98 PLINY's KATTJEAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIII. 



all other metals, when found in the ore, require to be brought 

 to perfection by the aid of fire, this gold that I am speaking of 

 is gold the moment it is found, and has all its component parts 

 already in a state of perfection. This, however, is only such 

 gold as is found in the native state, the other kinds that we 

 shall have to speak of, being refined by art. And then, more 

 than anything else, gold is subject to no rust, no verdigris, ^^ 

 no emanation whatever from it, either to alter its quality or 

 to lessen its weight. In addition to this, gold steadily resists 

 the corrosive action of salt and vinegar, ^^ things which obtain 

 the mastery over all other substances : it admits, too, beyond 

 all other metals, of being spun out and woven^^ Jike wool.^^ Ver- 

 rius tells us that Tarquinius Prisons celebrated a triumph, clad 

 in a tunic of gold ; and I myself have seen Agrippina, the wife 

 of the Emperor Claudius, on the occasion of a naval combat 

 which he exhibited, seated by him, attired in a military scarfs 

 made entirely of woven gold without any other material. For 

 this long time past, gold has been interwoven in the Attaiic^' 

 textures, an invention of the kings of Asia. 



CHAP. 20. — THE METHOD OF GILDING. 



On marble and other substances which do not admit of being 

 brought to a white heat, gilt is laid with glair of egg, and on 

 wood by the aid of a glutinous composition,^^ knoAvn as *' leuco- 

 phoron :" what this last is, and how it is prepared, we shall 



^2 The contrary is now known to be the case; gold is sometimes, though 

 rarely, found in an oxidized state. 



^3 ^s to the solvents of gold, see Note 2 above. Stahl says that three parts 

 of sub-c:i!bonate 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. 



^* 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, Beck- 

 mann's Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. Bohn's Edition. 



^^ The ''cloth of gold" of the present day, is made of threads of silk 

 or hair, wound round with silver wire flattened and gilded. 



'6 " Paludamento." 



!■'' See B. viii. c. 74. Beckmann is of opinion, from a passage of Silius 

 Italicus, E. xiv. 1. 661, that the cloth of Attains was embroidered with the 

 needle. See this subject fully discussed in his Hist. Inv. Vol. I. p. 415. 

 See also J)r. Yates's " Textrinum Antiquoruni," pp. 371, 464. 



^3 " Without entering into any research respecting the minerals em- 



