236 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book VII. 



CHAP. 58. (57.) THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH MANKIND FIBST OP 

 ALL AGEEED. THE ANCIENT LETTEES. 



There was at the very earliest 69 period a tacit consent among 

 all nations to adopt the letters now used by the lonians. 60 

 (58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same 

 with the modern Latin, 61 is proved by the ancient Delphic 

 inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library, 

 having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva ; this in- 

 scription is as follows : 



NAT2IKPATH2 ANE0ETO THI AIO2 KOPHI. 



[" Nausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus."] 62 



CHAP. 59. (59.) WHEN BAEBEES WEEE FIEST EMPLOYED. 63 



The next point upon which all nations appear to have 

 agreed, was the employment of barbers. 61 The Romans, how- 

 ever, were more tardy in the adoption of their services. 

 According to Yarro, they were introduced into Italy from 



59 Herodotus, B. v. c. 59, says that the Phoenician letters were very 

 eimilar to the Ionian ; and we are informed by Hardouin, that Scaliger, in 

 his Dissertation upon an ancient inscription on a column discovered in the 

 Via Appia, and removed to the Farnese Gardens, has proved that the 

 lonians borrowed their letters from the Phoenicians. B. 



60 Herodotus confirms this opinion by a reference to an ancient tripod at 

 Thebes, written in what he terms Cadma3an letters, having a strong resem- 

 blance to those used by the lonians. B. 



61 Tacitus, Ann. B. ix. c. 14, says, " The Latin letters have the same 

 form as the most ancient Greek ones." B. 



62 There is scarcely a letter of this inscription which has not been con- 

 troverted, and no two editions hardly agree, B. 



63 Probably the earliest existing reference to the practice of shaving is 

 in Genesis, xli. 14, where Joseph is said to have shaved and changed 

 his raiment, when brought from prison into the presence of Pharaoh ; in 

 this case, we may presume that it was the head, and perhaps not the beard, 

 which was shaven. B. 



64 The ancients had two methods of arranging the beard ; in one it was 

 cut close to the skin, in the other it was trimmed by means of a comb, and 

 left of a certain length. These two methqds are alluded to by Plautus, 

 Capt. ii. 2, 16 : B. " Now the old fellow is in the barber's shop ; at this 

 very instant is the other handling the razor but whether to say that he is 

 going to shave him close, or to trim him through the comb, I know not." 



