The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-09-19
WEALTH OF ANCIENTS
THE ENORMOUS SUMS THEY ACcu-
INFLATED AND SPENT.

Potcntatcs Who Disposed of Annual In
comes Reaching Into tho Millions-Im-
mense Works of Art and Skin Carried
Out by These Rulers.
lt would be polite fiction to assert
that everybody vino looks upon tho
great monuments Of nntiQuity-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 tho
inquiry only an idiot fails to be struck
tor moment. 1t is SO curious TINT
while modern states, with all the ac-
cumulated wealth of the antique world
ut their back, and tho treasures of Mexi-
co, California, Australia. tho Transvaal
III 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, i'll the first place, the slaves
had to be procured somehow-by war or
purchase-and either means was expen-
sive. There is reply to that objection
equally facile-the war paid its own
cost III loot But this only leads us u
step backward. The loot must have been
enormous, and where did it como from?
In the second place, those slaves had to
be fed. and. however cheap their ra-
tons, the sum total must have been i'm
menso when such vast numbers were
employed.
But captivcs of war could only do
rO11ul, xunrly Tl,nx, 4
iseum or the pyramids, directed by an
army of skilled craftsmen But the
sculpture of Assyriun palaces, the paint
ing of Egyptian temples and tombs, must
have been effected by artists, probably
FREQ, or, if slaves, trained ut great ex.
pense.
When we read that tho city of Dur
Sargunu was created ON an empty plain,
by order Of the king, in eight years,
standing Oh mound of brick 700 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 wo observe the miles of sculptured
Stone that decorated Sargon's palace
with colossal bulls Oh each side of every
doorway. No Impractical hand carved
those reliefs. They arc the work of art.
lists. We're all the sculptors of the ON.
pro summoned to this task. to be fin.
lshed Ill eight years? But the tombs of
private individuals in Egypt must have
been painted, at the cost of the family,
by masters of tho craft Animals and
birds show 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 tho 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
rookoned up the amount of treasure
heaped upon the pile of Sardanapalus
by Athonous, and he finds that it camo
to ZIG. 1858, 1870, 600 i'll our money at the
least, for If computation which Athe-
n@us himself suggests be admitted tho
total would be about twice rs large.
After this tho statement of Diodoruse-
that the Pharaohs counted upon q reye-
nue. of el33, 1000, 900 annually from gold
mines in the Bishari desert and drew
an equal sum by taxation-is very mod
crate. But when the same most yalua-
BILE writer-who talked nonsense only
when he repeated the words Of other
men-comes to deal with Babylon he
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
correspond; Juno weighed 500 talents:
IN front Of her was golden table, 500
talents, upon which stood two cups,
300 talents each, and three bowls,
1000, 600 and 600 talents. These orna-
ments OF single temple represented
about e11.0o0,000 and the building
was covered with gold plates
1t has been calculated that the statue
of Northumberland mentioned in Daniel
would be worth GO, 500, 900; that the
treasure left by David amounted to
ESQ, 000,0 900 in gold, goo, 900, 600 in
silver, but the value of tho Hebrew tai
ent is doubtful. We are told that Pyth-
eus, seemingly private gentleman Of
Phrygla, entertained Xerxes and all his
army, with most sumptuous feasts,"
too-and then had e4,77O,O 900 left, or,
as some compnte. G3,600,' %. The talo
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 arc so clear and
the means of 6icprOt,in,y fl,o,,, ,I>,a,,.