Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  Cephisodotus is the artist of an admirable Minerva, now erected in the port of Athens; as also of the altar before the Temple of Jupiter Servator, at the same place, to which, indeed, few works are comparable.

  Canachus executed a nude Apollo, which is known as the “Philesian:” it is at Didymi, and is composed of bronze that was fused at Ægina. He also made a stag with it, so nicely poised on its hoofs, as to admit of a thread being passed beneath. One fore-foots, too, and the alternate hind-foot are so made as firmly to grip the base, the socket being so indented on either side, as to admit of the figure being thrown at pleasure upon alternate feet. Another work of his was the boys known as the “Celetizontes.”

  Chæreas made statues of Alexander the Great and of his father Philip. Desilaüs made a Doryphoros and a wounded Amazon; and Demetrius a statue of Lysimache, who was priestess of Minerva sixty-four years. This statuary also made the Minerva, which has the name of Musica, and so called because the dragons on its Gorgon’s head vibrate at the sound of the lyre; also an equestrian statue of Simon, the first writer on the art of equitation. Dædalus, who is highly esteemed as a modeller in clay, made two brazen figures of youths using the body-scraper; and Dinomenes executed figures of Protesilaüs and Pythodemus the wrestler.

  The statue of Alexander Paris is the work of Euphranor: it is much admired, because we recognize in it, at the same moment, all these characteristics; we see him as the umpire between the goddesses, the paramour of Helen, and yet the slayer of Achilles. We have a Minerva, too, by Euphranor, at Rome, known as the “Catulina,” and dedicated below the Capitol, by Q. Lutatius; also a figure of Good Success, holding in the right hand a patera, and in the left an ear of corn and a poppy. There is also a Latona by him, in the Temple of Concord, with the new-born infants Apollo and Diana in her arms. He also executed some brazen chariots with four and two horses, and a Cliduchus of beautiful proportions; as also two colossal statues, one representing Virtue, the other Greece; and a figure of a female lost in wonder and adoration: with statues of Alexander and Philip in chariots with four horses. Eutychides executed an emblematic figure of the Eurotas, of which it has been frequently remarked, that the work of the artist appears more flowing than the waters even of the river.

  Hegias is celebrated for his Minerva and his King Pyrrhus, his youthful Celetizontes, and his statues of Castor and Pollux, before the Temple of Jupiter Tonans: Hegesias, for his Hercules, which is at our colony of Parium. Of Isidotus we have the Buthytes.

  Lycius was the pupil of Myron: he made a figure representing a boy blowing a nearly extinguished fire, well worthy of his master, as also figures of the Argonauts. Leochares made a bronze representing the eagle carrying off Ganymede: the eagle has all the appearance of being sensible of the importance of his burden, and for whom he is carrying it, being careful not to injure the youth with his talons, even through the garments. He executed a figure, also, of Autolycus, who had been victorious in the contests of the Pancratium, and for whom Xenophon wrote his Symposium; the figure, also, of Jupiter Tonans in the Capitol, the most admired of all his works; and a statue of Apollo crowned with a diadem. He executed, also, a figure of Lyciscus, and one of the boy Lagon, full of the archness and low-bred cunning of the slave. Lycius also made a figure of a boy burning perfumes.

  We have a young bull by Menæchmus, pressed down beneath a man’s knee, with its neck bent back: this Menæch- mus has also written a treatise on his art. Naucydes is admired for a Mercury, a Discobolus, and a Man sacrificing a Ram. Naucerus made a figure of a wrestler panting for breath; Niceratus, an Æsculapius and Hygeia, which are in the Temple of Concord at Rome. Pyromachus represented Alcibiades, managing a chariot with four horses: Polycles made a splendid statue of Hermaphroditus; Pyrrhus, statues of Hygeia and Minerva; and Phanis, who was a pupil of Lysippus, an Epithyusa.

  Stypax of Cyprus acquired his celebrity by a single work, the statue of the Splanchnoptes; which represents a slave of the Olympian Pericles, roasting entrails and kindling the fire with his breath. Silanion made a statue in metal of Apollodorus, who was himself a modeller, and not only the most diligent of all in the study of this art, but a most severe criticizer of his own works, frequently breaking his statues to pieces when he had finished them, and never able to satisfy his intense passion for the art — a circumstance which procured him the surname of “the Madman.” Indeed, it is this expression which he has given to his works, which represent in metal embodied anger rather than the lineaments of a human being. The Achilles, also, of Silanion is very excellent, and his Epistates exercising the Athletes. Strongylion made a figure of an Amazon, which, from the beauty of the legs, was known as the “Eucnemos,” and which Nero used to have carried about with him in his travels. Strongylion was the artist, also, of a youthful figure, which was so much admired by Brutus of Philippi, that it received from him its surname.

  Theodorus of Samos, who constructed the Labyrinth, cast his own statue in brass; which was greatly admired, not only for its resemblance, but for the extreme delicacy of the work. In the right hand he holds a file, and with three fingers of the left, a little model of a four-horse chariot, which has since been transferred to Præneste: it is so extremely minute, that the whole piece, both chariot and charioteer, may be covered by the wings of a fly, which he also made with it.

  Xenocrates was the pupil of Ticrates, or, as some say, of Euthycrates: he surpassed them both, however, in the number of his statues, and was the author of some treatises on his art.

  Several artists have represented the battles fought by Attalus and Eumenes with the Galli; Isigonus, for instance, Pyromachus, Stratonicus, and Antigonus, who also wrote some works in reference to his art. Boëthus, although more celebrated for his works in silver, has executed a beautiful figure of a child strangling a goose. The most celebrated of all the works, of which I have here spoken, have been dedicated, for some time past, by the Emperor Vespasianus in the Temple of Peace, and other public buildings of his. They had before been forcibly carried off by Nero, and brought to Rome, and arranged by him in the reception-rooms of his Golden Palace.

  In addition to these, there are several other artists, of about equal celebrity, but none of whom have produced any first-rate works; Ariston, who was principally employed in chasing silver, Callides, Ctesias, Cantharus of Sicyon, Diodorus, a pupil of Critias, Deliades, Euphorion, Eunicus, and Hecatæus, all of them chasers in silver; Lesbocles, also, Prodorus, Pythodicus, and Polygnotus, one of the most celebrated painters; also two other chasers in silver, Stratonicus, and Scymnus, a pupil of Critias.

  I shall now enumerate those artists who have executed works of the same class: — Apollodorus, for example, Antrobulus, Asclepiodorus, and Aleuas, who have executed statues of philosophers. Apellas has left us some figures of females in the act of adoration; Antignotus, a Perixyomenos, and figures of the Tyrannicides, already mentioned. Antimachus and Athenodorus made some statues of females of noble birth; Aristodemus executed figures of wrestlers, two-horse chariots with the charioteers, philosophers, aged women, and a statue of King Seleucus: his Doryphoros, too, possesses his characteristic gracefulness.

  There were two artists of the name of Cephisodotus: the earlier of them made a figure of Mercury nursing Father Liber when an infant; also of a man haranguing, with the hand elevated, the original of which is now unknown. The younger Cephisodotus executed statues of philosophers. Colotes, who assisted Phidias in the Olympian Jupiter, also executed statues of philosophers; the same, too, with Cleon, Cenchramis, Callicles, and Cepis. Chalcosthenes made statues of comedians and athletes. Daïppus executed a Perixyomenos. Daïphron, Democritus, and Dæmon made statues of philosophers.

  Epigonus, who has attempted nearly all the above-named classes of works, has distinguished himself more particularly by his Trumpeter, and his Child in Tears, caressing its murdered mother. The Woman in Admiration, of Eubulus, is highly praised; and so is the Man, by Eubulides, reckoning on his Fingers. Micon is admired for his athletes; Menogene
s, for his four-horse chariots. Niceratus, too, who attempted every kind of work that had been executed by any other artist, made statues of Aleibiades and of his mother Demarate, who is represented sacrificing by the light of torches.

  Tisicrates executed a two-horse chariot in brass, in which Piston afterwards placed the figure of a female. Piston also made the statues of Mars and Mercury, which are in the Temple of Concord at Rome. No one can commend Perillus; more cruel even than the tyrant Phalaris himself, he made for him a brazen bull, asserting that when a man was enclosed in it, and fire applied beneath, the cries of the man would resemble the roaring of a bull: however, with a cruelty in this instance marked by justice, the experiment of this torture was first tried upon himself. To such a degree did this man degrade the art of representing gods and men, an art more adapted than any other to refine the feelings! Surely so many persons had not toiled to perfect it in order to make it an instrument of torture! Hence it is that the works of Perillus are only preserved, in order that whoever sees them, may detest the hands that made them.

  Sthennis made the statues of Ceres, Jupiter, and Minerva, which are now in the Temple of Concord; also figures of matrons weeping, adoring, and offering sacrifice; Simon executed figures of a dog and an archer. Stratonicus, the chaser in silver, made some figures of philosophers; and so did both of the artists named Scopas.

  The following artists have made statues of athletes, armed men, hunters, and sacrificers — Baton, Euchir, Glaucides, Heliodorus, Hicanus, Leophon, Lyson, Leon, Menodorus, Myagrus, Polycrates, Polyidus, Pythocritus, Protogenes, a famous painter, whom we shall have occasion to mention hereafter; Patrocles, Pollis, Posidonius the Ephesian, who was also a celebrated chaser in silver; Periclymenus, Philon, Symenus, Timotheus, Theomnestus, Timarchides, Timon, Tisias, and Thrason.

  But of all these, Callimachus is the most remarkable, on account of his surname. Being always dissatisfied with himself, and continually correcting his works, he obtained the name of “Catatexitechnos;” thus affording a memorable example of the necessity of observing moderation even in carefulness. His Laconian Female Dancers, for instance, is a most correct performance, but one in which, by extreme correctness, he has effaced all gracefulness. It has been said, too, that Callimachus was a painter also. Cato, in his expedition against Cyprus, sold all the statues that he found there, with the exception of one of Zeno; in which case he was influenced, neither by the value of the metal nor by its excellence as a work of art, but by the fact that it was the statue of a philosopher. I only mention this circumstance casually, that an example so little followed, may be known.

  While speaking of statues, there is one other that should not be omitted, although its author is unknown, that of Her- cules clothed in a tunic, the only one represented in that costume in Rome: it stands near the Rostra, and the countenance is stern and expressive of his last agonies, caused by that dress. There are three inscriptions on it; the first of which states that it had formed part of the spoil obtained by L. Lucullus the general; the second, that his son, while still a minor, dedicated in accordance with a decree of the Senate; the third, that T. Septimius Sabinus, the curule ædile, had it restored to the public from the hands of a private individual. So vast has been the rivalry caused by this statue, and so high the value set upon it.

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  CHAP. 20.

  THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF COPPER AND ITS COMBINATIONS. PYROPUS. CAMPANIAN COPPER.

  We will now return to the different kinds of copper, and its several combinations. In Cyprian copper we have the kind known as “coronarium,” and that called “regulare,” both of them ductile. The former is made into thin leaves, and, after being coloured with ox-gall, is used for what has all the appearance of gilding on the coronets worn upon the stage. The same substance, if mixed with gold, in the proportion of six scruples of gold to the ounce, and reduced into thin plates, acquires a fiery red colour, and is termed “pyropus.” In other mines again, they prepare the kind known as “regulare,” as also that which is called “caldarium.” These differ from each other in this respect, that, in the latter, the metal is only fused, and breaks when struck with the hammer, whereas the “regulare” is malleable, or ductile, as some call it, a property which belongs naturally to all the copper of Cyprus. In the case, however, of all the other mines, this difference between bar copper and cast brass is produced by artificial means. All the ores, in fact, will produce bar or malleable copper when sufficiently melted and purified by heat. Among the other kinds of copper, the palm of excellence is awarded to that of Campania, which is the most esteemed for vessels and utensils. This last is prepared several ways. At Capua it is melted upon fires made with wood, and not coals, after which it is sprinkled with cold water and cleansed through a sieve made of oak. After being thus smelted a number of times, Spanish silver-lead is added to it, in the proportion of ten pounds of lead to one hundred pounds of copper; a method by which it is rendered pliable, and made to assume that agreeable colour which is imparted to other kinds of copper by the application of oil and the action of the sun. Many parts, however, of Italy, and the provinces, produce a similar kind of metal; but there they add only eight pounds of lead, and, in consequence of the scarcity of wood, melt it several times over upon coals. It is in Gaul more particularly, where the ore is melted between red-hot stones, that the difference is to be seen that is produced by these variations in the method of smelting. Indeed, this last method scorches the metal, and renders it black and friable. Besides, they only melt it twice; whereas, the oftener this operation is repeated, the better in quality it becomes.

  (9.) It is also as well to remark that all copper fuses best when the weather is intensely cold. The proper combination for making statues and tablets is as follows: the ore is first melted; after which there is added to the molten metal one third part of second-hand copper, or in other words, copper that has been in use and bought up for the purpose. For it is a peculiarity of this metal that when it has been some time in use, and has been subject to long-continued friction, it becomes seasoned, and subdued, as it were, to a high polish. Twelve pounds and a half of silver-lead are then added to every hundred pounds of the fused metal. There is also a combination of copper, of a most delicate nature, “mould-copper,” as it is called; there being added to the metal one tenth part of lead and one twentieth of silver-lead, this combination being the best adapted for taking the colour known as “Græcanicus.” The last kind is that known as “ollaria,” from the vessels that are made of it: in this combination three or four pounds of silver-lead are added to every hundred pounds of copper. By the addition of lead to Cyprian copper, the purple tint is produced that we see upon the drapery of statues.

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  CHAP. 21.

  THE METHOD OF PRESERVING COPPER.

  Copper becomes covered with verdigris more quickly when cleaned than when neglected, unless it is well rubbed with oil. It is said that the best method of preserving it is with a coating of tar. The custom of making use of copper for monuments, which are intended to be perpetuated, is of very ancient date: it is upon tablets of brass that our public enactments are engraved.

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  CHAP. 22. (10.)

  CADMIA.

  The ores of copper furnish a number of resources that are employed in medicine; indeed, all kinds of ulcers are healed thereby with great rapidity. Of these, however, the most useful is cadmia. This substance is formed artificially, beyond a doubt, in the furnaces, also, where they smelt silver, but it is whiter and not so heavy, and by no means to be compared with that from copper. There are several kinds of it. For, as the mineral itself, from which it is prepared artificially, so necessary in fusing copper ore, and so useful in medicine, has the name of “cadmia,” so also is it found in the smelting-furnaces, where it receives other names, according to the way in which it is formed. By the action of the flame and the blast, the more attenuated parts of the metal are separated, an
d become attached, in proportion to their lightness, to the arched top and sides of the furnace. These flakes are the thinnest near the exterior opening of the furnace, where the flame finds a vent, the substance being called “capnitis;” from its burnt appearance and its extreme lightness it resembles white ashes. The best is that which is found in the interior, hanging from the arches of the chimney, and from its form and position named “botryitis.” It is heavier than the first-mentioned kind, but lighter than those which follow. It is of two different colours: the least valuable is ash-coloured, the better kind being red, friable, and extremely useful as a remedy for affections of the eyes.

  A third kind of cadmia is that found on the sides of the furnace, and which, in consequence of its weight, could not reach the arched vaults of the chimney. This species is called “placitis,” in reference to its solid appearance, it presenting a plane surface more like a solid crust than pumice, and mottled within. Its great use is, for the cure of itch-scab, and for making wounds cicatrize. Of this last there are two varieties, the “onychitis,” which is almost entirely blue on the exterior, and spotted like an onyx within; and the “ostracitis,” which is quite black and more dirty than the others, but particularly useful for healing wounds. All the species of cadmia are of the best quality from the furnaces of Cyprus. When used in medicine it is heated a second time upon a fire of pure charcoal, and when duly incinerated, is quenched in Aminean wine, if required for making plasters, but in vinegar, if wanted for the cure of itch-scab. Some persons first pound it, and then burn it in earthen pots; which done, they wash it in mortars and then dry it.

  Nymphodorus recommends that the most heavy and dense pieces of mineral cadmia that can be procured, should be burnt upon hot coals and quenched in Chian wine; after which, it must be pounded and then sifted through a linen cloth. It is then pulverized in a mortar and macerated in rain water, the sediment being again pounded until it is reduced to the consistency of ceruse, and presents no grittiness to the teeth. Iollas recommends the same process; except that he selects the purest specimens of native cadmia.