Note 173 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3]

Texier and Pullan, op. cit., p. 4; Agincourt, Hist. of Art, i, pl. 25. Mica or talc (lapis specularis) was commonly used at Rome for windows (Pliny, H. N., xxxvi, 45). Gibbon rather carelessly says that Firmus (c. 272) had glass windows; they were vitreous squares for wall decoration (Hist. August., sb. Firmo). Half a century later Lactantius is clear enough—“fenestras lucente vitro aut speculari lapide obductas” (De Opif. Dei, 8). Pliny tells us that clear glass was most expensive, and, six centuries later, Isidore of Seville makes the same remark (Hist. Nat., xxxvi, 67; Etymologies, xvi, 16).