Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient LifeYaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
History
Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life
Yaggy, L. W. (Levi W.)
Civilization, Ancient; Classical antiquities
The annual tribute of Solomon was 666 talents of gold, besides that
brought by the merchants, and the present from the Queen of Sheba of
120 talents; and the quantity of gold and silver used in the temple
and his house was extraordinary. Mr. Jacob, in his valuable work on
the precious metals, has noticed many of these immense sums, collected
in old times. Among them are the tribute of Darius, amounting to 9,880
talents of silver and 4,680 of gold, making a total of 14,560,
estimated at about $37,250,000; the sums taken by Xerxes to Greece;
the wealth of Crœsus; the riches of Pytheus, king of a small territory
in Phrygia, possessing gold and silver mines, who entertained the army
of Xerxes, and gave him 2,000 talents of silver and 4,093,000 staters
of gold (equal to 23,850,000 dollars of our money); the treasures
acquired by Alexander, in Susa and Persia, exclusive of that found in
the Persian camp and in Babylon, said to have amounted to 40,000 or
50,000 talents; the treasure of Persepolis rated at 120,000 talents;
that of Pasagarda at 6,000; and the 180,000 talents collected at the
capture of Ecbatana; besides 6,000 which Darius had with him, and were
taken by his murderers. "Ptolemy Philadelphus is stated by Appian to
have possessed treasure to the enormous amount of 740,000 talents;"
either "890 million dollars, or at least a quarter of that sum;" and
fortunes of private individuals at Rome show the enormous wealth they
possessed. "Crassus had in lands $8,072,915, besides as much more in
money, furniture, and slaves; Seneca, $12,109,375; Pallas, the
freedman of Claudius, an equal sum; Lentulus, the augur, $16,145,805;
Cæc. Cl. Isidorus, though he had lost a great part of his fortune in
the civil war, left by his will 4,116 slaves, 3,600 yoke of oxen,
257,000 other cattle, and in ready money $2,421,875. Augustus received
by the testaments of his friends $161,458,330. Tiberius left at his
death $108,984,375, which Caligula lavished away in less than one
year; and Vespasian, at his succession, said that to support the state
he required _quadrigenties millies_, or $1,614,083,330. The debts of
Milo amounted to $2,825,520. J. Cæsar, before he held any office, owed
1,300 talents, $1,279,375; and when he set out for Spain after his
prætorship, he is reported to have said, that 'Bis millies et
quingenties sibi deesse, ut nihil haberet,' or 'that he was
$10,091,145 worse than nothing.' When he first entered Rome, in the
beginning of the civil war, he took out of the treasury $5,479,895,
and brought into it at the end of it $24,218,750; he purchased the
friendship of Curio, at the commencement of the civil war, by a bribe
of $2,421,856, and that of the consul, L. Paulus, by 1,500 talents,
about $1,397,500; Apicius wasted on luxurious living $2,421,875;
Caligula laid out on a supper $403,625; and the ordinary expense of
Lucullus for a supper in the Hall of Apollo was 50,000 drachms, or
$8,070.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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