Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

760 N METAL L UM. UMET. ALLUM.
of the earliest period were still to be seen in the gold, silver, iron, and copper from their ores, were
time of Pausanias (11. xi. 634, xviii. 379; Pans. x. xwell known when that book was composed. The
16. ~ 1). The art of embossing, or fastening pieces casting of metal into moulds must also have been
of one metal on to the surfiee of another (iEiraco- practised very early. There are no means of knowr.vi'r6dXvr7, is referred to several times in Homer inl of what material or composition the forms
(11. xi. 24, 35; Iobeck, ad Sopa..Aj. 846, &c.). or moulds were made, but in all probability clay
GCilding wa.s commonly practised: one interesting (dried, and then perhaps baked) was employed for
example is the gilding of the horns of an ox about the purpose. The circumstance of a spot where clay
to be sacrificed. (Od. iii. 425, &c.) This passage abounded having been chosen for the founding of
lirnishes a striking instance of the use of words the bronze works for the temple of Solomon supconnected with Xaxcods for working in any kind of ports this supposition. (1 Kings, vii. 46). Of course
metal: thus, the artificer is called by the generic all the earliest works produced in this stage of the
term, XaXicrES (432), as well as by the specific art must have been solid. The third process, that
name, XpveooXoos (425), and his tools are the of casting into a mould with a core, was an im-;.r3a XaelcX'CiO, oaim' re XpV ob, elpydeTro (vv. portant step in the statuary's art. Unfortunately
5133,435). Lastly, the image used to describe the there is no better record of the time, nor of the
hissing of the burning stake when plunged in the mode in which this was effected by the ancients,
eye of Polyphemnus, shows an acquaintance with the than the statements of Pausanias and Pliny, acprocess of dipping red-hot iron in water to harden cording to whom the art of casting in bronze and in
it. (Od. xi. 391, comp. Soph. Ai. 720.) iron was invented by Rhoecus and Theodorus of
The advances made in the art of metallurgy in Saumos, who probably lived in the sixth and fifth
subsequent times are chiefly connected with the centuries before our era. (Pans. iii. 12. ~ 8, viii.
improvements in the art of statuary. The method 14 ~ 5; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 12. s. 43; Diet. of
of working, as described in Homer, seems to have Biog. s. vv. Rhoecus, T/ieodorus.)
long prevailed, namely by beating out lumps of the The ancients used something answering the purnmaterial into the form proposed, and afterwards pose of a solder for fastening the different pieces of
fitting the pieces together by means of pins or metal together; but it is difficult to determine
keys. It was called ecvppXaTvoP, from mcppa, a whether the term CdXAX7-qms means a solder or only
hammer. Pausanias (iii. 17. ~ 6) describes this a species of glue. Pausanias distinctly speaks of
process in speaking of a very ancient statue of it as something different from nails or cramps, and
Jupiter at Sparca, the work of Learchus of Rhegium. gives us the name of its inventor, Glaucus of Chios,
With respect to its supposed antiquity, Pausanias who appears to have lived earlier than the Samian
can only mean that it was very ancient, and of the artists just referred to (Herod. i. 25; Paus. x. 16.
archaic style of art. The term ampvpiXaTos is used by ~ 1; Plut. de DVf: Or. 47, p. 436; Diet. of Bioy.
Diodorus (ii. 9) in describing a very ancient golden vs. t.). Pliny in like manner speaks of a solder
table which was said to have decorated the cele- under the title of plumbumo aryentarsiums (Jh. n.
brated gardensofthe palace ofNinus and Semiramis, xxxiv. 17. s. 48). Many of the works in the.at Babylon. Pliny (II. N. xxxiii. 4. s. 24.) men- British Museum, as well as in other collections,
tions a golden statue of Diana Anaitis worked in the are composed of pieces of metal which have been
same way, which he calls holosplyranton. A statue joined together, but whether by clamps, rivets, or
of Dionysius by Onassinmedes, of solid bronze, is soldering, it is now impossible to determine accumentioned by Pausanias (ix. 12. ~ 3) as existing rately, on account of the rust about the edges of the
at Thebes in his time. The next mode, among the plates. The modern practice of welding pieces of
Greeks, of executing metal works seems to have metal together seems to have been altogether unbeen by plating upon a nucleus, or general form, known to the ancients.
of wood — a practice which was employed also Respecting the supply and use of metals in the
by the Egyptians, as is proved by a specimen of historical period, little remains to be added to what
their art preserved in the British Museum. The has been said under AEs, ArtGENTUM, Aunums,
subject is a small head of Osiris, and the wood is CAELATUItA, ELECTRUM, STATUARIA, &C. Ironi
still remaining within the metal. It is probable was found chiefly in Laconia and on the shores of
that the terms tlolospltyraton and splyraoton were the Black Sea, and was brought especially from
intended to designate the two modes of hammer- Sinope. Stephanus Byzantinus, who mentions
work; the first on a solid mass, and the other ham- this fact, states the purposes for which the two
hmering out plates. (Comp. MALLEUS.) sorts of iron were considered respectively better
It is extremely difficult to determine at what fitted (s. v. Ai. Atecsaauv). The whole subject of
date the casting of metal was introduced, That it metals and metal-work is treated of by Pliny in
was known at a very early period there can be no the thirty-third and thirty-fourth books of his
doubt, although it may not have been exercised by Historiac Ateturalis.
statuaries in European Greece till a comparatively One point notyet noticed is the question, whether
late date. The art of founding may be divided the ancients possessed a knowledge of zinc. That
into three classes or stages. The first is the simple they rarely if ever usedait as an alloy of copper is
melting of metals either from the solid form, or proved by the analysis of existing specimens of
from the ore; the second, casting the fused metals their bronze [AEs]; but that they were absolutely
into prepared forms or moulds; and the third, ignorant of it can easily be disproved. One of the
casting into a mould, with a core or internal miost important passages on the subject is in Strabo
nucleus, by which the metal may be preserved of (xiii. p. 610), who says that " in the neighbouria determined thickness. The first stage must have hood of Andeira (in the Troas) there is a certain
been known at a period of which we have no re- stone which, on being burnt, becomes iron; then,
cord beyond a passage in the book of Job (xxviii. on being smelted with a certain earth, it distils:1, 2), which establishes the fact that some of the sEvusapyupos, and with the addition of copper it
processes of metallurgy, such as the reduction of becoimes what is called SKpepwa (which may mean