MONEY OF ATTICA. 



433 



we find mention of the <ra.\a.y'f (Pollux, lib. x. 149. lib. vii. 99.), a sort 

 of sieve ; of the 7r^io^og, and the pecrcxgivsTg aioveg, or pillars supporting 

 the roof at certain intervals; the xcEjttn/o? was a metallurgic furnace, 

 on which a crucible was placed for melting and refining metals. 

 (Beckmann, H. of I. ii. 77.) Little progress in improvement of ma- 

 chinery was likely to be made, as long as slaves were easily procured ; 

 and before the hydraulic engine invented by Archimedes * was 

 in use, the water in the pits could only have been drawn off with 

 great labour. If the remarks of Agatharides, and Diodorus S. are 

 applicable to the general mining system of the Greeks, we may learn 

 from them some of the various operations which were used, as the 

 softening the rock by the application of fire ; the pounding the ore in 

 stone mortars f ; the grinding it in hand-mills, and afterwards wash- 

 ing it, and the process of cupellation. 



Although the fact of a coinage of money at Athens by Theseus be 

 extremely improbable, yet it is remarkable that the antient writers 

 are all agreed on this point. " Hoc tarn dare tamque perspicue (says 

 one of the most acute and judicious scholars of modern times) a vete- 

 ribus Uteris est traditum, ut si quis contra sentiat, nihil sentire videri 

 possit." (Hemsterh. ad Polluc. lib. x. sect. 60.) Sperling attributes 

 the first coinage in Athens to Solon. When, however, we find, that 

 Phidon^l, three centuries before the time of that legislator, introduced 



* Ko^x/ajj ov; 'Afxtprfa; supsv. Diod. Sic. v. 360. The earliest mention we find of 

 water-mills is of the time of Mithridates; ulpcLkk^ is the word in Strabo, Ox. ed. in 

 1. xii. 804. Pumps were invented by Ctesibius, who lived at Alexandria in the second 

 century, B. C. — Vitruv, 1. x. c. 12. 1. ix. c. 4. 



f 'Ev oXfjMt; Aiflivoi; — npoc ttjv xwTnjv «Ar,0ou<7JV. 1. in. 183. Remains of ancient mortars 

 and mills have been found in Transylvania and in the Pyrenees. Some of the smelting 

 operations of the Greeks are mentioned by Hippoc. de Vic. rat. 1. i. xpvo-lov hfyatyvrcu, 

 x.o7ttov<ti, TtXvvo-Jvi, TYjxova-i irvpl. The time when quicksilver was first used in separating 

 gold and silver from earthy particles is not known ; but Vitruvius and Pliny give us a 

 description of the manner in which gold is cleansed in cast off garments by means of 

 quicksilver; this sufficiently proves that nothing more was wanting than the application 

 of the same process to the separation of the ores in the smelting works. 



X Herodotus, 1. i. says that the Lydians first struck gold and silver coins; but we 

 find Moses, 1000 years prior to Herodotus, speaking of silver money: and 400 years 



3 K 



