Accumulatiojis of Gold and Silver in Greece. 147 



account preserved in Strabo, 180,000 talents are said to have 

 been collected from thence, besides 6000 talents which Darius 

 had with him, which were taken by the murderers. 



Alexander's profuse expenditure, which his flatterers called 

 generosity, was in accordance with the vast sums he seems to 

 have acquired. He gave great rewards to his soldiers, and paid 

 their debts, amounting to 9800 talents. He presented to the 

 Thessalians 2000 talents. The funeral of Hephaestion is said 

 to have cost 12,000 talents, and the researches in natural 

 history, for the work of Aristotle, 800 talents. The wealth of 

 his satraps was also enormous. Harpalus, one of them, is said to 

 have amassed 50,000 talents, although, when at Athens, he 

 denied the possession of more than 950. The successors of 

 Alexander also collected large sums ; though, by their extensive 

 and fierce wars, the greater part was dissipated. 



In Polybius is found a description of Ecbatana, at a'period 

 subsequent to the capture of that place by Alexander, and af- 

 terwards in the reigns of Antigonus and Seleucus. 



"The magnificence of the palace,'' he says, " was such in every 

 part as to give a high idea of the power and wealth of those by 

 whom it had been erected ; for though the wood was all cypress 

 or cedar, no part of it was left naked ; yet the beams, the roofs, 

 and the pillars that supported the porticoes and peristyles, were 

 all covered with plates, some of silver, and some of gold. The 

 tiles, likewise, were all of silver. Though the place had been 

 three times plundered by those we have named before Antiochus 

 arrived, there was still remaining, in the reign of Ena, some pil- 

 lars cased with gold, and a large quantity of silver tiles, laid 

 together in a heap. There were also some few wedges of gold, 

 and a much greater number of silver. These were coined into 

 money, and amounted to the sum of about 5000 talents *." 



Ptolemy Philadtlphus, the second king of Egypt after Alex- 

 ander, is stated by Appian, upon the authority of official docu- 

 ments, to have possessed treasure to the enormous amount of 

 740,000 talents ; either Roman talents, or the small Ptolemaic 

 talent. If Roman talents, which were about equal to the Attic 

 talent, be rendered into money of the present day, it will give 

 the amount as 178,000,000. If the smaller talent, which seems 

 most correct, be taken, it will amount to at least one-quarter of 



• Polybius, book v. cap. 9 Hist. Rom. Proem. 10. 



k2 



