BOOK XXXV. xLvi. 158-161 



made at sacrifices not from fluor-spar or crystal 

 vessels but with small ladles of earthenware, thanks 

 to the ineffable kindness of Mother Earth, if one 

 considers her gifts in^ detail, even though we omit 

 her blessings in the various kinds of corn, wine, 

 fruit, herbs and shrubs, drugs and metals, all the 

 things that we have so far mentioned. Nor do our Poiiery. 

 products even in pottery satisfy our needs with their 

 unfailing supply, with jars invented for our wine, 

 and pipes for water, conduits for baths, tiles for our 

 roofs, baked bricks for our house-walls and founda- 

 tions, or things that are made on a wheel, because of 

 which King Numa established a seventh Guild, the 'rad. 

 Potters.^^ Indeed moreover many people have 

 preferred to ])c buried in earthenware cofRns, for 

 instance Marcus Varro who was interred in the 

 Pythagorean style, in leaves of myrtle, oHve and 26 b.c, 

 black poplar; the majority of mankind employs 

 earthenware receptacles for this purpose. Among 

 table services Samian pottery is still spoken highly 

 of; this reputation is also retained by Arezzo in 

 Italy, and, merely for cups, by Sorrento, Asti, and 

 Pollenza, and by Saguntum in Spain and Pergamum 

 in Asia Minor. Also Tralles in Asia Minor and 

 Modena in Italy have their respective products, 

 since even this brings nations fame, and their pro- 

 ducts also, so distinguished are the w^orkshops of the 

 potter's wheel, are carried to and fro across land 

 and sea. In a temple at Erythrae even to-day are on 

 view tAvo wine-jars which were dedicated on account 

 of their fine material, owing to a competition be- 

 tween a master potter and his apprentice as to which 



" The text of part of § 159 is very uncertain. 



379 



