CHAP. I. GOLD AND SILVER IN GREECE. 



forty, by others at fifty thousand talents. The 

 treasure of Persepolis is rated at one hundred 

 and twenty thousand talents ; that of Pasagarda 

 at six thousand ; and upon the capture of Ec- 

 batana, according to the account preserved in 

 Strabo, one hundred and eighty thousand talents 

 are said to have been collected from thence, 

 besides six thousand talents which Darius had 

 with him, which were taken by his murderers. 



Alexander's profuse expenditure, which his 

 flatterers called generosity, was in accordance 

 with the vast sums he seems to have acquired. 

 He gave great rewards to his soldiers, and paid 

 their debts, amounting to nine thousand eight 

 hundred talents. He presented to the Thes- 

 salians two thousand talents. The funeral of 

 Hephaestion is said to have cost twelve thousand 

 talents, and the researches in natural history, for 

 the works of Aristotle, eight hundred talents. 



The wealth of his satraps was also enormous. 

 Harpalus, one of them, is said to have amassed 

 fifty thousand talents, although, when at Athens, 

 he denied the possession of more than nine hun- 

 dred and fifty 1 . The successors of Alexander, 

 also, collected large sums ; though, by their 

 extensive and fierce wars, the greater part was 

 dissipated. 



In Polybius is found a description of Ecba- 



1 Diodorus, xvii. 108. Lives of the Ten Orators. 



