Chap. 58.] AEGENTAETA. 301 



the people/' so attentive to everything were our ancestors. 

 The following then is the method employed in preparing 

 cloth : it is first washed in an infusion of Saxdinian earth, and 

 is then exposed to a fumigation with sulphur. This done, it is 

 scoured*^ with Cimolian earth, when the cloth has heen found 

 to be of a genuine colour ; it being very soon detected when it 

 has been coloured with spurious materials, by its turning 

 black and the colours becoming dispersed^" by the action of the 

 sulphur. Where the colours are genuine and rich, they are 

 softened by the application of Cimolian earth ; which brightens 

 and freshens them also when they have been rendered sombre 

 by the action of the sulphur. Saxum is better for white tissues, 

 after the application of sulphur, but to coloured cloths it is 

 highly injurious." In Greece they use Tymphsean^^ gypsum in 

 place of Cimolian earth. 



CHAP. 58. ARGENT AEIA. NAMES OP FEEEDMEN WHO HAVE 



EITHER RISEN TO POWER THEMSELVES, OR HAVE BELONGED 10 

 MEN OF INFLUENCE. 



There is another cretaceous earth, known as " argentaria,"^^ 

 from the brightness^^ which it imparts to silver. There is also 

 the most inferior kind of chalk ; which was used by the 

 ancients for tracing the line of victory^^ in the Circus, and for 

 marking the feet of slaves on sale, that were brought from 

 beyond sea. Such, for instance, were Publilius^ Lochius, the 



^"^ As a plebiscitum. 



*^ " Desquamatur." This is most probably the meaning of the word, 

 though Beckmann observes " that it was undoubtedly a term of art, which 

 cannot be further explained, because we are unacquainted with the opera- 

 tion to which it alludes." — Vol II. p. 104. Bohn's Edition. 



50 " Funditur sulphure." The meaning of these words is very doubt- 

 ful. Beckmann proposes to read * ' offenditur,' ' but he is not supported 

 by any of the MSS. He has evidently mistaken the meaning of the 

 whole passage. 



51 Probably because it was too calcareous, Beckmann thinks. 



52 See B. iv. c. 3, and B. xxxvi. c. 59. 



53 Plate powder; from " argentum," *' silver." See B. xvii. c. 4. 



5* Whitening, or chalk washed and prepared, is still used for this pur- 

 pose. 55 The goal for the chariots. 



56 This reading is restored by Sillig from the Bamberg MS., but no 

 particulars are known relative to the person alluded to ; unless, indeed, 

 as Sillig suspects to be the case, he is identical with Pubhus Syrus, ihe 

 writer of mimes, mentioned in B. viii. c. 77. 



