BOOK XIII. XXI. 69-xAii. 72 



used to write on palm-leaves and then on the bark 

 of certain trees, and afterwards folding sheets of 

 lead began to be employed for official muniments, 

 and then also sheets of Hnen or tablets of wax for 

 private documents ; for we find in Homer that the //. vi. ig8. 

 use of writing-tablets existed even before theTrojan 

 period, but when he was ^\Titing even the hind itself 

 which is now thought of as Egypt did not exist as such, 

 while now paper grows in the Sebennytic and Saitic 

 nomes of Egypt, the land having been subsequently 

 heaped up by the Nile, inasmuch as Homer wrote that 

 the island of Pharos, which is now joined to Alexan- 

 dria by a bridge, was twenty-four hours' distance 

 by sailing-ship from the land. Subsequently, also 

 according to Varro, when owing to the rivalry be- 

 tween King Ptolemy and King Eumenes about their 

 libraries Ptolemy suppressed the export of paper, 

 parchment " was invented at Pergamum ; and after- 

 wards the employment of the material on which the 

 immortahty of human beings depends spread indis- 

 criminately. 



XXII. Papyrus then grows in the swamps of Egypt Papyru» 

 or else in the sluggish waters of the Nile where they ^otm. 

 have overflowed and he stagnant in pools not more 

 than about three feet in depth ; it has a sloping root 

 as thick as a man's arm, and tapers gracefully up 

 with triangular sides to a length of not more than 

 about 15 feet, ending in a head Hke a thyrsus * ; 

 it has no seed,<^ and is of no use except that the 

 flowers are made into wreaths for statues of the gods. 

 The roots are employed by the natives for timber, 

 and not only to serve as firewood but also for making 

 various utensils and vessels; indeed the pap^Tus 

 itself is plaited to make boats, and the inner bark is 



141 



