Finally as to the historical factor in connection with _mentagra_,—it is implied in the account Pliny gives that it was _only at Rome_ it was regarded as a new disease. It must have been already known to the Greeks, for they possessed the name _Lichen_ for it. The Greek physicians, of whom several of the ones quoted by _Galen_ lived some considerable time before Claudius, know nothing about the disease being a new one, while _Galen_ himself says simply, _ἐπικρατούσης_ ἐν τῇ πόλει τῆς μεντάγρας λεγομέμης, (when the _mentagra_ as it was called _was prevalent_ in the city). _Plutarch_ again, though he (Symposiaca bk. VIII. Quaest. 9.) wrote a special Chapter on new diseases, with particular reference to Elephantiasis, never mentions _mentagra_ at all. He represents it as having been introduced into Rome from Asia, and it was from Egypt, the _Genetrix talium vitiorum_ (Mother-land of suchlike abominations), the Physicians[108] were imported who understood how to cure the disorder. We have more than once noted that Asia was the breeding place of sexual excesses, and described how vice spread from thence over different countries and how as a result of these practices the affections of the parts naturally concerned that arose first in Asia subsequently passed on to these same countries. For Rome this was in an especial degree the case with Egypt, where the undermining of morality had gone farthest; _Martial_[109] spoke justly when he said “_Nequitias tellus scit dare nulla magis_,” (No other land knows better how to produce finished rascality). But the intercourse with Asia and Egypt arose mainly in the time of Pompey, and became from that period ever more active, while concurrently luxury was on the increase and the old Virtus (manly virtue) of the Romans disappearing more and more every day,—above all when Tiberius by his own example elevated every form of vice into a sort of fancy article demanded by fashion.