in.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 81 



tifies the orKopirios with the 'AcrTraAatfoy : on the 

 contrary, he places the latter amongst the plants 

 employed for perfumes. 



Dioscorides mentions two kinds of 'Ao-TraAa^oy, 

 one with and the other without odour ; and Pliny * 

 describes Aspalathus as a white thorn, of the size 

 of a moderate tree, with a flower like the rose, 

 and a root sought after for ointments ; so that he 

 must intend a very different plant. 



What the Aspalathus of Theocritus may have 

 been, is therefore still, I conceive, a matter of con- 

 jecture. The Poet represents it as a thorny plant, 

 inhabiting the mountains, and couples it with the 

 'Pa/xfot, which we have translated, in accordance 

 with Dumolin, as meaning briars : 



" Els opos OKX epTTfis, P.TI dvd\nros (px f > Barre, 

 'Ev yap ope i 'Pdp,voi re Kal 'Acmd\adoi Kop.6a>iri" 



1 Go not to the mountain, Battus, bare-footed, 

 For on the mountain lurk the Rhamni, and the Aspalathi.' 



The Spartium villosum and spinosum (or infes- 

 tum), both occur on the dry hills of Sicily, so 

 that I prefer upon the whole the identification of 

 Sibthorp, who, finding that the Spartium villosum 

 is called ' Acnra^arof in Greece at the present day, 

 considers this plant to be the 'AcnraXado? of Dios- 

 corides, and would therefore probably have agreed 

 to regard it as the one alluded to by the poet. 



1 Lib. iii. c. 52. 



