CHAP. v. PRECIOUS METALS. 151 



grain cover a surface of fifty-seven inches, we 

 may safely assume that in the time of Pliny, 

 though gilding had been discovered, it had made 

 but little progress ; and we are warranted in 

 affirming that what was then called gilding was 

 only a kind of imperfect plating, which, as Pliny 

 says, was fixed on wood by a kind of glue ; and 

 it will appear probable that the shields of the 

 Samnites were (auro ccdata.) covered with gold 

 in that manner, as well as the statue of Apollo 

 at Delphi. 



The Romans about the time of Augustus 

 began to gild the ceilings of their temples and 

 their palaces, the capitol being the first of the 

 buildings on which this kind of embellishment 

 was bestowed ; and the cost of which amounted 

 to twelve thousand talents according to Plu- 

 tarch *, from whence it is denominated aurea by 

 Virgil 2 , aun.djfulg'ens by Horace. 



By gradual steps this kind of ornamental de- 

 coration extended itself from public edifices to 

 private dwellings. The ceilings of the rooms 

 between the beams were covered with gold, to 

 which Horace refers, Lib. ii. Od. xviii., 



neque aureum 

 Mea renidet in domo lacunar ; 



and also Virgil in the JSneid, 1. i. 



1 Plutarch in Publicola. 



2 jEneid, 1. viii, 348. 



