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bitants of Britain were probably acquainted with a mode of smelt¬ 
ing iron prior to the Roman invasion. Strabo mentions iron as one 
of the exports from Britain. Aeschylus (born 460 b.c.) speaks of 
the Chalybes , a people then living on the southern shore of the 
Black Sea, as workers in iron ; of Scythia as “ the mother of 
iron of the sword as “ sharp iron, the bitter appeaser of strife ;” 
“ the Pontic stranger, born in tire ;” and also as “ the Chalybian 
stranger come out of Scythia.” Indeed, the Chalybes were so 
celebrated for their skill in working iron that the name of the 
producers was applied to the product Chalybs , in Greek meaning 
steel, and the word passed unchanged into the Latin language. 
The iron of the ancients, from their practice of smelting the ore 
with charcoal, must have approached somewhat to the nature of 
steel (carburet of steel). It appears that they were well acquainted 
with the method of tempering it, for the Odyssey contains a simile 
drawn from the process :—“ As some smith or brazier plunges into 
cold water a loudly-hissing great hatchet or adze, tempering it, for 
hence is the strength of iron.” 
The Romans had an early acquaintance with iron, and Diodorus 
Siculus mentions JEthalia (Elba) as being celebrated for the rich¬ 
ness of its iron ores ; whilst the elder Pliny, after enumerating the 
various purposes to which iron was applied in his time, says— 
“ Yea, in one word, we use it to all other necessary uses of this 
life.” Notwithstanding which the excavations at Pompeii and 
Herculaneum show that bronze was in general use in the middle of 
the first century when those cities were overwhelmed. In the 
treaty between Porsena and the Roman people (about 400 b.c.), it 
was expressly stipulated that the Romans should not use iron 
except for implements of agriculture , and it was not until 300 years 
later that they began to make their weapons of iron. The objects 
obtained from Pompeii and Herculaneum show the sparing use of 
iron for weapons at a later date. A few examples of iron spears 
and knives occur, but the carpenters’ tools and the agricultural 
implements are of iron almost exclusively. The poll-axes and 
other sacrificing implements, as well as the surgical instruments, 
many of which have cutting edges, are of bronze. (See plate 13, 
fig. 6, which represents a pair of bronze scissors found at Pompeii. 
Certain European tribes appear to have used weapons of iron 
before the Romans. Thus, when the Consul AEmilius defeated the 
Gauls, the Romans fought with bronze swords ; but the long 
swords of the Gauls are believed to have been made of iron, for 
they are described as badly tempered, and as having bent in use. 
The Norici , a people who occupied a considerable region to the 
south of the Danube, were particularly skilful in the manufacture 
of iron, and in the time of Augustus Noric swords were as famous 
at Rome as the Damascus blades or Andrea Ferraras in more 
recent times. One. of these Noric swords is represented on a sepul¬ 
chral monument at Mayence, and it is the very counter-part of the 
Anglo-Saxon weapon. It is worn by a Roman auxiliary horse- 
