I o z Before Chrift, 201. 



ing, was contrived by him for draining the hollow grounds of Egypt af- 

 ter the recefs of the Nile. He was apparently the firft who dil'covered 

 the propriety of balancing the aftion of the wind upon a fliip by three 

 mafts The combination of puUies is alfo believed to be an invention 

 of his. Thefe improvements, though the leaft noticed by hiftorians, are 

 alone fufficient to immortalize his name in commercial and nautical 

 hiflory. (See above, p. 98.) He gave a fublime idea of his confidence 

 in the powers of mechanics, vvhen_ he faid to King Hiero, ' Give me 

 ' but a place to ftand upon, and I will remove the world.' His great 

 knowlege of aflronomy appeared in the conflirudion of a fphere of 

 glafs, which by means of machinery exhibited the motions of the plan- 

 ets ; and feems by the defcriptions of it to have come very near to what 

 is now called the orrery. [Cic. Tufcul. qucejl. L. i. — Clnndiajii Epigr. lO.] 

 He compofed many geometrical and aftronomical works, of which, to 

 the great lofs of fcience, onlv a few are now extant *. 



203 — We are told, that during thefe wars gold was for the firft time coin- 

 ed at Rome, which had not even any filver coin till a little before the com- 

 mencement of the Sicilian war (a". 265). The gold coin was called fimply 

 aureus (golden), and was nearly of the fame weight with our guinea. The 

 filver coins were the denarius, viBoriatus \, ^ndfejieitius. The denarius 

 palled for ten a/Jes of brafs, till the Roman government, being greatly 

 diftrcfled for money in the war of Hannibal, gave it the nominal value 

 of fixteen affes, whereby they defrauded their creditors of fix in every 

 lixteen. But the pay was llill iiTued at the old currency to the army, 

 whom they did not dare to offend. [Plin. H'ljl. nat. L. xxxiii, c. 3.] 



Previous to the introduction of filver coin the current money of the 

 Romans was brafs reckoned by the ^vj', which, from containing original- 

 ly a pound of brafs, was by feveral ftages of depretiation reduced to half 

 an ounce. As foon as they got acquainted with the Greeks fettled in 

 Italy, they reckoned large funis in Grecian money of account. 



The long continuarxe of brafs money, the grofs violation of the pro- 

 portion between the denarius and the os, and the adoption of foreign de- 

 nominations for large funis, afford a clear demonftration, that hitherto 

 the Romans had fcarcely had any intercourl'e with the more enlighten- 

 ed nations, and that their dealings were on too trifling a fcale to be dig- 

 nified with the name of commerce. 



• The mirrors, wlitrcvvith Arcln'medcs is faid j- According to Pliny the •v'tdorialus was firft 



to have burnt the Roman fleet, have employed the brought from lllyricum, which might thus be fup- 



fpcciilations of many of the pliilofophers of modern pofcd to have paid a balance in trade to the 



times. The ftory probably fprung from the cxag- merchants of Italy. 



geration, which ufually follows wiiat is in itfelf The frequent variations in the value of the Ro- 

 furptlfing and extraordinary. Polyb'us has not a man money form a very intricate, and a moll un- 

 word of it, though jiretty full in his dcfcription of fatisfattory, (ludy. The bell guide to it is pro- 

 thc artilleiy of Archimedes ; nor even Livy or bably tho elaborate work of Dr. Arbuthnot, en- 

 Plutarch, though both rather fond of the marvel- titled Tables of ancient coins, lueightt, and mca- 

 ous. liut they arc mentioned by Diodorus, as qiiot- furcs. 

 cd by Tzet/.cs, and by Dion, as quoted byZonaras. 4 



