CHAP. V.
PRECIOUS METALS.
151
grain cover a surface of fifty-seven inches, wemay safely assume that in the time of Pliny ,though gilding had been discovered, it had madebut little progress; and we are warranted inaffirming that what was then called gilding wasonly a kind of imperfect plating, which, as Pliny says, was fixed on wood by a kind of glue ; andit will appear probable that the shields of theSamnites were (auro ccelata) covered with goldin that manner, as well as the statue of Apolloat Delphi.
The Romans about the time of Augustus began to gild the ceilings of their temples andtheir palaces, the capitol being the first of thebuildings on which this kind of embellishmentwas bestowed; and the cost of which amountedto twelve thousand talents according to Plu-tarch \ from whence it is denominated aurea byVirgil and fulgens by Horace.
By gradual steps this kind of ornamental de-coration extended itself from public edifices toPrivate dwellings. The ceilings of the roomsbetween the beams were covered with gold, towhich Horace refers, Lib. ii. Od. xviii.,
neque aureum
Mea renidet in domo lacunar;