CHAP. ix. AMOUNT OF MONEY. 



it, or from the deficient weight being made up 

 from a greater proportion of alloy, is a matter of 

 doubt, though the latter seems the most pro- 

 bable supposition. 



We find in Suetonius, that Vespasian, when 

 he succeeded to the imperial dignity, asserted 

 that a sum equivalent to 322,916,600 1 was 

 necessary to support the commonwealth. This 

 amount could not have reference either to the 

 annual revenue or to the accumulation in the 

 public treasury; for the produce of neither of 

 those departments at any period could have 

 yielded so large a sum. It is not, however, 

 unreasonable to suppose that it bore a refer- 

 ence to the whole mass of coined money at 

 that time known, or believed, or supposed to be 

 in circulation within the boundaries of the re- 

 public. Assuming, then, that this sum was 

 nearly the amount of the whole stock of current 

 money, we may, without relying on its precise 

 accuracy, venture to make use of it as the 

 foundation of an estimate of the loss created by 

 abrasion in the course of the period we have 

 brought under consideration. Vespasian began 

 his reign and uttered the opinion we have stated 



1 ' ' Quadringenties millies (scilicet H. S. Vespasianus) 

 statim initio sui principatus opus esse professus est, ut re- 

 publica stare posset." Sueton. in Vespasiano, cap. xvi. 



