And Ophelion says—

Pepper from Libya take, and frankincense,
And Plato's heaven-inspired book of wisdom.

[[110]] And Nicander says, in his Theriaca—

Take the conyza's woolly leaves and stalks,
And often cut new pepper up, and add
Cardamums fresh from Media.

And Theophrastus, in his History of Plants, says—"Pepper indeed is a fruit: and there are two kinds of it; the one is round, like a vetch, having a husk, and is rather red in colour; but the other is oblong, black, and full of seeds like poppy-seeds. But this kind is much stronger than the other. Both kinds are heating, on which account they are used as remedies for, and antidotes against, hemlock." And in his treatise on Suffocation, he writes—"And people who are suffocated are recovered by an infusion of vinegar and pepper, or else by the fruit of the nettle when crushed." But we must recollect that, properly speaking, there is no noun of the neuter gender among the Greeks ending in ι, except μέλι alone; for the words πέπερι, and κόμμι, and κοῖφι are foreign.

74. Let us now speak of oil.—Antiphanes or Alexis makes mention of the Samian Oil, saying—

This man you see will be a measurer
Of that most white of oils, the Samian oil.

Ophelion makes mention also of Carian oil, and says—

The man anointed was with Carian oil.

Amyntas, in his treatise on Persian Weights and Measures, says—"The mountains there bear turpentine and mastic trees, and Persian nuts, from which they make a great deal of oil for the king. And Ctesias says, that in Carmania there is made an oil which is extracted from thorns, which the king uses. And he, in his third book of his treatise on the Revenues derived from Asia, making a list of all the things which are prepared for the king for his supper, makes no mention of pepper, or of vinegar, which of itself is the very best of all seasonings. Nor does Deinon, in his Persian History; though he does say that ammoniac salt is sent up to the king from Egypt, and water from the Nile. Theophrastus also mentions an oil which he calls ὠμοτριβὲς, that is to say, extracted raw, in his treatise on Scents, saying that it is produced from the large coarse olives called phaulian, and from almonds. Amphis also speaks of the oil which is produced amongst the Thurians, as exceedingly fine—