CHAP. 2.—GOLD.
Gold is dug out of the earth, and, in close proximity to it,
chrysocolla,[1] a substance which, that it may appear all the
more precious, still retains the name[2] which it has borrowed
from gold.[3] It was not enough for us to have discovered one
bane for the human race, but we must set a value too upon the
very humours of gold.[4] While avarice, too, was on the search
for silver, it congratulated itself upon the discovery of minium,[5]
and devised a use to be made of this red earth.
Alas for the prodigal inventions of man! in how many
ways have we augmented the value of things![6] In addition
to the standard value of these metals, the art of painting lends
its aid, and we have rendered gold and silver still more costly
by the art of chasing them. Man has learned how to challenge
both Nature and art to become the incitements to vice! His
very cups he has delighted to engrave with libidinous subjects,
and he takes pleasure in drinking from vessels of obscene form![7]
But in lapse of time, the metals passed out of fashion, and
men began to make no account of them; gold and silver, in
fact, became too common. From this same earth we have extracted
vessels of murrhine[8] and vases of crystal,[9] objects
the very fragility of which is considered to enhance their value.
In fact, it has come to be looked upon as a proof of opulence,
and as quite the glory of luxury, to possess that which may be
irremediably destroyed in an instant. Nor was even this
enough;—we now drink from out of a mass of gems,[10] and we
set our goblets with smaragdi;[11] we take delight in possessing
the wealth of India, as the promoter of intoxication, and gold
is now nothing more than a mere accessory.[12]
1. "Chrysocolla" is fully described in Chapter 26 of this Book.—B.
2. Meaning "gold glue," or "gold solder."
3. There is considerable variation in the text of this passage, as found in
the different editions. In that of Dalechamps, the Variorum, and those of
De Laët and Sillig, the sentence concludes with the words "nomen ex auro
custodiens;" while in those of Valpy, Lemaire, Poinsinet, Ajasson, and
others, we find substituted for them the words, "Non natura," "Nomen
natura," "Nomine natura," or "Nomen naturam."—B. The first reading
is warranted by the Bamberg MS.
4. "Auri sanies." More properly speaking, "the corrupt matter discharged
by gold." See Chapter 26.
5. "Minium" is treated of in Chapter 36 of this Book.—B.
6. "Pretia rerum." The value of the raw material.
7. Pliny here refers both to the art of producing figures in relief on drinking
vessels made of the precious metals, and also of giving them particular
forms. A well-known line of Juvenal, Sat. ii. 1. 95, affords a striking
illustration of the depraved taste which existed in his time.—B. Lampridius
also speaks of vessels of silver "defiled with representations of a most
libidinous character;" and Capitolinus speaks of "phallovitroboli," glass
drinking vessels shaped like a phallus.
8. "Murrhina" or "myrrhina," are described in B. xxxvii. c. 8; they
were, perhaps, onyxes or opals, though possibly the term was not strictly
confined to these substances, but signified any transparent minerals, that
exhibited a variety of colours. Salmasius, however, ridicules the idea of
their being onyxes, and is of opinion that these vessels were made of porcelain;
Exer. Plin. p. 144.—B.
9. See B. xxxvii. c. 9.
10. He alludes to the cups known as "chrysendeta," adorned with circlets
of gold, exquisite chasings, and groups of precious stones. See Juvenal,
Sat. v. 1. 42.
11. The "Smaragdus" is described in B. xxxvii. c. 13.
12. "Et aurum jam accessio est."