128 plint's natural history. [Book XII. 



these by the name of stagonia 2 and atomus, 3 while the smaller 

 pieces are called orobia. 4 The fragments which are broken off 

 by shaking the tree are known to us as manna. 5 Even at the 

 present day, however, there are drops found which weigh one- 

 third of a mina, or, in other words, twenty-eight denarii. 

 ..Alexander the Great, when a boy, was on one occasion loading 

 the altars with frankincense with the greatest prodigality, 

 upon which his tutor Leonides 6 remarked to him that it 

 would be time to worship the gods in such a lavish manner 

 as that, when he had conquered the countries that produced 

 the frankincense. After Alexandria had conquered Arabia, 

 he despatched to Leonides a ship freighted with frankincense, 

 and sent him word, requesting that he would now worship the 

 gods without stint or limit. 



The incense, after being collected, is carried on camels' 

 backs to Sabota, 7 at which place a single gate is left open for 

 its admission. To deviate from the high road while convey- 

 ing it, the laws have made a capital offence. At this place the 

 priests take by measure, and not by weight, a tenth part in 

 honour of their god, whom they call Sabis ; indeed, it is not 

 allowable to dispose of it before this has been done : out of 

 this tenth the public expenses are defrayed, for the divinity 

 generously entertains all those strangers who have made a cer- 

 tain number of days' journey in coming thither. The incense 

 can only be exported through the country of the Gebanitae, 

 and for this reason it is that a certain tax is paid to their 

 king as well. Thomna, 9 which is their capital, is distant 

 from Gaza, a city of Judsea, on the shores of our sea, 4436 10 



2 Meaning "drop" incense. 3 "Undivided" incense. 



4 From their being the size of an opofioQ, or "chick-pea." 



5 There is some doubt as to the correctness of this reading. The "manna" 

 here mentioned is quite a different substance to the manna of modern com- 

 merce, obtained from the Fraxinus ornus of naturalists. 



6 He was a kinsman of Olympias, the mother of Alexander, and a man 

 of very austere habits. Plutarch says, that on this occasion Alexander 

 sent to Leonidas 600 talents' weight of incense and myrrh. 



7 See B. vi. c. 32. 



8 Probably the same as the deity, Assabinus, mentioned by Pliny in c. 

 42 of the present Book. Theophrastus mentions him as identical with the 

 sun, others, again, with Jupiter. Theophrastus says that the god received 

 not a tenth part, but a third. 



9 As to this place and the Gebanitae, see B. vi. c. 32. 



10 There must surely be some mistake in these numbers. 



