The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1881-07-30

slight gift of 100000 to one of his
friends who CHANGED to please him.
These gentlemen from all accounts
seem to have lived well. The gentle
Caligula gave supper on one Occa-
sion that cost him 100000, and it i
quite supposable that he was accus-
toned to this sort of thing since he
was an accomplished gOurmand. His
favorite horse Incitatue was kept in
an ivory stable and fed from golden
manger; gilt cord was usually served
up TO this uHlucky horse in 4 golden
basin of exquisite workmanship. The
I wines drank by these bon yivants
were of an old age, and some of them
cost $40 an ounce. The beds of youn.
| HeliOgabaluS were of solid silver, his
| tables and plates were of pure gold,
and his mattresses, covered with car
pets of cloth of gold, were stuffed with
down from under the wings of par
fridge.
Varre speaks of one Ptolemy, pri-
vate gentleman. who in the time of
I POmpcy commanded in Syria, and
maintained 5000 horses at his person.
al expense; and had generally 500
guests at his table, who had each
gold cup which was changed at every
course. Such pecuniary means might
fairly be called competency, but it is
nothing to Pythias of Bythnia, who
fcasted the whole army of XerXes
one day in a splendid manner, at his
/ own cost, though it consisted of l,700,-
600 men, offering that price five
months pay for that prodigious host,
and the necessary provisions for the
| whole time.
1t is natural to suppose that such
people would inhabit fire houses, and
they did, and their cities were really
worth looking at. Some people think
that Paris and London and Vienna
and New York are places of some i'm
p0rtance. So they are now, but then
=? Think of Rome with a pOpula-
| ton variouslv estimated at from three
TO four millions, and crowded with
| theatres and temples and columns and
| baths, etc. Scaurus built theatre
which could contain 10000 spectators,
I was supported by 800 columns of pol
ished marble 80 feet in height and
/
/ The Colosseum would seat $1,000 and
afforded standing space for $4,000
more. The work on the exterior of
| the building cost 100000. Talk of
| the large and costly edifice of modern
times! Where would they be in COM
parison with the circus Maximus
built by Tarquinius Priscus, whose
| length was 2lS7 feet, and its circum-
ference over a mile. In this theatre
$4,000 spectators could be accommo-
| dated, and there were generally few
vacant seats when the sports COM
menced. Our free baths are becOm-
ing a feature in our advancing civil
cation, but Rome had 5000 public
/ baths. those of DiOcietian alone accom-
mOdating over 1000 bathers. ItwOuld
/ require a volume to speak of the
Theatre of Pompey, with its portico of
a hundred columns the Temple of
| Apollo, the Pantheon, the palace of
/ Nero, the vestibule of which was 200
feet high, and the building had a
! triple portico a mile long. "Every
portion of this palace was everlaid
with gold. embellished with gems and
with mOther-of-pearl. The ceilings of
the banqueting rooms were fretted
into ivory Golfers, made to turn, that
flowers might be showered down
upon the guests, aud also furnished
with pipes for discharging perfumes"
That is the way Suclonius describes it,
and Nero named it properly when he
called it ''The Golden House."
We have neither time nor space to
refer to Thebes in Egypt, which had
population of 100000, and that noble
palace with its grand columns, whose
cornices were inlaid with ivory mount
ings or sheathed with beaten gold;
nor Alexandria, whose annual port
dues were $6,000000, and whose
/ library, in an age when there were no
books, qsptained 100000 volumes,
among W%fch were the whole of Greek
and Latin literature !; nor to Rhodes
and its 5000 statues and 106 cQlOssi
| Zone of them one of the seven wonders
of the world, costing $3,000,000); AOr
| to Athens and the Parthenon and the
Theatre of BacchuS, which took over
100 years to build and was the most
magnificent in the world, having seat
ing capacity for $4,000 persons; nor to
Carthage, over twenty-three miles in
circumference and employing 10000
men in working her gold mines nor
! to Ephesus, with its magnificent Tenn
pie of Diana, which was 200 years in
building, having 127 columns of
Parian marble, each of a single shaft
and sixty feet high, nor to Ninevah
and Tyre and Bagdad and PerEepOlis
and Byzantium and 100 more.