Pliny also[62] informs us that it was Pyrodes, the son of Cilix, who first devised the way to strike fire out of flint—a myth which seems to point to the use of silex and pyrites rather than of steel. The Jews on their return to Jerusalem, under Judas Maccabæus, “made another altar and striking stones they took fire out of them and offered a sacrifice.”[63] How soon pyrites was, to a great extent, superseded by steel or iron, there seems to be no good evidence to prove; it is probable, however, that the use of flint and steel was well known to the Romans of the Augustan age, and that Virgil[64] pictured the Trojan voyager as using steel, when— “silici scintillam excudit Achates, Suscepitque ignem foliis atque arida circum Nutrimenta dedit, rapuitque in fomite flammam.” And again, where— “quærit pars semina flammæ Abstrusa in venis silicis.”[65] In Claudian[66] we find the distinct mention of flint and steel— “Flagrat anhela silex et amicam saucia sentit Materiem, placidosque chalybs agnoscit amores.” At Unter Uhldingen[67] a Swiss lake station where Roman pottery was present, was found what appears to be a steel for striking a |17| light. However the case may have been as to the means of procuring fire, it was not until some centuries after the invention of gunpowder that flints were applied to the purpose of discharging fire-arms. Beckmann,[68] in his “History of Inventions,” mentions that it was not until the year 1687 that the soldiers of Brunswick obtained guns with flint-locks, instead of match-locks, though, no doubt, the use of the wheel-lock with pyrites had in some other places been superseded before that time.