Natural History - Gold, Silver, Metals & Precious stones

This is part from his book called "Natural History"

Gold, silver and mercury; man's greed and exploitation of the earth's resources; weapons ; history of coinage; physical properties of gold; sources of gold, mining techniques; gold statues; refining; medical use of metals; cinnabar; touchstone; mirrors; changing prices.

Precious stones; the world's most expensive products.

{1.} [1] Our topic now will be metals, and the actual resources employed to pay for commodities - resources diligently sought for in the bowels of the earth in a variety of ways. For in some places the earth is dug into for riches, when life demands gold, silver, silver-gold and copper, and in other places for luxury, when gems and colours for tinting walls and beams are demanded, and in other places for rash valour, when the demand is for iron, which amid warfare and slaughter is even more prized than gold. We trace out all the fibres of the earth, and live above the hollows we have made in her, marvelling that occasionally she gapes open or begins to tremble - as if forsooth it were not possible that this may be an expression of the indignation of our holy parent. [2] We penetrate her inner parts and seek for riches in the abode of the spirits of the departed, as though the part where we tread upon her were not sufficiently bounteous and fertile. And amid all this the smallest object of our searching is for the sake of remedies for illness, for with what fraction of mankind is medicine the object of this delving? Although medicines also earth bestows upon us on her surface, as she bestows corn, bountiful and generous as she is in all things for our benefit! [3] The things that she has concealed and hidden underground, those that do not quickly come to birth, are the things that destroy us and drive us to the depths below; so that suddenly the mind soars aloft into the void and ponders what finally will be the end of draining her dry in all the ages, what will be the point to which avarice will penetrate. How innocent, how blissful, nay even how luxurious life might be, if it coveted nothing from any source but the surface of the earth, and, to speak briefly, nothing but what lies ready to her hand!

{2.} [4] Gold is dug out of the earth and in proximity to it gold-solder, which still retains in Greek a name derived from gold, so as to make it appear more precious. It was not enough to have discovered one bane to plague life, without setting value even on the corrupt humours of gold! Avarice was seeking for silver, but counted it a gain to have discovered cinnabar by the way, and devised a use to make of red earth. Alas for the prodigality of our inventiveness! In how many ways have we raised the prices of objects! The art of painting has come in addition, and we have made gold and silver dearer by means of engraving! Man has learnt to challenge nature in competition! The enticements of the vices have augmented even art: it has pleased us to engrave scenes of licence upon our goblets, and to drink through the midst of obscenities. [5] Afterwards these were flung aside and began to be held of no account, when there was an excess of gold and silver. Out of the same earth we dug supplies of fluorspar and crystal, things which their mere fragility rendered costly. It came to be deemed the proof of wealth, the true glory of luxury, to possess something that might be absolutely destroyed in a moment. Nor was this enough: we drink out of a crowd of precious stones, and set our cups with emeralds, we take delight in holding India for the purpose of tippling, and gold is now a mere accessory.

{3.} [6] And would that it could be entirely banished from life, reviled and abused as it is by all the worthiest people, and only discovered for the ruin of human life - how far happier was the period when goods themselves were interchanged by barter, as it is agreed we must take it from Homer to have been the custom even in the days of Troy. That in my view was the way in which trade was discovered, to procure the necessities of life. [7] Homer relates how some people used to make their purchases with ox-hides, others with iron and captives, and consequently, although even Homer himself was already an admirer of gold, he reckoned the value of goods in cattle { Il_6.234 }, saying that Glaucus exchanged gold armour worth 100 oxen with that of Diomedes worth 9 oxen. And as a result of this custom even at Rome a fine under the old laws is priced in cattle.

{4.} [8] The worst crime against man's life was committed by the person who first put gold on his fingers, though it is not recorded who did this, for I deem the whole story of Prometheus mythical, although antiquity assigned to him also an iron ring, and intended this to be understood as a fetter, not an ornament. As for the story of Midas's ring, which when turned round made its wearer invisible, who would not admit this to be more mythical still? [9] It was the hand and what is more the left a hand, that first won for gold such high esteem; not indeed a Roman hand, whose custom it was to wear an iron ring as an emblem of warlike valour.

As to the Roman kings I find it hard to make a statement. The statue of Romulus in the Capitol has nothing, nor has any other king's statue excepting those of Numa and Servius Tullius, and not even that of Lucius Brutus. I am especially surprised at this in the case of the Tarquins, who came originally from Greece, the country from which this fashion in rings came, although an iron ring is worn in Sparta even at the present day. [10] But of all, Tarquinius Priscus, it is well known, first presented his son with a golden amulet when while still of an age to wear the bordered robe he had killed an enemy in battle; and from that time on the custom of the amulet has continued as a distinction to be worn by the sons of those who have served in the cavalry, the sons of all others only wearing a leather strap. Owing to this I am surprised that the statue of that Tarquinius has no ring. All the same, I notice that there is a difference of opinion even about the actual word for a ring. The Greek name for it is derived from the word meaning a finger; with ourselves, in early days it was called 'ungulus,' but afterwards both our people and the Greeks give it the name of 'symbolum.' [11] For a long period indeed, it is quite clear, not even members of the Roman senate had gold rings, inasmuch as rings were bestowed officially on men about to go as envoys to foreign nations, and on them only, the reason no doubt being that the most highly honoured foreigners were recognized in this way. Nor was it the custom for any others to wear a gold ring than those on whom one had been officially bestowed for the reason stated; and customarily Roman generals went in triumph without one, and although a Etruscan crown of gold was held over the victor's head from behind, nevertheless he wore an iron ring on his finger when going in triumph, just the same as the slave holding the crown in front of himself. [12] This was the way in which Gaius Marius celebrated his triumph over Jugurtha, and it is recorded that he did not assume a gold ring till his third tenure of the consulship {103 BC} . Those moreover who had been given gold rings because they were going on an embassy only wore them in public, but in their homes wore iron rings; this is the reason why even now an iron ring and what is more a ring without any stone in it is sent a as a gift to a woman when betrothed. Indeed I do not find that any rings were worn in the Trojan period; at all events Homer nowhere mentions them, although he shows that tablets used to be sent to and fro in place of letters, and that clothes and gold and silver vessels were stored away in chests and were tied up with signet-knots, not sealed with signet-rings. Also he records the chiefs as casting lots about meeting a challenge from the enemy without using signet-rings; and he also says that the god of handicraft in the original period frequently made brooches and other articles of feminine finery like earrings - without mentioning finger-rings. [13] And whoever first introduced them did so with hesitation, and put them on the left hand, which is generally hidden by the clothes, whereas it would have been shown off on the right hand if it had been an assured distinction. And if this might possibly have been thought to involve some interference with the use of the right hand, there is the proof of more modern custom; it would have also been more inconvenient to wear it on the left hand, which holds the shield. Indeed it is also stated, by Homer again { Il_17.52 }, that men wore gold plaited in their hair and consequently I cannot say whether the use of gold originated from women.

{5.} [14] At Rome for a long time gold was actually not to be found at all except in very small amounts. At all events when peace had to be purchased after the capture of the City by the Gauls, not more than a thousand pounds' weight of gold could be produced. I am aware of the fact that in Pompeius' third consulship {52 BC} there was lost from the throne of Capitoline Jupiter two thousand pounds' weight of gold that had been stored there by Camillus, which led to a general belief that 2000 pounds was the amount that had been accumulated. But really the additional sum was part of the booty taken from the Gauls, and it had been stripped by them from the temples in the part of the city which they had captured - [15] the case of Torquatus shows that the Gauls were in the habit of wearing gold ornaments in battle; therefore it appears that the gold belonging to the Gauls and that belonging to the temples did not amount to more than that total; and this in fact was taken to be the meaning contained in the augury, when Capitoline Jupiter had repaid twofold.

Also, as we began on this topic from the subject of rings, it is suitable incidentally to point out that the official in charge of the temple of Capitoline Jupiter when he was arrested broke the stone of his ring between his teeth and at once expired, so putting an end to any possibility of proving the theft. [16] It follows that there was only 2,000 pounds weight of gold at the outside when Rome was captured in its 364th year {390 BC} , although the census showed there were already 152,573 free citizens. From the same city 307 years later the gold that Gaius Marius the younger had conveyed to Praeneste from the conflagration of the temple of the Capitol and from all the other shrines amounted to 14,000 pounds, which with a placard above it to that effect was carried along in his triumphal procession by Sulla {81 BC} , as well as 6,000 pounds weight of silver. Sulla had likewise on the previous day carried in procession 15,000 pounds of gold and 115,000 pounds of silver as the proceeds of all the rest of his victories.

{6.} [17] It does not appear that rings were in more common use before the time of Gnaeus Flavius son of Annius. It was he who first published the dates for legal proceedings, which it had been customary for the general public to ascertain by daily enquiry from a few of the leading citizens; and this won him such great popularity with the common people - he was also the son of a liberated slave and himself a clerk to Appius Caecus, at whose request he had by dint of natural shrewdness through continual observation picked out those days and published them - that he was appointed a curule aedile as a colleague of Quintus Anicius of Praeneste, who a few years previously had been an enemy at war with Rome, while Gaius Poetilius and Domitius, whose fathers had been consuls, were passed over. [18] Flavius had the additional advantage of being tribune of the plebs at the same time. This caused such an outburst of blazing indignation that we find in the oldest annals 'rings were laid aside.' The common belief that the order of knighthood also did the same on this occasion is erroneous, inasmuch as the following words were also added: 'but also harness-bosses were put aside as well'; and it is because of this clause that the name of the knights has been added; and the entry in the annals is that the rings were laid aside by the nobility, not by the entire Senate. This occurrence took place in the consulship of Publius Sempronius and Lucius Sulpicius {304 BC}. [19] Flavius made a vow to erect a temple to Concord if he succeeded in effecting a reconciliation between the privileged orders and the people; and as money was not allotted for this purpose from public funds, he drew on the fine-money collected from persons convicted of practising usury to erect a small shrine made of bronze on the Graecostasis which at that date stood above the Comitium, and put on it an inscription engraved on a bronze tablet that the shrine had been constructed 204 years after the consecration of the Capitoline temple. [20] This event took place in the 449th year from the foundation of the city {305 BC}, and is the earliest evidence to be found of the use of rings. There is however a second piece of evidence for their being commonly worn at the time of the Second Punic War, as had this not been the ease it would not have been possible for the three modii of rings as recorded to have been sent by Hannibal to Carthage. Also it was from a ring put up for sale by auction that the quarrel between Caepio and Drusus began which was the primary cause of the Social War and the disasters that sprang from it. [21] Not even at that period did all members of the senate possess gold rings, seeing that in the memory of our grandfathers many men who had even held the office of praetor wore an iron ring to the end of their lives - for instance, as recorded by Fenestella, Calpurnius and Manilius, the latter having been legate under Gaius Marius in the war with Jugurtha, and, according to many authorities, the Lucius Fufidius to whom Scaurus dedicated his Autobiography - while another piece of evidence is that in the family of the Quintii it was not even customary for the women to have a gold ring, and that the greater part of the races of mankind, and even of the people who live under our empire and at the present day, possess no gold rings at all. The East and Egypt do not seal documents even now, but are content with a written signature.

[22] This fashion like everything else luxury has diversified in numerous ways, by adding to rings gems of exquisite brilliance, and by loading the fingers with a wealthy revenue (as we shall mention in our book on gems { 37.2 }) and then by engraving on them a variety of devices, so that in one case the craftsmanship and in another the material constitutes the value. Then again with other gems luxury has deemed it sacrilege for them to undergo violation, and has caused them to be worn whole, to prevent anybody's imagining that people's finger-rings were intended for sealing documents! [23] Some gems indeed luxury has left showing in the gold even of the side of the ring that is hidden by the finger, and has cheapened the gold with collars of little pebbles. But on the contrary many people do not allow any gems in a signet-ring, and seal with the gold itself; this was a fashion invented when Claudius Caesar was emperor. Moreover even slaves nowadays encircle the iron of their rings with gold (other articles all over them they decorate with pure gold), an extravagance the origin of which is shown by its actual name to have been instituted in Samothrace.

[24] It had originally been the custom to wear rings on one finger only, the one next the little finger; that is how we see them on the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius. Afterwards people put them on the finger next the thumb, even in the case of statues of the gods, and next it pleased them to give the little finger also a ring. The Gallic Provinces and the British Islands are said to have used the middle finger. At the present day this is the only finger exempted, while all the others bear the burden, and even each finger-joint has another smaller ring of its own. [25] Some people put all their rings on their little finger only, while others wear only one ring even on that finger, and use it to seal up their signet ring, which is kept stored away as a rarity not deserving the insult of common use, and is brought out from its cabinet as from a sanctuary; thus even wearing a single ring on the little finger may advertise the possession of a costlier piece of apparatus put away in store. Some again show off the weight of their rings; others count it hard work to wear more than one; and others consider that filling the gold tinsel of the circle with a lighter material, in case of their dropping, is a safer precaution for their anxiety about their gems; others enclose poisons underneath the stones in their rings, as did Demosthenes, the greatest orator of Greece, and they wear their rings as a means of taking their own lives. [26] Finally, a very great number of the crimes connected with money are carried out by means of rings. To think what life was in the days of old, and what innocence existed when nothing was sealed! Whereas nowadays even articles of food and drink have to be protected against theft by means of a ring: this is the progress achieved by our legions of slaves - a foreign rabble in one's home, so that an attendant to tell people's names now has to be employed even in the case of one's slaves! This was not the way with bygone generations, when a single servant for each master, a member of his master's clan, Marcius's boy or Lucius's boy, took all his meals with the family in common, nor was there any need of precautions in the home to keep watch on the domestics. [27] Nowadays we acquire sumptuous viands only to be pilfered and at the same time acquire people to pilfer them, and it is not enough to keep our keys themselves under seal: while we are fast asleep or on our death-beds, our rings are slipped off our fingers; and the prevailing system of our lives has begun to centre round that portable chattel, though when this began is doubtful. Still it seems we can realize the importance this article possesses abroad in the case of the tyrant of Samos, Polycrates, who flung his favourite ring into the sea and had it brought back to him inside a fish which had been caught: Polycrates himself was put to death about the 230th year of the city of Rome {524 BC}. [28] Still the employment of a signet-ring must have begun to be much more frequent with the introduction of usury. This is proved by the custom of the lower classes, among whom even at the present day a ring is whipped out when a contract is being made; the habit comes down from the time when there was as yet no speedier method of guaranteeing a bargain, so we can safely assert that with us money began first and signet-rings came in afterwards. About money we shall speak rather later.

{7.} [29] As soon as rings began to be commonly worn, they distinguished the second order from the commons, just as a tunic distinguished the senate from those who wore the ring, although this distinction also was only introduced at a late date, and we find that a wider purple stripe on the tunic was commonly worn even by heralds, for instance the father of Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus, who received his surname from his father's office. But wearing rings clearly introduced a third order, intermediate between the commons and the senate, and the title that had previously been conferred by the possession of a war-horse is now assigned by money rates. This however is only a recent introduction: [30] when the deified Augustus made regulations for the judicial panels {decuriae} the majority of the judges belonged to the iron ring class, and these used to be designated not knights but Justices; the title of knights remained with the cavalry squadrons mounted at the public charge. Of the Justices also there were at the first only four panels, and in each panel scarcely a thousand names were to be found, as the provinces had not yet been admitted to this duty; and the regulation has survived to the present day that nobody newly admitted to citizenship shall serve as a justice on one of the panels. [31] The panels themselves also were distinguished by various designations, as consisting of Tribunes of the Treasury, Selected Members and Justices. Moreover beside these there were those styled the Nine Hundred, selected from the whole body as keepers of the ballot-boxes at elections. And the proud adoption of titles had made divisions in this order also, one person styling himself a member of the Nine Hundred, another one of the Select, another a Tribune.

{8.} [32] Finally in the ninth year in office of the Emperor Tiberius the order of knights was united into a single body; and in the consulship of Gaius Asinius Pollio and Gaius Antistius Vetus {23 AD}, in the 775th year since the foundation of Rome, a regulation was established authorizing who should wear rings; the motive for this, a thing that may surprise us, was virtually the futile reason that Gaius Sulpicius Galba had made a youthful effort to curry favour with the emperor by enacting penalties for keeping eating-houses and had made a complaint in the senate that peddling tradesmen when charged with that offence commonly protected themselves by means of their rings. Consequently a rule was made that nobody should have this right except one who was himself a free-born man whose father and father's father had been free-born also, and who had been rated as the owner of 400,000 sesterces and had been entitled under the Julian law as to the theatre to sit in the fourteen front rows of seats. [33] Subsequently people began to apply in crowds for this mark of rank; and in consequence of the disputes thus occasioned the Emperor Gaius Caligula added a fifth panel, and so much conceit has this occasioned that the panels which under the deified Augustus it had not been possible to fill will not hold that order, and there are frequent cases of men who are actually liberated slaves making a leap over to these distinctions, a thing that previously never occurred, since the iron ring was the distinguishing mark even of knights and judges.

And the thing began to be so common that during the censorship of the Emperor Claudius {48 AD} a member of the order of knighthood named Flavius Proculus laid before him information against 400 persons on this ground, so that an order intended to distinguish the holder from other men of free birth has been shared with slaves. [34] It was the Gracchi who first instituted the name of Justices or Judges as the distinguishing name of that order of knights - seditiously currying favour with the people in order to humiliate the senate; but subsequently the importance of the title of knight was swamped by the shifting currents of faction, and came down to be attached to the farmers of public revenues, and for some time these revenue officers constituted the third rank in the state. Finally Marcus Cicero, thanks to the Catilinarian affair, during his consulship {63 BC} put the title of knighthood on a firm footing, boasting that he himself sprang from that order, and winning its powerful support by methods of securing popularity that were entirely his own. From that time onward the knighthood definitely became a third element in the state, and the name of the Equestrian Order came to be added to the formula 'The Senate and People of Rome.' This is the reason why it is even now written after 'People,' because it was the latest addition introduced.

{9.} [35] Indeed the very name of the knights has itself frequently been altered, even in the case of those who derived the title from the fact of their serving as cavalry. Under Romulus and the kings they were called the Celeres, then the Flexuntes and afterwards the Trossuli, because of their having without any assistance from infantry captured a town of that name in the Etruscan region nine miles this side of Volsinii; and the name survived till after the time of Gaius Gracchus. [36] At all events in the writings left by Junius, who owing to his friendship with Gaius Gracchus was called Gracchanus, these words occur: 'So far as concerns the equestrian order, they were previously called the Trossuli, but are now simply designated the Cavalry, because people do not know what the word Trossuli means and many of them are ashamed of being called by that name.' He goes on to explain the reason above indicated, and says that they were even in his time still called Trossuli, though they did not wish to be.

{10.} [37] There are some additional particulars in regard to gold which must not be omitted. For instance our authorities actually bestowed gold necklaces on foreign soldiers, but only awarded silver ones to Roman citizens, and what is more they gave bracelets to citizens, which it was not their custom to give to foreigners.

{11.} [38] But at the same time, as is even more surprising, they gave crowns of gold even to citizens. Who was the first person to receive one I have not myself been able to ascertain, but Lucius Piso records who was the first person to bestow one, namely the dictator Aulus Postumius {496 BC}, who when the camp of the Latins at Lake Regillus had been taken by storm awarded a gold crown to the soldier who had been chiefly responsible for taking the place. In this case the crown which he bestowed was made of gold taken from the booty captured, and weighed two pounds. Also Lucius Lentulus as consul {275 BC} awarded a gold crown to Servius Cornelius Merenda after the taking of a town belonging to the Samnites, but Servius's crown weighed five pounds; while Piso Frugi bestowed on his son one weighing three pounds out of his personal resources, leaving it to him by will as a specific legacy.

{12.} [39] As a mark of honour to the gods at sacrifices no other means has been devised but to gild the horns of the victims to be immolated, at all events of full-grown animals. But in military service also this form of luxury has grown to such dimensions that we find a letter of Marcus Brutus sent from the Plains of Philippi expressing his indignation at the brooches made of gold that were worn by the tribunes. Really I must protest! Why, even you, Brutus, did not mention the gold worn on their feet by women, and we accuse of crime the man who first conferred dignity on gold by using gold rings! Let even men nowadays wear gold bracelets - called 'Dardania' because the fashion came from the Dardani - the Celtic name for them is 'viriolae' and the Celtiberian 'viriae'; [40] let women have gold in their bracelets and covering their fingers and on their neck, ears and tresses, let gold chains run at random round their waists; and let little bags of pearls hang invisible suspended by gold chains from their lady owners' neck, so that even in their sleep they may retain the consciousness of possessing gems: but are even their feet to be shod with gold, and shall gold create this female order of knighthood, intermediate between the matron's robe and the common people? Much more becomingly do we men bestow this on our page-boys, and the wealthy show these lads make has quite transformed the public baths! [41] But nowadays even men are beginning to wear on their fingers a representation of Harpocrates and figures of Egyptian deities. In the time of the Emperor Claudius there was also another unusual distinction, belonging to those whose rights of free access to the presence had given them the privilege of wearing a gold likeness of the emperor on a ring, this affording a great opportunity for informers; but all of this was however entirely abolished by the opportune rise to power of the Emperor Vespasian, by making the emperor equally accessible to all. Let this suffice for a discussion of the subject of gold rings and their employment.

{13.} [42] Next in degree was the crime committed by the person who first coined a gold denarius, a crime which itself also is hidden and its author unknown. The Roman nation did not even use a stamped silver coinage before the conquest of king Pyrrhus {275 BC}. The as weighed one pound - hence the term still in use, 'little pound' and 'two pounder'; this is the reason why a fine is specified in 'heavy bronze,' and why in book-keeping outlay is still designated as 'sums weighed out,' and likewise interest as 'weighed on account' and paying as 'weighing down,' [43] and moreover it explains the terms 'soldiers' stipend,' which means 'weights of heaped money,' and the words for accountants and paymasters that mean 'weighers' and 'pound-weighers,' and owing to this custom in purchases that deal with all larger personal property, even at the present day, an actual pair of 'pound'-scales is introduced. King Servius was the first to stamp a design on bronze; previously, according to Timaeus, at Rome they used raw metal. The design stamped on the metal was an ox or a sheep, 'pecus', which is the origin of the term 'pecunia.' The highest assessment of one man's property in the reign of Servius was 120,000 as-pieces, and consequently that amount of property was the standard of the first class of citizens.

[44] Silver was first coined in the 485th year of the city, in the consulship of Quintus Ogulnius and Gaius Fabius {269 BC}, five years before the First Punic War. It was decided that the value of a denarius should be ten pounds of bronze, that of a half-denarius five pounds, that of a sestertius two pounds and a half. The weight of a standard pound of bronze was however reduced during the First Punic War, when the state could not meet its expenditure, and it was enacted that the as should be struck weighing two ounces. This effected a saving of five-sixths, and the national debt was liquidated. [45] The design of this bronze coin was on one side a Janus facing both ways and on the other the ram of a battleship; the third of an as and the quarter as had a ship. The had previously been called a teruncius, as weighing three ounces. Subsequently when the presence of Hannibal was being felt, in the dictatorship of Quintus Fabius Maximus {217 BC}, asses of one ounce weight were coined, and it was enacted that the exchange-value of the denarius should be sixteen asses, of the half-denarius eight and of the quarter-denarius four; by this measure the state made a clear gain of one half. But nevertheless in the pay of soldiers one denarius has always been given for ten asses. [46] The designs on silver were a two-horse and a four-horse chariot, and consequently the coins were called a pair of horses and a four-in-hand.

Next according to a law of Papirius {89 BC} asses weighing half an ounce were struck. Livius Drusus when holding the office of tribune# of the plebs alloyed the silver with one-eighth part of bronze. The coin now named the victory coin was struck under the law of Clodius; previously a coin of this name was imported from Illyria and was looked on as an article of trade. The design on it was a figure of Victory, which gives it its name.

[47] The first gold coin was struck 51 years later than the silver coinage, a scruple of gold having the value of twenty sesterces; this was done at 400 to the pound of silver, at the then rating of the sestertius. It was afterwards decided to coin denarii at the rate of 40 from a pound of gold, and the emperors gradually reduced the weight of the gold denarius, and most recently Nero brought it down to 45 denarii to the pound.

{14.} [48] But from the invention of money came the original source of avarice when usury was devised, and a profitable life of idleness; by rapid stages what was no longer mere avarice but a positive hunger for gold flared up with a sort of frenzy, inasmuch as the friend of Gaius Gracchus, Septumuleius, a price having been set on Gracchus's head to the amount of its weight in gold, when Gracchus's head had been cut off, brought it to Opimius {121 BC}, after adding to his unnatural murder by putting lead in the mouth of the corpse, and so cheated the state in addition. Nor was it now some Roman citizen, but king Mithridates who disgraced the whole name of Roman when he poured molten gold into the mouth of the general Aquilius whom he had taken prisoner? These are the things that the lust for possessions engenders! [49] One is ashamed to see the new-fangled names that are invented every now and then from the Greek to denote silver vessels filigreed or inlaid with gold, niceties which make gilded plate fetch a higher price than gold plate, when we know that Spartacus issued an order to his camp forbidding anybody to possess gold or silver: so much more spirit was there then in our runaway slaves! [50] The orator Messala has told us that the triumvir Antony used vessels of gold in satisfying all the indecent necessities, an enormity that even Cleopatra would have been so ashamed of. Till then the record in extravagance had lain with foreigners - king Philip sleeping with a gold goblet under his pillows and Alexander the Great's prefect Hagnon of Teos having his sandals soled with gold nails; but Antony alone cheapened gold by this contumely of nature. How he deserved to be proscribed! but proscribed by Spartacus!

{15.} [51] It does indeed surprise me that the Roman nation always imposed a tribute of silver, not of gold, on races that it conquered, for instance on Carthage when conquered together with Hannibal {202 BC}, 800,000 pounds weight of silver in yearly instalments of 16,000 pounds spread over 50 years, but no gold. Nor can it be considered that this was due to the world's poverty. Midas and Croesus had already possessed wealth without limit, and Cyrus had already on conquering Asia Minor {546 BC} found booty consisting of 24,000 pounds weight of gold, besides vessels and articles made of gold, including a throne, a plane-tree and a vine. And by this victory he carried off 500,000 talents of silver and the wine-bowl of Semiramis the weight of which came to 15 talents. [52] The Egyptian talent according to Marcus Varro amounts to 80 pounds of gold. Saulaces the descendant of Aeetes had already reigned in Colchis, who is said to have come on a tract of virgin soil in the country of the Suani and elsewhere and to have dug up from it a great quantity of gold and silver, his realm being moreover famous for golden fleeces. We are also told of his gold-vaulted ceilings and silver beams and columns and pilasters, belonging to Sesostris king of Egypt whom Saulaces conquered, so proud a monarch that he is reported to have been in the habit every year of harnessing to his chariot individual kings selected by lot from among his vassals and so going in triumphal procession.

{16.} [53] We too have done things to be deemed mythical by those who come after us. Caesar, the future dictator, was the first person in the office of aedile {65 BC} to use nothing but silver for the appointments of the arena - it was at the funeral games presented in honour of his father; and this was the first occasion on which criminals made to fight with wild animals had all their equipment made of silver, a practice nowadays rivalled even in our municipal towns. Gaius Antonius gave plays on a silver stage, and so did Lucius Murena; and the emperor Gaius Caligula brought on a scaffolding in the circus which had on it 124,000 pounds weight of silver. [54] His successor Claudius when celebrating a triumph after the conquest of Britain {43 AD}, advertised by placards that among the gold coronets there was one having a weight of 7000 pounds contributed by Hither Spain and one of 9000 from Gallia Comata. His immediate successor Nero covered the theatre of Pompeius with gold for one day's purpose, when he was to display it to Tiridates king of Armenia. Yet how small was the theatre in comparison with Nero's Golden Palace which goes all round the city!

{17.} [55] The gold contained in the national treasury of Rome in the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Aurelius {157 BC}, seven years before the Third Punic War, amounted to 17,410 pounds, the silver to 22,070 pounds, and in specie there was 6,135,400 sesterces; in the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Marcius {91 BC}, that is to say, at the beginning of the Social War, there was ... pounds of gold and 1,620,831 pounds of silver. [56] Gaius Julius Caesar, on first entering Rome during the civil war that bears his name {49 BC}, drew from the treasury 15,000 gold ingots, 30,000 silver ingots, and 30,000,000 sesterces in coin; at no other periods was the state more wealthy. Aemilius Paulus also after the defeat of king Perseus paid in to the treasury from the booty won in Macedonia 300 million sesterces; and from that date onward the Roman nation left off paying the citizens' property-tax.

{18.} [57] At the present day we see ceilings covered with gold even in private houses, but they were first gilded in the Capitol during the censorship of Lucius Mummius {142 BC} after the fall of Carthage. From ceilings the use of gilding passed over also to vaulted roofs and walls, these too being now gilded like pieces of plate, whereas a variety of judgements were passed on Catulus by his contemporaries for having gilded the brass tilings of the Capitol.

{19.} [58] We have already said in Book VII { 7.97 }who were the people who first discovered gold, and almost all of the metals likewise. I think that the chief popularity of this substance has been won not by its colour, that of silver being brighter and more like daylight, which is the reason why it is in more common use for military ensigns because its brilliance is visible at a greater distance; those persons who think that it is the colour of starlight in gold that has won it favour being clearly mistaken because in the case of gems and other things with the same tint it does not hold an outstanding place. [59] Nor is it its weight or its malleability that has led to its being preferred to all the rest of the metals, since in both qualities it yields the first place to lead, but because gold is the only thing that loses no substance by the action of fire, but even in conflagrations and on funeral pyres receives no damage. Indeed as a matter of fact it improves in quality the more often it is fired, and fire serves as a test of its goodness, making it assume a similar red hue and itself becomes the colour of fire; this process is called assaying. [60] The first proof of quality in gold is however its being affected by fire with extreme difficulty; beside that, it is remarkable that though invincible to live coal made of the hardest wood it is very quickly made red hot by a fire of chaff, and that for the purpose of purifying it it is roasted with lead.

Another more important reason for its value is that it gets extremely little worn by use; whereas, with silver, copper and lead, lines may be drawn, and stuff that comes off them dirties the hand. [61] Nor is any other material more malleable or able to be divided into more portions, seeing that an ounce of gold can be beaten out into 750 or more leaves 4 inches square. The thickest kind of gold leaf is called Praeneste leaf, still bearing the name taken from the faithfully gilded statue of Fortuna in that place. [62] The foil next in thickness is styled Quaestorian leaf. In Spain tiny pieces of gold are called scrapers. Gold more than all other metals is found unalloyed in nuggets or in the form of detritus. Whereas all other metals when found in the mines are brought into a finished condition by means of fire, gold is gold straight away and has its substance in a perfect state at once, when it is obtained by mining. This is the natural way of getting it, while another which we shall describe is artificial. More than any other substance gold is immune from rust or verdigris or anything else emanating from it that wastes its goodness or reduces its weight. Moreover in steady resistance to the overpowering effect of the juices of salt and vinegar it surpasses all things, and over and above that it can be spun into thread and woven into a fabric like wool, even without an addition of wool. [63] Verrius informs us that Tarquinius Priscus celebrated a triumph wearing a golden tunic. We have in our own times seen the Emperor Claudius's wife Agrippina, at a show at which he was exhibiting a naval battle, seated at his side wearing a military cloak made entirely of cloth of gold. For a long period gold has been woven into the fabric called Attalic cloth, an invention of kings of Asia.

{20.} [64] On marble and other materials incapable of being raised to a white heat gold is laid with white of egg; on wood it is laid with glue according to a formula; it is called leucophorum, white-bearing; what this is and how it is made we will explain in its proper place { 35.36 }. The regular way to gild copper would be to use natural or at all events artificial quicksilver, concerning which a method of adulteration has been devised, as we shall relate in describing the nature of those substances { 33.100 }. [65] The copper is first subjected to the violence of fire; then, when it is red hot, it is quenched with a mixture of brine, vinegar, and alum, and afterwards put to a test, its brilliance of colour showing whether it has been sufficiently heated; then it is again dried in the fire, so that, after a thorough polishing with a mixture of pumice and alum, it is able to take the gold-leaf laid on with quicksilver. Alum has the same cleansing property here that we said is found in lead.

{21.} [66] Gold in our part of the world - not to speak of the Indian gold obtained from ants or the gold dug up by griffins in Scythia -, is obtained in three ways: in the detritus of rivers, for instance in the Tagus in Spain, the Po in Italy, the Hebrus in Thrace, the Pactolus in Asia Minor and the Ganges in India; and there is no gold that is in a more perfect state, as it is thoroughly polished by the mere friction of the current. Another method is by sinking shafts; or it is sought for in the fallen debris of mountains. Each of these methods must be described.

[67] People seeking for gold begin by getting up segellum - that is the name for earth that indicates the presence of gold. This is a pocket of sand, which is washed, and from the sediment left an estimate of the vein is made. Sometimes by a rare piece of luck a pocket is found immediately, on the surface of the earth, as occurred recently in Dalmatia when Nero was emperor, one yielding fifty pounds weight of gold a day. Gold found in this way in the surface crust is called talutium if there is also auriferous earth underneath. The otherwise dry, barren mountains of the Spanish provinces which produce nothing else whatever are forced into fertility in regard to this commodity.

[68] Gold dug up from shafts is called 'channelled' or 'trenched' gold; it is found sticking to the grit of marble, not in the way in which it gleams in the lapis lazuli of the East and the stone of Thebes and in other precious stones, but sparkling in the folds of the marble. These channels of veins wander to and fro along the sides of the shafts, which gives the gold its name; and the earth is held up by wooden props. [69] The substance dug out is crushed, washed, fired and pound to a soft powder. The powder from the mortar is called the 'scudes' and the silver that comes out from the furnace the 'sweat'; the dirt thrown out of the smelting-furnace in the case of every metal is called 'scoria,' slag. In the case of gold the scoria is pounded and fired a second time; the crucibles for this are made of tasconium, which is a white earth resembling clay. No other earth can stand the blast of air, the fire, or the intensely hot material.

[70] The third method will have outdone the achievements of the Giants. By means of galleries driven for long distances the mountains are mined by the light of lamps - the spells of work are also measured by lamps, and the miners do not see daylight for many months.

The name for this class of mines is arrugiae; also cracks give way suddenly and crush the men who have been at work, so that it actually seems less venturesome to try to get pearls and purple-fishes out of the depth of the sea: so much more dangerous have we made the earth! Consequently arches are left at frequent intervals to support the weight of the mountain above. [71] In both kinds of mining masses of flint are encountered, which are burst asunder by means of fire and vinegar, though more often, as this method makes the tunnels suffocating through heat and smoke, they are broken to pieces with crushing-machines carrying 150 pounds of iron, and the men carry the stuff out on their shoulders, working night and day, each man passing them on to the next man in the dark, while only those at the end of the hue see daylight. If the bed of flint seems too long, the miner follows along the side of it and goes round it. And yet flint is considered to involve comparatively easy work, [72] as there is a kind of earth consisting of a sort of potter's clay mixed with gravel, called gangadict, which it is almost impossible to overcome. They attack it with iron wedges and the hammer-machines mentioned above; and it is thought to be the hardest thing that exists, except greed for gold, which is the most stubborn of all things. When the work is completely finished, beginning with the last, they cut through, at the tops, the supports of the arched roofs. A crack gives warning of a crash, and the only person who notices it is the sentinel on a pinnacle of the mountain. [73] He by shout and gesture gives the order for the workmen to be called out and himself at the same moment flies down from his pinnacle. The fractured mountain falls asunder in a wide gap, with a crash which it is impossible for human imagination to conceive, and likewise with an incredibly violent blast of air. The miners gaze as conquerors upon the collapse of Nature. And nevertheless even now there is no gold so far, nor did they positively know there was any when they began to dig; the mere hope of obtaining their coveted object was a sufficient inducement for encountering such great dangers and expenses.

[74] Another equally laborious task involving even greater expense is the incidental operation of previously bringing streams along mountain-heights frequently a distance of 100 miles for the purpose of washing away the debris of this collapse; the channels made for this purpose are called corrugi, a term derived I believe from coarivatio, a uniting of streams of water. This also involves a thousand tasks; the dip of the fall must be steep, to cause a rush rather than a flow of water, and consequently it is brought from very high altitudes. Gorges and crevasses are bridged by aqueducts carried on masonry; at other places impassable rocks are hewn away and compelled to provide a position for hollowed troughs of timber. [75] The workman hewing the rock hangs suspended with ropes, so that spectators viewing the operations from a distance seem to see not so much a swarm of strange animals as a flight of birds. In the majority of cases they hang suspended in this way while taking the levels and marking out the lines for the route, and rivers are led by man's agency to run where there is no place for a man to plant his footsteps. It spoils the operation of washing if the current of the stream carries mud along with it: an earthy sediment of this kind is called urium. Consequently they guide the flow over flint stones and pebbles, and avoid urium. At the head of the waterfall on the brow of the mountains reservoirs are excavated measuring 200 feet each way and 10 feet deep. In these there are left five sluices with apertures measuring about three feet each way, in order that when the reservoir is full the stopping-barriers may be struck away and the torrent may burst out with such violence as to sweep forward the broken rock. [76] There is also yet another task to perform on the level ground. Trenches are excavated for the water to flow through - the Greek name for them means 'leads'; and these, which descend by steps, are floored with gorse - this is a plant resembling rosemary, which is rough and holds back the gold. The sides are closed in with planks, and the channels are carried on arches over steep pitches. Thus the earth carried along in the stream slides down into the sea and the shattered mountain is washed away; and by this time the land of Spain owing to these causes has encroached a long way into the sea. [77] The material drawn out at such enormous labour in the former kind of mining is in this latter process washed out, so as not to fill up the shafts. The gold obtained by means of an arrugia does not have to be melted, but is pure gold straight away. In this process nuggets are found and also in the shafts, even weighing more than ten pounds. They are called palagae or else palacurnae, and also the gold in very small grains baluce. The gorse is dried and burnt and its ash is washed on a bed of grassy turf so that the gold is deposited on it. [78] According to some accounts Asturia and Gallaecia and Lusitania produce in this way 20,000 pounds weight of gold a year, Asturia supplying the largest amount. Nor has there been in any other part of the world such a continuous production of gold for so many centuries. We have stated that by an old prohibiting decree of the senate Italy is protected from exploitation; otherwise no country would have been more productive in metals, as well as in crops. There is extant a ruling of the censors relating to the gold mines of Victumulae in the territory of Vercellae which prohibited the farmers of public revenues from having more than 5000 men engaged in the work.

{22.} [79] There is moreover one method of making gold out of orpiment which is dug up in Syria for use by painters; it is found on the surface of the earth, and is of a gold colour, but is easily broken, like looking-glass stone. Hopes inspired by it had attracted the Emperor Gaius Caligula, who was extremely covetous for gold, and who consequently gave orders for a great weight of it to be smelted; and as a matter of fact it did produce excellent gold, but so small a weight of it that he found himself a loser by his experiment that was prompted by avarice, although orpiment sold for 4 denarii a pound; and no one afterwards has repeated the experiment.

{23.} [80] All gold contains silver in various proportions, a tenth part in some cases, an eighth in others. In one mine only, that of Gallaecia called the Albucrara mine, the proportion of silver found is one thirty-sixth, and consequently this one is more valuable than all the others. Wherever the proportion of silver is one-fifth, the ore is called electrum; grains of this are found in 'channelled' gold. An artificial electrum is also made by adding silver to gold. If the proportion of silver exceeds one-fifth, the metal produced offers no resistance on the anvil. [81] Electrum also held a high position in old times, as is evidenced by Homer { Od_4.71 } who represents the palace of Menelaus as resplendent with gold, electrum, silver and ivory. There is a temple of Athena at Lindus of the island of Rhodes in which there is a goblet made of electrum, dedicated by Helen; history further relates that it has the same measurement as her breast. A quality of electrum is that it shines more brightly than silver in lamplight. Natural electrum also has the property of detecting poisons; for semicircles resembling rainbows run over the surface in poisoned goblets and emit a crackling noise like fire, and so advertise the presence of poison in a twofold manner.

{24.} [82] The first gold statue of all that was made of solid metal and even before any was made of bronze, of the kind called 'made of solid beaten metal,' is said to have been erected in the temple of Anaitis, in the region of the earth where we have designated this name { 5.83 }, that goddess' deity being held in the highest reverence by those races. [83] This statue was taken as booty during the campaigns of Antonius in Parthia, and a story is told of a witty saying of one of the veterans of our army who was being entertained as a guest at dinner by the deified Augustus at Bononia. He was asked whether it was true that the man who was the first to commit this sacrilege against that deity was struck blind and paralysed and so expired. His answer was that the emperor was at that very moment eating his dinner off one of the goddess's legs, and that he himself was the perpetrator of the sacrilege and owed his entire fortune to that piece of plunder. The first solid gold statue of a human being was one of himself set up by Gorgias of Leontini in the temple at Delphi about the (?) 70th Olympiad {500-497 BC}. So great were the profits to be made by teaching the art of oratory!

{25.} [84] Gold is efficacious as a remedy in a variety of ways, and is used as an amulet for wounded people and for infants to render less harmful poisonous charms that may be directed against them. Gold has itself however a maleficent effect if carried over the head, in the case of chickens and the young of cattle as well as human beings. As a remedy it is smeared on, then washed off and sprinkled on the persons you wish to cure. Gold is also heated with twice its weight of salt and three times its weight of copper pyrites, and again with two portions of salt and one of the stone called splittable. Treated in this way it draws poison out, when the other substances have been burnt up with it in an earthenware crucible while it remains pure and uncorrupted itself. [85] The ash remaining is kept in an earthenware jar, and eruptions on the face may well be cleansed away by being smeared with this lotion from the jar. It also cures fistulas and what are called haemorrhoids. With the addition of ground pumice-stone it relieves putrid and foul-smelling ulcers, while boiled down in honey and git, and applied as a liniment to the navel it acts as a gentle aperient. According to Marcus Varro gold is a cure for warts.

{26.} [86] Gold-solder is a liquid found in the shafts we spoke of, flowing down along a vein of gold, with a slime that is solidified by the cold of winter even to the hardness of pumice-stone. A more highly spoken of variety of the same metal has been ascertained to be formed in copper mines, and the next best in silver-mines. A less valuable sort also with an element of gold is also found in lead mines. In all these mines however an artificial variety is produced that is much inferior to the natural kind referred to; the method is to introduce a gentle flow of water into the vein all winter and go on till the beginning of June and then to dry it off in June and July, clearly showing that gold-solder is nothing else than the putrefaction of a vein of metal. [87] Natural gold-solder, known as 'grape,' differs very greatly from the artificial in hardness, and nevertheless it also takes a dye from the plant called yellow-weed. It is of a substance that absorbs moisture, like flax or wool. It is pounded in a mortar and then passed through a fine sieve, and afterwards milled and then sifted again with a finer sieve, everything that does not pass through the sieve being again treated in the mortar and then milled again. [88] The powder is all along separated off into bowls and steeped in vinegar so as to dissolve all hardness, and then is pounded again and then rinsed in shells and left to dry. Then it is dyed by means of splittable alum and the plant above mentioned and so given a colour before it serves as a colour itself. It is important how absorbent it is and ready to take the dye; for if it does not at once catch the colour, scytanum and turbistum must be added as well - those being the names of two drugs producing absorption.

{27.} [89] When painters have dyed gold-solder, they call it orobitis, vetch-like, and distinguish two kinds, the purified which is kept for a cosmetic, and the liquid, in which the little balls are made into a paste with a liquid. Both of these kinds are made in Cyprus, but the most highly valued is in Armenia and the second best in Macedonia, while the greatest quantity is produced in Spain, the highest recommendation in the latter being the quality of reproducing as closely as possible the colour in a bright green blade of corn. [90] We have before now seen at the shows given by the emperor Nero the sand of the circus sprinkled with gold-solder when the emperor in person was going to give an exhibition of chariot-driving wearing a coat of that colour. The unlearned multitude of artisans distinguish three varieties of the substance, the rough, which is valued at 7 denarii a pound, the middling, which is 5 denarii, and the crushed, also called the grass-green kind, 3 denarii. Before applying the sandy variety they put on a preliminary coating of black dye and pure white chalk: [91] these serve to hold the gold-solder and give a softness of colour. As the pure chalk is of a very unctuous consistency and extremely tenacious owing to its smoothness, it is sprinkled with a coat of black, to prevent the extreme whiteness of the chalk from imparting a pale hue to the gold-solder. The yellow gold-solder is thought to derive its name from the plant yellow-weed, which is itself often pounded up with steel-blue and applied for painting instead of' gold-solder, making a very inferior and counterfeit kind of colour.

{28.} [92] Gold-solder is also used in medicine, mixed with wax and olive oil, for cleansing wounds; likewise applied dry by itself it dries wounds and draws them together. It is also given in cases of quinsy or asthma, to be taken as an electuary with honey. It acts as an emetic, and also is used as an ingredient in salves for sores in the eyes and in green plasters for relieving pains, and drawing together scars. This kind of gold-solder is called by medical men remedial solder, and is not the same as orobitis.

{29.} [93] The goldsmiths also use a special gold-solder of their own for soldering gold, and according to them it is from this that all the other substances with a similar green colour take the name. The mixture is made with Cyprian copper verdigris and the urine of a boy who has not reached puberty with the addition of soda; this is ground with a pestle made of Cyprian copper in mortars of the same metal, and the Latin name for the mixture is santerna. It is in this way used in soldering the gold called silvery-gold; a sign of its having been so treated is if the application of borax gives it brilliance. On the other hand coppery gold shrinks in size and becomes dull, and is difficult to solder; for this purpose a solder is made by adding some gold and one seventh as much silver to the materials above specified, and grinding them up together.

{30.} [94] While speaking of this it will be well to annex the remaining particulars, so as to occasion all-round admiration for Nature. The proper solder for gold is the one described; for iron, potter's clay; for copper in masses, cadmea; for copper in sheets, alum; for lead and marble, resin. Black lead, however, is joined by means of white lead, and white lead to white lead by using oil; stagnum likewise with copper filings, and silver with stagnum. For smelting copper and iron pine-wood makes the best fuel, though Egyptian papyrus can also be used; gold is best smelted with a fire made of chaff. Water sets fire to quicklime and Thracian stone, and olive-oil puts it out; fire however is most readily quenched by vinegar, mistletoe and eggs. Earth it is quite impossible to ignite, but charcoal gives a more powerful heat if it is burned till it goes out and then catches fire again.

{31.} [95] After these details let us speak about the varieties of silver ore, the next madness of mankind. Silver is only found in deep shafts, and raises no hopes of its existence by any signs, giving off no shining sparkles such as are seen in the case of gold. The ore is sometimes red, sometimes ash-coloured. It cannot be smelted except when combined with lead or with the vein of lead, called galena, lead ore, which is usually found running near veins of silver ore. Also when submitted to the same process of firing, part of the ore precipitates as lead while the silver floats on the surface, like oil on water.

[96] Silver is found in almost all the provinces, but the finest is in Spain, where it, as well as gold, occurs in sterile ground and even in the mountains; and wherever one vein is found another is afterwards found not far away. This indeed also occurs in the case of almost every metal, and accounts it seems for the word metals used by the Greeks. It is a remarkable fact that the shafts initiated by Hannibal all over the Spanish provinces are still in existence; they are named from the persons who discovered them; [97] one of these mines, now called after Baebelo, furnished Hannibal with 300 pounds weight of silver a day, the tunnelling having been carried a mile and a half into the mountain. Along the whole of this distance watermen are posted who all night and day in spells measured by lanterns bale out the water and make a stream. [98] The vein of silver nearest the surface is called the 'raw.' In early days the excavations used to stop when they found alum, and no further search made; but recently the discovery of a vein of copper under the alum has removed all limit to men's hopes. The exhalations from silver mines are dangerous to all animals, but specially to dogs. Gold and silver are more beautiful the softer they are. It surprises most people that silver traces black lines.

{32.} [99] There is also a mineral found in these veins of silver which contains a humour, in round drops, that is always liquid, and is called quicksilver. It acts as a poison on everything, and breaks vessels by penetrating them with malignant corruption. All substances float on its surface except gold, which is the only thing that it attracts to itself; consequently it is also excellent for refining gold, as if it is briskly shaken in earthen vessels it rejects all the impurities contained in it. When these blemishes have been thus expelled, to separate the quicksilver itself from the gold it is poured out on to hides that have been well dressed, and exudes through them like a kind of perspiration and leaves the gold behind in a pure state. [100] Consequently when also things made of copper are gilded, a coat of quicksilver is applied underneath the gold leaf and keeps it in its place with the greatest tenacity: but if the gold-leaf is put on in one layer or is very thin it reveals the quicksilver by its pale colour. Consequently persons intending this fraud adulterated the quicksilver used for this purpose with white of egg; and later they falsified also hydrargyrum or artificial quicksilver, which we shall speak about in its proper place { 33.123 }. Otherwise quicksilver is not to be found in any large quantity.

{33.} [101] In the same mines as silver there is found what is properly to be described as a stone, made of white and shiny but not transparent froth; several names are used for it, stirni, stibi, alabastrum and sometimes larbasis. It is of two kinds, male and female. The female variety is preferred, the male being more uneven and rougher to the touch, as well as lighter in weight, not so brilliant, and more gritty; the female on the contrary is bright and friable and splits in thin layers and not in globules.

{34.} [102] Antimony has astringent and cooling properties, but it is chiefly used for the eyes, since this is why even a majority of people have given it a Greek name meaning 'wide-eye,' because in beauty-washes for women's eyebrows it has the property of magnifying the eyes. Made into a powder with powdered frankincense and an admixture of gum it checks fluxes and ulcerations of the eyes. It also arrests discharge of blood from the brain, and is also extremely effective with a sprinkling of its powder against new wounds and old dog-bites and against burns if mixed with fat and litharge of silver, or lead acetate and wax. [103] It is prepared by being smeared round with lumps of ox and burnt in ovens, and then cooled down with women's milk and mixed with rain water and pounded in mortars. And next the turbid part is poured off into a copper vessel after being purified with soda. The lees are recognized by being full of lead, and they settle to the bottom of the mortars and art thrown away. Then the vessel into which the turbid part was poured off is covered with a cloth and left for a night, and the next day anything floating on the surface is poured off or removed with a sponge. [104] The sediment on the bottom is considered the choicest part and is covered with a linen cloth and put to dry in the sun but not allowed to become very dry, and is ground up a second time in the mortar and divided into small tablets. But it is above all essential to limit the amount of heat applied to it, so that it may not be turned into lead. Some people do not employ dung in boiling it but fat. Others pound it in water and strain it through three thicknesses of linen cloth and throw away the dregs, and pour off the liquor that comes through, collecting all the deposit at the bottom, and this they use as an ingredient in plasters and eyewashes.

{35.} [105] The slag in silver is called by the Greeks the 'draw-off.' It has an astringent and cooling effect on the body, and like sulphuret of lead, of which we shall speak in dealing with lead { 34.173 }, it has healing properties as an ingredient in plasters, being extremely effective in causing wounds to close-up, and when injected by means of syringes, together with myrtle-oil, as a remedy for straining of the bowels and dysentery. It is also used as an ingredient in the remedies called emollient plasters used for proud flesh of gathering sores, or sores caused by chafing or running ulcers on the head.

[106] The same mines also produce the mineral called scum of silver. Of this there are three kinds, with Greek names meaning respectively golden, silvery and leaden; and for the most part all these colours are found in the same ingots. The Attic kind is the most approved, next the Spanish. The golden scum is obtained from the actual vein, the silvery from silver, and the leaden from smelting the actual lead, which is done at Puteoli, from which place it takes its name. [107] Each kind however is made by heating its raw material till it melts, when it flows down from an upper vessel into a lower one and is lifted out of that with small iron spits and then twisted round on a spit in the actual flame, in order to make it of moderate weight. Really, as may be inferred from its name, it is the scum of a substance in a state of fusion and in process of production. It differs from dross in the way in which the scum of a liquid may differ from the lees, one being a blemish excreted by the material when purifying itself and the other a blemish in the metal when purified. [108] Some people make two classes of scum of silver which they call 'scirerytis' and 'peumene,' and a third, leaden scum which we shall speak of under the head of lead { 34.173 }. To make the scum available for use it is boiled a second time after the ingots have been broken up into pieces the size of finger-rings. Thus after being heated up with the bellows to separate the cinders and ashes from it it is washed with vinegar or wine, and cooled down in the process. In the case of the silvery kind, in order to give it brilliance the instructions are to break it into pieces the size of a bean and boil it in water in an earthenware pot with the addition of wheat and barley wrapped in new linen cloths, until the silvery scum is cleaned of impurities. [109] Afterwards they grind it in mortars for six days, three times daily washing it with cold water and, when they have ceased operations, with hot, and adding salt from a salt-mine, an obol weight to a pound of scum. Then on the last day they store it in a lead vessel. Some boil it with white beans and pearl-barley and dry it in the sun, and others boil it with beans in a white woollen cloth till it ceases to discolour the wool; and then they add salt from a salt-mine, changing the water from time to time, and put it out to dry on the 40 hottest days of summer. They also boil it in a sow's paunch in water, and when they take it out rub it with soda, and grind it in mortars with salt as above. In some cases people do not boil it but grind it up with salt and then add water and rinse it. [110] It is used to make an eyewash and for women's skins to remove ugly scars and spots and as a hair-wash. Its effect is to dry, to soften, to cool, to act as a gentle purge, to fill up cavities caused by ulcers, and to soften tumours; it is used as an ingredient in plasters serving these purposes, and for the emollient plasters mentioned above. Mixed with rue and myrtle and vinegar, it also removes erysipelas, and likewise chilblains if mixed with myrtle and wax.

{36.} [111] Minium or cinnabar also is found in silver mines; it is of great importance among pigments at the present day, and also in old times it not only had the highest importance but even sacred associations among the Romans. Verrius gives a list of writers of unquestionable authority who say that on holidays it was the custom for the face of the statue of Jupiter himself to be coloured with cinnabar, as well as the bodies of persons going in a triumphal procession, and that Camillus was so coloured in his triumph, [112] and that under the same ritual it was usual even in their day for cinnabar to be added to the unguents used at a banquet in honour of a triumph, and that one of the first duties of the censors was to place a contract for painting Jupiter with cinnabar. For my own part I am quite at a loss to explain the origin of this custom, although at the present day the pigment in question is known to be in demand among the nations of Ethiopia whose chiefs colour themselves all over with it, and with whom the statues of the gods are of that colour. On that account we will investigate all the facts concerning it more carefully.

{37.} [113] Theophrastus states that cinnabar was discovered by an Athenian named Callias, 90 years before the archonship of Praxibulus at Athens - this date works out at the 349th year of our city {405 BC}, and that Callias was hoping that gold could by firing be extracted from the red sand found in silver mines; and that this was the origin of cinnabar, although cinnabar was being found even at that time in Spain, but a hard and sandy kind, [114] and likewise in the country of the Colchi on a certain inaccessible rock from which the natives dislodged it by shooting javelins, but that this is cinnabar of an impure quality whereas the best is found in the Cilbian territory beyond Ephesus, where the sand is of the scarlet colour of the kermes-insect; and that this is ground up and then the powder is washed and the sediment that sinks to the bottom is washed again; and that there is a difference of skill, some people producing cinnabar at the first washing while with others this is rather weak and the product of the second washing is the best.

{38.} [115] I am not surprised that the colour had an important rank, for as far back as Trojan times red ochre was highly valued, as evidenced by Homer, who speaks of it as a distinguished colour for ships, although otherwise he rarely alludes to colours and paintings. The Greek name for it is 'miltos,' and they call minium 'cinnabar.' [116] This gave rise to a mistake owing to the name 'Indian cinnabar,' for that is the name the Greeks give to the gore of a snake crushed by the weight of dying elephants, when the blood of each animal gets mixed together, as we have said; and there is no other colour that properly represents blood in a picture. That kind of cinnabar is extremely useful for antidotes and medicaments. But our doctors, I swear, because they give the name of cinnabar to minium also, employ this minium, which as we shall soon show is a poison.

{39.} [117] In old times 'dragon's-blood' cinnabar was used for painting the pictures that are still called monochromes, 'in one colour.' Cinnabar from Ephesus was also used for painting, but this has been given up because pictures in that colour were a great amount of trouble to preserve. Moreover both colours were thought excessively harsh; consequently painters have gone over to red-ochre and Sinopic ochre, pigments about which I shall speak in the proper places { 35.30 }. Cinnabar is adulterated with goat's blood or with crushed service-berries. The price of genuine cinnabar is 50 sesterces a pound.

{40.} [118] Juba reports that cinnabar is also produced in Carmania, and Timagenes says it is found in Ethiopia as well, but from neither place is it exported to us, and from hardly any other either except from Spain, the most famous cinnabar mine for the revenues of the Roman nation being that in the region of Sisapo in Baetica, no item being more carefully safeguarded: it is not allowed to smelt and refine the ore upon the spot, but as much as about 2000 pounds per annum is delivered to Rome in the crude state under seal, and is purified at Rome, the price in selling it being fixed by law established at 70 sesterces a pound, to prevent its going beyond limit. But it is adulterated in many ways, which is a source of plunder for the company. [119] For there is in fact another kind a of minium, found in almost all silver-mines, and likewise lead-mines, which is made by smelting a stone that has veins of metal running through it, and not obtained from the stone the round drops of which we have designated quicksilver - for that stone also if fired yields quicksilver - but from other stones found at the same time. These have no quicksilver and are detected only by their leaden colour, and only when they turn red in the furnaces, and after being thoroughly smelted they are pulverized by hammering. This gives a minium of second rate quality, which is known to very few people, and is much inferior to the natural sands we have mentioned. [120] It is this then that is used for adulterating real minium in the factories of the company, but a cheaper kind is adulterated with Syrian: the preparation of the latter will be described in the proper place { 35.40 }; but the process of giving cinnabar and red-lead a treatment of Syrian is detected by calculation when the one is weighed against the other. Cinnabar also, with red-lead, affords an opportunity for pilfering by painters in another way, if they wash out their brushes immediately when full of paint; the cinnabar or the red-lead settles at the bottom of the water and stays there for the pilferers. [121] Pure cinnabar ought to have the brilliant colour of the scarlet kermes-insect, while the shine of that of the second quality when used on wall-paintings is affected by rust, although this is itself a sort of metallic rust. In the cinnabar mines of Sisapo the vein of sand is pure, without silver. It is melted like gold; it is assayed by means of gold made red hot, as if it has been adulterated it turns black, but if genuine it keeps its colour. I find that it is also adulterated with lime, and this can be detected in a similar way with a sheet of red-hot iron if there is no gold available. [122] A surface painted with cinnabar is damaged by the action of sunlight and moonlight. The way to prevent this is to let the wall dry and then to coat it with Punic wax melted with olive oil and applied by means of brushes of bristles while it is still hot, and then this wax coating must be again heated by bringing near to it burning charcoal made of plant-galls, till it exudes drops of perspiration, and afterwards smoothed down with waxed rollers and then with clean linen cloths, in the way in which marble is given a shine. Persons polishing cinnabar in workshops tie on their face loose masks of bladder-skin, to prevent their inhaling the dust in breathing, which is very pernicious, and nevertheless to allow them to see over the bladders. Cinnabar is also used in writing books, and it makes a brighter lettering for inscriptions on a wall or on marble even in tombs.

{41.} [123] Of secondary importance is the fact that experience has also discovered a way of getting hydrargyrum or artificial quicksilver as a substitute for real quicksilver; we postponed the description of this a little previously. It is made in two ways, not by pounding red-lead in vinegar with a copper pestle in a copper mortar, or it is put in an iron shell in flat earthenware pans, and covered with a convex lid smeared on with clay, and then a fire is lit under the pans and kept constantly burning by means of bellows, and so the surface moisture (with the colour of silver and the fluidity of water) which forms on the lid is wiped off it. This moisture is also easily divided into drops and rains down freely with slippery fluidity. [124] And as cinnabar and red-lead are admitted to be poisons, all the current instructions on the subject of its employment for medicinal purposes are in my opinion decidedly risky, except perhaps that its application to the head or stomach arrests haemorrhage, provided that it does not find access to the vital organs or come in contact with a lesion. In any other way for my own part I would not recommend its employment.

{42.} [125] At the present time silver is almost the only substance that is gilded with artificial quicksilver, though really a similar method ought to be used in coating copper. But the same fraudulence which is so extremely ingenious in every department of life has devised an inferior material, as we have shown { 33.100 }.

{43.} [126] With the mention of gold and silver goes a description of the stone called the touch stone, formerly according to Theophrastus not usually found anywhere but in the river Tmolus, but now found in various places. Some people call it Heraclian stone and others Lydian. The pieces are of a moderate size, not exceeding four inches in length and two in breadth. The part of these pieces that has been exposed to the sun is better than the part on the ground. When experts using this touchstone, like a file, have taken with it a scraping from an ore, they can say at once how much gold it contains and how much silver or copper, to a difference of a scruple, their marvellous calculation not leading them astray.

{44.} [127] There are two points in which silver shows a variation. A shaving that remains perfectly white when placed on white-hot iron shovels is passed as good, while if it turns red it is of the next quality, and if black it has no value at all. But fraud has found its way even into this test; if the shovels are kept in men's urine the silver shaving is stained by it during the process of being burnt, and counterfeits whiteness. There is also one way of testing polished silver in a man's breath - if it at once forms surface moisture and dissipates the vapour.

{45.} [128] It has been believed that only the best silver is capable of being beaten out into plates and producing an image. This was formerly a sound test, but nowadays this too is spoiled by fraud. Still, the property of reflecting images is marvellous; it is generally agreed that it takes place owing to the repercussion of the air which is thrown back into the eyes. In a similar way, owing to the same force, in employing a mirror if the thickness of the metal has been polished and beaten out into a slightly concave shape the size of the objects reflected is enormously magnified: such a difference does it make whether the surface welcomes the air in question or flings it back. [129] Moreover bowls can be made of such a shape, with a number of looking-glasses so to speak beaten outward inside them, that if only a single person is looking into them a crowd of images is formed of the same number as the facets in question. Ingenuity even devises vessels that do conjuring tricks, for instance those deposited as votive offerings in the temple at Smyrna: this is brought about by the shape of the material, and it makes a very great difference whether the vessels are concave and shaped like a bowl or convex like a Thracian shield, whether their centre is recessed or projecting, whether the oval is horizontal or oblique, laid flat or placed upright, as the quality of the shape receiving the shadows twists them as they come: [130] for in fact the image in a mirror is merely the shadow arranged by the brilliance of the material receiving it. And in order to complete the whole subject of mirrors in this place, the best of those known in old days were those made at Brundisium of a mixture of stagnum and copper. Silver mirrors have come to be preferred; they were first made by Pasiteles in the period of Pompeius the Great. But it has recently come to be believed that a more reliable reflection is given by applying a layer of gold to the back of glass.

{46.} [131] The people of Egypt stain their silver so as to see portraits of their god Anubis in their vessels; and they do not engrave but paint their silver. The use of that material thence passed over even to our triumphal statues, and, wonderful to relate, its price rises with the dimming of its brilliance. The method adopted is as follows: with the silver is mixed one third its amount of the very fine Cyprus copper called chaplet-copper and the same amount of live sulphur as of silver, and then they are melted in an earthenware vessel smeared round with potter's clay; the heating goes on till the lids of the vessels open of their own accord. Silver is also turned black by means of the yolk of a hardboiled egg, although the black can be rubbed off with vinegar and chalk.

[132] The triumvir Antonius alloyed the silver denarius with iron, and forgers put an alloy of copper in silver coins, while others also reduce the weight, the proper coinage being 84 denarii from a pound of silver. Consequently a method was devised of assaying the denarius, under a law that was so popular that the common people unanimously district by district voted statues to Marius Gratidianus. And it is a remarkable thing that in this alone among arts spurious methods are objects of study, and a sample of a forged denarius is carefully examined and the adulterated coin is bought for more than genuine ones.

{47.} [133] In old days there was no number standing for more than 100,000, and accordingly even today we reckon by multiples of that number, using the expression times 'ten times one hundred thousand' or larger multiples. This was due to usury and to the introduction of coined money, and also on the same lines we still speak of money owed as 'somebody else's copper.' Afterwards 'Dives,' 'Rich,' became a family surname, though it must be stated that the man who first received this name ran through his creditors' money and went bankrupt. [134] Afterwards Marcus Crassus, who was a member of the Dives family, used to say that nobody was a wealthy man except one who could maintain a legion of troops on his yearly income. He owned landed property worth two hundred million sesterces, being the richest Roman citizen after Sulla. Nor was he satisfied without getting possession of the whole of the Parthians' gold as well; and although it is true he was the first to win lasting reputation for wealth - it is a pleasant task to stigmatize insatiable covetousness of that sort - we have known subsequently of many liberated slaves who have been wealthier, and three at the same time not long before our own days in the period of the emperor Claudius, namely Callistus, Pallas and Narcissus. [135] And to omit these persons, as if they were still in sovereign power, there is Gaius Caecilius Isidorus, the freedman of Gaius Caecilius who in the consulship of Gaius Asinius Gallus and Gaius Marcius Censorinus {8 BC} executed a will dated January 27 in which he declared that in spite of heavy losses in the civil war he nevertheless left 4116 slaves, 3600 pairs of oxen, 257,000 head of other cattle, and 60 million sesterces in cash, and he gave instructions for 1,100,000 to be spent on his funeral. [136] But let them amass uncountable riches, yet what fraction will they be of the riches of the Ptolemy who is recorded by Varro, at the time when Pompeius was campaigning in the regions adjoining Judaea {63 BC}, to have maintained 6000 horse at his own charges, to have given a lavish feast to a thousand guests, with 1,000 gold goblets, which were changed at every course; and then what fraction would his own estate have been (for I am not speaking about kings) of that of the Bithynian Pythes, [137] who presented the famous gold plane tree and vine to king Darius, and gave a banquet to the forces of Xerxes, that is 788,000 men, with a promise of five months' pay and corn on condition that one at least of his five children when drawn for service should be left to cheer his old age? Also let anyone compare even Pythes himself with king Croesus! What madness it is (damn it all!), to covet a thing in our lifetime that has either fallen to the lot even of slaves or has reached no limit even in the desires of kings!

{48.} [138] The Roman nation began lavishing donations in the consulship of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Marcius {186 BC}: so abundant was money at that date that they contributed funds for Lucius Scipio to defray the cost of games which he celebrated. As for the national contribution of one-sixth of an as per head for the funeral of Menenius Agrippa {491 BC}, I should consider this as a mark of respect and also a measure rendered necessary by Agrippa's poverty, and not a matter of lavish generosity.

{49.} [139] Fashions in silver plate undergo marvellous variations owing to the vagaries of human taste, no kind of workmanship remaining long in favour. At one time Furnian plate is in demand, at another Clodian, at another Gratian - for we make even the factories feel at home at our tables - at another time the demand is for embossed plate and rough surfaces, where the metal has been cut out along the painted lines of the designs, [140] while now we even fit removable shelves on our sideboards to carry the viands, and other pieces of plate we decorate with filigree, so that the file may have wasted as much silver as possible. The orator Calvus complainingly cries that cooking-pots are made of silver; but it is we who invented decorating carriages with chased silver, and it was in our day that the emperor Nero's wife Poppaea had the idea of even having her favourite mules shod with gold.

{50.} [141] The younger Africanus left his heir thirty-two pounds weight of silver, and the same person paraded 4370 pounds of silver in his triumphal procession {145 BC} after the conquest of Carthage. This was the amount of silver owned by the whole of Carthage, Rome's rival for the empire of the world, yet subsequently beaten in the show of plate on how many dinner-tables! Indeed after totally destroying Numantia the same Africanus at his triumph {132 BC} gave a largess of seven denarii a head to his troops - warriors not unworthy of such a general who were satisfied with that amount! His brother Allobrogicus was the first person who ever owned 1000 pounds weight of silver, whereas Livius Drusus when tribune of the people had 10,000 pounds. [142] For that an old warrior, honoured with a triumphal procession, incurred the notice of the censors {275 BC} for possessing ten pounds weight of silver - that nowadays seems legendary, and the same as to Catus Aelius's not accepting the silver plate presented to him by the envoys from Aetolia who during his consulship {198 BC} had found him eating his lunch off earthenware, and as to his never till the last day of his life having owned any other silver but the two bowls given to him by his wife's father Lucius Paulus in recognition of his valour at the time when king Perseus was conquered. [143] We read that the Carthaginian ambassadors declared that no race of mankind lived on more amicable terms with one another than the Romans, inasmuch as in a round of banquets they had found the same service of plate in use at every house! But, good heavens, Pompeius Paulinus the son of a knight of Rome at Arelate and descended on his father's side from a tribe that went about clad in skins, to our knowledge had 12,000 pounds weight of silver plate with him when on service with an army confronted by tribes of the greatest ferocity.

{51.} [144] Now we know that ladies' bedsteads have for a long time now been entirely covered with silver plating, and so for long have banqueting-couches also. It is recorded that Carvilius Pollio, knight of Rome, was the first person who had silver put on these latter, though not so as to plate them all over or make them to the Delos pattern, but in the Carthaginian style. In this latter style he also had bedsteads made of gold, and not long afterwards silver bedsteads were made, in imitation of those of Delos. All this extravagance however was expiated by the civil war of Sulla.

{52.} [145] In fact it was shortly before this period that silver dishes were made weighing a hundred pounds, and it is well-known that there were at that date over 150 of those at Rome, and that many people were sentenced to outlawry because of them, by the intrigues of people who coveted them. History which has held vices such as these to be responsible for that civil war may blush with shame, but our generation has gone one better. Under the Emperor Claudius his slave Drusillanus, who bore the name of Rotundus, the Emperor's steward of Nearer Spain, possessed a silver dish weighing 500 pounds, for the manufacture of which a workshop had first been specially built, and eight others of 250 pounds went with it as side-dishes, so that how many of his fellow-slaves, I ask, were to bring them in or who were to dine off them? [146] Cornelius Nepos records that before the victory won by Sulla there were only two silver dinner-couches at Rome, and that silver began to be used for decorating sideboards within his own recollection. And Fenestella who died towards the end of the principate of Tiberius says that tortoiseshell sideboards also came into fashion at that time, but a little before his day they had been solid round structures of wood, and not much larger than tables; but that even in his boyhood they began to be made square and of planks mortised together and veneered either with maple or citrus wood, while later silver was laid on at the corners and along the lines marking the joins, and when he was a young man they were called 'drums,' and then also the dishes for which the old name had been magides came to be called basins from their resemblance to the scales of a balance.

{53.} [147] Yet it is not only for quantities of silver that there is such a rage among mankind but there is an almost more violent passion for works of fine handicraft; and this goes back a long time, so that we of today may excuse ourselves from blame.

Gaius Gracchus had some figures of dolphins for which he paid 5000 sesterces per pound, while the orator Lucius Crassus had a pair of chased goblets, the work of the artist Mentor, that cost 100,000; yet admittedly he was too ashamed ever to use them. It is known to us that he likewise owned some vessels that he bought for 6000 sesterces per pound. [148] It was the conquest of Asia that first introduced luxury into Italy, inasmuch as Lucius Scipio carried in procession at his triumph 1400 pounds of chased silverware and vessels of gold weighing 1500 pounds: this was in the 565th year from the foundation of the city of Rome {189 BC}. But receiving Asia also as a gift dealt a much more serious blow to our morals, and the bequest of it that came to us on the death of king Attalus was more disadvantageous than the victory of Scipio. [149] For on that occasion all scruples entirely disappeared in regard to buying these articles at the auctions of the king's effects at Rome - the date was the 622nd year of the city {132 BC}, and in the interval of 57 years our community had learnt not merely to admire but also to covet foreign opulence; an impetus having also been given to manners by the enormous shock of the conquest of Achaia, that victory itself also having during this interval of time introduced the statues and pictures won in the 608th year of the city {146 BC}. [150] That nothing might be lacking, luxury came into being simultaneously, with the downfall of Carthage, a fatal coincidence that gave us at one and the same time a taste for the vices and an opportunity for indulging in them. Some of the older generation also sought to gain esteem from these sources. It is recorded that Gaius Marius after his victory over the Cimbrians drank from Bacchic tankards, in imitation of Father Liber - he, the ploughman of Arpinum who rose to the position of general from the ranks!

{54.} [151] The view is held that the extension of the use of silver to statues was made in the case of statues of the deified Augustus, owing to the sycophancy of the period, but this is erroneous. We find that previously a silver statue of Pharnaces the First, king of Pontus, was carried in the triumphal procession of Pompeius the Great {61 BC}, as well as one of Mithridates Eupator, and also chariots of gold and silver were used. [152] Likewise silver has at some periods even supplanted gold, female luxury among the plebeians having its shoe buckles made of silver, as wearing gold buckles would be prohibited by the more common fashion. We have ourselves seen Arellius Fuscus (who was expelled from the equestrian order on a singularly grave charge) wearing silver rings when he sought to acquire celebrity for his school for youths. But what is the point of collecting these instances, when our soldiers' sword hilts are made of chased silver, even ivory not being thought good enough; and when their scabbards jingle with little silver chains and their belts with silver tabs, nay nowadays our schools for pages just at the point of adolescence wear silver badges as a safeguard, and women use silver to wash in and scorn sitting-baths not made of silver, and the same substance does service both for our viands and for our baser needs? [153] If only Fabricius could see these displays of luxury - women's bathrooms with floors of silver, leaving nowhere to set your feet - and the women bathing in company with men - if only Fabricius, who forbade gallant generals to possess more than a dish and a saltcellar of silver, could see how nowadays the rewards of valour are made from the utensils of luxury, or else are broken up to make them! Alas for our present manners - Fabricius makes us blush!

{55.} [154] It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold has not brought celebrity to anyone, whereas persons celebrated for chasing silver are numerous. The most famous however is Mentor of whom we spoke above. Four pairs of goblets were all that he ever made, but it is said that none of them now survive, owing to the burning of the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus and of the Capitol. [155] Varro says in his writings that he also possessed a bronze statue by this sculptor. Next to Mentor the artists most admired were Acragas, Boethus and Mys. Works by all of these exist at the present day in the island of Rhodes - one by Boethus in the temple of Athena at Lindus, some goblets engraved with Centaurs and Bacchants by Acragas in the temple of Father Liber or Dionysus in Rhodes itself, goblets with Sileni and Cupids by Mys in the same temple. Hunting scenes by Acragas on goblets also had a great reputation. [156] After these in celebrity is Calamis, and Diodorus who was said to have placed in a condition of heavy sleep rather than engraved on a bowl a Slumbering Satyr for Antipater. Next praise is awarded to Stratonicus of Cyzicus, Tauriscus, also Ariston and Eunicus of Mitylene, and Hecataeus, and, around the period of Pompeius the Great, Pasiteles, Posidonius of Ephesus, Hedys, Thracides who engraved battle scenes and men in armour, and Zopyrus who engraved the Athenian Council of Areopagus and the Trial of Orestes on two goblets valued at 12,000 sesterces. There was also Pytheas, one of whose works sold at the price of 10,000 denarii for two ounces: it consisted of an embossed base of a bowl representing Odysseus and Diomedes in the act of stealing the Palladium. [157] The same artist also carved some very small drinking cups in the shape of cooks known as 'The Chefs in Miniature,' which it was not allowed even to reproduce by casts, so liable to damage was the fineness of the work. Also Teucer the artist in embossed work attained celebrity, and all of a sudden this art so declined that it is now only valued in old specimens, and authority attaches to engravings worn with use even if the very design is invisible.

[158] Silver becomes tarnished by contact with water from springs containing minerals and by the salt breezes, as happens also even in the interior regions of Spain.

{56.} L In gold and silver mines also are formed the pigments yellow ochre and blue. Yellow ochre is strictly speaking a slime. The best kind comes from what is called Attic slime; its price is two denarii a pound. The next best is marbled ochre, which costs half the price of Attic. The third kind is dark ochre, which other people call Scyric ochre, as it comes from the island of Scyros, [159] and nowadays also from Achaia, which they use for the shadows of a painting, price two sesterces a pound, while that called clear ochre, coming from Gaul, costs two asses less. This and the Attic kind they use for painting different kinds of light, but only marbled ochre for squared panel designs, because the marble in it resists the acridity of the lime. This ochre is also dug up in the mountains 20 miles from Rome. It is afterwards burnt, and by some people it is adulterated and passed off as dark ochre; but the fact that it is not genuine and has been burnt is shown by its acridity and by its crumbling into dust.

[160] The custom of using yellow ochre for painting was first introduced by Polygnotus and Micon, but they only used the kind from Attica. The following period employed this for representing lights but ochre from Scyros and Lydia for shadows. Lydian ochre used to be sold at Sardis, but now it has quite gone out.

{57.} [161] The blue pigment is a sand. In old days there were three varieties: the Egyptian is thought most highly of; next the Scythian mixes easily with water, and changes into four colours when ground, lighter or darker and coarser or finer; to this blue the Cyprian is now preferred. To these were added the Puteoli blue, and the Spanish blue, when blue sand-deposits began to be worked in those places. Every kind however undergoes a dyeing process, being boiled with a special plant and absorbing its juice; but the remainder of the process of manufacture is the same as with gold-solder.

[162] From blue is made the substance called blue wash, which is produced by washing and grinding it. Blue wash is of a paler colour than blue, and it costs 10 denarii per pound, while blue costs 5 denarii. Blue is used on a surface of clay, as it will not stand lime. A recent addition has been Vestorian blue, called after the man Vestorius who invented it; it is made from the finest part of Egyptian blue, and costs 11 denarii per pound. Puteoli blue is employed in the same way, and also near windows; it is called cyanos. [163] Not long ago Indian blue or indigo began to be imported, its price being 7 denarii; painters use it for dividing-lines, that is, for separating shadows from light. There is also a blue wash of a very inferior kind, called ground blue, valued at 5 asses.

The test of genuine Indian blue is that when laid on burning coal it should blaze; it is adulterated by boiling dried violets in water and straining the liquor through linen on to Eretrian earth. Its use as a medicament is to clean out ulcers; consequently it is employed as an ingredient in plasters, and also in cauteries, but it is extremely difficult to pound up. [164] Yellow ochre used as a drug has a gently mordant and astringent effect, and fills up ulcers. To make it beneficial it is burnt in earthenware vessels.

We are not unaware that the prices of articles which we have stated at various points differ in different places and alter nearly every year, according to the shipping costs or the terms on which a particular merchant has bought them, or as some dealer dominating the market may whip up the selling price; we have not forgotten that, under the emperor Nero, Demetrius was prosecuted before the consuls by the entire Seplasia { of Capua }. Nevertheless I have found it necessary to state the prices usual at Rome, in order to give an idea of a standard value of commodities.

{I.} [1] Let our next subject be ores, etc., of copper and bronze, the metals which in point of utility have the next value; in fact Corinthian bronze is valued before silver and almost even before gold; and bronze is also the standard of payments in money as we have said: hence it is embodied in the terms denoting the pay of soldiers, the treasury paymasters { tribuni aerarii } and the public treasury, persons held in debt, and soldiers whose pay is stopped. We have pointed out for what a long time the Roman nation used no coinage except bronze; and by another fact antiquity shows that the importance of bronze is as old as the city - the fact that the third corporation established by King Numa was the Guild of Coppersmiths.

{2.} [2] The method followed in mining deposits of copper and purifying the ore by firing is that which has been stated. The metal is also got from a coppery stone called by a Greek name cadmea, a kind in high repute coming from overseas and also formerly found in Campania and at the present day in the territory of Bergomum on the farthest confines of Italy; and it is also reported to have been recently found in the province of Germany. In Cyprus, where copper was first discovered, it is also obtained from another stone also, called chalcitis, copper ore; this was however afterwards of exceptionally low value when a better copper was found in other countries, and especially gold-copper, which long maintained an outstanding quality and popularity, but which for a long time now has not been found, the ground being exhausted. [3] The next in quality was the Sallustius copper, occurring in the Alpine region of the Ceutrones, though this also only lasted a short time; and after it came the Livia copper in Gaul: each was named from the owners of the mines, the former from the friend of Augustus and the latter from his wife. [4] Livia copper also quickly gave out: at all events it is found in very small quantity. The highest reputation has now gone to the Marius copper, also called Corduba copper; next to the Livia variety this kind most readily absorbs cadmea and reproduces the excellence of gold-copper in making sesterces and double-as pieces, the single as having to be content with its proper Cyprus copper. That is the extent of the high quality contained in natural bronze and copper.

{3.} [5] The remaining kinds are made artificially, and will be described in their proper places, the most distinguished sorts being indicated first of all. Formerly copper used to be blended with a mixture of gold and silver, and nevertheless artistry was valued more highly than the metal; but nowadays it is a doubtful point whether the workmanship or the material is worse, and it is a surprising thing that, though the prices paid for these works of art have grown beyond all limit, the importance attached to this craftsmanship of working in metals has quite disappeared. For this, which formerly used to be practised for the sake of glory - consequently it was even attributed to the workmanship of gods, and the leading men of all the nations used to seek for reputation by this method also - has now, like everything else, begun to be practised for the sake of gain; and the method of casting costly works of art in bronze has so gone out that for a long time now not even luck in this matter has had the privilege of producing art.

[6] Of the bronze which was renowned in early days, the Corinthian is the most highly praised. This is a compound that was produced by accident, when Corinth was burned at the time of its capture; and there has been a wonderful mania among many people for possessing this metal - in fact it is recorded that Verres, whose conviction Marcus Cicero had procured, was, together with Cicero, proscribed by Antonius for no other reason than because he had refused to give up to Antonius some pieces of Corinthian ware; and to me the majority of these collectors seem only to make a pretence of being connoisseurs, so as to separate themselves from the multitude, rather than to have any exceptionally refined insight in this matter; and this I will briefly show. [7] Corinth was taken in the third year of the 158th Olympiad, which was the 608th year {146 BC} of our city, when for ages there had no longer been any famous artists in metalwork; yet these persons designate all the specimens of their work as Corinthian bronzes. In order therefore to refute them we will state the periods to which these artists belong; of course it will be easy to turn the Olympiads into the years since the foundation of our city by referring to the two corresponding dates given above. The only genuine Corinthian_bronze Corinthian vessels are then those which your connoisseurs sometimes convert into dishes for food and sometimes into lamps or even washing basins, without nice regard for decency. [8] There are three kinds of this sort of bronze: a white variety, coming very near to silver in brilliance, in which the alloy of silver predominates; a second kind, in which the yellow quality of gold predominates, and a third kind in which all the metals were blended in equal proportions. Besides these there is another mixture the formula for which cannot be given, although it is man's handiwork; but the bronze valued in portrait statues and others for its peculiar colour, approaching the appearance of liver and consequently called by a Greek name 'hepatizon' meaning 'liverish,' is a blend produced by luck; it is far behind the Corinthian_bronze Corinthian blend, yet a long way in front of the bronze of Aegina and that of Delos which long held the first rank.

{4.} [9] The Delian bronze was the earliest to become famous, the whole world thronging the markets in Delos; and hence the attention paid to the processes of making it. It was at Delos that bronze first came into prominence as a material used for the feet and framework of dining-couches, and later it came to be employed also for images of the gods and statues of men and other living things.

{5.} [10] The next most famous bronze was the Aeginetan; and the island of Aegina itself became celebrated for it, though not because the metal copper was mined there but because of the compounding done in the workshops. A bronze ox looted from Aegina stands in the cattle-market at Rome, and will serve as a specimen of Aegina bronze, while that of Delos is seen in the Jupiter in the temple of Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol. Aegina bronze was used by Myron and that from Delos by Polyclitus, who were contemporaries and fellow-pupils; thus there was rivalry between them even in their choice of materials.

{6.} [11] Aegina specialized in producing only the upper parts of chandeliers, and similarly Tarentum made only the stems, and consequently credit for manufacture is, in the matter of these articles, shared between these two localities. Nor are people ashamed to buy these at a price equal to the pay of a military tribune, although they clearly take even their name from the lighted candles they carry. At the sale of a chandelier of this sort by the instructions of the auctioneer (named Theon) selling it there was thrown in as part of the bargain the fuller Clesippus a humpback and also of a hideous appearance in other respects besides, the lot being bought by a woman named Gegania for 50,000 sesterces. This woman gave a party to show off her purchases, and for the mockery of the guests the man appeared with no clothes on; [12] his mistress conceiving an outrageous passion for him admitted him to her bed and later gave him a place in her will. Thus becoming excessively rich he worshipped the lamp-stand in question as a divinity and so caused this story to be attached to Corinthian lampstands in general, though the claims of morality were vindicated by his erecting a noble tombstone to perpetuate throughout the living world for all time the memory of Gegania's shame. But although it is admitted that there are no lampstands made of Corinthian metal, yet this name specially is commonly attached to them, because although Mummius's victory destroyed Corinth, it caused the dispersal of bronzes from a number of the towns of Achaia at the same time.

{7.} [13] In early times the lintels and folding doors of temples as well were commonly made of bronze. I find that also Gnaeus Octavius, who was granted a triumph {167 BC} after a sea-fight against King Perseus, constructed the double colonnade at the Flaminian circus which owing to the bronze capitals of its columns has received the name of the Corinthian portico, and that a resolution was passed that even the temple of Vesta should have its roof covered with an outer coating of Syracusan metal. The capitals of the pillars in the Pantheon which were put up by Marcus Agrippa {27 BC} are of Syracusan metal. Moreover even private opulence has been employed in similar uses: one of the charges brought against Camillus by the quaestor Spurius Carvilius {391 BC} was that in his house he had doors covered with bronze.

{8.} [14] Again, according to Lucius Piso dinner-couches and panelled sideboards and one-leg tables decorated with bronze were first introduced by Gnaeus Manlius at the triumph which he celebrated in the 567th year of the city {187 BC} after the conquest of Asia; and as a matter of fact Antias states that the heirs of Lucius Crassus the orator also sold a number of dinner couches decorated with bronze. It was even customary for bronze to be used for making the cauldrons on tripods called Delphic cauldrons because they used to be chiefly dedicated as gifts to Apollo of Delphi; also lamp-holders were popular suspended from the ceiling, in temples or with their lights arranged to look like apples hanging on trees, like the specimen in the temple of Apollo of the Palatine which had been part of the booty taken by Alexander the Great at the storming of Thebes {335 BC} and dedicated by him to the same deity at Cyme.

{9.} [15] But after a time this art in all places came to be usually devoted to statues of gods. I find that the first image of a god made of bronze at Rome was that dedicated to Ceres and paid for out of the property of Spurius Cassius who was put to death by his own father when trying to make himself king {485 BC}. The practice passed over from the gods to statues and representations of human beings also, in various forms. In early days people used to stain statues with bitumen, which makes it the more remarkable that they afterwards became fond of covering them with gold. This was perhaps a Roman invention, but it certainly has a name of no long standing at Rome. [16] It was not customary to make effigies of human beings unless they deserved lasting commemoration for some distinguished reason, in the first case victory in the sacred contests and particularly those at Olympia, where it was the custom to dedicate statues of all who had won a competition; these statues, in the case of those who had been victorious there three times, were modelled as exact personal likenesses of the winners - what are called iconicae, portrait statues. [17] I rather believe that the first portrait statues officially erected at Athens were those of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton. This happened in the same year as that in which the kings were also driven out at Rome {510 BC}. The practice of erecting statues from a most civilized sense of rivalry was afterwards taken up by the whole of the world, and the custom proceeded to arise of having statues adorning the public places of all municipal towns and of perpetuating the memory of human beings and of inscribing lists of honours on the bases to be read for all time, so that such records should not be read on their tombs only. Soon after a publicity centre was established even in private houses and in our own halls: the respect felt by clients inaugurated this method of doing honour to their patrons.

{10.} [18] In old days the statues dedicated were simply clad in the toga. Also naked figures holding spears, made from models of Greek young men from the gymnasiums - what are called figures of Achilles - became popular. The Greek practice is to leave the figure entirely nude, whereas Roman and military statuary adds a breastplate: indeed the dictator Caesar gave permission for a statue wearing a cuirass to be erected in his honour in his forum. As for the statues in the garb of the Luperci, they are modern innovations, just as much as the portrait-statues dressed in cloaks that have recently appeared. Mancinus set up a statue of himself in the dress that he had worn when surrendered to the enemy. [19] It has been remarked by writers that the poet Lucius Accius also set up a very tall statue of himself in the shrine of the Latin Muses, although he was a very short man. Assuredly equestrian statues are popular at Rome, the fashion for them having no doubt been derived from Greece; but the Greeks used only to erect statues of winners of races on horseback at their sacred contests, although subsequently they also erected statues of winners with two-horse or four-horse chariots; and this is the origin of our chariot-groups in honour of those who have celebrated a triumphal procession. But this belongs to a late date, and among those monuments it was not till the time of the deified Augustus that chariots with six horses occurred, and likewise elephants.

{11.} [20] The custom of erecting memorial chariots with two horses in the case of those who held the office of praetor and had ridden round the Circus in a chariot is not an old one; that of statues on pillars is of earlier date, for instance the statue of honour of Gaius Maenius who had vanquished the Old Latins {338 BC}, to whom the Roman nation gave by treaty a third part of the booty won from them. It was in the same consulship that the nation, after defeating the people of Antium, had fixed on the platform the beaked prows of ships taken in the victory over the people of Antium, in the 416th year of the city of Rome; and similarly the statue to Gaius Duillius, who was the first to obtain a naval triumph over the Carthaginians {260 BC} - this statue still stands in the forum - [21] and likewise that in honour of the prefect of markets { praefectus annonae } Lucius Minucius outside the Porta Trigemina {439 BC}, defrayed by a tax of one-twelfth of an as per head. I rather think this was the first time that an honour of this nature came from the whole people; previously it had been bestowed by the senate: it would be a very distinguished honour had it not originated on such unimportant occasions. In fact also the statue of Attus Navius stood in front of the senate-house - when the senate-house was set on fire at the funeral of Publius Clodius {52 BC} the base of the statue was burnt with it; and the statue of Hermodorus of Ephesus the interpreter of the laws drafted by the decemvirs {451/0 BC}, dedicated at the public cost, stood in the assembly-place { comitium } of Rome. [22] There was a different motive and another reason - an important one - for the statue of Marcus Horatius Cocles, which has survived even to the present day; it was erected because he had single-handed barred the enemy's passage of the Bridge on Piles { Pons Sublicius }. Also, it does not at all surprise me that statues of the Sibyl stand near the Beaked Platform { Rostra }, though there are three of them - one restored by Sextus Pacuvius Taurus, aedile of the plebs, and two by Marcus Messalla. I should think these statues and that of Attus Navius, all erected in the period of Tarquinius Priscus {616-579 BC}, were the first, if it were not for the statues on the Capitol of the kings who reigned before him, [23] among them the figures of Romulus and Tatius without the tunic, as also that of Camillus on the Rostra. Also there was in front of the temple of the Castors an equestrian statue of Quintus Marcius Tremulus, wearing a toga ; he had twice vanquished the Samnites, and by taking Anagni {c. 305 BC} delivered the nation from payment of war-tax. Among the very old statues are also those at the Rostra of Tullus Cloelius, Lucius Roscius, Spurius Nautius, and Gaius Fulcinius, all assassinated by the people of Fidenae when on an embassy to them {438 BC}. [24] It was the custom for the state to confer this honour on those who had been wrongfully put to death, as among others Publius Junius and Titus Coruncanius, who had been killed by Teuta the Queen of the Illyrians {230 BC}. It would seem not to be proper to omit the fact noted by the annals that the statues of these persons, erected in the forum, were three feet in height, showing that this was the scale of these marks of honour in those days. I will not pass over the case of Gnaeus Octavius also, because of a single word that occurs in a decree of the Senate. When king Antiochus said he intended to answer him, Octavius with the stick he happened to be holding in his hand drew a line all round him and compelled him to give his answer before he stepped out of the circle. And as Octavius was killed while on this embassy {162 BC}, the senate ordered a statue to be erected to him 'in the spot most eyed' and that statue stands on the Rostra. [25] We also find that a decree was passed to erect a statue to a Vestal Virgin named Taracia Gaia or Fufetia 'to be placed where she wished,' an addition that is as great a compliment as the fact that a statue was decreed in honour of a woman. For the Vestal's merits I will quote the actual words of the Annals: 'because she had made a gratuitous present to the nation of the field by the Tiber.'

{12.} [26] I also find that statues were erected to Pythagoras and to Alcibiades, in the corners of the comitium, when during one of our Samnite Wars {343 BC} Pythian Apollo had commanded the erection in some conspicuous position of an effigy of the bravest man of the Greek race, and likewise, one of the wisest man; these remained until Sulla the dictator made the Senate-house on the site {80 BC}. It is surprising that those illustrious senators of ours rated Pythagoras above Socrates, whom the same deity had put above all the rest of mankind in respect of wisdom, or rated Alcibiades above so many other men in manly virtue, or anybody above Themistocles for wisdom and manly virtue combined.

[27] The purport of placing statues of men on columns was to elevate them above all other mortals; which is also the meaning conveyed by the new invention of arches. Nevertheless the honour originally began with the Greeks, and I do not think that any person ever had more statues erected to him than Demetrius of Phalerum had at Athens, inasmuch as they set up 360, at a period when the year did not yet exceed that number of days, statues however the Athenians soon shattered in pieces. At Rome also the tribes in all the districts set up statues to Marius Gratidianus, as we have stated, and likewise threw them down again at the entrance of Sulla.

{13.} [28] Statues of persons on foot undoubtedly held the field at Rome for a long time; equestrian statues also however are of considerable antiquity, and this distinction was actually extended to women with the equestrian statue of Cloelia, as if it were not enough for her to be clad in a toga, although statues were not voted to Lucretia and Brutus, who had driven out the kings owing to whom Cloelia had been handed over with others as a hostage. [29] I should have held the view that her statue and that of Cocles were the first erected at the public expense {509/8 BC}- for it is probable that the monuments to Attus and the Sibyl were erected by Tarquinius and those of the kings by themselves - were it not for the statement of Piso that the statue of Cloelia also was erected by the persons who had been hostages with her, when they were given back by Porsena, as a mark of honour to her; whereas on the other hand Annius Fetialis states that an equestrian figure which once stood opposite the temple of Jupiter Stator in the forecourt of Tarquinius Superbus's palace was the statue of Valeria, daughter of Publicola, the consul, and that she alone had escaped and had swum across the Tiber, the other hostages who were being sent to Porsena having been made away with by a stratagem of Tarquinius.

{14.} [30] Lucius Piso has recorded that, in the second consulship of Marcus Aemilius and Gaius Popilius {158 BC}, the censors Publius Cornelius Scipio and Marcus Popilius caused all the statues round the forum of men who had held office as magistrates to be removed excepting those that had been set up by a resolution of the people or the Senate, while the statue which Spurius Cassius, who had aspired to monarchy {485 BC}, had erected in his own honour before the temple of Tellus {"Earth"} was actually melted down by censors: obviously the men of those days took precautions against ambition in the matter of statues also. [31] Some declamatory utterances made by Cato during his censorship {184 BC} are extant protesting against the erection in the Roman provinces of statues to women; yet all the same he was powerless to prevent this being done at Rome also: for instance there is the statue of Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi and daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus. This represents her in a sitting position and is remarkable because there are no straps to the shoes; it stood in the public colonnade of Metellus, but is now in Octavia's Buildings.

{15.} [32] The first statue publicly erected at Rome by foreigners was that in honour of the tribune of the people Gaius Aelius, for having introduced a law against Sthennius Stallius the Lucanian who had twice made an attack upon Thurii {285 BC}; for this the inhabitants of that place presented Aelius with a statue and a crown of gold. The same people afterwards presented Fabricius with a statue for having rescued them from a state of siege {283 BC}; and various races successively in some such way placed themselves under Roman patronage, and all discrimination was so completely abrogated that even a statue of Hannibal may be seen in three places in the city within the walls of which he alone of its national foes had hurled a spear.

{16.} [33] That the art of statuary was familiar to Italy also and of long standing there is indicated by the statue of Hercules in the Cattle Market { Forum Boarium } said to have been dedicated by Evander, which is called 'Hercules Triumphant,' and on the occasion of triumphal processions is arrayed in triumphal vestments; and also by the two-faced Janus, dedicated by King Numa, which is worshipped as indicating war and peace, the fingers of the statue being so arranged as to indicate the 355 days of the year, and to show that Janus is the god of the duration of time. [34] Also there is no doubt that the so-called Etruscan images scattered all over the world were regularly made in Etruria. I should have supposed these to have been statues of deities only, were it not that Metrodorus of Scepsis, who received his surname from his hatred of the very name of Rome, reproached us with having taken by storm the city of Volsinii for the sake of the 2000 statues which it contained {264 BC}. And it seems to me surprising that although the initiation of statuary in Italy dates so far back, the images of the gods dedicated in the shrines should have been more usually of wood or terracotta right down to the conquest of Asia which introduced luxury here.

[35] What was the first origin of representing likenesses in the round will be more suitably discussed when we are dealing with the art for which the Greek term is plastic, as that was earlier than the art of bronze statuary. But the latter has flourished to an extent passing all limit and offers a subject that would occupy many volumes if one wanted to give a rather extensive account of it - for as for a completely exhaustive account, who could achieve that?

{ 17.} [36] In the aedileship of Marcus Scaurus {58 BC} there were 3000 statues on the stage in what was only a temporary theatre. Mummius after conquering Achaia {146 BC} filled the city with statues, though destined not to leave enough at his death to provide a dowry for his daughter - for why not mention this as well as the fact that excuses it? A great many were also imported by the Luculli. Yet it is stated by Mucianus who was three times consul that there are still 3000 statues at Rhodes, and no smaller number are believed still to exist at Athens, Olympia and Delphi. [37] What mortal man could recapitulate them all, or what value can be felt in such information? Still it may give pleasure just to allude to the most remarkable and to name the artists of celebrity, though it would be impossible to enumerate the total number of the works of each, inasmuch as Lysippus is said to have executed 1500 works of art, all of them so skilful that each of them by itself might have made him famous; the number is said to have been discovered after his decease, when his heir broke open his coffers, it having been his practice to put aside a coin of the value of one gold denarius out of what he got as reward for his handicraft for each statue.

[38] The art rose to incredible heights in success and afterwards in boldness of design. To prove its success I will adduce one instance, and that not of a representation of either a god or a man: our own generation saw on the Capitol, before it last went up in flames burnt at the hands of the adherents of Vitellius, in the shrine of Juno, a bronze figure of a hound licking its wound, the miraculous excellence and absolute truth to life of which is shown not only by the fact of its dedication in that place but also by the method taken for insuring it; for as no sum of money seemed to equal its value, the government enacted that its custodians should be answerable for its safety with their lives.

{18.} [39] Of boldness of design the examples are innumerable. We see enormously huge statues devised, what are called Colossi, as large as towers. Such is the Apollo on the Capitol, brought over by Marcus Lucullus {73 BC} from Apollonia, a city of Pontus, 45 feet high, which cost 500 talents to make; [40] or the Jupiter which the Emperor Claudius dedicated in the Campus Martius, which is dwarfed by the proximity of the Theatre of Pompeius; or the 60 feet high statue at Tarentum made by Lysippus. The remarkable thing in the case of the last is that though it can be moved by the hand, it is so nicely balanced, so it is said, that it is not dislodged from its place by any storms. This indeed, it is said, the artist himself provided against by erecting a column a short distance from it to shelter it on the side where it was most necessary to break the force of the wind. Accordingly, because of its size, and the difficulty of moving it with great labour, Fabius Verrucosus left it alone when he transferred the Hercules from that place to the Capitol where it now stands {209 BC}. [41] But calling for admiration before all others was the colossal Statue of the Sun at Rhodes made by Chares of Lindus, the pupil of Lysippus mentioned above. This statue was 105 feet high; and, 66 years after its erection, was overthrown by an earthquake {c. 226 BC}, but even lying on the ground it is a marvel. Few people can make their arms meet round the thumb of the figure, and the fingers are larger than most statues; and where the limbs have been broken off enormous cavities yawn, while inside are seen great masses of rock with the weight of which the artist steadied it when he erected it. It is recorded that it took twelve years to complete and cost 300 talents, money realized from the engines of war belonging to King Demetrius which he had abandoned when he got tired of the protracted siege of Rhodes {304 BC}. [42] There are a hundred other colossal statues in the same city, which though smaller than this one would have each of them brought fame to any place where it might have stood alone; and besides these there were five colossal statues of gods, made by Bryaxis.

[43] Italy also was fond of making colossal statues. At all events we see the Etruscan Apollo in the library of the temple of Augustus, 50 feet in height measuring from the toe; and it is a question whether it is more remarkable for the quality of the bronze or for the beauty of the work. Spurius Carvilius also made the Jupiter that stands in the Capitol, after defeating the Samnites in the war which they fought under a most solemn oath {293 BC}; the metal was obtained from their breastplates, greaves and helmets, and the size of the figure is so great that it can be seen from the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris. Out of the bronze filings left over Carvilius made the statue of himself that stands at the feet of the statue of Jupiter. [44] The Capitol also contains two much admired heads dedicated by the consul Publius Lentulus {57 BC}, one made by Chares above-mentioned and the other by Prodicus, who is so outdone by comparison as to seem the poorest of artists. [45] But all the gigantic statues of this class have been beaten in our period by Zenodorus with the Mercury which he made in the community of the Arverni in Gaul; it took him ten years and the sum paid for its making was 40,000,000 sesterces. Having given sufficient proof of his artistic skill in Gaul he was summoned to Rome by Nero, and there made the Colossal Statue, 106 feet high, intended to represent that emperor but now, dedicated to the sun after the condemnation of that emperor's crimes, it is an object of awe. [46] In his studio we used not only to admire the remarkable likeness of the clay model but also to marvel at the frame of quite small timbers which constituted the first stage of the work put in hand. This statue has shown that skill in bronze-founding has perished, since Nero was quite ready to provide gold and silver, and also Zenodorus was counted inferior to none of the artists of old in his knowledge of modelling and chasing. [47] When he was making the statue for the Arverni, when the governor of the province was Dubius Avitus, he produced facsimiles of two chased cups, the handiwork of Calamis, which Germanicus Caesar had prized highly and had presented to his tutor Cassius Salanus, Avitus's uncle; the copies were so skilfully made that there was scarcely any difference in artistry between them and the originals. The greater was the eminence of Zenodorus, the more we realize how the art of working bronze has deteriorated.

[48] Owners of the figurines called Corinthian are usually so enamoured of them that they carry them about with them; for instance the orator Hortensius was never parted from the sphinx which he had got out of Verres when on trial; this explains Cicero's retort when Hortensius in the course of an altercation at the trial in question said he was not good at riddles. 'You ought to be,' said Cicero, 'as you keep a figurine in your pocket.' The emperor Nero also used to carry about with him an Amazon which we shall describe later { 34.82 }, and a little before Nero, the ex-consul Gaius Cestius used to go about with a sphinx, which he had with him even on the battlefield. It is also said that the tent of Alexander the Great was regularly erected with four statues as tent-poles, two of which have now been dedicated to stand in front of the temple of Mars the Avenger and two in front of the Regia.

{19.} [49] An almost innumerable multitude of artists have been rendered famous by statues and figures of smaller size; but before them all stands the Athenian Pheidias, celebrated for the Statue of Olympian Zeus, which in fact was made of ivory and gold, although he also made figures of bronze. He flourished in the 83rd Olympiad {448-445 BC}, about the 300th year of our city, at which same period his rivals were Alcamenes, Critias, Nesiotes and Hegias; and later, in the 87th Olympiad {432-429 BC} there were Hagelades, Callon and Gorgias of Laconia, and again in the 90th Olympiad {420-417 BC} Polycleitus, Phradmon, Myron, Pythagoras, Scopas and Perellus. [50] Of these Polycleitus had as pupils Argius, Asopodorus, Alexis, Aristides, Phrynon, Dinon, Athenodorus, and Demeas of Cleitor; and Myron had Lycius. In the 95th Olympiad {400-397 BC} flourished Naucydes, Dinomenes, Canachus and Patroclus; and in the 102nd {372-369 BC} Polycles, Cephisodotus, Leochares and Hypatodorus; in the 104th {364-361 BC} Praxiteles and Euphranor; in the 107th {352-349 BC} Aetion and Therimachus. [51] Lysippus was in the 113th {328-325 BC}, the period of Alexander the Great, and likewise his brother Lysistratus, Sthennis, Euphron, Sophocles, Sostratus, Ion and Silanion - a remarkable fact in the case of the last named being that he became famous without having had any teacher; he himself had Zeuxiades as his pupil - and in the 121st {296-293 BC} Eutychides, Euthycrates, Laippus, Cephisodotus, Timarchus and Pyromachus. [52] After that the art languished, and it revived again in the 156th Olympiad {156-153 BC}, when there were the following, far inferior it is true to those mentioned above, but nevertheless artists of repute: Antaeus, Callistratus, Polycles of Athens, Callixenus, Pythocles, Pythias and Timocles.

[53] After thus defining the periods of the most famous artists, I will hastily run through those of outstanding distinction, throwing in the rest of the throng here and there under various heads. The most celebrated have also come into competition with each other, although born at different periods, because they had made statues of Amazons; when these were dedicated in the Temple of Artemis of Ephesus, it was agreed that the best one should be selected by the vote of the artists themselves who were present; and it then became evident that the best was the one which all the artists judged to be the next best after their own: this is the Amazon by Polycleitus, while next to it came that of Pheidias, third Cresilas's, fourth Cydon's and fifth Phradmon's.

[54] Pheidias, besides the Olympian Zeus, which nobody has ever rivalled, executed in ivory and gold the statue of Athena that stands erect in the Parthenon at Athens, and in bronze, besides the Amazon mentioned above, an Athena of such exquisite beauty that it has been surnamed the 'Fair.' He also made the Lady with the Keys, and another Athena which Aemilius Paulus dedicated in Rome at the temple of Today's Fortune, and likewise a work consisting of two statues wearing cloaks which Catulus erected in the same temple, and another work, a colossal statue undraped; and Pheidias is deservedly deemed to have first revealed the capabilities and indicated the methods of statuary.

[55] Polycleitus of Sicyon, a pupil of Hagelades, made a statue of the Diadumenos or 'Binding his Hair' - a youth, but soft-looking - famous for having cost 100 talents, and also the Doryphoros or 'Carrying a Spear' - a boy, but manly-looking. He also made what artists call a Canon or 'Model Statue', as they draw their artistic outlines from it as from a sort of standard; and he alone of mankind is deemed by means of one work of art to have created the art itself! He also made the statue of the Apoxyomenos ('Man using a Body-scraper') and, in the nude, the Man Attacking with Spear, and the Two Boys Playing Dice, likewise in the nude, known by the Greek name of Astragalizontes and now standing in the forecourt of the Emperor Titus - this is generally considered to be the most perfect work of art in existence - and likewise the Hermes that was once at Lysimachea; [56] Heracles; the Leader Donning his Armour, which is at Rome; and Artemon, called the Man in the Litter. Polycleitus is deemed to have perfected this science of statuary and to have refined the art of carving sculpture, just as Pheidias is considered to have revealed it. A discovery that was entirely his own is the art of making statues throwing their weight on one leg, although Varro says these figures are of a square build and almost all made on one model.

[57] Myron, who was born at Eleutherae, was himself also a pupil of Hagelades; he was specially famous for his statue of a heifer, celebrated in some well-known sets of verses - inasmuch as most men owe their reputation more to someone else's talent than to their own. His other works include Ladas and a Discobolus or 'Man Throwing a Discus', and Perseus, and The Sawyers, and The Satyr Marvelling at the Flute and Athena, Competitors in the Pentathlon at Delphi, the All-round Fighters, the Heracles now in the house of Pompeius the Great at the Circus Maximus. Erinna in her poems indicates that he even made a memorial statue of a tree-cricket and a locust. [58] He also made an Apollo which was taken from the people of Ephesus by Antonius the triumvir but restored to them by the deified Augustus in obedience to a warning given him in a dream. Myron is the first sculptor who appears to have enlarged the scope of realism, having more rhythms in his art than Polycleitus and being more careful in his proportions. Yet he himself so far as surface configuration goes attained great finish, but he does not seem to have given expression to the feelings of the mind, and moreover he has not treated the hair and the pubes with any more accuracy than had been achieved by the rude work of olden days.

[59] Myron was defeated by the Italian Pythagoras of Rhegium with his Pancratiast which stands at Delphi, with which he also defeated Leontiscus; Pythagoras also did the runner Astylos which is on show at Olympia; and, in the same place, the Libyan as a boy holding a tablet; and the nude Man Holding Apples, while at Syracuse there is his Lame Man, which actually makes people looking at it feel a pain from his ulcer in their own leg, and also Apollo shooting the Python with his Arrows, a Citharode, that has the Greek name of The Honest Man given it because when Alexander took Thebes a fugitive successfully hid in its bosom a sum of gold. Pythagoras of Rhegium was the first sculptor to show the sinews and veins, and to represent the hair more carefully.

[60] There was also another Pythagoras, a Samian, who began as a painter; his seven nude statues now at the temple of Today's Fortune { Fortuna Huiusce Diei } and one of an old man are highly spoken of. He is recorded to have resembled the above mentioned Pythagoras so closely that even their features were indistinguishable; but we are told that Sostratus was a pupil of Pythagoras of Rhegium and a son of this Pythagoras' sister.

[61] Lysippus of Sicyon is said by Duris not to have been the pupil of anybody, but to have been originally a copper-smith and to have first got the idea of venturing on sculpture from the reply given by the painter Eupompus when asked which of his predecessors he took for his model; he pointed to a crowd of people and said that it was Nature herself, not an artist, whom one ought to imitate. [62] Lysippus as we have said { 34.37 } was a most prolific artist and made more statues than any other sculptor, among them the Apoxyomenos {'Man using a Body-scraper'}, which Marcus Agrippa gave to be set up in front of his Warm Baths and of which the emperor Tiberius was remarkably fond. Tiberius, although at the beginning of his principate he kept some control of himself, in this case could not resist the temptation, and had the statue removed to his bedchamber, putting another one in its place at the baths; but the public were so obstinately opposed to this that they raised an outcry at the theatre, shouting 'Give us back the Apoxyomenos', and the Emperor, although he had fallen quite in love with the statue, had to restore it. [63] Lysippus is also famous for his Tipsy Girl playing the Flute, and his Hounds and Huntsmen in Pursuit of Game, but most of all for his Chariot with the Sun belonging to Rhodes. He also executed a series of statues of Alexander the Great, beginning with one in Alexander's boyhood. The emperor Nero was so delighted by this statue of the young Alexander that he ordered it to be gilt; but this addition to its money value so diminished its artistic attraction that afterwards the gold was removed, and in that condition the statue was considered yet more valuable, even though still retaining scars from the work done on it and incisions in which the gold had been fastened. [64] The same sculptor did Alexander the Great's friend Hephaestion, a statue which some people ascribe to Polycleitus, although his date is about a hundred years earlier; and also Alexander's Hunt, dedicated at Delphi, a Satyr now at Athens, and Alexander's Squadron of Horse, in which the sculptor introduced portraits of Alexander's friends consummately lifelike in every case. After the conquest of Macedonia {148 BC} this was removed to Rome by Metellus; he also executed Four-horse Chariots of various kinds. [65] Lysippus is said to have contributed greatly to the art of bronze statuary by representing the details of the hair and by making his heads smaller than the old sculptors used to do, and his bodies more slender and firm, to give his statues the appearance of greater height. He scrupulously preserved the quality of 'symmetry' (for which there is no word in Latin) by the new and hitherto untried method of modifying the squareness of the figure of the old sculptors, and he used commonly to say that whereas his predecessors had made men as they really were, he made them as they appeared to be. A peculiarity of this sculptor's work seems to be the minute finish maintained in even the smallest details.

[66] Lysippus left three sons who were his pupils, the celebrated artists Laippus, Boëdas and Euthycrates, the last pre-eminent, although he copied the harmony rather than the elegance of his father, preferring to win favour in the severely correct more than in the agreeable style. Accordingly his Heracles, at Delphi, and his Alexander Hunting, at Thespiae, his group of Thespiades, and his Cavalry in Action are works of extreme finish, and so are his statue of Trophonius at the oracular shrine of that deity, a number of Four-horse Chariots, a Horse with Baskets and a Pack of Hounds. [67] Moreover Tisicrates, another native of Sicyon, was a pupil of Euthycrates, but closer to the school of Lysippus - indeed many of his statues cannot be distinguished from Lysippus's work, for instance his Old Man of Thebes, his King Demetrius {Poliorcetes}, and his Peucestas, the man who saved the life of Alexander the Great and so deserved the honour of this commemoration.

[68] Artists who have composed treatises recording these matters speak with marvellously high praise of Telephanes of Phocis, who is otherwise unknown, since he lived at . . . in Thessaly where his works have remained in concealment, although these writers' own testimony puts him on a level with Polycleitus, Myron and Pythagoras. They praise his Larisa, his Spintharus the Pentathlete, and his Apollo. Others however are of opinion that the cause of his lack of celebrity is not the reason mentioned but his having devoted himself entirely to the studios established by king Xerxes and king Darius.

[69] Praxiteles although more successful and therefore more celebrated in marble, nevertheless also made some very beautiful works in bronze: the Rape of Persephone, also The Girl Spinning and a Father Liber or Dionysus, with a figure of Drunkenness and also the famous Satyr, known by the Greek title Periboëtos meaning 'Celebrated,' and the statues that used to be in front of the temple of Felicitas {"Happiness "}, and the Venus, which was destroyed by fire when the temple of that goddess was burnt down in the reign of Claudius, and which rivalled the famous Aphrodite, in marble, that is known all over the world; [70] also A Woman Bestowing a Wreath, A Woman Putting a Bracelet on her Arm, Autumn, Harmodius and Aristogeiton who slew the tyrant - the last piece carried off by Xerxes king of the Persians but restored to the Athenians by Alexander the Great after his conquest of Persis. Praxiteles also made a youthful Apollo which the Greeks call Sauroctonos {'Lizard-Slayer'} because he is waiting with an arrow for a lizard creeping towards him. Also two of his statues expressing opposite emotions are admired, his Matron Weeping and his Merry Courtesan. The latter is believed to have been Phryne and connoisseurs detect in the figure the artist's love of her and the reward promised him by the expression on the courtesan's face. [71] The kindness also of Praxiteles is represented in sculpture, as in the Chariot and Four of Calamis he contributed the charioteer, in order that the sculptor might not be thought to have failed in the human figure although more successful in representing horses. Calamis himself also made other chariots, some with four horses and some with two, and in executing the horses he is invariably unrivalled: but - that it may not be supposed that he was inferior in his human figures - his Alcmena is as famous as that of any other sculptor.

[72] Alcamenes a pupil of Pheidias made marble figures, and also in bronze a Pentathlete, known by the Greek term Encrinomemos {"Highly Commended"}, but Polycleitus's pupil Aristides made four-horse and pair-horse chariots. Amphicrates is praised for his Leaena; she was a harlot, admitted to the friendship of Harmodius and Aristogeiton because of her skill as a harpist, who though put to the torture by the tyrants till she died refused to betray their plot to assassinate them. Consequently the Athenians wishing to do her honour and yet unwilling to have made a harlot famous, had a statue made of a lioness, as that was her name, and to indicate the reason for the honour paid her instructed the artist to represent the animal as having no tongue.

[73] Bryaxis made statues of Asclepius and Seleucus, Boëdas a Man Praying, Baton an Apollo and a Hera, both now in the Temple of Concord at Rome. [74] Cresilas did a Man Fainting from Wounds, the expression of which indicates how little life remains, and the Olympian Pericles, a figure worthy of its title; indeed it is a marvellous thing about the art of sculpture that it has added celebrity to men already celebrated. Cephisodorus made the wonderful Athena at the harbour of Athens and the almost unrivalled altar at the temple of Zeus the Deliverer at the same harbour, [75] Canachus the naked Apollo, surnamed Philesius, at Didyma, made of bronze compounded at Aegina; and with it he made a stag so lightly poised in its footprints as to allow of a thread being passed underneath its feet, the 'heel' and the 'toes' holding to the base with alternate contacts, the whole hoof being so jointed in either part that it springs back from the impact. He also made a Boys Riding on Racehorses. Chaereas did Alexander the Great and his father Philippus, Ctesilaus a Man with a Spear and a Wounded Amazon, [76] Demetrius Lysimache who was a priestess of Athena for 64 years, and also the Athena called the Murmuring Athena - the dragons on her Gorgon's head sound with a tinkling note when a harp is struck; he likewise did the mounted statue of Simon who wrote the first treatise on horsemanship. Daedalus (also famous as a modeller in clay) made Two Boys using a Body-Scraper, and Dinomenes did a Protesilaus and the wrestler Pythodemus. [77] The statue of Alexander Paris is by Euphranor; it is praised because it conveys all the characteristics of Paris in combination - the judge of the goddesses, the lover of Helen and yet the slayer of Achilles. The Athena, called at Rome the Catuliana, which stands below the Capitol and was dedicated by Quintus Lutatius Catulus {78 BC}, is Euphranor's, and so is the figure of Success, holding a dish in the right hand and in the left an ear of corn and some poppies, and also in the temple of Concord a Leto as Nursing Mother, with the infants Apollo and Artemis in her arms. [78] He also made four-horse and two-horse chariots, and an exceptionally beautiful Lady with the Keys, and two colossal statues, one of Virtue and one of Greece, a Woman Wondering and Worshipping, and also an Alexander and a Philippus in four-horse chariots. Eutychides did a Eurotas, in which it has frequently been said that the work of the artist seems clearer than the water of the real river. The Athena and the King Pyrrhus of Hegias are praised, and his Boys Riding on Racehorses, and his Castor and Pollux that stand before the temple of Jupiter the Thunderer; and so are Hagesias's Heracles in our colony of Parium, and Isidotus's Man Sacrificing an Ox. [79] Lycius who was a pupil of Myron did a Boy Blowing a Dying Fire that is worthy of his instructor, also a group of the Argonauts; Leochares an Eagle carrying off Ganymedes in which the bird is aware of what his burden is and for whom he is carrying it, and is careful not to let his claws hurt the boy even through his clothes, and Autolycus Winner of the pancratium, being also the athlete in whose honour Xenophon wrote his Symposium, and the famous Zeus the Thunderer now on the Capitol, of quite unrivalled merit, also an Apollo crowned with a Diadem; also Lyciscus, the Slave-dealer, and a Boy, with the crafty cringing look of a household slave. Lycius also did a Boy Burning Perfumes. [80] There is a Bull-calf by Menaechmus, on which a man is pressing his knee as he bends its neck back; Menaechmus has written a treatise about his own work. The reputation of Naucydes rests on his Hermes and Discobolus {'Man throwing a Disc'} and Man Sacrificing a Ram, that of Naucerus on his Wrestler Winded, that of Niceratus on his Asclepius and his Hygieia {"Goddess of Health"}, which are in the Temple of Concord at Rome. Pyromachus has an Alcibiades Driving a Chariot and Four; Polycles made a famous Hermaphrodite, Pyrrhus, a Hygieia and Athena, [81] Phanis, who was a pupil of Lysippus, a Woman Sacrificing. Styppax of Cyprus is known for a single statue, his Man Cooking Tripe, which represented a domestic slave of the Olympian Pericles roasting the internal organs and puffing out his cheeks as he kindles the fire with his breath; Silanion cast a metal figure of Apollodorus, who was himself a modeller, and indeed one of quite unrivalled devotion to the art and a severe critic of his own work, who often broke his statues in pieces after he had finished them, his intense passion for his art making him unable to be satisfied, and consequently he was given the surname of the Madman - [82] this quality he brought out in his statue, the Madman, which represented in bronze not a human being but anger personified. Silanion also made a famous Achilles, and also a Superintendent Exercising Athletes; Strongylion made an Amazon, which from the remarkable beauty of the legs is called the Eucnemon, and which consequently the emperor Nero caused to be carried in his retinue on his journeys. The same sculptor made the figure rendered famous by Brutus under the name of Brutus's Boy because it represented a favourite of the hero of the battles at Philippi. [83] Theodorus, who constructed the Labyrinth at Samos, cast a statue of himself in bronze. Besides its remarkable celebrity as a likeness, it is famous for its very minute workmanship; the right hand holds a file, and three fingers of the left hand originally held a little model of a chariot and four, but this has been taken away to Praeneste as a marvel of smallness: if the team were reproduced in a picture with the chariot and the charioteer, the model of a fly, which was made by the artist at the same time, would cover it with its wings. Xenocrates, who was a pupil of Tisicrates, or by other accounts of Euthycrates, surpassed both of the last mentioned in the number of his statues; and he also wrote books about his art.

[84] Several artists have represented the battles of Attalus and Eumenes against the Gauls, Isigonus, Pyromachus, Stratonicus and Antigonus, who wrote books about his art. Boethus did a Child Strangling a Goose by hugging it, although he is better in silver. And among the list of works I have referred to all the most celebrated have now been dedicated by the emperor Vespasian in the temple of Peace and his other public buildings; they had been looted by Nero, who conveyed them all to Rome and arranged them in the sitting-rooms of his Golden House.

[85] Besides these, artists on the same level of merit but of no outstanding excellence in any of their works are: Ariston, who often also practised chasing silver, Callides, Ctesias, Cantharus of Sicyon, Dionysius, Diodorus the pupil of Critias, Deliades, Euphorion, Eunicus and Hecataeus the silver chasers, Lesbocles, Prodorus, Pythodieus, Polygnotus, who was also one of the most famous among painters, similarly Stratonicus among chasers, and Critias's pupil Scymnus.

[86] I will now run through the artists who have made works of the same class, such as Apollodorus, Androbulus and Asclepiodorus, Aleuas, who have done philosophers, and Apellas also women donning their ornaments, and Antignotus also Man using a Body-scraper and the Tyrannicides, above-mentioned, Antimachus, Athenodorus who made splendid figures of women, Aristodemus who also did Wrestlers, and Chariot and Pair with Driver, figures of philosophers, of old women, and King Seleucus; Aristodemus's Man holding Spear is also popular. [87] There were two artists named Cephisodotus; the Hermes Nursing Father Liber or Dionysus when an Infant belongs to the elder, who also did a Man Haranguing with Hand Uplifted - whom it represents is uncertain. The later Cephisodotus did philosophers. Colotes who had co-operated with Pheidias in the Statue of Olympian Zeus made statues of philosophers, as also did Cleon and Cenchramis and Callicles and Cepis; Chalcosthenes also did actors in comedy and athletes; Daippus a Man using a Scraper; Daiphron, Damocritus and Daemon statues of philosophers. [88] Epigonus, who copied others in almost all the subjects already mentioned, took the lead with his Trumpet-player and his Weeping Infant pitifully caressing its Murdered Mother. Praise is given to Eubulus's Woman in Admiration and to Eubulides' Person Counting on the Fingers. Micon is noticed for his athletes and Menogenes for his chariots and four. Niceratus, who likewise attempted all the subjects employed by any other sculptor, did a statue of Alcibiades and one of his mother Demarate, represented as performing a sacrifice by torch-light. [89] Tisicrates did a pair-horse chariot in which Piston afterwards placed a woman; the latter also made an Ares and a Hermes now in the temple of Concord at Rome. No one should praise Perillus, who was more cruel than the tyrant Phalaris, for whom he made a bull, guaranteeing that if a man were shut up inside it and a fire lit underneath the man would do the bellowing; and he was himself the first to experience this torture - a cruelty more just than the one he proposed. Such were the depths to which the sculptor had diverted this most humane of arts from images of gods and men! All the founders of the art had only toiled so that it should be employed for making implements of torture! Consequently this sculptor's works are preserved for one purpose only, so that whoever sees them may hate the hands that made them. [90] Sthennis did a Demeter, a Zeus and an Athena that are in the Temple of Concord at Rome, and also Weeping Matrons and Matrons at Prayer and Offering a Sacrifice. Simon made a Dog and an Archer, the famous engraver Stratonicus some philosophers and each of these artists made figures of hostesses of inns. [91] The following have made figures of athletes, armed men, hunters and men offering sacrifice: Baton, Eucheir, Glaucides, Heliodorus, Hicanus, Iophon, Lyson, Leon, Menodorus, Myagrus, Polycrates, Polyidus, Pythocritus, Protogenes (who was also, as we shall say later { 35.101 }, one of the most famous painters), Patrocles, Pollis and Posidonius (the last also a distinguished silver chaser, native of Ephesus), Periclymenus, Philon, Symenus, Timotheus, Theomnestus, Timarchides, Timon, Tisias, Thrason.

[92] But of all Callimachus is the most remarkable, because of the surname attached to him: he was always unfairly critical of his own work, and was an artist of never-ending assiduity, and consequently he was called the Niggler, and is a notable warning of the duty of observing moderation even in taking pains. To him belongs the Laconian Women Dancing, a very finished work but one in which assiduity has destroyed all charm. Callimachus is reported to have also been a painter. Cato in his expedition to Cyprus {58-56 BC} sold all the statues found there except one of Zenon; it was not the value of the bronze nor the artistic merit that attracted him, but its being the statue of a philosopher: I mention this by the way, to introduce this distinguished instance also.

[93] In mentioning statues - there is also one we must not pass over in spite of the sculptor's not being known - the figure, next to the Rostra, of Hercules in the Tunic, the only one in Rome that shows him in that dress; the countenance is stern and the statue expresses the feeling of the final agony of the tunic. On this statue there are three inscriptions, one stating that it had been part of the booty taken by the general Lucius Lucullus, and another saying that it was dedicated, in pursuance of a decree of the Senate, by Lucullus's son while still a ward, and the third, that Titus Septimius Sabinus as curule aedile had caused it to be restored to the public from private ownership. So many were the rivalries connected with this statue and so highly was it valued.

{20.} [94] But we will now turn our attention particularly to the various forms of copper, and its blends. In the case of the copper of Cyprus 'chaplet copper' is made into thin leaves, and when dyed with ox-gall gives the appearance of gilding on theatrical property coronets; and the same material mixed with gold in the proportion of six scruples of gold to the ounce makes a very thin plate called pyropus, 'fire-coloured' and acquires the colour of fire. Bar copper also is produced in other mines, and likewise fused copper. The difference between them is that the latter can only be fused, as it breaks under the hammer, whereas bar copper, otherwise called ductile copper, is malleable, which is the case with all Cyprus copper. But also in the other mines, this difference of bar copper from fused copper is produced by treatment; for all copper after impurities have been rather carefully removed by fire and melted out of it becomes bar copper. [95] Among the remaining kinds of copper the palm goes to bronze of Campania, which is most esteemed for utensils. There are several ways of preparing it. At Capua it is smelted in a fire of wood, not of charcoal, and then poured into cold water and cleaned in a sieve made of oak, and this process of smelting is repeated several times, at the last stage Spanish silver lead being added to it in the proportion of ten pounds to one hundred pounds of copper: this treatment renders it pliable and gives it an agreeable colour of a kind imparted to other sorts of copper and bronze by means of oil and salt. [96] Bronze resembling the Campanian is produced in many parts of Italy and the provinces, but there they add only eight pounds of lead, and do additional smelting with charcoal because of their shortage of wood. The difference produced by this is noticed specially in Gaul, where the metal is smelted between stones heated red hot, as this roasting scorches it and renders it black and friable. Moreover they only smelt it again once whereas to repeat this several times contributes a great deal to the quality. It is also not out of place to notice that all copper and bronze fuses better in very cold weather.

[97] The proper blend for making statues is as follows, and the same for tablets: at the outset the ore is melted, and then there is added to the melted metal a third part of scrap copper, that is copper or bronze that has been bought up after use. This contains a peculiar seasoned quality of brilliance that has been subdued by friction and so to speak tamed by habitual use. Silver-lead is also mixed with it in the proportion of twelve and a half pounds to every hundred pounds of the fused metal. [98] There is also in addition what is called the mould-blend of bronze of a very delicate consistency, because a tenth part of black lead is added and a twentieth of silver-lead; and this is the best way to give it the colour called Graecanic 'after the Greek'. The last kind is that called pot-bronze, taking its name from the vessels made of it; it is a blend of three or four pounds of silver-lead with every hundred pounds of copper. The addition of lead to Cyprus copper produces the purple colour seen in the bordered robes of statues.

{21.} [99] Things made of copper or bronze get covered with copper-rust more quickly when they are kept rubbed clean than when they are neglected, unless they are well greased with oil. It is said that the best way of preserving them is to give them a coating of liquid vegetable pitch. The employment of bronze was a long time ago applied to securing the perpetuity of monuments, by means of bronze tablets on which records of official enactments are made.

{22.} [100] Copper ores and mines supply medicaments in a variety of ways: inasmuch as in their neighbourhood all kinds of ulcers are healed with the greatest rapidity; yet the most beneficial is cadmea. This is certainly also produced in furnaces where silver is smelted, this kind being whiter and not so heavy, but it is by no means to be compared with that from copper. There are however several varieties; for while the mineral itself from which the metal is made is called cadmea, which is necessary for the fusing process but is of no use for medicine, so again another kind is found in furnaces, which is given a name indicating its origin. [101] It is produced by the thinnest part of the substance being separated out by the flames and the blast and becoming attached in proportion to its degree of lightness to the roof-chambers and side-walls of the furnaces, the thinnest being at the very mouth of the furnace, which the flames have belched out; it is called 'smoky cadmea' from its burnt appearance and because it resembles hot white ash in its extreme lightness. The part inside is best, hanging from the vaults of the roof-chamber, and this consequently is designated 'grape-cluster cadmea,' this is heavier than the preceding kind but lighter than those that follow - [102] it is of two colours, the inferior kind being the colour of ash and the better the colour of pumice - and it is friable, and extremely useful for making medicaments for the eyes. A third sort is deposited on the sides of furnaces, not having been able to reach the vaults because of its weight; this is called in Greek placitis {"caked residue"}, in this case by reason of its flatness, as it is more of a crust than pumice, and is mottled inside; it is more useful for itch-scabs and for making wounds draw together into a scar. [103] Of this kind are formed two other varieties, onychitis which is almost blue outside but inside like the spots of an onyx or layered quartz, and ostracitis shell-like residue which is all black and the dirtiest of any of the kinds; this is extremely useful for wounds. All kinds of cadmea (the best coming from the furnaces of Cyprus) for use in medicine are heated again on a fire of pure charcoal and, when it has been reduced to ash, if being prepared for plasters it is quenched with Amminean wine, but if intended for itch-scabs with vinegar. [104] Some people pound it and then burn it in earthenware pots, wash it in mortars and afterwards dry it. Nymphodorus's process is to burn on hot coals the most heavy dense piece of cadmea that can be obtained, and when it is thoroughly burnt to quench it with Chian wine, and pound it, and then to sift it through a linen cloth and grind it in a mortar, and then macerate it in rainwater and again grind the sediment that sinks to the bottom till it becomes like white lead and offers no grittiness to the teeth. Iollas' method is the same, but he selects the purest specimens of native cadmea.

{23.} [105] The effect of cadmea is to dry moisture, to heal lesions, to stop discharges, to cleanse inflamed swellings and foul sores in the eyes, to remove eruptions, and to do everything that we shall specify in dealing with the effect of lead.

Copper itself is roasted to use for all the same purposes and for white-spots and scars in the eyes besides, and mixed with milk it also heals ulcers in the eyes; and consequently people in Egypt make a kind of eye-salve by grinding it in small mortars. [106] Taken with honey it also acts as an emetic, but for this Cyprian copper with an equal weight of sulphur is roasted in pots of unbaked earthenware, the mouth of the vessels being smeared round with oil; and then left in the furnace till the vessels themselves are completely baked. Certain persons also add salt, and some use alum instead of sulphur, while others add nothing at all, but only sprinkle the copper with vinegar. When burnt it is pounded in a mortar of Theban stone, washed with rainwater, and then again pounded with the addition of a larger quantity of water, and left till it settles, and this process is repeated several times, till it is reduced to the appearance of cinnabar; then it is dried in the sun and put to keep in a copper box.

{24.} [107] The slag of copper is also washed in the same way, but it is less efficacious than copper itself. The flower of copper also is useful as a medicine. It is made by fusing copper and then transferring it to other furnaces, where a faster use of the bellows makes the metal give off layers like scales of millet, which are called the flower. Also when the sheets of copper are cooled off in water they shed off other scales of copper of a similar red hue - this scale is called by the Greek word meaning 'husk' - and by this process the flower is adulterated, so that the scale is sold as a substitute for it. On the other hand, scale of copper is forcibly knocked off with bolts into which are welded cakes of the metal, specially in the factories of Cyprus. The whole difference is that the scale is detached from the cakes by successive hammerings, whereas the flower falls off of its own accord. [108] There is another finer kind of scale, the one knocked off from the down-like surface of the metal, the name for which is 'stomoma.'

{25.} But of all these facts the doctors, if they will permit me to say so, are ignorant - they are governed by names: so detached they are from the process of making up drugs, which used to be the special business of the medical profession. Nowadays whenever they come on books of prescriptions, wanting to make up some medicines out of them, which means to make trial of the ingredients in the prescriptions at the expense of their unhappy patients, they rely on the fashionable druggists' shops which spoil everything with fraudulent adulterations, and for a long time they have been buying plasters and eye-salves ready made; and thus is deteriorated rubbish of commodities and the fraud of the druggists' trade put on show.

[109] Both scale however and flower of copper are burnt in earthenware or copper pans and then washed, as described above, to be applied to the same purposes; the scale also in addition removes fleshy troubles in the nostrils and also in the anus and dullness of hearing if forcibly blown into the ears through a tube, and, when applied in the form of powder, removes swellings of the uvula, and, mixed with honey, swellings of the tonsils. There is a scale from white copper that is far less efficacious than the scale from Cyprus; and moreover some people steep the bolts and cakes of copper beforehand in a boy's urine when they are going to detach the scale, and pound them and wash them with rainwater. It is also given to dropsical patients in doses of two drachmas in half a sextarius of honey-wine; and mixed with fine flour it is applied as a liniment.

{26.} [110] Great use is also made of verdigris. There are several ways of making it; it is scraped off the stone from which copper is smelted, or by drilling holes in white copper and hanging it up in casks over strong vinegar which is stopped with a lid; the verdigris is of much better quality if the same process is performed with scales of copper. Some people put the actual vessels, made of white copper, into vinegar in earthenware jars, and nine days later scrape them. [111] Others cover the vessels with grape-skins and scrape them after the same interval, others sprinkle copper filings with vinegar and several times a day turn them over with spattles till the copper is completely dissolved. Others prefer to grind copper filings mixed with vinegar in copper mortars. But the quickest result is obtained by adding to the vinegar shavings of coronet copper. [112] Rhodian verdigris is adulterated chiefly with pounded marble, though others use pumice-stone or gum. But the adulteration of verdigris that is the most difficult to detect is done with shoemakers' black, the other adulterations being detected by the teeth as they crackle when chewed. Verdigris can be tested on a hot fire-shovel, as a specimen that is pure keeps its colour, but what is mixed with shoemakers' black turns red. It is also detected by means of papyrus previously steeped in an infusion of plant-gall, as this when smeared with genuine verdigris at once turns black. It can also be detected by the eye, as it has an evil green colour. [113] But whether pure or adulterated, the best way is to wash it and when it is dry to burn it on a new pan and keep turning it over till it becomes glowing ashes; and afterwards it is crushed and put away in store. Some people burn it in raw earthenware vessels till the earthenware is baked through; some mix in also some male frankincense. Verdigris is washed in the same way as cadmea. Its powerfulness is very well suited for eye-salves and its mordant action makes it able to produce watering at the eyes; but it is essential to wash it off with swabs and hot water till its bite ceases to be felt.

{27.} [114] Hierax's Salve is the name given to an eye-salve chiefly composed of verdigris. It is made by mixing together four ounces of gum of Hammon, two of Cyprian verdigris, two of the copperas called flower of copper, one of misy and six of saffron; all these ingredients are pounded in Thasian vinegar and made up into pills, that are an outstanding specific against incipient glaucoma and cataract, and also against films on the eyes or roughnesses and white ulcerations in the eye and affections of the eyelids. Verdigris in a crude state is used as an ingredient in plasters for wounds also. [115] In combination with oil it is a marvellous cure for ulcerations of the mouth and gums and for sore lips, and if wax is also added to the mixture it cleanses them and makes them form a cicatrix. Verdigris also eats away the callosity of fistulas and of sores round the anus, either applied by itself or with gum of Hammon, or inserted into the fistula in the manner of a salve. Verdigris kneaded up with a third part of turpentine also removes leprosy.

{28.} [116] There is also another kind of verdigris called from the Greek worm-like verdigris, made by grinding up in a mortar of true Cyprian copper with a pestle of the same metal equal weights of alum and salt or soda with the very strongest white vinegar. This preparation is only made on the very hottest days of the year, about the rising of the Dog-star. The mixture is ground up until it becomes of a green colour and shrivels into what looks like a cluster of small worms, whence its name. To remedy any that is blemished, the urine of a young boy to twice the quantity of vinegar that was used is added to the mixture. Used as a drug, worm-verdigris has the same effect as santerna which we spoke of as used for soldering gold; both of them have the same properties as verdigris. Native worm-verdigris is also obtained by scraping a copper ore of which we shall now speak.

{29.} [117] Chalcitis, copper-stone, is the name of an ore, that from which copper also, besides cadmea, is obtained by smelting. It differs from cadmea because the latter is quarried above ground, from rocks exposed to the air, whereas chalcitis is obtained from underground beds, and also because chalcitis becomes immediately friable, being of a soft nature, so as to have the appearance of congealed down. There is also another difference in that chalcitis contains three kinds of mineral, copper, and sori, each of which we shall describe in its place; and the veins of copper in it are of an oblong shape.

[118] The approved variety of chalcitis is honey coloured, and streaked with fine veins, and is friable and not stony. It is also thought to be more useful when fresh, as when old it turns into sori. It is used for growths in ulcers, for arresting haemorrhage and, in the form of a powder, for acting as an astringent on the gums, uvula and tonsils. and, applied in wool, as a pessary for affections of the uterus, while with leek juice it is employed in plasters for the genitals. [119] It is steeped for forty days in vinegar in an earthenware jar, covered with dung, and then assumes the colour of saffron; then an equal weight of cadmea is mixed with it and this produces the drug called psoricon or cure for itch. If two parts of chalcitis are mixed with one of cadmea this makes a stronger form of the same drug, and moreover it is more violent if it is mixed in vinegar than if in wine; and when roasted it becomes more effective for all the same purposes.

{30.} [120] Egyptian sori is most highly commended, being far superior to that of Cyprus and Spain and Africa, although some people think that Cyprus sori is more useful for treatment of the eyes; but whatever its provenance the best is that which has the most pungent odour, and which when ground up takes a greasy, black colour and becomes spongy. It is a substance that goes against the stomach so violently that with some people the mere smell of it causes vomiting. This is a description of the sori of Egypt. That from other sources when ground up turns a bright colour like adsy, and it is harder; however, if it is held in the cavities and used plentifully as a mouthwash it is good for toothache and for serious and creeping ulcers of the mouth. It is burnt on charcoal, like chalcitis.

{31.} [121] Some people have reported that misy is made by burning mineral in trenches, its fine yellow powder mixing itself with the ash of the pine wood burnt; but as a matter of fact though got from the mineral above mentioned, it is part of its substance and separated from it by force, the best kind being obtained in the copper-factories of Cyprus, its marks being that when broken it sparkles like gold and when it is ground it has a sandy appearance, without earth, unlike chalcitis. A mixture of misy is employed in the magical purification of gold. Mixed with oil of roses it makes a useful infusion for suppurating ears and applied on wool a serviceable plaster for ulcers of the head. It also reduces chronic roughness of the eyelids, and is especially useful for the tonsils and against quinsy and suppurations. [122] The method is to boil 16 drachmas of it in one hemina of vinegar with honey added till it becomes of a viscous consistency: this makes a useful preparation for the purposes above mentioned. When it is necessary to make it softer, honey is sprinkled on it. It also removes the callosity of fistulous ulcers when the patients use it with vinegar as a fomentation; and it is used as an ingredient in eye-salves, arrests haemorrhage and creeping or putrid ulcers, and reduces fleshy excrescences. It is particularly useful for troubles in the sexual organs in the male, and it checks menstruation.

{32.} [123] The Greeks by their name for shoemakers'-black have made out an affinity between it and copper: they call it chalcanthon, 'flower of copper'; and there is no substance that has an equally remarkable nature. It occurs in Spain in wells or pools that contain that sort of water. This water is boiled with an equal quantity of pure water and poured into wooden tanks. Over these are firmly fixed cross-beams from which hang cords held taut by stones, and the kind clinging to the cords in a cluster of glassy drops has somewhat the appearance of a bunch of grapes. It is taken off and then left for thirty days to dry. Its colour is an extremely brilliant blue, and it is often taken for glass; [124] when dissolved it makes a black dye used for colouring leather. It is also made in several other ways: earth of the kind indicated is hollowed into trenches, droppings from the sides of which form icicles in a winter frost which are called drop-flower of copper, and this is the purest kind. But some of it, violet with a touch of white, is called lonchotoa, 'lance-headed.' [125] It is also made in pans hollowed in the rocks, into which the slime is carried by rainwater and freezes, and it also forms in the same way as salt when very hot sunshine evaporates the fresh water let in with it. Consequently some people distinguish in twofold fashion between the mined flower of copper and the manufactured, the latter paler than the former and as much inferior in quality as in colour. [126] That which comes from Cyprus is most highly approved for medical employment. It is taken to remove intestinal worms, the dose being one dram mixed with honey. Diluted and injected as drops into the nostrils it clears the head, and likewise taken with honey or honey-water it purges the stomach. It is given as a medicine for roughness of the eyes, pain and mistiness in the eyes, and ulceration of the mouth. It stops bleeding from the nostrils, and also haemorrhoidal bleeding. Mixed with henbane seed it draws out splinters of broken bones; applied to the forehead with a swab it arrests running of the eyes; also used in plasters it is efficacious for cleansing wounds and gatherings of ulcers. [127] A mere touch of a decoction of it removes swellings of the uvula, and it is laid with linseed on plasters used for relieving pains. The whitish part of it is preferred to the violet kinds for one purpose, that of being blown through tubes into the ears to relieve ear-trouble. Applied by itself as a liniment it heals wounds, but it leaves a discoloration in the scats. There has lately been discovered a plan of sprinkling it on the mouths of bears and lions in the arena, and its astringent action is so powerful that they are unable to bite.

{33.} [128] The substances called by Greek names meaning 'bubble' and 'ash' are also found in the furnaces of copper works. The difference between them is that bubble is disengaged by washing but ash is not washed out. Some people have given the name of 'bubble' to the substance that is white and very light in weight, and have said that it is the ashes of copper and cadmea, but that ash is darker and heavier, being scraped off the walls of furnaces, mixed with sparks from the ore and sometimes also with charcoal. [129] This material when vinegar is applied to it gives off a smell of copper, and if touched with the tongue has a horrible taste. It is a suitable ingredient for eye medicines, remedying all troubles whatever, and for all the purposes for which 'ash' is used; its only difference is that its action is less violent. It is also used as an ingredient for plasters employed to produce a gentle cooling and drying effect. It is more efficacious for all purposes when it is moistened with wine.

{34.} [130] Cyprus ash is the best. It is produced when cadmea and copper ore are melted. The ash in question is the lightest part of the whole substance produced by blasting, and it flies out of the furnaces and adheres to the roof, being distinguished from soot by its white colour. Such part of it as is less white is an indication of inadequate firing; it is this that some people call 'bubble.' But the redder part selected from it has a keener force, and is so corrosive that if while it is being washed it touches the eyes it causes blindness. [131] There is also an ash of the colour of honey, which is understood to indicate that it contains a large amount of copper. But any kind is made more serviceable by washing; it is first purified with a strainer of cloth and then given a more substantial washing, and the rough portions are picked out by the fingers. When it is washed with wine it is particularly powerful. There is also some difference in the kind of wine used, as when it is washed with weak wine it is thought to be less serviceable for eye-salves, and at the same time more efficacious for running ulcers or for ulcers of the mouth that are always wet and more useful for all the antidotes for gangrene. [132] An ash called Lauriotis is also produced in furnaces in which silver is smelted; but the kind said to be most serviceable for the eyes is that which is formed in smelting gold. Nor is there any other department in which the ingenuities of life are more to be admired, inasmuch as to avoid the need of searching for metals experience has devised the same utilities by means of the commonest things.

{35.} [133] The substance called in Greek antispodos substitute ash is the ash of the leaves of the fig-tree or wild fig or myrtle together with the tenderest parts of the branches, or of the wild olive or cultivated olive or quince or mastic and also ash obtained from unripe, that is still pale, mulberries, dried in the sun, or from the foliage of the box or mock-gladiolus, or bramble or turpentine-tree or oenanthe. The same virtues have also been found in the ash of bull-glue or of linen fabrics. All of these are burnt in a pot of raw earth heated in a furnace until the earthenware is thoroughly baked.

{36.} [134] Also 'smegma' is made in copper forges by adding additional charcoal when the copper has already been melted, and thoroughly fused, and gradually kindling it; and suddenly when a stronger blast is applied a sort of chaff of copper spurts out. The floor on which it is received ought to be strewn with charcoal-dust.

{37.} [135] Distinguished from smegma is the substance in the same forges called by the Greeks diphryx, from its being twice roasted. It comes from three different sources. It is said to be obtained from a mineral pyrites which is heated in furnaces till it is smelted into a red earth. It is also made in Cyprus from mud obtained from a certain cavern, which is first dried and then gradually has burning brushwood put round it. A third way of producing it is from the residue that falls to the bottom in copper furnaces; the difference is that the copper itself runs down into crucibles and the slag forms outside the furnace and the flower floats on the top, but the supplies of diphryx remain behind. [136] Some people say that certain globules of stone that is being smelted in the furnaces become soldered together and round this the copper gets red hot, but the stone itself is not fused unless it is transferred into other furnaces, and that it is a sort of kernel of the substance, and that what is called diphryx is the residue left from the smelting. Its use in medicine is similar to that of the substances already described; to dry up moisture and remove excrescent growths and act as a detergent. It can be tested by the tongue - contact with it ought immediately to have a parching effect and impart a flavour of copper.

{38.} [137] We will not omit one further remarkable thing about copper. The Servilian family, famous in our annals, possesses a bronze ½ as piece which it feeds with gold and silver and which consumes them both. Its origin and nature are unknown to me, but I will put down the actual words of the elder Messalla on the subject. 'The family of the Servilii has a holy coin to which every year they perform sacrifices with the greatest devotion and splendour; and they say that this coin seems to have on some occasions grown bigger and on other occasions smaller, and that thereby it portends either the advancement or the decadence of the family.'

{ 39.} [138] Next an account must be given of the mines and ores of iron. Iron serves as the best and the worst part of the apparatus of life, inasmuch as with it we plough the ground, plant trees, trim the trees that prop our vines, force the vines to renew their youth yearly by ridding them of decrepit growth; with it we build houses and quarry rocks, and we employ it for all other useful purposes, but we likewise use it for wars and slaughter and brigandage, and not only in hand-to-hand encounters but as a winged missile, now projected from catapults, now hurled by the arm, and now actually equipped with feathery wings, which I deem the most criminal artifice of man's genius, inasmuch as to enable death to reach human beings more quickly we have taught iron how to fly and have given wings to it. [139] Let us therefore debit the blame not to Nature, but to man. A number of attempts have been made to enable iron to be innocent. We find it an express provision included in the treaty granted by Porsena to the Roman nation {508 BC} after the expulsion of the kings that they should only use iron for purposes of agriculture; and our oldest authors have recorded that in those days it was customary to write with a bone pen. There is extent an edict of Pompeius the Great dated in his third consulship {52 BC} at the time of the disorders accompanying the death of Clodius, prohibiting the possession of any weapon in the city.

{40.} [140] Further, the art of former days did not fail to provide a more humane function even for iron. When the artist Aristonidas desired to represent the madness of Athamas subsiding in repentance after he had hurled his son Learchus from the rock, he made a blend of copper and iron, in order that the blush of shame should be represented by rust of the iron shining through the brilliant surface of the copper; this statue is still standing at Rhodes. [141] There is also in the same city an iron figure of Heracles, which was made by Alcon, prompted by the endurance displayed by the god in his labours. We also see at Rome goblets of iron dedicated in the temple of Mars the Avenger. The same benevolence of nature has limited the power of iron itself by inflicting on it the penalty of rust, and the same foresight by making nothing in the world more mortal than that which is most hostile to mortality.

{ 41.} [142] Deposits of iron are found almost everywhere, and they are formed even now in the Italian island of Ilva, and there is very little difficulty in recognizing them as they are indicated by the actual colour of the earth. The method of melting out the veins is the same as in the case of copper. In Cappadocia alone it is merely a question whether the presence of iron is to be credited to water or to earth, as that region supplies iron from the furnaces when the earth has been flooded by the river Cerasus but not otherwise. [143] There are numerous varieties of iron; the first difference depending on the kind of soil or of climate - some lands only yield a soft iron closely allied to lead, others a brittle and coppery kind that is specially to be avoided for the requirements of wheels and for nails, for which purpose the former quality is suitable; another variety of iron finds favour in short lengths and in nails for soldiers' boots; another variety experiences rust more quickly. All of these are called stricturae, 'edging ores,' a term not used in the case of other metals; it is, as assigned to these ores, derived from stringere aciem, 'to draw out a sharp edge.' [144] There is also a great difference between smelting works, and a certain knurr of iron is smelted in them to give hardness to a blade, and by another process to giving solidity to anvils or the heads of hammers. But the chief difference depends on the water in which at intervals the red hot metal is plunged; the water in some districts is more serviceable than in others, and has made places famous for the celebrity of their iron, for instance Bimbilis and Turiaso in Spain and Comum in Italy, although there are no iron mines in those places. [145] But of all varieties of iron the palm goes to the Seric, sent us by the Seres with their fabrics and skins. The second prize goes to Parthian iron; and indeed no other kinds of iron are forged from pure metal, as all the rest have a softer alloy welded with them. In our part of the world, in some places the lode supplies this good quality, as for instance in the country of the Norici, in other places it is due to the method of working, as at Sulmo, and in others, as we have said, it is due to the water; inasmuch as for giving an edge there is a great difference between oil whetstones and water whetstones, and a finer edge is produced by oil. [146] It is the custom to quench smaller iron forgings with oil, for fear that water might harden them and make them brittle. And it is remarkable that when a vein of ore is fused the iron becomes liquid like water and afterwards acquires a spongy and brittle texture. Human blood takes its revenge from iron, as if iron has come into contact with it, it becomes the more quickly liable to rust.

{42.} [147] We will speak in the appropriate place { 36.126 } about the lodestone and the sympathy which it has with iron. Iron is the only substance that catches the infection of that stone and retains it for a long period, taking hold of other iron, so that we may sometimes see a chain of rings; the ignorant lower classes call this 'live iron,' and wounds inflicted with it are more severe. [148] This sort of stone forms in Cantabria also not in a continuous rocky stratum like the genuine lodestone alluded to but in a scattered pebbly formation or 'bubbling' - that is what they call it. I do not know whether it is equally useful for glass founding, as no one has hitherto tested it, but it certainly imparts the same magnetic property to iron. The architect Timochares had begun to use lodestone for constructing the vaulting in the temple of Arsinoe at Alexandria, so that the iron statue contained in it might have the appearance of being suspended in mid air; but the project was interrupted by his own death and that of king Ptolemy who had ordered the work to be done in honour of his sister.

{43.} [149] Iron ore is found in the greatest abundance of all metals. In the coastal part of Cantabria washed by the Atlantic there is a very high mountain which, marvellous to relate, consists entirely of that mineral, as we stated in our account of the lands bordering on the Ocean.

Iron that has been heated by fire is spoiled unless it is hardened by blows of the hammer. It is not suitable for hammering while it is red hot, nor before it begins to turn pale. If vinegar or alum is sprinkled on it it assumes the appearance of copper. [150] It can be protected from rust by means of lead acetate, gypsum and vegetable pitch; rust is called by the Greeks 'antipathia,' natural opposite to iron. It is indeed said that the same result may also be produced by a religious ceremony, and that in the city called Zeugma on the river Euphrates there is an iron chain that was used by Alexander the Great in making the bridge at that place {331 BC}, the links of which that are new replacements are attacked by rust although the original links are free from it.

{44.} [151] Iron supplies another medicinal service besides its use in surgery. It is beneficial both for adults and infants against noxious drugs for a circle to be drawn round them with iron or for a pointed iron weapon to be carried round them; and to have a fence of nails that have been extracted from tombs driven in in front of the threshold is a protection against attacks of nightmare, and a light prick made with the point of a weapon with which a man has been wounded is beneficial against sudden pains which bring a pricking sensation in the side and chest. Some maladies are cured by cauterization, but particularly the bite of a mad dog, inasmuch as even when the disease is getting the upper hand and when the patients show symptoms of hydrophobia they are relieved at once if the wound is cauterized. In many disorders, but especially in dysenteric cases, drinking water is heated with red-hot iron.

{45.} [152] The list of remedies even includes rust itself, and this is the way in which Achilles is stated to have cured Telephus, whether he did it by means of a copper javelin or an iron one; at all events Achilles is so represented in painting, knocking the rust off a javelin with his sword. Rust of iron is obtained by scraping it off old nails with an iron tool dipped in water. [153] The effect of rust is to unite wounds and dry them and staunch them, and applied as a liniment it relieves fox-mange. They also use it with wax and oil of myrtle for scabbiness of the eyelids and pimples in all parts of the body, but dipped in vinegar for erysipelas and also for scab, and, applied on pieces of cloth, for hangnails on the fingers and whitlows. Applied on wool it arrests women's discharges and for recent wounds it is useful diluted with wine and kneaded with myrrh, and for swellings round the anus dipped in vinegar. Used as a liniment it also relieves gout.

{46.} [154] Scale of iron, obtained from a sharp edge or point, is also employed, and has an effect extremely like that of rust only more active, for which reason it is employed even for running at the eyes. It arrests haemorrhage, though it is with iron that wounds are chiefly made! And it also arrests female discharges. It is also applied against troubles of the spleen, and it cheeks haemorrhoidal swellings and creeping ulcers. Applied for a brief period in the form of a powder it is good for the eyelids. [155] But its chief recommendation is its use in a wet plaster for cleaning wounds and fistulas and for eating out every kind of callosity and making new flesh on bones that have been denuded. The following are the ingredients: six obols of bee-glue, six drachmas of Cimolian earth, two drachmas of pounded copper, two of scale of iron, ten of wax and a pint of oil. When it is desired to cleanse or fill up wounds, wax plaster is added to these ingredients.

{47.} [156] The next topic is the nature of lead, of which there are two kinds, black and white. White lead {tin} is the most valuable; the Greeks applied to it the name cassiteros, and there was a legendary story of their going to islands of the Atlantic ocean to fetch it and importing it in platted vessels made of osiers and covered with stitched hides. It is now known that it is a product of Lusitania and Gallaecia found in the surface-strata of the ground which is sandy and of a black colour. [157] It is only detected by its weight, and also tiny pebbles of it occasionally appear, especially in dry beds of torrents. The miners wash this sand and heat the deposit in furnaces. It is also found in the goldmines called 'alutiae,' through which a stream of water is passed that washes out black pebbles of tin mottled with small white spots, and of the same weight as gold, and consequently they remain with the gold in the bowls in which it is collected, and afterwards are separated in the furnaces, and fused and melted into white lead. [158] Black lead does not occur in Gallaecia, although the neighbouring country of Cantabria has large quantities of black lead only; and white lead yields no silver, although it is obtained from black lead. Black lead cannot be soldered with black without a layer of white lead, nor can white be soldered to black without oil, nor can even white lead be soldered with white without some black lead. Homer testifies that white lead or tin had a high position even in the Trojan period, he giving it the name of cassiteros. [159] There are two different sources of black lead, as it is either found in a vein of its own and produces no other substance mixed with it, or it forms together with silver, and is smelted with the two veins mixed together. Of this substance the liquid that melts first in the furnaces is called stagnum; the second liquid is argentiferous lead, and the residue left in the furnaces is impure lead which forms a third part of the vein originally put in; when this is again fused it gives black lead, having lost two-ninths in bulk.

{48.} [160] When copper vessels are coated with stagnum the contents have a more agreeable taste and the formation of destructive verdigris is prevented, and, what is remarkable, the weight is not increased. Also, as we have said, it used to be employed at Brundisium as a material for making mirrors which were very celebrated, until even servant-maids began to use silver ones. At the present day a counterfeit stagnum is made by adding one part of white copper to two parts of white lead; and it is also made in another way by mixing together equal weights of white and black lead: the latter compound some people now call 'silver mixture.' The same people also give the name of tertiary to a compound containing two portions of black lead and one of white; its price is 20 denarii a pound. It is used for soldering pipes. [161] More dishonest makers add to tertiary an equal amount of white lead and call it 'silver mixture,' and use it melted for plating by immersion any articles they wish. They put the price of this last at 70 denarii for 1 pound: the price of pure white lead without alloy is 80 denarii, and of black lead 7 denarii.

The substance of white lead has more dryness, whereas that of black lead is entirely moist. Consequently white lead cannot be used for anything without an admixture of another metal, nor can it be employed for soldering silver, because the silver melts before the white lead. [162] And it is asserted that if a smaller quantity of black lead than is necessary is mixed with the white, it corrodes the silver. A method discovered in the Gallic provinces is to plate bronze articles with white lead so as to make them almost indistinguishable from silver; articles thus treated are called 'incoctilia.' Later they also proceeded in the town Alesia to plate with silver in a similar manner, particularly ornaments for horses and pack animals and yokes of oxen; the distinction of developing this method belongs to the Bituriges. [163] Then they proceeded to decorate two-wheeled war-chariots, chaises and four-wheeled carriages in a similar manner, a luxurious practice that has now got to using not only silver but even gold statuettes, and it is now called good taste to subject to wear and tear on carriages ornaments that it was once thought extravagant to see on a goblet!

It is a test of white lead when melted and poured on papyrus to seem to have burst the paper by its weight and not by its heat. India possesses neither copper nor lead, and procures them in exchange for her precious stones and pearls.

{49.} [164] Black lead which we use to make pipes and sheets is excavated with considerable labour in Spain and through the whole of the Gallic provinces, but in Britain it is found in the surface-stratum of the earth in such abundance that there is a law prohibiting the production of more than a certain amount. The various kinds of black lead have the following names - Ovetum lead, Capraria lead, Oleastrum lead, though there is no difference between them provided the slag has been carefully smelted away. It is a remarkable fact in the case of these mines only that when they have been abandoned they replenish themselves and become more productive. [165] This seems to be due to the air infusing itself to saturation through the open orifices, just as a miscarriage seems to make some women more prolific. This was recently observed in the Salutariensian mine in Baetica, which used to be let at a rent of 200,000 denarii a year, but which was then abandoned, and subsequently let for 255,000. Likewise the Antonian mine in the same province from the same rent has reached a return of 400,000 sesterces. It is also remarkable that vessels made of lead will not melt if they have water put in them, but if to the water a pebble or quarter-as coin is added, the fire burns through the vessel.

{50.} [166] In medicine lead is used by itself to remove scars, and leaden plates are applied to the region of the loins and kidneys for their comparative chilly nature to check the attacks of venereal passions, and the libidinous dreams that cause spontaneous emissions to the extent of constituting a kind of disease. It is recorded that the pleader Calvus used these plates to control himself and to preserve his bodily strength for laborious study. Nero, whom heaven was pleased to make emperor, used to have a plate of lead on his chest when singing songs fortissimo, thus showing a method for preserving the voice. [167] For medical purposes lead is melted in earthen vessels, a layer of finely powdered sulphur being put underneath it; on this thin plates are laid and covered with sulphur and stirred up with an iron spit. While it is being melted, the breathing passages should be protected during the operation, otherwise the noxious and deadly vapour of the lead furnace is inhaled: it is hurtful to dogs with special rapidity, but the vapour of all metals is so to flies and gnats, owing to which those annoyances are not found in mines.

[168] Some people during the process of smelting mix lead-filings with the sulphur, and others use lead acetate in preference to sulphur. Another use of lead is to make a wash - it is employed in medicine - pieces of lead with rainwater added being ground against themselves in leaden mortars till the whole assumes a thick consistency, and then water floating on the top is removed with sponges and the very thick sediment left when dry is divided into tablets. Some people grind up lead filings in this way and some also mix in some lead ore; but others use vinegar, others wine, others grease, others oil of roses. [169] Some prefer to grind the lead with a stone pestle in a stone mortar, and especially one made of Theban stone, and this process produces a drug of a whiter colour. Calcined lead is washed like antimony and cadmea. It has the property of acting as an astringent and arresting haemorrhage and of promoting cicatrisation. It is of the same utility also in medicines for the eyes, especially as preventing their procidence, and for the cavities or excrescences left by ulcers and for fissures of the anus or haemorrhoids and swellings of the anus. [170] For these purposes lead lotion is extremely efficient, while for creeping or foul ulcers ash of calcined lead is useful; and the benefit they produce is on the same lines as in the case of sheets of papyrus. The lead is burnt in small sheets mixed with sulphur, in shallow vessels, being stirred with iron rods or fennel stalks till the molten metal is reduced to ashes; then after being cooled off it is ground into powder. Another process is to boil lead filings in a vessel of raw earth in furnaces till the earthenware is completely baked. Some mix with it an equal amount of lead acetate or of barley and grind this mixture, in the way stated in the case of raw lead, and prefer the lead treated in this way to the Cyprus slag.

{51.} [171] The dross of lead is also utilized. The best is that which approximates in colour most closely to yellow, containing no remnants of lead or sulphur, and does not look earthy. This is broken up into small fragments and washed in mortars till the water assumes a yellow colour, and poured off into a clean vessel, and the process is repeated several times till the most valuable part settles as a sediment at the bottom. Lead dross has the same effects as lead, but to a more active degree. This suggests a remark on the marvellous efficacy of human experiment, which has not left even the dregs of substances and the foulest refuse untested in such numerous ways!

{52.} [172] Slag is also made from lead in the same way as from Cyprus copper; it is washed with rain water in linen sheets of fine texture and the earthy particles are got rid of by rinsing, and the residue is sifted and then ground. Some prefer to separate the powder with a feather, and to grind it up with aromatic wine.

{53.} [173] There is also molybdaeaa (which in another place we have called galena); it is a mineral compound of silver and lead. It is better the more golden its colour and the less leaden: it is friable and of moderate weight. When boiled with oil it acquires the colour of liver. It is also found adhering to furnaces in which gold and silver are smelted; in this case it is called metallic sulphide of lead. The kind most highly esteemed is produced at Zephyrium. Varieties with the smallest admixture of earth and of stone are approved of; [174] they are melted and washed like dross. It is used in preparing a particular emollient plaster for soothing and cooling ulcers and in plasters which are not applied with bandages but which they use as a liniment to promote cicatrisation on the bodies of delicate persons and on the more tender parts. It is a composition of three pounds of sulphide of lead and one of wax with three heminas of oil, which is added with solid lees of olives in the case of an elderly patient. Also combined with scum of silver and dross of lead it is applied warm for fomenting dysentery and constipation.

{54.} [175] 'Psimithium' also, that is cerussa or lead of acetate, is produced at lead-works. The most highly spoken of is in Rhodes. It is made from very fine shavings of lead placed over a vessel of very sour vinegar and so made to drip down. What falls from the lead into the actual vinegar is dried and then ground and sifted, and then again mixed with vinegar and divided into tablets and dried in the sun, in summertime. There is also another way of making it, by putting the lead into jars of vinegar kept sealed up for ten days and then scraping off the sort of decayed metal on it and putting it back in the vinegar, till the whole of it is used up. [176] The stuff scraped off is ground up and sifted and heated in shallow vessels and stirred with small rods till it turns red and becomes like sandarach, realgar. Then it is washed with fresh water till all the cloudy impurities have been removed. Afterwards it is dried in a similar way and divided into tablets. Its properties are the same as those of the substances mentioned above, only it is the mildest of them all, and beside that, it is useful for giving women a fair complexion; but like scum of silver, it is a deadly poison. The lead acetate itself if afterwards melted becomes red.

{55.} [177] Of realgar also the properties have been almost completely described. It is found both in goldmines and silver-mines; the redder it is and the more it gives off a poisonous scent of sulphur and the purer and more friable it is, the better it is. It acts as a cleanser, as a check to bleeding, as a calorific and a caustic, being most remarkable for its corrosive property; used as a liniment with vinegar it removes fox-mange; it forms an ingredient in eyewashes, and taken with honey it cleans out the throat. It also produces a clear and melodious voice, and mixed with turpentine and taken in the food, is an agreeable remedy for asthma and cough; its vapour also remedies the same complaints if merely used as a fumigation with cedar wood.

{56.} [178] Orpiment also is obtained from the same substance. The best is of a colour of even the finest-coloured gold, but the paler sort or what resembles sandarach is judged inferior. There is also a third class which combines the colours of gold and of sandarach. Both of the latter are scaly, but the other is dry and pure, and divided in a delicate tracery of veins. Its properties are the same as mentioned above, but more active. Accordingly it is used as an ingredient in cauteries and depilatories. It also removes overgrowths of flesh on to the nails, and pimples in the nostrils and swellings of the anus and all excrescences. To increase its efficacy it is heated in a new earthenware pot till it changes its colour.

{1.} [1] In order that the work that I have undertaken may be complete, it remains for me to discuss gemstones. Here Nature's grandeur is gathered together within the narrowest limits; and in no domain of hers evokes more wonder in the minds of many who set such store by the variety, the colours, the texture and the elegance of gems that they think it a crime to tamper with certain kinds by engraving them as signets, although this is the prime reason for their use; while some they consider to be beyond price and to defy evaluation in terms of human wealth. Hence very many people find that a single gemstone alone is enough to provide them with a supreme and perfect aesthetic experience of the wonders of Nature.

[2] The origin of the use of gemstones and the beginning of our present enthusiasm for them, which has blazed into so violent a passion, I have already discussed to some extent in my references to gold and to rings. According to the myths, which offer a pernicious misinterpretation of Prometheus' fetters, the wearing of rings originated on the crags of the Caucasus. It was of this rock that a fragment was for the first time enclosed in an iron bezel and placed on a finger; and this, we are told, was the first ring, and this the first gemstone.

{2.} [3] Hence arose the esteem in which gemstones are held; and this soared into such a passion that to Polycrates of Samos {c. 540 BC}, the overlord of islands and coasts, the voluntary sacrifice of a single gemstone seemed a sufficient atonement for his prosperity, which even he himself, the happy recipient, owned to he excessive. Thereby he hoped to settle his account with the fickleness of Fortune. Clearly he supposed that he would be fully indemnified against her ill-will if he, who was weary of unremitting happiness, suffered this one unhappy experience. Accordingly, he put out in a boat and threw the ring into deep water. [4] The ring, however, was seized as bait by a huge fish, fit for a king, which restored the ring as an evil omen to its owner in his own kitchen, thanks to Fortune's treacherous intervention. The gem, it is agreed, was a sardonyx and is displayed in Rome (if we can believe that this is the original stone) in the temple of Concord, set in a golden horn. It was presented by the empress and is ranked almost last in a collection containing many gems that are valued more highly.

{3.} [5] After this ring, the most renowned gemstone is that of another king, the famous Pyrrhus who fought a war against Rome. He is said to have possessed an agate on which could be seen the Nine Muses with Apollo holding his lyre. This was due not to any artistic intention, but to nature unaided; and the markings spread in such a way that even the individual Muses had their appropriate emblems allotted to them. [6] Apart from these stones, my authorities can produce no gems famous enough to be specially recorded. They merely state that Ismenias the pipe-player was in the habit of wearing a large number of brilliant stones and that there is a story associated with his vanity. In Cyprus a 'smaragdus' with the figure of Amymone engraved upon it was offered for sale at a price of six gold pieces. Ismenias ordered the sum to be paid and, when two of the pieces were returned to him, he exclaimed, 'Heavens! I've been done. The stone has been robbed of much of its value.' [7] It is Ismenias who appears to have brought in the fashion whereby all musical accomplishments came to be assessed partly in terms of this kind of lavish display. This was the case with his contemporary and rival Dionysodorus. Consequently, Ismenias seemed to be equalled through this very circumstance by a man who was only third among the musicians of the time. As for Nicomachus, he is said to have possessed merely large numbers of stones chosen without any discrimination.

[8] But it is more or less accidentally that in prefacing the present volume I have quoted these instances as a criticism of those despicable people who in making such a display of their gems claim the right to show the world that their vanity and conceit is that of a piper.

{4.} And now to resume: the gemstone displayed as that of Polycrates is in its natural state, unmarked by engravings. In the time of Ismenias, many years later, it seems evident that it had become customary to engrave even 'smaragdi.' This impression is supported, moreover, by an edict of Alexander the Great forbidding his likeness to be engraved on this stone by anyone except Pyrgoteles, who was undoubtedly the most brilliant artist in this field. Next to him in fame have been Apollonides, Cronius and the man who made the excellent likeness of the deified Augustus which his successors have used as their seal, namely Dioscurides. [9] Sulla as dictator always used a signet representing the surrender of Jugurtha. We learn from our authorities also that the native of Intercatia, whose father had been slain by Scipio Aemilianus after challenging him to single combat, used a signet representing this fight. Hence the familiar witticism made by Stilo Praeconinus, who remarked, 'What would he have done if Scipio had been killed by his father?' [10] The deified Augustus at the beginning of his career used a signet engraved with a sphinx, having found among his mother's rings two such signets which were so alike as to be indistinguishable. During the Civil Wars, one of these was used by his personal advisers, whenever he himself was absent, for signing any letters and proclamations which the circumstances required to be despatched in his name. The recipients used to make a neat joke saying 'the Sphinx brings its problems.' Of course, the frog signet belonging to Maecenas was also greatly feared because of the contributions of money that it demanded. In later years Augustus, wishing to avoid insulting comments about the sphinx, signed his documents with a likeness of Alexander the Great.

{5.} [11] The first Roman to own a collection of gemstones (for which we normally use the foreign term 'dactyliotheca,' or 'ring cabinet') was Sulla's stepson Scaurus. For many years there was no other until Pompeius the Great dedicated in the Capitol among his other offerings a ring cabinet that had belonged to King Mithridates. This, as Varro and other authorities of the period confirm, was far inferior to that of Scaurus. Pompeius' example was followed by Julius Caesar, who during his dictatorship consecrated six cabinets of gems in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, and by Marcellus, Octavia's son, who dedicated one in the temple of Apollo on the Palatine.

{6.} [12] However, it was this victory of Pompeius over Mithridates that made fashion veer to pearls and gemstones. The victories of Lucius Scipio and of Gnaeus Manlius {189 BC} had done the same for chased silver, garments of cloth of gold and dining couches inlaid with bronze; and that of Mummius {146 BC} for Corinthian bronzes and fine paintings. To make my point clearer, I shall append statements taken directly from official records of Pompeius' triumphs. [13] Thus, Pompeius' third triumph was held on his own birthday, September 29th of the year in which Marcus Piso and Marcus Messala were consuls {61 BC}, to celebrate his conquest of the pirates, Asia, Pontus and all the peoples and kings mentioned in the seventh volume of this work { 7.98 }. In this triumph, then, there was carried in the procession a gaming-board complete with a set of pieces, the board being made of two precious minerals and measuring three feet broad and four feet long. And in case anyone should doubt that our natural resources have become exhausted seeing that today no gems even approach such a size, there rested on this board a golden moon weighing 30 pounds. [14] There were also displayed three gold dining couches; enough gold vessels inlaid with gems to fill nine display stands; three gold figures of Minerva, Mars and Apollo respectively; thirty-three pearl crowns; a square mountain of gold with deer, lions and every variety of fruit on it and a golden vine entwined around it; and a grotto of pearls, on the top of which there was a sundial. Furthermore, there was Pompeius' portrait rendered in pearls, that portrait so pleasing with the handsome growth of hair swept back from the forehead, the portrait of that noble head revered throughout the world - that portrait, I say, that portrait was rendered in pearls. Here it was austerity that was defeated and extravagance that more truly celebrated its triumph. [15] Never, I think, would his surname 'the Great' have survived among the stalwarts of that age had he celebrated his first triumph {81 BC} in this fashion! To think that it is of pearls, Great Pompeius, those wasteful things meant only for women, of pearls, which you yourself cannot and must not wear, that your portrait is made! To think that this is how you make yourself seem valuable! Is not then the trophy that you placed upon the summit of the Pyrenees a better likeness of yourself? [16] This, to be sure, would have been a gross and foul disgrace were it not rather to be deemed a cruel omen of Heaven's wrath. That head, so ominously manifested without its body in oriental splendour, bore a meaning which even then could not be mistaken. But as for the rest of that triumph, how worthy it was of a good man and true! 200,000,000 sesterces were given to the State, 100,000,000 to the commanders and quaestors who had guarded the coasts and 6000 to each soldier. [17] However, he merely made it easier for us to excuse the conduct of the Emperor Gaius when, apart from other effeminate articles of clothing, he wore slippers sewn with pearls, or that of the Emperor Nero, when he had sceptres, actors' masks and travelling couches adorned with pearls. Why, we seem to have lost even the right to criticize cups and other pieces of household equipment inlaid with gems or, again, rings with stones set in open bezels. For compared with Pompeius', there is no extravagance that can be considered to have been so harmful.

{7.} [18] It was the same victory that brought myrrhine ware for the first time to Rome. Pompeius was the first to dedicate myrrhine bowls and cups, which he set aside from the spoils of his triumphs for Jupiter of the Capitol. Such vessels immediately passed into ordinary use, and there was a demand even for display stands and tableware. Lavish expenditure on this fashion is increasing every day ..., an ex-consul, drank from a myrrhine cup for which he had given 70,000 sesterces, although it held just three pints. He was so fond of it that he would gnaw its rim; and yet the damage he thus caused only enhanced its value, and there is no other piece of myrrhine ware even today that has a higher price set upon it. [19] The amount of money squandered by this same man upon the other articles of this material in his possession can be gauged from their number, which was so great that, when Nero took them away from the man's children and displayed them, they filled the private theatre in his gardens across the Tiber, a theatre which was large enough to satisfy even Nero's desire to sing before a full house at the time when he was rehearsing for his appearance in Pompeius' theatre. It was at this time that I saw the pieces of a single broken cup included in the exhibition. It was decided that these, like the body of Alexander, should be preserved in a kind of catafalque for display, presumably as a sign of the sorrows of the age and the ill-will of Fortune. [20] When the ex-consul Titus Petronius was facing death, he broke, to spite Nero, a myrrhine dipper that had cost him 300,000 sesterces, thereby depriving the Emperor's dining-room table of this legacy. Nero, however, as was proper for an emperor, outdid everyone by paying 1,000,000 sesterces for a single bowl. That one who was acclaimed as a victorious general and as Father of his Country should have paid so much in order to drink is a detail that we must formally record.

{8.} [21] Myrrhine vessels come to us from the East. There the substance is found in several otherwise unremarkable localities, particularly within the kingdom of Parthia. It is in Carmania, however, that the finest specimens exist. The substance is thought to be a liquid which is solidified underground by heat. In size the pieces are never larger than a small display stand, while in bulk they rarely equal the drinking vessels that we have discussed. They shine, but without intensity; indeed, it would be truer to say that they glisten rather than shine. Their value lies in their varied colours: the veins, as they revolve, repeatedly vary from purple to white or a mixture of the two, the purple becoming fiery or the milk-white becoming red as though the new colour were passing through the vein. [22] Some people particularly appreciate the edges of a piece, where colours may be reflected such as we observe in the inner part of a rainbow. Others prefer thick veins (any trace of transparency or fading is always a fault) and also specks and spots. These spots do not protrude, but are usually flattened, like warts on the body. The smell of the substance is also a merit.

{9.} [23] A cause contrary to the one mentioned is responsible for creating rock-crystal, for this is hardened by excessively intense freezing. At any rate, it is found only in places where the winter snows freeze most thoroughly; and that it is a kind of ice is certain: the Greeks have named it accordingly. Rock-crystal also comes to us from the East, for that of India is preferred to any other. It is found also in Asia Minor, where a very poor variety occurs around Alabanda and Orthosia and in the neighbouring districts, and likewise in Cyprus: in Europe excellent rock-crystal occurs in the ranges of the Alps. [24] Juba assures us that it is to be found also on an island called Necron, or Island of the Dead, in the Red Sea facing Arabia, as well as on the neighbouring one { Topazus } which produces peridot: here, according to him, a piece measuring a cubit in length was dug up by Ptolemy's officer Pythagoras. Cornelius Bocchus mentions, furthermore, that rock-crystal of quite exceptional weight was found in Lusitania, in the Ammaeensian mountains, when wells were being sunk to water-level. [25] The surprising remark is made by Xenocrates of Ephesus that in Asia Minor and Cyprus rock-crystal is turned up by the plough, for previously it was not thought to occur in soil, but only amidst rocks. A more plausible statement made by the same Xenocrates is that it is also often carried down by torrents. Sudines maintains that it occurs only in places that face south. What is certain is that it is not found in well-watered localities, however cold the district may be, even if it is one where the rivers freeze down to the bed. [26] The inevitable conclusion is that rock-crystal is formed of moisture from the sky falling as pure snow. For this reason, it cannot stand heat and is rejected except as a receptacle for cold drinks. Why it is formed with hexagonal faces cannot be readily explained; and any explanation is complicated by the fact that, on the one hand, its terminal points are not symmetrical and that, on the other, its faces are so perfectly smooth that no craftsmanship could achieve the same effect.

{10.} [27] The largest mass of rock-crystal ever seen by us is that which was dedicated in the Capitol by Livia, the wife of Augustus: this weighs about 150 pounds. Xenocrates, just mentioned, records that he saw a vessel that could hold the equivalent of an amphora, and some authors mention one from India with a capacity of 4 pints. What I myself can unequivocally affirm is that among the rocks of the Alps it generally forms in such inaccessible places that it has to be removed by men suspended from ropes. Experts are familiar with the signs that indicate its presence. [28] Pieces of rock-crystal are impaired by numerous defects, for example by rough, solder-like excrescences, cloudy spots, occlusions of moisture that are sometimes hidden within it, or hard yet brittle cores, and also what are known as 'salt-specks.' Some specimens display a bright red rust, and others fibres that look like flaws. These can be concealed by the engraver. Pieces, however, that have no defects are preferably left unengraved: these are known to the Greeks as 'acenteta,' or 'lacking a core,' and their colour is that of clear water, not of foam. Finally, the weight of a piece is a part of its value. I find that among doctors there is considered to be no more effective method of cauterizing parts that need such treatment than by means of a crystal ball so placed as to intercept the sun's rays. [29] Rock-crystal provides yet another instance of a crazy addiction, for not many years ago a respectable married woman, who was by no means rich, paid 150,000 sesterces for a single dipper.

Nero, on receiving a message that all was lost, broke two crystal cups in a final outburst of rage by dashing them to the ground. This was the vengeance of one who wished to punish his whole generation, to make it impossible for any other man to drink from these cups. Once it has been broken, rock-crystal cannot be mended by any method whatsoever. Glass-ware has now come to resemble rock-crystal in a remarkable manner, but the effect has been to flout the laws of Nature and actually to increase the value of the former without diminishing that of the latter.

{11.} [30] The next place among luxuries, although as yet it is fancied only by women, is held by amber. All the three substances now under discussion enjoy the same prestige as precious stones; but whereas there are proper reasons for this in the case of the two former substances, since rock-crystal vessels are used for cold drinks and myrrhine-warc for drinks both hot and cold, not even luxury has yet succeeded in inventing a justification for using amber.

[31] Here is an opportunity for exposing the falsehoods of the Greeks. I only ask my readers to endure these with patience since it is important for mankind just to know that not all that the Greeks have recounted deserves to be admired. The story how, when Phaethon was struck by the thunderbolt, his sisters through their grief were transformed into poplar trees, and how every year by the banks of the River Eridanus, which we call the Po, they shed tears of amber, known to the Greeks as 'electrum,' since they call the sun 'Elector' or 'the Shining One' - this story has been told by numerous poets, the first of whom, I believe, were Aeschylus, Philoxenus, Euripides, Nicander and Satyrus. Italy provides clear evidence that this story is false. [32] More conscientious Greek writers have mentioned islands in the Adriatic named the Electrides, to which, they say, amber is carried along by the Po. It is quite certain, however, that no islands of this name ever existed there, and indeed that there are no islands so situated as to be within reach of anything carried downstream by the Po. Incidentally, Aeschylus says that the Eridanus is in Iberia - that is, in Spain - and that it is also called the Rhone, while Euripides and Apollonius, for their part, assert that the Rhone and the Po meet on the coast of the Adriatic. But such statements only make it easier to pardon their ignorance of amber when their ignorance of geography is so great. [33] More cautious but equally misguided writers have described how on inaccessible rocks at the head of the Adriatic there stand trees which at the rising of the Dog-star shed this gum. Theophrastus states { de Lap. 29 } that amber is dug up in Liguria, while Chares states that Phaethon died in Ethiopia on an island the Greek name of which is the Isle of Ammon, and that here is his shrine and oracle, and here the source of amber. Philemon declares that it is a mineral which is dug up in two regions of Scythia, in one of which it is of a white, waxy colour and is called 'electrum,' while in the other it is tawny and known as 'sualiternicum.' [34] Demostratus calls amber 'lyncurium,' or 'lynx-urine,' and alleges that it is formed of the urine of the wild beasts known as lynxes, the males producing the kind that is tawny and fiery in colour, and the females, that which is fainter and light in colour. According to him, others call it 'langurium' and state that the beasts, which live in Italy, are 'languri.' Zenothemis calls the same beasts 'langes' and assigns them a habitat on the banks of the Po, while Sudines writes that a tree which produces amber in Liguria is called 'lynx.' [35] Metrodorus also holds the same opinion. Sotacus believes that it flows from crags in Britain called the Electrides. Pytheas speaks of an estuary of the Ocean named Metuonis and extending for 750 miles, the shores of which are inhabited by a German tribe, the Guiones. From here it is a day's sail to the Isle of Abalus, to which, he states, amber is carried in spring by currents, being an excretion consisting of solidified brine. He adds that the inhabitants of the region use it as fuel instead of wood and sell it to the neighbouring Teutones. [36] His belief is shared by Timaeus, who, however, calls the island Basilia. Philemon denies the suggestion that amber gives off a flame. Nicias insists on explaining amber as moisture from the sun's rays, as follows: he maintains that as the sun sets in the west its rays fall more powerfully upon the earth and leave there a thick exudation, which is later cast ashore in Germany by the tides of the Ocean. He mentions that amber is formed similarly in Egypt, where it is called 'sacal,' as well as in India, where the inhabitants find it more agreeable even than frankincense; [37] and that in Syria the women make whorls of it and call it 'harpax,' or 'the snatcher,' because it picks up leaves, straws and the fringes of garments. Theochrestus holds that it is washed up on the capes of the Pyrenees by the Ocean in turmoil, a view which is shared by Xenocrates, the most recent writer on the subject, who is still living. Asarubas records that near the Atlantic is a Lake Cephisis, called by the Moors Electrum, which, when thoroughly heated by the sun, produces from its mud amber that floats upon the surface of its waters. [38] Mnaseas speaks of a district in Africa called Sicyon and of a River Crathis flowing into the Ocean from a lake, on the shores of which live the birds known as Meleagrids or Penelope Birds. Here amber is formed in the manner described above. Theomenes tells us that close to the Greater Syrtis is the Garden of the Hesperides and a pool called Electrum, where there are poplar trees from the tops of which amber falls into the pool, and is gathered by the maidens of the Hesperides. [39] Ctesias states that in India there is a River Hypobarus, a name which indicates that it is the bringer of all blessings. It flows from the north into the eastern Ocean near a thickly wooded mountain, the trees of which produce amber. These trees are called 'psitthacorae,' a word which means 'luscious sweetness.' Mithridates writes that off the coast of Carmania there is an island called Serita covered with a kind of cedar, from which amber flows down on to the rocks. [40] Xenocrates asserts that amber in Italy is known not only as 'sucinum,' but also as 'thium'; and in Scythia as 'sacrium,' for there too it is found. He states that others suppose that it is produced from mud in Numidia. But all these authors are surpassed by the tragic poet Sophocles, and this greatly surprises me seeing that his tragedy is so serious and, moreover, his personal reputation in general stands so high, thanks to his noble Athenian lineage, his public achievements and his leadership of an army. Sophocles tells us how amber is formed in the lands beyond India from the tears shed for Meleager by the birds known as Meleagrids. [41] Is it not amazing that he should have held this belief or have hoped to persuade others to accept it? Can one imagine, one wonders, a mind so childish and naive as to believe in birds that weep every year or that shed such large tears or that once migrated from Greece, where Meleager died, to the region of the Indians to mourn for him? Well then, are there not many other equally fabulous stories told by the poets? Yes; but that anyone should seriously tell such a story regarding such a substance as this, a substance that every day of our lives is imported and floods the market and so confutes the liar, is a gross insult to man's intelligence and an insufferable abuse of our freedom to utter falsehoods.

[42] It is well established that amber is a product of islands in the Northern Ocean, that it is known to the Germans as 'glaesum' and that, as a result, one of these islands, the native name of which is Austeravia, was nicknamed by our troops Glaesaria, or Amber Island, when Caesar Germanicus was conducting operations there with his naval squadrons {AD 16} . To resume, amber is formed of a liquid seeping from the interior of a species of pine, just as the gum in a cherry tree or the resin in a pine bursts forth when the liquid is excessively abundant. The exudation is hardened by frost or perhaps by moderate heat, or else by the sea, after a spring tide has carded off the pieces from the islands. At all events, the amber is washed up on the shores of the mainland, being swept along so easily that it seems to hover in the water without settling on the seabed. [43] Even our forebears believed it to be a 'sucus,' or exudation, from a tree, and so named it 'sucinum.' That the tree to which it belongs is a species of pine is shown by the fact that it smells like a pine when it is rubbed, and burns like a pine torch, with the same strongly scented smoke, when it is kindled. It is conveyed by the Germans mostly into the province of Pannonia. From there it was first brought into prominence by the Veneti, known to the Greeks as the Enetoi, who are close neighbours of the Pannonians and live around the Adriatic. [44] The reason for the story associated with the River Po is quite clear, for even today the peasant women of Transpadane Gaul wear pieces of amber as necklaces, chiefly as an adornment, but also because of its medicinal properties. Amber, indeed, is supposed to be a prophylactic against tonsillitis and other affections of the pharynx, for the water near the Alps has properties that harm the human throat in various ways. [45] The distance from Carnuntum in Pannonia to the coasts of Germany from which amber is brought to us is some 600 miles, a fact which has been confirmed only recently. There is still living a Roman knight who was commissioned to procure amber by Julianus when the latter was in charge of a display of gladiators given by the Emperor Nero. This knight traversed both the trade-route and the coasts, and brought back so plentiful a supply that the nets used for keeping the beasts away from the parapet of the amphitheatre were knotted with pieces of amber. Moreover, the arms, biers and all the equipment used on one day, the display on each day being varied, had amber fittings. [46] The heaviest lump that was brought by the knight to Rome weighed 13 pounds. It is certain that amber is to be found also in India. Archelaus, who was king of Cappadocia, relates that it is brought from India in the rough state with pine bark adhering to it, and that it is dressed by being boiled in the fat of a sucking-pig. That amber originates as a liquid exudation is shown by the presence of certain objects, such as ants, gnats and lizards, that are visible inside it. These must certainly have stuck to the fresh sap and have remained trapped inside it as it hardened.

{12.} [47] There are several kinds of amber. Of these, the pale kind has the finest scent, but, like the waxy kind, it has no value. The tawny is more valuable; and still more so if it is transparent, but the colour must not be too fiery: not a fiery glare, but a mere suggestion of it, is what we admire in amber. The most highly approved specimens are the Falernian, so called because they recall the colour of the wine: they are transparent and glow gently, so as to have, moreover, the agreeably mellow tint of honey that has been reduced by boiling. [48] However, it ought to be generally known also that amber can be tinted, as desired, with kid-suet and the root of alkanet. Indeed, it is now stained even with purple dye. To resume, when rubbing with the fingers draws forth the hot exhalation, amber attracts straw, dry leaves and linden-bark, just as the magnet attracts iron. Moreover, amber chippings, when steeped in oil, burn brighter and longer than the pith of flax. [49] Its rating among luxuries is so high that a human figurine, however small, is more expensive than a number of human beings, alive and in good health; and as a result it is quite impossible for a single rebuke to suffice. In the case of Corinthian bronzes, we are attracted by the appearance of the bronze, which is alloyed with gold and silver; and in the case of chased metalwork, by artistry and inventiveness. Vessels of fluorspar and rock-crystal have beauties which we have already described. Pearls can be carried about on the head, and gems on the finger. In short, every other substance for which we have a weakness pleases us because it lends itself either to display or to practical use, whereas amber gives us only the private satisfaction of knowing that it is a luxury. [50] Among the other portentous events of his career is the fact that Domitius Nero bestowed this name on the hair of his wife Poppaea, even going so far as to call it in one of his poems 'sucini' or 'amber-coloured,' for no defect lacks a term that represents it as an asset. From that time, respectable women began to aspire to this as a third possible colour for their hair.

However, amber is found to have some use in pharmacy, although it is not for this reason that women like it. It is of benefit to babies when it is attached to them as an amulet. [51] Callistratus says that it is good also for people of any age as a remedy for attacks of wild distraction and for strangury, both taken in liquid and worn as an amulet. This writer also introduces a fresh distinction, giving the name 'chryselectrum,' or 'gold amber,' to a kind which is golden in colour and has a most delightful appearance early in the day, but which very easily catches fire and flares up in a moment when it is close to flames. According to Callistratus, this kind of amber cures fevers and diseases when worn as an amulet on a necklace, affections of the ears when powdered and mixed with honey and rose oil, as well as weak sight if it is powdered and blended with Attic honey, and affections even of the stomach if it is either taken as a fine powder by itself or swallowed in water with mastic. Amber plays an important part also in the making of artificial transparent gems, particularly artificial amethysts, although, as I have mentioned, it can be dyed any colour.

{13.} [52] It is the obstinacy of our authorities that compels me to speak next of lyncurium, since, even when they refrain from asserting that this lyncurium is amber, they still claim that it is a gemstone, stating that it is formed indeed from the urine of the lynx, but also from a particular kind of earth. They say that the creature, bearing a grudge towards mankind, immediately conceals its urine, which forms a stone in the same place. [53] The stone is said to have the same fiery colour as amber, to be capable of being engraved and to attract not merely leaves or straws, but also shavings of copper and iron, a belief which even Theophrastus accepts { de Lap. 28 } on the authority of a certain Diocles. I for my part am of the opinion that the whole story is false and that no gemstone bearing this name has been seen in our time. Also false are the statements made simultaneously about its medical properties, to the effect that when it is taken in liquid it breaks up stone in the bladder, and that it relieves jaundice if it is swallowed in wine or even looked at.

{14.} [54] Now I shall discuss those kinds of gemstones that are acknowledged as such, beginning with the finest. And this shall not be my only aim, but to the greater profit of mankind I shall incidentally confute the abominable falsehoods of the Magi, since in very many of their statements about gems they have gone far beyond providing an alluring substitute for medical science into the realms of the supernatural.

{15.} [55] The most highly valued of human possessions, let alone gemstones, is the 'adamas,' which for long was known only to kings, and to very few of them. 'Adamas' was the name given to the 'knot of gold' found very occasionally in mines in association with gold and, so it seemed, formed only in gold. Our ancient authorities thought that it was found only in the mines of Ethiopia between the temple of Mercury and the island of Meroë, and stated that the specimens discovered were no larger than a cucumber seed and not unlike one in colour. [56] Now, for the first time, as many as six kinds of 'adamas' are recognized. There is the Indian, which is not formed in gold and has a certain affinity with rock-crystal, which it resembles in respect of its transparency and its smooth faces meeting at six corners. It tapers to a point in two opposite directions and is all the more remarkable because it is like two whorls joined together at their broadest parts. It can be as large even as a hazel nut. Similar to the Indian, only smaller, is the Arabian, which is, moreover, formed under similar conditions. The rest have a silvery pallor and are liable to be formed only in the midst of the finest gold. [57] All these stones can be tested upon an anvil, and they are so recalcitrant to blows that an iron hammer head may split in two and even the anvil itself be unseated. Indeed, the hardness of 'adamas' is indescribable, and so too that property whereby it conquers fire and never becomes heated. Hence it derives its name, because, according to the meaning of the term in Greek, it is the unconquerable force. One of these stones is called in Greek 'cenchros,' or millet seed, and is like a millet seed in size. A second is known as the Macedonian and is found in the goldmines of Philippi. This is equal in size to a cucumber seed. [58] Next comes the so-called Cyprian, which is found in Cyprus and tends towards the colour of copper, but has potent medical properties, which I shall describe later. After this, there is the 'siderites,' or 'iron stone,' which shines like iron and exceeds the rest in weight, but has different properties. For it can not only be broken by hammering but also be pierced by another 'adamas.' This can happen also to the Cyprian kind, and, in a word, these stones, being untrue to their kind, possess only the prestige of the name they bear.

[59] Now throughout the whole of this work I have tried to illustrate the agreement and disagreement that exist in Nature, the Greek terms for which are respectively 'sympathia,' or 'natural affinity,' and 'antipathia,' or 'natural aversion.' Here more clearly than anywhere can these principles be discerned. For this 'unconquerable force' that defies Nature's two most powerful substances, iron and fire, can be broken up by goat's blood. But it must be steeped in blood that is fresh and still warm, and even so needs many hammer blows. Even then, it may break all but the best anvils and iron hammers. [60] To whose researches or to what accident must we attribute this discovery? What inference could have led anyone to use the foulest of creatures for testing a priceless substance such as this? Surely it is to divinities that we must attribute such inventions and all such benefits. We must not expect to find reason anywhere in Nature, but only the evidence of will! When an 'adamas' is successfully broken it disintegrates into splinters so small as to be scarcely visible. These are much sought after by engravers of gems and are inserted by them into iron tools because they make hollows in the hardest materials without difficulty. [61] The 'adamas' has so strong an aversion to the magnet that when it is placed close to the iron it prevents the iron from being attracted away from itself. Or again, if the magnet is moved towards the iron and seizes it, the 'adamas' snatches the iron and takes it away. 'Adamas' prevails also over poisons and renders them powerless, dispels attacks of wild distraction and drives groundless fears from the mind. For this reason the Greeks sometimes call it 'anancites,' or 'compulsive.' Metrodorus of Scepsis is alone, so far as I know from my own reading, in stating that 'adamas' is found likewise in Germany, namely on the island of Basilia, which also produces amber, and in preferring this 'adamas' to that of Arabia. There can be no doubt that this statement is untrue.

{16.} [62] Next in value in our estimation come the pearls of India and Arabia, which we discussed in the ninth book { 9.106 } among the products of the sea. The third rank among gemstones is assigned for several reasons to the 'smaragdus.' Certainly, no colour has a more pleasing appearance. For although we gaze eagerly at young plants and at leaves, we look at 'smaragdi' with all the more pleasure because, compared with them, there is nothing whatsoever that is more intensely green. [63] Moreover, they alone of gems, when we look at them intently, satisfy the eye without cloying it. Indeed, even after straining our sight by looking at another object, we can restore it to its normal state by looking at a 'smaragdus'; and engravers of gemstones find that this is the most agreeable means of refreshing their eyes: so soothing to their feeling of fatigue is the mellow green colour of the stone. Apart from this property, 'smaragdi' appear larger when they are viewed at a distance because they reflect their colour upon the air around them? They remain the same in sunlight, shadow or lamplight, always shining gently and allowing the vision to penetrate to their further extremity owing to the ease with which light passes through them, a property that pleases us also in respect of water. [64] 'Smaragdi' are generally concave in shape, so that they concentrate the vision. Because of these properties, mankind has decreed that 'smaragdi' must be preserved in their natural state and has forbidden them to be engraved. In any case, those of Scythia and Egypt are so hard as to be unaffected by blows. When 'smaragdi' that are tabular in shape are laid flat, they reflect objects just as mirrors do. The Emperor Nero used to watch the fights between gladiators in a reflecting 'smaragdus.'

{17.} [65] There are twelve kinds of 'smaragdus.' The most notable is the Scythian, so called from the nation in whose territory it is found. No kind is deeper in colour or more free from defects: it differs as widely in quality from the other 'smaragdi' as they from the other gems. Next to this in esteem, as also in locality, is the Bactrian. These stones are said to be gathered by the natives in the fissures of rocks when the Etesians blow. For at this season the ground is uncovered and the stones glitter here and there because the sands of the desert are shifted violently by these winds. These stones, however, are said to be much smaller than the Scythian. Third in order come those of Egypt, which are dug near Coptos, a city of the Thebaid, from mines in the hills.

[66] The other kinds are found in copper-mines, and so the first place among them is held by the stones of Cyprus. Their special asset is their colour, which is limpid without being at all faint. On the contrary, it combines body and clarity, and, wherever one peers through the stones, reproduces the transparency of seawater, the stones being in an equal degree translucent and brilliant. In other words, they dissipate their colour and also allow the sight to penetrate within. There is a story that in this island there stood on the burial-mound of a prince named Hermias, not far from the tunny-fisheries, the marble statue of a lion, into which had been inserted eyes made of 'smaragdus'; and these, it is said, blazed so brightly, even far below the surface of the sea, that the tunnies fled in tenor, and the fishermen were long puzzled by this strange behaviour until finally they changed the gemstones in the eye-sockets.

{18.} [67] But since high prices are so freely paid for these stones, it is only right that we should point out their defects, some of which are common to every kind, while others are regional peculiarities, as with human beings. Thus the Cyprian stones show various shades of sea-green, and these may be more or less intense in different parts of the same 'smaragdus,' so that the stones do not always maintain the familiar uniform deep colour of the Scythian variety. Moreover, some stones are traversed by a 'shadow'; this makes the colour dull, and the fainter the colour, the more serious the defect. [68] In accordance with these defects, 'smaragdi' are divided into classes, some, which are called 'blind,' being opaque, while others, instead of being transparent to translucent, are sub-opaque. Some again are variegated, and some enveloped in a 'cloud.' This differs from the 'shadow' mentioned above. 'Cloud' is a defect belonging to a stone with a whitish hue in it, when the green appearance does not pervade the whole stone, but the vision is either blocked beneath the surface or intercepted at the surface by this white inclusion. Filaments, specks like salt and inclusions resembling lead are also defects; and these are common to nearly all varieties.

[69] Next in esteem to the Cyprian 'smaragdi' come the Ethiopian, which, according to Juba, are found at a distance of twenty-five days' journeying from Coptos, and are bright green, although they are rarely flawless or uniform in tint. Democritus includes in this class the Thermiaean and Persian stones. He states that the former are massive and convex, while the Persian stones, although they are not transparent, satisfy the eye with their agreeably uniform colour without allowing it to see within. He compares them to the eyes of cats and leopards, which likewise shine without being transparent, and mentions, moreover, that the stones are dimmed in sunlight, glisten in shadow and shine farther than other stones. [70] All these varieties have a further defect in that their colour may be that of gall or rancid oil, so that they may be bright and clear, and yet not green. These faults are particularly noticeable in the Attic stones found in the silver-mines at a place called Thoricus. They are always less massive than the others, but are more handsome when seen at a distance. These stones too are often marred by lead-like inclusions, as a result of which they resemble lead when they are seen in sunlight. One peculiarity is that some of these stones show the effects of age as their green colour gradually fades away and, moreover, are damaged by exposure to the sun. [71] After these come the Median stones, which show a great variety of tints and on occasion are even blended to some extent with lapis lazuli. These stones have undulating bands and contain inclusions resembling various objects, for example, poppy heads, birds, the young of animals or feathers. Such stones, in spite of their varied colours, seem to be green by nature, since they may be improved by being steeped in oil and there is no variety that displays larger specimens. [72] The 'smaragdi' of Chalcedon have perhaps completely disappeared now that the copper-mines in the district have failed; and, in any case, they were always worthless and very small. Moreover, they were brittle and of a nondescript colour, this being more or less bright according to the angle at which it was viewed, like the green feathers in a peacock's tail or on a pigeon's neck. Furthermore, they were marked with veins and were scaly. [73] They had also a characteristic defect called 'sarcion,' that is a kind of fleshy growth on the stone. There is a mountain known as Smaragdites, or Emerald Mountain, near Chalcedon, on which they used to be gathered. Juba states that a 'smaragdus' known as 'chlora,' or 'green stone,' is used as an inlay in decorating houses in Arabia; and likewise the stone which the Egyptians call 'alabastrites.' Several of our most recent authorities mention not only Laconian 'smaragdi,' which are dug on Mount Taygetus and resemble the Median variety, but also others that are found in Sicily.

{19.} [74] Among the 'smaragdi' we include also a gem that comes from Persia known as the 'tanos,' which is of an ugly shade of green and is full of flaws within and another from Cyprus, the 'chalcosmaragdna,' or 'copper smaragdus,' which is clouded by veins resembling copper. Theophrastus records { de Lap. 24 } that in Egyptian records are to be found statements to the effect that to one of the kings a king of Babylon once sent as a gift a 'smaragdus' measuring four cubits in length and three in breadth; and that there existed in Egypt in a temple of Jupiter an obelisk made of four 'smaragdi' and measuring forty cubits in height and four cubits in breadth at one extremity and two at the other. [75] He states, moreover, that at the time when he was writing there existed in the temple of Hercules at Tyre a large square pillar of 'smaragdus,' unless this was rather to be regarded as a 'false smaragdus'; for, according to him, this is another variety that is found.

He mentions also { de Lap. 27 } that there was once discovered in Cyprus a stone of which half was a 'smaragdus' and half an 'iaspis,' because the liquid matter had not yet been completely transformed. Apion, surnamed Plistonices, or 'the Cantankerous,' has lately left on record the statement that there still exists in the Egyptian labyrinth a large statue of Serapis, nine cubits high, made of 'smaragdus.'

{20.} [76] Many people consider the nature of beryls to be similar to, if not identical with, that of emeralds. Beryls are produced in India and are rarely found elsewhere. All of them are cut by skilled craftsmen to a smooth hexagonal shape since their colour, which is deadened by the dullness of an unbroken surface, is enhanced by the reflection from the facets. If they are cut in any other way they lack brilliance. The most highly esteemed beryls are those that reproduce the pure green of the sea, while next in value are the so-called 'chrysoberyls.' These are slightly paler, but have a vivid colour approaching that of gold. [77] A variety closely akin to these, but still a little paler and by some regarded as a special kind is the so-called 'chrysoprasus.' Fourth in order are reckoned the 'hyacinthizontes,' or 'sapphire-blue beryls,' and fifth the so-called 'aeroides,' or 'sky-blue' variety. After these come the 'waxy' and then the 'oily' beryls, that is, beryls coloured like olive oil. Finally, there are those that resemble rock-crystal. These beryls generally contain filaments and impurities, and besides are faint in colour; and all these features like are defects. [78] The Indians are extraordinarily fond of elongated beryls and claim that they are the only precious stones that are preferably left without a gold setting. Consequently, they pierce them and string them on elephants' bristles. They are all agreed that a stone of perfect quality should not be pierced, and in this case they merely enclose the head of the stone in a convex gold cap. They prefer to shape beryls into long prisms rather than into gems simply because length is their most attractive feature. [79] Some people are of the opinion that they are formed from the very start as prisms and also that their appearance is improved by perforation, when a white cloudy core is removed and there is, in addition, the reflection from the gold or, in any case, the thickness of the material through which the light must penetrate is reduced. Besides those already mentioned, beryls show the same defects as 'smaragdi,' and also spots like whitlows. In our part of the world beryls, it is thought, are sometimes found in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea. The Indians have found a way of counterfeiting various precious stones, and beryls in particulars by staining rock-crystal.

{21.} [80] Beryls differ very little, and also very considerably, from opals, stones which yield precedence only to the 'smaragdus.' India, likewise, is the sole producer of these stones and combining, as they do, the brilliant qualities of the most valuable gems, they above all others description. They display the more subtle fires of the 'carbunculus,' the flashing purple of the amethyst and the sea-green tint of the 'smaragdus,' all combined together in incredible brilliance. [81] For some people the vivid colours resemble in their general effect the pigment known as azurite; for others, the flames from burning sulphur or from a fire that has been kindled with olive oil. The size of the stone is that of a hazel nut. Even among us history makes it famous, since there still exists even today a precious stone of this variety which caused Antonius to outlaw a senator, Nonius, the son of the Nonius Struma who made the poet Catullus so indignant { Cat. 52.2 } when he saw him seated in the magistrate's chair, and the grandfather of Servilius Nonianus, who was consul in my time {AD 35} . This Nonius, when outlawed, fled, taking with him this ring alone of all his many possessions. [82] There is no doubt that at that time the value of the ring was 2,000,000 sesterces; but how amazing was Antonius' savagery and extravagant caprice in outlawing a man for the sake of a gemstone, and, equally, how extraordinary was the obstinacy of Nonius in clinging to his 'doom,' when even wild creatures are believed to buy their safety by biting off the member which, as they know, endangers their lives, and leaving it behind for their pursuers!

{22.} [83] The defects of the opal are a colour tending towards that of the flower of the plant called heliotrope, or of rock-crystal or hail, as well as the occurrence of salt-like specks or rough places or dots that distract the eye. There is no stone which is harder to distinguish from the original when it is counterfeited, in glass by a cunning craftsman. The only test is by sunlight. When a false opal is held steadily between the thumb and finger against the rays of the sun there shines through the stone one unchanging colour which is spent at its source, whereas the radiance of the genuine stone continually changes and at different times scatters its colours more intensely from different parts of the stone, shedding a bright light on the fingers where it is held. [84] Owing to its exceptional beauty, this stone is commonly known by the Greek term 'paederos,' or 'Favourite,' but those who regard the 'paederos' as a separate variety a say that the Indian name for it is 'sangenon.' The 'paederos' is said to be found in Egypt and Arabia, in Pontus, where the quality is very poor, and also in Galatia, Thasos and Cyprus. Exceptional specimens of these latter stones have the charm of an opal, but they shine more softly and rarely lack roughness. The dominant colour of the 'paederos' is a mixture of sky-blue and purple, and the green of the 'smaragdus' is absent. Those in which the brilliance is darkened by the colour of wine are superior to those in which it is diluted with a watery tint.

{23.} [85] Up to this point there is agreement as to which stones are supreme, the question having been largely settled by a decree of our Women-councillors of State. There is less certainty regarding the stones about which men too pass judgement. In the case of men, it is an individual's caprice that sets a value upon an individual stone, and, above all, the rivalry that ensues. A case in point is that of the Emperor Claudius, when he took to wearing a 'smaragdus' or a sardonyx. But according to Demostratus, the first Roman to adopt a sardonyx was the elder Africanus {236-183 BC}, and hence arose the esteem which this gemstone enjoys at Rome. And so it is to this stone that I shall award the next place after the opal.

[86] Formerly, as is clear from the very name, sardonyx meant a stone with a layer of carnelian resting on a layer of white, that is, like flesh superimposed on a human fingernail, both parts of the stone being translucent. Such is the character of the Indian sardonyx according to Ismenias, Demostratus, Zenothemis and Sotacus. The last two writers call such other varieties of the stone as are opaque 'blind sardonyx.' [87] Those stones that have now usurped the name although they lack all trace of the carnelian of the Indian stones come from Arabia; and the sardonyx has come to be recognised in the guise of several colours, the base being black or else having the colour of azurite, while the 'nail' above is coloured vermilion and is banded with a thick white line, not without a suggestion of purple where the white shades into vermilion. Zenothemis writes that the sardonyx was not held in high regard by the Indians, though it might be actually large enough to be commonly made into sword hilts. [88] Indeed, as is generally known, in India the stone is exposed to view by the mountain streams. He states that in our part of the world, however, the sardonyx was popular from the beginning because it was almost the only gemstone which, when engraved as a signet, did not carry away the sealing wax with it. Later we persuaded the Indians to share our appreciation of it. There the common folk wear it pierced on a necklace; and this perforation is now a proof of Indian origin. The Arabian stones are remarkable for their whiteness, the band being brilliant and quite thick: it does not glimmer in the depths of the stone or on its sloping side, but shines on the convex surface of the gem and is, moreover, set off by a lower layer of the deepest black. [89] In the Indian stones we find that this layer has the colour of azure or horn. Moreover, their white band can have a kind of iridescent shimmer, while the surface is red like the shell of a crawfish. Incidentally, if the stones are coloured like honey or wine lees (the latter term in itself implying a defect) they are condemned; and again, also, if the white band is blurred instead of being defined, and similarly if it contains an intrusive patch of some other colour. For no colour must be broken by another in its own layer. There is also an Armenian sardonyx which is acceptable in every respect apart from the faintness of its (white) band.

{24.} [90] I must describe too the character of the onyx proper, which shares its name with the sardonyx. Elsewhere, this name is given to a stone, but here it is that of a gem. Sudines states that in onyx one finds a white band resembling a human fingernail, as well as the colour of the 'chrysolith,' the sard and the 'iaspis,' while Zenothemis mentions that the Indian onyx has several different colours, fiery red, black and that of horn, surrounded by a white layer as in an eye, and in some cases traversed by a slanting layer. Sotacus records also an Arabian onyx which differs from the Indian in that the latter displays a small fiery red layer surrounded by one or more white bands (the arrangement being unlike that of the Indian sardonyx, where the top red layer is a circle, and not, as in this instance, a dot). On the other hand, the Arabian onyx, according to him, is found to be black with white bands. [91] Satyrus states that there is an Indian onyx that is flesh-coloured, with a part of it resembling the 'carbunculus,' and a part, the 'chrysolith' and the amethyst. This kind he wholly rejects as spurious, asserting that a genuine onyx has several bands of different colours combined with others that are milk-white, the colours as the bands shade into each other being quite indescribable as they are reduced to a harmonious and delightfully agreeable unity.

We must not, however, postpone too long our discussion of the sard, which is similarly a separate component of the name it shares with the onyx; and as we make our way to this topic, we must describe the properties of all the other fiery red gemstones.

{25.} [92] The first rank among these is held by 'carbunculi,' so-called because of their fiery appearance, although they are not affected by fire and are therefore sometimes known as 'acaustoe,' or 'incombustible' stones. Two kinds of 'carbunculi' are the Indian and the Garamantic: the latter was called in Greek the Carthaginian because it was associated with the wealth of Great Carthage. To these varieties are added the Ethiopian and that of Alabanda, the latter being found, it is said, at Orthosia in Caria, but treated at Alabanda. Furthermore, in each variety there are so-called 'male' and 'female' stones, of which the former are the more brilliant, while the latter have a weaker lustre.

[93] Among the male stones, moreover, are to be observed some that are clearer than usual or of an unusually dark red glare, and some that shine from deep beneath their surface and blaze with exceptional brilliance in sunlight, while the best are the 'amethyst-coloured stones,' namely those in which the fiery red shade passes at the edge into amethyst-violet, and the next best, known as 'Syrtitae,' or 'Stones of Syrtis,' have a bright feathery lustre. All these stones are said to reveal themselves in ground where sunlight is reflected most powerfully. [94] Satyrus asserts that Indian 'carbunculi' lack brilliance and look generally flawed, with a 'parched' lustre; and that the Ethiopian stones look greasy and shed no lustre at all, but burn with a fire that is compressed within them. Callistratus holds that a 'carbunculus' ought to cast a brilliant, colourless refulgence, so that when placed on a surface it enhances the lustre of other stones that are clouded at the edges, thanks to its own glowing brilliance. Hence many people call such a stone the white 'carbunculus,' and the kind that shines more faintly the 'lignyzon,' or 'murky' stone. [95] Callistratus adds that Carthaginian 'carbunculi' are much smaller than others, and that the Indian stones can be hollowed into vessels holding as much as a pint. Archelaus writes that the Carthaginian stones have a somewhat swarthy appearance, but light up more intensely than the rest when they are viewed by firelight or sunlight, and at an angle. He mentions also that they appear purple indoors in shadow, and flame-red in the open air; that they sparkle when they are held against the sun, and that, when they are used as signets, they melt the wax, even in a very dark place. [96] Many writers state that the Indian stones are brighter than the Carthaginian, and that conversely they become dull when viewed at an angle. They add that the male Carthaginian stones have a blazing star inside them, while the female stones shed all their radiance externally; and that the 'carbunculi' of Alabanda are darker than the rest, and rough. Around Miletus also, the earth produces stones of the same colour, which are not at all affected by fire. [97] Theophrastus assures us { de Lap. 33 } that 'carbunculi' are found both at Orchomenus in Arcadia and in Chios, the former, of which mirrors are made, being the darker. According to him, there are variegated stones, interspersed with white spots, from Troezen, and likewise from Corinth although the white in these Corinthian stones is yellowish. He mentions that 'carbunculi' are imported also from Massilia. Bocchus writes that they are dug up too in the neighbourhood of Olisipo, but only with great difficulty, because the soil, which is clay, is baked hard by the sun.

{26.} [98] Nothing is harder than the attempt to distinguish the varieties of this stone, so great is the scope that they afford for the exercise of cunning, when craftsmen force the opaque stones to become translucent by placing foil beneath them. The duller stones, it is said, when steeped in vinegar for fourteen days shine with a lustre that persists for as many months. 'Carbunculi' are counterfeited very realistically in glass, but, as with other gems, the false ones can be detected on a grindstone, for their substance is softer and brittle. Artificial stones containing cores are detected by using grindstones and scales, stones made of glass paste being less heavy. On occasion, moreover, they contain small globules which shine like silver.

{27.} [99] There is also a stone called 'anthracitis,' which is dug up in Thesprotia and resembles charcoal. Statements that it is found in Liguria I consider to be false, unless it is a fact that it was found there when the statements were made. Among these stones there are said to be some that are surrounded by a white vein. The 'anthracitis' has the fiery colour of the stones previously mentioned, but it possesses one peculiar property: when it is touched its glow dies away and disappears, but when, on the other hand, it is soaked with water it blazes forth again.

{28.} [100] A stone that is closely akin to 'carbonculi' is the 'sandastros,' sometimes known also as the Garamantic stone in virtue of its character. It occurs in a part of India that hears the same name, and is found also in Southern Arabia. Its chief merit is that its fiery brilliance, displayed, as it were, in a transparent casing, glitters with golden particles that shine like stars within the stone, and always inside its structure and never upon its surface. Furthermore, there are religious associations attached to these stones, and we are told of their affinity with the stars, which exists because the starry particles with which they are embellished generally conform in their numbers and arrangement to the constellations of the Pleiades and Hyades. For this reason, they are regarded by astrologers as ritual objects. [101] Here too, the male stones may be distinguished by their deep colour and by a certain vitality, which imparts a tint to objects placed close to them. The Indian stones, it is said, even weaken the sight. The fire of the female stones is more mellow, and glows rather than kindles. Some prefer the Arabian stones to the Indian, and compare the former to the smoky 'chrysolithus.' Ismenias declares that because of its softness the 'sandastros' cannot be polished, and so fails to fetch a high price. Some people call the stone 'sandrisites.' What is universally agreed is that, the larger the number of starry particles, the higher the price. [102] Sometimes misunderstanding is caused by the similarity of the term 'sandaresus,' applied to a stone which Nicander calls 'sandaserion' and others 'sandaresos,' although there are certain writers who actually call this stone 'sandastros,' and our former stone 'sandaresus.' This latter stone likewise is found in India and preserves the name of its place of origin. Its colour is that of a green apple or green oil, and it is generally despised.

{29.} [103] To the same class of fiery red stones belongs the 'lychnis,' so called from the kindling of lamps, because at that time it is exceptionally beautiful. It is found around Orthosia and throughout Caria and the neighbouring regions, but occurs at its finest in India. 'Mild carbuncle' is the term sometimes applied to 'lychnis' of the second grade resembling the so-called 'Flower of Jove.' I find that there are other varieties as well, one of which has a purple and the other a scarlet sheen. These, when heated in the sun or by being rubbed between the fingers, are said to attract straws and papyrus fibres.

{30.} [104] It is said that the same power is exerted by the Carthaginian stone, although it is far less valuable than those previously mentioned. It is formed in the mountain country of the Nasamones by rains of divine origin, as the inhabitants like to think. The stones are found when they reflect the moonlight, particularly at full moon, and in former times were exported to Carthage. Archelaus records that brittle stones, full of veins and resembling a dying ember, are found in Egypt near Thebes. I find that drinking vessels used commonly to be made from this stone and from 'lychnis.' All these varieties, however, obstinately resist engraving and, when used as signets, retain a portion of the wax.

{31.} [105] On the contrary, sard, which shares a part of its name with sardonyx, is extremely useful for this purpose. The stone itself is a common one and was first discovered at Sardis, but the most valuable specimens are found near Babylon. When certain quarries are being opened up the stones come to light adhering to the rock like heart-wood. This mineral is said to be now exhausted in Persia, but sards are found in several other localities, for example in Paros and at Assos. In India it occurs in three varieties: there are red stones, those known as 'pioniae,' or 'fatty stones,' because of their greasy lustre, and finally a third kind that is backed with silver foil. [106] The Indian stones are translucent, whereas the Arabian are somewhat opaque. Others are found also in Epirus near Leucas and in Egypt; and these are backed with gold foil. Among sards too there are male and female stones, of which the former shine the more intensely, while the latter are less lively and have a duller lustre. In ancient times no gemstone was more commonly used than the sard - this, at any rate, is the gem that is flaunted in the plays of Menander and Philemon {c. 300 BC} - and no other translucent gems lose their lustre less readily when they are covered with moisture: olive oil affects them more than any other liquid. Of these stones, the honey-coloured meet with disapproval, which is even stronger in the case of those that look like earthenware.

{32.} [107] Peridot {topazus} still preserves its special reputation. It is a greenish variety of its own and, when first discovered, was preferred to any other. Once some Trogodytes, who were pirates, came ashore, exhausted by hunger and stormy weather, on an Arabian island, the name of which was Cytis; and it so happened that, while they were digging up plants and roots, they unearthed a peridot. [108] This, at least, is the account accepted by Archelaus. Juba states that Topazos is the name of an island situated in the Red Sea at a distance of some 35 miles from the mainland. According to him, the island is fog-bound: consequently sailors often have to search for it, and this is why it has acquired its name; for in the Trogodyte language topazin means 'to seek.' Juba records that the stone was first brought from here as a gift for Queen Berenice, the mother of Ptolemy the Second {285-246 BC}, by his governor Philon; and that, because the king greatly admired it, a statue 4 cubits high was later made of peridot in honour of this Ptolemy's wife, Arsinoe, and consecrated in the shrine which was named after her the Arsinoeum. [109] Our most recent authorities assert that the stone is found also near Alabastrum, a town in the Thebaid, and divide it into two varieties, the 'prasoides,' or 'leek-like,' and the 'chrysopteros,' or 'golden-feathered,' of which the latter resembles the 'chrysoprasus.' In general, the colour tends to resemble the tints of the leek. Incidentally, the peridot is the largest of gemstones. Also, it is the only precious stone that is affected by an iron file, whereas all others have to be smoothed with Naxian stone and emery. Moreover, peridot is worn away by use.

{33.} [110] With this stone is associated, but more closely in respect of similarity in appearance than of esteem, the pale-green 'callaina.' It occurs in the hinterland beyond India among the inhabitants of the Caucasus, the Hyrcani, Sacae and Dahae. It is of exceptional size, but is porous and full of flaws. A far purer and finer stone is found in Carmania. In both localities, however, 'callaina' occurs amidst inaccessible icy crags, where it is seen as an eye-shaped swelling loosely adhering to the rocks, as though it had been attached to them, rather than formed upon them. [111] Thus tribes accustomed to riding on horseback and too lazy to use their feet find it irksome to climb in search of the stones; and they are also deterred by the risks. They, therefore, shoot at them from a distance with their slings and dislodge them, moss and all. This is the article that pays their taxes, this they acknowledge to be the most beautiful thing that can be worn on neck or fingers, from this they derive their wealth, this is their pride and joy as they boast of the number that they have shot down since their childhood, an operation in which success varies, seeing that some win fine stones with their first shot, while many reach old age without obtaining one. Such, then, is the way in which they hunt the 'callaina.' Subsequently, the stone is shaped by the drill, being in other respects an easy stone to deal with. [112] The best stones have the colour of 'smaragdus,' so that it is obvious, after all, that their attractiveness is not their own. They are enhanced by being set in gold, and no gem sets off gold so well. The finer specimens lose their colour if they are touched by oil, unguents or even undiluted wine, whereas the less valuable ones preserve it more steadfastly. No gemstone is more easily counterfeited by means of imitations in glass. Some authorities say that 'callainae' are found in Arabia inside the nests of the birds known as 'melancoryphi,' or 'black caps.'

{34.} [113] There are also many other kinds of green stones. A member of the commoner class is the prase. A second variety of this stone differs in respect of its blood-red spots, and a third, because it is sharply marked with three white streaks. Preference, however is given to the 'chrysoprasus,' or 'golden prase,' which likewise reproduces the tint of a leek, although in this case the tint veers slightly from that of peridot towards gold. This stone, moreover, may be large enough to be made even into small cups, and it is very commonly cut into cylinders.

{35.} [114] India produces not only these stones, but also the 'nilios,' which differs from the 'chrysoprasus' in showing a weak lustre and one that is elusive when it is looked at closely. Sudines states that it is found also in the Siberus, a river in Attica. Its colour is that of smoky, or on occasion honey-coloured, peridot. Juba records that the stone is formed on the banks of the river known to us as the Nile, from which its name, according to him, is derived.

{36.} Malachite is an opaque stone of a rather deep green shade and owes its name to its colour, which is that of the mallow. It is warmly recommended because it makes an accurate impression as a signet, protects children, and has a natural property that is a prophylactic against danger.

{37.} [115] A green stone that is often translucent is the 'iaspis,' which still preserves the reputation that it enjoyed in the past, even though it now yields to many others. Numerous countries produce it. India produces a variety resembling 'smaragdus,' Cyprus one that is hard and dull greyish-green in colour, and Persia one that is like the blue sky and is therefore called 'aeizusa,' or 'sky-blue.' A similar kind comes from the Caspian region. A deep-blue variety is found near the River Thermodon in Phrygia a purple one, and in Cappadocia another that is purplish-blue, sombre and without lustre. From Amisus comes a kind similar to the Indian, and from Chalcedon one that is cloudy. But it is not so important to distinguish countries of origin as excellences. [116] The best stone is that which has a shade of purple, the next has one of rose, and the next again of 'smaragdus.' The Greeks have applied epithets to each kind in accordance with its character. The fourth variety is known among them as 'boria,' or 'north-wind iaspis,' because it is like the sky on an autumn morning. This will be identical with the kind that is called 'arizusa.' There is also the 'terebinthizusa,' or 'turpentine iaspis,' the epithet being inappropriate, in my opinion, because the stone is, as it were, compounded of many gems of the same variety, for it is not only like a sard, but also resembles in its colour a violet. There are just as many kinds that remain to be described, but all are blue to a fault, or else are like rock-crystal or a sebesten plum. Consequently the better specimens are set in an open bezel so that they may remain exposed on both faces, with only their edges clasped by the gold. [117] A defect found in them is their weak lustre and failure to shine at a distance, and also specks resembling salt, as well as all the faults that occur in other gemstones. They too can be counterfeited in glass, and the deception becomes obvious when the brightness of a stone is scattered abroad instead of being concentrated within. The remaining varieties are called 'sphragides,' or 'signets,' the common Greek name for a gemstone being thus bestowed on these alone because they are excellent for sealing documents. [118] However, all the peoples of the East are said to wear them as amulets. That variety of 'iaspis' which resembles 'smaragdus' is often surrounded in the middle by a slanting white line, and is therefore called 'monogrammos,' or 'single-lined': if there are several such lines the stone is 'polygrammos,' or 'many-lined.' In passing, it gives me pleasure to refute here, as elsewhere, the falsehoods of the Magi, who tell us that this stone is helpful to public speakers. There is also an 'iaspis' combined with onyx known as 'iasponyx,' or 'jasper onyx,' a stone that has a cloudy inclusion in it and specks on it that look like snow, and is spangled with red dots. There is also an 'iaspis' that resembles Megarian salt and is stained as though with smoke: hence it is called 'capnias,' or 'smoky.' I myself have seen a figure, representing Nero in a breastplate, that was made of this stone and was 16 inches high.

{38.} [119] We shall now give a separate account of 'cyanus,' for a short time ago we applied this name to an 'iaspis' owing to its blue colour. The best kind is the Scythian, then comes the Cyprian and lastly there is the Egyptian. It is very commonly counterfeited by tinting other stones, and this is a famous achievement of the kings of Egypt, whose records also mention the name of the king who first tinted stones in this way. 'Cyanus,' too, is divided into male and female varieties. Sometimes inside cyanus there is a golden dust, which, however, differs from that which occurs inside lapis lazuli; for there the gold glistens as dots.

{39.} [120] Lapis lazuli also is blue and is only rarely tinged with purple. The best is found in Persia, but nowhere are there any transparent stones. Moreover, they are useless for engraving, because cores like rock-crystal interfere with this. Lapis lazuli which is of the colour of azurite is regarded as a male variety.

{40.} [121] Next, we shall assign to another category purple stones or those varieties that deviate from them. Here the first rank is held by the amethysts of India, although amethysts are found also in that part of Arabia, known as Petra, which borders on Syria, as well as in Lesser Armenia, Egypt and Galatia, while the most imperfect and worthless specimens occur in Thasos and Cyprus. The name 'amethyst' has been explained by the supposed fact that the brilliant colour of the stone closely approaches that of wine, but stops short of absorbing it and ends in a violet shade. Others, again, offer the explanation that the characteristic purple colour contains an element that is not quite bright red, but fades into the colour of wine. However this may be, all amethysts are transparent and are of a handsome violent tint, and all are easy to engrave. [122] The Indian amethyst has the perfect shade of Tyrian purple at its best, and it is this stone that the dye-factories aspire to emulate. The stone, when examined, sheds a gentle, mellow colour, which does not, like that of the 'carbunculus,' dazzle the eye. A second kind of amethyst deviates towards the sapphire. Its colour is known to the Indians as 'socos,' and the variety of gem as 'socondios.' A fainter variety of the same stone is called 'sapenos' and also, in the districts adjacent to Arabia, 'pharanitis' after the name of a tribe. A fourth kind has the colour of red wine, [123] while a fifth degenerates nearly into rock-crystal, since its purple fades away towards colourlessness. This is the least valuable kind, since a fine stone should, when held up to the light, display in its purple colour a rosy tint shining forth gently as though from a 'carbunculus.' Some people prefer to call such stones 'paederotes,' or 'favourites,' others 'anterotes,' or 'love requited,' and many 'eyelid of Venus.' [124] The Magi falsely claim that the amethyst prevents drunkenness, and that it is this property that has given it its name. Moreover, they say that, if amethysts are inscribed with the names of the sun and moon and are worn hanging from the neck along with baboons' hairs and swallows' feathers, they are a protection against spells. Again, they assert that, however they are used, amethysts will assist people who are about to approach a king as suppliants, and that they keep off hail and locusts if they are used in conjunction with an incantation which they prescribe. Moreover, they have made similar claims on behalf of the 'smaragdus,' provided that it is engraved with an eagle or a scarab beetle. I can only suppose that in committing these statements to writing they express a derisive contempt for mankind.

{41.} [125] There is a considerable difference between the amethyst and the 'hyacinthus,' which, however, shows only a slight deviation from a closely related tint. The difference lies in the fact that the brilliant violet radiance that is characteristic of the amethyst is here diluted with the tint of the hyacinth flower; and although at first sight the colour is agreeable, it loses its power before we can take our fill of it and, indeed, is so far from satisfying the eye that it almost fails to strike it and droops more rapidly than the flower of the same name.

{42.} [126] Besides the 'hyacinthus,' the 'chrysolithus,' a bright golden, transparent stone, comes to us from Ethiopia. Preference over this variety, however, goes to the Indian and, if the colour is uniform, to the Tibarene stones. The worst stones are the Arabian, for these are murky and mottled, with their brilliance broken up by cloudy spots. Even the clear stones that have come to light are full of a kind of powder. The best specimens are those which, placed alongside gold, make it assume a white, silvery appearance. These stones are set in an open bezel so as to remain fully transparent, while the rest are backed with brass foil.

{43.} [127] Although they have now ceased to be used as gems, there are certain stones to be mentioned that are called 'chrysoelectri,' or 'golden amber.' Their colour passes into that of amber, but only in morning light. Those from Pontus are betrayed by their light weight. Some of these stones are hard and reddish, while some are soft and full of flaws. Bocchus assures us that they have been found also in Spain, in the place where, according to his previous account, rock-crystal is dug up from shafts sunk to water-level, and adds that he saw a 'chrysolithus' weighing twelve pounds.

{44.} [128] There occur also 'leucochrysi,' or 'golden-white' stones, which are traversed by a bright white vein; and there is also the 'capnias,' or 'smoky stone' belonging to this class. There are, moreover, stones closely resembling those made of glass-paste, their colour being a kind of bright saffron-yellow. They can be so convincingly counterfeited in glass that the difference cannot be observed, although it may be detected by touch, since the glass-paste feels warmer.

{45.} In the same class is the 'melichrysus,' or 'honey-gold stone,' which looks like pure honey seen through a clear film of gold. This stone, a product of India, is brittle, although hard, but is by no means unpleasing. India produces also the 'xuthos' or 'brownish-yellow stone,' a gem regarded there as fit only for the common folk.

{46.} [129] White stones are headed by the 'paederos,' or 'favourite,' although we may ask to which colour we should assign a stone bearing a name that is so often bandied about among beautiful objects of different kinds a that the mere term has become a guarantee of beauty. However, the species which the name claims as its very own likewise fulfils our great expectations. Here, indeed, with the transparency of the rock-crystal are associated a characteristic sky-green tint, along with a brilliant glint of purple and of golden wine, of which the last colour is always the last to be seen, but always has a purple halo. All these colours, both individually and collectively, seem to pervade the stone; [130] and there is no gemstone that can match its clarity, which is delightfully agreeable to the eye. The most highly valued kind is found in India, where it is known as 'sangenon,' while the second-best occurs in Egypt, where the name used is 'tenites.' Third in order is a variety found in Arabia, but this kind is rough. Then there is the 'paederos' from Pontus, which has a weaker lustre, and the kind from Thasos, which is still weaker. Finally, there are the stones of Galatia, Thrace and Cyprus. The defects of the 'paederos' are faintness and the intrusion of uncharacteristic colours, as well as those that belong to all other gems.

{47.} [131] Next among the bright colourless stones is the 'asteria,' or 'star stone,' which holds its high position owing to a natural peculiarity, in that a light is enclosed in it, stored in something resembling the pupil of the eye. This light is transmitted and, as the stone is tilted, is displayed successively in different places, as if capable of locomotion within. When it is held up to the sun the same stone reflects bright beams radiating as if from a star; and thus it has acquired its name. The stones found in India are difficult to engrave, and those from Carmania are preferred.

{48.} [132] A similarly bright colourless stone is the 'astrion,' or 'little star,' which closely resembles rock-crystal, and occurs in India and on the coasts of Patalene. It has inside it at the centre a star shining brightly like the full moon. The name is sometimes explained by the fact that the stone, when held up to the stars, is supposed to catch their glitter and reflect it. It is said that the best variety is found in Carmania, and that no kind of gem is less liable to possess defects. We are told that there is also a variety known as 'ceraunia,' or 'thunder-stone,' which is inferior, and that the worst of all recalls the glimmer of a lantern.

{49.} [133] Another stone that is much esteemed is the 'astriotes,' again a star stone. It is recorded that Zoroaster proclaimed the remarkable merits of this stone when used in the practice of magic.

{50.} The 'astolos' according to Sudines, resembles the eye of a fish and sheds brilliant white beams like the sun.

{51.} [134] Among the bright colourless stones there is also the one called 'ceraunia' ('thunder-stone') which catches the glitter of the stars and, although in itself it is like rock-crystal, has a brilliant blue sheen. It is found in Carmania. Zenothemis admits that it is colourless, but describes it as 'containing a twinkling star.' He mentions that there are also to be found dull 'cerauniae' which if steeped in soda and vinegar for several days form such a star, which, however, fades away again after as many months. [135] Sotacus distinguishes also two other varieties of the stone, a black and a red, resembling axe-heads. According to him, those among them that are black and round are supernatural objects; and he states that thanks to them cities and fleets are attacked and overcome, their name being 'baetuli,' while the elongated stones are 'cerauniae.' These writers distinguish yet another kind of 'ceraunia' which is quite rare. According to them, the Magi hunt for it zealously because it is found only in a place that has been struck by a thunderbolt.

{52.} [136] The name that appears in these writers immediately after 'ceraunia' is that of the so-called 'iris,' or 'rainbow stone.' It is dug up on an island in the Red Sea 60 miles distant from the city of Berenice. In every other respect it is merely rock-crystal, and is sometimes called 'root of crystal' for this reason. It is known as 'iris' in token of its appearance, for when it is struck by the sunlight in a room it casts the appearance and colours of a rainbow on the walls near by, continually altering its tints and ever causing more and more astonishment because of its extremely changeable effects. [137] It is agreed that it has hexagonal faces, like the rock-crystal, but some people assert that it has rough faces and unequal angles; and that in full sunlight it scatters the beams that shine upon it, and yet at the same time lights up adjacent objects by projecting a kind of gleam in front of itself. But, as I have said, it does not produce any colours except in a dark place; and even then, the effect is not as though the stone itself contained the colours, but rather as though it were forcing them to rebound from the wall. The best kind is that which produces the spectra that are the largest in size with the closest resemblance to a rainbow. [138] There is also another 'rainbow stone,' the 'iritis,' which is similar to the former in every respect except that it is very hard. According to Orus, this when burnt and crushed to a powder cures ichneumon bites, but is actually found in Persis.

{53.} A stone that is similar in its appearance but different in its effects is the so-called 'leros,' or 'trifle,' in which there is a white and a black streak traversing the rock-crystal.

{54.} I have now discussed the principal gemstones, classifying them according to their colour, and shall proceed to describe the rest in alphabetical order.

[139] The agate was once held in high esteem, but now enjoys none. It was first discovered in Sicily near the river of the same name, but was later found in many countries. Its size can be exceptional, and its varieties are very numerous. The descriptive terms applied to it vary accordingly. For example, it is given names like 'jasper-agate,' 'wax-agate,' 'emerald-agate,' 'blood-agate,' 'white agate,' 'tree-agate' (which is distinguished by marks resembling small trees), 'anti-agate' (which, when burnt, smells like myrrh) and 'coral-agate,' which is sprinkled with golden particles like those of lapis lazuli and is a variety that is very plentiful in Crete. Another name for it is 'sacred agate,' since it is thought to counteract the bites of spiders and scorpions. [140] This I would in any ease believe to be true of the Sicilian stones, since the venom of scorpions is destroyed by a mere hint of a breeze from that province. The agates found in India are also effective in this way and have other very remarkable qualifies besides. For they exhibit the likenesses of rivers, woods and draught-animals; and from them also are made dishes, statuettes, horse-trappings and small mortars for the use of pharmacists, for merely to look at them is good for the eyes. Moreover, if placed in the mouth, they allay thirst. [141] The Phrygian agates contain no green, while those found at Egyptian Thebes lack red and white veins, but these again are effective against scorpions. Those of Cyprus are similarly esteemed. Some people warmly approve of the transparent glassy portions of these last stones. Agates are found too in Trachis near Mount Oeta, on Parnassus, in Lesbos, in Messenia (where they look like flowers on a field-path) and in Rhodes. [142] Other differences among agates are found in the writings of the Magi. Stones are found that resemble a lion's skin, and these, they claim, are effective against scorpions. But in Persia, according to them, the fumes from these stones, when they are burnt, avert storms and waterspouts and stop the flow of rivers, the test of a genuine stone being that it should cool the water when placed in a cauldron that is on the boil. But they insist that, if the stones are to do good, they should be tied to hairs from a lion's mane. Incidentally, when attached to hairs from a hyena's mane, they avert discord in the household. According to the Magi, there is an agate of one single colour that makes athletes invincible. The method of testing such a stone is to throw it into a pot full of oil with various pigments: when it has been heated for no more than two hours it should have reduced all the pigments to a single shade of vermilion.

[143] The 'acopos,' or 'reviver,' which in colour resembles soda, is porous and spangled with gold particles. Oil heated along with this stone and applied as an embrocation dispels fatigue, or so we are led to believe.

'Alabastritis,' which is found at Alabastrum in Egypt and at Damascus in Syria, is a white stone interspersed with various colours. When burnt with rock salt and pounded, it is said to alleviate bad breath caused by the mouth and teeth. [144] 'Alectoriae,' or 'cock stones,' is the name given to stones found in the gizzards of cocks. In appearance they are like rock-crystal, and in size like beans; and it is claimed that Milon of Croton owes to his use of these stones his reputation as one who was never worsted in a contest {540-516 BC} . The 'androdamas,' or 'man tamer,' has a silvery glint, like 'adamas,' and always resembles small cubes. The Magi suppose that its name has been applied to it in virtue of the fact that it subdues violence and hot temper in men. Whether the 'argyrodamas,' or 'silver tamer,' is the same, or a different, stone, is not made clear by our authorities. [145] 'Antipathes,' or the 'contrary stone,' is black and opaque. Its genuineness is tested by boiling it in milk, to which it gives the appearance of myrrh. One might perhaps be entitled to expect something prodigious of this stone; for there are many instances of 'antipathetic' substances, and yet it has been granted exclusive possession of the name. The Magi claim that it helps to counteract witchcraft. The Arabian stone closely resembles ivory, and would pass for it if its hardness did not forbid this. According to the Magi, it helps its possessors when they have pains in their sinews. The 'aromatitis,' or 'aromatic stone,' is also found in Arabia, but likewise in Egypt near Philae. It is always stony and, since it has the colour and scent of myrrh, it is much used by queens. [146] 'Asbestos,' which is found in the mountains of Arcadia, has the colour of iron. 'Aspisatis,' according to Democritus, occurs in Arabia and is of a fiery red colour. He recommends that sufferers from an enlarged spleen should wear it as an amulet with camel dung. However that may be, he states that it is found in the nests of Arabian birds, and that another stone bearing the same name and found in Arabia on Cape Leucopetra has a darting silvery lustre and is effective in counteracting attacks of wild distraction. [147] The 'atizoe', he writes, is found in India and on Mount Acidane in Persis. He describes it as shining brightly like silver, as being just over two inches in length with the shape of a lentil and an agreeable scent, and as being indispensable for the Magi at the installation of a king. The 'augitis' is supposed by many to be identical with the 'callaina.' 'amphidanes' is the stone otherwise known as 'chrysocolla.' It occurs in the region of India where gold is dug up by ants. The stone is found actually in the gold, being similar to gold and having the shape of a cube. Its nature is positively stated to be the same as that of the magnet, except that, according to tradition, it also causes gold to increase. [148] The 'aphrodisiac' stone is red mixed with white. As for the 'apsyetos,' or 'uncooled stone,' it retains its warmth for seven days if it is thoroughly heated in a fire, and is black, heavy and marked with red veins. It is thought to counteract cold. By the 'Aegyptilla,' or 'little Egyptian stone,' Iacchus understands a stone in which the white layer is traversed by bands of carnelian and black, but the term is commonly applied where there is a black ground and an upper layer of blue. It is named after the country where it is found.

{55.} [149] As to the 'balanites,' or 'acorn-stone,' there are two varieties, of which one is greenish and the other like Corinthian bronze in its colour. The former comes from Coptus and the latter from the Trogodytes' country, and both are intersected through the middle by a bright red layer. The 'batrachites,' or 'frog-stone,' also comes from Coptus: one variety has a colour like that of a frog, a second is similar and also has veins, while a third is red mixed with black. The 'baptes,' or 'dipper,' has an exceptionally pleasant scent, but is otherwise an ordinary soft stone. The 'Eye of Belus' has a whitish ground surrounding a dark eye which sends out a golden gleam from its midst. Because of its appearance, the stone is consecrated to the holiest god of the Assyrians. There is another 'Belus stone,' as it is called, which, according to Democritus, is found at Arbela and is as large as a walnut, with a glassy appearance. [150] 'Baroptenus,' also known as 'baripe,' is a black stone with blood-red and white nodules.

As an amulet it is rejected because it is liable to cause monstrous births. 'Botryitis,' or `'grape-cluster,' occurs in two varieties, of which one is dark and the other has the colour of a vine, and resembles a young grape. 'Bostrychitis' is the name given by Zoroaster to a stone that somewhat resembles the locks of a woman's hair. 'Bucardia,' resembling an ox-heart, is found only at Babylon. 'Brontea,' or 'thunder stone,' which is like the head of a tortoise, is supposed to fall from thunderclaps and to extinguish fires where lightning has struck, or so we are led to believe. The 'bolos,' or 'clod,' is found in the river Ebro and is like a clod of earth.

{56.} [151] 'Cadmitis' is identical with the so-called 'ostracitis,' except that the latter is sometimes surrounded with blue globules. 'Callais` is similar to lapis lazuli, except that its colour is lighter, like that of the sea close inshore. 'Capnitis,' or 'smoke stone,' is regarded by some as a separate variety, but many people treat it as a smoky 'iaspis,' as I have described it in the appropriate place. The 'Stone of Cappadocia' occurs there and in Phrygia, and is like ivory. The 'callaica' is so called from its colour, which is that of a clouded 'callais,' and it is said that several of these stones are always found joined together. [152] The 'catochitis,' or 'clinging stone,' belongs to Corsica and is larger than other precious stones, and more remarkable, if the reports are true, because, if the hand rests on it the stone sticks to it like gum. The 'catoptritis,' or 'mirror-stone,' which occurs in Cappadocia, reflects images from its bright colourless surface. The 'cepitis,' also known as 'cepolatitis,' is white, with lines of veins that meet at a single point. The 'ceramitis,' or 'pottery-stone,' has the colour of earthenware. [153] 'Cinaediae,' or 'cinaedus stones,' are white, oblong stones found in the brain of the fish so named. They have a remarkable effect if only we can believe the statement that they predict conditions at sea, foretelling mist or calm as the case may be. 'Ceritis' reminds us of wax, 'circos' of a hawk, 'corsoides' of grey hair, and 'coralloachates,' or 'coral-agate,' of coral. This has markings like drops of gold. The 'corallis' resembles vermilion, and occurs in India and at 1+Syene. [154] The 'crateritis,' or 'strong stone,' has a colour between that of yellow sapphire and of amber, and is very hard. The 'crocallis' reproduces exactly the appearance of the cells of a honeycomb. 'Cyitis,' or 'pregnant stone,' which is found in the neighbourhood of Coptus, is white and seems to be pregnant with another stone, the presence of which is in fact perceived by a rattling sound. The 'chalcophonos,' or 'brazen-voiced stone,' which is black, rings like bronze when it is dashed against anything; and actors of tragedies are urged to wear it. [155] As to 'chelidoniae,' or 'swallow-stones,' there are two varieties, both of which are swallow-coloured with purple on one side, but in one variety the purple is interspersed with black markings. The 'chelonia,' 'tortoise-stone,' is the eye of the Indian tortoise and, according to the false allegations of the Magi, is the most miraculous of all stones. For they claim that the stone, if it is placed on the tongue after the mouth has been rinsed with honey, confers powers of prophecy - at full moon or new moon, during the whole of the day; when the moon is waning, before sunrise only; and at other times, from dawn to midday. There are also tortoise-stones which are the eyes of other tortoises and resemble the tortoise-stone previously mentioned; and according to their guidance the Magi often pronounce prophetic incantations in order to cause storms to subside. The variety, however, that is sprinkled with gold drops is said by them to generate storms if it is dropped into boiling water with a scarab beetle. [156] The 'chloritis,' or 'greenstone,' which is of a grassy colour, is said by the Magi to be found as a congenital growth in the crop of the water-wagtail. They recommend that it should be set in an iron bezel so as to produce certain of their all too familiar miracles. The 'choaspitis,' which is named after the river Choaspes, is of a brilliant gold colour mixed with green. The 'chrysolampis,' or 'golden gleam,' which found in Ethiopia, is generally pale, but fiery by night. The 'chrysopis,' or 'golden face,' looks just like gold. The 'Cetionis' is found in Aeolis at Atarneus, now a village, but once a town. It is a transparent stone of many colours. The hue is sometimes that of glass, sometimes of rock-crystal and sometimes of 'iaspis,' but even the stones with flaws in them have so brilliant a lustre that they reflect an image as if they were mirrors.

{57.} [157] The 'daphnea,' or 'laurel stone,' is prescribed by Zoroaster as a cure for epilepsy. The 'diadochos,' or 'substitute,' resembles beryl. The 'diphyes' is a stone of twofold character. It is subdivided into a black and a white, a male and a female variety, each of the two varieties bearing an outline that distinctively portrays the organ of its sex. The 'Dionysias,' or 'stone of Dionysus,' a hard stone, the colour of which is black intermingled with red spots, produces the flavour of wine when it is ground to powder and mixed with water, and is supposed to be an antidote to drunkenness. [158] The 'draconitis,' otherwise known as 'dracontias,' the 'snake stone,' is obtained from the brains of snakes, but unless the head is cut off from a live snake, the substance fails to turn into a gem, owing to the spite of the creature as it perceives that it is doomed. Consequently, the beast's head is lopped off while it is asleep. Sotacus, who writes that he saw such a gem in the possession of a king, states that those who go in search of it ride in two-horsed chariots, and that when they see the snake they scatter sleeping-drugs and so put it to sleep before they cut off its head. According to him, the stone is colourless and transparent, and cannot subsequently be polished or submitted to any other skilful process.

{58.} [159] The 'encardia,' or 'heart stone,' has been given the epithet 'enaristera,' or 'left-side,' and shows the likeness of a heart in high relief on a black ground. Another variety bearing the same name displays the likeness of a heart in green, and a third in black, the rest of the stone being white. The 'enorchis' is white, and when it is split up into pieces reproduces exactly the shape of the testicles. 'Exhebenus' is, according to Zoroaster, a handsome white stone which goldsmiths use for polishing gold. [160] 'Erythallis,' although it is white, looks red when it is tilted. The 'erotylos,' or 'love stone,' otherwise known as 'amphicomos' and 'hieromnemon,' is praised by Democritus in virtue of its use in prophecy. The 'eumeces,' or 'tall stone,' which is found in Bactria, resembles hard limestone, and, when it is placed beneath the head like a pillow, produces dreams that have the force of an oracle. The 'eumitres,' or 'fine headdress,' is held in high regard by the Assyrians as the jewel of Belus, the most holy of their gods. Its colour is that of the leek, and it is much favoured in religious observances. [161] The 'eupetalos,' or 'leafy stone,' has four colours, blue, fiery red, shaped like an olive stone, is fluted like a seashell, vermilion, and apple-green. 'Eureos,' which is but is not so white. 'Eurotias,' or 'mouldy stone,' looks as if its black surface were covered with mildew. 'Eusebes,' or 'reverent stone,' is the kind of stone of which a seat in the temple of Hercules at Tyre is said to have been made, this seat being the one from which only the pious could rise without difficulty. 'Epimelas,' or 'black-on-top,' is an instance of a white gemstone that is overlaid with black.

{59.} [162] 'Galaxias,' or 'milk stone,' which is sometimes known as 'galactites,' is similar to the stones next mentioned, but is traversed by blood-red or white streaks. 'Galactitis' is entirely milk-white, and is known also as 'leucogaea' ('white earth'), 'leucographitis' ('white chalk'), and 'synechitis' ('cohesive earth'). It is noteworthy for the fact that when rubbed between the fingers it exhibits a milky smear and flavour, and in the rearing of children it ensures wet-nurses a plentiful flow of milk. Moreover, when it is tied to the necks of babies as an amulet, it is said to make their saliva flow, but we are told that when placed in the mouth it melts and also causes loss of memory. Two rivers, the Nile and the Achelous, produce this substance. Some people apply the term 'galactites' to a 'smaragdus' that is banded with white streaks. [163] 'Gallaica' is similar to 'argyrodamas,' but is somewhat less pure. Two or three stones are found joined together. The 'gassinnades,' which comes from Media, has the colour of wild vetch and looks as if it were sprinkled with flowers. It is found also at Arbela. This is yet another gem that is said to conceive, and to betray the presence of the stone in its womb if it is shaken. The 'embryo,' we are told, takes three months to develop. [164] 'Glossopetra,' or 'tongue stone,' which resembles the human tongue, does not, we are told, form in the ground, but falls from the sky during the waning of the moon, and is indispensable to the moon-diviner. Our scepticism with regard to this account is reinforced by the falseness of the claim made for the stone; for it is stated that it checks gales. The 'Gorgonia,' or 'Gorgon's stone,' is merely coral. The reason for its name is that it is transformed into the hardness of stone after being softened in the sea. It is said to keep off thunderbolts and whirlwinds. The 'goniaea,' or 'faceted stone,' is guaranteed just as falsely to bring about the punishment of one's private enemies.

{60.} [165] The heliotrope, which is found in Ethiopia, Africa and Cyprus, is leek-green in colour, but is marked with blood-red streaks. The name is explained by the fact that, when the stone is dropped into a vessel of water and bright sunshine falls upon it, in reflecting the sunlight it changes it into the colour of blood. This is true especially of the Ethiopian variety. When it is out of water, the same stone catches the sunlight like a mirror and detects solar eclipses, showing the passage of the moon below the sun's disc. Here, moreover, we have quite the most blatant instance of effrontery on the part of the Magi, who say that when the heliotrope plant is joined to the stone and certain prayers are pronounced over them the wearer is rendered invisible. [166] The 'Hephaestitis,' or 'Hephaestus stone,' is another that acts like a mirror in reflecting images, even though it is red. The test of its genuineness is that boiling water when poured over it should cool immediately; or, alternatively, that when placed in the sun it should immediately set fire to a parched substance. The stone is found at Corycus. The Hermu aedoeon, or 'sexual organ of Hermes,' is so called from its resemblance to the male organ, the gemstone on which the likeness appears being white or sometimes black, or pale yellow, and surrounded by a circular band of golden yellow. [167] The 'hexecontalithos,' or 'sixty-stones-in-one,' contains many colours in a small compass, and so has appropriated its name. It is found in the Trogodytes' country. The 'hieracitis,' or 'kite stone,' is entirely covered with feathery scales, black ones alternating with others resembling a kite's feathers. 'Hammitis,' or 'sandy stone,' resembles fish roe, and there is another kind that looks as if it were composed of soda, but is otherwise just a very hard stone. 'Hammonis cornu,' or 'horn of Ammon,' which is among the most sacred stones of Ethiopia, has a golden yellow colour and is shaped like a ram's horn. The stone is guaranteed to ensure without fail dreams that will come true. [168] The 'hormiscion,' or 'necklace stone,' which in its appearance is among the most pleasing of gemstones, reflects beams of gold from a fiery red ground, and these gold beams carry a white gleam at their tips. 'Hyaeniae,' or 'hyena stones,' are, it is said, obtained from the eyes of the hyena, which is actually attacked for the purpose. When the stones are placed under a man's tongue, they are alleged to foretell the future, if we are foolish enough to believe such a thing. [169] 'Haematitis' of the finest quality occurs in Ethiopia, but the stone is found also both in Arabia and in Africa. It is blood-red in colour. We must not omit to mention the claims made for it, so that we may expose the treacherous frauds perpetrated by the Magi. Zachalias of Babylon, in the volumes which he dedicates to King Mithridates, attributes man's destiny to the influence of precious stones; and as for the 'haematitis,' he is not content to credit it with curing diseases of the eyes and liver, but places it even in the hands of petitioners to the king, allows it to interfere in lawsuits and trials, and proclaims also that to be smeared with an ointment containing it is beneficial in battle. There is another stone of the same kind which is sometimes called 'menui,' and sometimes 'xuthos,' or 'brownish-yellow' stone. This is the name given by the Greeks to stones that are. light brown.

{61.} [170] 'Idaean dactyls,' or 'Fingers of Ida,' have the colour of iron and reproduce the shape of the human thumb. The 'icterias,' or 'jaundice stone,' is like the yellow skin of an apple, and is therefore considered to be beneficial in treating jaundice. There is also another stone of the same name, but of a more leaden colour. A third, resembling a leaf and flatter than the former varieties, is almost without weight and has dull yellow streaks. A fourth kind has dull yellow streaks spreading over a ground of a similar colour, but darker. 'Iovis gemma,' or 'Jupiter's gem,' is white, light in weight, and soft. It is known also as 'drosolithos,' or 'dew stone.' The 'Indica,' or 'Indian stone,' takes the name of its country of origin and is of a reddish hue, but when rubbed between the fingers exudes a purple liquid. Another stone of the same name is colourless and has a dusty appearance. The 'ion,' or 'violet stone,' is a violet-coloured stone found in India, but only rarely is its colour bright and deep.

{62.} [171] The 'lepidotis,' or 'scaly stone,' mimics fish scales in various colours, while the 'Lesbias,' or 'stone of Lesbos,' resembles a clod of earth. It takes its name from its country of origin, but is found also in India. The 'leucophthalmos,' or 'white eye,' which is otherwise reddish, includes an eye-shaped layer which is white and black. The 'leucopoecilos,' or 'variegated white stone,' has a white ground marked with drops of vermilion mixed with gold. The 'libanochrus,' or 'colour-of-incense,' shows a resemblance to frankincense and gives off a honey-coloured streak. [172] The 'limoniatis,' or 'meadow stone,' seems to be identical with the 'smaragdus.' As for the 'liparea,' the only fact that is reported is that, when it is burnt, all beasts are flushed from their hiding-places by its fumes. The 'lysimachos' is similar to Rhodian marble with golden-yellow veins, and has to be considerably reduced in size by polishing so that its superfluous excrescences may be smoothed away. The 'leucochrysos,' or 'golden-white stone,' consists of a 'chrysolithos' interspersed with white.

{63.} [173] No description of the 'Memnonia,' or 'stone of Memnon,' exists. As for the 'Media,' a black stone found by the Medea who is so famous in legend, it has veins of a golden-yellow colour, exudes saffron-yellow moisture and reproduces the flavour of wine. The 'meconitis,' or 'poppy stone,' closely resembles the poppy. 'Mithrax' comes from Persia and the mountains of the Persian Gulf. It is a stone of many colours and reflects their changing tints in sunlight. `Morochthos' is leek-green in colour and exudes milky moisture. 'Mormorion,' a very dark translucent stone from India, is also known as 'promnion'; but it is called 'Alexandrion,' or 'Alexander stone,' when the colour of garnet is mingled with it, and 'Cyprium,' when that of carnelian is present. It is found also at Tyre and in Galatia and, according to Xenocrates, occurs as well close to the Alps. These are gems which are eminently suitable for cameo-engraving. [174] The 'myrrhitis,' or 'myrrh stone,' has the colour of myrrh and an appearance quite unlike that of a gemstone. It smells like an unguent and, when rubbed, even like spikenard. The 'black myrmecias,' or 'wart stone,' has excrescences like warts, while the 'myrsinitis,' or 'myrtle stone,' is honey-coloured and has the scent of myrtle. A stone is 'mesoleucos,' or 'white in the middle,' when a white band marks the middle of the gem; and is 'mesomelas,' or 'black in the middle,' when a black layer intersects a gem of any colour in the middle.

{64.} [175] The 'Nasamonitis,' or 'stone of the Nasamones,' is blood-red with black veins. The 'nebritis,' or 'fawn stone,' which is sacred to Father Liber, derives its name from its resemblance to a fawnskin, but there is another stone of the same kind that is black and white. 'Nipparene,' which gets its name from a city and tribe of Persia, is like the tooth of a hippopotamus.

{65.} [176] The stone that bears the foreign name 'oica' is a pleasing mixture of black, reddish-brown, green and white. The 'ombria' ('rain stone'), otherwise known as 'notia' ('south-wind stone'), is said to fall, like the 'ceraurila' and the 'brontea,' in company with heavy rain and thunderbolts, and to have the same properties as these stones. But in addition, so we are told, it prevents offerings from being burnt away if it is placed on an altar. ' 'Onocardia,' or 'ass's heart,' is like the scarlet kermesinsect in colour, but we are told nothing further. 'Oritis,' or 'mountain stone,' sometimes known also as 'sideritis,' 'iron stone,' is spherical in shape and not affected by fire. [177] 'Ostracias,' or 'sherd stone,' otherwise known as 'ostracitis,' resembles earthenware, but is harder than 'ceramitis.' It is like agate except that the latter has a greasy appearance when it has been polished. This 'ostracias' is so hard that other gemstones are engraved with pieces of it. The 'ostritis,' or 'oyster stone,' owes its name to its resemblance to an oyster-shell. 'Ophicardelos' is the foreign name for a black stone that is encircled by two white bands. Obsidian has already been discussed by me in an earlier book { 36.196 }. There are also found gems bearing this same name and colour not merely in Ethiopia and India but also in Samnium and, as some people think, in Spain on the shores of the Atlantic.

{66.} [178] The 'panchrus,' or 'stone of all colours,' is composed of almost every colour. 'Pangonus,' or all-angles, is no longer than a finger, and it is only its more numerous plane faces that prevent it from being taken for rock-crystal. As for the 'paneros,' or 'all-love,' Metrodorus does not describe it, but he as cites quite a tasteful poem on the stone composed by Queen Timaris and dedicated to Venus. In this poem it is implied that the stone helped her to bear children. Some people call it 'panerastos,' or 'loved-by-all.' [179] The Pontic stone occurs in several varieties. It is spangled sometimes with blood-red, sometimes with golden spots, and is regarded as a supernatural object. One variety has, instead of stars, similarly coloured lines, and another, figures recalling mountains and deep valleys. The 'phloginos,' or 'flame-coloured stone,' which is also known as 'chrysitis,' or 'gold stone,' resembles the yellow ochre of Attica and is found in Egypt. [180] The 'phoenicitis,' or 'date-palm stone,' is so called from its resemblance to a date, and the 'phycitis,' or 'seaweed stone,' from its similarity to seaweed. A stone is 'perileucos,' or 'white-around,' when a white line descends (in a spiral) from the margin to the very base of the stone. The 'paeanis,' or 'Apollo stone,' otherwise known as 'gaeanis,' the 'earth stone,' is said to become pregnant and to give birth to another stone, and so is thought to relieve labour pains. Its birthplace is in Macedonia, near the tomb of Tiresias, and its appearance is that of ice.

{67.} [181] 'Solis gemma,' or 'gem of the sun,' is a bright colourless stone that sheds its beams in such a way as to resemble the sun's shining disc. 'Sagda' is the name given by the astrologers to a leek-green stone which they find, so they say, attached to ships' hulls. 'Samothrax,' or 'stone of Samothrace,' is produced in the island after which it is named, and is black, light in weight and like wood. The 'sauritis,' or 'lizard stone,' is stated to be found in the belly of a green lizard when it has been slit with a reed. The 'sarcitis,' or 'fleshy stone,' closely resembles ox-flesh. The 'selenitis,' or 'moonstone,' a transparent, colourless stone with a honey-coloured sheen, contains a likeness of the moon, and reproduces, if the report is true, the very shape of the moon as it waxes or wanes from day to day. It is thought to occur in Arabia. [182] The 'sideritis,' or 'iron stone,' resembles iron and likewise causes some people to quarrel when it is brought to a dispute. It is found in Ethiopia. The 'sideropoecilos,' or 'mottled iron stone,' is a variety of this stone, mottled with specks. 'Spongitis,' or 'sponge stone,' is absolutely true to its name. The 'synodontitis' comes from the brain of the fish known as 'synodus.' The 'Syrtitis' is found on the shores of the Gulf of Syrtis, and indeed, moreover, in Lucania. It is honey-coloured with a saffron-yellow sheen and contains faint starry spots inside it. 'Syringitis,' or 'pipe stone,' which resembles the length of a stalk between two of its joints, is hollow, with a tube running right through it.

{68.} [183] The 'trichrus,' or 'three-coloured' stone, which comes from Africa, is black, but gives off streaks of three colours, black at the base, blood-red in the middle and yellow at the top. The 'thelyrrhizos,' or 'lady root,' is ashen or red in colour and is distinguished by its white base. The 'thelycardios,' or 'lady heart,' which displays the colour of a heart, gives great pleasure to the Persians, among whom it is found. Their name for it is 'mucul.' The 'Thracia,' or 'Thracian gem,' occurs in three varieties, emerald-green or alternatively paler, while the third has blood-red spots on it. [184] 'Tephritis,' or 'ash stone,' displays a likeness of the new moon with curving horns, but on a ground that is the colour of ash. The 'tecolithos,' or 'solvent stone,' looks like an olive stone and has no value as a gem, but when sucked breaks up and disperses stone in the bladder.

{69.} 'Veneris crinis,' or 'the lock of Venus,' is a very dark, brilliant stone, which has an inclusion resembling a lock of red hair. The 'Veientana,' which is an Italian gemstone found at Veii, has a black ground defined by a white edge.

{70.} [185] The 'zathenes,' according to Democritus, is an amber-coloured stone found in Media, and if it is ground with palm wine and saffron softens like wax and has a most agreeable smell. The 'zamilampis,' which is found in the Euphrates, is like the marble from Proconnesus, but is greyish-green in the centre. 'Zoraniscaea' is said to be a gem found in the river Indus and used by the Magi, but, apart from this, nothing is reported about it.

{71.} [186] There is still another way of classifying precious stones, and it is one which I should like to employ, now that I have already from time to time varied my method of presenting my theme. For there are stones named after parts of the body, for example 'hepatitis' after the liver, and numerous past kinds of steatitis after the fat found in one animal or another. We find 'Adad's kidney,' 'Adad's eye' and 'Adad's finger,' Adad also being a god who is worshipped by the Syrians. Again, 'triophthalmos' is a variety of onyx that displays the likeness of three human eyes simultaneously.

{72.} [187] Precious stones are named after animals; for example 'carcinias' takes its name from the colour of the crab, and 'echitis' from that of the viper. 'Scorpitis' is so named because it displays the colour or else the likeness of a scorpion, 'scaritis,' similarly, of a parrot-wrasse, and 'triglitis,' of a red mullet. 'Aegophthalmos' takes its name from a goat's eye, and another stone likewise from a pig's eye. 'Geranitis' owes its name to the crane's neck, 'hieracitis' to the kite and 'atitis' to the colour of the white-tailed eagle. 'Myrmecitis' displays a naturally formed likeness of a crawling ant, and 'cantharias' that of scarab beetles. 'Lycophthalmos' is a stone of four colours, red mixed with blood-red, while in the middle it has black encircled by white, like a wolf's eye. 'Taos' is like a peacock; and a stone which I find bearing the name 'timictonia' similarly resembles an asp in colour.

{73.} [188] A resemblance to inanimate objects is found in 'ammochrysus,' or 'sand-gold,' which looks like gold mixed with sand; in 'cenchrites,' or 'millet stone,' which looks as if it were sprinkled with grains of millet; and in 'dryites,' or 'oak stone,' which resembles the trunk of an oak. Moreover, this stone burns like wood. The 'cissitis,' or 'ivy stone,' is a transparent, colourless stone in which ivy leaves are visible, and these cover the whole stone. 'Narcissitis' is marked with veins coloured like narcissus, and has also its scent. 'Cyamias,' or 'bean stone,' is black, but when broken produces from its interior an object resembling a bean. The 'pyren' is so called because it is like an olive stone: sometimes it looks as if it contains fish bones. The 'phoenicitis' is like a date. [189] 'Chalazias,' or 'hail stone,' has the whiteness and the shape of hailstones, and is as hard as 'adamas,' so that even when it is placed in a lire it is said to retain its natural coolness. 'Pyritis,' or 'fire stone,' even though it is black, scorches the fingers when it is rubbed. 'Polyzonos,' or 'many-banded stone,' is marked with a number of white bands on a black ground, while the 'astrapaea,' or 'lightning stone,' on a colourless or blue ground is traversed in the centre by beams like lightning flashes. The 'phlogitis,' or 'flame stone,' seems to have burning inside it a flame which, however, is not released, while the 'anthracitis,' or 'carbuncle stone,' appears to have sparks running in different directions through it. [190] The 'enhygros,' or 'stone with moisture inside it,' has a white, smooth ground, and is always perfectly round. When it is shaken, liquid moves to and fro inside it, as in an egg. The 'polythrix,' or 'hairy stone,' displays hairy streaks on a green ground, but, in spite of its appearance, is said to make one's hair fall out. There are also the so-called 'lion-skin' and 'leopard-skin' stones. [191] Colours too have lent their names to stones. 'Drosolithos,' or 'dew stone,' takes its name from its grass-green tint, 'melichrus,' of which there are several kinds, from its honey colour, 'melichlorus,' or 'honey-yellow stone,' from two tints combined, because it is partly yellow and partly honey-coloured; while 'crocias' is sprinkled as if with saffron, 'polias' with a greyishwhite tint, and 'spartopolias' with markings of a greyish-white more dispersed. 'Rhoditis' is 'rose-coloured,' melitis 'apple-coloured,' 'chalcitis' copper coloured and 'sychitis' 'fig-coloured'. 'Bostrychitis' has white or blood-red leaves branching out on a black ground, while 'chernitis' presents the appearance of white hands clasping each other on stone. [192] The 'anancitis,' or 'compulsive stone,' it is said, is used in divination by water to conjure up divine apparitions, while the 'synochitis,' or 'holding stone,' so we are told, holds the shades of the dead when they have been summoned from below. As for the white 'dendritis,' or 'tree stone,' it is said that if it is buried beneath a tree that is being felled the edges of the axes will not be blunted. There are many more stones that are even more magical; and these have received foreign names from men who have thus betrayed the fact that they are ordinary, worthless stones, and not precious stones at all. But I shall here remain content with having exposed the abominable falsehoods of the Magi.

{74.} [193] New, unnamed precious stones come into existence quite unexpectedly, like one which, according to Theophrastus { de Lap. 32 }, was once found in the gold mines near Lampsacus and was sent to King Alexander owing to its great beauty. [194] Moreover, 'Cochlides,' or 'shell stones,' are now very common, but are really artificial rather than natural. In Arabia they are found as huge lumps, and these are said to be boiled in honey without interruption for seven days and nights. Thus all earthy and other impurities are eliminated; and the lump, cleansed and purified, is divided into various shapes by clever craftsmen, who are careful to follow up the veins and elongated markings in such a way as to ensure the readiest sale. Formerly, these lumps were produced in such large sizes that in the East they were made into frontlets for kings' horses aud into pendants to serve as trappings for them. [195] In general, all gems are rendered more colourful by being boiled thoroughly in honey, particularly if it is Corsican honey, which is unsuitable for any other purpose owing to its acidity. Cunning and talented artists succeed also in cutting away parts of variegated stones so as to obtain novelties; and in order that these selfsame stones may not bear their usual name, they call them 'physis,' or 'works of nature,' and offer them for sale as natural curiosities.

But there is no end to the names given to precious stones, and I have no intention of listing them in full, innumerable as they are, thanks to the wanton imagination of the Greeks. Now that I have mentioned the precious stones, and also some, indeed, that are common, I must be content with having given emphasis to the rarer varieties that deserve notice. One point only should be remembered, that, according to the different marks and excrescences that appear on the surface of stones, and according to the varied tracks and colours of the bands that traverse them, names are often altered when the material is commonly the same.

{75.} [196] Now I shall make some general observations which concern our study of any precious stone; and here I shall adopt the notions of our authorities.

Concave or convex stones are considered less valuable than those with a plane surface. An elongated shape is the most valuable; then what is called the lenticular; and then a flat, round shape. Stones with sharp angles find the least favour.

[197] To distinguish genuine and false gemstones is extremely difficult, particularly as men have discovered how to make genuine stones of one variety into false stones of another. For example, a sardonyx can be manufactured so convincingly by sticking three gems together that the artifice cannot be detected: a black stone is taken from one species, a white from another, and a vermilion-coloured stone from a third, all being excellent in their own way. And furthermore, there are treatises by authorities, whom I at least shall not deign to mention by name, describing how by means of dyestuffs emeralds and other transparent coloured gems are made from rock-crystal, or a sardonyx from a sard, and similarly all other gemstones from one stone or another. And there is no other trickery that is practised against society with greater profit.

{76.} [198] I, on the other hand, am prepared to explain the methods of detecting false gems, since it is only fitting that even luxury should be protected against deception. Apart, then, from the details that I have given in describing the best stones of each class, it is recommended that transparent stones in general should be tested early in the morning or, if necessary, up to ten o'clock, but on no account later than this. [199] Tests are made in many different ways: first by weight, because genuine stones are heavier; then by coolness, since genuine stones also feel colder in the mouth; and after this by structure. For artificial stones show globules deep below the surface, rough patches on the surface itself, filaments, an inconsistent lustre and a brightness that fails to strike the eye. [200] The most effective test is to knock off a piece of the stone so that it can be baked on an iron plate, but dealers in precious stones not unnaturally object to this, and likewise to testing with a file. Flakes of obsidian will not scratch a genuine stone, but on a false stone every scratch leaves a white mark. Furthermore, there is a great difference as between one stone and another in that some cannot be engraved with an iron tool and some only with a blunt iron tool, although all can be worked with a diamond point. But what is most effective in working gemstones is the heat generated by the drill.

The rivers that produce gems are the Acesinus and the Ganges, and of all the lands that produce them India is the most prolific.

{77.} [201] For now that I have completed my survey of Nature's works, it is right that I should make a critical assessment of her products, as well of the lands that produce them. This, then, I declare: in the whole world, wherever the vault of heaven turns, there is no land so well adorned with all that wins Nature's crown as Italy, the ruler and second mother of the world, with her men and women, her generals and soldiers, her slaves, her pre-eminence in arts and crafts, her wealth of brilliant talent, and, again, her geographical position and her healthy, temperate climate, the easy access which she offers to all other peoples, her shores with their many harbours, and the kindly winds that blow upon her. All these benefits accrue to her from her situation - for the land juts out in the direction that is most advantageous, midway between the East and the West - and from her abundant supply of water, her healthy forests, her mountains with their passes, her harmless wild creatures, her fertile soil and her rich pastures. [202] Nowhere are the things that man is entitled to expect more excellent - crops, wine, olive oil, wool, flax, cloth and young cattle. Even the native breed of homes is preferred to any other on the training-ground. In ores, whether of gold, silver, copper or iron, no country surpassed her so long as it was lawful to work them. Now she keeps them within her womb, and all her bounty lies in the many different liquors and the diverse savours of crops and fruits that she lavishes upon us. [203] Next to Italy, if we leave aside the fabulous marvels of India, I would place Spain, or at least the districts where Spain is bordered by the sea. For although the country is partly rough desert, yet all its productive regions are rich in crops, oil, wine, horses and every kind of ore. So far, Gaul is Spain's equal. But it is Spain's deserts that give her the advantage; for here we find esparto grass, selenite and even luxury - in the form of pigments; here is a place where there is an incentive to toil, where slaves can be schooled, where men's bodies are hard and their hearts passionately eager.

{78.} [204] However, to return to products pure and simple, the most costly product of the sea is the pearl; of the earth's surface, rock-crystal; of the earth's interior, diamonds, emeralds, gemstones and vessels of fluorspar; of the earth's increase, the scarlet kermes-insect and silphium, with spikenard and silks from leaves, citrus wood from trees, cinnamon, cassia and amomum from shrubs, amber, balsam, myrrh and frankincense, which exude from trees or shrubs, and costus from roots. As for those animals which are equipped to breathe, the most costly product found on land is the elephant's tusk, and on sea the turtle's shell. Of the hides and coats of animals, the most costly are the pelts dyed in China and the Arabian she-goat's tufted beard which we call 'ladanum.' Of creatures that belong to both land and sea, the most costly products are scarlet and purple dyes made from shell-fish. Birds are credited with no outstanding contribution except warriors' plumes and the grease of the Commagene goose. We must not forget to mention that gold, for which all mankind has so mad a passion, comes scarcely tenth in the list of valuables, while silver, with which we purchase gold, is almost as low as twentieth.

[205] Hail, Nature, mother of all creation, and mindful that I alone of the men of Rome have praised thee in all thy manifestations, be gracious unto me.