86 MINES 



CHAP. 



the new government. He therefore embarked 

 with all his property for Etruria, where, by his 

 great wealth, he acquired the government of the 

 city; and, having married a woman of the coun- 

 try, had a son, who, at length, under the name 

 of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, became the king 

 of Rome 1 ." 



The Etrurians, by their knowledge in mining, 

 first obtained copper, and afterwards iron. When 

 the boundaries of their city were marked out, it 

 was done with a ploughshare of copper or bronze 2 ; 

 and it was the custom of the priests to have their 

 hair cut with knives, or perhaps razors, made of 

 copper 3 ; though it does not appear that, like 

 some other of the ancient tribes, they had ac- 

 quired the art of hardening it by a mixture of 

 tin. 



After the discovery and the working of the 

 copper mines on the continent, the Etrurians ex- 

 plored mines of iron in the island of Elba, then a 

 part of their dominions, by which operation 

 they are said to have gained very great profits. 

 It is not known that these people produced 

 either silver or gold, but they supplied Rome 

 with the copper from which was coined all the 

 money which circulated in Rome through several 

 succeeding centuries. 



1 Dionys. Halicarn. Antiquit. Rom. lib. iii. sect. 46. 



2 Macrob. Saturn, v. 19. 3 Idem. 



