The famous explorer Arbuthnot Smythe and his assistant Pascal stood before the stone door of an inaccessible ancient Roman underground tomb over which their torches showed was engraved \u201cET REQVIESCENT IBI TRES THESAURIS\u201d in large letters.<\/p>\n
Beside the door they saw three niches, each containing the bust of a lovely female aged from young to mature.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch exquisite sculpture work,\u201d said Pascal full of admiration. \u201cI wonder who the women were.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey appear to be related,\u201d commented Arbuthnot, on an impulse pushing on the brooch sculpted on the older woman\u2019s bust with his thumb and pulling her head forwards. This caused the stone door to open slowly on creaky hinges.<\/p>\n
\u201cClever intuitive move,\u201d exclaimed Pascal as they both entered and to their surprise saw that the interior of the tomb was illuminated by seven flaming lamps fixed around the walls.<\/p>\n
They saw three exquisitely ornamented rectangular pools in each of which floated a perfectly preserved female body in serene repose, immersed in a transparent liquid. The older woman\u2019s pool was placed on the left.<\/p>\n
Arbuthnot Smythe and his assistant Pascal were speechless, eyes popping out and mouth dropping in wonder at this impossible spectacle.<\/p>\n
After standing there for a while in a daze, Arbuthnot recovered himself sufficiently to speak. \u201cI have read about this type of tomb in Blavatsky\u2019s Isis book. It was for Cicero\u2019s daughter,\u201d he said in wonder. \u201cBlavatsky even gives the formula for making these eternal flames. The tomb was found in the 19th<\/sup> century, news of which was inevitably suppressed by religious authorities,\u201d he related.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat shall we do,\u201d asked an astounded Pascal.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing,\u201c replied Arbuthnot sadly. \u201cWhat we see here has been accomplished with knowledge of advanced spiritual technology. Science and western religions are not ready for this, least of all so-called modern medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will make a record of what we find for some future generation, when religion has evolved to become scientific and science to become religious,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n They switched their attention to the foot of each stone tomb, where they saw a marble coffer with the inscriptions \u201cSUMMAM FACIAT QUADRATUM \u2013 DIFFERENTIA EST AEQUALIS.\u201d<\/p>\n Arbuthnot forced open the first marble coffer with his sturdy knife. As the lid fell back, they saw that the coffer was full of gold coins.<\/p>\n Arbuthnot picked up a gold coin and studied it with a magnifying glass. \u201cThis is an aureus coin of the type minted by Julius Caesar,\u201d he shouted jubilantly. \u201cIt contains about eight grams of gold. What a treasure we have found, Pascal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReally unbelievable. I wonder what\u2019s in the other marble coffers,\u201d said Pascal, unsheathing his knife to pry open the next marble coffer lid. Again they found it was full of aureus coins, although this marble coffer was smaller. The third, even smaller marble coffer revealed the same: full of aureus coins.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder how many aureus coins there are in these marble coffers,\u201d said Pascal scratching his head. \u201cBased on their size, each one contains a smaller number of coins.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJudging from the engraved Roman text, I would say that the sum of the number of coins in any two marble coffers, taken pairwise, adds up to a square.\u201d replied Arbuthnot, replacing his knife in its scabbard.<\/p>\n \u201cBrilliant, then the difference between the number of coins in one marble coffer and the next descending one must be the same, judging from the second inscription,\u201d added Pascal with a big smile.<\/p>\n \u201cYes indeed, that must be so,\u201d exclaimed Arbuthnot. \u201cThen we only have to do the math to determine how many coins there are in each of the marble coffers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, \u00a0being a purist, you do the math, Arbuthnot. To avoid a headache, I will use a computer,\u201d laughed Pascal. Arbuthnot had already pulled out a notebook and was writing down the details in equation form.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I wonder who the women were,\u201d said Arbuthnot Smythe. \u201cMy guess is they were the wife and daughters of a nobleman who met with a sudden unfortunate fate. So he left his treasure with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Can you help Arbuthnot Smythe and Pascal work out how many gold coins each marble coffer contained?<\/em><\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>