ISLAND OF PAROS. 143 
Theocritus*. We collected several specimens : in 
breaking them, we observed the same whiteness 
and brilliant fracture which 'characterizes the 
marble of Naxos, but with a particular distinc- 
tion before mentioned the Parian marble being 
harder, having a closer grain, and a less foliated 
texture. Three different stages of crystallization 
. may be observed, by comparing the three dif- 
ferent kinds of marble, dug at Carrara in Italy, in 
Paros, and in Naxos ; the Carrara marble being 
milk- white 6 and less crystalline than the Parian; 
and the Parian whiter 7 and less crystallized than 
the Naxian : lastly, as a completion of the pro- 
cess of crystallization, may be mentioned the 
(5) Theocritus (Idyll, vi. 38.) compares the whiteness of teeth with 
Parian marble : 
AluxoTiour a.vyu.1 TlKgitti t/ftfaivi \tltjts. 
' (6) Pliny mentions the superior whiteness of the Carrara marble, 
in comparing it with the Parian. The quarries of Carrara are the 
L/uxentian of that author ; Luna being the name of a city, and 
Lunensis that of a promontory near to the modern Carrara. " Multis 
postea candidioribus repertis, nuper etiain in Lunensium. lapidicinis." 
Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. xxxvi. c. 5. torn. III. ;. 468. L.Bat. 1633. 
(7) Although the Parian were not the whitest marble known to the 
Antients, as appears by the preceding Note, yet its whiteness was one 
cause of its great celebrity. It is thus described in the Itinerary of 
Antoninus : 
INSVLA PAROS 
IN HAC LAPIS CAMMDISS1MVS NASCITVR 
QYI DICITVR PARIVS. 
