Seasonal purges, cinnamon, and the making of sharp purple
Having pounded gourds in a mortar and strained the juice through linen together with a little honey mixed in, drink and purge.
Which is also more suitable in winter: having boiled the white beets thoroughly, put them into another new vessel, and from that same water, with a little salt, make a broth by boiling it up. Eat the beets first, without bread, and having mixed the broth, drink it.
And in spring, similarly, the most painless emptying: the juice of safflower seed mixed with whey from the milk and drunk.
From the Cesti of Africanus: On cinnamon. Herodotus says nobody knows how cinnamon comes to be, and that birds build nests on the peaks of inaccessible rocks from cinnamon, and that the locals cannot go up onto the peaks; and having sacrificed large cattle and cut them limb from limb, if they believe these birds to be hooked-clawed, they leave the pieces in sight of those among us; and that they carry the meats up onto their own nests and fill them until they are brought down by the weight; and that those who take up the cinnamon sell it. Herodotus boasts that he knows this is a lie.
But I say from trial that cinnamon is a plant similar to a shrub and […]; and that the tree resembles […] a chaste-tree; and the height as much as to three-[…] the whole; and it is divided into […] first its […] its tip; […] then the rest.
From Africanus’s book: making of sharp purple. Taking the wool that has been mordanted, let it down into 1 choenix of groats, 4 choenix of phykos; having boiled, let down the wool and leave it until evening; and having taken it up, rinse with seawater, then with water.
Greek
κολοκύνθας ἐν ὅλμῳ πτισθείσας καὶ ὀθόνῃ τὸν χυλὸν ἠθήσας ἅμα ὀλίγῳ μέλιτι συμβληθέντι πιὼν κάθηραι. Ὃ καὶ χειμῶνι ἐπιεικέστερον· τεῦτλα τὰ λευκὰ καθεψήσας εἰς ἄλλο σκεῦος καινὸν <κατάθες> κἀξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ὕδατος ἁλί τε ὀλίγῳ ποίησον ζωμὸν ἀναβράσας· καὶ τὰ μὲν προφαγεῖν ἄρτου δίχα τὰ τεῦτλα, τὸν δὲ ζωμὸν κεράσαντα πιεῖν. Ἔαρί τε παραπλησίως ἀλυποτάτη κένωσις, κνήκου τοῦ σπέρματος ὁ χυλὸς ὀρρῷ τῷ ἐκ τοῦ γάλακτος μιχθεὶς καὶ ποθείς. Ἐκ τῶν Ἀφρικανοῦ Κεστῶν· Περὶ τοῦ κινναμώμου Τὸ δὲ κιννάμωμον Ἡρόδοτος μὲν λέγει οὐδένα εἰδέναι ὅπως γίγνεται· ὄρνεις δὲ νεοττιὰς οἰκοδομεῖν ἐπ' ἄκραις ἀβάτων πέτρ ων ἐκ τοῦ κινναμώμου· τοὺς δὲ ἐγχωρίους οὐ δύνα σθαι ἐ πὶ τὰς ἄκρας ἀνελθεῖν· θύ σαντας δὲ μεγάλα βο σκήματα καὶ διαμελίσαντας ἐὰν πιστεύωσι τούσδ' ὄρνιθας εἶναι γαμψωνύχους ἐκ λιπεῖν εἰς ὄψιν τοὺς παρ' ἡμῖν· οὓς ἀναφέρειν τὰ κρέα ἐπὶ τὰς αὑτῶν καλιὰς καὶ πληροῦν ἔστ' ἂν ὑ πὸ τοῦ βάρους κα τενεχθῶσιν· τοὺς δὲ ἀναιρουμένους τὸ κιννάμωμον ἀπεμπολᾶν· εἰδέναι τοῦτο ψεῦδος Ἡρόδοτος ὑψ οῦτ αι· ἐγὼ δὲ πείρᾳ λέγω πόαν τὸ κιννάμωμον ὑπάρχειν θάμνῳ παραπλήσιον καὶ ...· καὶ τὸ δένδρον ἐοικέναι παρα... ἄγνῳ· ὕψος δὲ ὅσον εἰς τρί... μὲν ὅλον· διαιρεῖται δὲ εἰς ... πρῶτον αὐτοῦ τὸ ... αὐτοῦ τὸ ἄκρον· ... ἑξῆς τὰ λοιπά. Ἀφρικανοῦ βίβλου· πορφύρας ὀξείας ποίησισ Λαβὼν τὸ ἔριον ἐστυμμένον χάλα εἰς κριμνοῦ ˉχˉο αʹ, φύκους ˉχˉο δʹ, ζέσας χάλα τὸ ἔριον καὶ ἄφες ἕως ὀψὲ καὶ ἄρας ἀπόκλυσον θαλάσσῃ, εἶτα ὕδατι.