OF MEDICINE

...they trade, and such fraud of the merchandise of the Seplasia original: "seplasiae"—the Seplasia was a famous marketplace in Capua known for perfumes and ointments, often synonymous with the trade of druggists and the adulteration of medicines is thus exposed. If I were to say these things myself, I would already have to pay the penalty. But let us proceed to cite more.

The same author, in the preface to Book 13: Hitherto, the forests have held their value in scents, and each was a marvel in its own right; but luxury took pleasure in mixing them and creating a single scent from all. Thus were ointments original: unguenta - perfumed oils or salves discovered. Who first discovered them is not recorded. Certainly, they did not exist in the times of the Iliad The Trojan War, nor was incense used in supplication: they knew only the smoke of cedar and citrus wood from their own shrubs in sacred rites—a reek or steam, more truly, than a fragrance—by which time the juice of the rose had already been discovered.

In Book 26, chapter 2: In the works of Hippocrates, certainly, who first established the principles of healing most clearly, we find volumes filled with herbs. No less in those of Diocles of Carystus, who was second in both age and fame. Likewise Praxagoras, and Chrysippus, and then Erasistratus. For Herophilus indeed, although the founder of a more subtle sect, that system was celebrated above all; but gradually, through experience—the most effective master of all things, especially in medicine—it descended into mere words and talkativeness. For it was more pleasant to sit in schools and occupied with listening to lectures, than to travel through wildernesses and seek out herbs at different times of the year.

In Book 12, chapter 17: These things are peculiar to Arabia, and a few other kinds besides must be mentioned, since in these it excels, and it even seeks out foreign scents from abroad to add to its own myrrh. So great is the satiety of mortals for their own things, and their disdain for what belongs to others.

Chapter 18. Truly, the sea of Arabia is even more fortunate. For from it, it sends pearls; and by the smallest calculation, India, the Seres The Chinese, and that Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula drain our empire of a hundred million sesterces every year. Such is the cost of our luxuries and our women.

In Book 13, chapter 3: This is the most superfluous of all forms of luxury. For pearls and gemstones pass to one's heir, and garments last for a time, but ointments die within their own hours and expire immediately. Their greatest recommendation is that, as a woman passes by, the scent may entice even someone busy with other things. A pound costs more than forty denarii A standard Roman silver coin; thus is the pleasure of another purchased at such a price. For the one who wears the scent does not smell it themselves. But even here, some differences must be noted. In the records of Marcus Cicero, it is found that those ointments are more pleasing which taste of the earth than those which taste of saffron. For even in a most corrupt category, a certain severity of the vice itself is more pleasing. But a thick consistency delights some people; they approve of this very quality, and now they rejoice not only in being drenched in ointments, but in being smeared with them. We have even seen the soles of feet stained: they say Marcus Otho A Roman Emperor who reigned briefly in 69 AD showed this to the Emperor Nero. I ask you, was the pleasure meant to be felt by that part of the body? Nor have we heard of any private citizen ordering the walls of baths to be sprinkled with ointment, yet the Emperor Caius The Emperor Caligula was accustomed to have the leaves [of the bath] steeped in it and to be washed in it. And lest this seem a privilege only of emperors, later one of Nero’s slaves did the same. Most wonderful of all, however, is that this grace has even penetrated the military camps. For certainly the Eagles The 'aquila' or principal standard of a Roman legion and those standards, dusty as they are and bristling with guards, are anointed on feast days. Would that we could say who first instituted these things. Doubtless, the world was conquered by this reward...