Chap. 47.] INSTANCES OF IMMENSE WEALTH. 129 



the false denarius is now an object of careful examination, 

 and people absolute!)'- buy the counterfeit coin at the price 

 of many genuine ones ! 



CHAP. 47. (10.) INSTANCES OF IMMENSE WEALTH. PERSONS 



WHO HAVE POSSESSED THE GEEATEST SUMS OF MONEY. 



The ancients had no number whereby to express a larger 

 sum than one hundred thousand ; and hence it is that, at 

 the present day, we reckon by multiples of that number, as, 

 for instance, ten times one hundred thousand, and so on.^^ For 

 these multiplications we are indebted to usury and the use of 

 coined money ; and hence, too, the expression " 8es alienum," 

 or '* another man's money," which we still use.^^ In later 

 times, again, the surname " Dives "^^ was given to some : only 

 be it known to all, that the man who first received this sur- 

 name became a bankrupt and so bubbled his creditors.^* M. 

 Crassus,^^ a member of the same family, used to say that no 

 man was rich, who could not maintain a legion upon his yearly 

 income. He possessed in land two hundred millions^® of 

 sesterces, being the richest Roman citizen next to Sylla. Nor 

 was even this enough for him, but he must want to possess all 

 the gold of the Parthians too !^^ And yet, although he was the 

 first to become memorable for his opulence— so pleasant is the 

 task of stigmatizing this insatiate cupidity — we have known 

 of many manumitted slaves, since his time, much more 

 wealthy than he ever was ; three for example, all at the same 



sold for the purpose of showing the difference between it and the genuine 

 coin. 



^^ Twenty times one hundred thousand, «S:c. 



^2 As signifying a, " debt owing to another." '^ "The Rich." 



1' This seems the best translation for " decoxisse creditoribus suis," 

 which hterally means that he "boiled " or " melted away" his fortune from 

 his creditors. In this remark Pliny is more witty than usual. 



1^ The Triumvir. The first person mentioned in Roman history as 

 having the cognomen " Dives," is P. Licinius Crassus, the personage 

 mentioned in B. xxi. c. 4. As he attained the highest honours of the 

 state, and died universally respected, he cannot be the person so oppro- 

 briously spoken of by Pliny. 



^^ The meaning appears to be doubtful here, as it is not clear whether 

 " sesterces," or " sestertia," " thousands of sesterces," is meant. 



1' Who cut off his head after his death, and poured molten gold down 

 his throat. 



VOL. Yi. K 



