Chap. 7-] THE MATURE OF SPARTUM. 139 



when Dictator, covered with a linen awning the whole of the 

 Human Forum, as well as the Sacred Way, from his own house 

 as far as the ascent to the Capitol, a sight, it is said, more won- 

 derful even than the show of gladiators which he then exhi- 

 bited. At a still later period, and upon the occasion of no 

 public games, Marcellus, the son of Octavia, sister of Augus- 

 tus, during his eedileship, and in the eleventh consulship of his 

 uncle, on the * * * day before the calends of August, covered 

 in the Forum with awnings, his object being to consult the 

 health of those assembled there for the purposes of litigation 

 a vast change, indeed, from the manners prevalent in the 

 days of Cato the Censor, who expressed a wish that the 

 Forum was paved with nothing else but sharp pointed stones. 



Awnings have been lately extended, too, by the aid of ropes, 

 over the amphitheatres of the Emperor Nero, dyed azure, like 

 the heavens, and bespangled all over with stars. Those which 

 are employed by us to cover the inner court 56 of our houses 

 are generally red : one reason for employing them is to protect 

 the moss that grows there from the rays 57 of the sun. In 

 other respects, white fabrics of linen have always held the 

 ascendancy in public estimation. Linen, too, was highly 

 valued as early as the Trojan war ; for why else should it not 

 have figured as much in battles as it did in shipwrecks ? Thus 

 Homer, 68 we find, bears witness that there were but few among 

 the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses 59 on 

 made of linen ; while, as for the rigging of the ships, of 

 which that writer speaks, it is generally supposed by the more 

 learned among the commentators, that it was made of this ma- 

 terial; for the word " sparta," 60 which he employs, means 

 nothing more than the produce of a seed. 



CHAP. 7. (2.) THE NATURE OF SPARTUM. 



For the fact is that spartum 61 did not begin to be employed 



56 The cavaedium is generally supposed to have been the same as the 

 " atrium," the large inner apartment, roofed over, with the exception of 

 an opening in the middle, which was called the " compluvium," or " im- 

 pluvium," over which the awning here mentioned was stretched. Here 

 the master of the house received his visitors and clients. 



57 White would be much preferable to red for this purpose. 



58 II. ii. 11. 529 and 830. 59 II. viii. 1. 63. 



60 II. ii. 1. 135. See B. xxiv. c. 40. 



61 The Stipa tenacissima of Linnreus ; a kind of broom, called " Esparto" 

 by the Spaniards. 



