MINES OF CHAP. II 



rich silver mines of Attica, as in the productive 

 gold mines in their foreign possessions, in Thrace, 

 and in the island of Thasus. Thessaly produced 

 ores that were rich in gold, whilst Boeotia fur- 

 nished iron from its mines. Epirus also had 

 silver mines, which were continued to be worked 

 in the time of Strabo. 



The whole of these mines make their appear- 

 ance either a little before or soon after the Per- 

 sian war ; for shortly before the victory of the 

 Greeks over the Persians, gold and silver were 

 much more scarce among the former than they 

 could have been if the rich mines of both those 

 metals had been diligently laboured before that 

 time. According to the report of Xenophon ! , 

 the Athenians worked the silver mines of their 

 own country from an unknown distant age ; but 

 it appears probable that for a long time the only 

 ore that was used was that found near the sur- 

 face, and that the imperfect application of labour 

 even to that met with frequent interruptions. 

 Capital and scientific knowledge were on much 

 too low a scale to admit of decided perseverance 

 in mining pursuits. 



A classification, by which Solon had arranged 

 the citizens according to their incomes a short 

 time before the Persian war, shows how very 

 small was the amount of wealth then in exist- 



1 Xenophon de Redit. 



