28 ACCUMULATION IN THE ROMAN, &C. CHAP. I. 



money more than five millions six hundred 

 thousand pounds '. 



Many other instances might be found of vast 

 masses of wealth being collected, of large debts 

 being contracted, and of prodigious sums being 

 expended, either on public occasions, or in 

 private indulgences of the dress, the tables, or 

 the furniture of the Romans, just after the 

 acquisition of universal empire. At that period 

 the treasure, which had been acquired by con- 

 quest, had not been generally diffused in the 

 hands of numerous individuals, nor had much of 

 it been consumed by the friction which the 

 practice, soon after extended, of converting 

 large quantities of it into coined money, neces- 

 sarily occasioned. 



1 See Adam's Roman Antiquities, 9th edit. p. 461,, from 

 whence, as far as regards Rome, the facts are selected, and 

 where the evidence on which each of them rests is pointed 

 out. 



