1017 



NUMISMATICS. 



NUMISMATICS. 



1013 



they were then placed with the forceps on the anvil, and struck 

 between the dies by the hammer ; occasionally a coin, not having been 

 withdrawn, the next piece was impressed with the incuse or intaglio- 

 type, which as it is the obverse, shows that the obverse die was upper- 

 most. The mint itself was held in the temple of JUNO MONETA, or 

 " the Adviser," and the following officers presided over it, the ques- 

 tors, the triumviri monetales, or triumvirs of the money, to whom Julius 

 Caesar added a fourth, and who appear B.C. 289, the director, oplio ; 

 assayer, exactor ; caster, Jlator, fatorius; the placer or feeder, suppostor; 

 the striker, malleator ; and the engraver, scat.ptor ; the officinator, work- 

 man, and nummularius, treasurer, and coenarius, purifier. They formed 

 a corporation ; under the republic the workmen were public slaves, but 

 Csesar appointed freedmen, and the Gothic kings of Rome elevated the 

 social position of the mint masters. The triumviri monetales presided 

 over the issues of all three metals, but the brass continued under the 

 empire to be struck by decree of the senate, while the emperors alone 

 had the right of coining gold and silver, and had their money separate 

 in the treasury (Dio. liii.), which was superintended by the Prfefeetus 

 Aerarii, or the Procurator in the later times of the empire* In Rome 

 itself the whole establishment was under the Prtefectus urbis, in the 

 provinces under the Prccsides, and under the barbarian kings of Rome 

 under the mayor of the palace. Bronze dies of the empire have been 

 found. 



At the earlier times the Romans had no gold coins, but used the 

 Philippe!, or Macedonian stater, a term retained under the later empire 

 (' Lactantius,' i. c 6 ; A.u.c. 546), the gold aurei were first issued sixty- 

 two years after the denarii. The earliest aurei are supposed to have 

 been coined B.C. 207, and some writers have supposed that originally 48 

 were struck from the pound of gold till 134 B.C. ; 45 from B.C. 134-119 ; 

 42, B.C. 119-104; 40, B.C. 104-37; 41, B.C. 37-14A.D. ; 40 under the 

 early emperors till Nero's reign, who issued 45 ; 50 under Caracalla, 

 60 under Diocletian, and 72 under Constantine. The aureus was 

 called like the silver coin denarius, but weighed 2 scriptute, or double 

 the weight, and wa$ worth 25 silver coins, and 100 sesterces or large 

 brass pieces called nummi, with some fluctuations. The half aureus or 

 Roman half sovereign was called quinarius at a later period. This was 

 for greater public convenience, the taxes under the empire being paid 

 in gold into the treasury ; and under the Byzantine emperor, Alexander 

 Comnenus, the payments of the state issued in copper. The right of 

 striking gold as well as silver belonged to the emperor alone, and it 

 was an act of treason for a subject to place his image on the coin, or 

 even to show the least dishonour to the imperial portrait or effigy, 

 which was considered inviolable. The types of the earliest gold and 

 electrum coins of the Romans, struck in Capua about B.C. 210-180, 

 have on the obverse the head of Mars, or Janus, and on the reverse 

 Roman deities. They are marked behind the head with their value 

 in sesterces, the piece of xx sesterces weighed a Roman scriptula, or 

 scruple, 18-06 grs ; that of xxx 'sesterces; of xxxx sesterces; and 

 v>x (Ix) sesterces, in proportion. Pieces struck by Sylla and 

 Lucullus, called Luculh'ans, weighed -10 scriptulae, or 165 grains. 

 Pieces of larger size and heavier weight than the aureus are called 

 medallions, and are supposed to have been issued as medals for the 

 legions. Elagabalus is said to have struck denarii of double, treble,. 

 four, and a hundred times the usual size, and even to the weight of two 

 pounds, but such vagaries were destroyed after his downfall. Alexander 

 us struck halves called semisses, and thirds, tremisses, to accom- 

 modate the remission of taxation to one-third. After the time of Con- 

 stantine the gold coin was called solidus, and victoriatus, from the 

 recurrence of the figure of Victory on the reverse. Towards the 

 close of the republic, the aureus was sometimes of electrum. or J silver, 

 and under the Lower Empire of obryzum, or gold mixed with copper 

 or rouge. It was generally very pure ; at the time of Vespasian, its 

 purity had fj, only of alloy. The proportion of gold to silver was as 

 1 to 10; B.C. 189, 1 to 9; B.C. 54, under the Empire, as 1 to 12; and 

 as 1 to 14 or 18 from Constantino to Justinian. 



The original aurei were 130.1 grs. ; under Pompey the highest reach 

 128-2 grs. ; under Augustus they sink to 121-26 grs.; those of Nero 

 have 115-39 grs., and they continued at the same weight under the 

 Empire. Constantine struck 72 to the lb., each weighing 68'5 grs. ; 

 these were worth 12 silver milliarenses, and were divided into semisses, 

 tremisses, and quadrantes 



or quadri'iati with four. They are about the size of a sixpence, but 

 thicker and are the Roman franc. Foreign silver drachma were in 

 circulation at Rome previous to their issue. A long succession of 

 these silver pieces consisting of some thousand varieties from this 



tnG tlin6 v* *.(^M~ 



head of Rome, and on the other the Dioscuri, can be traced to B.C. 22 

 und 219 The earlier denarii have X or XVI. (16 asses) stamped 

 them for their value, and ROMA on the reverse; the qum- 



ihmu tnem ior tueu vaiuc, auu +w* ~ - - A - 



ius or piece of 5 asses about the size of a silver fourpence, has V. 

 Behind the head of Mars, and on the reverse a Victory, the sestertius 

 of the size of a silver penny has HS. behind the head. These pl eces 



and marks were discontinued about the first cent. B.C. The tradition 

 that Servius Tullius struck silver money at Rome [Varro in Chariso 

 lib. I.] deserves no attention. The tribune Livius Drusus, sanctioned 

 the alloy of J of copper, and Antony allowed iron, but the debasement 

 of the currency was restrained by the Gratidian Edict and the Cornelian 

 Law. The denarii however continued tolerably pure till the time of 

 Severus, although a slight corruption commenced with Didius Julian ; 

 their mean weight is 60 grs. Under Nero 7 denarii were coined from 

 the Roman ounce of silver, later 8, and even more ; denarii equal to 1 4 

 of the usual size and weight, or six sesterces, and called aif/entei, were 

 struck by Caracalla, of a debased silver besides the usual size, the silver 

 being half debased. Alexander Severus who reduced the taxation by 

 one third, debased the silver in the same proportion by * of its purity, 

 but at the time of Valerian and Gallienus a national bankruptcy 

 ensued, the denarii were debased to billon, of i silver, the brass ses- 

 terces and dupondii, nummi incoctiles, 1st and 2nd brass were sup- 

 pressed. Aurelian made 525 of these base pieces equal to the aureus, 

 by issuing a denarius of account equal to 20 or 21 of them, and marked 

 xx-xxi-xxiv. From Claudius Gothicus to Diocletian, the denarii were 

 of brass washed with silver the nummi tincti, and the successors of 



of alloy, 4 per cent, in the Ib. of silver, with the denarius of 62 grs. 

 Constantine added to the silver currency the miliarenscs, or miliarisia, 

 of 84 grs., 12 to the solidus, and the siliquce, or keratia, of 42 grs. ; but 

 5 different denominations of his coins are known from their weight, 

 and the confusion of the monetary system after and about his time 

 baffles research. At the close of the Lower Empire they became very 

 thin concave pieces of metal, the nummi scyphati, and the whole 

 system of currency was altered. 



The earliest Roman coins were of brass, crs, and heavy pieces 

 ces yrave. But there is great discrepancy about the time when 

 it was introduced. Saturnus is said to have introduced it, and 

 divided the solidus or pound into the semis or half pound. At the 

 time of Servius Tullus, brass went by weight at Rome. (Timajus, 

 in Plin, xxiii. e. 3.) Numa issued leather money scortei. Menenius 

 Agrippa is said to have been buried by a subscription of sextantes, and 

 the people subscribed quadrautes or farthings for P. Valerius. But 

 the brass coinage of the Romans appears to have been derived from 

 the Etruscan currency, and cannot be earlier than 353 B.C. The oldest 

 currency was cast, not struck, and said to be impressed with an ox or 

 sheep. (Varro, ' I. Vit. Pop. Re Rust,' lib. 2.) The following pieces 

 have been found of the early series : a decussis, having the head of 

 Pallas, reverse a ship, weighing 38 Roman ounces; the quineussis 

 impressed with two dolphins and two tridents, reverse, two chickens 

 and two stars 4 lb. 8 oz. Roman ; a quadrussis, on each side an ox, of 

 5 lb. 6 oz , and 4 lb. 3. oz. ; a tripondiui of 3 asses marked III. head of 

 Pallas, reverse a ship, for an as of 3 ozs., head of Pallas and sword. 

 The types of the rest of the currency are quite uniform, the an has 

 the head of the double Janus, the semis, the letter S. head of Jupiter, 

 the trient \ (4 ounces) head of Pallas ; the quadrant or farthing 

 (3 ounces) head of Hercules; the sextans : (2 ounces), head of 

 Mercury, the ounce head of Pallas, all have on the reverse the prow 

 of a ship, alluding to the arrival of Janus or Saturn in Italy, and boys 

 instead of crying heads or tails when they tossed for money cried heads 

 or ships. Ases of 11 lb. 5 oz. exist, many of 3 and 4 ozs. showing that 

 the reduction was gradual : after the 1st Punic war the as was reduced 

 by the Lex Papiria to 1 oz., and to 4 oz. from the time of Sylla to 

 Pompey. (Cohen, ' Descr. gen. domnn. de la Rep. Rom.,' 4to. Paris, 

 1857.) At the commencement of the Empire the names of the 

 triumviri monetales were stamped on the coins ; the as, the second 

 brass com, was struck of copper, the sestertius OB first brass coin 

 was struck of the Spanish orichalcum, and at the time of the 

 Flavii the ses flavuiu was of copper mixed with brass ; the third brass 

 coin, the quadraus, copper ; the earlier bronze coin are alloyed with zinc, 

 and lead was not introduced till the time of Severus. 



I. The largest Roman brass coins after the fall of the Republic are the 

 so-called first or large brass, the sestertii. These pieces were in use 

 from the days of Augustus to Gallieuus. Under the thirty tyrants 

 they disappeared, but a new piece was issued by Diocletian called the 

 follis, 24 of which went to the silver miliarensis, and each was half an 

 ounce in weight and worth 40 noummia or small centimes. In the 

 Augustan age it weighed nearly a Roman ounce, but it declined in weight 

 under the later emperors, under Severus Alexander was one-third lighter, 

 and reduced by Gallus to one-third of an ounce. Trajan Decius struck 

 two sextarii or quiuarii of orichalchuui. Originally it was struck from an 

 alloy of copper and zinc, with a small quantity of lead, of which a greater 

 quantity TDecame introduced in the days of the Autoniues. The types 

 on the obverse generally present the portrait of the emperor, while the 

 lugeuds record his titles, how often he had exercised the consulship or 

 tribunitian power, or been saluted emperor, by which the date of the coin 

 can be determined. The reverse indicated the character of the reign, 

 the deities, the virtues, the temples, sacrifices, consecrations, and apo- 

 theoses ; the provinces, cities, rivers, ports, and bridges ; indulgences, 

 remission of taxes, and exhibitions of spectacles ; the victories, harangues, 

 expeditions, journeys of the emperor. The virtues being accorded by 

 the adulation of the senate, and not by the censors of history, present 



