Chap. 57. J C^EULEUM. 141 



clear* sil, which comes from Gaul. This last kind, as well as 

 the Attic sil, is used for painting strong lights : but the mar- 

 bled sil only is employed for colouring compartitions,^ the 

 marble in it offering a resistance to the natural acridity of the 

 lime. This last kind is extracted also from some mountains 

 twenty miles distant from the City. When thus extracted, 

 it is submitted to the action of fire ; in which form it is adul- 

 terated by some, and sold for compressed sil. That it has been 

 burnt, however, and adulterated, may be very easily detected by 

 its acridity, and the fact that it very soon crumbles into dust. 

 Polygnotus^ and Micon'^ were the first to employ sil in 

 painting, but that of Attica solely. The succeeding age used 

 this last kind for strong lights only, and employed the Scyric 

 and Lydian kinds for shadow painting. The Lydian sil used 

 to be bought at Sardes ; but at the present day we hear 

 nothing of it. 



CHAP. 57. (13.) C^RULETJM. 



Cffiruleum^ is a kind of sand. In former times there were 

 three kinds of it ; the Egyptian, which was the most esteemed 

 of all ; the Scythian, which is easily dissolved, and which 

 produces four colours when pounded, one of a lighter blue 

 and one of a darker blue, one of a thicker consistency and 

 one comparatively thin ;^ and the Cyprian, which is now pre- 

 ferred as a colour to the preceding. Since then, the kinds 

 imported from Puteoli and Spain have been added to the list, 

 this sand having of late been prepared there. Every kind,^'' 



* "Lucidum." s << ^Ijacos." Small compartments 



or partitions in a square form on the walls of rooms. 



^ See B. vii. c. 57, where he is called an Athenian, whereas he was a 

 native of Thasos. He was one of the most eminent painters of antiquity, 

 and flourished in the age of Pericles. See a further account of him in 

 B. XXXV. c. 35, 



7 Son of Phanochus, and contemporary of Polygnotus. See B. xxxv. 

 c. 2^, where it is stated that in conjunction with Polygnotus, he either 

 invented some new colours, or employed them in his paintings on a better 

 plan than that previously adopted. 



8 " It is possible that the ' ceeruleum ' of the ancients may in some cases 

 have been real ultramarine, but properly and in general, it was only copper 

 ochre." — Beckmann's Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 472, Bohn's Edition. Dela- 

 fosse identifies it with blue carbonate and hydrocarbonate of copper, one 

 of the two azurites. 



^ '' Candidiorem nigrioremve, et crassiorem tenuioremve. " 



'0 Beckmann thinks that Pliny is here alluding to an artificial kind of 



