Etymologies & Works 16 part 3/3

To it belongs this marvelous property: that, though it is white, when pressed against the body it gives back black lines. Quicksilver (argentum vivum, 'living silver') is so called because it eats away the materials into which it is thrown; it is also 'liquid,' because it runs about. It is found especially in mines or in silver-smelting furnaces, clinging in a concretion of droplets covered over, and often too in the most ancient dung of sewers or in the mud of wells. It is also made from vermilion (minium) placed on an iron shell with an earthenware pan set over it; then charcoal is heaped around the vessel that has been smeared around, and thus quicksilver distills from the vermilion; without this neither silver nor bronze can be gilded. It is of such power that, if over a sextarius of quicksilver you should place a hundredweight of stone, it at once resists the load.

But if you place a scruple of gold, it swiftly receives into its bosom the light weight of that; from which it is understood that it is not to weight but to nature that it yields. It is better preserved in glass vessels; for it perforates other materials. But given to drink, it kills by reason of its weight. The dross of silver is 'lithargyros,' which we call the foam of silver. For it is made from silver and lead thus. XX. ON BRONZE. Bronze (aes) is named from the splendor of the air (aer), just as gold and silver. Among the ancients, however, the use of bronze was known earlier than that of iron. For with bronze the first men cleft the earth, with bronze they waged the contests of war, and bronze was more in esteem; but gold and silver were rejected on account of their uselessness. Now, by a reversed turn (Lucretius 5.1275):

Copper lies low, while gold has risen to the top; thus the rolling age changes the values of things, and what was once held in esteem comes at last to have no honour. Later the use of copper passed over into statues, into vessels, and into the structures of buildings; and above all, to secure the perpetuity of monuments, even public ordinances were inscribed upon it. Cyprian copper was first discovered on the island of Cyprus, whence it takes its name; it is made from a coppery stone which they call cadmia, and it is ductile. If lead is added to it, it takes on a purple colour. Aurichalcum (orichalc) is so called because it possesses both the splendour of gold and the hardness of copper. Its name is compounded from the Latin and Greek tongues, for copper in the speech of the Greeks is called CHALKOS.

It is made from copper and much fire, and by means of medicaments is brought to a golden colour. Corinthian bronze is a mixture of all metals, which chance first blended together when Corinth, on being captured, was set ablaze. For when Hannibal had captured this city, he heaped together into one pyre all the bronze, golden, and silver statues and burned them; and so from this mixture the craftsmen carried it off and made shallow dishes. Thus Corinthian ware arose out of all metals fused into one, being neither this nor that. Hence even to the present day, whether from that very stock or in imitation of it, the metal is called Corinthian bronze and the vessels Corinthian ware. There are three kinds of it: one white, approaching the sheen of silver; another in which there is the tawny nature of gold itself;

the third, in which there is an equal blending of all. Coronary bronze is thinned from ductile copper into thin plates, and, when dyed with the gall of bulls, it presents the appearance of gold on the crowns of actors; whence it takes its name. Its fiery colour has given the name to pyropum (fire-bronze). For when to single ounces of copper are added six scruples of gold, it glows in a very thin foil and imitates flames; whence it is called pyropum. That copper is called regular which by others is called ductile, such as all Cyprian copper is. It is called ductile because it is drawn out by the hammer, as opposed to fusile (castable), which is only cast. And this castable kind is also called caldarium (kettle-bronze), which is only cast; for it is brittle under the hammer. Indeed all copper, when its flaws have been more carefully purged by fire and burned out, is made regular.

Campanian bronze too is named among the kinds of bronze, that is, from Campania, a province which lies in the regions of Italy, and it is the most highly approved for all utensils and vessels. All copper is better cast in great cold. Copper more quickly draws rust unless it is anointed with oil; but they hand down that it is best preserved even in liquid pitch. Among all metals bronze is the most resonant and of the greatest power. Hence there are also bronze thresholds; whence Virgil (Aeneid 1.449): 'On the doors the hinge grated on bronze.' The origin of copper is cadmea and chalcitis. The refuse of copper is cadmea, and verdigris (aerugo), and the flower of copper (aeris flos). Cadmea is produced in the furnaces of copper and silver ores from the vapour settling upon them.

For just as the very stone from which copper is made is called cadmia, so again it comes into being in the furnaces and receives the origin of its own name. The flower of copper is formed or produced by smeltings, when the copper is dissolved and reworked and cold water is poured over it; for by the sudden condensation the flower is reproduced, as it were from spittle. Copper likewise creates verdigris. For when plates of copper are placed over a vessel of very sharp vinegar, with twigs laid upon them and thus dripping down, what has fallen from it into the vinegar itself is ground and sifted. XXI. ON IRON. Iron (ferrum) is so called because it buries the far, that is, the seeds of crops, in the earth. The same is also called chalybs, from the river Chalybs, where iron is tempered with the finest edge. Whence by misuse the very material is called chalybs, as (Virgil, Aeneid 8.446): 'and the wound-dealing steel.'

The use of iron was discovered after the other metals. Later its appearance was turned into a reproach; for whence formerly the earth was tilled, thence now blood is poured out. But no body has elements so densely cohering and interwoven among themselves as iron; whence there is in it hardness together with coldness. The metal of iron is found almost everywhere, but of all kinds the palm is given to Seric iron. For the Seres send this along with their garments and skins. Second is the Parthian; and no other kinds of iron are tempered from pure steel, for into the rest a softer alloy is mingled. There is very great difference among iron according to the kind of soil. For one sort is soft and near to lead, fit for the uses of wheels and of nails;

another is brittle and coppery, suited to the tillage of the soil; another pleases only by its shortness and is fit for hobnails; another more quickly contracts rust. All these are called stricturae (bars), which is applied as a fitting term from 'drawing tight' (stringendo), a name not used in the other metals. But there is the greatest difference in the waters into which glowing iron is plunged that it may become more serviceable, as at Bilbilis in Spain and Turiasso, and at Comum in Italy. In sharpening iron, the edge becomes finer with oil; whence too it is customary to quench the thinner ironware in oil, lest by water they be hardened into brittleness. From iron human blood takes vengeance for itself; for iron that has been in contact with it more quickly draws rust. The magnet stone has a concord with iron;

for this material alone receives power from this stone and retains it for a long time. From this same stone a certain architect at Alexandria vaulted a temple, so that in it a statue might seem to hang suspended by iron in the air. Iron kindled by fire, unless it is hardened by blows, is spoiled: when red it is not fit for hammering, nor before it begins to grow white: iron smeared with vinegar or alum becomes like copper. The refuse of iron is rust (rubigo) and slag (scoria). Rubigo is the corruption that gnaws iron or the crops, as if rodigo (gnawing) with one letter changed; this is also called aerugo, from 'gnawing away' (erodendo); for aerugo is a defect of iron so called from 'gnawing away,' not from copper (aeramentum). But scoria are the refuse and filth which are burned out by fire; and it is called scoria because it is struck off (excutitur) from the iron.

But iron is free from rust if it is anointed with white lead and gypsum and liquid pitch. Likewise rust does not spoil ironware if the same is anointed with deer marrow, or with white lead mixed with rose-oil. XXII. ON LEAD. Lead (plumbum) is so called because from it, when first made into plummets (pilae), the depth of the sea was tested. Of it there are two kinds, black and white; but the white is better, which was first found in the islands of the Atlantic sea. Indeed it is produced both in Lusitania and in Gallaecia, in the topmost sandy soil of black colour and heavy in weight; small pebbles too occur, especially when the torrents have dried up; they wash those sands, and what settles below they cook in the furnaces.

Black and heavy pebbles are also found in the gold mines when water has been let in, and while the gold is gathered they remain with it; afterwards, being separated, they are smelted and dissolved into white lead. Hence too the weight of lead is the same as that of gold. Black lead abounds around Cantabria. Its origin is twofold: for either it comes forth alone from its own vein, or it is born together with silver and is smelted from mingled veins. Of this the first liquid in the furnaces is tin (stagnum), the second silver; what remains, when the ore has been added on top and smelted again, becomes black lead. India has neither copper nor lead; it barters for these only with gems and pearls. From black lead we make pipes and plates.

Lead is mined with more labour in Spain and Gaul, for in Britain it lies in the topmost crust of the earth. XXIII. ON TIN. The etymology of tin (stagnum) is APOCHORIZON, that is, separating and setting apart. For it disunites metals mixed and adulterated among themselves by fire, and separates copper and lead from gold and silver; it also protects other metals from fire, and though the nature of copper and of iron be very hard, yet if it be without tin it is burned and consumed. Tin smeared upon copper vessels gives a more pleasant taste and checks the poison of verdigris. Mirrors too are tempered from it. White lead (cerussa) is also made from it, as it is from lead. XXIV. ON ELECTRUM. Electrum is so called because in the sun's ray it shines more brightly than gold and silver; for the sun is called Elector by the poets.

For this metal is the most refined of all metals. Of it there are three kinds: one which flows from pine trees, which is called amber (sucinum); the second a metal, which is found naturally and is held in esteem; the third which is made from three parts of gold and one of silver. These proportions, even if you dissolve the natural kind, you will find. Whence it makes no difference whether it be born or made, for both are of the same nature. Electrum which is natural is of such a nature that at a banquet and by lamplight it gleams more brightly than all metals, and it reveals poison. For if you pour poison into it, it emits a hissing and sends out varied colours after the manner of the rainbow of heaven. XXV. ON WEIGHTS. It is useful to know the measure of weights and measures.

For all corporeal things, as it is written, from the highest to the lowest are disposed and formed in measure and number and weight; for nature has given weight to all corporeal things, and 'its own weight governs all things' (Song on Weights 3). First Moses [who precedes all the philosophers of the Gentiles in time, related to us both numbers and measures and weight in various places of his Scripture]. First Phidon of Argos established the system of weights in Greece; and although others more ancient existed, yet he was more experienced in this art. Weight (pondus) is so called because, weighed on the balance, it hangs (pendeat); hence also pensum (the weighed portion). But by misuse a weight (pondus) is a single pound. Whence too the dipondius is so called, as it were two weights (duo pondera);

which name is still retained in use. The trutina is a pair of pans of weights hanging in equal balance, made for weighing talents and hundredweights, just as the momentana is for small and modest sums of money. This is also called moneta. The same is called statera, taking its name from number, because, balanced by two pans and one beam in the middle, it stands equally poised. The examen (tongue) is the middle thread by which the balance of the trutina is governed and the pans are made equal. Whence in lances (spears) the thong is called amentum. The campana takes its name from the region of Italy, where its use was first discovered. This one has not two pans, but is a rod marked with pounds and ounces and measured by a sliding weight. But to each weight there is a fixed measure designated by proper names.

The calcus, the smallest part of weight, is a quarter of an obol, consisting of two grains of lentil. It is called calcus because it is very small; just as a pebble is called calculus, which is so very small that it is trodden underfoot (calcetur) without trouble to itself. The siliqua (carob-seed) is a twenty-fourth part of a solidus, taking its name from the tree whose seed it is. The ceratin is half of an obol, having one and a half siliquae. This the Latin tongue calls a semiobol; but ceratin in Greek is rendered in Latin as siliqua or 'little horn.' The obol is weighed at three siliquae, having two ceratins and four calci. For of old it was made of bronze in the likeness of an arrow. Whence too it received its name from the Greeks, that is, 'arrow.' The scruple (scripulus) consists of the weight of six siliquae. This among the Greeks is called gramma.

But the scruple (scripulus) is so called by diminution from a small pebble which is called scrupus. The drachma is an eighth part of an ounce and the weight of a silver denarius, consisting of three scruples, that is, eighteen siliquae. The denarius is so called because it is reckoned for ten small coins (nummi). The solidus is named because nothing seems to be lacking to it; for the ancients called 'solidus' whole and entire. It is also itself called nomisma, because it is stamped with the names and effigies of princes. But from the beginning one nomisma was one silver coin; for this began among the Assyrians: yet the Jews say that Abraham first brought this form into the land of Canaan. The solidus among the Latins is by another name called sextula, because by six of these an ounce is completed.

This, as we have said, the common people call the golden solidus; and its third part they therefore called tremissis, because it makes up a solidus when sent three times (ter missus). The sextula taken twice makes a duella; placed three times it yields a stater. But the stater is the half of an ounce, weighing three aurei (gold coins); whence it is called stater because it consists of three solidi (tribus solidis stet). This is also the semuncia, because it has the half of an ounce. This is also the semissis, because it is half of a weight, as it were half of an as. The Hebrews likewise call the quadrans a codrans; and it is called quadrans because it weighs a fourth part of an ounce. The sicel, which in the Latin tongue is corruptly called siclus, is a Hebrew name, having among them the weight of an ounce.

But among the Latins and Greeks it is a fourth part of an ounce and the half of a stater, weighing two drachmas. Whence, when in the divine writings a siclus is read, it is an ounce; but when in the writings of the Gentiles, it is a fourth part of an ounce. The ounce (uncia) is so called because it binds (vinciat), that is, embraces, the universality (universitatem) of the smaller weights by its own unity. It consists of eight drachmas, that is, of twenty-four scruples. And it is therefore held to be a lawful weight, because the number of its scruples measures out the hours of day and night, or because, reckoned twelve times, it makes a pound. The pound (libra) is completed by twelve ounces; and thence it is held to be a kind of perfect weight, because it consists of as many ounces as the year of months. But it is called libra because it is free (libera), and encloses within itself all the aforesaid weights.

The mina among weights is reckoned at a hundred drachmas; and it is a Greek name [which is 1800 siliquae, 225 tremisses, 75 solidi, 25 staters]. The talent is said to be the highest weight among the Greeks; for nothing is less than the calcus, nothing greater than the talent. Its weight is held differently among different nations. But among the Romans the talent is of seventy-two pounds, as Plautus (Mostellaria 644) shows, who says that two talents are a hundred and forty pounds. But it is threefold; that is, lesser, middle, and highest. The lesser consists of fifty, the middle of seventy-two, the highest of a hundred and twenty pounds. Centenarium (hundredweight) is a name of number, because it is of a weight of a hundred pounds.

Which weight the Romans instituted because of the perfection of the number one hundred (centenarius). XXVI. ON MEASURES. A measure is any thing circumscribed in its manner or its time; and this is either of body or of time. It is of body, as the length and shortness of men, of timbers, and of columns. But even that sun has its own proper measure of its orb, which the geometers dare to scrutinize. It is of time, as the measure of hours and days and years: whence too we say to 'measure' the feet of hours, that is, to measure. But it is properly called a measure because by it crops and grain are measured, that is, moist and dry things, such as modii [and artabae], urns and amphorae. The smallest part of measures is the spoon (coclear), which is half of a drachma, weighing nine siliquae;

which tripled makes a concula. The concula is filled up by a drachma and a half. The cyathus is weighed at ten drachmas, which by some is also named cuatus. The oxybaphon (oxifalus) is as if five drachmas are added to ten. The acetabulum is a fourth part of a hemina, weighing twelve drachmas. The cotyla is a hemina having six cyathi; which is called cotyla for this reason, because in the Greek tongue 'cote' means a cutting, and the hemina cuts the sextarius into two equal parts [and makes a cotyla]. But the hemina weighs one pound, which when doubled makes a sextarius. The sextarius is of two pounds. Taken twice it is named a bilibris (two-pounder); taken four times 'it becomes by a Greek name a choenix' (Song on Weights 69); folded five times it makes a quinar or gomor.

Add a sixth, and it yields a congius: for a congius is measured by six sextarii, from which they gave the sextarius its name too. But the congius is named from 'congiendo,' that is, from growing by increase. Whence too afterwards money that began to be given by way of benefaction was called congiarium: for each emperor of his own time, courting the favour of the people, would add to it, so that he might seem more lavish in his gifts. But the congiarium is specifically a measure of liquids, whose thing and name alike we find imposed by the Romans. The metrum is a measure of liquids: this takes its name from 'measure' (mensura); for METRON is what the Greeks call a measure. And thence is named the metreta, although the urn and amphora and the rest of this kind are also names of measures;

yet this one received this name from the perfection of the number ten (denarius). The metrum pertains to every measure; for metrum in Greek is called mensura in Latin. For both the cyathus is a measure, and the amphora is a measure, and whatever holds more or less is a measure. But it took this name specifically to itself because it is a measure of the perfect number, that is, of ten. The modius is so called from the fact that it is perfect in its own manner (suo modo). But it is a measure of forty-four pounds, that is, of twenty-two sextarii. The reason of this number is drawn from this, that in the beginning God made twenty-two works. For on the first day he made seven works: that is, formless matter, the angels, light, the upper heavens, the earth, water, and air.

On the second day, the firmament alone. On the third day, four: the seas, the seeds, the sowings, and the plantings. On the fourth day, three: the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the fifth day, three: the fishes, the creeping things of the waters, and the flying creatures. On the sixth day, four: the beasts, the cattle, the creeping things of the earth, and man. And there were made in all twenty-two kinds in six days. And there are twenty-two generations from Adam to Jacob, from whose seed is born the whole nation of Israel; and there are twenty-two books of the Old Testament up to Esther; and there are twenty-two elements (letters), of which the teaching of the divine law consists. By these examples, therefore, the modius of twenty-two sextarii was made by Moses according to the measure of the sacred law:

and although diverse nations, in ignorance, either add weight to this measure or take away from it, among the Hebrews it is preserved by divine ordinance according to such a reckoning. For the modius is so called from 'modus' (manner). Hence also 'modica' (moderate things), that is, tempered. For 'modus' imposed the name upon modica: for we say modica of small things by misuse, not properly. The satum is a kind of measure according to the custom of the province of Palestine, holding one and a half modii. Its name is drawn from the Hebrew tongue; for 'satum' among them is named a taking or a lifting, because he who measures both takes and lifts that same measure. There is also another satum, a measure capable of twenty-two sextarii, like a modius.

The batus is called in the Hebrew tongue from the oil-mill, which among them is named 'beth' or 'bata,' holding fifty sextarii; which measure is crushed by a single turn of the mill. The amphora is so called because it is lifted on this side and on that (hinc et inde). This is said to be named in Greek from its shape, because its twin handles seem to imitate ears (aures). It holds a square foot of wine or water, but three Italian modii of grain. The cadus is a Greek amphora containing three urns. The urn is a measure which some call a quartarium. But properly the urn is a vessel which is wont to be used for storing the ashes of the dead. Of which the poet (Lucan 7.819): 'He is covered by the sky who has no urn.' The medimnus is a measure of five modii.

But the medimnus is called in the Latin tongue as if 'dimidia' (half), because it is measured by five modii, which is half the number from the perfect ten. The artaba is a measure among the Egyptians of seventy-two sextarii, composed of that number on account of the seventy-two nations or tongues which filled the world. The gomor weighs a load of fifteen modii. The corus is filled up as a measure of thirty modii. This descends from the Hebrew tongue, being called 'cor' from the likeness of a hill: for 'corea' in Hebrew are called hills. For thirty modii heaped together appear like a hill, and make the load of a camel. XXVII. ON SIGNS. The signs of weight are unknown to most, and thence cause error to readers.

Wherefore let us append their forms and characters, as they were marked by the ancients. The letter Z signifies a half-obol. A little stroke lying flat and extended straight simply signifies an obol. A doubled stroke = is two obols. A Latin T signifies three obols. A Latin F signifies four obols. A Latin E denotes five obols. But six obols therefore have no character, because six of them come to one drachma, which is the weight of a silver denarius. The letter Eta H signifies eight siliquae, that is, a tremissis. A Latin N signifies the Greek nomisma, that is, the solidus. Iota joined to Beta (IB) signifies a half-solidus.

Two little strokes dividing from one angle from left to right signify a drachma, which they also call an olce. A Latin N with the Greek Gamma joined signifies a semuncia. But the Greek letter Gamma with a Latin O joined at the end signifies an ounce. A Greek Lambda with a Latin I set through the middle of it signifies a pound. A Greek Kappa with a horn joined at the end and a Latin V signifies a cyathus. But if it has a Latin O joined, it denotes a hemina, which the Greeks call a cotyle. A Greek Xi, if it has taken a Latin E joined, signifies a sextarius. If a Latin O is joined, it indicates an acetabulum, which the Greeks call an oxybaphon. A Greek Mu with a Latin N set over it signifies a mina.

A Latin T having a Greek Lambda at the end signifies a talent. A Greek Chi with the letter O joined at the upper right arm is a choenix.