CHAP. I. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC. 



money lent at interest on mortgages, or other 

 securities. But unless the metallic wealth had 

 increased in a prodigious degree, that remarkable 

 rise in the prices of other commodities could 

 not have been experienced which is noticed by 

 all writers. As one among other instances, we 

 know that the house of Marius l , at Misenum, 

 was purchased by Cornelia for seventy-five thou- 

 sand drachmas 2 , and a few years after sold to 

 Lucullus for five hundred thousand two hun- 

 dred drachmas 3 . 



The fortunes of private individuals may be 

 judged of by a few select notices to be found in 

 contemporary authors. Crassus is said to have 

 possessed in lands bis millies*, besides money, 

 slaves, and household furniture, estimated at as 

 much more 5 . Seneca is related to have pos- 



1 Plutarch, in Mario. 2 2421. 17*. 6d. sterling. 



3 16,152. 5*. lOd. sterling. 



4 1,614,583. 6s. 8d. sterling. 



5 Though Crassus had several silver mines and estates of 

 great value, which were profitably managed, yet his revenues 

 from those sources are represented as inconsiderable, when 

 compared with those he derived from his slaves. He had a 

 large number of them, whom he educated, who were taught to 

 become readers, amanuenses, book-keepers, stewards, and 

 cooks. Besides this he made interest of his money, at a high 

 rate, receiving for the use of it one per cent, at the end of 

 each month. It is recorded as a saying of his, ' ( that no man 

 could be accounted rich who was not able to maintain an army 

 out of his own revenues." It should seem that when he was 

 desirous to form a powerful party in the state, he could be 

 occasionally as profuse as he was habitually avaricious ; for on 



