in the beginning of the civil war, he took out of the treasury
$5,479,895, and brought into it at the end of it $24,218,750; he
purchased the friendship of Curio, at the commencement of the civil
war, by a bribe of $2,421,856, and that of the consul, L. Paulus, by
1,500 talents, about $1,397,500; Apicius wasted on luxurious living
$2,421,875; Caligula laid out on a supper $403,625; and the ordinary
expense of Lucullus for a supper in the Hall of Apollo was 50,000
drachms, or $8,070. The house of Marius, bought of Cornelia for
$12,105, was sold to Lucullus for $80,760; the burning of his villa
was a loss to M. Scaurus of $4,036,455; and Nero's golden house must
have cost an immense sum, since Otho laid out in furnishing a part of
it $2,017,225." But though Rome was greatly enriched by conquest, she
never obtained possession of the chief wealth of Asia; and the largest
quantity of the precious metals was always excluded from the
calculations of ancient writers.

The whole revenue of the Roman Empire under Augustus is "supposed to
have been equal to 200 millions of our money;" and at the time of his
death (A.D. 14) the gold and silver in circulation throughout the
empire is supposed to have amounted to $1,790,000,000; which at a
reduction of 1 grain in 360 every year for wear, would have been
reduced by the year A.D. 482 to $435,165,495; and when the mines of
Hungary and Germany began to be worked, during the seventh and ninth
centuries, the entire amount of coined money was not more than about
42 at the former, and 165 or 170 million dollars at the latter,
period; so that if no other supply had been obtained, the quantity
then circulating would long since have been exhausted.

"The loss by wear on silver" is shown by Mr. Jacob "to be four times
that of gold;" that on our money is estimated at more than one part in
a hundred annually; and "the smaller the pieces, the greater loss do
they suffer by abrasion." "The maximum of durability of gold coins
seems to be fixed at 22 parts, in 24, of pure gold with the
appropriate alloys. When the fineness ascends or descends from that
point, the consumption by abrasion is increased."

It is from its ductility that gold wears so much less than silver; and
many ancient gold coins (as those of Alexander and others), though
evidently worn by use, nearly retain their true weight, from the
surface being partly transferred into the adjacent hollows, and not
entirely rubbed off as in silv