The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1908-02-15
Croesus and Rockefeller.
BY JOHN A. SCOTT,
Professor of Greek in Northwestern University

UulVcISUy
RUS by Xerxes. Thus by the time Of
Xerxes, Lydia had for many years
been a subject and tribute bearing
nation, plurdered again and again,
stripped Of her commerce, her tribute
and her power, SO that her wealth
could have been only trifling frac-
Croesus When Xerxes led his great
army to Greece, which later met de-
feat at Salamis and Platea, he passed
through Lydia; while on the march
he was given entertainment by Ly-
dian named Pythius, supposed to have
been distant relative of Croesus, but
SO little known that his name had
never reached the ears Of XerXes.
During the entertainment Pythius in
formed the king that when he heard
Of his approach he had made careful
count of all his ready money, that he
had on hand in gold and silver s24,-
900, 900, and that he wished to pre-
sent it to the king as token of re-
gard. The king hesitated about TAX
ing his money lest Pythius might be
reduced 70 want, but Pythius replied:
My lands, estates, slaves and income
bearing property are still untouched.
This sum Of money was simply cash
on hand which he had not yet in
vested. At the rate of ten to one in
modern purchasing power, Pythius
had ready money equalling $780,
100000. Here is in Lydia, after sew
eral reigns of foreign oppressors,
man almost unknown, who had on
hand in ready money more than twice
the estimated value of property Of all
kinds in the estate left by Marshall
Field, the largest estate ever probated
in America. Yet Pythius' wealth
made not the slightest impression on
those who were familiar with the
wealth of Croesus and his ancestors.
Aside from fiction, poetry and ia
BILE, we have one certain means of APP
preciating the vastness of the wealth
Of Croesus, and that is his gift to for
eign temples. He was the patron of
many religious shrines in his own and
foreign countries. However, we have
the official record of but one particu-
lar gift. all of which was given in
connection with one occasion, and
this gift was not unique, as we have
the record that an exact duplicate
was sent at the same time to one
other non-Lydian shrine AS this
gift consisted largely OF gold and sill
yer, the offerings must be weighed in
and an exact record of them kept in
the temple, SO that no one could
scrape off or hollow out the gold
These gifts were genuine and solid.
since the acceptance of shams would
have ruined the keeper who was re-
sponsible for making good the record
ed gifts.
This gift was made to the temple
and people at Delphi. and the weights
and measurements are taken from
the official records, so they are as re-
liable as the clearing accounts of
bank. They are given by Herodotus,
who copied them from the records,
and is competent and reliable au-
thority in all matters in which facts
were attainable.
This one gift to Delphia was pyr-
amid of one hundred and seventeen
bricks surmounted by a lion, the
bricks each eighteen inches long,
nine inches wide and three inches
hioly Tho I,r:o
pure gold and weighed over two hun
dred pounds each. The other one
hundred and thirteen bricks had a
certain alloy of silver, the ratio being
three parts OF silver to seven of gold.
The lion on the pyramid was OF pure
gold and weighed about eight hun
dred pounds. The value in gold and
silver alone in this Offering reached
$3,500,0Oo. If we add fifteen per
cent, or 100000 for the work of
the artists who made them, for trans
portation, and the cost of a proper
foundation, we shall put this one gift
at 100000. Accompanying this
were two enormous bowls. each con-
tanning fifty-four hundred gallons,
one of solid gold, the other of silver.
The weight Of the gold bowl was
about eight hundred pounds. The
thing about these bowls which was
most remarkable was the artistic
workmanship, as they were the pro-
duct of the most renowned and skilful
artists. If we add to the value of
the metals the probable cost of max
ing these bowls we shall have another
million dollars. He also sent a gold
en- image of a woman, said to be his
bread baker. This image was nearly
five feet high. and when one considers
the great weight of gold we can hard