The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
The ancients bad no number whereby to express a larger sum than one
hundred thousand; and hence it is that, at the present day, we reckon
by multiples of that number, as, for instance, ten times one hundred
thousand, and so on.[1062] For these multiplications we are indebted
to usury and the use of coined money; and hence, too, the expression
“æs alienum,” or “another man’s money,” which we still use.[1063] In
later times, again, the surname “Dives”[1064] was given to some: only
be it known to all, that the man who first received this surname became
a bankrupt and so bubbled his creditors.[1065] M. Crassus,[1066] a
member of the same family, used to say that no man was rich, who could
not maintain a legion upon his yearly income. He possessed in land two
hundred millions[1067] of sesterces, being the richest Roman citizen
next to Sylla. Nor was even this enough for him, but he must want to
possess all the gold of the Parthians too![1068] And yet, although he
was the first to become memorable for his opulence—so pleasant is the
task of stigmatizing this insatiate cupidity—we have known of many
manumitted slaves, since his time, much more wealthy than he ever was;
three for example, all at the same time, in the reign of the Emperor
Claudius, Pallas,[1069] Callistus,[1070] and Narcissus.[1071]
But to omit all further mention of these men, as though they were
still[1072] the rulers of the empire, let us turn to C. Cæcilius
Claudius Isidorus, who, in the consulship of C. Asinius Gallus and
C. Marcius Censorinus,[1073] upon the sixth day before the calends
of February, declared by his will, that though he had suffered great
losses through the civil wars, he was still able to leave behind him
four thousand one hundred and sixteen slaves, three thousand six
hundred pairs of oxen, and two hundred and fifty-seven thousand heads
of other kind of cattle, besides, in ready money, sixty millions of
sesterces. Upon his funeral, also, he ordered eleven hundred thousand
sesterces to be expended.
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