[951] “Plumbum nigrum”—“Black lead,” literally: so called by the ancients, in contradistinction to “plumbum album,” “white lead,” our “tin,” probably.
[952] Lead ore; identified with “molybdæna” in B. xxxiv. c. [53]. Native sulphurate of lead is now known as “galena.” See Beckmann’s Hist. Inv. Vol. II. p. 211, where this passage is commented upon.
[953] This Beckmann considers to be the same as the “galena” above mentioned; half-vitrified lead, the “glätte” of the Germans.
[954] The specific gravity of lead is 11.352, and of silver only 10.474.
[955] From the words μετ’ ἄλλα, “one after another.”
[956] It is supposed that these shafts were in the neighbourhood of Castulo, now Cazlona, near Linares in Spain. It was at Castulo that Hannibal married his rich wife Himilce; and in the hills north of Linares there are ancient silver mines still known its Los Pozos de Anibal.
[957] A mile and a half.
[958] The proper reading here, as suggested by Sillig, is not improbably “aquatini,” “water-carriers.” That, however, found in the MSS. is “Aquitani;” but those were a people, not of Spain, but of Gaul. Hardouin suggests that “Accitani” may be the correct reading, a people of that name in Spain being mentioned in B. iii. c. 5.
[959] Meaning “raw” silver, apparently.