only _true_ riches. It is in this sense that Ovid says, Metam. B. i.:
“Effodiuntur opes, irritamenta malorum.” Pliny applies the term “pretia
rerum” to metals, as forming the unit of value.
[649] Electrum is described in c. 23, as gold mixed with a certain
quantity of silver. The word “electrum” is also used to signify amber,
as in B. iii. c. 30.—B.
[650] “Æs;” by “æs” is here probably meant copper, as the author is
speaking of what is dug out of the earth; it is more fully described
in the first two Chapters of the next Book. According to the analysis
of Klaproth, the æs of the ancients, when employed in works of art,
cutting instruments, statues, vases, &c., was the “bronze” of the
moderns, a mixture of copper and tin, in which the proportion of tin
varied, from a little more than 2 to 1.14 per cent, according as the
object was to procure a flexible or a hard substance. Agricola speaks
of “æs” as synonymous with “cuprum,” and Pliny will be found several
times in the present Book, speaking of “æs Cyprium,” meaning probably
the finest kind of copper, and that without alloy.—B.
[651] Pliny has already referred to this topic in B. ii. c. 63.—B.
[652] Or shades below.
[653] “Illa quæ non nascuntur repente.”
[654] “Chrysocolla” is fully described in Chapter 26 of this Book.—B.
[655] Meaning “gold glue,” or “gold solder.”
[656] There is considerable variation in the text of this passage, as
found in the different editions. In that of Dalechamps, the Variorum,
and those of De Laet and Sillig, the sentence concludes with the
words “nomen ex auro custodiens;” while in those of Valpy, Lemaire,
Poinsinet, Ajasson, and others, we find substituted for them the words.
“Non natura,” “Nomen natura,” “Nomine natura,” or “Nomen naturam.”—B.
The first reading is warranted by the Bamberg MS.
[657] “Auri sanies.” More properly speaking, “the corrupt matter
discharged by gold.” See Chapter 26.
[658] “Minium” is treated of in Chapter 36 of this Book.—B.
[659] “Pretia rerum.” The value of the raw material.
[660] Pliny here refers both to the art of producing figures in relief
on drinking vessels made of the precious metals, and also of giving
them particular forms. A well-known line of Juvenal, Sat. ii. l. 96,
affords a striking illustration of the depraved taste which existed in
his time.—B. Lampridius also speaks of vessels of silver “defiled with
representations of a most libidinous character;” and Capitolinus speaks
of “phallovitroboli,” glass drinking vessels shaped like a phallus.
[661] “Murrhina” or “myrrhina.” are described in B. xxxvii. c. 8;
they were, perhaps, onyxes or opals, though possibly the term was not
strictly confined to these substances, but signified any transparent
minerals, that exhibited a variety of colours. Salmasius, however,
ridicules the idea of their being onyxes, and is of opinion that these
vessels were made of porcelain; Exer. Plin. p. 144.—B.
[662] See B. xxxvii. c. 9.
[663] He alludes to the cups known as “chrysendeta,” adorned with
circlets of gold, exquisite chasings, and groups of precious stones.
See Juvenal, Sat. v. l. 42.
[664] The “Smaragdus” is described in B. xxxvii. c. 13.
[665] “Et aurum jam accessio est.”
[666] “Sacrum famæ.” This is the reading given by the Bamberg MS. in
substitution for “aurum, sacra fames” and other readings of a similar
nature, in which Pliny was thought by the commentators to allude to the
famous lines of Virgil—
“Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames!”
Had he alluded to the passage of Virgil, it is not probable that he
would have used the expression in the plural, “celeberrimi auctores.”
[667] Il. B. vii. ll. 472-5.—B.
[668] Il. B. vi. l. 236.
[669] We may infer that this was the reason why the figure of an ox or
other animal was impressed on the earliest Roman coins.—B.
[670] As Hardouin remarks, “This story is told by others, of Gyges,
and not of Midas.” He refers to Cicero, De Off. B. iii. c. 9, in
confirmation of his assertion.—B. Both Gyges and Midas were noted for
their wealth.
[671] “Sinistræ.” The play here upon the word “sinister” cannot be so
well transferred into the English language; but it bears reference to
the double meaning of the word, “on the left hand,” and “unlucky,”
“ill-omened,” or, as we say “sinister.” We may remark, that rings were
very generally employed by the Romans, not merely as ornaments, but as
indications of office and rank.—B.
[672] From Corinth, it was said: Damaratus of Corinth being the father
of the first Tarquin. See B. xxxv. c. 5.
[673] On the subject of “Bullæ,” golden balls, worn by the children of
the nobles, see Dr. Smith’s Dict. Antiq. p. 168.—B.
[674] As to the “Toga prætexta,” see B. viii. c. 74.
[675] “Lorum.” This word literally signifies a leather strap or thong,
and Pliny is supposed by Hardouin to mean simply, that, in this latter
case the strap was worn without the bulla, which was in other cases
attached to it. Juvenal, Sat. v. l. 164, speaks of the “lorum” of the
children of the poor.—B.
[676] Δακτύλιον, from δάκτυλος, a “finger.”
[677] Festus says that this was the Oscan name for a ring. It would
appear to be allied to the word “unguis,” which means a nail of the
finger or toe, and would perhaps signify a “nail ornament.”
[678] As meaning a seal or signet, for which purpose, as we shall find
explained in the sequel, the ring was used.
[679] This seems to be the meaning of “Vulgoque sic triumphabant.”
[680] As to these crowns, see B. xxi. c. 4.
[681] As to some other particulars connected with this usage, see the
end of B. xxviii. c. 7.
[682] And yet, as Hardouin remarks, before his time, when Scipio was
besieging Carthage, the bodies of the Roman tribunes, when selected for
burial by Hasdrubal, were distinguished by their rings of gold. The
object of Marius, no doubt, was to ingratiate himself with the upper
classes.
[683] A.U.C. 651.
[684] Known as the “anulus pronubus,” or “engaged ring,” according to
Dalechamps.
[685] “Codicillos.” Il. B. vi. l. 168.
[686] See B. xiii. c. 21.
[687] Od. B. viii. ll. 424, 443, 447.
[688] See the Iliad, B. iii. and B. vii. l. 175, _et seq._
[689] His meaning is, that although κληρὸι were used, lots or
balls made of earth, we do not read that the impressions on them were
made by the aid of signet-rings.
[690] “Fabricæ deûm.” He alludes to the forge of Vulcan, described in
the Eighteenth Book of the Iliad, l. 400, _et seq._
[691] This seems to be the meaning of “In primordio factitâsse.”
[692] The “fibulæ” were the brooches of the ancients, consisting of a
pin, and of a curved portion furnished with a hook. See Dr. Smith’s
Dict. Antiq. p. 417.
[693] As the meaning of this passage has been the subject of much
discussion with commentators, we give it in full, as found in the
Edition of Sillig. “Et quisquis primus instituit, cunctanter id fecit,
lævis manibus latentibusque induit, cum, si honos securus fuisset,
dextrâ fuerit ostentandus. Quodsi impedimentum potuit in eo aliquod
intelligi, etiam serior is usus argumentum est, et majus in lævâ
fuisset, quâ scutum capitur.” Sillig is of opinion that Pliny is here
alluding to the reason given by Ateius Capito (quoted in Macrobius,
Saturn. B. vii. c. 13), for wearing the ring on the left hand. It was
so worn, he says, from an apprehension that the precious stone with
which it was set, might receive injury from the continual use made of
the right hand.
[694] Under the folds of the toga.
[695] Il. B. xvii. l. 52.
[696] The reading in most MSS. is the “fourth consulship.” This,
however, is an error which has been rectified by the Bamberg and some
other MSS. Pompey was but _thrice_ consul. M. Crassus was the person
generally accused of the act of robbery here alluded to.
[697] Who took the golden torc (torques) from the Gaul whom he slew;
whence his name.
[698] “Cum auro pugnare solitos.”
[699] “Quod equidem in augurio intellectum est, cum Capitolinus duplum
reddidisset.” The meaning of this passage is obscure, and cannot
with certainty be ascertained. Holland renders it, “To the light
and knowledge whereof we come by means of revelation from Augurie,
which gave us to understand, that Jupiter Capitolinus had rendered
again the foresaid summe in duple proportion.” Littré gives a similar
translation. Ajasson translates it, “This, at least, is what we may
presume, from the fact of there being discovered double the amount
expected;” following the explanation given by Hardouin.
[700] The “ædituus,” or “temple keeper.” See B. xxxvi. 4.
[701] Beneath which there was poison concealed, Hardouin says. Hannibal
killed himself in a similar manner; also Demosthenes, as mentioned in
the next Chapter.
[702] The adopted son of the great Marius. This event happened in his
consulship, B.C. 82. After his defeat by Sylla at Sacriportus, he
retired into the fortified town of Præneste, where he had deposited
the treasures of the Capitoline temple. The temple, after this
conflagration, was rebuilt by order of Sylla.
[703] Called the “Fasti;” probably because this was the first word of
the title.
[704] “Dies fasti.” These were the days on which the courts sat, and
the Prætor, who was the chief judge, gave his decisions. The word
“fasti” is derived from the ancient Latin “for,” or from the old
Greek word φάω, both signifying “to speak:” consequently the
“dies fasti” were “the speaking days,” and the “dies nefasti” the
“non-speaking days,” in allusion to the restrictions put upon the
judgments of the Prætor.
[705] This complex state of the Roman Calendar long remained one of
the sources from which the priesthood and the patrician order derived
their power and influence over the plebeians. Having no other method of
ascertaining what days were “fasti,” and what were “nefasti,” the lower
classes were obliged either to apply to the priests and nobles for
information, or to await the proclamation by the priests of the various
festivals about to take place.
[706] Appius Claudius Cæcus, the Censor and jurisconsult, who
constructed the Appian Way.
[707] A.U.C. 440, or B.C. 314.
[708] In the war, probably, with the twelve nations of Etruria, who
were conquered by the Consul Fabius A.U.C. 444. See Livy, B. ix.
[709] The father of the former C. Pœtilius Libo, was Consul A.U.C. 428:
the father of the latter, Cneius Domitius Calvinus, was Consul A.U.C.
432.
[710] “Anulos abjectos.”
[711] The “phaleræ” were bosses of metal, often gold, attached to the
harness of the horse. See B. vii. c. 29.
[712] He would probably imply hereby that, as he states subsequently,
at this period gold rings were not as yet worn by _all_ the members of
the senate.
[713] A.U.C. 449.
[714] “Ædiculam æream”—of brass or bronze.
[715] For the explanation of this term, see B. vii. c. 60.
[716] See B. x. c. 2. Livy tells us that this shrine or temple was
built in the area or place of Vulcan.
[717] Livy, B. xxiii. speaks of _one_ modius as being the real
quantity. Florus, B. ii. c. 16, says _two_ modii: but Saint Augustin,
De Civit. Dei. B. iii. c. 19, and most other writers, mention _three_
modii.
[718: Q. Servilius Cæpio. He and M. Livins Drusus had been most
intimate friends, and each had married the other’s sister. The
assassination of Drusus was supposed by some to have been committed at
the instigation of Cæpio. The latter lost his life in an ambush, B.C.
90.
[719: See B. xxviii. c. 41.
[720: See B. ii. c. 85.
[721: M. Calpurnius Flamma. See B. xxii. c. 6.
[722: A patrician family; branches of which were the Cincinnati, the
Capitolini, the Crispini, and the Flaminini.
[723: This is an erroneous assertion, both as to the East, and as to
Egypt. See instances to the contrary in Genesis, c. xli. v. 42; and in
Esther, c. iii. verses 10, 12, and c. viii. verses 2, 8, 10.
[724: “Literis contenta solis.”
[725: The Thirty-seventh Book. See also his remarks in B. ii. c. 63:
“We tear out earth’s entrails in order to extract the gems with which
we may load our fingers. How many hands are worn down that one little
joint may be ornamented!” Martial, Epigr. B. v. Ep. 11, speaks of
his friend Stella as wearing on the joint of one finger sardonyxes,
emeralds, and jaspers.
[726] “Violari.” See B. xxxvii. c. 1.
[727] A fashion much followed at the present day.
[728] This also is a not uncommon fashion at the present day.
[729] From the “Trinummus” of Plautus, A. iv. s. 4, we learn that the
ring worn by slaves was called “condalium.” From the “Truculentus” of
Plautus we learn also that these rings were sometimes made of bronze.
The “jus anuli,” or right of wearing a gold ring, was never conceded to
slaves.
[730] See B. iv. c. 23. In the Origines of Isidorus Hispalensis, B.
xix. c. 32, we find mention made of “A Samothracian gold ring, with
an iron bezil, so called from the place of its invention.” Pliny has
already made allusion to the luxurious habits of the slaves, in B.
xiii. c. 4; and B. xviii. c. 2; a subject upon which Juvenal enlarges
in his Third Satire.
[731] The reasons are mentioned by Ateius Capita, as quoted by
Macrobius, Saturnal. B. vii. c. 13: also by Apion the Grammarian, as
quoted by Aulus Gellius, B. x. c. 10.
[732] The ring of each finger had its own appropriate name.
[733] The “dactyliotheca,” or “ring-box.”
[734] Juvenal, Sat. i. l. 26, _et seq._, speaks of the summer rings of
the Roman fops, and their fingers sweating beneath the weight.
[735] Martial, Epigr. B. xiv., speaks of the numerous accidents to
which a weighty ring was liable.
[736] Hannibal, too, for instance, as mentioned in Note 701 to the
preceding Chapter.
[737] He alludes, probably, to forgeries perpetrated through the agency
of false signets.
[738] Plautus, Cicero, Horace, and Martial, each in his own age, bears
testimony to the truth of this statement.
[739] Or remembrancer; a slave whose duty it was to remind his master
of the name of each member of his household; see B. xxix. c. 8.
Athenæus, B. vi., speaks of as many as twenty thousand slaves belonging
to one household. Demetrius, the freedman of Pompey, mentioned in B.
xxxv. c. 58, had a retinue of slaves equal to an army in amount.
[740] Meaning “Marci puer,” or “Luci puer”—“Marcius’ boy,” or “Lucius’
boy.”
[741] Suetonius says, c. 73, that Tiberius, in his last illness,
awoke after a long lethargy, and demanded his signet-ring, which
his son-in-law, Caligula, had removed from his finger, under the
supposition that he was dead. Macro, to avoid any unpleasant results
in the way of punishment, caused the emperor to be smothered with the
pillows and bedclothes.
[742] This famous and somewhat improbable story of the ring of
Polycrates is told by Valerius Maximus, B. vi. c. 9; Herodotus, B.
iii.; and Cicero, De Finibus, B. iv. Pliny again mentions it in B.
xxxvii. cc. 2, 4.
[743] He was crucified by Oroetes, the Persian satrap of Sardis.
[744] “Anulo exsiliente.”
[745] In Chapter 13 of this Book.
[746] The laticlave tunic. See B. viii. c. 73, and B. ix. c. 63.
[747] “Præcones.”
[748] See the list of writers at the end of B. ix.
[749] “Equus militaris.”
[750] See B. xxix. c. 8. The “Decuriæ” of “judices,” or “judges,” were
so called, probably, from ten (decem) having been originally chosen
from each tribe. As to the Decuriæ of the judices, see Smith’s Dict.
Antiq. pp. 531-2. The account given by Pliny is confused in the extreme.
[751] “Turmæ.” Squadrons of thirty “equites” or horsemen; ten of which
squadrons were attached to each legion.
[752] Before the time of Augustus, there were but _three_ decuries.
[753] A law introduced by Aurelius Cotta, B.C. 70, enacted that the
Judices should be chosen from the three classes—of Senators, Equites,
and Tribuni ærarii, or Tribunes of the treasury, these last being
taken from the body of the people, and being persons possessed of some
property.
[754] Members selected by lot.
[755] “Nongenti.”
[756] Tacitus says that this took place the year before, in the
consulship of C. Sulpicius, and D. Haterius. See the Annales, B. iii.
c. 86.
[757] Brother of the Emperor Galba.
[758] “Aucupatus.”
[759] Suetonius says that Tiberius instructed the ædiles to prohibit
stews and eating-houses: from which we may conclude, Hardouin says,
that C. Sulpicius Galba was an ædile.
[760] Or, in other words, belonging to the equestrian order. The Roman
equites often followed the pursuits of bankers, and farmers of the
public revenues.
[761] A law passed in the time of Julius Cæsar, B.C. 69, which
permitted Roman equites, in case they or their parents had ever had a
Census equestris, to sit in the fourteen rows fixed by the Lex Roscia
Theatralis.
[762] Caligula.
[763] Conjointly with L. Vitellius.
[764] Or farmers of the public revenues; the “publicans” of Scripture.
In reality, they were mostly members of the equestrian order, and the
words “equites” and “publicani” are often used as synonymous.
[765] “This passage seems to be the addition of some ignorant copyist.
It is indeed a remarkable fact, that we have _no_ inscription in
which we see the Equites named _after_ the people as well as the
Senate.”—Laboulaye, _Essai sur les lois Criminelles des Romains_:
Paris, 1845, p. 224.
[766] According to Livy, B. i. c. 15, the Celeres were three hundred
Roman knights whom Romulus established as a body-guard. Their name,
probably, was derived from the Greek κέλης, a “war-horse,”
or “charger,” and the body consisted, no doubt, of the patricians in
general, or such of them as could keep horses. Another origin assigned
to the appellation is “Celer,” the name of a chieftain, who was a
favourite of Romulus. The adjective “celer,” “swift,” owes its origin,
probably, to the title of these horsemen.
[767] A title derived, possibly, as Delafosse suggests, “a flectendis
habenis,” from “managing the reins.”
[768] Called “Trossum” or “Trossulum,” it is supposed. The remains of
a town are still to be seen at Trosso, two miles from Montefiascone in
Tuscany. The Greek word τρωξαλλὶς, a “cricket,” and the Latin
“torosulus,” “muscular,” have been suggested as the origin of this
name. Ajasson suggests the Latin verb “truso,” to “push on,” as its
origin.
[769] See the end of this Book.
[770] From the ambiguous nature of the name, it being in later times
an expression of contempt, like our word “fop,” or “beau.” In this
latter sense, Salmasius derives it from the Greek τρυσσὸς,
“effeminate.”
[771] This concluding passage is omitted in most editions.
[772] See B. vii. c. 29.
[773] Dionysius of Halicarnassus is therefore probably wrong in his
assertion that torcs of _gold_ were given to Siccius Dentatus, a Roman
citizen, as the reward of valour.
[774] See B. vii, c. 29.
[775] On this subject, see B. xvi. c. 3, and B. xxi. c. i.
[776] A.U.C. 323, or 431 B.C.
[777] Situate about fourteen miles from Rome, and on the road to the
town called La Colonna.
[778] A.U.C. 479, and B.C. 275. In the following year Merenda himself
was consul, with Manius Curius Dentatus.
[779] “Testamento prælegavit.” Properly speaking, “prælegare” was “to
bequeath a thing to be given before the inheritance was divided.” The
crown thus left by Piso was to be three pounds in weight.
[780] Oxen, namely. The smaller victims had the head encircled with
chaplets.
[781] The clasps by which the “sagum” or military cloak was fastened on
the shoulders.
[782] See the beginning of Chapter 4 of the present Book.
[783] Isidorus Hispalensis, Orig. B. xix. c. 30, says that bracelets
were formerly so called from the circumstance of being conferred on
warriors as the reward of bravery—“ob virtutem.” Scævola, Ulpian, and
others speak of “viriolæ” as ornaments worn by females.
[784] See B. xxxvii. c. 6.
[785] In allusion to the use of gold as an ornament for the shoes and
sandal-ties.
[786] A dress worn over the tunic, and which came as low as the ankles
or feet. The stola was the characteristic dress of the Roman matrons of
rank; other females being restricted to the use of the toga, which did
not reach so low.
[787] Between the matrons of rank whose feet were not to be seen
at all, and the plebeian females, whose feet _were_ seen, but
comparatively unadorned.
[788] In the same way that the gold ring was the distinguishing mark of
the Equites, so would the gold ankle-jewels be the characteristic of
this new order of females. In the use of the word “Equestrem,” Ajasson
absolutely detects an indelicate allusion, and rallies our author on
thus retaining “the aroma of the camp!”
[789] “Pædagogiis.” The origin of our word “page.” The pages of the
Romans were decorated with gold ankle-jewels and other ornaments for
the legs.
[790] Or Horus, the god of silence. Ajasson is of opinion that this
impression on the seal was symbolical of the secrecy which ought to be
preserved as to written communications.
[791] To the Emperor’s presence.
[792] The _first_ crime having been committed by him who introduced the
use of gold rings. See the beginning of c. 4 of this Book.
[793] The golden denarius was known also as the “aureus” or “gold
coin.” It was worth 25 silver denarii. As to the modern value of the
money used by the ancients, see the Introduction to Vol. III. The
golden denarius is mentioned also in B. xxxiv. c. 17, and in B. xxxvii.
c. 3.
[794] A.U.C. 479.
[795] Meaning, literally, the “little pound,” in reference to the
diminished weight of the “as.”
[796] Meaning “two pounds,” or in other words, “two asses.” See B.
xxxiv. c. 2. As to the weight of the “libra,” or pound, see the
Introduction to Vol. III.
[797] “Brasse bullion, or in masse.”—_Holland._
[798] “Money weighed out,” _i.e._ “expenses.”
[799] “Money weighed out for the payment of interest.”
[800] “To weigh out money for payment,” _i.e._ “to pay.”
[801] “A weight of money.”
[802] “Weighers-out;” meaning “keepers of accounts,” or “paymasters.”
[803] “Weighers-out” of the soldiers’ wages; _i.e._ “paymasters.”
[804] From “pecus,” a sheep. See B. xviii. c. 3.
[805] “Pounds” or “asses.”
[806] The third of an “as.”
[807] The fourth of an “as.”
[808] Or ounces; being one-fourth of the “as,” of one “libra” in
weight. See Introduction to Vol. III.
[809] A.U.C. 663.
[810] The same as the quinarius, one-half of the denarius. In B. xx. c.
100, it is mentioned as a weight. See also the Introduction to Vol. III.
[811] As, originally, there were 288 “scripula,” or scruples, to the
“libra” or pound, this would appear to give 5760 sestertii to the
pound of gold, and not 900 merely. Though this apparent discrepancy
has generally puzzled the commentators, the solution, as suggested by
M. Parisot, in the Notes to Ajasson’s Translation, appears equally
simple and satisfactory. He suggests that in the “as,” or “libra,” of
_two ounces_, there were 288 scruples. Now, the scruple remaining the
same, when the as or libra was reduced to one ounce, it would contain
but 144 of these scruples. Then, on making the as the sixteenth part
of a denarius instead of the tenth, it would lose three-eighths of its
value in scruples, or in other words, 54 scruples, thus making it worth
but 90 scruples. Then again, as above stated, by the Papirian Law, the
weight or value of the libra or as was reduced one-half, making its
value in scruples only 45; or, in other words, five thirty-seconds of
its original value, when worth two unciæ or ounces. This number of
scruples to the libra would give, at the rate of twenty sesterces to
the scruple of gold, exactly 900 sesterces to the libra of gold.
[812] Or “aurei.”
[813] “Fames auri.” Similar to the words of Virgil, “Auri sacra fames.”
“The curst greed for gold.” See Note 666 to Chapter 3 of this Book.
[814] Another version of this story was, that he extracted the brain,
and inserted lead in its place.
[815] See B. xiv. c. 16.
[816] In B.C. 88, M. Aquilius proceeded to Asia Minor as one of the
consular legati to prosecute the war against Mithridates. On being
defeated near Protomachium, he was delivered up to Mithridates by the
inhabitants of Mytilene, and after being treated in the most barbarous
manner, was put to death by pouring molten gold down his throat.
[817] “Insperso.” Sillig is of opinion that Pliny is here speaking
of the work now known by Italian artists as _tausia_ or _lavoro all’
agemina_.
[818] Hardouin thinks that Pliny is here making allusion to the Greek
word “chrysendeta,” vessels “encircled with gold.” It is frequently
used in Martial’s works.
[819] See B. xv. c. 38.
[820] It is against such practices as these that Martial inveighs, B.
i. Ep. 28, and B. ix. Ep. 12.
[821] A slave only; and not by any of his brother patricians. Antony
was rendered infamous by his proscriptions.
[822] Appian and Livy mention the fine as consisting of ten thousand
talents _in all_, or in other words, eight hundred thousand pounds of
silver (at eighty pounds to the talent). Sillig is therefore of opinion
that Pliny is in error here in inserting the word “annua.” The payment
of the ten thousand talents, we learn from the same authorities, was
spread over fifty years.
[823] Asia Minor.
[824] “Folia.” Hardouin prefers the reading “solia,” meaning “thrones,”
or “chairs of state,” probably.
[825] Ajasson refuses to place credit in this statement.
[826] This vase of Semiramis was her drinking bowl, in much the same
sense that the great cannon at Dover was Queen Elizabeth’s “pocket
pistol.”
[827] The country to which, in previous times, the Argonauts had sailed
in quest of the Golden Fleece, or in other words in search of gold, in
which those regions were probably very prolific.
[828] See B. vi. c. 4.
[829] This story of the defeat of the great Ramses-Sesostris by a petty
king of Colchis, would almost appear apocryphal. It is not improbable,
however, that Sesostris, when on his Thracian expedition, may have
received a repulse on penetrating further north, accustomed as his
troops must have been, to a warmer climate.
[830] Of the amphitheatre.
[831] Covered, probably, with plates of silver.
[832] “Pegma.” A scaffold with storeys, which were raised or depressed,
to all appearance, spontaneously. Caligula is the emperor meant.
[833] Another reading is “seven” pounds in weight, and “nine” pounds;
which would appear to be more probable than seven _thousand_, and nine
_thousand_, as given by the Bamberg MS. It is just possible, however,
that the latter may have been the united weights of _all_ the coronets
contributed by Spain and Gaul respectively, the word “inter” being an
interpolation.
[834] See B. iv. c. 31, B. xi. c. 47, and B. xviii. c. 20.
[835] Hence known as the “Golden Day,” according to Dion Cassius, B.
lxiii.
[836] For further particulars as to the Golden Palace, see B. xxxvi. c.
24.
[837] A.U.C. 597.
[838] Or Marsic War. See B. ii. c. 85.
[839] There is an error in this statement, probably, unless we
understand by it the small libra or pound of two ounces, mentioned in
c. 13 of this Book.
[840] This remark is confirmatory of the incorrectness of the preceding
statement.
[841] The reading here is doubtful.
[842] A.U.C. 612.
[843] See B. xix. c. 6.
[844] Chapter 57.
[845] In fact, no colour at all.
[846] In _this_ climate, the light of most of the stars has the
complexion, not of gold, but of silver.
[847] The topaz, for instance.
[848] For ductility and malleability, both which terms may perhaps be
included in the “facilitas” of Pliny, gold is unrivalled among the
metals. As to weight, it is heavier than lead, the specific gravity of
gold being 19.258, and that of lead 11.352. Pliny is therefore wrong in
both of these assertions.
[849] He forgets asbestus here, a substance which he has mentioned in
B. xix. c. 4.
[850] Chlorine, however, and nitro-muriatic acid corrode and dissolve
gold, forming a chloride of gold, which is soluble in water. Ajasson
remarks, that gold becomes volatilized by the heat of a burning-glass
of three or four feet in diameter; and that when it acts as the
conductor of a strong current of electricity, it becomes reduced to
dust instantaneously, presenting a bright greenish light.
[851] The gold thus tested was called “obrussum,” “obryzum,” or
“obrizum,” from the Greek ὄβρυζον, meaning “pure gold.”
[852] See B. xviii. c. 23, where he calls the chaff used for this
purpose by the name of “acus.”
[853] The present mode of assaying the precious metals, is by fusing
them upon a cupel with lead.
[854] For which purpose, lead was used, no doubt, in drawing the lines
in the MSS. of the ancients. See Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 339.
_Bohn’s Ed._
[855] This is far surpassed at the present day, its malleability being
such that it may be beaten into leaves not more than one two hundred
and eighty thousandth of an inch in thickness, and its ductility
admitting of one grain being drawn out into five hundred feet of wire.
For further particulars as to the gold leaf of the ancients, and the
art of gilding, as practised by them, see Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol.
II. p. 391, _et seq._ _Bohn’s Edition._
[856] See B. xxxvi. c. 64.
[857] He alludes to what are now known as _pepitas_, oval grains of
river-gold. “Striges” is the reading in the Bamberg MS., “strigiles” in
the former editions.
[858] “Massa.” As we should say at the present day, “nuggets.”
[859] “Ramentum.”
[860] The contrary is now known to be the case; gold is sometimes,
though rarely, found in an oxidized state.
[861] As to the solvents of gold, see Note 850 above. Stahl says that
three parts of sub-carbonate of potash, dissolved in water, and heated
with three parts of sulphur and one part of gold, will yield a complete
solution of the metal.
[862] Aldrovandus relates, in his “Museum Metallicum,” that the grave
of the Emperor Honorius was discovered at Rome about the year 1544,
and that thirty-six pounds’ weight of gold were procured from the
mouldering dress that covered the body. See, on the subject of gold
threads, Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. _Bohn’s Edition._
[863] The “cloth of gold” of the present day, is made of threads of
silk or hair, wound round with silver wire flattened and gilded.
[864] “Paludamento.”
[865] See B. viii. c. 74. Beckmann is of opinion, from a passage
of Silius Italicus, B. xiv. l. 661, that the cloth of Attalus was
embroidered with the needle. See this subject fully discussed in his
Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. See also Dr. Yates’s “Textrinum Antiquorum,”
pp. 371, 464.
[866] “Without entering into any research respecting the minerals
employed for this cement, called ‘leucophoron,’ one may readily
conceive that it must have been a ferruginous ochre, or kind of
bole, which is still used as a ground. Gilding of this kind must
have suffered from dampness, though many specimens of it are still
preserved.”—Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 294. _Bohn’s Edition._
[867] B. xxxv. c. 17.
[868] Literally, “fluid silver.” “The first name here seems to signify
native quicksilver, and the second that separated from the ore by an
artificial process.” Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 72.
[869] In Chapters 32 and 41 of this Book.
[870] As to the identity of the “alumen” of Pliny, see B. xxxv. c. 52.
[871] In the preceding Chapter.
[872] See B. xi. c. 36.
[873] See B. vii. c. 2.
[874] See B. iv. c. 17.
[875] Ajasson remarks, that the Castilians still call the surface earth
of auriferous deposits by the name of _segullo_. He also doubts the
correctness of Pliny’s assertion as to the produce of the mines of
Dalmatia.
[876] See B. xxxiv. c. 47.
[877] We learn from Ajasson that numerous pits or shafts are still to
be seen in Spain, from which the Romans extracted gold. At Riotento, he
says, there are several of them.
[878] Both meaning “channel gold.”
[879] “Marmoris glareæ.” Under this name, he no doubt means quartz and
schist.
[880] See B. xxxvii. c. 39.
[881] See B. xxxvi. c. 13.
[882] “Channel-gold” or “trench-gold.”
[883] Becoming volatilized, and attaching itself in crystals to the
side of the chimney.
[884] Or “sweat.” This “sweat” or “silver” would in reality be a
general name for all the minerals that were volatilized by the heat
of the furnace; while under the name of “scoria ” would be comprised
pyrites, quartz, petrosilex, and other similar substances.
[885] The cupel or crucible is still known in Spain by the name of
_tasco_.
[886] Who were said to have heaped one mountain on another in their war
with the gods.
[887] Deep mines in Spain are still called _arrugia_, a term also used
to signify gold beneath the surface. According to Grimm, _arruzi_ was
the ancient High German name for iron.
[888] See B. xxiii. c. 27.
[889] The breaking-machines, used for crushing the silex.
[890] “Cædunt” is certainly a preferable reading to “cadunt,” though
the latter is given by the Bamberg MS.
[891] A similar method of washing auriferous earth or sand in the
mines, is still employed in some cases.
[892] “The bringing of water into one channel.”
[893] Or as Holland quaintly renders it, “Some flying spirit or winged
devill of the air.”
[894] Magnesian carbonate of lime, or dolomite, Ajasson thinks.
[895] From the Greek, ἀγωγὴ.
[896] It does not appear to have been identified; and it can hardly be
the same as the Ulex Europæus of modern Natural History, our Furze or
Gorse.
[897] That of sinking shafts, described already in this Chapter.
[898] All these names, no doubt, are of Spanish origin, although
Salmasius would assign them a Greek one.
[899] In B. iii. c. 24.
[900] See B. iii. c. 21.
[901] “Auripigmentum.” Yellow sulphuret of arsenic. See B. xxxiv. c. 56.
[902] “Lapis specularis.” See B. xxxvi. c. 45.
[903] Caligula.
[904] It was accidently mixed with the ore of arsenic, no doubt,
unless, indeed, the emperor was imposed upon.
[905] This is almost, but not quite, universally the case.
[906] In Spain. See B. iii. c. 4, B. iv. c. 34, and B. ix. c. 2. The
locality alluded to is now unknown.
[907] A name also given by the ancients to amber. Artificial
“electrum,” or gold alloyed with silver, was known in the most ancient
times.
[908] The gold found by sinking shafts. See Chapter 21.
[909] See B. ix. c. 65.
[910] Od. B. iv. l. 71.
[911] Pliny no doubt has been imposed upon in this instance.
[912] “Solid hammer-work,” in opposition to works in metal, cast and
hollow within.
[913] In B. v. c. 20, most probably. See also B. xvi. c. 64.
[914] The worship of Anaïtis was probably a branch of the Indian
worship of Nature. The Greek writers sometimes identify this goddess
with their Artemis and their Aphrodite.
[915] Holland has strangely mistaken the meaning of the veteran’s
reply; “Yea, sir, that it is; and that methinks you should know best,
for even now a leg of his you have at supper, and all _your_ wealth
besides is come unto _you_ by that saccage.” He then adds, by way of
Note, “For Augustus Cæsar defeited Antonie, and was mightily enriched
by the spoile of him.”
[916] In Sicily. According to Valerius Maximus and other writers,
a statue of solid gold was erected by the whole of Greece, in the
temple at Delphi, in honour of Gorgias, who was distinguished for his
eloquence and literary attainments. The leading opinion of Gorgias was,
that nothing had any real existence.
[917] The ninetieth Olympiad, about the year 420 B.C., is much more
probably the correct reading; as it was about the seventieth Olympiad,
or somewhat later, that Gorgias was born.
[918] See B. xxxiv. c. 29.
[919] See B. xxix. c. 38. and B. xxxvi. cc. 37, 38.
[920] Or gith. See B. xx. c. 71.
[921] Similar to the notion still prevalent, that the application of
pure gold will remove styes on the eyelids.
[922] It has been supposed by some, that the “Chrysocolla” of the
ancients, as well as the “Cæruleum,” mentioned in c. 57 of this Book,
were the produce of cobalt; but the more generally received opinion is
that “chrysocolla” (gold-solder) was green verditer, or mountain-green,
carbonate and hydrocarbonate of copper, green and blue, substances
which are sometimes found in gold mines, but in copper mines more
particularly. It must not be confounded with the modern chrysocolla or
Borax.
[923] In Chapter 21 of this Book.
[924] The “Reseda luteola,” Dyer’s weed, or Wild woad. See Beckmann’s
Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 478-481, where the identity of the Chrysocolla of
the ancients is discussed at considerable length.
[925] As to the identity of this substance, see B. xxxv. c. 52.
[926] These drugs have not been identified.
[927] “Elutam.” Though this is the reading given by the Bamberg MS.,
“luteam” seems preferable; a name owing, probably, to its being
coloured with the plant “lutum,” as mentioned at the end of this
Chapter.
[928] So called, probably, from being made up into little balls
resembling the “orobus” or vetch.
[929] A powder, probably, prepared from “cæruleum.” See the end of the
present Chapter, and Chapter 57 of this Book. Littré renders the words
“in lomentum,” kept “in the form of powder,” without reference to the
peculiar pigment known as “lomentum.”
[930] “Sudore resolutis.”
[931] A strong proof that chrysocolla was a preparation from copper,
and not cobalt. Copper owes its name to the Isle of Cyprus, in which
it was found in great abundance. See Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p.
480. _Bohn’s Edition_.
[932] The colour now known by painters as Emerald green.
[933] As a “trigarius.” See B. xxviii. c. 72, and B. xxix. c. 5. From
Suetonius, c. 18, we learn that the Emperor Caligula, also, had the
Circus sanded with minium and chrysocolla. Ajasson is of opinion that
the chrysocolla thus employed was a kind of yellow mica or talc.
[934] “Arenosam.” He alludes, probably, to the kind previously
mentioned as “aspera” or “rough chrysocolla.”
[935] For its identification, see B. xxxiv. cc. 26, 32.
[936] See B. xxxv. cc. 12, 18.
[937] Making a spurious kind of “lomentum,” possibly, a pigment
mentioned in c. 57 of this Book. This passage seems to throw some
light, upon the words “in lomentum,” commented upon in Note 929 above.
[938] As to durability, probably.
[939] It was the mineral, probably, in an unprepared state.
[940] Gold-glue or gold-solder.
[941] See B. xxxi. c. 46, as to the “nitrum” of Pliny. Galen, in
describing the manufacture of “santerna,” omits the nitre as an
ingredient.
[942] “Argentosum.” The “electrum,” probably, mentioned in c. 23.
[943] As to the “cadmia” of Pliny, see B. xxxiv. c. 22.
[944] “Plumbum album.” Tin, most probably. See B. xxxiv. cc. 47, 48,
49. Also Beckmann’s Hist. Inv., Vol. II. p. 219, _Bohn’s Edition_.
[945] Of doubtful identity. See B. xxxiv. c. 48.
[946] See Chapter 19 of this Book.
[947] “Thracius lapis.” This stone, which is mentioned also by
Nicander, Galen, Simplicius, and Dioscorides, has not been identified.
Holland has the following Note on this passage] “Which some take for
pit-cole, or sea-cole rather, such as commeth from Newcastle by sea; or
rather, a kind of jeat (jet).” In either case, he is probably wide of
the mark, neither coal nor jet igniting on the application of water.
[948] Or mistletoe.
[949] In due succession to gold.
[950] See B. xxxiv. cc. 47, 53.
[951] “Plumbum nigrum”—“Black lead,” literally] so called by the
ancients, in contradistinction to “plumbum album,” “white lead,” our
“tin,” probably.
[952] Lead ore; identified with “molybdæna” in B. xxxiv. c. 53. Native
sulphurate of lead is now known as “galena.” See Beckmann’s Hist. Inv.
Vol. II. p. 211, where this passage is commented upon.
[953] This Beckmann considers to be the same as the “galena” above
mentioned; half-vitrified lead, the “glätte” of the Germans.
[954] The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474.
[955] From the words μετ’ ἄλλα, “one after another.”
[956] It is supposed that these shafts were in the neighbourhood of
Castulo, now Cazlona, near Linares in Spain. It was at Castulo that
Hannibal married his rich wife Himilce; and in the hills north of
Linares there are ancient silver mines still known its _Los Pozos de
Anibal._
[957] A mile and a half.
[958] The proper reading here, as suggested by Sillig, is not
improbably “aquatini,” “water-carriers.” That, however, found in the
MSS. is “Aquitani;” but those were a people, not of Spain, but of Gaul.
Hardouin suggests that “Accitani” may be the correct reading, a people
of that name in Spain being mentioned in B. iii. c. 5.
[959] Meaning “raw” silver, apparently.
[960] “Alumen.” See B. xxxv. c. 52.
[961] Kircher speaks of this being still the case in his time.
[962] See Chapter 19 of this Book.
[963] “Vomica liquoris æterni.” Mercury or quicksilver becomes
solidified and assumes a crystalline texture at 40° below zero. It
is found chiefly in the state of sulphuret, which is decomposed by
distillation with iron or lime. It is also found in a native state.
[964] “Argentum vivum,” “living silver.”
[965] Ajasson thinks that this is not to be understood literally, but
that Pliny’s meaning is, that mercury is a universal dissolvent.
[966] “Permanans tabe dirâ.”
[967] The specific gravity of mercury is 13.598, that of hammered gold
19.361. Platinum is only a recent discovery.
[968] “Id unum ad se trahit.”
[969] “The first use of quicksilver is commonly reckoned a Spanish
invention, discovered about the middle of the sixteenth century; but it
appears from Pliny, that the ancients were acquainted with amalgam and
its use, not only for separating gold and silver from earthy particles,
but also for gilding.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv., Vol. I. p. 15. _Bohn’s
Edition._
[970] See the description of the mode of gilding, given in Chapter
20 of this Book. Beckmann has the following remarks on the present
passage: “That gold-leaf was affixed to metals by means of quicksilver,
with the assistance of heat, in the time of Pliny, we are told by
himself in more passages than one. The metal to be gilded was prepared
by salts of every kind, and rubbed with pumice-stone in order to clean
it thoroughly (see Chapter 20), and to render the surface a little
rough. This process is similar to that used at present for gilding with
amalgam, by means of heat, especially as amalgamation was known to the
ancients. But, to speak the truth, Pliny says nothing of heating the
metal _after_ the gold is applied, or of evaporating the quicksilver,
but of drying the cleaned metal before the gold is laid on. Had he
not mentioned quicksilver, his gilding might have been considered
as that with gold leaf by means of heat, _dorure en feuille à feu_,
in which the gold is laid upon the metal after it has been cleaned
and heated, and strongly rubbed with blood-stone, or polished steel.
Felibien (_Principes de l’Architecture._ Paris, 1676, p. 280) was
undoubtedly right when he regretted that the process of the ancients,
the excellence of which is proved by remains of antiquity, has been
lost.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 294, 295. _Bohn’s Edition._
[971] Beckmann finds considerable difficulties in this description—“I
acknowledge that this passage I do not fully comprehend. It seems
to say that the quicksilver, when the gold was laid on too thin,
appeared through it, but that this might be prevented by mixing with
the quicksilver the white of an egg. The quicksilver then remained
under the gold: a thing which is impossible. When the smallest drop
of quicksilver falls upon gilding, it corrodes the noble metal, and
produces an empty spot. It is, therefore, incomprehensible to me how
this could be prevented by using the white of an egg. Did Pliny himself
completely understand gilding? Perhaps he only meant to say that many
artists gave out the cold-gilding, where the gold-leaf was laid on with
the white of an egg, as gilding by means of heat.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II.
p. 295.
[972] Chapter 42 of this Book. See also Chapter 20, in Note 868, to
which it has been mentioned as artificial quicksilver.
[973] He is speaking of Antimony.
[974] From its whiteness.
[975] Under the name of “female stimmi,” Ajasson thinks that pure, or
native, antimony is meant, more particularly the lamelliform variety,
remarkable for its smoothness. He thinks it possible, also, that it
may have derived its Greek name “larbason,” or “larbasis,” from its
brittleness.
[976] Ajasson thinks that under this name, crude antimony or sulphuret
of antimony may have been included; as also sulphuret of lead,
sulphuret of antimony and copper, and sulphuret of antimony and silver;
the last of which is often found covered with an opaque pellicle.
[977] “Globis.” The fracture of sulphuret of antimony is, in reality,
small subconchoïdal.
[978] “Eye dilating.” Belladonna, a preparation from the Atropa
belladonna, is now used in medicine for this purpose. A similar effect
is attributed in B. xxv. c. 92, to the plant Anagallis. In reality,
the application of prepared antimony would contract the eyelids, and
so _appear_ to enlarge the eyes. This property is peculiar, Ajasson
remarks, to sulphuret of antimony, and sulphuret of antimony and silver.
[979] Preparations “for beautifying the eyebrows.” See B. xxi. c.
73, B. xxiii. c. 51, and B. xxxv. c. 56. Omphale, the Lydian queen,
who captivated Hercules, is represented by the tragic poet Ion, as
using “stimmi” for the purposes of the toilet. It was probably with a
preparation of antimony that Jezebel “painted her face, and tired her
head.” 2 Kings, ix. 30. The “Kohl” used by the females in Egypt and
Persia is prepared from antimony.
[980] “Spuma argenti.” See the next Chapter.
[981] According to Dioscorides, it was prepared as a cosmetic by
enclosing it in a lump of dough, and then burning it in the coals till
reduced to a cinder. It was then extinguished with milk and wine, and
again placed upon coals, and blown till ignition.
[982] As to the “nitrum” of the ancients, see B. xxxi. c. 46.
[983] “Flos”—literally the “flower.”
[984] “From this passage we may infer that the metal antimony was
occasionally seen by the ancients, though not recognized by them as
distinct from lead.”—Dana’s System of Mineralogy, p. 418. New York,
1850.
[985] Pliny has here mistaken the sense of the word στέαρ,
which in the passage of Dioscorides, B. v. c. 99, borrowed probably
from the same source, evidently means _dough_, and not grease.
[986] From ἕλκω, “to drag”—in consequence of its viscous
consistency, Hardouin says.
[987] In B. xxxiv. c. 53.
[988] Cerates, adipose or oleaginous plasters. See B. xxiii. c. 81.
[989] “Spuma argenti.” This he uses as a general name for fused oxide
of lead, the Litharge of commerce.
[990] Ajasson thinks it possible that the “chrysitis,” or “golden”
litharge, may have been the yellow deutoxide of lead; the argyritis,
or “silver” litharge, the white variety of the same deutoxide; and the
“molybditis,” or “leaden” litharge, a general name for sulphuret of
lead and silver; of lead and antimony; of lead, antimony, and bismuth;
and of lead, antimony, and copper. Or perhaps, he thinks, they may
have been the respective names of yellow or golden litharge, white or
silver litharge, and terne. With the latter opinion Delafosse seems to
coincide.
[991] “Tubulis.” These cakes were probably made in a tubular form.
[992] “Vena;” meaning the ore probably in its raw state, and mixed with
earth. All these distinctions are probably unfounded.
[993] See B. xxxiv. c. 53.
[994] Of “Puteolana.”
[995] The litharge.
[996] The scoria.
[997] Nothing whatever is known as to the identity of these varieties
of litharge. Indeed the words themselves are spelt in various ways in
the respective MSS.
[998] In B. xxxiv. c. 53, where he identifies it with “galena,”
mentioned in Chapter 31 of this Book.
[999] See B. xviii. c. 13, B. xvi. c. 61, and B. xxii. c. 66.
[1000] Sal gem, or common salt.
[1001] In this Chapter. See note 987 above.
[1002] The minium spoken of in this and the following Chapter is our
Cinnabar, a bisulphurate of mercury. This ore is the great source of
the mercury of commerce, from which it is obtained by sublimation. When
pure, it is the same as the manufactured vermilion of commerce.
[1003] Intended, no doubt, to be typical of blood and carnage; and
indicative of a very low state of civilization.
[1004] See B. xxxv. c. 45.
[1005] See B. v. c. 31.
[1006] See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.
[1007] The same as the miltos mentioned below, “miltos” being the word
used by Homer, Il. II. 637. This substance is totally different from
the minium of the preceding Chapters, and from that mentioned in c.
40. It is our red ochre, peroxide of iron, mixed in a greater or less
degree with argillaceous earth.
[1008] See B. xxix. c. 8; where he speaks of the mistake made by the
physicians in giving mineral vermilion or minium to their patients
instead of Indian cinnabar. The latter substance is probably identical
with that which is now used for varnishes, being imported from India,
and still known as “dragons’ blood,” the resin of the Ptero-carpus
draco, or Calamus palm.
[1009] In B. viii. c. 12.
[1010] In Chapter 41.
[1011] The dragon’s blood, mentioned in the preceding Chapter.
[1012] “Single colour paintings.” See B. xxxv. cc. 5, 11, 34, 36.
[1013] Mentioned in Chapter 37.
[1014] The “miltos” of the preceding Chapter. See Note 1007 above.
[1015] In B. xxxv. c. 13, _et seq._
[1016] He is here speaking of our cinnabar, or vermilion, mentioned in
Chapter 36.
[1017] See B. vi. cc. 27, 28, 32.
[1018] See B. iii. c. 3, Vol. I. p. 163. He alludes to the district of
Almaden, in Andalusia, still famous for its quicksilver mines.
[1019] When sold by the “publicani,” or farmers of the revenue.
[1020] Of the publicani.
[1021] Red oxide of lead, a much inferior pigment to cinnabar, or the
minium of Chapter 36.
[1022] In Chapter 32 of this Book.
[1023] Dana informs us that minium is usually associated with galena
and with calamine. Syst. Mineral, p. 495.
[1024] “Steriles.” Barren of silver, probably; though Hardouin thinks
that it means “barren of lead.” Holland renders it “barraine and void
of the right vermilion.”
[1025] In Chapter 37.
[1026] B. xxxv. c. 24.
[1027] When hired by the job for colouring walls or objects of art. See
B. xxxv. c. 12.
[1028] See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.
[1029] “Candelis.” The Abate Requeno thinks that these “candelæ” were
used as a delicate cauterium, simply to keep the wax soft, that it
might receive a polish from the friction of the linen.
[1030] Hence the use of it in the middle ages; a reminiscence of which
still exists in our word “rubric.”
[1031] Or artificial quicksilver. In reality, hydrargyrus is prepared
from the _genuine_ minium of Pliny, the cinnabar mentioned in Chapter
36] it being obtained by the sublimation of sulphuret of mercury.
[1032] In Chapters 20 and 32.
[1033] This, probably, is the meaning of “lubrico humore compluere.”
[1034] See the end of Chapter 38.
[1035] Artificial quicksilver is still used for this purpose. See Note
971 to Chapter 32 of this Book; also Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p.
295. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1036] In Chapter 32. He alludes to the use of glair of eggs.
[1037] Literally “whetstone.” He is speaking of the stone known to us
as Touchstone, Lydian stone, or Basanite—“a velvet-black siliceous
stone or flinty jasper, used on account of its hardness and black
colour for trying the purity of the precious metals. The colour left
on the stone after rubbing the metal across it, indicates to the
experienced eye the amount of the alloy.”—Dana, Syst. Mineral., p. 242.
[1038] In Lydia. See B. v. cc. 30, 31.
[1039] As a test. At the present day, concentrated nitric acid is
dropped on the mark left by the metal; and the more readily the mark is
effaced, the less pure is the metal.
[1040] This seems to be the meaning of “si sudet protinus.”
[1041] A very far-fetched explanation, and very wide of the mark.
[1042] “Paulum propulsa.”
[1043] Which he supposes a concave surface to do.
[1044] This passage is noticed by Beckmann, in his account of Mirrors;
Vol. II. p. 58. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1045] Distorting the image reflected, by reason of the irregularities
of the surface. See Seneca, Nat. Quæst. B. i. c. 5.
[1046] “Parma Thræcidica.”
[1047] He probably means, whether the surface is made convex or concave
at these different angles.
[1048] A subject to which he returns in various parts of B. xxxvi.
[1049] See B. xxxiv. c. 48.
[1050] As to the identification of “stannum,” on which there have been
great differences of opinion, see B. xxxiv. cc. 47, 48, and the Notes.
[1051] For some account of this artist, see Chapter 55 and the Notes at
the end of this Book.
[1052] “Silver mirrors were known long before this period, as is
proved by a passage in the Mostellaria of Plautus, A. 1, S. 3, l. 101,
where they are distinctly mentioned. To reconcile this contradiction,
Meursius remarks that Pliny speaks only of his countrymen, and not of
the Greeks, who had such articles much earlier, though the scene in
Plautus is at Athens.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 62. _Bohn’s
Edition._
[1053] “Nuper credi cœptum certiorem imaginem reddi auro opposito
aversis.”—“Of what Pliny says here I can give no explanation. Hardouin
(qy. if not Dalechamps?) is of opinion that mirrors, according to the
newest invention, at that period were covered behind with a plate of
gold, as our mirrors are with an amalgam. But as the ancient plates of
silver were not transparent, how could the gold at the back of them
produce any effect in regard to the image? May not the meaning be that
a thin plate of gold was placed at some distance before the mirror,
in order to throw more light upon its surface? Whatever may have been
the case, Pliny himself seems not to have had much confidence in the
invention.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 62.
[1054] Dr. Watson (Chemical Essays, Vol. IV. p. 246) seems to think
that Pliny is here speaking of _glass_ mirrors: “If we admit that Pliny
was acquainted with glass mirrors, we may thus understand what he says
respecting an invention which was then new, of applying gold behind a
mirror. Instead of an amalgam of tin, some one had proposed to cover
the back of the mirror with an amalgam of gold, with which the ancients
were certainly acquainted, and which they employed in gilding.” See
Chapter 20 of the present Book. On the above passage by Dr. Watson,
Beckmann has the following remarks: “This conjecture appears, at any
rate, to be ingenious; but when I read the passage again, without
prejudice, I can hardly believe that Pliny alludes to a plate of glass
in a place where he speaks only of metallic mirrors; and the overlaying
with amalgam requires too much art to allow me to ascribe it to such a
period without sufficient proof. I consider it more probable, that some
person had tried, by means of a polished plate of gold, to collect the
rays of light, and to throw them either on the mirror or the object, in
order to render the image brighter.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 72.
[1055] The dog-headed divinity. The seat of his worship was at
Cynopolis, mentioned in B. v. c. 11. Under the Empire his worship
became widely spread both in Greece and at Rome.
[1056] Under the word “pingit,” he probably includes the art of
enamelling silver.
[1057] “Fulgoris excæcati.”
[1058] “Chaplet” copper.
[1059] He either alludes to the practice of clipping the coin, or else
to the issue of forged silver denarii, short of weight.
[1060] During the prætorship of Marius Gratidianus. He was on terms
of great intimacy with Cicero, and was murdered by Catiline in a most
barbarous manner during the proscriptions of Sylla.
[1061] By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius
being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the
genuine coin.
[1062] Twenty times one hundred thousand, &c.
[1063] As signifying a “debt owing to another.”
[1064] “The Rich.”
[1065] This seems the best translation for “decoxisse creditoribus
suis,” which literally means that he “boiled” or “melted away” his
fortune from his creditors. In this remark Pliny is more witty than
usual.
[1066] The Triumvir. The first person mentioned in Roman history as
having the cognomen “Dives,” is P. Licinius Crassus, the personage
mentioned in B. xxi. c. 4. As he attained the highest honours of the
state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so
opprobriously spoken of by Pliny.
[1067] The meaning appears to be doubtful here, as it is not clear
whether “sesterces,” or “sestertia,” “thousands of sesterces,” is meant.
[1068] Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold
down his throat.
[1069] Originally the slave of Antonia, the mother of Claudius.
Agrippina, the wife of Claudius, admitted him to her embraces, and in
conjunction with her he for some time ruled the destinies of the Roman
Empire. He was poisoned by order of Nero, A.D. 63.
[1070] C. Julius Callistus, the freedman of Caligula, in whose
assassination he was an accomplice. The physician Scribonius Largus
dedicated his work to Callistus.
[1071] A freedman of the Emperor Claudius, whose epistolary
correspondence he superintended. He was put to death on the accession
of Nero, A.D. 54.
[1072] In which case it would be dangerous to speak of them.
[1073] A.U.C. 746.
[1074] According to some authorities, he was a Lydian. He derived his
wealth from his gold mines in the neighbourhood of Celænæ in Phrygia,
and would appear, in spite of Pliny’s reservation, to have been little
less than a king. His five sons accompanied Xerxes; but Pythius,
alarmed by an eclipse of the sun, begged that the eldest might be left
behind. Upon this, Xerxes had the youth put to death, and his body cut
in two, the army being ordered to march between the portions, which
were placed on either side of the road. His other sons were all slain
in battle, and Pythius passed the rest of his life in solitude.
[1075] “Stipem spargere.”
[1076] A.U.C. 568.
[1077] In performance of a vow made in the war with King Antiochus. See
Livy, B. xxxix.
[1078] So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced
them. The Gratian plate is mentioned by Martial, B. iv. Epigr. 39.
[1079] “Etenim tabernas mensis adoptamus.”
[1080] “Anaglypta.” Plate chased in relief. It is mentioned in the
Epigram of Martial above referred to.
[1081] “Asperitatemque exciso circa liniarum picturas,”—a passage, the
obscurity of which, as Littré remarks, seems to set translation at
defiance.
[1082] He alludes, probably to tiers of shelves on the beaufets or
sideboards—“repositoria”—similar to those used for the display of plate
in the middle ages. Petronius Arbiter speaks of a round “repositorium,”
which seems to have borne a considerable resemblance to our “dumb
waiters.” The “repositoria” here alluded to by Pliny were probably made
of silver.
[1083] “Interradimus.”
[1084] “Carrucæ.” The “carruca” was a carriage, the name of which only
occurs under the emperors, the present being the first mention of it.
It had four wheels and was used in travelling, like the “carpentum.”
Martial, B. iii. Epig. 47, uses the word as synonymous with “rheda.”
Alexander Severus allowed the senators to have them plated with silver.
The name is of Celtic origin, and is the basis of the mediæval word
“carucate,” and the French _carrosse_.
[1085] So called from his victory over the Allobroges.
[1086] In allusion to the case of P. Cornelius Rufinus, the consul, who
was denounced in the senate by the censors C. Fabricius Luscinus and Q.
Æmilius Rufus, for being in possession of a certain quantity of silver
plate. This story is also referred to in B. xviii. c. 8, where _ten_
pounds is the quantity mentioned.
[1087] This is said ironically.
[1088] Sextus Ælius Pœtus Catus, Consul B.C. 198.
[1089] “Prandentem.”
[1090] L. Paulus Æmilius.
[1091] It being lent from house to house. This, no doubt, was said
ironically, and as a sneer at their poverty.
[1092] Now Arles. It was made a military colony in the time of
Augustus. See B. iii. c. 5, and B. x. c. 57.
[1093] “Pellitum.” There has been considerable doubt as to the meaning
of this, but it is most probable that the “privilege of the fur,” or
in other words, a license to be clad in certain kinds of fur, was
conferred on certain men of rank in the provinces. Holland considers
it to be the old participle of “pello,” and translates the passage
“banished out of the country and nation where his father was born.”
[1094] “Triclinia.” The couches on which they reclined when at table.
[1095] See B. ix. c. 13.
[1096] This pattern, whatever it may have been, is also spoken of by
Cicero, pro Murenâ, and by Valerius Maximus, B. vii. c. 1.
[1097] “Lances.”
[1098] “Dispensator.”
[1099] “Conservi”—said in keen irony.
[1100] Giants, at least, one would think.
[1101] Over the party of Marius.
[1102] See B. ix. c. 13.
[1103] “Compacta;” probably meaning inlaid like Mosaic.
[1104] See B. xiii. c. 29, B. xv. c. 7, and B. xvi. cc. 26, 27, 84.
[1105] Meaning, “drum sideboards,” or “tambour sideboards,” their
shape, probably, being like that of our dumb waiters.
[1106] The name given to which was “lanx,” plural “lances.”
[1107] His age and country are uncertain. We learn, however, from
Chapter 55 of this Book, that he flourished before the burning of the
Temple of Diana at Ephesus, B.C. 356. He is frequently mentioned in the
classical writers. See also B. vii. c. 39.
[1108] He includes, probably, under this name both Asia Minor and
Syria. See a similar passage in Livy, B. xxxix.
[1109] This passage is rejected by Sillig as a needless interpolation.
[1110] Asia Minor.
[1111] King of Pergamus.
[1112] Over King Antiochus.
[1113] He alludes to the destruction of Corinth, by L. Mummius Achaïcus.
[1114] A drinking cup with handles, sacred to Bacchus. See B. xxxiv. c.
25.
[1115] Bacchus.
[1116] In allusion to the plebeian origin of C. Marius, who was born
at the village of Cereatæ, near Arpinum. It is more than probable that
the story that he had worked as a common peasant for wages, was an
invention of the faction of Sylla.
[1117] “Ille arator Arpinas, et manipularis imperator.”
[1118] Meaning the first king of that name. He was son of Mithridates
IV., king of Pontus.
[1119] Appian says that there “was a gold statue of this Mithridates,
exhibited in the triumph of Pompey, eight cubits in height.” Plutarch
speaks of another statue of the same king, exhibited by Lucullus, six
feet in height.
[1120] “Compedes.” See Chapter 12 of this Book.
[1121] The translation of this passage is somewhat doubtful. We will,
therefore, subjoin that of Holland, who adopts the other version. “As
we may see by our proud and sumptuous dames, that are but commoners and
artizans’ wives, who are forced to make themselves carquans and such
ornaments for their shoes, of silver, because the rigour of the statute
provided in that case will not permit them to weare the same of gold.”
[1122] A rhetorician who taught at Rome in the reign of Augustus. The
poet Ovid was one of his pupils. His rival in teaching declamation was
Porcius Latro.
[1123] Of an improper intimacy with his pupils.
[1124] Rings of silver being passed through the prepuce. This practice
is described by Celsus, B. vii. c. 25.
[1125] “Videret hinc dona fortium fieri, aut in hæc frangi.”
[1126] In B. vii. c. 39, and in Chapter 53 of this Book.
[1127] “Quatuor paria ab eo omnino facta sunt.” Sillig, in his
_Dictionary of Ancient Artists_, finds a difficulty in this passage.
“The term ‘omnino’ seems to imply that the productions in question,
all of which perished, were the _only_ works executed by this artist;
but we find several passages of ancient writers, in which vases, &c.
engraved by Mentor, are mentioned as extant. Thus, then, we must
conclude, either that the term ‘omnino’ should be understood in the
sense of ‘chiefly,’ ‘pre-eminently,’ or that the individuals claiming
to possess works of Mentor, were themselves misinformed, or endeavoured
to deceive others.” If, however, we look at the word “paria” in a
strictly technical sense, the difficulty will probably be removed.
Pliny’s meaning seems to be that Mentor made four _pairs_, and no more,
of some peculiar kind of vessel probably, and that all these pairs were
now lost. He does not say that Mentor did not make other works of art,
in _single_ pieces. Thiersch, _Act. Acad. Monac._ v. p. 128, expresses
an opinion that the word “omnino” is a corruption, and that in it lies
concealed the name of the kind of plate that is meant.
[1128] See B. vii. c. 39.
[1129] His age and country are unknown.
[1130] From Pausanias we learn that he was a statuary and engraver on
plate, born at Carthage; but Raoul Rochette thinks that he was a native
of Chalcedon. He is mentioned also by Cicero, In Verrem, 4. 14, and in
the Culex, l. 66, ascribed by some to Virgil.
[1131] His country is uncertain. According to the statements of
Pausanias, B. i. c. 28, he must have been a contemporary of Phidias,
about Olymp. 84, B.C. 444. He is mentioned also by Propertius, Martial,
and Statius.
[1132] His birth-place is unknown, but he probably lived about the time
of Phidias, and we learn from Pausanias that he was living when the
plague ceased at Athens, in B.C. 429. He is mentioned also by Cicero,
Ovid, Quintilian, Lucian, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
[1133] Nothing further is known of this artist.
[1134] “Collocavisse verius quam cælasse.”
[1135] “Phiala.”
[1136] He lived probably about Olymp. 126; but his country is unknown.
He is mentioned by Athenæus. See also B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1137] Nothing whatever is known of him, unless indeed he is identical
with the Tauriscus mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 5.
[1138] Nothing is known of his age or country. He is also mentioned in
B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1139] His age and country are unknown. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1140] Nothing further is known of him. See B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1141] See the end of this Book.
[1142] Beyond the mention made of him in B. xxxiv. c. 19, no
particulars relative to him are known.
[1143] Other readings of this name are “Lædus Stratiotes,” “Ledis
Thracides,” “Hieris Thracides,” and “Lidistratices.” The Bamberg
MS. has “Hedys Trachides.” Salmasius, Hardouin, and Sillig propose
“Leostratides,” and Thiersch “Lysistratides.”
[1144] Nothing further is known of him.
[1145] For the murder of his mother Clytæmnestra.
[1146] Nothing is known of this artist.
[1147] From Troy.
[1148] “Coquos,” literally, “cooks.”
[1149] “Cooks in miniature.”
[1150] By the process of moulding, probably.
[1151] “Crustarius.” Of this artist nothing further is known.
[1152] Yellow or brown Ochre, probably. Ajasson thinks that under
this name may be included peroxide of iron, hydroxide of iron in a
stalactitic and mamillary form, and compact peroxide of iron, imparting
a colour to argillaceous earth.
[1153] “Scaly and ochrey brown iron ore are decomposed earthy
varieties, often soft like chalk; yellow ochre is here included.”—Dana,
Syst. Mineral, p. 436.
[1154] “Marmorosum.”
[1155] “Lucidum.”
[1156] “Abacos.” Small compartments or partitions in a square form on
the walls of rooms.
[1157] See B. vii. c. 57, where he is called an Athenian, whereas he
was a native of Thasos. He was one of the most eminent painters of
antiquity, and flourished in the age of Pericles. See a further account
of him in B. xxxv. c. 35.
[1158] Son of Phanochus, and contemporary of Polygnotus. See B. xxxv.
c. 25, where it is stated that in conjunction with Polygnotus, he
either invented some new colours, or employed them in his paintings on
a better plan than that previously adopted.
[1159] “It is possible that the ‘cæruleum’ of the ancients may in
some cases have been real ultramarine, but properly and in general,
it was only copper ochre.”—Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 472.
_Bohn’s Edition._ Delafosse identifies it with blue carbonate and
hydrocarbonate of copper, one of the two azurites.
[1160] “Candidiorem nigrioremve, et crassiorem tenuioremve.”
[1161] Beckmann thinks that Pliny is here alluding to an artificial
kind of “cæruleum.” “Pliny clearly adds to it an artificial colour,
which in my opinion was made in the same manner as our lake; for he
speaks of an earth, which when boiled with plants, acquired their blue
colour.”—Hist. Inv., Vol. II. p. 480.
[1162] Supposed by Hardouin to have been “glastum” or “woad,” the
Isatis tinctoria of Linnæus, mentioned in B. xxii. c. 2.
[1163] “In suâ coquitur herbâ.”
[1164] A blue powder; see Chapter 27 of this Book. Beckmann has the
following remarks on this and the preceding lines: “The well-known
passage of Pliny in which Lehmann thinks he can with certainty discover
cobalt, is so singular a medley that nothing to be depended on can be
gathered from it. The author, it is true, where he treats of mineral
pigments, seems to speak of a blue sand which produced different
shades of blue paint, according as it was pounded coarser or finer.
The palest powder was called lomentum, and this Lehmann considers as
our powder-blue. I am, however, fully convinced that the _cyanus_ of
Theophrastus, the _cæruleum_ of Pliny, and the _chrysocolla_ (see
Chapter 26), were the blue copper earth already mentioned, which may
have been mixed and blended together.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. I. pp. 480, 481.
_Bohn’s Edition._
[1165] According to Vitruvius, B. vii. c. 11, the manufactory of
Vestorius was at Puteoli, now Pozzuoli. This was probably the same C.
Vestorius who was also a money-lender and a friend of Atticus, and with
whom Cicero had monetary transactions. He is mentioned as “Vestorium
meum,” in the Epistles of Cicero to Atticus.
[1166] For colouring surfaces of clay or cretaceous earth. This kind
was also manufactured by Vesturius, most probably.
[1167] “Idem et Puteolani usus, præterque ad fenestras.” “The
expression here, _usus ad fenestras_, has been misapplied by Lehmann,
as a strong proof of his assertion; for he explained it as if Pliny
had said that a blue pigment was used for painting window-frames; but
glass windows were at that time unknown. I suspect that Pliny meant to
say only that one kind of paint could not be employed near openings
which afforded a passage to the light, as it soon decayed and lost its
colour. This would have been the case in particular with _lake_, in
which there was a mixture of vegetable particles.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv.
Vol. I. p. 480.
[1168] “Indian” pigment. Probably our “indigo.” It is again mentioned,
and at greater length, in B. xxxv. c. 27. See also Beckmann, Hist. Inv.
Vol. II. pp. 259, 267. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1169] This is probably a more correct reading than “seven.”
[1170] See B. xxxv. c. 19. Vitruvius, B. vii. c. 14, describes an
exactly similar method adopted by dyers for imitating the colour of
Attic sil, or ochre, mentioned in Chapter 56.
[1171] A quarter in the city of Capua, inhabited by druggists and
perfumers; see B. xvi. c. 18, and B. xxxiv. c. 25.
[1172] In some MSS. the reading here is “Domitius,” and in others the
name is omitted altogether. We learn from the writings of Suetonius,
that the Emperor Domitian devoted himself to literary pursuits in
his younger days, and Quintilian and the younger Pliny speak of his
poetical productions as equal to those of the greatest masters. Sillig
expresses an opinion that Pliny may possibly have borrowed something
from his works, and inserted his name, with a view of pleasing the
young prince and his father, the Emperor Vespasian.
[1173] He is quoted in Chapter 9 of this Book, where it appears that
he took his cognomen on account of his friendship for C. Gracchus. He
wrote a work, “De Potestatibus,” which gave an account of the Roman
magistrates from the time of the kings. A few fragments of this work,
which was highly esteemed by the ancients, are all that remain.
[1174] See end of B. ii.
[1175] See end of B. iii.
[1176] See end of B. ii.
[1177] Valerius Messala Corvinus. See end of B. ix.
[1178] See end of B. vii.
[1179] Calvus Licinius Macer was the son of C. Licinius Macer, a person
of prætorian rank, who, on being impeached of extortion by Cicero,
committed suicide. We learn from our author, B. xxxiv. c. 50, that
in his youth he devoted himself to study with the greatest zeal, and
applied himself with singular energy to intellectual pursuits. His
constitution, however, was early exhausted, and he died in his 35th or
36th year, leaving behind him twenty-one orations. We learn from Cicero
and Quintilian that his compositions were carefully moulded after the
models of the Attic school, but were deficient in ease and freshness.
As a poet he was the author of many short pieces, equally remarkable
for their looseness and elegance. He wrote also some severe lampoons
on Pompey and Cæsar, and their respective partisans. Ovid and Horace,
besides several of the prose writers, make mention of him.
[1180] See end of B. ii.
[1181] See end of B. ii.
[1182] Cornelius Bocchus. See end of B. xvi.
[1183] Annius or Annæus Fetialis. See end of B. xvi.
[1184] See end of B. viii.
[1185] See end of B. vii.
[1186] See end of B. xx.
[1187] See end of B. xii.
[1188] See end of B. iii.
[1189] See end of B. ii.
[1190] See end of B. v.
[1191] The person mentioned in Chapter 13 of this Book, is probably
different from those of the same name mentioned at the end of Books ii.
and iv. If so, no further particulars are known of him.
[1192] It seems impossible to say which of the physicians of this name
is here alluded to. See end of Books iv. and xii.
[1193] See end of B. xx.
[1194] See end of B. xii.
[1195] See end of B. xiii.
[1196] See end of B. xii.
[1197] See end of B. xii.; and for Sallustius Dionysius, see end of B.
xxxi.
[1198] See end of B. xxix.
[1199] See end of B. xii.
[1200] See end of B. xii.
[1201] As King Attalus was very skilful in medicine, Hardouin is of
opinion that he is the person here meant; see end of B. viii.
[1202] A different person, most probably, from the writer of Pliny’s
age, mentioned in B. xxxvii. c. 2. The Xenocrates here mentioned
is probably the same person that is spoken of in B. xxxv. c. 36, a
statuary of the school of Lysippus, and the pupil either of Tisicrates
or of Euthycrates, who flourished about B.C. 260.
[1203] There were two artists of this name, prior to the time of
Pliny; a sculptor, mentioned by him in B. xxxiv. c. 19, and a painter,
contemporary with Apelles, mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 36. It is
impossible to say which of them, if either, is here meant.
[1204] See end of B. iii.
[1205] See end of B. xii.
[1206] It is impossible to say which writer of this name is here meant.
See end of Books iv., viii., xi., and xx.
[1207] A statuary, sculptor, and chaser in silver, who flourished at
Rome about B.C. 60. He was a native of Magna Græcia, in the south of
Italy. He is not only mentioned in Chapter 55 of the present Book, but
also in B. xxxv. c. 45, as an artist of the highest distinction. His
narrow escape from a panther, while copying from nature, is mentioned
in B. xxxvi. c. 4. His five Books on the most celebrated works of
sculpture and chasing were looked upon as a high authority in art. He
was also the head of a school of artists.
[1208] A writer on painting of this name is mentioned by Diogenes
Laertius, B. vii. c. 12. He is probably the same as the person here
mentioned, and identical with the Greek sculptor mentioned by Pliny in
B. xxxiv. c. 19, who probably flourished about 240 B.C. The Toreutic
Art, “Toreutice,” was the art of making raised work in silver or
bronze, either by graving or casting: but the exact meaning of the word
is somewhat uncertain.
[1209] Menæchmus of Sicyon, probably; see end of B. iv., also B. xxxiv.
c. 19.
[1210] If he is really a different person from the Xenocrates mentioned
above, nothing is known of him.
[1211] See end of B. vii.
[1212] Possibly one of the persons mentioned at the end of Books viii.,
xix., and xxxi. If not, nothing whatever is known of him.
[1213] An Athenian writer, surnamed “Periegetes.” The work here
mentioned, is alluded to by other writers under different names. From
a passage in Athenæus, he is supposed to have lived after the time of
Antiochus Epiphanes.
[1214] See end of B. iii.
[1215] The present Book is translated by the late Dr. Bostock, the
translation being corrected by the readings of the Bamberg MS., which
do not appear to have come under his notice. Some Notes by Dr. Bostock
will be also found at the commencement of Books 33 and 35; they are
distinguished by the initial B.
[1216] “Æris Metalla.” The word “Æs” does not entirely correspond to
our word “brass;” the brass of the moderns being a compound of copper
and zinc, while the “Æs” of the ancients was mostly composed of copper
and tin, and therefore, would be more correctly designated by the word
“bronze.” But this last term is now so generally appropriated to works
of art, that it would seem preferable to employ in most cases the more
general terms “copper” or “brass.” For an excellent account of the “Æs”
of the ancients, see Smith’s Dict. Antiq. “Æs.”—B. Mr. Westmacott, in
the above-mentioned article, says that the ancient “Æs” has been found,
upon analysis, to contain no zinc, but in nearly every instance to be
a mixture of copper and tin, like our bronze. Beckmann says, on the
other hand, that the mixture of zinc and copper now called “brass,”
first discovered by ores, abundant in zinc, _was certainly known to
the ancients_. “In the course of time, an ore, _which must have been
calamine_, was added to copper while melting, to give it a yellow
colour.” Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 32, 33. _Bohn’s Edition._ There can
be little doubt that the native _Cadmia_ of Chapter 22 of this Book
was our Calamine, hydrosilicate of zinc, or carbonate of zinc, or else
copper ore impregnated with calamine.
[1217] In B. xxxiii. c. 13.
[1218] “Stipis auctoritas.” The standard in money payments.
[1219] These terms must have come into use when brass, “æs,” was the
ordinary medium, of circulation.—B. Their meaning is, “soldiers’ pay,”
“tribunes of the treasury,” the “public treasury,” “made bondmen for
debt,” and “mulcted of their pay.”
[1220] In B. xxxiii. c. 13.—B.
[1221] “Collegium” The colleges of the priests and of the augurs being
the first two associated bodies.—B.
[1222] In B. xxxiii. c. 31, where we have an account of the ores of
silver.—B.
[1223] Pliny again refers to this mineral in the 22d Chapter. We
have no means of ascertaining, with certainty, what is the substance
to which this name was applied by the ancients. The ores of copper
are very numerous, and of various chemical constitutions] the most
abundant, and those most commonly employed in the production of the
pure metal, are the sulphurets, more especially what is termed copper
pyrites, and the oxides. It has been supposed, by some commentators,
that the Cadmia of the ancients was Calamine, which is an ore of zinc;
but we may be confident that the _Æs_ of the ancients could not be
produced from this substance, because, as has been stated above, the
_Æs_ contains no zinc. I must, however, observe that the contrary
opinion is maintained by M. Delafosso.—B. See Note 1216 above.
[1224] The inhabitants of Bergamum, the modern Bergamo.—B. See B. iii.
c. 21.
[1225] Aristotle gives the same account of the copper ore of Cyprus.
Chalcitis is also spoken of by Dioscorides, as an ore of copper.—B. See
further as to “Chalcitis,” in Chapter 29 of this Book.
[1226] There has been much discussion respecting the nature of this
substance, and the derivation of the word. Hardouin conceives it
probable that it was originally written “orichalcum,” _i.e._ “mountain
brass” or “copper.”—B. Ajasson considers it to be native brass,
a mixture of copper and zinc. In the later writers it signifies
artificial brass. The exact composition of this metal is still unknown,
but there is little doubt that Hardouin is right in his supposition as
to the origin of the name.
[1227] Possibly so called from Sallustius Crispus, the historian, who
was one of the secretaries of Augustus.
[1228] There is some doubt respecting the locality of these people;
they are enumerated by Pliny among the inhabitants of the mountainous
districts of Savoy, B. iii. c. 24, and are referred to by Ptolemy.—B.
[1229] Livia.
[1230] It was named “Marian,” after the celebrated Marius, and
“Corduban,” from the place whence it was procured; probably the
mountains near Corduba, in Spain, well known as the birth-place of the
two Senecas and of Lucan.—B. See B. iii. c. 3, and B. xix. c. 43.
[1231] No light is thrown upon the nature either of Cadmia or
Aurichalcum by this statement; we only learn from it that different
compounds, or substances possessing different physical properties, went
under the common appellation of _Æs_, and were, each of them, employed
in the formation of coins.—B.
[1232] “Dupondiariis.” The “as,” it must be remembered, _originally_
weighed one pound. See B. xxxiii. c. 13, and the Introduction to Vol.
III.
[1233] He alludes to the _ancient_ works of art in this compound metal.
[1234] The art of making compound metals.
[1235] Vulcan, namely.
[1236] No one has accidentally stumbled upon the art of making this
composite metal.
[1237] We have an account of the destruction of Corinth, and the
accidental formation of this compound, in Florus, B. ii. c. 16.
Although this account was generally received by the ancients, we may
venture to assert, that it cannot be correct; we cannot conceive the
possibility of such a fusion taking place during the destruction of the
city, or of the complete union of the components, in the mode in which
they have been found to exist.—B.
[1238] B.C. 146.—B.
[1239] “Trulleos.” In an epigram of Martial, B. ix. Ep. 97, the word
“trulla” signifies a chamber-pot.
[1240] From the Greek ἥπαρ, “the liver.”
[1241] The Delian brass is mentioned by Cicero, in his oration “Pro
Roscio Amerino,” s. 46, and in his Fourth oration “In Verrem,” s. 1.—B.
Pausanias, in his “Eliaca,” says that the Spanish copper, or copper of
Tartessus, was the first known.
[1242] Or Cattle Market: in the Eighth Region of the City. See B. xxxv.
c. 7, and Chapter 16 of this Book.
[1243] A distinguished statuary and engraver on silver. He lived in
Olympiad 87. Further mention is made of him by Cicero, Ovid, Strabo,
and Pausanias. See also Chapter 19 of this Book.
[1244] There were several artists of this name. The elder Polycletus, a
native either of Sicyon or of Argos, is probably the one here referred
to. For further particulars of him, see Chapter 19.
[1245] The words in the original are, respectively _candelabra_,
_superficies_, and _scapi_.—B.
[1246] Probably a proverbial expression at Rome, as it is employed by
Juvenal, in an analogous manner, upon another occasion; Sat. iii. l.
132.—B.
[1247] Plutarch speaks of the Geganii as an ancient noble family at
Rome.
[1248] See B. xxxiii. c. 53.
[1249] A.U.C. 585; we have an account of it in Livy, B. xiv. c. 42.—B.
[1250] This building is referred to by Velleius Paterculus, in the
beginning of the Second Book of his History.—B. According to Aurelius
Victor, it was situated in the Ninth Region of the City.
[1251] The Temple of Vesta is described by Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. l. 265,
_et seq._—B.
[1252] C. Camillus probably, the Roman jurist and friend of Cicero.
[1253] See end of B. ii.
[1254] “Triclinia,” “abaci,” and “monopodia;” these appear to have
been couches for dining-tables, tables furnished with cupboards, and
tables standing on a single foot. Livy, B. xxxix. c. 6, informs us,
that Cneius Manlius, in his triumphal procession, introduced into Rome
various articles of Asiatic luxury; “Lectos æratos, vestem stragulam
preciosam, monopodia, et abacos.” We are not to suppose that the whole
of these articles were made of brass, but that certain parts of them
were formed of this metal, or else were ornamented with brass.—B.
[1255] See end of B. ii.
[1256] “Cortinas tripodum.” These articles of furniture consisted of a
table or slab, supported by three feet, which was employed, like our
sideboards, for the display of plate, at the Roman entertainments.—B.
[1257] “Lychnuchi pensiles;” this term is applied by Suetonius,
Julius, s. 37; we may conceive that they were similar to the modern
chandeliers.—B.
[1258] This temple was dedicated by Augustus A.U.C. 726. The lamps in
it, resembling trees laden with fruit, are mentioned by Victor in his
description of the Tenth Quarter of the City.—B.
[1259] See B. v. c. 32.
[1260] We have an account of this event in Livy, B. ii. c. 41, in
Valerius Maximus, and in Dionysius of Halicarnassus.—B.
[1261] “Iconicæ,” “portrait statues,” from εἴκων, of the same
meaning. This term is employed by Suetonius, in speaking of a statue of
Caligula, c. 22.—B.
[1262] Pisistratus. These statues are mentioned in the 19th Chapter of
this Book, as being the workmanship of Praxiteles.—B.
[1263] See B. vii. cc. 31, 34: B. viii. c. 74: and B. ix. c. 63.
[1264] Near the Temple of Janus, in the Eighth Region of the City.
[1265] The Luperci were the priests of Pan, who, at the celebration of
their games, called Lupercalia, were in the habit of running about the
streets of Rome, with no other covering than a goat’s skin tied about
the loins.—B.
[1266] “Pænula.” See B. viii. c. 73.
[1267] We are informed by Cicero, De Off. B. iii. c. 30, and by
Valerius Maximus, B. ii. c. 7, that Marcinus made a treaty with the
Numantines, which the senate refused to ratify, and that he was, in
consequence, surrendered to the enemy. We may suppose that he regarded
the transaction as redounding more to the discredit of the senate than
of himself.—B.
[1268] See end of B. xviii.
[1269] In the First Region of the City, near the Capenian Gate.
[1270] “Celetes;” this appellation is derived from the Greek word
κέλης, “swift,” and was applied to those who rode on
horseback, in opposition to the charioteers—B.
[1271] Poinsinet remarks that Pliny has forgotten the gilded chariot,
with six horses, which Cneius Cornelius dedicated in the Capitol, two
hundred years before Augustus; he also refers to an ancient inscription
in Gruter, which mentions chariots of this description.—B.
[1272] Mænius was consul with Furius Camillus, A.U.C. 416; we have an
account of his victories over the Latins and other neighbouring nations
in Livy, B. viii. c. 14.—B.
[1273] We have an account of this transaction in Livy, B. viii. c. 14.
This trophy is also mentioned by Florus, B. i. c. 11. The “Suggestus”
was an elevated place, formed for various purposes, the stage from
which the orators addressed the people, the place from which the
general addressed his soldiers, and the seat occupied by the emperor at
the public games.—B.
[1274] Florus, B. ii. c. 2, gives an account of the arrangements and
equipment of the Carthaginian fleet, the victory of Duillius, and the
rostral monument erected in its commemoration.—B.
[1275] See B. xviii. c. 4.
[1276] “Unciariâ stipe;” the _uncia_ was the twelfth part of the “as,”
and the word _stips_ was regarded as equivalent to _as_, as being the
usual pay of the soldiers.—B. See Introduction to Vol. III.
[1277] See B. xv. c. 20.
[1278] This circumstance is mentioned by Cicero in his Defence of Milo,
§ 90-1.—B.
[1279] We have some account of Hermodorus in Cicero’s Tusc. Quæs. B. v.
c. 36.—B.
[1280] See B. x. c. 2, B. xviii. c. 3, and B. xxxiii. c. 7.
[1281] Livy, B. ii. c. 10, and Valerius Maximus, B. iii. c. 2, give an
account of this event. A. Gellius incidentally mentions the statue, and
its position in the Comitium, B. iv. c. 5.—B.
[1282] We are informed by Dion Cassius, that there were eight statues
in the Capitol, seven of which were of the kings, and the eighth of
Brutus, who overthrew the kingly government; at a later period the
statue of Cæsar was placed by the side of that of Brutus.—B.
[1283] Suetonius, speaking of this temple, remarks, that though
dedicated to the brothers Castor and Pollux, it was, only known as the
Temple of Castor.—B.
[1284] We have an account of the victory of Tremulus over the Hernici,
and of the statue erected in honour of him, in Livy, B. ix. c. 43.—B.
[1285] This event is referred to by Cicero, Philipp. ix., 5.—B.
[1286] Florus, B. ii. c. 5, gives an account of the murder of P. Junius
and T. Coruncanius.—B.
[1287] In the Bamberg MS. the reading is “unum se. verbum.” Gronovius
is probably right in his conjecture that the word is “senatus consulti.”
[1288] By one Leptines, at Laodicea.
[1289] “Oculatissimo.” The place where there was “the most extended
eyeshot.” It is to this singular expression, probably, that Pliny
alludes.
[1290] “Quod campum Tiberinum gratificata esset ea populo.”
[1291] A.U.C. 441.
[1292] See B. vii. c. 31.
[1293] His life has been written by Diogenes Laertius, and he is
mentioned by Cicero, de Fin. B. v. c. 19, and by Strabo.—B.
[1294] In B. xxxiii. c. 46.
[1295] We have an account of the exploit of Clælia in Livy, B. ii. c.
13, and in Valerius Maximus, B. iii. c. 2: there is a reference to this
statue in Seneca, de Consol. c. 16.—B.
[1296] To King Porsena.
[1297] See end of B. xvi.
[1298] Plutarch says that it was uncertain whether the statue was
erected to Clælia or to Valeria.—B.
[1299] A.U.C. 596.—B.
[1300] See Chapter 9.
[1301] “In Octaviæ operibus.” These were certain public buildings,
erected in Rome by Augustus, and named by him after his sister Octavia;
they are mentioned by Suetonius.—B.
[1302] Valerius Maximus refers to this event, but he names the
individual Statius Servilius, B. i. c. 8, § 6.—B.
[1303] See B. xxxiii. cc. 50, 54.
[1304] We have an account of the attack by Hannibal on Rome in the
twenty-sixth Book of Livy, but we have no mention of the particular
circumstance here referred to.—B.
[1305] “Forum Boarium.” See Chapter 5.
[1306] Livy, B. i. c. 19, informs us, that Numa made Janus of a form to
denote both peace and war.—B.
[1307] The mode in which the fingers were placed, so as to serve the
purpose here indicated, is supposed to have been by their forming the
letters which were the Roman numerals for the figures in question. We
are informed that some MSS. of Pliny give the number three hundred and
fifty-five only, and there is reason to believe that, in the time of
Numa, this was considered to be the actual number of days in the year.
Some of the commentators, however, are disposed to read three hundred
and sixty-five; and this opinion derives some support from Macrobius,
who refers to this statue as indicating this latter number with its
fingers.—B. The Bamberg MS. gives three hundred and sixty-five.
[1308] See end of B. iii.
[1309] “Misoromæus”—“Roman-hater.” See end of B. iii.
[1310] Pliny himself informs us, in B. xxxv. c. 45, that the statue of
Jupiter in the Capitol, erected by Tarquinius Priscus, was formed of
earth.—B.
[1311] The art of moulding or modelling in argillaceous earth; see B.
xxxv. cc. 43, 45.
[1312] See B. xxxvi. c. 2, where he informs us that this theatre was
hardly one month in use.—B.
[1313] Hardouin gives several quotations illustrative of his liberality
in bestowing ornaments in the City, and his inattention to his domestic
concerns.—B.
[1314] The brothers Lucius and Marcus, the former of whom triumphed in
the Mithridatic, the latter in the Macedonian War.—B.
[1315] See end of B. ii.
[1316] See B. vii. c. 38.
[1317] The absolute number of statues assigned to Lysippus differs
considerably in the different editions, as is the case in almost every
instance where figures are concerned. Pliny gives a further account of
his works in the next two Chapters and in the following Book.—B.
[1318] “Aureum.” See B. xxxiii. c. 13, and B. xxxvii. c. 3.
[1319] In their attack upon Flavius Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian;
A.U.C. 822.
[1320] See B. iv. c. 27.
[1321] It was a statue of Jupiter.
[1322] Better known by the name of Q. Fabius Maximus; he acquired the
soubriquet of Verrucosus from a large wart on the upper lip.—B.
[1323] The Colossus of Rhodes was begun by Chares, but he committed
suicide, in consequence of having made some mistake in the estimate;
the work was completed by Laches, also an inhabitant of Lindos.—B.
[1324] It remained on the spot where it was thrown down for nearly nine
hundred years, until the year 653 A.D., when Moavia, khalif of the
Saracens, after the capture of Rhodes, sold the materials; it is said
that it required nine hundred camels to remove the remains.—B.
[1325] Demetrius Poliorcetes. See B. xxxv. c. 36.
[1326] He is mentioned by Columella, in his Introduction to his work De
Re Rusticâ, in connexion with the most celebrated Grecian artists.—B.
[1327] Suetonius, in describing the temple which Augustus dedicated to
Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, speaks of the Portico with the Latin and
Greek library.—B.
[1328] This victory took place A.U.C. 461; we have an account of it in
Livy, the concluding Chapter of the Tenth Book.—B.
[1329] This was a statue of Jupiter, placed on the Alban Mount, twelve
miles from Rome. At this place the various states of Latium exercised
their religious rites in conjunction with the Romans; it was sometimes
called Latialis.—B. See B. iii. c. 9, and Notes; Vol. I. p. 205.
[1330] The designer of the Colossus at Rhodes.
[1331] Decius is said by Hardouin to have been a statuary, but nothing
is known respecting him or his works.—B. He probably lived about the
time of the Consul P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, A.U.C. 697.
[1332] His country is unknown.
[1333] See B. iv. c. 33.
[1334] St. Jerome informs us, that Vespasian removed the head of Nero,
and substituted that of the Sun with seven rays. Martial refers to it
in the Second Epigram _De Spectaculis_, and also B. i. Ep. 71.—B.
[1335] “Parvis admodum surculis.” There is, it appears, some difficulty
in determining the application of the word _surculis_ to the subject in
question, and we have no explanation of it by any of the commentators.
Can it refer to the frame of wicker work which contained the model into
which the melted metal was poured?—B.
[1336] This observation has been supposed to imply, that Zenodotus
cast his statues in a number of separate pieces, which were afterwards
connected together, and not, as was the case with the great Grecian
artists, in one entire piece.—B.
[1337] See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1338] The term _signum_, which is applied to the Corinthian figures,
may mean a medallion, or perhaps a seal-ring or brooch; we only
know that it must have been something small, which might be carried
about the person, or, at least, easily moved from place to place.—B.
_Statuette_, probably.
[1339] Her riddle, and its solution by Œdipus, are too well known to
need repetition here.
[1340] In the following Chapter.
[1341] Consul A.U.C. 787.
[1342] The “Avenger.” In the Forum of Augustus, in the Eighth Region of
the City.
[1343] “Regia.” The palace of Minerva, also in the Forum of Augustus.—B.
[1344] See B. vii. c. 39, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.
[1345] We have an account of this statue, and of the temple in which
it was placed, by Pausanias, B. v. There is no work of Phidias now in
existence; the sculptures in the Parthenon were, however, executed by
his pupils and under his immediate directions, so that we may form some
judgment of his genius and taste.—B. There is a foot in the British
Museum, said to be the work of Phidias.
[1346] An Athenian; see B. xxxvi. c. 5. He is spoken of in high terms
by Pausanias and Valerius Maximus.
[1347] Tutor of Ptolichus of Corcyra, and highly distinguished for his
statues of the slayers of the tyrants at Athens. He is mentioned also
by Lucian and Pausanias.
[1348] The reading is uncertain here, the old editions giving
“Nestocles.” We shall _only_ devote a Note to such artists as are
mentioned by other authors besides Pliny.
[1349] An Athenian; mentioned also by Pausanias.
[1350] There were probably two artists of this name; one an Argive,
tutor of Phidias, and the other a Sicyonian, the person here referred
to.
[1351] A native of Ægina, mentioned by Pausanias. There is also a
statuary of Elis of the same name, mentioned by Pausanias, and to whom
Thiersch is of opinion reference is here made.
[1352] See Chapter 5 of this Book.
[1353] An Argive, mentioned by Pausanias.
[1354] See Chapter 5 of this Book.
[1355] Again mentioned by Pliny, as a native of Rhegium in Italy.
[1356] A native of Paros, mentioned also by Pausanias and Strabo.
[1357] Probably “Perillus,” the artist who made the brazen bull for
Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum. The old reading is “Parelius.”
[1358] This and the following word probably mean one person—“Asopodorus
the Argive.”
[1359] Perhaps the same person that is mentioned by Pausanias, B. vi.
c. 20, as having improved the form of the starting-place at the Olympic
Games.
[1360] Mentioned by Pausanias as an Arcadian, and son of Clitor.
[1361] A native of Clitorium in Arcadia, and mentioned also by
Pausanias.
[1362] He is said by Pausanias and Athenæus to have been the son, also,
of Myron.
[1363] Son of Motho, and a native of Argos. He was brother and
instructor of the younger Polycletus, of Argos. He is mentioned also by
Pausanias and Tatian.
[1364] He is once mentioned by Pausanias, and there is still extant the
basis of one of his works, with his name inscribed.
[1365] It is supposed that there were two artists of this name, both
natives of Sicyon, the one grandson of the other. They are both named
by Pausanias.
[1366] Probably a Sicyonian; he is mentioned also by Pausanias.
[1367] As Pliny mentions two artists of this name, it is impossible to
say to which of them Pausanias refers as being an Athenian, in B. vi.
c. 4.
[1368] The elder artist of this name. He was an Athenian, and his
sister was the wife of Phocion. He is also mentioned by Plutarch and
Pausanias.
[1369] An Athenian; he is mentioned also by Vitruvius, Pausanias, and
Tatian. Winckelmann mentions an inscription relative to him, which,
however, appears to be spurious.
[1370] He is mentioned also by Pausanias, and is supposed by Sillig to
have been a Theban.
[1371] Praxiteles held a high rank among the ancient sculptors, and may
be considered as second to Phidias alone; he is frequently mentioned by
Pausanias and various other classical writers. Pliny gives a further
account of the works of Praxiteles in the two following Books.—B.
[1372] He was also an eminent painter, and is also mentioned by
Quintilian, Dio Chrysostom, and Plutarch.
[1373] Another reading is “Echion.”
[1374] See B. xxxv. cc. 32, 36.
[1375] This great artist, a native of Sicyon, has been already
mentioned in B. vii. c. 39, and in the two preceding Chapters of the
present Book; he is again mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 39.—B. See note 1344
above.
[1376] Also a native of Sicyon. He is mentioned by Tatian.
[1377] Mentioned also by Pausanias, Plutarch, Strabo, and Appian. The
next two names in former editions stand as one, “Euphronides.”
[1378] Supposed to have been an architect, and builder of the Pharos
near Alexandria: see B. xxxvi. c. 18. The same person is mentioned also
by Strabo, Lucian, and Suidas.
[1379] An Athenian. He is mentioned also by Pausanias, Plutarch,
Diogenes Laertius, and Tatian.
[1380] See B. xxxv. c. 36.
[1381] A Sicyonian, pupil of Lysippus. He is also mentioned by
Pausanias; see also B. xxxvi. c. 4.
[1382] Son and pupil of Lysippus. He is mentioned also by Tatian, and
by some writers as the instructor of Xenocrates.
[1383] Sillig thinks that this is a mistake made by Pliny for
“Daïppus,” a statuary mentioned by Pausanias.
[1384] Son of Praxiteles, and mentioned by Tatian in conjunction with
Euthycrates. The elder Cephisodotus has been already mentioned. See
Note 1368.
[1385] Another son of Praxiteles. He is also alluded to by Pausanias,
though not by name.
[1386] His country is uncertain, but he was preceptor of Mygdon of
Soli. See B. xxxv. c. 40.
[1387] Mentioned also by Tatian; his country is unknown.
[1388] It is doubtful whether Pausanias alludes, in B. vi. c. 4, to
this artist, or to the one of the same name mentioned under Olymp. 102.
See Note 1367.
[1389] Sillig suggests that this word is an adjective, denoting the
country of Polycles, in order to distinguish him from the elder
Polycles.
[1390] We learn from Pausanias that he worked in conjunction with
Timarchides. The other artists here mentioned are quite unknown.
[1391] Sillig, in his “Dictionary of Ancient Artists,” observes that
“this passage contains many foolish statements.” Also that there is “an
obvious intermixture in it of truth and falsehood.”
[1392] This is universally admitted to have been one of the most
splendid works of art. It is celebrated by various writers; Pausanias
speaks of it in B. i. See also B. xxxvi. c. 4.—B.
[1393] As being made for the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.
[1394] Probably “Callimorphos,” or “Calliste.” We learn from Pausanias
that it was placed in the Citadel of Athens. Lucian prefers it to every
other work of Phidias.
[1395] A figure of a female “holding keys.” The key was one of the
attributes of Proserpina, as also of Janus; but the latter was an
Italian divinity.
[1396] “Ædem Fortunæ hujusce diei.” This reading, about which there has
been some doubt, is supported by an ancient inscription in Orellius.
[1397] “Artem toreuticen.” See Note at the end of B. xxxiii.
[1398] Pliny has here confounded two artists of the same name; the
Polycletus who was the successor of Phidias, and was not much inferior
to him in merit, and Polycletus of Argos, who lived 160 years later,
and who also executed many capital works, some of which are here
mentioned. It appears that Cicero, Vitruvius, Strabo, Quintilian,
Plutarch, and Lucian have also confounded these two artists; but
Pausanias, who is very correct in the account which he gives us of all
subjects connected with works of art, was aware of the distinction; and
it is from his observations that we have been enabled to correct the
error into which so many eminent writers had fallen.—B.
[1399] Derived from the head-dress of the statue, which had the “head
ornamented with a fillet.” Lucian mentions it.
[1400] The “Spear-bearer.”
[1401] “Canon.” This no doubt was _the same_ statue as the Doryphoros.
See Cicero, Brut. 86, 296.
[1402] Or “strigil.” Visconti says that this was a statue of Tydeus
purifying himself from the murder of his brother. It is represented on
gems still in existence.
[1403] “Talo incessentem.” “Gesner (Chrestom. Plin.) has strangely
explained these words as intimating a person _in the act of kicking
another_. He seems to confound the words _talus_ and _calx_.”—Sillig,
Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1404] “The players at dice.” This is the subject of a painting found
at Herculaneum.—B.
[1405] The “Leader.” A name given also to Mercury, in Pausanias, B.
viii. c. 31. See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1406] “Carried about.” It has been supposed by some commentators, that
Artemon acquired this surname from his being carried about in a litter,
in consequence of his lameness; a very different derivation has been
assigned by others to the word, on the authority of Anacreon, as quoted
by Heraclides Ponticus, that it was applied to Artemon in consequence
of his excessively luxurious and effeminate habits of life.—B. It was
evidently a recumbent figure. Ajasson compares this voluptuous person
to “_le gentleman Anglais aux Indes_”—“The English Gentleman in India!”
[1407] See Note 1397 above.
[1408] “Quadrata.” Brotero quotes a passage from Celsus, B. ii c. 1,
which serves to explain the use of this term as applied to the form
of a statue; “Corpus autem habilissimum quadratum est, neque gracile,
neque obesum.”—B. “The body best adapted for activity is square-built,
and neither slender nor obese.”
[1409] “Ad unum exemplum.” Having a sort of family likeness, similarly
to our pictures by Francia the Goldsmith, and Angelica Kaufmann.
[1410] Myron was born at Eleutheræ, in Bœotia; but having been
presented by the Athenians with the freedom of their city, he
afterwards resided there, and was always designated an Athenian.—B.
[1411] This figure is referred to by Ovid, De Ponto, B. iv. Ep. 1, l.
34, as also by a host of Epigrammatic writers in the Greek Anthology.
[1412] See the Greek Anthology, B. vi. Ep. 2.
[1413] “Player with the Discus.” It is mentioned by Quintilian and
Lucian. There is a copy of it in marble in the British Museum, and
one in the Palazzo Massimi at Home. The Heifer of Myron is mentioned
by Procopius, as being at Rome in the sixth century. No copy of it is
known to exist.
[1414] Seen by Pausanias in the Acropolis at Athens.
[1415] Or “Sawyers.”
[1416] In reference to the story of the Satyr Marsyas and Minerva, told
by Ovid, Fasti, B. vi. l. 697, _et seq._
[1417] Persons engaged in the five contests of quoiting, running,
leaping, wrestling, and hurling the javelin.
[1418] Competitors in boxing and wrestling.
[1419] Mentioned by Cicero In Verrem, Or. 4. This Circus was in the
Eleventh Region of the city.
[1420] See the Anthology, B. iii. Ep. 14, where an epigram on this
subject is ascribed to Anytes or Leonides; but the Myro mentioned is a
female. See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1421] She was a poetess of Teios or Lesbos, and a contemporary of
Sappho.
[1422] “Multiplicasse veritatem.” Sillig has commented at some length
on this passage, Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1423] See Note 1418 above.
[1424] There is a painter of this name mentioned in B. xxxv. c. 43. The
reading is extremely doubtful.
[1425] Mentioned by Plato, De Legibus, B. viii. and by Pausanias, B.
vi. c. 13. He was thrice victorious at the Olympic Games.
[1426] Python.
[1427] From the Greek word Δικαιὸς, “just,” or “trustworthy.”—B.
[1428] Diogenes Laertius mentions a Pythagoras, a statuary, in his
life of his celebrated namesake, the founder of the great school of
philosophy.—B. Pausanias, B. ix. c. 33, speaks of a Parian statuary of
this name.
[1429] See Note 1395 above.
[1430] See end of B. vii.
[1431] Cicero remarks, Brut. 86, 296, “that Lysippus used to say
that the Doryphoros of Polycletus was his master,” implying that
he considered himself indebted for his skill to having studied the
above-mentioned work of Polycletus.—B.
[1432] In Chapter 17 of this Book.—B.
[1433] The same subject, which, as mentioned above, had been treated by
Polycletus.—B.
[1434] In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1435] Ἀποξυόμενος, the Greek name of the statue, signifying
one “scraping himself.”
[1436] The head encircled with rays.
[1437] The lines of Horace are well known, in which he says, that
Alexander would allow his portrait to be painted by no one except
Apelles, nor his statue to be made by any one except Lysippus, Epist.
B. ii. Ep. 1, l. 237.—B.
[1438] This expression would seem to indicate that the gold was
attached to the bronze by some mechanical process, and not that the
statue was covered with thin leaves of the metal.—B.
[1439] This story is adopted by Apuleius, in the “Florida,” B. i., who
says that Polycletus was the only artist who made a statue of Alexander.
[1440] A large group of equestrian statues, representing those of
Alexander’s body-guard, who had fallen at the battle of the Granicus.
[1441] A.U.C. 606.
[1442] See the Greek Anthology, B. iv. Ep. 14, where this subject is
treated of in the epigram upon his statue of Opportunity, represented
with the forelock.
[1443] Which is a word of Greek origin, somewhat similar to our word
“proportion.”
[1444] At Lebadæa in Bœotia.
[1445] Hardouin seems to think that “fiscina” here means a “muzzle.”
The Epigram in the Greek Anthology, B. iv. c. 7, attributed to King
Philip, is supposed by Hardouin to bear reference to this figure.
[1446] The circumstance here referred to is related by Q. Curtius, B.
ix. c. 5, as having occurred at the siege of the city of the Oxydracæ;
according to other historians, however, it is said to have taken place
at a city of the Malli.—B.
[1447] See Note 1417, above.
[1448] Κατάγουσα; a figure of Ceres, probably, “leading back”
Proserpine from the domains of Pluto. Sillig, however, dissents from
this interpretation; Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1449] Or Bacchus.
[1450] See Pausanias, B. i. c. 20. Sillig says, “Pliny seems to have
confounded two Satyrs made by Praxiteles, for that here named stood
alone in the ‘Via Tripodum’ at Athens, and was quite different from the
one which was associated with the figure of Intoxication, and that of
Bacchus.”—Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1451] “Much-famed.” Visconti is of opinion that the Reposing Satyr,
formerly in the Napoleon Museum at Paris, was a copy of this statue.
Winckelmann is also of the same opinion.
[1452] In the Second Region of the city. According to Cicero, in
Verrem. vi., they were brought from Achaia by L. Mummius, who took them
from Thespiæ, A.U.C. 608.
[1453] See B. xxxvi. c. 4.
[1454] A woman plaiting garlands.
[1455] A soubriquet for an old hag, it is thought.
[1456] A female carrying wine.
[1457] According to Valerius Maximus, B. ii. s. 10, these statues were
restored, not by Alexander, but by his successor Seleucus.—B. Sillig
makes the following remark upon this passage—“Pliny here strangely
confounds the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, made by Praxiteles,
with other figures of those heroes of a much more ancient date, made by
Antenor.”
[1458] From σαυρὸς a “lizard,” and κτείνω, “to kill.” This statue
is described by Martial, B. xiv. Ep. 172, entitled “Sauroctonos
Corinthius.”—B. Many fine copies of it are still in existence, and
Winckelmann is of opinion that the bronze at the Villa Albani is the
original. There are others at the Villa Borghese and in the Vatican.
[1459] In her worthless favours, probably. Praxiteles was a great
admirer of Phryne, and inscribed on the base of this statue an Epigram
of Simonides, preserved in the Greek Anthology, B. iv. Ep. 12. She was
also said to have been the model of his Cnidian Venus.
[1460] This artist is mentioned also by Cicero, Pausanias, Propertius,
and Ovid, the two latter especially remarking the excellence of his
horses.—B. See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1461] The mother of Hercules.—B.
[1462] See B. xxxvi. c. 4. Having now given an account of the artists
most distinguished for their genius, Pliny proceeds to make some
remarks upon those who were less famous, in alphabetical order.—B.
[1463] The “highly approved.”
[1464] Or “Lioness.” See B. vii. c. 23.
[1465] The reading is doubtful here. “Iphicrates” and “Tisicrates” are
other readings.
[1466] The same story is related by Athenæus, B. xiii., and by
Pausanias.—B.
[1467] Pisistratus and his sons, Hippias and Hipparchus.
[1468] A lioness.
[1469] She having bitten off her tongue, that she might not confess.
[1470] Hardouin has offered a plausible conjecture, that for the
word “Seleucum,” we should read “Salutem,” as implying that the two
statues executed by Bryaxis were those of Æsculapius and the Goddess of
Health.—B.
[1471] Already mentioned as a son of Lysippus.
[1472] In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1473] This reading appears preferable to “Cresilas,” though the latter
is supported by the Bamberg MS.
[1474] Ajasson quotes here the beautiful words of Virgil—“Et dulces
moriens reminiscitur Argos”—“Remembers his lov’d Argos, as he dies.”
[1475] Dalechamps supposes that Pericles was here represented in the
act of addressing the people; Hardouin conceives that this statue
received its title from the thunder of his eloquence in debate, or else
from the mighty power which he wielded both in peace and war, or some
of the other reasons which Plutarch mentions in the Life of Pericles.—B.
[1476] It is doubtful to which of the artists of this name he alludes,
the elder or the younger Cephisodotus, the son of Praxiteles. Sillig
inclines to think the former—Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1477] The “Deliverer.”
[1478] The elder Canachus, probably.
[1479] The “Lovely.” Brotero says that this is believed to be the
Florentine Apollo of the present day. It stood in the Temple at Didymi,
near Miletus, until the return of Xerxes from his expedition against
Greece, when it was removed to Ecbatana, but was afterwards restored by
Seleucus Nicator.
[1480] See B. v. c. 31.
[1481] “Alterno morsu calce digitisque retinentibus solum, ita
vertebrato dente utrisque in partibus ut a repulsu per vices resiliat.”
He seems to mean that the statue is so made as to be capable of
standing either on the right fore foot and the left hind foot, or on
the left fore foot and the right hind foot, the conformation of the
under part of the foot being such as to fit into the base.
[1482] The following are the words of the original: “Ita vertebrato
dente utrisque in partibus.” I confess myself unable to comprehend
them, nor do I think that they are satisfactorily explained by
Hardouin’s comment.—B.
[1483] The “Riders on horseback.”
[1484] It is supposed by Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists, that this
is the same person as the Cresilas, Ctesilas, or Ctesilaüs, before
mentioned in this Chapter, and that Pliny himself has committed a
mistake in the name.
[1485] A figure of a man “brandishing a spear.” See Note 1400 above.
[1486] He is mentioned by Quintilian as being more attentive to
exactness than to beauty; also by Diogenes Laertius, B. v. c. 85.
Sillig supposes that he flourished in the time of Pericles. Pausanias,
B. i., speaks of his Lysimache.
[1487] The Athenians in their flattery, as we learn from Seneca,
expressed a wish to affiance their Minerva Musica to Marc Antony. His
reply was, that he would be happy to take her, but with one thousand
talents by way of portion.
[1488] He is mentioned by Xenophon, according to whom, he dedicated the
brazen statue of a horse in the Eleusinium at Athens. He was probably
an Athenian by birth.
[1489] Son of Patroclus, who is previously mentioned as having lived in
the 95th Olympiad. He was a native of Sicyon, and flourished about B.C.
400. Several works of his are also mentioned by Pausanias.
[1490] Or “strigil.” See Note 1435 above.
[1491] The first Grecian slain at Troy.
[1492] Famous also as a painter. See B. xxxv. c. 40.—B. Paris, the son
of Priam, was known by both of these names.
[1493] Q. Lutatius Catulus.
[1494] “Bonus Eventus;” Varro, de Re Rustica, B. i. c. 1, applies
this term to one of the deities that preside over the labours of the
agriculturist. His temple was situate near the Baths of Agrippa.—B.
[1495] In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1496] See Note 1395, page 171.
[1497] Pausanias, B. vi., speaks of a statue of Ancient Greece, but the
name of the artist is not mentioned.—B.
[1498] See B. iv. c, 8.
[1499] Brotero informs us, from Ficoroni, that there is a gem still in
existence on which this design of Eutychides is engraved.—B.
[1500] Thiersch considers him to be identical with the elder Hegesias.
He is mentioned also by Pausanias, B. viii. c. 42.
[1501] See Note 1483, above.
[1502] Dedicated by Augustus on the Capitoline Hill, in the Eighth
Region of the City.
[1503] Sillig distinguishes three artists of this name.
[1504] See B. v. c. 40, and B. vii. c. 2.
[1505] The “Sacrificers of the ox.”
[1506] The son also.
[1507] Martial expresses the same idea in his Epigram, B. i. Ep. 7; but
he does not refer to this statue.—B. Two copies of this Ganymede are
still in existence at Rome.
[1508] Pausanias informs us, B. i. and B. ix., that he saw this statue
in the Prytanæum of Athens.—B. Autolycus obtained this victory about
the 89th or 90th Olympiad.
[1509] It was in honour of a victory gained by him in the _pentathlon_
at the Great Panathenæa, that Callias gave the Symposium described by
Xenophon.
[1510] Martial, B. ix. Ep. 51, where he is pointing at the analogy
between his poems and 95the works of the most eminent sculptors,
probably refers to this statue:—
“Nos facimus Bruti puerum, nos Lagona vivum.”—B.
The reading “Lagonem,” or “Langonem,” certainly seems superior to that
of the Bamberg MS.—“Mangonem,” a “huckster.”
[1511] For some further mention of him, see end of B. iv.
[1512] Delafosse has pointed out the resemblance between this statue
and one of the works of Michael Angelo, representing David kneeling on
Goliath, and pressing back the giant’s neck.—B.
[1513] A native of Argos, who flourished in the 95th Olympiad. He was
the son of Motho, and brother and instructor of the younger Polycletus
of Argos. Several of his statues are mentioned by Pausanias and Tatian.
[1514] Ajasson thinks that three statues in the Royal Museum at Paris
may possibly be copies of this Discobolus of Naucydes.
[1515] The Goddess of Health, and daughter of Æsculapius. Niceratus was
a native of Athens, and is also mentioned by Tatian.
[1516] A “Female sacrificing.” The reading is very doubtful.
[1517] The “Man cooking entrails.” For some further account of this
statue, see B. xxii. c. 20. This artist is unknown, but Thiersch
suggests that he may have been the father of Cleomenes, whose name
appears on the base of the Venus de Medicis.
[1518] The master of the Gymnasium.
[1519] He is twice mentioned by Pausanias: more particularly for the
excellence of his horses and oxen. His country is unknown.
[1520] “The beautiful-legged.” This statue has been mentioned at the
end of Chapter 18, as having been greatly admired by Nero.
[1521] This, it is supposed, is the statue to which Martial alludes in
his Epigram, mentioned in Note 1510 above.—B.
[1522] There were two artists of this name, both natives of Samos. The
present is the elder Theodorus, and is mentioned by Pausanias as having
been the first to fuse iron for statues. He is spoken of by numerous
ancient authors, and by Pliny in B. vii. c. 57, B. xxxv. c. 45, and B.
xxxvi. c. 19, where he is erroneously mentioned as a Lemnian.
[1523] At Crete: Athenagoras mentions him in conjunction with Dædalus.
[1524] See B. vii. c. 21. Hardouin thinks that this bears reference to
the conquest of the younger Marius by Sylla, mentioned in B. xxxiii. c.
5. Müller and Meyer treat this story of the brazen statue as a fiction.
[1525] Probably the same author that is mentioned at the end of B.
xxxiii. See also B. xxxv. c. 36.
[1526] The Galli here spoken of were a tribe of the Celts, who invaded
Asia Minor, and afterwards uniting with the Greeks, settled in a
portion of Bithynia, which hence acquired the name of Gallo-Græcia or
Galatia.—B.
[1527] See end of B. xxxiii. Attalus I., king of Pergamus, conquered
the Galli, B.C. 239. Pyromachus has been mentioned a few lines before,
and Stratonicus, in B. xxxiii. c. 55, also by Athenæus.
[1528] A native of Carthage. A work of his is mentioned by Cicero, in
Verrem 4, 14, and in the Culex, l. 66, attributed to Virgil. See also
B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1529] In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1530] We are informed by Pausanias, B. x., that Nero carried off from
Greece 500 bronze statues of gods and men.—B.
[1531] See B. xxxvi. c. 24.
[1532] See B. xxxv. c. 55.
[1533] Mentioned by Pausanias, B. vi. Many of these artists are
altogether unknown.
[1534] See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1535] See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1536] See B. xxxiii. c. 56, and B. xxxv. c. 35.
[1537] Probably the same artist that has been mentioned in the
preceding page.
[1538] The artist already mentioned as having been represented by
Silanion.
[1539] Pausanias, B. iii., speaks of his statue of Cynisca, a female
who was victor at the Olympic games. Indeed, the victors at these games
were frequently represented in a posture resembling that of adoration.
[1540] A man “scraping himself,” probably. See Note 1435, page 175. The
“Tyrannicides” were Harmodius and Aristogiton.
[1541] Tatian mentions an artist of this name.
[1542] Sillig thinks that this was Seleucus, king of Babylon, B.C. 312.
[1543] See Note 1485 above.
[1544] Pausanias, B. viii., gives an account of a statue of Diana, made
of Pentelican marble, by this Cephisodotus, a native of Athens; he is
supposed to have flourished in the 102nd Olympiad. In the commencement
of this Chapter, Pliny has enumerated a Cephisodotus among the artists
of the 120th Olympiad.—B.
[1545] Bacchus.
[1546] The elder artist of this name. See B. xxxv. c. 34.
[1547] A native of Sicyon; Pausanias, B. v. cc. 17, 21, informs us
that Cleon made a statue of Venus and two statues of Jupiter; he also
mentions others of his works in B. vi.—B.
[1548] A native of Megara. He made a statue of Diagoras the pugilist,
who was victor at the Olympic games, B.C. 464. He is mentioned also by
Pausanias.
[1549] Probably the same with the “Laïppus” mentioned in the early part
of this Chapter. Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists, considers “Daïppus” to
be the right name.
[1550] See Note 1540 above.
[1551] A native of Sicyon, and pupil of Pison, according to Pausanias,
B. vi. c. 3. He flourished about the 100th Olympiad.
[1552] Works of his at Athens are mentioned by Pausanias, B. i. c. 2,
who also states that he was father of Euchir, the Athenian.
[1553] A statuary of Syracuse, son of Niceratus. He made two statues
of Hiero II., king of Syracuse, who died B.C. 215. He must not be
confounded with the painter and statuary of the same name, mentioned in
B. xxxiii. c. 56, and B. xxxv. c. 35. He is mentioned also by Pausanias.
[1554] An Athenian, son of Euctemon. He is mentioned also by Tatian,
and is supposed by Sillig to have flourished about B.C. 420.
[1555] Called Dinomache by Plutarch.
[1556] Already mentioned as a successful pupil of Lysippus.
[1557] He was probably a native of Agrigentum, and flourished about
B.C. 560. The brazen bull of Perillus, and his unhappy fate, are
recorded by many of the classical writers, among others by Valerius
Maximus, B. ix. cc. 2, 9, and by Ovid, Art. Am. B. i. ll. 653-4.—B.
[1558] See B. vii. c. 57.
[1559] Mentioned at the commencement of this Chapter.
[1560] A statuary of Ægina, mentioned also by Pausanias, B. v. c. 27,
in connexion with Dionysius of Argos. He flourished about Olymp. 76.
[1561] Already mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 55, and previously in this
Chapter.
[1562] “Scopas uterque.” Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists, expresses
an opinion that these words are an interpolation; but in his last
edition of Pliny, he thinks with M. Ian, that some words are wanting,
expressive of the branch in which these artists excelled. See also B.
xxxvi. cc. 5, 14.
[1563] He is previously mentioned in this Chapter. See p. 179.
[1564] An Athenian artist, son of Eubulides. He is also mentioned by
Pausanias.
[1565] A Lacedæmonian artist, also mentioned by Pausanias.
[1566] See B. xxxvi. c. 4.
[1567] Mentioned also by Pausanias, B. i. c. 3.
[1568] Probably _not_ the Athenian statuary mentioned by Pausanias, B.
ix. c. 7. See Sillig, Dict. Ancient Artists.
[1569] A native of Phocis, mentioned also by Vitruvius.
[1570] Also a Dithyrambic poet; mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.
[1571] In B. xxxv. c. 36.
[1572] See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1573] Mentioned by Tatian as having made the statue of Eutychis. See
Pliny, B. vii. c. 3.
[1574] He executed a statue of Hephæstion; and an inscription relative
to him is preserved by Wheler, Spon, and Chishull.
[1575] See B. xxxvi. c. 4.
[1576] A native of Sardis; mentioned by Pausanias.
[1577] An Athenian, mentioned also by Pausanias.
[1578] Strabo mentions some of his productions in the Temple at Ephesus.
[1579] “Fritterer away of his works.” He was also an engraver on gold,
and a painter. He is spoken of in high terms by Vitruvius, Pausanias,
and Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
[1580] We have an account of Cato’s honourable conduct on this occasion
in Plutarch.—B. See also B. xxix. c. 30.
[1581] “Inane exemplum.” Hardouin thinks that this is said in reference
to his neglect of the example set by his grandfather, Cato the Censor,
who hated the Greeks. See B. vii. c. 31.
[1582] In the poisoned garment, which was the eventual cause of his
death.—B.
[1583] The general who conducted the war against Mithridates.—B.
[1584] See B. xxxiii. c. 46. “Chaplet” copper.
[1585] “Bar” copper, or “malleable.”
[1586] It is very improbable that this effect could be produced by the
cause here assigned; but without a more detailed account of the process
employed, we cannot explain the change of colour.—B.
[1587] Πυρωπὸς, “sparkling like fire.” Similar to, if not identical
with, our tinsel.
[1588] “Cast brass.”
[1589] See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1590] In the former Editions the whole of the next ten lines, from
this word down to “sun” is omitted. It is evident that it has been
left out by accident, in consequence of the recurrence of the word
“Campano.” The hiatus has been supplied from the Bamberg MS., and the
reading is supported by the text of Isidorus, Orig. B. xvi. c. 20, s. 9.
[1591] “Collectanei.”
[1592] “Formalis.”
[1593] “Plumbi nigri”—“black lead,” literally, but not what _we_ mean
by that name.
[1594] The “Grecian” colour. It does not appear to have been
identified, nor does it appear what it has to do with moulds.
[1595] “Pot” copper, or brass.
[1596] Beckmann is of opinion that this “plumbum argentarium” was a
mixture of equal parts of tin and lead. Hist. Inv. Vol. II, p. 220.
_Bohn’s Edition._
[1597] Most of these preparations are in reality highly dangerous.
Oxides, however, or salts of copper, have been employed internally
with success, acting by alvine evacuation and by vomiting. The _Crocus
Veneris_ of the old chemists was an oxide of copper. It is still used
by the peasants of Silesia, Ajasson says.
[1598] It is obvious that the “cadmia” here described must be an
essentially different substance from the “cadmia” mentioned in the
second Chapter of this Book, that being a natural production, possibly
calamine or hydrosilicate or carbonate of zinc; while the “cadmia”
of this Chapter is a furnace-calamine, a product of the fusion of
the ore of copper, or zinc.—B. It is evident, too, that copper ores,
impregnated with zinc or calamine, also passed under this name. See
Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 33-35, _Bohn’s Edition_, where this
subject is discussed at considerable length: also the treatise by
Delafosse, in Lemaire’s Edition of Pliny.
[1599] The metal known to us as “cadmium” was discovered by Professor
Stromeyer in 1818: it is either associated in its ores with zinc, or
forms a native sulphuret.
[1600] “Smoky residue.” None of these substances formed in smelting are
preserved for medicinal purposes at the present day. Tutty is an impure
oxide of zinc.
[1601] “Cluster residue.” From its resemblance to a bunch of grapes.
[1602] “Caked residue.”
[1603] “Shell-formed residue.”
[1604] See B. xiv. c. 16.
[1605] See end of B. iii.
[1606] See end of B. xii.
[1607] We have the same account of the medicinal effects of Cadmia,
and the other preparations mentioned in this Chapter, given by
Dioscorides.—B.
[1608] For an account of the “alumen” of the ancients, see B. xxxv. c.
52.
[1609] See B. xxxiii. c. 21, and B. xxxvi. c. 13.
[1610] See B. xxxiii. c. 37.
[1611] “Æris flos.” Ajasson makes some correct remarks upon the
difference between the “scoria” and the “flower” of the metal. The
former may be considered as consisting of the metal, mixed with a
certain proportion of heterogeneous matter, which has been separated
during the fusion of the ore, while the latter consists of the pure
metal in a state of mechanical division.—B.
[1612] From the Greek λεπὶς, “husk,” or “scale.”
[1613] Ajasson describes this substance as consisting merely of the
pure metal in a state of minute mechanical division; it would appear,
therefore, to be scarcely, if at all, different from the articles
described in the last Chapter. The word Στόμωμα means a “hard
substance,” or “hard scales,” therefore the application of this term to
a substance like down, “lanugo,” is perhaps not very appropriate.—B.
[1614] Beckmann comments at some length on this passage; Vol. I. p.
328. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1615] “Seplasiæ.” The druggists dwelling in the Seplasia. See B.
xxxiii. c. 58.
[1616] In Chapters 22 and 23, as applied to Cadmia and Cyprian copper,
respectively.—B.
[1617] “Ærugo.” The researches of modern chemists have ascertained the
composition of verdigris to be a diacetete of copper; the sesquibasic
acetate and the triacetate are also to be considered as varieties
of this substance; we have an exact analysis of these salts in the
“Elements” of the late Dr. Turner, the Sixth Edition, edited by
Professor Liebig and Mr. W. Turner, pp. 931, 2. Most of the processes
described in this Chapter are mentioned by Dioscorides.—B. See also
Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 171, _et seq._, _Bohn’s Edition_.
[1618] According to Brotero, this is the process generally adopted in
France, in preference to the employment of vinegar in a pure state.—B.
[1619] The form of copper which was termed “coronarium” has been
already described in Chapter 22.—B.
[1620] “Atramento sutorio.” “Shoemakers’ black.” See Chapters 27 and 32
of this Book.
[1621] Until it assumes an ashy colour, Dioscorides says.—B.
[1622] See B. xii. cc. 30, 32.
[1623] According to Celsus, this substance obtained its name from
the person who invented or compounded it; he calls it “Collyrium of
Hierax.”—B.
[1624] “Atramenti sutorii, quod chalcanthum vocant.” We may presume
that this substance was somewhat different from the “atramentum
sutorium” mentioned in the last Chapter: the word “chalcanthum” means
“flower of copper;” χαλκοῦ ἄνθος.—B. Delafosse identities
it with blue vitriol, sulphate, or hydro-trisulphate of copper. See
Chapter 32.
[1625] See Chapter 31.
[1626] From the Greek σκωλὴξ, “a worm,” “Vermicular Verdigris.”—“The
accounts of this substance in ancient authors seem to some commentators
to be obscure; but in my opinion we are to understand by them that the
ingredients were pounded together till the paste they formed assumed
the appearance of pieces or threads like worms. For the same reason the
Italians give the name of _vermicelli_ to wire-drawn paste of flour
used in cookery.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 173, _Bohn’s Edition_.
[1627] In B. xxxiii. c. 29.—B.
[1628] The name, no doubt, of a copper ore which has not been
identified. Delafosse suggests that it may have been an ore of iron
and copper pyrites in combination with a silky copper malachite. See
Chapter 2 of this Book, and B. xxxv. c. 52.
[1629] Brongniart is of opinion that the “sory” of Pliny is the
sulphate of copper, probably with an excess of acid. He informs us that
he has received a specimen of a native sulphate of copper from Cuença,
in Spain, which possesses all the characteristics of “sory” as here
described. He considers it more difficult to ascertain the chemical
composition of “misy,” but is disposed to consider it as a mixed
sulphate of iron and copper.—B.
[1630] In the next two Chapters.—B.
[1631] We have a similar account of its medicinal virtues given us by
Dioscorides; Celsus also enumerates chalcitis among the corrosives, or
cauteries, “quæ exedunt corpus.” He also recommends it for affections
of the eyes.—B.
[1632] “Sore ointment.”
[1633] See Note 1629 above.
[1634] See Note 1629 above. Hardouin calls this substance “yellow
copperas,” or “Roman vitriol.”
[1635] “In scrobibus.” The mineral alluded to is Chalcitis, mentioned
in Chapter 29.—B.
[1636] Χαλκοῦ ἄνθος. “Flower of copper.”—B.
[1637] “Atramentum sutorium.” It was thus called from its being used
for colouring leather. Under this name he probably includes green
vitriol, or sulphate of the protoxide of iron, and blue vitriol, or
sulphate, and hydro-trisulphate of copper, the former of which is,
properly, our copperas. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 181, _et
seq._ _Bohn’s Edition._ See also Note 1624 above.
[1638] In reality, the “chalcanthum” of Dioscorides was the small
scales separated from molten copper by the application of water. See
Chapters 24 and 25 above.
[1639] Of this kind, probably. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 182.
[1640] From this _vitreous_ appearance of the crystals of vitriol, it
is most probable that vitriol derives its name. See Beckmann, Vol. I.
p. 184.
[1641] “Drop,” or “globule” chalcanthum.
[1642] Possibly a corruption of “leucoion,” “violet white.”
[1643] He has described the mode of procuring salt, by evaporating the
brine in shallow pits, in B. xxxi. c. 39.—B.
[1644] It is difficult to ascertain the exact nature of the substances
treated of in this Chapter. Ajasson has some judicious remarks upon
them, in which he points out what appear to be inconsistencies in the
account given of them, and of their relation to each other.—B. Ajasson
says that there is no doubt that a mammose or terreous carbonate of
copper is meant under these names. These substances are no longer
known, but our tutty, or impure oxide of zinc, bears some resemblance
to them.
[1645] See B. xix. c. 4, and Chapters 34 and 52 of this Book.
[1646] A Greek word, signifying “ashes,” or the residuum after
combustion.—B.
[1647] From the corresponding passage in Dioscorides, there is some
doubt whether the account of this process here given is correct.—B.
[1648] So called from Laurium, a district in Attica, in which there
were silver mines. See Pausanias, B. i.—B.
[1649] Meaning “Substitute for spodos.”
[1650] See B. xxiii. cc. 38, 63.
[1651] See B. xxi. c. 26, and B. xvi. c. 20.
[1652] See B. xxi. c. 95.
[1653] See B. xi. c. 94.—B.
[1654] “Detersive composition.”
[1655] From Δὶς φρυγέσθαι.—“being twice calcined.”—B.
[1656] The Scoriæ, Cadmia, and Flos, which are described in Chapters
22, 23 and 24.—B.
[1657] A Roman coin, equal to the third part of the “as.”—B.
[1658] We most fully coincide with Pliny in this sentiment, but we are
constrained to differ from him in giving credit to the alleged fact, as
he appears to have done.—B.
[1659] See the list of authors at the end of this Book.
[1660] “Arbusta:” trees on which vines were trained. See B. xvii. c. 35.
[1661] Holland has the following Note upon this passage: “O Pliny, what
wouldst thou say, if thou didst see and hear the pistols, muskets,
culverines, and cannons in these days.” Vol. II. p. 513.—B.
[1662] The charge that death is always the work of Nature.—B.
[1663] Or “stylus.”
[1664] See Ovid, Metam. B. iv. l. 467, _et seq._; and Fasti, B. vi. l.
489, _et seq._—B.
[1665] An artist mentioned also by Ovid and Pausanias.—B. And by Virgil.
[1666] “Mars Ultor.” In the Forum of Augustus, in the Eighth Region of
the City.
[1667] The Isle of Elba, which has been celebrated for the extent and
the richness of its iron mines both by the ancients and the moderns.—B.
Ajasson remarks that it appears to be a solid rock composed of peroxide
of iron.
[1668] “Clavis caligariis.” See B. viii. c. 44, B. ix. c. 33, and B.
xxii. c. 46.
[1669] There have been numerous opinions on the meaning of this word,
and its signification is very doubtful. Beckmann has the following
remarks in reference to this passage:—“In my opinion, this was the name
given to pieces of steel completely manufactured and brought to that
state which rendered them fit for commerce. At present steel comes
from Biscay in cakes, from other places in bars, and both these were
formerly called ‘stricturæ,’ because they were employed chiefly for
giving sharpness to instruments, or tools, that is, for steeling them.
In speaking of other metals, Pliny says that the finished productions
at the works were not called ‘stricturæ’ (the case, for example, with
copper), though sharpness could be given to instruments with other
metals also. The words of Pliny just quoted are read different ways,
and still remain obscure. I conjecture that he meant to say, that some
steel-works produced things which were entirely of steel, and that
others were employed only in steeling—‘ad densandas incudes malleorumve
rostra.’ I shall here remark that these ‘stricturæ ferri’ remind us of
the ‘striges auri,’ (see B. xxxiii. c. 19), such being the name given
to native pieces of gold, which, without being smelted, were used in
commerce.”—Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 327. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1670] “A stringendâ acie.” The iron was probably formed into thin,
long bars, in thickness resembling a steel used for sharpening. The
French word _acier_, meaning “steel,” may possibly come from the Latin
“acies”—“edge,” as Beckmann has suggested.
[1671] Situate at the spot now known as “Bambola,” near Calatayud. The
river Salo ran near it, the waters of which, as here mentioned, were
celebrated for their power of tempering steel. The poet Martial was a
native of this place.
[1672] Supposed to be the modern Tarragona.
[1673] See B. iii. c. 21.
[1674] See B. vi. cc. 20-24, B. vii. c. 2, and B. xii. cc. 1, 41. This
Seric iron has not been identified. Ctesias, as quoted by Photius,
mentions Indian iron. Sec Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 228. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1675] Thought by Beckmann, quoting from Bottiger, possibly to bear
reference to a transfer trade of furs, through Serica, from the North
of Asia. See Vol. II. p. 307. As to the Seric tissues, see B. xxxvii.
c. 77.
[1676] Or “Persian.” The steel of Damascus had in the middle ages a
high reputation.
[1677] See B. iii. cc. 24, 27. Horace speaks of the “Norican sword” on
two occasions.—B.
[1678] See B. iii. cc. 9, 17.
[1679] See B. xviii. c. 67, and B. xxxvi. c. 38.
[1680] B. xxxvi. c. 25.
[1681] Properly “bubbles,” or “beads.”
[1682] See B. xxxvi. c. 66. In the account of the loadstone referred to
above, he informs us that this mineral was employed in the formation of
glass.—B. Beckmann is of opinion that Manganese is here alluded to. See
Vol. II. p. 237.
[1683] Another reading is “Dinochares,” or “Dinocrates,” for an account
of whom, see B. v. c. 11, and B. vii. c. 38.
[1684] Wife and sister of Ptolemy Philadelphus. See B. vi. c. 33, and
B. xxxvi. c. 14.
[1685] Some accounts state that the statue was to be of brass, and the
head of iron. It is said that the same thing was attempted with respect
to the statue of Mahomet, in his tomb at Medina.—B.
[1686] We learn from Bowles that the celebrated mine of Sommorostro is
still worked for this metal.
[1687] See B. iv. c. 34.—B.
[1688] Both the reading and the meaning of this passage are very
doubtful.
[1689] See B. v. c. 21.—B.
[1690] We may presume that Pliny supposed that the ancient links had
been protected by some of the substances mentioned above, although this
is not distinctly stated.—B. Or rather by some religious ceremony as
above alluded to.
[1691] “Nocturnas lymphationes.”—B.
[1692] The _actual_ cautery, as it is termed, is occasionally employed,
in certain diseases, by the moderns, but I am not aware that it has
been tried in hydrophobia.—B. This precaution is sometimes used by
country practitioners, at all events.
[1693] I cannot agree with Delafosse in his remark that “this remedy
also is much in use for cœliac and other affections at the present
day.”—B. It is still recommended by old women in the country, for
children more particularly.
[1694] There are two versions of this story. In B. xxv. c. 19, Pliny
says that Achilles cured Telephus by the application of a plant, which
from him received its name. According to the other account, the oracle
had declared, that the wound of Telephus, which had been inflicted by
Achilles, could only be cured by means of the same weapon which had
caused it.—B.
[1695] All the statements in this Chapter are to be found in
Dioscorides, B. v. c. 93.—B.
[1696] The scaly excrescences beaten from iron in the forges, Hardouin
says.—B.
[1697] From the Greek ὕγρον πλαστρὸν.—B.
[1698] See B. xxxv. c. 57.—B.
[1699] It is most probable that the “black lead” of Pliny was our lead,
and the “white lead” our tin. Beckmann has considered these Chapters at
great length, Vol. II. p. 209, _et seq._ _Bohn’s Edition._
[1700] Supposed to have been derived from the Oriental word _Kastîra_.
[1701] What is here adduced as a fabulous narrative is not very remote
from the truth; the Scilly Isles and Cornwall being the principal
sources of the tin now employed in Europe. Small boats, corresponding
to the description here given, were very lately still in use among
the inhabitants of some parts of the south-west coast of England [and
on the Severn]. Pliny has already spoken of these boats in B. vii.
c. 57.—B. See also B. iv. c. 30, as to the _coracles_ of the ancient
Britons.
[1702] The ores of tin are known to exist in Gallicia; but the mines in
that country are very scanty compared to those of Cornwall.—B.
[1703] “Talutium” is mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 21.
[1704] Tin ore is among the heaviest of minerals, though the specific
gravity of the metal is small. M. Hæfer is of opinion that these
pebbles contained platinum.
[1705] Or tin. The greater fusibility of the tin producing this
separation.—B.
[1706] We may conclude that the “plumbum nigrum,” or “black lead”
of Pliny is the Galena or sulphuret of lead of the moderns; it is
frequently what is termed argentiferous, _i.e._ united with an ore of
silver, and this in such quantity as to cause it to be worked for the
purpose of procuring the silver.—B. See Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 210.
[1707] “Instead of oil, workmen use at present ‘colophonium,’ or some
other resin.”—Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 223. See also B. xxxiii. c. 20.
[1708] Iliad, xi. 25, and xxiii. 561.—B.
[1709] Ajasson considers this to be Bismuth; but it is more probable
that Beckmann is right in his conclusion, supported by Agricola,
Entzel, Fallopius, Savot, Bernia, and Jung, that it was a compound
metal, the _Werk_ of the German smelting-houses] a metal not much
unlike our pewter, probably. See Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 209,
212, 224. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1710] See B. xxxiii. c. 31, and c. 53 of this Book.
[1711] A compound metal, probably, somewhat like pewter. See Note 1709
above. He evidently alludes to the process of “tinning.”
[1712] In B. xxxiii. c. 45: where he says that the best mirrors were
formerly made of a mixture of stannum and copper.—B. See Beckmann,
Hist. Inv. Vol. II. pp. 60-62, 72.
[1713] Or tin.
[1714] “Silver mixture.”
[1715] Such a mixture as this would in reality become _more valuable_
than “argentarium,” as the proportion would be _two-thirds_ of tin and
one of lead. How then could the workmen merit the title of dishonest?
Beckmann suggests that the tinning ought to have been done with _pure
tin_, but that unprincipled artists employed tin mixed with lead. It
is most probable, however, that Pliny himself has made a mistake, and
that we should read “equal parts of black lead” (our lead); in which
case the mixture passed off as “argentarium,” instead of containing
_equal_ parts of tin and lead, would contain _five-sixths_ of lead. See
Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 221. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1716] All these readings are doubtful in the extreme.
[1717] As being too brittle, probably; the reason suggested by
Beckmann, Vol. II. p. 221.
[1718] Literally, “inboiled,” being coated by immersion in the molten
tin.
[1719] Supposed by Hardouin to have been the town of Alise, in Auxois.
[1720] See B. iv. c. 33.
[1721] The names of various kinds of carriages, the form of which is
now unknown.
[1722] Both tin and lead can be fused in paper, when it is closely
wrapped around them.
[1723] In reality India did and does possess them both; but it is
possible that in those days it was not considered worth while to search
for them.
[1724] The “lead” of the moderns.
[1725] Mr. T. Wright, the eminent antiquarian, is of opinion that the
extensive Roman lead mines at Shelve, in Shropshire, are here alluded
to. See the _Illustrated London News_, Oct. 4, 1856.
[1726] Probably from Ovetum, the modern Oviedo.—B.
[1727] So called from the island of Capraria. See B. iii. cc. 11, 12,
and B. vi. c. 37.
[1728] See B. iii. c. 12.
[1729] Not in Bætica, as Brotero remarks, but in Lusitania, or
Portugal; the modern Santarem.—B.
[1730] See Introduction to Vol. III.
[1731] This circumstance is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 20.—B.
[1732] Hardouin observes, that these insects are never met with in
mines; but probably this may depend more upon other causes, than upon
the vapours which are supposed to proceed from the metals.—B.
[1733] See B. xxxiii. cc. 33, 34.
[1734] See B. xx. c. 81, and B. xxiv. c. 73.
[1735] “Charta.” See B. xxiv. c. 51.
[1736] This, according to Ajasson, is the protoxide, or probably, in
some cases, the arseniate of lead.—B.
[1737] From σποδὸς, “ashes.”—B.
[1738] See Chapter 34 of this Book.—B.
[1739] This was probably lead ore in its primary state, when only
separated from the stannum, and before it was subjected to fusion for
the purpose of obtaining pure lead.—See Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II.
p. 211. _Bohn’s Edition._ Ajasson identifies it with litharge, or fused
oxide of lead, known as gold and silver litharge, from its colour.
[1740] See B. xxxiii. c. 31, and Chapter 47 of this Book.—B.
[1741] In Cilicia: see B. v. c. 22. He is speaking, no doubt, of the
“metallic,” or artificial kind.
[1742] A kind of ointment. See B. xxiii. c. 81, and B. xxxiii. c. 35.
[1743] Our Litharge. See B. xxxiii. c. 35.
[1744] According to Ajasson, this substance is properly a sub-carbonate
of lead, commonly called white lead.—B.
[1745] Scoria of lead and molybdæna.—B.
[1746] Preparations of lead are still used in cosmetics for whitening
the complexion.
[1747] The Realgar of the moderns, red orpiment, or red sulphuret of
arsenic. Pliny has in numerous places spoken of it as a remedy for
certain morbid states both of animals and vegetables, B. xvii. c. 47,
B. xxiii. c. 13, B. xxv. c. 22, and B. xxviii. c. 62, but he has not
previously given any account of its origin and composition.—B.
[1748] Dioscorides, B. v. c. 122, informs us, with respect to this
effect of sandarach, that it was burned in combination with resin, and
that the smoke was inhaled through a tube.—B.
[1749] The substance here mentioned, though its name is the foundation
of our word “arsenic,” is not the arsenic of modern commerce, but
probably a sulphuret of arsenic containing a less proportion of sulphur
than the Sandarach of the last Chapter.—B.
[1750] The other two mentioned species naturally divide into laminæ,
while this kind is disposed to separate into fine fibres.—B.
[1751] By this process a considerable portion of the sulphur is
expelled, so as to cause the orpiment to approximate to the state of
arsenic.—B.
[1752] See end of B. ii.
[1753] See end of B. ii.
[1754] See end of B. iii.
[1755] See end of B. ii.
[1756] See end of B. ii.
[1757] A different person from the Messala mentioned at the end of B.
ix. He is mentioned in B. xxxiii. c. 14, B. xxxv. c. 2, and in Chapter
38 of this Book; but nothing further seems to be known of him.
[1758] See end of B. vii. and Note 1315 to B. vii. c. 53.
[1759] Domitius Marsus, a poet of the Augustan age, of whom few
particulars are known, except that he wrote an epitaph on the poet
Tibullus, who died B.C. 18. He is mentioned by Ovid and Martial, from
the latter of whom we learn that his epigrams were distinguished for
their wit, licentiousness, and satire.
[1760] See end of B. xvi.
[1761] See end of B. xx.
[1762] See end of B. xii.
[1763] See end of B. vii.
[1764] See end of B. ii.
[1765] See end of B. iii.
[1766] See end of B. iv.
[1767] See c. 19 of this Book, Note 1525, page 184.
[1768] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1769] See end of B. vii.
[1770] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1771] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1772] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1773] See end of B. iii.
[1774] See end of B. xii.
[1775] See end of Books iv., viii., xi., and xx.
[1776] See end of B. xx.
[1777] See end of Books iv., and xii.
[1778] See end of B. xii.
[1779] See end of B. xiii.
[1780] See end of B. xii.
[1781] See end of B. xii.
[1782] See end of B. xxix.
[1783] See end of B. xii.
[1784] See end of B. xii.
[1785] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1786] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1787] “Officinarum tenebræ;” probably in reference to the ignorance
displayed by the compounders of medicines, as pointed out in B. xxxiii.
c. 38, and in B. xxxiv. c. 25.—B.
[1788] See B. xxxiii. c. 55.
[1789] See B. xxxiv. c. 9.
[1790] See B. xxxiii. c. 36.
[1791] See B. xxxvi. c. 8.
[1792] See B. v. c. 29.
[1793] “Surdo figurarum discrimine.”
[1794] We are informed by Suetonius, that this practice existed in the
time of Tiberius.—B. See also Note 18, p. 196.
[1795] Which he is ready to employ in carrying away his plunder.
[1796] “Ceromata;” this is properly a Greek term, signifying an
ointment used by athletes, composed of oil and wax.—B.
[1797] This practice is referred to by Cicero, De Finib. B. v.—B.
[1798] In reality, his birth-day was not on the twentieth day of any
month; but, for some reason which is not known, he fixed upon this
day.—B. He was born on the seventh day of the month Gamelion.
[1799] From the Greek εἰκὰς, the “twentieth” day of the month.
[1800] In obedience to the maxim of Epicurus, Λάθε βιῶσας—“Live in
obscurity.”
[1801] See B. xxi. c. 49, and Note 2139, p. 346.
[1802] This appears to have been the usual practice at the funerals
of distinguished personages among the Romans: it is referred to
by Tacitus, Ann. B. ii. c. 73, in his account of the funeral of
Germanicus.—B.
[1803] “Tabulina.” Rooms situate near the atrium.
[1804] A cognomen of the Gens Valeria at Rome, from which the family of
the Messalæ had also originally sprung.
[1805] So called from his father-in-law Pomponius, a man celebrated for
his wealth, and by whom he was adopted. It would appear that Scipio
Pomponianus adopted Scipio Salvitto, so called from his remarkable
resemblance to an actor of mimes. See B. vii. c. 10.
[1806] They were probably, like the Scipios, a branch of the Gens
Cornelia. Suetonius speaks in very derogatory terms of a member of this
family, who accompanied Julius Cæsar in his Spanish campaign against
the Pompeian party.
[1807] In the Greek Anthology, B. v., we have the imaginary portrait of
Homer described at considerable length.—B.
[1808] Hardouin supposes that this work was written by Cicero, and that
he named it after his friend Atticus; but, as Delafosse remarks, it is
clear from the context that it was the work of Atticus.—B.
[1809] M. Deville is of opinion that these portraits were made in
relief upon plates of metal, perhaps bronze, and coloured with minium,
a red tint much esteemed by the Romans.
[1810] “Clypei.” These were shields or escutcheons of metal, with the
features of the deceased person represented either in painting or in
relief.
[1811] Hardouin informs us that there are some Greek inscriptions
given by Gruter, p. 441, and p. 476, from which it appears that public
festivals were celebrated on occasions of this kind.—B.
[1812] A.U.C. 671.—B. See B. vii. c. 54.
[1813] See B. xxxvi. c. 24.
[1814] It is scarcely necessary to refer to the well-known description
of the shield of Achilles, in the Iliad, B. xviii. l. 478 _et seq._,
and of that of Æneas, Æn. B. viii. l. 626, _et seq._—B.
[1815] He implies that the word is derived from the Greek γλύφειν, “to
carve” or “emboss” and not from the old Latin “cluo,” “to be famous.”
Ajasson suggests the Greek καλύπτω “to cover.”
[1816] Cneius and Publius Scipio, who had been slain by Hasdrubal.—B.
As to L. Marcius, see B. ii. c. 3.
[1817] See B. xxxiii. c. 5.
[1818] “Lustrations.” Periods at the end of the census, made by the
censors every five years. The censors were the guardians of the
temples, and consequently these bucklers would come under their
supervision.
[1819] This period for the invention of painting by the Egyptians
is evidently incorrect; but still there is sufficient reason for
concluding that there now exist specimens of Egyptian art, which were
in existence previous to the time of the earliest Grecian painters of
whom we have any certain account.—B.
[1820] All the ancients who have treated of the history of the art
agree, that the first attempt at what may be considered the formation
of a picture, consisted in tracing the shadow of a human head or some
other object on the wall, the interior being filled up with one uniform
shade of colour.—B.
[1821] From the Greek μονοχρώματον, “single colouring.”—B.
[1822] He is mentioned also by Athenagoras, Strabo, and Athenæus.
[1823] Called “graphis,” by the Greeks, and somewhat similar, probably,
to our pen and ink drawings.
[1824] In Chapter 43 of this Book.—B.
[1825] Ajasson remarks, that a great number of paintings have been
lately discovered in the Etruscan tombs, in a very perfect state, and
probably of very high antiquity.—B.
[1826] There would appear to be still considerable uncertainty
respecting the nature of the materials employed by the ancients, and
the manner of applying them, by which they produced these durable
paintings; a branch of the art which has not been attained in equal
perfection by the moderns.—B.
[1827] Caligula.
[1828] See B. iii. c. 8.
[1829] We have already remarked that painting was practised very
extensively by the Egyptians, probably long before the period of the
Trojan war.—B.
[1830] Or “Health.” It was situate on the Quirinal Hill, in the Sixth
Region of the City.
[1831] “Forum Boarium.” In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1832] Holbein and Mignard did the same.
[1833] Q. Pedius was either nephew, or great nephew of Julius Cæsar,
and had the command under him in the Gallic War; he is mentioned by
Cæsar in his Commentaries, and by other writers of this period.—B.
[1834] Originally the palace of Tullus Hostilius, in the Second Region
of the City.
[1835] Asiaticus, the brother of the elder Africanus.—B.
[1836] It was _before_ the decisive battle near Mount Sipylus, that the
son of Africanus was made prisoner. King Antiochus received him with
high respect, loaded him with presents, and sent him to Rome.—B.
[1837] He was legatus under the consul L. Calpurnius Piso, in the Third
Punic War, and commanded the Roman fleet. He was elected Consul B.C.
145.
[1838] The younger Scipio Africanus.
[1839] We learn from Valerius Maximus, that C. Pulcher was the first to
vary the scenes of the stage with a number of colours.—B.
[1840] See Chapter 36 of this Book.
[1841] We have an amusing proof of this ignorance of Mummius given by
Paterculus, B. i. c. 13, who says that when he had the choicest of
the Corinthian statues and pictures sent to Italy, he gave notice to
the contractors that if they lost any of them, they must be prepared
to supply new ones. Ajasson offers a conjecture which is certainly
plausible, that Mummius might possibly regard this painting as a
species of talisman.—B.
[1842] In the eleventh Region of the City.
[1843] “Sub Veteribus;” meaning that part of the Forum where the “Old
Shops” of the “argentarii” or money-brokers had stood.
[1844] We have an anecdote of a similar event, related by Cicero, as
having occurred to Julius Cæsar, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 66.—B.
[1845] See B. vii. c. 39.
[1846] We have had this Temple referred to in B. ii. c. 23, B. vii.
c. 39, B. viii. c. 64, and B. ix. c. 57: it is again mentioned in the
fortieth Chapter of this Book, and in B. xxxvii. c. 5.—B.
[1847] In the “Vaporarium,” namely.—B. The Thermæ of Agrippa were in
the Ninth Region of the City.
[1848] According to Hardouin, this was done after the battle of Actium,
in which Augustus subdued his rival Antony.—B.
[1849] By adoption. The Temple of Julius Cæsar was in the Forum, in the
Eighth Region of the City.
[1850] See B. vii. c. 22, B. x. c. 60, and B. xxxiv. c. 11.
[1851] In Chapter 36 of this Book.—B.
[1852] See B. vii, cc. 45, 54, 60, and B. xxxiv. c. 11.
[1853] See B. vii. c. 54, B. xv. c. 20, B. xxxiii. c. 6, and B. xxxiv.
c. 11.
[1854] This was the personification of the Nemean forest in
Peloponnesus, where Hercules killed the Lion, the first of the labours
imposed upon him by Eurystheus.—B.
[1855] See Chapter 40 of this Book.
[1856] “Inussisse;” meaning that he executed it in encaustic. The Greek
term used was probably ΕΝΕΚΑΥΣΕ.
[1857] Hemsterhuys is of opinion that he was the brother of Æschines,
the orator, contemptuously alluded to by Demosthenes, Fals. Legat. Sec.
237, as a painter of perfume pots. If so, he was probably an Athenian,
and must have flourished about the 109th Olympiad.
[1858] In Chapter 40 of this Book.
[1859] In B. xxxiii. c. 39. He alludes to cinnabaris, minium, rubrica,
and sinopis.
[1860] Meaning “new painting,” probably. The reading, however, is
doubtful.
[1861] “Splendor.” Supposed by Wornum to be equivalent to our word
“tone,” applied to a coloured picture, which comprehends both the
“tonos” and the “harmoge” of the Greeks. Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.
_Painting_.
[1862] “Tone,” says Fuseli, (in the English acceptation of the
word) “is the element of the ancient ‘harmoge,’ that imperceptible
transition, which, without opacity, confusion, or hardness, united
local colour, demitint, shade, and reflexes.”—Lect. I.
[1863] “Austeri aut floridi.”
[1864] Because of their comparatively great expense.
[1865] See B. xxxiii. cc. 30, 37. Under this name are included
Sulphuret of mercury, and Red oxide of lead.
[1866] See B. xxxiii. cc. 38, 39.
[1867] See B. xxxiii. c. 26. “Indicum” and “purpurissum” will be
described in the present Book.
[1868] Or “rubrica Sinopica;” “red earth of Sinope,” a brown red ochre,
or red oxide of iron. Dioscorides identifies it with the Greek μιλτὸς,
which indeed seems to have embraced the cinnabaris, minium, and rubricæ
of the Romans.
[1869] “Splendorem.” See Note 1861 above.
[1870] So called from its deep grey brown colour, like that of the
“cicer” or chick-pea.
[1871] The sense of this passage seems to require the insertion of
“quæ,” although omitted by the Bamberg MS.
[1872] “Pressior.”
[1873] Those parts of the walls, probably, which were nearer to the
ground, and more likely to become soiled.
[1874] Red ochre, or red oxide of iron. See B. xxxiii. c. 38, and B.
xxxiv. c. 37.
[1875] See B. xxxiii. cc. 36, 37.
[1876] Ajasson thinks that this was an hydroxide of iron, of a greenish
yellow or brown colour.
[1877] Whence our word “ochre.” See “Sil,” in B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57.
[1878] Theophrastus, on the contrary, says that it is “ochra” that is
burnt, in order to obtain “rubrica.”
[1879] See B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57.
[1880] A white earth from the Isle of Melos. See Chapter 19.
[1881] See B. xxxiii. c. 20. “One may readily conceive that this must
have been a ferruginous ochre, or kind of bole, which is still used as
a ground, _poliment, assiette_.”—Beckmann, Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 294.
_Bohn’s Edition._
[1882] A white, much used for fresco painting. Ajasson is of opinion,
that Pliny, in this Chapter, like the other ancient authors, confounds
two earths that are, in reality, totally different.—Hydrosilicate of
magnesia, or Steatite, and Rhomboidical carbonate of lime.
[1883] See B. v. c. 6.
[1884] Ajasson thinks that possibly our compact magnesite, meerschaum,
or sea-foam, may be the substance here alluded to.
[1885] See Chapter 57 of this Book.
[1886] See B. iv. c. 33. Tournefort says that this earth is exactly
similar to the Cimolian earth, described in Chapter 57.
[1887] See B. xxxiii. c. 57, and Chapter 21 of this Book.
[1888] In B. xxxiv. c. 54.
[1889] Ceruse, white lead, or carbonate of lead, is prepared in
much the same manner at the present day. Ajasson is of opinion that
the native pigment discovered on the lands of Theodotus, was native
carbonate of lead, the crystals of which are found accompanied by
quartz.
[1890] “Burnt” ceruse. This was, in fact, one of the varieties of
“minium,” red oxide of lead, our red lead. Vitruvius and Dioscorides
call it “sandaraca,” differing somewhat from that of Pliny.
[1891] In Chapter 10.
[1892] See B. xxxiii. cc. 56, 57.
[1893] It was possibly owing to this that the colour known as “umber”
received its name, and not from Ombria, in Italy. Ajasson says that
shadows cannot be successfully made without the use of transparent
colours, and that red and the several browns are remarkably transparent.
[1894] See B. iv. c. 21.
[1895] As to both of these artists, see Chapter 36.
[1896] To the chest.
[1897] See B. vi. c. 34, and B. xxxvii. c. 32.
[1898] In B. xxxiv. c. 55. “Pliny speaks of different shades of
sandaraca, the pale, or massicot, (yellow oxide of lead), and a mixture
of the pale with minium. It also signified Realgar, or red sulphuret of
arsenic.”—Wornum, in Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art. _Colores_.
[1899] Sir H. Davy supposes this colour to have approached our crimson.
In painting, it was frequently glazed with purple, to give it an
additional lustre.
[1900] Ecl. iv. l. 45. “Sponte suâ sandyx pascentes vestiet agnos.”
Ajasson thinks that “Sandyx” may have been a name common to two
colouring substances, a vegetable and a mineral, the former being our
madder. Beckmann is of the same opinion, and that Virgil has committed
no mistake in the line above quoted. Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 110.
_Bohn’s Edition._ See also B. xxiv. c. 56.
[1901] The form “_sand_,” in these words, Ajasson considers to be
derived either from “Sandes,” the name of Hercules in Asia Minor, or at
least in Lydia] or else from Sandak, the name of an ancestor of Cinyras
and Adonis.
[1902] In B. xxxiii. c. 40. According to Aetius, syricum was made
by the calcination of pure ceruse, (similar to the “usta” above
mentioned). He states also that there was no difference between sandyx
and syricum, the former being the term generally used by medical men.
[1903] “Black colouring substance.”
[1904] “Carbones infectos.” The reading is very doubtful. It may
possibly mean “charred bones tainted with dirt.” This would make
an inferior ivory-black. The earth before-mentioned is considered
by Ajasson to be a deuto-sulphate of copper, a solution of which,
in gallic acid, is still used for dyeing black. The water near
copper-mines would very probably be also highly impregnated with it.
Beckmann considers these to have been vitriolic products. Vol. II. p.
265.
[1905] Our Lamp-black. Vitruvius describes the construction of the
manufactories above alluded to.
[1906] Probably, our Chinese, or Indian ink, a different substance from
the indicum of Chapter 27.
[1907] From τρύξ, “grape-husks” or “wine-lees.”
[1908] Indian ink is a composition of fine lamp-black and size.
[1909] See B. ii. c. 29. Sepia, for sepic drawing, is now prepared from
these juices.
[1910] In Chapter 12 of this Book.
[1911] Plate powder. See B. xvii. c. 4, and Chapter 58 of this Book.
[1912] See B. ix. c. 60.
[1913] See B. ix. c. 65, and B. xxi. cc. 38, 97. According to
Vitruvius, it is a colour between scarlet and purple. It may possibly
have been made from woad.
[1914] See B. iii. c. 16.
[1915] See B. xxxiii. c. 57.
[1916] White of egg, probably.
[1917] Indigo, no doubt, is the colour meant. See B. xxxiii. c. 57.
[1918] It is the produce of the Indigofera tinctoria, and comes
from Bengal more particularly. Beckmann and Dr. Bancroft have each
investigated this subject at great length, and though Pliny is greatly
mistaken as to the mode in which the drug was produced, they agree in
the conclusion that his “indicum” was real indigo, and not, as some
have supposed, a pigment prepared from _isatis_, or woad.
[1919] This passage, similar in many respects to the account given by
Dioscorides, is commented on at great length by Beckmann, Hist. Inv.
Vol. II. p. 263. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1920] See Chapter 56 of this Book.
[1921] See Chapter 30 of this Book.
[1922] “Armenium.” Armenian bole is still used for colouring
tooth-powder and essence of anchovies.
[1923] See B. xxxiii. c. 26.
[1924] So called, probably, either from the place where it was made,
or from the person who first discovered it. Some commentators have
suggested that it should be “apian” green, meaning “parsley” colour.
[1925] So called from “anulus,” a “ring,” as mentioned below.
[1926] “Quo muliebres picturæ illuminantur.” The meaning of this
passage is obscure. It would seem almost to apply to paintings, but
Beckmann is of opinion that the meaning is, “This is the beautiful
white with which the ladies paint or ornament themselves.”—Hist. Inv.
Vol. II. p. 261. _Bohn’s Edition._
[1927] Beckmann suggests that it was so called from its being one of
the sealing earths, “anulus” being the name of a signet ring. Vol. II.
p. 260.
[1928] “Cretulam.”
[1929] See B. xxxiii. c. 57.
[1930] See Chapter 39, where this process is more fully described.
“‘_Ceræ_,’ or ‘waxes,’ was the ordinary term for painters’ colours
among the Romans, but more especially encaustic colours, which were
probably kept dry in boxes, and the wet brush or pencil was rubbed upon
them when colour was required, or they were moistened by the artist
previous to commencing work. From the term ‘ceræ’ it would appear that
wax constituted the principal ingredient in the colouring vehicle
used; but this does not necessarily follow, and it is very improbable
that it did; there must have been a great portion of gum or resin in
the colours, or they could not have hardened. Wax was undoubtedly a
most essential ingredient, since it apparently prevents the colours
from cracking. ‘Ceræ’ therefore might originally simply mean colours
which contained wax, in contradistinction to those which did not;
but was afterwards applied generally by the Romans to the colours of
painters.”—Wornum, Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art. _Painting_.
[1931] Called “Inceramenta navium,” in Livy, B. xxviii. c. 45. See also
Chapters 39 and 41 of this Book.
[1932] Pliny here commits a mistake, which may have arisen from an
imperfect recollection, as Sir. H. Davy has supposed, of a passage in
Cicero (Brutus, c. 18), which, however, quite contradicts the statement
of Pliny. “In painting, we admire in the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus,
Timanthes, and those who used _four_ colours only, the figure and the
lineaments; but in the works of Echion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and
Apelles, _everything_ is perfect.” Indeed Pliny contradicts himself,
for he speaks of _two_ other colours used by the earliest painters,
the _testa trita_, or ground earthenware, in Chapter 5 of this Book;
and “cinnabaris,” or vermilion, in B. xxxiii. c. 36. Also, in Chapter
21 of this Book he speaks of Eretrian earth as having been used by
Nicomachus, and in Chapter 25 of ivory black as having been invented by
Apelles.
[1933] These painters will all be noticed in Chapter 36.
[1934] See Chapter 19 of this Book.
[1935] See B. xxxiii. c. 56.
[1936] Blue is here excluded altogether, unless under the term
“atramentum” we would include black and blue indicum, or in other
words, Indian ink and indigo.
[1937] See Chapter 27 of this Book.
[1938] In allusion to “Dragon’s blood.” See B. xxxiii. c. 38.
[1939] In Chapter 2 of this Book.
[1940] From the construction of the passage, it is difficult to say
whether he means to say that such colossal figures were till then
unknown in painting, or whether that the use of canvass in painting
was till then unknown. If the latter is the meaning, it is not exactly
correct, though it is probable that the introduction of canvass for
this purpose was comparatively late; there being no mention of its
being employed by the Greek painters of the best periods.
[1941] See B. iii. c. 9, B. xiv. c. 3, and B. xvi. c. 91.
[1942] “Torcutæ.” For the explanation of this term, see end of B.
xxxiii.
[1943] In reality he was cousin or nephew of Phidias, by the father’s
side, though Pausanias, B. v. c. 11, falls into the same error as that
committed by Pliny. He is mentioned likewise by Strabo and Æschines.
[1944] See B. xxxvi. c. 55.
[1945] See B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1946] See B. xxxiv. c. 19.
[1947] See B. vii. c. 39.
[1948] Paintings with but one colour. “Monochromata,” as we shall see
in Chapter 36, were painted at all times, and by the greatest masters.
Those of Zeuxis corresponded with the _Chiariscuri_ of the Italians,
light and shade being introduced with the highest degree of artistic
skill.
[1949] These several artists are quite unknown, being mentioned by no
other author.
[1950] It is pretty clear, from vases of a very ancient date, that
it is not the sexual distinction that is here alluded to. Eumarus,
perhaps, may have been the first to give to each sex its characteristic
style of design, in the compositions, draperies, attitudes, and
complexions of the respective sexes. Wornum thinks that, probably,
Eumarus, and certainly, Cimon, belonged to the class of ancient
tetrachromists, or polychromists, painting in a variety of colours,
without a due, or at least a partial, observance of the laws of light
and shade. Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art. _Painting_.
[1951] He is mentioned also by Ælian. Böttiger is of opinion that he
flourished about the 80th Olympiad. It is probable, however, that he
lived long before the age of Polygnotus; but some time after that of
Eumarus. Wornum thinks that he was probably a contemporary of Solon, a
century before Polygnotus.
[1952] “Catagrapha.”
[1953] This picture was placed in the Pœcile at Athens, and is
mentioned also by Pausanias, B. i. c. 15, and by Æschines, Ctesiph. s.
186.
[1954] See B. vii. c. 57. (Vol. II. p. 233), where he is mentioned as
an Athenian. It is not improbable that he became a citizen of Athens in
the seventy-ninth Olympiad, B.C. 463, when Thasos was brought under the
power of Athens, and, as Sillig suggests, at the solicitation of Cimon,
the son of Miltiades. It is generally supposed that he flourished about
the eightieth Olympiad.
[1955] Belonging to the Theatre of Pompey, in the Ninth Region of the
City.
[1956] With scenes from the Trojan War, and the adventures of Ulysses.
[1957] Or “Variegated;” from its various pictures.
[1958] See B. xxxiii. c. 56.
[1959] See B. vii. c. 37.
[1960] She is again mentioned in Chapter 40.
[1961] He was a native of Thasos, and father and instructor of
Polygnotus. As Pliny has already stated that Polygnotus flourished
_before_ the ninetieth Olympiad, there is an inconsistency in his
making mention of the son as flourishing before the father. Hence
Sillig, with Böttiger, is inclined to think that there were two artists
of this name, one about the seventieth, and the other about the
ninetieth Olympiad, the former being the father of Polygnotus.
[1962] “Primusque gloriam penicillo jure contulit.” Wornum considers
that “the rich effect of the combination of light and shade with
colour is clearly expressed in these words.”—Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.
_Painting_. This artist, who was noted for his arrogance, is mentioned
by other ancient writers.
[1963] “Penicillus.” This was the hair-pencil or brush, which was used
by one class of painters, in contradistinction to the stylus or cestrum
used for spreading the wax-colours. Painters with the brush used what
we should term “water-colours;” oil-colours, in our sense of the word,
being unknown to the ancients.
[1964] In “Magna Græcia,” near Crotona, it is supposed. Tzetzes styles
him as an Ephesian.
[1965] This is _probably_ the meaning of the words—“Artem ipsis ablatam
Zeuxim ferre secum.” It is doubtful whether “ipsis” or “ipsi” is the
correct reading.
[1966] King of Macedonia.
[1967] Μωμήσεταί τις μᾶλλον ἢ μιμήσεται. This line is attributed by
Plutarch to Apollodorus.
[1968] Cicero and Dionysius of Halicarnassus say that this picture was
executed at Crotona, and not at Agrigentum. It is generally supposed to
have been the painting of Helena, afterwards mentioned by Pliny.
[1969] “Ex albo.” “That is, in grey and grey, similar to the
Chiaríscuri of the Italians.”—Wornum, in Smith’s Dict. Antiq. Art.
_Painting_.
[1970] “Figlina opera.” It is not improbable that this may allude to
the painting of fictile vases.
[1971] A.U.C. 666. As to this expedition of Fulvius Nobilior, see Livy,
B. xxxviii.
[1972] Of Philippus Marcius, in the Ninth Region of the City.
[1973] In the Eighth Region of the City.
[1974] See end of B. xxxiii.
[1975] See end of B. xxxiii. and B. xxxiv.
[1976] The antithesis seems to require here the reading “inexorabilem,”
instead of “exorabilem.”