Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/560

536 APPENDIX added the date, numbering the 3ears of his reign on the reverse. Though the value of cojiper had been fixed by the code at a higher rate than by the law of 396, since a solidus was exacted where twent}' pounds of copper were due to the fisc, Justinian nevertheless increased the size of his copjjer coins. Now if we suppose the coins to have corresponded with the value of the copper as indicated in the code, the normal weight of the nummus being 10 grains, the piece of 40 nummi would be equal to a Roman oinice, and 240 ought to have been current for a solidus. No piece of 40 nummi has yet been found weighing an ounce, and it has been supposed that these pieces are the coins mentioned by Procopius, who says that previous to the reform the money-changers gave 210 obols, which were called pholles, for a solidus, but that Justinian fixed the value of the solidus at 180 obols, by which he robbed the people of one-sixth of the value of every solidus in circulation. It has, however, lately been con- jectured that the obolus to which Procopius alludes was a silver coin, and according to the proportion between silver and gold then observed at the Roman mint, a silver coin current asy^ir of a solidus ought to have weiglied 5'G grains, and such pieces exist. It is not probable that the copper coinage of Justinian was ever minted at its real metallic value, and it is certain that he made frequent reductions in its weight, and that specimens can be found differing in weight which were issued from the same mint in the same year. An issue of unusually deteriorated money in the twenty-sixth year of his reign caused an insurrection, which was a])peased by recalling the debased pieces " (Finlay, History of Greece, vol. i. p. 44.5-7). 14. ORACLES IN PROCOPIUS— (P. 307) Two Latin oracles, quoted and translated by Procopius in Bell. Got. Bk. i., have perplexed interpreters. The Latin words, copied by Greek scribes ignorant of Latin, underwent corruption. One general principle of the corrujition is clear. Those Latin letters which have a different form from the corresponding Greek were assimilated to Greek letters of similar form but different sound. Thus P was taken for Ru, C for Siynui, F was assimilated to E. Thus expedita would appear as expeSCra (as we actually find it in the Oxford Ms. of John Malalas, p. 427, ed. Bonn). Africa capta would be set down in the form iepio-a (TapTa. (1) The oracle concerning Mundus, to which Gibbon refers as obscure, appears thus in the best Ms. (ed. Comparetti, i. p. 47) :— aepicacapra mudus dim natu pcpcoraA' (other MSS. give aepi'o-as dpra and pepio-Tatri or Tij-epicTTao-t). The interpretation of the first five words is clear : — Africa capta JNIundus cum nato . . . but the last seven (eight ?) characters can hardly represent pc7-ib>t or perilnnt, thovigh some part of pcrirc (Procop. gives airoAerrai) seems to lurk in them. (2) The Sibylline prophecy with which the besieged Romans consoled them- selves in the spring of a.d. 537, that in the month of July a king would arise for the Romans and deliver them from fear of the Goths, is recorded in bk. i. c. 24 (Comparetti, p. 177), and is more difficult. The best Mss. give the Latin in peculiar characters which cannot be here reproduced (see Comparetti) ; the rest give a Greek transliteration : — riv Ti vioi;u.ei' fe Kai i^eruio. (tal /coTf vi)(Ti yp croei'iJriVjU en (TO TrianUTa. The interpretation of Procopius is : xpi)'"' y°-P Tore ^atrUea 'Pw/xoioi? KaTaa-rJjiai. Ttl'a €^ ov Bri ViTLKOu ovS^y 'Fu)p.ri to AotTrbi' SetVtte. Comparetti gives as the original :— Quintili mense sub novo Romanus rege nihil Geticum iam metuet.