Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum
Que nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis.
The onyx, or alabaster box, mentioned in these lines of Horace, was made of a kind of gypsum, and was used for containing the more precious ointments, under the belief, as we are told by Pliny (lib. xxxv. cap. 12), that this material prevented the fragrance of the ointments from being dissipated (quoniam optime servare incorrupta dicitur). In explanation of the great use of ointments among the Romans, it is to be remembered that they then formed their only vehicle for the enjoyment of perfumes, the art of distillation being altogether unknown to them.
[561] Tetrabiblos, Sermo III. cap. cxiii. pp. 436-8.
[562] Hujus auxilii actiones ac efficaciam dicere non est facile. Audientes enim vix crediderint. Nam desperatas affectiones ad naturalem statum revocat.—Ibid. p. 438.
[563] Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. iv. p. 280.
[564] Sichel’s Cachets Inedits, p. 15; and Duchalais’ Observations sur les Cachets, p. 35. See also Mémoire de la Commission des Antiquaires de Department de la Côte-d’Or, vol. x. p. 338; or Rapport sur deux Cachets Inedits d’Oculistes Romains; Dijon, 1841.
[565] See Medicæ Artis Principes,—Oribasius, p. 50; Paulus Ægineta, p. 672.
[566] See, for example, Kühn’s Galen, vol. xiv. p. 409.
[567] Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the site of the Antient Corinium, p. 117.