70 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIII. 



for silver, it congratulated itself upon the discovery of minium, 10 

 and devised a use to be made of this red earth. 



Alas for the prodigal inventions of man ! in how many 

 -ways have we augmented the value of things ! n In addition- 

 to the standard value of these metals, the art of painting lends 

 its aid, and we have rendered gold and silver still more costly 

 by the art of chasing them, ilan has learned how to challenge 

 both Nature and art to become the incitements to vice ! His 

 very cups he has delighted to engrave with libidinous subjects, 

 and* he takes pleasure in drinking from vessels of obscene form ! u 

 But in lapse of time, the metals passed out of fashion, and 

 men began to make no account of them ; gold and silver, in 

 fact, became too common. From this same earth we have ex- 

 tracted vessels of murrhine :s and vases of crystal, 13 * objects 

 the very fragility of which is considered to enhance their value. 

 In fact, it has come to be looked upon as a proof of opulence, 

 and as quite the glory of luxury, to possess that which may bo 

 irremediably destroyed in an instant. Kor was even this 

 enough ; we now drink from out of a mass of gems, 14 and wo 

 set our goblets with smaragdi ; li we take delight in possessing 

 the wealth of India, as the promoter of intoxication, and gold 

 is now nothing more than a mere accessory. 16 



10 " Minium " is treated of in Chapter 36 of this Book. B. 



11 "Prctia rerum." The value of the raw material. 



12 Pliny here refers both to the art of producing figures in relief on drink, 

 ing vessels made of the precious metals, and also of giving them particular 

 forms. A veil-known line of Juvenal, S;it. ii. 1. U5, affords a striking 

 illustration of the depraved taste which existed in his time. B. Lampri- 

 dius also speaks of vessels of silver " defiled vrith representations of a most 

 libidinous character;" and Capitoliuus speaks of " phallovitroboli," glass 

 drinking vessels shaped like a phallus. 



13 "Murrhina" or " myrrhina," are described in B. xxxvii. c. 8; they 

 were, perhaps, onyxes or opals, though possibly the term was not strictly 

 confined to these substances, but signified any transparent minerals, that 

 exhibited a variety of colours. Salmasius, however, ridicules the idea of 

 their being onyxes, and is of opinion that these vessels were made of porce- 

 lain; Kxer. Plin.'p. 144. 11. 13 See U. xxxvii. c.9. 



14 He alludes to the cups known as ''chrysendeta," adorned with cir- 

 clets of gold, exquisite chasings, and groups of precious stones. See Ju- 

 venal, Sat. v. 1. 42. 



14 Th<j * Smaragdus" is described in B. xxxvii. c. 13. 

 16 " Jit aururn jam accessio tbt." 



