15.3
The fourth temple, which is now standing on the same site as the others, was both completed and consecrated by Domitian. It is said that Tarquin expended upon its foundations forty thousand pounds of silver. But time greatest wealth now attributed to any private citizen of Rome would not pay the cost of the gilding alone of the present temple, which was more than twelve thousand talents.For purposes of comparison a talent may be reckoned as worth £250, or $1200.
15.4
Its pillars are of Pentelic marble,Pentelé was an Attic deme on the N.E. edge of the Athenian plain, near which excellent marble was quarried from the mountain. This was called Brilessus in earlier times, then Pentelicus. and their thickness was once most happily proportioned to their length; for we saw them at Athens. But when they were recut and scraped at Rome, they did not gain as much in polish as they lost in symmetry and beauty, and they now look too slender and thin.
