Note 181 — Chapter IV · THE PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS.

The full term was æs cyprium, which Pliny apparently applies to the finer kind; then it became cyprium, the adjective, which expressed only locality; and lastly cuprum. The third is first used by Spartianus in the biography of Caracalla (No. 5), Cancelli ex ære vel cupro (doors of æs or copper). Ælius Spartianus dates from the days of Diocletian and Constantine (Smith, sub voc.). When Pliny writes in Cypro prima fuit æris inventio, he leaves it doubtful if æs be copper or bronze; but we should prefer the former. So he makes the best ‘Missy’ (native yellow copperas) proceed from the Cyprus manufactories (xxxiii., iv. 25, and xxxiv., xii. 31). The word misí or missí is still used in India for a vitriolic powder to stain the teeth. Cypros, the wife of Agrippa, was possibly named from Kafar = the henna plant: the Cyprus of Pliny (xii. 51) is also the Lawsonia inermis.