MILLS.

265

Transactions abridged, published by Jones, London , in1731, n. 282, p. 1285, comprising the series from 1700 to1720, ii. p.38. One of the stones, twenty inches inbreadth, is thicker in the middle than at the edge, conse-quently one side convex; the other was of the same size,but as thick at the sides as the other was in the centre ; thetraces of notching were discoverable.

Enough may, perhaps, have been said concerning thisoriginal invention ; therefore this article will not be encum-bered with quotations of all those passages relative to millswhich are found in ancient authors, as they would, perhaps,afford but little additional information. Neither will my-thological records be disturbed to inquire to which deityor hero the invention was originally attributed ; or to ascer-tain the descent of Milantes, whom Stephanus distinguishesby that honour; or how those mill-stones were constructedwhich are alleged to have been built by Mylefes, son ofLelex, king of Laconia ; but we shall proceed to the inven-tion of WATER-MILLS.

These appear to have been introduced about the periodof Miihridates, contemporary with C&sar and Cicero. Strabo relating that there was a water-mill near the residence ofthe Pontian king, that honour has been ascribed to him ;but so far is this remote from certainty, - that nothing can beinferred from thence, other than that water-mills at thatperiod were known in Asia . Pomponius Sabinus informsus, in his remarks on a poem of Virgil’s, intituled Moretus,that the first water-mill, seen at Rome , was erected on thebanks of the Tiber, a little before the time of Augustus ; 13but of this there is no other proof than his simple assertion :he having taken the greater part of his remarks from theillustrations of Sereins, he must have bail a more perfect copyof that author than any now remaining, and from thesehis information might have come.

The most certain proof we have that Rome had water-mills in the time of Augustus, is, that Vitruvius has toldus so; but those mills were not corn-mills, they were hy-

*3 Poraponias Sabinus also adds information more important than we have yetmentioned, when he says, — “ Usui molarum ad manum in Cappadocia innentui ;“ inde inventus usus earum ad ventum et ud cquos. Paulo ante Augustum“ moi.c aquis acta Roma in Tiberi primuin facta, tempore Gracorum, cum for-“ nices diruissent.”

From whence we collect that hand-mills for grinding of corn were first inventedin Cappadocia; that they were introduced to Rome from Greece , with wind-mills,by one Paulo, before the time of Augustus , with the usual sacrifice before grind-ing; the first being built upon the banks of the Tiber ,