By the favour of these three princes, he was not only advanced to the great offices of the state, but to the highest dignities of the sacred order; after which he held the proconsulship of Africa, and had the superintendence of the public works, in which appointment his conduct, and, consequently, his reputation, were very different. For he governed the province with singular integrity during two years, in the latter of which he acted as deputy to his brother, who succeeded him. But in his office in the city, he was said to pillage the temples of their gifts and ornaments, and to have exchanged brass and tin for gold and silver. Julius Casar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for gold in the Capitol, JULIUS, c. liv. The tin which we here find in use at Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands, whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians from a very early period.