188 flint's natueal history. [Book XXXIII. 



company with the men — paved with silver to such an extent 

 that there is not room left for the sole of the foot even ! 

 Fabricius, I say, who would allow of no general of an army 

 having any other plate than a patera and a salt-cellar of silver. 

 — Oh that he could see how that the rewards of valour in our 

 day are either composed of these objects of luxury, or else 

 are broken up to make them !'^ Alas for the morals of our 

 age ! Fabricius puts us to the blush. 



CHAP, 55. THE MOST EEMAEKABLE WORKS IN SILVEE, AND THE 



NAMES OF THE MOST FAMOUS ARTISTS IN SILVER. 



It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold should 

 have conferred no celebrity upon any person, while that of 

 embossing silver has rendered many illustrious. The greatest 

 renown, however, has been acquired by Mentor, of whom 

 mention has been made already.'* Four pairs [of vases] were 

 all that were ever"^ made by him ; and at the present day, not 

 one of these, it is said, is any longer in existence, owing to 

 the conflagrations of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and of 

 that in the Capitol.'^^ Yarro informs us in his writings that he 

 alsK) was in possession of a bronze statue, the work of this 

 artist. Next to Mentor, the most admired artists were Acra- 



73 " Yideret hinc dona fortium fieri, aut in htec frangi." 



■'^ In B. vii. c. 39, and in Chapter 53 of this Book. 



'5 " Quatuor paria ab eo omnino facta sunt." Sillig, in his Dictionary 

 of Ancient Artists, finds a difficulty in this passage. " The term ' om- 

 nino ' 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 misin- 

 formed, 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, ex- 

 presses 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. 



7« See B. vii. c. 39. 



