Kitap 11
17
And the ancients affixed a great value to such goblets as had any story engraved upon them; and in the art of engraving cups in this manner, a high reputation was enjoyed by Cimon and Athenocles. They used also drinking-cups inlaid with precious stones. And Menander, somewhere or other, speaks of drinking-cups turned by the turning-lathe, and chased; and Antiphanes says— And others drain with eager lips the cup, Full of the juice of ancient wine, o'ershadow'd With sparkling foam,—the golden-wrought rich cup, Which circled round they raised: one long, deep draught They drain, and raise the bottom to the skies. And Nicomachus says to some one— O you, who . . . . . and vomit golden . . . And Philippides says— Could you but see the well-prepared cups, All made of gold, my Trophimus; by heaven, They are magnificent! I stood amazed When I beheld them first. Then there were also Large silver cups, and jugs larger than I. And Parmenio, in his letter to Alexander, summing up the spoils of the Persians, says, The weight of goblets of gold is seventy-three Babylonian talents, and fifty-two mitæ.The Attic talent weighed within a fraction of fifty-seven pounds and the Babylonian talent was to the Attic as seven to six; but Boeckh considers the Babylonian talent as equal to the Aeginetan, which was about eighty-two pounds and a quarter. The Attic mina was not quite a pound; the Aeginetan not quite one pound six ounces, being always one-sixteenth part of a talent. The weight of goblets inlaid with precious stones, is fifty-six Babylonian talents, and thirty-four minæ.
