THALIA. 61

twentieth satrapy, and furnished six hun-
its in golden ingots.

If the Babylonian money be reduced to the
idard of the Euboic talent, the aggregate sum will
be found to be nine thousand eight hundred and
eighty talents in silver; and, estimating the gold at
thirteen times the value of silver, there will be found,
according to the Euboic talent, four thousand six
Ired and eighty of these talents. The whole be-
jstimatcd together, it will appear that the annual
lte paid to Darius was fourteen thousand five
and sixty talents, omitting many trifling
i not deserving our attention.
XCVI. Such was the sum which Asia principally,
and Africa in some small proportion, paid to Darius.
In process of time, the islands also were taxed, as was
that part of Europe which extends to Thessaly. The
manner in which the king deposited these riches in
his treasury, was this:—The gold and silver were
melted and poured into earthen vessels; the vessel,
when full, was removed, leaving the metal in a mass.
When any was wanted, such a piece was broken ofT,
as the contingence required.-

TO. We have thus described the different sa-
and the impost on each. Persia is the only
ice which I have not mentioned as tributary.
The Persians are not compelled to pay any specific
taxes, but they present a regular gratuity. The Ethi­
opians who border upon Egypt, subdued by Cam-
byses in his expedition against the Ethiopian Macro,
bians, are similarly circumstanced, as are also the
inhabitants of the sacred town- of Nyssa, who have
festivals in honour of Bacchus. These Ethiopians,
with their neighbours, resemble in their customs the
Calantian Indians : they have the same riles of sepul­
ture, and their dwellings are subterraneous. Once in
every three years these two nations present to the
king two choenices of gold unrefined, two hundred
blocks of ebony, twenty large elephant's teeth, and
five Ethiopian youths; which custom has been con­
tinued to my time. The peoplo of Colchos and their
neighbours, as far as mount Caucasus, imposed upon