Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/710

652 NUMISMATICS [ROMAX COINS. Latin inscriptions. The denarii of Clodius Macer, who revolted in 68 A.D., are curiously illustrative of his policy, which was to restore the Roman republic. Numidia. The cities of Numidia have Punic inscriptions, and there are interesting coins of Juba I., his denarii presenting his portrait of a characteristic Libyan type. Of Mauretania there are civic coins, chiefly using Punic characters, and an interesting regal series, mainly denarii, of Bogiul II., Juba II. with his consort Cleopatra, daughter of Mark Antony and the famous Egyptian queen, and of Ptolemy their son, the last of the great family of the kings of Egypt. II. ROMAN COINS. The Roman coinage is of two great classes, the republican, commonly called the family coinage, and the imperial ; the first lasted from the origin of money at Rome to the reform of Augustus in 16 B.C., and the second from this date to the fall of the Western empire in 476 A.D. The origin of the republican coinage is one of the hardest problems in archeology. The evidence of the money is at variance with that of the ancient writers, and in setting these aside we are at variance with the best authorities of our time ; but the general principles of criticism must be maintained here as in other matters of early Roman story. Oldest The oldest money of Rome was of bronze, and it is stated that it Roman was first cast as ass riide. This statement is confirmed by the dis- money. covery of shapeless masses of bronze, evidently broken off from large quadrilateral masses, and then rendered of a roughly uniform weight. To the ses rude succeeded the ass signotum, the stamped bronze. This step is attributed to Servius Tullius by ancient authority ; it is said that he adopted the types of a sheep, ox, or pig ; and large masses o-f bronze have been found which present animal types, in cluding the pig. These are held to represent the coinage tradition ally attributed to the regal age, though it is admitted that they are for the most part contemporary with the first circular money, the libral, the origin of which Mommsen dates about 450 B.C. All the masses, however, which bear a distinct type are clearly later than 300 B. c. , as is proved by their style ; and in the case of the elephant type we are forced, by the first appearance of the animal in Italy under Pyrrhus, to adopt a still later date. Moreover, the date of 450 is too early for the origin of the circular money ; con sequently the idea of any trace of the supposed regal coinage must be abandoned, though the late ingot may be descended from a currency intermediate between the ses rude and the libral circular money. The first regular Roman coinage consists of a series of cast pieces, the as of a pound weight, libral, and its chief divisions, the semis (half), triens (third), quadrans (fourth), sextans (sixth), and uncia (twelfth). The as was not cast of full weight ; the older specimens usually weigh from 11 to 9 uncia;, on an average 10. The origin of this system is assigned by Mommsen to the decemvirs, on the ground of their legal institution, and particularly from the condition in the Lex Julia Papiria (430 B.C.) that fines should not be paid in cattle but in money. Admitting the law to be correctly stated in its original form, it proves no more than that money was current in Rome. The libral coinage cannot, either in style or in types, possibly be much anterior to 350 B.C. It is easy to mistake barbarism for archaism, but a practised eye will see that the types of these coins do not present a trace of archaism, and are imitations of the types which originated in the latter part of the 5th century, and were in fashion in the fourth. The heads of Jupiter and the beardless Hercules are of this class. We must therefore suppose that the fines were paid in metal by weight or in Greek money, which if it was bronze no doubt was also weighed. Gold and At first there was no corresponding gold or silver, but the pound silver. of bronze was held to be equal to a scruple of silver. Campanian gold and silver money with the name of the Romans or Rome was next struck to supply the want. The silver is of Greek weight, with types usually connected with Roman legend. From one of the earlier reverses being distinctly borrowed from the money of the Syracusan tyrant Agathocles, who began to reign in 317 B.C., we cannot date the first issue before about 300 B. c. The scanty gold in two or three groups is evidently of later dates ; it presents great metrological difficulties. The libral as fell in course of time from a weight of 10 to one of 8 uncite, and was at length reduced to a weight of 4, or that of a triens, and thus became triental. This is shown by the colonial coins of Italy to have occurred about 269 B.C., probably in that very year, when the silver coinage of Rome began. The dupondius (2 asses), tressis (3), and decussis (10) were now issued at Rome, also the semuncia (^ oz.) and the quadruncia ( J oz. ). Casting was ultimately abandoned and all coins struck, and by about 254 B.C., or soon after, the triental system became sextantal ; the multiples of the as and divisions of the uncia now cease. The silver coinage was first issued in 269 B. r. ; it consisted of the denarius of 4 scruples or 72 grains (72 denarii being struck to the pound), the quinarius of 2 scruples, and the sestertius of 1. As the old as libralis was equal to 2^ triental asses, the new sestertius was equal to the as libralis ; as the coin was still in circulation this was inevitable, and the words sestertius and res grave are used synony mously. The relative value of silver to bronze being thus main tained, the silver sestertius was exchanged for the old as of 10 uncire, which was a real coin, whereas the new as of 4 uncise (tri ental) was a mere token. The value in the bronze, X, was inscribed on the denarii instead of IV. The bronze money soon became a token currency. The victoriatus was issued in 228 B.C., not much after the denarius; it was of 3 scruples, or three - fourths of the heavier coin, and was intended to serve in the provinces for the Illyrian drachms of light Attic weight ; it could pass at Rome. The first purely Roman gold money is that of Sulla, probably struck in Greece. Julius Ca>sar struck similar coins in 49 B.C. To Octavian is due the settlement of the gold coinage. In 217 B.C. the standard was reduced ; the denarius was struck at 80 to the pound, and the as became uncial. The denarius remained stationary for nearly three centuries, and its purity was maintained. The fate of the divisions of the denarius is too complicated to be here noticed, but it may be remarked that in 104 B. c. the quinarius appeared with the type of the victoriatus, which had disappeared, but with its own mark Q. When the as fell from sextantal to uncial, the value changed from one-tenth to one-sixteenth of the denarius, but, as troops were still paid at 10 asses to the denarius, the X almost always appears as the mark of value on the silver piece. By this reduction the relation of silver to bronze fell to less than half the original value still current in accounts, and became 1 to 112. Thus the bronze money represented more than double its metal value. In 89 B.C. the semuncial as was introduced, and from 80 B.C. bronze coinage ceased until Augustus issued his new currency in that metal. The Roman coinage was struck both in the city and elsewhere. Types. Consequently the Roman, Italian, and other issues must be care fully discriminated. In the city the right of striking was dele gated to the monetary triumvirs, who could coin individually or together, but as a rule they acted independently. The earlier bronze and silver coins have fixed types. The obverse types are for the as the head of Janus Bifrons, for the semis that of Jupiter, the triens Pallas, the quadrans Hercules, the sextans M ercury, and the uncia Roma. The reverse type is always a prow. The marks of value are for the as I, for the semis S, and a certain number of balls equivalent to the value in ounces for the lower denominations. The original types of the denarius were for the obverse the head of Roma with a winged helmet and the mark of value X behind, and for the reverse the Dioscuri on horseback charging. In 100 B.C. a new type is introduced for the obverse, and a new reverse appears a century earlier, but the great abundance of types dates from 93 B. c. These are so characteristic that it is necessary to notice them particularly. The primary religious motive is to be traced in them as in the types of Greek money, but their having been selected to distinguish families instead of cities or peoples gives them a char acter of their own. It is this character which ultimately rendered the introduction of contemporary portraits almost a matter of course. The subject of the obverse is usually the head of a divinity, or a personification, or a traditional or an historical personage, ultimately one living, and the reverse bears a mythological, sym bolical, traditional, or historical subject. The following are the chief classes to which the types may be reduced : 1. Head or figure of a divinity worshipped at Rome ; as head of Jupiter (fam. Petillia), figures of the Dioscuri (Junia) or of a divinity worshipped by the family or individual striking the coin, as head of Neptune (Pompeia, coin of Sextus Pompeius). 2. Sacred natural or artificial object ; as pontifical implements (Antonia). This class is not large ; sacred animals rarely occur. 3. Head or figure of a personification of a country or town ; as heads of Hispania (Carisia), Roma (Julia), Alexandria (^Emilia). 4. Head or figure of an allegorical personage ; as heads of Pavor (Hostilia), Pallor (id.), Honos and Virtus (Fufia, Mucia). 5. Fabulous monster ; as Scylla (Pompeia), 6. Head or figure of an ancestral personage ; as head of Ninna (Calpurnia), Ancus Marcius (Marcia). 7. Events connected with ancestors ; as figure of Marcus Lepidus, as TVTOR REG[IS], crowning Ptolemy Epiphanes (^Emilia). 8. Places connected with historical exploits, and of a votive character ; as pharos of Messene (Pompeia, of Sextus, probably commemorating the sea-fight off Messene, 38 B.C.). 9. Symbolical representations of contemporary events ; as a general welcomed on landing by a country or city (Minatia). 10. Heads of living personages exercising dictatorial power, or in very high authority ; as head of Sulla (Cornelia). 11. Representations connected with military matters ; as legion ary standards (Antonia). Besides the principal designs there are symbols and numerals, generally to be regarded as having been indicative of successive issues from the mint. The inscriptions, which are in the nomina tive, are usually on the obverse the name of the personage repre sented and on the reverse the name of the person who issued the coin ; the latter sometimes occurs on the obverse. Some of the most curious types strikingly illustrate Roman instinct. Being the choice of a multitude of persons of different families, they have an individuality lacking to the money of the Greek cities, which