Chap. 4.] THE ORIGIN OF GOLD KINGS. 71 



CHAP. 3. WHAT WAS THE FIKST KECOMMENDATION OF GOLD. 



Would that gold could have been banished for ever from 

 the earth, accursed by universal report/^ as some of the most 

 celebrated writers have expressed themselves, reviled by the 

 reproaches of the best of men, and looked upon as discovered 

 only for the ruin of mankind. How much more happy the 

 age when things themselves were bartered for one another ; as 

 was the case in the times of the Trojan war, if we are to be- 

 lieve what Homer says. For, in this way, in my opinion, was 

 commerce then carried on for the supply of the necessaries of 

 life. Some, he tells us, would make their purchases by bartering 

 ox-hides, and others by bartering iron or the spoil which they 

 had taken from tlie enemy :^^ and yet he himself, already an 

 admirer of gold, was so far aware of the relative value of things, 

 that Glaucus, he informs us, exchanged his arms of gold, valued 

 at one hundred oxen, for those of Diomedes, which were worth 

 but nine.^'^ Proceeding upon the same system of barter, many 

 of the fines imposed by ancient laws, at Eome even, were 

 levied in cat tie, ^° [and not in money]. 



CHAP. 4. THE OKIGIN OP GOLD KINGS. 



The worst crime against mankind was committed by him 

 who was the first to put a ring upon his fingers : and yet we 

 are not informed, by tradition, who it was that first did so. For 

 as to all the stories told about Prometheus, I look upon them as 

 utterly fabulous, although I am aware that the ancients used 

 to represent him with a ring of iron : it was their intention, 

 however, to signify a chain thereby, and not an ornament. 

 As to the ring of Midas,-^ which, upon the collet being turned 



^" " Sacrum famse." This is the reading given by the Bamberg MS. 

 in substitution for " aurum, sacra fames" and other readings of a similar 

 nature, in which Pliny was thought by the commentators to allude to the 

 famous lines of Virgil — 



" Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, 

 Auri sacra fames !" 

 Had he alluded to the passage of Virgil, it is not probable that he would 

 have used the expression in the plural, " celeberrinii auctores." 



i« II. B. vii. 11. 472-5.~B. 19 II. B. vi. 1. 236. 



2° We may infer that this was the reason why the figure of an ox or 

 other animal was impressed on the earliest Eoman coins. — B. 



21 As Ilardouin remarks, "This story is told by others, of Gyges, and 

 not of Midas," He refers to Cicero, De Off. B. iii. c. 9, in confirnsation of 

 his assertion. — B. Both Gyges and Midas were noted for their wealth. 



