VOL. LXIV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 531 



hind, standing for 5, the number of asses it contains; and on the reverse. Castor 

 and Pollux, or, according to Sig. Olivieri, two Castors, on horseback, with 

 seven stars over each of their helmets, or caps. In the exergue we discover the 

 word ROMA, formed of very ancient characters; and under the belly of one of 

 the horses the monogram, which distinguishes this quinarius from all the other 

 similar pieces that ever fell under my view or observation. Nor have I ever met 

 with it in any author I had occasion to consult or peruse. To me therefore it 

 cannot but appear in the light of an inedited coin. 



The Romans first coined silver money, according to Pliny, with whom Livy, 

 in this point, agrees, in the 485th year of the city. Some of the earliest pieces, 

 of which several still remain in the cabinets of the curious and the great, exhi- 

 bited a female galeated head on one side, as the quinarius now considered; and 

 on the reverse Castor and Pollux, or, as Sig. Olivieri calls them, two Castors, 

 as both these figures are horsemen, such as clearly and distinctly appear on tliis 

 coin. Therefore, as the letters forming the word roma, in the exergue, are an- 

 tique enough, at least, for the time when silver was first coined at Rome, or 5 

 years before the commencement of the first Punic war, we may fairly suppose 

 this quinarius to be either coeval with, or, as I rather imagine, a little anterior 

 to the commencement of that war. 



The monogram on the reverse of this quinarius, ■ so extremely remarkable for 

 the number of letters it contains, we shall find, on a close and attentive exami- 

 nation, to exhibit the word romanoro, the masculine genitive case plural of 

 Romanvs, in the days of C. Duilius and L. Scipio, the son of Barbatus, towards 

 the close of the 5th century of Rome; some time after the completion of which, 

 the Romans converted the last syllable ro into rvm. But to analyse this extraor- 

 dinary complex character a little more particularly, the first part of it perfectly 

 answers to the word roma, as represented by a monogram on several coins of the 

 Calpurnian family; and the latter part of it is evidently formed of the letters 

 noro, the last of which is apparently included in the head or top of the r. As 

 the masculine plural termination of the genitive case was ro, instead of rvm, in 

 the year of liome4Q4, when the inscription mentioning L. Scipio's conquest of 

 Corsica, and reduction of Aleria, seems to have first appeared; it is highly pro- 

 bable, that the piece in question was either coeval with, or a little anterior to, 

 that year. The inscription is as follows: 



HONC. oiNO. PLoiRVME. coNSEN TioNT. R. Hunc uuum plur'imi consentiunt Rom<v, 

 DVONORO. OPTVMO. FviSE. viRo. Bonorum optimum Juisse virum, 



LvcioM. scipione. filios. barbati. Lucium Scipionem. Filius Barbati, 



CONSOL. CENSOR. AiDiLis. Hic. FVET. Cousul, Censor, ^(UUs, kicfuU. 



Hic. CEPiT. CORSICA. ALERiAftVE. VKBE. Hicccpit Corsicam, Aleriamque Urbem, 

 DEDET. TEMPESTATEBVS. AIDE. MERF.TO. Declit Timpesiatibtis (tdem merito, 



3 Y 2 



