CHAP VIII,

ROMAN MINES.

185

CHAPTER VIII.

On the circulation of the precious metals between the reignof Augustus and the dissolution of the Western empire.

Augustus attained supreme and durablepower at a period when much of the treasuresextorted by the various wars in which the re-public had been successful had arrived in hiscapital. The metallic’wealth, which was thefruit of the campaigns ofPaulus iEmilius, ofCato, of Pompey , of Julius, of Antony, and ofAugustus himself, vast as it may have been,would however have gradually diminished till itdisappeared, had no additional supplies beenattracted to Rome , to replace what was con-sumed by the waste of revolving years. Suchsupplies were required from those various anddistant provinces which had first been subduedby and afterwards incorporated with the Romanempire. Their conquerors had stripped thecapitals, the temples, the palaces of the monarchsand their treasuries, with the other public edi-fices, ofwhatever metallic wealth could be found;but much must have been concealed, and there-fore been left in the hands of individuals, whicha transient victory and a slight knowledge of