Accumulations of Gold and Silver in Greece. 145 



maintain those horses which gained him the victory in the 

 Olympic games." 



Whatever may have been the real wealth of Croesus, it would 

 appear that gold must have been of very high value in Athens, 

 when such a load as an individual could carry about his person, 

 in the way here described, could be sufficient to form the founda- 

 tion of the fortunes of one of thearistocratieal families of that state. 



Pytheus, king of the petty territory of Celaena in Phrygia, 

 has been celebrated for his wealth. According to Herodotus, 

 he was a native of Lydia ; but according to Pliny, of Bithynia ; 

 and it does not appear in what manner he became possessed of 

 the rich territory he ruled. It is related of this man by Hero- 

 dotus, that, " when Xerxes invaded Greece about 470 years be- 

 fore Christ, he entertained that monarch and his whole army 

 with great magnificence ; and being asked the amount of his 

 wealth, replied to Xerxes, I conceal nothing from you, and will 

 not affect ignorance, but fairly tell you the whole. As soon as 

 I heard of your approach to the Grecian Sea, I was desirous of 

 giving you money for the war. On examining into the state of 

 my affairs, I found I was possessed of 2000 talents of silver, 

 and 4,000,000, wanting only 7000 staters of gold of Darius ; 

 All this I give to you ; my slaves and my farms will be sufficient 

 to maintain me." According to the estimate of Larcher, an 

 able French critic, the metallic treasures of this man, the ruler 

 of a small territory, but the proprietor of rich mines of silver, 

 amounted to L. 3,600,000 of our present money. 



A long account of this man has been collected by Larcher, 

 chiefly from the work of Plutarch, " De Virtutibus Mulierum.*^ 

 It narrates the measures taken by his wife to cure him of that 

 passion for seeking gold, to which the lives of his subjects were 

 sacrificed, and by which a want of sufficient food for subsistence 

 was caused. As the story has been frequently told, and must 

 be familiar to most readers, we may dispense with the relation 

 of it. The application of the labour of all the inhabitants to 

 the searching for, and purifying gold, caused such distress for 

 food, that at length Pytheus was induced to direct, that only 

 one-fifth, instead of the whole, of the citizens should in future be 

 compelled to devote themselves to those operations. 



The story of Pytheus is important to one of the objects of 

 the present inquiry, inasmuch as it shows, as far as it regards 



VOL. Xni. NO. XXV. — JULY 1832. K 



