Source citation ledger
Natural History
Pliny the Elder
book · c. 77 CE
Pliny, Naturalis Historia.
These are separate Atlas meetings that cite this source. Citation is not proof.
Indigo is associated with Blue.
Indigo is a blue dye. The color-name and the plantation crop should not be collapsed into mood.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
associated with · partially sourced · documented
Frankincense is used in Incense.
Frankincense is a resin burned as incense. The technique is widespread; the priced gum is local to a trade.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Myrrh is burned and also used as a medicine and in burial. Those jobs should be kept distinct.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE; Pedanius Dioscorides · De Materia Medica, 1st century CE
used in · sourced · documented
Smoke can be a gift. Whose altar, which resin, and which century remain local.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · interpretive · culturally specific
Woad yields a blue. Caesar’s vitrum and later antiquarian “Pictish blue” are not indigo plantations.
from Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE; Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
associated with · sourced · documented
Indigo is a dye. Plantation indigo is a colonial crop-history, not woad and not a mood.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · partially sourced · documented
Dye crafts include blues from woad and indigo. Politics of cloth-color are local laws and markets.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE; Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE
associated with · sourced · documented
Frankincense is used in Offerings.
Resin burned as a gift. Pliny prices aromatics; he is not writing temple law for every altar.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Dioscorides and Pliny list myrrh among drugs. A pharmacological resin, not automatically a burial spice in every culture.
from Pedanius Dioscorides · De Materia Medica, 1st century CE; Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Myrrh is associated with Death.
Burial uses of myrrh are attested in some Mediterranean and Near Eastern practices. They are local, not a universal “death resin.”
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
associated with · partially sourced · culturally specific
Pliny’s Natural History lists salt among aquatic remedies: drying, cleansing, and compounded into salves and poultices. A Roman-era pharmacological use of a mineral, not alchemical “salt” as a principle of matter and not a folk purity charm.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History lists succinum (amber) among remedies: fossil resin used in compounded medicines. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the material, not Baltic ornament-trade as this sentence and not occult amber.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History lists basilisk remains among animal remedies: ash used against other venoms. A Roman encyclopedic drug-use of the king-serpent, not a cult appears_in and not an English cockatrice.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Mistletoe is used in Medicine.
Pliny’s Natural History lists mistletoe (viscum) among drugs as well as among the Druid cutting. A Roman encyclopedic pharmacy use of the plant, not the Gaulish rite already stored, and not a later crystal-healing viscum.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History lists live sulfur among mineral remedies: compounded into plasters and poultices, used for skin afflictions, and taken as an electuary. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the mineral, not alchemical “sulfur” as a principle of combustible matter and not kitchen fire alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History lists calcined copper and copper scales among metal remedies: compounded into eye-salves, used as desiccatives for wounds, and given for ulcers and fistulas. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the metal, not Venus’s laboratory pairing and not alchemical copper as a craft principle alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History lists silver scoria among metal remedies: compounded into wound plasters and eye-salves, used in clysters for dysentery, and applied as liniments for ulcers and scars. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the metal, not lunar silver-speech and not looking-glass silvering alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History Book 33 chapter 25 lists eight remedies derived from gold: applied to the wounded and to infants against sorcery, and used in compounded ash preparations for facial lichens and related afflictions. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the metal, not Ge Hong’s elixir ranking and not alchemical gold-as-goal.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny’s Natural History Book 33 chapter 41 treats remedies derived from minium (cinnabar): while warning that most medicinal recipes for the pigment are dangerous, he allows its external application to the head or abdomen to arrest haemorrhage when it does not reach the viscera or a wound. A cautious Roman pharmacological use of the ore, not Ge Hong’s elixir ranking and not quicksilver’s refining chapter.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Cadmia is a furnace zinc-oxide incrustation collected from metal-working furnaces and used among Roman metal remedies; writers distinguish it from the ore itself. A Roman-era pharmacological use of the furnace product among metal remedies, not Ge Hong’s ranking and not a peer-pattern inference alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Burnt bone is recorded among substances mixed into sacrificial cakes and presented as offerings at household and public altars; Pliny notes bone ash used in votive preparations burned as a gift, distinct from medicinal plasters of the same mineral chapters.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Pliny records cerussa white-lead among soothing medicinal facial plasters and ointments; cerussa is kept distinct from minium pigments alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
used in · sourced · documented
Arabia
Frankincense appears in Arabia.
Frankincense is a southern Arabian and Horn resin of priced trade. Aromatic geography, not a proof that Islamic prayer is incense-magic.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Myrrh belongs to the same resin trade as frankincense. Pliny lists aromatics; he is not writing a Qur’an commentary.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Roman religion
Celtic tradition
Mistletoe appears in Celtic tradition.
Pliny’s Natural History attests Gaulish Druids cutting mistletoe from oak. A Roman visitor’s report of Celtic rite, not oak the host-tree as this plant, and not a generic healing herb.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Oak appears in Celtic tradition.
Pliny’s Natural History attests that Gaulish Druids hold the oak sacred and cut mistletoe from it. A Roman visitor’s report of Celtic oak-rite, not timber as a generic hardwood and not the mistletoe itself.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
appears in · sourced · documented