REMARKS ON THF. THESAURI OF THE GREEKS. ^(j^ 



It appears that the word Thesauri * was also apjjlied by tiie Greeks 

 to places formed or excavated under their teuiples ; for the term 

 FavissaL' used by the Romans corresponded, we are tokl, to the The- 

 sauri of the Greeks. Aulus GelUus, hb. xi. c. 10. Now the former 

 were subterraneous apartments or recesses in which things of value 

 pertaining to the temple, or connected with religious ceremonies, 

 were preserved. When Livy, lib. v. c. 50., speaks of money deposit- 

 ed, " sub cella Jovis,'' he alludes to money placed in one of these 

 Favissas. Hence we may explain the expression which occurs some- 

 times in inscriptions, Signa translata ex abditis locis (Fabretti, 280.) ; 

 that is, the statues or images were taken out from the Thesauri in 

 which they had been deposited. 



It remains that we should point out another meaning of the word 

 Qr,(roa)i,c,; ; it was used to signify a granary, or place dug in the rock, in 

 which grain was preserved. The city of Cyzicum had three Thesauri ; 

 Tov uev ottXu-i', tov Ss opyxi/uv, tov Se IITOT. Strabo, lib. xii. And in 

 Aristotle, Or^oi, lib. ii., we find mention made of drja-xvfot 7rap« raV cSou;. 

 This mode was adopted in early times ; and is still used for preserv- 

 ing corn in the East; and in one of these magazines Fhilopoemen was 

 confined, as we learn from Plutarch and Livy, lib. xxxix. c. 50. 

 " Conveying him," says the Greek writer, " to what was called the 

 Thesaurus, a subterranean building, receiving neither air nor light 

 from without, and having no doors, but closed by a great stone, 

 which was rolled against it by some mechanical power, there they 



placed him." Koula-avrfg xvtov it^ TOV y.ocXoufxivov d'/icrxUfO':, oUyi^oi KarciyBicv, 

 OVTS -nviZuoc >,oi[^f2ocvov, ovTi (pcoi; i^udev, ovrs du^xg e^ci, ciXXcc f/.iyoiXu XiSco 



TTB^iuyouivu -\- x.uTUKXiioy.svoii suTavdocxxTsdivTc. A similar punishment was 

 inflicted on Antigenes ; he was put into one of these excavations 

 made under ground for the purpose of receiving corn, and was burnt 

 alive. Diod. S. T. ii. 351. 



* The Thracian word for tliese excavations was SEIPOI: tov: ^r,um'^ohc x«i tu ofvyixaTa 

 h> otc xaTSTi'SevTO xa (rTTSffj-uTa a-sipovi sxaXouv ol QpaxB;. — Scllol. in Demos. Oral, de Clierson. 



f The word irspayojaevo) in Plutarch is explained, as Gronovius observes, bv the phrase 

 in Livy, saxum quod macliina sive tornicnto movctu'-- 



