Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-01-07
WEALTH OF ANCTENTS
THE ENORMOUS SUMS THEY AC.
CUMULATEO AND SPENT.

pyramluS OF Cne COllSeum, loT GA
ample-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 a moment. 1t is so
curious that while modern states,
with all the accumulated wealth of
the antique world at their back, and
the treasurers of Mexico, California,
Australia, the Transvaal in addition,
have to consider ways and means with
anxious care before building govern
ment office, the early monarchs 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
purchase-and either means was ex-
pensive. There is reply to that OBJ
lection equally facile-the war paid
its own cost in loot. 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 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 effected by
artists, probably free, or, if slaves,
trained ut great expense.
When we read that the city of Dur
Sargon was created on an empty
plain, by order of the king, in eight
years, standing on q 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 be-
far greater when we observe the
miles of sulptured stone that decorated
Sargon's palace with collosal bulls on
each side of every doorway. No un-
practiced hand carved those reliefs.
They are the work of artists. Were all
the sculptors of the empire summoned
to this task, to be finished in eight
years? But the tombs of private indi-
viduals in Egypt must have been paint
ed, at the cost of the family, by mas
ters of the 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 the questions 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 pre-
decessors, such as the Caesars could
not equal. But they escaped the DIFF
ficulty with ease by granting them
riches literally beyond the dreams of
avarice. DR.. Arbuthnot, for example,
has patiently reckoned up the amount
of treasure heaped upon the pile of
sardanapalus by Athen@us, and he
finds that it came to E16,953, ,12O, 900
in our money at the least, for if q COM
putation which Athen@us himself
suggests be admitted the total would
be about twice as large. After this
the statement of Diodorus-that the
Pharaohs counted upon a revenue of
4lS3 OOO,O 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 valu-
able writer-who talked nonsense only
when he repeated the words of other
men-comes to deal with Babylon he
lets himself go. There was a gold
statue of Zeus (the Greek assigned his
own gods to Babylon as usnal) 40 feet
high; of Rhea equally tall, with a lion
of gold at each knee and silver SER
pents to correspond; Juno weighed
500 talents; in front of her was a
golden table, 500 talents, upon which
stood two cups, 300 talents each. and
three bowls, 1900, GOO and 600 talents.
These ornaments of single temple
represented about 411,OO0,OOO, and
the building was covered with gold
plates.
It has been calculated that the
statue of Nebuchadnesser mentioned
in Daniel would be worth $500, QUO
pounds; that the treasure left by
David amounted to 15O,OOO!OOO in
gold, 200, 900 pounds in silver, but
the value of the Hebrew talent is
doubtful. We are told that Pythens,
seemingly a private gentleman OF
Phrygia, entertained Xerxes and all
his army, "with most sumptuous
feasts," too-and then had 4,77O,OOO,-