BOOK XXXIII. XVI. 53-xvii. 56 



occasion on which criminals made to fight with wild 

 animals had all their equipment made of silver, a 

 practice nowadays rivalled even in our municipal 

 towns. Gaius Antonius gave plays on a silver 

 stage, and so did Lucius Murena ; and the emperor 

 Gaius Caligula brought on a scaffolding " in the a.d. 37-41. 

 circus which had on it 124,000 ^ pounds weight of silver. 

 His successor Claudius when celebrating a triumph 

 after the conquest of Britain, advertised by placards a.d. 43. 

 that among the gold coronets there was one having 

 a weight of 7000 '^ pounds contributed by Hither 

 Spain and one of 9000 '^ from GalHa Comata. His 

 immediate successor Nero covered the theatre of a.d. 54-C8. 

 Pompey with gold for one day's purpose, when he was 

 to display it to Tiridates King of Armenia. Yet how 

 small was the theatre in comparison with Nero's 

 Golden Palace which goes all round the city ! 



X\TI. The gold contained in the national 

 treasury of Rome in the consulship of Sextus JuUus 156 b.c. 

 and Lucius Aurelius, seven years before the third 

 Punic War, amounted to 17,410 Ibs., the silver to 

 22,070 Ibs., and in specie there was 6,135,400 

 sesterces ; in the consulship of Sextus Julius and 9i b.c. 

 Lucius Marcius, that is to say, at the beginning of the 

 war with the allies,'^ there was . . . Ibs. of gold and 

 1,620,831 Ibs. of silver. Gaius JuUus Caesar, on 

 first entering Rome during the civil war that bears 49 b.c. 

 his name, drew from the treasury 15,000 gold ingots, 

 30,000 silver ingots, and 30,000,000 sesterces in 

 coin ; at no other periods was the state more wealthy. 



translate : ' that there were crowns weighing in aU 7000 

 pounds contribnted by Hither Spain and 9000 pounds from 

 Gallia Comata.' 

 <* See n. on § 20. 



45 



