18 ACCUMULATIONS OF 



CHAP. I. 



not affect ignorance, but fairly tell you the 

 whole. As soon as I heard of your approach to 

 the Grecian sea, I was desirous of giving you 

 money for the war. On examining into the state 

 of my affairs, I found I was possessed of two 

 thousand talents of silver, and four millions, 

 wanting only seven thousand, staters of gold of 

 Darius : all this I give to you ; my slaves and 

 my farms will be sufficient to maintain me 1 ." 

 According to the estimate of Larcher, an able 

 French critic 2 , the metallic treasures of this man, 

 the ruler of a small territory, but the proprietor 

 of rich mines of silver and gold, amounted to 

 three millions six hundred thousand pounds of 

 our present money. 



A long account of this man has been collected 

 by Larcher, chiefly from the work of Plutarch 

 " De Virtutibus Mulierum." It narrates the mea- 

 sures taken by his wife to cure him of that pas- 

 sion for seeking gold to which the lives of his 

 subjects were sacrificed, and by which a want of 

 sufficient food for subsistence was caused. As 

 the story has been frequently told, and must be 

 familiar to most readers, we may dispense with 

 the relation of it. 



The application of the labour of all the inha- 

 bitants to the searching for and purifying gold 



1 Herodotus, book iii. cap. 26, 27. 



2 Larcher's notes on Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 356, 



