206 PLINY'S NATUBAL IUSTOBY. [Book XXXIV._ 



lore acquit Nature of a charge that hero belongs to man him- 

 self. 19 



Indeed there have been some instances in which it has been 

 proved that iron might be solely used for innocent purposes. 

 In the treaty which Porsena granted to the Iloman people, after 

 the expulsion of the kings, we find it expressly stipulated, that 

 iron shall be only employed for the cultivation of the fields ; 

 und our oldest authors inform us, that in those days it was 

 considered unsafe to write with an iron pen. 50 There is nn ediet 

 extant, published in the third consulship of Pompeius Magnus, 

 during the tumults that ensued upon the death of Clodius, 

 prohibiting any weapon from being retained in the City. 



CHAP. 40. STATUES OF IRON ; CUASKD WOKKS IN IKON. 



Still, however, human industry has not failed to employ iron 

 for perpetuating the honours of more civilized life. The 

 artist Aristonidas, wishing to express the fury of Athamus 

 subsiding into repentance, after he had thrown his son Lenrchud 

 from the rock, 51 blended copper and iron, in order that the? 

 blush of shame might be more exactly expressed, by t!.e rust of 

 the iron making its appearance through the shining substance of 

 the copper ; a statue which still exists at llhoues. There is also, 

 in the same city, a Hercules of iron, executed by Alcon, 52 the 

 endurance displayed in his labours by the god having suggested 

 the idea. ^Ve see too, at Kome, cups of iron consecrated in 

 the Temple of Mars the Avenger.* 3 Nature, in conformity 

 with her usual benevolence, has limited the power of iron, by 

 inflicting upon it the punishment of rust; and lias thus dis- 

 played her usual foresight in rendering nothing in existence 

 more perishable, than the substance which brings the greatest 

 daugers upon perishable mortality. 



CHAP. 41. THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF IUON, AND T1IE MODE OF 



TEM PEKING IT. 



Iron ores arc to be found almost everywhere ; for they exist 



49 The charge that death is always the >vork of Nature. 15. 



60 Or "stylus." 51 Sec Ovid, Mt-tain. B. iv. 1. 467, ct scq. ; and 



Fasti, 15. vi.'l. -189, ct scg.--K. ^ 5 - An arti&t mentioned abo by Ovid 

 iOid Pausauias. U. And by Virgil. 



63 * 4 Mars Ultor." lu the Forum of Augustus, in the Eighth Region of 

 the Citv. 



