BOOK II. 



UALITIES which the perfect miner should possess 

 and the arguments whicli are urged for and against 

 the arts of mining and metallurgy, as well 

 as the people occupied in the industry, I 

 have sufficiently discussed in the first Book. Now 

 I have determined to give more ample information 

 concerning the miners. 



In the first place, it is indispensable that they 

 should worship God with reverence, and that they 

 understand the matters of which I am going to speak, and that they 

 take good care that each individual performs his duties efficiently and 

 diligently. It is decreed by Divine Providence that those who know 

 what they ought to do and then take care to do it properly, for the 

 most part meet with good fortune in all they undertake ; on the other 

 hand, misfortune overtakes the indolent and those who are careless in 

 their work. No person indeed can, without great and sustained effort and 

 labour, store in his mind the knowledge of every portion of the metallic 

 arts which are involved in operating mines. If a man has the means 

 of paying the necessary expense, he hires as many men as he needs, and 

 sends them to the various works. Thus formerly Sosias, the Thracian, sent 

 into the silver mines a thousand slaves whom he had hired from the Athenian 

 Nicias, the son of Niceratus^. But if a man cannot afford the expenditure 

 he chooses of the various kinds of mining that work which he himself can 

 most easity and efficiently do. Of these kinds, the two most important 

 are the making prospect trenches and the washing of the sands of rivers, for 

 out of these sands are often collected gold dust, or certain black stones 

 from which tin is smelted, or even gems are sometimes found in them ; the 

 trenching occasionally lays bare at the grass-roots veins which are found rich 

 in metals. If therefore by skill or by luck, such sands or veins shall fall 

 into his hands, he will be able to establish his fortune without expenditure, 

 and from poverty rise to wealth. If on the contrary, his hopes are not realised, 

 then he can desist from washing or digging. 



When anyone, in an endeavour to increase his fortune, meets the 

 expenditure of a mine alone, it is of great importance that he should attend 

 to his works and personally superintend everything that he has ordered to 

 be done. For this reason, he should either have his dweUing at the mine, 



^Xenophon. Essay on the Revenues of Athens, iv., 14. 



" But we cannot but feel surprised that the State, when it sees many private individuals 

 " enriching themselves from its resources, does not imitate their proceedings ; for we heard 

 " long ago, indeed, at least such of us as attended to these matters, that Nicias the son of 

 "Niceratus kept a thousand men employed in the silver mines, whom he let on hire to 

 " Sosias of Thrace on condition that he should give him for each an obolus a day, free of all 

 " charges ; and this number he always supplied undiminished." (See also Note 6). 

 An obolus a day each, would be about 23 oz. Troy of silver per day for the whole number. 

 In modern value this would, of course, be but about 50s. per day, but in purchasing power 

 the value would probably be 100 to i (see Note on p 28). Nicias was estimated to have a 

 fortune of 100 talents — about 83,700 Troy ounces of silver, and was one of the wealthiest of 

 the Athenians. (Plutarch, Life of Nicias). 



