Natural History — Book XXXVII

Pliny the Younger & Pliny the Elder · a new plain-English translation from the Latin

1| So that nothing may be lacking from the work we have undertaken, there remain gems, in which the majesty of nature is gathered into a narrow compass — in the eyes of many, nowhere more wonderful. Men set such store by their variety, colours, substance and beauty that they hold it sacrilege to violate some of them even with engraving for seals, which is the purpose of gems, and consider others to be beyond any price or reckoning in human wealth, so that for most people a single gem is enough for the highest and most perfect contemplation of nature.

2| What their origin was, and from what beginnings this admiration blazed up to such a height, we have told to some extent in speaking of gold and rings. Legend traces its first beginning to the rock of the Caucasus, by a fated interpretation of the chains of Prometheus: the first fragment of that rock was enclosed in iron and put round his finger, and this, they say, was the ring, and this the gem.

3| From these beginnings their prestige rose into so great a passion that to Polycrates of Samos, tyrant of islands and coasts, it seemed sufficient atonement for his good fortune — which even he, the fortunate one, admitted was excessive — to make the voluntary sacrifice of a single gem, if by that he might square accounts with the fickleness of Fortune; and he thought he would amply buy himself off from her envy if he suffered this one grief, weary as he was of unbroken joy. So he sailed out into the deep in a ship and sank his ring.

4| But a fish of extraordinary size, born to be a king's, snatched it up as food and, to make a portent, returned it to its owner in his kitchen, by the hand of a Fortune lying in wait. It is agreed that the gem was a sardonyx, and at Rome, if we believe them, they show it in the shrine of Concord, set in a golden horn, the gift of Augusta, where it holds almost the lowest place, with many preferred to it.

5| After this ring, the gem of another king is famous, that of the well-known Pyrrhus who waged war against the Romans. For he is said to have owned an achates in which the nine Muses and Apollo holding his lyre could be seen — not by art, but by nature's own doing, the markings running in such a way that each of the Muses too was given her own emblem.

6| After that, no other renown of gems is recorded by the authors that is much worth relating, except that the choral piper Ismenias used to wear many brilliant ones, and a story goes with this that shows his vanity. When a smaragdus engraved with Amymone was offered to him in Cyprus for six gold pieces, he ordered the money to be counted out; and when two were brought back to him, he said, 'Bad business, by Hercules: a great deal has been taken off the gem's worth.'

7| He seems to have started the fashion by which all those of the musical art were judged by this display as well — Dionysodorus, for example, his contemporary and rival — so that the man who was the third among the musicians of that time did not seem their equal in this respect either: for Nicomachus is said merely to have owned many gems, but chosen with no expertise.

8| And it is by a kind of chance that these examples have presented themselves at the start of the volume, against those who arrogate distinction to themselves by this display, so that it may be plain that they are puffed up with the glory of pipers. The gem of Polycrates that is pointed out is untouched and unengraved; in the time of Ismenias, many years later, it appears that even smaragdi were commonly engraved. This same view is confirmed by the edict of Alexander the Great in which he forbade anyone but Pyrgoteles, undoubtedly the most famous master of that art, to engrave his likeness on this gem. After him, Apollonides and Cronius were renowned, and Dioscurides, who engraved a most faithful likeness of the deified Augustus, with which the emperors have since sealed.

9| The dictator Sulla always sealed with the surrender of Jugurtha. It is recorded by the authors, too, that the famous man of Intercatia, whose father Scipio Aemilianus had killed in single combat after a challenge, sealed with a picture of that fight — whence the widely repeated quip of Stilo Praeconinus: what would he have done if Scipio had been killed by his father?

10| The deified Augustus at first sealed with a sphinx. He had found two of them among his mother's rings, so alike as to be indistinguishable. With one of them, during the civil wars, when he himself was away, his friends sealed the letters and edicts that the circumstances of the time demanded be put out under his name, while the recipients joked, not without wit, that this sphinx brought riddles. Indeed, even Maecenas' frog was a cause of great terror during the levies of money. Later, to avoid the gibes about the sphinx, Augustus sealed with a likeness of Alexander the Great.

11| The first of all at Rome to own a collection of gems — which they call by a foreign name a dactyliotheca — was Sulla's stepson Scaurus, and for long there was no second, until Pompey the Great dedicated on the Capitol, among his gifts, the one that had belonged to King Mithridates; as Varro and other authors of that time confirm, it far surpassed that of Scaurus. Following this example the dictator Caesar consecrated six dactyliothecae in the shrine of Venus Genetrix, and Octavia's son Marcellus one in the temple of Palatine Apollo.

12| Yet it was that victory of Pompey's that first turned fashion toward pearls and gems, just as the victories of Lucius Scipio and Gnaeus Manlius had turned it toward chased silver, Attalic fabrics and bronze dining couches, and that of Lucius Mummius toward Corinthian bronzes and paintings. So that this may be understood more clearly, I shall add some words from the very records of Pompey's triumphs.

13| Well then: in his third triumph, which he celebrated over the pirates, Asia, Pontus, and the peoples and kings listed in volume 7 of this work, in the consulship of Marcus Piso and Marcus Messala, on the day before the Kalends of October, his birthday, he carried in procession a gaming board complete with its pieces, made of two gems, three feet wide and four feet long — and lest anyone doubt that our resources have been exhausted, when no gem today comes anywhere near this size, there was on it a golden moon weighing 30 pounds —

14| three dining couches, vessels of gold and gems for nine sideboards, three gold statues, of Minerva, of Mars and of Apollo, 33 crowns of pearls, a square golden mountain with deer and lions and fruits of every kind, surrounded by a golden vine, a grotto of pearls, on whose pediment was a clock. There was also an image of Pompey made of pearls, pleasing with that handsome swept-back hair, that countenance of his, upright and venerated among all nations, fashioned from pearls, severity thus conquered and the truer triumph of luxury!

15| Never surely among those men would the surname of the Great have lasted, if his first victory had triumphed in such a way! Of pearls, Great one, so prodigal a thing and found for women, which it would not be right for you to wear, to have your features made? Thus to seem precious? Is not that image of yours then more like you which you set upon the ridges of the Pyrenees?

16| It would surely have been a grievous, foul disgrace, unless it were more truly to be believed a savage portent of the anger of the gods, and could be clearly understood that even then that head was displayed with the wealth of the East, without the rest of the body. The other things of his triumph, how manly! 200,000,000 sesterces given to the public treasury, to the legates and quaestors who had defended the sea coasts 100,000,000 sesterces, to the soldiers, six thousand sesterces each.

17| It made, however, a more tolerable cause for Gaius the emperor, who besides other womanish things put on slippers of pearls, or Nero the emperor, who built scepters and masks and traveling beds of large pearls. Indeed we seem even to have lost the right of taking to task jeweled drinking vessels and various kinds of furnishings, translucent rings. For what luxury could not be thought more innocent?

18| The same victory first brought myrrhina into the city, and Pompey was the first to dedicate bowls and cups of it to Jupiter on the Capitol from that triumph. These straightway passed into the use of men, sideboards and food vessels also being sought; and its luxury grows by the day. A myrrhina cup bought for 70,000 sesterces, plainly holding three sextarii, a man of consular rank, [….]anus, drank from, for love of it gnawing its rim, so that nevertheless that injury increased the price; nor is there today a more outstanding valuation of any other myrrhina.

19| How much the same man swallowed of the rest of that kind can be estimated from the multitude, which was so great that, when Nero was taking it from his children, the objects set out filled a private theater across the Tiber in the gardens, which for the people to fill, when he sang, while he was rehearsing for the theater of Pompey, was enough even for Nero. I saw then the pieces of a single broken cup counted, which, in grief for the age, I believe, and as an envy of Fortune, it pleased them to keep in a tomb, like the body of Alexander the Great, so that they might be shown.

20| Titus Petronius, of consular rank, about to die through the envy of Nero, in order to disinherit his table, broke a myrrhina ladle bought for 300,000 sesterces; but Nero, as was fitting for an emperor, surpassed all by procuring a single bowl for 1,000,000 sesterces. A thing to be remembered, that a commander and father of his country drank from something worth so much!

21| The East sends myrrhina. It is found there in several places, none remarkable, chiefly of the Parthian kingdom, the best however in Carmania. They think the moisture is thickened under the earth by heat. In size they never exceed small sideboards, in thickness rarely as much as the drinking cups described. There is a shine to them without strength, and a gleam more truly than a shine. But the price lies in the variety of colors, with spots turning round from time to time into purple and white and a third from both, as if the purple were kindling in passing of the color, or the milky reddening.

22| There are those who praise especially in them the edges and certain reflections of colors, such as are seen in the rainbow. Now to others fat spots are pleasing (that any of it be translucent or pale is a fault), and likewise salt-like specks and warts, not standing out but, as in a body too, mostly sessile. Some recommendation lies also in smell.

23| A contrary cause produces crystallus, which, congealed by a more violent frost, is certainly found nowhere other than where winter snows are hardest, and it is certain that it is ice, whence the Greeks gave it the name. The East sends this too, since none is preferred to the Indian. It is born also in Asia, cheapest around Alabanda and Orthosia and their neighbors, likewise in Cyprus, but the one praised in Europe is from the ridges of the Alps.

24| Juba is authority that it is also born on a certain island in the Red Sea, lying off Arabia, which is called Necron, and in the one which bears the topaz gem nearby, and that a cubit-long piece was dug out by Pythagoras, prefect of Ptolemy; Cornelius Bocchus, that in Lusitania also, of wonderful weight, in the Ammaean ridges, wells being sunk to the level of the water.

25| This is marvelous, which Xenocrates of Ephesus reports, that it is turned up by the plow in Asia and Cyprus; for it had been believed not to be found in earthy ground and only among crags. More like the truth is what the same Xenocrates reports, that it is often also carried down by torrents. Sudines denies that it is born except in places facing south. What is certain is that it is not found in watery places, although in a very frozen region, or if rivers freeze right down to the shallows. It must be made of heavenly moisture and pure snow;

26| therefore, impatient of heat, it is not used except for cold drinks. Why it is born with six-sided faces is not easy to reckon, all the more because the form is not the same in the points, and the smoothness of the sides is so perfect that it can be matched by no art.

27| The greatest size seen so far by us was that which Livia dedicated on the Capitol, of about 150 pounds. The same Xenocrates is authority that a vessel of an amphora's size was seen, and some from India of four sextarii. (We can state with certainty that it is born on crags of the Alps, so impassable for the most part that people hanging by a rope draw it out.) The signs and indications are known to the experts.

28| It is beset by very many faults, a rough flaw, a spotted cloud, at times a hidden abscess, a very hard and brittle center, likewise what is called salt. There is also a reddish rust in some, in others a hairline like a crack. This the craftsmen hide by engraving. Those which are without fault they prefer to be pure, calling them acenteta, and not of foamy color but of clear water. The last authority is in weight. I find among physicians that, for the parts of bodies that are to be burnt, they think they are not more usefully burnt in any other way than with a ball of crystallus set against the sun's rays.

29| There is another madness in these, a matron, not rich, having bought one ladle for one hundred and fifty thousand sesterces not many years ago. Nero, on receiving news of lost affairs, in his last anger broke two cups of crystallus, dashing them down. This was the vengeance of a man punishing his own age, that no one else should drink from them. The fragments can in no way be mended. Glass vessels have come wonderfully close to them in likeness, but in the manner of a portent, so that they have increased their own price and not diminished that of crystallus.

30| The next place in delights, of women only so far, is held by amber, and all these have the same authority as gems; certainly the former for certain reasons: crystallus for cold drinking, myrrhina for both; in amber not even delight has so far been able to devise a reason.

31| There is an occasion for exposing the vanity of the Greeks: let readers bear it in an even temper, since it matters to life also to know that not everything they handed down is to be wondered at. That the sisters of Phaethon, struck by lightning, changed in grief into poplar trees, pour out amber in their tears every year beside the river Eridanus, which we have called the Po, and that amber is so called because the sun was named Elector, very many poets have said, and first, as I judge, Aeschylus, Philoxenus, Euripides, Nicander, Satyrus. That this is false is plain from the testimony of Italy.

32| The more careful of them have said that the Electrides islands are in the Hadriatic Sea, to which it would be carried down from the Po. By that name it is certain that there never were any there, nor indeed any so placed that anything could be carried to them by the course of the Po. For as to Aeschylus saying that the Eridanus is in Hiberia [that is, in Spain] and the same is called the Rhodanus, and Euripides again and Apollonius that on the Hadriatic shore the Rhodanus and the Po flow together, so great an ignorance of the world makes easier pardon for ignorance of amber.

33| More modest, but equally false, are those who have reported that at the extremity of the Hadriatic gulf, on impassable rocks, trees stand which discharge this gum when the Dog Star rises. Theophrastus said it is dug in Liguria, Chares that Phaethon died in Ethiopia on the island of Ammon, that his shrine and oracle are there and that amber is produced. Philemon, that it is fossil and is dug up in Scythia in two places, a white one of wax color that was called electrum, in the other a tawny one that was called sualiternicum.

34| Demostratus calls it lyncurium and says it is made from the urine of lynx beasts, from males a tawny and fiery one, from females a more languid and white one; that others call it langurium and that in Italy there are beasts called languri. Zenothemis calls the same beasts langae and assigns their life to them around the Po; Sudines, that the tree that produces it in Liguria is called lynca.

35| Metrodorus was of the same opinion. Sotacus believed that in Britain it flows from rocks, which he called electrides; Pytheas, that the Guiones, a people of Germany, live beside an estuary of the ocean named Metuonis, over a space of six thousand stadia; that from this an island, Abalus, is a day's sail away; that to it in spring it is carried by the waves and is a refuse of the congealed sea; that the inhabitants use it for fire instead of wood and sell it to their neighbors the Teutones.

36| Timaeus also believed this, but called the island Basilia. Philemon denied that flame is given off by amber. Nicias wished this to be understood as a juice of the sun's rays; that near the setting, driven more violently into the earth, they leave a fat sweat in it, and then it is cast up on the shores of the Germans by the tides of the ocean. That it is born in Egypt in a similar way (it is called sacal), and likewise in India, and is more pleasing to the Indians even than incense itself;

37| that in Syria also women make spindle whorls of it and call it harpaga, because it snatches leaves and chaff and the fringes of clothes. Theochrestus, that when the ocean surges out it is driven to the promontories of the Pyrenees, which Xenocrates also believed, who wrote about these things most recently and is still alive. Asarubas reports that beside the Atlantic Sea there is a lake Cephisis, which the Moors call Electrum. This, heated by the sun, gives out amber floating up from the mud.

38| Mnaseas calls a place in Africa Sicyon, and a river Crathis flowing out into the ocean from a lake in which live birds he calls meleagrides and penelopes; that it is born there in the same way as was said above. Theomenes, that near the great Syrtis there is the garden of the Hesperides and the lake Electrum, there poplar trees, from whose tops it falls into the lake; that it is gathered, moreover, by maidens of the Hesperides.

39| Ctesias says that in India there is a river Hypobarus, by which name it is signified that it bears all good things; that, flowing out of the north, it runs into the eastern ocean beside a mountain wooded with trees that bear amber. These trees are called psitthachorae, by which name is signified a very sweet pleasantness. Mithridates, that on the shores of Carmania there is an island, which is called Serita, wooded with a kind of cedar, and that from there it flows down on to rocks.

40| Xenocrates, that amber is called in Italy not only sucinum but also thium, and by the Scythians sacrium, since it is born there too; that others think it is produced from mud in Numidia. Above all is Sophocles the tragic poet, which I for my part wonder at, since so great is the gravity of his buskin, and besides the reputation of his life, a man otherwise born to the first rank at Athens and known for his deeds and for having led an army. He said that beyond India it is made of the tears of the meleagrid birds weeping for Meleager.

41| Who would not wonder that he believed this, or hoped it could be persuaded to others? Or what childhood so unskilled can be found as to believe in yearly lamentations of birds, or in tears so large, or in birds which from Greece, where Meleager died, went to the Indians to lament? What then? Do not poets report many things equally fabulous? But for anyone to have said this seriously, in a matter that is imported daily and abounds and refutes the falsehood, is the utmost contempt for men and an intolerable impunity of lies.

42| It is certain that it is produced in the islands of the northern ocean and is called by the Germans glaesum, and for that reason one of the islands was called Glaesaria by our people, when Germanicus Caesar was operating there with fleets, and was called Austeravia by the barbarians. It is born, moreover, by the pith flowing down from trees of the pine kind, as gum bursts out in cherry trees and resin in pines through abundance of moisture. It is thickened by cold or time or the sea, when the swelling tide itself has snatched it from the islands, and it is driven out onto certain shores, so buoyant that it seems to hang and not to settle in the shallows.

43| Even our ancestors believed it to be the juice of a tree, calling it sucinum for that reason. That it belongs to a tree of the pine kind is shown by the pine smell on rubbing, and that when kindled it burns like a torch of pine with a smoky smell. It is brought from the Germans especially to the province of Pannonia, and from there the Veneti first, whom the Greeks called Eneti, made the fame of the thing, and those nearest Pannonia and those living around the Hadriatic Sea.

44| To the Po, however, a story has been attached, with an evident cause, since to this day the country women of the Transpadane people wear amber in place of necklaces, chiefly for the sake of adornment, but for medicine too; it is in fact believed to resist the tonsils and ailments of the throat, a certain kind of waters near the Alps variously afflicting the throats of men.

45| That shore of Germany from which it is imported is, it was recently learned, about 600 miles from Carnuntum in Pannonia, and there lives a Roman knight sent to procure it by Iulianus, who was in charge of the gladiatorial show of the emperor Nero. He traveled through both those markets and the shores, and brought in so great a quantity that the nets protecting the podium, to restrain the wild beasts, were knotted with amber, and the arena and the bier and the whole equipment of a single day, in the variation of each day's procession, were of amber.

46| The greatest weight of a lump he brought was 13 pounds. That it is born in India also is certain. Archelaus, who reigned in Cappadocia, reports that it is brought from there raw, with pine bark clinging to it, and polished boiled in the fat of a suckling pig. That it first drips liquid is shown by certain things translucent inside, such as ants and gnats and lizards, which undoubtedly stuck to the fresh substance and, enclosed as it hardened, remained.

47| Its kinds are several. Of these the white is of the most excellent smell, but neither for these nor for the wax-colored is there a price. The tawny have greater authority. Of these, those more translucent still, except if they blaze with too great a heat; it is agreed that in them there is the image of fire, not fire. The highest praise is for the Falernian, so called from the color of the wine, clear with a soft gleam, in which the smoothness of boiled-down honey also pleases.

48| But this too ought to be known, that however they like, they are dyed, with kid's tallow and the root of anchusa, since indeed they are now stained even with conchylium. Moreover, by rubbing with the fingers, having received the breath of heat, they draw to themselves chaff and dry leaves and linden bark, as the magnet stone draws iron. Shavings of it also, with oil added, burn more brightly and longer than the pith of flax.

49| The valuation in delights is so great that a human figure of it, however small, exceeds the prices of living, vigorous men, so that a single rebuke is not enough. In Corinthian ware, bronze mixed with silver and gold pleases; in engraved work, art and talent; of myrrhina and crystallus we have told the favor; pearls are carried about on the head, gems on the fingers; in all other vices, finally, either display or use pleases: in amber, only the consciousness of delight.

50| Domitius Nero, among the other portents of his life, had also adopted the hair of Poppaea his wife under this name, calling it amber even in a certain poem, since for no vices do precious names fail; from this a certain third color began to be sought by matrons. Some use of amber, however, is found in medicine, but it is not for this that women like it. It is of benefit bound on infants, on the principle of an amulet.

51| Callistratus reports that it benefits also persons of any age against frenzies, and, drunk or bound on, in difficulties of urine. He also made a new distinction by calling one chryselectrum, which is of a golden color and of a most pleasing appearance in the morning, most greedy of flames, catching fire very quickly if they are near. This, bound on the neck, cures fevers and diseases, but ground with honey and oil of roses, ailments of the ears, and, if ground with Attic honey, the dimness of the eyes also, and ailments of the stomach too, either its meal taken by itself or drunk with mastic in water. Amber has a great place also in the adulterating of gems that are translucent, especially amethysti, though it is dyed, as we said, in every color.

52| About lyncurium the obstinacy of the authors compels us to speak next, since, even if it is not amber, they nevertheless contend that it is a gem, and that it is made, indeed, from the urine of the lynx, but also from a kind of earth, that animal straightway covering its urine, because it grudges it to man, and that there it turns to stone. That it is, moreover, such as in amber,

53| of a fiery color, and can be engraved, and that it snatches to itself not only leaves or straw but also thin plates of bronze and iron, which Theophrastus too believes, trusting a certain Diocles. I judge all of this false, and no gem has been seen in our age under that name. False also is what is reported at the same time about medicine, that bladder stones are broken by drinking it and the royal disease is relieved, if it is drunk in wine or even looked at.

54| Now we shall speak of the acknowledged kinds of gems, beginning with the most praised, and we shall not do this alone, but, for the greater usefulness of life, shall refute the unspeakable vanity of the Magi, since they have handed down very many things about gems, passing from a most flattering appearance of medicine to prodigies.

55| The greatest price in human affairs, not only among gems, belongs to adamas, for a long time known only to kings and to quite few of them. So was called a knot of gold found in mines, very rarely [companion of gold], and it seemed to be born nowhere but in gold. The ancients thought that it is found only in the mines of the Ethiopians between the shrine of Mercury and the island of Meroe, and said that it is found no larger than a cucumber seed, nor different in color.

56| Now six kinds of it are first recognized: the Indian, not born in gold and with a certain kinship to crystallus, since it does not differ in translucent color and in the six-angled smoothness of its faces, whirled to a point from two opposite parts, so that we may wonder the more, as if two tops were joined at their widest parts, in size indeed even of a hazelnut kernel. Similar to this is the Arabian, only smaller, born in a similar way. The rest have the pallor of silver and are born only in the most excellent gold.

57| These are tested on anvils, so repelling the blows that the iron leaps away on both sides and the anvils themselves even spring apart. For the hardness is indescribable, and at the same time its nature is a conqueror of fires and never grows hot, whence it also took its name [in Greek interpretation, an untamed force]. One of them they call cenchron, of the size of millet, the other Macedonian, found in Philippic gold; this is equal to a cucumber seed.

58| After these is the one called Cyprian, found in Cyprus, verging to a bronze color, but most effective in medical power, of which we shall speak. After this, the siderites of iron brilliance, in weight ahead of the rest, but unlike in nature. For it can be broken by blows and bored through by another adamas, which happens also to the Cyprian, and, in short, like degenerates they have only the authority of the name.

59| Now what we have tried to teach in these whole volumes about the discord and concord of things, which the Greeks have called antipathia and sympathia, cannot be understood more clearly otherwise, since that unconquered force, the despiser of two most violent things of nature, iron and fires, is broken by goat's blood, and not otherwise than when soaked in fresh and warm blood, and even so with many blows, and even then it breaks iron anvils and hammers, unless they are exceptional ones.

60| By whose invention, or by what chance, was this discovered? Or what was the guess that led to trying a thing of immense price in the foulest of animals? Such a discovery is surely of the divinities, and this whole gift, and no reason is to be sought in any part of nature, but a will! When it has happened happily to break it, it is crumbled into such small fragments that they can scarcely be seen. These are sought by engravers and enclosed in iron, easily hollowing out any hardness whatever.

61| Adamas disagrees with the magnet so far that, placed beside it, it does not allow iron to be drawn away, or, if the magnet, brought near, has seized it, it snatches it and carries it off. Adamas also overcomes poisons and makes them ineffective, and drives away frenzies, and expels empty fears from the mind. For this reason some have called it anancites. Metrodorus of Scepsis, alone, so far as I have read, says that it is born in the same Germany, on the island Basilia, where amber also is, and prefers it to the Arabian. Who could doubt that this is false?

62| The next price among us is that of Indian and Arabian pearls, of which we spoke in the ninth volume among marine things. The third authority is credited to smaragdi for several reasons, since the sight of no color is more pleasing. For we look eagerly even at quiet herbs and foliage, but at smaragdi so much the more gladly, because nothing at all that is green, compared with them, is greener.

63| Moreover, they alone of gems fill the eyes by looking and do not satiate. Indeed, from another straining, the sight is refreshed by the view of a smaragdus, and for engravers of gems there is no more welcome restoration of the eyes: so by their green mildness they soothe weariness. Besides, they are enlarged to the view from a distance, tinting the air about them with their reflection, not altered by sun, nor by shade, nor by lamps, always radiating gradually and admitting the sight to their thickness by a translucent ease, which delights us in waters also.

64| The same are mostly concave, so as to gather the sight. For this reason, by decree of men, they are spared, engraving them being forbidden. Yet the hardness of the Scythian and Egyptian is so great that they cannot be wounded. Those, however, whose body is extended, on the same principle as mirrors, lying flat, give back the images of things. The emperor Nero used to watch the fights of gladiators in a smaragdus.

65| Their kinds are twelve: the most noble the Scythian, called after the people in whose country they are found. In none is there greater austerity or less fault; as far as smaragdi are from gems, so far is the Scythian from other smaragdi. The next praise, as also place, belongs to the Bactrian. They are said to be gathered in the joints of rocks when the Etesian winds blow; for then, the earth being uncovered, they gleam, because by those winds the sands are most moved. But these, they report, are much smaller than the Scythian. The Egyptian hold third place. They are dug out around Coptos, a town of the Thebaid, from hollowed hills.

66| The remaining kinds are found in copper mines, for which reason the Cyprian hold the first rank among them. Their endowment is in a color liquid and not diluted, but from a moist richness, and through which one sees, imitating the translucent of the sea, equally so that it be translucent and shine [that is, so that it drive out the color and take in the sight]. They say that in that island, on the tomb of the petty king Hermias beside the fish pools, a marble lion had eyes put in of smaragdi so radiant even into the deep that the tunnies, frightened, shrank back, the fishermen long wondering at the strange thing, until they changed the gems for other eyes.

67| But it is fitting that faults too be shown, at such prodigal prices. They are indeed the same in all, though some are peculiar to nations, as in man. So the Cyprian, variously bluish-gray, more and less in the same smaragdus in different parts, do not always keep that steadiness of Scythian austerity. Besides, in some a shadow runs through, and the color becomes dull, which is disapproved even when more diluted.

68| From this the kinds are distinguished, so that some are dark, which they call blind, others dense and not translucent from liquid, some variegated, some covered by a little cloud. This is different from the shadow, of which we have spoken. The little cloud is a fault of whitishness, when the green view does not pass through, but either meets something inside or a whiteness catches the sight at the end. These are faults of color; likewise of body, the hairline, salt, plumbago, which are almost common.

69| After these the Ethiopian are praised, from Coptos a journey of 25 days, as Juba is authority, sharply green, but not easily pure or of one color. Democritus puts in this kind the Thermiaean and the Persian, the former swelling richly, the Persian not translucent, but filling the sight with an agreeable steadiness which they do not admit, like the eyes of cats and panthers; for those too radiate and cannot be seen through, and the same are dulled in the sun, shine back in the shade, and gleam farther than the rest.

70| A fault, further, of all these is that they have the color of gall or of acrid oil, bright indeed and liquid, but not green. These faults are felt most in the Attic ones found in the silver mines. In the place which is called Thoricos they are always less rich, but more beautiful from a distance. Plumbago is frequent in these too, that is, so that in the sun they look leaden. This is peculiar, that some of these grow old, the greenness gradually vanishing, and are damaged by the sun also.

71| After these the Median have the most variety, sometimes something also from sappirus. These are wavelike and contain images of things, of poppies for example or of birds and whelps or of feathers. Some, however, seem to be born green, since they become better with oil, and the size of the others is no greater.

72| The Chalcedonian (I do not know whether wholly) have died out, after the copper mines there failed, and nevertheless were always the cheapest and the smallest, the same brittle and of uncertain color, and, like the neck feathers of doves and the greenish ones in the tails of peacocks, more or less bright with the inclination, the same veined and scaly.

73| There was also a peculiar fault in them called sarcion, that is, a certain flesh of the gem. There is a mountain near Chalcedon in which they were gathered, called Smaragdites. Juba is authority that a smaragdus which they call chlora is built in Arabia into ornaments of buildings, and a stone which the Egyptians call alabastrites, and that several from nearby places and on Mount Taygetus are dug out like the Median, and others in Sicily.

74| There is inserted among smaragdi also the gem called tanos, coming from the Persians, unpleasantly green and dirty inside, likewise the chalcosmaragdos from Cyprus, turbid with bronze veins. Theophrastus reports that in the records of the Egyptians it is found that a smaragdus four cubits in length and three in width was sent as a gift to their king by the king of Babylon, and that there was among them in the shrine of Jupiter an obelisk formed from four smaragdi, forty cubits in length, and in width four in one part,

75| in part two; and that at the time of his writing there was in Tyre in the temple of Hercules a large pillar of smaragdus, unless it is rather a pseudosmaragdus, for that kind too is found; and that in Cyprus a stone has been found which was half smaragdus and half iaspis, the moisture not yet wholly transformed. Apion, surnamed Plistonices, left written a little earlier that there is even now in the labyrinth of Egypt a colossal Serapis of smaragdus, nine cubits high.

76| Many think the berulli have the same nature, or at any rate a similar one. India produces them, and they are rarely found elsewhere. All of them are polished in a six-sided shape by the ingenuity of the craftsmen, because the colour, dull in a flat surface, is brought to life by the reflection from the angles; polished any other way, they have no brilliance. The most approved of them are those that imitate the greenness of a clear sea; next are those called chrysoberulli, a little paler, but with a brilliance passing into a golden colour.

77| Close to this is a kind that is paler, and some judge it to be a kind of its own and call it chrysoprasus. In fourth place are counted the hyacinthizontes, in fifth those they call aeroides, afterwards the wax-coloured and then the oleagini, that is, of the colour of oil, and last those like crystallus. These generally have hair-like flaws and dirt, and are otherwise faint, all of which are defects.

78| The Indians take wonderful pleasure in their length, and say that they alone of gems are ones that people would rather have without gold; for this reason they bore them through and hang them on elephants' bristles. It is agreed that those whose goodness is perfect ought not to be bored, the ends being held only by golden knobs. For that reason they prefer to make cylinders of them rather than gems, since the highest recommendation lies in length.

79| Some also think that they are born angular from the start, and that they become more pleasing when bored, once the central core of whiteness is removed and the reflection of the gold is added, or when its thickness is cut away altogether for the sake of transparency. Their defects, besides those already mentioned, are almost the same as in smaragdi, and also pterygia. In our part of the world they are thought sometimes to be found around the Pontus. The Indians have discovered how to adulterate other gems too by tinting crystallus, but especially berulli.

80| The opali differ least and at the same time most from these, yielding only to the smaragdi. India alone is their mother as well. Combined, as they are, from the glory of the most precious stones, they present the greatest indescribable difficulty. In them there is the gentler fire of the carbunculus, the gleaming purple of the amethystus, the green sea of the smaragdus, all shining together in an incredible mixture.

81| Some believe that their utmost brilliance is equalled only by the Armenian colour among pigments, others by the flame of burning sulphur or of fire kindled with oil. The size equals a hazelnut. The story is notable even among us, since there survives today a gem of this kind on account of which Nonius the senator was proscribed by Antony, the son of that Struma Nonius whom the poet Catullus took it ill to see in a curule chair, and the grandfather of Servilius Nonianus, whom we saw as consul. Fleeing in proscription, he carried off this ring with him out of all his fortune.

82| It is certain that it was then valued at two million sesterces; but remarkable was the savagery and extravagance of Antony, proscribing a man on account of a gem, and no less the stubbornness of Nonius, in loving his own proscription, when even wild beasts, after gnawing off the part of their body for which they know they are in danger, are believed to buy their lives by leaving it behind.

83| The defects of opali are these: if the colour passes into the flower of the plant called heliotropium, or into crystallus or hail; if salt intervenes, or roughness, or points that meet the eyes. No gems does a fraud, indistinguishable in likeness, adulterate more with glass. The test is in the sun alone: for when the false ones are held up against the rays between finger and thumb, one and the same colour shows through, spent in itself; the brilliance of the true ones keeps changing, and scatters more now from this part, now from that, and the glitter of the light pours onto the fingers.

84| Because of its exceptional charm, most people have called this gem paederota. Those who make a separate kind of it say it is called sangenon by the Indians. It is said to be born in Egypt and in Arabia, and the cheapest in Pontus, likewise in Galatia, and in Thasos and Cyprus. The one that excels among these has the charm of the opalus, but shines more softly and is seldom not rough. Its highest colour consists of sky-blue and purple; the greenness of the smaragdus is lacking. That one is better whose brilliance is darkened to the colour of wine than one that is diluted to that of water.

85| Thus far there is agreement about the first place, chiefly by the decree of the women's senate. There is less certainty about those on which men also pass judgement; for each man's fancy sets prices for himself, and above all rivalry, as when Claudius Caesar wore smaragdi or sardonyches. The first of the Romans to use a sardonyx was the elder Africanus, as Demostratus relates, and from that the authority of this gem among the Romans. On that account we shall assign it the next place.

86| Sardonyches were once understood, as is clear from the very name, as a whiteness in a sarda, that is, like flesh laid upon a man's fingernail, both being translucent. And such, they say, are the Indian ones: so say Ismenias, Demostratus, Zenothemis and Sotacus, the last two calling all the others, which are not translucent, blind.

87| Those which now have taken the name, with no trace of Indian sardae, are Arabian, and these gems began to be recognized in several colours, with a root black or imitating sky-blue, and a nail of minium, ringed about with rich white, and not without some promise of purple where the white passes into minium. Zenothemis writes that these are not held in honour by the Indians, being at other times of such great size that from them

88| they used to make into hilts — for it is agreed that there they are laid bare by torrents — and that they found favour in our part of the world at first because, almost alone of gems, when engraved they did not take away the wax. Then we persuaded the Indians to take pleasure in them themselves too. The common people wear them bored, on the neck; and this is now the proof of Indian ones. The Arabian ones excel in whiteness, with a translucent ring that is not thin and that gleams neither in the hollow of the gem nor at its edge, but shines on the very bosses, and besides with a base of the blackest colour.

89| In the Indian ones this is found blue or horn-coloured. Likewise a certain breath of the rainbow is in their white ring, while the surface is like sea lobsters, with reddish shells. For those that are honey-coloured or dreggy — for this is the name of the defect — are disapproved, or if the white band spreads itself out and does not bind, and likewise if it admits into itself something of another colour out of due measure. Nothing pleases that is interrupted in its own place by what is alien. There are also Armenian ones, otherwise to be approved, but with a pale band.

90| We must also set out the nature of the onyx itself, because of the sharing of the name. Elsewhere this is the word for a stone; here it is the word for a gem. Sudines says that in the gem there is a whiteness like that of a human fingernail, and also the colour of chrysolithus and of sarda and of iaspis; Zenothemis, that the Indian onyx has several varieties — fiery, black, horn-coloured — with white veins encircling it in the manner of an eye, and in some the oblique veins intervene. Sotacus also relates that the Arabian onyx differs in that the Indian has little fires, encircled by white bands, one or several, otherwise than in the Indian sardonyx; for there it is a dot, here a circle; and that Arabian onyxes are found black with white bands;

91| Satyrus says that the Indian ones are fleshy, partly of carbunculus, partly of chrysolithus and amethystus, and he rejects that whole kind; but the true onyx, he says, has very many varied veins along with milky ones, the colour of all of them in passing indescribable and returning into one harmony with a pleasing sweetness. Nor must the sarda be put off, a gem sharing the same name with it as a part, and in passing the nature of all the burning gems must be indicated.

92| The first place belongs to the carbunculi, so called from their likeness to fires, although they themselves do not feel fire; for this reason some call them acaustoe. Their kinds are the Indian and the Garamantic, which they also called Carchedonian on account of the wealth of Great Carthage. They add the Ethiopian and the Alabandic, born in Orthosia in Caria, but finished at Alabanda. Besides, in every kind the sharper ones are called male, and those shining more languidly female.

93| Among the males, too, they observe those more liquid, or of a blacker flame, and certain ones that are bright from deep within and blaze more than the rest in the sun; the best of all are the amethystizontes, that is, those whose outermost little fire passes into the violet of the amethystus; next to them are those they call syrtitae, radiating with a feathered brilliance. They are found, moreover, where the reflection of the sun is greatest.

94| Satyrus says the Indian ones are not bright, and are mostly dirty and always of a parched brilliance; that the Ethiopian are rich and, not pouring out light, blaze with a rolled-up fire. Callistratus says that the brilliance of a carbunculus ought to be white, so that when set down it is clouded to the eye at the furthest sight, but if it is lifted up, the brilliance flares out — for this reason most have called this the white carbunculus, and the one that shines more languidly lignyzon —;

95| that the Carchedonian are much smaller, while the Indian are even hollowed to the measure of one sextarius. Archelaus says that the Carchedonian are of a blacker look, but are aroused more sharply than the others by fire or the sun and by tilting; that the same appear purple when a roof shades them, flame-coloured under the open sky, and sparkle against the rays of the sun, and that when used to seal they melt wax, though in shade.

96| Many have written that the Indian are whiter than the Carchedonian, and conversely are dulled by tilting; that further, in the Carchedonian males a star burns within, while the females pour their whole brilliance outside themselves; that the Alabandic are blacker than the rest and rough. And around Miletus they are born in the ground, of the same colour, feeling fire hardly at all.

97| Theophrastus is the authority that they are also found at Orchomenus in Arcadia, and in Chios, those blacker, from which mirrors too are made; that there are also Troezenian ones, varied with white spots intervening, likewise Corinthian, but paler, from white; that they are imported from Massilia also. Bocchus wrote that they are dug up also in the territory of Olisipo, with great labour on account of the clay of the scorched soil.

98| Nor is there anything more difficult than to distinguish these kinds; so great in them is the opportunity for art, with things put underneath through which they are forced to shine. They say that the duller ones, steeped in vinegar for 13 days, glitter, the brilliance lasting for as many months. They are counterfeited in glass with the closest likeness, but are detected by the whetstone, as other gems are; for the material of the fakes is softer and brittle. The centrosae are detected by the whetstone and by weight, which is less in glass ones, and sometimes also by blisters gleaming like silver.

99| There is also one called anthracitis, dug up in Thesprotia, like coals. I think it false that they have reported it born also in Liguria, unless perhaps they were born there then. They relate that among these there are also ones girdled by a white vein. Their colour is fiery like the above, but peculiar to them is that at a touch they go out as if half-dead, whereas when drenched with water they blaze up.

100| Akin too is the sandastros, nearest to it in nature, which some call Garamantic. It is born among the Indians in a place of the same name. It is produced also in Arabia, on the side turned to the south. Its highest recommendation is that, as if with fire held within a translucent body, it glitters inside with starlike golden drops, always in the body, never in the skin. A religious feeling is added, from the kinship with the stars that is told of it, since they are starred almost in the arrangement and number of the Pleiades and Hyades; for this reason they are held in the ceremonies of the Chaldaeans.

101| and here too a certain austerity distinguishes the males, and a vigour that tinges what is placed next to it; the Indian ones indeed are even said to dull the sight. The flame of the females is gentler, shining upon rather than kindling. There are those who prefer the Arabian to the Indian and say that the latter are smoky and like chrysolithus. Ismenias denies that sandastri are polished, on account of their tenderness, and for that reason they sell at a great price. Some call these sandrisitae. All agree that as much as is added to the number of their stars, so much is added to their price.

102| The likeness of the name sandaresus sometimes brings error. Nicander calls it sandaserion, others sandareson, and some indeed call this one sandastrus and that one sandaresus, which is also born in India and keeps the name of the place, of the colour of an apple or of green oil, disapproved by all.

103| Of the same kind of burning stones is the one called lychnis, from its agreement with lamps, and then of special charm. It is born around Orthosia and in all of Caria and the places near, but the most approved are in India. Some have said that it is a milder carbunculus, and that the second in goodness is the one resembling the flowers called Jupiter's. And I find other differences too: one that radiates purple, another that radiates scarlet; these, warmed by the sun or by rubbing with the fingers, draw to themselves straws and the threads of papyrus sheets.

104| The same thing is said to be done also by the Carchedonian, although it is much cheaper than those mentioned. It is born among the Nasamones in the mountains, by a divine rain, as the inhabitants think. They are found especially by the reflection of the full moon; they were once carried to Carthage. Archelaus relates that they are born also in Egypt around Thebes, brittle, veined, like a dying coal. I find that drinking cups were regularly made of this and of the lychnis; and all these kinds stubbornly resist engraving and hold part of the wax in the seal.

105| In contrast, most useful for these purposes is the sarda, which has shared its name with the sardonyx. It is itself common, and was first found at Sardis; the most praised are around Babylon. When certain quarries are opened, they are found sticking in the rock like hearts. They say that this vein failed among the Persians, but they are found in several other places, as in Paros and Assos; in India of three kinds: red ones, and those they call pionias from their fatness; the third kind is the one which they underlay with silver foil.

106| The Indian are translucent, the Arabian are thicker. Near Leucas in Epirus also, and in Egypt, there are found ones that are underlaid with gold foil. And among these too the males gleam more briskly, the females more sluggishly and with a thicker shine. Nor was any other gem among the ancients more frequent in use — of this certainly the plays of Menander and Philemon are proud — and none of the translucent gems is more slowly dulled when moisture is laid under it, and more so by oil than by any other liquid.

107| Of these, the honey-coloured are condemned, and the more strongly testaceous. The topazus has even now a distinguished glory of its own, from the green kind, and when first found it was preferred to all. It happened on an island of Arabia which was called Cytis, to which Troglodyte robbers, weary with hunger and storm, had come, that while digging up herbs and roots they dug up the topazus.

108| This is the opinion of Archelaus. Juba says that Topazus is an island in the Red Sea, 300 stadia from the mainland; that it is misty and so was often sought by sailors, and received its name from that cause, for topazin in the language of the Troglodytes has the meaning of seeking. That from it a first stone was brought to Queen Berenice, who was the mother of the next Ptolemy, by the prefect Philo; that the king was wonderfully pleased, and from it a statue of Arsinoe, wife of Ptolemy, four cubits high, was made, and consecrated in the shrine which was called the Arsinoeum.

109| The most recent authors say that it is born also around Alabastrum, a town of the Thebaid, and make two kinds of it, the prasoides and the chrysopteron, similar to chrysoprasus. For the whole likeness is directed to the juice of the leek. It is, moreover, the largest of gems. It alone of the noble ones feels the file; the others are polished with Naxian stone and whetstones. This one is also worn down by use.

110| There accompanies it, nearer in likeness than in authority, the callaina, pale out of green. It is born behind the back of India among the inhabitants of Mount Caucasus, the Hyrcanians, Sacae and Dahae, conspicuous in size but full of pipes and dirt, much purer and finer in Carmania; in both places, however, on pathless and icy rocks, bulging in the shape of an eye and adhering slightly, not as if grown to the rocks but as if set on them.

111| For this reason the horse-riding peoples, from the laziness of their feet, are weary of climbing to them, and the danger also frightens them; so they attack them from far off with slings and knock them down together with all their moss. This is a tax, this an ornament worn on the neck, most welcome to the fingers, they know; from this comes wealth, this glory among those who from boyhood tell the number they have brought down; in which fortune varies, some having taken splendid ones at the first blow, many to old age none. And such is the hunting of callainae. After that they are shaped by cutting, being otherwise easy to work.

112| The best have the colour of the smaragdus, though so that it is apparent that what pleases is something foreign. Set in, they are adorned with gold, and none become gold more. The more beautiful of them lose their colour with oil, ointment, even unmixed wine; the cheaper keep it more steadily, and no other is more imitable by the falsehood of glass. There are those who say that in Arabia they are found in the nests of birds which they call melancoryphi.

113| There are also many other kinds of green stones. Of the cheaper crowd is the prasius, a second kind of which is disfigured by blood-red points, a third distinguished by three white streaks. To these is preferred the chrysoprasos, itself also recalling the juice of the leek, but it declines a little from topazus toward gold. It has also such size that even cups are made from it, and cylinders very frequently.

114| India produces these too, and the nilion, which differs from it in brilliance only a little, and deceptively when you look at it. Sudines says that it is born in the Siberus too, a river of Attica. Its colour is that of smoky topazus or sometimes of honey. Juba relates that it is produced in Ethiopia on the banks of the river we call the Nile, and draws its name from there. The molochitis is not translucent; it is a denser green, having taken its name from the colour of the mallow, praised for rendering seals and as a guardian of infants and as a certain innate remedy against dangers.

115| The iaspis is green and often translucent, and though surpassed by many it keeps the glory of antiquity. Very many peoples bear it: the Indians one like smaragdus, Cyprus a hard one with a rich grey-green, the Persians one like the air, which for that reason is called aerizusa; of that kind is the Caspian too. A blue one is found around the river Thermodon, in Phrygia a purple one, and in Cappadocia a blue out of purple, gloomy and not gleaming. Amisos sends one like the Indian, Calchedon a turbid one. But it matters less to distinguish the nations than the qualities.

116| The best is the one that has something of purple, second that which has something of rose, third that of smaragdus. For each the Greeks gave names from the evidence. The fourth among them is called boria, like the autumn sky in the morning; this will be the one that is called aerizusa. [It is like sarda too, and imitates violets as well.] No fewer kinds remain, but all lapse into blue, as one like crystallus or myxae, and likewise the terebinthizusa. For this reason the finer ones are enclosed in a setting open on both sides, so that they are exposed on both sides, and nothing but the rims is clasped by the gold.

117| The defect in them is a brief lustre not shining far, and salt, and everything else that belongs to the rest. They are also adulterated with glass, which becomes evident when they scatter their brilliance outside and do not hold it in themselves. The rest they call sphragides, the common name of gems being given to these alone [because they seal best].

118| The whole East, moreover, is reported to wear them as an amulet. The one of them that is like smaragdus is often girdled in the middle by a white line across it and is called monogrammos; the one with several lines, polygrammos. It is pleasant to refute here also, in passing, the vanity of the Magi, since they have reported this stone useful to those addressing assemblies. There is also one joined with onyx, called iasponyx, which contains a cloud, imitates snows, and is starred with ruddy points. There is also one like Megarian salt and as if stained with smoke, called capnias. Of a size of 16 unciae we have seen a figure of Nero in a cuirass formed from it.

119| The cyanos will also be given separately, its name having been applied a little earlier to iaspis too, from the blue colour. The best is Scythian, then Cyprian, last Egyptian. It is adulterated chiefly by dyeing, and this is a glory of the kings of Egypt; the man who first dyed it is even recorded. It is divided, moreover, into males and females. It sometimes has also a golden dust, not such as in sappiri; for in these the gold shines in points.

120| The sappiri too are blue, and rarely with purple. The best are among the Medes, yet nowhere entirely translucent. Besides, they are useless for engraving because of crystalline centres intervening. Those of them which are of cyan colour are considered males.

121| A further class after this is to be given to the purple stones or those that descend from them. The Indian amethysti hold the first place, but they are found also in the part of Arabia which borders on Syria and is called Petra, and in Lesser Armenia and Egypt and Galatia, while the dirtiest and cheapest are in Thasos and Cyprus. They give as the reason for the name that, approaching the colour of wine, before it tastes of it the brilliance ends in violet; others, that there is something in that purple not wholly fiery, but failing into the colour of wine. All are translucent with a violet beauty, easy to engrave.

122| The Indian has the finished colour of Phoenician purple. To it the dyers' workshops direct their prayers. It sheds a look gently pleasing, not quivering in the eyes, as carbunculi do. A second kind of them descends to the hyacinthi; this colour the Indians call socon, and such a gem socondion. A more diluted one of the same is called sapenos, and the same is pharanitis in the neighbouring part of Arabia, from the name of the people. The fourth kind has the colour of wine.

123| The fifth descends to the neighbourhood of crystallus, with a whitish failing of purple. This is least approved, since the finest ought to be, on being looked at, a certain gently rosy glitter in purple, as if shining from a carbunculus. Some prefer to call such paederotae, others anterotes, many Venus's cheek.

124| The vanity of the Magi promises that these resist drunkenness and are named from that; further, that, should the names of the moon and the sun be inscribed on them and they are so hung from the neck with hairs of a dog-headed ape and feathers of a swallow, they resist poisonings; and indeed that, in whatever way, they bring the kings' favour to those about to approach them; that they also turn away hail and locusts with a prayer added, which they set out. And they have likewise promised similar things for smaragdi too, if eagles or scarabs are engraved on them, things which I think they wrote not without contempt for, and mockery of, the human race.

125| Far from this is the hyacinthus, though descending from a neighbouring colour. The difference is this: that the violet brilliance flashing out in the amethystus is diluted in the hyacinthus and, pleasing at first sight, vanishes before it satisfies, and so little fills the eyes that it scarcely touches them, fading more quickly than the flower of its name.

126| Ethiopia sends hyacinthi and also chrysolithi, translucent with a golden brilliance. To these the Indian are preferred and, if they are not variegated, the Tibarenian. The worst are the Arabian, since they are turbid and variegated, the brilliance interrupted by a cloud of spots, and even those that happen to be clear are as if stuffed with sawdust. The best are those which, when compared, make gold look whitish with a certain look of silver. These are set in a mounting that is open, transparent; under the others aurichalcum is placed, although they have already gone out of use as gems.

127| Some are also called chryselectrae, inclining to the colour of electrum, but only in the morning view. Pontic ones are detected by their lightness. Some are hard and reddish, some soft and dirty. Bocchus is the authority that they are found also in Spain, and in that place he said that crystallum is dug up at the level of water in wells sunk down, and that he saw a chrysolithus of 12 pounds.

128| There are also leucochrysi, a white vein intervening. In this kind there are also capniae. There are also ones like glass, shining as if with saffron; they are adulterated with glass, so that they cannot be distinguished by sight; touch detects them, being warmer in the glass ones. In the same kind are the melichrysi, as if clear honey shone through gold. India bears these, though brittle in hardness, not unpleasing. The same land produces also the xuthon, a common gem of its own.

129| The leader of the white stones is the paederos, although it can be asked in what colour it ought to be counted, a name so often bandied about among the beauties of others that the prerogative of beauty has become a matter of the word. Yet it has also a kind of its own, worthy of such expectation. For there meet in a translucent crystallus the green, in its own way, of the air, and of purple together, and a certain glitter of golden wine always at the extremity of the view, but crowned with purple. It seems to be moist, both with each of these singly and with all of them together,

130| and no gem can be more liquid, with a pleasing sweetness to the eyes. It is most praised among the Indians, among whom it is called sangenon, next in Egypt, where it is syenites, third in Arabia, but rough, then the Pontic, which radiates more softly, the Thasian, itself softer, and the Galatian and Thracian and Cyprian. Their defects are languor, or being clouded by foreign colours, and those of the rest.

131| Next of the whitish ones is asteria. It holds first place by a property of its nature, that it keeps light enclosed in a sort of pupil. This it pours across when tilted, showing it, as if walking about inside, now in one place and now in another. The same, turned against the sun, throws back whitish rays in the manner of a star, from which it found its name. Those born in India are difficult to carve. The Carmanian are preferred.

132| Similarly white is the one called astrion, near to crystallus, born in India and on the shores of Patalene. In this a star shines inside from the centre with the full brilliance of the moon. Some give as the reason for the name that, set against the stars, it seizes their brilliance and throws it back. They say the best is produced in Carmania and that none is less subject to defect; that the poorer one is also called ceraunia; and that the worst is like the light of lanterns.

133| They celebrate also the astriotes, and they report that Zoroaster sang wonderful praises of it in the arts of the Magi. Sudines says that astolos is like the eyes of fishes, and radiates with a white brilliance like the sun.

134| Among the white ones is also that which is called ceraunia, seizing the brilliance of the stars, itself crystalline, of a blue splendour, born in Carmania. Zenothemis concedes that it is white, but has a star flashing inside; that there are also dull cerauniae, which, steeped in nitre and vinegar for some days, conceive that star, which fades after as many months.

135| Sotacus made also two other kinds of ceraunia, black and reddish [that they are like axes]. Of these, the black and round ones, he says, are sacred; by them cities are stormed and fleets; they are called baetuli; those that are long, cerauniae. They make also another, very rare, sought after by the zeal of the Magi, since it is not found anywhere but in a place struck by lightning.

136| Next to ceraunia, among them, is the name that is given to the one called iris. It is dug up on a certain island of the Red Sea, which is 60,000 paces distant from the city of Berenice, the stone being crystallus in the rest of its substance. Therefore some have said that it is the root of crystallus. It is called iris from the evidence, for when struck by the sun under a roof it casts the appearance and colours of the heavenly bow onto the nearest walls, constantly changing and increasing wonder at itself by great variety.

137| It is agreed to be six-sided like crystallus, but some say it has rough sides and unequal angles, and that in open sun it scatters rays glowing within itself, but that by a certain brightness thrown out before it, it lights up what lies near. They give colours, however, only from shade, as we have said, and not as though they themselves had them, but so that they strike them out by the rebound from the walls; the best is the one that makes the greatest arcs, most like the heavenly ones. There is also another iritis, similar in the rest, but extremely hard.

138| Orus wrote that this, burned and pounded, is a remedy for the bites of ichneumons, and that it is born in Persia. — Similar in look, but not of the same effect, is the one called leros, with white and black spots marking the crystallus across. Having set out the principal gems by classes of colour, we shall explain the rest in alphabetical order.

139| Achates was once of great authority, now it is of none. It was first found in Sicily beside the river of the same name, afterwards in very many lands, outstanding in size, abundant in varieties, which change its surnames. For it is called iaspachates, cerachates, smaragdachates, haemachates, leucachates, dendrachates, which is marked as if with little trees, antachates, which, when burned, smells of myrrh, and corallachates, sprinkled with golden drops in the manner of sappirus, of which kind the most abundant is in Crete. This one is also called sacred. Some think it is of benefit against the stings of spiders and scorpions.

140| This I should believe at any rate of the Sicilian ones, since at the first breath of that province the plague of scorpions is extinguished. Those found in India also have power against the same, with great other marvels: for they reproduce the appearance of rivers, of groves, and even of beasts of burden. From it they make statuettes for chariot-fighters, ornaments for horses, and small whetstones for physicians, for even to have looked at them is good for the eyes.

141| They also allay thirst when put in the mouth. The Phrygian have no green. Those found at Egyptian Thebes lack reddish and white veins, and these too are strong against scorpions. The Cyprian have the same authority. There are those who most approve in these a glassy transparency. They are found also in Trachinia around Oeta and on Parnassus and in Lesbos and in Messene, like the flowers of boundaries, and in Rhodes.

142| Among the Magi there are other differences in them: those found like lions' skins, they say, have power against scorpions. In Persia, moreover, by the fumigation of them storms and presteres are turned away and rivers stopped — the proof being that if they are put into boiling cauldrons they cool them — but, to be of use, they must be tied on with lions' manes, for tied with a hyena's they bode discord to households. The one that is of a single colour is unconquerable for athletes, the proof being that cast into a pot full of oil with pigments and made to boil for two hours, it makes of all one colour, that of minium.

143| Acopos is similar in colour to nitre, pumice-like, starred with golden drops. With this, oil that has been heated through relieves weariness in those anointed with it, if we believe it. — Alabastritis is born at Alabastron in Egypt and at Damascus in Syria, its whiteness interspersed with various colours. This, burned and ground with rock salt, is said to lessen heaviness of the mouth and teeth. —

144| They call alectoriae those found in the stomachs of cocks, of crystalline appearance, the size of a bean, by use of which they want it believed that Milo of Croton was unconquered in contests. — Androdamas has the shine of silver [like adamas], always like square tesserae. The Magi think the name was given from the fact that it tames the attacks and angers of men. Whether argyrodamas is the same or another, the authorities do not explain.

145| — Antipathes is black and not translucent. The test of it is that it is cooked in milk; for it makes it like murra. Something immense someone may perhaps expect in it, when among so many examples the possession of this name has been given to one. The Magi want it to help against bewitchings. — Arabica is very like ivory, and would be thought so, if its hardness did not deny it. This they think is of benefit to those who have pains in the sinews. — Aromatitis is itself found in Arabia, but also in Egypt around Philae, everywhere stony and of the colour and smell of myrrh, and on this account much used by queens.

146| — Asbestos is born in the mountains of Arcadia, of iron colour. — Aspisatis Democritus relates is born in Arabia, of fiery colour, and ought to be tied on with camel dung for those with spleen trouble, and at any rate is found in the nest of Arabian birds; and another of the same name is born there in Leucopetra, silver in colour, radiant; with [….] against those who are possessed by madness.

147| — Atizoe, he says, is born in India and on Mount Acidane in Persia, shining with a silver brilliance, three fingers in size, in the shape of a lentil, of pleasant smell, necessary to the Magi when they appoint a king. — Augitis seems to many to be no other than callaina. The stone amphidanes is called by another name chrysocolla, born in the part of India where the ants dig up gold, in which it is also found, like gold, of square shape. It is affirmed that its nature is that of the magnet, except that it is also reported to increase gold.

148| — Aphrodisiaca is reddish out of white. — Apsyctos keeps heat for seven days when warmed by fire, black and heavy, reddish veins marking it. They think it of benefit against colds. — Aegyptilla Iacchus takes to be one through the white of a sarda with black veins crossing it, but the common people one with a black root and a blue face. The name is from the place.

149| Of the balanitis there are two kinds, one greenish and the other like Corinthian bronze, the former coming from Coptos, the latter from the Troglodyte country, a flame-coloured vein cutting the middle. — Batrachitae too Coptos sends, one like a frog in colour, another also in its veins, a third like toads, out of black. — Baptes, though soft otherwise, excels in smell. — The eye of Belus, whitish, surrounds a black pupil gleaming from the middle with a golden colour, and on account of its appearance is dedicated to the most sacred god of the Assyrians. Another belum, however, so called, Democritus relates is born at Arbela, of the size of a walnut, of glassy appearance.

150| — Baroptenus or baripe, black with blood-red and white knots, when tied on is cast away as if portentous. — Botryitis: one kind is black, another vine-leaf coloured, like a grape just beginning. — Bostrychitis Zoroaster calls more like women's hair. — Bucardia, like an ox's heart, is born only at Babylon. — Brontea, like the head of tortoises, falls with thunder, as they think, and, they say, puts out what is struck by lightning, if we believe it. — Boloe are found on the Hiber, in the likeness of a clod.

151| Cadmitis is the same as the one called ostracitis, except that blue blisters sometimes encircle this one. — Callais imitates sappirus, is whiter and is like the sea along a shore. — Capnitis seems to some to have a kind of its own, to most to be a smoky iaspis, as we said in its place. — Cappadocia is born also in Phrygia, like ivory. — Callaica they call one out of a turbid callainus. They report that several are always found joined together.

152| — Catochitis is a stone of Corsica, larger and more wonderful than the rest, if what is handed down is true, holding a hand laid on it as if with gum. — Catoptritis comes forth in Cappadocia, throwing back an image by its whiteness. — Cepitis or cepolatitis is white, the lines of its veins meeting into one. — Ceramitis has the colour of a potsherd.

153| — Cinaediae are found in the brain of the fish of the same name, white and oblong and wonderful in the outcome, if only there is credit in their foretelling the condition of the sea, cloudy or calm. — Ceritis is like wax, circos like a hawk, corsoides like the greyness of a head, corallachates like coral, marked with golden drops, corallis with minium; it is produced in India and at Syene.

154| — Crateritis has a colour between chrysolithus and electrum, of very hard nature. — Crocallis shows wax. — Cyitis is born around Coptos, white, and seems to have within it an offspring, which is sensed even by a rattling. — Chalcophonos is black, but when struck it gives out the ringing of bronze, to be carried by tragic actors, as they urge.

155| — Chelidoniae are of two kinds, of the colour of swallows, purple on one side, in the other purple interrupted by black spots. — The chelonia is the eye of an Indian tortoise, most portentous with the lies of the Magi. For they promise that, laid on the tongue with the mouth rinsed with honey, it gives divination of future things on the 15th day of the moon and at the new moon all day, but when the moon is waning before sunrise, on other days from the first to the sixth hour. — There are also chelonitides, like the surface of other tortoises, from which they prophesy much for calming storms, but say that the one of them sprinkled with golden drops, thrown with a scarab into boiling water, stirs up storms.

156| — Chloritis is of the colour of grass; the Magi say it is found in the belly of the bird motacilla, born with it, and they order it to be enclosed in iron for certain prodigies of their custom. — Choaspitis is named from a river, golden in brilliance out of green. — Chrysolampsis is born in Ethiopia, pale at other times, but fiery by night. — Chrysopis seems to be gold. — Cetionides are born in Aeolis, at Atarneus, now a village, once a town, translucent with many colours, sometimes glassy, sometimes crystalline, sometimes like iaspis, but even the dirty ones have such a shine that they give back images like mirrors.

157| Daphnea Zoroaster points out for the falling sickness. — Diadochos is like berullus. — Diphyes is double, white and black, male and female, the genital organ of each, a line distinguishing the sex. — Dionysias, black and hard, with reddish spots mixed in, when ground in water produces the taste of wine and is thought to resist drunkenness.

158| — Draconitis or dracontias is made from the brain of dragons, but does not become a gem unless the head is cut off from the living animal, from the spite of the creature feeling that it is dying. [So they cut it off from sleeping ones.] Sotacus, who wrote that he saw this gem at the court of a king, relates that those seeking it are carried in two-horse chariots, and on seeing a dragon scatter sleep-inducing drugs, and thus cut off the head of the drugged creature. He says it is of translucent whiteness, and afterwards cannot be polished nor admits art.

159| Encardia has the surname enariste, with the likeness of a heart standing out on a black ground; another of the same name shows the appearance of a heart in green colour, a third a black heart, the rest of it white. — Enorchis is white and, when the fragments are divided, shows the likeness of testicles. — Exhebenum Zoroaster relates to be handsome and white, with which goldsmiths polish gold.

160| — Erythallis, though white, seems to turn red when tilted. — Erotylos or amphicomos or hieromnemon is praised by Democritus in the proofs of divination. — Eumeces is born in Bactria, like flint, and placed under the head gives night visions in the manner of an oracle. — Eumitres, the gem of Belus, most holy of their gods, the Assyrians revere, of the colour of a leek, pleasing for superstitions. — Eupetalos has four colours,

161| blue, fiery, that of minium, that of an apple. — Eureos is like the kernel of an olive, striped in the manner of shells, not so white. — Eurotias seems to cover blackness with mould. — Eusebes is from that stone from which a seat was made, it is handed down, in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, from which the pious easily rose. — Epimelas is made when a white gem blackens on top.

162| Galaxia some call galactites, like those just mentioned, but with blood-red or white veins running through. — Galactitis is of one colour, that of milk. The same they call leucogaea and leucographitis and synechitis, notable in rubbing for the juice and taste of milk, in nursing, productive of milk for nurses. Tied on the neck of infants, it is reported to produce saliva, but to dissolve in the mouth; the same takes away memory. The rivers Nile and Achelous send it. There are those who call a smaragdus bound round with white veins galactites.

163| — Gallaica is like argyrodamas, a little dirtier; they are found joined two and three together. — Gassinades the Medes send, of the colour of the bitter vetch, as if sprinkled with flowers; it is born also at Arbela. This gem too is said to conceive and, when shaken, to declare an offspring within itself, and to conceive in the space of three months.

164| — Glossopetra, like a human tongue, is said not to be born in the earth, but to fall from the sky when the moon is failing, necessary for divination by the moon. That we should not believe it, the vanity of the promise also makes; for they tell that winds are held in check by it. — Gorgonia is nothing other than coral. The cause of the name is that it is changed into the hardness of stone after being soft in the sea. This, they affirm, resists lightning and typhoons. — Goniaea, with the same vanity, they promise brings about the punishment of enemies.

165| Heliotropium is born in Ethiopia, Africa and Cyprus, of the colour of a leek, marked with blood-red veins. The cause of the name is that, thrown into a vessel of water, when the brilliance of the sun falls upon it, it changes the sun's colour by a blood-red reflection, especially the Ethiopian. The same, out of the water, receives the sun in the manner of a mirror and detects eclipses, showing the moon passing under. The impudence of the Magi has even a most manifest example in this stone too, since they deny that the wearer is seen if the herb heliotropium is mixed with it and certain prayers are added.

166| — Hephaestitis also has the nature of a mirror in giving back images, although ruddy. The test is, if boiling water poured on at once is cooled, or if, set in the sun, it at once kindles dry material. It is born in Corycus. — Hermu aedoeon, from the evidence of virility, is so called in a white gem or black, sometimes also pale, with a ring of golden colour about it.

167| — Hexecontalithos, many-coloured in small size [it took this name for itself], is found in the Troglodyte country. — Hieracitis alternates throughout, as if with feathers of kites and black ones. — Hammitis is like the eggs of fishes, and another as if composed of nitre, very hard otherwise. — The horn of Ammon is among the most sacred stones of Ethiopia, of golden colour, giving the likeness of a ram's horn; it is promised to show dreams of divine foresight.

168| — Hormiscion is seen among the most pleasing, radiating from a fiery colour with gold [carrying with it at the extremities a white light]. — Hyaeniae, stones from the eyes of the hyaena, [….] are said to be found and, if we believe it, put under a man's tongue to foretell the future.

169| — Haematitis in Ethiopia is indeed the chief, but it is found also in Arabia and in Africa, of blood-red colour, with promises not to be omitted for exposing the snares of the Magi. Zachalias of Babylon, in the books he wrote for King Mithridates, attributing human fates to gems, not content with having honoured this one with medicine for the eyes and liver, gave it also to those about to ask something of a king, set it between lawsuits and trials, and declared it salutary in battles even to the bloodless. There is also another of the same kind, which is called menui, by others xuthos. So the Greeks name the whitish out of tawny.

170| The Idaean dactyli in Crete, of iron colour, represent a human thumb. — Icterias is like the skin of a sallow apple and therefore thought wholesome against the royal disease. There is also another of the same name, more livid; a third like a leaf, broader than the former and almost without weight, with sallow veins; a fourth kind in the same colour, blacker, with sallow veins running through it. — Jupiter's gem is white, not heavy, tender. This they also call drosolithos. — Indian stones have the names of their peoples, of a slightly reddish colour, but in rubbing they run with a purple sweat. Another of the same name is white, of dusty appearance. — Ion among the Indians is violet; it is rare for it to shine with a deep colour.

171| Lepidotis imitates the scales of fishes in various colours, Lesbias clods, having the name of its country; it is found, however, also in India. — Leucophthalmos, ruddy at other times, contains the look of an eye, white and black. — Leucopoecilos marks its whiteness with drops of minium from gold. — Libanochrus shows the likeness of frankincense and the juice of honey.

172| — Limoniatis seems to be the same as smaragdus. — Of liparea only this is handed down, that when it is burned as incense all wild beasts are called out. Lysimachos, like Rhodian marble with gilded veins, is polished from a greater size down to narrow compass, so that the useless parts are rubbed away. — Leucochrysos is made out of chrysolithus with whitish in between.

173| What Memnonia is like is not handed down. — Media is black, found from that fabled Media; it has veins of golden colour, gives out a sweat of saffron, the taste of wine. Meconitis represents poppies. — Mithrax comes from Persia and from the mountains of the Red Sea, many-coloured and gleaming variously against the sun. — Morochthos, of leek colour, sweats milk. — Mormorion from India is translucent in a very black colour; it is called also promnion; when the colour of carbunculus is mixed in it, Alexandrion; where that of sarda, Cyprium. It is born also in Tyre and in Galatia; Xenocrates relates that it is born also under the Alps. These are the gems that are fitted for engraved impressions in relief. —

174| Myrrhitis has the colour of myrrh and the look least of a gem, the smell of ointment, and when rubbed even of nard. — Myrmecias has black projections like warts, myrsinitis a honey colour, the smell of myrtle. — Mesoleucos is made when a white border marks the middle of the gem, mesomelas when a black vein cuts through the middle, in whatever colour.

175| Nasamonitis is blood-red with black veins. — Nebritis, sacred to Father Liber, took its name from the likeness to fawn-skins; there is another, out of black, of the same kind. — Nipparene takes its name from a city and people of Persia, like the teeth of the hippopotamus.

176| Oica, of a barbarian name, is pleasing from black and tawny and green and white. — Ombria, which others call notia, as also ceraunia and brontea, is said to fall with rains and lightning and to have the same effect; further, that libations put on altars with it are not burned up. — Onocardia is like scarlet, and nothing else is handed down about it. — Oritis, of globular appearance, is called by some also sideritis, not feeling fire.

177| — Ostracias or ostracitis is testaceous, harder than ceramitis, like achates, except that that one becomes greasy with polishing. In this there is such hardness that other gems are engraved with fragments of it. — Ostritis oysters gave its name, from the likeness. — Ophicardelon the barbarians call a black colour enclosed by two white lines. — Of the obsian stone we spoke in the previous book. There are found also gems of the same name and colour not only in Ethiopia and India, but also in Samnium and, as some think, in Spain, on the shores of that ocean.

178| Panchrus is made up of almost all colours. — Pangonus, no longer than a finger, by the number of its several angles prevents it from looking like crystallus. — What Paneros is like, Metrodorus does not say, but he sets out a not inelegant poem of Queen Timaris about it, dedicated to Venus, from which it is understood that her fertility was aided by it. Some call this paneraston. — Of the Pontic there are several kinds:

179| one is starred, now with blood-red, now with gilded drops, and is counted among the sacred. Another has lines of the same colour instead of stars, another the figures of mountains and valleys. — Phloginos, which they call also chrysitis, made like Attic ochre, is found in Egypt. —

180| Phoenicitis is named from its likeness to the date, phycitis from seaweed. — Perileucos is made when white descends from the rim of the gem to the root. — Paeanitides, which some call gaeanides, are said to become pregnant and give birth, and to help women in labour. [….] in Macedonia beside the monument of Tiresias, with the appearance of frozen water.

181| The gem of the Sun is white, scattering rays in a circle to the appearance of a star shining. — Sagda the Chaldaeans call, and they find it, as they report, sticking to ships, of leek-green colour. — The island Samothrace gives one of its name, black and without weight, like wood. — Sauritis they relate is found in the belly of a green lizard when it is cut open with a reed. — Sarcitis shows ox flesh. — Selenitis is translucent out of white with a honey brilliance, containing the image of the moon, and gives back from it, day by day, the appearance of the star as it waxes and wanes, if it is true. It is thought to be born in Arabia. — Sideritis is like iron;

182| brought in by malice, someone makes discord. It is born in Ethiopia. Sideropoecilos is made from it with variegating drops. — Spongitis represents its name. — Synodontitis is from the brain of the fishes that are called synodontes. — Syrtitides are found on the shore of the Syrtes, and now of Lucania too, shining from a honey colour with saffron, but contain inside faint stars. — Syringitis, like the internode of a stalk, is hollowed with a continuous pipe.

183| Trichrus comes from Africa, black, but gives three juices: black from the root, blood-red in the middle, ochre at the top. — Thelyrrhizos, of ash colour or red, is distinguished by white roots. — Thelycardios, in colour [….] of a heart, delights greatly the Persians, among whom it is produced; they call it mucul. — Thracia is of three kinds, livid or paler, in the third with blood-red drops.

184| — Tephritis has the appearance of the new moon bent into horns, although in the colour of ash. — Tecolithos seems an olive kernel, and there is no honour in that gem, but it breaks and drives out the stones of those who lick it. Venus' hair, of a very black shine, contain in themselves the appearance of a red hair. — Veientana is an Italian gem, found at Veii, a white boundary line marking the black material.

185| Zathene Democritus relates is born in Media, of the colour of electrum, and, if one rubs it in palm wine and saffron, to grow soft like wax, with a smell of great sweetness. — Zamilampis is born in the Euphrates, like Proconnesian marble, with a grey-blue colour in the middle. — Zoraniscaeos in the river Indus is told to be a gem of the Magi, and nothing more about it.

186| There is still another distinction, which I for my part might have made with a varied exposition from time to time, since they have names from the members of the body: hepatitis from the liver, steatitis from fat, of many kinds from the fat of different animals; Adadu nephros or kidneys, the eye of the same, the finger; he too is a god worshipped by the Syrians. Triophthalmos is born in onyx, showing three eyes of a man at once.

187| They are named from animals: carcinias, of the colour of the sea crab; echitis, of the viper; scorpitis, of the scorpion, either by colour or by likeness; scaritis, of the fish scarus; triglitis, of the mullet; aegophthalmos, with the eye of a goat, likewise another with a pig's; and from the neck of the crane, geranitis; hieracitis from the hawk; aetitis from the colour of an eagle, with a whitish tail. Myrmecitis has the innate likeness of a creeping ant; of scarabs, cantharias. Lycophthalmos is of four colours, ruddy, blood-red; in the middle it surrounds black with white, like the eyes of wolves. Taos is like a peacock, and likewise one like the asp, which I find is called timictonia.

188| There is a likeness to things in ammochrysos, as if gold mixed with sand; in cenchrites, scattered grains of millet; in dryites, the trunks of trees; this burns also like wood. Cissitis is translucent in white with ivy leaves, which hold the whole narcissitis, marked in veins also in the rest. Cyamias is black, but when broken produces from itself the likeness of a bean. Pyren is named from the olive kernel; in this the spines of fishes sometimes seem to be inside; phoenicitis is like a date.

189| — Chalazias has both the whiteness and the shape of hail, of adamantine hardness, so that they tell that even when put into fires it keeps its own cold. Pyritis is black, but burns the fingers by rubbing. Polyzonos [in black] shows white with many lines marking it, astrapaea [in white or cyan] with rays of lightning running across the middle. In phlogitis a flame seems to burn inside which does not go out, in anthracitis sparks run about.

190| — Enhygros is always of perfect roundness in a gentle whiteness; at movement liquid moves about inside it, as in eggs. — Polythrix shows in green a head of hair, but is said to cause the falling out of hair. There are also ones named from the lion's skin and from the panther's.

191| Colour has named: drosolithus, herb-green; melichrus, honey-coloured, of which there are several kinds; melichlorus, double, partly yellow, partly honey-coloured; crocias, of saffron; polias, scattering out of black a certain likeness of greyness; spartopolias, rarer. Rhoditis is of rose, melitis of the colour of an apple, chalcitis of bronze, sycitis of fig, bostrychitis in black branching with white or blood-red leaves, chernitis as if in a rock, with white hands clasped together.

192| — With anancitis, they say, the images of the gods are called up in hydromancy; with synochitis the shades of the dead, once called up, are held fast; and with white dendritis, buried under a tree that is to be felled, the edge of the axes is not blunted. — There are many more, and still more monstrous, to which they have given outlandish names, admitting that they are stones, not gems. For us it will be enough, in these cases, to have exposed the abominable lies of the Magi.

193| Gems also come into being suddenly, new and without names. For instance, Theophrastus records that one was once found in the gold mines of Lampsacus, and that because of its beauty it was sent to King Alexander.

194| The cochlides, which are now very common, are made rather than born. Huge lumps are found in Arabia which, it is said, are boiled in honey for seven days and seven nights without a break; when in this way everything earthy and faulty has been shaken off, the cleansed and pure lump is marked out in various ways by the craftsmen's ingenuity with veins and streaks of spots, laid out on the most saleable plan; and they were once made of such a size that they served the kings of the East as frontlets for their horses and as pendants in place of phalerae.

195| Besides, all gems take on a sheen when boiled in honey, especially Corsican honey, which for every other use is shunned for its sharpness. Those that are variegated, when the cunning of craftsmen contrives to cut them down to a single colour, and when for that reason they have no regular name, they call physis, as though they were selling in them the wonder of nature herself. Since there is no end to the names — which I for my part have no intention of pursuing, numberless as they are and the fruit of Greek vanity — now that the famous gems have been set out, and indeed the common ones too, it will be enough to have distinguished the kinds of the rarer ones that are worth mentioning. One thing only it will be well to remember: as spots and warts grow in various ways, and lines run across them in manifold course and colour, the names are often changed, though the material is for the most part the same.

196| Now, following the opinions of the authors, we shall speak of what concerns the examination of all gems in common. Gems that are concave or bulging are thought less valuable than those with an even surface. An oblong shape is the most approved; next, the one called lenticula; after that, the epipedos and the round; angular gems have the least favour.

197| To tell true gems from false is a matter of great difficulty, since a way has been found of turning genuine stones of one kind into false ones of another. Sardonyxes, for example, are glued together out of three gems in such a way that the craft cannot be detected: black taken from one, white from another, minium from another, each of them the most highly approved of its kind. What is more, there even exist treatises by authors — whom I for my part shall not point out — on the ways of dyeing smaragdus out of crystallus, and other translucent gems too, sardonyx out of sarda, and the rest likewise out of others; nor is there any fraud in life more profitable.

198| We, on the other hand, shall set out the method of detecting false gems, since it is right that even luxury should be armed against fraud. So, apart from what we have said specifically under the chief stone of each kind, they hold that translucent gems should be tested in the morning, or, if it must be, up to the fourth hour; after that they advise against it.

199| The tests are of several kinds: first by weight, for true gems are heavier; next by coolness, for they also feel colder in the mouth; after that by their substance. In counterfeits a bubble shows in the depths, there is roughness on the surface and there are hairlines, the brilliance is unsteady, and the lustre fails before it reaches the eyes.

200| The most effective test, a chip struck off and burnt on an iron plate, the gem dealers understandably refuse, and the test of the file likewise. Fragments of obsiana do not scratch true gems, while on counterfeits every scratch shows white. There is, moreover, so great a difference between them that some cannot be engraved with iron, others only with blunted iron, but all can be with adamas. Most effective of all in working them, however, is the heat of the drill. The gem-bearing rivers are the Acesinus and the Ganges; but of all lands, India bears them most.

201| And now that all the works of nature have been covered, it will be fitting to draw some comparison between the things themselves and between lands. In the whole world, then, wherever the vault of heaven bends, the most beautiful of all lands, in all the things that rightly hold the first rank in nature, is Italy, ruler and second mother of the world: in her men and women, her generals and soldiers, her slaves, her pre-eminence in the arts and the brilliance of her talents; and also in her situation, the healthiness and mildness of her climate, her easy access for all nations, her coasts rich in harbours, and the kindly breath of her winds. This comes from her position, jutting out in the most advantageous direction and midway between the risings and the settings of the sun; and from her plenty of water, her wholesome woods, the jointed ranges of her mountains, the harmlessness of her wild beasts, the fertility of her soil and the richness of her pastures.

202| Whatever there is that life ought not to lack is nowhere more excellent: grain, wine, oil, wool, flax, cloth, bullocks. Not even in the three-horse chariot races do they prefer any horses to native ones. In mines of gold, silver, copper and iron she yielded to no land, as long as working them was lawful; and now, pregnant within herself, in place of every dowry she pours out varied juices and the flavours of grain and fruit.

203| After her — leaving aside the fabulous tales of India — I for my part would rank Spain next, at least wherever it is bordered by the sea. Though parched in part, yet where it does bear, it is fertile in grain, oil, wine, horses and metals of all kinds; in these Gaul is its equal. But Spain wins with the spartum of its deserts and with lapis specularis, with its luxuries in pigments too, with the energy of its labour, the training of its slaves, the hardiness of its people's bodies and the vehemence of their hearts.

204| As for the things themselves, the highest price among those born in the sea belongs to pearls; among those on the surface of the earth, to crystalli; among those within it, to adamas, smaragdi, gems and murrina; among those that grow out of the earth, to coccum and laser; among foliage, to nard and Seric fabrics; among trees, to citrus; among shrubs, to cinnamon, casia and amomum; among the saps of tree or shrub, to amber, opobalsamum, myrrh and frankincense; among roots, to costus. Of creatures that breathe, on land the highest price is for elephants' tusks, in the sea for the shell of turtles; among hides, for the pelts that the Seres dye, and for the hair of the goats of Arabia, which we have called ladanum; among things that belong to both land and sea, for shellfish and purpura. In the nature of birds nothing remarkable is recorded, apart from plumes for war-helmets and the fat of Commagenian geese. We must not pass over the fact that gold, about which all mortals go mad, scarcely holds the tenth place in value, and silver, with which gold is bought, almost the twentieth.

205| Hail, Nature, mother of all things, and look with favour on me, who alone of the citizens of Rome have celebrated you in every part of your being.

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