Chap. vi. PRICES IN GREECE.

the private soldiers in the later times, theymight be deemed entitled to less comparativeremuneration, and did not receive an augmenta-tion in their pay correspondent to the decrease ofvalue which the metallic money had suffered.

There is another circumstance which, thoughnot conclusive, seems to show the diminishedvalue of money in Greece . That sum whichwas deemed a sufficiency for the support of afamily continued to be rated higher in the courseof years, in a manner somewhat similar to theincrease in the price of corn. At an early pe-riod, about .550 years before Christ, the possessorof a talent was considered in moderate circum-stances, and was enabled to live on the income de-rived from it by interest at the rate of twelve percent, per annum. Aeschines, a celebrated orator ,who lived about two hundred years later, hadinherited a property of five talents, to whichhe added two, accumulated by his professionallabours, and was deemed a man in easy circum-stances. Demosthenes , who died about sixtyyears after, when the Thracian mines had beenextended, died possessed of fourteen talents,besides his female slaves, and is remarked asmoderately affluent. Conon , another Athenian,noted in the year 240 before Christ, left behindbim forty talents, which is not spoken of as anything remarkable 1 .

1 See Bceckh, vol. ii. p. 235.

Voi,. i. jvj

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