BOOK I.

23

would be held in no less odium amongst good men than is the usurer, didthey not take account of the risk he runs to secure his merchandise. Intruth, those who on this point speak abusively of mining for the sake ofdetracting from its merits, say that in former days men convicted of crimesand misdeeds were sentenced to the mines and were worked as slaves. Butto-day the miners receive pay, and are engaged like other workmen in thecommon trades.

Certainly, if mining is a shameful and discreditable employment for agentleman because slaves once worked mines, then agriculture also will not bea very creditable employment, because slaves once cultivated the fields, andeven to-day do so among the Turks ; nor will architecture be consideredhonest, because some slaves have been found skilful in that profession ;nor medicine, because not a few doctors have been slaves ; nor will any otherworthy craft, because men captured by force of arms have practised it.Yet agriculture, architecture, and medicine are none the less countedamongst the number of honourable professions ; therefore, miningought not for this reason to be excluded from them. But suppose wegrant that the hired miners have a sordid employment. We do not meanby miners only the diggers and other workmen, but also those skilled in themining arts, and those who invest money in mines. Amongst them can becounted kings, princes, republics, and from these last the most esteemedcitizens. And finally, we include amongst the overseers of mines the nobleThucydides, the historian, whom the Athenians placed in charge of themines of Thasos. 29 And it would not be unseemly for the owners themselvesto work with their own hands on the works or ore, especially if they them-selves have contributed to the cost of the mines. Just as it is not undignifiedfor great men to cultivate their own land. Otherwise the Roman Senatewould not have created Dictator L. Quintius Cincinnatus, as he was atwork in the fields, nor would it have summoned to the Senate House thechief men of the State from their country villas. Similarly, in our day,Maximilian Caesar would not have enrolled Conrad in the ranks of the noblesknown as Counts ; Conrad was really very poor when he served in the minesof Schneeberg, and for that reason he was nicknamed the “ poor man ” ; but

28 There is no doubt that Thucydides had some connection with gold mines ; he himselfis the authority for the statement that he worked mines in Thrace. Agricola seems to haveobtained his idea that Thucydides held an appointment from the Athenians in charge ofmines in Thasos, from Marcellinus (Vita, Thucydides, 30), who also says that Thucydidesobtained possession of mines in Thrace through his marriage with a Thracian woman, andthat it was while residing on the mines at Scapte-Hyle that he wrote his history. Laterscholars, however, find little warrant for these assertions. The gold mines of Thasos—anisland off the mainland of Thrace—are frequently mentioned by the ancient authors.Herodotus, vi., 46-47, says :—“ Their (the Thasians’) revenue was derived partly fromtheir possessions upon the mainland, partly from the mines which they owned. Theyt( we y e masters of the gold mines of Scapte-Hyle, the yearly produce of which amounted to,, f*§hty talents. Their mines in Thasos yielded less, but still were so prolific that besides(( bem g entirely free from land-tax they had a surplus of income derived from the two•< S0l l rces °t their territory on the mainland and their mines, in common years two hundred(( 'T'h m best years three hundred talents. I myself have seen the mines in question. Byb be most curious of them are those which the Phoenicians discovered at the timewhen they went with Thasos and colonized the island, which took its name from him.