CHAP. II. SPAIN. 99 



in all the Roman provinces, but the best in 

 Spain, and that in a barren soil, and even in the 

 mountains. Wherever one vein is discovered, 

 another is found not far from it. It is very 

 singular that the mines begun by Hannibal still 

 exist, and retain the original names given by the 

 persons who first explored them. One is still 

 called Bebulo,from the discoverer, which formerly 

 supplied Hannibal with three hundred pounds 

 weight of silver daily V This the same author 

 informs us was effected by means of passages 

 under the mountain a mile and a half in length, 

 in which the labourers, standing in water, worked 

 night and day by lamp-light to turn off the water, 

 which at length formed a large river. 



Polybius, as quoted by Strabo, informs us 

 that " The silver mines near to New Carthage 

 in Spain were very productive. They were 

 distant from the city about twenty furlongs, and 

 embraced a circle of forty furlongs, wherein forty 

 thousand workmen were constantly employed, 

 who at that time procured for the Roman 

 people twenty-four thousand drachmas daily 2 ." 



The mine of Bebulo, which is said to have 

 yielded to Hannibal three hundred pounds 

 weight of silver daily, does not appear to have 

 produced that quantity when Pliny composed 



1 Pliny, book xxxiii. cap. 6. 



2 Polybii Fragmenta, torn. iii. p. 220. edit. Erneati. 



H 2 



