It is a remarkable fact that the art of chasing gold should have conferred no celebrity upon any person, while that of embossing silver has rendered many illustrious. The greatest renown, however, has been acquired by Mentor, of whom mention has been made already.1126 Four pairs [of vases] were all that were ever1127 made by him; and at the present day, not one of these, it is said, is any longer in existence, owing to the conflagrations of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus and of that in the Capitol.1128 Varro informs us in his writings that he also was in possession of a bronze statue, the work of this artist. Next to Mentor, the most admired artists were Acragas,1129 Boëthus,1130 and Mys.1131 Works of all these artists are still extant in the Isle of Rhodes; of Boëthus, in the Temple of Minerva, at Lindus; of Acragas, in the Temple of Father Liber, at Rhodes, consisting of cups engraved with figures in relief of Centaurs and Bacchantes; and of Mys, in the same temple, figures of Sileni and Cupids. Representations also of the chase by Acragas on drinking cups were held in high estimation.

Next to these in repute comes Calamis.1132 Antipater1133 too, it has been said, laid, rather than engraved,1134 a Sleeping Satyr upon a drinking-bowl.1135 Next to these come Stratonicus1136 of Cyzicus, and Tauriscus:1137 Ariston1138 also, and Eunicus,1139 of Mytilene are highly praised; Hecatæus1140 also, and, about the age of Pompeius Magnus, Pasiteles,1141 Posidonius1142 of Ephesus, Hedystratides1143 who engraved battle-scenes and armed warriors, and Zopyrus,1144 who represented the Court of the Areopagus and the trial of Orestes,1145 upon two cups valued at twelve thousand sesterces. There was Pytheas1146 also, a work of whose sold at the rate of ten thousand denarii for two ounces: it was a drinking-bowl, the figures on which represented Ulysses and Diomedes stealing the Palladium.1147 The same artist engraved also, upon some small drinking-vessels, kitchen scenes,1148 known as “magiriscia;”1149 of such remarkably fine workmanship and so liable to injury, that it was quite impossible to take copies1150 of them. Teucer too, the inlayer,1151 enjoyed a great reputation.

All at once, however, this art became so lost in point of excellence, that at the present day ancient specimens are the only ones at all valued; and only those pieces of plate are held in esteem the designs on which are so much worn that the figures cannot be distinguished.

Silver becomes tainted by the contact of mineral waters, and of the salt exhalations from them, as in the interior of Spain, for instance.