CHAP VIII, 



ROMAN MINES. 185 



CHAPTER VIII. 



On the circulation of the precious metals between the reign 

 of Augustus and the dissolution of the Western empire. 



AUGUSTUS attained supreme and durable 

 power at a period when much of the treasures 

 extorted by the various wars in which the re- 

 public had been successful had arrived in his 

 capital. The metallic wealth, which was the 

 fruit of the campaigns of Paulus ^Emilius, of 

 Cato, of Pompey, of Julius, of Antony, and of 

 Augustus himself, vast as it may have been, 

 would however have gradually diminished till it 

 disappeared, had no additional supplies been 

 attracted to Rome, to replace what was con- 

 sumed by the waste of revolving* years. Such 

 supplies were required from those various and 

 distant provinces which had first been subdued 

 by and afterwards incorporated with the Roman 

 empire. Their conquerors had stripped the 

 capitals, the temples, the palaces of the monarchs 

 and their treasuries, with the other public edi- 

 fices, of whatever metallic wealth could be found; 

 but much must have been concealed, and there- 

 fore been left in the hands of individuals, which 

 a transient victory and a slight knowledge of 



