Note 1267 — Chapter VI · INDUSTRY: OIL AND COLOUR MEN.—ITALIAN WAREHOUSES.—DRUGGISTS.—COLLECTORS OF SIMPLES.

See on Scythian slow poison, Theoph. Hist. Plant. ix. 15. 2. Among the Romans the lepus marinus (the aplysia depilens of Linnæus) was sometimes used as a secret poison, as we find from the example of Domitian, who employed it in removing his brother Titus. Δυοὶν δὲ ἐτοῖν μετὰ τὸν πατέρα τὴν ἀρχὴν κατασχόντα, ὑπὸ τοῦ θαλαττίου λαγὼ ἀποθανεῖν. τὸν δὲ ἰχθὺν τοῦτον, παρέχεσθαι χυμοὺς ἀποῤῥήτους, ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ θαλάττῃ καὶ γῇ ἀνδροφόνα. καὶ Νέρωνα μὲν ἐμποιῆσαι τοῖς ἐαυτου ὄψοις τὸν λαγὼν τοῦτον ἐπὶ τοὺς πολεμιωτάτους, Δομετιανὸν δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν Τῖτον, οὐ τὸ ξὺν ἀδελφῷ ἄρχειν δεινὸν ἡγούμενον, ἀλλὰ τὸ ξὺν πράῳ τε καὶ χρηστῷ. Philost. Vit. Apoll. Tyan. vi. 32, p. 271. The baneful qualities of this fish are noticed, likewise, by Dioscorides, Alexipharm. 30; by Ælian. de Nat. Animal. ii. 45. xvi. 19, and by Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 72. xxxii. 3.