BOOK XXXIV. III. 7-v. 10 



above. The only genuine Corinthian vessels are 

 then those which yoiir connoisseurs sometimes 

 convert into dishes for food and sometimes into 

 lamps or even washing basins, without nice regard 

 for decency.'* There are three kinds of this sort of 

 bronze : a white variety, coming very near to silver 

 in brilliance, in which the alloy of silver predominates ; 

 a second kind, in which the yellow quality of gold 

 predominates, and a third kind in which all the metals 

 were blended in equal proportions. Besides these 

 there is another mixture the formula for which 

 cannot be given, although it is man's handiwork ; 

 but the bronze valued in portrait statues and others 

 for its peculiar colour, approaching the appearance 

 of liver and consequently called by a Greek name 

 ' hepatizon ' meaning ' liverish,' is a blend produced 

 by luck ; it is far behind the Corinthian blend, yet 

 a long w^ay in front of the bronze of Aegina and that 

 of Delos which long held the first rank. 



IV. The Dehan bronze was the earliest to become DeHan 

 famous, the whole world thronging the markets ^'"'^^- 

 in Delos ; and hence the attention paid to the 

 processes of making it. It was at Delos that bronze 

 first came into prominence as a material used for 



the feet and framework of dining-couches, and later 

 it came to be employed also for images of the gods 

 and statues of men and other living things. 



V. The next most famous bronze was the Aeginetm 

 Aeginetan ; and the island of Aegina itself became ^'"''^- 

 celebrated for it, though not because the metal 

 copper was mined there but because of the com- 

 pounding done in the workshops. A bronze ox 

 looted from Aegina stands in the cattle-market at 

 Rome, and will serve as a specimen of Aegina bronze, 



^33 



