C 489 ] 
Attic Minas; by the latter, that it weigheJ above 70 
Euboic Minas ; and if Pollux took his value of the 
Babylonian Talent from Herodotus, as the text now 
ftands, andiTlian his value of the fame, from a more 
correft copy of that author, or from Ibme better 
authority, the Euboic Talent muft have been equal 
to the Attic. 
§ III. Of the Roman Money. 
PLINY hath given the following hiflorical ac- 
count of the Roman coinage : “ Silver was firlt 
coined at Rome in the 485th year of the City, 
when Ogulnius and C. Fabius were Confuls, 
“ five years before the fird Punic war. And the 
“ denarius was made to pafs for ten pounds of cop- 
“ per; the quinarius, for five; and the fefterce, for 
“ two and a half. But the weight of the As was 
reduced in the firfi: Punic war, when the republic, 
being unable to defray its expences, refolved to 
“ coin fix AJfes out of the pound; whereby they 
“ gained five parts, and paid their debts. The 
‘‘ damp of the As was a double-faced Janus on one 
“ fide, and the prow of a fhip on the other ; on the 
triens and quadrans a boat. After this, when they 
were preffed by Hannibal, Quintus Fabius Maxi- 
“ mus being diftator {about the year 537], the As 
“ was reduced to one ounce, and' the filver denarius 
“ made to pafs for 1 6 Affes ; the quinarius, for eight ; 
“ and the lefterce, for four. And the republic gained 
one half {upon the copper moneyX. But in the pay 
VoL. LXl. K r r “of 
«c 
