Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece. Vol III., by J.A. St. John

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.

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]

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]

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.

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]

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

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.

865. Plut. Philop. § 8.

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.

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.

869. Herod. ix. 70. v. 49.

870. Il. σ. 565. φ. 592. ψ. 561.

871. Beckmann, History of Inventions, iv. 13.

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

874. Odyss. ι. 391.

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

876. Plut. Lycurgus, § 9.

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

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

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

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.

881. Plin. xxxiv. 41.

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

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

884. Plin. xxxiv. 41.

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

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

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.

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

890. Schol. Aristoph. Lysist. 231.

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

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.

894. Goguet. i. 165.

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.

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.

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

898. Winkel. Hist. del’ Art. i. 34.

899. Diog. Laert. vi. 2. 65.

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

901. Eustath. ad Odyss. δ. 150. 16.

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

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.

904. Demosth. in Aphob. § 4. 8.

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

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

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

909. Poll. i. 136. x. 143.

910. Sibthorp. Flora Græca, tab. 4.

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

912. Poll. i. 136. x. 143.

913. Herod. vii. 69.

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.

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

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.

917. Herod. vii. 69.

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

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

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

922. Herod. ix. 21. i. 15.

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.

925. Plut. Demet. § 21.

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

927. Goguet, Orig. des Loix, iv. 322.

928. Herod. vii. 75.

929. Plut. Alex. 32.

930. Herod. vii. 84.

931. Plut. Alex. § 32.

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.

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

934. Plut. Pyrrh. § 11.

935. Herod. vii. 76.

936. Brunck. not. in Aristoph. Acharn. 439.

937. Herod. vii. 77. 79. 89.

939. Poll. i. 148, seq.

940. Cf. Herod. vii. 89.

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

942. Cf. Paus. ix. 26. 8.

943. Etym. Mag. 288. 48.

944. Paus. i. 21. 6.

945. Cf. Herod. ii. 182.

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

947. Poll. ii. 162. 167.

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

949. Constant. Lexic. v. χειρίδες.

950. Poll. i. 148, seq.

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

952. Herod. vii. 79.

955. Winkel. Hist. de l’Art, i. 276.

956. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 548.

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

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

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

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.

961. Schol. Aristoph. Vesp. 18.

962. Petit. de Amazon. xxv. 169.

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.

964. Sch. Aristoph. Eq. 846. 855.

965. Sch. Aristoph. Acharn. 548.

966. Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 439.

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

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

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

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

971. Theoph. de Lapid. § 52.

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

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.

974. “Times,” March 24, 1841.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

981. Cf. Diod. Sicul. iii. 13.

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.

983. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 21.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.