On the Antiquities of Prussia

at it, that the nets used for the public games were knotted with it, and the weapons and litters, and the entire equipment for a single day was made of amber; at that time a lump of thirteen pounds was seen. Solinus, however, reports that this amber was given as a gift to Nero by the King of Germany, an opinion to which I more readily subscribe. Its value was such that learned men have left it in writing that, among luxuries, it was so highly prized that even a small effigy of living men would exceed the price of living men themselves. And while in other things sought for luxury, ostentation and utility were pleasing—as, for instance, the bronze mixed with gold and silver in Corinthian vessels, or art and ingenuity in embossed work, or pearls worn on the head, or gems carried on the fingers—in the case of amber, as Pliny says, only the awareness of luxury and excess was sought. Its use in medicine is manifold. For it is worn by infants as an amulet; it benefits all ages against madness and the terrors of the night. Callistratus has recorded that, when drunk or bound to the body for difficulties in urination, and when bound to the neck as what they call "Chrysolectrum," it cures fevers. When ground with honey and rose oil, it remedies defects of the ears, and if rubbed with Attic honey, it removes the dimness of the eyes. It is also taken for ailments of the stomach, either as a powder by itself or drunk with mastic in water, which I would believe most of the white variety. It is also believed to resist [swelling of] the tonsils and ailments of the throat; for this reason, the Paduan women [use] it