DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49262#0041
CH. I]
THE METALS
21
such as those at Balia in Mysia1 ; and a considerable amount
of silver came from Colchis.
Of the Greek islands, Siphnos alone need be mentioned, and
its store of silver was probably slight. On the mainland there
were silver mines at Mount Pangaeus, and at Damastium in
Epirus2 3. Elsewhere in Greece silver was scarce, except —
important exception!—at Laurium8 in Attica. It is probable
that the great mines here were not properly worked until
the time of Themistocles 4. The mines belonged to the state,
but were worked by contract. They were supposed to be quite
exhausted by Strabo’s time; nevertheless an attempt has been
made in our own day to reopen them.
Italy possessed practically no silver. There were mines in
Sardinia; but those between Populonia and Volaterrae were
probably unknown to the ancients.
Spain was the great silver country of antiquity. Its silver
mines5 * * were worked by natives, Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
and Romans ; yet their output did not begin to fall off until
Christian times. In Roman times the mines were at first in
part the property of the Roman state ; later a large number of
them belonged to rich individuals, who paid a tax which
yielded more profit to the state than the actual working of the
mines by the government would have done. As silver was
found in nearly all parts of the peninsula, it is unnecessary to
specify the silver-bearing districts, except perhaps that of Osca,
north of the Ebro, whence came the argentum Oscense often
mentioned by Livy.
Of the remaining silver-bearing districts of Europe (Aqui-
tania in Gaul, the district of the Mattiaci in Germany, Britain,
Dalmatia, and Pannonia), only the last two are of any impor-
tance. The mines in these were the property of the state.
1 W. 0. F. Anderson, 1. c.
2 The miner’s pick, hammer (τυπΑ), and a block of metal with an
attachment to enable it to be carried, are represented on the smaller coins.
For specimens of the instruments, see Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurion,
pp. 21, 22.
3 See the exhaustive work of E. Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurion dans
VAntiquite (Bibl. des Lcoles franpaises), 1897.
4 Silver was scarce at Athens in the time of Solon : Plut. Solon. 16.
5 See the description of the mines in Diodorus Siculus, v. 36. One Euboic
talent of silver could be won in three days ; and in the time of Polybius
no less than 40,000 men were at work in the mines of Carthagena.
+
THE METALS
21
such as those at Balia in Mysia1 ; and a considerable amount
of silver came from Colchis.
Of the Greek islands, Siphnos alone need be mentioned, and
its store of silver was probably slight. On the mainland there
were silver mines at Mount Pangaeus, and at Damastium in
Epirus2 3. Elsewhere in Greece silver was scarce, except —
important exception!—at Laurium8 in Attica. It is probable
that the great mines here were not properly worked until
the time of Themistocles 4. The mines belonged to the state,
but were worked by contract. They were supposed to be quite
exhausted by Strabo’s time; nevertheless an attempt has been
made in our own day to reopen them.
Italy possessed practically no silver. There were mines in
Sardinia; but those between Populonia and Volaterrae were
probably unknown to the ancients.
Spain was the great silver country of antiquity. Its silver
mines5 * * were worked by natives, Phoenicians, Carthaginians,
and Romans ; yet their output did not begin to fall off until
Christian times. In Roman times the mines were at first in
part the property of the Roman state ; later a large number of
them belonged to rich individuals, who paid a tax which
yielded more profit to the state than the actual working of the
mines by the government would have done. As silver was
found in nearly all parts of the peninsula, it is unnecessary to
specify the silver-bearing districts, except perhaps that of Osca,
north of the Ebro, whence came the argentum Oscense often
mentioned by Livy.
Of the remaining silver-bearing districts of Europe (Aqui-
tania in Gaul, the district of the Mattiaci in Germany, Britain,
Dalmatia, and Pannonia), only the last two are of any impor-
tance. The mines in these were the property of the state.
1 W. 0. F. Anderson, 1. c.
2 The miner’s pick, hammer (τυπΑ), and a block of metal with an
attachment to enable it to be carried, are represented on the smaller coins.
For specimens of the instruments, see Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurion,
pp. 21, 22.
3 See the exhaustive work of E. Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurion dans
VAntiquite (Bibl. des Lcoles franpaises), 1897.
4 Silver was scarce at Athens in the time of Solon : Plut. Solon. 16.
5 See the description of the mines in Diodorus Siculus, v. 36. One Euboic
talent of silver could be won in three days ; and in the time of Polybius
no less than 40,000 men were at work in the mines of Carthagena.
+