236 Pliny's k^atural histoet. [Book XXXV. 



the Balearic islands, and Africa; but the best is found in 

 Lemnos and Cappadocia, being extracted from quarries there. 

 That part is considered the best which has been found adhering 

 to the rock. In the native mass, it has its own proper colour 

 within, but is spotted on the exterior ; the ancients made use 

 of it for tone." 



There are three kinds of sinopis, the red, the pale red, and 

 the intermediate. The price of the best is twelve denarii per 

 pound ; it is used both for painting with the brush, and for 

 colouring wood. The kind which comes from Africa sells at 

 eight asses per pound ; the name given to it is " cicerculum."^^ 

 That^' which is of the deepest red is the most in use for 

 colouring compartitions. The sinopis known as the dulP^ 

 kind, being of a very tawny complexion, sells also at the price 

 of eight asses per pound; it is used principally for the lower^^ 

 parts of compartitions. 



Used medicinally, sinopis is of a soothing nature, and is em- 

 ployed as an ingredient in plasters and emollient poultices. 

 It admits of being easily used, whether in the form of a dry 

 or of a liquid composition, for the cure of ulcers situate in the 

 humid parts of the body, the mouth and the rectum, for in- 

 stance. Used as an injection, it arrests looseness of the bowels, 

 and, taken in doses of one denarius, it acts as a check upon 

 female discharges. Applied in a burnt state, with wine in 

 particular, it has a desiccative effect upon granulations of the 

 eyelids. 



CHAP. 14. KUBEICA ; LEMNIAN EARTH ! FOUR REMEDIES. 



Some persons have wished to make out that sinopis is 

 nothing else but a kind of rubrica^ of second-rate quality, 

 looking upon earth of Lemnos as a rubrica of the highest 

 quality. This last approaches very nearly to minium,^^ and 



*5 " Splendorem." See Note 7 above. 



1^ So called from its deep grey brown colour, like that of the " cicer" 

 or chick-pea. 



1' The sense of this passage seems to require the insertion of " quae," 

 although omitted by the Bamberg MS. ^^ " Pressior." 



^^ Those parts of the walls, probably, which were nearer to the ground, 

 and more likely to become soiled. 



2" Red ochre, or red oxide of iron. See B. xxxiii. c. 38, and B. xxxiv. 

 c. 37. 21 See B. xxxiii. cc. 36, 37. 



