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Lucretius[170] is explicit upon the priority of copper—[171]

Posterius ferri vis est ærisque reperta,

Sed prior æris erat quam ferri cognitus usus.

Ære solum terræ tractabant, æreque belli

Miscebant fluctus et volnera vasta ferebant.—V. 1286.

He justly determines its relation to gold—

Nam fuit in pretio magis æs, aurumque jacebat,

Propter inutilitatem, hebeti mucrone retusum.—V. 1272.

And he ends with the normal sneer at his own age—

Nunc jacet æs, aurum in summum successit honorem.—V. 1274.

Virgil, a learned archæologist, is equally explicit concerning the heroes of the Æneid and the old Italian tribes—

Æratæ micant peltæ, micat æreus ensis.—Æn. vii. 743.

And similarly Ennius—

Æratæ sonant galeæ: sed ne pote quisquam

Undique nitendo corpus discerpere ferro.[172]

Even during her most luxurious days Rome, like Hetruria, retained in memoriam the use of copper (or bronze?) for the sclepista or sacrificial knife. When founding a city they ploughed the pomœrium with a share of æs. The Pontifex Maximus and priests of Jupiter used hair-shears of the same material, even as the Sabine priests cut their locks with knives of æs. The Ancile or sacred shield was also of æs.