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174
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DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
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and
copper they used gold and silver in their arms. Livy tells of a shield
of Barchinus of Asdrubal that weighed one hundred and thirty-eight
pounds. The shields of some of the troops of Alexander the Great were
made of silver and for that reason the troops were called argyraspides. This was in imitation of Emperor Alexander whose troops were also called argyraspides and chrysaspides. Maximinus
Jr. used a silver cuirass and swords. The Turdetani of Spain have large
silver casks and cribs, Claudius Caesar used a war chariot of this
metal while Nero had many silver sandals and Heliogabalus, book cases,
tables, and beds. The army of Antiochus, one of the kings of Syria, had
vessels for use in the kitchens. It has been found that the Tectosages12
used silver millstones. Sometimes the branches used in theaters are
made of this metal. Henry the First, of Thuringia, and at the same time
Prince of Misena, had a tree of fair size made of silver from the
Freiberg mines that have yielded him such an abundance of the metal.
The foliage was in part of this metal and these leaves were given to
the winners of equestrian contests. The foil is used by physicians to
cover pills. Silversmiths, engravers, statuaries, goldbeaters,
spinners, embroiderers, and weavers use the metal in their work. But
enough concerning silver.
Quicksilver is called apyvpos χυτό? by Aristotle because it is not solid but liquid and fluid. It is called vSpapyvpos by
Dioscorides, a name derived from the words water and silver since it
resembles silver in color although it contains none of this metal and
it flows like water. Pliny calls the pure natural mineral argentum vivum and the artificial material hydrargyrum because
it is made from cinnabar. In using different names he believed that he
was discussing different things. It is evident to anyone who reads
Dioscorides that the Greeks gave each of these the same name. Thus
Alexander Aphrodisiensis is correct in calling apyvpos χυτοί, v5papyvpos. Just
as the silver that is smelted from veins is not called another name nor
differs, except in purity, from the native metal found in mines, the
quicksilver obtained from cinnabar is in no way different from the
native metal found in mines. The old writers were aware that it was
found pure. Pliny writes, "There is a stone in these veins cursed with
everlasting fluidity that is called argentum vivum." It is
found pure in cavities where the waters that drip from the veins have
moistened the cinnabar for it is in this manner that it is collected
and turned into quicksilver. It can be observed in the troughs used for
washing cinnabar. However, when the quicksilver is dried it goes back
to the form of cinnabar. Dry veins do not yield native quicksilver. For
this reason it is very rare at Schonbach where the water flows with
ease from the wide veins because the mine is on a hill.
Quicksilver
is white and liquid by nature. When poured on a flat table it flows in
all directions. Unlike other liquids it does not wet the table
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A people living near Narbonne, France.
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