“The King uses the following method of storing his tribute income. After it has been melted down, it is poured into clay jars, and whenever a vessel is filled up, its clay is removed. Then, whenever he needs money, he strikes off and coins as much as he needs at te time.”

Herodotus 3.96, Strassler Edition. Written sometime in the 5th C. BCE, about events in the late 6th C. BCE.

I am, of course, reminded of 2 Corinthians 4.7 where St Paul says that Christ’s followers “have this treasure in jars of clay” so that it will be clear that the treasure belongs to God and doesn’t come from us.

I wonder how common this treasure-storing practice of Darius was in the ancient Mediterranean. Did St Paul know about this text? Or was it simply a common enough practice? It would have the advantage of making it hard to steal the gold and silver, of course, because those ingots could become quite large.