Chap. 18.] AT WHAT PERIOD CEILINGS WEEE FIRST GILDED. 95 



presented by Gallia Comata.^^ I^ero, who succeeded him, covered 

 the Theatre of Pompeius with gold for one day,®' the occasion on 

 which he displayed it to Tiridates, king of Armenia. And 

 yet how small was this theatre in comparison with that Golden 

 Palace®^ of his, with which he environed our city. 



CHAP. 17. AT WHIT PERIODS THERE WAS THE GREATEST QUAN- 

 TITY OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE TREASURY OF THE ROMAN 

 PEOPLE. 



In the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Aurelius/^ 

 Beven years before the commencement of the Third Punic War, 

 there was in the treasury of the Roman people seventeen thou- 

 sand four hundred and ten pounds' weight of uncoined gold, 

 twenty-two thousand and seventy pounds' weight of silver, and 

 in specie, six million one hundred and thirty-five thousand 

 four hundred sesterces. 



In the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Marcius, 

 that is to say, at the commencement of the Social War,^*^ there 

 was in the public treasury one million^^ six hundred and twenty 

 thousand eight hundred and thirty-one pounds' weight of gold. 

 Caius Caesar, at his first entry into Rome, during the civil 

 war which bears his name, withdrew from the treasury fifteen 

 thousand pounds' weight in gold ingots, thirty thousand pounds' 

 weight in uncoined silver, and in specie, three hundred thou- 

 sand sesterces : indeed, at no^- period was the republic more 

 wealthy, ^milius Paulus, too, after the defeat of Xing Per- 

 seus, paid into the public treasury, from the spoil obtained in 

 -Macedonia, three hundred millions^-' of sesterces, and from this 

 period the Roman people ceased to pay tribute. 



CHAP. 18. AT WHAT PERIOD CEILINGS WERE FIRST GILDED. 



The ceilings which, at the present day, in private houses 

 even, we see covered with gold, were first gilded in the Capi- 

 as See B, iv. c. 31, B. xi. c. 47, and B. xviii. c. 20. 



*^ Hence known as the " Golden Day," according to Dion Cassius, 

 B. Ixiii. 



^^ For further particulars as to the Golden Palace, see B. xxxvi. c. 24. 



89 A.u.c. 597. 2° Or Mnrsic War. See B. ii. c. 85. 



^^ There is an error in this statement, probably, unless we understand 

 by it the small libra or pound of two ounces, mentioned in c. 13 of this 

 Book. 



^2 This remark is confirmatory of the incorrectness of the preceding 

 statement. ^-* The readino; here is doubtful. 



