Note 570 — OF IMPOSITIONS.
Reading edition
That Cummin possesses this property is a very ancient opinion; thus Pers. Sat. v.
“Rugosum Piper, et pallentis grana Cumini.”
Dioscorides maintained that it had made those persons pale who drank it, or washed themselves with it; and Pliny says that it was reported, that the disciples of Porcius Latro, a famous master of the art of speaking, used it to imitate that paleness which he had contracted by his studies; thus too Horace
“——Proh! si
Pallerem casu, biberent exsangue Cuminum,”
Epist. 19, Lib. 1, c. 12.