BOOK XXXIII. xxx^iii. 116-XL. 119 



when the blood of each animal gets mixed together, 



as \ve have said ; and there is no other colour that viii. 34. 



properly represents blood in a picture. That kind 



of cinnabar is extremely useful for antidotes and 



medicaments. But our doctors, I swear, because 



they give the name of cinnabar to minium also, employ 



this miyiitim, which as we shall soon show is a poison. § 124. 



XXXIX. In old times ' dragon's-blood ' cinnabar 

 was used for painting the pictures that are still 

 called monochromes, * in one colour.' Cinnabar 

 from Ephesus was also used for painting, but this 

 has been given up because pictures in that colour 

 were a great amount of trouble to preserve. More- 

 over both colours were thought excessively harsh ; 

 consequently painters have gone over to red-ochre 

 and Sinopic ochre, pigments about which I shall xxxv. 

 speak in the proper places. Cinnabar is adulterated "^'^ *^^' 

 with goat's blood or with crushed service-berries. 

 The price of genuine cinnabar is 50 sesterces a pound. 



XL. Juba reports that cinnabar is also produced 

 in Carmania, and Timagenes says it is found in 

 Ethiopia as well, but from neither place is it exported 

 to us, and from hardly any other either except from 

 Spain, the most famous cinnabar mine for the 

 revenues of the Roman nation being that of Almaden 

 in the Baetic region, no item being more carefully 

 safeguarded : it is not allowed to smelt and refine 

 the ore upon the spot, but as much as about 2000 

 Ibs. per annum is dehvered to Rome in the crude 

 state under seal, and is purified at Rome, the price 

 in selhng it being fixed by law established at 70 

 sesterces a pound, to prevent its going beyond limit. 

 But it is adulterated in many ways, which is a source Redieadmd 

 of plunder for the company. For there is in fact '^™'^^- 



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VOL. IX. D 



