Quantcast
  We are temporarily changing parts of Farlang until November 30th and apologize for any inconvenience Portal logo
Login/Register
 
/gemstones/king-precious-stones-metals/page_144 - 2
 

Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver

Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Page of 377 Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
134 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c.
inveighs, both on account of the want of resemblance in these metal reliefs (surdo figurarum discrimine) and of their liability to destruction in consequence of thpir large intrinsic value. It was the usual belief that the first sta-.tues in silver had been made in honour of Augustus upon his deification ; but Pliny mentions such of Pharnaces, first king of Pontus, and of Mithridates, as being exhibited in PompeyV triumphal procession. The most colossal work in the metal on record is the column of Theodosius, weighing 7400 pounds, which stood in front of Santa Sophia, until melted down by Justinian to make way for a bronze equestrian statue of himself. Theodosius had a precedent for his extravagance in the " palmated column," supporting a statue likewise in silver, of the total weight of 1500 pounds, erected by the Senate to Claudius Gothicus.
Besides these gigantic exhibitions of luxury, silver was, under the Cœsars, employed for other articles of con­venience, and upon a scale never afterwards emulated. Pliny talks of the ladies of his time disdaining bathing-tubs unless made of this precious material. And a few years later Statius, describing the magnificent baths newly erected by a private man, Claudius Etruscns, boasts that no bronze appeared in them :—
The best mirrors of old had been the manufacture of Tarentum, made of tin with a mixture of copper: but under Pompey, Pasiteles the chaser had cast them in fine silver, which, by Pliny's time, had got down even into the hands of the servant-girls. He notes as a recent discovery that, if gilt on the back, they reflected objects more truly.
Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver Page of 377 Ch. 3: Argentum, Silver
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page