SILVER AND GOLD IN ROME. CHAP. in. 



sive conquests of the countries in which they 

 were found. Carthage, Spain, Germany, Greece, 

 Asia, and Egypt, within little more than one 

 hundred and forty years after the Romans had 

 passed the Hellespont, became subject to their 

 power. The mineral wealth of the world was 

 thus in a great degree, by the time Augustus 

 had attained the imperial dignity, concentrated 

 in his dominions ; and his capital, which had 

 become the metropolis of the civilized world, 

 was the focal point to which the gold and silver 

 were attracted, and from whence they were dis- 

 tributed again to the several extremities of the 

 empire, in that due proportion with which their 

 powers of production enabled them to supply the 

 necessities or the luxuries of imperial Rome. 



