¹ Edwin, Post,Selected Epigrams of Martial(Norman,Oklahoma, 1908[1967]), p.21.Google Scholar

² See Leon, H. J.,‘Sulphur for Broken Glass’,TAP A72 (1941), 233–6, and Smyth, W. R.,‘Statius, Silvae1.6.73–4 and Martial 1.41.3–5’, CR61 (1947), 46–7.Google Scholar

³ The most recent editions of Book 1 of the Epigramsare by Mario, Citroni, Valerii, Martialis M., Epigrammaton Liber I(Firenze: La Nuova Italia Editrice,1975)Google Scholar, and Peter, Howell, A Commentary on Book One of the Epigrams of Martial(London,1980).Google Scholar

⁴ See Forbes′s, R. J. article on glass in Studies in Ancient Technology(Leiden,1966), 5, pp.112–241Google Scholar, and Harden, D. B., ‘Ancient Glass II: Roman’, AJ126 (1969), 44–77.Google Scholar

⁵ Roman glass of the first century A.D. melts at 770°-805 °C (Forbes, p. 225).Google Scholar

⁶ Related Xofirmus(through *bher), and not ferrum,as might appear at first glance; it describes both soldering and caulking.Google Scholar

⁷ This term refers to gums and animal gels for closing wounds, but is also applied to knitting fractured bones.Google Scholar

⁸ Specialized terms, such as concretumand cementum,need not be considered.Google Scholar

⁹ The date, given by Harden (p. 74), is approximate; he credits the Syrians with the discovery. Forbes (pp.159–60) prefers a slightly later date and would locate its development at Alexandria.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Workshops sprung up in Campania, Northern Italy, Cologne, and even Britain in the years between A.D. 25 and 60 according to Harden (pp. 49–50); see also Jennifer Price. ‘Glass’, in A Handbook of Roman Art,ed. by Henig, Martin (Oxford,1983), pp. 205–19.Google Scholar

¹¹ See Hanfmann, George M. A.,Roman Art(New York,1975), p. 68Google Scholar.Harden, J. (p.46) knows of no glass windows which can be dated earlier than the middle of the second century A.D.Google Scholar

¹² Published by Scranton, R. in Archaeology18 (1965), 191–200 and 20 (1967), 163–73.Google Scholar

¹³ Price, p.218, and Frank, Sear, ‘The Earliest Wall Mosaics in Italy’, PBSR30 (1975), 83–97.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Frank, Sear,Roman Wall and Vault Mosaics(Heidelberg,1977), also gathers the extensive literary evidence for the popularity of glass mosiacs in the early empire.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Statius, Cp., Silvae1.5.42 and Lucian, Verae Historiae2.11.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Morgan, Morris H., ‘De Ignis Eliciendi Modis apud Antiquos’, HSCP(1890),13–46;written in Latin.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See Forbes, ‘Heat and Heating’, in Studies in Ancient Technology6, pp. 6, 9Google Scholar, and also fuller studies such as Watson′s, Warren N.‘Methods of Fire Making Used by Early Man’, Journal of Chemical Education16 (1939)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 36–45, and Crass′s, M. F.‘A History of the Match Industry’, Journal of Chemical Education18 (1941),116–23.Google Scholar

¹⁸ HN16.77.208; cp.Forbes,, 6, pp.10–11.Google Scholar

¹⁹ De re rustica12.19.3; cp. Ovid, Metamorphoses3.374.

²⁰ Some manuscripts read fragmentaand others stramentafor ramenta,and asperais found for adspersa.

²¹ nam apud nos quoque ramenta sulphure adspersa ignem ex intervallo trahunt (NQ1.1.8).

²² I.e., ‘splinters laden with sulphur prolong a fire over a period of time’.

²³ Pliny′s allegation that sulphur was used on lamp wicks is clearly a misunderstanding on his part. A lamp wick of sulphur would burn with an acrid, smoky flame, and would supply little illumination. This does not, however, affect the truth of Seneca's statement.

²⁴ The first six lines read: vernaculorum dicta, sordidum dentem, et foeda linguae probra circulatricis, quae sulphurato nolit empta ramento Vatiniorum proxeneta fractorum, poeta quidam clancularius spargit et volt videri nostra. credis hoc, Prisce?

²⁵ Indeed there may be reason to believe that Caecilius is the 'clandestine poet' (10.3.5) since 1.41.20, preserving one of the few jokes in Persius, states that the would-be poet was only a caballus.In Martial, the direct comparison with Tettius Caballus gives it an extra layer of meaning.

²⁶ Pliny, HN35.50.175.

²⁷ Ibid The sections 174–7 in book 35 of the Historia Naturalisare the major source for the physical description of the different kinds of sulphur. On sulphur see: Healy, J. F., ‘Pliny on Mineralogy and Metals’, in Science in the Early Roman Empire: Pliny the Elder, his Sources and Influence,ed. R. French (Beckenham,1986), 131–2.Google Scholar

²⁸ Pliny, HN35.57.198. Some doubts must still exist since glaebumwould certainly also drive off pests, and the lowest grade sulphur, here styled ‘wick-grade’, being the least expensive, may well have been put to that use.

²⁹ See Tibullus 1.5.11, where he claims that sprinkling sulphur around her bed saved Delia from a serious illness. Ovid, Fasti4.21.739, recommends holding a sheep over sulphur smoke in preparation for the Parilia.

³⁰ Institutio oratorio12.76; see also Celsus 2.6.

³¹ Iliad16.228 and Odyssey22.481.

³² Egulaand glaebumwould have had severly restricted domestic roles which would have made them unattractive for trade.

³³ One assumes that the outer coating was brittle and given to cracking away, which would have lessened its appeal.

³⁴ sulphur atae lippus insitior mercis.

³⁵ E.g. Silvae1.6.73–4.

³⁶ As in Saturae5.48.

^* I should like to thank an anonymous referee for his most perceptive comments.