110 



Coin and Currency in [No. 9, new series. 



The as which had hitherto been a pound of bronze was reduced to 

 the weight of the sextans — its sixth part. By this ingenious con- 

 trivance the Republic paid " 3s. 4d. in the pound" under the ap- 

 pearance of a complete discharge of its liabilities. Again, in the 

 second a further reduction to one ounce was made. At the same 

 time the denarius which had originally been equal to ten ases was 

 ' decreed to be henceforth equivalent to sixteen : with an important 

 exception in favor of the soldiery. In their pay the denarius was to 

 retain its original ratio to the as. Soon after this, about 191 B, C. 

 a law was passed reducing the weight of the as to half an ounce. 



These three changes are reported by Pliny; but there mnst 

 have been several others both intermediate and subsequent. We 

 possess ases weighing and even -g 1 -^, of a pound ; and others 

 representing intervening depreciations and weighing 11, 10, 9, 8, 

 3, If and \\ oz. These successive reductions do not seem to have 

 created any disturbance or even excited opposition. It is proba- 

 ble that the measures were proposed by some popular man and 

 easily carried through the popular assembly. The poorer classes in 

 Rome, and especially the soldiery, were heavily involved in debt. 

 None of them were state-creditors except the soldiers, and their 

 interests were, as we have seen, not neglected. It mattered little 

 to the majority in the popular comitia how the State defrauded its 

 creditors, while they could with equal ease discharge, or at any 

 rate diminish their own obligations. 



I must not, however, omit to mention that the Marquis Gamier 

 asserts that the changes in the value of the as were introduced, 

 not with fraudulent intention, but in order to adjust in the Ro- 

 man currency the relative values of bronze and silver. To this 

 statement Pliny's account of the transactions in question is expli- 

 citly opposed. He expressly states that the depreciations were 

 effected by the Republic for the discharge of her debts. Further, 

 had the reduction of the weight been gradual, the work of suc- 

 cessive ages, as M. Gamier' s theory would require, the coins 

 would exhibit in their style of execution differences corresponding 

 to the differences in their value. All the various pieces, however, 

 which I have enumerated above, are evidently of the same or very 

 nearly the same date. 



