BOOK II

UALITIES which the perfect miner should possessand the arguments which are urged for and againstthe arts of mining and metallurgy, as wellas the people occupied in the industry, Ihave sufficiently discussed in the first Book. NowI have determined to give more ample informationconcerning the miners.

In the first place, it is indispensable that theyshould worship God with reverence, and that theyunderstand the matters of which I am going to speak, and that theytake good care that each individual performs his duties efficiently anddiligently. It is decreed by Divine Providence that those who knowwhat they ought to do and then take care to do it properly, for themost part meet with good fortune in all they undertake ; on the otherhand, misfortune overtakes the indolent and those who are careless intheir work. No person indeed can, without great and sustained effort andlabour, store in his mind the knowledge of every portion of the metallicarts which are involved in operating mines. If a man has the meansof paying the necessary expense, he hires as many men as he needs, andsends them to the various works. Thus formerly Sosias, the Thracian, sentinto the silver mines a thousand slaves whom he had hired from the AthenianNicias, the son of Niceratus . But if a man cannot afford the expenditurehe chooses of the various kinds of mining that work which he himself canmost easily and efficiently do. Of these kinds, the two most importantare the making prospect trenches and the washing of the sands of rivers, forout of these sands are often collected gold dust, or certain black stonesfrom which tin is smelted, or even gems are sometimes found in them ; thetrenching occasionally lays bare at the grass-roots veins which are found richin metals. If therefore by skill or by luck, such sands or veins shall fallinto his hands, he will be able to establish his fortune without expenditure,and from poverty rise to wealth. If on the contrary, his hopes are not realised,then he can desist from washing or digging.

When anyone, in an endeavour to increase his fortune, meets theexpenditure of a mine alone, it is of great importance that he should attendto his works and personally superintend everything that he has ordered tobe done. For this reason, he should either have his dwelling at the mine,

1 Xenophon. Essay on the Revenues of Athens, iv., 14.

But we cannot but feel surprised that the State, when it sees many private individualsenriching themselves from its resources, does not imitate their proceedings ; for we heard°pg ago, indeed, at least such of us as attended to these matters, that Nicias the son oficeratus kept a thousand men employed in the silver mines, whom he let on hire tososias of Thrace on condition that he should give him for each an obolus a day, free of all\n ’ an< ^ ^is num ' }er be always supplied undiminished.” (See also Note 6).

In m d US a eac h> would be about 23 oz. Troy of silver per day for the whole number,the v°l 6rn Va ^ ue this would, of course, be but about 50s. per day, but in purchasing powerx , a ue would probably be 100 to 1 (see Note on p 28). Nicias was estimated to have a,, u A n . e , 0 . I0 ° talents—about 83,700 Troy ounces of silver, and was one of the wealthiest ofthe Athenians. (Plutarch, Life of Nicias).