146 Accumulations of' Gold and Silver in Greece. 



the particular case, that the acquisition of gold and silver was 

 only to be obtained, in that remote period, by the mines being 

 in the hands of severe as well as arbitrary despots, who spared 

 neither the enjoyments, the labour, nor even the lives, of their 

 subjects, in the eager pursuit after the metallic riches of their 

 dominions. 



It does not appear that the free states of Greece possessed a 

 store of gold and silver, equal to that acquired by these absolute 

 rulers of smaller portions of territory. When Pericles *, in 

 order to animate the -Athenians, in their defence against the 

 Peloponnesians, about the year 431 before Christ, addressed 

 them, he stated the amount of the money then in the citadel to 

 be L. 1,162,250; and, in addition to that, the gold in the sta- 

 tue of Minerva, which must be replaced if appropriated to the 

 public service, to amount to L. 124^800. The revenues de- 

 rived from the tributary states, amounted annually to the sum 

 of L. 116,250, and more than L. 700,000 had been expended 

 in improving the public works -(-. 



The mass of the precious metals brought from the eastern to 

 the western world by Alexander, must have been enormous, 

 though much of that captured was expended in the subjugated 

 countries, and in those which were between them and Greece. 

 The accounts of historians are probably exaggerated ; but what- 

 ever allowance may be made for such a practice which was too 

 common with the ancients, we must be convinced from the nu- 

 merous authorities ^ which bear testimony to the facts, and cor- 

 roborate each other, that the accumulation in the hands of indivi- 

 dual monarchs and states, was much greater about the time of 

 the establishment of the full power of the Roman empire, than 

 any subsequent period. 



The treasures acquired by Alexander in Susa and Persia, 

 exclusive of those which were found in the Persian camp and 

 in Babylon, are stated by the authors above referred to and 

 others, by some at 40,000, by others at 50,000 talents. The trea- 

 sure of Persepolis is rated at 120,000 talents ; that of Pasagarda 

 at 6000 ; and upon the capture of Ecbatana, according to the 



• Thucydides' Peloponnesian "War, book ii. 



•|- The sums here stated are taken according to the calculation of Dean 

 Smith, the learned translator of Thucydides. 



X Strabo, C15, p. 602 — Arrian, iii. 3. Justin, xi. 14, and Plutarch, Vit. 

 Alex. 36. 



