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ACCUMULATION IN THE ROMAN, &C. chap. i.

money more than five millions six hundredthousand pounds \

Many other instances might be found of vastmasses of wealth being collected, of large debtsbeing contracted, and of prodigious sums beingexpended, either on public occasions, or inprivate indulgences of the dress, the tables, orthe furniture of the Romans, just after theacquisition of universal empire. At that periodthe treasure, which had been acquired by con-quest, had not been generally diffused in thehands of numerous individuals, nor had much ofit been consumed by the friction which thepractice, soon after extended, of convertinglarge quantities of it into coined money, neces-sarily occasioned.

1 See Adam’s Roman Antiquities, 9th edit. p. 461, fromwhence, as far as regards Rome , the facts are selected, andwhere the evidence on which each of them rests is pointedout.