vius, or Lu fius, was the Merrifs, Merrix, or Med- 
dix, or at leaft one of the two magiftrates going under 
that denomination, of the city, if not the whole 
country, where it was ftruck. 
V. 
With regard to the year, as well as the place, 
wherein the medals in view firffc appeared, neither 
the one nor the other can, with precifion, be afcer- 
tained ; though the Latin A on one fide of my de- 
narius and the Etrufcan O on the reverfe, in the 
exergue, feem to point at the initial letter of the 
name of the place where they were ftruck. And 
that this operation happened about the time of the 
Social War, we may pronounce highly probable, 
from the agreement of thefe denarii in moft particu- 
lars with other Samnite coins, undoubtedly ftruck 
not long after (*) the commencement of that 
war. 
VI. 
It would be wholly unneceffary, and altogether 
immaterial, to mention the different explications of 
the fymbol on the reverfes of thefe medals, offered 
by feveral learned men, here ; as fcarce any of 
them feems to be perfectly agreeable to truth, or to 
be fuch as may be abfolutely depended upon. I 
fhall therefore content myfelf with obferving, that 
fome light is thrown upon this intricate fubje£t 
(*) This feems likewife, from what has been already ob- 
ferved in a former paper, pretty clearly to appear. Philofoph . 
Tranfaci. Vol. LVIII. p. 256, 257. 
by 
