The mythical history of Greece has likewise been thought to point to a very ancient knowledge of gold, and the story of the search for the ‘Golden Fleece’ has by some been explained as an expedition undertaken in quest of the metal; for the use of sheepskins or woollen coverings, to collect and retain the minutest particles of gold during the operation of washing, is common in many auriferous countries. From the great value which the ancient nations attached to its possession, gold was largely used for the decoration of their temples, and many of their idols were made of gold. Such, among others, was the image of Belus, seated on a golden throne in the great temple of Babylon; that of Apollo at Delphi, and the magnificent statue of the Olympian Zeus, composed, by the hand of Phidias, of ivory and gold, and still less remarkable for its costly materials than for the consummate beauty of its workmanship. Pliny relates that a massive golden statue of the goddess Anaitis was taken by Marc Antony in his war against the Parthians. The Emperor Augustus, dining one day at Bononia with an old veteran who had taken part in the campaign, asked him whether it was true that the sacrilegious soldier who had first laid hands on the goddess had been suddenly deprived of the use of his eyes and limbs, and had thus miserably perished. ‘I myself am the man,’ answered the smiling host; ‘you are dining from off her thigh, and to her am I indebted for all the plate in my possession.’ The wealth of monarchs was estimated less by the extent of their domains than by the gold which they possessed, and as each successive conqueror added to the spoils of vanquished nations, the treasures accumulated by single despots grew to an almost fabulous amount. Every schoolboy knows that the vast treasures of Crœsus fell into the hands of Cyrus, who, according to the rather questionable authority of Pliny, acquired in Asia Minor no less than 24,000 pounds weight of gold, without reckoning the vases and the wrought metal. To this treasure his son Cambyses added the gold of Egypt, and Darius Hystaspis the tribute of the frontier nations of India. Thus the gold of almost the whole known world was accumulated in one single hoard, which, after the taking of Persepolis, fell into the hands of Alexander the Great. Plutarch relates that 10,000 teams of mules and 500 camels were needed for the transport of this wealth to Susa, where Alexander was cheated out of a great part of it by his treasurer. Rome, the subsequent mistress of the world, naturally absorbed the greater part of the riches of Tyre and Carthage, of Asia and Egypt. Sixty-six years after the third Punic war the public treasury contained 1,620,831 pounds weight of gold, and still greater wealth was accumulated under the Cæsars. As the empire declined, the hoards amassed in the times of its increasing power were once more dispersed. A considerable part, however, found its way to Constantinople, and after