[ 126 ] 
we may juftly queftion the * * * § truth of the fa£t; and, 
confequently, fhall not be obliged to maintain the 
neceflary exigence of telefcopes in thole times, in 
order to account for it. 
As it appears •j*, that neither the lapis fpecularis, 
nor glafs, was ufed for windows before Seneca’s time ; 
and it cannot be fuppofed, that the Romans, a people 
of fo refined a tafle in other inftances, would fuffer 
their apartments to be expofea to the free entrance 
of winds, 6cc. it may be reafonably afieed, What 
lupplied the place of thofe materials before ? To 
fatisfy this enquiry, it is to be obferved, that feveral 
other materials are mentioned by antient writers, as 
ferving the purpofe before us ; fuch as thin hides, or 
J fkins, like eur parchment, mentioned by Philo- 
ponus. Pliny likewife informs us, that the horns of 
the urus being cut into thin lamina; were || tranf- 
parent, and lupplied, in fome meafure, the ufe of 
our lanthorns; and we may probably conclude, from 
tire analogy of things, that they ferved for window- 
lights alfo ; efpecially, as we meet with windows 
made of horn (corneum fpecular) in Tertullian, w’ho 
wrote within lefs than two hundred years after Pliny. 
To thefe, we may add the vela, made of § hair- 
cloth, or pieces of hides |||], which Pitifcus (upon the 
* Vide VVefFelium, not. in loc. 
t Phil. Tranf. Vol. L. Part II. p. 605. 
X Apud Salm. Exerc. Plin. 1 '. ii. p. IC95. Ed. Par. 
|| Plin. Nat. Hift. L. xi. c. 37. In laminas fedta tranflucent 
atque etiam lumen inclufum latius fundunt. Apud Salmaf. Plin. 
Ex. T. i. p. 260. 
§ Vela cilicia. Ulpian apud Le Antichita di Ercolano efpolte, 
p. 268. 
1111 Fabretti. Ibid, p.256. The makers of thefe vela, Sx*tro7rw0/» 
Adt. 18. 3. ibid. 
3 authority 
