242 



KNOWLEDGE 



[No%T3MBEK 1, 1895. 



silver for her own use (269 b.c, Fig. 9). This date marks 

 the practical cessation of the various independent coinages 

 of Italy ; almost all the cities now heing compelled to issue 

 only small change on their own account, and to use the 

 Eoman money for higher denominations. Gold still con- 

 tinued to circulate hy weight, and indeed this metal was 

 never reduced to a regular system of coinage until the 

 time of Augustus. There are, it is true, instances of gold 

 pieces being struck by the Eomans. For example, besides 

 the Campanian gold already mentioned, there was a con- 

 siderable issue of gold (Fig. 8) during the second Panic 

 War (in the end of the third century) ; but this was made 

 solely for the purpose of carrying on the war in Southern 

 Italy, and must be regarded, like the Campanian gold, as 

 "money of necessity " rather than as regular coinage. The 

 gold pieces, again, struck by Sulla (Fig. 1-5, Head of Venus, 

 and Cupid; n-cccst', trophies and sacrificial instruments) and 



in a single hoard, buried seven years after his death, no 

 less than eighty thousand pieces were collected. 



The coinage of silver under the Empire was not so 

 severely restricted as that of gold. At the same time, only 

 a few mints were allowed to strike even in this metal, the 

 largest series being those of Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch 

 in Syria, and Ciesarea in Cappadocia (Fig. 20 shows .the 

 sacred mountain Arg.eus, near Cieaarea). The silver of 

 these mints becauie rapidly debased, until it was no longer 

 distinguishable from bronze. The actual bronze coinage of 

 the Roman Empire may be divided into two classes. The 

 first is that struck at Rome by the orders of the Senate (the 

 ordinary " large brass " coins, marked with the letters s c — 

 " by decree of the Senate") ; the second is the money issued 

 by the various cities of the provinces, from the Atlantic 

 Ocean to the Euphrates. Of the vast quantity of bronze 

 coins turned out bv these mints, it is difficult even for the 



Yia. A. — Ai'.i Nii/iiirlum, tlu- Karliest Cast Coinage of Romf 



Pompey the Great in the first century were also no regular 

 coinage, but were probably issued for show, or for dis- 

 tribution as presents. The coinage of gold was strictly 

 forbidden in provinces where Rome had anything to say. 

 But as in Greece Alexander the Great had signalized the 

 universality of his rule by enormous issues of gold, so 

 the universal empire of the Romans was marked by the 

 imperial metal being placed at the head of the coinage of 

 the world. Alexander had not been able to prevent the 

 various Greek states issuing gold on their own account, 

 but under Roman rule the use of this metal was much 

 more strictly reserved to the Imperial exchequer. Some 

 idea of the amount of gold issued by Julius CiPsar and his 

 immediate successors may be gathered from the fact that 



specialist to form any conception : and a glance through a 

 representative collection will do much to impress one with 

 the fact that under the early Roman Empire the civilized 

 world enjoyed a condition of material prosperity such as 

 those who read only the history of the Roman court can 

 never realize. After the time of the Emperor Gallienus 

 (253-208 A. D.), the coinage shrinks considerably in amount, 

 and there is no extensive series issued by any city on its 

 own account, except Alexandria. We have now only the 

 Imperial coinage, issued not only in Rome, but in provmcial 

 mints, such as London, Treves, Lyons, Milan, Nicomedia, 

 Antioch, Alexandria. The number of these Imperial local 

 mints was further increased by Diocletian (28-1-305). 

 From this lime until the fall of the Roman Empire in< 



