134 ROMAN MINING. 



CHAP. IV. 



cess of the Romans in their wars at home, a little 

 before their first contest with Carthage, had pat 

 them in possession of the scanty mines of central 

 and upper Italy; and the booty extorted from 

 the subdued ownersof them furnished the means 

 of proceeding to other and more distant under- 

 takings. 



The success of the two Carthaginian wars 

 delivered into their hands the most valuable of 

 their enemies' mines in the western part of the 

 African continent, in Sicily, Sardinia, and the 

 south of Spain. A few years later, by their 

 conquests in the east, the mines of Greece and 

 Asia Minor came into their possession ; and the 

 victory over Perseus, or Perses, at the battle of 

 Pydna (about 168 years before Christ), rendered 

 them masters of the productive mines of Mace- 

 donia and Thrace. The other mines in the east, 

 in Asia and Egypt, were transferred to the Ro- 

 mans by the successful campaigns of Pompey 

 and Augustus ; and the remainder of those in 

 western Europe, in Gaul and northern Spain, 

 by the victorious arms of Julius Caesar and of 

 Augustus. Thus the period of nearly three hun- 

 dred years, between the first Punic war and the 

 reign of the first emperor, had witnessed the 

 aggregation of the whole mines in the power of 

 one supreme and uncontrollable state. 



By the laws of antiquity, as exercised among 

 all the ancient nations, and at a subsequent 



