DRAINING OF LAKE COPAIS. 4°27 
of by any Roman author,* and we are in absolute ignorance 
of the age or the construction of the remarkable tunnel cut to 
drain Lake Copais in Beeotia. This lake, now reduced by 
sedimentary deposit and the growth of aquatic and semi- 
aquatic vegetation to the condition of a marsh, was originally 
partially drained by natural subterranean outlets in the under- 
lying limestone rock, many of which still exist. But these 
emissaries, or katavothra, as they are called in both ancient and 
modern Greek, were insufficient for the discharge of the water, 
and besides, they were constantly liable to be choked by earth 
and vegetables, and in such cases the lake rose to a height 
which produced much injury. To remedy this evil and secure 
a great accession of fertile soil, at some period anterior to the 
existence of a written literature in Greece and ages before the 
time of any prose author whose works have come down to us, 
two tunnels, one of them four miles long, and of course not 
inferior to the Torlonian emissary in length, were cut through 
the solid rock, and may still be followed throughout their 
whole extent. They were repaired in the time of Alexander 
the Great, in the fourth century before Christ, and their date 
was at that time traditionally referred to the reign of rulers 
who lived as early as the period of the Trojan war. 
One of the best known hydraulic works of the Romans is 
the tunnel which serves to discharge the surplus waters of the 
Lake of Albano, about fourteen miles from Rome. This lake, 
* One reason for the silence of Roman writers in respect to great material 
improvements which had no immediate relation to military or political 
objects, is doubtless the contempt in which mechanical operations and me- 
chanical contrivances were held by that nation of spoilers. Even the 
engineer, upon whose skill the attack or defence of a great city depended, 
was only prefectus fabrum, the master-artisan, and had no military rank or 
command. This prejudice continued to a late period in the Middle Ages, 
and the chiefs of artillery were equally without grade or title as soldiers. 
‘** The occupations of all artisans,” says Cicero, ‘‘ are base, and the shop can 
have nothing of the respectable.” De Officiis, 1. i, 42. The position of the 
surgeon relatively to the physician, in Imgland, is a remnant of the same 
prejudice, whichstill survives in full vigor in Italy, with regard to both trade 
and industry. Seep. 6, ante. 
