10 BOOK I. 



poured liquid gold into the gaping mouth of the slain Crassus, saying : 

 " Thou hast thirsted for gold, therefore drink gold." 



But why need I cite here these many examples from history P^' It is 

 almost our daily experience to learn that, for the sake of obtaining gold and 

 silver, doors are burst open, walls are pierced, wretched travellers are struck 

 down by rapacious and cruel men born to theft, sacrilege, invasion, and 

 robbery. We see thieves seized and strung up before us, sacrilegious persons 

 burnt alive, the limbs of robbers broken on the wheel, wars waged for the 

 same reason, which are not only destructive to those against whom they are 

 waged, but to those also who carry them on. Nay, but they say that the 

 precious metals foster all manner of vice, such as the seduction of women, 

 adultery, and unchastity, in short, crimes of violence against the person. 

 Therefore the Poets, when they represent Jove transformed into a golden 

 shower and falling into the lap of Danae, merely mean that he had found 

 for himself a safe road by the use of gold, by which he might enter the tower 

 for the purpose of violating the maiden. Moreover, the fidehty of many 

 men is overthrown by the love of gold and silver, judicial sentences are 

 bought, and innumerable crimes are perpetrated. For truly, as Propertius 

 says : 



" This is indeed the Golden Age. The greatest rewards come from 



gold ; by gold love is won ; by gold is faith destroyed ; by gold is justice 



bought ; the law follows the track of gold, while modesty will soon 



foUow it when law is gone." 

 Diphilus says: 



" I consider that nothing is more powerful than gold. By it all 



things are torn asunder ; all things are accomplished." 

 Therefore, all the noblest and best despise these riches, deservedly and 

 with justice, and esteem them as nothing. And this is said by the old man 

 in Plautus : 



" I hate gold. It has often impelled many people to many wrong 



acts." 

 In this country too, the poets inveigh with stinging reproaches against money 

 coined from gold and silver. And especially did Juvenal : 



" Since the majesty of wealth is the most sacred thing among us ; 



although, O pernicious money, thou dost not yet inhabit a temple, nor 



have we erected altars to money." 

 And in another place : 



" Demoralising money first introduced foreign customs, and 



voluptuous wealth weakened our race with disgraceful luxury."^^ 

 And very many vehemently praise the barter system which men used before 

 money was devised, and which even now obtains among certain simple 

 peoples. 



And next they raise a great outcry against other metals, as iron, than 



*'An inspection of the historical incidents mentioned here and further on, indicates 

 that Agricola relied for such information on Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, Livy, Valerius 

 Maximus, Pliny, and often enough on Homer, Horace, and Virgil. 



^•Juvenal. Satires i., 1. 112, and vi., 1. 298. 



