part of an ounce, of which Mr. Pinkerton 
describes the medial value to be niuepence 
sterling: the didrachm, tridrachm, and te- 
tradrachni, explain themselves, except the 
tetradrachm of the iFgineao standard, which 
was valued at live -shillings. This last was 
the largest form of the Greek silver coins. 
The silver divisions of the drachma were the 
tetroboiion, the hetnidrachm or tribolion, the 
diobolion, the okolus, the hemiobolion, the 
t-etrabolion, and dichalcos ; the lirst of the va- 
lue of sixpence, the last of a farthing and a 
half. Of the distinct names by which many 
• of these coins were called among the different 
states, our intelligence is partial; nor are 
such names of consequence. 
The next Greek coinage, in point of an- 
tiquity, is that of copper, which is said not to 
have been introduced till four hundred and 
four years before the Christian ana. The 
l first copper coin of Greece was the chalcos, 
of which two went to the quarter of Hie silver 
obolus. In days of poverty, however, even 
this was divided by different states into dif- 
ferent portions, which were called Arm*, or 
little coins. The lepton, dileptem, and te- 
tralepton, were the divisions of the chalcos, 
the smaller of which, from their perishable 
size, are very rare. Such were the brass 
coins of Greece previous to the subjection of 
that country to the lloman empire. 
The earliest of the gold coins of Greece 
are those of Philip of Macedon, although they 
i were struck in Sicily considerably earlier. 
Philip, having conquered the city Crenides, 
on the confines of Thrace, found gold-mines 
in its neighbourhood, formerly ill explored, 
| and of small produce. * From this gold he 
first struck-the coins called Philippi, because 
■ of his portrait which appears on them. The 
i Philippi it should seem were didrachms, the 
i form most universal in the antient coinages 
' of gold ; and at their first appearance went 
for 20 silver drachma-, but in latter times for 
| 25 Greek drachma: or Homan denarii. The 
I Philippes was also called Xpvjor There were 
likewise the' and the riTuproxpvaos, 
• with gold coins of Cyrene, which could not 
1 have gone for more than two drachmas of 
I silver. There were also the Ai xf v,tos and 
the TErpapif, or quadruple X^vaos ; the for- 
! mer worth about two, and the latter worth 
I about four pounds of our money. 
The original value of the Homan coins is a 
I subject still more intricate and extensive. As 
| in Greece, the first estimation of their money 
j was by weight; though copper, not silver, 
j was the first medium of coinage. The first 
Roman coinage, according to Mr. Pinkerton, 
was in the reign. of Servius Tullus, about the 
I year 4f30 before the common a:ra, and was 
confined to the as or ws libralis, or piece of 
; brass only, which was stamped with the two- 
faced, head of Janus on the one side, and the 
prow of a ship on t lie other; though Mr. 
rinkerjfon afterward thinks, it probable that 
the very first Roman ases of Tullus had the 
figure of a bull, ram, or other species of cat- 
tle. However this may be, parts of the as 
were very early given in proportion of weight 
mid-value-: such were the semis or half, the 
triens, the quadrans, the sextans, and the un- 
. cia. ■ - After a certain period, the as, though 
still called libra, fell to two ounces; and as it 
fell in weight, larger denominations we're 
. coined. Such were the bissus or dupondius, 
VOL. ii. 
MEDALS, 
the tressis, the quadrussis, and even the de- 
cussis, or piece of ten. ases in copper. 
hen the Romans began, by intercourse 
with Greece, to imbibe the arts of elegance, a 
variety of types appeared upon the parts of 
the as, and at length upon the as itself; 
though these, it is believed, are not seen til! 
near the time of Sylla. Dupondii, or double 
ases, were also coined in the later period of 
the commonwealth, as in the former; toge- 
ther with the sestercii wrei, which came in 
place of tire quadrusses. It must also be ob- 
served that tire Romans, in some instances, 
accommodated their coins to the country in 
which their army was stationed ; so that it 
is from the coiiE sti uck at Rome only that 
die coinage can be adjusted. 
'I lie largest of the imperial brass coins, 
according to our author, was the sesterciusy 
worth about twopence English ; no sensible 
diminution of which from its first weight of 
an ounce took place till the reign of Alex- 
ander Severus, when it lost upwards of a 
sixth. In the time of the Philippi, it was still 
more reduced ; and under Trajanus Decius 
it had lost near a half. lie was the first 
prince who seems to have coined double 
sestercii, or quinarii of brass, for such are t he 
common medallions inscribed FELICITAS 
S A EC VI. I, or VICTORIA AYG., which 
just weigh double his sestercii, and little 
more than the sestercii of the early emperors. 
From Trebonianus Gallus down to Gallienus, 
when what is called the first brass ceases, 
the sestertius does not weigh above one-third 
of ati ounce : any larger are double sestercii, 
or medallions struck upon uncommon occa- 
sions. After Gallienus, the sestercius totally 
vanishes. Under Valerian and Gallienus, a 
new coinage appears of what were called de- 
narii wris, prPliilippei a-ria of copper washed 
with silver. In the reign of Diocletian, the 
follis supplied the place of the sestercius ; 
and soon after we find the denarius arcus 
dropped for ever. Such was the progress of 
the largest form of the imperial brass coin of 
Home. 
M lie dupondius, being half the sestercius, 
was the next in value. Prior to Augustus, 
it seems to have been commonly struck in 
copper; though after his time it was struck in 
yellow brass. It kept pace with the sester- 
cius in ali its stages. 
The imperial as or assarium is the next 
coin. It began to be called assarium as soon 
as its size was reduced to half an ounce, and, 
like the dupondius, diminished gradually in 
its form, till at the end of Gallienus’s reign 
it became what is called small brass. The 
parts of the as, says Mr. Pinkerton, in the 
imperial times, are, generally speaking, very 
rare. However, of Nero, there are the se- 
mis, triens, quadrans, sextans, and uncia, 
being all the parts ; and of Domitian there 
are the same. 
From Pertinax down to Gallienus, there is 
no small brass save of Trajanus Decius. 
"With Gallienus it becomes extremely com- 
mon. Toward the end of his reign the assa- 
ria were diminishing to a still less size. Far- 
ther we shall not trace this branch of the 
coinage. 
The silver coinage of Home is supposed 
first to have taken place about 2G6 years be- 
fore the Christian rera. T he most antient de- 
narii are tiiose on which no inscription, save 
the word ROMA, appears : and at. that tiu>e 
129 
the denarius seems to have gone for ten ases ; 
though it was afterward raised to sixteen, till 
the time of Gallienus. Under Caracaila, 
when the silver coinage was debased, denarii 
.were- struck of two sizes ; the larger bearing 
an increase qf value by a third . 136th, how- 
ever, fe'sgened by degrees till after Gordian 
III. when the smaller totally vanished, and- 
the larger alone remained I The latter, in 
the time of Gallienus, was the. sole denarius, 
of silver, and probably gave rise to, the dena- 
rii cerei, which have been already mentioned.' 
Such was the silver coinage' till the time of 
Constantine the First, when the milliarensis 
was. introduced, weighing. about 70 grains, 
and answering in jvorth.to oiir shilling. r l he 
denarii or argent ei w-ere, how-ever, still, coin 
\‘d, and were the money most "common 
currency. 
Of the smaller silver . coins of Rome, two 
only remain to be mentioned, the quinarii-'or 
pieces of five ases, and the sestercii of silver, 
which seem to have been coined down to 
Augustus. 
Gold, we are informed by Pliny, was first 
coined at Pome in the 204th year before the 
present a ra; and his account of the diminu- 
tion in weight" which marked the progress of 
its coinage, is singularly corroborated by 
such coins as have come dow n to us. The 
scruple, he says, went for 20 sesterces. “ It 
was afterw ard thought proper to coin 40 pieces 
out of the pound of gold. And our princes 
have by degrees diminished their weight to 
45 in the pound.” Till Sylla’ s time, the au- 
reus continued at 30 denarii; it afterwards 
fell to 20; though both under Claudius and 
Severus w-e find it at 25. Constantine the 
First, instead of the aureus, gave the solidus, 
of six in the ounce of gold; one of which an- 
swered to 14 of the milliarenses. The soli- 
dus continued of the very same standard to 
the dose of the Byzantine empire. 
Of the portraits which are to be found on 
coins, those of the. kings of Macedon have 
the first rank, as. tlu-ir coins have the great- 
est antiquity of any yet discovered on which 
portraits are found. Alexander I. begins the. 
series, who reigned 501 years before tin; 
Christian rcra. Then follow the kings and 
queens of Sicily, Cavia, Cyprus, Pontus, 
Egypt, Syria, Thrace, Pitliynia, &c. extend- 
ing in series from the time of Alexander the 
Great to the birth of Christ, comprising a 
period of about 330 years. In this class are 
placed the beautiful coins of the Seleucidx*. 
The last series of antient kings goes down to 
the fourth century, including those of Mau- 
ritania and Judea; and finishing the series of 
the portraits of kings found on medals struck 
witli Grecian characters. 
The Roman emperors present a most dis- 
tinct series from Julius to a later period than 
the destruction of Home by the Goths. 
The kings, upon Greek coins, have gene- 
rally the diadem, without any other orna-, 
ment, usually with a side face, and almost al- 
ways in very high relief; though several, 
particularly the beautiful gold coin of Pto- 
lemy Philadelphus, others of Antony and 
Cleopatra, & c. have more portraits than one 
upon them. The chief ornament of the por- 
traits is the diadem or vitta. The radiated 
crown, a mark of deification, on the posthu- 
mous coins of Augustus, was, in a little more 
than a century after, put upon uxont of.ihe 
