48 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



from tlie great age to whicli tliey live, wliicli 

 often exceeds 300 years. But it is much, 

 more probable that in this instance tliey 

 were merely adopted as symbolical of 

 conquests in tbe East, as was usual in 

 that age. It is true tbat in India tbe 

 elephant has been from remote antiquity 

 a symbol of royalty, and strength, and eter- 

 nity ; but the Romans had probably no such 

 theory in view, and were possibly altogether 

 ignorant of the symbolic and semi-sacred 

 character conferred on these animals in 

 central India. 



But there is, nevertheless, a symbol of 

 eternity represented on this coin, which 

 consists of the crown of rays worn by the 

 emperor. Bepresentatives of emperors were, 

 during the early periods of the empire, 

 never crowned with rays tUl after dei- 

 fication, that kind of coronet being precisely 

 analogous to the celestial crown of modern 

 heraldry ; but it was afterwards assumed by 

 the Boman princes during their lifetime. The 

 statue holds in its left hand the Iiasta j)ura, 

 or unarmed lance, as an emblem of peace. 

 The reverse of this coin has in the centre 

 two large capital letters, S. C, for Senatus 

 Consultu (by decree of the senate), and the 

 name and titles of Tiberius. 



The apotheosis of Julius Cajsar had been 

 previously commemorated in a somewhat 

 similar manner by Augustus and the senate, 

 by the issue of a special coinage, which, how- 

 ever, did not bear any device of the usual 

 cliaracter of the Boman " consecratio " coins 

 of the regular types, and I have therefore not 

 engraved it. Yet it may not be irrelevant 

 to refer to it in this place, as recording the 

 appearance of a natural phenomenon which 

 occurred at the time, and gave additional force 

 to the. superstition concerning the ascent of 

 the spirit of Caesar to take its place among 

 the gods. During the games established in 

 honour of the deified Julius, a comet of un- 

 usual brilliancy was observed, which remained 

 visible, even in the day-time, for seven days. 



This was, of course, believed to be the spirit 

 of Caesar ascending to its place among the con- 

 stellations, and it was therefore represented 

 on some of the commemorative coins then 

 issued. It was the Julium Sidus of Horace, 

 the Csesaris Astrum of Virgil, and was men- 

 tioned also by other writers of the time. Sir 

 Isaac Newton conjectured that it might have 

 been a previous appearance of the great comet 

 of 1680, as the time agrees tolerably well with 

 one of its periodical visits. But some of our 

 modern antiquaries have thought that the 

 star represented on the coin does not refer to 

 a comet which had just appeared, but merely 

 to the planet Yenus, in allusion to the pre- 

 tended descent of the Julian family. This 

 supposition is rendered somewhat plausible 

 by the fact that the planet Venus is, in the 

 south, often visible during the day, and 

 may have been especially observed to be so 

 at the time of the death of Cajsar. I am, 

 however, inclined to think that the object on 

 the coin is intended to represent the comet 

 which then appeared, though it does not bear 

 a very accurate resemblance to an asteroid 

 of that class. The Boman theory of this en- 

 rolment of a mortal among the gods was not 

 very dissimilar to that of canonization of saints 

 in the modern Bomish ritual ; the Christian 

 canonization being possibly but a continua- 

 tion of the Pagan apotheosis, like many other 

 forms still retained in the unreformedChiirch. 

 The term, as used among the Bomans, did 

 not mean simply the elevation of an emperor 

 to divine honour by his successor, and his 

 formal enrolment among the gods, but was an 

 indirect expression of the national belief of 

 the immortality of the soul, which gives to 

 the monuments connected with the cere- 

 monial of consecration a far deeper interest. 

 It was, in fact, the popular creed of the 

 Boman people that the souls, or manes, of 

 their ancestors became deities, and in this 

 feeling it was that the manes of parents were 

 worshipped by their children. 



H. Noel HusipnuExs. 



