ABSTRACT
DURING the first part of her history, until the Punic wars, Rome exploited her metal deposits but little. The successive conquests of the third and of the second and first centuries brought her provinces in which mines were numerous and in which it was only necessary to resume operations which had been begun long before. The countries of the Mediterranean which had not yet exhausted their veins of precious or base metal, and above all Spain and Macedonia, were naturally a tempting bait for the cupidity of the publicans. Every army which set forth on a campaign —whether against Mithridates or against Gaul—was accompanied by prospectors who, at the risk of their lives, sought for traces of gold and silver and who succeeded, thanks to prolonged effort, in becoming highly skilled, their marvellous intuition compensating for the deficiency of scientific knowledge.
