Alexander

On making himself master of Susa, Alexander came into possession of forty thousand talents of coined money in the palace, and of untold furniture and wealth besides.[*](Cf. Arrian, Anab. iii. 16, 7. A talent’s weight was something over fifty pounds.) Among this they say was found five thousand talents’ weight of purple from Hermione, which, although it had been stored there for a hundred and ninety years, still kept its colours fresh and lively.

The reason for this, they say, is that honey was used in the purple dyes, and white olive oil in the white dyes; for these substances, after the like space of time, are seen to have a brilliancy that is pure and lustrous. Moreover, Deinon says that the Persian kings had water also brought from the Nile and the Danube and stored up among their treasures, as a sort of confirmation of the greatness of their empire and the universality of their sway.