BOOK XXXIV. XXXVIII. 137-xxxix. 139 



known to me, but I will put down the actua) words 

 of the clder Messala " on the subject. ' The family 

 of the Servihi has a holy coin to which every year 

 they perform sacrifices with the greatest devotion 

 and splendour ; and they say that this coin seems to 

 have on some occasions grown bigger and on other 

 occasions smaller, and that thereby it portends either 

 the advancement or the decadence of the family.' 



XXXIX. Next an account must be given of the iron. itf, 

 mines and ores of iron. Iron serves as the best and ^fLl^f 



Tntsuses. 



the worst part of the apparatus of Hfe, inasmuch as 

 with it we plough the ground, plant trees, trim the 

 trees that prop our vines, force the vines to renew 

 their youth yearly by ridding them of decrepit growth ; 

 with it we build houses and quarry rocks, and we 

 employ it for all other useful purposes, but we 

 likewise use it for wars and slaughter and brigandage, 

 and not only in hand-to-hand encounters but as a 

 winged missile, now projected from catapults, now 

 hurled by the arm, and now actually equipped with 

 feathery wings, ^vhich I deem the most criminal 

 artifice of man's genius, inasmuch as to enable death 

 to reach human beings more quickly we have taught 

 iron how to fly and have given wings to it. Let us 

 therefore debit the blame not to Nature, but to man. 

 A number of attempts have been made to enable 

 iron to be innocent. We find it an express provision 

 included in the treaty granted by Porsena to the 508 b.c. 

 Roman nation after the expulsion of the kings that 510 b.c. 

 they should only use iron for purposes of agriculture ; 

 and our oldest authors have recorded that in those 

 days it was customary to write with a bone pen. 

 There is extent an edict of Pompey the Great dated 



" Consul in 53 B.c. 



229 



