Corinth was captured in the third year of the 158th Olympiad, being the year of the City, 608,[210] some ages after the period when those artists flourished, who produced all the specimens of what these persons now call Corinthian metal. The only genuine Corinthian vessels are those which these men of taste metamorphose, sometimes into table dishes, sometimes into lamps, or even into wash-basins, without any regard to decency. They are of three kinds; the white variety, approaching very nearly to the splendor of silver, and in which that metal forms a large proportion of the compound; a second kind, in which the yellow color of gold predominates; and a third, in which all the metals are mixed in equal proportions. Besides these, there is another mixture, the composition of which it is impossible to describe, for although it has been formed into images and statues by the hand of man, it is chance that rules in the formation of the compound. The last is highly prized for its color, which approaches to that of liver, but is far inferior to the Corinthian metal, though much superior to the Æginetan and Delian, which long held the first rank. The Delian bronze was the first that became famous, all the world coming to Delos to purchase it; and hence the attention paid to the manufacture of it. It was in this island that bronze first obtained celebrity for the manufacture of the feet and supports of dining-couches. After some time it came to be employed for the statues of the gods and the effigies of men and other animated beings. The next most esteemed bronze was the Æginetan; the island being famous not for the metal produced there, but because the annealing of the Æginetan manufactories was so excellent. A bronze Ox, which was taken from this island, now stands in the cattle market at Rome. This is a typical specimen of the Æginetan metal, as the Jupiter in the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, in the Capitol, is of the Delian. Myron used the former metal and Polycletus the latter; they were contemporaries and fellow-pupils, and there was great rivalry between them. Ægina was particularly famous for the manufacture of sockets for lamp-stands, as Tarentum was for that of the branches; the most complete articles were, therefore, produced by the union of the two. There are persons who are not ashamed to give for one a sum equal to the salary of a military tribune, although, as its name indicates, its only use is to hold a lighted candle. On the sale of one of these lamp-stands, Theon the public crier announced, that the purchaser must also take, as part of the lot, one Clesippus, a fuller, who was hump-backed, and in other respects of a hideous aspect. The purchase was made by a lady named Gegania, for fifty thousand sesterces.