Note 972 — Chapter VI · PLUTARCH’S ESSAYS

“On the contrary, it is found in the Higher Alps in the vicinity of glaciers, in Scotland, and in Siberia even” (Bostock and Riley, note 46). The article on “Amiantus (3)” in Pauly-Wissowa incorrectly assumes that in XIX, 4, Pliny has it in mind. In XXXVI, 31, however, Pliny briefly describes the stone amianthus, which Bostock and Riley (note 52) call “the most delicate variety of asbestus,” as “losing nothing in fire” and “resisting all potions (or, spells) even of the magi,”—“Amiantus alumini similis nihil igni deperdit. Hic veneficis resistit omnibus privatim magorum.” In XXXVII, 54, in an alphabetical list of stones, he briefly states that asbestos is iron-colored and found in the mountains of Arcadia,—“Asbestos in Arcadiae montibus nascitur coloris ferrei.”