BOOK XII. xLii. 93-xLiii. 97 



but it is not absolutely certain whether this was 

 incendiarism provoked by injustice on the part of 

 those in power or was due to accident, as we find it 

 stated in the authorities that the south winds that 

 blow there are so hot that they set fire to the forests 

 in summer. His Majesty the emperor Vespasian was 

 the first person to dedicate in the Temples of the 

 Capitol and of Peace chaplets of cinnamon surrounded 

 with embossed gold. We " once saw in the Temple 

 of the Palatine erected in honour of his late Majesty 

 Augustus by his consort Augusta a very heavy 

 cinnamon-root placed in a golden bowl, out of which 

 drops used to distil every year which hardened into 

 grains ; this went on until the shrine in question was 

 destroyed by fire. 



XLIII. Casia also is a shrub, and it grows close Thecasia 

 to the plains of cinnamon, but on the mountains ; ^^^^' 

 it has thicker stalks, and a thin skin rather than 

 bark, which, in the opposite way to what we said in § 91. 

 the case of cinnamon, gains value when it falls off 

 and thins aMay. This shrub grows to a height of 

 4:^ feet and it has three colours : when it first 

 sprouts up, to the length of a foot it is white, then 

 for the next six inches it is reddish, and beyond 

 that point it is black. The black part is most 

 highly esteemed, and next the part nearest to it, 

 but the white part has no value at all. They cut 

 the shoots to the length of two inches, and then 

 sew them up in newly fiayed hides of animals 

 slaughtered for the purpose, so that as they rot 

 maggots may gnaw away the wood and hollow 

 out the whole of the bark, which is protected from 

 them by its bitter taste. The bark is valued most 

 highly when fresh, when it has a very pleasant smell 



69 



