338 
PLIKr's KATUSAL HISTORY. 
[Book VIII. 
vented at Alexandria ; these cloths are called polymita ; it 
was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers.^ Me- 
tellus Scipio, in the accusation which he brought against 
Cato,^^ stated that even in his time Babylonian covers for 
couches were selling for eight hundred thousand sesterces, and 
these of late, in the time of the Emperor Nero, had risen to 
four niillions.^^ The prsetextae of Servius Tullius, with which 
the statue of Fortune, dedicated by him, was covered,^^ lasted 
until the death of Sejanus ; and it is a remarkable fact, that, 
during a period of five hundred and sixty years, they had never 
become tattered,^ or received injury from moths. I myself 
have seen the fleece upon the living animal dyed purple, 
scarlet, and violet, — a pound and a half of dye being used for 
each, — just as though they had been produced by Nature in 
this form, to meet the demands of luxury. 
CHAP. 75. THE niFFEEEi^T SHAPES OF SHEEP ; THE MFSMON. 
In the sheep, it is considered a proof of its being of a very 
62 From Martial's epis^ram, entitled " Cubicularia polymita," B. xiv. Ep. 
150, we may conclude that the Egyptian polymita were formed in a loom, 
and, of the nature of tapestry, while the Babylonian were embroidered with 
the needle. Plautus probably refers to the Egyptian tapestry, in the 
Pseud. A. i. s. 2, 1. 14, '^Neque Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia" 
Nor yet the Alexandrine tapestries, figured over with beasts and shells." 
"Scutulis divider." This term may mean squares," ''diamonds," 
or "lozenges," something like the segments into which a spider's web is 
divided. It is not improbable that he alludes here to the plaids of the 
Gallic nations. 
6^ We have an account of this contention in Plutarch, and we may pre- 
sume that this accusation was produced at that time. — B. 
66 The first sum amounts to about £4,600 sterling, the latter to 
£23,000.— B. 
6^ The following lines in Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. 1. 569, et seq., have been 
supposed to refer to this temple, and prove that the account of it is correct. 
" Lux eadem, Fortuna, tuaque est, auctorque, locusque. 
" Sed superinjectis quis latet sede togis ? 
" Servius est. . . ." 
" The same day is thine, 0 Fortune ; the same the builder, the same the 
site. But who is this that lies hid beneath the garments covering him ? 
It is Servius." 
6« Perhaps " changed their colour " may be a better translation of " de~ 
fluxisse." 
69 " Sesquipedalibus libris." It seems impossible to translate this lite- 
rally. Hardouin explains it by supposing that the fleeces were dyed in 
strips of three colours, each strip being half a foot in breadth, and that 
three of these required a pound of the dyeing materials. — B. 
