indicated how important it is for the other requirements of life in giving a finish to hides and woollens.

{53.} L [191] Next to these we will deal with the various kinds of earth which are connected with medicine. There are two sorts of Samos earth, called collyrium, 'eye-salve,' and star-earth. The recommendation of the former is that it must be fresh and very soft and sticky to the tongue; the second is more lumpy; both are white in colour. The process is to calcine them and then to wash them. Some people prefer the former kind. They are beneficial for people spitting blood, and for plasters made up for drying purposes, and they are also used as an ingredient in medicines for the eyes.

{54.} L [192] Earth of Eretria has the same number of varieties, as one is white and one ash-coloured, the latter preferred in medicine. It is tested by its softness and by its leaving a violet tint if rubbed on copper. Its efficacy and the method of using it as a medicine have been spoken of among the pigments { 35.38 }.

{55.} L [193] All these earths - we will mention it in this place - are washed by having water poured over them and dried in the sun, and then after being put in water again ground up and left to stand, till they settle down and can be divided into tablets. They are boiled in cups that are repeatedly well shaken.

{56.} L [194] White earth of Chios is also among medicaments; its effect is the same as that of Samos earth. It is specially used as a cosmetic for the skin of women, and earth of Selinus is used in the same way. The latter is of the colour of milk, and it dissolves very quickly in water, and likewise dissolved in milk it is used for touching up the whitewash on plastered walls. Pnigitis, or suffocating earth closely resembles that of Eretria, only it is in larger lumps and is sticky. It produces the same effect as Cimolian earth, although it is less powerful. Ampelitis or vine earth is very like bitumen. The test for it is whether it dissolves when oil is put in it, like wax, and whether when roasted it retains a blackish colour. It is used for an emollient and dissipant, and is added to drugs for these purposes, especially in the case of eyelash beautifiers and for hair dyes.

{57.} L [195] There are several sorts of white earth. Among them there are two sorts of Cimolian earth that concern doctors, one bright white and one inclining to purple. Either is effective for dispelling tumours, and, with vinegar added, for stopping fluxes. They also check swellings and inflammation of the parotid glands, and applied as a liniment, troubles of the spleen and pimples; while if foam-soda and oil of cypros and vinegar are added, they cure swollen feet, provided the treatment is applied in the sun, and the application is washed off again with salt water six hours later. [196] A mixture of this earth with oil of cypros and wax is good for swellings of the testicles. Cretaceous earth also possesses cooling properties, and applied in a liniment it stops immoderate sweating, and likewise taken in wine while in a bath it removes pimples. The kind from Thessaly is most esteemed, but it is also found in the neighbourhood of Bubon in Lycia. Another use also made of Cimolian earth is in regard to cloth. The kind called Sarda, which is brought from Sardinia, is only used for white fabrics, and is of no use for cloths of various colours; it is the cheapest of all the Cimolian kinds; more valuable are the Umbrian and the one called 'rock.' [197] The peculiarity of the latter is that it increases in size when it is steeped in liquid; consequently it is sold by weight, whereas Umbrian is sold by measure. Umbrian earth is only employed for giving lustre to cloths. It will not be out of place to touch on this part of the subject also, as a Metilian law referring to fullers still stands, the law which Gaius Flaminius and Lucius Aemilius as censors {220 BC} put forward to be ratified by the assembly of the people: so careful about everything were our ancestors. [198] The process then is this: the cloth is first washed with earth of Sardinia, and then it is fumigated with sulphur, and afterwards scoured with Cimolian earth provided that the dye is fast; if it is coloured with bad dye it is detected and turns black and its colour is spread by the action of the sulphur; whereas genuine and valuable colours are softened and brightened up with a sort of brilliance by Cimolian earth when they have been made sombre by the sulphur. The 'rock' kind is more serviceable for white garments, after the application of sulphur, but it is very detrimental to colour. In Greece they use Tymphaea gypsum instead of Cimolian earth.

{58.} L [199] There is another cretaceous earth called silversmiths' powder as used for polishing silver; but the most inferior kind is the one which our ancestors made it the practice to use for tracing the line indicating victory in circus-races and for marking the feet of slaves on sale that had been imported from overseas; instances of these being Publilius of Antioch the founder of our mimic stage and his cousin Manilius Antiochus the originator of our astronomy, and likewise Staberius Eros our first grammarian, all of whom our ancestors saw brought over in the same ship. [200] But why need anybody mention these men, recommended to notice as they are by their literary honours? Other instances that have been seen on the stand in the slave market are Chrysogonus, freedman of Sulla, Amphion, freedman of Quintus Catulus, Hector, freedman of Lucius Lucullus, Demetrius, freedman of Pompeius, and Auge, freedwoman of Demetrius, although she herself also was believed to have belonged to Pompeius; Hipparchus freedman of Marcus Antonius, Menas and Menecrates freedmen of Sextus Pompeius, and a list of others whom this is not the occasion to enumerate, who have enriched themselves by the bloodshed of Roman citizens and by the licence of the proscriptions. [201] Such is the mark set on these herds of slaves for sale, and the disgrace attached to us by capricious fortune! - persons whom even we have seen risen to such power that we actually beheld the honour of the praetorship awarded to them by decree of the Senate at the bidding of Claudius Caesar's wife Agrippina and all but sent back with the rods of office wreathed in laurels to the places from which they came to Rome with their feet whitened with white earth.

{59.} L [202] Moreover there are other kinds of earth with a special property of their own about which we have spoken already, but the nature of which must again be stated here: soil taken from the island of Galata and in the neighbourhood of Clupea in Africa kills scorpions, and that of the Balearic Islands and Ebusus is fatal to snakes.

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