506 PLINY'S NATUBAL HISTORY. [Book XXXI. 



all effusions of wit. All the amenities, in fact, of life, supreme 

 hilarity, and relaxation from toil, can find no word in our lan- 

 guage to characterize them better than this. Even in the 

 very honours, too, that are bestowed upon successful warfare, 

 salt plays its part, and from it, our word " salariuin" 27 is derived. 

 That salt was held in high esteem by the ancients, is evident 

 from the Salarian 28 Way, so named from the fact that, by 

 agreement, the Sabini carried all their salt by that road. King 

 Ancus Martius gave six hundred modii of salt as a largess 29 

 to the people, and was the first to establish salt-works. Yarro 

 also informs us, that the ancients used salt by way of a relish- 

 ing sauce ; and we know, from an old proverb, 30 that it was 

 the practice with them to eat salt with their bread. But it is 

 in our sacred rites more particularly, that its high importance 

 is to be recognized, no offering ever being made unaccompanied 

 by the salted cake. 31 



CHAP. 42. FLOWER OF SALT I TWENTY REMEDIES. SALSTJGO : 

 TWO REMEDIES. 



That which mainly distinguishes the produce of salt-works, 

 in respect of its purity, is a sort of efflorescence, 32 which forms 

 the lightest and whitest part of salt. The name " flower of 

 salt " 33 is given, also, to a substance of an entirely different 

 character, more humid by nature, and of a red or saffron co- 

 lour ; a kind of "rust of salt," as it were, with an unpleasant 

 smell like that of garum, and differing therein not only from 

 froth of salt, 34 but from salt itself. This substance is found 



27 Literally, " salt money" " argentum " being understood. The term 

 was originally applied to the pay of the generals and military tribunes. 

 Hence our word " salary." 



28 Beginning at the Colline Gate. 29 " In coiigiario." 



30 Most probably '* He cannot earn salt to his bread," or something 

 similar, like our saying, " He cannot earn salt to his porridge.'* The two 

 Greek proverbs given by Dalechamps do not appear to the purpose. 



31 " Mola salsa." aa "Favillam." 



33 " Schroder thinks that in what Pliny says of Flos Salis, he can find 

 the martial sal-ammoniac flowers of our chemists, [the double chloride of 

 ammonium and iron], or the so-called fares sales ammoniaci martiales. 

 It is certain that what Dioscorides and Pliny call flos sails, has never yet 

 been defined. The most ingenious conjecture was that of Cordus, who 

 thought that it might be Sperma ceti ; but though I should prefer this 

 opinion to that of Schroder, I must confess that, on the grounds adduced 

 by Matthioli and Conrad Gesner, it has too much against it to be admitted 

 as truth," Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 493. Bohris Ed. 



34 Salt collected from the foam on the sea-shore. 



