[202]From the words μετ’ αλλα[**diacrit?], “one after another.”
[203]By public enactment probably; samples of the false denarius being sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine coin.
[204]The first person mentioned in Roman history as having the cognomen “Dives,” is Publius Licinius Crassus. As he attained the highest honors of the state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so opprobriously spoken of by Pliny.
[205]Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down his throat.
[206]According to some authorities, he was a Lydian. He derived his wealth from his gold mines in the neighborhood of Celænæ in Phrygia, and would appear, in spite of Pliny’s reservation, to have been little less than a king. His five sons accompanied Xerxes; but Pythius, alarmed by an eclipse of the sun, begged that the eldest might be left behind. Upon this, Xerxes had the youth put to death, and his body cut in two, the army being ordered to march between the portions, which were placed on either side of the road. His other sons were all slain in battle, and Pythius passed the rest of his life in solitude.
[207]So called from the silversmiths who respectively introduced them.
[208]“Æris Metalla.” The word “Æs” does not correspond to our word “brass;” the brass of the moderns being a compound of copper and zinc, while the “Æs” of the ancients was mostly composed of copper and tin, and therefore is more correctly designated by the word “bronze.” Mr. Westmacott says that the ancient “Æs” has been found, upon analysis, to contain no zinc, but in nearly every instance to be a mixture of copper and tin, like our bronze. Beckmann says, on the other hand, that the mixture of zinc and copper now called “brass,” first discovered by ores, abundant in zinc, was certainly known to the ancients.
[209]The colleges of the priests and of the augurs being the first two associated bodies.
[210]B.C. 146.
[211]Pisistratus. These statues are mentioned elsewhere by Pliny as being the workmanship of Praxiteles.