Naturalis historia 37.107

37.107

damnantur ex iis melleae ac validius testaceae.
Egregia etiam nunc sua topazo gloria est, e virenti genere et, cum primum reperta est, praelatae omnibus. accidit in Arabiae insula, quae Cytis vocabatur, in quam devenerant Trogodytae praedones fame et tempestate fessi, ut, cum herbas radicesque foderent, eruerent topazon.

CHAP. 31.—SARDA : FIVE VARIETIES OF IT. Sarda, on the other hand, is remarkably useful for this purpose; a stone which shares its name, in part, with sardonyx. It is a common stone, and was first found at Sardes, but the most esteemed kind is that of the vicinity of Babylon. When certain quarries are being worked, these stones are found, adhering, like a kind of heart, to the interior of the rock. This mineral, however, is said to be now extinct in Persia; though it is to be found in numerous other localities, Paros and Assos, for example.
In India there are three varieties of this stone; the red sarda, the one known as "pionia," from its thickness, and a third kind, beneath which they place a ground of silver tinsel. The Indian stones are transparent, those of Arabia being more opaque. There are some found also in the vicinity of Leucas in Epirus, and in Egypt, which have a ground placed beneath them of leaf gold. In the case of this stone, too, the male stone shines with a more attractive brilliancy than the female, which is of a thicker substance, and more opaque. Among the ancients there was no precious stone in more common use than this; at all events, it is this stone that is made so much parade of in the comedies of Menander and Philemon. No one, too, among the transparent stones is tarnished more speedily by exposure to moisture than this; though of all liquids, it is oil that acts the most readily upon it. Those stones which are like honey in colour, are generally disapproved of, and still more so, when they have the complexion of earthenware.

CHAP. 32. (8.)—TOPAZOS: TWO VARIETIES OF IT. Topazos is a stone that is still held in very high estimation for its green tints: indeed, when it was first discovered, it was preferred to every other kind of precious stone. It so happened that some Troglodytic pirates, suffering from tempest and hunger, having landed upon an island off the coast of Arabia known as Cytis, when digging there for roots and grass, discovered this precious stone: such, at least, is the opinion expressed by Archelaüs. Juba says that there is an island in the Red Sea called "Topazos," at a distance of three hundred stadia from the main land; that it is surrounded by fogs, and is often sought by navigators in consequence; and that, owing to this, it received its present name, the word "topazin" meaning "to seek," in the language of the Troglodytæ. He states also, that Philon, the king's præfect, was the first to bring these stones from this island; that, on his presenting them to Queen Berenice, the mother of the second Ptolemæus, she was wonderfully pleased with them; and that, at a later period, a statue, four cubits in height, was made of this stone, in honour of Arsinoë, the wife of Ptolemæus Philadelphus, it being consecrated in the temple known as the "Golden Temple."
The most recent writers say that this stone is found also in the vicinity of Alabastrum, a city of Thebais, and they distinguish two varieties of it, the prasoïdes and the chrysopteron; which last is similar to chrysoprasus, all the shades of it tending, more or less, to resemble the colouring principle of the leek. Topazos is the largest of all the precious stones, and is the only one among those of high value that yields to the action of the file, the rest being polished by the aid of stone of Naxos. It admits, too, of being worn by use.