BOOK XXXW XIII. 31-XIV. :^s 



XIII. Sinopis <* was first discovered in Pontw^, Ochre oj 

 and lience takes its name from the city of Sinope. -'""'p*- 

 It is also produced in Egypt, the Balearic Islands 



and Africa, but the best is what is extracted from the 

 caverns of Lemnos and Cappadocia, the part found 

 adhering to the rock being rated highest. The 

 lumps of it are self-coloured, but speckled on the 

 outside. It was employed in old times to give a 

 glow. There are three kinds of Sinopis, the red, 

 the faintly red and the intermediate. The price of 

 the best is 2 denarii a pound : this is used for painting 

 with a brush or else for colouring wood ; the kind 

 imported from Africa costs 8 «^-pieces a pound, and is 

 called chickpea colour ^ ; it is of a deeper red than 

 the other kinds, and more useful for panels. The 

 same price is charged for the kind called ' low toned ' 

 which is of a very dusky colour. It is employed for 

 the lower parts of panelling ; but used as a drug it 

 has a soothing effect in (lozenges and) plasters and 

 poultices, mixing easily either dry or moistened, as a 

 remedy for ulcers in the humid parts of the body 

 such as the mouth and the anus. Used in an enema 

 it arrests diarrhoea, and taken through the mouth 

 in doses of one denarius weight it checks menstrua- 

 tion. Applied in a burnt state, particularly with 

 wine, it dries roughnesses of the eyes. 



XIV. Some persons have wished to make out 

 that Sinopis only consists in a kind of red-ochre of 

 inferior quality, as they gave the palm to the red ochreoj 

 ochre of Lemnos. This last approximates very ^^^^- 

 closely to cinnabar,^ and it was very famous in old 

 days, together with the island that produces it; it 

 used only to be sold in sealed packages, from which 



it got the name of ' seal red-ochre.' It is used to 



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