2
Theon, taking up the conversation, said, We have heard another more artful account, how a worker in bronze at Corinth, when he had come upon a hoard containing much gold, fearing detection, broke it off a little at a time and stealthily mixed it with his bronze, which thus acquired a wondrous composition. He sold it for a goodly price since it was very highly esteemed for its colour and beauty. However, both this story and that are fiction, but there was apparently some process of combination and preparation; for even now they alloy gold with silverMaking the ancient electrum, which was often used for coinage, plate, and similar purposes. and produce a peculiar and extraordinary, and, to my eyes, a sickly paleness and an unlovely perversion.
3
What do you think, then, said Diogenianus, has been the cause of the colour of the bronze here?
3
Theon replied, When of the primal and simplest elements in Nature, as they are called and actually are — fire, earth, air, and water — there is none other that comes near to the bronze or is in contact with it, save only air, it is clear that the bronze is affected by this, and that because of this it has acquired whatever distinctive quality it has, since the air is always about it and environs it closely. Cf. Life of Coriolanus, chap. xxxviii. (232 a). Of a truth All this I knew before Theognis’ day,Kock, Com. Att. Frag. iii. p. 495, Adespota, no. 461. Plutarch quotes this again in Moralia, 777 c. as the comic poet has it. But is it your desire to learn what property the air possesses and what power it exerts in its constant contact, so that it has imparted a colouring to the bronze?
3
As Diogenianus assented, Theon said, And so also is it my desire, my young friend; let us, therefore, investigate together, and before anything else, if you will, the reason why olive-oil most of all the liquids covers bronze with rust. For, obviously, the oil of itself does not deposit the rust, since it is pure and stainless when applied.
