224 NATURAL BISTORY OF PRECIOUS METALS, &c yoke of oxen, 257,000 head of small cattle, and in ready money sexcenties, or 600,000l., and to fix the expense of his funeral at 11,000l. The succeeding times doubtless afforded many similar examples, for only a few years after the dis­astrous reign of Gallienus, a time of national bankruptcy, we find the Emperor Tacitus (a.d. 279), who had made his money by trade, chiefly as a timber-merchant, possessing landed property valued at two millions eight hundred thou­sand pounds, and which, like the equally unlucky Louis Philippe, of our memory, he made over to the state. With his ready money he kept on foot the entire standing army during the six months his reign lasted.*