Note 22 — Chapter XVII · THE PLANS OF XERXES

[Many wonderful anecdotes are related of the riches of individuals in more ancient times; among which this does not seem to be the least marvellous. The sum of which Pythius is said to have been possessed amounted to five millions and a half of sterling money [$27,500,000]; this is according to the estimate of Prideaux; that given by Montfaucon differs essentially. “The denii,” says this last writer, “weighed eight modern louis-d’ors; therefore Pythius possessed thirty-two millions of louis-d’ors” [£25,600,000, $128,000,000].

Montfaucon, relating the story of Pythius, adds these reflections:

“‘A man might in those days safely be rich, provided he obtained his riches honestly; and how great must have been the circulation in commerce, if a private man could amass so prodigious a sum!’ The wealth which the Roman Crassus possessed was not much inferior; when he had consecrated a tenth of his property to Hercules, and at ten thousand tables feasted all the people of Rome, beside giving as much corn to every citizen as was sufficient to last him three months, he found himself still possessed of seventy-one hundred Roman talents, equivalent to a million and a half of our money. The gold which Solomon employed in overlaying the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple, which was no more than thirty feet square and thirty feet high, amounted to four millions three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling. The gold which he had in one year from Ophir was equal to three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds.”f]