sage Pliny remarks that stones imported from Armenia afterwards replaced those of Naxos as cutting and polishing stones, but here Pliny has probably misinterpreted what Theophrastus says at the close of this section.
44. whetstone. Though it is likely that the ancients generally used siliceous stones of various sorts for whetstones, it is possible that massive emery was also used for the purpose, for when Pliny306 is discussing whetstones used with water, he says that the two best kinds came from Naxos and Armenia, and he then refers to his previous statements about their use for cutting precious stones. Certainly when Theophrastus speaks about the apparent identity of the whetstone and the stone used for engraving seals, he seems to indicate that massive emery was sometimes employed as a whetstone. However, since he had no reliable way of identifying two mineral substances of similar appearance or properties, his statement cannot be taken too seriously.
44. And the {best) whetstone comes from Armenia. This statement is by no means free from difficulty. Schneider suggested the addition of αρίστη ("best") to the text, since the article ή cannot stand alone in this sentence. The sense requires αντη ("this stone") or ή άκόνη ("the whetstone"). The use of the feminine shows that Theophrastus is referring to at άκόναι ("whetstones") in the previous sentence and not to ό λίθος ("the stone used for engraving seals"). Theophrastus probably did not mean to imply that Armenia was the source of the stone used for engraving seals; for neither corundum nor emery is known to occur as a commercial mineral within the boundaries of ancient Armenia. Though extensive commercial deposits of emery do occur in Asia Minor, these are all far to the west, mostly in the district around Smyrna.307 It may perhaps be asked why a place as far away as Armenia is named as a source of the whetstone when suitable whetstones could certainly be obtained from places near the Mediterranean. Pliny308 names several convenient sources like
soeXXXVT, 164-65.
807 Schmeiszer, Zeitschrift fur pra\tische Geologic, XIV (1906), 188.
308 XXXVI, 164.
