202 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1771. 



Romans were increasing very fast when Polybius wrote, and the prices of all 

 the necessaries of life must have increased in proportion, therefore it is proliable 

 that the soldier's pay was raised to 5 asses on the quaestor's book, for which they 

 received a quinarius, before Caesar augmented it. 



If the pound weight of gold was worth 9OO denarii, 84 of which were coined 

 out of the pound of silver, the value of gold to silver must have been in the 

 proportion of QOO to 84, or as 10-f to 1. And if this was the value of gold at 

 Rome 62 years after their first coinage of silver, it proves that no fewer than 84 

 denarii were then coined out of the pound. Now by an article in the treaty with 

 the Etolians, about 18 years after this first coinage of gold at Rome, that people 

 were permitted to pay one-third of their tribute in gold, at the rate of one 

 pound of gold for ten of silver. Therefore gold was then but 10 times the value 

 of silver in Greece; and it could not be much higher at Rome, where silver 

 was esteemed the more useful metal, as appears by the limitation of the sum to 

 be paid in gold, to one-third of the whole; and Pliny observes, that the Romans 

 always required the tribute they imposed on conquered countries should be paid 

 in silver, not in gold; therefore it is not probable that gold should bear a much 

 higher price at Rome than elsewhere, as it would, according to this account of its 

 first coinage, if fewer than 84 denarii were coined out of the pound of silver. 



From a passage in Tacitus, compared with Suetonius, we learn that in Galba's 

 time the aureus passed for 25 denarii. But 100 nummi were equal to 25 

 denarii ; therefore when 40 aurei were coined out of the pound of gold, and 84 

 denarii out of the pound of silver, the pound of gold, passing for 1000 denarii, 

 was worth IH-f pounds of silver. When the aureus of 45 in the pound passed 

 for 25 denarii of q6 in the pound, the proportional value of gold to silver was 

 as 375 to 32, or a little under 1 1-|- to 1. Suetonius tells us, that Caesar brought 

 so great a quantity of gold from Gaul, that he sold it throughout Italy and the 

 provinces for 3000 nummi the pound. 3000 nummi make 750 denarii; and 

 750 is to 84, as 8-f4 to 1. This was its price as merchandise, when the market 

 was overstocked, and the seller in haste to dispose of his goods; but what effect 

 it had on the coin, is not known. By the diminution of the aureus for above 

 half a century before the reign of Constantine, the price of gold appears to 

 have been rising, till it came to above 14 times its weight in silver; for 5 solidi 

 of 72 in the pound, being valued at a pound of silver, the proportion between 

 the two metals was as 14f to 1. 



^ F". Of the Value of the indent Greek and Roman Money. 



It does not appear that either the ancient Greeks or Romans allayed their 

 money, but coined the metals as pure as the refiners of those times could make 

 them: for though Pliny mentions two instances of the contrary at Rome, the 

 example was not followed, till the late Emperors debased the coin: and his 



