The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-11-19
OLD-TIME PROSPERITY.
Tho Immense wealth and Great Wonders
~ OF tho Anoients.

.0LD-TIME PROSPERITY.
Tho Immense wealth and Great Wonders
OF h Aneients.
PEOPLE, SAYS the San Francisco Argo-
naut, had big fortunes, ana built hne
houses, and gave swell dinners, and
drank old wines. and we're liberal with
their money, before Vanderbilt or Stew
art, or Sharon, or the bonanza kings
were thought of. Why, what is Stew
art, or Belmont, or Flood, or Mackey. or
the MARQUIS of Westminster, to Ptol-
emy, Philadelphus or Egypt, who
amassed a little property of S35O,OOO,-
600? And which of our extravagant
Young ladies in these boosted times ever
gave her lover, as Cleopatra did, a pearl
dissolved in vinegar Tor undissolyed),
worth S4OO, 900? Then there was Pau.
lima. one Of the ton in Rome, who used
! to wear Jewels, when she returned her
visits, worth $500, 900. They boast OF
| Stewards marble palace, on Thirty
fourth street and Fifth avenue. We do
not supposethis house-which is about
the best they have in New York|cost
more than a million or SO OF dollars.
Cicero, who was a poor man, gave Sloc.',,
600 for his house, and Clodlus PAID
$3.50, 900 tor his establishment on the
Palatine, while MESSIAH gave S2,OOO,Coo
for the house of Antony. Seneca, who
was Just a plain philosopher, was worth
Sl2O, OOO, 600. Tiberius left a property
ofnearly 500, OOO, 900. Now we talk of
a mans failing for a million as if It were
a big thing. Caesar, before he entered
any ofice-when he was 8 young gen
tleluanin private life-owed $4,000 600,
and he purchas I'D the friendship of Qua.
sor for So, 500, 900. Mare Antony owed
ST. 500, 900 on the Ides Of March, and he
paid it before the Kalends of March.
That was nothing he squandered S72O,-
OoO, 900 of the public money his latest
defalcation being for the contemptible
sum of $3.50. 900. And these fellows
lived we'll. Esophus. who was a play
actor, paid S400. 600 for a single dish.
Caligula spent 100000 on i supper.
Their wines were often kept for two
ages, and some of them were sold for
500 an ounce. Dishes were made of
cold and silver, set with precious stones.
The beds of Heliogabalus were of solid
silver, his tables and 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. It took $780, a year to keep
I'D the dignity of a Roman senator, n
some of them spent $4,000, 600 a year.
Cicero and Pompey dropped in Zone
day on Lucullus-nobody at home but
the iamily-and that family dinner cost
$4,000. .s.ss ~, -.
We talk of population: W." boast OF
London and New York. Rome had a
population of between 100000 and A.
100000. The wooden theater Of Scaru-
rus contained 80, 1000 seats the Coliseum,
built of stone, would seat $4,000 more.
The Circus Maximus would hold 1885,
600 spectators. There were in the city
5000 public baths. those of Diocletian
accommodating 5000 bathers. Even In
the sixth century, after Rome had been
sacked and plundered by the Goths and
Vandals, Zachariah. q traveller, asserts
that there were 1874 spacious. streets,
eighty golden statues Of the gods, A.
sO97 palaces, 1862 fountains, 3,7s5
bronze statues of the eln~pcrorsand gen.
erals, twenty-five great horses mSbronze,
two colossi, two spiral columns, thirty
one theaters, eleven ampitheaters, 9,09l
baths, $500 shops Of perfumes, and
2,O26 prisons. -,
AS a set-off to Stewards monumental
tombstones," we may merely mention
the mausoleum Of Augustus in the
northern part of the Campus Martius,
consisting of a large tumulus Of earth
raised on 2 lofty basement OF white
marble, and covered on the summit
with evergreens, as in the manner of a
hanging garden-the whole surmounted
by a bronze figure of Augustus. At the
entrance were two Egyptian obelisks
fifty feet high; and all around was an
extensive grove, divided into walks and
terraces. We have not the heart to
speak Of the Forum Romanum, the
|Theater of Narcellus, the Pantheon, the
Palacei Of Nero (entirely overlaid5 with
Jewels and mother-of-pearl), the Claud-
ian Aqueduct. the Flavian Ampithea|
ter, the Coliseum, the Arch Of Titus,
the Villa of Hadrian, the Baths OF, Car
Gala, nor the great Roman roads,
straight as an arrow, paved like the
streets of a city, divided by milestones,
and having houses tor travellers every
five or six miles-affording uninter-
rupted communication from the Wall
Antonius through York, London, Sand
witch, Boulogue, Rheims, Lyons, Milan,
Rome, Brundusium, Dyrrachium, l'y-
zantium, Aneyra, Tarsus. Antioch, Tyr,
and Jerusalem-a distance Of :3,475
miles. Nor have we space to refer to
Thebes, in Egypt (Which has q popula-
ton Of $500, O0O), and to that noble pal
ace, with its grand columns, whose cor
nices were inlaid with mountings or
sheathed with beaten gold; mort to Alex
andria, whose annual port dues were
Sc, 900, O0O, and whose library, in an
age when books were rare, con-
tanned 700. 600 volumes; nor to
Capua, the second CITY of Italy; nor
to: Rhodes and its statues and one hun
| dred colossi-one Of them the seventh
wonder of the world, and costing 5000.
600; nor to Antioch, with q street four
miles long. perfectly level, with double
.colonnades through its whole length
nor to Athens and the Farthenon, and
the Theater of Baccus-the most beauti-
full in the world, which seated 30,eo(
persons; o to Syracuse, and its fortress
one mile long by half a mile in breadth
nor to Tyre and Carthage. and Babylon,
and Byzantium, and o hundred others