ACCUMULATIONS IN CHAP. I. 



description of the manner in which the treasure 

 so collected was preserved in the royal residence. 

 " The gold and silver were melted and poured 

 into earthen vessels, and these when filled were 

 removed, leaving the metal in a solid mass ; 

 when any was wanted, a piece was broken off, 

 of the capacity which the occasion required 1 ." 

 It seemed, as far as regarded Darius, to be the 

 practice to coin no more gold and silver than 

 was needed to conduct the commerce and to 

 defray the expenses of the state 2 , which at that 

 period could not be of any large amount, from 

 the paucity of commodities which were the sub- 

 jects of exchange, and from the low prices which 

 all the necessaries and conveniences of life bore. 

 It is not improbable that this reserve fund was 

 carefully kept from circulation by hoarding, as a 

 preparation for the grand campaign against the 

 Greeks, which must have formed a part of the 

 warlike operations projected by the Persian mon- 

 arch and his ministers. We learn that Xerxes 

 took with him into the field so much money and 

 valuable effects as formed loading for tw r elve 

 hundred camels 3 , and upon the disastrous events 

 which attended his invasion was under the ne- 

 cessity of distributing large sums to the merce- 

 nary troops who had accompanied him to the 



1 Herodotus, book iii. cap. 96. 



2 Straboj book xv. p. 505. 



3 Demosth. de Symm. 



