on the colours used in painting by the Ancients. 103 
prepared by washing the ores of quicksilver. According to 
Pliny,* who quotes Verrius, it was a colour held in great 
esteem in Rome at the time of the Republic; on great festivals 
it was used for painting the face of Jupiter Capitolinus, and 
likewise for colouring the body of the Victor in the triumphal 
processions, “ sic Camillum triumphasse/’-f Pliny mentions 
that even in his time vermilion was always placed at triumphal 
feasts amongst the precious ointments ; and that the first oc- 
cupation of new censors of the Capitol was to fill the place of 
vermilion painter to Jupiter. 
Vermilion was always a very dear colour amongst the 
Romans ; and we are informed by Pliny that to prevent the 
price from being excessive, it was fixed by the government. 
The circumstance of the chambers in the baths of Titus being 
covered with it, affords proof in favour of their being intended 
for imperial use ; and we are expressly informed by the author 
I have just quoted, that the Laocoon, in his time, was in the 
palace of Titus : J and the taste of the ancients in selecting a 
colour to give full effect to their master pieces of sculpture 
was similar to that of a late celebrated English connoisseur. 
Pliny describes a second or inferior sort of vermilion 
formed by calcining stone found in veins of lead. It is evident, 
that this substance was the same as our minium, and the 
Roman cerussa usta, and the stones alluded to by Pliny must 
have been carbonate of lead : and he states distinctly, that it 
is a substance which becomes red only when burnt. 
* Lib. xxxiii. Cap, 36. Nunc inter pigmenta magnae auc.toritatis, et quondam apud 
Romanos non solum maximas, sed etiam sacrae. f Ibid. 
t Lib. xxxvi. Cap. 4. Sicut in Laocoonte, qui est in Titi Imperatoris domo, opus 
omnibus et picture et statuarias artis praeponendum. 
