390 DOMAIN V. CALCAREOUS. 



spots. One of these may be the Claudianum*, 

 if it be not another name for the Tiberian. Gor- 

 dian's villa had fifty Carystean columns (green) ; 

 fifty Claudian (red ?) ; fifty Synnadian (white, 

 spotted with bright red, porto santo-\}; fifty Nu- 

 midian (yellow). 



of Paros. j n passing to the Grecian first occurs the white 

 marble of Paros, sometimes called lychnites by 

 the ancients, because the quarries were explored 

 by lamp-light. A transparent kind, called phen- 

 gites by Pliny, was also found in Cappadocia, and 

 is said by Chardin to occur in Persia. Domitian 

 is reported by Suetonius to have formed galleries of 

 a kind of stone that reflected the figures of persons 

 behind him, corruptly called phengites, while it was 

 probably a fine black marble. 



The Parian marble was employed by the most 

 ancient Greek sculptors, about the fortieth Olym- 



* Hist. Aug. 676. 



f Perhaps thejiore de persico, or peach blossom j but travellers 

 may observe the original quarries in Natolia. 



The rosso antico, when unpolished, is of a dark dull appearance, 

 which obscures its difference from ophite. But as, in treating of 

 metals, Pliny begins with gold and silver ; and in gems, the dia- 

 mond and the emerald ; so in marbles he begins with the most 

 precious, as he says, the Laconian green, the Egyptian (red), and 

 ophite. Any relation of colours or qualities is not in view, but 

 only the value. 



