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Aurum, Gold

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98
AURUM.
Besides these he sent a lion weighing 10 talents (600 lbs.), which still existed, though it had lost 3-1/2 talents of its original weight in a conflagration of the Temple ; a basin weighing 8-1/2 talents and 12 lbs. over. Also a female figure (his cook) 4-1/2 feet high, weight not specified; besides many other objects in gold, sent there, to the oracle of Amphiaraus, and to Thebes. His offerings at Branchidsa were reported to have been the counterpart of those sent to Delphi; an arrangement quite in the spirit of those times. Such a vast weight of metal given away at once appears at first fabulous, but it is probable that Croesus was the first Lydian king to explore these virgin gold-washings, and that every ounce collected went into his treasury. The first circum­stance may be inferred from the fact that his father Alyattes, though equally anxious to testify his gratitude to the Delphic god, sent nothing in gold, but merely a large vase in silver, and a stand in iron, valuable solely as a curious specimen of work­manship. That the gold-dust was carried into the royal treasury in its native state appears from the curious anecdote of his allow ing the Athenian Alcmseon, as a reward for his kindness to his envoys, to carry off from a heap as much as he could stow about his person (vi. 125).
Before the reign of Gyges the Pythian Apollo had neither gold nor silver, says Pliny (xxxiv. 10), quoting Phaneas of Eresus. Yet Herodotus (i. 14) makes Midas to have set him the example, by dedicating his own royal throne, which was still to be seen when he wrote, and a work to be admired. But Gyges far sur­passed him, his being the greater part of the offerings in silver then existing at Delphi; and in gold he had presented, besides other articles, six craters, weighing in all 30 talents (1800 lbs.). After him came Croesus, whose munificence has just been detailed. Of the Greeks the first to offer the precious metals was Gelo, at the time of the invasion of Xerxes, who gave a Victory and a tripod in gold. After him his brother Hiero made a donation exactly similar.
This account of the quantity of gold then amassed in a single treasury is corroborated by what he relates of Pythius, a Lydian, in the next century after the country had become subject to the Persians. This person, though a private man, offered Xerxes
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