Chap. 3.] PLANTS FOR DYEING. 391 



corn — though one great fault in them is, that they wash'° out; 

 were it not for which, luxury would have the means of be- 

 decking itself with far greater magnificence, or, at all events, 

 at the price of far less danger. 



It is not my purpose, however, here to enter further into 

 these details, nor shall I make the attempt, by substituting 

 resources attended with fewer risks, to circumscribe luxury 

 within the limits of frugality ; though, at the same time, I 

 shall have to speak on another occasion how that vegetable 

 productions are employed for staining stone and imparting 

 their colours to walls. ^^ Still, however, I should not have 

 omitted to enlarge upon the art of dyeing, had I found that it 

 had ever been looked upon as forming one of our liberaP^ arts. 

 Meantime, I shall be actuated by higher considerations, and 

 shall proceed to show in what esteem we are bound to hold 

 the mute^" plants even, or in other words, the plants of little 

 note. For, indeed, the authors and founders of the Roman 

 sway have derived from these very plants even almost bound- 

 less results ; as it was these same plants, and no others, that 

 afforded them the ''sagmen,"^* employed in seasons of public 

 calamity, and the " verbena" of our sacred rites and embassies. 

 These two names, no doubt, originally signified the same thing, 

 — a green turf torn up from the citadel with the earth attached 

 to it ; and hence, when envoys were dispatched to the enemy 

 for the purpose of clarigation, or, in other words, with the 

 object of clearhf" demanding restitution of property that had 

 been carried off, one of these oflicers was always known as 

 the " verbenarius."^^ 



1° Fee thinks that the art of dyeing with alkanet and madder may be 

 here alluded to. ^^ See B. xxxv. c. 1. 



>2 The "good," "ingenuous," or "liberal" arts were those which might 

 be practised by free men without loss of dignity. Pliny is somewhat in- 

 consistent here, for he makes no scruple at enlarging upon tlie art of me- 

 dicine, which among the Romans was properly not a liberal, but a servile, 

 art. 



13 •'Sardis." 



^* Festus says the " verbenae," or pure herbs, were called "sagmina," 

 because they were taken from a sacred (sacer) place. It is more generally 

 supposed that " sagmen" comes from " saiicio," " to render inviolable," 

 the person of the bearer being looked upon as inviolable. 



15 "dart'." 



18 Or bearer of the " verbena." See further on this subject in 13. xxv. 

 C. 59. 



