BOOK XIX. IV. 2I-VI. 24 



Among the poppies also there is a kind from which an 

 outstanding material for bleaching hnen is extracted. 



V. An attempt has been made to dye even hnen DyedUnen 

 so as to adapt it for our mad extravagance in clothes. ^/^* "" 

 This was first done in the fleets of Alexander the 

 Great when he was voyaging on the river Indus, his 

 generals and captains having held a sort of competi- 



tion even in the various colours of the ensigns of their 

 ships ; and the river banks gazed in astonishment as 

 the breeze filled out the bunting with its shifting 

 hues. Cleopatra had a purple sail when she came 

 with Mark Antony to Actium, and with the same 

 sail she fled. A purple sail was subsequently the 

 distinguishing mark of the emperor's ship. 



VI. Linen cloths were used in the theatres as awn- Coioured 

 ings, a plan tii-st invented by Quintus Catulus when fheTtres. "' 

 dedicating the Capitol. Next Lentuhis Spinther is 

 recorded to have been the first to stretch awnings of 

 cambric in the theatre, at the games of Apollo. Soon 

 afterwards Caesar when dictator stretched awnings i^-n b.c. 

 over the whole of the Roman Forum, as well as the 

 Sacred Way from his mansion, and the slope riglit up 



to the Capitol, a disphiv recorded to have been thought 

 rnore wonderful even than the show of gladiators 

 which he gave. Next even when there was no disphiy 

 of games Marcellus the son of Augustus's sister 

 Octavia, during liis period of office as aedile, in tlie 

 eleventh consulship of liis uncle, from the first of 23 b.o. 

 August onward flxed awnings of sailcloth over the 

 forum, so that those engaged in lawsuits might resort 

 there under healthier conditions : what a change this 

 was from the stern manners of Cato the ex-censor, who 

 had expressed the view that even the forum ought 

 to be paved with sharp pointed stones ! " Recently 



435 



