CIIAP. VII.
NEW WORKING OF MINES.
177
the collection of the revenue belonging to thecrown, various officers were established, of whosepeculiar powers and duties we have no veryaccurate information. They were distinguishedby the names of comes metallornm, comes rerumlargitionum , and comes orientis; besides which,there were the mcarii and the rationales, whowere probably the receivers of that part of theproduce to which the emperors were entitled.
In general, at the later periods, that indiffer-ence which the Romans had displayed at formertimes regarding the application of science tomining is very apparent, and the operationswere left in the hands of men .destitute of alltheoretic knowledge, and who had learned whatlittle they knew of the art more by following thepractices of their predecessors than by any deepinvestigations or new experiments h The fewimprovements that were introduced were insuf-ficient to support the mining establishments; andthey had to contend with events and circum-stances which in process of time completedtheir extinction. The greater productivenessof the transalpine and Spanish mines, even asearly as the time of Strabo , had diminished theextent of workings in the mines of Upper Italy 2 .But the greatest injury, at a later period, wasreceived from the disturbed state of the frontiers,
1 Reitemeier Geschichte des Bergbaus der Alten, p. 103.
VOL. I.
N