Museum of Antiquity: A Description of Ancient Life

by L. W. Yaggy; T. L. Haines

M. Leon Faucher, indeed, suggested that the value of silver in some countries originally equaled, if it did not exceed, that of gold ... and the laws of Menes state that gold was worth two and a half times more than silver.... Everywhere, except in India, between the fifth and sixth century B.C., the relative value of gold and silver was 6 or 8 to 1, as it was in China and Japan at the end of the last century. In Greece it was, according to Herodotus, as 13 to 1; afterwards, in Plato's and Xenophon's time, and more than 100 years after the death of Alexander, as 10 to 1, owing to the quantity of gold brought in through the Persian war; when the value of both fell so much, that in the time of Demosthenes it was five times less than at the death of Solon.

Though it may not be possible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the quantity of gold and silver taken from the mines, employed in objects of art and luxury, or in circulation as money in Egypt and other countries, we shall introduce a few facts derived from the accounts of ancient authors, relating to the amount of wealth amassed, and the purposes to which those precious metals were applied. We shall also show some of the fluctuations that have taken place in the supply of them at various periods; and shall endeavor to establish a comparison between the quantity said to have been in use in ancient and modern times.

When we read of the enormous wealth amassed by the Egyptian and Asiatic kings, or the plunder by Alexander and the Romans, we wonder how so much could have been obtained; for, even allowing for considerable exaggeration in the accounts of early times, there is no reason to disbelieve the private fortunes of individuals at Rome, and the sums squandered by them, or even the amount of some of the tributes levied in the East. Of ancient cities, Babylon is particularly cited by Herodotus and others for its immense wealth. Diodorus (ii. 9) mentions a golden statue of Jupiter at Babylon 40 feet high, weighing 1,000 Babylonian talents; another of Rhea, of equal weight, having two lions on its knees, and near it silver serpents of 300 talents each; a standing statue of Juno weighing 800 talents, holding a snake, and a sceptre set with gems; as well as a golden table of 500 talents weight on which were two cups weighing 300 talents, and two censers each of 300 talents weight, with three golden bowls, one of which, belonging to Jupiter, weighed 1,200 talents, the others each 600; making a total of at least 6,900 talents, reckoned equal to $55,000,000. And the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, 60 cubits, or 90 feet high, at the same ratio would weigh 2,250 talents, or $17,934,820.

David, who had not the Indian and Arabian trade afterwards obtained by Solomon, left for the building of the temple 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 of silver; and the sum given by him of his "own proper good," "over and above all prepared for the holy house," was "3,000 talents of gold" and "7,000 of refined silver;" besides the chief men's contributions of 500 talents and 10,000 drachms of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, and an abundance of brass, iron, and precious stones.

The annual tribute of Solomon was 666 talents of gold, besides that brought by the merchants, and the present from the Queen of Sheba of 120 talents; and the quantity of gold and silver used in the temple and his house was extraordinary. Mr. Jacob, in his valuable work on the precious metals, has noticed many of these immense sums, collected in old times. Among them are the tribute of Darius, amounting to 9,880 talents of silver and 4,680 of gold, making a total of 14,560, estimated at about $37,250,000; the sums taken by Xerxes to Greece; the wealth of Crœsus; the riches of Pytheus, king of a small territory in Phrygia, possessing gold and silver mines, who entertained the army of Xerxes, and gave him 2,000 talents of silver and 4,093,000 staters of gold (equal to 23,850,000 dollars of our money); the treasures acquired by Alexander, in Susa and Persia, exclusive of that found in the Persian camp and in Babylon, said to have amounted to 40,000 or 50,000 talents; the treasure of Persepolis rated at 120,000 talents; that of Pasagarda at 6,000; and the 180,000 talents collected at the capture of Ecbatana; besides 6,000 which Darius had with him, and were taken by his murderers. "Ptolemy Philadelphus is stated by Appian to have possessed treasure to the enormous amount of 740,000 talents;" either "890 million dollars, or at least a quarter of that sum;" and fortunes of private individuals at Rome show the enormous wealth they possessed. "Crassus had in lands $8,072,915, besides as much more in money, furniture, and slaves; Seneca, $12,109,375; Pallas, the freedman of Claudius, an equal sum; Lentulus, the augur, $16,145,805; Cæc. Cl. Isidorus, though he had lost a great part of his fortune in the civil war, left by his will 4,116 slaves, 3,600 yoke of oxen, 257,000 other cattle, and in ready money $2,421,875. Augustus received by the testaments of his friends $161,458,330. Tiberius left at his death $108,984,375, which Caligula lavished away in less than one year; and Vespasian, at his succession, said that to support the state he required quadrigenties millies, or $1,614,083,330. The debts of Milo amounted to $2,825,520. J. Cæsar, before he held any office, owed 1,300 talents, $1,279,375; and when he set out for Spain after his prætorship, he is reported to have said, that 'Bis millies et quingenties sibi deesse, ut nihil haberet,' or 'that he was $10,091,145 worse than nothing.' When he first entered Rome, in the beginning of the civil war, he took out of the treasury $5,479,895, and brought into it at the end of it $24,218,750; he purchased the friendship of Curio, at the commencement of the civil war, by a bribe of $2,421,856, and that of the consul, L. Paulus, by 1,500 talents, about $1,397,500; Apicius wasted on luxurious living $2,421,875; Caligula laid out on a supper $403,625; and the ordinary expense of Lucullus for a supper in the Hall of Apollo was 50,000 drachms, or $8,070. The house of Marius, bought of Cornelia for $12,105, was sold to Lucullus for $80,760; the burning of his villa was a loss to M. Scaurus of $4,036,455; and Nero's golden house must have cost an immense sum, since Otho laid out in furnishing a part of it $2,017,225." But though Rome was greatly enriched by conquest, she never obtained possession of the chief wealth of Asia; and the largest quantity of the precious metals was always excluded from the calculations of ancient writers.

The whole revenue of the Roman Empire under Augustus is "supposed to have been equal to 200 millions of our money;" and at the time of his death (A.D. 14) the gold and silver in circulation throughout the empire is supposed to have amounted to $1,790,000,000; which at a reduction of 1 grain in 360 every year for wear, would have been reduced by the year A.D. 482 to $435,165,495; and when the mines of Hungary and Germany began to be worked, during the seventh and ninth centuries, the entire amount of coined money was not more than about 42 at the former, and 165 or 170 million dollars at the latter, period; so that if no other supply had been obtained, the quantity then circulating would long since have been exhausted.

"The loss by wear on silver" is shown by Mr. Jacob "to be four times that of gold;" that on our money is estimated at more than one part in a hundred annually; and "the smaller the pieces, the greater loss do they suffer by abrasion." "The maximum of durability of gold coins seems to be fixed at 22 parts, in 24, of pure gold with the appropriate alloys. When the fineness ascends or descends from that point, the consumption by abrasion is increased."

It is from its ductility that gold wears so much less than silver; and many ancient gold coins (as those of Alexander and others), though evidently worn by use, nearly retain their true weight, from the surface being partly transferred into the adjacent hollows, and not entirely rubbed off as in silver.

The quantity of the precious metals, formerly used for the purposes of luxury, greatly diminished after the decline of the Roman empire, and in the middle ages they were sparingly employed except for coinage; ornamental work in gold and silver, mostly executed by first-rate artists, being confined to men of rank, till the opening of new mines added to the supply; which was afterwards increased by the abundant treasures of America; and the quantity applied to ornamental purposes then began to vie with that of olden times.

M. Leon Faucher even calculates the annual abstraction of the precious metals from circulation by use for luxury, disasters at sea, and export, at 25 million dollars, in Europe and the United States.