Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-09-18
WEALTH OF ANCIENTS
THE ENORMOUS SUMS THEY Accu-
INFLATED AND SPENT.

Potentatcs who Disposed of Annual In
comes Reaching Into the Mfilions-Im-
mense works of Art and skin Carried
Out by These Rulers.
It would be polite fiction to assert
that everybody who looks upon the
great monuments Of antiquity-the
pyramids or the Coliseum, for example
thinks of the cost and wonders where
the money came from. But when, by
chance, learned person suggests the
inquiry only an idiot fails to be struck
for moment. 1t is so curious that
while modern states, with all the ac-
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 at will The thoughtless have
a ready explanation-slave labor did it
all But, in the first place, the slaves
had to be procured somehow--by war or
purohase-and either means was expen-
sive There is a reply to that objection
equally facile-the war paid its own
cost in loot. But this only leads us
step backward. 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 ra
tions, 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, if 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 mound of brick 700 acres
in area, its walls so 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 reliefs. They are the work of art.
lists. We're all the sculptors of the EN-.
esire summoned to this task. to be fin.
Sshed in eight years? But the tombs of
2rivate individuals in Egypt must have
been painted, at the cost of the family,
by masters of the craft. Animals and
birds show a skill not to be surpassed.
We may be quite sure that work like
this was highly paid-by comparison,
that is, with slave labor
So the question recurs, How much
gold and silver did these ancients pos
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 Athen9us, and he finds that it came
to e16, 953, 1870, 600 in our money at the
least, for if a computation which Athe-
n9us himself suggests be admitted the
total would be about twice rs large
After this the statement of Diodorus--
that the Pharaohs counted upon reve-
nue. of gl33, 600, 600 annually from gold
mines in the Bishari desert and drew
an equal sum by taxation--is very mod
crate But when the same most valua-
BILE writer-who talked nonsense only
when he repeated the words of other
men-comes to deal with Babylon he
let's himself go. There was a gold statue
of Zeus (the Greek assigned his own
gods to Babylon as usual 40 feet high;
of Rhea equally tall, with a lion of
gold at each knee and silver serpents to
correspond; Juno weighed 500 talents;
in front of her was a golden table. 800
talents, upon which stood two cups,
800 talents each, and three bowls,
1900, 600 and 900 talents. These orna-
ments of single temple represented
about e11,000, 900, and the building
was covered with gold plates
1t has been calculated that the statue
Of Nebuchadnezzar mentioned in Daniel
would be worth e3, 500, 600; that the
treasure left by David amounted to
el50, 900, 900 in gold, e200, 600, 600 in
silver, but the value of the Hebrew tai
ent is doubtful. We are told that Pyth-
Gus, seemingly private gentleman of
Phrygia, entertained Xerxes and all his
army, with most sumptuous feasts,
too-and then had CATO, 600 left, or,
as some compute, 5000, 20. 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
$40, 600, 600; at Persepolis, SIS 600, o.
600; at Pasagurda, a trife of go, 00O,
600; at Ecbatana, G270, 900, 00O-say
$3.50, 600, 600. And Darius carried off
so, 600, 600, which his murderers seized.
London Standard.