wounded persons and to infants, to render any malpractices of sorcery
comparatively innocuous that may be directed against them. Gold,
however, itself is mischievous in its effects if carried over the
head, in the case of chickens and lambs more particularly. The proper
remedy in such case is to wash the gold, and to sprinkle the water upon
the objects which it is wished to preserve. Gold, too, is melted with
twice its weight of salt, and three times its weight of misy;[918]
after which it is again melted with two parts of salt and one of the
stone called “schistos.”[919] Employed in this manner, it withdraws
the natural acridity from the substances torrefied with it in the
crucible, while at the same time it remains pure and incorrupt; the
residue forming an ash which is preserved in an earthen vessel, and is
applied with water for the cure of lichens on the face: the best method
of washing it off is with bean-meal. These ashes have the property also
of curing fistulas and the discharges known as “hæmorrhoides:” with the
addition, too, of powdered pumice, they are a cure for putrid ulcers
and sores which emit an offensive smell.
Gold, boiled in honey with melanthium[920] and applied as a liniment to
the navel, acts as a gentle purgative upon the bowels. M. Varro assures
us that gold is a cure for warts.[921]
CHAP. 26. (5.)—CHRYSOCOLLA.
Chrysocolla[922] is a liquid which is found in the shafts already
mentioned,[923] flowing through the veins of gold; a kind of slime
which becomes indurated by the cold of winter till it has attained the
hardness even of pumice. The most esteemed kind of it, it has been
ascertained, is found in copper-mines, the next best being the produce
of silver-mines: it is found also in lead-mines, but that found in
combination with gold ore is much inferior.
In all these mines, too, an artificial chrysocolla is manufactured;
much inferior, however, to the native chrysocolla. The method of
preparing it consists in introducing water gradually into a vein of
metal, throughout the winter and until the month of June; after which,
it is left to dry up during the months of June and July: so that, in
fact, it is quite evident that chrysocolla is nothing else but the
putrefaction of a metallic vein. Native chrysocolla, known as “uva,”
differs from the other in its hardness more particularly; and yet,
hard as it is, it admits of being coloured with the plant known as
“lutum.”[924] Like flax and wool, it is of a nature which imbibes
liquids. For the purpose of dyeing it, it is first bruised in a mortar,
after which, it is passed through a fine sieve. This done, it is
ground, and then passed through a still finer sieve; all that refuses
to pass being replaced in the mortar, and subjected once more to the
mill. The finest part of the powder is from time to time measured out
into a crucible, where it is macerated in vinegar, so that all the
hard particles may be dissolved; after which, it is pounded again,
and then rinsed in shell-shaped vessels, and left to dry. This done,
the chrysocolla is dyed by the agency of schist alum[925] and the
plant above-mentioned; and thus is it painted itself before it serves
to paint. It is of considerable importance, too, that it should be
absorbent and readily take the dye: indeed, if it does not speedily
take the colour, scytanum and turbistum[926] are added to the dye; such
being the name of two drugs which compel it to absorb the colouring
matter.
CHAP. 27.—THE USE MADE OF CHRYSOCOLLA IN PAINTING.
When chrysocolla has been thus dyed, painters call it “orobitis,” and
distinguish two kinds of it, the cleansed[927] orobitis,[928] which
is kept for making lomentum,[929] and the liquid, the balls being
dissolved for use by evaporation.[930] Both these kinds are prepared
in Cyprus,[931] but the most esteemed is that made in Armenia, the
next best being that of Macedonia: it is Spain, however, that produces
the most. The great point of its excellence consists in its producing
exactly the tint of corn when in a state of the freshest verdure.[932]
Before now, we have seen, at the spectacles exhibited by the Emperor
Nero, the arena of the Circus entirely sanded with chrysocolla, when
the prince himself, clad in a dress of the same colour, was about to
exhibit as a charioteer.[933]
The unlearned multitude of artisans distinguish three kinds of
chrysocolla; the rough chrysocolla, which is valued at seven denarii
per pound; the middling, worth five denarii; and the bruised, also
known as the “herbaceous” chrysocolla, worth three denarii per pound.
Before laying on the sanded[934] chrysocolla, they underlay coats of
atramentum[935] and parætonium,[936] substances which make it hold, and
impart a softness to the colours. The parætonium, as it is naturally
very unctuous, and, from its smoothness, extremely tenacious, is laid
on first, and is then covered with a coat of atramentum, lest the
parætonium, from its extreme whiteness, should impart a paleness to
the chrysocolla. The kind known as “lutea,” derives its name, it is
thought, from the plant called “lutum;” which itself is often pounded
with cæruleum[937] instead of real chrysocolla, and used for painting,
making a very inferior kind of green and extremely deceptive.[938]
CHAP. 28.—SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CHRYSOCOLLA.
Chroysocolla, too, is made use of in medicine. In combination with
wax and oil, it is used as a detergent for wounds; and used by itself
in the form of a powder, it acts as a desiccative, and heals them.
In cases, too, of quinsy and hardness of breathing, chrysocolla is
prescribed, in the form of an electuary, with honey. It acts as an
emetic also, and is used as an ingredient in eye-salves, for the
purpose of effacing cicatrizations upon the eyes. In green plasters
too, it is used, for soothing pain and making scars disappear. This
kind of chrysocolla[939] is known by medical men as “acesis,” and is
altogether different from orobitis.
CHAP. 29.—THE CHRYSOCOLLA OF THE GOLDSMITHS, KNOWN ALSO AS SANTERNA.
The goldsmiths also employ a chrysocolla[940] of their own, for the
purpose of soldering gold; and it is from this chrysocolla, they say,
that all the other substances, which present a similar green, have
received their name. This preparation is made from verdigris of Cyprian
copper, the urine of a youth who has not arrived at puberty, and a
portion of nitre.[941] It is then pounded with a pestle of Cyprian
copper, in a copper mortar, and the name given to the mixture is
“santerna.” It is in this way that the gold known as “silvery”[942]
gold is soldered; one sign of its being so alloyed being its additional
brilliancy on the application of santerna. If, on the other hand,
the gold is impregnated with copper, it will contract, on coming in
contact with the santerna, become dull, and only be soldered with the
greatest difficulty: indeed, for this last kind of gold, there is a
peculiar solder employed, made of gold and one-seventh part of silver,
in addition to the materials above-mentioned, the whole beaten up
together.
CHAP. 30.—THE MARVELLOUS OPERATIONS OF NATURE IN SOLDERING METALLIC
SUBSTANCES, AND BRINGING THEM TO A STATE OF PERFECTION.
While speaking on this subject, it will be as well to annex the
remaining particulars, that our admiration may here be drawn to all the
marvels presented by Nature in connection therewith. The proper solder
for gold is that above described; for iron, potter’s clay; for copper,
when in masses, cadmia,[943] and in sheets, alum; for lead and marble,
resin. Lead is also united by the aid of white lead;[944] white lead
with white lead, by the agency of oil; stannum, with copper file-dust;
and silver, with stannum.[945]
For smelting copper and iron, pine-wood is the best, Egyptian papyrus
being also very good for the purpose. Gold is melted most easily with a
fire made of chaff.[946] Limestone and Thracian stone[947] are ignited
by the agency of water, this last being extinguished by the application
of oil. Fire, however, is extinguished most readily by the application
of vinegar, viscus,[948] and unboiled eggs. Earth will under no
circumstance ignite. When charcoal has been once quenched, and then
again ignited, it gives out a greater heat than before.
CHAP. 31. (6.)—SILVER.
After stating these facts, we come to speak of silver ore, the
next[949] folly of mankind. Silver is never found but in shafts sunk
deep in the ground, there being no indications to raise hopes of its
existence, no shining sparkles, as in the case of gold. The earth in
which it is found is sometimes red, sometimes of an ashy hue. It is
impossible, too, to melt[950] it, except in combination with lead[951]
or with galena,[952] this last being the name given to the vein of lead
that is mostly found running near the veins of the silver ore. When
submitted, too, to the action of fire, part of the ore precipitates
itself in the form of lead,[953] while the silver is left floating on
the surface,[954] like oil on water.
Silver is found in nearly all our provinces, but the finest of all is
that of Spain; where it is found, like gold, in uncultivated soils,
and in the mountains even. Wherever, too, one vein of silver has been
met with, another is sure to be found not far off: a thing that has
been remarked, in fact, in the case of nearly all the metals, which
would appear from this circumstance to have derived their Greek name
of “metalla.”[955] It is a remarkable fact, that the shafts opened by
Hannibal[956] in the Spanish provinces are still worked, their names
being derived from the persons who were the first to discover them.
One of these mines, which at the present day is still called Bæbelo,
furnished Hannibal with three hundred pounds’ weight of silver per
day. The mountain is already excavated for a distance of fifteen
hundred[957] paces; and throughout the whole of this distance there
are water-bearers[958] standing night and day, baling out the water in
turns, regulated by the light of torches, and so forming quite a river.
The vein of silver that is found nearest the surface is known by the
name of “crudaria.”[959] In ancient times, the excavations used to be
abandoned the moment alum[960] was met with, and no further[961] search
was made. Of late, however, the discovery of a vein of copper beneath
alum, has withdrawn any such limits to man’s hopes. The exhalations
from silver-mines are dangerous to all animals, but to dogs more
particularly. The softer they are, the more beautiful gold and silver
are considered. It is a matter of surprise with most persons, that
lines traced[962] with silver should be black.
CHAP. 32.—QUICKSILVER.
There is a mineral also found in these veins of silver, which yields a
humour that is always[963] liquid, and is known as “quicksilver.”[964]
It acts as a poison[965] upon everything, and pierces vessels
even, making its way through them by the agency of its malignant
properties.[966] All substances float upon the surface of quicksilver,
with the exception of gold,[967] this being the only substance that
it attracts to itself.[968] Hence it is, that it is such an excellent
refiner of gold; for, on being briskly shaken in an earthen vessel with
gold, it rejects all the impurities that are mixed with it. When once
it has thus expelled these superfluities, there is nothing to do but to
separate it from the gold; to effect which, it is poured out upon skins
that have been well tawed, and so, exuding through them like a sort of
perspiration, it leaves the gold in a state of purity behind.[969]
Hence it is, too, that when copper has to be gilded,[970] a coat of
quicksilver is laid beneath the gold leaf, which it retains in its
place with the greatest tenacity: in cases, however, where the leaf
is single, or very thin, the presence of the quicksilver is detected
by the paleness of the colour.[971] For this reason, persons, when
meditating a piece of fraud, have been in the habit of substituting
glair of egg for quicksilver, and then laying upon it a coat of
hydrargyros, a substance of which we shall make further mention in the
appropriate place.[972] Generally speaking, quicksilver has not been
found in any large quantities.
CHAP. 33.—STIMMI, STIBI, ALABASTRUM, LARBASIS, OR PLATYOPHTHALMON.
In the same mines in which silver is found, there is also found
a substance which, properly speaking, may be called a stone
made of concrete froth.[973] It is white and shining, without
being transparent, and has the several names of stimmi, stibi,
alabastrum,[974] and larbasis. There are two kinds of it, the male and
the female.[975] The latter kind is the more approved of, the male[976]
stimmi being more uneven, rougher to the touch, less ponderous, not so
radiant, and more gritty. The female kind, on the other hand, is bright
and friable, and separates in laminæ, and not in globules.[977]
CHAP. 34.—SEVEN REMEDIES DERIVED PROM STIMMI.
Stimmi is possessed of certain astringent and refrigerative properties,
its principal use, in medicine, being for the eyes. Hence it is that
most persons call it “platyophthalmon,”[978] it being extensively
employed in the calliblepharic[979] preparations of females, for the
purpose of dilating the eyes. It acts also as a check upon fluxes of
the eyes and ulcerations of those organs; being used, as a powder, with
pounded frankincense and gum. It has the property, too, of arresting
discharges of blood from the brain; and, sprinkled in the form of a
powder, it is extremely efficacious for the cure of recent wounds and
bites of dogs which have been some time inflicted. For the cure of
burns it is remarkably good, mixed with grease, litharge,[980] ceruse,
and wax.
The method of preparing it, is to burn it, enclosed in a coat of
cow-dung, in a furnace; which done, it is quenched with woman’s milk,
and pounded with rain-water in a mortar.[981] While this is doing,
the thick and turbid part is poured off from time to time into a
copper vessel, and purified with nitre.[982] The lees of it, which are
rejected, are recognized by their being full of lead and falling to
the bottom. The vessel into which the turbid part has been poured off,
is then covered with a linen cloth and left untouched for a night;
the portion that lies upon the surface being poured off the following
day, or else removed with a sponge. The part that has fallen to the
bottom of the vessel is regarded as the choicest[983] part, and is
left, covered with a linen cloth, to dry in the sun, but not to become
parched. This done, it is again pounded in a mortar, and then divided
into tablets. But the main thing of all is, to observe such a degree of
nicety in heating it, as not to let it become lead.[984] Some persons,
when preparing it on the fire, use grease[985] instead of dung. Others,
again, bruise it in water and then pass it through a triple strainer
of linen cloth; after which, they reject the lees, and pour off the
remainder of the liquid, collecting all that is deposited at the
bottom, and using it as an ingredient in plasters and eye-salves.
CHAP. 35.—THE SCORIA OF SILVER. SIX REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.
The scoria of silver is called by the Greeks “helcysma.”[986] It has
certain restringent and refrigerative effects upon bodies, and, like
molybdæna, of which we shall make further mention when speaking[987]
of lead, is used as an ingredient in making plasters, those more
particularly which are to promote the cicatrization of wounds. It is
employed also for the cure of tenesmus and dysentery, being injected
in the form of a clyster with myrtle-oil. It forms an ingredient, too,
in the medicaments known as “liparæ,”[988] for the removal of fleshy
excrescences in sores, ulcerations arising from chafing, or running
ulcers on the head.
The same mines also furnish us with the preparation known as “scum of
silver.”[989] There are three[990] varieties of it; the best, known as
“chrysitis;” the second best, the name of which is “argyritis;” and a
third kind, which is called “molybditis.” In most instances, too, all
these tints are to be found in the same cake.[991]
The most approved kind is that of Attica; the next being that which
comes from Spain. Chrysitis is the produce of the metallic vein,[992]
argyritis is obtained from the silver itself, and molybditis is the
result of the smelting of lead,[993] a work that is done at Puteoli; to
which last circumstance, in fact, molybditis owes its name.[994] All
these substances are prepared in the following manner: the metal is
first melted, and then allowed to flow from a more elevated receiver
into a lower. From this last it is lifted by the aid of iron spits,
and is then twirled round at the end of the spit in the midst of the
flames, in order to make it all the lighter. Thus, as may be easily
perceived from the name, it is in reality the scum of a substance in
a state of fusion—of the future metal, in fact. It differs from scoria
in the same way that the scum of a liquid differs from the lees, the
one[995] being an excretion thrown out by the metal while purifying
itself, the other[996] an excretion of the metal when purified.
Some persons distinguish two kinds of scum of silver, and give them
the names of “scirerytis” and “peumene;”[997] a third variety being
molybdæna, of which we shall have to make further mention when treating
of lead.[998] To make this scum fit for use, the cakes are again broken
into pieces the size of a hazel-nut, and then melted, the fire being
briskly blown with the bellows. For the purpose of separating the
charcoal and ashes from it, it is then rinsed with vinegar or with
wine, and is so quenched. In the case of argyritis, it is recommended,
in order to blanch it, to break it into pieces the size of a bean, and
then to boil it with water in an earthen vessel, first putting with
it, wrapped in linen cloths, some new wheat and barley, which are left
there till they have lost the outer coat. This done, they bruise the
whole in mortars for six consecutive days, taking care to rinse the
mixture in cold water three times a day, and after that, in an infusion
of hot water and fossil salt, one obolus of the latter to every pound
of scum: at the end of the six days it is put away for keeping in a
vessel of lead.
Some persons boil it with white beans and a ptisan[999] of barley, and
then dry it in the sun; others, again, with white wool and beans, till
such time as it imparts no darkness to the wool; after which, first
adding fossil[1000] salt, they change the water from time to time, and
then dry it during the forty hottest days of summer. In some instances
the practice is, to boil it in water in a swine’s paunch, and then to
take it out and rub it with nitre; after which, following the preceding
method, they pound it in a mortar with salt. Some again never boil it,
but pound it only with salt, and then rinse it with water.
Scum of silver is used as an ingredient in eye-salves, and, in the
form of a liniment, by females, for the purpose of removing spots
and blemishes caused by scars, as also in washes for the hair. Its
properties are desiccative, emollient, refrigerative, temperative, and
detergent. It fills up cavities in the flesh produced by ulceration,
and reduces tumours. For all these purposes it is employed as an
ingredient in plaster, and in the liparæ previously mentioned.[1001] In
combination with rue, myrtle, and vinegar, it removes erysipelas: and,
with myrtle and wax, it is a cure for chilblains.
CHAP. 36. (7.)—MINIUM: FOR WHAT RELIGIOUS PURPOSES IT WAS USED BY THE
ANCIENTS.
It is also in silver-mines that minium[1002] is found, a pigment held
at the present day in very high estimation; and by the Romans in former
times not only held in the highest estimation, but used for sacred
purposes as well. Verrius enumerates certain authors, upon whose
testimony we find it satisfactorily established that it was the custom
upon festivals to colour the face of the statue of Jupiter even with
minium, as well as the bodies[1003] of triumphant generals; and that it
was in this guise that Camillus celebrated his triumph. We find, too,
that it is through the same religious motives that it is employed at
the present day for colouring the unguents used at triumphal banquets,
and that it is the first duty of the censors to make a contract for
painting the statue of Jupiter[1004] with this colour.
For my own part, I am quite at a loss for the origin of this usage; but
it is a well-known fact, that at the present day even, minium is in
great esteem with the nations of Æthiopia, their nobles being in the
habit of staining the body all over with it, and this being the colour
appropriated to the statues of their gods. I shall therefore use all
the more diligence in enquiring into all the known facts respecting it.
CHAP. 37.—THE DISCOVERY AND ORIGIN OF MINIUM.
Theophrastus states that, ninety years before the magistracy of
Praxibulus at Athens—a date which answers to the year of our City,
439—minium was discovered by Callias the Athenian, who was in hopes to
extract gold, by submitting to the action of fire the red sand that
was found in the silver-mines. This, he says, was the first discovery
of minium. He states, also, that in his own time, it was already found
in Spain, but of a harsh and sandy nature; as also in Colchis, upon
a certain inaccessible rock there, from which it was brought down by
the agency of darts. This, however, he says, was only an adulterated
kind of minium, the best of all being that procured in the Cilbian
Plains,[1005] above Ephesus, the sand of which has just the colour
of the kermes berry.[1006] This sand, he informs us, is first ground
to powder and then washed, the portion that settles at the bottom
being subjected to a second washing. From this circumstance, he says,
arises a difference in the article; some persons being in the habit
of preparing their minium with a single washing, while with others it
is more diluted. The best kind, however, he says, is that which has
undergone a second washing.
CHAP. 38.—CINNABARIS.
I am not surprised that this colour should have been held in such high
esteem; for already, in the days of the Trojan War, rubrica[1007] was
highly valued, as appears from the testimony of Homer, who particularly
notices the ships that were coloured with it, whereas, in reference
to other colours and paintings, he but rarely notices them. The
Greeks call this red earth “miltos,” and give to minium the name of
“cinnabaris,” and hence the error[1008] caused by the two meanings
of the same word; this being properly the name given to the thick
matter which issues from the dragon when crushed beneath the weight of
the dying elephant, mixed with the blood of either animal, as already
described.[1009] Indeed this last is the only colour that in painting
gives a proper representation of blood. This cinnabaris, too, is
extremely useful as an ingredient in antidotes and various medicaments.
But, by Hercules! our physicians, because minium also has the name of
“cinnabaris,” use it as a substitute for the other, and so employ a
poison, as we shall shortly[1010] show it to be.
CHAP. 39.—THE EMPLOYMENT OF CINNABARIS IN PAINTING.
The ancients used to paint with cinnabaris[1011] those pictures of one
colour, which are still known among us as “monochromata.”[1012] They
painted also with the minium of Ephesus:[1013] but the use of this last
has been abandoned, from the vast trouble which the proper keeping of
the picture entailed. And then besides, both these colours were thought
to be too harsh; the consequence of which is, that painters have now
adopted the use of rubrica[1014] and of sinopis, substances of which I
shall make further mention in the appropriate places.[1015]
Cinnabaris[1016] is adulterated by the agency of goats’ blood, or of
bruised sorb-apples. The price of genuine cinnabaris is fifty sesterces
per pound.
CHAP. 40.—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MINIUM. THE USE MADE OF IT IN PAINTING.
According to Juba minium is also a production of Carmania,[1017] and
Timagenes says that it is found in Æthiopia. But from neither of
those regions is it imported to Rome, nor, indeed, from hardly any
other quarter but Spain; that of most note coming from Sisapo,[1018]
a territory of Bætica, the mine of minium there forming a part of the
revenues of the Roman people. Indeed there is nothing guarded with a
more constant circumspection; for it is not allowable to reduce and
refine the ore upon the spot, it being brought to Rome in a crude state
and under seal, to the amount of about two thousand pounds per annum.
At Rome, the process of washing is performed, and, in the sale of it,
the price is regulated by statute; it not being allowed to exceed[1019]
seventy sesterces per pound. There are numerous ways, however, of
adulterating it, a source of considerable plunder to the company.[1020]
For there is, in fact, another kind[1021] of minium, found in most
silver-mines as well as lead-mines, and prepared by the calcination
of certain stones that are found mixed with the metallic vein—not the
minerals, however, to the fluid humours of which we have given[1022]
the name of quicksilver; for if those are subjected to the action of
fire they will yield silver—but another kind of stone[1023] that is
found with them. These barren[1024] stones, too, may be recognized
by their uniform leaden colour, and it is only when in the furnace
that they turn red. After being duly calcined they are pulverized,
and thus form a minium of second-rate quality, known to but very
few, and far inferior to the produce of the native sand that we have
mentioned.[1025] It is with this substance, then, as also with syricum,
that the genuine minium is adulterated in the manufactories of the
company. How syricum is prepared we shall describe in the appropriate
place.[1026] One motive, however, for giving an under-coat of syricum
to minium, is the evident saving of expense that results therefrom.
Minium, too, in another way affords a very convenient opportunity to
painters for pilfering, by washing their brushes,[1027] filled with
the colouring matter, every now and then. The minium of course falls to
the bottom, and is thus so much gained by the thief.
Genuine minium ought to have the brilliant colour of the kermes
berry;[1028] but when that of inferior quality is used for walls, the
brightness of it is sure to be tarnished by the moisture, and this
too, although the substance itself is a sort of metallic mildew. In
the mines of Sisapo, the veins are composed exclusively of the sandy
particles of minium, without the intermixture of any silver whatever;
the practice being to melt it like gold. Minium is assayed by the
agency of gold in a state of incandescence: if it has been adulterated,
it will turn black, but if genuine, it retains its colour. I find it
stated also that minium is adulterated with lime; the proper mode of
detecting which, is similarly to employ a sheet of red hot iron, if
there should happen to be no gold at hand.
To objects painted with minium the action of the sun and moon is highly
injurious. The proper method of avoiding this inconvenience, is to dry
the wall, and then to apply, with, a hair brush, hot Punic wax, melted
with oil; after which, the varnish must be heated, with an application
of gall-nuts, burnt to a red heat, till it quite perspires. This done,
it must be smoothed down with rollers[1029] made of wax, and then
polished with clean linen cloths, like marble, when made to shine.
Persons employed in the manufactories in preparing minium protect the
face with masks of loose bladder-skin, in order to avoid inhaling the
dust, which is highly pernicious; the covering being at the same time
sufficiently transparent to admit of being seen through.
Minium is employed also for writing[1030] in books; and the letters
made with it being more distinct, even on gold or marble, it is used
for the inscriptions upon tombs.
CHAP. 41. (8.)—HYDRARGYROS. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM MINIUM.
Human industry has also discovered a method of extracting
hydrargyros[1031] from the inferior minium, a substitute for
quicksilver, the further mention of which was deferred, a few pages
before,[1032] to the present occasion. There are two methods of
preparing this substance; either by pounding minium and vinegar with a
brazen pestle and mortar, or else by putting minium into flat earthen
pans, covered with a lid, and then enclosed in an iron seething-pot
well luted with potter’s clay. A fire is then lighted under the pans,
and the flame kept continually burning by the aid of the bellows; which
done, the steam is carefully removed, that is found adhering to the
lid, being like silver in colour, and similar to water in its fluidity.
This liquid, too, is easily made to separate in globules, which, from
their fluid nature, readily unite.[1033]
As it is a fact generally admitted, that minium is a poison,[1034] I
look upon all the recipes given as highly dangerous which recommend
its employment for medicinal purposes; with the exception, perhaps,
of those cases in which it is applied to the head or abdomen, for the
purpose of arresting hæmorrhage, due care being taken that it is not
allowed to penetrate to the viscera, or to touch any sore. Beyond such
cases as these, for my own part, I should never recommend it to be used
in medicine.
CHAP. 42.—THE METHOD OF GILDING SILVER.
At the present day silver is gilded almost exclusively by the agency
of hydrargyros;[1035] and a similar method should always be employed
in laying gold leaf upon copper. But the same fraud which ever shows
itself so extremely ingenious in all departments of human industry,
has devised a plan of substituting an inferior material, as already
mentioned.[1036]
CHAP. 43.—TOUCHSTONES FOR TESTING GOLD.
A description of gold and silver is necessarily accompanied by that
of the stone known as “coticula.”[1037] In former times, according
to Theophrastus, this stone was nowhere to be found, except in the
river Tmolus,[1038] but at the present day it is found in numerous
places. By some persons it is known as the “Heraclian,” and by others
as the “Lydian” stone. It is found in pieces of moderate size, and
never exceeding four inches in length by two in breadth. The side
that has lain facing the sun is superior[1039] to that which has lain
next to the ground. Persons of experience in these matters, when they
have scraped a particle off the ore with this stone, as with a file,
can tell in a moment the proportion of gold there is in it, how much
silver, or how much copper; and this to a scruple, their accuracy being
so marvellous that they are never mistaken.
CHAP. 44.—THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILVER, AND THE MODES OF TESTING IT.
There are two kinds of silver. On placing a piece of it upon an iron
fire-shovel at a white heat, if the metal remains perfectly white, it
is of the best quality: if again it turns of a reddish colour, it is
inferior; but if it becomes black, it is worthless. Fraud, however,
has devised means of stultifying this test even; for by keeping the
shovel immersed in men’s urine, the piece of silver absorbs it as it
burns, and so displays a fictitious whiteness. There is also a kind of
test with reference to polished silver: when the human breath comes in
contact with it, it should immediately be covered with steam,[1040] the
cloudiness disappearing at once.
CHAP. 45. (9.)—MIRRORS.
It is generally supposed among us that it is only the very finest
silver that admits of being laminated, and so converted into mirrors.
Pure silver was formerly used for the purpose, but, at the present
day, this too has been corrupted by the devices of fraud. But, really,
it is a very marvellous property that this metal has, of reflecting
objects; a property which, it is generally agreed, results from the
repercussion of the air,[1041] thrown back as it is from the metal
upon the eyes. The same too is the action that takes place when we use
a mirror. If, again, a thick plate of this metal is highly polished,
and is rendered slightly concave,[1042] the image or object reflected
is enlarged to an immense extent; so vast is the difference between
a surface receiving,[1043] and throwing back the air. Even more than
this—drinking-cups are now made in such a manner, as to be filled
inside with numerous[1044] concave facets, like so many mirrors; so
that if but one person looks into the interior, he sees reflected a
whole multitude of persons.
Mirrors, too, have been invented to reflect monstrous[1045] forms;
those, for instance, which have been consecrated in the Temple at
Smyrna. This, however, all results from the configuration given to
the metal; and it makes all the difference whether the surface has
a concave form like the section of a drinking cup, or whether it is
[convex] like a Thracian[1046] buckler; whether it is depressed in
the middle or elevated; whether the surface has a direction[1047]
transversely or obliquely; or whether it runs horizontally or
vertically; the peculiar configuration of the surface which receives
the shadows, causing them to undergo corresponding distortions:
for, in fact, the image is nothing else but the shadow of the object
collected upon the bright surface of the metal.
However, to finish our description of mirrors on the present[1048]
occasion—the best, in the times of our ancestors, were those of
Brundisium,[1049] composed of a mixture of[1050] stannum and copper:
at a later period, however, those made of silver were preferred,
Pasiteles[1051] being the first who made them, in the time[1052] of
Pompeius Magnus. More recently,[1053] a notion has arisen that the
object is reflected with greater distinctness, by the application to
the back of the mirror of a layer of gold.[1054]
CHAP. 46.—EGYPTIAN SILVER.
The people of Egypt stain their silver vessels, that they may see
represented in them their god Anubis;[1055] and it is the custom
with them to paint,[1056] and not to chase, their silver. This usage
has now passed to our own triumphal statues even; and, a truly
marvellous fact, the value of silver has been enhanced by deadening its
brilliancy.[1057] The following is the method adopted: with the silver
are mixed two-thirds of the very finest Cyprian copper, that known as
“coronarium,”[1058] and a proportion of live sulphur equal to that of
the silver. The whole of these are then melted in an earthen vessel
well luted with potter’s clay, the operation being completed when the
cover becomes detached from the vessel. Silver admits also of being
blackened with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg; a tint, however, which is
removed by the application of vinegar and chalk.
The Triumvir Antonius alloyed the silver denarius with iron: and in
spurious coin there is an alloy of copper employed. Some, again,
curtail[1059] the proper weight of our denarii, the legitimate
proportion being eighty-four denarii to a pound of silver. It was in
consequence of these frauds that a method was devised of assaying the
denarius: the law ordaining which was so much to the taste of the
plebeians, that in every quarter of the City there was a full-length
statue erected[1060] in honour of Marius Gratidianus. It is truly
marvellous, that in this art, and in this only, the various methods
of falsification should be made a study:[1061] for the sample of the
false denarius is now an object of careful examination, and people
absolutely buy the counterfeit coin at the price of many genuine ones!
CHAP. 47. (10.)—INSTANCES OF IMMENSE WEALTH. PERSONS WHO HAVE POSSESSED
THE GREATEST SUMS OF MONEY.
The ancients bad no number whereby to express a larger sum than one
hundred thousand; and hence it is that, at the present day, we reckon
by multiples of that number, as, for instance, ten times one hundred
thousand, and so on.[1062] For these multiplications we are indebted
to usury and the use of coined money; and hence, too, the expression
“æs alienum,” or “another man’s money,” which we still use.[1063] In
later times, again, the surname “Dives”[1064] was given to some: only
be it known to all, that the man who first received this surname became
a bankrupt and so bubbled his creditors.[1065] M. Crassus,[1066] a
member of the same family, used to say that no man was rich, who could
not maintain a legion upon his yearly income. He possessed in land two
hundred millions[1067] of sesterces, being the richest Roman citizen
next to Sylla. Nor was even this enough for him, but he must want to
possess all the gold of the Parthians too![1068] And yet, although he
was the first to become memorable for his opulence—so pleasant is the
task of stigmatizing this insatiate cupidity—we have known of many
manumitted slaves, since his time, much more wealthy than he ever was;
three for example, all at the same time, in the reign of the Emperor
Claudius, Pallas,[1069] Callistus,[1070] and Narcissus.[1071]
But to omit all further mention of these men, as though they were
still[1072] the rulers of the empire, let us turn to C. Cæcilius
Claudius Isidorus, who, in the consulship of C. Asinius Gallus and
C. Marcius Censorinus,[1073] upon the sixth day before the calends
of February, declared by his will, that though he had suffered great
losses through the civil wars, he was still able to leave behind him
four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves, three thousand six
hundred pairs of oxen, and two hundred and fifty-seven thousand heads
of other kind of cattle, besides, in ready money, sixty millions of
sesterces. Upon his funeral, also, he ordered eleven hundred thousand
sesterces to be expended.
And yet, supposing all these enormous riches to be added together,
how small a proportion will they bear to the wealth of Ptolemæus; the
person who, according to Varro, when Pompeius was on his expedition
in the countries adjoining Judæa, entertained eight thousand horsemen
at his own expense, and gave a repast to one thousand guests, setting
before every one of them a drinking-cup of gold, and changing these
vessels at every course! And then, again, how insignificant would his
wealth have been by the side of that of Pythius the Bithynian[1074]—for
I here make no mention of kings, be it remarked. He it was who gave
the celebrated plane-tree and vine of gold to King Darius, and who
entertained at a banquet the troops of Xerxes, seven hundred and
eighty-eight thousand men in all; with a promise of pay and corn for
the whole of them during the next five months, on condition that one at
least of his five children, who had been drawn for service, should be
left to him as the solace of his old age. And yet, let any one compare
the wealth of Pythius to that possessed by King Crœsus!
In the name of all that is unfortunate, what madness it is for human
nature to centre its desires upon a thing that has either fallen to the
lot of slaves, or else has reached no known limit in the aspirations
even of kings!
CHAP. 48.—AT WHAT PERIOD THE ROMAN PEOPLE FIRST MADE VOLUNTARY
CONTRIBUTIONS.
The Roman people first began to make voluntary contributions[1075] in
the consulship of Spurius Posthumius and Quintus Marcius.[1076] So
abundant was money at that period, that the people assessed themselves
for a contribution to L. Scipio, to defray the expenses of the games
which he celebrated.[1077] As to the contribution of the sixth part of
an as, for the purpose of defraying the funeral expenses of Agrippa
Menenius, I look upon that to have been a mark of respect paid to him,
an honour, too, that was rendered necessary by his poverty, rather than
in the light of a largess.
CHAP. 49. (11.)—INSTANCES OF LUXURY IN SILVER PLATE.
The caprice of the human mind is marvellously exemplified in the
varying fashions of silver plate; the work of no individual manufactory
being for any long time in vogue. At one period, the Furnian plate,
at another the Clodian, and at another the Gratian,[1078] is all the
rage—for we borrow the shop even at our tables.[1079]—Now again, it
is embossed plate[1080] that we are in search of, and silver deeply
chiselled around the marginal lines of the figures painted[1081] upon
it; and now we are building up on our sideboards fresh tiers[1082] of
tables for supporting the various dishes. Other articles of plate we
nicely pare away,[1083] it being an object that the file may remove as
much of the metal as possible.
We find the orator Calvus complaining that the saucepans are made of
silver; but it has been left for us to invent a plan of covering our
very carriages[1084] with chased silver, and it was in our own age that
Poppæa, the wife of the Emperor Nero, ordered her favourite mules to be
shod even with gold!
CHAP. 50.—INSTANCES OF THE FRUGALITY OF THE ANCIENTS IN REFERENCE TO
SILVER PLATE.
The younger Scipio Africanus left to his heir thirty-two pounds’ weight
of silver; the same person who, on his triumph over the Carthaginians,
displayed four thousand three hundred and seventy pounds’ weight of
that metal. Such was the sum total of the silver possessed by the
whole of the inhabitants of Carthage, that rival of Rome for the
empire of the world! How many a Roman since then has surpassed her
in his display of plate for a single table! After the destruction
of Numantia, the same Africanus gave to his soldiers, on the day of
his triumph, a largess of seven denarii each—and right worthy were
they of such a general, when satisfied with such a sum! His brother,
Scipio Allobrogicus,[1085] was the very first who possessed one
thousand pounds’ weight of silver, but Drusus Livius, when he was
tribune of the people, possessed ten thousand. As to the fact that an
ancient warrior,[1086] a man, too, who had enjoyed a triumph, should
have incurred the notice of the censor for being in possession of
five pounds’ weight of silver, it is a thing that would appear quite
fabulous at the present day.[1087] The same, too, with the instance of
Catus Ælius,[1088] who, when consul, after being found by the Ætolian
ambassadors taking his morning meal[1089] off of common earthenware,
refused to receive the silver vessels which they sent him; and,
indeed, was never in possession, to the last day of his life, of any
silver at all, with the exception of two drinking-cups, which had been
presented to him as the reward of his valour, by L. Paulus,[1090] his
father-in-law, on the conquest of King Perseus.
We read, too, that the Carthaginian ambassadors declared that no people
lived on more amicable terms among themselves than the Romans, for that
wherever they had dined they had always met with the same[1091] silver
plate. And yet, by Hercules! to my own knowledge, Pompeius Paulinus,
son of a Roman of equestrian rank at Arelate,[1092] a member, too, of a
family, on the paternal side, that was graced with the fur,[1093] had
with him, when serving with the army, and that, too, in a war against
the most savage nations, a service of silver plate that weighed twelve
thousand pounds!
CHAP. 51.—AT WHAT PERIOD SILVER WAS FIRST USED AS AN ORNAMENT FOR
COUCHES.
For this long time past, however, it has been the fashion to plate the
couches of our women, as well as some of our banquetting-couches,[1094]
entirely with silver. Carvilius Pollio,[1095] a Roman of equestrian
rank, was the first, it is said, to adorn these last with silver; not,
I mean, to plate them all over, nor yet to make them after the Delian
pattern; the Punic[1096] fashion being the one he adopted. It was
after this last pattern too, that he had them ornamented with gold as
well: and it was not long after his time that silver couches came into
fashion, in imitation of the couches of Delos. All this extravagance,
however, was fully expiated by the civil wars of Sulla.
CHAP. 52.—AT WHAT PERIOD SILVER CHARGERS OF ENORMOUS SIZE WERE FIRST
MADE. WHEN SILVER WAS FIRST USED AS A MATERIAL FOR SIDEBOARDS. WHEN THE
SIDEBOARDS CALLED TYMPANA WERE FIRST INTRODUCED.
In fact, it was but very shortly before that period that these couches
were invented, as well as chargers[1097] of silver, one hundred pounds
in weight: of which last, it is a well-known fact, that there were then
upwards of one hundred and fifty in Rome, and that many persons were
proscribed through the devices of others who were desirous to gain
possession thereof. Well may our Annals be put to the blush for having
to impute those civil wars to the existence of such vices as these!
Our own age, however, has waxed even stronger in this respect. In
the reign of Claudius, his slave Drusillanus, surnamed Rotundus, who
acted as his steward[1098] in Nearer Spain, possessed a silver charger
weighing five hundred pounds, for the manufacture of which a workshop
had had to be expressly built. This charger was accompanied also by
eight other dishes, each two hundred and fifty pounds in weight. How
many of his fellow-slaves,[1099] pray, would it have taken to introduce
these dishes, or who[1100] were to be the guests served therefrom?
Cornelius Nepos says that before the victory gained[1101] by Sylla,
there were but two banquetting couches adorned with silver at Rome,
and that in his own recollection, silver was first used for adorning
sideboards. Fenestella, who died at the end of the reign of Tiberius
Cæsar, informs us that at that period sideboards, inlaid even with
tortoiseshell,[1102] had come into fashion; whereas, a little before
his time, they had been made of solid wood, of a round shape, and
not much larger than our tables. He says, however, that when he
was quite a boy, they had begun to make the sideboards square, and
of different[1103] pieces of wood, or else veneered with maple or
citrus:[1104] and that at a later period the fashion was introduced
of overlaying the corners and the seams at the joinings with silver.
The name given to them in his youth, he says, was “tympana;”[1105] and
it was at this period, too, that the chargers which had been known as
“magides” by the ancients, first received the name of “lances,” from
their resemblance[1106] to the scales of a balance.
CHAP. 53.—THE ENORMOUS PRICE OF SILVER PLATE.
It is not, however, only for vast quantities of plate that there is
such a rage among mankind, but even more so, if possible, for the plate
of peculiar artists: and this too, to the exculpation of our own age,
has long been the case. C. Gracchus possessed some silver dolphins,
for which he paid five thousand sesterces per pound. Lucius Crassus,
the orator, paid for two goblets chased by the hand of the artist
Mentor,[1107] one hundred thousand sesterces: but he confessed that for
very shame he never dared use them, as also that he had other articles
of plate in his possession, for which he had paid at the rate of six
thousand sesterces per pound. It was the conquest of Asia[1108] that
first introduced luxury into Italy; for we find that Lucius Scipio,
in his triumphal procession, exhibited one thousand four hundred
pounds’ weight of chased silver, with golden vessels, the weight of
which amounted to one thousand five hundred pounds. This[1109] took
place in the year from the foundation of the City, 565. But that which
inflicted a still more severe blow upon the Roman morals, was the
legacy of Asia,[1110] which King Attalus[1111] left to the state at
his decease, a legacy which was even more disadvantageous than the
victory of Scipio,[1112] in its results. For, upon this occasion, all
scruple was entirely removed, by the eagerness which existed at Rome,
for making purchases at the auction of the king’s effects. This took
place in the year of the City, 622, the people having learned, during
the fifty-seven years that had intervened, not only to admire, but to
covet even, the opulence of foreign nations. The tastes of the Roman
people had received, too, an immense impulse from the conquest of
Achaia,[1113] which, during this interval, in the year of the City,
608, that nothing might be wanting, had introduced both statues and
pictures. The same epoch, too, that saw the birth of luxury, witnessed
the downfall of Carthage; so that, by a fatal coincidence, the Roman
people, at the same moment, both acquired a taste for vice and obtained
a license for gratifying it.
Some, too, of the ancients sought to recommend themselves by this love
of excess; for Caius Marius, after his victory over the Cimbri, drank
from a cantharus,[1114] it is said, in imitation of Father Liber;[1115]
Marius, that ploughman[1116] of Arpinum, a general who had risen from
the ranks![1117]
CHAP. 54. (12.)—STATUES OF SILVER.
It is generally believed, but erroneously, that silver was first
employed for making statues of the deified Emperor Augustus, at a
period when adulation was all the fashion: for I find it stated, that
in the triumph celebrated by Pompeius Magnus there was a silver statue
exhibited of Pharnaces, the first[1118] king of Pontus, as also one of
Mithridates Eupator,[1119] besides chariots of gold and silver.
Silver, too, has in some instances even supplanted gold; for the
luxurious tastes of the female plebeians having gone so far as
to adopt the use of shoe-buckles of gold,[1120] it is considered
old-fashioned to wear them made of that metal.[1121] I myself, too,
have seen Arellius Fuscus[1122]—the person whose name was erased
from the equestrian order on a singularly calumnious charge,[1123]
when his school was so thronged by our youth, attracted thither by
his celebrity—wearing rings made of silver. But of what use is it to
collect all these instances, when our very soldiers, holding ivory even
in contempt, have the hilts of their swords made of chased silver?
when, too, their scabbards are heard to jingle with their silver
chains, and their belts with the plates of silver with which they are
inlaid?
At the present day, too, the continence of our very pages is secured
by the aid of silver:[1124] our women, when bathing, quite despise any
sitting-bath that is not made of silver: while for serving up food at
table, as well as for the most unseemly purposes, the same metal must
be equally employed! Would that Fabricius could behold these instances
of luxuriousness, the baths of our women—bathing as they do in company
with the men—paved with silver to such an extent that there is not room
left for the sole of the foot even! Fabricius, I say, who would allow
of no general of an army having any other plate than a patera and a
salt-cellar of silver.—Oh that he could see how that the rewards of
valour in our day are either composed of these objects of luxury, or
else are broken up to make them![1125] Alas for the morals of our age!
Fabricius puts us to the blush.
CHAP. 55.—THE MOST REMARKABLE WORKS IN SILVER, AND THE NAMES OF THE
MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS IN SILVER.
It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold should have
conferred no celebrity upon any person, while that of embossing silver
has rendered many illustrious. The greatest renown, however, has been
acquired by Mentor, of whom mention has been made already.[1126] Four
pairs [of vases] were all that were ever[1127] made by him; and at the
present day, not one of these, it is said, is any longer in existence,
owing to the conflagrations of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and
of that in the Capitol.[1128] Varro informs us in his writings that
he also was in possession of a bronze statue, the work of this
artist. Next to Mentor, the most admired artists were Acragas,[1129]
Boëthus,[1130] and Mys.[1131] Works of all these artists are still
extant in the Isle of Rhodes; of Boëthus, in the Temple of Minerva,
at Lindus; of Acragas, in the Temple of Father Liber, at Rhodes,
consisting of cups engraved with figures in relief of Centaurs and
Bacchantes; and of Mys, in the same temple, figures of Sileni and
Cupids. Representations also of the chase by Acragas on drinking cups
were held in high estimation.
Next to these in repute comes Calamis.[1132] Antipater[1133] too, it
has been said, laid, rather than engraved,[1134] a Sleeping Satyr
upon a drinking-bowl.[1135] Next to these come Stratonicus[1136] of
Cyzicus, and Tauriscus:[1137] Ariston[1138] also, and Eunicus,[1139]
of Mytilene are highly praised; Hecatæus[1140] also, and, about the
age of Pompeius Magnus, Pasiteles,[1141] Posidonius[1142] of Ephesus,
Hedystratides[1143] who engraved battle-scenes and armed warriors,
and Zopyrus,[1144] who represented the Court of the Areopagus and
the trial of Orestes,[1145] upon two cups valued at twelve thousand
sesterces. There was Pytheas[1146] also, a work of whose sold at the
rate of ten thousand denarii for two ounces: it was a drinking-bowl,
the figures on which represented Ulysses and Diomedes stealing the
Palladium.[1147] The same artist engraved also, upon some small
drinking-vessels, kitchen scenes,[1148] known as “magiriscia;”[1149]
of such remarkably fine workmanship and so liable to injury, that it
was quite impossible to take copies[1150] of them. Teucer too, the
inlayer,[1151] enjoyed a great reputation.
All at once, however, this art became so lost in point of excellence,
that at the present day ancient specimens are the only ones at all
valued; and only those pieces of plate are held in esteem the designs
on which are so much worn that the figures cannot be distinguished.
Silver becomes tainted by the contact of mineral waters, and of the
salt exhalations from them, as in the interior of Spain, for instance.
CHAP. 56.—SIL: THE PERSONS WHO FIRST USED IT IN PAINTING, AND THE
METHOD THEY ADOPTED.
In the mines of gold and silver there are some other pigments also
found, sil[1152] and cæruleum. Sil is, properly speaking, a sort of
slime.[1153] The best kind is that known as Attic sil; the price of
which is two denarii per pound. The next best kind is the marbled[1154]
sil, the price of which is half that of the Attic kind. A third sort
is the compressed sil, known to some persons as Scyric sil, it coming
from the Isle of Scyros. Then, too, there is the sil of Achaia, which
painters make use of for shadow-painting, and the price of which is two
sesterces per pound. At a price of two asses less per pound, is sold
the clear[1155] sil, which comes from Gaul. This last kind, as well
as the Attic sil, is used for painting strong lights: but the marbled
sil only is employed for colouring compartitions,[1156] the marble in
it offering a resistance to the natural acridity of the lime. This last
kind is extracted also from some mountains twenty miles distant from
the City. When thus extracted, it is submitted to the action of fire;
in which form it is adulterated by some, and sold for compressed sil.
That it has been burnt, however, and adulterated, may be very easily
detected by its acridity, and the fact that it very soon crumbles into
dust.
Polygnotus[1157] and Micon[1158] were the first to employ sil in
painting, but that of Attica solely. The succeeding age used this last
kind for strong lights only, and employed the Scyric and Lydian kinds
for shadow painting. The Lydian sil used to be bought at Sardes; but at
the present day we hear nothing of it.
CHAP. 57. (13.)—CÆRULEUM.
Cæruleum[1159] is a kind of sand. In former times there were three
kinds of it; the Egyptian, which was the most esteemed of all; the
Scythian, which is easily dissolved, and which produces four colours
when pounded, one of a lighter blue and one of a darker blue, one of a
thicker consistency and one comparatively thin;[1160] and the Cyprian,
which is now preferred as a colour to the preceding. Since then, the
kinds imported from Puteoli and Spain have been added to the list, this
sand having of late been prepared there. Every kind,[1161] however,
is submitted to a dyeing process, it being boiled with a plant[1162]
used particularly for this purpose,[1163] and imbibing its juices.
In other respects, the mode of preparing it is similar to that of
chrysocolla. From cæruleum, too, is prepared the substance known as
“lomentum,”[1164] it being washed and ground for the purpose. Lomentum
is of a paler tint than cæruleum; the price of it is ten denarii per
pound, and that of cæruleum but eight. Cæruleum is used upon a surface
of clay, for upon lime it will not hold. A more recent invention is
the Vestorian[1165] cæruleum, so called from the person who first
manufactured it: it is prepared from the finer parts of Egyptian
cæruleum, and the price of it is eleven denarii per pound. That of
Puteoli is used in a similar manner,[1166] as also for windows:[1167]
it is known as “cylon.”
It is not so long since that indicum[1168] was first imported to Rome,
the price being seventeen[1169] denarii per pound. Painters make use
of it for incisures, or in other words, the division of shadows from
light. There is also a lomentum of very inferior quality, known to us
as “ground” lomentum, and valued at only five asses per pound.
The mode of testing the genuineness of cæruleum, is to see whether
it emits a flame, on being laid upon burning coals. One method of
adulterating it is to boil dried violets in water, and then to strain
the liquor through linen into Eretrian[1170] clay.
CHAP. 58.—TWO REMEDIES DERIVED FROM CÆRULEUM.
Cæruleum has the medicinal property of acting as a detergent upon
ulcers. Hence it is, that it is used as an ingredient in plasters,
as also in cauteries. As to sil, it is pounded with the greatest
difficulty: viewed as a medicament, it is slightly mordent and
astringent, and fills up the cavities left by ulcers. To make it the
more serviceable, it is burnt in earthen vessels.
The prices of things, which I have in different places annexed,
vary, I am well aware, according to the locality, and experience a
change almost every year: variations dependent upon the opportunities
afforded for navigation, and the terms upon which the merchant may
have purchased the article. It may so happen, too, that some wealthy
dealer has engrossed the market, and so enhanced the price: for I am
by no means forgetful of the case of Demetrius, who in the reign of
the Emperor Nero was accused before the consuls by the whole community
of the Seplasia.[1171] Still, however, I have thought it necessary to
annex the usual price of each commodity at Rome, in order to give some
idea of their relative values.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, one thousand one
hundred and twenty-five.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Domitianus Cæsar,[1172] Junius Gracchanus,[1173]
L. Piso,[1174] Verrius,[1175] M. Varro,[1176] Corvinus,[1177] Atticus
Pomponius,[1178] Calvus Licinius,[1179] Cornelius Nepos,[1180]
Mucianus,[1181] Bocchus,[1182] Fetialis,[1183] Fenestella,[1184]
Valerius Maximus,[1185] Julius Bassus[1186] who wrote on Medicine in
Greek, Sextius Niger[1187] who did the same.
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Theophrastus,[1188] Democritus,[1189]
Juba,[1190] Timæus[1191] the historian, who wrote on Metallic
Medicines, Heraclides,[1192] Andreas,[1193] Diagoras,[1194]
Botrys,[1195] Archidemus,[1196] Dionysius,[1197] Aristogenes,[1198]
Democles,[1199] Mnesides,[1200] Attalus[1201] the physician,
Xenocrates[1202] the son of Zeno, Theomnestus,[1203] Nymphodorus,[1204]
Iollas,[1205] Apollodorus,[1206] Pasiteles[1207] who wrote on Wonderful
Works, Antigonus[1208] who wrote on the Toreutic art, Menæchmus[1209]
who did the same, Xenocrates[1210] who did the same, Duris[1211] who
did the same, Menander[1212] who wrote on Toreutics, Heliodorus[1213]
who wrote on the Votive Offerings of the Athenians, Metrodorus[1214] of
Scepsis.