MILLS.

287

necessary to be protected by laws made in their favour.The orders for that purpose were renewed more than once,aud made more secure by Zeno, towards the end of thefifth century. 14 It may be properly remarked, that in thewhole code of Justinian, the least mention of woodenpales, or posts, is not made; which occurs in all thenew laws, and which it appears, when there were severalmills on the same stream, occasioned so many disputesthen, as well as in after times. The mills at Rome wereerected on those canals which conveyed water to the city;because these were employed in several arts and for manypurposes, it was ordered, that by dividing the water, themills should be always kept going. The greater part ofthem lay under Mount Janieulum ; ,s but as they were driven 'by so small a quantity of water, they probably executedvery little work; and for this reason, but chiefly on ac-count of the great number of slaves, and the cheap rate atwhich they were maintained, these noble machines werenot so much used, nor were so soon brought to perfection,as under other circumstances they might have been. It ap-pears, however, that after the abolition of slavery, theywere much improved and more employed; and to this aparticular incident seems, in some measure, to have con-tributed.

When Vitiges, king of the Goths, besieged Belisarius inRome, A. D. 536, and caused the fourteen large expensiveaqueducts to be stopped, by which the city was subjectedto great distress ; not from the want of water in general,because it was secured against that inconvenience by theTiber; but by the loss of that water which the bathsrequired, and, above all, of that neebssary to drive themills, which were all situated on these canals. Horses andcattle, which might have been employed in grinding, were

*♦ Cod. Theodos. lib. xiv. tit. 15,4; and Cod. Justin, lib. xi. tit. 42,10.Many tilings relating to the same subject may be found in Cassiodorus—Dicitur,commodi causa privati, aquam fonnarum, quam suirnno deceret studio communiri,ad aquae raolas exercendas vel hortos irrigandos fuisse derivatam. Turpe hoc etmiserabiie in ilia urbe fieri, quod per agros vix deceret assumi. Catsiodori Opera.Genevan, 1650. 4to. p. 104.

*5 Procopius, Gothicorum, lib. i. c. 9.

Qute regio gradibus vacuis jejunia dira.

Sustinet? aut qua* * Janiculi mola mota quiescit?

Prudentius contra Symmackum, lib. ii. 948.

It is added in a note on this passage: Janiculus raons est ubi templum Janierat, ct raultsc molae constructs. Compare R. Fabretti Dus. tree de A quit HAquaductibut veteris Roma, n. 347, p. 176. See also Gravii Thesmir. Antiq. Rom.ir. p. 1677.