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98
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AURUM.
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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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