BOOK XXXIV 



I. Let oiir next subject be ores, etc., of copper Ba^e metah. 

 and bronze " the metals which in point of utility 



have the next value ; in fact Corinthian bronze is Brome and 



valued before silver and almost even before gold ; '^^pp^- 



and bronze is also the standard of payments in 



money as we have said : hence aes is embodied in the xxxiii. 



terms denoting the pay of soldiers, the treasury *^' ^^^* 



paymasters and the pubHc treasury, persons held 



in debt, and soldiers whose pay is stopped. We 



have pointed out for what a long time the Roman xxxiii. 



nation used no coinage except bronze ; and by ^^ *^^' 



another fact antiquity shows that the importance 



of bronze is as old as the city — the fact that the 



third corporation ^ established by King Numa was ^I^^^b r 



the Guild of Coppersmiths. 



II. The method followed in mining deposits of copper. 

 copper and purifying the ore by firing is that which 



has been stated. The metal is also got from a xxxii. 

 coppery stone called by a Greek name cadmea,^ a ^*' ^^^" 

 kind in high repute coming from overseas and also 

 formerly found in Campania and at the present day 

 in the territory of Bergamo on the farthest confines 

 of Italy ; and it is also reported to have been 

 recently found in the province ^ of Germany. In 

 Cyprus, where copper was first discovered, it is also 



** Only the region of the left bank of the Rhine is meant. 



127 



