BOOK XXXIII. xLvi. 132-XLV11. 135 



assaying the denarius, under a law that was so 

 popular that the common people unanimously 

 district by district voted statues to Marius Before 82 

 Gratidianus. And it is a remarkable thing that in ^-^- 

 this alone among arts spurious methods are objects 

 of study, and a sample of a forged denarius is care- 

 fuUy examined and the adulterated coin is bought 

 for more than genuine ones. 



XLVII. In old days there was no number standing Exampies of 

 for more than 100,000, and accordingly even to-day J^S^ ^'"^ 

 we reckon by multiples of that number, using the weaith. 

 expression times ' ten times one hundred thousand ' 

 or larger multiples. This was due to usury and to 

 the introduction of coined money, and also on the 

 same Hnes we still speak of money owed as * some- 

 body else's copper.' Afterwards ' Dives,' ' Rich,' 

 became a family surname, though it must be stated 

 that the man who first received this name ran 

 through his creditors' money and went bankrupt. 

 Afterwards Marcus Crassus, who was a member of the 

 Rich family, used to say that nobody w^as a wealthy 

 man except one who could maintain a legion of troops 

 on his yearly income. He owned landed property 

 worth two hundred million sesterces, being the 

 richest Roman citizen after Sulla. Nor was he satis- 

 fied without getting possession of the whole of the 

 Parthians' gold " as well ; and although it is true he 

 was the first to win lasting reputation for wealth — it is 

 a pleasant task to stigmatize insatiable covetousness 

 of that sort — we have known subsequently of many 

 hberated slaves who have been wealthier, and three 

 at the same time not long before our own days in the 

 period of the emperor Claudius, namely CalHstus, a.d. 41-64. 

 Pallas and Narcissus. And to omit these persons, 



TOI 



