ANTIQUITIES. 



877 



these countries they carried their 

 language and introduced their reli- 

 gion ; and we consequently find that 

 all retain some remains of tiieir su- 

 perstition, together with some cha- 

 racteristic peculiarities which in- 

 dicate the source from whence they 

 descended. 



In fact, the reasoning ofthe learn- 

 ed historian of English poetry may 

 be admitted, almost without limita- 

 tion or exception, as far as it is in- 

 tended to account for the origin of 

 the marvellous machinery of the 

 Italian and English romantic epo- 

 pee. As the productions of this 

 kind arose with increased splendor 

 out of the ruins of the metrical ro- 

 mance ; and as this latter was a spe- 

 cies of composition which succeed- 

 ed the epoch of the crusades, it im- 

 bibed that deep colouring of the 

 oriental fictions, of which it impart- 

 ed a strong tincture to the former. 

 But none of the productions of 

 either description possess any consi- 

 derable part of that imagery, which 

 forms so distinguished a portion of 

 our poetical system, and which has 

 received the sanction of popular 

 credulity in this country. In a 

 word, the wild fictions of Boiardo, 

 Ariosto, and Spencer, are not less 

 different in their nature than their 

 origin, from the fine fancies of 

 Shakespeare, Pope, and Drayton. 

 And, unless I have been reasoning 

 to little purpose, this circumstance 

 is to be attributed to their having 

 sprung from different sources ; the 

 former having proceeded from the 

 Saracen superstitions, but the lat- 

 ter descended from the Gothic my- 

 thology. 



A Coin, perhaps the oldest in the 

 World. From L'Ambigu ou Va- 

 rietes Litleraires, S^c. December, 

 1809.] 



A peasant lately found in a field 

 near Monterosi a coin believed to 

 be the most ancient in existence. 

 It appears to have been struck un- 

 der Servius Tullius VI. king ofthe 

 Romans, who died in the 218th year 

 after the building of Rome. Of 

 course it has seen 23 centuries. It 

 weighs eleven ounces seventeen pen- 

 ny-weights, its diameter two inches 

 ten lines ; on one side it has a head 

 of Minerva, a front view of her face, 

 and her helmet the Pallas Galatea; 

 and on the other an ox, with a small 

 perpendicular line, I. denoting the 

 number one, among the Roman ci- 

 phers. On the exergue is inscrib- 

 ed, in large rude characters, Roma. 

 This type is that of which we have 

 a description by Pliny, Plutarch, 

 and Varro, and which is referred by 

 those writers to the epoch of Ser- 

 vius Tullius. In cardinal Zalada's 

 collection of coins there is one, the 

 type or figure of which is the same 

 as that of the piece lately discover- 

 ed. The antiquaries who have ex- 

 amined them, have remarked a dif- 

 ference between them in respect of 

 the just weight of such coins. The 

 piece recently discovered is, in fact, 

 one of a Roman pound weight, for 

 the difference ofseven pennyweights 

 is to be ascribed to the alteration 

 produced by time. The characters 

 of the word Roma are of the same 

 form with those of Etruria and 

 Samniura. The metal is exceed- 

 ingly pure, snd bears a great re- 

 semblance to the Egyptian brass of 

 the coins ofthe Ptolemies. 



Ancient 



