CHAP. II. 



GREECE. 71 



site the city of Cuma, was at one time rich in 

 gold, and continued to yield some when the 

 Neapolitans took possession of it and of Cuma. 

 Sicily and the Lipari Islands were celebrated in 

 antiquity for the brass they afforded. 



In all probability the reigning princes in the 

 several islands were the chief, if not the exclu- 

 sive, possessors of the mines which have been 

 mentioned. In conformity to the state of society 

 in those ages, the operations of mining and 

 smelting could not have been easily performed 

 by any other hands than those of their slaves, 

 whose numbers were the scale by which the 

 wealth of the several chiefs was estimated. The 

 whole work must have been simply and un- 

 scientifically conducted, and if we were fully 

 acquainted with it would probably exhibit no- 

 thing very remarkable. 



We come now to the second period, in which 

 the operations of the Greeks in mining are much 

 better known to us than in that we have been 

 occupied in examining ; as we find abundant 

 notices of the proceedings on the continent of 

 ancient Greece. In the Peloponnesus, the Lace- 

 daemonians, from their political principles and 

 institutions, showed such indifference to the 

 acquisition of the precious metals, that no ex- 

 tensive mining operations are to be expected 

 among them. The Athenians, however, zea- 

 lously pursued such operations, as well in the 



