article τους is needed with στερεωτάτονς, and the word μέν is really redundant. Some noun like βόλιτον ("manure") is needed as the object of παρατιθέντες, and Ζνεκα has been added to govern τον θαττον καίεσθαι ("to make them burn more quickly"). The manuscripts and the Aldine edition merely have τα, τον, but Turnebus wisely changed τά to ίνεκα. Furlanus preferred δια τό, but this is not as good. Schneider rightly added βόλιτον, which he chose because Pliny519 mentions that manure was used for this purpose.
Eichholz520 accepts ένεκα, but thinks that βόλιτον should come before παρατιθέντες and take the place of μέν, which is superfluous. This is a great improvement. He also accepts και απλώς τονς στερεωτάτονς, but prefers the following translation: "and absolutely the hardest limestone at that."
In his treatise On Fire,521 Theophrastus alludes to the preparation of gypsos in Phoenicia in a way that indicates the use of a high temperature. If a high temperature was used, this is enough to show that quicklime, not partly dehydrated gypsum, was the substance produced in Phoenicia and Syria., Gypsum would not have been roasted at a high temperature; if the temperature is even as high as 200 °C, gypsum is totally dehydrated and takes up water again too slowly to be useful for most purposes. Moreover, the firing of the stone in direct contact with the fuel also shows that the product was quicklime, not dehydrated gypsum. In roasting gypsum, the fuel is not allowed to come into contact with the mineral because it might reduce some of the calcium sulfate to calcium sulfide.
69. and stays hot for a very long time. This is true of lime prepared in a kiln, not only because a high temperature is reached, but because the lime is such a poor conductor of heat.
69. it is pulverized li\e ashes. Probably κονία does not mean lime in this context, as it does in sections 9 and 68, for that would imply that Theophrastus re-
619 XXXVI, 182. The text reads: In Syria durissimos ad id eligunt cocuuntque cum fimo bubulo, ut celerius urantur.
620D. E. Eichholz, "A Curious Use of μέν" Classical Review, LXVI (1952), 144-45. 521 Sec. 66.
