A little farther, and still passing among mine-banks and hillocks of scoriae, he beholds upon Cape Colonna the fourteen existent columns of the temple of Minerva Sunias.

In this country, to which the old name is still attached [34], is to be found a principal cause of the renown and the reverses of Athens--of the victory of Salamis--of the expedition to Sicily.
It appears that the silver-mines of Laurion had been worked from a very remote period--beyond even any traditional date.

But as it is well and unanswerably remarked, "the scarcity of silver in the time of Solon proves that no systematic or artificial process of mining could at that time have been established." [35] It was, probably, during the energetic and politic rule of the dynasty of Pisistratus that efficient means were adopted to derive adequate advantage from so fertile a source of national wealth.

And when, subsequently, Athens, profiting from the lessons of her tyrants, allowed the genius of her free people to administer the state, fresh necessity was created for wealth against the hostility of Sparta--fresh impetus given to general industry and public enterprise.

Accordingly, we find that shortly after the battle of Marathon, the yearly profits of the mines were immense.