CHAP. 46.—PHENGITES.
During the reign of Nero, there was a stone found in Cappadocia,
as hard as marble, white, and transparent even in those parts
where red veins were to be seen upon it; a property which has obtained
for it the name of "phengites."[1] It was with this stone[2]
that Nero rebuilt the Temple of Fortune, surnamed Seia,[3]
originally consecrated by King Servius, enclosing it within the
precincts of his Golden Palace.[4] Hence it was that, even
when the doors were closed, there was light in the interior
during the day; not transmitted from without, as would be the
case through a medium of specular-stone, but having all the
appearance of being enclosed within[5] the building.
In Arabia, too, according to Juba, there is a stone, transparent
like glass, which is used for the same purposes as specular-stone.
1. From feggo\s, "brightness." Beckmann is of opinion that this was
a calcareous or gypseous spar (Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 66); but Ajasson
seems to think that it was very similar to Parian marble, which was sometimes
called by this name.
2. This is more likely to apply to a white marble than to a calcareous or
gypseous spar. Suetonius says, c. 14, that Domitian, when he suspected
that plots were forming against him, caused the porticos in which he
walked to be lined with Phengites, which by its reflection showed what
was going on behind his back.
3. See B. xviii. c. 2.
4. See Chapter 24 of this Book.
5. Beckmann says, in reference to this passage, supposing that a kind
of spar is meant by the word phengites—"It is probable that the openings
of the walls of the building where the windows used to be, were in this
instance filled up with phengites, which, by admitting a faint light, prevented
the place from being dark, even when the doors were shut."—Hist.
Inv. Vol. II. p. 66. Bohn's Edition.