BOOK XXXIII. XXVI. 87-xxvii. 90 



like flax or wool. It is pounded in a mortar and then 

 passed through a fine sieve, and afterwards milled 

 and then sifted again with a finer sieve, everything 

 that does not pass through the sieve being again 

 treated in the mortar and then milled again. The 

 powder is all along separated off into bowls and 

 steeped in vinegar so as to dissolve all hardness, and 

 then is pounded again and then rinsed in shells and 

 left to dry. Then it is dyed by means of ' spHttable ' 

 alum « and the plant above mentioned and so given 

 a colour before it serves as a colour itself. It is 

 important how absorbent it is and ready to take the 

 dye ; for if it does not at once catch the colour, 

 scytanum and turbistum ^ must be added as well — 

 those being the names of two drugs producing 

 absorption. 



XXVn. When painters have dyed gold-sokler, 

 they call it orobitis, vetch-like, and distinguish two 

 kinds, the purified,^ which is kept for a cosmetic, 

 and the Hquid, in which the little balls are made into 

 a paste with a hquid. Both of these kinds are 

 made in Cyprus, but the most highly valued is in 

 Armenia and the second best in Macedonia, while 

 the greatest quantity is produced in Spain, the 

 highest recommendation in the latter being the 

 quahty of reproducing as closely as possible the 

 colour in a bright green blade of corn. We have 

 before now seen at the shows given by the emperor 

 Nero the sand of the circus sprinkled with gold- a.d. 54-68. 

 solder when the emperor in person was going to 

 give an exhibition of chariot-driving wearing a coat 

 of that colour. The unlearned multitude of artisans 

 distinguish three varieties of the substance, the 

 rough, which is valued at 7 denarii a pound, the 



69 



