During the Pax Romana (27 B.C.E. to 180 C.E.) prosperity increased among the general populace in the Roman Empire. This led to silver for coinage being smelted from its ore (galena) on a vast scale. Smelting galena releases the lead as a vapour: for every gram of silver produced this way, roughly 10 kg of lead is released into the environment.

Ancient Romans are already known to have used lead in a big way: from plumbing (as the Victorians did) to lead compounds such as white lead (lead carbonate) used in cosmetics and lead acetate used as a sweetener in wines etc. So every Roman citizen carried the burden of a heavy sub-lethal dose of lead throughout their lives, inevitably lowering their lifespan and cognition. But according to a recent paper in Science magazine, the toxic lead pollution from silver production may have been far greater than from all other sources.

 Pliny the Elder called the powdered white lead used in Roman cosmetics a “deadly poison”, so it can’t be said the Romans did not know that lead was a dangerous pollutant. No doubt the silversmiths told everyone to stop worrying: silver was far too important even to think of giving it up. We know for a fact the silver industry did that sort of thing.

Do you suppose it made the populace so stupid as to wilfully ignore the fact they were destroying their environment? What a thing to do! We’re too clever nowadays to do a stupid thing like that.