CHAP. IV.

ROMAN MINING.

133

CHAPTER IV.

On the financial management of their mines by the Romans.

It has been before mentioned that the Romanshad but few mines in Italy , and, according to theobservation of Pliny , they were very sparing oftheir contents. They certainly wrought no minesof gold or silver in any part of Italy before thecommencement of the first Punic war, about490 years from the foundation of their city, or260 before our Christian era. There is no in-formation to be gained respecting the mode inwhich the few copper and iron mines they thenpossessed were administered. Our knowledgeof the financial administration of the mines ofthe precious metals must be therefore drawnfrom later sources.

The Romans, till the time of their Cartha-ginian wars, were much too rude and warlike apeople to pay great attention to the mechanicalarts, or to their economical departments, till theyw ere attracted to the consideration by having ob-tained by conquest possession of the sources ofthe wealth of the vanquished. The rapid sue-