1851.] Remarks on some lately-discovered Roman Gold Coins. 3/9 



From the above brief sketch of the communication which the 

 Romans had with the Western coast of India, and the enumeration of 

 the chief articles of commerce which attracted their merchants hither 

 for the purposes of trade, we have little occasion to be surprised at the 

 discovery of such coins as have from time to time been found in this 

 country ; the great difficulty lies in determining by whom and how 

 they were actually brought here and how many centuries may have 

 passed away since they were either lost or deposited in those spots 

 whence they are now taken. The oldest coins in the present col- 

 lection are those of Augustus and the latest those of Antoninus Pius, 

 embracing a period of about one hundred and forty years. "We 

 must therefore conclude that they were all brought here subsequent 

 to or during the reign of the last mentioned Emperor while the very 

 remarkable state of preservation in which they exist would lead us to 

 suppose that they had never been in extensive circulation or use previ- 

 ously. It can be no matter of surprise that no other memorials of 

 those times are found upon this coast, such as buildings, &c, &c, for 

 the ancients obtained no footing in the country, but merely came and 

 returned with their ships laden with merchandize.* 



In the absence of all direct testimony as to the probable fact of these 

 coins having been conveyed here by the Romo-Egyptian traders, there 

 is another supposition worthy of taking into consideration, whether 

 they may not have been brought here by those Jewish refugees who 

 emigrating from Palestine about the year 68, A. D. spread themselves 

 over this part of the continent at that early period. That country was 

 then a Roman province and consequently Roman money was there in 

 circulation. At that time ten thousand Jews with their families came 

 and settled on the coast of Malabar and dispersed themselves in various 

 places chiefly on the sea-coast. Now supposing several emigrations of 

 the kind to have succeeded each other and taken place during the third 

 and fourth centuries, (Palestine did not cease to be a Roman provinc6 

 until the beginning of the seventh century,) it is not unlikely that these 

 coins may have been brought by them, and either from suffering perse- 

 cution or oppression at the hands of the natives they may have buried 

 these treasures for greater security or concealment. But besides the 



* Remains of Roman buildings as well as coins have been discovered in Ceylon, 

 In one instance of the latter they were mostly of the age of Antoninus. 



3 D 



