HISTORY OF MEXICO. 307 



fing the Iliad and the QdyfTey, thofe two immortal 

 poems, which, after twenty-feven centuries, are Mill 

 admired, but have never been equalled. The Greeks, 

 however, at this period, did not know the ufe of coin- 

 ed money, as appears from the works of that renown- 

 ed poet, who, whenever he means to fignify the va- 

 lue of any thing, expreffes it no otherwife than by the 

 number of oxen or flieep which it was worth ; as in the 

 Vllth book of the Iliad, when he fays, that Glaucus 

 gave his arms of gold, which were worth an hundred 

 oxen, for thofe of Diomede, which were of copper, and 

 not worth more than nine. Whenever he fpeaks of 

 any purchafe by contract, he mentions it no otherwife 

 than by barter, or exchange. And therefore in that an- 

 cient controverfy between the Sabinians and Proculians, 

 two fe£h of lawyers, the firft infifted that a real purchafe 

 and fale could be made without a price, fupporting this 

 pofition by certain paffages of Homer, where thofe are 

 faid to buy and fell who only exchange. The Lacede- 

 monians were a civilized nation of Greece, although they 

 did not ufe money ; and among the fundamental laws 

 publifhed by Lycurgus, Was that law of not carrying 

 on commerce otherwife than by means of exchange (b). 

 The Romans had no coined money until the time of 

 Servius Tullius ; nor the Perfians until the time of Da- 

 rius Hyftafpes ; and yet the nations which preceded thofe 

 epochs were not called barbarous. The Hebrews were 

 civilized at leafl from the time of their judges, but we 

 do not find that (lamped money was in ufe among them 

 until the time of the Maccabees. The want of coined 

 money, therefore, is no argument of barbarity. 



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(b) Emi fingula non pecunia fed compenfatione mercium juflit. Juftin. lib.iii. 



