Greek art supplies very few pictures from the trader’s life. Fig. 205, taken from a vase-painting, though a caricature, has an especial interest on account of its subject: a certain king Arcesilas of Cyrene (probably mythical), is represented as a dealer in silphium; it is well known that the silphium plant, so much valued by ancient epicures, came from Cyrene, and was an important article of trade. Under a canopy, the curtains of which are suspended by rings, stands a large pair of scales, at which five men are weighing goods, some of which are heaped up on the scales and others lying about on the ground. [Illustration: FIG. 205.] Most of the goods are as yet unpacked; these workmen, however, have already filled large woollen sacks with them, and one of them is in the act of tying his up, while another is carrying his away. The weighing and packing are conducted under the superintendence of king Arcesilas, who is seated close by, holding in his left hand his sceptre, and with his right apparently giving directions to a workman standing before him. His costume is very extraordinary. The panther under the prince’s seat, a lizard, a stork (or crane), a monkey, and several pigeons, give life to the picture, and partly indicate the place where the scene is laid. Below the main picture, where we must suppose the cellar for the stores to be, workmen are piling up finished packets, under the direction of a man in a cloak. Occupations connected with money were largely developed in antiquity. The merchants who dealt with such business--the bankers and money-changers--were called by the Greeks “table-merchants” (τραπεζῖται), from the table at which they originally carried on their occupations. Their duties were of a double nature; besides the actual business of changing, they undertook the investment of capital and the transaction of money business. When the increased coinage of money and the augmentation of trade and travel brought large sums into the hands of individuals, those who had not invested their possessions in wares or property or slaves, naturally desired to profit by it in some other way, and thus the loan business was gradually developed, in which capitalists lent money to those who required it for any mercantile undertaking, in return for a security and interest. In the bond executed in the presence of witnesses, the amount of the capital, the interest agreed upon, as well as the time for which the loan was arranged, had to be entered. For greater safety, a third person usually became security for the debtor, or else some possession was mortgaged, the value of which corresponded to the sum lent. They distinguished between pledges in movable objects, such as cattle, furniture, slaves, etc.; and mortgages given partly on movable objects, such as factory slaves, and partly on immovable property. Mortgages of this kind were very common in seafaring business. The merchant who borrowed money from a rich citizen in order to carry