BOOK XXII. III. 3-5 



served" to colour the military cloaks of our generals, 

 Transalpine Gaul can produce with vegetable dyes 

 Tyrian purple, oyster purple * and all other colours. 

 To get these nobody seeks the murex oyster in the 

 depths, ofFering his person as bait to sea monsters 

 while he hastens to snatch his booty, and exploring 

 a bottom that no anchor yet has touched, merely 

 to discover the means for a matron to charm her 

 paramour more easily and for a seducer to en- 

 snare another's wife. There one stands on land 

 to harvest dyes as we harvest crops ; and though 

 there is a complaint that the dye washes out with 

 use, except for this defect luxury could have be- 

 decked itself in brighter colours, and certainly with 

 less risk to Hfe. It is not my intention now to 

 treat this subject fully, but I shall not pass it over 

 entirely, so that I may, by suggesting cheaper 

 materials, curb luxury by expediency, and on 

 another occasion I shall tell how vialls are dyed 

 instead of being painted in mosaics.'' Yet I should 

 not have left out the craft of dyeing altogether, 

 had it ever been included among the liberal arts. 

 In the meantime I shall take a bolder line, and 

 there shall be assigned even to dull, that is to say, 

 lowly plants all the dignity that is their due, since 

 it is a fact that the founders and enlargers of the 

 Roman Empire derived from this source also an 

 immense advantage, because it was from them that 

 came the tufts used when the State needed cures,** 

 and also the vervains required in holy ceremonies 



not commit the mistake of curbing, by suggesting cheaper 

 materials, luxury by expediency, although I shall on another 

 occasion, etc." See XXXV. § 118. 



"* In times of national emergency, e.g., plague, a solemn 

 lectisternium was held, in which a sagrnen (or verbena) was used. 



297 



