ON HORSESHOES. *39 



recovered their city and territory on condition of renouncing the 

 use of ' iron ' except for implements of agriculture." These 

 words I quote from Arnold's History of Rome, and Pliny's words 

 describing this agreement are " invenimus ne ferro nisi in 

 agriculture, uterentur," and thus, since there may be some among 

 my audience who, like myself, have not thoroughly perfected 

 their studies in the Latin tongue, I will translate, as "we do 

 not find iron used except in husbandry," but I dispute that the 

 word " ferrum " means " iron." As we have translated it it will, as 

 I think, mean the metal with which the Romans made their arms, 

 and which arms they now gave up, and this was the time, or just 

 after that, of Tarquinius Superbus, and surely no one would 

 assert that in those days the Romans made their arms of iron, 

 when in the time of Julius Caesar they made their swords, and 

 even their razors, of bronze. 



I know that it was for long contended, but without any 

 evidence, that the Romans coined money in iron ; and I recently 

 wrote to Messrs. Lincoln (the well-known Numismatists) asking 

 of this, and their reply is (as attached) " We hardly like to be 

 quite certain that there were no Roman coins struck in iron, but 

 we never saw any, and cannot recall to mind any records of the 

 existence of such." Dr. Smith writes " Not a specimen of 

 iron money is now extant, a fact easily accounted for by the 

 liability of the metal to rust." 



I did not remark any deterioration of the shoe from the action 

 of rust. If it so completely destroys a coin of Roman time it 

 would, I think, hardly have so ignored the Roman shoe ! 



And saying this, the high value attached by the Romans to 

 their metal bronze, I will ask you, sir, to allow me to pass round 

 these coins ; this, the larger one, is the old (the original sized) 

 Roman " As," the equivalent of our shilling ; this, marked with 

 an " S," the semi-as, equivalent to our sixpence ; and this, the 

 " Trirens," marked with four balls, the equivalent of our three- 

 pence. These are all of them of the original size ; but these 

 which I now put forward are of the same value as the largest, the 

 full " As," but so reduced in size during the Punic Wars, on 



