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 terling. In Assyria and Persia, money, or pieces of precious metals employed for purchase, must have been in use at least as early as mong the Hebrews. Paucton observes, that the money of the Hebrews, Egyptians, and people of Asia, re, it is said, took up altogether three years, which, en contrasted with the present state of navigation, ems a wonderfully long space, even allowing for the me required to procure the commodities. This, with her circumstances, may have led to the conjecture, at the ships of Solomon visited India. Amongst the ngs brought back by them, apes and peacocks are entioned (1 Kings, c. x. v. 22): the former might be ocured in Africa, but the peacock is properly an inbitant of India, whence it was brought into other untries.-See Buffon, vol. xvii. p. 288. 4°. Impr. y. 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 lames. The same author, when mentionng the manner of embalming dead bodies, observes, that the first manner cost a talent of silver, the second twenty minæ; and vhat is still stronger than all the other assages which we have quoted from him, we find,* that by the criminal laws of Egypt, those who counterfeited, or falsied money, were punished by having their ands cut off. Pliny speaks of the Egyptian talent at he time of Cyrus, that is, above 200 years efore the expedition of Alexander, and 27 before our æra.+ Brerewood says, Cyrus, devictâ Asiâ, reportavit argenti 00,000 talenta Egyptiaca, seu Majora 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 Winkeltraduit de l'Allemand; Paris, 1802, tom. i. p. mann; 192. Eities after rains. But on referring to Mailet, I find that neither this, nor any other part of his work furnishes any light to the ubject-all he says, is: "On tire de l'Egypte un assez grand nombre de médailles ; mais il y en a peu de bonnes. Dans ussi à Alexandrie, surtout en hiver lors- Pieces of gold found in the mouths of ummies, exist in several cabinets of Eupe;† but as they have no effigy or in * See Description de l'Egypte composée sur les Méires de M. de Maillet, Ancien Consul de France au ire, par M. l'Abbé de Maserier, tom. ii. p. 38. Paris, 35. + There is one to be seen in the collection of medals the Royal Library at Paris. |
