' 813 
MEDAL. 
Sylla. Towards the latter end of the republic alfo, 
dupondii , or double afes, were coined, together with the 
fejlertii arei, which came in place of the quadrujfs, when 
the denarius began to be reckoned at 16 affes ; probably 
at the time the latter was reduced to half an ounce. In 
forne inftances it is to be obferved, that the Romans ac¬ 
commodated their coins to the country where their army 
was ftationed ; whence we have many coins marked as 
Roman which were coined in Magna Graecia and Sicily, 
and are evidently upon the Greek and not the Roman 
fcale. In the latter part of the republican times, alfo, 
the types begin to vary ; fo that we have a brafs coin fup- 
pofed to be (truck by Sextus Pompeius in Sicily, having 
upon it a double head of that warrior, reprefenting a 
Janus. Mr. Pinkerton fuppofes it to have been a du- 
pondius ; which indeed appears to be the cafe from the 
double head. This coin is of copper, and Hill weighs 
an ounce, notwithftanding its antiquity. 
The largeft imperial copper coin was the fejlertius, a 
piece worth about twopence of our money. M. Pin¬ 
kerton cenfures feverely the opinion of other tnedallifts, 
all of whom fay that the feftertius was of filver. “ In 
fa£l (fays he), it would be as rational in any antiquary, 
a thoufand years hence, to contend that the halfpenny 
and farthing are of filver, becaufe they were fo in the 
reign of Henry VIII.” In confirmation of his own opi¬ 
nion, he quotes the following paffage from Pliny : “ The 
greateft glory of brafs is now due to the Marian, called 
alfo that of Cordova. This, after the Livian, moll ab- 
forbs the lapis calaminaris, and imitates the goodnefs of 
native orichalcum in our feftertii and dupondiarii, the 
afes being contented with their own copper.” Grono- 
vius confelTes that he does not know what to make of this 
paffage, and that it caufes him to hefitate in his opinion. 
The Livian mine mentioned here by Pliny, is fuppofed to 
have got its name from Livia the wife of Auguftus ; and 
it is probable that the pieces marked with her portrait, 
entitled justitia, salus, virtus, &c. were dupondii 
from this very mine, the metal being exceedingly fine, 
and of the kind named Corinthian brafs by the ancient 
tnedallifts. “ Perhaps (fays Mr. Pinkerton) the mine 
received its name from this very circumftance of her 
coins being (truck in the metal taken from it.” 
No change took place in the Roman coinage, from the 
time that the as fell to half an ounce, until the days of 
Pliny : but Mr. Pinkerton obferves, that before the time 
of Julius Casfar yellow brafs began to be ufed, and was 
always looked upon to be double the value of Cyprian 
or red copper. There are but few coins in large brafs 
immediately before Julius Casfar, or even belonging to 
that emperor ; but, from the time of Auguftus downward, 
the large coins are all found of brafs, and not one of them 
of copper. The largeft of what are called the middle fize 
are all of yellow brafs ; and the next fize, which is the as, 
and weighs half an ounce, is univerfally copper. What 
the ancients named orichalcum, or what we call brafs, was 
always looked upon to be greatly fuperior in value to the 
as Cyprium, or copper. Procopius, ipeaking of a ftatue 
of Jullinian, tells us, that brafs, inferior in colour to gold, 
is almoft equal in value to filver. The mines of native 
brafs were very few in number, and were owing entirely 
to the fingular combination of copper and lapis calamina- 
1 is in the bowels of the earth, which very feldom occurs ; 
and the ancients were far from being well acquainted 
•with the method of combining thefe two bodies artifi¬ 
cially ; fo that yellow brafs was always efteemed at double 
the value of copper; and hence, in the ancient coinages, 
the brafs and copper pieces were kept as diftinft as thofe 
of gold and filver. 
Mr. Pinkerton challenges to himfelf the difcovery 
that the imperial feftertius was of brafs; and is at con- 
fiderable pains to bring proofs of it. Befides the tefti- 
mony of Pliny, which of itfelf would be decifive, this is 
fupported by the lirongeft collateral evidence of other 
authors. From a paffage in Julius African us, who wrote 
the I«ror Treatife on Medicine, it appears that 
the nuinmus, or feftertius, weighed an ounce, and of con- 
fequence that it could not be filver, but brafs ; and all 
the large imperial Roman coins weigh an ounce. We 
know not the age in which Julius Africanus lived ; but, 
as he makes the denarius to contain 16 afes, he mull 
have been before the age of Gallienus, when it contained 
60. Gronovius fuppofes him to have been the fame men¬ 
tioned by Eufebius. This author fpeaks of a Julius Af¬ 
ricanus who lived in the time of Heiiogabalus, and whom 
Mr. Pinkerton fuppofes to have been the fame with him 
above-mentioned. The feftertius underwent no change 
till the time of Alexander Severus, when it was dimi¬ 
ni (lied by one-third of its weight. Trajanus Decius was 
the firft who coined double feftertii, or quinarii, of brafs ; 
but from the time of Trebonianus Gall us to that of 
Gallienus, when the firlt brafs ceafes, the feftertius does 
not weigh above the third part of an ounce; the larger 
coins are accounted double feftertii 5 and after the time 
of Gallienus it totally vanilhes. 
In the times of Valerian and Gallienus alfo we find a 
new kind of coinage, mentioned by the name of denarii 
arts, or Philippi arei. Two fizes of denarii began to be 
ufed in the time of Caracalla; the larger of fix feftertii, 
or twenty-four affaria ; the fmaller of four feftertii, or 
fixteen affaria as ufual. In the time of Pupienus, the lat¬ 
ter was reduced to fuch a fmall fize as not to weigh more 
than 36 grains; though in Caracalla’s time it weighed 
56. After the time of Gordian III. the fmaller coin 
fell into difufe, as breeding confulion. The larger de¬ 
narius of fix feftertii, though diminifhed at laft to the fize 
of the early denarius, (till retained its value of fix fef¬ 
tertii, or twenty-four affaria. The Philippas areus came at 
length in place of the feftertius. It was alfo called 
denarius ; from which we may learn not only their fize, 
but that they were in value ten affaria, like the firft de¬ 
narius. In the reign of Dioclefian, the place of the fef¬ 
tertius was fupplied by the follis, that emperor having 
reftored the filver coin to its purity, and likewife given 
this form to the copper; but it would feem that this 
reftoration of the coinage only took place towards the 
end of his reign; whence we have but few of his filver 
coins, and ftill fewer of the folles, though the denarii arei 
continue quite common down to the time of Conftantine. 
The follis of Dioclefian feems to have weighed above 
half an ounce; and Mr. Pinkerton is of opinion that 
Dioclefian defigned this coin to fupply the place of the 
denarius eereus, which of courfe was worth ten aflarias, 
and fix of them went to the filver denarius. From this 
time the affarium diminilhes to the fize of 30 grains ; 
and, foon after the follis appeared, the denarius areus was 
entirely dropped, the former having gradually fupplied 
its place. Some mints appear to have retained the ufe 
of the denarius longer than others; and in fome the 
change was preceded, and gradually brought in, by walli- 
ing the follis with filver or tin, as the denarius had for¬ 
merly been. Pieces.of this kind occur in the times of 
Dioclefian, Maximian l. and II. and Conftantius I. that 
is, for about ten years after the follis made its appear¬ 
ance. Some countries, however, retained the denarius 
asreus; others the follis ; and fome had a medium be¬ 
twixt the two, or the follis walhed in imitation of the 
denarius. 
Towards the end of the reign of Conftantine I. a new 
coinage was introduced throughout the whole empire. 
The follis coined by this prince was of half an ounce 
weight ; 24 of them going to the milliarenfs , or larger 
filver coin. The word follis fignifies “ a purfe,” in which 
fenfe we fometimes find it mentioned in the Byzantine 
hiltory. The common follis of iilver, when it occurs by 
itfelf, means a purfe of 250 milliarenles, as the ieftertium 
was 250 denarii; and, by a law of Conftantine I. every 
man paid to the ftate a follis or purfe, according to his 
income« 
t> 
