BRAT´TEA
BRAT´TEA (not Bractea: see Lachmann on
Lucr. 4.727), a finely beaten-out plate of metal,
especially gold (Lucr.
l.c.; Verg.
Acn. 6.209). Thicker plates were called
laminae (Isid.
Orig. 16.8, 2). Martial (
8.33,
11) also calls
brattea, owing to its fineness,
sputum. Such
plates were fastened on objects as ornaments, and this was a proceeding as
old as the Phoenicians (Curtius,
Hist. of Greece, 1.143, 145,
Eng. trans.), and is alluded to in Homer (
περιχεύας,
Od. 3.384). The Latin term for fastening on
these plates is
imbratteare (
Ammian. 14.6, 8). It was still in
practice in the time of Sidonius Apollinaris (
Sid.
Ep. 8.8
fin.), where see Savaro's note. The gold-beater
is
brattearius or
bratteator
(Orelli, 4153; Firmic. 8.16, 4.15) or
tritor
(Henzen, 7281). The fastener is
inaurator
(Orelli, 4201); or if both functions were performed by the same man,
bratteator inaurator (Orelli, 4067). In Cod.
Just. 10.64,
1,
bratteatores is explained by
πεταλουργοί. Pliny (
Plin. Nat.
33.61) tells us that from an ounce of gold 750 plates, each four
fingers square, could be beaten. The process of beating was called
bratteam exprimere (Tert.
de Idol.
8). The thicker plates were called
bratteae
Praenestinae, the finest
bratteae
quaestoriae (Plin.
l.c.). These plates
were used for adorning statues (
Juv. 13.152;
cf. Pers. 2.55), sedan-chairs (Sidon. Apoll.
l.c.),
furniture (
Mart. 8.33,
5,
6), walls and ceilings (Senec.
Epist. 115.9; cf. Marquardt,
Privatl. 700,
note 15), and garments (
χρυσόπαστοι,
Ath. 12.535-6). On
the latter were fastened gold ornaments representing animals (
ζωωτὸς χιτών,
Ath. 5.197 e), flowers, stars, &c.
(Poll. 10.43; cf.
Suet. Nero 35). The Romans
called such
vestes auratae (
Ov. Met. 8.448) or
sigillatae (Trebell.
Trig. Tyr. 16, 1).
Compare on the whole Vopiscus,
Aurelian, 46, 1, and the long
notes of Salmasius.
Bratteae were also used
when stamped or embossed as ornaments and amulets, and many such are found
in tombs. (See Saglio in
Dict. des Antiquités, s.
v.; Mayor on
Juv. 13.152.)
For
nummi bratteati, see Eckhel,
Doctr.
Nummorum, i. p. 115.
[
L.C.P]
