Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1210 YITTJRUM VITRUM.
petent judges to a very early period. (Wilkinson, at the mouth of the river Belus for the fabrication
Alncient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 88, &c.) of glass.
A story has been preserved by Pliny (TI. L. Anmonll the Latin writers Lucretius appears to
xxxvi. 65), that glass was first discovered acci- be the first in whom the word vitrZtin occurs (iv.
dentally by some merchants who having landed on 604, vi. 991) but it must have been well known
the Syrian coast at the mouth of the river Belus, to his countrymen long before, for Cicero names it,
and being unable to find stones to support their along with paper and linen, as a common article of
cooking-pots, fetched for this. purpose from their merchandise brought from Egypt (pro Rab. Post.
ship some of the lumps of nitre which composed 14). Scaurus, in his aedileship (B. c. 58), made
the cargo. This being fused by the heat of the a display of it such as was never. witnessed even
fire, united with the sand upon which it rested in after-times; for the sceena of his gorgeous theatre
and formed a stream of vitrified matter. No con- was divided into three tiers, of which the under
clusion can be drawn from this tale, even if true, portion was of marble, the upper of gilded wood,
in consequence of its vagueness; but it probably and the middle compartment of glass. (Plin. H. N.
originated in the fact recorded by Strabo (xvi. xxxvi. 34. ~ 7.) In the poets of the Augustan age
p. 758) and Josephus (B. J. ii. 9), that the sand it is constantly introduced, both directly and inl
of the district in question was esteemed peculiarly similes, and in such terms as to prove that it was
suitable for glass-making, and exported in great an object with which every one must be familiar
quantities to the workshops of Sidon and Alexan- (e. g. Virg. Geosg. iv. 350, Acez. vii. 759; Ovid.
dria, long the most famous in the ancient world. Anoer. i. 6. 55; Prop. iv. 8. 37; Hor. Carme. iii.
(See Hamberger and Michaelis on the Glass of 13. 1). Strabo declares that in his day a small
the Hebrews and Phoenicians, C17mentar. Soc. drinking-cup of glass might be purchased at Itonme
Gott. vol. iv.; Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. p. 94.) Alex- for half an as (xvi. p. 758; compare Martial, ix.
andria sustained its Ieputation for many centuries; 60), and so common was it in the time of Juvenal
Rome derived a great portion of its supplies from and Martial, that old men and women made a
this source, and as late as the reign of Aurelian livelihood by trucking sulphur matches for broken
we find the manufacture still flourishing. (Cic. pro fragments. (Juv. v. 48; Martial, i. 42, x. 3;
Rlabir. Post. 14; Strabo, 1. c.; Martial, xi. 11, Stat. Sylv. i. 6. 73; compare Dion Cass. lvi. 17,)
xii. 74, xiv. 11 5; Vopisc. Azsrel. 45; Boudet, Sur When Pliny wrote manufactories bad been estaP'Arte de la iresrer'ie nei emn Egypte; Description de blished not only in Italy, but in Spain and Gaul
l'Egypte, vol. ix. p. 213.) also, and glass drinking-cups had entirely superThere is some difficulty in deciding by what seded those of gold and silver (H. N. xxxvi. 66,
Greek author glass is first mentioned, because the 67), and in the reign of Alexander Severus we find
term JaXeos, like the I-Iebrew word used in the vitreanii ranked along with curriers, coachmakers,
book of Job (xxviii. 17) and translated in the goldsmiths, silversmiths, and other ordinary artiLXX. by iaXAos, unquestionably denotes not only ficers whom the emperor taxed to raise money for
artificial glass but rock-crystal, or indeed any his thermae. (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 24.)
transparenlt stone or stone-like substance. (Schol. The numerous specimens transmitted to us prove
ad Aristoph. Nub. 737.) Thus the XieAos of that the ancients were well acquainted with the
Herodotus (iii. 24), in which the Ethiopians art of imparting a great variety of colours to their
encased the bodies of their dead, cannot be glass; they were probably less successful in their
glass, although understood in this sense by Ctesias attempts to render it perfectly pure and free from
and Diodorus (ii. 15), for we are expressly told all colour, since we are told by Pliny that it was
that it was dug in abundance out of the earth; considered most valuable in this state. It was
and hence commentators have conjectured that wrought according to the different methods now
rockl-crystal or rock-salt, or amber, or oriental practised, being fashioned into the required shape
alabaster, or some bitumainous or gummy product by the blowpipe, cut, as we term it, although
might be indicated. But when the same his- ground (teritur) is a more accurate phrase, upon a
torian in his account of sacred crocodiles (ii. 69) wheel, and engraved with a sharp tool, like silver
states that they were decorated with ear-rings (" aliud flatu figuratur, aliud torno teritur, aliud
made of melted stone (&pvTpaTd TE AXOlia XuTvr argenti modo coelatur," Plin. HI.. A xxxvi. 66).
iral Xpvoea es vCu WTa isee'res), we may safely Doubts have been expressed touching the accuracy
conclude that he intends to describe some vitreous of the last part of this statement; but since we
ornament for which he knew no appropriate name. have the most positive evidence that the diamond
The oppaIyls miaXire and o'qppayse VaXiva of an (adaseas) was employed by engravers of gems
Athenian inscription referred to n. c. 398 (Bickh, (Plin. Hr. N. xxxvii. 15; Solin. 52; Isidor. xvi.
Corp. Inscrip. n. 150. ~ 50), together with the 13, 3), and might therefore have been applied withl
passage in Aristophanes (Aceharz. 74) where the still greater facility to scratching the surface of
envoy boasts that he had been drinking with the glass, there is no necessity for supposing that Pliny
great king "C i viaXL'wv esc7rcc,uTiY " decide no- was not himself aware of what he meant to say,
thing, especially since in another comedy (NaTb. nor for twisting his words into meanings which
737) Strepsiades describes a vaeXos, or burning- they cannot legitimately assume, especially since
glass, as a transparent stone sold in the shops of hieroglyphics and various others devices are now to
apothecaries, and we know that any solid dia- be seen on Egyptian vases and trinkets which have
phanous substance ground into the form of a lens been engraved by some such process. (Wilkinson,
would produce the effect. Setting aside the two vol. iii. p. 105.) The diatreta of Martial (xii. 70)
problems with regard to glass, attributed to Ari- were glass cups cut or engraved according to one
stotle, as confessedly spurious, we at length find a or other of the above methods. The process was
satisfactory testimony in the works of his pupil and difficult, and accidents occurred so frequently
successor, Theophrastus, who notices the circum- (Mart. xiv. 115) that the jurists found it necessary
stance alluded to above, of the fitness of the sand to define accurately the circumstances under which