M E D A L. 
die ancients always to bury one or more coins with their 
dead, in order to pay for their paffage over the river Styx. 
“ From Phidon of Argos (fays he) to Conftantine I. are 
56 generations : and from Magna Grsecia to the Euphrates, 
from Cyrene to the Euxine Sea, Grecian arts prevailed, 
and the inhabitants amounted to about 30,000,000. There 
died, therefore, in that time and region, not Iefs than ten 
thoufand millions of people, all of whom had coins of 
one fort or other buried with them. The tombs were 
facred and untouched ; and afterwards negledled, till 
modern curiofity or chance began to difclofe them. The 
urn of Flavia Valentina, in Mr. Townley’s capital collec¬ 
tion, contained feven brafs coins of Antoninus Pius and 
Heliogabalus. Such are generally black, from being 
burnt with the dead. The bed and freftieft coins were 
ufed on thefe occafions from refpefl to the dead ; and 
hence their fine confervation. At Syracufe a fkeleton 
.■was found in a tonib, with a beautiful gold coin 
in its mouth; and innumerable other inltances might 
be given, for hardly is a funeral urn found without 
coins. Other incidents alfo confpire to furnifh 
us with numbers of ancient coins, though the above- 
recited circumftance be the chief caufe of perfeft con¬ 
fervation. In Sicily, the filver coins with the head of 
Proferpine were found in fuch numbers as to weigh 600 
French livres or pounds. In the 16th century, 60,000 
Roman coins were found at Modena, thought to be a 
military cheft hid after the battle of Bedriacum, when 
Qtho was defisnted by Vitellius. Near Bred, in the year 
1760, between 20 and 30,000 Roman coins were found. 
A treafure of gold coins of Lyfimachus was found at 
Deva on the Marus ; and Strabo, lib. vii. and Paufan. 
in Attic, tell that he was defeated by the Getae; at which 
time this treafure feems to have fallen into their hands.” 
On Plate II. the following Roman coins are repre- 
fented. Fig. 16. A denarius of Pompey the Great; 
from Pinkerton. Fig. 17. A reverfe of Claudius, in firft 
brafs. 18. A reverfe of Adrian ; 19. of Antoninus Pius, 
ao. A reverfe of Commodus; 21. another of Commodus, 
the Apollo Monets, in fird brafs, from Dr. Hunter’s col¬ 
lection, fo often quoted, 22. A reverfe of Severus. 13. 
A reverfe of Maximianus, in third brafs. The fame 
occurs on the back of fome coins of Dioclefian, Severus, 
and Condantine. 
Figs. 14, 25, 26, are three medals of Pifcennius Niger, 
A. D. 194. No medals of the Roman emperors who 
reigned during the higher empire are more rare than 
thofe of Pefcennius Niger ; they were faid to be fomewhat 
fcarcer in filver than in brafs; and it was the general 
opinion of antiquaries, there was not one extant in gold, 
though there have been counterfeits. At length, in July 
1748, M. de Boze, keeper of the medals in the French 
king’s cabinet, obtained one by the following means. 
A barefooted Carmelite of the convent of Paris fhowed 
him a letter, which he had received from one of his own 
order at Marfeilles, who lately arrived from the Levant, 
where he had been employed as a miflionary. His cor- 
.refpondent acquainted him, that he had a gold medal 
of Pefcennius, which the curious at Marfeilles were de- 
firous to purchafe, and had offered him a confiderable 
fum for it; but, as he hoped to get more at Paris, efpe- 
cially if it was not in the king’s cabinet, he defired him 
to let him know that, as alfo what value Mr. de Boze 
put upon it. His anfwer was, that he would certainly 
give a good price for it, if it was ancient; but that he 
could offer nothing till he had feen it. The owner there¬ 
fore brought him the medal, which was fair, well pre- 
ferved, and free from any thing which might occafion 
the leaft fufpicion ; fo that he valued it confiderably 
higher than what had before been offered, and imme¬ 
diately purchafed it „for the king. Soon after he fhowed 
it to the greateft connoiffeurs and mod curious perfons 
at Paris, who were charmed with the fight of fo valuable 
and unexpected a medal in the royal cabinet. And many, 
both natives and foreigners, being defirous of a draught 
of it, he ordered it to be engraved; together with a Greek 
Vol. XIV. No. 1016. ' " 
817 
medallion in filver, no lefs rare in its kind, of the fame 
emperor, which is alfo in the fame cabinet, having been 
purchafed at London by Mr. Vaillant of Mr. Falkner, 
father of fir Everard. The gold medal, fig. 24, has on 
one fide the head of Pefcennius Niger crowned with 
laurel, with this legend, imp. caes. c. pesc. Niger, 
ivstvs. avg. And on the reverfe, the goddefs Con¬ 
cord, reprefented by a female figure handing, with a 
diadem on her head, one of her hands elevated, and a 
double horn of plenty in the other; and round the figure 
only the word concordia; for the letters pp, placed 
below in the field, on the two fides of the figure, being 
the ufual abbreviation of pater patriae, are to be 
confidered as part of the infcription furrounding the 
head of Pefcennius. The filver medal, fig. 25. is in- 
cribed with Greek characters; as is the copper one (fig. 
26.) in Dr. Hunter’s cabinet, ftruckat Antioch, and laid 
to be unique. The fimilarity of countenance is admirably 
preferved in all. Phil. Tranf. vol. xlvi. No. 495. 
Fig. 27. is a beautiful gold medallion of Tetricus, em¬ 
peror of the Weft about A. D. 268. M. Boze, in his 
“ Difcourfe on the Hiftory of the Emperor Tetricus illuf- 
trated by Medals,” informs us, that no medallion of this 
emperor in any metal was known till very lately, (1750.) 
when he procured one in gold, for the French king’s ca¬ 
binet, which is the one here reprefented. Tetricus was 
a governor of Gaul as a Roman province ; and on the 
death of Marius, the emperor of the weftern part of the 
Roman empire, he was eleCted his fucceffor. The ^Edui, 
who applied to Claudius for afltftance, oppofed at that 
time the government of Tetricus; whofe medals give us 
a more noble idea of him, from the ufe he made of his 
victories. For in fome of thefe he is reprefented, not as a 
warrior, but in a ftate of peace and plenty, with the le¬ 
gend sal vs avgvstorvm, intimating that moderation 
in fuccefs is the true grandeur and fafety of princes. And 
in others are feen the figures of feveral temples ereCted by 
him, fome of them in a circular fornv like the Pantheon, 
with the legend paci. And to thefe happy times M. de 
Boze refers the curious gold medallion mentioned above, 
which reprefents Tetricus as crowned with laurel, and 
drefled in the toga palmata, or confular robe, which was 
alfo worn in triumphs. In his right hand he holds an 
olive-branch, and a fceptre, with the Roman eagle on the 
top, in his left; and round his image is this infcription, 
imperator tetricvs avgvstvs. But the reverfe, if it 
has one, muft remain unknown ; fince the medal is fo fixed 
in the gold box which contains it, that they cannot be 
feparated without endangering both. And the radiated 
circle of gold, with which it is encompaffed, is defigned 
only to adorn and enlarge it. 
Medals and Coins of other Nations. 
Hitherto we have fpoken chiefly of medals of Greece 
and Rome; but we muft not omit to notice thofe of other 
ancient nations; premifing that by ancient coins all pre¬ 
ceding the ninth century, or age of Charlemagne, are 
meant; and all pofterior to that period are modern. 
Of Ancient Coins. 
No coins are found which can even be imagined to be« 
long to the Affyrian, Median, or Babylonian, kings. The 
oldeft coins found in their empire are palpably Perfian, 
and fimilar to the Greek. The Phoenicians do not ap¬ 
pear to have coined money till after the Greeks had let 
the example. No Phoenicians were ever found of much 
antiquity; and not one without both obverfe and reverfe; 
nor are any of them older than about 400 years before our 
era. Weight alone was ufed in the famous cities of Tyre 
and Sidon, as we learn from Scripture; and in Egypt 
coinage was unknown, not a coin with an hieroglyphic 
being found ; and in the mouths of the mummies there 
are only thin broad pieces of undamped gold, to pay 
Charon’s fare. India appears to have no claim to an early 
ufe of coinage. No Indian or Chinefe coins exift till 
within a late period; and thofe of both countries are fo 
9 Y rude 
