C 5-co ] 
But thefe pieces are toa fmall, and too few in 
number, to determine this point. Mr. Duane hath 
that of one Scruple, in fine prefervation, weighing 
almofl i7§ grains. Mr. de la Nauze hath given the 
weight of the piece of 3 fcruples with the mark X* 
in the French king’s cabinet, which he fays is exadly 
64 Paris grains, (3), equal to 52 1 Troy, and gives 
17I grains for the Scruple. 
This fcrupular ftanckrd Teems to 4 iave continued 
till Sulla introduced one which Pliny hath not 
mentioned, on account, perhaps, of its fliort duration. 
It was probably occafioned by the rife of the value of 
gold; for when the fcrupular ffandard was hrn: 
edablifhed, gold was worth but about ten times its 
weight in filver, as I fliall fhew hereafter; but in 
Sulla’s time it was much dearer. 
Cicero plainly alludes to this alteration in the coin, 
when, fpeaking of his kinfman Marius Gratidianus,., 
he fays, that time the money avas in fucb a JiuSluating 
Jiate that no man knew what be had (4.) : and both he 
and Pliny relate, that the law Gratidianus made in 
Sulla’s abfcnce, from Rome, for the regulation of tlie 
coin, was fo popular, that ffatues were ere<5ted to him 
in every fireet, and incenfe. burnX before them (5). 
The intent of this law feems to have been, to relfore- 
the ancient ftaHda-rd'in oppofition to Sulla; for it fo :• 
provoked him, that, on his return to Rome, hecaufed 
all the ffatues to be thrown down (6), and Gratidi- - 
(3) Ai'lemoires de 1’ Academia des Infcriptions, Vol. XXX,. 
P- 359- 
(4) Cicero de Officiis, L. Ill, § 2O, 
f5) Cicero, ibid. Pliny, Nat. Hift, L, XXXIII. c. o., 
6) Pliny, L. , XXXIV. c. 6. 
anus 
