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Sucoinum, Amber

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332
SUCCINUM.
ment, partly as a, prophylactic against goitres, to which they were subject in consequence of the bad quality of the water. Thus the early Greeks obtained it from the Teutonic tribes upon the Adriatic, the Etruscans from the Cisalpine Gauls upon their northern frontier.
It is strange the material should have maintained its high value amongst the Iiomans, in spite of the enormous importation that had gone on ever since the German campaign of Germanicus had opened up a communication with the Baltic. That commander had actually visited with his fleet the island Austeravia, that furnished the chief supply. This place the Romans called Glœsaria, from Glœsura (whence our glass), the native name for Amber. This locality was distant 600 miles from Carnuntum in Pannonia (Altemburg on the Danube), apparently mentioned here as being the ancient entrepôt where the Teutonic and Roman traders met. When Pliny wrote, the Roman knight was still living who had been despatched by Julian, superintendent of Nero's gladiators, to investigate that coast, and the nature of the trade there. So successful did his expedition prove (Solinus stating that the king there sent Nero a present of 13,000 pounds weight of Amber) that all the weapons and articles used during the games of the amphitheatre, on one particular day, were made of Amber, and the network protecting the lower tier of seats was knotted with it : that is the cords forming it were passed through perforated Amber balls at their intersections. The largest mass imported on this occasion weighed 13 pounds.
Tacitus (Germ. 45) gives the name of the Amber-gatherers as the iEstyi, with the remark that they are a sacred nation, wor­shippers of the mother of the Gods (Hertha), and resemble the Suevi in customs and appearance, but speak a language like the British. As the mark of their faith, they wore the figure of a wild boar, protected by which they could travel everywhere in safety, even in time of war.
Pliny mentions a singular employment of this substance, which was in the imitation of all the transparent precious stones, but above all the Amethyst ; for it could be stained of any colour re­quired. This was done by boiling it in kid's fat and alkanet-root, or else in the murex-blood. Before the wear of its tender surface
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