Solinus says, that _æs_ was first made at Chalcis, a town in Eubœa. Hence the Greek name, χαλκος (_chalkos_), by which copper was distinguished.
The proper name for brass, by which is meant an alloy of copper and zinc, was _aurichalcum_, or golden, or yellow copper. Pliny says, that long before his time, the ore of aurichalcum was exhausted, so that no more of that beautiful alloy was made. Are we to conclude from this, that there once existed an ore consisting of calamine and ore of copper, mixed or united together? After the exhaustion of the aurichalcum mine, the _salustianum_ became the most famous; but it soon gave place to the _livianum_, a copper-mine in Gaul, named after Livia, the wife of Augustus. Both these mines were exhausted in the time of Pliny. The _æs marianum_, or copper of Cordova, was the most celebrated in his time. This last _æs_, he says, absorbs most cadmia, and acquires the greatest resemblance to aurichalcum. We see from this, that in Pliny’s time brass was made artificially, and by a process similar to that still followed by the moderns.
The most celebrated alloy of copper among the ancients, was the _æs corinthium_, or Corinthian copper, formed accidentally, as Pliny informs us, during the burning of Corinth by Mummius in the year 608, after the building of Rome, or one hundred and forty-five years before the commencement of the Christian era. There were four kinds of it, of which Pliny gives the following description; not, however, very intelligible:
1. White. It resembled silver much in its lustre, and contained an excess of that metal.
2. Red. In this kind there is an excess of gold.
3. In the third kind, gold, silver, and copper are mixed in equal proportions.
4. The fourth kind is called _hepatizon_, from its having a liver colour. It is this colour which gives it its value.[36]
Copper was put by the ancients to almost all the uses to which it is put by the moderns. One of the great sources of consumption was bronze statues, which were first introduced into Rome after the conquest of Asia Minor. Before that time, the statues of the Romans were made of wood or stoneware. Pliny gives various formulas for making bronze for statues. Of these it may be worth while to put down the most material.