THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 67 



his town residence on the Palatine, and Massala, who also wished to 

 live in the same quarter, that being the fashionable part of Rome, 

 bought Marc Anthony's old residence for $2,000,000. Seneca, the 

 philosopher, lived on the income of $20,000,000, which SuUius 

 charged him to have amassed by usury. Tiberius left $1,300,000 to 

 be divided amongst his heirs. Caesar^ before going into politics, 

 owned some $14,000^000, and we can understand why the objec- 

 tion was raised when he was appointed Governor of Spain. Marc 

 Anthony, we are told, when quite young owned $2,000,000, through 

 the extravagant life he led with Curio, and later in life, he at one 

 time settled a debt of $1,500,000, by paying cash in fifteen days. 

 Subsequently he managed to spend $800,000,000 of the public 

 money in an incredibly short space of time, as recorded by Plutarch. 

 A supper of Caligulus cost $400,000 ; his favorite horse was kept in 

 an ivory stall, and fed from a golden manger, with gilded corn, 

 Esopus, an actor of note, (not the fabulist), paid $100,000 for one 

 dish. Heliogabalus used bedsteads of solid silver, his plates were 

 of pure gold — his mattrasses covered with carpet or cloth of gold, 

 and were stuffed with down from the under wings of the partridge. 

 One Roman Emperor had a dish compounded of nightingales' 

 tongues, and another of peacocks' brains, and the extravagance and 

 lavishness that resulted in the ultimate downfall of the nation was 

 satirized by Juvenal equally as well as by any critic of to-day. Varro 

 speaks of one Ptolemy, a private gentleman, who kept Soco horses, 

 had generally 500 guests at his table with a gold cup set before 

 each, and which was changed with each course. Pythius, of Bithy- 

 nia, feasted the whole army of Xerxes in one day at his own cost — 

 1,700,000 strong. The public buildings of Rome, moreover, shewed 

 the wealth of that day. Scarus built a theatre to hold 30,000 spec- 

 tators, and adorned with 3,000 brazen statues. In the Circus Maxi- 

 nus, built by Tarquinius Priscus, 395,000 persons could be accom- 

 modated, and it was always full when sports were going on. Nine 

 thousand public balhs were maintained in Rome at one time. The 

 Temples — the churches of that day — were treasuries of wealth. The 

 Palace of Nero was overlaid with gold and embellished with gems 

 and mother-of-pearl. Its ceilings were fretted with ivory coffers 

 made to turn, that flowers might be showered down on the guests, 

 and furnished with pipes for sprays of perfume. Time fails to add 

 to this list, but Thebes, Alexandria, Athens, Ephesus and Carthage, 



