impressed with a seal. Dioscorides393 discusses the Lemnian medicinal earth immediately after his paragraphs on Sinopic ochre and artificial red ochre but does not mention it in the part of his work devoted to other medicinal earths. That Pliny confused two quite different earths found on Lemnos, or at least two different kinds of red ochre, seems clear from the critical and detailed statements of Galen, who actually visited Lemnos to investigate the manufacture of the medicinal earth for which the island was then famous. According to Galen there were, in fact, three different earths found on Lemnos. One was the medicinal earth, another was a true red ochre suitable for use in painting, and still another was an earth used for cleaning clothes. Galen further remarks that some people called the medicinal earth μίλτος because of its color, though this was an incorrect designation. He clearly differentiates between the medicinal earth of Lemnos and the red ochre of the island when he says: "Though it has the same color as red ochre, it differs from it in not staining when it is touched . .. ."394 It may be concluded, therefore, diat the Lemnian miltos mentioned by Theophrastus was a true red ochre suitable for use as a paint pigment, whereas the Lemnian medicinal earth, which he does not mention anywhere in this treatise, was probably a clay stained red with ferric oxide. This was used extensively as a popular remedy in various European countries until comparatively recent times.
52. the one called Sinopic; this is really Cappadocian
red ochre, but it is brought down to Sinope. Since Sinope, the modern Sinub or Sinop, had the only good natural harbor along the entire soutii coast of the Euxine, it was die principal port for the export of products from the whole eastern part of Asia Minor. None of these products seems to have been as widely known as the valuable red ochre named after the city. This was so famous that the term sinopis finally became a synonym for red ochre itself. Pliny395 remarks diat sinopis derived its name from the Pontic city of Sinope, and adds that it
893 y, 113 (Wcllmann ed., V, 97).
894 De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac jacultatibus, IX (Kiihn ed., XII, 169-70); De antidotis, I (Kiihn ed., XIV, 80).
»95XXXV, 31.
