2U 



KNOWLEDGE 



[November 1, 18 



certain number of demirii of bronze plated witli silver. 

 These were mixed with the good coins in each issue, and 

 there was no attempt to conceal the fact ; and as the 

 treasury was obliged to accept its own bad coin, these 

 issues stand exactly on a level with the paper-money of our 

 own times, except in so far as they made the way more 

 easy for the private forger. Besides the denarius we have 

 also to note the ricloii'atus (so-called from the figure 

 of Victory erecting a trophy on the reverse ; Fig. 10). 

 This was first issued about 227 b.c, for circulation in 

 Southern Gaul, Northern Italy, and lUyria, and was 

 based on a unit equivalent to three-quarters of a denarius. 

 Hut it soon went out of use again, its type being adopted 

 for the quinarius. The quinarius itself and the sestertius 

 both ceased before long to be issued regularly. 



The Eoman gold coins (Fig. 8) which were struck 

 during the llaunibalian war also bear marks of value, but 

 in terms of the sestertius, not the denarius. Thus — 

 4,X = GO sestertii = 15 denarii 

 XXXX = 40 „ = 10 „ 



XX = 20 „ =z 5 „ 



We have already alluded to the gold coins struck by 

 Sulla and Pompey. Coins similar in character to these 

 were struck by .Julius Csesar. Augustus issued an marus 

 (Fig. 16) equivalent in value to 25 denarii, at the weight 

 of 40 to the pound of gold, and along with it a half- 

 aureus. He also commenced a fresh issue of denarii, but 

 adhered to the usual weight. His reforms in the coinage 

 of small change were important. A large piece (Figs. 24, 

 25, 27, 28) called the sestcrtim (but wrongly, for it was 

 equivalent to 4 asses) was issued, with its half {ilupdiuUus) 

 and quarter (as), and smaller denominations. The denarius 

 being equivalent to four sestertii was now equivalent to 

 sixteen asses. The small change was merely a token- 

 money, the as being nearly equal in size and weight to its 

 double, the (lupondius ; but while the latter and the sester- 

 tius were made of yellow brass or oriehalcum (copper 

 alloyed with zinc), the as and smaller divisions were made 

 of pure copper. 



Such was the beginning of the Imperial coinage. But 

 the degradation to which Eoman coinage seems to have 

 been peculiarly susceptible soon made itself apparent. 

 By A.D. 215 the aureus was worth only J^- of a pound of 

 gold, and the denarius only contained 40 per cent, of pure 

 silver. The Emperor Antoninus (commonly known as 

 Caracalla) now introduced a new silver piece {anjenteus 

 Antoninianus, Fig. 21), worth half as much again as the 

 denarius, from which it was distinguished by having the 

 Emperor's head in a radiate crown (instead of laureate), 

 or the Empress's bust on a crescent. 



The debasement went on till the time of Diocletian, who 

 in A.D. 296 made a clean sweep of all existing coinage, and 

 issued a fresh series : — an aureus of -,iV of a pound, and a 

 silver centenionalis. The debasement of silver had driven the 

 copper coins out of existence ; Diocletian now issued two 

 kinds of copper coins, the follis and the eopper denarius. 

 Of later changes we need only note that Constantine 

 reduced the aureus to J^ of a pound, calling it the solidus 

 (Fig. 22), and issued two kinds of silver, the miliarensis 

 (= -jV sdlidus), and its half, the siliqua. 



We may now pass to the consideration of the types 

 which occur on the coinage of which we have sketched 

 the history, and of its artistic value. The latter is, at most 

 periods, comparatively small ; for the Romans were not an 

 artistic people. Indeed, the hard matter-of-fact way of 

 looking at life, which was characteristic of this race, made 

 it at the same time especially fitted to attain the dominion 

 of the world, and unfitted to entertain the artistic ideals of 

 the Greeks. In one form of art they did attain a very high 



degree of excellence — and that is, portraiture. But this is 

 precisely the branch of art into which the ideal element 

 least enters. Even so, it was long before the Romans found, 

 so to speak, their artistic vocation. The type'; of the 

 early coins are such as we might expect from our tudy of 

 the tireek series : animal-types, such as the ox ( jssibly a 

 reminiscence of the old medium of exchange. Fig A), or the 

 elephant (an allusion to the animals employed b^ the Greek 

 King Pyrrhus, in his war against the Romans in the early 

 years of the third century) ; or, again, types with a religious 

 significance, such as the eagle standing on a thunderbolt 

 (both attributes of Jupiter). It is not certain which of 

 these early pieces are to be given to Rome and which to 

 other cities of Italy, except in the cases where the word 

 RoiiANOM actually occurs on the coin. The aes ijrave series 

 (Figs. B andl //') presents us with a somewhat uninteresting 

 set of types. The type of the reverses of all the denomina- 

 tions is uniformly the prow of a vessel of the kind 

 used in the fourth century — a proof, if needed, that these 

 coins did not come in before that time. The various 

 denominations are distinguished, in the first place, by the 

 marks of value (sometimes on both sides) we have already 

 described, and in the second by the type of the obverse. 

 The as (Fig. B; bears always the double-head of the god 

 -Janug (cp. Fig. 6) ; the semis the laureate head of Jupiter, the 

 triens that of Miuerva wearing the helmet, the quadram that 

 of Herculeg in the lion's skin, the sextans that of Mercury in 

 his winged hat (Figs. 1 — 5), and the iineia that of Minerva 

 or Roma herself. These coins are of a style which belongs 

 not to the primitive artist, but rather to a people who care 

 little for the artistic value of the things they handle. The 

 Republican Roman, in fact, cared no more for the beauty 

 of his coins than does the modern Englishman. 



The first gold and silver coinage (Figs. C and 7) struck, 

 as we have seen, for use outside Rome, bears, like some of 

 the acs siefitatum, the name of the Roman people. As a 

 rule, the types are not of sufBcient interest to detain us, 

 since we have seen better things of the same kind done by 

 the Greeks. Fig. Ci shows two soldiers taking an oath 

 over a slam pig. It is interesting to note on No. 7 an 

 early, if not the earliest representation of the Roman 

 national legend, a she-wolf suckling the twins Romulus and 

 Kemus. 



After the reduction of the as, the copper as well as the 

 silver, now actually issued in Rome, bore the name of the 

 city. The most frequent type of the reverse (the obverse 

 bearing the head of Rome) on this early silver is the 

 heavenly twins Castor and Pollux, whose appearance at the 

 battle of Lake Regillus was one of the most popular of 

 Roman legends. The heroes are represented (Fig. 9) on 

 horseback, charging the enemy ; they wear conical caps, 

 and above the head of each is a star. 



The second and first centuries before Christ form the 

 last period of republican coinage. The characteristic of 

 this time is the appearance on the coins of the names (at 

 first in abbreviated form, and then gradually at greater 

 length) of the officials charged with the issue of money. 

 These names (which, however, cease about 36 b.o.) enable 

 us to ascertain with comparative exactitude the dates at 

 which individual pieces were issued. The types, at first 

 uniform, first began to be varied in 100 b.c, and from 

 this time they have a personal significance ; that is to 

 say, they relate to events in which the ancestors of the 

 moneyers, less frequently the moneyers themselves, took, 

 or were supposed to have taken, a part. Thus a denarius, 

 struck between 184 and 114 u.c. by Marcus Csecilius 

 Metellus (Fig. 11), shows on the reverse a Macedonian 

 shield, with an elephant's head in the centre, the whole 

 surrounded by a laurel wreath. This is, in the first place, 



