CHAP. II. MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS. 103 



commander, Nicias, received a remittance of three 

 hundred talents more. The Carthaginians also, 

 who carried such large armies into Sicily, must 

 have furnished some store of gold and silver. 



Some of the precious metals were placed 

 under the guardianship of the popular super- 

 stitions, but they were found feeble securities 

 against the rapacity of a tyrant. It is related of 

 Dionysius the Elder, that he rifled the temple of 

 Jupiter, and stripped the image of that deity of 

 the golden robe which Hiero had presented to 

 it, saying, that " a robe of gold was too heavy 

 in the summer, and too cold in the winter, and 

 therefore he would supply its place with a cloak 

 of wool." He ordered the golden beard of 

 ^Esculapius to be taken from him, saying, " It 

 was a shame for the son to have a beard when 

 the father had none." He also robbed the sta- 

 tues of the other gods of their ornaments, and 

 sold the spoils by public auction ; and, the next 

 day, pretending to repent of his impiety, com- 

 manded all who had any thing in their possession 

 belonging to the immortal gods to restore it 

 within a stipulated time, but did not himself 

 repay to the purchasers of the effects the mo- 

 ney he had received for the sale of them. 



If the soil of Sicily contributed nothing to 

 the general stock of the precious metals in an- 

 cient times, it was otherwise with the large 

 island of Sardinia. When the Carthaginians 



