_ 285 Townsend_, Journey in Spain, I, 115, 310. In the patriarchal age of the Jews, there was a relatively very large quantity of ornamental objects in gold and silver: _Michælis_, De Pretiis Rerum apud Hebræos, in the Comm. Soc. Götting., III, 151 ff., 160. Conservative Sparta, in the middle age of its history, was certainly not rich, and yet it had more gold and silver than any other Grecian state: _Plato_, Alcib., I, 123. According to _St. John_, The Hellenes, III, 142, the ancients had relatively much more of the precious metals in the form of objects for ornament than the moderns. The Romans, with their usual good sense, did not make use of silver as an article of luxury until they had attained great wealth. See _Cato_, R. R., ch. 23, and _Seneca_, De Vita beata, ch. 21. Then the Carthaginian ambassadors railed at their hosts because they found the same pieces of table silver in all the houses to which they were invited. The younger Scipio, even, did not possess more relatively than 32 pounds of silver ware. _Mommsen_, Römische Geschichte, II, 383. The relatively great importance of the stores for domestic use, nevertheless, runs through the whole of Roman history. The title _de penu legato_, in the Pandects (Digest, XXIII, 9), points to this, during the reign of the emperors, and in earlier times, the derivation of _penates_ from _penu_. See _Rodbertus_, in _Hildebrand’s_ Jahrbuch, 1870, I, 365. Immense importance of the ring in the old north countries: _Weinhold_, Altnord. Leben, 184 ff. The age of chivalry was very rich in silver plate, cups, basins, etc. _Büsching_, Ritterzeit und Ritterwesen, II, 137. _Anderson_, Origin of Commerce, a. 1386. _Lord Burleigh_, in the age of queen Elizabeth, left after him between fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds sterling in silver ware; that is almost as much as the rest of his whole estate; and, it would seem, that for a man of his rank, even this was not considered a great deal. _Collins’_ Life of B., 44. According to _Giustiniani_, cardinal Wolsey owned articles of silver to the value of 1,500,000 ducats, and the greater number of the lords of the time were equally well provided with them.