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Aurum, Gold

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AURUM.
115
come from the Germans brought over to instruct our people in such operations ; hence such technical terms as " sumf," " brattice," " ingot," &c.
Obryza, from the " test," came to imply the standard itself; hence in the Byzantine Code (see Leo's Basileia, passim) οβρνζα is employed to designate the current aurei of the times, much in the same way as the word " sterling " at present.
This test or assay consisted merely in making the gold, whose quality was to be ascertained, red-hot in the fire, when, if the colour remained unchanged, its freedom from all alloy was esta­blished. For with the least admixture of copper, its colour was thus destroyed : our sovereign, though of such high quality, thus treated, becoming coated with a reddish-brown oxide of the baser metal. Some suppose this red-heating gave the name to the test : a derivation perhaps supported by Pliny's expressions : " Auri experimentum ignis est ut simili colore rubeat ignes-catque, et ipsum obrussam vocant : primum autem bonitatis argumentum quam difficillime accendi." The last word, like " ignescere," signifies melting ; for fusing at so high a tempera­ture a lambent flame plays upon the surface of the liquified metal. To this test Martial alludes, where, praising the fine quality of his golden phiala, he says (viii. 51),
" nee odit Exploratores lurida massa focos."
Hence "gold tried in the fire " is synonymous with "pure;" and the Byzantines called their aurei (even after they had lost all claim to the title) νττέρττνροι, " superior to the fire ;" out of which word the Latins made the curious " perperi " their common name for the bezants.
From this assay the gold coins of the Lower Empire, after Constantine's reform of the currency, for many ages downwards, are marked in the exergue COM.OB, to indicate that their standard is the obryza, or fine gold, which was indeed the truth for six centuries after Constantine. The letters COM have not been satisfactorily explained : the final OB, however, admits of no doubt as to its purport, although a recent numismatic writer prefers construing them as the Greek numerals for 72, the actual
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