along the Red Sea littoral. The former, describing the land of the
Nomads who live entirely by their camels, which they employ for warfare
and for travelling, and on whose milk and flesh they subsist, says: “a
river flows through their land which carries down gold-dust, but they
have not skill to work it up. Now they are called Debae[111]; some of
them are nomads, others are tillers of the soil. But I do not mention
the numerous names of the tribes on account of their uncertainty and
outlandish pronunciation. Next to them come more civilized men, who
inhabit a more genial soil. For it is well supplied with both river and
rain water. And dug gold is produced in their land, not from dust but
from nuggets of gold, which do not need much refining. The smallest
nuggets are of the size of olive-stones (?) (πυρὴν), the medium-sized
are as big as medlars, and the largest are of the size of chestnuts (?)
(κάρυον). Having perforated these they pass a thread of flax through
them in alternation with transparent stones and make themselves chains,
and put them round their necks and wrists. And they offer their gold for
sale to their neighbours likewise at a cheap rate, giving thrice as much
gold as they get copper in exchange and twice as much gold as they get
silver in exchange, for they have not the skill to work the gold, and the
metals which they receive in exchange are rare in their country and more
necessary for life[112].”
This is a most interesting and important passage, as it brings us face
to face with primitive peoples in the very earliest stage of the use of
metals. The Nomads do not possess skill enough to work the gold-dust of
their river, although evidently aware of its existence. Their neighbours
being more favoured by the nature of their gold deposit are able to use
the metal in the way in which we may with safety conclude that mankind
everywhere first employed it. Accustomed to use ornaments of shells
made into rude beads, they had no difficulty in adapting for like use
the small lumps of native gold. They readily pierced the soft metal
and making the nuggets into beads used them to form their necklets and
armlets. But although this people had made some progress in the working
of gold, they were incapable of working copper and silver. We shall
have to return to this passage hereafter. Let us now hear Diodorus in
reference to the same region.
He speaks of it in two separate places in his Collections, first in his
Second Book, when giving a brief general statement of Arabia and its
natural products, and again in the Third Book, when he is giving a more
detailed account of the tribes who dwelt along the shores of the Red Sea
or, as he called it, the Arabian Gulf.
The first passage runs thus (he has just been describing certain
quarries): “There are mines in Arabia likewise of the gold that is termed
‘fireless.’ It is not refined down from gold-dust as in other countries,
but it is obtained straightway on being dug up in size like unto
chestnuts, and so fiery in colour that the most precious stones when set
in it by the craftsmen make the most lovely of ornaments. And so great
abundance of all sorts of cattle is found in the country that many tribes
having chosen a pastoral life are able to get a comfortable subsistence,
and being completely furnished with the plenteousness derived from
their herds, they even have no need of corn in addition[113].” In his
second reference, after describing the hill district, where lay the
Mount Chabinus, densely clad with forests of all kinds of trees he says:
“The land which comes next to the mountain region those Arabs called
Debae inhabit. Now these people are camel-keepers and make use of this
animal for all the most important affairs in life. For from them, they
fight against their enemies and conveying their wares on the backs
of these effect successfully all their business, and they subsist by
drinking their milk, and they range over the whole region on their fleet
camels. Now about midway in their land flows a river which brings down
so much shining gold-dust that the alluvial mud deposited at its mouth
positively glitters. Now the natives are completely unskilled in the
working of the gold, but they are hospitable to strangers, not to all
comers, but to those alone who come from Boeotia[114] and Peloponnesus
because of a certain ancient affinity of Heracles with their nation, a
tradition of which in legendary fashion they relate they have received
from their forefathers. The next region is settled by the Alilaean and
Gasandan Arabs, not being torrid, like those near it, inasmuch as it is
often overcast with soft dense clouds, and from these arise snowstorms
and seasonable rains which make the summer season temperate. And the
land is capable of producing everything and surpasses in excellence, yet
it does not meet with proper attention, owing to the ignorance of the
folk. And finding gold in the natural cavities in the earth they collect
it in quantities, not that which is obtained by fusion from gold-dust,
but that which is native and from the circumstance called ‘fireless.’
And as to size the smallest piece found is similar to an olive-stone,
whilst the largest is not much less than a walnut. And they wear it round
their wrists and necks when it is perforated, the nuggets alternating
with transparent stones. But since this kind of metal is plentiful with
them, but copper and iron are scarce, they barter these wares with the
traders at an equal rate[115].” Strabo probably got his information from
Artemidorus, who is his chief authority for everything connected with the
Red Sea. Diodorus, whose authority is Agatharchides, substantially agrees
with Strabo in all the main facts, such as the name of the tribe who
cannot work up the gold-dust, whilst he adds the names of the Alilaeans
and Gasandans, which are not given by Strabo[116].
From Arabia we naturally pass on to Egypt. We have already seen that
the archaeologists assign reasons for supposing that the Egyptians were
acquainted with gold from the remotest ages. The Egyptian word for gold
is _nub_, from which the name Nubia, _i.e._ _El Dorado_, is commonly
derived. Having fresh in our minds the interesting fact noticed above (p.
69) that the universal word for gold in use amongst the Turko-Tartaric
races is probably derived from the Altai, the source from which they
first got the metal, we are tempted to reverse the ordinary doctrine, and
to derive the Egyptian name for gold from that of the region whence they
first obtained it. The principle of naming products after the region or
place from which they have been first brought is too well known to need
illustration. Instances are familiar in all languages: _Cappadocae_,
the Latin name for lettuce; _Persica_ from which has come our _peach_,
through the French; Indian corn, india-rubber, etc. are sufficient
examples. The negroes of Eastern Africa call a certain kind of cloth
_Merikano_, _i.e._ American. Perhaps, then, the name _nub_ is rather a
word of this class, and Nubia is not like Gold Coast, which belongs to
the category of names formed by epithets applied in consequence of some
article already well known having been found there.
Strabo (p. 821), describing Meroe, that large and fertile island formed
by the Nile, says: “the island has many great mountains, and some of
its inhabitants are shepherds, some hunters, and some husbandmen. And
there are likewise copper-diggings and iron-works, and gold-mines, and
varieties of valuable marbles. It is shut off from Libya by great sands,
from Arabia by unbroken heights, and from the upper region from the south
by the junctions of the rivers, Astaboras, Astapus, and Astasobus. On
the north the Nile flows all the way to Egypt in that tortuous fashion
which I have described.” This island virtually coincides with the modern
province of Atbar. It is probably to this same region that Diodorus
refers in his famous description of the Egyptian gold-mining. Although
the passage is one of considerable length, it is of such interest and
importance that it is perhaps advisable to give it in full: “On the
confines of Egypt, Arabia which marches with it, and Ethiopia is a spot
possessed of many great mines of gold, where the gold is got together
with much suffering and expense. Since the earth is black and has
lodes and veins of quartz of surpassing whiteness, and which excel in
brilliancy all those natural objects which are noted for their lustre,
those who are in charge of the mining works by the numbers of the
labourers prepare the gold. For the kings of Egypt collect together and
consign to the gold-mines those who have been condemned for crime, and
who have been made captive in war, and furthermore those who have been
ruined by false slanders, and who owing to an outburst of anger have been
cast into prison, sometimes only themselves, but sometimes likewise with
all their kindred, at one and the same time both exacting punishment from
those who have been condemned, and obtaining great revenues by means
of those who are engaged in the labour. Those who have been consigned
to the mines, being many in number and all bound with fetters, toil at
their tasks continuously both by day and all night long, getting no
rest, and jealously kept from all escape. For guards composed of foreign
soldiers, and who speak languages which differ from theirs, are set over
them, so that no one is able by association or any kindly intercourse to
corrupt any one of the warders. The hardest of the earth which contains
the gold they burn with a good deal of fire, and make soft, and work it
with their hands, but the soft rock and that which can easily yield to
stone chisels or iron is worked down by thousands of hapless beings. And
the craftsman who distinguishes the stone takes the lead in the whole
process, and he gives instructions to the workmen. And of those who have
been appointed to this misery those who surpass in bodily strength cut
with iron pickaxes the glittering rock, not by bringing skill to bear
upon their tasks, but by mere brute force, and they hew out galleries,
not in a straight line, but according to the vein of the glittering rock.
They then living in darkness owing to the bends and twists in the pits
carry about lamps fitted on their foreheads, and changing in many ways
the posture of their bodies according to the peculiarity of the rock
throw down on the floor the fragments that are being hewn, and this they
do unceasingly under the severity and stripes of an overseer. But the
boys who have not yet reached manhood going in through the shafts into
the excavations in the rock, laboriously cast up the rock that is being
thrown down bit by bit, and convey it to the place outside the mouth of
the shaft into the light. But the men who are more than thirty years old
take a fixed measure of the quarried stone, and pound it in stone mortars
with iron pestles until they reduce it to the size of a vetch. From these
the women and older men receive the stone now reduced to pieces the size
of a vetch, and as there is a considerable number of mills there in a
row, they cast the stone upon them, they stand beside them at the handle
in threes or twos, they grind until they have reduced the measure given
them to the fineness of wheaten flour. And since they are all regardless
of their persons, and have not a garment to cover their nakedness, no
one who saw them could refrain from pitying the hapless creatures owing
to their excessive misery. For there is absolutely no consideration nor
relaxation for sick, or maimed, for aged man, or weak woman, but all are
forced to toil on at their tasks until, worn out by their miseries, they
die amid their toils. Wherefore the unhappy beings regard the future as
more to be dreaded than the present owing to the excess of punishment,
and expect death as more to be longed for than life.
“But finally the craftsmen get the ground-up stone, and complete the
process. For they rub the ground-up quartz on a broad board placed on a
slight incline, pouring water on it. Then the earthy part of it, melting
away by the action of the liquid, flows down along the sloping board,
but the part that contains the gold adheres to the board owing to its
weight. Repeating this process frequently at first with their hands they
gently rub it, but after this pressing it lightly with delicate sponges
they take up by these means the soft and earthy part until the gold-dust
is left in a state of purity.
“Finally other craftsmen, taking over the collected gold by measure and
weight, put it into earthenware pots, and in proportion to the amount
they put in a piece of lead and lumps of salt and furthermore a small
quantity of tin, and they add barley bran. Then having made a well-fitted
cover and having laboriously smeared it over with mud, they bake it in
kilns for five days and as many nights continuously. Then after letting
it cool, they find none of the other things in the vessels, but get the
gold in a pure state with but a slight reduction in quantity. With so
many and so great sufferings is the production of gold at the frontiers
of Egypt completed. For Nature herself makes it plain, I think, that
gold is produced with toil, is guarded with difficulty, is most eagerly
sought for, and is enjoyed with mixed pleasure and pain. The discovery of
these mines is of very ancient date, inasmuch as it was made known by the
ancient kings[117].”
Such then is the vivid picture drawn by the humane Diodorus of the
horrible torments of the unhappy bondsmen who worked these famous mines,
sufferings only to be paralleled by the miseries endured by the miners
in Spain under Roman rule, by the Indians in the mines of Peru under
the yoke of the Spaniard, and by the helpless sufferers under Muscovite
cruelty who at this hour endure a living death in the mines of Siberia.
For our immediate purpose it is interesting to notice that the Egyptians
from a far back time obtained an abundant supply of gold from the
confines of their own territory, and doubtless drew a further supply from
those rich gold districts along the Red Sea of which we have just spoken.
Whilst in the latter case we had a most instructive instance of the
first attempts to utilize the metals made by men, so in the case of
Egypt we find an example of the most elaborate and scientific process of
gold-mining known to the ancients. For we shall find that the process
employed in Spain by the Romans for refining the crude gold was not
nearly so elaborate as that employed by the Egyptians.
It is of course quite possible that supplies of gold either in the form
of dust or of rings may have reached Egypt from the interior of Africa,
but of that we have not as far as I am aware any historical record. For
the negroes who are depicted in Egyptian paintings bringing tribute of
gold rings might have brought them from Nubia or from a region on the
coast of the Mediterranean further west. It is indeed a fact of great
interest that down to the present day gold in the shape of rings or links
is brought to Massowah on the Red Sea from Sennaar (Nubia). This is the
best of the three qualities which reach Massowah; the second quality is
Abyssinian gold, “in grains or beads,” and the third is also Abyssinian
gold “in ingots.” Thus two most ancient ways of using gold are employed
in this region still, for the gold in grains or beads reminds us at once
of the story of its being employed by the Debae to form necklaces[118].
Once more let us advance westward, and notice the last gold-field on the
continent of Africa. That gold was obtained by the Carthaginians from a
district in North Africa is put beyond doubt by a passage of Herodotus
(IV. 195), who, after describing a certain people called the Gyzantes,
who coloured themselves red with raddle, and ate apes, says that “the
Carthaginians declare that opposite this people lies an island named
Cyraunis, two hundred stades long (25 miles) but narrow in breadth, with
a crossing from the mainland; the island is full of olives and vines, and
there is a lake in it from which the native maidens by means of birds’
feathers smeared with pitch take up gold dust out of the silt.” Whatever
may be the exact spot meant on the coast of the Libyan nomads we may at
least conclude that there is a distinct indication that the Carthaginians
were well acquainted with gold deposits in this quarter. Whether or not
the Carthaginians and in later times the Romans may have obtained by
caravans across the desert supplies of gold from the great gold-bearing
regions of West Africa, we have no means of judging, but it is on the
whole probable that they did. The voyage of Hanno, the Carthaginian
admiral, along the western side of Africa can hardly have failed to make
known to them the existence of rich gold fields, even if they had been
previously ignorant of them; but it is still more likely that it was
the knowledge of such an Eldorado far away beyond the great Sahara that
induced them to send out the expedition.
It has often happened in the history of both ancient and modern commerce
that the products of a certain region are known long before travellers
or merchants from civilized lands have ever reached the country that
produces them. Thus the merchants of Marseilles were probably familiar
with the tin brought from Devon and Cornwall across Gaul before the
famous Pytheas ever coasted round Spain and Gaul and visited our shores.
Again, in modern times, it is only within the last thirty years that
the source of that most familiar of drugs, Turkey rhubarb, has been
discovered.
By whatever means they may have learned its existence the following
passage of Herodotus (IV. 196) puts it beyond all doubt that the
Carthaginians in the fifth century B.C. traded by sea for gold to the
west coast of Africa, and that consequently the savages of that region
must have been long acquainted with the metal: “The Carthaginians,” he
says, “also relate the following: there is a country in Libya and a
nation beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which they are wont to visit,
where they no sooner arrive than forthwith they unlade their wares, and
having disposed them after an orderly fashion along the beach, leave them
and returning aboard their ships, raise a great smoke. The natives, when
they see the smoke, come down to the shore, and laying out to view so
much gold as they think the worth of the wares, withdraw to a distance.
The Carthaginians upon this come ashore and look; if they think the gold
enough, they take it and go their way, but if it does not seem to them
sufficient, they go aboard once more and wait patiently. Then the others
approach and add to their gold, till the Carthaginians are content.
Neither party deals unfairly with the other, for they themselves never
touch the gold until it comes up to the worth of the goods, nor do the
natives ever carry off the goods till the gold is taken away[119].”
Let us now retrace our steps to Europe and take up our investigation at
the point from which we diverged into Asia. We found Thrace and Thasos to
have been for many ages an inexhaustible source of gold. We must now pass
on from the Balkan peninsula to the Italian.
Although according to Helbig (_Die Italiker in der Poebene_, p. 21) no
traces of gold have as yet been found in the lake-dwellings of Northern
Italy, which were erected and occupied by the Umbrians, who occupied
all that region until conquered by the Etruscans[120], we cannot take
this negative evidence as at all conclusive proof that the inhabitants
of these dwellings were utterly ignorant of gold and its use. Helbig
has shown that the inhabitants of the lake-dwellings were in the bronze
age at the time of the Etruscan conquest, which can be hardly placed
later than B.C. 1100. Bronze implements are found in the remains. But
as a matter of fact ornaments of gold are not generally found in the
ruins of the habitations of the living, but rather in the tombs of the
dead. That certainly has been the case at Mycenae, at Spata, on Mount
Hymettus in Attica, in the island of Thera, and at Ialysus in Rhodes.
Contrast the wealth of gold ornaments found in the tombs at Mycenae with
the complete absence of that metal in the palace at Tiryns. Of course
it may be urged on the other side that at Hissarlik amid the ruins of
a burnt city great treasure in gold and silver has been found, and we
must undoubtedly admit that in certain cases such as that of a city
suddenly destroyed by a fire before there was time either for the owners
to remove or the enemy to pillage the valuables therein, there is the
possibility of finding such remains. If we were to apply this negative
method consistently we must conclude that Orchomenus, which Homer called
“rich in gold,” was inhabited by men who were not yet acquainted with
that metal, and we should I believe be constrained to arrive at the same
conclusion in the case of Nineveh and Babylon. At least Sir Henry Layard
discovered scarcely a fragment of any articles of gold in the course of
his excavations on the site of those two cities, which nevertheless we
have the strongest grounds for believing were amongst the wealthiest of
those of ancient days. In dealing with the question of Northern Italy we
cannot separate it from the contiguous region of Switzerland or Helvetia.
Dr Keller, in his well-known work on the Lake-dwellings (p. 459), gives
instances where gold has been found in lake-dwellings amongst remains
that indicated the owners to have been in the bronze period. Of course it
may be said and said with truth that the lake-dwellings of Switzerland
continued to be occupied down to a time posterior to those found in
the Aemilia. But when we find that a gold ornament has been found in a
dwelling of neolithic age, we have a positive proof not simply of the
knowledge, but probably of the skill requisite to manufacture the metal.
If any upholder of the negative method urges that gold has been found
very sparingly in these lacustrine dwellings, let him remember that the
existence of one single object of gold in these remains is sufficient to
demolish all his argument. The objects found in the lakes are chiefly
débris, the offal of the house, bones of animals, which had formed the
food of the former owners, broken and disused implements, and such like.
Ornaments of gold were not likely to have been flung into the bottom of
the lake for the purpose of getting rid of them. Such precious articles
were probably handed down with great care from generation to generation,
and possibly in later days gold that once graced the neck or arms of
prehistoric men and women has reappeared time after time in the form of
coins, first the rude imitations of the staters of Philip of Macedon,
again under the form of Roman _aurei_, and perhaps even bore the impress
of some mediaeval monarch at a later time. There have been issues of
coins both in ancient and modern times of which not a single specimen
is at present known; yet if any one were to argue from this against the
truth of the documentary evidence, the spade of a peasant by turning up a
single coin might on the moment wreck all his logic. The sum of positive
knowledge which we obtain from this discussion is therefore that some
people who inhabited Switzerland in what is called the neolithic age (a
vague and often misleading phrase) were acquainted with the use of gold
ornaments. Could we but fix the inferior limits of this neolithic age, we
should at least obtain an approximate date before which gold was already
known. But it is most probable that stone, bronze and even iron long
continued to be used side by side in the same areas. The man who had no
articles to barter for bronze continued to use stone implements of his
own manufacture, whilst his more fortunate coeval used weapons made of
the superior but more costly material.
Granting now that bronze implements made their way from the Mediterranean
into the middle and north of Europe, brought most likely by traders from
the more civilized shores of the Aegean, let us ask ourselves how did the
men of the neolithic stage obtain them. Did the kindly Phoenician trader
generously bestow as free gifts these articles on the barbarians of the
West? Does the trader of today among the isles of Melanesia lavish for
mere thanks his wares upon the natives who gather round him on the beach?
In Homer those Phoenician shipmen are described by an epithet, which by
the mildest interpretation means _knaves_. The men who brought bronze got
some valuable objects in exchange for it. Such objects must be portable:
slaves, gold, silver, copper, tin, skins and furs would probably form
the main objects of barter. If we make use of the philological method
of Schrader and his school, there can be no doubt that copper was known
to the Italians before ever a Phoenician keel grated against their
shores, for the Latin _aes_ is as we said a true Aryan word. There is no
suspicion of borrowing here from the Semitic as there is in the case of
the Greek _chalkos_. In such a case as this the philological argument
has some distinct force; for whilst, as I argued, it is easy to realize
a state of things under which a native name for a particular substance
already known may give place to a foreign one, on the other hand it is
difficult to see how a people who are receiving such a substance for
the first time from foreigners, and who would therefore naturally apply
to it a term obtained from the foreigners’ language, could afterwards
replace this name by one which is found applied to the same substance by
a cognate people dwelling thousands of miles away from them. The Italians
therefore probably had copper from a very early age. But we have already
seen good reason for believing that a knowledge of gold precedes that
of copper whenever both are found in the same area. We saw that the
Scythians, who got copious store of gold from the Ural-Altai region, made
no use of copper in the fifth century before our era, although copper
is found abundantly in the same area. From this we may infer with some
probability that the Italian stock were acquainted with gold sooner than
with copper. We may apply the same argument to gold in Italy as we did to
_copper_. _Aurum_ (older _ausum_), the Latin word for gold, is plainly
not borrowed, as is perhaps the Greek _chrysos_, from the Semites. Hence
it cannot be maintained that it was only with the Phoenicians that the
knowledge of gold reached Italy.
It now only remains for us to see if the Italians had the means within
their reach of discovering gold. No one I suppose will dispute that the
Italian stock entered the peninsula from the north, driving before them
older occupants. They must then have either entered Italy by the head
of the Adriatic, coming round from the valleys of the Balkan peninsula,
or through the Alpine passes. If they came from the first quarter it is
impossible to suppose that a people in close contact with the tribes who
occupied the Balkan peninsula, and who as we have seen above must have
been acquainted with gold from a remote time, could have remained without
a knowledge of the metal. On the other hand it will be seen from the
following evidence that there was every opportunity for the discovery
of gold in the Alpine valleys. Strabo gives various notices of the gold
workings of this region. “Polybius states that in his own day in the
vicinity of Aquileia, in the territory of the Taurisci of Noricum, was
found a gold mine so productive that on clearing away the surface dirt
to a depth of two feet gold which could be dug was straightway found,
and that the pit did not exceed fifteen feet, and that part of the
gold was pure on the spot, being the size of a bean or a lupin, only
one-eighth being lost in refining, whilst some of it required a process
of smelting which, though more elaborate, was still very remunerative.
When the Italians worked them along with the barbarians for a space of
two months, straightway gold coin went down one-third in value throughout
the whole of Italy; but when the Taurisci became aware of this they
expelled their partners and held the monopoly. But now all the gold mines
are in the hands of the Romans. And there too, just as in Iberia, the
rivers in addition to the dug gold produce gold dust, but not in such
quantities[121].”
In another passage, speaking of the town of Noreia in Noricum, he says
“this district possesses productive gold-washings and iron-works[122].”
Moving on again westwards, we easily find strong evidence of active
gold-mining in the Alpine regions. All the granite strata on the southern
side of the High Alps from the Simplon to Mont Blanc are auriferous.
Not only have extensive mining operations been carried on at different
points down almost to the present day, but the mines were beyond all
doubt vigorously worked, not merely in Roman but in pre-Roman days.
In the district of La Besse, at the foot of Mont Grand on the right
bank of the Cervo between Biella and Ivrea, are still to be seen very
extensive traces of gold washings and gold diggings[123]. These are no
other than the once famous mines of Victumulae alluded to by Strabo
when, in speaking of this region, he says that “there is not now as
much attention bestowed on the mines as there used to be, because the
mines in the country of the transalpine Kelts and in Spain are more
profitable, but formerly they were well worked, since at Vercelli there
was a gold-digging. Vercelli is a village near Ictumulae which is itself
a village, and both of them are in the vicinity of Placentia[124].” So
important were these mines that Pliny[125] says there existed a Censorian
law relating to them, by which it was provided that the capitalists who
farmed the mines were not to employ more than 5000 workmen.
There are also traces of ancient gold-washings on the Cervo, on the
Evenson, a small stream which comes down from Monte Rosa, and which falls
into the Doria at Bardo, and likewise on the Doria itself from Bardo
down to its junction with the Po. This latter region was anciently the
territory of the powerful and wealthy tribe of the Salassi. The traces
I speak of are beyond doubt the remains of the gold-workings described
by Strabo. “The territory of the Salassi contains gold mines, which the
Salassi, when aforetime they were strong, kept possession of, just as
they had likewise the control of the passes (_i.e._ the Great and Little
St Bernard). The river Durias (Doria) gave them very great assistance in
their gold washing, and on this account dividing over many places the
water into many side-channels they used to empty completely the main bed
of the river.
“This was of service to them in their quest of gold, but it did harm to
the cultivators of the plains below, who were being deprived of the means
of irrigation, since the river was not able to water their land from the
others having possession of the stream in its upper course. From this
cause there were incessant wars between the two peoples. But when the
Romans got the mastery the Salassi were expelled from the gold-mines and
from their territory, but still being in possession of the mountain, they
used to sell the water to the farmers who had hired the gold-mines, and
with whom there were constant quarrels because of the grasping conduct
of the contractors[126].” This passage shows plainly that for a very
long period before the Roman Conquest the Salassi had not merely worked
the gold of their mountains, but had attained to very considerable
engineering skill in so doing. Further, in this region have been found
gold coins bearing the inscriptions _Prikou_, etc. in one of the North
Etruscan alphabets. These coins were most probably struck by the Salassi,
who were probably not Kelts, but a remnant of the ancient Rhaetian
stock[127].
Passing northwards by the Pennine Alps, the regular road in ancient days
from Italy into Switzerland, into the valley of the Rhone, the so-called
_Vallis Poenina_, the modern Canton of Valais, we come to the Helvetii,
whom Posidonius of Apamea, the famous Stoic philosopher who travelled
in Western Europe about 100-90 B.C., describes as “wealthy in gold.”
This gold was probably derived from the same Alpine region. The Helvetii
struck both silver coins in imitation of the silver coins of Massalia
with the Lion type, and gold ones after the type of Philip’s staters.
We may now pass on to Gaul Proper, many peoples of which were famous
for their wealth, especially the Arverni, who have left their name in
Auvergne, and the Tectosages, whose chief town was Tolosa (Toulouse).
The former, whose original home was on the upper waters of the Loire,
probably had no gold in their native mountains (for if they had, Strabo
would hardly have failed to mention it), but in the second century B.C.
they became the most powerful state of Central and Southern Gaul, for
“they extended their dominion even as far as Narbo (Narbonne) and the
borders of the territory of Massalia (Marseilles), and they likewise
had the control of all the tribes as far as the Pyrenees, and as far
as the Ocean and the Rhine. And it is said that Luerius, the father of
Bituitus, who fought against Maximus and Domitius (121 B.C.), came to
such a pitch of wealth and luxury that on one occasion, making a display
of his riches to his friends, he drove on a waggon through a plain
sowing broadcast gold and silver coin, while his friends followed him
gathering it up[128].” It was the Arverni who first[129] struck gold
coins in imitation of the gold staters of Philip II., a fact explained
by the passage just quoted, which shows that their empire extended up
to the frontiers of the great Greek emporium of Massalia, by which they
would be brought into immediate contact with all kinds of Greek currency;
furthermore their conquests put them in possession of those districts
where we have direct evidence of the existence of gold fields[130].
Again Strabo says: “The Tectosages adjoin the Pyrenees, and to a slight
extent they likewise touch upon the northern side of the Cevennes
(Κέμμενα), and they occupy a land rich in gold[131].” It is no doubt
with reference to the same region that Strabo, whilst describing the
Spanish gold-mines, remarks incidentally that “the Gauls advance the
claims of the mines in their country, both those in the Cevenne mountain
and at the foot of the Pyrenees, themselves[132].” Beyond doubt from
those mines came “the gold of Tolosa,” those vast treasures which were
plundered by the Roman General Caepio. They were said to have amounted
to fifteen thousand talents of unwrought gold and silver. There was a
current story that, for laying sacrilegious hands on the consecrated
treasure, misfortune dogged the steps of Caepio and his family, he
himself dying in exile and his daughters, after lives of degradation,
coming to a shameful end. This was the account given by one Timagenes,
who also stated that the treasure of Toulouse was part of the spoil taken
by the Gauls from the temple of Delphi in 279 B.C., the Tectosages as he
alleged having formed part of the invading host. This story doubtless
is due to the circumstance that one of the three tribes of Gauls who
settled in Asia Minor (the “foolish Galatians” of St Paul’s Epistle) was
called by the same name as the Tectosages of Gaul (the other two being
called Trocmi and Tolistobōgii). The treasures were partly stored in
shrines or sacred enclosures, partly deposited in the sacred lakes. There
can be little doubt that Posidonius was right (as Strabo also thought)
in considering them ancient native offerings, not spoils of war. He
put forward the good argument that at the time of the attack on Delphi
the temple there was bare of treasure, as it had been plundered by the
Phocians in the Sacred War some seventy years before, that any treasure
that remained was distributed among many, and that it was not likely that
any of the Gauls returned to their own land, since after their retreat
from Greece they broke up and were scattered into various regions. This
is confirmed by what Diodorus tells us in a remarkable chapter: “The
Kelts of the interior have a singular peculiarity with respect to the
sacred enclosures of the gods. For in the temples and sacred enclosures
consecrated in their country gold is deposited in quantities, and not one
of the natives touches it owing to superstition, although the Kelts are
excessively avaricious[133].” This passage seems to explain thoroughly
the real nature of the treasures of Tolosa; they were doubtless ancient
votive offerings under a taboo, not, as Timagenes imagined, some of
the treasure of Delphi, dedicated to appease the wrath of Apollo, with
additions from the private resources of the Tectosages themselves. In
the same chapter Diodorus says that “there is no silver at all found in
Gaul, but gold in abundance, of which the natives get supplied without
mining or hardship. The currents of the rivers, which are tortuous in
their course, beat against the banks formed by the adjacent mountains,
and bursting away considerable hills, fill them with gold dust. This the
persons who are engaged in the workings collect, and they grind or break
up the lumps which contain the gold dust. Then having washed away the
earthy part with water, they transfer the gold to furnaces for smelting.
In this fashion heaping up quantities of gold, not only the women but
likewise the men employ it for adornment. For they wear bracelets round
their wrists and arms, and thick torques of solid gold round their necks
and rings of remarkable size, and moreover breastplates of gold.” The
statement regarding silver is not accurate, as the more careful and
trustworthy Strabo mentions silver mines in various places in Gaul.
Finally, in the land of the Tarbelli, an Iberian tribe of Aquitania,
who dwelt in the extreme south-west corner of Aquitania on the shore of
the Bay of Biscay, there were extremely productive gold-mines. “For in
spots dug only to a shallow depth are found plates of gold that sometimes
require little refining, and the rest consists of dust and nuggets which
involve but little working[134].”
I have purposely gone somewhat minutely into the gold-fields of ancient
Gaul, and the story of the sacred treasures. For I think that no one who
considers carefully the statements of Posidonius, Strabo, and Diodorus,
can help regarding as wholly inaccurate the conclusion of Schrader, based
on the Irish word _or_, that the Keltic peoples were not acquainted
with gold until the fourth century B.C. The sacred treasures point to a
ceremonial consecration of gold extending back through untold ages.
[Illustration: FIG. 14. ANCIENT BRITISH COINS.
A. Coin of Iceni.
B. Common type with plain obverse[135].]
It must also be borne in mind that in the treasure of Tolosa there was
a good proportion of silver which probably came from the silver mines
mentioned by Strabo[136] as existing in the land of the Ruteni and
Gabales (Γαβάλεις), two peoples of Aquitania, whose names are represented
by the modern _Rovergue_ and _Gevaudan_. As the working of silver is
so much later than that of gold, it is impossible to believe that if
the Gauls in Italy only learnt the use of gold in the 4th century B.C.
we should find consecrated treasures of silver, evidently of ancient
date, at Tolosa in the time of Servilius Caepio. It is also important
to observe that it is among the Iberians of Aquitania, not the Kelts,
that we find silver mines being worked. The former people were entirely
free from Roman influence, and we shall see shortly that there is the
strongest evidence for believing that the Iberians south of the Pyrenees
were acquainted not merely with gold but with silver, centuries before
ever Brennus stood in the Roman Forum. But before we cross the Pyrenees,
we shall conclude our survey of the ancient gold fields of Europe in the
north-west by glancing briefly at Britain. When Julius Caesar invaded
the island he found the natives using gold not simply as ornaments, but
in the shape of coins, for he says, “They have great numbers of cattle,
they use for money either bronze, or coins of gold, or rods of iron of
a fixed standard of weight. Tin is produced there in the inland, iron
in the coast districts, but the supply of the latter is scanty; the
copper which they use is imported[137].” Caesar’s statement is fully
confirmed by the existence of ancient British coins, chiefly in gold
and copper; although silver coins are likewise found, they are for the
most part imitations of the types of Roman denarii, whilst the gold are
the descendants of the Philippus, from which the Gauls got their chief
gold type. All the Britains did not employ coins, but only the Belgic
tribes in the south and east, who had crossed over at a comparatively
late period. About a century before our era a king of the Suessiones
(_Soissons_) by name Divitiacus ruled over all Northern France and a
large part of Britain[138]. Coins similar in type and weight are found
on both sides of the Channel, indeed the French numismatists claim them
as struck in Gaul, whilst their English brethren have maintained that
they are of British origin. Those found in Kent are regarded by Dr Evans,
in his _Coins of the Ancient Britons_, as the prototypes of the whole
British series. Hence we may infer that the Belgic invaders brought the
Philippus type of coin into Britain, as it is most probable that the time
when the same coins were in circulation on both sides of the Straits of
Dover corresponds with the period when Divitiacus held sway on both sides
of the sea[139]. Strabo substantiates Caesar’s account; “It (Britain)
produces wheat and cattle, and gold and silver and iron. These are
exported from it, also hides and slaves and good hunting dogs. But the
Kelts employ even for their wars these, and their own native dogs[140].”
There can therefore be no doubt that gold was found in Britain although
we are not told in what particular part. Gold is still found in Wales
and in several parts of Scotland, although not in sufficient quantity to
be worth working. Two observations remain to be made on the statements
of Caesar and Strabo. Caesar tells us definitely that whilst they used
copper as money, they had to import that metal. He omits all mention of
silver, whilst Strabo, writing half-a-century later, speaks of it as a
British product. I have remarked already that the silver coins of the
Britons are all late, and exhibit as a rule Roman influence. It would
therefore seem as if the working of silver had developed some time after
Caesar’s invasions. Thus once more we have an instance of gold in full
use long before silver. But what is still more important, though the
Britons are in the bronze period and are actually using copper money,
they have to import that metal, although copper is actually found native
in Cornwall. It still remained undiscovered in Strabo’s time to judge by
his silence, but as he is equally silent about tin, which was known long
before, we cannot press the argument _ex silentio_. However, it is of
great importance to find a people who possess gold and copper in a native
state, already working the gold long before they have even discovered
the copper. This is completely in harmony with what we have already seen
in the case of the Scythians and Arabs of the Red Sea coasts. At a later
stage we shall have to notice the rods or bars of iron used as currency
by the Britons in connection with a similar practice elsewhere.
The writers of the classical age have left us no information respecting
Ireland save that the people practised polyandry, and ate each
other[141]. Nevertheless there is abundant evidence to show that there
were large deposits of gold on the east side of Ireland, in the Wicklow
Mountains, and that the natives from a very early period wrought it into
ornaments of various kinds. The vast quantity of gold ornaments to be
seen in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy is a proof of its abundance.
We shall now return to Aquitania and the Bay of Biscay, from which we
digressed to Britain, and coming into Northern Spain enter that region
which was to the Greek of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. what the
Spanish Main was to the Europeans of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. It seems beyond doubt that when the Phoenicians first reached
the Spanish coasts the natives were fully acquainted with both gold and
silver. Tradition told how the Phoenicians found the native Iberians
feeding their horses from mangers made of silver, and that after having
filled every available portion of their ship with freight of treasure,
they replaced their anchors by others made of silver. Colaeus of Samos
in the eighth century B.C. had been the first of all Greeks to reach
Tartessus, the Tarshish of Holy writ, having been carried away by a
storm when on a voyage to Egypt, and driven right through the Straits of
Gibraltar, “under some guiding providence,” says Herodotus[142]: “for
this trading town was in those days a virgin port” (_i.e._ unfrequented
by merchants). “The Samians in consequence made a profit by their return
freight, a profit greater than any Greeks had ever made before, except
Sostratus, son of Laodamas, of Egina, with whom no one else can compare.”
From the tenth part of their gains, amounting to six talents, the Samians
made a brazen vessel. At a later period the Phocaeans made great profit
by trade with Iberia, which at that time meant East Spain as opposed to
Tartessus, as well as with the Tartessians. The king of this people, by
name Arganthonius, who reigned over them for eighty years, and attained
to the patriarchal age of one hundred and twenty, became such a friend of
the Phocaeans that he invited them to settle in his land, perhaps through
motives of policy, wishing to have their support against the Phoenicians
of Gadeira, or Gades (_Cadiz_), the most ancient of all the daughter
cities of Tyre. When he did not succeed in persuading the Phocaeans,
afterwards having learned from them of the great growth of the power of
the Medes, he gave them treasure to enable them to fortify their city
with the strong wall by means of which they were to withstand Harpagus,
the general of Cyrus, until they launched their ships, and embarked their
wives and children, with that firm resolution to be free, which has made
their name memorable through the ages[143].
The evidence of these passages is sufficient to show that already in
the seventh century B.C., not simply the gold, but likewise the silver,
of the Spanish peninsula was known to and wrought by the Iberians, the
oldest race of whom written history affords any traces in the west of
Europe.
We shall now deal with the actual localities and mines described for us
by the ancient writers. Strabo once more is our chief helper: he seems
as usual for all statements about the mines of the west to have drawn
his information chiefly from Posidonius, although he likewise makes use
of Polybius and others. “Posidonius averred that in the country of the
Artabri, who are the most remote people in Lusitania towards the north
and west [occupying the present province of Galicia], the earth crops
out in silver, tin and white gold (for the gold is mixed with silver),
and that the rivers carry down this earth, and that the women scrape
it up with hoes and wash it in sieves into a box[144].” Here we have a
description of the method employed by the natives in the remote regions
of the north-west of Spain about 100 B.C., before Roman influences had
time to affect them, and we may not unreasonably infer from it that the
same process was universal amongst the Iberians and Celtiberians of Spain.
In his general description of Spain Strabo declares that nowhere in the
world down to his day was such plenty of gold, silver, copper and iron
to be found as in Turdetania, the district named after the Turdetani,
one of the two great tribes into which the Turti were divided [from the
name of Turti it is probable that Tartessus, the Greek name for this
region, as also for the Baetis (_Guadalquivir_), and also the Phoenician
_Tarshish_ were formed]. “Not merely is the gold got by mining but it
is swept up. The rivers and torrents carry down the golden sand, which
in many localities is likewise to be found in places where there is no
water, but there it is invisible, but in those that water flows over the
gold dust gleams out. And flushing with water that has to be fetched the
arid spots, they make the gold dust glitter, and by digging wells and by
devising other means they get out the gold by washing the sand, and what
are called gold washings are now more numerous than the gold diggings.
But they say that in the gold dust are found nuggets sometimes even
half a pound in weight (βὼλους ἡμιλιτριαίας) which they term _palae_,
which need but little refining, and they say likewise that when stones
are split little nuggets like teats are discovered, and when the gold
is refined and purified with a kind of earth which contains alum and
vitriol, the residuum is electrum. When this residuum, which consists
of a mixture of gold and silver, is again refined, the silver is burnt
away and the gold remains. But the gold is very fusible, and on this
account it is melted with chaff rather than with coal, because the flame
being gentle acts moderately upon a metal which is yielding and easily
fused, whereas the charcoal causes excessive waste by melting it too
much by its violence, and detracting from it. In the river-beds the
sand is swept up and then washed in troughs beside the river; or else a
well is dug, and the earth that is brought up out of it is washed. They
make the furnaces for the silver high, that the smoke from the ore may
be carried up into the air: for it is noisome and pestilential[145].”
Then he adds that “some of the copper works are called gold mines, from
which people infer that gold was formerly dug from them. Posidonius, when
praising the number and excellence of the mines, refrains from none of
his wonted rhetoric, but warms up with hyperboles, for he says he cannot
doubt the truth of the story that once on a time when the woods caught
fire, the earth having been melted, inasmuch as it was permeated with
silver and gold, boiled out on to the surface over the whole mountain,
and that a whole hill was a mass of money heaped up by the bounteous
hand of fortune. And to speak generally (he says) any one who saw these
regions would say that they were Nature’s perennial store chambers or
Sovereignty’s inexhaustible treasure house. For not merely the surface
but the under-soil is rich (πλουσία—ὑπόπλουτος), and with those people
it is not Hades who dwells in the region beneath the earth, but Pluto
(Πλούτων). So spake he in a fine figure as though he himself too were
drawing from a mine his diction in copious store. There was a saying
of Phalereus in reference to the eagerness of the miners of Laurium in
Attica, that they dug as continuously and earnestly as if they expected
to drag up Pluto himself. This saying Posidonius quotes anent the energy
and vigour of those who worked the Spanish mines, for they cut deep and
winding galleries, and by means of ‘Egyptian pumps’ combated the springs
which burst into the workings[146].”
So rich were the silver mines of New Carthage (_Cartagena_) that in the
time of Polybius (140 B.C.) 40,000 men were employed in working them for
the Roman State, and the daily out-put was reckoned at 25,000 drachms, or
roughly speaking about 3,000 ounces Troy.
Diodorus Siculus[147] gives an account of mines and mining in Spain,
which, as it is clearly derived from the same passage of Posidonius
as the account of Strabo, is worth quoting, especially as it gives
probably _in extenso_ what Strabo has summarized. For although it more
particularly refers to the discovery of silver mines, yet it is very
relevant to our subject, since silver invariably is later in point of
discovery than gold; thus if we can fix at an early period an inferior
limit for the knowledge of silver in Spain, we may with confidence fix
the inferior limit for the knowledge of gold at a still earlier epoch.
Diodorus has been describing the range of the Pyrenees, which like all
the early geographers he represents as running north and south, and thus
proceeds: “Since there are on them (the Pyrenees) many forests dense
with trees, they say that in ancient times the whole mountain region
was completely burned by some shepherds having cast away a firebrand.
Then since the fire kept burning on for many days continuously, the
surface of the earth was burned and the mountains from the circumstance
were called Pyrenaean (Πυρηναῖα, _scorched_), and the surface of the
burnt region flowed with much silver, and since the natural ore had
been smelted, there ensued many lava-like streams of pure silver. But
inasmuch as the natives did not understand the use of it, the Phoenicians
trading with them, and having learned about the occurrence, bought the
silver for some small return in other wares; accordingly the Phoenicians
by conveying it to Greece and to Asia and all the rest of the world
acquired great wealth. And so covetous were the merchants that though
their ships were fully freighted, when much silver still remained over
they cut out the lead that was in their anchors and replaced it with
silver. The Phoenicians by means of such trade increased greatly and sent
out many colonies, some to Sicily and the adjacent islands, others to
Libya, others again to Sardinia and Spain. But many years afterwards the
Spaniards, having become acquainted with the peculiarities of silver,
started remarkable mines. Wherefore as they prepared very excellent
silver in very great quantities they used to get great revenues.”
Diodorus then gives a detailed account of the working of the shafts
and winding galleries which followed the course of the veins of gold
and silver, the difficulties caused by the bursting in of springs and
subterranean streams, and the ways in which the miners overcame this
latter obstruction by means of the Egyptian pumps. But Diodorus, as a
patriotic Sicilian, takes care to tell his reader that this pump was
invented by Archimedes, the famous mathematician of Syracuse, when, in
the course of his travels, he paid a visit to Egypt. Finally, he gives a
short but graphic picture of the sufferings of the wretched slaves who
were bought wholesale by the mine owners and endured incredible miseries
until death, the only friend they had to look to, came to end their
sufferings. Strabo, the stoic, is silent on this point, which here, as in
Egypt, so strongly moved the heart of Diodorus.
The story of the discovery of silver by the burning of the woods at first
savours of the mythical, but there is really good reason for believing
that there is in it a solid nucleus of truth. Tin was unknown in Sumatra
until in 1710[148] it was discovered by the accidental burning down of a
house (an incident which recalls Charles Lamb’s delightful account of the
discovery of Roast Pig). It is highly probable that it was owing to some
such accident that men first became acquainted with silver, as that metal
is rarely if ever found native. It may well be therefore that mankind has
learned the art of smelting metalliferous ore from observing the results
of some such conflagration as that described by Posidonius.
Finally, we shall turn to Pliny the Elder for a moment. That industrious
collector has given us a minute account of the various methods of
mining carried on in Spain in his time, but as that is beside our
present purpose I shall only quote a short passage, in which we get
some interesting technical expressions relating to gold-mining. After
detailing the method of washing soil containing gold by bringing streams
of water to bear on it, just as we found the Salassi doing in the
valley of the Doria, by which process he says 20,000 lbs. of gold were
annually obtained in Asturia, Gallaecia, and Lusitania, he proceeds:
“Gold obtained by shafting (_arrugia_) does not require refining, but
is straightway pure. Nuggets of it are found in this way; likewise in
pits nuggets are found exceeding ten pounds each. The Spaniards call
them _palacrae_, others _palacranae_. The same people term the gold
dust _balux_[149].” Here then we have an interesting group of technical
terms, _arrugia_, _palacra_ or _palacrana_ and _balux_. The latter forms
at once remind us of Strabo’s _palae_ (πάλαι), and we can have little
doubt that _palacra_ and _pala_ are simply dialectic variants, just
as _palacrana_ evidently was considered by Pliny to be a bye-form of
_palacra_. Corssen has sought to find a Latin etymology for _arrugia_,
connecting it with _runco_, _ruga_, but it is hardly possible to regard
it as otherwise than Spanish, especially as this appears to be the only
place where it is found. _Balux_ (also _baluca_) is undoubtedly a native
Iberian term. On Schrader’s principles we might at once argue that as
the technical words for gold-mining and for the different kinds of gold
are native Spanish words, it is beyond doubt that the Spaniards were
acquainted with gold and knew the art of working it before any foreign
traders brought that metal to them. Without dogmatizing in this fashion
and keeping to our more cautious principles we may say that the evidence
of those words is strongly in favour of such a conclusion, unless a
Semitic origin be sought for those terms, which is highly improbable. For
we know beyond doubt that the Spanish mines were worked for centuries
before ever a Roman soldier passed the Ebro. Unless then the technical
terms were introduced by the Greeks (which they were not, as Strabo
considers _pala_ a native word) or by the Phoenicians, they are ancient
Iberic terms connected with gold from its first discovery. We saw that
in the Red Sea the first form in which gold was utilized by the Arabs
was that of nuggets used as rude beads. The _palae_ of the Iberians may
represent the same period of development as well as the same kind of
gold. From the traditions given us by the ancient writers there can be
little doubt that the art of mining silver was of extremely ancient date
in Spain. The founding of Gadeira (Cadiz) is placed at 1100 B.C. and
the tradition of Posidonius regards the Phoenician colonies in the west
as long posterior to their trading for silver with the rude natives. If
this tradition could be relied on, silver must have been known to the
Spaniards in the twelfth century B.C. And there is no reason to doubt the
story. At Mycenae gold and silver were found along with Baltic amber. The
two former prove that amongst the civilized races around the Aegean the
precious metals were abundantly used, the latter that the trade routes
across Europe from the Baltic and North Sea to the Adriatic were already
in use. Accordingly there is no improbability in the supposition that in
the twelfth century B.C. the shipmen of Tyre traded for silver to North
Eastern Spain as well as to Northern Italy for amber. If the knowledge of
silver came so early in Spain, much earlier must that of gold have been.
Let us now take a general survey of the region over which we have
travelled. In the far east we had both the literary evidence of the Rig
Veda and the evidence of the traditions and legends handed down by the
historians to show that well back in the second millennium B.C. the gold
deposits of Thibet were known and worked. Silver is as yet unknown to
the people of the Rig Veda. Again in the region of the Altai and Oural
mountains, the tale of the “Arimaspian pursued by a griffin” pointed
to great antiquity for gold-mining in this district; the barbarous
Massagetae[150], who occupied the modern Mongolia and Sangaria, were
rich in gold; and to the west the Scythians, who used neither silver nor
copper, had abundant store of gold. These tribes stretched right across
Russia until they touched on the west the Getae and the other tribes of
the great Thracian stock. Gold must early have been known throughout all
Thrace. Greek tradition and history unite in demonstrating the great
antiquity of the first Phoenician gold-seeking in Thasos and on the
mainland. The evidence in Greece itself puts it beyond doubt that gold
was in use 1500 years B.C. The Balkan Peninsula was occupied on the
north-west by Illyrian tribes, some of whom, like the Dardani, dwelt
interspersed among the Thracian clans. The Illyrians inhabited all the
northern end of the Adriatic, and originally much of the east side of
all Italy, although under the pressure of the Umbrians and Kelts they
had been almost completely crushed out of the Italian Peninsula, only
maintaining themselves in the extreme southeast where the Messapians
remained independent of both Italian and Greek alike. The Keltic tribes
were their neighbours in Noricum, where they had succeeded the ancient
Rhaetian stock, the survivors of which, like the Salassi, had managed
to maintain themselves in the fastnesses of the Alps. We found strong
evidence that these Rhaetians must long have known the art of working
gold, for they had devised elaborate pieces of engineering work for the
purpose of developing their gold fields; added to this was the fact that
gold as an ornament seems to have been used by the inhabitants of the
Swiss lake dwellings in the neolithic age. The Kelts must have been in
contact with this people for a considerable time before they ever invaded
Italy; again in Spain we found every token of great antiquity in the
working of gold and silver. Again, before they invaded Italy, the Kelts
must have been long in contact with the Iberians of what in later days
was Aquitania, for the Keltic conquest of Northern Spain can hardly be
placed later than in the fifth century B.C., and it is most probable that
that conquest only took place after long and stubborn struggles. The
Kelts too in Southern Gaul must have come in contact with the Ligyes (or
Ligurians), whose territory at one time extended from the Iberus (Ebro)
along the coast of the Mediterranean to the frontiers of Etruria. The
Ligurians had been in touch with the Iberians on their western border;
in fact the two races had blended to a considerable degree, and since
they had also had communication with Etruscans, Phoenicians and Greeks
(with the last from at least 600 B.C., when Massilia was founded in
their country), it is impossible to suppose that this people could have
remained ignorant of the use of gold. The Kelts thus at every point along
their southern front, as they advanced, must have been for centuries in
full knowledge of gold before they ever entered Rome. Add to this the
fact that when they entered Italy they appear to have brought nothing
but their gold ornaments and their cattle, and that in Gaul it had been
the habit to dedicate great piles of the precious metal in the sacred
precincts of their divinities.