Still, however, there had been a distinction drawn between ordinary stone and marble, in the days of Homer even. The poet speaks in one passage of a person[2484] being struck down with a huge mass of marble; but that is all; and when he describes the abodes of royalty adorned with every elegance, besides brass, gold, electrum,[2485] and silver, he only mentions ivory. Variegated marbles, in my opinion, were first discovered in the quarries of Chios, when the inhabitants were building the walls of their city; a circumstance which gave rise to a facetious repartee on the part of M. Cicero. It being the practice with them to show these walls to everybody, as something magnificent; “I should admire them much more,” said he, “if you had built them of the stone used at Tibur.”[2486] And, by Hercules! the art of painting[2487] never would have been held in such esteem, or, indeed, in any esteem at all, if variegated marbles had been held in admiration.
CHAP. 6.—WHO WERE THE FIRST TO CUT MARBLE INTO SLABS, AND AT WHAT PERIOD.
I am not sure whether the art of cutting marble into slabs, is not an invention for which we are indebted to the people of Caria. The most ancient instance of this practice, so far as I know of, is found in the palace of Mausolus, at Halicarnassus, the walls of which, in brick, are covered with marble of Proconnesus. Mausolus died in the second year of the hundred and seventh[2488] Olympiad, being the year of Rome, 403.
CHAP. 7.—WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ENCRUST THE WALLS OF HOUSES AT ROME WITH MARBLE.
The first person at Rome who covered the whole of the walls of his house with marble, according to Cornelius Nepos,[2489] was Mamurra,[2490] who dwelt upon the Cælian Hill, a member of the equestrian order, and a native of Formiæ, who had been præfect of the engineers under C. Cæsar in Gaul. Such was the individual, that nothing may be wanting to the indignity of the example, who first adopted this practice; the same Mamurra, in fact, who has been so torn to pieces in the verses of Catullus of Verona. Indeed, his own house proclaimed more loudly than Catullus could proclaim it, that he had come into possession of all that Gallia Comata had had to possess. For Nepos adds, as well, that he was the first to have all the columns of his house made of nothing but solid marble, and that, too, marble of Carystus[2491] or of Luna.[2492]
CHAP. 8.—AT WHAT PERIOD THE VARIOUS KINDS OF MARBLE CAME INTO USE AT ROME.
M. Lepidus, who was consul with Q. Catulus, was the first to have the lintels of his house made of Numidian marble, a thing for which he was greatly censured: he was consul in the year of Rome, 676. This is the earliest instance that I can find of the introduction of Numidian marble; not in the form of pillars, however, or of slabs, as was the case with the marble of Carystus, above-mentioned, but in blocks, and that too, for the comparatively ignoble purpose of making the thresholds of doors. Four-years after this Lepidus, L. Lucullus was consul; the same person who gave its name, it is very evident, to the Lucullan marble; for, taking a great fancy to it, he introduced it at Rome. While other kinds of marble are valued for their spots or their colours, this marble is entirely black.[2493] It is found in the island of Melos,[2494] and is pretty nearly the only marble that has taken its name from the person who first introduced it. Among these personages, Scaurus, in my opinion, was the first to build a theatre with walls of marble: but whether they were only coated with slabs of marble or were made of solid blocks highly polished, such as we now see in the Temple of Jupiter Tonans,[2495] in the Capitol, I cannot exactly say: for, up to this period, I cannot find any vestiges of the use of marble slabs in Italy.
CHAP. 9.—THE METHOD OF CUTTING MARBLE INTO SLABS. THE SAND USED IN CUTTING MARBLE.
But whoever it was that first invented the art of thus cutting marble, and so multiplying the appliances of luxury, he displayed considerable ingenuity, though to little purpose. This division, though apparently effected by the aid of iron, is in reality effected by sand; the saw acting only by pressing upon the sand within a very fine cleft in the stone, as it is moved to and fro.
The[2496] sand of Æthiopia is the most highly esteemed for this purpose; for, to add to the trouble that is entailed, we have to send to Æthiopia for the purpose of preparing our marble—aye, and as far as India even; whereas in former times, the severity of the Roman manners thought it beneath them to repair thither in search of such costly things even as pearls! This Indian sand is held in the next highest degree of estimation, the Æthiopian being of a softer nature, and better adapted for dividing the stone without leaving any roughness on the surface; whereas the sand from India does not leave so smooth a face upon it. Still, however, for polishing marble, we find it recommended[2497] to rub it with Indian sand calcined. The sand of Naxos has the same defect; as also that from Coptos, generally known as “Egyptian” sand.