Natura · MetallaScience · Mining
In Viscera Terrae
Into the Bowels of the Earth
C. Plinius Secundus de metallis rarioribus, quae nunc omnes gentes certatim quaerunt.
Pliny the Elder on the rare metals every nation is now scrambling to dig up.
“Imus in viscera terrae et in sede manium opes quaerimus” — haec ego scripsi de auro. Vos nunc metalla quaeritis quorum ne nomina quidem noveram, ut tabellae vestrae luceant et currus sine equis currant. Admiror ingenium; avaritiam agnosco. Natura, parens omnium, nihil novi vidit nisi fodientes celerius.
“We go into the bowels of the earth and seek riches in the abode of the dead” — I wrote that about gold. You now dig for metals whose very names I never knew, so that your tablets may glow and your chariots run without horses. I admire the ingenuity; the greed I recognise. Nature, mother of all things, has seen nothing new — only faster digging.
FONTES ANTIQVIANCIENT SOURCES
- Plin. NH XXXIII.1–2imus in viscera eius et in sede manium opes quaerimus.
FONTES HODIERNITODAY’S SOURCES
- —Haec sententia ex ipsius ingenio, non ex nuntio singulari.This piece reflects on the times rather than a single report.
Res ex fontibus; sententia Romani.Facts from the sources; the opinion is the Roman’s.
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