BOOK XXXIII. xvn. ^r^-xix. 59 



Aemilius Paulus also after the defeat of King 

 Perseus " paid in to the treasury from the booty won 

 in Macedonia 300 million sesterces ; and from that 

 date onward the Roman nation left off paying the 

 citizens' property-tax.^ 



XVIII. At the present day we see ceilings 

 covered with gold even in private houses, but they 

 were first gilded in-the Capitol during the censorship 



of Lucius Mummius after the fall of Carthage. 146 b.c. 

 From ceiHngs the use of gilding passed over also to 

 vaulted roofs and walls, these too being now gilded 

 like pieces of plate, whereas a variety of judgements 

 were passed ^ on Catulus by his contemporaries for Betwem 79 

 having gilded the brass tiUngs of the Capitol. 



XIX. We have already said in Book VII who vii. 97. 

 were the people who first discovered gold, and Popuiarity 

 almost all of the metals Hkewise. I think that the 



chief popularity of this substance has been won not 

 by its colour, that of silver being brighter and more 

 Hke dayHght, which is the reason why it is in more 

 common use for miHtary ensigns because its briHiance 

 is visible at a greater distance ; those persons who 

 think that it is the colour of starHght in gold that has 

 won it favour being clearly mistaken because in the 

 case of gems and other things with the same tint it 

 does not hold an outstanding place. Nor is it its 

 weight or its maUeabiHty that has led to its being 

 preferred to aU the rest of the metals, since in both 

 quaHties it yields '^ the first place to lead, but because 

 fiold is the only thing that loses no substance by the Spedal 



i.- r n \ ^ ' n 4.- J qualities oj 



action or fire, but even m confiagrations and on goid. 

 funeral pyres receives no damage. Indeed as a 

 matter of fact it improves in quaHty the more often 

 it is fired, and fire serves as a test of its goodness. 



47 



