Chapter 385

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.

985Pliny has here mistaken the sense of the wordστέαρ, which in the passage of Dioscorides, B. v. c. 99, borrowed probably from the same source, evidently meansdough, and not grease.

986Fromἕλκω, “to drag”—in consequence of its viscous consistency, Hardouin says.

987In B. xxxiv. c.53.

988Cerates, 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.

990Ajasson 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.

993See B. xxxiv. c.53.

994Of “Puteolana.”

995The litharge.

996The scoria.

997Nothing 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.

998In B. xxxiv. c.53, where he identifies it with “galena,” mentioned in Chapter31of this Book.

999See B. xviii. c. 13, B. xvi. c. 61, and B. xxii. c. 66.

1000Sal gem, or common salt.

1001In this Chapter. See note987above.

1002The 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.

1003Intended, no doubt, to be typical of blood and carnage; and indicative of a very low state of civilization.

1004See B. xxxv. c.45.

1005See B. v. c. 31.

1006See B. xvi. c. 12, and B. xxiv. c. 4.

1007The 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.

1008See 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.

1009In B. viii. c. 12.

1010In Chapter41.

1011The dragon’s blood, mentioned in the precedingChapter.

1012“Single colour paintings.” See B. xxxv. cc.5,11,34,36.

1013Mentioned in Chapter37.

1014The “miltos” of the preceding Chapter. See Note1007above.

1015In B. xxxv. c.13,et seq.

1016He is here speaking of our cinnabar, or vermilion, mentioned in Chapter36.

1017See B. vi. cc. 27, 28, 32.

1018See B. iii. c. 3, Vol. I. p. 163. He alludes to the district of Almaden, in Andalusia, still famous for its quicksilver mines.

1019When sold by the “publicani,” or farmers of the revenue.

1020Of the publicani.

1021Red oxide of lead, a much inferior pigment to cinnabar, or the minium of Chapter36.

1022In Chapter32of this Book.

1023Dana 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.”

1025In Chapter37.

1026B. xxxv. c.24.

1027When hired by the job for colouring walls or objects of art. See B. xxxv. c.12.

1028See 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.

1030Hence the use of it in the middle ages; a reminiscence of which still exists in our word “rubric.”

1031Or artificial quicksilver. In reality, hydrargyrus is prepared from thegenuineminium of Pliny, the cinnabar mentioned in Chapter 36: it being obtained by the sublimation of sulphuret of mercury.

1032In Chapters 20 and 32.

1033This, probably, is the meaning of “lubrico humore compluere.”

1034See the end of Chapter38.

1035Artificial quicksilver is still used for this purpose. See Note971to Chapter 32 of this Book; also Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 295.Bohn’s Edition.

1036In Chapter32. He alludes to the use of glair of eggs.

1037Literally “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.

1038In Lydia. See B. v. cc. 30, 31.

1039As 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.

1040This seems to be the meaning of “si sudet protinus.”

1041A very far-fetched explanation, and very wide of the mark.

1042“Paulum propulsa.”

1043Which he supposes a concave surface to do.

1044This passage is noticed by Beckmann, in his account of Mirrors; Vol. II. p. 58.Bohn’s Edition.

1045Distorting the image reflected, by reason of the irregularities of the surface. See Seneca, Nat. Quæst. B. i. c. 5.

1046“Parma Thræcidica.”

1047He probably means, whether the surface is made convex or concave at these different angles.

1048A subject to which he returns in various parts of B.xxxvi.

1049See B. xxxiv. c.48.

1050As to the identification of “stannum,” on which there have been great differences of opinion, see B. xxxiv. cc.47,48, and the Notes.

1051For some account of this artist, see Chapter55and theNotesat 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.

1054Dr. Watson (Chemical Essays, Vol. IV. p. 246) seems to think that Pliny is here speaking ofglassmirrors: “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 Chapter20of 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.

1055The 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.

1056Under the word “pingit,” he probably includes the art of enamelling silver.

1057“Fulgoris excæcati.”

1058“Chaplet” copper.

1059He either alludes to the practice of clipping the coin, or else to the issue of forged silver denarii, short of weight.

1060During 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.

1061By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine coin.

1062Twenty times one hundred thousand, &c.

1063As signifying a “debt owing to another.”

1064“The Rich.”

1065This 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.

1066The 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.

1067The meaning appears to be doubtful here, as it is not clear whether “sesterces,” or “sestertia,” “thousands of sesterces,” is meant.

1068Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down his throat.

1069Originally 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.

1070C. Julius Callistus, the freedman of Caligula, in whose assassination he was an accomplice. The physician Scribonius Largus dedicated his work to Callistus.

1071A freedman of the Emperor Claudius, whose epistolary correspondence he superintended. He was put to death on the accession of Nero,A.D.54.

1072In which case it would be dangerous to speak of them.

1073A.U.C.746.

1074According 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.”

1076A.U.C.568.

1077In performance of a vow made in the war with King Antiochus. See Livy, B. xxxix.

1078So 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.

1082He 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 Frenchcarrosse.

1085So called from his victory over the Allobroges.

1086In 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, wheretenpounds is the quantity mentioned.

1087This is said ironically.

1088Sextus Ælius Pœtus Catus, ConsulB.C.198.

1089“Prandentem.”

1090L. Paulus Æmilius.

1091It being lent from house to house. This, no doubt, was said ironically, and as a sneer at their poverty.

1092Now 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.

1095See B. ix. c. 13.

1096This 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.

1100Giants, at least, one would think.

1101Over the party of Marius.

1102See B. ix. c. 13.

1103“Compacta;” probably meaning inlaid like Mosaic.

1104See B. xiii. c. 29, B. xv. c. 7, and B. xvi. cc. 26, 27, 84.

1105Meaning, “drum sideboards,” or “tambour sideboards,” their shape, probably, being like that of our dumb waiters.

1106The name given to which was “lanx,” plural “lances.”

1107His age and country are uncertain. We learn, however, from Chapter55of 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.

1108He includes, probably, under this name both Asia Minor and Syria. See a similar passage in Livy, B. xxxix.

1109This passage is rejected by Sillig as a needless interpolation.

Back to Index Next