Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/527

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The orgies of Tiberius might qualify him for this title; but it does not appear that it was ever conferred. Seneca said pleasantly of this emperor, that "he never was drunk but once; and that once was all his life."

"This piece of history, which appears also in Cornelius Agrippa, is taken from Pliny, or rather from his transcriber Isidore . Pliny, in relating this story, says, that the temperature of glass, so as to render it flexible, was discovered under the reign of Tiberius.

"In the same chapter Pliny observes, that glass is susceptible of all colours. 'Fit et album, et murrhenum, aut hyacinthos sapphirosque imitatum, et omnibus aliis coloribus. Nec est alia nunc materia sequacior, aut etiam picturæ accommodatior. Maximus tamen honor in candido .' But the Romans, as the last sentence partly proves, probably never