PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



BOOK XXXIII 



I. Our topic now will be metals, and the actual MetaU. 

 resources employed to pay for commodities — 

 resources diligently sought for in the bowels of the 

 earth in a variety of ways. For in some places the 

 earth is dug into for riches, when life demands gold, 

 silver, silver-gold " and copper, and in other places 

 for luxury, when gems and colours for tinting 

 walls and beams are demanded, and in other places 

 for rash valour, when the demand is for iron, which 

 amid warfare and slaughter is even more prized than 

 gold. \Ve trace out all the fibres of the earth, and 

 live above the hollows we have made in her, marvel- 

 ling that occasionally she gapes open or begins to 

 tremble — as if forsooth it were not possible that this 

 may be an expression of the indignation of our holy 

 parent ! We penetrate her inner parts and seek for 

 riches in the abode of the spirits of the departed, as 

 though the part w^here we tread upon her were not 

 sufficiently bounteous and fertile. And amid all 

 this the smallest object of our searching is for the 

 sake of remedies for illness, for with what fraction of 

 mankind is medicine the object of this delving? 

 Although medicines also earth bestows upon us on 

 her surface, as she bestows corn, bountiful and 



