96 PLI5?^t's NATUE^lL HISTOET. [Book XXXIII. 



tol, after the destruction of Carthage, and during the censor- 

 ship of Lucius Mummius.^^ From the ceilings this luxurious- 

 ness has been since transferred to the arched roofs of buildings, 

 and the party- walls even, which at the present day are gilded 

 like so many articles of plate : very different from the times 

 when Catulus^* was far from being unanimously approved of for 

 having gilded the brazen tiles of the Capitol ! 



CHAP. 19. FOE WHAT EEASOIfS THE HIGHEST VALFE IS SET 



UPON GOLD. 



We have already stated, in the Seventh^^ Book, who were the 

 first discoverers of gold, as well as nearly aU the other metals. 

 The highest rank has been accorded to this substance, not, in 

 my opinion, for its colour, (which in silver is clearer^ and more 

 like the light of day, for which reason silver is preferred for 

 our military ensigns, its brightness being seen at a greater dis- 

 tance) ; and those persons are manifestly in error who think 

 that it is the resemblance of its colour to the stars^^ that is 

 so prized in gold, seeing that the various gems ^^ and other 

 things of the same tint, are in no such particular request. 

 Nor yet is it for its weight or malleability^^ that gold has been 

 preferred to other metals, it being inferior in both these res- 

 pects to lead — but it is because gold is the only^ substance in 

 nature that suffers^ no loss from the action of fire, and passes 

 unscathed through conflagrations and the flames of the funeral 

 pile. Nay, even more than this, the oftener gold is sub- 

 jected to the action of fire, the more refined in quality it be- 

 comes ; indeed, fire is one test of its goodness, as, when sub- 



S3 A.u.c. 612. 24 See g ^[^ f, q^ 



9^ Chapter 57. ^^ In fact, no colour at all. 



^" In this climate, the light of most of the stars has the complexion, not 

 of gold, but of silver. ^8 Xhe topaz, for instance. 



99 For ductility and malleability, both which terms may perhaps be in- 

 cluded 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. 



^ He forgets asbestus here, a substance which he has mentioned in 

 B. xix. c. 4. 



2 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. 



