CHAP. III. PRECIOUS METALS. 109 



them ; for at the siege of Troy, about one hun- 

 dred years later than Solomon, though some of 

 the chiefs had ornaments about their arms and 

 personal decorations of those metals, the use of 

 them was beyond the reach of their followers. 

 Neither Homer nor Hesiod speak of gold or 

 silver as money, but express the value of com- 

 modities by a certain number of sheep or oxen. 

 Both these poets indicate the wealth of an in- 

 dividual by the number of his flocks and herds, 

 and that of a country by the abundance of pas- 

 ture and the quantity of brass and of iron it 

 contained. 



In the camp before Troy trade was carried 

 on, not by money, but by exchanges in kind ; 

 and the wines of Lemnos were purchased with 

 brass, iron, skins, oxen, slaves, and other com- 

 modities ] . 



It seems to have been a much later period 

 before even a moderate stock of gold and silver 

 had been accumulated in Greece. Till the time 

 of Gyges, king of Lydia, 7^0 years before Christ, 



1 And now the fleet, arrived from Lemnos' strands, 

 With Bacchus' blessings cheer'd the generous bands. 

 Of fragrant wines the rich Eunseus sent 

 A thousand measures to the royal tent : 

 The rest they purchased at the proper cost, 

 And with the plenteous freight supplied the host : 

 Each, in exchange, proportion'd treasures gave 

 Some brass or iron, some an ox or slave. 



Pope's Iliad, book vii. v. 560568. 



