NEW WORKING OF MINES. CHAP. vn. 



glebce, and cultivated it, as in later periods was 

 done in France, under the name of corvees, or as 

 is still practised in a few parts of Germany, under 

 the name offrohndiensten. These persons were 

 compelled to extend trTeir own services and those 

 of their offspring to the mines, and received the 

 new denomination of glebes et metallis adscript^. 

 The labour imposed upon them was found op- 

 pressive and exhausting, and drove many to 

 make their escape, and seek freedom in other 

 countries. In the reign of the Emperor Valens 

 numbers of the miners of Dacia joined the forces 

 of the victorious and invading Goths 2 , and it is 

 probable that similar oppression induced others 

 to follow their example. The mining districts 

 suffered in their population by the exactions 

 that were required from them. At first, one 

 half the inhabitants only were compelled to la- 

 bour in the operations connected with the mines; 

 but as the numbers decreased, a law was made 

 by which all. the children of these hereditary 

 miners were required to devote their labour to 

 the mines 3 . Such of them as had gone to the 

 mines in other parts of the empire were ordered 

 to return to their domiciles ; and none of them 

 were allowed to go to Sardinia, because it was 

 thought the mines there presented attractions 



1 Codex Theod. de Metallis, lib. vi. sec. 9. 



2 Ammianus, xxxi. 1. 5, 6, 7- 



3 Codex Theod. de Metallis, lib. xv. 



