BOOK XIII. XXVII. 88-\xix. 92 



had read in a certain temple a letter of Sarpedon 

 written on paper at Troy — which seems to me even 

 more remarkable if even when Homer was writing, 

 Egypt did not yet exist : otherwise why, if paper was 

 already in use, is it known to have been the custom 

 to write on folding tablets made of lead or sheets 

 of linen, or why has Homer stated that even in n. vi. 168. 

 Lycia itself woodcn tablets, and not letters, were 

 given to Bellerophon ? This commodity also is 

 liable to dearth, and as early as the principate 

 of Tiberius a shortage of paper led to the appoint- 

 ment from the senate of umpires to supervise 

 its distribution, as otherwise life was completely 

 upset. 



XXVni. Ethiopia, which is on the borders of Egypt, Ethiopian 

 has virtually no remarkable trees except the mooI- '^'"^"' 

 tree,« Jike the one described among the trees of 

 India and Arabia. However, the Ethiopian variety xii. 38 ff. 

 has a much woollier consistency, and a larger pod, 

 like that of a pomegranate, and also the trees them- 

 selves resemble each other. Beside the wool-tree 

 there are also palms of the kind which w e have §§ 2S flf. 

 described. The trees and the scented forests of the 

 islands round the coast of Ethiopia have becn spoken 

 of when those islands were mentioned. vi. ins f . 



XXIX. Mount Atlas is said to possess a forest of a Citnis-wood 

 remarkable character, about which we have spoken. ^^ ' 

 Adjoining Mount Atlas is Mauretania, which pro- 

 duces a great many citrus-trees — and the table- 

 mania which the ladies use as a retort to the men 

 against the charge of extravagance in pearls. There 

 still exists a table that belonged to Marcus Cicero for 

 which with his slender resources and, what is more sur- 

 prising, at that date, he paid half-a-miUion sesterces; 



VOL, IV. F ^^^ 



