SCOBIS
SCOBIS sawdust, was sprinkled over the floor, especially in
dining-rooms, so that the dust and any impurities might be swept up with it
(Hor.
Sat. 2.4, 81;
Juv.
14.67; cf.
Plin. Nat.
36.184). In smarter houses the sawdust was dyed with saffron or
vermilion (Petron. 68). Heliogabalus is said to have had his portico strewn
with gold dust, or gold filings (
scobe auri),
and to have regretted that he could invent nothing more costly for the
purpose, (Lamprid.
Elagab. 31; for this
scobis=
ῥίνημα from
metal-working, cf.
Plin. Nat. 34.111;
Blümner,
Technologie, 4.256).
[
G.E.M]
