Forest Conditions. 11 



nants for a long time, so that respectable forest cover 

 exists even to date. 



The Romans seem to have had still a surplus of 

 ship timber at their command in the third and second 

 centuries before Christ, when they did not hesitate 

 to burn the warships of the Carthaginians (203 B.C.) 

 and of the Syrians (189 B.C.), although it may be 

 that other considerations forced these actions. De- 

 nuded hills and scarcity of building timber in certain 

 parts are mentioned at the end of the third century 

 before Christ, and that the need for conservative 

 use of timber resources had arrived also appears from 

 the fact that when (167 B.C.) the Romans had brought 

 Macedonia under their sway, the cutting of ship 

 timber in the extensive forests of that country was 

 prohibited. Although at that time the Roman State 

 forests were still quite extensive, it is evident that 

 under the system of renting these for the mast and 

 pasture and for the exploitation of their timber to 

 companies of contractors, their devastation must have 

 progressed rapidly. Yet, on the whole, with local 

 exceptions, Italy remained well wooded until the 

 Christian era. 



In Spain, according to Diodorus Siculus (about 100 

 B.C.), the Southern provinces were densely wooded 

 when about 200 B.C. the Romans first took posses- 

 sion; but soon after a great forest fire starting from 

 the Pyrenees ran over the country, exposing deposits 

 of silver ore, which invited a large influx of miners, 

 the cause of reckless deforestation of the country. 

 The interior of this peninsula, however, was probably 

 always forestless or at least scantily wooded. 



