MEDAL. 



sphendona, worn on the crown of the 

 head, and sufficiently large to be noticed 

 on u medal; the haa- was dressed as tush- 

 ion dictated, and the emblematic figure 

 of a crescent sometimes accompanied the 

 bust of an empress. 



When the toga is exhibited drawn over 

 the head, the person so represented bore 

 the pontificate or the augurship ; the veil, 

 the sign of consecration, is common on 

 the coins of empresses ; but those coins 

 are rare and valuable on which emperors 

 are presented in this manner. The more 

 modern saints have now usurped the 

 nimbus or glory with which ancient mo- 

 narchs adorned their heads. " Haver- 

 camp gives a singular coin, which has 

 upon the reverse of the common piece, 

 with the head of Rome, TUBS-ROMA, in 

 large brass, Constant! ne I. sitting amid 

 victories, and genii, with a triple crown 

 upon his head, for Europe, Asia, and Afri- 

 ca : legend SECVIIITAS HOMJE." 



The most usual method of exhibiting- 

 portraits on ancient coins was by the bust; 

 ^but there are instances of half lengths, 

 and even more, of the person, in which 

 case the hands are frequently introduced 

 holding emblems of power. 



The reverses of medals present an in- 

 finite variety of subjects ; consequently 

 they afford a proportionate degree of 

 pleasure in the study of them ; indeed 

 there is scarcely any peculiarity in the 

 manners, dresses, or religion of the an- 

 ients, which they do not serve to illus- 

 trate and explain; the habits and symbols 

 of their deities, the allegorical allusions 

 common to their time, their religious 

 ceremonies, the insignia of their magis- 

 trates, are given with so much truth, that, 

 added to the historical events they were 

 intended to record, it is impossible to 

 feel indifferent when viewing them ; ex- 

 clusive of these, they furnish matter for 

 curiosity, as sketches of various brandies 

 of natural history, by the representations 

 of animals and plants. 



A sufficient number of medals has been 

 preserved, of each age, to observe the 

 progress of taste in decorating them, and 

 it appears that the most ancient arc with- 

 out any other mark on the reverse, be- 

 yond the indenting of the instrument on 

 which the metal was supported when im- 

 pressing the obverse ; those are four 

 points calculated to secure it firmly : the 

 deformity thus occasioned did not pass 

 unnoticed by the artist and his employer, 

 and invention suggested the insertion of 

 small fish or animals between the points, 

 which were gradually improved upon, 



till the difficulty was entirely removed, 

 and the figures became beautiful, correct, 

 and highly-finished performances, that 

 will bear critical examination, even fur- 

 nishing studies for the proportions and 

 muscles of men and animals. The re- 

 verses of some Greek medals of great an- 

 tiquity are concave, and the obverses in 

 a few instances are convex, and the time 

 at which the engravers of their dies be- 

 came adepts in their art, and capable of 

 making a complete reverse, was about 

 500 vears before Christ. The Romans, 

 sensible of their inferiority to the Greeks 

 in this particular, had the good sense to 

 invite skilful persons to Rome, where 

 they executed the best Roman medals, 

 and taught the artists of that nation to 

 emulate their excellence. None of the 

 above, or Etruscan coins, have been dis- 

 covered, which are globular, or with an 

 indented reverse similar to those al- 

 ready mentioned ; the earliest Greek 

 specimens are universally of silver, 

 whereas the Roman are of copper, cast 

 in moulds, and large, in which they great- 

 ly differ from the diminutive size of the 

 Greek. 



The Romans seem at first to have been 

 very deficient in composing their re- 

 verses, and by no means profited by the 

 rich examples before them : it is, indeed, 

 difficult to account for the constant uni- 

 formity and repetition of cars, and prows 

 of gallies, that prevailed till very nearly 

 the Christian era, after which period a 

 variety occurs ; and during the reign of 

 the emperors they made ample amends 

 for their previous neglect of this side of 

 the medal. Mr. Pinkerton observe* 

 very justly, "that the medallist much 

 values those which have a number of fi- 

 gures, as the puellae faustinianae of Fausti- 

 na, a gold coin no larger than a sixpence, 

 which has twelve figures; that of Trajan, 

 regna adsignata, has four; the congiarium 

 of Nerva, five; the allocution of Trajan, 

 seven -, of Hadrian, ten ; of Probus, 

 twelve." There was a felicity of thought, 

 and a happy mode of conveying a com- 

 pliment, adopted by those who struck 

 medals at the time now under notice, 

 which was accomplished by giving the 

 representation of a virtue, and calling 1 it 

 that of the person commemorated ; in 

 this particular, the Romans differed great- 

 ly from the Greeks; the latter people 

 uniformly pointed out the effigies of their 

 gods and genii by their generally receiv- 

 ed emblems; but the former inscribed 

 their names. It is entirely useless to par- 

 ticularize the deities and their insignia ; 



