book xxxvi

. 26, says, “Addito cyprio et nitro;” which Isidore, xvi. 15, p. 393, expresses by the words _adjecto cupro et nitro_. The superiority of the Cyprian copper gave occasion to this appellation; as the best iron or steel was called _chalybs_, from the _Chalybes_ (a people of Galatia) who prepared the finest, and carried on the greatest trade with it. But in what did the superiority of this Cyprian copper consist? In its purity, or in its colour, which approached near to that of gold? That island produced a great deal of ore which contained zinc, and abounded also with calamine. Pliny says, “in Cypro prima fuit æris inventio.” Red copper however had been known there from the earliest periods, so that the honour of its invention must be allowed to that island without any contradiction; and Pliny must undoubtedly allude in the above passage to some particular kind.

[87] Dioscorides,