424 
PLIJfY'S NATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book XVI. 
lip : cypress was made choice of from the circumstance that it 
is the only kind of wood that maintains its polish to all future 
time. 
And have we not the statue of Yejovis,^^ also, made of cj^press, 
still preserved in the Capitol, where it was consecrated in the 
3^ear of the City 661 ? The Temple of Apollo, too, at Utica, 
is equally celebrated : there we may see beams of cedar still 
in existence, and in just the same condition in which they 
were when erected at the first building of that city, eleven 
hundred and seventy-eight years ago. At Saguntum, too, in 
Spain, there is a temple of Diana, which was brought thither 
by the original founders of the place, from the island of Za- 
cynthus, in the year 200 before the taking of Troy, Eocclius 
says — It is preserved beneath the town, they say. Hannibal, 
being induced thereto by feelings of religious veneration, 
spared this temple, and its beams, made of juniper, are still 
in existence at this very day. Eut the most memorable in- 
stance of all is that of the temple which was dedicated to the 
same goddess at Aulis, several ages before the Trojan War : of 
what wood, however, it was originally built is a fact that has 
been long lost in oblivion. Speaking in general terms, we 
may say that those woods are of the greatest durability which 
are the most odoriferous.^^ 
Next to those woods of which we have just spoken, that of 
the mulberry is held in the highest degree of esteem, and it 
will even turn black when old. There are some trees, again, 
that are more durable than others, when employed for certain 
purposes. The wood of the elm lasts the best in the open air, 
that of the robur when buried in the ground, and that of the 
quercus when exposed to the action of water : indeed, the 
wood of tliis last, if employed in works above ground, is apt 
to split and warp. The wood of the larch thrives best in the 
midst of moisture ; the same is the case, too, with that of the 
black alder.^ The wood of the robur spoils by exposure to the 
action of sea- water. The beech and the walnut are far from 
disapproved of for constructions under water, and, in fact, 
these are the principal woods^ too, that are used for works 
35 One of the earliest appellations, probably, of Jupiter among the Eo- 
mnns. See Ovid's Fasti, B. iii. 1. 445, et seq. 
This is correct. Their resin defends them from the action of the air, 
from damp, and the attacks of noxious insects. 
