236 
pliny's natural histoet. 
[Book VII. 
CHAP. 58. (57.) THE THINGS ABOTJT WHICH MANKIND FIEST OF 
ALL AGEEED. THE ANCIENT LETTERS. 
There was at the very earliest period a tacit consent among 
all nations to adopt the letters now used by the lonians.^^ 
(58.) That the ancient Greek letters were almost the same 
with the modern Latin, is proved by the ancient Delphic 
inscription on copper, which is now in the Palatine library, 
having been dedicated by the emperors to Minerva ; this in- 
scription is as follows : 
NAT2IKPATH2 ANE0ETO THI AI02 KOPHI. 
jN^ausicrates offered this to the daughter of Zeus."]^^ 
CHAP. 59, (59.) WHEN BAEEERS WERE FIEST EMPLOTED.^^ 
The next point upon which all nations appear to have 
agreed, was the employment of barbers.^* The Eomans, how- 
ever, were more tardy in the adoption of their services. 
According to Yarro, they were introduced into Italy from 
59 Herodotus, B. v. c. 59, says that the Phoenician letters were very 
similar to the Ionian ; and we are informed by Hardouin, that Scaliger, in 
his Dissertation npon an ancient inscription on a column discovered in the 
Via Appia, and removed to the Farnese Gardens, has proved that the 
lonians borrowed their letters from the Phoenicians. — B. 
60 Herodotus confirms this opinion by a reference to an ancient tripod at 
Thebes, written in what he terms Cadmsean letters, having a strong resem- 
blance to those used by the lonians. — B. 
61 Tacitus, Ann. B. ix. c. 14, says, " The Latin letters have the same 
form as the most ancient Greek ones." — B. 
62 There is scarcely a letter of this inscription which has not been con- 
troverted, and no two editions hardly agree. — B, 
63 Probably the earliest existing reference to the practice of shaving is 
in Genesis, xli, 14, where Joseph is said to have shaved and changed 
his raiment, when brought from prison into the presence of Pharaoh ; in 
this case, we may presume that it was the head, and perhaps not the beard, 
which was shaven. — B. 
64 The ancients had two methods of arranging the beard ; in one it was 
cut close to the skin, in the other it was trimmed by means of a comb, and 
left of a certain length. These two methods are alluded to by Plautus> 
Capt. ii. 2, 16 : — B. Now the old fellow is in the barber's shop ; at this 
very instant is the other handling the razor — but whether to say that he is 
going to shave him close, or to trim him through the comb, I know not." 
