🟣 A NATURAL CURE
“In the country of the Apolloniates is a place called Nymphaeum; it is a rock that gives forth fire; and beneath it flow springs of warm water and asphalt — probably because the clods of asphalt in the earth are burned by the fire. And near by, on a hill, is a mine of asphalt; and the part that is trenched is filled up again in the course of time, since, as Poseidonius says, the earth that is poured into the trenches changes to asphalt. He also speaks of the asphaltic vine-earth which is mined at the Pierian Seleuceia as a cure for the infested vine; for, he says, if it is smeared on together with olive oil, it kills the insects before they can mount the sprouts of the roots; and, he adds, earth of this sort was also discovered in Rhodes when he was in office there as Prytanis, but it required more olive oil.”
Strabo
