[848] Signifying “inextinguishable,” from ἀ, “not,” and σβέννυμι, “to extinguish.” See B. xxxvii. c. 54.
[849] See end of [this Book].
[850] He evidently alludes to cotton fabrics under this name. See Note [837] to c. 2 of this Book.
[851] Pausanias, in his Eliaca, goes so far as to say, that byssus was found only in Elis, and nowhere else. Judging from the variable temperature of the climate, it is very doubtful, Fée says, if cotton was grown there at all. Arrian, Apollonius, and Philostratus say that the tree which produced the byssus had the leaves of the willow, and the shape of the poplar, characteristics which certainly do not apply to the cotton-tree.
[852] Impure oxide of metals, collected from the chimneys of smelting-houses. Fée says that Pliny on this occasion is right.
[853] In B. xx. c. 79, he speaks of the “heraclion” poppy, supposed by some of the commentators to be identical with the one mentioned here.
[854] “Vestium insaniam.”
[855] “Postea.” Sillig would reject this word, as being a corruption, and not consistent with fact, Catulus having lived before the time of Cleopatra. He suggests that the reading should be “Populo Romano ea in theatris spectanti umbram fecere.” “Linen, too, has provided a shade for the Roman people, when viewing the spectacles of the theatre.” Lucretius, B. iv. l. 73, et seq., speaks of these awnings as being red, yellow, and iron grey.
[856] “Carbasina.” Cambric.
[857] The cavædium is generally supposed to have been the same as the “atrium,” the large inner apartment, roofed over, with the exception of an opening in the middle, which was called the “compluvium,” or “impluvium,” over which the awning here mentioned was stretched. Here the master of the house received his visitors and clients.