ACCUMULATION IN THE DOMINIONS CHAP. I. 



tana, at a period subsequent to the capture of 

 that place by Alexander; and, afterwards, in the 

 reigns of Antigonus and Seleucus. 



"The magnificence of the palace," he says, 

 " was such in every part, as to give a high idea 

 of the power and wealth of those by whom it 

 had been erected ; for, though the wood of it 

 was all cypress or cedar, no part of it was left 

 naked; yet the beams, the roofs, and the pillars 

 that supported the porticos and peristyles, were 

 all covered with plates, some of silver and some 

 of gold. The tiles, likewise, were all of silver. 

 Though the place had been three times plun- 

 dered by those we have named, before Antiochus 

 arrived, there was still remaining, in the temple 

 of Ena, some pillars cased with gold, and a large 

 quantity of silver tiles, laid together in a heap. 

 There were also some few wedges of gold, and 

 a much greater number of silver. These were 

 coined into money, and amounted to the sum of 

 about five thousand talents V 



Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of 

 Egypt after Alexander, is stated by Appian 2 , 

 upon the authority of official documents, to have 

 possessed treasure to the enormous amount of 

 seven hundred and forty thousand talents : either 

 Roman talents or the small Ptolemaic talent. If 

 the former, which were about equal to the Attic 



1 Poly bias, book v. cap. 9. 



2 Hist. Rom. prooem. 10. 



