[559] The Unguentum _Nardinum_ was one of the favourite ointments used by the Romans for anointing the hair previous to crowning it with the garland at their festive symposiums.—See Horace’s _Carmina_, lib. ii. carm. xi. “Assyriaque _Nardo_ Potamus uncti.” [560] Thus Plautus, in his _Miles Gloriosus_, act iii. sec. ii. v. 11, speaks of wine mixed and flavoured with the perfume of Nard— Demisit _Nardini_ unam amphoram cellarius. Horace, in one of his odes addressed to Virgil (_Carmina_, lib. iv. c. 12), invites his brother poet to a drinking-party, provided Virgil will earn his wine by bringing some spikenard; and he declares that a small box of the perfume shall draw a whole cask of wine from the storehouses of Sulpicius. _Nardo_ vina merebere. _Nardi_ parvus onyx eliciet cadum Que nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis. The _onyx_, or alabaster box, mentioned in these lines of Horace, was made of a kind of gypsum, and was used for containing the more precious ointments, under the belief, as we are told by Pliny (lib. xxxv. cap. 12), that this material prevented the fragrance of the ointments from being dissipated (quoniam optime servare incorrupta dicitur). In explanation of the great use of ointments among the Romans, it is to be remembered that they then formed their only vehicle for the enjoyment of perfumes, the art of distillation being altogether unknown to them. [561] _Tetrabiblos_, Sermo III. cap. cxiii. pp. 436-8. [562] Hujus auxilii actiones ac efficaciam dicere non est facile. Audientes enim vix crediderint. Nam desperatas affectiones ad naturalem statum revocat.—_Ibid._ p. 438. [563] _Journal of the British Archæological Association_, vol. iv. p. 280. [564] Sichel’s _Cachets Inedits_, p. 15; and Duchalais’ _Observations sur les Cachets_, p. 35. See also _Mémoire de la Commission des Antiquaires de Department de la Côte-d’Or_, vol. x. p. 338; or _Rapport sur deux Cachets Inedits d’Oculistes Romains_; Dijon, 1841. [565] See _Medicæ Artis Principes_,—Oribasius, p. 50; _Paulus Ægineta_, p. 672. [566] See, for example, Kühn’s _Galen_, vol. xiv. p. 409. [567] _Illustrations of the Remains of Roman Art in Cirencester, the site of the Antient Corinium_, p. 117. [568] See, for example, Gruter’s _Inscriptiones Romanæ_, vol. ii. p. DCCLXXXIII. 2; CML. 3; MXXVII. 4. [569] Notice of a stamp used by a Roman oculist or empiric, discovered in Ireland. _Archæological Journal_, p. 354.