Chap. 5-1.] STATUES OF SILVER. 137 



first employed for making statues of tho deified Emperor 

 Augustus, ut ft period when adulation was all the fashion : 

 fr 1 find it stated, that in the triumph celebrated by Pompeius 

 Magnus there was a silver statue exhibited of i'harnaces, the 

 Jirst" king of 1'ontus, as also one of Mithridatcs Eupator, 67 

 besides chariots of gold and silver. 



Silver, too, has in some instances even supplanted gold; for 

 the luxurious tastes of the female plebeians having gone so far 

 as to adopt the use of shoe-buckles of gold, 6 " it is considered old- 

 fashioned to wear them made of that metal. w 1 myself, too, 

 have seen Arellius Fusc.us 7 " the person whoso name was erased 

 from the equestrian order on a singularly calumnious charge, 71 

 Avlieii his school was so thronged by our youth, attracted 

 thither by his celebrity wearing rings made of silver. Hut 

 of what use is it to collect all these? instances, when our very 

 soldiers, holding ivory even in contempt, havo the hilts of 

 their swords made of chased silver? when, too, their scabbards 

 arc heard to jingle with their silver chains, and their belts 

 with the plates of silver with which they are inlaid? 



At the, present day, too, the continence of our very pages is 

 secured by the aid of silver: 72 our women, when bathing, 

 quite despise any sitting-bath that is not made of silver : 

 while for serving np food at table, as well as for the most 

 unseemly purposes, the same metal must be equally employed! 

 AVould that Fubriciua could behold these instances of lux- 

 uriousuess, the baths of our women bathing as they do in. 



60 Meaning the first king of that name. lie was son of MithridatesIV., 

 king of 1'ontus. 



67 Appian says that thrre "was a gold statue of this Mithridates, ex- 

 Jiihited in the triumph of Pompev. eight cubits in height." Plutarch speaks 

 of another htatue of the same king, exhibited by JLucullus, six feet in 

 height. ts " Compedrs." See Chapter 12 of this Book. 



C ' J Tho translation of this passage is somewhat doubtful. AVe will, there- 

 fore, subjoin that of Holland, who adopts the other version. 4t As we 

 may s-e by our proud and sumptuous dames, that arc but commoners and 

 urtizuns' wives, who are forced to make themselves carqnans and such or- 

 naments for their shoes, of silver, because the rigour of the statute pro- 

 vided in that case will not permit them to wcarc the same of gold." 



:o A rhetorician who taught at Home in the reign of Augustus. The 

 jioet Ovid was one of his pupils. His rival in teaching declamation wa* 

 rorcius Latro. 



71 Of an improper intimacy with bis pupils. 



'' Kings of silver being parsed through the prepuce. This practice is 

 described by Celsus, B. vii. c. 2<5. 



