[ 533 } 
•tution of the ClafTes by Servius Tullius, hath valued 
what the Romans called centu 7 n millia o‘ris^ or looooo 
Pounds weight of copper, no higher than too Mi- 
nas (2), which is at the rate of a Drachm for every 
10 Pounds of copper j and this valuation he muR 
have taken from the price of copper when the Ro- 
mans firH; coined filver, reckoning the Denarius of 
that time equal to what it was W'hen he wrote. Btit 
had the firfl Denarius been Didrachmal or Tetra- 
drachmal, fo well-informed a writer inud have 
known it, and would have valued the copper money 
accordingly. Neither is it probable that Pjiny,, who- 
hath given fo particular an account of the diminution 
of the As^ fhould omit that of the Denarius. 
But it is not impofhbie that fiiver might be fo- 
fcarce at Rome when it was hrfi; coined there,, as to- 
bear the above-mentioned proportion to copper; and 
the Romans, not being a trading people, might have 
no regard to its value elfewhere. It is likewife pro- 
bable, that,, through ignorance and inexperience in. 
money matters, they fet too high a value on it at 
firfl ; which feems to have been the cafe,, by its quick: 
redu<Sion from 840 times its weight in copper, tO’ 
14Q, in lefs than thirty years ; and again to 112 in. 
between twenty and, thirty years more;, and not- very' 
long after to 56, at which price it remained during; 
the continuance of the republican government.. 
But we are little interefied in the weight of the 
Denarius for the firfl fixty years after it was coined 
and r have fhewn that when, the Romans, began toj 
(?) CompTirp Dio-nvfius with Livy.. 
coim 
