fcribed with its fplendid ornaments by his biographer Philoftratus. From this city, poffeffed of one of the moft fpacious havens in the world, the Phoenicians foon commenced with the people of that country, which abounded in mines of gold and filver, an immense traffic for thofe precious metals. These were again exported to India, which then, as now, probably fwallowed up, as in a bottomlefs gulph, the bullion of Europe, and, in return, they received the filk of Serinda, and the fine linen and rich gems of the peninfula. The reader who adverts folely to the prefent afpect of Spain, and the indolent character of the people, will be rather furprised to read this account of the immenfe riches formerly dug from the bowels of that country, and the commercial exertions of the ancient inhabitants. But, in reality, no fact in hiftory can be better proved, than that mines, fcarcely lefs productive of gold and filver than thofe of Peru and Potofi, which are now the object of laborious research, were in these early periods worked, as well those fituated in the Montes Mariani, in Andalufia, mountains that skirt the territory of Seville, and now called Sierra Morena, as thofe of Corduba, now Cordova, a region fo fertile in golden སྙི ་ སྐ golden ore, as to be called by Silius Italicus, who was a native of this country, Aurifera Terra, the land that bore gold. Of this abundant wealth of the ancient Iberians, evidence may be found in the early hiftorical pages of all the great empires of the world, that carried on any commerce with them; and, in particular, we are informed by a Greek writer of great and merited celebrity, that, when the Phoenicians firft came among them, they found the inhabitants wallowing in gold and filver, and fo willing to part with their riches, from their ignorance of the value of those precious metals, that they exchanged their naval commodities for fuch an immenfe weight of them, that their fhips could fcarcely fuftain the loads which they brought away, though they ufed it for ballaft, and made their anchors and other implements of silver†. It is afferted, though perhaps with fome degree of exaggeration, by Diodorus Siculus, that when the Pyrenæan mountains, fo called from the fact about to be related, were, in remote periods, on fire, owing to the incaus tious or criminal conduct of fome shepherds, *Silius Italicus, lib. iii. verse 401. + See Ariftotle De Mirabilibus Aufcult. Opera, vol. i. p. 1165. See Did. Sic. lib. v. p. 358. PA in in kindling a fire too near one of its forefts, the flames burnt with fuch fiercenefs for many days, that it spread itself almoft over the whole ridge, and that the intenseness of the heat melted the filver in the mines, and caufed it to run down in rivulets along those hills. Again we are informed by the fame respectable Roman writer, cited fo often before,* that when the Carthaginians, the next in order of the fucceffive invaders of Spain, first came thither, they found filver in fuch amazing plenty, that their utenfils, even their very mangers, were made of it, and their horfes fhod with it. And Pliny mentions feveral rich mines of filver dug there by the Carthaginians, one of which called Bebel, from the finder of it, yielded Hannibal three hundred pounds of filver per day.† The excellent hiftorian Livy,‡ alfo acquaints us, that Scipio, upon his return to Rome, carried with him fourteen thoufand three hundred and forty-two pounds of filver, befides an immenfe quantity of coin, clothes, corn, arms, and other valuable things. L. Strabo, lib. iii. p. 256. Liv. lib. i. ii. and iii. Lentulus Lentulus is faid to have brought away a still much larger treafure; to wit, forty-four thousand pounds of filver, and two thousand five hundred and fifty of gold, befides the money which he divided among his foldiery. L. Manlius brought with him twelve hundred pounds of filver, and about thirty of gold. Corn. Lentulus, after having governed the Hither Spain two years, brought away one thousand five hundred and fifteen pounds of gold, and of filver two thousand, besides thirty-four thousand five hundred and fifty denarii in ready coin; whilft his colleague brought from Farther Spain fifty thousand pounds of filver. What is still more surprising, is, that these immenfe fums, amounting in all to one hundred and eleven thousand five hundred and forty-two pounds weight of filver, four thoufand and ninety-five of gold, besides coin and other things of value, were obtained from that country in the fhort space of nine years; for juft fo much time elapfed between the first and the laft of thefe Roman prætors; and not long after they had been as feverely pillaged, in all probability, by the Carthaginians, The The Phoenicians having established themfelves, as well as the religious rites of their country, at the great commercial port of Gades, or Cades, were not long in making themselves mafters of other places on the rich Iberian coaft, equally convenient for carrying on that traffic for which they were fo celebrated. The principal of these was Tarteffus, fituated ftill farther weft, and the capital of an ifland of the fame name, formed by the two ftreams by which the Bætis anciently emptied itself into the fea, though one of them has been fince ftopped up. To thefe two grand emporia were brought down that river the gold, filver, and other valuable productions of Bætica, the modern Andalufia, to be conveyed thence, in Phoenician bottoms, (to ufe a modern maritime phrase,) to those countries of the eaft, Perfia, Affyria, India, and Egypt, the magnificence, luxury, and military enterprizes, of whofe fovereigns rendered conftant fupplies of thofe precious commodities neceffary to them. Their own country itself produced many articles of fuperior elegance, very eagerly fought after by those oftentatious and effeminate nations of Afia. Among these the principal |