390 
pliky's natural histoet. 
[Book XXIX. 
among the Druids. The possession of it is marvellously vaunted 
as ensuring success in law-suits, and a favourable reception 
with princes ; a notion which has been so far belied, that a 
Eoman of equestrian rank, a native of the territory of the 
Yocontii,^^ who, during a trial, had one of these eggs in his 
bosom, was slain by the late Emperor Tiberius, and for no 
other reason, that I know of, but because he was in possession 
of it. It is this entwining of serpents with one another, and 
the fruitful results of this unison, that seem to me to have 
given rise to the usage among foreign nations, of surrounding 
the caduceus^^ with representations of serpents, as so many 
symbols of peace — it must be remembered, too, that on the 
caduceus, serpents are never represented as having crests. 
CHAP, 13. — THE METHOD OF PREPAEING COMMAGENUM. E0T7K 
EEMEDIES DEEIVED EEOM IT. 
Having to make mention, in the present Book, of the eggs 
of the goose and the numerous uses to which they are applied, 
as also of the bird itself, it is our duty to award the honour to 
Commagene^^ of a most celebrated preparation there made. 
This composition is prepared from goose-grease, a substance 
applied to many other well-known uses as well ; but in the 
case of that which comes from Commagene, a part of Syria, the 
grease is first incorporated with cinnamon, cassia, white pep- 
per, and the plant called commagene, and then placed in 
vessels and buried in the snow. The mixture has an agree- 
able smell, and is found extremely useful for cold shiverings, 
convulsions, heavy or sudden pains, and all those affections, in 
fact, which are treated with the class of remedies known as 
acopa being equally an unguent and a medicament. 
There is another method, also, of preparing it in Syria : the 
fat of the bird is preserved in manner already described, and 
^ See Note 82 above. 
A nation of Gaul. See B. iii. cc. 5, 21. 
The wand held by heralds, and generally represented as being carried 
by Mercury in his character of messenger of the gods. 
And therefore not portentous of war. 
90 See B. v. cc. 13, 20. 9i See B. xii. c. 43. 
^2 See B. X. c. 28. Generally supposed to be Syrian nard ; though some 
identify it with the Comaeum of Theophrastus. 
9^ See B. xxiii. cc. 45, 80. In B. xxviii. c. 38. 
