The fucus above-mentioned, found on the shores of Crete, was sometimes employed separately in dyeing fillets, garments, and wool, and the colour thus produced was still more brilliant than that of the purple fish, though no means of fixing it could be discovered.[1393] The purple of Hermione, however, preserved its lustre and freshness for centuries. Alexander, for example, found in the royal palace of Susa vast quantities of purple garments dyed at Hermione, which, though they had been laid up nearly two hundred years, exhibited all their pristine bloom and beauty; because, observes the historian, the wool had been previously combed with white oil, and the colour fixed with honey.[1394] Even in Plutarch’s own time garments of equal age were to be seen, the purple of which had preserved its brilliance and splendour undiminished. Nay, a small pot of the dye was discovered at Pompeii which though covered atop with a thick tawny film had preserved all the deep tone and richness attributed to the Tyrian purple by the ancients. ----- Footnote 1393: Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 6. 5. Another method of dyeing purple prevailed in a district of Asia Minor, where the quality of the springs would appear to have fixed the colour: “The waters of Hierapolis were surprisingly attempered for tinging wool with a colour from roots, rivalling the more costly purples; and were a principal source of the riches of the place.” Chandler, i. p. 270. The learned traveller, who is exceedingly sparing of his authorities, doubtless based his relation on the following passage in Strabo: Ἔστι δὲ καὶ πρὸς, βαφὴν ἐρίων θαυμαστῶς σύμμετρον τὸ κατὰ τὴν Ἱεράπολιν ὕδωρ, ὥστε τὰ ἐκ τῶν ῥιζῶν βαπτόμενα ἐνάμιλλα εἶναι τοῖς ἐκ τῆς κόκκου καὶ ταῖς ἁλουργέσιν. l. xiii. c. iv. t. iii. p. 158. -----