[ 490 ] 
“ of the army, the foldier always receiVed a filver 
“ denarius for ten JJfes. The ftamp of the filver 
money was a chariot and a pair, or a chariot and 
four horfesj whence they were called and 
^adrigatt. The As was foon after reduced to half 
an ounce, by the Papirian Law. What is now 
“ called the VidoriatjWas coined by the ClodianLawj 
before which, it was imported from Illyricum as 
merchandize: its flamp is a Vidory, whence it 
takes its name. The gold money was coined fixty 
two years after the fiver, and the fcruple paffed 
for twenty fcfterces, which, as the fefterce was 
** reckoned at that time [z| Afffes'], made the pound of 
“ gold worth nine hundred Jilver denarii (i) [of i6 
“ AJjeseach\. It was afterward thought proper to coin 
forty pieces out of the pound of gold. And our 
Princes have, by degrees, diminifhed their weight 
to 45 in the pound (2).” 
Thus far Pliny, whofe date of the firfl coinage of 
filver is confirmed by Livy (3). 
The Denarii now remaining are of various kinds. 
The mofi: ancient are the Bigati and ^adrigati^y\v\x\g^ 
on one fide the head of a woman in a helmet, with 
(1) The common reading is feftertios DCCCC, which I fliall 
confider hereafter. 
(2) Plin. Nat. Hift. L. XXXIII. c. 3. In moft editions of 
Pliny before Hardouin, the numbers 40 and 45, are thus writ- 
ten X. XL. M. and X. XLV. M. whence Agncola and Snellius 
have fuppofed the M. after the former number, to be a miftake 
of the tranfcriber for II. and that after the latter for III. But 
Hardouin in his note on this pafTage hath fliewn the M. in both 
places, to be fuperfluous. In the laft claufe, I read minutijjhne 
verOf not minutijffime Nero, 
(3) See the epitome of L. XV. 
the 
