The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-26
ANCIENT WEALTH.
The Enormous Sums Accumulated
and Spent by Early POtentates.

From the London Standard.
1t would be polite fiction to assert that
everybody who looks upon the great mon
uments of antiquity. the pyramids or the
coliseum, for example, thinks Of the cost,
and wonders where thd money came from.
But when, by chance a learned person
suggests the inquiry, only an idiot fails
to be struck for a moment. 1t is so curl
Gus that while modern states, with all the
accumulated 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 building a gov
eminent office, the early monarchs raised
palaces and temples by the hundred at
will. The thoughtless have ready ex-
planation-slave labor did 1t all. But in
the first place. the slaves had to be pro-
cured somehow-by war or purchase-and
either means was expensive. There is a
reply to that objection equally facile-the
war paid its own cost in loot The loot
must have been enormous, and where did
it come from? In the second place, those
slaves had to be fed, and however cheap
their rations. the sum total must have
been immense when such vast numbers
were employed.
But captives Of war could only do rough
work They might build the coliseum or
the pyramids, directed by an army of
skilled craftsmen. But the sculpture of
Assyrian palaces, the painting of Egyptian
temples and tombs must have been effect
ed by artists, probably free, or, If slaves
trained at great expense. When we read
that the city of Dur-Sargunu was created
on an empty plain, by order of the king,
i'm eight years, standing on a mound Of
brick 700 acres in area, it's walls sixty feet
10Th for rharinfu
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 Sargons palace with
colossal bulls on each side Of every door
way. No unpractised hand carved those
reliefs. They are the work of artists, not
made for sale when wanted, but to order,
each slab telling its fragment of the royal
annals. Were all the sculptors Of the en-
pire summoned to this task, to be finished
In eight years2 But the tombs Of private
individuals In Egypt must have been
painted at the cost OF the family by mas
tiers of the 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 the question recurs. how much gold
and silver did these ancients possess? In
the Roman time men appear 10 nave Deen
struck with the evidence OF vast wealth
displayed by their predecessors, such as
the Caesars could not equal. But they
escaped the difficulty with ease, by grant
ing them riches literally beyond the
dreams OF avarice. DR.. Arbuthnot, for ex-
ample has patiently reckoned up the
amount OF treasure heaped upon the pile
OF Sardanapalus by Athenaeus, and he
finds that Il came 10 fi6.953. 10000 In our
money at the least; for, II a computation
which Athenaeus himself suggests be adj
mitted. the total would be about twice as
large. After this, the statement OF Dl-
odorus-that the pharaohs counted upon
q revenue OF 1913. 10000 annually from gold
mines In the Blshan desert. and drew an
equal sum by taxatlon-ls very moderate
But when the same most valuable writer
who talked nonsense only when he re-
peated the words OF other men-comes TO
deal with Babylon, he let's himself 20.
There was a gold statue Of Zeus-the
Greek assigned his own gods 70 Babylon
az usual-forty feet high; OF Rhea equally
tall. with lion OF gold at each knee. and
silver sorpents 20 correspond Juno weighed
500 talents; In front OF her was a golden
table, 500 talents, upon which stood two
cups 800 talents each. and three bowls,
300 CO., and COO talents. These orna-
monta OF a single temple represented about
81 10000. and the building was covered
with gold plates. Il has been calculated
that the statue Of Nebuchadnezzar men