95 PLINY'S SATUIUL HISTORY. [I3ook XXXIII. 



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

 ship of Lucius Mummius. 93 rroin the ceilings this luxurious- 

 ness has been since transferred to the arched roofs of building?, 

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

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

 Trhen Catulus 94 was far from being unanimously approved of for 

 having gilded the brazen tiles of the Capitol I 



CHAP. 19. - FOK WHAT UIUSONS THE 1IIGUKST VALUE IS SKT 



Ul'OX GOLD. 



have already stated, in the Seventh 95 Book, who were the 

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

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

 icy opinion, for its colour, (which in silver is clearer 96 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 Blurs* 7 that is 

 so prized in gold, seeing that the various gems 9 * and other 

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

 Xur yet is it fur its weight or malleability 9 '' that gold has been 

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

 pects to lead but it is because gold is the only 1 substance in 

 nature that suiters'- no loss from the action of lire, and passes 

 unscathed through conflagrations and the ilames of the funeral 



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

 jected to the action of lire, the more relined in quality it be- 

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



w A.U.C. 612. 94 See B. xix. c. f>. 



&i Chapter 57. w In fact, no colour at all. 



r * In t/tis climate, the light of most of the stars has the complexion, not 

 of gold, but of silver. 96 The topaz, for instance. 



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

 cluded in the "facilitas" of 1'iiuy, ^old is unrivalled union:; the metals. As 

 to weight, it is heavier than It-all, the specific gravity of gold being 19.2.38, 

 and that of lead 1 1 352. Pliny is therefore wrong in both of these assertions. 



1 lie forgets asbestus here, a subst.mce which lie has mentioned in 

 B. iix. c. 4. 



2 Chlorine, however, and mtro-niuriatic acid corrode and dissolve gold, 

 forming a chloride of old, which is soluble in water. .Ajasson remarks, 

 that old becomes volatilized by the heat of a burning-glasa 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 greeiiibh light. 



