Chap. 14.] man's cupidity foe aOLD. 91 



Clodian Law : before which period, a coin of this name was 

 imported from lUyricum, but was only looked upon as an article 

 of merchandize. The impression upon it is a figui-e of Victory, 

 and hence its name. 



The first golden coin was struck sixty-two years after that 

 of silver, the scruple of gold being valued at twenty sesterces ; a 

 computation which gave, according to the value of the sesterce 

 then in use, nine hundred sesterces to each libra of gold.®^ 

 In later times, again, an ordinance was made, that denarii of 

 gold should be struck, at the rate of forty denarii^^ to each 

 libra of gold; after which period, the emperors gradually 

 curtailed the weight of the golden denarius, until at last, in 

 the reign of iN'ero, it was coined at the rate of forty-five to 

 the libra, 



CHAP. 14. CONSIBEEATIONS ON MAn's CUPIPITY FOE GOLP. 



Eut the invention of money opened a new field to human 

 avarice, by giving rise to usury and the practice of lending 

 money at interest, while the owner passes a life of idleness : 

 and it was with no slow advances that, not mere avarice only, 

 but a perfect hunger^^ for gold became inflamed with a sort of 

 rage for acquiring : to such a degree, in fact, that Septimuleius, 

 the familiar friend of Caius Gracchus, not only cut off his 

 head, upon which a price had been set of its weight in gold, 



^ As, originally, there were 288 "scripula," or scruples, to the "libra" or 

 pound, this would appear to give 5760 sestertii to the pound of gold, and 

 not 900 merely. Though this apparent discrepancy has generally puzzled 

 the commentators, the solution, as suggested by M. Parisot, in the Notes 

 to Ajasson's Translation, appears equally simple and satisfactory. He 

 suggests that in the "as," or "libra," of two ounces, there were 288 

 scruples. Now, the scruple remaining the same, when the as or libra was 

 reduced to one ounce, it would contain but 144 of these scruples. Then, 

 on making the as the sixteenth part of a denarius instead of the tenth, it 

 would lose three-eighths of its value in scruples, or in other words, 54 

 scruples, thus making it worth but 90 scruples. Then again, as above 

 stated, by the Papirian Law, the weight or value of the libra or as was 

 reduced one-half, making its value in scruples only 45 ; or, in other words, 

 five thirty-seconds of its original value, when Avorth two unciae or ounces. 

 This number of scruples to the libra would give, at the rate of twenty 

 sesterces to the scruple of gold, exactly 900 sesterces to the libra of gold. 



6* Or "aurei." 



65 " Fames auri," Similar to the words of Virgil, " Auri sacra famee." 

 " The curst greed for gold." See Note 17 to Chapter 3 of this Book, 



