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Crystallus, Rock-crystal

Crystallus, Rock-crystal Page of 384 Crystallus, Rock-crystal Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
110                 NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
introduces the valos in its capacity of a burning glass as the brilliant invention of Strepsiades (under the inspira­tion of Socrates) for the quashing of a writ :—
Orpheus (170) recommends such an instrument as the most proper for kindling the sacrificial lire, and ensuring the favour of the gods, the flame thus kindled being called the fire of Vesta.
The largest mass of Crystal ever seen by the Romans was that dedicated in the Capitol by Livia, which weighed fifty pounds. Juba mentions a piece found in the Topaz island of the Red Sea, a cubit in length ; * and Bocchus describes specimens of wonderful magnitude found in Lusitania in the Ammeae mountains, in shafts sunk down to the level of the water. But the Indian sort was pre­ferred to every other, although that found in the Alps was also esteemed. The latter was extracted from rocks so difficult of access that the miners had to be lowered down to them by ropes, being guided by certain indications known to the experienced as to the veins that would contain the Crystal. Pliny confirms the assertion of
* According to the same authority, the " Island of the Dead,'' off the Arabian coast, also produced it.
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