Chapter 384

862Aldrovandus 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.

863The “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.”

865See 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.

867B. xxxv. c.17.

868Literally, “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.

869In Chapters32and41of this Book.

870As to the identity of the “alumen” of Pliny, see B. xxxv. c.52.

871In the precedingChapter.

872See B. xi. c. 36.

873See B. vii. c. 2.

874See B. iv. c. 17.

875Ajasson remarks, that the Castilians still call the surface earth of auriferous deposits by the name ofsegullo. He also doubts the correctness of Pliny’s assertion as to the produce of the mines of Dalmatia.

876See B. xxxiv. c.47.

877We 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.

878Both meaning “channel gold.”

879“Marmoris glareæ.” Under this name, he no doubt means quartz and schist.

880See B. xxxvii. c.39.

881See B. xxxvi. c.13.

882“Channel-gold” or “trench-gold.”

883Becoming volatilized, and attaching itself in crystals to the side of the chimney.

884Or “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.

885The cupel or crucible is still known in Spain by the name oftasco.

886Who were said to have heaped one mountain on another in their war with the gods.

887Deep mines in Spain are still calledarrugia, a term also used to signify gold beneath the surface. According to Grimm,arruziwas the ancient High German name for iron.

888See B. xxiii. c. 27.

889The 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.

891A 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.”

893Or as Holland quaintly renders it, “Some flying spirit or winged devill of the air.”

894Magnesian carbonate of lime, or dolomite, Ajasson thinks.

895From the Greek,ἀγωγὴ.

896It 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.

897That of sinking shafts, described already in this Chapter.

898All these names, no doubt, are of Spanish origin, although Salmasius would assign them a Greek one.

899In B. iii. c. 24.

900See B. iii. c. 21.

901“Auripigmentum.” Yellow sulphuret of arsenic. See B. xxxiv. c.56.

902“Lapis specularis.” See B. xxxvi. c.45.

903Caligula.

904It was accidently mixed with the ore of arsenic, no doubt, unless, indeed, the emperor was imposed upon.

905This is almost, but not quite, universally the case.

906In Spain. See B. iii. c. 4, B. iv. c. 34, and B. ix. c. 2. The locality alluded to is now unknown.

907A name also given by the ancients to amber. Artificial “electrum,” or gold alloyed with silver, was known in the most ancient times.

908The gold found by sinking shafts. See Chapter21.

909See B. ix. c. 65.

910Od. B. iv. l. 71.

911Pliny no doubt has been imposed upon in this instance.

912“Solid hammer-work,” in opposition to works in metal, cast and hollow within.

913In B. v. c. 20, most probably. See also B. xvi. c. 64.

914The 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.

915Holland 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 allyourwealth besides is come untoyouby that saccage.” He then adds, by way of Note, “For Augustus Cæsar defeited Antonie, and was mightily enriched by the spoile of him.”

916In 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.

917The ninetieth Olympiad, about the year 420B.C., is much more probably the correct reading; as it was about the seventieth Olympiad, or somewhat later, that Gorgias was born.

918See B. xxxiv. c.29.

919See B. xxix. c. 38. and B. xxxvi. cc.37,38.

920Or gith. See B. xx. c. 71.

921Similar to the notion still prevalent, that the application of pure gold will remove styes on the eyelids.

922It has been supposed by some, that the “Chrysocolla” of the ancients, as well as the “Cæruleum,” mentioned in c.57of 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.

923In Chapter21of this Book.

924The “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.

925As to the identity of this substance, see B. xxxv. c.52.

926These 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.

928So called, probably, from being made up into little balls resembling the “orobus” or vetch.

929A powder, probably, prepared from “cæruleum.” See the end of the presentChapter, and Chapter57of 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.”

931A 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.

932The colour now known by painters as Emerald green.

933As 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.”

935For its identification, see B. xxxiv. cc.26,32.

936See B. xxxv. cc.12,18.

937Making a spurious kind of “lomentum,” possibly, a pigment mentioned in c.57of this Book. This passage seems to throw some light, upon the words “in lomentum,” commented upon in Note929above.

938As to durability, probably.

939It was the mineral, probably, in an unprepared state.

940Gold-glue or gold-solder.

941See 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.

943As 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.

945Of doubtful identity. See B. xxxiv. c.48.

946See Chapter19of 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.

948Or mistletoe.

949In due succession to gold.

950See 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.

952Lead 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.

953This Beckmann considers to be the same as the “galena” above mentioned; half-vitrified lead, the “glätte” of the Germans.

954The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474.

955From the wordsμετ’ ἄλλα, “one after another.”

956It 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 itsLos Pozos de Anibal.

957A mile and a half.

958The 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.

959Meaning “raw” silver, apparently.

960“Alumen.” See B. xxxv. c.52.

961Kircher speaks of this being still the case in his time.

962See Chapter19of 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.”

965Ajasson 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.”

967The 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.

970See the description of the mode of gilding, given in Chapter20of 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 metalafterthe 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.

971Beckmann 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.

972Chapter42of this Book. See also Chapter 20, in Note868, to which it has been mentioned as artificial quicksilver.

973He is speaking of Antimony.

974From its whiteness.

975Under 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.

976Ajasson 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 soappearto enlarge the eyes. This property is peculiar, Ajasson remarks, to sulphuret of antimony, and sulphuret of antimony and silver.

979Preparations “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 nextChapter.

981According 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.

982As to the “nitrum” of the ancients, see B. xxxi. c. 46.

983“Flos”—literally the “flower.”

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