( 431 ) 



THE MINES OF LAURIUM. — GOLD AND SILVER COINAGE OF THE 

 ATHENIANS. — REVENUE OF ATTICA. 



The Athenians had obtained silver from the mines of Laurium as 

 early as the time of Pisistratus (Herod, i. sec. 64.), or 561 B. C. ; but 

 in the days of Socrates, there appears to have been a deficiency in 

 the supply of the ore. (Xen. Mem. lib. iii. c. 6. § 5.) This is per- 

 haps to be attributed more to the want of skill in those who sought 

 for it than to the poverty of the mines ; as from a passage in Strabo 

 (lib. ix.) we learn, that the smelting operations of the ancient Athe- 

 nians had been very imperfect. Xenophon strongly recommends the 

 Republic to take the management and direction of them, and thus 

 derive a greater profit than by leaving them in the hands of indivi- 

 duals, who paid a certain sum in proportion to the metal which 

 they extracted (Uo^oi). The district of Laurium, according to Stuart, 

 appears to have reached from Rafti near the ancient Prasise to Legre- 

 na; part of this tract, he says, is called Aav^ov ogog, and is full of 

 exhausted mines and scorise. When Mr. Hawkins was on his voyage 

 to the Euripus, he was detained by the Etesian winds many days on 

 the coast of Attica, and was enabled to take during that time an 

 accurate examination of the mining district. The result of this 

 mineralogical survey was, the discovery of many of the veins of 

 argentiferous lead ore *, with which that part of the country seems to 

 abound ; he observed the traces of the silver-mines not far beyond 

 Keratia. In a paper belonging to the late Mr. Tweddell, relating to 

 Attica, we find mention made of " Les Atteliers des Mines f;" by these 

 Mr. Hawkins says, the site of the smelting-furnaces is indicated, 



* Mr. H. collected specimens of all the substances occurring in those veins : among 

 which was a green stone pronounced by Werner to be chrysoprase. 



f Mr. Hawkins mentions a remarkable allusion to the mines, still preserved in a name 

 given by the sailors in his boat to one of the harbours on the North-Eastern coast of 

 Attica, South of Thorico, ?ij roc l^yao-njpa. 



