338 PLiyr's ^atueal histoet. [Book VIII. 



vented at Alexandria ; these cloths are called polymita ; ^- it 

 was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers.^ Me- 

 teUus Scipio, in the accusation which he brought against 

 Cato,^ stated that even in his time Babylonian covers for 

 couches were selling for eight hundred thousand sesterces, and 

 these of late, in the time of the Emperor Xero, had risen to 

 four millions.^ The prsetextae of Servius Tullius, with which 

 the statue of Fortune, dedicated by him, was covered,^ lasted 

 until the death of Sejanus ; and it is a remarkable fact, that, 

 during a period of five hundred and sixty years, they had never 

 become tattered,^ or received injury from moths. I myself 

 have seen the fleece upon the Hving animal dyed purple, 

 scarlet, and violet, — a pound and a half^ of dye being used for 

 each, — ^just as though they had been produced by Mature in 

 this form, to meet the demands of luxury. 



CHAP. 75. THE DrETEEE>'T SHAPES OF SHEEP J THE MXJSilOJf. 



In the sheep, it is considered a proof of its being of a very 



^- From Martial's epif^am, entitled '* Cubicularia polymita," B. xiv. Ep. 

 150, we may conclude that the Egyptian polvmita were funned in a loom, 

 and of the nature of tapestry, while the Babylonian were embroidered ■with 

 the needle. Plautus probably refers to the Egyptian tapestry, in the 

 Pseud, A. i. s. 2, 1. 14, "Xeque Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia" 

 — " Xor yet the Alexandrine tapestries, figured over with beasts and sheUs." 



^-2 "Scutulis divider." This term may mean "squares," "diamonds," 

 or "lozenges," something like the segments into which a spider's web is 

 divided. It is not improbable that he alludes here to the plaids of the 

 Gallic nations. 



s= "We have an account of this contention in Plutarch, and we may pre- 

 sume that this accusation was produced at that time. — B. 



^ The first sum amounts to about £4,600 sterUng, the latter to 

 £23,000.— B. 



6' The following lines in Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. 1. 569, et sea., have been 

 supposed to refer to this temple, and prove that the account of it is correct. 

 " Lux eadera, Fortuna, tuaque est, auctorque, locusque. 

 " Sed superinjectis quis latet sede togis } 

 " Ser\'ius est. . . ." 



" The same day is thine, Fortune ; the same the builder, the same the 

 site. But who is this that Hes hid beneath the garments cevering him ? 

 It is Servius." 



^^ Perhaps " changed their colour " may be a better translation of " de- 

 fluxisse." 



^^ " Sesquipedalibus libris." It seems impossible to translate this lite- 

 rally. Hardouin explains it by supposing that the fleeces were dyed in 

 strips of three colours, each strip being half a foot in breadth, and that 

 three of these required a pound of the dyeing materials. — B. 



