CHAP. II.

GREECE.

71

site the city of Cuma, was at one time rich ing°id, and continued to yield some when theNeapolitans took possession of it and of Cuma.Sicily and the Lipari Islands were celebrated in 'antiquity for the brass they afforded.

In all probability the reigning princes in theseveral islands were the chief, if not the exclu-sive, possessors of the mines which have beenMentioned. In conformity to the state of societym those ages, the operations of mining andsmelting could not have been easily performedby any other hands than those of their slaves,whose numbers were the scale by which thehealth of the several chiefs was estimated. Thewhole work must have been simply and un-scientifically conducted, and if we were fullyacquainted with it would probably exhibit no-thing very remarkable.

We come now to the second period, in which^e operations of the Greeks in mining are muchbetter known to us than in that we have been° c cupied in examining; as we find abundantNotices of the proceedings on the continent ofancient Greece. In the Peloponnesus , the Lace-demonians, from their political principles andmstitutions, showed such indifference to theacquisition of the precious metals, that no ex-tensive mining operations are to be expectedamong them. The Athenians, however, zea-lously pursued such operations, as well in the