History of Julius Caesar Vol. 1 of 2

242

“The military port alone contained two hundred and twenty vessels.” (Appian, Punic Wars, VIII. 96, p. 437, ed. Schweighæuser.)

243

Appian, Punic Wars, VIII. 95, p. 436.

244

Strabo, XVII. iii. § 15.

245

Appian, Punic Wars, VIII. 130, p. 490.

246

5,820,000 francs [£232,800]. (Appian, Punic Wars, CXXVII. 486.) Following the labours of MM. Letronne, Böckh, Mommsen, &c., we have admitted for the sums indicated in the course of the present work the following reckonings: —

The as of copper = 1/10 deniers = 5 centimes.

The sestertius = 0.975 grammes = 19 centimes.

The denarius = 3.898 grammes = 75 centimes.

The great sestertius = 100,000 sestertii = 19,000 francs [£760].

The Attic or Euboic talent, of 26 kilogrammes, 196 grammes = 5,821 francs [£232 16s.].

The mina, of 436 grammes = 97 francs.

The drachma, of 4.37 grammes = 97 centimes.

The obolus, of 0.73 grammes = 16 centimes.

The Æginetic talent was equivalent to 8,500 Attic drachmas (37 kilogrammes, 2 gr.) = 8,270 francs [£330 16s.]. The Babylonic silver talent is of 33 kilogrammes, 42 = 7,426 francs [£297]. (See, for details, Mommsen, Römisches Münzwesen, pp. 24-26, 55. Hultsch, Griechische und Römische Metrologie, pp. 135-137.)

247

Nearly 700,000 francs [£28,000]. (Athenæus, XII. lviii. 509, ed. Schweighæuser.)

248

Strabo, XVII. iii. § 15.

249

Scylax of Caryanda, Periplus, p. 51 et seq., ed. Hudson.

250

See the work of Heeren, Ideen über die Politik, den Verkehr, und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt, Part I., Vol. II., secs. v. and vi., p. 163 et seq., 188 et seq. 3rd edit.

251

Athenæus informs us that Polemon had composed an entire treatise on the mantles of the divinities of Carthage. (XII. lviii. 541.)

252

Herodotus, VII. 145. – Polybius, I. 67. – Titus Livius, XXVIII. 41.

253

Reckoning, after Titus Livius, her troops at the time of the second Punic War, we find a force of 291,000 foot and 9,500 horse. (Titus Livius, Books XXI. to XXIX.)

254

Carthage, under certain circumstances, could make daily a hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred lances, and a thousand darts for catapults. (Strabo, XVII. iii. § 15.)

255

Strabo, XVII. iii. § 15.

256

In 513, 3,200 Euboic talents (18,627,200 francs [£745,088]); in 516, 1,200 talents (6,985,200 francs [£279,408]); in 552, 10,000 talents (58,210,000 francs [£2,328,400]). Scipio, the first Africanus, brought, besides this, 123,000 pounds weight of gold from this town. (Polybius, I. 62, 63, 88; XV. 18. – Titus Livius, XXX. 37, 45.)

257

Aristotle, Politics, VII. iii. § 5. – Polybius, I. 72.

258

Diodorus Siculus, XX. 17.

259

Pliny, Natural History, V. iii. 24.

260

Scylax of Caryanda, Periplus, p. 49. edit. Hudson.

261

Polybius, XII. 3.

262

Titus Livius, XXXIV. 62.

263

58,200 francs (£2,328). (Titus Livius, XXII. 31.)

264

Sallust, Jugurtha, xix.

265

Pliny, citing this fact, throws doubt upon it. (Natural History, V. i. 8.) – See the Periplus of Hanno, in the collection of the minor Greek geographers.

266

Strabo, III. v. § 3.

267

Strabo, III. ii. § 1.

268

Pliny, Natural History, III. iii. 30. – Strabo, III. ii. § 8.

269

Strabo, III. ii. § 3. – Pliny, III. i. 3; XXXIII. vii. 40.

270

Above 25,000 francs [£1,000]. (Strabo, III. ii. § 10.)

271

767,695 pounds of silver and 10,918 pounds of gold, without reckoning what was furnished by certain partial impositions, sometimes very heavy, such as those of Marcolica, one million of sestertii (230,000 francs [£9,200]), and of Certima, 2,400,000 sestertii (550,000 francs [£22,000]). (See Books XXVIII. to XLVI. of Titus Livius.) Such were the resources of Spain, even in the smallest localities, that in 602, C. Marcellus imposed on a little town of the Celtiberians (Ocilis) a contribution of thirty talents of silver (about 174,600 francs [£6,984]); and this contribution was regarded by the neighbouring cities as most moderate. (Appian, Wars of Spain, VI. xlviii. 158, ed. Schweighæuser.) Posidonius, cited by Strabo (III. iv., p. 135), relates that M. Marcellus extorted from the Celtiberians a tribute of six hundred talents (about 3,492,600 francs [£139,704]).

272

A fabulous people, spoken of by Homer. (Athenæus, I. xxviii. 60, edit. Schweighæuser.)

273

Diodorus Siculus, V. 34, 35.

274

Pliny, Natural History, XIX. i. 10.

275

In the time of Hannibal, this town was one of the richest in the peninsula. (Appian, Wars of Spain, xii. 113.)

276

Strabo, III. iv. § 2.

277

Polybius, XXXIV., Fragm., 8.

278

The medimnus of barley (52 litres) sold for one drachma (97 centimes); the medimnus of wheat, 9 oboli (about 1 franc 45 centimes). (The medium value of 52 litres in France is 10 francs.) A metretes of wine (39 litres) was worth one drachma (97 centimes); a hare, one obolus (16 centimes); a goat, one obolus (16 centimes); a lamb, from 3 to 4 oboli (50 to 60 centimes); a pig of a hundred pounds weight, 5 drachmas (4 francs 85 centimes); a sheep, 2 drachmas (1 franc 95 centimes); an ox for drawing, 10 drachmas (9 francs 70 centimes); a calf, 5 drachmas (4 francs 85 centimes); a talent (26 kilogrammes) of figs, 3 oboli (45 centimes).

279

Strabo, III. ii. § 1.

280

Appian, Wars of Spain, i. 102. – Pompey, in the trophies which he raised to himself on the coast of Catalonia, affirmed that he had received the submission of eight hundred and seventy-seven oppida. (Pliny, Natural History, III. iii. 18.) – Pliny reckoned two hundred and ninety-three in Hispania Citerior, and a hundred and seventy-nine in Bætica. (Natural History, III. iii. 18.) – We may, moreover, form an idea of the number of inhabitants by the amount of troops raised to resist the Scipios. In adding together the numbers furnished by the historians, we arrive at the fearful total of 317,700 men killed or made prisoners. (Titus Livius, XXX. et. seq.) – In 548, we see two nations of Spain, the Ilergetes and the Ausetani, joined with some other petty tribes, put on foot an army of 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. (Titus Livius, XXIX. 1.) – We remark fifteen to twenty others whose forces are equal or superior. After the battle of Zama, Spain furnished Hasdrubal with 50,000 footmen and 4,500 horsemen. (Titus Livius, XXVIII. 12, 13.) – Cato has no sooner appeared with his fleet before Emporiæ, than an army of 40,000 Spaniards, who could only have been collected in the surrounding country, is ready prepared to resist him. (Appian, Wars of Spain, 40, p. 147.) – In Lusitania itself, a country of which the population was much less, we see Servius Galba and Lucullus killing 12,500 men. (Appian, Wars of Spain, 58, 59, p. 170 et. seq.) – Although laid waste and depopulated by these two generals, the country, at the end of a few years, furnished again to Viriathus considerable forces.

281

Titus Livius, XXII. 20.

282

Strabo, IV. i. § 11; ii. § 14; iii. § 3.

283

See what M. Amedée Thierry says, Hist. des Gaul., II. 134 et seq. 3d edit.

284

Pliny, XXI. 31.

285

Diodorus Siculus, V. 26. – Athenæus, IV. xxxvi. 94.

286

Demosthenes, Thirty-second Oration against Zenothemis, 980, edit. Bekker.

287

Strabo, IV. vi. § 2, 3.

288

Diodorus Siculus, V. xxxix.

289

See Titus Livius, XXXII. to XLII.

290

See Strabo, V. i. § 10, 11.

291

Strabo, V. i. § 12.

292

Gold was originally very abundant in Gaul; but the mines whence it was extracted, and the rivers which carried it, must have been soon exhausted, for the quality of the Gaulish gold coins becomes more and more abased as the date of their fabrication approaches that of the Roman conquest.

293

Strabo, V. i. § 7. – Titus Livius, X. 2.

294

Pliny, Natural History, III. xvi. 119. – Martial, Epigr., IV. xxv. —Antonine Itinerary, 126.

295

Pliny, Natural History, XXXVII. iii. § 11.

296

Small vessels, quick sailers, and rapid in their movements, excellent for piracy; also called liburnæ, from the name of the people who employed them.

297

Polybius, II. 5.

298

Titus Livius, XLI. 2, 4, 11.

299

Polybius, II. 8.

300

Titus Livius, XXXIX. 5.

301

Pliny, XXXV. 60.

302

Polybius, XXII. 13.

303

Polybius, XXX. xv. § 5. – Titus Livius, XLV. 34.

304

Plutarch, Flamininus, 2.

305

Polybius, V. 9.

306

Aristides, Panathen., p. 149.

307

Pausanias, Attica, xxviii.

308

Plutarch, Sylla, 20.

309

Pausanias, Laconia, xi. We must further mention the famous temple of bronze of Minerva, the two gymnasia, and the Platanistum, a spacious place where the competitions of the youths took place, (Pausanias, Laconia, xiv.)

310

Stephanus of Byzantium, under the word Λακεδαἱμων, p. 413.

311

Pausanias, Laconia, xxi.

312

Titus Livius, XXXIV. 29.

313

Pausanias, Arcadia, xlv.

314

Pausanias, Arcadia, xli. Thirty-six columns out of thirty-eight are still standing.

315

Pliny, Natural History, XIX. i. 4.

316

Pausanias, Elis, II. 23 and 24.

317

Pausanias, Elis, I. ii.

318

Strabo, VIII. § 10, 19.

319

Pausanias, Corinth, xxviii. 1.

320

Pausanias, Corinth, xxvii.

321

“Goods were not obliged to make the circuit by Corinth; a direct road crossed the isthmus in the narrowest part, and they had even established there a system of rollers on which vessels of small tonnage were transported from one sea to the other.” (Strabo, VIII. ii. § 3. – Polybius, IV. 19.)

322

Pausanias, Attica, ii.

323

Cicero, De Republica, II. 4. – Strabo, VIII. vi. § 20.

324

Strabo, VIII. vi. § 23. – Pliny, Natural History, XXXV. x. § 36.

325

Arrian, Expedition of Alexander, I. xvi. 4. – Velleius Paterculus, I. 40. – Plutarch, Alexander, 16.

326

Athenæus, VI. 272.

327

Titus Livius, XXXII. 16.

328

Titus Livius, XLV. 18, 29.

329

Titus Livius, XLII. 12.

330

“These were, in money, 100 talents (582,000 francs [£23,280]), and in wheat, 100,000 artabæ (52,500 hectolitres); and also considerable quantities of ship-building timber, tar, lead, and iron.” (Polybius, V. 89.)

331

About 1,164,000 francs [£46,560]. Perseus had promised him twice as much. (Titus Livius, XLII. 67.)

332

Titus Livius, XLIV. 42.

333

Titus Livius, XLIV. 41.

334

Titus Livius, XLV. 82.

335

Titus Livius, XLV. 33.

336

It lasted three days: the first was hardly sufficient to pass in review the 250 chariots laden with statues and paintings; the second day, it was the turn of the arms, placed on cars, which were followed by 3,000 warriors carrying 750 urns full of money; each, borne by four men, contained three talents (the whole amounting to more than 13 millions of francs [£520,000]). After them came those who carried vessels of silver, chased and wrought. On the third day appeared in the triumphal procession those who carried the gold coins, with 77 urns, each of which contained three talents (the total about 17 millions [£680,000]); next came a consecrated cup, of the weight of ten talents, and enriched with precious stones, made by order of the Roman general. All this preceded the prisoners, Perseus and his household; and, lastly, came the car of the triumphant general. (Plutarch, Paulus Æmilius, 32, 33.)

337

Titus Livius, XLV. 40.

338

Polybius, IV. 38, 44, 45.

339

Aristotle, Politics, VI. 4, § 1. – Ælian, Various Histories, III. 14.

340

Strabo, VII. vi. § 2; XII. iii. § 11.

341

Cicero, Oration for the Law Manilia, vi.

342

Plutarch, Sylla, xxv.

343

Especially the fish called pelamydes, objects of research throughout Greece. (Strabo, VII. vi. § 2; XII. iii. § 11, § 19.)

344

Strabo, XII. iii. § 19.

345

Strabo, XII. iii. § 13. Gadilonitis extended to the south-west of Amisus (Samsoun).

346

Polybius, V. 44, 55. – Ezekiel xxvii. 13, 14.

347

Xenophon, Retreat of the Ten Thousand, V. v. 34. – Homer, Iliad, II. 857.

348

Strabo, XII. iii. § 19.

349

There passed in the procession a statue of gold of the King of Pontus, six feet high, with his shield set with precious stones, twenty stands covered with vases of silver, thirty-two others full of vases of gold, with arms of the same metal, and with gold coinage; these stands were carried by men followed by eight mules loaded with golden beds, and after whom came fifty-six others carrying ingots of silver, and a hundred and seven carrying all the silver money, amounting to 2,700,000 drachmas (2,619,000 francs [£104,760]). (Plutarch, Lucullus, xxxvii.)

350

Plutarch, Lucullus, xxiii.

351

Strabo, XII. iii. § 13, 14.

352

Appian, War against Mithridates, lxxviii.

353

Plutarch, Lucullus, xiv.

354

See what is reported by Plutarch (Lucullus, xxix.) of the riches and objects of art of every species with which Tigranocerta was crammed.

355

Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xiii. p. 658; xv. p. 662; xvii. p. 664.

356

Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xvii. 664. Lesser Armenia furnished 1,000 horsemen. Mithridates had a hundred and thirty chariots armed with scythes.

357

Strabo, XII. iv. § 2. – Stephanus Byzantinus, under the word Νικομἡδειον. – Pliny, Natural History, V. xxxii. 149.

358

Strabo, XII. iii. § 6.

359

Appian, Wars of Mithridates, xvii.

360

Strabo, XII. v. § 7.

361

Strabo (XII. v. § 3) tells us that Pessinus was the greatest mart of the province.

362

Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 23.

363

Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 26.

364

Diodorus Siculus, XVIII. 16.

365

Strabo, XII. ii. § 10.

366

About 3,500,000 francs [£140,000]. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 37.) See Appian, Wars of Syria, xlii. – “Demetrius obtained soon afterwards a thousand talents (5,821,000 francs [£232,840]) from Olophernes for having established him on the throne of Cappadocia.” (Appian, Wars of Syria, xlvii.)

367

Strabo, XII. ii. 7, 8.

368

Falkener, Ephesus: London, 1862.

369

Natural History, V. xxx. 126.

370

It was thence that the fleets of the kings of Pergamus put to sea. (Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 40; XLIV. 28.)

371

The name of Pergamus is preserved in our modern languages in the word “parchment” (pergamena), which was used to designate the skin which was prepared in that town to serve as paper, after the Ptolemies had prohibited the exportation of Egyptian papyrus.

372

Attalus I., King of Pergamus, gave to the Sicyonians 11,000 medimni of wheat. (Titus Livius, XXXII. 40.) – Eumenius II. lent 80,000 to the Rhodians. (Polybius, XXXI. xvii. 2.)

373

Strabo, XII. viii. § 11.

374

Athenæus, XV. xxxviii. 513, ed. Schweighæuser.

375

The Sea of Marmora took its name from these quarries of marble.

376

Κυξικηνοἱ στατἡρες, whence the word sequins.

377

Strabo, XIII. i. § 23.

378

Strabo, XV. iii. § 22.

379

Titus Livius, XXXII. 16; XXXVI. 43.

380

Titus Livius, XXXVII. 8.

381

The petty king Moagetes, who reigned at Cibyra, in Phrygia, gave a hundred talents and 10,000 medimni of corn (Polybius, XXII. 17. – Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 14 and 15); Termessus, fifty talents; Aspendus, Sagalassus, and all the cities of Pamphylia, paid the same (Polybius, XXII. 18 and 19); and the towns of this part of Asia contributed, at the first summons of the Roman general, for about 600 talents (3,500,000 francs [£140,000]); they also delivered to him about 60,000 medimni of corn.

382

Titus Livius, XXXIX. 6.

383

Manlius, although he had been despoiled on his way home of a part of his immense booty by the mountaineers of Thrace, displayed, at his triumph, crowns of gold to the weight of 212 pounds, 220,000 pounds of silver, 2,103 pounds of gold, more than 127,000 Attic tetradrachms, 250,000 cistophori, and 16,320 gold coins of Philip. (Titus Livius, XXXIX. 7.)

384

Appian, Wars of Mithridates, lxiii.

385

Arrian, Campaigns of Alexander, I. xx. § 3. – Diodorus, XVII. 23.

386

Strabo, XIV. ii. 565.

387

Strabo, XIV. i. § 6.

388

Pliny, Natural History, V. 31.

389

Strabo, XIV. iii. § 6.

390

Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 39.

391

Scylax, Periplus, 39, ed. Hudson. – Dio Cassius, XLVII. 34.

392

Herodotus, I. 176.

393

Pliny, Natural History, V. 28.

394

Strabo, XIV. v. § 2.

395

Strabo, XIV. v. § 2.

396

Tarsus had still naval arsenals in the time of Strabo (XIV. v. § 12 et seq.).

397

Arrian, Anabasis, II. 5.

398

Polybius, XXII. 7.

399

Seleucus founded sixteen towns of the name of Antiochia, five of the name of Laodicea, nine of the name of Seleucia, three of the name of Apamea, one of the name of Stratonicea, and a great number of others which equally received Greek names. (Appian, Wars of Syria, lvii. 622.) – Pliny (Natural History, VI. xxvi. 117) informs us that it was the Seleucides who collected into towns the inhabitants of Babylonia, who before only inhabited villages (vici), and had no other cities than Nineveh and Babylon.

400

Pliny (Natural History, VI. 26, 119) mentions one of these towns which was 70 stadia in circuit, and in his time was reduced to a mere fortress.

401

Strabo, XVI. ii. § 5. – Pausanias, VI. ii. § 7.

402

John Malalas, Chronicle, VIII. 200 and 202, ed. Dindorf.

403

Strabo, XVI. ii. § 4.

404

Strabo, XVI. ii. § 6.

405

Strabo, XVI. ii. § 10.

406

It was raised on a terrace a thousand feet long by three hundred feet broad, and was built with stones 70 feet long.

407

The empire of Seleucus comprised seventy-two satrapies. (Appian, Wars of Syria, lxii. 630.)

408

Polybius, X. 27. Ecbatana paid to Antiochus III. a tribute of 4,000 talents (Attic talents = 23,284,000 francs [£931,360]), the produce of the casting of silver tiles which roofed one of its temples. Alexander the Great had already carried away those of the roof of the palace of the kings.

409

The country of Gerra, among the Arabians, paid 500 talents to Antiochus (Attic talents = 2,910,500 francs [£116,420]). (Polybius, XIII. 9.) – There was formerly a great quantity of gold in Arabia. (Job xxviii. 1, 2. – Diodorus Siculus, II. 50.)

410

Strabo, XVI. iii. § 3.

411

Strabo, XI. ii. 426 et seq.

412

Pliny, Natural History, VI. 11.

413

Polybius, V. 54. If, as is probable, Babylonian talents are intended, this would make about 7,426,000 francs [£297,040], Seleucia, on the Tigris, was very populous. Pliny (Natural History, VI. 26) estimates the number of its inhabitants at 600,000. Strabo (XVI. ii. § 5) tells us that Seleucia was even greater than Antioch. This town, which had succeeded Babylon, appears to have inherited a part of its population.

414

In 565, Antiochus III. gives 15,000 talents (Euboic talents = 87,315,000 francs [£3,492,600]). (Polybius, XXI. 14. – Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 37.) In the treaty of the following year, the Romans stipulated for a tribute of 12,000 Attic talents of the purest gold, payable in twelve years, each talent of 80 pounds Roman (69,852,000 francs [£2,794,080]). (Polybius, XXII. 26, § 19.) In addition to this, Eumenes was to receive 359 talents (2,089,739 francs [£83,589]), payable in five years (Polybius, XXII. 26, § 20). – Titus Livius (XXXVIII. 38) says only 350 talents.

415

The father of Antiochus, Seleucus Callinicus, sent to the Rhodians 200,000 medimni of wheat (104,000 hectolitres). (Polybius, V. 89.) In 556, Antiochus gave 540,000 measures of wheat to the Romans. (Polybius, XXII. 26, § 19.)