Chapter IV

INDUSTRY: SMITHS, CUTLERS, ARMOURERS, THE ART OF MINING,
CHARCOAL-MAKING, ETC.

The earliest smiths[863] in Greece wrought not in iron but in brass, of which, at first, both arms and domestic implements were fashioned. In Mexico and Peru, where, likewise, copper[864] was known before iron, they possessed the art of hardening it to so great a degree, that it would even cut stones and the closest-grained wood. The same or a similar process was known to the ancients, and might still, perhaps, be easily recovered were it any longer an object to be desired. The Greeks always retained a strong partiality for articles of brass, copper, and bronze, and besides statues,[865] pillars,[866] and trees, where the fruit was sometimes of gold,[867] employed them in cups, urns, vases, and caldrons, with covers of the same metal.[868] We also find mention made of brazen mangers, and even maps.[869]

-----

Footnote 863:

Cf. Il. ξ. 48. Magii, Var. Lect. p. 130. 1.

Footnote 864:

The hardness, however, would appear to have been produced partly by
the interfusion of different metals, partly by the liquid in which the
implements were quenched. Ulloa, Mémoires Philosophiques, &c., t. ii.
p. 90. 94. Observations, p. 468. Cf. Voyages, t. i. p. 384.

Footnote 865:

Plut. Philop. § 8.

Footnote 866:

Thucyd. v. 47.

Footnote 867:

It is related of the bronze palm-tree at Delphi with fruit of gold,
that the dates were imitated so exactly, that they were pecked at and
destroyed by the crows: Ἐν δὲ Δελφοῖς Παλλάδιον ἕστηκε χρυσοῦν, ἐπὶ
φοίνικος χαλκοῦ βεβηκὸς, ἀνάθημα τῆς πόλεως ἀπὸ τῶν Μηδικῶν ἀριστείων.
Τοῦτ᾽ ἔκοπτον ἐφ’ ἡμέρας πολλὰς προσπετόμενοι κόρακες, καὶ τὸν καρπὸν
ὄντα χρυσοῦν τοῦ φοίνικος ἀπέτρωγον καὶ κατέβαλλον. Plut. Nic. § 8.

Footnote 868:

Herod. i. 48. iv. 81. 70. The extraordinary forms sometimes assumed by
these vases are in part mentioned by Pollux, who, in describing the
προσωποῦττα says, it was a vessel expanding above into the mouth of an
ox, or the jaws of a lion. Onomast. ii. 48. In the Royal Prussian
Museum there is found a vase, the mouth of which represents that of a
griffin. Racolta de’ Monumenti più Interressanti del Real Museo
Borbonico, e di varie Collezioni private, Publicati da Raffaele
Gargiulo, Napoli, 1825, No. 113. See in the same collection a variety
of other vases representing the faces of Hermes, the heads of dragons,
hippogriffs, wild boars, &c. No. 75, sqq.

Footnote 869:

Herod. ix. 70. v. 49.

-----

With tin, also, the Greeks, even in the Homeric age, were acquainted;[870] and, among other uses which they, in later ages, made of it, was that of lining the inside of their cooking utensils.[871]

-----

Footnote 870:

Il. σ. 565. φ. 592. ψ. 561.

Footnote 871:

Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 13.

-----

At a period beyond the reach of history they obtained a knowledge of the use of both iron[872] and steel, the invention of which they attributed to Hephaistos.[873] Homer, who speaks of axes and other implements of steel, or, rather, of iron steeled at the edge, describes the process of forming it by immersion in cold water.[874] In the manufacture of the Homeric swords steel only would appear to have been, in most cases, employed, since they were extremely brittle, and often shivered to pieces by a mere blow upon shield or helmet. To guard against this effect the superior and more delicate articles were, in later times, cooled not in water but in oil.[875] The Spartans, we are told, quenched their iron money in vinegar which rendered it, they supposed, brittle and unmalleable, consequently of no value but as a token.[876]

-----

Footnote 872:

Palæphat. Fragm. ap. Gal. Opusc. Mythol. &c. p. 64, sqq.

Footnote 873:

Il. δ. 487.

Footnote 874:

Odyss. ι. 391.

Footnote 875:

Tenuiora ferramenta oleo restingui mos est, ne aqua in fragilitatem
durentur. Plin. xxxiv. 41.

Footnote 876:

Plut. Lycurgus, § 9.

Among the earliest nations who excelled in the smelting of iron and the manufacture of steel were the Chalybes,[877] who are said to have collected the ore from the beds of their rivers, and to have mingled therewith a certain quantity of the mineral pyrimachos. Aristotle, in describing the process of smelting, observes, that steel, in passing through the furnace, not only diminishes in quantity but in specific gravity also, that is to say, becomes less valuable. It was one merit of the Chalybean steel that it was not liable to rust. The method of preparing this metal which prevailed among the Celtiberians was this:[878] they buried a number of iron plates in the earth, where they suffered them to remain until the greater portion was converted into rust.[879] They then drew them forth and wrought them into various kinds of weapons, particularly swordblades, which were so keen that neither shields, nor helmets, nor sculls, were able to resist their edge. To this the complimentary Plutarch likens the language of the Spartans.[880]

Footnote 877:

Justin. xliv. 4. Plin. vi. 4. 34. vii. 57. viii. 82.

Footnote 878:

Diodor. Sicul. v. 33. Suid. v. μάχαιρα. t. ii. p. 108. c.

Footnote 879:

Aristot. de Mirab. t. xvi. p. 187. Meteorol. iv. 6. p. 119, seq.

Footnote 880:

Καθάπερ γὰρ οἱ Κελτίβηρες ἐκ τοῦ σιδήρου τὸ στόμωμα ποιοῦσιν, ὅταν
κατορύξαντες εἰς τὴν γὴν τὸ πολὺ καὶ τὸ γεῶδες ἀποκαθᾴρωσιν, οὕτως ὁ
Λακωνικὸς λόγος οὐκ ἔχει φλοιὸν, ἀλλ’ εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ δραστήριον ἀφαιρέσει
τοῦ περιττοῦ διωκόμενος στομοῦται. De Garrulitat. § 17.

-----

It was thought of much importance by the ancients to select for the quenching of steel water possessing certain occult qualities, whose existence was only to be detected by experiment. By these the river of the Chalybeans was thought to be distinguished,[881] as well as the waters near Como, at Calatayud and Tarragona in Spain. Water has, likewise, been prepared, by a variety of infusions, for communicating a finer temper and greater hardness to steel, an example of which is mentioned in the history of the Duke Cosmo, who invented, according to Vasari,[882] a liquid wherein were hardened the tools with which Francesco del Tadda was enabled to cut a fountain-basin, and several other articles, from a block of the hardest porphyry. Nothing, however, was more common than this operation among the ancients, both Greeks and Egyptians, by whom porphyry was cut into every variety of form, and invested with the highest polish.[883]

-----

Footnote 881:

Plin. xxxiv. 41.

Footnote 882:

Vit. de Pitt. Pref. p. 12. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, ii. 78.

Footnote 883:

Winkelm. Hist. de l’Art, t. i. p. 176, sqq.

-----

The best steel appears to have been obtained from the Seres, from Parthia, and from India,[884] where, when polished, it assumed the bright appearance of silver, and probably like that of Damascus contained a small proportion of this metal. That which came from Sinope and the Chalybes served for the manufacture of ordinary tools; the Laconian[885] was wrought into files, augers, chisels, and the other implements of stone-cutters; the Lydian stood in high estimation with the sword-cutlers, and the manufacturers of razors and surgical instruments.[886] The locks and keys[887] of the ancients, if we may judge from the specimens found at Pompeii, were of a somewhat rude construction, though probably manufactured of the best iron.

-----

Footnote 884:

Plin. xxxiv. 41.

Footnote 885:

Eustath. ad Il. β. p. 222. Cf. Herod. vii. 61. i. 164. Sch. Aristoph.
Pac. 620. Nub. 179.

Footnote 886:

Eustath. ad Il. β. p. 222. 28, sqq. Steph. de Urb. v. Λακεδαίμων. p.
505, c. seq.

Footnote 887:

Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 155. 200, seq. Poll. i. 77. Eurip. Orest.
1577. Æsch. Sept. 378. Schol. Thucyd. l. ii. t. v. p. 371. Iliad. δ.
132. μ. 121.

-----

The workshop and tools of the smith bore the closest possible resemblance to those of the present day; the bellows[888] consisting of thin boards connected by flaps of cow-hide, and having a snout of iron, the anvil mounted on a high block, the hammer, the tongs, the vice, which require no particular description.

-----

Footnote 888:

Herod. i. 68. Athen. iii. 71. xiv. 57. Sch. Aristoph. Ach. 853. Poll.
x. 45.

-----

Respecting the quality of Grecian cutlery it must be acknowledged that our information is exceedingly scanty, though we may reasonably infer, that it often possessed the greatest excellence and beauty from the perfection to which they had undoubtedly brought the manufacture of arms. In this branch of industry the Delphians would seem to have obtained celebrity, though the form and uses of their knives, alluded to in a comparison by Aristotle,[889] can be looked upon only as matter of conjecture. It seems to me, that, like Hudibras’ dagger, they would serve for a variety of purposes, as a poignard for example, as a sacrificial instrument, and as a common knife:

When it had stabbed, or broke a head,
It would scrape trenchers or chip bread,
Toast cheese or bacon, though it were
To bait a mousetrap ’twould not care.

-----

Footnote 889:

Polit. i. 1.

-----

There was a very elegant sort of knives among the Athenians, adorned with ivory handles, delicately carved with the figures of animals, among which was that of a crouching lioness.[890] For this purpose the ivory was frequently stained of different colours, as pink, or crimson, or purple, according to the fancy of the workman. Knife-handles were sometimes also made of the roots of the lotos,[891] which, no doubt, took a fine polish and were beautifully clouded. Their scissors, bodkins, sailmakers’ needles, common needles, pins,[892] and other articles of this description, would seem to have been manufactured with much neatness.

-----

Footnote 890:

Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 231.

Footnote 891:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 3. 3.

Footnote 892:

Poll. ii. 37.

-----

But the most flourishing trade in Greece was probably that of the armourer,[893] which, at almost every period of her history, was in constant request. Many, probably, of the useful arts owed much of the progress they made to the passion of the Greeks for arms, which led them industriously to study and invent whatever could add to their splendour or efficiency. We need not now go back to the times when sticks and stones and pointed reeds formed the national weapons.[894] Among the very first steps in civilisation were improvements in the art of self-defence; for, wherever men have found it necessary to create property, they have felt it to be equally so to invent weapons for protecting themselves in the enjoyment of it. Accordingly the Greeks, long before the birth of history, had surrounded themselves by numerous instruments of destruction, and learned to cover their bodies with armour infinitely varied in materials and workmanship.

-----

Footnote 893:

See an elegant representation of a columnar anvil which we may infer
was used by armourers. Gemme Antiche, Figurate di Leonardo Agostini,
pt. ii. tav. 36.

Footnote 894:

Goguet. i. 165.

-----

Upon none of their weapons, however, did they bestow greater attention than on the sword, which if it did not, as among certain barbarians, constitute one of the objects of their worship,[895] was in most cases their inseparable companion through life, and descended with them even to the grave. Thus we find, that, when Cimon opened, at Scyros, the grave of Theseus, the national hero of Attica, he found beside the skeleton a spearhead and sword of brass.[896] Their blades were of many different shapes and dimensions: they had the long, sharp, double-edged rapier; the short cut and thrust; the crooked scimitar, the sabre, and the broad-sword.[897] These were generally of the finest steel, highly polished, and sometimes damaskened exactly like those blades afterwards manufactured at Damascus. The sheath was sometimes of ivory, sometimes of gold or silver or tin or other inferior metal.[898] To the first-mentioned substance we have an allusion in a saying of Diogenes, who on hearing a handsome young man make use of low language, exclaimed: “How shameless! to draw forth a sword of lead from a sheath of ivory.”[899] The hilts were often extremely superb, of costly materials, and wrought in the most fanciful shapes. We read, for example, of sword-handles studded or inlaid with gold, or even composed entirely of that metal, or of silver.[900] Ivory too, and amber,[901] and terebinth,[902] polished and black as ebony, and a variety of other woods and substances, stained black with nut-gall,[903] were employed for this purpose. The father of Demosthenes, who kept a large manufactory of arms, left behind him a considerable quantity of ivory and gall-nuts[904] which he had purchased as well for his own use as to supply other armourers in a smaller way. Of daggers there were various kinds, some of a larger size, worn suspended on the thigh with the sword, as the hunting knife was by the Persian youth; others much smaller, which seem to have been carried about concealed under the armpit, as is still the fashion in the East. To this practice Socrates alludes in his conversation with Polos of Agrigentum,[905] on the power possessed in states by tyrants, whom he compares to one who should go forth into the marketplace with an enchiridion concealed about him, and for that reason fancy it in his power to take away every man’s life, because he could undoubtedly kill any one he pleased.

-----

Footnote 895:

Thus, speaking of the Alani, Ammianus Marcellinus relates: Nec templum
apud eos visitur, aut delubrum ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni
usquam potest: sed gladius barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eúmque
ut Martem, regionum quas circumcircant præsulem verecundiùs colunt. l.
xxxi. c. 2. p. 673. Ed. Gronov. 1693. Pomp. Mel. ii. 1. In Justin too,
we find relics of the worship paid of old to arms: Ab origine rerum,
pro diis immortalibus veteres hastas coluêre. xliii. 3. At Chæronea in
Bœotia there subsisted, down to very late times, the worship of a
sceptre on which they bestowed the name of the Spear. Θεῶν δὲ μάλιστα
Χαιρωνεῖς τιμῶσι τὸ σκῆπτρον ὃ ποιῆσαι Διί φησιν Ὅμηρος Ἥφαιστον, παρὰ
δὲ Διὸς λαβόντα Ἑρμῆν δοῦναι Πέλοπι, Πέλοπα δὲ Ἀτρεί καταλιπεῖν, τὸν
δὲ Ἀτρεά Θυέστῃ, παρὰ Θυέστου δὲ ἔχειν Ἀγαμέμνονα· τοῦτο οὖν τὸ
σκῆπτρον σέβουσι, δόρυ ὀνομάζοντες. Pausan. ix. 40. 11.

Footnote 896:

Plut. Thes. § 36. The practice of burying weapons with the dead
prevailed also down to a very late period among the Romans; for in a
stone coffin of Imperial times recently discovered at Héronval in
Normandy, a sword was found by the warrior’s side, together with a
stylus, a buckler, rings, and other ornaments. Times, June 17, 1842.

Footnote 897:

Pollux makes mention of the Celtic broadsword. i. 149.

Footnote 898:

Winkel. Hist. del’ Art. i. 34.

Footnote 899:

Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 65.

Footnote 900:

Poll. x. 141. 144. Damm. Lexicon, 395.

Footnote 901:

Eustath. ad Odyss. δ. 150. 16.

Footnote 902:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 3. 2.

Footnote 903:

On the production of the gall-nut, see Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 5. 2,
and Cf. Valmont de Bomare Dict. d’Hist. Nat. t. iii. p. 8.

Footnote 904:

Demosth. in Aphob. § 4. 8.

Footnote 905:

Plat. Gorg. t. iii. p. 50.

-----

Next in importance perhaps was the manufacture of javelins and spears.[906] Of the former, the heads,[907] light though sometimes broad, were mounted on slender ashen shafts shod with iron, or on the long Cretan reed[908] which abounded in the marshes about Haliartos in Bœotia. These javelins, in more modern times, were furnished with a looped thong, by which when the darter had missed his aim, they could be drawn back.[909] The best kind were supposed to be manufactured in Bœotia. Spear-shafts were likewise sometimes of ash,[910] but more frequently of cornel wood,[911] and occasionally, as in the case of the Macedonian sarissa, eighteen feet long. Like the javelin, the spear also was shod sharp with iron, in order the more easily to be fixed upright in the earth, when soldiers slept abroad in the fields.[912] This part of the iron-work, which was hollow and received the shaft into it, is said to have been shaped like a lizard, doubtless represented as holding the point of the handle in its mouth. Projections resembling legs extended on both sides, designed to prevent the spear from sinking too deep into the ground. In the lances of the cavalry there was, as some suppose, a small notch to receive the point of the horseman’s foot when mounting his steed. The spear-head, generally of iron or steel, was among the Arab allies of Xerxes formed of goat’s horn, fashioned like the iron of a lance.[913]

-----

Footnote 906:

Poll. i. 143.

Footnote 907:

Spearheads were sometimes poisoned with the juice of the dorycnion.
Plin. xxi. 81.

Footnote 908:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 11. 13. Plut. Lysand. § 28. Dioscor. i. 94.

Footnote 909:

Poll. i. 136. x. 143.

Footnote 910:

Sibthorp. Flora Græca, tab. 4.

Footnote 911:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 12. 1, seq.

Footnote 912:

Poll. i. 136. x. 143.

Footnote 913:

Herod. vii. 69.

-----

The bows[914] of the ancients were most commonly composed of horn, tipped with gold or other metal at either end. Among the barbarous nations there were those who manufactured them of cane or palm-branches, or even of the long stem of the date.[915] The bowstring was of thong or horse-hair. Reeds generally constituted the shafts of their arrows,[916] which were headed with iron or copper, or hard pointed stones, as those of the Arabs in the army of Xerxes, who employed for this purpose the same stones wherewith they engraved their seals.[917] Arrows were frequently winged with eagles’ feathers, and tinged at the point with poison.[918] In sieges they were often armed with fire.[919]

-----

Footnote 914:

On the Scythian bow, see Plat. de Legg. t. viii. p. 15; on the Cretan,
Poll. i. 45. 149; on arrows, Athen. x. 18.

Footnote 915:

Poll. i. 244. Herod. vii. 64, 65. 69.

Footnote 916:

Herod. vii. 61. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 11. 11. Dioscor. i. 114. The
Parthian kings, we are told, addicted themselves with pride to the
forging and sharpening of arrow-heads: it may be presumed, because the
bow was the national weapon of their country. Plut. Demet. § 20. The
arrow-heads of the Indians were of unusually large dimensions. Plut.
Alexand. § 63. That the arrow-heads of the ancient Scythians were of
bronze appears from the following relation of Herodotus. Ariantas, a
king of Scythia, desirous of ascertaining the number of his subjects,
commanded them, on pain of death, to bring him each an arrow-head. His
people obeyed the order; and when he had satisfied himself respecting
their number, he ordered a huge vessel to be cast with the bronze,
which, in the age of the Father of History, still existed at a place
called Exampæos, between the Borysthenes and the Hypanis. It was six
inches thick, and contained six hundred amphoræ. iv. 81.

Footnote 917:

Herod. vii. 69.

Footnote 918:

Phot. Bib. 445. 21. Poll. i. 138.

Footnote 919:

Poll. i. 42.

-----

Besides the above, there were several other implements of destruction. The Greeks made use of the club, the battle-axe, and the sling.[920] And a tribe of barbarians, once mentioned in history, depended entirely on their daggers, and a noosed rope of twisted thongs,[921] which they used for entangling and overthrowing man or horse, much in the same manner as the lasso is now employed in the Pampas of South America.

-----

Footnote 920:

Id. i. 149. Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 181.

Footnote 921:

Poll. ii. 30. Herod. vii. 85.

-----

If we turn now to their armour, we shall find that they displayed in its manufacture the greatest possible skill, taste, and ingenuity. Their helmets, cuirasses, shields, cuisses, and greaves, were made of polished steel, or brass, or tin, sometimes curiously figured, and inlaid with metals of many different colours, and polished to an exceeding brightness,[922] sometimes adorned with representations in relief. Frequently they went cased in shirts of mail, composed of innumerable small metallic plates, lapping over each other so as to resemble the scales of fishes. Occasionally the opulent appeared on the field of battle in golden armour,[923] though this piece of ostentation was chiefly confined to the barbarians.[924] The armourers’ craft, however, seems to have gone on improving in proportion as the courage of the nation deteriorated, until at length, in Macedonian times, armour of enormous weight, and, literally, impenetrable, came into use. Thus Zoilos manufactured for Demetrios Poliorcetes two coats-of-mail,[925] of a steel so hard, that the surface could scarcely be grazed by an arrow discharged from a catapult. The whole suit weighed no less than one hundred and thirty pounds, exactly twice as much as an ordinary suit of armour.

-----

Footnote 922:

Herod. ix. 21. i. 15.

Footnote 923:

Id. i. 215.

Footnote 924:

On one occasion we find the magistrates of Thessaly coming forth with
panoply of gold to meet the ashes of Pelopidas. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν πόλεων, ὡς
ἀπηγγέλθη ταῦτα, παρῆσαν αἵ τ᾽ ἀρχαι, καὶ μετ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔφηβοι καὶ παῖδες
καὶ ἱερεῖς, πρὸς τὴν ὑποδοκὴν τοῦ σώματος, τρόπαια καὶ στεφάνους καὶ
πανοπλίας χρυσᾶς ἐπιφέροντες. Plut. Pelopid. § 33.

Footnote 925:

Plut. Demet. § 21.

-----

Helmets[926] were manufactured of numerous materials. First, in the ruder ages, they were in reality nothing more than so many close skull-caps made of the skins[927] of otters or water-dogs, with the hair on,[928] or foxes, or weasels, or goats, or bulls, or lions. But as the arts of civilisation improved, metal casques were soon substituted for these primitive defences, some of which, of wrought steel, were highly polished, and shone like burnished silver. That of Alexander was manufactured by Theophilos.[929] The helmet consisted of a variety of parts: as, first, the casque itself, inlaid with brass and iron,[930] which enclosed and defended the head, the front brim projecting over the forehead; the vizor, which dropped over the whole face; the strap, often richly embroidered or studded with jewels,[931] passing under the chin; and the ridge, or cone, on the summit, from which rose the plumes, or crest.[932] This crest, double, treble, or even quadruple, according to the taste or fancy of the wearer, sometimes consisted of long drooping ostrich feathers,[933] sometimes of horse-hair, either black or dyed of different colours, which, trembling and floating over the warrior’s head, appeared to augment his stature while it added to the terror of his aspect. King Pyrrhos, we are told, wore upon his helmet the horns of a goat, symbolical of the power of Macedon;[934] and the Asiatic Thracians flanked their crests with the horns and ears of an ox in brass.[935] To break the force of blows from clubs or heavy battle-axes, the crown of the helmet was thickly lined with sponge or soft wool.[936] Mention is likewise made of helmets of plaited cord of wood and leather,[937] and the skins of horses’ heads, retaining the ears and the mane.[938]

-----

Footnote 926:

Poll. i. 148, seq. Herod. i. 171. Gitone, Il Costume, tav. 40. Feith,
Antiquitat. Homer. iv. 8. p. 316, seq.

Footnote 927:

Goguet, Orig. des Loix, iv. 322.

Footnote 928:

Herod. vii. 75.

Footnote 929:

Plut. Alex. 32.

Footnote 930:

Herod. vii. 84.

Footnote 931:

Plut. Alex. § 32.

Footnote 932:

Cf. Poll. i. 135. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 1188. 389. Plut. Alexand. §
16. The close helmets, without crests, were sometimes ornamented with
feathers, much after the Indian fashion. Gitone, Il Costume, tav. 42.

Footnote 933:

Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 1. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 4. 5.

Footnote 934:

Plut. Pyrrh. § 11.

Footnote 935:

Herod. vii. 76.

Footnote 936:

Brunck. not. in Aristoph. Acharn. 439.

Footnote 937:

Herod. vii. 77. 79. 89.

Footnote 938:

Id. vii. 70.

-----

In the manufacture of corslets and cuirasses[939] much industry and ability was exhibited. The former were generally composed of linen or hempen twine curiously wrought, and doubled or trebled according to the desire of the purchaser,[940] and worn chiefly in the chase;[941] others consisted of thick leathern jerkins, covered with metallic scales,[942] single, double, or treble, and fastened to each other by a series of hooks. In lieu of these plates was sometimes substituted a coating of intertwisted rings, resembling in some respects the chain armour of a later age. Wooden cuirasses were also sometimes worn.[943] The Sarmatians[944] possessing no iron, headed their darts and javelins with bone, and employed very extraordinary materials in the manufacture of their cuirasses. Collecting carefully all the hoofs of such horses as died, they cut them into laminæ, resembling in form the scales of a fish. These they sewed together with the nerves of horses or oxen, and thus produced a species of breastplate which for elegance and utility was scarcely inferior to those of the Greeks. In the manufacture of linen corslets[945] the Egyptians displayed peculiar excellence, at least the description of one of them which history has preserved is calculated to create a very high idea of their ingenuity. It was curiously wrought, we are told, with fine bobbins, each composed of three hundred and sixty threads, distinctly visible, adorned with numerous figures of animals interwoven with cotton and gold.[946] Among the Greeks this piece of armour was often richly embroidered by the ladies of the warrior’s family, whom, on more than one occasion, we find busy at this task on the eve of battle. The cuirasses of brass or steel were finely polished and buttoned under the arm. Even the horses were furnished with breastplates and frontlets,[947] and occasionally their flanks also were protected by armour. The warrior’s greaves[948] were manufactured of copper, brass, tin, or other metal, and fastened about the legs with silver buttons. Archers seem commonly to have worn a species of gloves or fingerlings.[949]

-----

Footnote 939:

Poll. i. 148, seq.

Footnote 940:

Cf. Herod. vii. 89.

Footnote 941:

Paus. i. 21. 7. vi. 19. 7.

Footnote 942:

Cf. Paus. ix. 26. 8.

Footnote 943:

Etym. Mag. 288. 48.

Footnote 944:

Paus. i. 21. 6.

Footnote 945:

Cf. Herod. ii. 182.

Footnote 946:

Herod. iii. 47. Plin. xix. 1. Ælian. Hist. An. ix. 17. Plut. Alex. §
32.

Footnote 947:

Poll. ii. 162. 167.

Footnote 948:

Gitone, Il Costume, tav. 38, where we find representations of
battle-axes, quivers, bows, swords, etc.

Footnote 949:

Constant. Lexic. v. χειρίδες.

-----

The manufacture of shields[950] underwent great fluctuations at different periods of Grecian history, and even in the same age there existed numerous and extraordinary differences in their materials, form, and structure. In early times they consisted simply of a piece of circular basket-work, plaited for the sake of lightness with vine-branches[951] or willows; or were made of a solid piece of wood scooped into the proper form, and covered with one or more coats of leather. The wood usually preferred for this use was that of the elder, the beach, the poplar, and the fig; and the leather was generally tough bull-hide,[952] with or without the hair, though we read of nations, as the Ethiopians, who made use for this purpose of the skins of cranes.[953] The same people at the present day have discovered that the hide of the crocodile, dressed with the scales on, forms a better integument for their bucklers. Among the Homeric heroes the wooden framework was protected by many folds of leather, amounting sometimes to seven, to which were added plates of brass, silver, gold, or tin. Even when the face of the shield was composed of some inferior metal, the rim seems frequently to have been of gold.

-----

Footnote 950:

Poll. i. 148, seq.

Footnote 951:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 3. 4. v. 7. 7. Thucyd. iv. 9.

Footnote 952:

Herod. vii. 79.

Footnote 953:

Id. vii. 70.

-----

In later times shields were usually manufactured of brass or steel, wrought and fashioned with the greatest care, and polished like a mirror. Occasionally, likewise, they were inlaid with purple, ivory, and gold,[954] or painted white, or crusted with gold and silver, as among the Samnites.[955] From the remotest antiquity, moreover, it was customary to paint upon shields a number of devices, each warrior selecting one for himself,[956] which, like the armorial bearings of the knights of chivalry, distinguished him from his comrades in battle. Thus Perseus chose the head of the Gorgon Medusa;[957] Tydeus the aspect of the face of the mighty heavens, including the full moon, surrounded by flaming stars;[958] Eteocles bore before him the figure of a warrior scaling a lofty tower, while Hippomedon selected, as the emblem of his character, the figure of Typhœos breathing forth fire and smoke. Every reader will remember the varied imagery that crowded the shield of the Homeric Achilles, together with the scenes which Hesiod, in imitation, depicts on the buckler of Heracles. In the historical period[959] the people of Sicyon had a sigma, the initial letter in the name of their capital, painted on their shields.[960] These ornaments, as well as the handles, it is said, owed their origin to the invention of the Carians. The form of the shield exhibited much variety. One kind, for example, was small and circular,[961] another oblong or parallelogrammatic, and of dimensions so large as to cover the whole body, and allow the fallen warrior to be borne home on it as upon a bier; others were rhomboidal,[962] or semilunar, or shaped like an ivy-leaf. But whatever may have been their figure, there always projected from the centre of the external face a large boss, with a smaller one, generally pointed, on the middle of it. This the soldiers dashed in the countenances of the enemy. Within, two bars, stretching from rim to rim, and crossing each other like the letter X, gave the warrior, who passed his left arm behind them, greater power over his defence, while a smaller handle, on the fore part of the shield, received his grasp.[963] Occasionally, the place of these bars was supplied by metallic or wooden handles, exactly of a size to receive the arm; and, by means of a leathern strap, the buckler, when marching, was usually suspended on the shoulder.[964] In time of peace both the shield and the helmet were laid up, each in its appropriate case.[965] Besides the manufacturers of arms, who supplied states with large orders, there were numerous armourers on a smaller scale,[966] whose shops exhibited a rich and varied assortment of shields, helmets, and every kind of weapon.

-----

Footnote 954:

Poll. i. 134.

Footnote 955:

Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, i. 276.

Footnote 956:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 548.

Footnote 957:

Epaminondas had a dragon on his shield as a device. Pausan. viii. 11.
8.

Footnote 958:

Sept. Cont. Theb. 367. 447. 471.

Footnote 959:

The device of Demosthenes was, “To Good Fortune.” Plut. Demosth. § 20.

Footnote 960:

Xenoph. Hellen. iv. 4. 10. It has been conjectured, that the Arcadian
allies of Epaminondas painted the letter Θ on their shields, that they
might appear to be transformed into Thebans. Schneid. ad Xen. Hellen.
vii. 5. 20. The Lacedæmonians painted the letter Λ on their shields.
Meurs. Miscell. Lacon. i. 18.

Footnote 961:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 18.

Footnote 962:

Petit. de Amazon. xxv. 169.

Footnote 963:

Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 645. Acharn. 1087. From certain ancient
monuments it appears, that a small thin cushion ran along behind the
arm on the interior of the shield. Giton. Il Costume, tav. 39. Cf.
Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 47, for the figure of Capaneus advancing
his shield as if in combat.

Footnote 964:

Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 846. 855.

Footnote 965:

Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 548.

Footnote 966:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 439.

-----

The metals employed in the fabrication of arms were obtained partly from mines found in Greece itself, partly by commerce from the surrounding countries.[967] On the methods of mining which prevailed among the Greeks our information is peculiarly scanty. We know, however, that, at Laurion,[968] the Athenians made use of both shafts and adits, and that in chambering they employed much timber.[969] To prevent the falling in of the superincumbent mountain there were left at intervals vast pillars,[970] the cutting away of which was by law prohibited on pain of death. In the potter’s-clay mines of Samos, where the veins, running generally between beds of rock, were exceedingly shallow, seldom exceeding two feet in depth, the miners, as in the thin veins of our own coal mines, were compelled while at work to lie on their back or sides, which, it may be presumed, was the practice in other mines under similar circumstances. Whether they possessed any means of protecting themselves against the fire-damps or malaria,[971] which, we know, prevailed greatly at Laurion,[972] is a matter of much uncertainty. In Spain, the mines ran deep into the earth, and were of prodigious extent, having transverse passages and caverns of great dimensions and elevation.

-----

Footnote 967:

Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21. Herod. v. 17. vi. 46. vii. 112. Thucyd.
i. 101. Plut. Cim. § 14.

Footnote 968:

On the price of mining shares, Dem. adv. Pantæn. § 6. Schol. Eq. 1089.

Footnote 969:

Cf. Petit, Legg. Att. vii. 12. p. 543.

Footnote 970:

Μεσοκρινεῖς κίονες, οἱ ἐν τοῖς μετάλλοις ὑφεστηκότες ἀνέχειν τὰ
ὀρύγματα. Poll. vii. 98.

Footnote 971:

Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.

Footnote 972:

Λέγεται βαρὺ τὸ χωρίον εἶναι. Xenoph. Memor. iii. 6. 12.

-----

In an old shaft discovered in the mountains of Santo Spirito,[973] the sides were supported by masonry; large pools of water were found in some of the chambers, while the explorers could hear afar off the incessant roar of waterfalls. Here and there the passages were nearly blocked up by masses of gold and silver ore.[974]

-----

Footnote 973:

The mountain districts of Spain, in which the mines were situated, are
described by Pliny to be so utterly barren, that they produce nothing
but ore. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21.

Footnote 974:

“Times,” March 24, 1841.

-----

How the water was drained off, or the ore brought to the surface of the earth, no ancient author has explained. When extracted, however, it was pounded in a stone mortar with an iron pestle, then passed through a sieve, and transferred to the smelting furnace.[975]

-----

Footnote 975:

Vitruv. vii. 7. Demosth. in Pantænet. § 6. Harpocrat. v. κεγκρεὼν.
Suid. t. i. p. 1428. a.

-----

The account transmitted to us of the gold mines of Egypt may probably throw some light on the practice which prevailed among the Greeks. In them we find an almost exact type of the degrading toil and disregard of danger and decency recently brought to light among our own subterranean population. There, indeed, the workmen were forced to their task by the direct compulsion of a tyrannical government; while in Great Britain the constraint is enveloped by a cloud of circumstances which conceal, though they scarcely soften, the stern laws of necessity.

The Egyptian gold mines were situated in the great eastern desert, on the shores of the Red Sea. They had been worked from the remotest antiquity; in proof of which it is related, that copper pickaxes were frequently found in the deserted shafts and galleries, beside incredible heaps of human bones, relics of the multitudes who had perished there by malaria, or fire-damps, or the falling of rocks, or more probably from the incessant oppression to which they were subjected.[976] In fact the benevolent historian,[977] to whom we are indebted for nearly all we know on this curious subject, felt so strongly for the sufferings of these wretched artificers of Egyptian grandeur, that he pronounced death in their case to be more desirable than life.[978] But the most miserable possess resources and springs of gratification unknown to philosophers and the professors of literature; and, we may be sure, that even those outcasts who brought up gold from the bowels of the earth to adorn the thrones and palaces of the Pharaohs, knew how to extract from their bitter employment some few sweets of sufficient efficacy to render life endurable.

-----

Footnote 976:

The same excessive waste of human life has been observable in all
countries where mines have been worked on a large scale: “Juan
Gonzales de Alzevedo assuroit en 1609, que le nombre des indigènes
étoit diminué de moitié dans les environs des mines du Pérou, et d’un
tiers en d’autres endroits, depuis 1581.” Schneider, Observations sur
Ulloa, t. ii. p. 264.

Footnote 977:

Agatharchid. ap. Phot. Biblioth. Cod. 250. p. 447. a. sqq.

Footnote 978:

Οὗτοι πάντες οἱ τὸν εἰρημένον τῆς τύχης κλῆρον ὑπελθόντες ποθεινότερον
ἔχουσι τοῦ βίου τὸν θάνατον. Id. p. 448. a. 38.

-----

No doubt the processes of those early times were sufficiently rude. When about to open a new shaft or adit the Inspectors of the mines appear carefully to have examined the different faces of the mountain, sombre, scarped, and barren to the last degree; and having fixed upon a spot in the face of some cliff, the first operation was to render the rock friable by the application of powerful fires, which were kindled with wood at its base. The more robust of the workmen then proceeded with their pickaxes to the excavation of the galleries, which seldom or never proceeded in a right line; but following the direction of the metallic veins, mounted, descended, branched off obliquely to the left or to the right; and progressing in this manner, sometimes perforated the whole bulk of the mountain, and striking downwards, like the roots of trees, extended even to the sea.[979] The men employed in _getting_ the ore, followed incessantly by task-masters with instruments of chastisement in their hands, were seldom permitted to proportion their exertions to their strength; but often toiled on apparently till they dropped, when their bones joined the heaps of those who had fallen before them. While thus engaged, more especially when united in great numbers they had clambered the rocks to a considerable height, they presented an extraordinary spectacle; for each miner[980] carried a lamp bound to his forehead, though how, when they bent or kneeled, or worked sideways, it escaped being extinguished seems difficult of explanation.

-----

Footnote 979:

Similar excavations in the mountain of Potosi are thus described by
Don Antonio d’Ulloa: “Le mont du Potosi doit être considéré comme
l’intérieur d’ une ruche à miel, vu le nombre des percemens, des
galeries, des fouilles qu’on y remarque. C’est ce qu’on se figurera
facilement, en se répresentant la quantité prodigieuse de matières
qu’on a tirées de son intérieur, pour obtener les minérais qui s’y
trouvent répandus partout, et desquels on extrait l’argent. S’il étoit
donc possible de le découvrir totalement de sa croûte externe, on y
appercevroit un nombre infini de routes souterreines percées sans
suite, et comme au hasard, selon la direction des veines métalliques.”
Mémoires Philosophiques, t. i. p. 289.

Footnote 980:

Οὗτοι μὲν οὖν λύχνους προσδεδεμένους τοῖς μετώποις ἔχοντες λατομοῦσιν,
ἀκολουθοῦντες οἷον φλεβὶ τῷ λευκανθίζοντι. Phot. Bib. p. 448. a.

-----

The laborious operation of collecting and _hurrying_ the ore was performed by boys of tender age, who deposited it beyond the mouth of the shaft. Another class of workmen, consisting chiefly of the aged and the infirm, now bore the metalliferous stones to that part of the works where the founders were stationed. These were powerful and robust men in the flower of their age, who, with large stone mortars and iron pestles, reduced, under the eye of rigid Inspectors, the ore to small fragments not exceeding a vetch in size.[981] This done, it was transferred to the mills which were turned by women, the wives and daughters of the miners, who, with the exception of a slender covering about the waist, were entirely naked, misery in all times and places rendering people contemptuous of appearances and indifferent to morality.[982] These mills, heavy no doubt and difficult to work, were turned by six women, three on either side. They would appear, however, to have answered well the purpose for which they were designed, since the ore, we are told, was reduced by them to the fineness of flour; after which it was handed over to the Selangeus, the last link in that long chain of operators which connected the mine with the smelting furnace. The business of the Selangeus consisted in separating the metal from the matrix in which it had been produced. For this purpose, the auriferous dust was cast in a heap upon a broad polished board slightly inclined,[983] and there washed and triturated until the greater part of the terrene particles had been, by soft sponges and water, separated from the gold, which was next put into earthen vessels with small quantities of lead, tin, salt, and barley-bran, and placed in the smelting furnace, where it was subjected, for five days and nights, to the flames. This done, the virgin gold came forth glittering and pure as if it had not been wrung from human agony or sullied by human tears.

-----

Footnote 981:

Cf. Diod. Sicul. iii. 13.

Footnote 982:

Οὗτος δὲ ἐστιν ὁ πόνος τῶν γυναικῶν τῶν εἰς τὰς φυλακὰς συναπηγμένων
ἀνδράσιν ἢ γονεῦσι. Μύλοι γὰρ ἑξῆς πλείους βεβήκασιν, ἐφ᾽ οὒς τὸν
ἐπτισμένον ἐπιβάλλουσι λίθον· καὶ παραστᾶσαι τρεῖς ἑκατέρωθεν πρὸς τὴν
μίαν κώπην, οὕτως ἐζωσμέναι δυσπροσόπτως ὥστε μόνον τὴν αἰσχύνην τοῦ
σώματος κρύπτειν, ἀλήθουσιν. Phot. Bib. p. 448. a.

Footnote 983:

Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21.

-----

In the smelting furnaces of Greece, notwithstanding the doubts of Reitemeier, which Bœckh is contented to combat with mere inferences,[984] it is quite certain that charcoal was used,[985]—in the first smelting, that of the aria, the arbutus, and the oak, of which the last was least esteemed; and in the second, that of the pitch-pine. In the iron mines the charcoal of the Eubœan walnut-tree was preferred for second smelting.

-----

Footnote 984:

“That the Athenians made use of the bellows and of charcoal is not
improbable; the latter, indeed, may be fairly inferred from the
account of the charcoal-sellers, or rather charcoal-burners, from
which business a large portion of the Acharnians in particular
obtained their livelihood.” Dissertation on the Mines of Laurion. Pub.
Econ., &c. t. ii. p. 443.

Footnote 985:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 1, sqq.

-----

This leads us to speak of the preparation of charcoal, which was effected in the following manner:—having excavated a circular cavity in the earth, they pitched or paved it at bottom, and piling up to a great height the billets of wood, which were selected for their straightness in order that they might lie as close as possible, covered over the whole with earth and turf, so as to form a circular mound, like a barrow. The heap was then set on fire, and the covering pierced on all sides with spits, to provide a vent for the smoke. The fire having been kept burning for the proper time, which is not stated, the charcoal was removed and laid by for use.[986] Extensive works of this kind were established at the borough of Acharnè, in Attica, which was supplied with wood, chiefly the scarlet oak, from the forests on Mount Parnes.[987]

-----

Footnote 986:

Id. v. 9. 5. ix. 3. 1.

Footnote 987:

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 302, 587. Diog. Laert. i. 8. 5.

-----

Much stress was laid by Hellenic artificers on the materials from which the charcoal was manufactured: thus smiths, braziers, and other handicraftsmen preferred that of the pitch-pine to what was made from the oak, because it exhibited a greater tractability to the bellows, keeping up a more enduring flame, and being less liable to sudden extinction, though inferior in force. Generally, in fact, all dry woods furnish a brisker and a brighter flame. Twigs and small branches, as the Greek philosophers had observed, yield, while burning, the fiercest heat; but it was supposed that they were too deficient in body to be profitably converted into charcoal. In France, however, and other parts of the Continent, we find twigs no bigger than goose-quills used for this purpose. Some kinds of wood, it was observed, produce in burning a far greater quantity of smoke than others.[988] Of these are all such as delight in humid situations, as the platane and the willow, with the black and white poplar. The vine,[989] too, while moist, stands in the same category, though it yield the palm to the date-palm, which enjoyed among the ancients the reputation of being the smokiest tree that grows.[990] In sharpness, however, the smoke of the fig-tree was supposed to excel, together with that of the wild fig-tree,[991] and generally all such natives of the forest as abound in a milky juice. Nevertheless, having been barked, steeped in running-water, and dried again,[992] these same kinds of wood were freer than all others from smoke, and yielded the softest and purest flame.[993] The same thing is remarked of wood which had been washed with the lees of oil.[994]

-----

Footnote 988:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 5.

Footnote 989:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 326. Lysist. 308. The Haliphloios, a species of
oak, was supposed by the ancients to be peculiarly obnoxious to
lightning, on which account the Æolians never used its wood in
sacrifice. Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 8. 52. 5. Cf. v. 1. 2.

Footnote 990:

Τοῦ τε δυσκαπνοτάτου φοίνικος ἐκ γῆς ῥιζοφοιτήτους φλέβας. Chæremon,
ap. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 5.

Footnote 991:

Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 145. Plut. Sympos. v. 9.

Footnote 992:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 5.

Footnote 993:

Among the uses of charcoal was that of being rammed down under the
foundations of temples, as in that of Artemis at Ephesos: Rursus ne in
lubrico atque instabili fundamenta tantæ molis locarentur, calcatis ea
substravere carbonibus dein velleribus lanæ. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi.
21. On the incorruptibility of charcoal, St. Augustin, who loved to
declaim a little, thus writes:—“Quid? in carbonibus nonne miranda est,
et tanta infirmitas, ut ictu levissimo frangantur, pressu facillime
conterantur: et tanta firmitas ut nullo humore corrumpantur, nulla
ætate vincantur, usque adeo ut eos substernere soleant.... Quis eos in
terra humida effossos, ubi ligna putrescerent, tamdiu durare
incorruptibilior posse, nisi rerum ille corruptor ignis effecit?” De
Civitat. Dei, xxxi. 4. The charcoal was thus employed by the advice of
Theodoros, the son of Rhæcos, the Samian. Οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ συμβουλεύσας
ἄνθρακας ὑποτεθῆναι τοῖς θεμελίοις τοῦ ἐν Ἐφέσω νεώ. Καθύγρου γὰρ
ὄντος τοῦ τόπου, τοὺς ἄνθρακας ἔφη, τὸ ξυλῶδες ἀποβαλόντας, αὐτὸ τὸ
στερεὸν ἀπαθὲς ἔχειν ὕδατι. Diog. Laert. ii. 8. § 19.

Footnote 994:

Plin. Nat. Hist. xv. 8. Cf. Martial. xiii. 15.

-----

In Egypt, where charcoal is at present procured chiefly from the wood of the acacia, and supplied in most cases from the Desert, it was anciently prepared, especially for the use of smiths, from the long, tough, triangular roots of the sari,[995] (Cyperus fastigiatus,) which resembled those of the papyrus, likewise burnt for fuel.[996] The smiths of Hellas,[997] however, were not reduced to depend entirely upon charcoal, since both in Liguria and Elis, on the road, it has been conjectured, leading over Mount Pholoë to Olympia,[998] pits had been opened whence the forges were supplied with fossil coal.

-----

Footnote 995:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 8. 5.

Footnote 996:

Id. Hist. Plant. iv. 8. 4. Dioscor. i. 115.

Footnote 997:

Οὓς δὲ καλοῦσιν εὐθὺς ἄνθρακας τῶν θρυπτομένων διὰ τὴν χρείαν, εἰσὶ
γεώδεις· ἐκκαίονται δὲ καὶ πυροῦνται καθάπερ οἱ ἄνθρακες. Εἰσὶ δὲ περί
τε τὴν Λιγυστικὴν, ὅπου καὶ τὸ ἤλεκτρον, καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἠλεία βαδιζόντων
Ὀλυμπίαζε τὴν δι’ ὄρους, οἷς καὶ οἱ χαλκεῖς χρῶνται. Theoph. de Lapid.
§ 16.

Footnote 998:

Annot. ad Theoph. iv. 552. Xen. Anab. v. 3. 10. Strab. viii. p. 145.
Sieb.

-----

We may here observe, by the way, that the ancients, instead of flint and steel, or lucifer matches, made use, in kindling a fire, of a curious apparatus still employed in the East:[999] it consisted of two parts, the one hollowed out like a diminutive mortar, the other resembling a pestle, which was inserted into it, and turned round with extreme velocity until sparks were produced. This necessary piece of furniture[1000] was most commonly manufactured of ivy, or laurel, or clematis, and was something of the rhamnus ilex, or linden-tree; in short, of nearly all trees, except the olive. Generally, however, it was thought best to make the two parts of the instrument of different kinds of wood. It was observed that, with these contrivances, fire kindled more readily during the prevalence of the north than the south wind, and on high places than in hollows. At Rome the vestal virgins originated the sacred fire by means of a kind of mirror, and the power of burning-glasses was not unknown.[1001] Nay, things resembling our lucifer matches were possessed by certain jugglers, though they do not appear to have passed into general use, either because the inventors refused to divulge their secret, or from the natural slowness of mankind to profit by useful discoveries.[1002]

-----

Footnote 999:

Plat. de Repub. t. vi. p. 194.

Footnote 1000:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 9. 4, sqq.

Footnote 1001:

Aristoph. Nub. 758. Cf. Orph. Lith. 171. p. 111.

Footnote 1002:

Athen. i. 35.

-----