140 Pliny's natueal histobt. [Book. XII. 
The right of regulating the sale of the cinnamon belongs 
solely to the king of the Gebanitse, who opens the market for it 
by public proclamation. The price of it was formerly as much I 
as a thousand denarii per pound; which was afterwards increased 
to half as much again, in consequence, it is said, of the forests | 
having been set on fire by the barbarians, from motives of j 
resentment ; whether this took place through any injustice 
exercised by those in power, or only by accident, has not been 
hitherto exactly ascertained. Indeed, we find it stated by j 
some authors, that the south winds that prevail in these parts 
are sometimes so hot as to set the forests on fire. The Em- 
peror Yespasianus Augustus was the first to dedicate in the 
temples of the Capitol and the goddess Peace chaplets of cin^ 
namon inserted in embossed** gold. I, myself, once saw in the ! 
temple of the Palatium, which his wife Augusta*^ dedicated tp 
her husband the late emperor Augustus, a root of cinnamon 
of great weight, placed in a patera of gold : from it drops used 
to distil every year, which congealed in hard grains. It re- 
mained there until the temple was accidentally destroyed by fire. 
CHAP. 43. CASSIA, 
Cassia*^ is a shrub also, which grows not far from the plains, j 
where cinnamon is produced, but in the mountainous locali- 
ties ; the branches of it are, however, considerably thicker than j 
those of cinnamon. It is covered with a thin skin rather than 
a bark, and, contrary to what is the case with cinnamon, it i 
is looked upon as the most valuable when the bark falls off 
and crumbles into small pieces. The shrub is three cubits in 
height, and the colours which it assumes are threefold : when 
it first shoots from the ground, for the length of a foot, it is 
white ; after it has attained that height, it is red for half a 
foot, and beyond that it is black. This last is the part that 
is held in the highest esteem, and next to it the portion that 
comes next, the white part being the least valued of all. They , 
cut the ends of the branches to the length of two fingers, and 
4* " Interrasili." Gold partly embossed, and partly left plain, was thus i 
called. 
*5 The Empress Livia. 
There has been considerable doubt what plant it was that produced j 
the cassia of the ancients. Fee, after diligently enquiring into the subject, j 
inclines to think that it was the Laurus cassia of Linnaeus, the same tree * 
that produces the cassia of the present day. 
