brought back gold, silver, and ivory ;* and according to Josephus, the quantity of gold brought in one of those voyages, amounted to 450 talents, which, supposing the Jewish and Attic talent to be the same, would be equal in value to 1,485,000 pounds sterling. In Assyria and Persia, money, or pieces of precious metals employed for purchase, must have been in use at least as early as among the Hebrews. Paucton observes, that the money of the Hebrews, Egyptians, and people of Asia, age, it is said, took up altogether three years, which, when contrasted with the present state of navigation, seems a wonderfully long space, even allowing for the time required to procure the commodities. This, with other circumstances, may have led to the conjecture, that the ships of Solomon visited India. Amongst the things brought back by them, apes and peacocks are mentioned (1 Kings, c. x. v. 22): the former might be procured in Africa, but the peacock is properly an inhabitant of India, whence it was brought into other countries.-See Buffon, vol. xvii. p. 288. 4°. Impr. Roy. * 1 Kings, c. x. v. 22. was the same; but as he does not speak of the money of India, we presume that he means by Asia, only the countries included. anciently under the names of Assyria and Persia; and if reliance may be placed on what is alleged by him, we might suppose that Assyrian coins may have been taken by antiquarians for Egyptian.* The Thebaid possessed valuable mines of gold and silver. Diodorus Siculus, describing the mausoleum of a king whom he names Osymandyas, says, that by an inscription on one of the walls of that building, it appeared, that the money procured annually from those mines amounted to 32,000,000 Minæ of Grecian money; that the treasure, left by another king whom he names Cetes, was estimated at one hundred thousand talents by the public; and he describes the procedure observed by the Egyptians in refining metals. Speaking of Diospolis or Thebes, and the devastations Cambyses committed there, * See Paucton, Métrologie, &c. p. 342. he says, it was however supposed, that more than three hundred talents of gold, and two thousand three hundred talents of silver were saved from pillage and the flames. The same author, when mentioning the manner of embalming dead bodies, observes, that the first manner cost a talent of silver, the second twenty minæ; and what is still stronger than all the other passages which we have quoted from him, we find,* that by the criminal laws of Egypt, those who counterfeited, or falsified money, were punished by having their hands cut off. Pliny speaks of the Egyptian talent at the time of Cyrus, that is, above 200 years before the expedition of Alexander, and 527 before our æra.+ Brerewood says, Cyrus, devictâ Asiâ, reportavit argenti 500,000 talenta Ægyptiaca, seu Majora 30. *Diod. Sic. lib. i. c. 27. + See Plin. lib. xxxiii. c. 3.-and Brerewood, p. Attica. Quod de nostro facit 125,000,000 Lib. Stg."* Winkelmann, when treating of the arts amongst the Egyptians,+ says, "Les monnoies, connues chez les Egyptiens, ne commencent qu'après le règne d'Alexandre. On pourroit même douter que les Egyptiens eussent jamais eu de la monnoie battue, s'il n'en étoit pas fait mention chez les écrivains de l'antiquité, qui parlent entre autres de l'obole qu'on mettoit dans la bouche des morts;"-but after making this observation, he leaves the subject without giving any positive opinion upon it.‡ Carlo Fea, in a note on this passage of Winkelmann,§ observes that Maillet in his description of Egypt, says, that money is found there, and sometimes in great quan * See Brerewood, p. 30. + See Histoire de l'Art chez les Anciens, par Winkelmann; traduit de l'Allemand; Paris, 1802, tom. i. p. 192. Ibid. § Ibid. tities after rains. But on referring to Maillet, I find that neither this, nor any other part of his work furnishes any light to the subject-all he says, is: "On tire de l'Egypte un assez grand nombre de médailles ; mais il y en a peu de bonnes. Dans certains tems, elles se trouvent abondamment. Il y en a d'autres, au contraire, où l'on n'en voit point dutout. On trouve aussi à Alexandrie, surtout en hiver lorsqu'il a plû, certaines pierres gravées représentant diverses figures de femmes et d'animaux. "'* But the money mentioned by him, may be Greek, Roman, or any other coin. Pieces of gold found in the mouths of mummies, exist in several cabinets of Europe;+ but as they have no effigy or in * See Description de l'Egypte composée sur les Mémoires de M. de Maillet, Ancien Consul de France au Caire, par M. l'Abbé de Maserier, tom. ii. p. 38. Paris, 1735. + There is one to be seen in the collection of medals in the Royal Library at Paris. |