time of Augustus is given by Pliny, and that price is
equal to about $160 of our money. It is probable
that his remarks refer to some particular tint or quality
of color easily distinguished, although not at all clearly
defined by Pliny. He also mentions a sort of purple,
or hyacinth, which was worth, in the time of Julius
Caesar, 100 denarii (about $15 of our money) per
pound.

The best authorities of the present day, however,
are of opinion that the celebrated Tyrian-purple was
extracted from a mollusk known as the Janthina prolongata,
a shell abundant in the Mediterranean and
very common near Narbonne, where the Tyrian purple
dye-works were in operation at least six hundred
years before Christ.

The price current of some of the inks and colors of
antiquity, as quoted by Arbuthnot, are cited herewith:

Armenian purple 30 hs.=4 s. 10 1/3 d.

India purple from one Denarius, or 7 3/4 d. to 30
Denarii, 19 s. 4 1 2 d.

Pelagium, the juice of one sort fishes that dyed
purple, 50 hs.=8 s. 0 7/8 d.

Buccinum the juice of the other fish that dyed
purple, 100 hs.=16 s. 1 3/4 d.