[48] The Attali of Pergamum, and the Ptolemies of Alexandria, were rivals in amassing literary treasures. The house of the Attali became extinct in 133 B.C., and soon afterwards their kingdom became a Roman province. Their library remained at Pergamum till Antony presented it to Cleopatra. The word "parchment" (pergamena) remains as a reminder of its existence. Skins, of course, had long been used for writing purposes, but the manufacture was greatly improved under the patronage of the kings of Pergamum. The jealousy of the Ptolemies forbade, it is said, the export of paper (papyrus) from Alexandria, and parchment had to be used as a substitute.
[49] The backward movement of the equinoctial points along the elliptic. A constellation which Hesiod describes as rising sixty days after the spring equinox, now rises one hundred days after. The equinox therefore has receded by a space equivalent to forty days.
[50] A mina and a half are equivalent to £5, 5s., eight minas, therefore, to £28, and five to £17, 10s. This allows, reckoning the weight of wheat at 64 lbs. per bushel, a buying price of 3s. 3d. (about) per bushel, and a selling price of 17s. for the wheat, and 1s. 7½d. buying, and 11s. selling, for the barley. The highest price paid for wheat in England during this century has been 14s. 3d. (1812), and the lowest 2s. 3d. (1895). I will not trouble my readers with the figures for the barley. Commonly it was much cheaper in proportion to wheat than it is now. (So in Rev. vi. 6 we have, "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny", a penny being the Roman denarius, or 9½d.) We may calculate the gross profit of the voyage at £6660 (nearly), taking the mina as equal to £3, 10s. 3¾d., or £5222 for the captain's share. The sum entitling a Roman citizen to equestrian rank was £4000.
[51] An Attic talent, worth, by weight of silver, about £225.
[52] Against Nebuchadnezzar in 598 B.C., and against Alexander in 331.
"'Far hence be Bacchus' gifts,' the chief rejoined;
'Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind,
Unnerves the limbs, and dulls the noble mind.'"
[54] A treaty was made between Rome and Carthage in the year 509 B.C.