Roman Gold Coin – Augustus Aureus. Source Sacra-moneta.com - Photo Numismatica Ars Classica

The Roman Empire was obsessed by gold. This precious metal formed the basis of the Roman economy.  As Rome didn’t have any surplus crops and did not manufacture goods, gold was transformed into money and used for trading.  To ensure a constant supply, Roman legions, who were paid in gold, took control of the richest countries in the ancient world.

In an Empire as powerful as the Roman Empire, the most important things were the struggle for power, spreading wealth, buying goods and financing armies.  The Roman Empire was very different from the Egyptian empire which probably didn’t have a large army.  The Romans had to finance a very large empire.

In 25AD, the Emperor Augustus and around seventy thousand men left Rome determined to find a new source of wealth.  The most profitable mines were located in the Asturias in the North West of Spain, one of the last territories to fall under the power of the Roman Empire.

Three months later, the final battle took place in amongst the mist on a mountain called Las Medulas.  What happened next constitutes one of the greatest and the most ingenious technical feats in history.  The Roman historian Pline called it the ruina montium – the destruction of a mountain.

Ten thousand Asturian prisoners were forced to dig a complex labyrinth of interconnecting tunnels.  The work was exhausting and very dangerous.  When a boulder blocked the way a fire was lit to break it.  It was then bathed in an acid bath of vinegar to erode it.  In stifling heat and suffocating smoke, miners broke the rock and took it away.

There was a well prepared plan behind this cruelty.  The tunnels, some of which were hundreds of meters long, were in fact designed to weaken the mountain.  The secret of the operation however, was water.

The Romans built and put together a system of canals and aqueducts covering more than three hundred kilometres.  Water then poured into a reservoir 280 metres below the summit of Las Médulas.  When the reservoir was full a signal was given, the doors of the reservoir were opened and deluge of water carried away everything in its path.

This showed  the Roman’s great knowledge in hydrodynamics which was several centuries ahead of their time, the water ran through the tunnels designed to accelerate the speed of the water and the walls then collapsed.  Soon the earth shook.  One by one the underground tunnels sank according to a premeditated scenario which buried many slaves who were unable to escape.  The debris then poured through channels covered with woven twigs separating the gold from the water.

Rome destroyed the mountains of North West Spain to a level beyond comparison until modern times.  Each summit is a monument to Rome’s greed.  Channels such as these are vaulted to withstand the violent water pressure.  At the time they were operating, they could carry more than 200 million litres of water per day.  For more than two hundred years they transported billions of tons of earth and extracted more than 30 million ounces of gold for an estimated value of 12 billion dollars today. gold fo they transported billions of tons of earth and extracted ore theeditated scenario which buried many

The prosperity of Rome lasted some time, but during the third century BC, Las Médulas was mysteriously neglected.  In Rome, times had changed and the Empire crumbled.  But since the Church had founded Saint Peter’s in Rome, a new influence, Christianity, would soon spread throughout Europe.  A religion that was full of signs and symbols, Saints and miracles.  The most sacred Christian relics were covered in gold.

Tags: Gold, Money

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