BOOK XXXIII. XXXVI. ir2-xxxviii. ii6 



with whom the statues of the gods are of that colour. 

 On that account we will investigate all the facts 

 concernino; it more carefully. 



XXXVII. Theophrastus " states that cinnabar 

 was discovered by an Athenian named CaUias, 90 

 years before the archonship ^ of Praxibulus at lo» b.c. 

 Athens — this date works out at the 349th year of 

 our city, and that Callias was hoping that gold 

 could by firing be extracted from the red sand 

 found in silver mines ; and that this was the origin 

 of cinnabar, although cinnabar was being found 

 even at that time in Spain, but a hard and sandy 

 kind, and Hkewise in the country of the Colchi on a 

 certain inaccessible rock from which the natives 

 dislodged it by shooting javeHns, but that this is 

 cinnabar of an impure quality whereas the best is 

 found in the Cilbian territory beyond Ephesus, where 

 the sand is of the scarlet colour of the kermes-insect ; 

 and that this is ground up and then the powder is 

 washed and the sediment that sinks to the bottom 

 is washed again ; and that there is a difference of 

 skill, some people producing cinnabar at the first 

 washing while with others this is rather weak and 

 the product of the second washing is the best. 



XXXVni. I am not surprised that the colour had 

 an important rank, for as far back as Trojan times n.u. 637. 

 red ochre was highly valued, as evidenced by Homer, 

 who speak? of it as a distinguished colour for ships, 

 although otherwise he rarely alludes to colours and 

 paintings. The Greek name for it is ' miltos,' and 

 they call minium ' cinnabar.' This gave rise to a 

 mistake owing to the name ' Indian cinnabar,' for 

 that is the name the Greeks give to the gore <^ of a 

 snake crushed by the weight of dying elephants, 



87 



