Chap. IS.] 4LT WHAt PERIOD CEILINGS \TEHE FIRST GILDED. 95 



presented by Gallia Comata. 8 * Nero, who succeeded him, covered 

 the Theatre of Pompeius with gold for one day, 67 the occasion on 

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

 yet how small vas this theatre in comparison with that Golden 

 Palace** of his, with which he environed our city. 



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

 TITY OF GOLD A51) SILVER IN T1JE TKEASUKY OF THE KOMAN 

 1'KOI'LK. 



In the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Aurelius, w 

 seven years before the commencement of the Third Punic War, 

 there was in the treasury of the Human 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. 



Ju the consulship of Sextus Julius and Lucius Marcius, 

 that is to say, at the commencement of the Social War, 1 * there 

 was iu the public treasury one million" 1 six hundred and twenty 

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

 Caius Cajsur, at his first entry into Ilome, during the civil 

 war which boars 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* 2 period was the republic moie 

 wealthy. JEinilius Paulus, too, after the defeat of King Per- 

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

 Macedonia, three hundred millions ** of sesterces, and from, this 

 period the Human people ceased to pay tribute. 



CUAP. 18. AT WHAT 1'KKIOD CEILINGS WERE FIRST GILDED. 



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

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



M Sec U. iv. c. 31, It. xi. c. -17, and }\. xviii. c. 20. 



61 Jlenoe known, as the "Golden JJav," according to Dion Cassius, 

 13. Ixiii. 



M For further particulars as to the Golden Palace, sec I*, xxxvi. c. 24. 



M A.U.C. VJ7. '*' Or Marsic War. See JJ. ii. c. $5. 



vl 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 

 Look. 



y - This remark is confirmatory of tho incorrectness of the precodicg 

 statement. v -" The reading berc is doubtful. 



