The Life of the Weevil 
the piece of money with my finger-nail, I 
carefully strip it of its earthy rind, I ex- 
amine it with the magnifying-glass, I try to 
decipher its lettering. And my satisfaction 
is no small one when the bronze or silver 
disk has spoken. For then I have read a 
page of humanity, not in books, which are 
chroniclers open to suspicion, but in records 
which are, in a manner, living and which 
were contemporary with the persons and the 
facts. 
This bit of silver, flattened with the die, 
speaks to me of the Vocontii. * 
“VOOC ... VOCUNT,” says the in- 
scription. 
It comes from the small neighbouring 
town of Vaison, where Pliny the ‘naturalist? 
sometimes spent a holiday. Here perhaps, 
at his host’s table, the celebrated compiler 
1The Vocontii were a nation of Gauls inhabiting the 
Viennaise, between the Allobroges on the north, the 
Caturiges and the estates of King Cottius on the east, the 
Cavares on the west and the Memini and Vulgientes on 
the south. Vasio (Vocontia), now Vaison, was their 
capital.—Translator’s Note. 
2 Caius Plinius Secundus (23-79), known as Pliny the 
Elder, or the Naturalist, to distinguish him from his 
nephew Caius Plinius Cecilius Secundus (61-c.-115), 
commonly called Pliny the younger, the historian. He 
was the author of the famous Naturalis Historia — 
Translator’s Note. 
2 
