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214 LAPIS LYDIUS.
covery
of this alloy in consequence of a fire, in the sack of that city,
having melted a number of works in the different metals that had been
brought together (by the plunderers). Of the same tale Petronius makes
his hero Trimalchio, the wealthy " snob," give an absurd version : "
But that you may not take me for a know-nothing, I understand quite
well how the Corinthian brass first came about. At the sack of Troy
Hannibal, a cunning fellow and a big rogue, heaped up all the gold,
silver, and bronze statues into one vast heap, and then set fire to it.
The metals fused and ran all together. From this the workmen took and
made pots, dishes, and statues. So arose the Corinthian metal ; one
thing out of several, but neither this nor that."
I
have never been able to discover if any vessels in this composition
yet exist : but their non-appearance would bo no argument against the
antique, and large, employment of the alloy. The article Cœlatura has
shown how few of the innumerable pieces of gold and silver plate of
those times have come down to us, and the precious alloy of the
Corinthian would have consigned it to the same crucible as the works
in the purer metals. Add to which, their surface now would (from, the mixture of copper) be so coated with patina as
to render their metal undis-tinguishable to the eye from ordinary
bronze. The numismatists of the Revival were fond of espying the true
Corinthian in the material of the large Roman coins, misled by its
bright golden colour : they never reflected upon the trifling value of
such pieces (four to the denarius) when actually in circulation.
That the alloy called aurichalcum was but another name for the Pyropus above described (Aurum) may
be inferred from its name " gold copper," and from the manner in which
Pliny alludes to its appearance and use. He does not anywhere give its
composition, which of itself is a reason for supposing he had already
described it under another designation.1 He quotes the best bronze, the Livianum, as " imitating the excellence of aurichalcum " (xxxiv. 2), in its colour evidently. The latter quality
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