Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-09-30
WEALTH OF ANCIENTS
THE ENORMOUS SUMS THEY AccU-
INFLATED AND SPENT.

The ENORMOUS SUMS THEY ACCU-
INFLATED AND SPENT.
comes Reas hing Into the Millions-Im-
mense Works of Art and skill Carried
Out by These Rulers.
It would te polite fiction to assert
| that everyb ody who locks upon the
great monu ments Of aDtiquity-the
pyramidsor the Coliseum, for example
thinks Of the cost and wonders where
the money! came from. But when, By
chance, le armed person suggests the
| inquiry only an idiot fails to be struck
Tor a moment. 1t is so curious that
while modeI n states, with all the &C
cumulated wealth of the antique world
at their back and the treasures Of Mexi-
co. California, Australia. the Transvaal
IN addition. have to consider ways and
means with anxious care before build
ing government Office, the early mon
archs raised palaces and temples by the
hundred ut will. The thoughtless have
q ready explanation-slave labor did it
all But, in the first place, the slaves
had to be procured somehow-by war or
purchase-and either means was expen-
sive. Theme is reply to that objection
equally facile-the war paid its own
cost in loCS. But this only leads us a
step backward. The loot must have been
enormous, and where did it come from?
In the second place, those slaves had to
be feu. and. however cheap their ra-
lions, the sum total must have been i'm
mense when such vast numbers were
employed.
But captives of war could only do
rough work. They might build the Col
iseum or-the pyramids. directed by an
army Of skilled craftsmen. But the
sculpture of Assyrian palaces, the paint.
ing OF Egyptian temples and tombs, must
have been effected by artists, probably
free, or, II slaves, trained at great ex.
pense
When we read that the city Of Dur
Sargunu was created on an empty plain,
by order of the king, in eight years,
standing on a mound of brick 200 acres
in area, its walls 60 feet high, broad
enough for seven chariots to run abreast,
and faced with stone, all the evidence
IS needed to make US credit the story,
but the marvel becomes far greater
when we observe the miles of sculptured
stone that decorated Sargon's palace
with colossal bulls on each side of every
doorway. No Impractical hand carved
those rellefs They are the work of art.
lists. Were all the sculptors of the en-
pre- summoned to this task, to be fin.
lshed i'll eight years? But the tombs of
private individuals in Egypt must have
been painted, ut the cost of the family,
by masters of tho craft Animals and
birds show a skill not to be surpassed.
We may be quite sure that work like
this was highly paddy comparison,
that Is. with slave labor.
so tie question recurs, How much
gold and silver did these ancients DOS
sess: In the Roman time men appear to
have been struck with the evidence Of
vast wealth displayed By their predeces-
sors, such as the Caesars could not equal
But they escaped the difficulty with
ease by granting them riches literally
beyond the dreams OF avarice. DR.. Ar
buthnot, for example, has patiently
reckoned up the amount of treasure
heaped upon the pile Of Sardanapalus
BY AtheIaeus, and he finds that it came
to ZIG, 953, 1870. 900 in our money at the
least, for if computation which Athe
naus himself suggests be admitted the
total would be about twice as large
After this the statement of Diodorus-
that the Fharaohs counted upon q reve-
nue. of e133, 600, 600 annually from gold
mines i'll the Bishari desert and drew
an equal sum by taxation-is very mod
crate. But when the same most valua-
bic writer-who talked nonsense only
when he repeated the words Of other
men-comes to deal with Babylon be
lets himself go. There was gold statue
OF Zeus (the Greek assigned his own
gods to Babylon as usually 40 feet high;
OF Rhea equally tall, with lion of
gold at each knee and silver serpents to
corresponds; Juno weighed 600 talents;
In front of her was golden table. 500
talents, upon which stood two Guns. !.
300 talents each, and three bowls,
1900, 600 and 600 talents These orna-
ments of single temple represented
about Ell 100000, and the building
was covered with gold plates
1t has been calculated that the statue
of Nebuchadnezzar mentioned in Daniel
would be worth GO, 500, 600; that the
treasure left by David amounted to
e150, 900, 900 in gold, a200, 900, 600 in
silver. but the value of the Hebrew tai
ent is doubtful. We are told that Pvth-
Gus, seemingly a private gentleman of
Phrygia, entertained Xerxes and all his
army, with most sumptuous feasts,"
too-and then had "a, 770, coo left, or,
as some compute, GO, 600. 10. The tale
OF Alexander's loot is most wonderful
of all, and that is historic. If we enter
tain doubts, it is futile to express them
when the statements are SO clear and
the means of disproving them absent
In the Persian camp, then. and at Baby
Ion Alexander secured something like
f7O. 600, 600; at Persepolis. Els OOO,.
600; at Pasagurda, trifle Of So, O0O,-
GOO; at Ecbatana, zero, 900. OOO-say
fo50, 600. 900. And Darius carried off
SO. 000 600 which his murderers seized