ACCUMULATIONS IN CHAP. I. 



Jupiter, weighing twelve hundred talents, and 

 the other two six hundred talents each 1 ." 



As Diodorus wrote in the Greek language, 

 it is probable he adopted the weights of that 

 country, according to \\ihich the value of this 

 mass of gold, as calculated by the Abb6 Bar- 

 thelemy, would amount in our money to about 

 eleven millions sterling, whilst others estimate it 

 at somewhat less ; a difference, however, scarcely 

 worth investigating. It is impossible not to sus- 

 pect the statement here given of some exag- 

 geration, though we may be induced to believe 

 that a large quantity of the precious metals had 

 been collected at that early period ; but the ex- 

 actness of the quantity must be a subject of doubt 

 when it is considered that Diodorus wrote near 

 two thousand years after the events he relates, 

 and in an age when written records must have 

 been both rare and of doubtful authenticity. 



The probability of an accumulation of gold to 

 a great extent in Babylon, is strengthened by 

 the narrative in the book of Daniel, of the great 

 size of the image of gold erected by Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, on the plain of Dura, near that city. 



There is an appearance of authenticity and of 

 accuracy in the account given by Herodotus of 

 the tribute of gold and silver which Darius Hy- 



1 Diodorus, book ii. cap. 1. 



