ANCIENT COSMETICS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 875, 20 January 1930, Page 16

ANCIENT COSMETICS

ROMAN MERCHANTS IN LONDON Recent discoveries of fragments of pottery stamped with the name of the Roman tradesman whose goods were put in the jars of which pieces have been found, have disclosed the nature of the merchandise that the earliest known Roman merchant of London offered to his customers. The first essential industry of England was the manufacture of cosmetics. On a piece of pottery found during excavations at Moorgate was stamped the advertisement, “Livlseniscrocodadaspr," which doesn't seem very informative. Expanded, however, the legend becomes “L. lul Senis Crocod, ad Aspr.” or “Lucius Julius Senis’s saffron salve for roughness”—of the eyes or eyelids, according to experts on Roman beauty aids.. Mr. Senis, cosmetician of Londinium, was evidently an enterprising business man, for another one of his jugs has been found in another section of London, indicating a good distribution. He realised, too, the value of the French atmosphere for cosmetics, for he imported his pots from France. They are of red Samian ware, which was not manufactured in Britain and must therefore have been brought from Gaul, which was, in those days, still divided into three part 3. The name of another Roman tradesman doing business in Rome has also been discovered, and oddly enough he seems to have been in the same line as Mr. Senis. Druggist No. 2 was named T. Vindacius Ariovistus, and seals and fragments of pots bearing his name have also been discovered. All of which might be construed as evidence that the wives of the Britons were as susceptible to the charms of military men as the women of other races and that the presence of the Roman legions in England was a boon to the beautifying business.