The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-05-31
Ancient and Modern Wealth-SOme of
the Big Stories that History Tells.

Ancient and Modern Wealth-SOme of
the Big Stories that History Tells.
Some one having been telling of NJ.
LOder, in London, who died lately,
leaving the enormous fortune of 49,
OOO. 900, and of the gorgeous monument
of the Rhode Island Spragues, which
is to cost Sl00,0O0, and of the wOndrOus
wealth and profession of Tweed and
Stewart, the Richmond Inquirer tells
us bow people had big fortunes and
built fine houses, and gave dinners and
drank fine wines, amt spent in other
ways in the old times, ere Loder was,
or Stewart named. Thus it is that the
Inquirer takes the shine out of the
nineteenth century:
Why, what is Tweed, or Stewart, or
Mr.. Loder, or Belmont, or the Roth
schild, or the Marquis OF Westm mister,
to Ptolemy Philadelphus, of Egypt,
who amassed little property of $780,
O00, 900? And which OF our eXtrava-
CANT young ladies' of these boasted
times ever gave her lover, as Cleopatra
did, pear dissolved in vinegar Tor un-
dissolved) worth S400,0O0? That's half
the expenses of Miss Tweed's wedding
at dash, and would dress one of our
Baltimore and Washington bellies for
forty years. Then there was Paulina,
one of the ton in Rome, who used to
wear jewels, when she returned her
visits, worth SSO0,00O. Well, they boast
of Mr.. Stewards "marble palace in
Thirty-fOurth Street and Fifth Avenue.
We do not suppose this house, which
is about the best they have in New
York, cost more than half million
dollars. Well, Cicero, who was poor
man, gave $l50,000 for his house, and
ClodiuS paid $3.50. 900 for his establish
ment on the Palation while Messala
gave S2,000,OO0 for the house of An
thOny. Seneca, who was just a plain
philosopher like Mr.. Greeley, was
worth S12O,O0O,O00. Tiberius left
property of nearly Sl20,000,OOO. Why,
they talk about a mans failing i'll New
York for million Us if it was a big
thing Caesar, before he entered ON
any office-when he was a young gem
tleman i'm private life-owed Sl4, ON, 900,
and he purchased the friendship of
Qu;esor for S2,5O0,600. Mark Anthony
owed 81, 800, 900 on the Ides of March,
and he paid it before the kalends of
March. This was nOthing-he sqan-
dered So. .00O, 900 of the public money
Mai. Hodges dcfalcatiOn being for the
cOntemptuOls sum OF Sl5O,WO.
And these fellows lived well. EsOpus,
who wa, . pay actor, paid SiO,WO for
single u,pn. Caligula spent 800, ,0OOOn a
supper. Incir wines were often kept for
two axcs, and some of them sold for
S.v an OUNCE They roasted hogs while
at their DanYuets. They were fond of
rans head pie, -and pastry stuffed with
raisins ami nuts. Dishes were made of
gold and silver, set with precious
stones. The beds of Heliogabulus were
of solid silver, his table ana plates were
of pure gold, and his mattresses, covered
with carpets of cloth of gold, were
stuffed with down from under the wing
of the partridge.
1t took So, 900 year tn keep up the
dignity of a Roman Senator, and
some of them spent s., 600, 900 u year.
Cicero and Pompey "dropped in"
one day ON Lucullus-nobody at home
but the family-and that family dinner
cost E40O0.
But Wa talk of population. We boast
of LolCou s...,i New York. Rome had
a population of between three and four
millions. The wooden theatre of
ScaTarus contained eighty thousand
seats; the Coliseum, butt of stone
would seat eighty-seven thousand, and
afforded standing space for Twenty-Five
thousand more. The Circus MaXimus
think of it, Old John RObinsOnD
would hold three hundred and eighty
five thousand spectators. There were
in the city 1900 public baths, those of
Diocletian alone accommodating 800
bathers. Even the sixth century, after
Rome had been sacked and plundered
by the GOths and Nandals, Zachariah,
a traveller, asserts that there were ISL
spacious streets, 50 golden statutes of
the gods, 46,097 palaces, 1906 fOun-
tains, 3,7S5 bronze statutes of the En-
perors and generals, - great horses i'll
Is. pze, collossi, > spiritual columns,
81 theatres, IL amphitheatres, 9,O26
baths, 1900 shops of perfume, 2,O9l
prisons.
AS set off to Mr.. Sprague's "mOnu-
mental tombstone" We may merely
mention the Mausoleum of Augustus
i'm the northern part of the Campus
Martius, consisting of large tumulus
of earth raised on lofty basement of
white marble, and covered on the sum-
NIT with evergTeens, as in the manner
of hanging garden, the whole sur
mounted 10y bronze figure of Au-
rustus. At the entrance was two
Egyptian Obelisks, fifty feet high, and
all around was all extensive grove di-
yided into walks and terraces.
We have not space to speak of the
Forum Romanum, the Forum Julium,
the Theatre of Pompey, the Pantheon,
the Palace of Nero (entirely Overlaid
with Jewels and mOther-Ofpearl), the
Claudian Aqueduct, the Flavin Am
phitheatre. the Coliseum, the Arch of
| Titus, the Villa OF Hadrian, the baths of
Carcula, nor the great Roman roads,
straight as an arrow, paved like the
streets of city, divided by milestones,
and having houses for travellers every
five or six miles, aflOrding uninter-
rupted communication from tine Wall
of AntoniOus, through York, London,
sandwich, Bouiogne, Rheims, Lyons,
Milan. Rome, Brun>dusium, Dyrra-
chium, Byzantium, Ancyra, Tarsus,
Antioch, Tyre, Jerusalem-a distance
| of 3470 miles.
Nor have ives space to refertO Thebes,
in Egypt, (which had population of
:. 800, 900, and that noble palace within
its ground columns, whose cornices
were inlaid with ivory mOuntings, or
sheathed with beaten gold-nor Alex
andria, whose annual port dues were
$1,000, 900, and library, in an age when
| books were rare, contained 7U,OOO
volumes-nor to Capua, the second
city of Italy-nor Rhodes and its 5000
statues, and JOG colOssi lone of them
one of the seven wonders of the world,
costing s., 900, OOO)-nOr to Antioch, with
a street four miles long, perfectly level,
and double colOnnades through its
whole lenglh-nor to Athens, and
| the ParthenOn, and the Theatre of
Bacchus, the most beautiful, in the
world, which seated 10000 persons
nor to Syracuse and its fortress one
mile long by half mile in breadth
nor to Tyre and Carthage, and Bah
| ylon, and Bagiad and Memphis, and
Ephesus, and Byzantium, and hun
dred more.
! Character.
| Many a man, with the aid of dress,