132 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXIII. 



we nre in search of, and silver deeply chiselled around the 

 marginal linos of the figures painted 30 Upon it; and now we are 

 building up on our sideboards iresh tiers 31 of tables for sup- 

 porting the various dishes. Other articles of plate wo nicciy- 

 pure away, 3 - it being an object that the iilo may remove as 

 much of the metal as possible. 



"\Ve find the orator Culvus complaining that the saucepans 

 are made of silver ; but it has been left for us to invent a plan 

 of covering our very carriages 33 with chased silver, and it was 

 in our own age that Poppieu, the wife of the Kmperor Xero, 

 ordered her favourite mules to be shod even with gold ! 



CHAP. 50. INSTANCES OF THE FRUGALITY OF THE ANCIENTS IN 

 liEFERENCE TO SILVER PLATE. 



The younger Scipio Africanus left to his heir thirty-two 

 pounds' weight of silver ; the same person who, on his triumph 

 over the Carthaginians, displayed four thousand three hundred 

 and seventy pounds' weight of that metal. Such was the sum 

 total of the silver possessed by the whole of the inhabitants of 

 Carthage, that rival of Home for the empire of the world ! 

 How many a Roman since then lias surpassed her in his dis- 

 play of plate for a single table! After the destruction of 

 Xumantia, the same Alricanus gave to his soldiers, on the 

 day of his triumph, a largess of seven denarii each and right, 

 worthy were they of such a general, when satisfied with such 

 a sum ! His brother, Scipio Allobrogicus, 34 was the very 

 lirst who possessed one thousand pounds* weight of silver, 



so " Asperitatemque exci?o circa lininrum picturas," a passn^o, the 

 obscurity of which, as Littrc remarks, SIM-IMS to set translation at defiance. 



11 He alludes, probnhly to tiers of shelves on the be.-iufets or sideboards 

 " repositoria " similar to those used for the display of plate in the 

 middle ages. I'vtronius Arbiter speaks of a round "repositor.'um," 

 which seems to have borne a considerable resemblance to our *' dumb 

 waiters." The "repositoria " here alluded to by Pliny were probably 

 rsude. of silver. 3<<i ' Interradi inns'." 



** " Carrucac." The "carruca " was a carriiipro, tljo namo of which 

 only occurs under the emperors, the present luin^ the first mention of it. 

 It bad four wheels and was used in travelling, like the " carpentnm.' 1 

 Martial, B. iii. Episr. 47, uses the word as synonymous with " rlieda." 

 Alexander Severn* allowed the senators to have them plated with silver. 

 The name is of Celtic origin, and is the basis of the nieduuval word "ca- 

 rucate." and the French earroitsc. 



~ So called from his victory over the Allobrogcs. 



