Awnings have been lately extended, too, by the aid of ropes, over the amphitheatres of the Emperor Nero, dyed azure, like the heavens, and bespangled all over with stars. Those which are employed by us to cover the inner court[857] of our houses are generally red: one reason for employing them is to protect the moss that grows there from the rays[858] of the sun. In other respects, white fabrics of linen have always held the ascendancy in public estimation. Linen, too, was highly valued as early as the Trojan war; for why else should it not have figured as much in battles as it did in shipwrecks? Thus Homer,[859] we find, bears witness that there were but few among the warriors of those days who fought with cuirasses[860] on made of linen; while, as for the rigging of the ships, of which that writer speaks, it is generally supposed by the more learned among the commentators, that it was made of this material; for the word “sparta,”[861] which he employs, means nothing more than the produce of a seed. CHAP. 7. (2.)—THE NATURE OF SPARTUM. For the fact is that spartum[862] did not begin to be employed till many ages after the time of Homer; indeed, not before the first war that the Carthaginians waged in Spain. This, too, is a plant that grows spontaneously,[863] and is incapable of being reproduced by sowing, it being a species of rush, peculiar to a dry, arid soil, a morbid production confined to a single country only; for in reality it is a curse to the soil, as there is nothing whatever that can be sown or grown in its vicinity. There is a kind of spartum grown in Africa,[864] of a stunted nature, and quite useless for all practical purposes. It is found in one portion of the province of Carthage[865] in Nearer Spain, though not in every part of that; but wherever it is produced, the mountains, even, are covered all over with it. This material is employed by the country-people there for making[866] their beds; with it they kindle their fires also, and prepare their torches; shoes[867] also, and garments for the shepherds, are made of it. As a food for animals, it is highly injurious,[868] with the sole exception of the tender tops of the shoots. When wanted for other uses, it is pulled up by the roots, with considerable labour; the legs of the persons so employed being protected by boots, and their hands with gloves, the plant being twisted round levers of bone or holm-oak, to get it up with the greater facility. At the present day it is gathered in the winter, even; but this work is done with the least difficulty between the ides of May[869] and those of June, that being the period at which it is perfectly ripe. CHAP. 8.—THE MODE OF PREPARING SPARTUM.