Metallum
（μέταλλον). In Greek, a mine; in Latin, either a mine or a metal.It is the purpose of this article to give a brief list of the metals known and used in antiquity, and of the working of mines.
I. Metals.
（a) Gold. See Aurum.
（b) Silver. See Argentum.
（c) Copper. See Aes.
（d) Brass. See Orichalcum.
（e) Electrum or gold alloyed with silver; “white gold.” See Electrum.
（f) Iron (σίδηρος, ferrum). Iron is one of the latest metals to come into use owing to the difficulty of working it (Hesiod, 150); but it had begun to be employed in the Homeric Age ( Il. xviii. 34) for swords and also for ploughshares, though bronze was much commoner. In Hesiod's Shield of Heracles hot iron is plunged into water to harden it. By the time of Croesus (i. e. the sixth century B.C.) iron had supplanted bronze for weapons (Herod.i. 67; Pausan. iii. 3, 6). Pliny (Pliny H. N. xiv. 139) implies that the Romans used iron in the time of Porsena; and in the early Gallic invasions the Roman weapons of iron were a source of superiority over the Gauls, whose weapons were easily bent. Later, in the first century B.C., the Cimbri who invaded Italy had swords, javelins, and even corselets of iron, according to Plutarch. In Greece, Cyprus and the cities of Chalcis and Lacedæmon were celebrated for their iron ware; but external nations like the Chalybes of Pontus surpassed the best work of the Hellenic smiths (Xen. Anab. v. 5, 1). Iron was sometimes used in art, as we learn that Aecon made an iron statue of Heracles. The people of Sparta (q.v.) and of Byzantium used iron in their coinage (Pollux, ix. 78).
（g) Lead (μόλυβδος, plumbum nigrum). Being easy to work, lead was much employed in ancient times, especially for coffins, water-pipes, etc. It was recognized also in ancient medicine. See Pliny, H. N. xxxiv. 156 foll., for a full account.
（h) Tin (κασσίτερος, plumbum album). Tin was very widely used and is found employed in the Homeric Age in the adornment of arms. Herodotus (iii. 115) speaks of it as produced in the islands of the Western Sea, the Cassiterides, perhaps the Scilly Isles (see Cassiterides); Diodorus mentions the coast of Britain as its source; while Pliny (Pliny H. N. xxxiv. 156) says that it came from Spain. It is probable that the Phœnicians were the principal purveyors and importers of it. The name κασσίτερος suggests the Sanskrit kastIra, so that it may first of all have been brought from India.
(i) Stannum, an alloy of silver with lead, used for plating bronze (Pliny , Pliny H. N. xxxiv. 159).
（j) Mercury or quicksilver (ὑδράργυρος, argentum vivum) was produced by the ancients from cinnabar and used in gold-mining (Pliny , Pliny H. N. xxxiii. 97).
（k) Zinc. Zinc is not specifically mentioned in the ancient writings, but was known to the Romans at any rate, for an analysis of Roman coins shows its presence to a considerable extent (Mommsen, Römisches Münzwesen, p. 763).
（l) Nickel, a metal also not named, but found in the coins of some of the Greek kings of India in the third century B.C. (Numismatic Chronicle for 1868, p. 305).
II. Mining. Information regarding the ancient mines is scanty, the chief authorities dealing only with the lead and silver mines of Attica and the gold and silver mines of Spain. The most satisfactory source is Xenophon's treatise De Vectigalibus (iv. 2), which deals with the Attic mines. The mines had shafts and adits. The ores were smelted with charcoal (ἄνθρακες). Fuller explanations regarding the Roman mines are given by Pliny (Pliny H. N. xxxiii.), Diodorus Siculus (v. 36), and Strabo (iii. pp. 146 foll.). Shafts, galleries, pumps, cross-drains, etc., were elaborate and scientific. In Spain gold was obtained in large quantities by washing, as in modern placer mining; while gold found in nuggets was refined by being first treated with an astringent and afterwards by heat.
In Greece the mines were the property of the State, which leased them for various terms, but only to citizens and ἰσοτελεῖς. The labour was performed by slaves. Under the Roman Republic mines were private property, but under the Empire were worked for the emperor and yielded a considerable revenue to the fiscus. (See Fiscus.). The workmen were usually slaves, criminals, or soldiers.
See the essay by Boeckh given as an appendix to his Public Economy of Athens; Lenz, Mineralogie der alten Griechen und Römer (1861); Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, ii. 252 foll.; and the article Vectigalia.