Chop. 11.] THE MARBLES OF ALEXANDRIA. 327 



CHAP. 10. (7.) — STONE OF NAXOS. STONE OF AEMENIA. 



For polishing marble statues, as also for cutting and giving 

 a polish to precious stones, the preference was long given to 

 the stone of JSTaxos,^^ such being the name of a kind of touch- 

 stone^^ that is found in the Isle of Cyprus. More recently, 

 however, the stones imported from Armenia for this purpose 

 have displaced those of Naxos. 



CHAF 11. THE MARBLES OF ALEXANDRIA. 



The marbles are too well known to make it necessary for 

 me to enumerate their several colours and varieties; and, 

 indeed, so numerous are they, that it would be no easy task to 

 do so. For what place is there, in fact, that has not a marble 

 of its own ? In addition to which, in our description of the 

 earth and its various peoples,^* we have already made it our 

 care to mention the more celebrated kinds of marble. Still, 

 however, they are not all of them produced from quarries, but 

 in many instances lie scattered just beneath the surface of the 

 earth ; some of them the most precious even, the green Lace- 

 daemonian marble, for example, more brilliant in colour than 

 any other; the Augustan also; and, more recently, the Tiberian; 

 which were first discovered, in the reigns respectively of 

 Augustus and Tiberius, in Egypt. These two marbles differ 

 from ophites^^ in the circumstance that the latter is marked 

 with streaks which resemble serpents^^ in appearance, whence 

 its name. There is also this difference between the two 

 marbles themselves, in the arrangement of their spots : the 

 Augustan marble has them undulated and curling to a point ; 

 whereas in the Tiberian the streaks are white, ^'' not involved, 

 but lying wide asunder. 



Of ophites, there are only some very small pillars known to 

 have been made. There are two varieties of it, one white 

 and soft, the other inclining to black, and hard. Both kinds, 

 it is said, worn as an amulet, are a cure for head- ache, and for 



5* A city in Crete where the stone was prepared for use. ^^ <i Cotes." 

 " Books III. IV. V. and VI. 



^^ The modern Ophite, both Noble, Serpentine, and Common. 

 " From the Greek c(pig, a " serpent." 



s"' This would appear to he a kind of Apatite, or Augustite, found in 

 crystalline rocks. 



