Pliny: Natural History
albo trito et cum lacte sparso. eodem et phthiriasis emendatur.
62XXVI. Ipsi Mithridati Crateuas adscripsit unam, mithridatiam vocatam (huic folia duo a radice acantho similia, caulis inter utraque sustinens 63roseum florem).
XXVII. alteram Lenaeus, scordotim sive scordion, ipsius manu descriptam,1 magnitudine cubitali, quadriangulo caule, ramosam, querna similitudine foliis lanuginosis. reperitur in Ponto, campis pinguibus umidisque, gustus amari. est et alterius generis, latioribus foliis, mentastro similis, plurimosque utraque ad usus per se et inter alia in antidotis.
64XXVIII. Polemoniam alii philetaeriam ab certamine regum inventionis appellant, Cappadoces autem chiliodynamiam, radice crassa, exilibus ramis quibus in summis corymbi dependent, nigro semine, cetero rutae similis, nascitur in montosis.
65XXIX. Eupatoria quoque regiam auctoritatem habet, caulis lignosi, nigricantis, hirsuti, cubitalis et aliquando amplioris, foliis per intervalla quinquefolii aut cannabis per extremitates incisis quinquepertito, nigris et ipsis plumosisque, radice supervacua.
Book XXV
and milk are sprinkled about. Phthiriasis too is cured by the same preparation.
XXVI. To Mithridates himself Crateuas ascribedMithridatia. one plant, called mithridatia. It has two leaves, like those of the acanthus, springing from the root, with a stem between them which supports a rose-pink flower.
XXVII. A second plant was attributed to him by Lenaeus, scordotis or scordion, a descriptiona of it being in the hand of the King himself; it is one cubit high; its stem is quadrangular, its form is branchy, and the leaves, which are downy, are like oak leaves. It is found in Pontus on rich, moist plains, and is of a bitter taste. There is also another kind of it, with broader leaves and like wild mint, both kinds being useful for very many purposes, both by themselves and also with other ingredients to make antidotes.
XXVIII. Two kingsb have claimed to be thePolemonia. discoverer of polemonia; accordingly some call it by that name and some philetaeria, while the Cappadocians call it chiliodynamia.c It has a thick root, thin branches with clusters hanging from the ends, and black seed. In other respects it is like rue, and it grows in mountainous districts.
XXIX. Eupatoriad too enjoys the prestige of aEupatoria. royal discoverer. It has a ligneous stem, dark, hairy, and a cubit or sometimes more in height; the leaves, arranged at intervals, are like those of cinquefoil or hemp, and have five indentations along the edge; they too are dark and feathery. The root is
- aThe old reading descriptam, although found in no MS. and in no modern edition, is probably right; adscriptam might easily have been written by a scribe who had just written adscripsit, although the mistake may have been made by Pliny’s amanuensis. Another possible solution is that adscriptam has displaced an entirely different word, such as depictam or collectam.
- bPolemon, King of Pontus, and Philetaerus, King of Cappadocia.
- c“The plant with a thousand powers.”
- dEupator was a surname of Mithridates VI, King of Pontus. See § 62 and XXXIII. § 151.