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Book VIII metals, precious such as gold, platinum, silver

Book VIII metals, precious such as gold, platinum, silver Page of 251 Book VIII metals, precious such as gold, platinum, silver Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK VIII
171
as the one of Jupiter made for Cypselus, Tyrant of Corinth; columns, such as the one in the Temple of Hercules in Egypt; lamps, such as those in the Stronghold of Athens that Callimachus built to Minerva; three-legged stands, such as the one placed in the Temple of Delphi by the people of Aegina; stools, such as the one placed in the same temple by Midas, King of Phrygia; tablets, such as the famous one of solid gold in the tem­ple of the Archangel Michael in Luneburg, a tablet two feet long, one foot wide and three-quarters of an inch thick; and finally seals, some of which are set with gems. There is a large and famous goblet in Merseburg given by King Henry. According to Herodotus there were six bowls in the Temple of Delphi that weighed three thousand pounds. These had been placed there by Gyges. Among the gifts of Croesus there were one hundred and seventeen half-bricks of gold. The largest were seventeen and one-half inches long, about nine inches wide and three inches thick. Four were of pure gold, the rest of white gold. The latter weighed one hundred and fifty pounds apiece, the former two hundred pounds. Croesus had a golden lion that weighed one thousand pounds and a large bowl weighing eight hundred and seventy-five pounds. He also has a golden basin and a four and one-half foot statue of a woman. At Thebes in the Temple of Apollo Ismenias there were presents that Croesus had given to Amphiar-aus, golden shields, javelins and spears with golden heads.
Man uses golden basins, dishes and goblets. Antoninus Heliogabalus, the most infamous man who ever lived, and Bassa, who amused himself by making fun of the priests of Mars, caught their vomit in golden vessels because they said the metal was unclean. Coffins have been made from this metal, such as the one in Elis made by Trophonius for Augeas. King Antigonus placed the bones of Pyrrhus in a golden urn. Bessus bound Darius Codomanus with golden foot-shackles.6 Glaucus had golden armor; the Persians, golden swords, sabers, helmets and breastplates. Maximinus the Younger used a gold breastplate and swords. The soldiers of Antioch-us, King of Syria, had gold nails in the soles of their sandals. Mention must be made of the famous golden plane tree of Xerxes under which he used to sit and of the golden palanquin of the king of India with pearls hanging all around it. Homer writes that men were accustomed to weave gold through their hair in olden times. The Emperor Gallienus sprinkled bears with gold dust and Heliogabalus sprinkled the portico with it. All of the objects that I have mentioned above were made from either pure gold, gold mixed with variable amounts of silver, or electrum which con­tains a fifth portion of silver.' Gold foil is used to cover objects made of silver, brass, iron, wood, and even the pills of physicians. The Romans used it to cover the horns of sacrificial animals while one of the kings of Egypt preserved the body of his daughter in the statue of a cow covered
• Darius was later murdered by Bessus.
7 The electrum referred to here is an alloy and not the mineral electrum.
Book VIII metals, precious such as gold, platinum, silver Page of 251 Book VIII metals, precious such as gold, platinum, silver
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