[ 67 ] 
VII. 
Who P. Cofinius, whofe name feems to have been 
handed down to us bv the Denarius I have been at- 
j 
tempting here to explain, was, or what was the par- 
ticular mode of his connection with M. Plastorius, by 
whom the piece was ftruck, 1 cannot at prefent, for 
want of fufficient light from antient hiftory, and 
authentic Roman monuments, take upon me to 
decide. But this I may be allowed to fay, that the 
piece before me is the only coin of the Cofinian 
family that has hitherto efcaped the ravages of time. 
That the Cofinian family was of fome note in Rome, 
we may infer, not only from the very curious dena- 
rius that is the objedt of my attention here, but like- 
wife from two or three antient (iB) Roman inferip- 
tions, which have preferved to us the name of that 
family. As for M. Plsetorius, mentioned on the 
denarius before me, (19) and other fimilar coins, he 
was, according to M. Havercamp, (20) queftor to 
Brutus, one of Csefar’s murderers j and the piece I 
am endeavouring to explain firft appeared, as already 
obferved, a little (21) after that emperor’s death. 
The Etrufcan letters were not then intirely out of 
ufe : nay, they were not totally difufed in fome parts 
of Italy, and particularly at (22) Falerii, a confiderable 
(18) J an. Gruter. Corp. Infcript. ex recenf. Jo. Georg. Grav . 
p. CMLXXI. 9. DCLVIII. 1. Amflelsedami, 1707. Ludovic. 
Anton. Murator. Nov. Thefaur. Vet . Infcript . p. DCCXCIV, 7. 
Mediolani, 1740. 
(19) Vid. I. Vaill. & Sig. Haverc. in Fatn, Plator. 
(20) Sig. Haverc. ubi fup. p. 325. 
(21) Id. Ibid. 
(22) Strab. Geogr , Lib. V. 
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