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Aurum, Gold

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116
AURUM.
number of the aurei to the pound Roman. But the use of Greek numerals in legends entirely Latin seems to me contrary to all analogy.
The Romans had many alloys of gold, but all designated by distinct appellations, their "aurum" always standing for the refined metal. Thus gold containing as much as 1/2 silver took the name of Electrum. Some was found native in the Spanish gold-washings, some was an artificial alloy. It was in request for drinking-vessels, partly because it was more lustrous by lamp-light than the unalloyed metal, partly because the native kind was supposed to betray the presence of poison in the draught it contained by a changing colour and crackling noise. The Pyr-opus was made by adding 6 scruples of gold (or one quarter) to the ounce of copper : this was beaten out into a leaf, apparently to be used for foiling gems; and seems to have been what is elsewhere described as Aurichalcum so employed. This alloy would produce a very red foil, which by the application of heat can be made to take various and singular colours.
Pliny notices the great ductility of gold, allowing a single ounce to be beaten out into 750 leaves, each 4 digits (3 inches) square, and even thinner. The thickest sort was called the Prsenestine in consequence of having been employed for gilding the famous statue of Fortuna in that city: the second quality, the Quaes-torian. It was also drawn into wire and woven into cloth entirely by itself. In a robe of such texture had Pliny seen the Empress Agrippina, enthroned at the side of Claudius, at the show of the grand Naval Fight on the opening of the emissary of the Fucine Lake. Some notion of the weight thus borne by the person distinguished by such a robe may be deduced from what Fauno (Ant. di Roma) tells of the vestments found (1544) in the sarcophagus of Maria Honorii (a child but six years old at the time of her decease): these robes of silk and gold thread yielded when melted down 40 lbs. weight of the finest gold.
Pliny gives recipes for the solder used by the goldsmiths of his time (xxxiii. 29). The chief ingredient was Chrysocolla, or native verdigris; this was pounded in a copper mortar with a copper pestle, mixed with nitre and a child's urine : this served for gold containing an alloy of silver. It was called Santerna,
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