Note 462 — Vol. II.—47.
Reading edition
We may with exactness determine what the true colour was of the purple of the ancients, by attending to two passages of Pliny, wherein he says, that the whole aim of the Tyrians and Phœnicians, in bringing their purple to the utmost perfection, was to render it in colour as like as possible to the oriental amethyst. Plin. Hist. Natur. lib. ix. c. 38 & 41, et lib. xxxvii. c. 9.
[463]
Hùc secundus ventus nunc est; cape modò Vorsoriam, Stasime; cape Vorsoriam, recipe te ad Herum.
[464] With respect to what was known to the ancients, and of which we still are ignorant, recourse may be had to Pancirolus de rebus Deperditis, particularly to his first book, chap. i. 35, 36, 39, respecting the colour of purple, the ductility of glass and the effects of the ancient music. See especially Dion. Cassius’s History, in Tiber. lib. lvii. p. 617. E. Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 26, &c. Isidor. de Originib. lib. xvi. c. 15, respecting the ductility of glass.