CHAP. ix.

MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS#

103

commander, Nicias , received a remittance of threehundred talents more. The Carthaginians also,who carried such large armies into Sicily , musthave furnished some store of gold and silver.

Some of the precious metals were placedunder the guardianship of the popular super-stitions, but they were found feeble securitiesa gainst the rapacity of a tyrant. It is related ofDionysius the Elder, that he rifled the temple ofJupiter, and stripped the image of that deity ofthe golden robe which Hiero had presented tod, saying, that “ a robe of gold was too heavyut the summer, and too cold in the winter, andtherefore he would supply its place with a cloak°f Wool.” He ordered the golden beard of^Esculapius to be taken from him, saying, “ ItWas a shame for the son to have a beard whenthe father had none.” He also robbed the sta-tues of the other gods of their ornaments, ands °ld the spoils by public auction ; and, the nextJ a y> pretending to repent of his impiety, com-manded all who had any thing in their possessionbelonging to the immortal gods to restore it^thin a stipulated time, but did not himselfre Pay to the purchasers of the effects the mo-ne y he had received for the sale of them.

If the soil of Sicily contributed nothing togeneral stock of the precious metals in an-Cle ut times, it was otherwise with the largels *aud of Sardinia . When the Carthaginians