LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 THE COINAGE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE GREEKS AND ROMANS; 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD CARD WELL, D.D. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF ST. ALBAN's HALL, AND CAMDEN PROFESSOR 
 OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 PRINTED BY S. COLLINGWOOD, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY, 
 
 FOR JOHN MURRAY, 
 
 ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON. 
 
 MD^CCXXXII. 
 
^5^3"^//^ 
 
CT;i37 
 
 TO THE 
 
 LORD GRENVILLE, 
 
 CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 ^c. ^c. ^c. 4-c. 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED 
 
 WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE UTMOST RESPECT 
 
 AND GRATITUDE. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 1 AM not aware of the existence of any 
 book in our language which treats of an- 
 cient coins in the manner and with the 
 object proposed in the following Lectures. 
 The few English treatises which have been 
 written upon the subject, like many of 
 those which have appeared in other lan- 
 guages, have been composed for the sole 
 benefit of the collector, and without any 
 design of illustrating the literature and 
 history of the ancients. The Essay of Pin- 
 kerton, for instance, in addition to the po- 
 sitive faults arising from the peculiar tem- 
 per of the writer, affords little information 
 on points connected with the learning of 
 Greece or Rome, and is of no value what- 
 ever in questions of that kind, so far as 
 they appear to depend upon his authority. 
 Even the Essay 5f Addison, which might 
 
 A3 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 reasonably be expected to display the scho- 
 larship as well as the gracefulness of its 
 writer, is confined to the poetical part of 
 the subject, being occupied with the de- 
 vices of Roman coins, and more particu- 
 larly with the impersonations impressed 
 upon them, and omitting altogether the 
 more important knowledge contained in 
 their inscriptions \ 
 
 This then is the principal reason which 
 has induced me to commit the following 
 Lectures to the press. But it is not the 
 only one. Treatises upon ancient coins 
 may have been rendered useless by the re- 
 sults of more recent investigations. The 
 subject itself, though confined in its nature 
 to the examination of the past, partakes of 
 the progressive character of general know- 
 
 a " Non parlero qui dei Musei Anglicani ai quali si 
 " puo dir mors et erit mors; cioe, Vita e tomba fu il 
 " principio; sparizione ed avello la fine. Cosi spiegar 
 " deesi una tal fatale sentenza; che dopo PHaym An- 
 " glo-Romano et Wise, non abbiamo veduto se non 
 " scheletri, o dir vogliamo puri et semplici cataloghi 
 " d'un prezzo esorbitante.'*' Sestini^ Degli Stat. Ant. 
 p. 99. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 ledge, as fresh materials are continually 
 presenting themselves, and the labours of 
 learned men are not only directed into 
 new fields of inquiry, but are also enabled 
 to define more accurately, and in many 
 cases to reverse, the information which had 
 been previously acquired. And so com- 
 pletely is this the case, that whatever may 
 have been the advantages of older writers, 
 the value of their works has been continu- 
 ally impaired by the more extensive ob- 
 servation of their successors. Even the 
 Doctrina Numorum of Eckhel — for the 
 composition of which the writer combined 
 the rare endowments of native sagacity, 
 unwearied patience, and considerable scho- 
 larship, with the command of an excellent 
 library, and one of the richest of all mo- 
 dern cabinets — is gradually losing its esti- 
 mation as a perfect work, under the influ- 
 ence of more recent discoveries. All writers 
 indeed of an earlier date may still be con- 
 sidered as of doubtful authority, unless 
 they are supported by the approbation of 
 Eckhel ; but ev«n Eckhel himself is sub- 
 
 A 4 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ject to the law of literary mortality, and a 
 reputation which at one time appeared to 
 be beyond the reach of hazard, is now be- 
 ginning to shew some symptoms of decay*". 
 To that work, however, the following 
 Lectures are under the greatest obliga- 
 tions ; and wherever I have adopted opin- 
 ions in opposition to it, I have not failed 
 to support myself by the testimony of an- 
 cient authors, or the knowledge derived 
 from more recent collectors. Even, then, 
 if it were too presumptuous to suppose 
 that some improvements might possibly be 
 made upon the works of Eckhel, it may 
 still have been a laudable undertaking to 
 extract such materials from them as may 
 be of the greatest interest, to throw them 
 into a more attractive form, and to place 
 
 b A remarkable instance may be seen in his opinions 
 respecting the gold staters of Phocaea and Cyzicus, (vol. I. 
 p. xli. and vol. II. p. 5S6.) which he maintained to be a 
 mere money of account. These opinions were opposed 
 to the direct evidence of ancient writers, (see Lecture V.) 
 and are now universally rejected, as staters of both kinds 
 have been procured in the east by M.Cousinery. See 
 Sestini, Degh Stat. Ant. pp. 22, 50, 103. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 them easily within the reach of the Eng- 
 lish student. 
 
 But this also would have been superflu- 
 ous, were there, in any of the modern lan- 
 guages which are now generally read, and 
 the study of which ought still further to 
 be encouraged, any recent numismatic work 
 of the limited extent and complete author- 
 ity of which I have been speaking. The 
 writers of Germany are seldom satisfied, 
 unless they can place before their readers 
 all the possible knowledge, whether useful 
 or otherwise, connected with their subject ; 
 as is shewn, in the present instance, by the 
 Lexicon of Rasche, a work which exhausted 
 so completely the existing sources of in- 
 formation, that it carefully preserved all 
 their impurities. The Italian writers, as is 
 exemplified in Sestini and Lanzi, are too 
 desultory in their studies, and too much 
 addicted to the style of composition be- 
 longing to letters and dissertations, to be 
 qualified for a task, the first principles of 
 which are precision and compactness ; and 
 the French manuai of M. Millin, and the 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 ject to the law of literary mortality, and a 
 reputation which at one time appeared to 
 be beyond the reach of hazard, is now be- 
 ginning to shew some symptoms of decay ^. 
 To that work, however, the following 
 Lectures are under the greatest obliga- 
 tions; and wherever I have adopted opin- 
 ions in opposition to it, I have not failed 
 to support myself by the testimony of an- 
 cient authors, or the knowledge derived 
 from more recent collectors. Even, then, 
 if it were too presumptuous to suppose 
 that some improvements might possibly be 
 made upon the works of Eckhel, it may 
 still have been a laudable undertaking to 
 extract such materials from them as may 
 be of the greatest interest, to throw them 
 into a more attractive form, and to place 
 
 b A remarkable instance may be seen in his opinions 
 respecting the gold staters of Phocaea and Cyzicus, (vol. I. 
 p. xli. and vol. II. p. 5S6.) which he maintained to be a 
 mere money of account. These opinions were opposed 
 to the direct evidence of ancient writers, (see Lecture V.) 
 and are now universally rejected, as staters of both kinds 
 have been procured in the east by M. Cousinery. See 
 Sestini, DegU Stat. Ant. pp. 22, 50, 103. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 them easily within the reach of the Eng- 
 lish student. 
 
 But this also would have been superflu- 
 ous, were there, in any of the modern lan- 
 guages which are now generally read, and 
 the study of which ought still further to 
 be encouraged, any recent numismatic work 
 of the limited extent and complete author- 
 ity of which I have been speaking. The 
 writers of Germany are seldom satisfied, 
 unless they can place before their readers 
 all the possible knowledge, whether useful 
 or otherwise, connected with their subject ; 
 as is shewn, in the present instance, by the 
 Lexicon of Rasche, a work which exhausted 
 so completely the existing sources of in- 
 formation, that it carefully preserved all 
 their impurities. The Italian writers, as is 
 exemplified in Sestini and Lanzi, are too 
 desultory in their studies, and too much 
 addicted to the style of composition be- 
 longing to letters and dissertations, to be 
 qualified for a task, the first principles of 
 which are precision and compactness ; and 
 the French manual of M. Millin, and the 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 more recent production, in the same lan- 
 guage, of M. Hennin, though the latter is 
 far superior to the former, are equally des- 
 titute of that intimate acquaintance with 
 antiquity, without which a treatise on an- 
 cient coins is little better than an auction- 
 eer's advertisement. The work indeed of 
 M. Mionnet, the most valuable which has 
 hitherto appeared in that language, was 
 written for the express purpose of enabling 
 the collector to complete his cabinet at the 
 least possible expense; and, although the 
 scale of prices has since undergone great 
 alterations, may still be employed with ad- 
 vantage, as a general catalogue of coins. 
 This work faithfully accomplished the ob- 
 ject that was proposed by it ; but the pre- 
 vailing fault of French numismatic writers 
 — a fault which is not confined to that 
 branch of their literature — is, the substi- 
 tution of ingenuity in the place of know- 
 ledge, and an utter contempt for references 
 and quotations. It is not unusual to meet 
 with French works, on history or antiqui- 
 ties, in which so few traces are to be found 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 of original authorities, that the writers of 
 them might appear to be relating events 
 which had fallen under their own observa- 
 tion, and in many of which their own per- 
 sonal interests had been concerned. 
 
 The Lectures have been committed to 
 the press in the same words in which they 
 were delivered. The subject would not 
 have been treated more systematically by 
 being thrown into a different form ; and 
 any peculiarities of style will be likely to 
 meet with indulgence, if they can be sup- 
 posed to have had their use in the way of 
 oral teaching. 
 
 It only remains that I should mention 
 the works which I have found most useful 
 to me. In so doing, I shall also furnish 
 the student with a list of authors, from 
 whom he may derive the greatest advan- 
 tage in the prosecution of his numismatic 
 studies. 
 
 Vaillant. Numismata Imperat. Amstelod. 1700. 1 vol. fol. 
 Spanheim. Dissertationes de praest. et usu numism. Am- 
 stelod. Wetstenii, 1717. 2 vols. fol. 
 Froelich. Quatuor tentaiMna. Viennse, 1737. 1 vol. 4to. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 Froelich. Notitia elementaris numism. Viennae, 1758. 
 
 1 vol. 4to. 
 Wesseling. Thesaurus Morellianus. Amstelod. 1752. 
 
 3 vols. fol. 
 Pellerin. Recueil de m^dailles. Paris, 1762—1778. 4to. 
 Beauvais. Histoire des empereurs. 1767. 
 Dutens. Explication de quelques mddailles. Londres, 
 
 1776. 1 vol. 4to. 
 Neumann. Popul. et reg. numi veteres. Vindob. 1779, 
 
 1783. 2 vols. 4to. 
 Rasche. Lexicon universae rei numaria?. Lipsise, 1785 — 
 
 1804. 8 vols. 8vo: 
 Eckhel. Doctrina numorum veterum. Vindob. 1792 — 
 
 1798. 8 vols. 4to. 
 • — Kurtzgefasste anfangsgrlinde zur alten numis- 
 
 matik. Vien. 1807. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 Mionnet. Description de medailles. Paris, 1806 — 1819. 
 
 9 vols. 8vo. 
 Letronne. Considerations sur revaluation des monnaies. 
 
 Paris, 1817. 1 vol. 4to. 
 Sestini. Lettere et dissertazioni numismatiche. 9 vols. 4to. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 Analogy between money and language — Changefulness 
 of money, and causes thereof — Purpose for which money was 
 invented — Maxims to be observed in constructing a monetary 
 system — Practice of the ancients in respect to them — The 
 mint at Athens — Conducted by the government — Purity of 
 Athenian coinage — Compared with that of England — Mass- 
 iveness of Athenian coins — Their uniformity in weight — 
 Confinement to one single species — Minuteness of their sub- 
 division — Freedom of exportation — Illustration derived from 
 the coarseness of their workmanship — Similar practice of 
 other Grecian states — Money of commerce at Athens — 
 Banks of deposit — Exchequer bills — Art of writing — Its 
 importance in modern commerce — Compared with the prac- 
 tice of the Athenians — General remarks on the same com- 
 parison — Course of investigation p. 1 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 DrPFicuLTiEs of the subject — Capriciousness of the evi- 
 dence derived from coins — Illustrated from Corinth, Elis, 
 and OlynthuSj on the one side ; from Thasus and Dyrrachium 
 on the other — Inconsistencies of ancient authors — Confusion 
 arising from the records of private families — Illustrated from 
 a Macedonian coin — From political views — Illustrated from 
 the coins of Gelo and Hiero — From the difficulty of decy- 
 phering — Illustrated from 9, coin of Carausius — From the 
 mistakes made at the mint — Illustrated from a coin of Titus 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 — From the practice of restamping — Illustrated from a coin 
 of Trajan — From ancient forgeries — Illustrated from coins of 
 Verus and Caracalla — Recapitulation p- 27- 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 Farther difficulties of the subject — Modern forgers — 
 Forgers of the sixteenth century — More recent forgers — Dif- 
 ferent methods of fabrication — By changing the inscription — 
 By giving a new impression to one side — By interchanging 
 two reverses — By cutting new dies after ancient models — By 
 contriving improbable accidents — Greek coin of Cicero — Pro- 
 per use of coins as evidence — The object and extent of it — 
 Examples from the coins of Thurium — From Roman coins 
 bearing the letters S*C — From a coin of Larissa, referring to 
 a passage of the Iliad — From a coin of Agathocles — From a 
 coin of Himera . , p. 53 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 A SCALE of criteria attempted by Barthelemy — Periods 
 usually adopted — Period of excellence — Perfection of work- 
 manship — Arrangement of Pellerin and Eckhel — Advantages 
 of that arrangement — Medals and coins distinguished — Har- 
 douin — Barthelemy — Medallions — Examples of them — Con- 
 torniati — Tesserae — Countermarks on medals — Different ma- 
 terials of money — Iron, tin, and lead — Gold — Its purity — 
 Electrum — Where used — Silver — Early adulterations in 
 Greece — Later adulterations at Rome — Copper — Brass — Co- 
 rinthian brass — Minting by the hammer — Practice of Greece 
 — Practice at Rome — Ancient dies — Count Caylus — Plaster 
 moulds — Classification of devices — Smaller emblems — Proper 
 names of coins p. 79 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 Grecian coinage — Fabulous history of it — Phido the Ar- 
 give — Alexander the First of Macedon — Athenian coins — 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Money of account — Athenian gold — Dispute respecting it — 
 Aristophanes — Thucydides — Lysias — Demosthenes — ^schi- 
 nes — Athenian inscriptions — Darics, Cyzicenes — Athenian 
 silver — Its purity — Tetradrachma — Didrachma^ &c. — Their 
 legends and devices — The owl of Athens — The diota — Coin 
 of the time of Mithridates — Athenian brass — Wood and Dio- 
 nysius — Dean Swift and Aristophanes — Salmasius — Recal of 
 base money — Brass coins very numerous — Two specimens of 
 them — Coins of Sparta — Two specimens of them — Coins 
 of Boeotia — Orchomenus — Thebes — Passage of Xenophon 
 amended — Coins of Elis — Mistaken for the Falisci — Ex- 
 plained by Payne Knight p- 107 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Roman coinage — Pliny's account of it — Inconsistency of 
 that account — Extreme variations of standard at Rome — 
 Pecunia — Supposed meaning of the word — Disputed — Real 
 meaning — Illustrated from the coins of other countries — Par- 
 ticularly of ancient Gaul — First known devices of Roman 
 coins — Variety of brass coins — Tokens of their current values 
 — Silver coins — When first minted — Their current values 
 how distinguished — Gold coins — Pliny's account of them — 
 Disputed — Livy and Polybius — Restituti of Trajan — Opinion 
 of Eckhel — Triumviri monetales — Triumviri mensarii — Ci- 
 cero's letter to Trebatius — Anecdote of Julius Caesar — Coins 
 of Roman families — Likenesses on coins — The head of Roma 
 — Explained — Restituti — Serrati p. 135 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 Roman coins considered in detail — Coins of Families — 
 Accoleius Lariscolus — M. Lepidus — M. Lepidus. Pont. Max. 
 — Truth of inscription disputed — Marcellinus — Spinther — 
 Supposed origin of the name — Disputed — Real origin con- 
 jectured — Mamilius Limetanus — A passage of the Odyssey — 
 Thorius Balbus — Bos irruens explained — Two quinarii of 
 
xvi CONTENTS. 
 
 Marc Antony — Foundation of Lyons — Heraldic badge of 
 Antony — Dissertation on beards — Antony represented as 
 Bacchus — His entry into Athens — Flattery and wit of the 
 Athenians p. 161 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 Roman coins of the empire — Two coins of Augustus — 
 Great roads of Italy — Tiberius — Twelve cities of Asia de- 
 stroyed — Tacitus — Phlegon — Marble discovered at Pozzuoli 
 — Germanicus and Agrippina — Lesbos — Caligula — -His po- 
 pularity — Claudius — Britain — Nero — The closing of the tem- 
 ple of Janus — Tacitus and Suetonius — Galba, Otho, and 
 Vitellius — Brasses of Otho p. 187 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Coins of the empire continued — Vespasian — Rebuilding 
 of the Capitol — Jewish tribute — Titus — The Colosseum — 
 Imperator explained — Domitian — Device of Pallas adopted 
 by him — Flattery of Quinctilian, and hatred of Tacitus — 
 Nerva — Method of travelling — Gregory Nazianzen — System 
 adopted by Augustus — Improved by Nerva — Extended by 
 Hadrian — Trajan — Charitable institutions — Brass plate found 
 near Piacenza — Hadrian — Cir censes — The Parilia — Disserta- 
 tion on the Tribunicia potestas p. 209 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
Analogy between money and language — Changefulness 
 of money, and causes thereof — Purpose for which money was 
 invented — Maxims to be observed in constructing a monetary 
 system — Practice of the ancients in respect to them — The 
 mint at Athens — Conducted by the government — Purity of 
 Athenian coinage — Compared with that of England — Mass- 
 iveness of Athenian coins — Their uniformity in weight — 
 Confinement to one single species — Minuteness of their sub- 
 division — Freedom of exportation — Illustration derived from 
 the coarseness of their workmanship — Similar practice of 
 other Grecian states — Money of commerce at Athens — 
 Banks of deposit — Exchequer bills — Art of writing — Its 
 importance in modern commerce — Compared with the prac- 
 tice of the Athenians — General remarks on the same com- 
 parison — Course of investigation. 
 
X HERE is a strong resemblance between money 
 as the representative of value, and language as the 
 expression of thought ; and though it would be 
 idle to run a parallel betvv^een them in all the 
 particulars in which the resemblance might be 
 traced, it may be well for me to employ the com- 
 parison as an introduction to my subject, illus- 
 trating by means of it some of those elementary 
 principles of exchange to which it may be neces- 
 sary to advert. Pieces of money, then, may be 
 compared with words ; and the comparison must 
 be made, not with proper names, which are fixed, 
 and confined to separate individuals, nor yet with 
 common nouns denoting classes of real and substan- 
 tial objects, but with the more copious words of a 
 language, which represent no sensible objects what- 
 ever, but only the conceptions of a man's mind. 
 For a piece of money is not designed to mark any 
 one individual object to be exchanged with it, or 
 even to denote any separate class of objects, with 
 some one or more of which it might be held to be 
 equivalent; but represents more truly a mental 
 fiction, inasmuch as it measures a certain quantity 
 of value. And that quantity of value too, like 
 the idea expressed by *an abstract noun, is not 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 confined to any class of objects whatever, but ex- 
 ists equally in things the most incongruous, and, 
 wherever it does exist, depends as much on the 
 mind of the valuer, as on the intrinsic qualities of 
 the object that he prizes. Let a man examine 
 any one of the phrases that are used by him as 
 familiarly as household words, let him try to 
 mark out its exact import on the several occa- 
 sions on which he has employed it, and he will 
 find, that it has perpetually been changing its affi- 
 nities, according to the different relations in which 
 it was placed, and even to the different states of 
 mind in which he had himself employed it. The 
 phrase, therefore, even in his own separate use of 
 it, would seem to admit of no precise or constant 
 demarcation of its meaning, but rather to resem- 
 ble a tract of land which is continually under- 
 going some change of surface and of outline from 
 the inroads of mountain torrents. But if, in addi- 
 tion to his own practice, he examine the same 
 phrase as it has been employed by others, and 
 observe the many new shades of meaning which, 
 in this extended application of it, it is alternately 
 imbibing and discharging, he finds, that though 
 the word remains the same, there is no assignable 
 limit to the changes and fluctuations of the idea 
 that is expressed by it. 
 
 And this may in part illustrate the constant 
 changefulness of a piece of money as a repre- 
 
LECTURE I. 5 
 
 sentative of value. But this is only a partial 
 illustration of the case. The changes hitherto 
 noticed are derived exclusively from the opera- 
 tion of external causes ; from the influence, I 
 mean, of any other values by which the worth 
 of a given commodity would be altered, and the 
 wants and sentiments of the individuals connected 
 with the transfer. But, besides the office which 
 a piece of money fills as a representative of value, 
 it is also itself a manufacture, and is subject of 
 necessity to the further variations of price by 
 which all manufactures are affected. Its own 
 value will be enhanced in proportion to its rare- 
 ness, and to the workmanship employed upon it 
 in converting it into coin. And thus are intro- 
 duced other elements of disorder, from which, in 
 combination with the rest, it would appear hope- 
 less that money could ever become a fixed me- 
 dium of exchange, or enable a man to calculate 
 the quantity he could command, beyond the pre- 
 sent moment, of the comforts and the necessaries 
 of life. 
 
 And yet this is the very purpose which money 
 was designed to answer, being intended at once 
 as a measure of present value, and a surety for 
 the future command of value to the same amount. 
 And this is so plainly the first principle on which 
 all monetary systems must be constructed, that 
 we may ascertain by its means the degree of wis- 
 
 B 3 
 
6 LECTURE I. 
 
 dom which any government has shewn in the 
 management of its money, and the extent to which 
 in this important particular it has advanced the 
 interests of its people. 
 
 It would seem then, that, in connexion with 
 this subject, the following are among the practical 
 maxims which are most deserving of attention. 
 
 1. That, as a basis or origin for the scale of 
 money, a unit should be contrived of such a na- 
 ture, as might in the least possible degree be af- 
 fected by the varying circumstances of the values 
 it was designed to measure ; on the same prin- 
 ciple on which, if we wished to know the expan- 
 sive power of a given piece of metal, we should 
 not employ a rod of the same kind of metal for 
 the purpose of ascertaining it. 
 
 2. That if that money-unit is to be made an 
 actual medium of exchange, we should employ for 
 the purpose some material which is as little as 
 possible liable to perish, or subject to fluctuations 
 in its intrinsic worth. 
 
 3. That such material being once adopted as a 
 legal currency, the adoption of a second material, 
 whether it be more or less precious than the first, 
 may be convenient for the purpose of adding fresh 
 gradations to the scale of money, but is in a much 
 greater degree detrimental, as increasing the dis- 
 turbances which attach, even in the simplest sys- 
 tem, to a measurement of value. It is always 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 easier to calculate on an equation than on a set of 
 ratios. 
 
 4. That the standard being thus adjusted, and 
 the precious metal employed in it having now 
 become a local measure^ it would be convenient 
 to confine it within the country which has thus 
 adopted it ; but the same metal being also an 
 article of commerce, and retaining its own in- 
 trinsic value, it would be idle to attempt the con- 
 finement of it, and absurd to legislate on the sup- 
 position that it was effectually confined. 
 
 5. That on the foregoing principles a currency 
 is then the most wisely regulated, when it limits 
 the legal sanction to one single species, when it 
 preserves inviolably its original standard both 
 in weight and fineness, when it measures all 
 other metals, and all commodities whatever, not 
 by some fixed scale, but by their existing prices ; 
 and when it is itself measured and kept in equi- 
 poise by entering freely into the transactions of 
 foreign commerce. 
 
 I might illustrate the importance of these 
 maxims, by shewing from the history of modern 
 Europe, and more especially from the proceedings 
 of the court of France, the practical evils that 
 have ensued from the violation of them ; but it 
 will be sufficient to confirm what I have stated 
 respecting the preservation of the standard, and 
 the extreme caution to be observed in the manage- 
 
 B 4 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 ment of the coinage, by quoting the words of an 
 able, though now neglected, writer \ " The ope- 
 " rations of trade," says Steuart, " surpass in 
 " nicety the conceptions of any man but a mer- 
 " chant ; and as a proof of this, it may be affirmed 
 " with truth, that one shilling can hardly lose a 
 " grain of its weight, either by fraud or circula- 
 **• tion, without contributing, by that circumstance, 
 " towards the diminution of the standard value 
 " of the money-unit, or pound sterling, over all 
 " England." 
 
 But it is time for me to consider how far these 
 principles were observed in the currency of the 
 ancients ; and as the Romans rarely shewed any 
 thing of a scientific character in any department 
 of their government, and as the other states of 
 Greece are all inferior to Athens, both in their 
 degree of refinement, and in the knowledge we 
 possess respecting them, I shall confine myself to 
 the practice of the Athenians, and to the period 
 extending from the time of the Persian war to the 
 death of Demosthenes. 
 
 Respecting the right of coinage and the ad- 
 ministration of the mint at Athens, we have no 
 precise information either from Grecian authors, 
 or from any ancient inscriptions hitherto disco- 
 vered. But this utter silence on a subject of so 
 much interest affords a strong presumption that 
 a Sir J. Steuart, Pol. CEcon. vol. II. p. 290. 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 the right was always confined to the state, and 
 was exercised with as much secrecy as was prac- 
 ticable under a republican form of government. 
 And indeed our own reflections upon the nature 
 of the case, confirmed also by the conditions re- 
 quired in an advanced state of civilization, might 
 convince us, that an instrument so important, as 
 money is, to the intercourse and the welfare of a 
 community, could not be left to the management 
 of individuals, or be severed for any length of 
 time from the first and most responsible duties of 
 the government. And that such was actually the 
 case at Athens, and that the public mint was con- 
 ducted upon a better system than most of the 
 other branches of the executive, will be positively 
 shewn hereafter, in treating of the practical wis- 
 dom exhibited in the purity, the uniformity, and 
 other important properties of the coins themselves. 
 At present I need only refer to the evidence 
 afforded by their inscriptions and devices, which 
 in all cases present the full or abbreviated title of 
 the Athenian people, together with their well 
 known national insignia, or emblems of public 
 prosperity ; introducing only casually, and as the 
 surface of the coin would admit of it, the names 
 of men in office, or tokens of some separate branch 
 of commerce. 
 
 But the most important property of the Athe- 
 nian coinage was its purity, carried to so great an 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 extent, that no baser metal appears to have been 
 united with it as an alloy. It may readily be 
 supposed that the lead ^ which was found toge- 
 ther with the silver in the mines of Laurium, was 
 not always perfectly separated from it by the an- 
 cient process of refining : but the quantity of that 
 metal which has hitherto been discovered in the 
 silver coin of Athens is not likely to have been 
 added designedly ; and copper, which would have 
 been more suitable for the purpose, does not appear 
 to have been used at any period as an alloy, much 
 less in the way of adulteration ^. This fact is the 
 more remarkable when we compare it with the 
 practice of modern states, and even with that of 
 our own country ^. In the reigns of Henry the 
 Eighth and his son Edward, the silver coin was 
 adulterated in four successive instances by a pro- 
 gressive increase of the quantity of alloy ; till the 
 standard was at last reduced from 11 oz. 2 dwts. 
 fine, and 18 dwts. alloy, to the inverted ratio of 
 3 oz. fine, and 9 oz. alloy. The gold coin was 
 also debased at the same period ; but as the ratio 
 of their respective values was not in any degree 
 observed, the comparison between the two metals 
 only augmented the general confusion. All traffick 
 was nearly at an end. Proclamations were issued, 
 
 b Walpole's Collection^ vol. I. p. 426. 
 
 c See the case stated at length in Lecture V. 
 
 d See Lord Liverpool on the Coins of the Realm^ p. 86. 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 and laws were enacted, with the severest penal- 
 ties, for the purpose of supporting the legal ten- 
 der ; but the consequence was then, as it always 
 has been in cases of oppressive legislation, that 
 evasion ran parallel with enactment, and perma- 
 nent suffering followed upon temporary relief. 
 It is true, indeed, that an attempt was made at 
 Athens % during a time of great public difficulty, to 
 degrade the coinage by a considerable admixture 
 of copper ; but it is also true, that the attempt 
 met with general reprobation, and was speedily 
 followed by a return to the ancient standard. 
 The specimens accordingly of Athenian silver now 
 remaining, and which may fairly be considered as 
 extending over all the valuable portion of Athe- 
 nian history, though they cannot be assigned ac- 
 curately to their respective dates, are of the highest 
 degree of purity. 
 
 " The business of money," says Locke ^, " as in 
 " all times, even in this our quicksighted age, 
 " hath been thought a mystery ; those employed 
 " in the mint must from their places be supposed 
 " to penetrate the deepest into it. It is no im- 
 " possible thing to imagine that it was not hard, 
 " in the ignorance of past ages, when money was 
 " little, and skill in the turns of trade less, for 
 
 e See Lecture V. 
 
 f Locke's Further Considerations, &c. Works, vol. II. 
 p. 122. 4to. 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 " those versed in the business and policy of the 
 *' mint to persuade a prince, especially if money 
 " were scarce, that the fault was in the standard 
 " of the mint, and that the way to increase the 
 " plenty of money was to raise (a well-sounding 
 " word) the value of the coin." The practice, 
 thus accounted for by Locke, has been adopted at 
 intervals by all governments, modern as well as 
 ancient, until they have been prevented by the in- 
 fluence of commerce. The Athenians appear to 
 have discovered the danger of the practice, even 
 before their commercial habits would otherwise 
 have compelled them to abandon it. 
 
 Connected with this superiority, and with the 
 rude method of minting which prevailed in former 
 times, was the further advantage possessed by the 
 Athenian coin of being less exposed to wear from 
 constant use, than is the case with the thinner 
 lamina and the larger surface of a modern coin. 
 Whether it were owing to the smaller degree of 
 hardness in the metal they employed, or to their 
 want of mechanical contrivances, or to their know- 
 ledge that a compact and globular body is least 
 liable to loss from friction, the Athenian coin was 
 minted in a form more massive than our own, and 
 much less convenient for tale or transfer, but 
 better calculated to maintain its value unimpaired 
 by the wear of constant circulation. And this 
 advantage, whether foreseen by the Athenians or 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 not, and however exposed to countervailing in- 
 convenience, may fairly be considered as one of 
 the properties of a perfect coinage ^. 
 
 But it is of importance to ascertain how far the 
 Athenians adhered to their original standard in 
 weight ; as in this particular if they abstained 
 from degrading their coin, it could not be owing 
 to any want of skill in the management of metals, 
 but solely to their adoption of just principles of 
 exchange. And with this view it must be taken 
 into our account, that however exact in weight 
 the coins were intended to be on their first issuing 
 from the mint, some inequalities could not pos- 
 sibly be avoided. " I found," says Matthew 
 Raper ^, " the heaviest of twenty new guineas of 
 " the year 1768, fresh from the mint, to outweigh 
 " the lightest 1^^ grains." If this then were the 
 case at a modern mint, conducted with the greatest 
 mechanical exactness, and in conformity with 
 scientific principles, we may reasonably allow 
 greater inequalities to have existed in ancient 
 times without any impeachment of their general 
 
 S A further advantage may seem to have belonged to the 
 gold coin of the ancients, which was also of the utmost de- 
 gree of purity. " It is well known now, and seems to have 
 " been ascertained at an early period, that the purer the gold 
 " is, the less consumption of it from friction arises in use." 
 Jacob on Free. Met. vol. I. p. 147. 
 
 h Phil. Trans. 1773. p*466. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 system. It must be remembered too, that our ex- 
 periments are to be made upon coins which have 
 undergone different degrees of use, and in which 
 we might naturally expect that whilst some of 
 them had but slightly deviated from the original 
 standard, others would have suffered severely 
 during a long and constant service. And yet of 
 the 12 drachms described in the Hunterian Cata- 
 logue, and belonging apparently to very different 
 periods, only one weighs less than 60 grains, the 
 heaviest being 66i. In the tetradrachms, the 
 proper weight of which was probably 266 grains, 
 and which would naturally undergo a greater loss 
 from friction, the whole number described is 102 ; 
 and 70 of these, belonging apparently to periods 
 remote from each other, range over a difference 
 of not more than 10 grains from the primitive 
 standards Such then was the high degree of 
 exactness and uniformity observed at the Athe- 
 nian mint in the weight and fineness of their 
 coins ^. 
 
 i M. Letronne is of opinion that the silver coin of Athens 
 was reduced in weight during the third century before the 
 Christian era^ and that the tetradrachm contained afterwards 
 only 308 Paris grains^ instead of the ancient quantity of 328. 
 Sur revaluation des Monnaies, pp. 99;, 128. It may readily 
 be admitted that this alteration was made, as soon as Roman 
 money became current in Greece, for the purpose of placing 
 the drachma on the same level with th§ denarius. 
 
 k This exactness was not confined to Athens. " The di- 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 But it is a more remarkable property of their 
 ciirreney, that, with the exception of the small 
 copper coinage, which was also too unimportant 
 to affect the general principle, they confined them- 
 selves to one single species as a legal issue. Sil- 
 ver coins, descending from the tetradrachm to 
 the quarter obol, were the only legal currency at 
 Athens. The gold coins of foreign countries, 
 being much employed in the operations of their 
 commerce ^, were also received freely in payments 
 at the treasury, and in the larger dealings of their 
 home-trade"^; but they appear to have circulated 
 according to their intrinsic value, their money- 
 price being determined by some commercial regu- 
 lation, and expressed in Athenian currency. If it 
 be said that this practice would seem to imply a 
 greater advancement in the arts of government, 
 than we can reasonably suppose to have existed 
 at so remote a period, we must reply, that there 
 is not only the evidence of facts in its favour, but 
 
 " drachmal gold of Philip and Alexander is about four grains 
 " heavier than our guinea ; and I never found the difference 
 " between any two of them, that appeared to be perfect 
 " and unworn, amount to two grains." PhiL Trans. 1771- 
 p. 466. 
 
 1 See Lecture V. 
 
 "a In the Plutus of Aristophanes, (v. 816.) these foreign 
 staters are represented as becoming so plentiful, that the 
 slaves used them for their common pastimes : 
 (TTaTrjpa-i 6' ol OepawSi/Tes aprLa^oficv 
 Xpvcrois. 
 
16 LECTURE I. 
 
 also that commerce was carried on in those times 
 to an extent sufficient to account for the existence 
 of still more enlightened practices, and that the con- 
 fusion of prices occasioned by the use of a second 
 species was clearly understood and predicted by 
 their writers. " If any one should tell me," says 
 Xenophon", in speaking of the advantage of a 
 silver currency, " if any one should tell me, that 
 " gold is no less serviceable than silver, so far I 
 " do not contradict him ; but this I know, that if 
 " gold coin becomes abundant, it sinks in its own 
 " value, and raises the value of the silver." 
 
 I need not enlarge on the care that was taken 
 to carry the money-scale to the lowest degree of 
 subdivision, and to furnish coins for the smallest 
 dealings of the people. The provision® indeed is 
 of great importance, not merely to the comforts 
 of the labouring classes, and through them to the 
 community at large, but also to the interests of 
 trade in general, as furnishing means for keeping 
 the first elements of all prices at their proper 
 level. Such a provision, however, is rarely want- 
 ing, and need not call for any peculiar commenda- 
 tion. 
 
 A more unusual characteristic was the perfect 
 freedom allowed by the Athenians as to the ex- 
 portation of their coin. Xenophon says, in the 
 
 n Xen. rr€p\ irpocrob. IV. 10. 
 
 o Sir J. Steuart, Pol. (Econ. vol. III. p. 94. 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 same treatise?, from which I have already quoted, 
 " In most other countries merchants are obliged 
 " to take goods in payment, for their money will 
 " not pass current elsewhere : but at Athens they 
 " may have every sort of lading, and if they wish 
 " to take our coin, they are sure to be the gainers 
 " by it." We meet also in Plato ^ and Polybius^ 
 with mention of a money circulating generally in 
 Greece; and from many conspiring circumstances, 
 and more especially from an anecdote recorded by 
 Plutarch^ in his Life of Lysander, we have reason 
 to believe that this common money was the silver 
 coinage of the Athenians*. 
 
 And this leads to a question of much interest 
 in connexion with the proceedings of the Athenian 
 mint. We might believe, from what has been al- 
 ready stated, that much attention was paid to the 
 true principles of a currency, and we know from 
 universal testimony that the fine arts were culti- 
 vated in Athens to a degree of refinement beyond 
 the reach of other nations. To what cause then 
 was it owing that the coins of Athens^ should 
 
 P Uepi Tvpocr. III. 2. q Plat. De Leg. lib. V. p. 742. 
 
 r Polyb. lib. VI. c. 49. s Lys. c. 16. 
 
 t The two points on which I have been insisting^ that sil- 
 ver was the only legal issue, and yet was allowed to be ex- 
 portedj seem to be implied at once in the following line of 
 the Agamemnon : (959.) 
 
 cfideipovTa ttXovtov aff^vp<ovrjTovs 6* v(f)ds. 
 u EekhelD. N. v. II. p. 211. 
 C 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 have been executed throughout in a style of in- 
 elegance and coarseness, at a time too when the 
 coins of other districts, far inferior in science and 
 reputation to Athens, were finished in the most 
 perfect workmanship ? The fact is certainly re- 
 markable ; and the only explanation that has hi- 
 therto been given of it may tend to illustrate still 
 further the beneficial effects of commerce in its 
 influence upon the Athenian mint^. The ancient 
 coinage, says Eckhel, had recommended itself so 
 strongly by its purity, and had become so uni- 
 versally known among Greeks and Barbarians by 
 its primitive emblems, that it would have been 
 impossible to have made any considerable change 
 in the form or workmanship of the coin, without 
 creating a great degree of suspicion against it, 
 and eventually contracting its circulation. If this 
 
 X This explanation is repeated by lord Aberdeen in a paper 
 contained in Walpole's Collection (vol. 1. p. 433), where the 
 following case is given in confirmation of it : "A similar pro- 
 " ceeding in the state of Venice throws the strongest light 
 " on the practice of the Athenians. The Venetian sechin is 
 " perhaps the most unseemly of the coins of modern Europe ; 
 " it has long, however, been the current gold of the Turkish 
 " empire, in which its purity is universally and justly esteem- 
 " ed ; any change in its appearance on the part of the Vene- 
 " tian government would have tended to create distrust." 
 Any traveller who visited the mint at Milan in the year 1818 
 will remember that the government was then minting the 
 rude crowns of Maria Theresa, because they still continued 
 the medium for the trade of the Levant. 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 were actually so, the Athenians not only adhered 
 to the true principles of a currency, but even sa- 
 crificed in their favour some of the strongest par- 
 tialities they possessed. 
 
 The observations hitherto made have referred 
 exclusively to the coinage of Athens, but they are 
 also applicable, in their degree and proportion, to 
 the smaller states of Greece, which cultivated 
 habits of intercourse and commerce with their 
 neighbours. The extensive trade, for instance, 
 carried on between Sicily and Greece, and the 
 many important places connected with the transit 
 of it, might lead us to expect that we should find 
 some traces of their intercourse in the structure or 
 devices of their coins. And so strikingly is this 
 the case, that didrachms^ are met with in great 
 abundance bearing the ancient Koph, or the 
 Pegasus, of Corinth, but vmiting with it the 
 devices or legends of Syracuse and other trading 
 towns in the neighbourhood, and corresponding 
 so exactly with each other^ that they are supposed 
 to have been minted at Syracuse for the use of 
 herself and all her sister and daughter colonies. 
 And to so great an extent was this communica- 
 tion carried, that the emblems of Corinth and Sy- 
 racuse are combined in many cases with those of 
 the Epizephyrian Locri, of the Amphilochian Ar- 
 
 gos, of Tauromenium, and of other towns, which 
 
 - • 
 
 y Eck. D. N. V. II. p. 246. 
 C 2! 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 had no original connexion whatever with them, 
 being merely attracted by the common interest 
 of trade. 
 
 Here then the inquiry into the regulations ob- 
 served at the Athenian mint may terminate. But 
 the subject acquires a greater interest, when it 
 embraces the new forms of money created by the 
 operations of commerce, and representing public 
 or private credit. And though these further con- 
 siderations do not necessarily form a part of my 
 inquiry, belonging more properly to a treatise on 
 commerce, than to a description of Athenian cur- 
 rency, they are at once too nearly allied to the 
 subject, and too important in their nature, to be 
 overlooked. 
 
 The system of banking pursued at Athens gave 
 occasion to a new kind of money, constructed 
 upon the credit of individuals or of companies, 
 and acting as a substitute for the legal currency. 
 In the time of Demosthenes '^, and even at an ear- 
 lier period, bankers appear to have been nume- 
 rous, not only in Piraeus, but also in the upper 
 city ; and it was principally by their means that 
 capital, which would otherwise have been unem- 
 ployed, was distributed and made productive. 
 Athenian bankers ^ were, in many instances, ma- 
 
 z Dem. V. II. p. 1236. ed. Reiske. 
 
 a Lysias Kara Aioyeir. Xen. de Rep. Ath. II. 8. Demosth. 
 vnep ^opfi. 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 hufacturers, or speculators in land, conducting the 
 different branches of their business by means of 
 partners or confidential servants, and acquiring a 
 sufficient profit to remunerate themselves, and to 
 pay a small rate of interest for the capital in- 
 trusted to them. But this was not the only be- 
 nefit they imparted to the operations of commerce. 
 Their ledgers were books of transfer, and the en- 
 tries made in them, although they cannot pro- 
 perly be called a part of the circulation, acted in 
 all other respects as bills of exchange. In this 
 particular their banks bore a strong resemblance 
 to modern banks of deposit. A depositor desired 
 his banker^ to transfer to some other name a por- 
 tion of the credit assigned to him in the books of 
 the bank ; and by this method, aided, as it pro- 
 bably was, by a general understanding among the 
 bankers, (or, in the modern phrase, a clearing 
 house,) credit was easily and constantly converted 
 into money in ancient Athens. " If you do not 
 " know," says Demosthenes ^, " that credit is the 
 " readiest capital for acquiring wealth, you know 
 " positively nothing." 
 
 The spirit of refinement may be traced one step 
 further. Orders were certainly issued by the go- 
 vernment in anticipation of future receipts, and 
 
 ^ Demosth. npos KoXXitt. v. II. p. 1236. 
 c Demosth. vnep ^opfx. v. II. p. 958. 
 
 c S 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 may fairly be considered as having had the force 
 and operation of exchequer bills. They were 
 known by the name of avo/xoAoyoy/xara. We learn, 
 for instance, from the inscription of the Choiseul 
 Marble^, written near the close of the Peloponne- 
 sian war, that bills of this description were drawn 
 at that time by the government of Athens on the 
 receiver-general at Samos, and made payable, in 
 one instance, to the paymaster at Athens, in an- 
 other, to the general of division at Samos. These 
 bills were doubtless employed as money on the 
 credit of the in-coming taxes, and entered pro- 
 bably, together with others of the same kind, into 
 the circulation of the period. 
 
 As the conclusion of this subject, I may now 
 mention one remarkable characteristic of ancient 
 manners, which will bring them strongly into 
 contrast with the practice of our own times, and 
 shew that, whatever might be the cause, the an- 
 cients did in fact deprive themselves of many 
 means of advancing their condition. No acquire- 
 ment is more indispensable in modern times than 
 the art of writing. It has opened the most copi- 
 ous sources of social enjoyment, and created new 
 kinds of labour for the proper distribution of 
 them. It has facilitated, and therefore multiplied, 
 the operations of commerce. It has introduced a 
 
 d Boeckh. Corp. Ins. v. I. p. 219. 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 new description of enactments into the penal code 
 of nations. It has been made an auxiliary, and 
 even a substitute, for the memory, in every de- 
 partment of life. Let us take, by way of instance, 
 one single point in the relation in which it stands 
 to commerce ; not its facilities for expressing 
 wants, and communicating with distant countries; 
 not its necessity for the registry and continuation 
 of transactions — purposes for which it certainly 
 was employed in ancient times ; — but that inven- 
 tion of modern practice and legislation, by which 
 a man's writing is made equally authentic with 
 his actual presence, and his signature is become 
 the expression of personal identity ; an invention 
 by which a merchant or common dealer can invest 
 a piece of writing with any portion of the actual 
 or contingent value of his property, can legally 
 convey to it the inviolability belonging to his own 
 person, and can create for himself a kind of mer- 
 cantile ubiquity. Now this invention, though un- 
 derstood in theory, and carried occasionally into 
 practice, was totally unknown in the common 
 dealings of the ancient world. 
 
 Nevertheless, the facts which have now been 
 stated with respect to this important branch of 
 public economy would appear to suggest a reflec- 
 tion on the comparative advancement of the an- 
 cients and the moderns, which may, I think, be 
 extended with equal truth to many of the other 
 
 c 4 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 departments of political science. The moderns 
 have undoubtedly carried the science into practi- 
 cal expedients and subdivisions of labour totally- 
 unknown in ancient times : but before we decide 
 upon the wisdom of doing so, and much more be- 
 fore we commend modern statesmen at the ex- 
 pense of their predecessors, we must be satisfied 
 that our expedients have not been forced upon us, 
 as mere remedies for evils which were formerly 
 unknown, and that our greater skill in the distri- 
 bution of capital and of labour has not grown out 
 of circumstances which were studiously and pro- 
 phetically averted by the ancients. It will pro- 
 bably be found, the further we proceed in the 
 comparison, that the whole question resolves itself 
 into a balance of advantages, and that, the first 
 elements of their character continuing the same, 
 the ancients could not possibly have adopted our 
 greater political refinements ; or if it were possi- 
 ble, would have been guilty of the greatest folly 
 in attempting it. 
 
 It now remains that I should state to you 
 briefly the course of investigation to be pursued 
 in the following Lectures. It will first be neces- 
 sary to consider at some length the diflftculties 
 thrown in our way by the nature and properties 
 of coins themselves, by the length of time which 
 has elapsed since the periods when the coins under 
 consideration were issued, and by the frauds to 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 which during the whole of that interval they seem 
 to have been exposed. These difficulties will ap- 
 pear to be so great, that it will then be necessary 
 to illustrate, from actual cases, the advantages to 
 be derived from numismatic testimony, and to 
 limit, as far as may be, the proper extent and ap- 
 plication of it. This portion of the subject will 
 be included within two Lectures. Having after- 
 wards treated of ancient coinage in general, I 
 shall proceed to the consideration of Grecian coins, 
 and more expressly of those of Athens. This will 
 be followed by a general description of the Roman 
 mint, and by a detailed examination of such me- 
 dals, whether of the republic or the empire, as 
 may seem the best calculated to promote the ob- 
 ject of these Lectures — the illustration of history 
 and literature. 
 
LECTURE 11. 
 
Difficulties of the subject — Capriciousness of the evi- 
 dence derived from coins — Illustrated from Corinth^ Elis, 
 and Olynthus^ on the one side; from Thasus and Dyrrachium 
 on the other — Inconsistencies of ancient authors — Confusion 
 arising from the records of private families — Illustrated from 
 a Macedonian coin — From political views — Illustrated from 
 the coins of Gelo and Hiero — From the difficulty of decy- 
 phering — Illustrated from a coin of Carausius — From the 
 mistakes made at the mint — Illustrated from a coin of Titus 
 — From the practice of restamping — Illustrated from a coin 
 of Trajan — From ancient forgeries — Illustrated from coins of 
 Verus and Caracalla — Recapitulation. 
 
NuNQUAM ita quisquam bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuat. 
 Quill res, aetas, usus semper aliquid adportet novi, 
 Aliquid moneat, ut ilia, quae te scire credas, nescias, 
 Et quae tibi putaris prima, in experiundo ut repudies a. 
 
 As applied to the interests of human life, the 
 sentiment which I have expressed in the words 
 of Terence is so constantly exemplified in prac- 
 tice, that some apology would seem to be re- 
 quired for attempting any further illustration of 
 it. But however essential in reference to ques- 
 tions of present and future interest, the senti- 
 ment is applicable in part only, and by accident, 
 to the investigation of the past. We have seen 
 historians indeed, who seem to consider the 
 knowledge of past events as still open to every 
 variety of change, adopting the evidence which 
 had been rejected by their predecessors, and esti- 
 mating the value of a witness, not by the openness 
 of his character, and his agreement with other 
 testimony, but by the difficulty of discovering him, 
 and the confusion created by his appearance. But 
 such attempts must, from the nature of the case, 
 be unsuccessful. They may be sufficient to throw 
 a doubt upon the system they oppose, but the 
 
 a '[%r. Ad. V. 4, 1. 
 
30 LECTURE II. 
 
 evidence adduced by them is so far from being 
 the main strength and business of the argument, 
 that it seems to hang upon the skirts of it, as if 
 the only object were to embarrass its operations, 
 and to claim for itself the merit of a victory which 
 it had not contributed to win. 
 
 Nevertheless, sure and unexceptionable as are 
 the grounds of history in general, in that depart- 
 ment of it with which we are at present con- 
 cerned, the greatest uncertainty has constantly 
 prevailed, and is likely to continue. The evidence 
 presented by ancient coins is open to every kind 
 of objection, carried too, in some instances, to the 
 greatest possible extent, to which any kind of 
 testimony is exposed. It is most capricious in its 
 application, being abundant in regard to some 
 places which are almost totally unknown in com- 
 mon history, and most sparing in regard to others 
 of general notoriety ; and yet coins may still be 
 discovered in great quantities, and even in remote 
 districts, which may change that inequality in any 
 conceivable manner and degree. It labours under 
 the disadvantages of fabulous devices, and forgot- 
 ten languages, and evanescent figures ; and when 
 all these difficulties are overcome, it repays your 
 search after it by giving you a remote conjecture. 
 It wraps itself up in the associations of distant 
 times, and requires that you should be provided 
 with the aids of ancient learning to explain them ; 
 
LECTURE II. 31 
 
 and at last perhaps, when you think you have 
 discovered its meaning and its value, it comes 
 forth an undisputed forgery. But as the credibi- 
 lity of ancient coins is an inquiry of some im- 
 portance, and will admit, in the course of it, of 
 much and useful illustration, I shall treat it at 
 considerable length in this and the following Lec- 
 ture, at some times confining myself to examples, 
 and at others entering into a more extended nar- 
 rative, as the importance of the subject may seem 
 to require. This only I will state by anticipation, 
 that the study of ancient coins will not add many 
 new facts, or lead to many new conclusions in the 
 history of past times, but may still impart clear- 
 ness and identity to what we have already learnt. 
 It will not afford us any fresh information on 
 secret plans of policy, or the rise and progress of 
 public opinion ; but it may certainly enable us to 
 define and circumscribe what tradition has stated 
 loosely, and to speak of individuals where history 
 has made- men act in masses. The difference is 
 something like the case of an army of modern 
 times, moving in enormous bodies, guided by some 
 master impulse, and accomplishing one common 
 purpose, but frequently involving its operations 
 in mist and darkness, compared with the simpli- 
 city of Homer's warfare, with Achilles fighting 
 for the dead Patroclus, and Ajax bidding defiance 
 to the gods. 
 
32 LECTURE II. 
 
 You will remember mention made in the first 
 book of Thucydides of Corinthian drachms, where 
 any one who was not able to go in person, was 
 allowed to partake in the advantages of the settlers 
 departing to Epidamnus, TrevTYjKovra Ipay^fxag Kara- 
 Bevra Kopiv6iag^, and you would naturally expect, 
 from the ancient fame of Corinth, and the rank it 
 always held among the states of Greece, that the 
 coins of that city, still remaining, would be nu- 
 merous. The same expectation might naturally 
 be formed respecting Elis, which had actually ob- 
 tained an important place in the history of Grecian 
 sculpture ; and also respecting Olynthus, a sea- 
 port of the utmost consequence to Athenian com- 
 merce, and whose name has had the good fortune 
 to attach itself to the eloquence of Demosthenes. 
 Of these towns, and some others equally import- 
 ant, it has been generally supposed that there are 
 but few coins extant^ ; whilst the coins of Thasus 
 and Dyrrachium, of the smaller states of Magna 
 Graecia, and of places in Asia Minor scarcely re- 
 cognised in history, are known to be very abun- 
 dant ; and Sestini^ mentions a rich collection, 
 which consisted entirely of the coins of Parium in 
 Mysia. To add to the capriciousness of such dis- 
 
 b Thuc. I. 27. 
 
 c Whether this supposition is correct with regard to Elis 
 may be seen in the fifth Lecture. 
 
 d Lettere et Dissert. Contin. t. II. p. 55. 
 
LECTURE 11. 33 
 
 coveries, they have, in many instances, been made 
 in places most unsuitable for them ; coins of Tha- 
 sus, for instance, having been found in great num- 
 bers in Transylvania ; and gold coins of Trajan, 
 Hadrian, and Faustina, in the most beautiful state 
 of preservation, having been turned up by the 
 plough, on the site of a Hindu temple, about a 
 hundred miles distant from Madras^. 
 
 The notices moreover that we have obtained 
 from ancient writers respecting the state of the 
 coinage before their own times, have, for the most 
 part, been either so scanty as to be of little value 
 to us, or so inconsistent with fact, or with other 
 authorities, as to throw a suspicion upon the little 
 information that remained. Pliny the elder has 
 given us a rapid sketch of the early coinage of 
 Rome, which I shall have to consider hereafter, 
 and which is totally incapable of explanation on 
 any known principles of currency : and the same 
 writer^ has told us that Marius Gratidianus, a 
 contemporary and friend of Cicero, was the first 
 person who invented the art of assaying money ; 
 although we learn from Livy^ that the Quaestors 
 long before that time had tried Carthaginian sil- 
 ver, and found it wanting. 
 
 But the same Livy suggests to us another cause 
 of confusion, which, originating in pride of birth, 
 
 e Asiatic Res. vol. II. §. ]p. 
 
 f Nat. Hist. lib. XXXIII. c. 46. s Lib. XXXII. c. 2. 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE 11. 
 
 and introducing spurious honours into the records 
 of private families, made its way into public offices, 
 and through them into the medals and monuments 
 of the state. " Vitiatam memoriam," says Livy^, 
 " funebribus laudibus reor, falsisque imaginum ti- 
 " tulis, dum familia ad se quaeque famam rerum 
 " gestarum honorumque fallente mendacio tra- 
 " hunt. Inde certe et singulorum gesta et publica 
 " monumenta rerum confusa." Or as Cicero has 
 expressed it more pointedly in the Brutus ^ " his 
 " laudationibus historia rerum nostrarum facta 
 " est mendosior. Multa enim scripta sunt in iis 
 " quae facta non sunt, falsi triumphi, plures con- 
 " sulatus, genera etiam falsa." This pride of birth 
 then, with the legendary tales suggested by it, 
 was not confined to the single occasion of a fu- 
 neral, or to the inscriptions which were exhibited 
 in the halls of private families, but might also be 
 displayed in the titles and devices of the public 
 money, whenever a proconsul was allowed to issue 
 a new coinage for the use of his province, or the 
 triumviri monetales sent forth their own insignia 
 from the mint of Rome. I shall mention several 
 instances of the kind hereafter, in connection with 
 anecdotes recorded by ancient writers ; but I select 
 one for the present occasion, which is sufficiently 
 marked, as a specimen of the whole class, to shew 
 
 ^Uv.l VIII. c. 40. iC. 16. 
 
LECTURE II. 35 
 
 the danger we incur of falling into great mistakes, 
 and yet possesses other tokens, so distinct and in- 
 telligible, as to leave no doubt remaining in its 
 own particular case^. We have coins bearing on 
 the obverse the head of Alexander the Great, en- 
 circled with a diadem, together with the inscrip- 
 tion AAEHANAPOT, and on the reverse a warrior 
 on horseback, with the inscription KOINON MAKE- 
 AONHN. Now, were this the whole account that 
 the coins in question afford us of themselves, we 
 should probably have assigned them to some pe- 
 riod in the history of Macedon connected with 
 that illustrious conqueror. We might indeed con- 
 ceive that the coins of Alexander would extend 
 themselves as far as his conquests, and that, in 
 acknowledgment of his talents and of their ad- 
 miration, his successors would still retain his 
 name and impress long after he was dead. We 
 find too, even on a slight acquaintance with nu- 
 mismatic antiquities, that many cities of Greece 
 and Asia did in fact adopt the badges chosen by 
 him for the coins of Macedon, and that they con- 
 tinued to be in use to an advanced period of the 
 Roman empire. Still if the coins, that I am con- 
 sidering, had given us no further tokens of their 
 date, we should probably have assigned them to 
 Macedon, without fixing upon any precise time in 
 
 Sestini. Contiii. torn. III. p. 3G. 
 D 2 
 
S6 LECTURE II. 
 
 Grecian history as the exact period they belonged 
 to. Fortunately we find, after the word MAKE- 
 AONON, other letters, which convey a reference to 
 Roman history of the time of the empire, and be- 
 neath the figure of the horse the three Greek nu- 
 merals EOC, expressing the date 275. Now, re- 
 ferring this date back to the battle of Actium, the 
 epoch commonly adopted during the time of the 
 empire, we are brought down to the year of Rome 
 998, corresponding with the year 245 of the 
 Christian era, the precise period at which Philip 
 the elder, who then occupied the throne of the 
 Caesars, was celebrating his recent victories in the 
 east, and connecting them, as we may suppose, 
 with the ancient fame of Alexander the Great. 
 To complete the proof, if confirmation be want- 
 ing, we meet with a medal having the same re- 
 verse in all its particulars of inscription, device, 
 and date, but bearing on the obverse the titles of 
 this very Philip, with the head of a Roman em- 
 peror. So then these coins, which, from most of 
 their tokens, might at first sight have been as- 
 signed to a much earlier period, were minted for 
 the use of Macedon, about the middle of the third 
 century after Christ, in obedience to the mandate 
 of the emperor Philip, and displaying some al- 
 leged connexion between that emperor and the 
 ancient conqueror of the east. 
 
 Connected with the difficulty already noticed. 
 
LECTURE II. 37 
 
 but arising probably from different causes, was 
 the practice which prevailed not only at Rome, 
 but also in other places, of reissuing the coins or 
 restoring the badges of antecedent monarchs. It 
 appears * that Titus, Domitian, and Nerva made 
 it a maxim of their policy to restore the monu- 
 ments of their predecessors, and to reissue their 
 coins for the purpose of obtaining reputation for 
 themselves. They made the monarchy more ac- 
 ceptable to their subjects by presenting perpetually 
 to them tokens of the great services which had 
 been done to their country, whether in arts or in 
 arms, by their former sovereigns. Trajan adopted 
 the same maxim, but carried it still farther. Re- 
 lying on the acknowledged wisdom and equity of 
 his government, he did not hesitate to remind his 
 subjects of the greatest names and the proudest 
 periods of the republic, exhibiting on his coins the 
 inscriptions and badges of the ^milii, the Horatii, 
 the Mamilii, the Marcelli, and other consular fa- 
 milies of Rome, and contented to inscribe his own 
 imperial titles round them. In these indeed and 
 other instances of Roman restitutio whenever the 
 inscription is perfect, there is no difficulty created 
 by them, as the word restituit is a sufficient ex- 
 planation of their origin. It is only when the 
 inscriptions of the two sides are partially obliter- 
 
 ' See M. le Beau in th»Memoirs of the French Academy, 
 torn. XXIV. p. 203. 
 
 D 3 
 
38 LECTURE II. 
 
 ated, and the one is considered as a continuation 
 of the other, that these coins would lead us into 
 important mistakes. But there are other instances 
 where we have great reason to suppose that many 
 and serious errors have been committed. Span- 
 heim was the first to suggest that the coins bear- 
 ing the impress of Gelo, of Hiero, and of Thero, 
 who lived about 480 years before Christ, were 
 really of a much later period ; and Eckhel, in a 
 dissertation on the subject"^, has left us to infer 
 that they are actually of Roman origin, minted 
 for the use of Sicily after the invasion of the Ro- 
 mans, and intended to recommend the Roman go- 
 vernment to its new subjects, by professing to 
 hold forth the example of their ancient sovereigns. 
 If this be the case, what becomes of the statement 
 made by Dutens" on the authority of these coins, 
 that the fine arts flourished in Sicily more than 
 two centuries before they attained eminence in 
 Greece ? 
 
 But suppose the coin to be actually before us, 
 and to be free, for aught we know or can conjec- 
 ture, from any antecedent difficulties ; we may yet 
 meet with insuperable obstacles in our endeavours 
 to decyph^ it. It cannot be supposed that a piece 
 of metal (I speak especially of brass) can have re- 
 mained for some centuries in the earth, exposed, 
 
 m Vol. I. p. 251. 
 
 ^ Explic. de quelques M^dailles, pref. p. 2. 
 
LECTURE II. 89 
 
 as has been the fate of a great number of ancient 
 coins, to the influence of many corrosive agents, 
 without presenting, when it comes to light, a va- 
 riety of points and lines and colours, which had 
 no place in the original fabric. However carefully 
 then the incrustation may be removed, how can 
 the anxious inquirer hope that the natural che- 
 mistry of so many ages will have left any traces 
 of ancient workmanship? or if there are still some 
 faint lines of the Grecian or the Roman die to be 
 discovered, how can he convince himself that a 
 greater number of them has not entirely perished? 
 I need not dwell on the loss which might ensue 
 from the omission of a single letter, or the porten- 
 tous discovery that might be made from the in- 
 troduction of any other in the place of it, especially 
 in inscriptions where a single letter is made to re- 
 present a whole word. You will naturally be re- 
 minded of well-known instances, in which the sci- 
 ence of the antiquary has been lampooned by in- 
 genious men, constructing monstrous speculations 
 on the most unpretending facts of common life ; 
 but I cannot refrain from mentioning an example 
 connected with the early history of Britain, which, 
 if it is not an illustration of the case I have been 
 considering, will certainly belong to another cause 
 of error that I shall shortly lay before you. 
 
 A silver coin of Carausius, who reigned in Bri- 
 tain, and was colleague with Diocletian and Max- 
 
 D 4 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 imian in the empire, was found more than a cen- 
 tury ago at Silchester ; and after being for some 
 time in the possession of Dr. Meade, was presented 
 by him to the cabinet of the king of France^. On 
 the obverse of this coin we have the name and 
 the head of the emperor Carausius ; on the re- 
 verse, a female head in profile, within a garland ; 
 inscription ORIVNA AVG. Now, from the con- 
 nexion which might naturally be supposed to exist 
 between the female head and the inscription round 
 it, Dr. Stukeley and others have satisfied them- 
 selves that this word ORIVNA was the name of 
 a female of those times, and that such female was 
 the wife of Carausius. On the other hand, the 
 name is not to* be found elsewhere in the whole 
 compass of ancient history, and there is no evi- 
 dence whatever from which we can certainly know 
 that Carausius had an empress. To obviate the 
 difficulty. Dr. Stukeley supposes the lady in ques- 
 tion to have been of British origin, and therefore 
 unknown to Roman annalists ; and finds out a 
 word in Welsh somewhat similar in sound, and 
 denoting " whiteness," or " fairness," which, he 
 thinks, might easily have become the name of a 
 British female. Another writer, whose gravity I 
 should suppose to be assumed, had I not found 
 that his paper was thought deserving of a grave 
 
 o Dr. Stukeley, False. Brit. 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 refutation, fancied that ORIVNA was an ancient 
 goddess, of the same nature with the constellation 
 Orion, but of the other sex ; and displayed some 
 learning in his endeavours to connect the influence 
 of the stars with the history of Carausius. But it 
 is probable, after all, that this ORIVNA is simply 
 a mistake for the word FORTVNA ; and the 
 more so, as we actually find the inscription FOR- 
 TVNA AVGVSTI on other medals of Carausius. 
 Of this Dr. Stukeley was well aware, and meets it 
 by observing, that the female head in question did 
 not appear to him to bear about it any of the 
 known characteristics of Fortune. But Dr. Stuke- 
 ley, in a much greater degree than his brethren, 
 had a passion for the marvellous, and a habit of 
 attaching himself to opinions, which were beyond 
 the boundaries of proof. 
 
 Connected with the case I have mentioned, is 
 another cause of confusion, arising from the errors 
 and omissions that were made at the ancient 
 mints. It is not surprising, for the coins of modern 
 nations will furnish us with many parallel cases, 
 that the same word should be written differently, 
 even at the same period, especially as the die 
 would constantly require to be renewed ; but if 
 this were all, no person of common experience 
 would be likely to be misled by it. There could 
 be no mistake respectiiig Egypt, even though the 
 Greek word were sometimes written AinilTOI; 
 
42 LECTURE 11. 
 
 or in the word FIDES, even though the first 
 vowel were sometimes written E ; or in OPITI- 
 MVS, written incorrectly for OPTIMVS. But 
 this is not all. There are instances of inscriptions 
 utterly unconnected with the devices they accom- 
 pany, and of others again that admit of no expla- 
 nation for the strange collection of letters they 
 present to us, unless we suppose that the graver 
 was negligent in his work, and joined together, and 
 perhaps on the occurrence of some common word, 
 fragments of two different inscriptions. The case 
 is certainly conceivable, and I will mention one 
 example of it, without dwelling on any of the 
 other varieties of error, which might be traced 
 gradually downward from the blending of two 
 different inscriptions to the misspelling of a single 
 word. To any one desirous of further materials 
 on this branch of the subject, a dissertation of 
 Froelich, in his Quatuor Tentamina, will supply 
 abundant information. We have a brass of Titus, 
 which bears on its reverse the words AERES 
 AVGVSTI, with the figure of a female holding a 
 balance in her right hand. M. de Peyresc, as we 
 learn from the Memoirs of the French Academy p, 
 supposed the word AERES to be a mistake for 
 the word CERES, which is certainly to be found 
 on other coins of the same emperor ; forgetting 
 
 P Tom. XII. p. 304. 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 that the female figure that accompanies it is cer- 
 tainly not the goddess of Plenty, but of Justice. 
 M. de Boze, however, persuaded himself that ceres 
 was at one time used for ces, as plebes was for 
 plehs, confirming his opinion by several ingenious 
 observations, and supposing the obsolete word to 
 be retained only to denote an imaginary being, 
 the goddess of the mint, such as might well be 
 represented by the figure with the balance. Now 
 it happens that in the same year in which this 
 coin was struck, were minted two sets of coins of 
 the same emperor, the one bearing AEQVITAS 
 AVGVST with a figure of Justice, the other 
 CERES AVGVST with a figure of Plenty. The 
 graver, therefore, says Eckhel, had cut the word 
 AEQVITAS as far as its second letter, and then 
 unwittingly going on from the same letter in the 
 word CERES, blended together the two inscrip- 
 tions. 
 
 After the same manner it is not unusual to 
 meet with coins occupying the same place among 
 coins in general, which is held by codices palimp- 
 sesti, or rescripti, among ancient MSS. You are 
 well aware that MSS. are often found, in which a 
 monkish legend, for instance, has been written on 
 some half-obliterated classic, so that sentences of 
 Cicero might discover themselves in the midst of 
 the wonders of martyrojogy, like granite cropping 
 out in a stratum of chalk, or like iEneas astonish- 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 ing Deiphobus by his appearance amongst the 
 shades ; 
 
 ...... qujE te fortuna fatigat 
 
 Ut tristes sine sole domos^ loca turbida^, adires ? 
 
 In the same manner there are coins, where the 
 impressions of different periods, and even remote 
 countries, are blended together, so as to embarrass 
 the inquirer with strange devices and incongruous 
 titles. In all the mints of antiquity, where the 
 impression was made by the hammer, and might 
 require repeated blows to give it sufficient promi- 
 nence, cases would occur where the flan, or piece 
 of metal, might be shaken from its proper place 
 during the operation, and so receive repeated 
 and confused impressions from its die. Instances 
 of this kind are not uncommon ; but they are 
 likely to be useless, rather than perplexing. The 
 case I am now concerned with is different both in 
 its origin and in its importance. As in the mo- 
 dern world there are reasons for melting coin 
 back into bullion, and making it a mere article of 
 merchandise, so also there were reasons in an- 
 cient times for effacing the original impressions 
 of the coins, and giving them new inscriptions 
 and devices. More especially at those periods 
 when there was a rapid succession to the throne 
 of the Caesars, and each emperor obtained posses- 
 sion of it by the overthrow of an unpopular pre- 
 decessor, their coins also partook in the confusion 
 
LECTURE II. 4i5 
 
 created by the strange vicissitudes of the times. 
 When a general was ambitious of the purple, and 
 before he had obtained possession of it, it would 
 be necessary for him to have large sums of money 
 at his disposal, and his bold designs would seem 
 likely to be promoted if he stamped them with his 
 own ef^gy. This was done, as we learn from Taci- 
 tus % by Vespasian at Antioch, among the first 
 preparations that he made for gaining possession 
 of the throne ; and we may hereafter see reason 
 for understanding why, as Tacitus also informs 
 us, the issue consisted entirely of gold and silver. 
 In such cases, together with metal which had 
 never yet been under the die, coins of earlier date^ 
 and of all descriptions, were brought to the mintj 
 and whenever the size and other circumstances 
 would admit of it, were placed without alteration 
 beneath the hammer, and reissued with their new 
 impression. I might occupy you with many ex- 
 amples of this case ; but the mention of Antioch 
 and the recollections of Judaea remind me of a 
 singular one, which has been well illustrated by 
 Barthelemy and EckheP, and is a remarkable in- 
 stance of the practice I am noticing. It was ori- 
 ginally a silver coin of Trajan, and traces are still 
 perceptible of the head of that emperor on the 
 
 q Hist. II. 82. 
 - r Ac. Insc. torn. III. p. 18*. Eckh. vol. II. p. 471. 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 one side, and of some of his titles on the other ; 
 but it was afterwards stamped with Hebrew de- 
 vices and Hebrew letters, and is believed to have 
 been reissued by Simeon Barchocebas, when the 
 Jews endeavoured to re-establish themselves as an 
 independent state, in the days of Hadrian. The 
 history of this coin, if we were at all able to fol- 
 low it, would lead us among subjects of the deep- 
 est interest, and through a most eventful period. 
 
 The only remaining cause of confusion which I 
 shall mention in my present Lecture, arises from 
 the fabrications of ancient forgers. The punish- 
 ment of death was denounced by the laws of Solon 
 against the crime of forgery, and Demosthenes^, 
 from whom we obtain our knowledge of the fact, 
 informs us that the same punishment was inflicted 
 in his own times. The crime of forgery was vi- 
 sited by the same punishment among the Romans; 
 and in order to increase to their utmost extent the 
 dangers of the offence, such temptations were of- 
 fered for the detection of the offender, that, in the 
 later periods of the empire, slaves were invited to 
 inform against their masters* with a promise of 
 the Roman franchise. But it is not necessary to 
 adduce further evidence of such a practice. We 
 
 s Demosth. con. Timoc. ad fin. p. 7^5 ; et ad Lept. ad fin. 
 p. 508. 
 
 t Cod. Theod. lib. IX. tit. 21. §. 2. 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 need only admit the existence of falsehood at all 
 periods of the world, and we cannot question the 
 coexistence of that especial form of it, which is 
 calculated to relieve the most pressing wants, and 
 is suggested by the most evident temptations. A 
 more important consideration for us is, how far 
 such forgeries can be supposed likely to embarrass 
 the study of antiquities ? We might meet with 
 spurious coins in considerable numbers, and we 
 might immediately be led to reflect on the per- 
 plexities they occasioned in the currency of an- 
 cient times. But if from the quantity of them 
 they should appear to have issued, not from the 
 retreats of private falsarii, but from the public 
 mint of a fraudulent government, what reason 
 could there be for supposing that such a currency 
 would be less accurate in its dates and incidents, 
 and less available for the purposes of history, than 
 other contemporaneous coin, however genuine ? 
 Or again, if we suppose them to be the issue of 
 private forgery, why, even then, should we expect 
 them to be inaccurate in those intelligible matters 
 of inscription and device, where every one could 
 be a judge of the mistake, and mistake might so 
 easily be avoided ? To these inquiries we might 
 answer sufficiently with the admitted fact, that 
 whenever a denarius" has been opposed to our 
 
 " Eck. vol. I* p. 117. Prol. 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 common authorities in history, chronology, or ge- 
 neral literature, it has, in most instances, been 
 found to contain a heart of copper under an ex- 
 ternal covering of silver. Of the vast quantity of 
 spurious coins issued in the times of the Flavian 
 emperors, numbers of which may be seen in every 
 extensive cabinet, Eckhel^ observes, " Hujus in- 
 " genii nuraos qui volet in scribenda historia cri- 
 " tica vades adhibere, etsi certse sint antiquitatis, 
 " is profecto historiam veram consarcinabit, sed 
 " talem, qualem Lucianus per jocum commentus 
 " est." And, indeed, if we confine ourselves for 
 the moment to the case of the Roman empire, we 
 shall find in it circumstances sufficient to give rise 
 to extensive forgeries, and to make it probable 
 that great mistakes would be committed by them. 
 From an early period, apparently before the com- 
 mencement of the empire, the right of coinage, 
 which had previously been exercised by many 
 towns of Italy, was restricted to the capital ; and 
 in the time of Tiberius it seems to have been 
 taken away in like manner from all the western 
 provinces. It is easy to conceive then that either 
 rapacious officers or private individuals might pre- 
 pare a spurious currency for their distant settle- 
 ments ; and, if so, that they would be less skilful 
 in the general execution of the coin, and less ac- 
 
 X Eck. vol. VI. p. 396. 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 curate in those successions of consul, tribune, em- 
 peror, which form, for the same piece of money, 
 so many different attestations of its date. Jerome 
 makes mention of a cave in Upper Egypt with 
 the implements of coining discovered in it, which 
 was believed to have been the resort of Roman 
 forgers in the times of Antony and Cleopatra y. 
 It is a fact recorded by Dio Cassius % that Cara- 
 calla issued a spurious coinage for the use of 
 Rome, but was compelled to mint genuine pieces 
 for the Barbarians, who were pensioned by him. 
 It is not improbable that those same Barbarians, 
 who were so skilful in detecting forgery, sent the 
 Roman denarii back again in exchange for what 
 they wanted, but in a new and adulterated form. 
 We have reason to know that the Dacians had at 
 a much earlier period been practised in the art of 
 forging, and we may confidently ascribe to them 
 many of the spurious coins that we meet with of 
 Philip of Macedon. 
 
 But it is time for me to shew, by an example, 
 that difficulties have actually been created by the 
 frauds of ancient Jalsarii. Froelich has noticed a 
 coin of Lucius Verus, the colleague of Marcus 
 Aurelius, bearing the name and profile of Verus 
 on the obverse, but assigning to him on the other 
 
 y See Eckhel, vol. I. Proleg. p. 114. 
 2 Hist. LXXVIf. 14. 
 E 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 side titles and terms of office which, we have rea- 
 son to know, never belonged to him. He is styled, 
 for instance, Pontifex Maximus, a title which, at 
 that time, was given only to Aurelius ; and Pater 
 Patriae, which even Aurelius did not assume till 
 after the death of Verus. On closer examination, 
 and comparison with other coins, we find that the 
 reverse is in fact an exact copy of the titles and 
 honours of Com modus, as he held them eighteen 
 years after the death of Verus, and that the forgery 
 has brought together the inscriptions of two dif- 
 ferent emperors. Another instance, noticed by the 
 same writer, is of a coin of Caracalla, where he is 
 styled Britannicus on the one side, and on the 
 other is given the date of a year, at which Cara- 
 calla had not yet departed for Britain, and had 
 no claim to the title of Britannicus. The mistake 
 in this instance is of the same nature with the 
 last, and both the coins are found, on examina- 
 tion, to be of copper, overlaid with a covering of 
 silver. 
 
 The causes of confusion, then, which I have 
 already noticed as belonging to the study of an- 
 cient coins, are, the great but capricious variety 
 of them, the perplexed and inconsistent accounts 
 of them received from ancient authors, the ana- 
 chronisms introduced upon them by the vanity or 
 the policy of those who minted them, the extreme 
 difficulty in many cases of deciphering them, the 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 mistakes committed by the ancient monefarii, the 
 practice of stamping coins with a new die without 
 effacing the old impression, and lastly, the great 
 extent to which the ancients carried the crime of 
 forgery. 
 
 £ 2 
 
LECTURE III 
 
Farther difficulties of the subject — Modern forgers — 
 Forgers of the sixteenth century — More recent forgers — Dif- 
 ferent methods of fabrication — By changing the inscription — 
 By giving a new impression to one side — By interchanging 
 two reverses — By cutting new dies after ancient models — By 
 contriving improbable accidents — Greek coin of Cicero — Pro- 
 per use of coins as evidence — The object and extent of it — 
 Examples from the coins of Thurium — From Roman coins 
 bearing the letters S"C — From a coin of Larissa^ referring to 
 a passage of the Iliad — From a coin of Agathocles — From a 
 coin of Himera. 
 
A HE difficulties I have already noticed, as em- 
 barrassing the study of ancient coins, and dimi- 
 nishing their value in the elucidation of ancient 
 history, might appear sufficient to deter us from 
 any lengthened prosecution of the subject. But 
 the most formidable difficulty still remains, and is 
 of a nature calculated, beyond any that I have 
 mentioned, to throw suspicion upon all numis- 
 matic testimony. The falsarii of ancient times 
 have been followed and surpassed by modern 
 forgers. There certainly was inducement enough 
 to coin a spurious drachma or denarius, when it 
 was still to be used as common money ; even 
 though the profit on each separate piece was 
 small, and the danger was considerable. But 
 when it ceased to be the money of common circu- 
 lation, and was purchased for the cabinets of the 
 curious ; when it became an article of costly lux- 
 ury, and all legal penalties were at an end re- 
 specting it ; the inducement to fabricate it was in- 
 creased in an enormous degree. We find accord- 
 ingly that, independently of those common frauds 
 whose existence may be traced at all periods, there 
 are certain times and names of forging which are 
 peculiarly distinguished in the modern history of 
 ancient coins. Omittmg, then, all mention of the 
 
 E 4 
 
56 LECTURE III. 
 
 common impostures practised equally in all the 
 countries of Europe, and in many parts of Asia, 
 wherever collections of ancient coins are made, or 
 travellers are to be found inquiring for them, I 
 will merely notice a few of the most notorious 
 among modern falsarii, and then pass on to de- 
 scribe the degree of excellence attained by them. 
 Fortunately for me, the subject has been fully 
 treated, though with different degrees of skilful- 
 ness, by Rinck, Beauvais, Eckhel, Sestini, and se- 
 veral others, and my only employment will be to 
 select and abridge. 
 
 The two artists, known under the name of the 
 two Paduans% flourished about the middle of the 
 sixteenth century, and forged many coins, espe- 
 cially of the twelve first emperors, which are as 
 well known among ancient medals, as Livy was 
 among ancient authors, for the Patavinity of their 
 style. At subsequent periods, Dervieux at Flo- 
 rence, Carteron in Holland, and Cogornier at Ly- 
 ons, enjoyed the same fraudulent preeminence. 
 Ennery mentions a person of the name of La 
 Roche ^, who lived at an obscure village in the 
 south of France, and forged some of the most re- 
 markable medals of a well-known French col- 
 
 a Vico mentions seven other artists living at the same time, 
 who were skilful in the imitation of ancient medals. Among 
 them was Benvenuto Cellini. — Delle Medaglie, p. 67- 
 
 ^ See Eckh. vol. I. p. 119. Prol. note. 
 
LECTURE III. 57 
 
 lector ; and in more modern times we have had 
 Weber at Florence, Galli at Rome^ Becker on 
 the Rhine, Caprara at Smyrna, and several others, 
 who seem to have acquired more reputation by 
 their skill than they have lost by their dishonesty, 
 and have obtained for a work of imposture the 
 name of an ingenious and elegant invention. 
 
 The first method was to retouch an ancient 
 coin by the aid of the graver. This was done, not 
 merely to give a greater degree of precision or 
 prominence to the actual lines and letters of an 
 ancient coin, but to obtain for it a value to which 
 it had no claim whatever, by changing the inscrip- 
 tion altogether, and transferring it from a name, 
 the medals of which were abundant, to one, of 
 which they were hitherto unknown, or at least 
 uncommon. It has been found to be most easily 
 practised upon the brasses of the Roman em- 
 perors, particularly those which were minted in 
 the eastern provinces ; and cases accordingly have 
 occurred in which a Claudius has been found con- 
 verted into an Otho, a Domna into a Didia Clara, 
 and a Macrinus into a Pescennius^. To make, for 
 instance, a coin of Pertinax : choose out a well- 
 conditioned Marcus Aurelius, particularly one 
 where the reverse bears a consecratio, a ceremony 
 
 c See Henniii. El^mens^ vol. I. p. 276. 
 d Eck. vol. I. p. 124. Prof 
 
58 LECTURE III. 
 
 which both those emperors had the fortune to 
 undergo ; then apply your graver to the obverse, 
 make the beard and nose of Aurelius a little more 
 decided, alter his inscription according to your 
 wants, conceal the traces of your graver by a false 
 Verdigris or varnish, — the transformation is com- 
 plete, and a worthless Aurelius becomes an in- 
 valuable Pertinax. 
 
 There are, however, difficulties belonging to 
 this kind of fraud, which the artist cannot reason- 
 ably expect to overcome. Supposing that the ac- 
 tual lines and figures of the coin have been such 
 as to allow of the intended change, without ex- 
 posing the contrivance of it on the first examina- 
 tion ; still the contrast between the native charac- 
 ters of the coin, and the lines of the trim and stiff 
 imposture is much too great to escape detection. 
 This method, therefore, which was at one time 
 the favourite practice of the Italians, appears now 
 to have fallen into disuse. 
 
 It requires, however, a touch of extreme preci- 
 sion, and an eye of exquisite discernment, to judge 
 rightly in all cases of this kind, and more parti- 
 cularly to distinguish between the genuine rust of 
 antiquity and the modern varnish. 
 
 Another method of augmenting the value of an 
 ancient coin is, to retain one of its impressions in 
 its original state, but to submit the other face to 
 a new die, and so to obtain for the coin the ap- 
 
LECTURE III. 59 
 
 pearance of being at once genuine and unique. 
 Thus a Julius Caesar has had its reverse impressed 
 with the well-known tidings, Veni, vidi, vici; and 
 a Hadrian, in like manner, with the help of a 
 modern die, has borne the legend, Expeditio Ju- 
 daica : but here again there is a striking contrast 
 between the two sides of the coin, in all those nice 
 distinctions^ by means of which a practised eye 
 can identify the characters of any given time or 
 country. 
 
 In order, therefore, to increase still farther the 
 difficulty of distinguishing between a genuine and 
 a spurious coin, the contrivance has been adopted 
 of cutting two genuine coins asunder, and inter- 
 changing their reverses. It is plain, that in this 
 instance, by effecting a new combination of titles 
 and devices, the value of the coin would be greatly 
 enhanced in the estimation of the collector, and 
 all his common criteria, connected with the metal 
 and the workmanship, might be dexterously 
 eluded. And, lest it should not be possible to join 
 the two portions together in such a manner as to 
 evade the vigilance of his eye, whilst it was cau- 
 tiously exploring the edge of the coin, the strata- 
 gem has been tried of setting the one portion 
 within the other, and so presenting the line of 
 junction, not at the edge, but upon the surface. 
 Coins of undoubted antiquity are frequently found 
 with such a circle or rim upon them, and this fact 
 
60 LECTURE III. 
 
 increases in a great degree the difficulty of detect- 
 ing the kind of fabrication we are now consider- 
 ing. It is only the keen and practised eye of an 
 adept, searching the suspected outline with a fine- 
 ly-pointed instrument, comparing the two surfaces 
 with each other, and aided by an extensive ac- 
 quaintance with ancient literature, that can be 
 sufficient to detect a fraud presenting so many of 
 the tokens of truth. The two surfaces may seem 
 to be precisely of the same ancient metal ; they 
 may have been united together in such a manner 
 as to appear to be inseparable ; and if the artist 
 have been prudent in his choice, some new fact 
 may be alleged, which cannot easily be refuted, 
 because all history is silent respecting it. The 
 spurious coin may be considered as a genuine 
 relic of antiquity, some learned dissertation may 
 be written, with much collateral evidence, on the 
 important fact disclosed by it, and some time may 
 finally elapse before the imposture is exposed. 
 
 Other artists, however, more adventurous, and 
 possessing a more intimate acquaintance with the 
 practices and the literature of the ancients, have 
 ventured to make new dies and to issue new coins 
 for the admiration of the curious. The methods 
 previously mentioned were practised generally on 
 brasses, as affording a greater variety for such 
 changes, and admitting of the disguise of varnish to 
 imitate the rust of antiquity; but the method now 
 
LECTURE III. 61 
 
 considered has been adopted in the case of gold 
 and silver, where the number was comparatively- 
 small, and a false varnish could not be employed. 
 And in order to elude discovery, the artist in 
 many instances exercised the greatest discernment 
 in the coins that he took, whether as models or 
 only as guides, for the formation of his own die, 
 in the preparation of the metal, in the manage- 
 ment of the hammer, and in. bringing about the 
 accidents, such as clefts or other imperfections, 
 which frequently occurred in ancient times during 
 the process of minting. Many of the fabrications 
 indeed made in this manner have been so coarse 
 and unskilful, that they have never obtained a 
 place in any distinguished cabinet ; but there are 
 others, on the contrary, so ably executed, that 
 they have perpetually been subjects of debate, and 
 have given rise to a large body of evidence, not 
 to be found in all other branches of knowledge, 
 imder the name of disputed testimony. By the 
 aid of dealers, coins of this and other doubtful 
 characters have been taken to places, which ap- 
 peared to be the most remote from all means of 
 fabrication ; and some convenient adventure has 
 been contrived for the discovery of them. M. Hen- 
 nin became acquainted with a jeweller in Italy, 
 whom he knew to be a man of considerable in- 
 formation, although he readily purchased many of 
 the coins discarded by flennin himself as worth- 
 
62 LECTURE III. 
 
 less. This jeweller had in fact established him- 
 self at Tunis, and gave a new value to the dis- 
 carded coins, by burying them among the ruins of 
 Carthage, and then by dexterous surmises en- 
 abling some unwary traveller to discover them. 
 Imagine some lettered Englishman seated, as he 
 fancies, on the same stone on which Marius sat, 
 gazing, as he believes, on coins which, till he had 
 the good fortune to disinter them, had never seen 
 the light since the days of Scipio, and then re- 
 turning homeward to discover that fraud is often 
 skilful, and honesty as often credulous. 
 
 I have mentioned some of the principal me- 
 thods by which modern yalsarii have embarrassed 
 the study of ancient coins, selecting those me- 
 thods especially which would impair the value of 
 them in their connection with ancient history. 
 And perhaps it would appear from the whole sur- 
 vey, that in a subject, where so much is avowedly 
 imposture, no one portion can escape without in- 
 jury to its reputation. And this too the rather, 
 because to common enquirers the coin itself is in- 
 accessible, and their knowledge of it must be ob- 
 tained through the medium of writers, who might 
 on their part be inaccurate, or even be deter- 
 mined to practise deception upon their readers. 
 We have, for instance, explanations afforded to us 
 in the works of Hardouin, which seem to depend 
 entirely on the most improbable conjectures, and 
 
LECTURE III. 69 
 
 coins recorded and described by Goltz, of which it 
 is now commonly believed that they never had 
 existence. 
 
 But before I quit the subject I will notice, by 
 way of example, a coin which might naturally be 
 expected to create much interest, and has been 
 held by many numismatic writers to be invalu- 
 able ; but which is to many others an object of 
 the greatest suspicion. It is a Greek coin of 
 Cicero, bearing the reputed head of the orator 
 himself, and purporting to be minted at Magnesia. 
 The history of this coin has been given by Paci- 
 audi in his Animadversiones Philologicae ^ ; from 
 which we learn that in the year 1598 it was of- 
 fered to Orsini, more commonly known as Fulvius 
 Ursinus, by a dealer at Bologna, and was pur- 
 chased by him at a high price, after much and 
 anxious negociation. It passed afterwards, on the 
 death of Ursinus, into the Farnese collection, but 
 without appearing to have been acknowledged 
 as genuine by its former owner. A head of Ci- 
 cero, taken from this coin, was prefixed to several 
 learned works, and more especially to the edition 
 of Cicero published at Leyden by Gronovius^. 
 Since the time of Paciaudi another coin of the 
 same die has been noticed by Winkelman, and a 
 third has come into the possession of Cousinery, a 
 
 e p. 52. f !5ee Eck. vol. V. p. 328. 
 
64 LECTURE III. 
 
 celebrated French collector. Other coins bearing 
 the head of Cicero, but from different dies, are ad- 
 mitted on all sides to be forgeries, and the three 
 coins in question, in addition to other indications 
 of fraud, labour under the suspicious fact of their 
 having all come to light in the neighbourhood of 
 Rome, though purporting to be minted in Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 Nevertheless, great and perplexing as are the 
 difficulties that beset us in the application of an- 
 cient coins to the purposes of history, we must re- 
 member that the assistance to be expected from 
 them was confined, in limine, within very narrow 
 limits, and that whatever skill and knowledge 
 may have been employed in forging them, the 
 same degree of skill, and probably a greater de- 
 gree of knowledge, have been exerted in ascertain- 
 ing their real value. I have already stated that 
 ancient coins cannot prudently be used to add new 
 facts or conclusions to our knowledge, but only to 
 confirm, or to particularize, what history has al- 
 ready taught us; and, confined within these limits, 
 the advantages to be derived from them may be 
 illustrated by the clear and substantial vision, 
 which a well-adjusted lens conveys to an imper- 
 fect sight. The distant objects of history, which 
 hitherto had passed before us as shadows or chi- 
 maeras, become clear and intelligible facts ; and 
 the events of more recent times, however con- 
 
LECTURE III. 65 
 
 fused they were as parts of a general narrative, 
 stand forth distinct and identical, like friends re- 
 cognized after a long absence. We must remem- 
 ber too, that the very knowledge of these difficul- 
 ties presupposes the power of disentangling them ; 
 that the skill and ingenuity of fraud have been 
 followed step by step through all their windings, 
 and wherever they have given birth to new de- 
 vices, have as readily suggested some fresh cau- 
 tion or contrivance for exposing them. Even 
 when all the arts of fraud have been exhausted, 
 and mechanism has been assisted by learning in 
 the business of delusion, there still remains on 
 the other side that eye, at once keen and cau- 
 tious, which seems to have converted a long ex- 
 perience into a quick perception. As in works 
 of music a fine and practised ear can discern by 
 tokens imperceptible to common organs the differ- 
 ence between a genuine master and the most able 
 imitator, so too an antiquary of native talent, 
 grown prudent from long use, and enlightened by 
 various knowledge, has acquired for his pursuits 
 a power of intuition, which fraud cannot easily 
 elude, and ignorance cannot possibly comprehend. 
 Bxit the best demonstration I can lay before 
 you of the usefulness of these studies, and the ex- 
 tent to which they can reasonably be carried in 
 the investigation of ancient history will be the ex- 
 amples which I shall have to adduce in every part 
 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE III. 
 
 of my inquiry. For the present they will be se- 
 lected without any other view to arrangement 
 than merely to afford relief and variety to each 
 other. They will most of them moreover be taken 
 from those less frequented parts of history which 
 will not come under our especial review hereafter ; 
 and on that account perhaps they will appear to 
 be less satisfactory than the rest. But it will, I 
 think, be sufficiently shewn at present, and it will 
 be amply shewn hereafter, that ancient coins may 
 clear up the dark expressions of ancient authors ; 
 may mark out epochs at which events actually oc- 
 curred ; may authenticate ancient records, on which 
 much doubt had been expressed ; may establish 
 the proper order of confused occurrences ; may 
 suggest explanations in cases of acknowledged dif- 
 ficulty; and may act as valid and conclusive tes- 
 timony where history has compelled us to remain 
 in doubt. These are among the peculiar services 
 which the study of ancient coins will be found by 
 example to have imparted to us ; its general pro- 
 vince will be to go on concurrently with ancient his- 
 tory, in some instances giving clearness and preci- 
 sion to the statements of its companion, in others 
 obtaining strength and substance for its own con- 
 jectures. 
 
 The interest imparted to the history of Thu- 
 rium by the settlers who removed thither from 
 Athens, carrying among them two such adven- 
 
LECTURE III. 67 
 
 turers as Herodotus and Lysias, will be my rea- 
 son for selecting it as the first subject of illustra- 
 tion. Some of its minuter circumstances have 
 been drawn out in the well-known Dissertation on 
 Phalaris ; but the brief outline necessary for our 
 present purpose is obtained exclusively from Dio- 
 dorus Siculus. The people of Sybaris, on the bay 
 of Tarentum, were conquered, and their city was 
 overthrown, by the Crotoniats about the year 500 
 B. C.^ About fifty-eight years afterwards a body 
 of Sybarites endeavoured to rebuild the city, and 
 after six years of dubious possession were again 
 expelled by their ancient enemy. The exiles call- 
 ed in the aid of settlers from Athens and the Pe- 
 loponnese, and in the year 444 B. C. laid the 
 foundations of Thurium, near the site of the an- 
 cient Sybaris, taking the name of their new city 
 from a fountain in its neighbourhood. The dis- 
 cordant members of this new community did not 
 long continue to act in concert. The foreign 
 settlers being superior in numbers, and being 
 treated with indignity by the native Sybarites, con- 
 spired against them, and having put them to the 
 sword, formed a new constitution for their adopt- 
 ed country. Such are the brief annals of the 
 place, as they are derived from Diodorus, and 
 confirmed in their general outline by other histo- 
 rians. 
 
 g Diod. 1. XI. c. 90, &c. 
 F 2 
 
68 LECTURE IIJ. 
 
 What then is its numismatic history? We 
 have several coins of Sybaris, bearing in the form 
 of their brief inscription and in their workman- 
 ship the strongest evidence of high antiquity ; so 
 that we may fairly assign them to a period at 
 least five centuries before the Christian era. The 
 constant device of these coins, appearing in some 
 instances on both their faces, and in all shewing 
 that it was the acknowledged cognizance of Syba- 
 ris, is Bos stans et respiciens. The next coins to 
 be noticed, as belonging to the place, are more 
 recent, as we may judge from the form of their 
 letters, and their highly finished style of work- 
 manship ; and, taken on the analogy of coins in 
 general, they might be assigned to a period not 
 much anterior to the time of Philip and Alex- 
 ander. But from these we find that the devices 
 of the place have undergone an important change. 
 The ancient cognizance of Sybaris is now of se- 
 condary consequence, and has given way on one 
 face of the coin to the Caput Palladis the well- 
 known badge of Athens. The inscription too is, 
 in one instance, the abbreviated word Sybaris, in 
 another a similar abbreviation of the newly con- 
 tracted name Thurium. So then these coins 
 strictly mark the period when the natives and the 
 foreigners were living together in compact, en- 
 deavouring to conciliate each other by mutual 
 concessions, and each party preserving tokens of 
 
LECTURE III. 69 
 
 its hereditary attachments. The next set of coins 
 is distinguished by a minuteness of ornament, 
 which marks them decidedly as the most recent 
 of the three ; and these coins, in perfect accord- 
 ance with our narrative, bear no memorials of the 
 ancient Sybaris. The inscription in every instance 
 is of Thurium, the Caput Palladis is predomi- 
 nant, and the ancient cognizance of the bull is 
 no longer stans et respiciens, but irruens et cor- 
 nupeta. Doubtless, on the change of constitu- 
 tion made by the final expulsion of the natives, 
 the heralds were directed to provide a difference 
 for the bearings of the republic ; and, after the 
 punning manner of their brethren, they found in 
 the meaning of the word Bovpiov, a reason for the 
 difference they adopted, " a bull running and but- 
 " ting." 
 
 But the parallel does not terminate here. It 
 cannot be supposed that a colony consisting of 
 adventurers from every part of Greece would long 
 continue to acknowledge the supremacy of Athens. 
 We learn, in fact, from Diodorus^, that after the 
 government was settled, the republic flourished, 
 owing to the fertility of the soil and the care that 
 was taken to treat all emigrants alike ; and that 
 afterwards, when Athens and other powers of 
 Greece began to claim them as a dependency, 
 
 hL. XII. ^app. 11 et35. 
 F 3 
 
70 LECTURE III. 
 
 they boldly refused to acknowledge any other 
 founder or patron than the deity of Delphi. And 
 what say the coins ? Some of them, which seem 
 to have been minted when the republic was yet 
 scarcely free from its ancient habits, retain the 
 badge of Athens, but some also bear the emblems 
 of Ceres, the tokens of agricultural prosperity, and 
 others are impressed with the head and insignia of 
 Apollo. 
 
 My next example is taken from the coinage of 
 Rome^ It has been the prevailing opinion of 
 antiquaries, that when Augustus became emperor, 
 he reserved for himself and his successors the right 
 of coining gold and silver, and left the brass money 
 under the direction of the senate. That such an 
 arrangement was actually adopted seems to be im- 
 plied in the following inscription found at Rome: 
 " Officinatores monetae aurariae argentariae Caesa- 
 " ris ^," from which we may infer that the two 
 more precious metals, and those two only, were 
 minted by the emperor. The same inference may 
 also be derived from a passage of Dio, which 
 states that the senate, from the hatred they bore 
 to the memory of Caligula, ordered all the brass 
 money stamped with his image to be recoined ^ ; 
 for we can have no doubt that they would have 
 
 i Eck. D. Num. vol. I. p. 73. Prol. 
 
 k See Grut. vol. I. p. 70. Ins. 1. l Dio, 1. LX. c. 22. 
 
LECTURE III. 71 
 
 included gold and silver money in their edict, if 
 they had possessed any authority over it. I have 
 already mentioned from Tacitus, that Vespasian 
 minted gold and silver before he was acknovr- 
 ledged at Rome as emperor ; and we can easily 
 discover his reason for abstaining from minting 
 brass money, if the right of doing so belonged 
 exclusively to the senate. Strong however as 
 this testimony appears to be, it has been main- 
 tained by several writers, and more especially by 
 Morcelli ^, an authority of the highest order in 
 the science of antiquities, that the senate alone 
 possessed the right of minting money in all the 
 several metals. Let us see then what assistance 
 can be obtained from the evidence of coins. Now 
 it is the most remarkable fact connected with the 
 coins of Rome, from the days of Augustus to those 
 of Gallienus, that the brasses, with few exceptions, 
 bear the letters S*C upon them ; the gold and sil- 
 ver, with as few exceptions, and those few readily 
 explained, are without them. It is moreover the 
 universal opinion that the two letters denote the 
 words senatus consulto; and though several other 
 methods have been tried of explaining those words 
 in their reference to the Roman mint, no one ap- 
 pears to be so satisfactory as the distinction which 
 assigns all brass coins to the edict of the senate, 
 
 ™ De Sfylo, 1. 1, p. 223. 
 
72 LECTURE III. 
 
 and leaves the gold and silver to the prerogative of 
 the emperor. It is also a remarkable fact, and one 
 which would imply the existence of divided rights 
 in the Roman coinage, that we sometimes meet 
 with gold and silver coins of an emperor in con- 
 siderable numbers, when the brasses of the same 
 emperor are extremely rare. Taking, for instance, 
 the short and turbulent reign of Otho, it is natu- 
 ral to suppose that the three metals would be 
 issued in their usual proportion ; or if there were 
 any difference, that the more precious metals 
 would be in smaller quantities. The fact, how- 
 ever, is, that we have many gold and silver coins 
 of this reign, but not a single genuine brass of it, 
 issued from the Roman mint, has hitherto been 
 found. But I will mention another fact of mi- 
 nute coincidence, and more remarkable than the 
 last. Albinus, we know, was acknowledged and 
 proclaimed as Caesar by the emperor Severus, but 
 was afterwards, on proclaiming himself Augustus, 
 defeated by him and put to death. Now we meet 
 with gold, silver, and brass coins indiscriminately 
 of Albinus described as Caesar, and we might also 
 expect all these coins to be minted with such a 
 title on them, as it was acknowledged equally in 
 his own province and by the authorities at Rome : 
 again, we frequently meet with gold and silver 
 coins of the same Albinus described as Augustus, 
 but in no instance with a coin of brass, giving 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 that title to him ; and this too might be expected, 
 if we merely suppose that he exercised the privi- 
 lege belonging to the office he had usurped, and 
 cautiously left to the senate, for the purpose of 
 conciliating them, a privilege which was exclu- 
 sively their own. And these facts will, I think, 
 be sufficient to shew the value of numismatic tes- 
 timony in a point of disputed history. 
 
 My next instance" is in illustration of some 
 lines of Homer. You will remember the fond 
 language addressed by Hector to Andromache ° : 
 
 • Kai K€v iv"Kpy€i iovcra, rrpos aXXrjs larbv v^alvois, 
 Kai K€v v8(op (fiopeois M.€(Tar}tdos ^ 'XTrepeirjs, 
 TToXX' aeKa^opeuT). 
 
 Now it has been a common opinion, even among 
 older writers, that Homer is speaking here of 
 Argos in the Peloponnese, and endeavours have 
 been made to discover in that neighbourhood the 
 two fountains, by whose waters Andromache was 
 doomed to weep in her captivity. But these en- 
 deavours have been unsuccessful. It is well known 
 too, from Pindar P and other authors, that the 
 fountain of Hyperia was in the town of Pherae in 
 Thessaly; and we can have little doubt that Ho- 
 mer in this passage, as elsewhere, is referring to 
 
 n Eck. vol. II. p. 148. o Iliad. VI. 456. 
 
 p Pvth. IV. 122. • 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 the Pelasgian Argos, which, according to Strabo^, 
 was the district at the foot of Piridus, containing, 
 among other places, the towns of Pherae and La- 
 rissa^ 
 
 As, then, we are fully justified in believing that 
 Homer is speaking of Thessaly, and that the Hy- 
 peria mentioned by him is the well-known foun- 
 tain of Pherae, so too it is not improbable that the 
 Messeis was a fountain of equal value to the in- 
 habitants of Larissa. 
 
 Now, among the coins of Pherae, we have one 
 bearing on its reverse, Fons ex leonis rictu pro- 
 manans, and thereby shewing the great import- 
 ance attached by the Pheraeans to their fountain 
 Hyperia. Again, among the coins of Larissa we 
 have a similar one, bearing Mulier stolata, am^ 
 phoram genui impositam tenens, revertitur a 
 Jbnte, qui ex leonis faucihus profluit It is 
 clear, then, that Larissa possessed a valuable foun- 
 tain as well as Pherae : it has even been surmised 
 that Larissa, after the manner of all antiquity, 
 was proud of the notice taken of its fountain in 
 these lines of Homer^, and intended to represent 
 
 q Lib. IX. p. 660. 
 
 »■ So also Lucan, (VI. 355.) 
 
 Atque olim Larissa poteiis^ ubi nobile quondam 
 
 Nunc super Argos arant. 
 s Aristotle^ in his Rhet. I. 16. 3. refers to a well-known 
 instance of the value attached^ in ancient times, to the au- 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 on this very coin the case which was painfully- 
 imagined by Hector, of Andromache, a captive, 
 bearing back water from Messeis. It may tend to 
 confirm this opinion to observe, that the name 
 and head of Homer, and even the word lAIAS, 
 may be seen on coins of Chios, and other places 
 of the ^gean ; and that the device of a Roman 
 coin, which will be noticed hereafter, is evident- 
 ly constructed on a well-known passage of the 
 Odyssey. 
 
 My next instance is taken from the History of 
 Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse, whilst he was 
 waging war in Africa against the Carthaginians. 
 Diodorus^ says of him, that, finding his troops dis- 
 spirited at the superior strength of the enemy, he 
 secretly let out a number of owls among them, 
 which, perching upon their shields and helmets, 
 were hailed as a sure token of the favour of Mi- 
 nerva, and occasioned the splendid victory that 
 followed. Now we are well aware that the casual 
 appearance of an owl" was actually made an omen 
 of the great victory which was won by the Athe- 
 
 thority of Homer ; and the case is fully explained by Clarke 
 in his note on Iliad. II. 558. A parallel may be found in a 
 German author that I have met with, who describes the uni- 
 versity of Wittenbsrg as the place where Luther preached, 
 and where Shakspeare records that Hamlet studied. 
 
 t Diod. XX. 11. 
 
 ^1 See Wesseling on the passage of Diodorus. 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 nians at Salamis ; and it was in allusion to that 
 fact that Aristophanes^ says in the YcpvjKe^f 
 
 ykav^ yap rjfxwv npiv fidx^O'dai top arpaTov SteVrero. 
 
 Yet, admitting the full force of such a popular 
 superstition, it is difficult to believe in the con- 
 trivance imputed to Agathocles, until we find that 
 one of his coins, which, from bearing the emblems 
 of an elephant, must be assigned to Africa, bears 
 also this significant device, Pallas instar Victor'icp 
 alata d. hastam vibrat, s. clypeum, pro pedihus 
 noctua. 
 
 My last instance shall be introduced by a quo- 
 tation from the Spectator, and a reference to our 
 own neighbourhood. '' A rebus," says the Spec- 
 tatory, " has lately been hewn out in freestone, 
 " and erected over two of the portals of Blenheim 
 " House, being the figure of a monstrous lion tear- 
 " ing to pieces a little cock. For the better under- 
 " standing of which device, I must acquaint my 
 " English reader, that a cock has the misfortune 
 " to be called in Latin by the same word that sig- 
 " nifies a Frenchman, as a lion is the emblem of 
 " the English nation." 
 
 Now I will not attempt to justify the sculptor 
 for constructing his device upon the armorial em- 
 blems of the two nations, nor yet will I quote 
 
 X Vesp. V. 1086. y Spect. No. 59. 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 Guillim in his Display of Heraldry, for the pur- 
 pose of proving that the quadruped is of right the 
 king of beasts, as the biped is the knight of birds; 
 my only object, at present, being to shew, that, 
 whatever degree of solemn trifling has been em- 
 ployed in these matters by the moderns, it had 
 been invented long before by the ancients. The 
 bravery of the lion has been acknowledged at all 
 periods of history, and the gallantry of the cock 
 has been set forth as eloquently by the ancient 
 Plutarch^ as by the modern Guillim. But they 
 were both of them favourite emblems of ancient 
 heraldry. We find, from the coins of Sicily, that 
 the beast was adopted by the Leontines, from the 
 connexion, doubtless, which he bore to their name ; 
 and that the bird was the emblem of Himera. It 
 is not so apparent in the latter case to what good 
 fortune it was owing that the cock obtained a 
 place upon the ancient coins of Himera ; but it is 
 strongly suspected that the name of the town, ori- 
 ginally the same with yj(M€pa, suggested the notion 
 of the daybreak ; and the daybreak as naturally 
 gave occasion to the cock-crowing. I cannot pro- 
 duce a piece of ancient sculpture to denote the 
 former triumphs of either animal, and to take 
 away the merit of novelty from the Blenheim re- 
 
 z Pint. vol. VI. pp. 725, et a37, et 887- Vol. VIII. p. 
 7B2, &c. • 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 bus ; but, in the absence of it, I will quote a pro- 
 verb, preserved by Plutarch, which speaks of the 
 hatred subsisting between the lion and the cock, 
 and is much less likely to have arisen from the 
 actual conflicts of the animals themselves, than 
 from some similar conceit of ancient heraldry, el- 
 Kog ^e Kai too keovri irpog rov akeKTpvova [/.laog lay^vpov 
 yeyevvYjKevai rov cf)ol3ov\ 
 
 But I will not leave it to be supposed that this 
 was the only method by which the people of Hi- 
 mera were able to provide devices for their coins. 
 We have a brass of Himera, bearing on its reverse 
 Fir senilis stans, involutus pallio et scipione 
 nixus, volumen explicatum manu tenet. Doubt- 
 less this figure was intended to represent some 
 distinguished citizen o^ theirs, or perhaps some 
 celebrated statue erected by them to his memory. 
 You will be reminded accordingly of those splen- 
 did works of art which were restored to Himera 
 by Scipio, when he had taken Carthage, and were 
 afterwards carried off by the rapacity of Verres. 
 Among them, says Cicero^, " erat etiam Stesichori 
 " poetse statua senilis, incurva, cum libro, summo, 
 " ut putant, artificio facta ; qui fuit Himerae." 
 
 a Plut. de Inv. et Od. vol. VIII. p. 126. See also vol. X. 
 p. 84. 
 
 ^ In Verr. lib. II. c. 35. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
A SCALE of criteria attempted by Barthelemy — Periods 
 usually adopted — Period of excellence — Perfection of work- 
 manship — Arrangement of Pellerin and Eckliel — Advantages 
 of that arrangement — Medals and coins distinguished — Har- 
 douin — Barthelemy — Medallions — Examples of them — Con- 
 torniati — Tesserae — Countermarks on medals — Different ma- 
 terials of money — Iron^ tin^ and lead — Gold — Its purity — 
 Electrum — Where used — Silver — Early adulterations in 
 Greece — Later adulterations at Rome — Copper — Brass — Co- 
 rinthian brass — Minting by the hammer — Practice of Greece 
 — Practice at Rome — Ancient dies — Count Caylus — Plaster 
 moulds — Classification of devices — Smaller emblems — Proper 
 names of coins. 
 
An attempt was made by the learned Barthe- 
 lemy, in some papers communicated by him to 
 the French Academy, to establish certain general 
 criteria, from which any given coin might be as- 
 signed, with a fair degree of probability, to its 
 proper period of time. He hoped that by noticing 
 in their order all the characteristics of coins, 
 which were known from recorded facts or dates 
 to belong to exact periods, a scale of circum- 
 stances might be arranged, agreeing sufficiently 
 among themselves, and corresponding with the 
 general knowledge we possess of the progress 
 made by the ancients in literature and the arts. 
 By means of such a scale, an ancient coin, possess- 
 ing any characteristics whatsoever, might, it was 
 hoped, be assigned to a definite time ; and if, as 
 was probable, its inscription gave any evidence of 
 the place where it was minted, it would then be- 
 come valuable for purposes of history. The plan 
 was well imagined, but seems to have failed en- 
 tirely of success. The first paper was read in the 
 year 1750 ; the next did not appear till upwards 
 of thirty years afterwards ; and the most valu- 
 able, because the most difficult part of the under- 
 taking, appears to have been abandoned by him 
 as impracticable. 
 
82 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Nevertheless, there are great numbers of coins, 
 which, partly from the words they actually bear, 
 and partly from other distinctions, can easily be 
 arranged within definite periods of time ; and 
 when new coins are found corresponding v/ith the 
 tokens of any of those periods, and minted at the 
 same places to which the other specimens belong, 
 it is not unreasonable to suppose that some far- 
 ther light will be thrown upon their history. It 
 has been the practice, therefore, of numismatic 
 writers, to arrange ancient coins under five dis- 
 tinct periods. 1. From the commencement of 
 coinage to about the year 460 before Christ. 
 2. From that date to the reign of Philip, the son 
 of Amyntas, comprising one hundred years. 3. 
 From the commencement of the reign of Philip 
 to the overthrow of the Roman republic. 4. 
 From the overthrow of the republic to the time 
 of Hadrian. And, 5. From Hadrian to Galli- 
 enus. 
 
 Of the two earliest of these periods, comprising 
 the history of coins from its commencement to 
 about the year 360 B.C., it is not my intention to 
 treat. It will be evident, from the details already 
 laid before you, and from the natural progress of 
 the arts, that the specimens supposed to belong to 
 these early periods are either too uncertain as to 
 their origin, or too rude in their structure, to 
 throw any light upon ancient history. It is true. 
 
LECTURE IV. 83 
 
 that they are vahiable in the eyes of the collector, 
 not merely because their high antiquity gives 
 them a greater degree of rareness, but also for 
 these better reasons, that they tend to illustrate, 
 though but remotely, the progress of ancient art, 
 and are themselves illustrated by the narratives 
 of ancient authors. But these reasons cannot have 
 much connexion with our present purpose. The 
 progress of ancient art, if it came within our pro- 
 vince, would require means of elucidation, at once 
 more copious and more exact, than can be obtained 
 from coins ; and to borrow illustration from an- 
 cient authors, for the purpose of making coins in- 
 telligible, is to invert the natural uses of them 
 both. I may add also, that any explanation con- 
 nected with the peculiar forms of the letters im- 
 pressed upon them, is properly left to a course of 
 lectures on palaeography, for which we have much 
 better materials in the inscriptions that are to be 
 obtained from ancient marbles, and are known to 
 belong to those early periods. 
 
 But after the commencement of the reign of 
 Philip, and during the three centuries which 
 elapsed before the overthrow of the Roman re- 
 public, (that important interval which constitutes 
 the third period,) we are brought fully within the 
 golden age of ancient art. Brass, as well as the 
 two more precious metals, was then in general 
 use; the inscriptions then began to add the names 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of individuals ; and the execution was so highly 
 wrought, that the devices of the time may be con- 
 sidered as approaching nearly to the truth of his- 
 torical painting. There is nothing in either an- 
 cient or modern workmanship which can surpass 
 the gold coins of Philip and his son Alexander, 
 and many also of the coins of Sicily and Magna 
 Graecia, which are generally attributed to the 
 same period. But their excellence is too well 
 known to require any farther notice from me. It 
 is, however, worthy of observation, that this high 
 condition of workmanship was not confined to the 
 more distinguished states of Greece, but is to 
 be seen in the coins of inconsiderable towns, car- 
 ried too to its utmost perfection, and appearing 
 alike on every specimen. And yet, says Eckhel% 
 no one can persuade himself that mere money, 
 destined for common use, and exposed to constant 
 injury, can, under ordinary circumstances, have 
 had the same labour and expense bestowed upon 
 it, as gems or statues, which were preserved with 
 the utmost care, being treated as if they were ob- 
 jects of religious worship. The plain conclusion 
 is, that the fine arts, in all departments, were too 
 far advanced, and the public taste too highly 
 cultivated, to admit, even in their coinage, of an 
 exception from the universal display of highly- 
 
 a Eck. vol. I. p. 138. Prol. 
 
LECTURE IV. 85 
 
 finished workmanship, unless some important rea- 
 son, like the one already mentioned in the case of 
 Athens, should require it. " When we compare," 
 says Payne Knight ^ " the smallness and insigni- 
 " ficance of many of these states, scarcely known 
 " to the historian or geographer, with the exqui- 
 " site beauty, elegance, and costly refinement dis- 
 " played in their money, the common drudge of 
 " retail traffic in the lowest stages of society, we 
 ** must admit that there is scarcely any thing 
 " more wonderful in the history of man." There 
 are innumerable coins of this period, which are as 
 creditable to the makers of them as the most ex- 
 quisite gems of Greece or Rome. In the latter 
 case we are made acquainted with the names of 
 Dioscorides, and other eminent artists ; but in the 
 former there is no coin, hitherto discovered, that 
 bears the name of its minter, with the solitary ex- 
 ception of one belonging to Cydonia in Crete ; 
 there is only one ancient inscription from which 
 we can learn the name of any individual employed 
 in cutting dies at the Roman mint^; and even 
 in the long list of artists preserved by the elder 
 Pliny, there is no mention whatever of any coin- 
 engraver. 
 
 It will, I conceive, be evident, without entering 
 
 ^ Archaeol. vol. XIX. p. 369. 
 
 c See Marini, Inscriz. Alban. p. 109. quoted by Henniii^ 
 p. 66. vol. I. 
 
 G 3 
 
86 LECTURE IV. 
 
 into detail, that a classification of coins, construct- 
 ed solely upon their reputed ages, would be of 
 little benefit to us, even granting that it were 
 practicable. There are but few coins, the dates of 
 which can be exactly ascertained ; and even if 
 there were many, we should still be subject to the 
 inconvenience of associating specimens together, 
 brought from the most distant countries, and 
 bearing no relation to each other. Different me- 
 thods have been adopted by different writers, dis- 
 tinguishing by the metal, the size, the device, or 
 the inscription, according to the object respec- 
 tively proposed by them ; but the arrangement 
 introduced by Pellerin, and improved by Eckhel, 
 and founded on the combined relations of time 
 and place, is now the most frequently followed. 
 According to this arrangement, all coins are di- 
 vided into two classes ; the first containing those 
 of different people, cities, and kings, (in other 
 words, all coins not strictly Roman) ; the second 
 containing those only which are of Roman coin- 
 age. Again, the first class is subdivided geogra- 
 phically into provinces, their ancient limits being 
 observed, and the provinces themselves succeeding 
 each other in their order from west to east, but 
 the several states within them being taken alpha- 
 betically. In cases, moreover, where there have 
 been sovereigns, their coins are placed chronolo- 
 gically, after the consideration of each respective 
 
LECTURE IV. 87 
 
 state. The second class, again, is subdivided into 
 three parts: the first containing all consular coins, 
 and including the most ancient form of coinage ; 
 the second, all coins bearing names of Roman 
 families ; the third, all coins of emperors, Caesars, 
 and their kindred ; the coins of Roman families 
 being placed, from the necessity of the case, alpha- 
 betically ; those of the emperors being ranged, as 
 far as is practicable, in chronological succession. 
 It is plain that this classification, when considered 
 theoretically, is clumsy and inartificial ; it is plain 
 too, that specimens, minted in remote provinces, 
 will still be placed under the head of Roman coin- 
 age, if they happen, for instance, to bear the name 
 of an emperor; thus the coins of the emperor 
 Carausius will fall within the last variety, al- 
 though they would seem to belong to the class of 
 provinces, being all of them probably minted in 
 Britain. It is also plain that such a classification 
 is not the best suited for display, in the arrange- 
 ment of a cabinet : nevertheless it is, in fact, the 
 best which has hitherto been suggested. It ac- 
 commodates itself, so far as its materials permit, 
 to the promotion of real knowledge ; it places 
 those medals side by side, which, from their prox- 
 imity in time, or placej,4?r both, have some assign- 
 able connexion with each other ; it sacrifices the 
 uniformity of arranging all coins by their metal 
 or size, however perfect such an arrangement 
 
 g4 
 
88 LECTURE IV. 
 
 might be in technical exactness, for the real use- 
 fulness of making them throw light historically 
 upon each other, even though the only method 
 that can be employed in doing so, is inartificial 
 and inaccurate. 
 
 And this is the arrangement, which, with some 
 occasional variations, is now generally adopted. 
 Other distinctions, however, must be noticed, 
 founded upon physical or accidental differences, 
 for the double purpose of explaining the technical 
 terms belonging to this branch of study, and of 
 introducing so much of narrative, as it may be 
 necessary to lay before you respecting coinage in 
 general. 
 
 You will have observed that the words " coins" 
 and " medals" have hitherto been used indiscri- 
 minately, as if it were not intended to acknow- 
 ledge that any important distinction exists be- 
 tween them. The distinction, in point of fact, 
 has not been generally observed ; and the neglect 
 of it is probably owing to the impossibility of 
 separating those specimens which were intended 
 to be used as money, from specimens designed for 
 other purposes. There are, indeed, some among 
 them of so large a size, and so peculiar in other 
 respects, that they cannot be confounded with 
 common currency. But for these I reserve the 
 term medallion, intending to use the term medals 
 as denoting all minted pieces whatsoever, and 
 
LECTURE IV. 89 
 
 coins to distinguish those among them which 
 were designed as money. 
 
 It was an opinion, however, maintained by 
 Hardouin, and before him by Erizzo, that none 
 of the various specimens we possess were issued 
 as money, but were all of them originally bestow- 
 ed as tokens or memorials. But the opinions of 
 Hardouin, as Barthelemy^ well observes, have no 
 longer any claim to be refuted ; and the circum- 
 stances of the case are so directly opposed to this 
 opinion of his, that we now endeavour to ascer- 
 tain what medals are tokens or memorials, by ex- 
 amining whether they possess the known charac- 
 teristics of coins. 
 
 Those characteristics may be thus briefly stated. 
 Wherever any class of specimens preserves the 
 same specific character, though minted in different 
 years, or even reigns, or even, as in some cases, 
 in different centuries ; wherever they present a 
 uniformity of weight, or device, or general style 
 of workmanship, allowing only for the changes 
 required by the varying condition of the arts; 
 wherever they have been found in immense num- 
 bers ; wherever they bear in their inscription ei^ 
 ther the name or the denoted value of a coin ; in 
 those cases we may infer that they were issued as 
 common money. We have, for instance, a series 
 
 B. L. v5l, XXXII. p. 672. 
 
90 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of gold and silver coins of Philip and Alexander, 
 preserving a strict correspondence with each 
 other, and being specimens, doubtless, of the mo- 
 ney so often mentioned by ancient authors under 
 the names of those illustrious sovereigns. We 
 have also a long series of Athenian tetradrachms, 
 varying somewhat, as we might naturally expect, 
 in their actual weight, but maintaining a constant 
 resemblance to each other, and extending appa- 
 rently from the earliest times down to the Chris- 
 tian era. 
 
 On the contrary, when medals are of much 
 greater bulk than the common coins of the same 
 country ; when they are few in number, and yet 
 varying among themselves ; when, in addition to 
 these circumstances, they are highly finished in 
 their workmanship ; we cannot reasonably consi- 
 der them as money, and must include them in the 
 class of medallions. We have examples in each 
 of the three metals. Some of the gold pieces of 
 Lysimachus, king of Thrace, weigh as much as 
 four, or six, or even ten, of our sovereigns ; though 
 I must not omit to notice, that Mionnet^ considers 
 the larger specimens to be forgeries ; and from 
 the time of Hadrian, if not at earlier periods of 
 the empire, we meet with large brasses, which, 
 for many conspiring reasons, must also be treated 
 
 e Vol. I. p. 438, note. 
 
LECTURE IV. 91 
 
 as medallions. It is remarkable that they do not 
 bear the letters S'C, which I have already men- 
 tioned as appearing on the brass money of the 
 empire ; and we may infer from that circumstance 
 that they were not issued by the senate, and 
 therefore could not form a part of the common 
 currency. We find also large medals of Antinous^ 
 minted in different cities of Greece, and remark- 
 able for their flattering inscriptions ; though it 
 does not appear that any medals of Antinous were 
 minted at Rome, or that those cities themselves 
 ever minted any other medals of similar descrip- 
 tion. In the same class may also be included 
 medals bearing the word aveOYjKev, and intended as 
 votive offerings, together with any others designed 
 for honorary purposes, such as those large and 
 beautiful silver pieces of Syracuse «, which have 
 the word aOXa, accompanied by military trophies, 
 and appear to have been intended as rewards for 
 public services. 
 
 But the most peculiar class of medallions is of 
 brass, and known by the modern name contorni- 
 ati, which was given to them, probably, from the 
 hollow circle impressed upon the face of them. 
 These medallions are generally of little thickness, 
 
 f Eck. vol. VI. p. 530. 
 
 g Payne Knight supposes tliese^ as well as all other medals 
 of ancient states, whether; republican or monarchical, to have 
 been issued as money. — Archseol. vol. XIX. p. 369. 
 
92 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of very low relief in their devices, presenting on 
 the one side the figure of some illustrious charac- 
 ter of Greece or Rome, and on the other some 
 subject connected with their mythology or public 
 festivals. Taken in all their circumstances, they 
 are totally different from the common medals of 
 antiquity, and bear so strong a correspondence 
 among themselves, that they cannot reasonably be 
 assigned to distinct periods. Many different opin- 
 ions, none of them, however, being very satisfac- 
 tory, have been formed respecting the time and 
 purpose of their fabrication ; but the most pro- 
 bable opinion is, that they were minted at Con- 
 stantinople between the times of Constantine and 
 Valentinian^, and were used as tesserae in public 
 exhibitions. 
 
 Nevertheless, besides those which, from their 
 size and singularity, may fairly be considered as 
 medallions, there are doubtless many others ap- 
 proaching much more nearly to the character of 
 coins, which yet were not issued originally as 
 money. I need not enter into particulars respect- 
 ing the many purposes for which tesserae were 
 wanted at the public festivals of Greece and 
 Rome, or the various methods by which the Ro- 
 mans of the empire amused themselves in sending 
 tokens of remembrance to their friends, and re- 
 
 h Eck. vol. VIII. p. 311. 
 
LECTURE IV. 93 
 
 quiring similar tokens in return ; but it is worthy 
 of notice, that, from the ostentatious period of 
 Hadrian and the Antonines, we find the devices 
 of their medals much more commonly borrowed 
 from ceremonies and public spectacles, indicating 
 thereby the purposes for which they were proba- 
 bly employed. As they are discovered, however, 
 in immense numbers, and would seem on that ac- 
 count to belong to the description of coins, I will 
 quote a passage from Suetonius, which describes 
 a largess of the emperor Nero, and shews that 
 tesserae would sometimes be required in enormous 
 quantities. " Sparsa et populo missilia omnium 
 " rerum per omnes dies ; singula quotidie millia 
 " avium cuj usque generis, multiplex penus, tes- 
 " serse frumentariae, vestis, aurum, argentum, 
 " gemmae, margaritae, tabulae pictae, mancipia, 
 " jumenta atque etiam mansuetae ferae ; novissime 
 " naves, insulae, agriV 
 
 It is the opinion of some persons that these tes- 
 serae, though not originally so intended, were af- 
 terwards used as money ; and the countermarks, 
 which are in many instances found upon ancient 
 coins, both silver and brass, are supposed to be 
 the public stamps, by which they were acknow- 
 ledged as a legal tender. 
 
 I have now to describe the different materials 
 of which ancient coins are composed. 
 
 i Suet. Nero. p. 97- See also Xiphil. LXI. 18. 
 
94 LECTURE IV. 
 
 We are informed, on such authority as that of 
 Suidas^, that money of leather and of shells was 
 once used by the Romans ; and by Cedrenus, that 
 wood was also employed by them for the same 
 purpose. Aris tides ^ says, that leather money was 
 once current at Carthage ; and Seneca"" makes 
 the same remark of Sparta. But with respect to 
 all these cases alike we may answer, that no such 
 money is now known to exist; that the authorities 
 quoted are in no instance competent evidence re- 
 specting times so far remote from them ; and that if 
 such money ever had existed, and could have been 
 preserved to the present day, it would be as ut- 
 terly destitute of historical usefulness to us, as of 
 intrinsic value in itself. We are told, on authority 
 somewhat more considerable, that iron was used 
 in the same manner at Sparta, at Clazomenae, at 
 Byzantium, and at Rome ; and tin also, by Dio- 
 nysius of Syracuse. No ancient specimen in either 
 of these metals has ever been discovered ; but we 
 may admit that such coins have actually existed, 
 and may account for their total disappearance by 
 the extreme remoteness of the time when they 
 were made, and the great probability that they 
 would long since have been decomposed. Lead 
 has also been mentioned by ancient authors as 
 formerly used in coinage ; and Ficoroni has pub- 
 
 k In 'Ao-o-apia. 1 Orat. II. Platon. 
 
 'n De Benef. lib. V. c. 14. 
 
LECTURE IV. 95 
 
 lished a dissertation on the subject, which he il- 
 lustrates from a collection made by himself, con- 
 taining upwards of a thousand specimens in this 
 metal, some of which purport to have been mint- 
 ed as early as the times of the Antonines, but 
 the greater number are of much more recent pe- 
 riods. Some of these specimens may fairly be 
 considered as weights, others as tesserae, and even 
 the few which seem entitled to be ranked as coins, 
 may be left without farther notice. We come then 
 to the three important metals, gold, silver, and 
 copper, with their several varieties. 
 
 The gold employed by the ancients for their 
 coin, if not obtained at first in a sufficiently pure 
 state, was improved, as far as their means would 
 admit of it, by grinding and roasting. They were 
 not able to separate the baser admixture by any 
 chemical process, but they could expel it by the 
 action of fire, leaving the gold itself uninjured ". 
 It is in this way that we understand the words 
 yjivaiov anecpQov used by Thucydides^, which the 
 
 J^ See Diod. Sic. 1. III. c. 14. for an account of the me- 
 thod of smelting adopted in Ethiopia. For a general history 
 of Grecian mining, see Jacob on Prec. Met. vol. I. p. 67; and 
 for an account of the mines in Attica, see Boeckh. Staats- 
 haushaltung der Athener. book III; or his Dissertation on 
 the Silver Mines of Laurion, in the Memoirs of the Berlin 
 Academy for the years 1^4 and 1815. 
 
 o Thuc. II. 13. 
 
96 LECTURE IV. 
 
 scholiast interprets TrokKaKig IrpvjOevTog, (oa-re yeveoOai 
 ojSpv^ov, and the word obrussam occurs in Pliny 
 and Suetonius, denoting gold so purified. But 
 simple as the operation was, it seems to have 
 been completely successful. The Darics of Persia 
 appear to have contained only one -^^ part of al- 
 loy ; the gold coins of Philip and Alexander reach 
 a much higher degree of fineness ; and from some 
 experiments made at Paris on a gold coin of Ves- 
 pasian, it appears that in that instance the alloy 
 was only in the ratio of one to 788. In our own 
 gold coin the alloy consists of one part in twelve. 
 
 Some alloy (but a very small quantity is suffi- 
 cient for the purpose) is desirable to make the 
 gold hard and durable for common use. The al- 
 loys generally used are copper and silver; and 
 when the latter is mixed with the gold in any 
 considerable quantity, it then forms the com- 
 pound known in ancient times by the term elec- 
 trum, and so called, probably, from its resemblance 
 to pale amber. According to Pliny p the propor- 
 tions were four parts of gold to one of silver ; but 
 other writers mention a greater quantity of the 
 less precious metal, and the specimens that have 
 been actually examined, vary from the standard 
 recorded by Pliny, down to a much lower degree 
 of purity^. 
 
 It is stated by Lampridius, in his life of Alexr 
 P Lib. XXXIII. c. 2.3. q Hennin, vol. I. p. 122. 
 
LECTURE IV. 97 
 
 ander Severus ^ that coins of electrum were mint- 
 ed by that emperor ; but no such coins have 
 hitherto been discovered, and Lampridius is a 
 writer of so little authority, that the evidence 
 thus afforded against him, although it merely 
 amounts to a want of testimony in his favour, is 
 thought by many persons a sufficient proof that 
 his statement is inaccurate. So true is it that we 
 often reject a reputed fact, and are incautiously 
 led to assume the opposite opinion, not because 
 we have some positive testimony on our side, but 
 because the writer who records the fact has be- 
 come for some other reason an object of suspicion 
 to us. But however this may be in the present 
 instance, there are coins of this metal still in ex- 
 istence, minted, in some instances, by kings of the 
 Cimmerian Bosphorus, and in others attributed 
 to different towns of Sicily. I have mentioned 
 these cases rather than some others which might 
 have been noticed, because they may enable us to 
 decide on the much disputed question, whether 
 this kind of coinage was adopted by the ancients, 
 because they wished to lower the standard, or 
 because they were actually unable to separate the 
 gold from the less precious metal. It may rea- 
 dily be granted that the metal used by barbarian 
 princes was minted in the condition in which it 
 was actually found, bi^/: it is plainly shewn by the 
 r Eck. vol. V. p. 24. Prol. 
 H 
 
9S LECTURE IV. 
 
 gold coins still existing, that no civilized state 
 could have laboured under any difficulty in ob- 
 taining metal sufficiently pure. 
 
 It appears, on an examination of silver coins, 
 that this metal was preserved in a high degree of 
 purity throughout the early and the middle pe- 
 riods of ancient coinage. Demosthenes^ indeed 
 has recorded, in his speech against Timocrates, 
 that Solon accused many states of his time of 
 adulterating their silver coin by the admixture of 
 copper or lead. But as the orator was not de- 
 bating the history of coinage, and used these re- 
 puted words of Solon only in the way of illustra- 
 tion, as, moreover, no silver coin of those early 
 times has yet been examined, which does not 
 reach a high degree of purity, we may be at li- 
 berty to wait till we meet with more direct testi- 
 mony on the subject. Perhaps, however, the best 
 solution is the following ; that though the orator 
 uses the words apyvpio) irpog ya.\KOV Kai ^oki0^ov KeKpa- 
 /xevco, and would therefore seem to be speaking of 
 adulterated metal, he is in fact referring to those 
 plated coins, which are believed to have been 
 minted not only in his own times, but also as 
 early as the days of Solon, and which are the coun- 
 terfeits so often referred to in the metaphors of an- 
 cient poets. In later periods, and more especially 
 
 s P. «55. ed. Clarend. p. 7^5. ed. Reiske. 
 
LECTURE IV. 99 
 
 from the time of Caracalla, the standard of silver 
 underwent different degrees of degradation, till in 
 some instances the copper united with it amount- 
 ed to the proportion of 4 to 1 ^ Adulteration 
 could not well be carried farther, and in the basest 
 periods of the empire, between the times of Gal- 
 lienus and Diocletian, recourse was had to the 
 ancient fraud of plating, and what was hitherto 
 held to be the work of felons, was permanently 
 adopted and legalized by the successors of the 
 Caesars. 
 
 The brasses of the ancients contain for the 
 most part a quantity of tin united with the native 
 copper. As the mines which are known to have 
 been worked by them, do not appear to have 
 given them these two metals in combination, we 
 may infer that tin was made use of designedly, 
 and from their knowing the unfitness of mere 
 copper for the purposes of money. The advan- 
 tage, however, of the combination is shewn more 
 clearly in its reference to numismatic studies. Dis- 
 inter some Roman brasses, containing but little 
 admixture of other metal with their native copper, 
 and you have to mourn over a work of destruc- 
 tion, like the havoc made by some confluent 
 disease upon a beautiful countenance ; but if the 
 alloy have been properly united with it, the speci- 
 
 t These varieties are knc*ra, in numismatic Avriters, though 
 not very distinctly, by the French words potin and hillon. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 LECTURE IV. 
 
 men has become much more attractive during its 
 conceahnent by that soft shadowing of green and 
 brown, which has spread itself over it, ohv roTg 
 aKfxaioig 7] capa^, and which, more than any other 
 property, baffles the ingenuity of modern forgers. 
 
 Of Corinthian brass I need not say any thing ; 
 because, whatever the compound was, it is not 
 believed to have been ever used for coinage. It 
 is stated by Pliny ^5 and repeated at greater length 
 by Florusy, and by others after him, that this 
 compound was owing to the accidental mixture of 
 gold and silver and copper in a state of fusion at 
 the burning of Corinth : but even Pliny himself 
 has noticed the employment of this metal for 
 works of art at a much earlier period than the 
 time of that conflagration ; and we may perhaps 
 assign the reputation it possessed at any period, 
 as much to the skill of Corinthian workmanship, 
 as to the peculiar excellence of the compound. It 
 was on a principle somewhat similar, that when 
 Antipho was asked by the tyrant Dionysius, what 
 was the best kind of brass, he answered. That 
 which composes the statues of Harmodius and 
 Aristogeiton ^. 
 
 I have already intimated that the medals of the 
 ancients were produced by the hammer, rather 
 
 u Eth. Nic. X. 4. 8. X Lib. XXXIV. c. 3. 
 
 y Lib. II. c. 16. 
 
 z Plut. De Adul. vol. VI. p. 249. Reiske. 
 
LECTURE IV. 101 
 
 than by melting. It appears, indeed, that the 
 flan, or piece of unstamped metal, was commonly- 
 prepared for the die by melting, but afterwards 
 the impression was given to it by the hammer. 
 It is not known why this more laborious process 
 was adopted by them, though it may fairly be 
 presumed that the higher degree of finish which 
 may thereby be given to medals, would be a suffi- 
 cient reason for retaining it at the more advanced 
 periods of their history, and for cases which re- 
 quired a better style of execution. It may also be 
 a matter of surprise, that, with their imperfect com- 
 mand over metals, they should still have recourse 
 to the hammer for common purposes ; as they 
 would be compelled, from want of a well-tempered 
 material, to be constantly making new dies, after 
 a small number of impressions had been taken. 
 But this difficulty only furnishes us with a new 
 evidence in favour of what has been stated as to 
 the general practice. It is a singular fact, that in 
 very few instances^ have any two ancient coins 
 been foimd which evidently proceeded from the 
 same die. The prince Torre-Muzza, for instance, 
 who was for many years a collector of Sicilian 
 medals^, could not find in his extensive cabinet 
 
 a One instance, and that a peculiar one^ is noticed by 
 Payne Knight as a '' rare occurrence, even in pieces the most 
 *' common." Archaeol. vol.^XIX. p. 375. 
 
 ^ This collection was purchased by lord Northwick. 
 H 3 
 
102 LECTURE IV. 
 
 any two that corresponded in all particulars with 
 each other. 
 
 Such then was the practice of Greece, until 
 that country sunk in the universal degeneracy 
 of Europe; and such also was the practice of 
 Rome, with the exception of the earliest period, 
 when brass alone was current, and the times 
 that followed the reign of Septimius Severus, 
 when the fine arts and the public honour were 
 equally degraded. Other exceptions indeed in fa- 
 vour of melting appear occasionally to have oc- 
 curred ; but after the times of Severus it seems to 
 have become the established practice of Rome, 
 having already been adopted in the distant pro- 
 vinces of the empire. 
 
 Many ancient dies of different periods have ac- 
 tually been found, and are still preserved : but I 
 shall confine myself to two, belonging to the time 
 of Augustus, which were discovered among the 
 ruins of Nismes. One of them, soon after it was 
 found, was placed under the machine, then used 
 for minting, in order to obtain an impression from 
 it ; but was broken into pieces by the force of the 
 impact. The other came into the possession of 
 the count Caylus ^, and is stated by him to have 
 consisted of copper, zinc, tin, and lead in equal 
 quantities. This then was the metal supposed, in 
 the time of Augustus, to possess the greatest de- 
 c Rec. d'Antiq. vol. I. p. 28.5. 
 
LECTURE IV. 103 
 
 gree of hardness. In after-times a kind of steel 
 was used for the same purpose, and dies of that 
 metal are still in existence. 
 
 But the most remarkable discovery in this 
 branch of the subject is of plaster moulds, in- 
 tended evidently for casting coins. A mould of 
 this description, purporting to be of the times of 
 Severus, was found at Lyons, and is minutely de- 
 scribed by the same count Caylus, in his work on 
 antiquities^. By him these moulds are supposed to 
 have been used at the public mints ; but Mahudel ^ 
 has maintained, in the Memoirs of the French 
 Academy, and Eckhel has since confirmed the opin- 
 ion, that they were the contrivances employed by 
 ancient forgers. We admit, indeed, that melting 
 must have been part of that occupation of the pub- 
 lic moneyers, which was commonly described by 
 the words auro argento ceri Jiando fetiundo ; but 
 it seems probable that, at the best periods of the Ro- 
 man coinage, the melting was confined to the pre- 
 paring of the plate of metal for the reception of 
 the die. The rest of the operation was the busi- 
 ness of the hammer, and is fitly denoted by a sil- 
 ver coin of the republic, bearing on the face of it 
 the head of a female, with the inscription Moneta, 
 and on the reverse, the pincers^ the hammer, the 
 anvil, and the cap of Vulcan. 
 
 d Rec. cVAnt. vol. I. f. 286. e Tom. III. p. 221. 
 
 H 4 
 
104 LECTURE IV. 
 
 The classification of ancient devices is an un- 
 dertaking of the greatest interest, but much too 
 intricate and extensive for a course of public lec- 
 tures. Call to your recollection, however, all the 
 ingenuity, real and fictitious, that has been exerted 
 in contriving emblems for modern heraldry, and 
 you will only have a duplicate of the skill em- 
 ployed upon the devices of ancient coins. Some 
 of them commemorated early legends, others the 
 worship of a guardian deity; some the real sources 
 of public wealth, others the natural objects in the 
 neighbourhood ; some the encouragement given 
 to the arts, others the services of illustrious men ; 
 Cyrene adopted the silphium, which it cultivated 
 for foreign commerce ; Selinus, the sprig of parsley, 
 corresponding with its name ; Sicily was distin- 
 guished by the Triquetra, or three legs united; 
 and Rhodes obtained from the word polov its fa- 
 vourite bearing of a rose ^. 
 
 But besides these general devices, there fre- 
 quently appear on coins smaller emblems of in- 
 finite variety, which are supposed by some to de- 
 
 ^ This seems to have been the opinion of ancient com- 
 mentators; as it clearly was of Eustathius; (see his note on 
 the Odyss. lib. V. p. 1527. 1. 58.) but Spanheim and others 
 maintain that the flower represented on the coins of Rhodes 
 is that of the pomegranate, which was used in dying, and be- 
 came in consequence an article of commerce. Spanh. vol. I. 
 p. 317, &c. 
 
LECTURE IV. 105 
 
 note the different minting-places, and by others 
 the sigla of the different moneyers. That one or 
 other was the object of thern appears to be con- 
 firmed by the fact that they are not to be found 
 on any of the medals of the emperors, believed to 
 have been minted at Rome. 
 
 I need scarcely add, that, besides those common 
 appellations obtained from the persons or the 
 places that minted them, such as Darics and Cy- 
 zicenes, there are other names of coins, occurring 
 in classical authors, which were derived entirely 
 from their devices. Such names are the y\av^ 
 and the Kopa of Athens, the ttcoAos- or Pegasus of 
 Corinth, the to?ot^$- of Persia, and the Bigati or 
 Victoriati of Rome, derived from their car, or 
 their figure of Victory. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
Grecian coinage — Fabulous history of it — Phido the Ar- 
 give — Alexander the First of Macedon — Athenian coins — 
 Money of account — Athenian gold — Dispute respecting it — 
 Aristophanes — Thucy dides — Ly sias — Demosthenes — ^schi- 
 nes — Athenian inscriptions — Darics^ Cyzicenes — Athenian 
 silver — Its purity — Tetradrachma — Didrachma^ &c. — Their 
 legends and devices — The owl of Athens — The diota — Coin 
 of the time of Mithridates — Athenian brass — Wood and Dio- 
 nysius — Dean Swift and Aristophanes — Salmasius — Recal of 
 base money — Brass coins very numerous — Two specimens of 
 them — Coins of Sparta — Two specimens of them — Coins 
 of Bceotia — Orchomenus — Thebes — Passage of Xenophon 
 amended — Coins of Elis — Mistaken for the Falisci — Ex- 
 plained by Payne Knight. 
 
I CANNOT better introduce the subject of Gre- 
 cian coinage, than by quoting some eloquent ob- 
 servations of Eckhel% well deserving of the theme 
 on which he wrote them. After noticing the uni- 
 versal prevalence of good taste and delicate execu- 
 tion, not merely in the coinage of other states, 
 but . even in the less favoured regions of Boeotia 
 and Arcadia, he adds ; " Quod vero mirandum est 
 " maxime, quum coloni Graecia profecti in medio 
 " gentium barbararum maximeque dissitarum se- 
 " des sibi quaererent, tantum abfuit ut patriae suae 
 " artes pulcrique amorem dediscerent, ut vicinos 
 " barbaros magis ad artium praecepta instituerent 
 '• quam ab his corrumperentur. Tam altas in 
 " animo mirabilis hujus populi radices fixit ar- 
 " tium ac philosophiae amor, ut, quod patria Grae- 
 " cia dictavit, quocunque sub coelo repraesentaret, 
 " neque antea a veteribus institutis degeneraret, 
 " quam ipsa mater, a qua etsi longe disjunctus 
 " alimenta semper petivit, avitum cultum atque 
 " instituta sensim abjiceret." So that the total 
 decay of literature and the arts in the colonies 
 of Greece, which followed on the debasement of 
 Greece itself, may be likened to that reputed sym- 
 pathy of plants, by which the grafted progeny, 
 
 a Vol* I. p. 138. Prol. 
 
110 LECTURE V. 
 
 however distant they may be from the parent 
 stem, decay and perish as it perishes. 
 
 On the fabulous part of history I shall not, 
 either in this instance or in any other, waste your 
 time by saying a single word. Whoever may feel 
 a curiosity of this nature may trace the history of 
 coinage through the times of the Patriarchs to 
 the days of Tubalcain, by consulting the works of 
 Rinck^ and other authors. I shall content myself 
 with referring to an early notice in the Arun- 
 delian marbles, which is the more entitled to con- 
 sideration, because it is thought by several writers 
 to have been confirmed in its statement by an an- 
 cient coin. The words of the marble appear to 
 be ^ei'^cov 6 Apye7og vofjt.icrfj.a apyupovv ev AlyivYj eTroiYjaev, 
 and the date given to the fact corresponds with 
 the year 894 B. C. ^Egina, moreover, is known 
 to have coined money at an early period, the de- 
 nominations of which have also been noticed in 
 the works of classical authors ; and this Phido^ 
 the Argive seems to have been considered by the 
 ancients as the inventor of weights and measures, 
 and the first stamper of Grecian coins. Now 
 there is a coin in the Brandenburg collection, 
 described by Beger, which bears on the one side 
 a diota, with the inscription 4>IA0 ; and on the 
 other a Boeotian shield. The objection urged by 
 
 ^ Vet. Num. Pot. p. 9. 
 
 c See Herod. VI. 127. Strabo, VIII. 
 
LECTURE V. Ill 
 
 Barthelemy "^^ that the word 4>IA0 is written in 
 the marble with a diphthong, and that the E is 
 wanting in the coin, is of no weight whatever; 
 but it may certainly be maintained, that the 
 known device of Mgina is, almost without an 
 exception, a tortoise, and that the shield pour- 
 trayed upon the coin is as exclusively a badge of 
 Boeotia, and is too highly executed for so remote 
 a period. It appears also that it was the common 
 practice in Boeotia to inscribe the name of some 
 magistrate upon their coins. Upon the whole 
 therefore we must assign the present specimen, 
 not to Mgiua, but to Boeotia, a district much less 
 celebrated for its cultivation of the arts. 
 
 The oldest Grecian coins now extant, and capa- 
 ble of being assigned, without much hesitation, to 
 their proper date, are the silver medals of Alex- 
 ander the First of Macedon, minted about the 
 year of the battle of Marathon. But though the 
 coins of this country are preeminent in any well- 
 stored cabinet, and its history excites a peculiar 
 interest whenever it interposes itself in the affairs 
 of Greece, I am prevented from examining it in 
 detail, from the total want of records connected 
 with it. It would not indeed be difficult to col- 
 lect conjectures, or even to invent them, which 
 might be confirmed, more or less remotely, by the 
 
 d B. L. torn. XXVI. p. 543. 
 
112 LECTURE V. 
 
 devices of existing coins ; but such conjectures 
 would for the most part have little of history to 
 support them, and the devices themselves are so 
 simple in their nature, that they could not furnish 
 us with any specific information. We pass on 
 therefore to consider the most interesting of all 
 ancient money, the coins of Athens. 
 
 It is well known that the mina and the talent, 
 which we meet with so commonly in Athenian 
 calculations, were not coins, but merely money of 
 account ; and the different names of coins, which 
 actually circulated, I mean the drachms and obols, 
 with their multiples and parts, are so familiar to 
 you, that I will treat the subject, not in reference 
 to those distinctions, but under the three general 
 heads of gold, silver, and brass. 
 
 Winkelman^ says, that he saw in the Farnese 
 collection at Naples a gold coin of Athens, of sin- 
 gular beauty, which he calls a quinarius, but does 
 not describe more precisely. Mionnet however, 
 in his excellent catalogue of coins, takes no notice 
 of it, and Eckhel^is persuaded that in this, as in 
 many other instances, his brother antiquary was 
 mistaken. But there is another specimen, which 
 was presented by King George the Third to the 
 well-known William Hunter, and was bequeathed 
 by him to the college of Glasgow. It weighs 
 
 e Storia delle Arti, toin. II. p. 184. 
 f Vol. II. p. 206. 
 
LECTURE V. 113 
 
 132f English grains, and is described in Combe's 
 catalogue as bearing on the obverse, Caput Mi- 
 nervce galeatum ad d. ; on the reverse, Noctua 
 stans ad d. pone, olivce ramus et luna crescens ; 
 ante, quiddam ignotum ; with the inscription 
 ABE. The quiddam ignotum is a cylindrical fi- 
 gure, similar to what is known in a moulding by 
 the term billet. Now this is the only gold coin 
 of Athens actually producible^; and it is on that 
 account an object of great interest, and still greater 
 suspicion. Let us see what information can be ob- 
 tained from ancient authors. The passage which 
 
 S Walpole saysj (Collections, vol. I. p. 445, note,) that 
 there is a genuine Attic stater in lord Elgin's possession; 
 but I have not been able to obtain any further information 
 respecting it. Sestini also, in his Dissertation ^^ Degli Sta- 
 ^' teri Antichi," p. 109, after mentioning the stater of the 
 Hunterian collection, says, " Altri n' esistono nel Tesoro Bri- 
 " tannico ed in Musei privati," &c. But here Sestini is 
 strangely inaccurate. Combe's Catalogue of the Medals in the 
 British Museum does not notice any Attic stater ; and the 
 Catalogue itself, although it had been published three years 
 previously, does not appear at that time to have been ever 
 consulted by Sestini. It is true that some Athenian colonies, 
 as for instance Phocsea, had gold coins ; and Sestini consi- 
 ders this fact as a proof of the existence of the same kind of 
 coins at an earlier period in the mother country. The argu- 
 ment scarcely deserves to be refuted. It would be as reason- 
 able to maintain, that the English were accustomed to calcu- 
 late in dollars, because it ib now the practice to do so in the 
 United States of America. 
 
 I 
 
114 LECTURE V. 
 
 bears most directly on the subject, and has been 
 quoted, but with very different interpretations, by 
 different writers, is from the Barpayr^oi of Aristo- 
 phanes ^ : 
 
 TToWaKis y Tjfuv eBo^ev r] rroXts TreirovOevaL 
 ravTov es re ra>v ttoXitcov tovs koXovs re Kayadovs 
 €s re Tapxaiop vofxicTfia kol to Kaivov xpvcriov. 
 
 The whole course of the comparison shews that 
 the poet is commending the ancient coinage as 
 pure, and universally approved ; but condemns 
 the recently minted coins, as departing from the 
 original standard. In the words ra/j^^arov voiua-fxcxf 
 therefore, he refers to their ancient silver coins, 
 which had long been celebrated for their fineness ; 
 and the Kaivov yjivcriov must denote some baser issue 
 sent recently into circulation. The difficulty is, 
 that the word yjpvcrm should have been used, rather 
 than any other word connected with coinage, to 
 denote this baser issue ; and it is so strong a diffi- 
 culty, as to induce Corsini^ and others to suppose 
 that gold coins were actually minted at this pe- 
 riod, and were the degraded issue that Aristopha- 
 nes complains of. But the supposition will not 
 bear a moment's consideration. The poet could 
 not have used such language to complain of the 
 introduction of a more costly metal ; and the 
 
 hVer. 731. 
 
 i F. A. vol. II. p. 224. See also Boeckh, StaatshaushaL 
 tung, b. I. and Walpole^ vol. I. p. 444. 
 
LECTURE V. 115 
 
 statesmen of the time (it was, as you know, the 
 last year but one of the Peloponnesian war) were 
 totally unable to supply gold for such a purpose, 
 when their resources were utterly exhausted, their 
 last sacred deposit of a thousand talents had been 
 expended^, and even their silver mines were no 
 longer in their possession ^. I need not dwell on 
 the mistake of the Scholiast, who speaks of gold 
 as actually issued at this time, and says, in an- 
 other place "^, that the Athenians obtained their 
 gold from the mines of Laurium ; as we well 
 know that they were mines of silver, and were 
 moreover at that time in the possession of the 
 Lacedaemonians. But Aristophanes himself may 
 put an end to the dispute ; for he continues to 
 speak of the same baser issue, and, instead of the 
 word xp^aiov, he afterwards describes it by the 
 more appropriate title : 
 
 rovTOcs Tols rrovrjpois xf^^^^ois 
 xBis T€ Kol 7rpa>T]v Konelai r« KaKtcrrco KOfifiari. 
 
 The only question then remaining is not, whether 
 gold was issued at this period, but what reason 
 the poet could have had for using the word ^P^- 
 (710V, when he was speaking of a coinage consisting 
 principally of copper ; and that question may be 
 answered by supposing either that he was speak- 
 ing in derision, on account of the yellow colour 
 
 k Thuc. VIIL 15. • 1 Ibid. VI. 91. 
 
 "» Aristoph. Equit. v. 1091. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 LECTURE V. 
 
 conveyed by the baser metal ; or that %pt;<7/ov had 
 become, from their familiar acquaintance with the 
 gold coins of Persia and other countries, a com- 
 mon term for money ^, 
 
 That the Athenians had not minted any gold 
 coin at the commencement of the Peloponnesian 
 war is evident from the account given by Peri- 
 cles ® of the state of their finances ; in which he 
 mentions 6000 talents of minted silver, and bul- 
 lion in both metals, but makes no mention what- 
 ever of minted gold. It is also evident that Athe- 
 nian gold was not current in the time of Lysias ; 
 for in mentioning the money which was carried 
 off by Piso P, he describes the silver generally as 
 Tpia, ToiXavra, but specifies the gold as so many se- 
 parate pieces of money, and all of them foreign 
 coin, TerpaKoaiovg Kvi^iKVjvovg, Kai eKonrov '^apeiKovg, But 
 it is of more importance to ascertain, if possible, 
 what was the case in the time of Demosthenes 
 and jEschines. Now the former of them appears 
 always to use the word apyvpiov to signify money, 
 whenever the passage can have any reference to 
 
 "^ To shew how easily a word may move on from its natu- 
 ral acceptation, till at last it is united with its own opposite, 
 I will mention the word dpyvpls, which originally signified a 
 cup of silver; afterwards a cup of peculiar shape, Avithout 
 reference to its material ; and lastly, is combined, as in a 
 fragment of Anaxilaus, with the word xp^^*^^' ^^HiWii/ e^ 
 '' apyvplbav xp^or^v." (Athen. lib. II. c. 26.) 
 
 o Time. II. 13. P Cont. Erat. p. 391. 
 
LECTURE V. 117 
 
 the number of pieces, or to the material of the 
 coin ; and never employs the word y^pvcriov, except 
 with reference to ornaments or household plate. 
 jjlischines^ too, though he does use the word xpv- 
 aiov as money, always shews, either by uniting 
 with it the epithet /Sao-iXiKov, or by some other 
 method, that he is speaking in those instances of 
 foreign coin. It is also clear from an ancient in- 
 scription^, that gold was received, as well as sil- 
 ver, at the Athenian treasury ; but we may infer 
 from a passage of Demosthenes % that there was a 
 fixed rate at which Cyzicenes were allowed to 
 circulate in Athens ; we know that the value of 
 Darics was ascertained in Athenian money *; and 
 the two staters which are mentioned in another 
 inscription ^ as among the offerings of the Acro- 
 polis, are expressly called Phocaic, and not Athe- 
 nian. There is, in short, no method of accounting 
 for the total silence of classical antiquity respect- 
 ing Athenian gold coins, and the constant mention 
 of Darics, Cyzicenes, and other foreign staters, if 
 gold were actually minted at Athens during that 
 period ^. 
 
 q ^sch. c. Ctes. 78. 19. et 88. 1. 
 r Rose, Inscrip. Gr. p. 117- * In Phorm. p. 914. 
 
 t Thuc. VIII. 29, &c. ^ Boeckh. Ins. vol. I. p. 236. 
 X This opinion is remarkably confirmed from two passages 
 of Aristophanes. In the 'iTrnijs, (v. 472.) the poet says, 
 ovT dp^vpiov ovT€ ;^pv(rioj/ 
 didovs : and 
 
 I s 
 
118 LECTURE V. 
 
 But the metal of the greatest importance to 
 Athens was silver. It had been employed by 
 them for their coinage from the earliest periods 
 of their history ; it was obtained in considerable 
 quantity from their own neighbourhood ; and it 
 formed an important item in their national re- 
 venue. The high commendation given to this 
 coinage by Aristophanes, in the passage already 
 noticed, was in reference, not to the delicacy of 
 the workmanship, but to the extreme purity of 
 the metal ; and the same cause, according to the 
 explanation formerly given by me^, seems to have 
 deterred the Athenians from excelling in the exe- 
 cution of their coins, which induced them to pre- 
 serve the greatest purity in the standard. The 
 specimens accordingly of Athenian silver are very 
 numerous, and, though evidently minted at pe- 
 riods very different from each other, retain so 
 great a degree of correspondence, as implies either 
 much political wisdom on the part of Athens, or 
 at least a willing acquiescence in the authority of 
 public opinion. They range from a date jDrobably 
 
 and we may thence infer^ that gold coins were current at 
 Athens. But in the 'EkkXj/o-. (v. 601.) he says^ 
 
 apyvpiop de 
 Koi 8ap€LKovs : ' 
 
 from which we learn, that the gold coins in common circula- 
 tion were Persian Darics. 
 y See Lecture I. 
 
LECTURE V. 119 
 
 coeval with the Persian war down to the latest 
 times of ancient history, and consist principally 
 of tetradrachmas, varying from 265i grains in 
 weight to 255, but descending in some few in- 
 stances as low as 250 grains. The single cabinet 
 of William Hunter contained more than one hun- 
 dred specimens of this coin. The next is the 
 didrachma of 130 grains, a coin of which there is 
 only one specimen in the same valuable collection. 
 The drachma of about 65 grains is followed by 
 the tetrobolus of 44, the triobolus of 33, the dio- 
 bolus of 22, the obolus of 11, and the several parts 
 of the obolus, till you reach the quarter obolus, 
 weighing 2 f- grains ; and express your surprise, 
 not merely that so small a coin should ever have 
 been minted, but still more, that it should be ex^ 
 tant at the present day. 
 
 M.Cousinery^has assigned a considerable num- 
 ber of silver coins to Athens, which, if properly 
 so assigned, must belong to a very early period of 
 its coinage. The workmanship is rude ; the re- 
 verse possesses, in several instances, the squares 
 or crosses of the most simple style of minting; 
 there is no inscription whatever ; and the device 
 is, not the customary owl or head of Pallas, but 
 commonly a horse or a mask. In short, the only 
 reason for assigning these coins to Athens is, that 
 
 z See ]V»3iiiiet, vol. II. p. 112. 
 I 4 
 
120 LECTURE V. 
 
 they were found upon the spot, and in the com- 
 pany of others, which are certainly of Athenian 
 origin ; but this reason, though of some import- 
 ance in itself, is overborne in the present instance 
 by the total want of correspondence in the other 
 circumstances of the coins. 
 
 I may observe, that in none of these specimens, 
 nor yet in any known coin of Athens hitherto 
 discovered, is there that impress of a bull, which 
 is said by Plutarch^ to have been the device 
 adopted by the Athenians as early as the days of 
 Theseus, and is commonly supposed to have given 
 occasion to the proverb ^ovg eir) yX^aa^fi, 
 
 The silver coins of Athens are distinguished, 
 not merely by the inscription A0E, but by the de- 
 vices of the head of Pallas and the owl, retained 
 apparently at all periods, and under all circum- 
 stances. It is from the growing accompaniments 
 of these devices that the respective dates of Athe- 
 nian medals are attempted to be ascertained. At 
 the earliest period, which we assume to be before 
 the time of Pericles, the helmet on the head of 
 Pallas is of the simplest form ; in the next period 
 it is decorated by a sphinx and two griffins, which 
 were copied probably from the well-known statue 
 in the Acropolis, so described by Pausanias ^. 
 And this decoration seems to have continued, va- 
 
 a Pint, in Thes. c. 25. b Lib. I. c. 24. 
 
LECTURE V. 121 
 
 vying only in its degree of finish, or the increase 
 of its smaller ornaments, from the days of Pericles 
 down to the latest times. In the same manner, 
 in the first instances, the owl is accompanied only 
 by an olive branch and a small crescent ; but in 
 process of time we have her surrounded by a 
 wreath of laurel, standing upon a diota, accompa- 
 nied by strange emblems of all times and coun- 
 tries, and crowded by the names of public officers. 
 It is amusing to trace the progress of that uni- 
 versal citizenship which the owl of Athens at 
 once imparted and obtained. We find her associ- 
 ating with herself on the coins of Athens the vari- 
 ous devices of countries, near and distant, to which 
 she was carried by the spread of Athenian com- 
 merce ; we find, for instance, among many others 
 less intelligible, the corn-ear of Sicily, the elephant 
 of Africa, the Pegasus of Corinth, the sphinx of 
 Egypt, the lion of Leontium, and the flower of 
 Rhodes. In like manner the owl or the head of 
 Pallas was received upon the coins of other na- 
 tions, travelling through many states of Asia as 
 well as Europe, and in many instances supplant- 
 ing the ancient emblem ; till it obtained a perma- 
 nent establishment at the Roman mint, and at 
 last was admitted upon the coins of Sparta. And 
 so the genius of Athens, now conquered and de- 
 graded, had not only left traces of her fame 'on 
 the national habits of her modern conquerors, but 
 
122 LECTURE V. 
 
 also had been adopted and exalted by her ancient 
 and most inveterate enemy. 
 
 The reasons for introducing these two devices 
 originally may be found in any writer on Athe- 
 nian antiquities, or may be conjectured without 
 having recourse to their assistance ; but the case 
 of the diota, which is commonly placed horizon- 
 tally under the feet of the owl, requires a separate 
 explanation. Corsini ^ says, in a dissertation of his 
 Fasti Attici, that it is supposed by some to refer 
 to the amphora of oil, which was presented to the 
 conquerors at the Panathensea ; but is himself of 
 opinion, that it was intended to denote the manu- 
 facture of vessels in terra cotta, for which the 
 Athenians were celebrated. We certainly know 
 that they prided themselves on this manufacture ; 
 and we have a fragment preserved by Athenaeus^, 
 in which the poet Critias appears to think them 
 as much deserving of fame for the invention of 
 the potter's-wheel, as for the trophy they erected 
 on the plain of Marathon. But I am inclined to 
 think with Eckhel, that, as the diota was placed 
 on the coins of Thasos, Chios, and Corcyra, in re- 
 ference to the wines exported from those islands ; 
 so too the diota of Athens was an emblem of her 
 olive grounds, and the rich products they provided 
 for her foreign trade. 
 
 c Vol. II. p. 236. d Lib. I. c. 50. 
 
LECTURE V. 123 
 
 The only silver coin, which I intend to notice 
 more particularly, is of the year 88 B.C., and re- 
 tains, even at so late a period, the two ancient 
 devices. It belongs to the Hunterian collection, 
 and bears on the obverse Caput Palladis ; on the 
 other side, ABE BASIAE MIBPAAATHS ; and un- 
 derneath, APISTION Noctua diotce insistens, in 
 area astra solis et lunce. Now we learn from 
 Athenaeus^ that Aristio was originally a sophist, 
 with a different name ; but that when the power 
 of Mithridates had prevailed against the Roman 
 influence in Athens, he ingratiated himself with 
 the Cappadocian, and was placed at the head of 
 the government as his representative. Such also 
 is the information to be collected from the coin : 
 and Aristio was in some haste to leave behind 
 him such memorials of himself; for it also appears 
 that Athens was taken by Sylla^, and Aristio was 
 deposed and put to death, within a year from the 
 time of his elevation. 
 
 I come now to the consideration of Athenian 
 brass. In the reign of George I. a person of the 
 name of Wood obtained a patent, empowering 
 him to prepare a large coinage of copper for the 
 use of Ireland. Dean Swift attacked him in his 
 celebrated Draper's Letters, and having completely 
 
 e Lib. V. c. 48. 
 
 f Pint, in Syll. c. 14.* Vol. III. p. 105. Reiske. 
 
124 LECTURE V. 
 
 defeated the scheme, wrote a farther pamphlet, 
 styling his opponent " esquire and hardware-man," 
 and representing him as going " in solemn pro- 
 " cession to the gallows." The title of Hardware- 
 man continued with him for his life. Now the 
 whole of this transaction had been exhibited 2000 
 years before at Athens. In the age of Aristides 
 and Themistocles, a person of the name of Dio- 
 nysius strongly urged the Athenians to issue brass 
 money on account of the distresses of the times. 
 His project was defeated, and some one of the 
 wits of the day gave Dionysius the epithet of 
 X^ckKov^, by which he has ever since been dis- 
 tinguished. You will remember that Aristotle^ 
 speaks of him in his Rhetoric as an indifferent 
 poet, and calls him o '/aXKovg : Plutarch enables us 
 to assign him to his proper period of history, and 
 still calls him o -/aXKov^ : Athenaeus mentions the 
 same epithet, and gives us the anecdote which ex- 
 plains the origin of it ; and as far as I know, with 
 the exception of Dr. Lempriere, who, if he has 
 taken any notice at all of him, has compassion- 
 ately called him a native of Chalcis, Dionysius 
 has been known, from the time of Aristides down 
 to the present day, by the title of the " Man of 
 <* brass." 
 
 g Rhet. lib. III. c. 2. §. 3. Pint, in Nic. c. 5. p. 345. 
 Athen. lib. XV. c. 9. 
 
LECTURE V. 125 
 
 Salmasius seems to have supposed that the ad- 
 vice of Dionysius was adopted; for he says^ that 
 brass was minted by the Athenians in the arehon- 
 ship of Callias, in the 81st Olympiad : but the 
 words of Athenaeus are, ha to a-vixiSovXevaai 'AdY}vai- 
 oig %aXK^ vo[Mta-ixaTi yj^ridadBai ; and the existence of 
 the epithet is a plain indication that the advice of 
 Dionysius was not acceptable to his countrymen. 
 
 We have, however, in the passage already 
 quoted from the Vioa^ayjji, of Aristophanes, a suffi- 
 cient notice, both that the experiment, of adulter- 
 ating the coin by means of copper, was actually 
 made in the time of that poet, and that a more 
 powerful satirist even than the dean of St. Pa- 
 trick's had proclaimed war against it. It appears 
 also from the 'E/fAcX>?o-/a5!>^^«'S which was exhibited 
 thirteen years afterwards, that the crier had re- 
 cently given notice of the issue of a new silver 
 coinage, and the total suppression of the baser 
 currency. 
 
 So that, as we may fairly collect, the Athenians 
 determined upon restoring their currency to its 
 ancient and salutary condition, as soon as they 
 had recovered, even in a slight degree, from the 
 disasters of the Peloponnesian war. They accord- 
 ingly coined the minute silver pieces, already no- 
 ticed ; which are also most easily accounted for, 
 
 h De usTir. p. 569. i Ver. 816. 
 
126 LECTURE V. 
 
 on the supposition that they were intended to 
 supply the places of coins previously minted from 
 a less precious metal. It is probable, however, 
 that the small brass money, equal to -| of an obol, 
 was still retained. In later times, money was 
 again minted of this metal, and established itself 
 permanently in the circulation of Athens. Ari- 
 stotle^ records an equivoque, which shews that it 
 was then in common use as small coin ; and De- 
 mosthenes^ employs the word yjxXKovg in such a 
 manner, as to prove that in his time it was the 
 constant medium of smaller traffic. 
 
 Brass coins of Athens are very numerous, and 
 the number has, in many cases, been much in- 
 creased by the addition of others, which belong 
 either to her dependencies, or to places united 
 with her by commercial treaties, and adopting her 
 devices. There are several medals, for instance, 
 bearing the usual Athenian emblems, and in- 
 scribed with the words A©HNAE NIKH(I>OPOT, 
 but possessing little accordance in metal and exe- 
 cution with the acknowledged coins of Athens. 
 Now it would not be difficult, and Eckhel has in 
 fact accomplished it, to bring together much vari- 
 ous learning, for the purpose of shewing that Pal- 
 las and Victory were often identified in the cere- 
 
 k Rhet. III. 9. 4. 
 
 1 Upos ^aiv. p. 104.5. Kara Aiovva: p. 1283. 
 
LECTURE V. 127 
 
 monies and the language of the Athenians. But, 
 in this instance, it would be to little purpose ; for 
 the coins have been discovered, not in Attica, but 
 in the neighbourhood of Pergamus ; and on some 
 of them there is the monogram of Pergamus "\ 
 together with the rest of the inscription, clearly 
 proving that they are not of Athenian origin. 
 
 But numerous as the brasses are, it is not easy 
 to assign any of them to a precise date. The in- 
 scription, as far as I know, confines itself to the 
 letters, in full or in part, of the word A6HNATON; 
 and though the devices are very various, referring 
 too in many instances to the history or topogra- 
 phy of Athens, they do not enable us to assign 
 any precise date for their being minted. There 
 have been writers, indeed, who have discovered 
 on these medals the likenesses of Themistocles ^ 
 and other illustrious men, but without any evi- 
 dence sufficient to satisfy a reasonable mind, and 
 with the strongest probabilities against them. I 
 shall therefore content myself with describing two 
 coins, the first belonging to the collection of M. 
 Pellerin ®, the second noticed by Heeren p. 1st, Ca- 
 put Palladis )-( A6HN Rupes, super qua tern- 
 
 m See Sestini, torn. I. lett. 26. p. 135. andMionnet, vol. II. 
 p. 130. 
 
 " See Haym, torn. I. and Corsini's Answer^ vol. II. p. 249. 
 o Eck. vol. II. p. 216. .See Col. Leake's Attica. 
 P Bibl. der alten Lit. IX. 48. Eck. vol. II. p. 217. 
 
128 LECTURE V. 
 
 plum^ juxta statua Palladis et porta, ad quam 
 gradus per rupem ducunt. 2nd, Caput Palladis 
 )-( A6HNAION, Vir nudus toto nisu prregran- 
 dem lapidem erigit. The former bears a beauti- 
 ful representation of the Acropolis ; the latter re- 
 fers to the fable of Theseus removing the stone 
 which covered the sword and sandals of his father 
 jEgeus. 
 
 From the well-known policy of Lacedaemon it 
 will not be expected that I should enter into 
 much detail respecting the currency of that coun- 
 try. Nevertheless we learn from Thucydides and 
 Xenophon that the Lacedaemonians became well 
 acquainted with the necessity and the value of 
 money before the close of the Peloponnesian war ; 
 from Plato % that they possessed a greater quan- 
 tity of gold and silver than any other Grecian 
 state ; and from Pausanias ^, that they were al- 
 ways notorious for assailing their enemy by means 
 of bribes. We have moreover many coins in silver 
 and brass which have been ascribed to Lacedae- 
 mon, some probably from possessing the Dioscuri, 
 the favourite emblem of that country, others from 
 the stronger evidence of the inscription A A. Many 
 of them bear the names of ephori and other public 
 officers ; but, with the exception of two, both of 
 them silver, they may all be left without farther 
 
 q Alcib. I. vol. V. p. 44. Bip. r Lib. IV. c. I7. 
 
LECTURE V. 129 
 
 notice, as either devoid of historical interest, or 
 belonging to periods comparatively recent. The 
 first is described by Dutens^ as bearing Caput 
 Palladis )-( AA Hercules nudus petrce leonis 
 exuviis coopertce insidens, d. clavam. The coin 
 is of high workmanship, and is assigned by Du- 
 tens himself, but without any authority, to so 
 early a period as the reign of Agesilaus. It ap- 
 pears to me that we are still in want of accurate 
 information respecting it. The other coin bears 
 Caput Herculis imberhe leonis exuviis tectum 
 )-( BAEIAEai APEOS Jupiter sedens, d. aqui- 
 lam s. hastam. This king Areus is supposed by 
 Froelich^ who wrote a long dissertation on the 
 coin, to be the Spartan Areus, who died in the 
 year 265 B. C. having, according to the first book 
 of Maccabees ", addressed a letter to Onias the 
 Jewish high-priest, and stated that the " Lacedae- 
 " monians as well as the Jews were of the stock 
 " of Abraham." However that may be, the coin 
 in question is for many reasons an object of great 
 suspicion. 
 
 The coins of Boeotia are known partly by their 
 inscriptions, and partly by the presence of the 
 Boeotian shield, which has not yet been discovered 
 on any coin belonging to a different district. It 
 
 s Explic. de Med. p. 27^ ^ Access, ad num. Reg. p. 1. 
 ^ 1 Mac. xii.21. 
 
130 LECTURE V. 
 
 is well known that the Boeotians had a kind of 
 national pride in retaining their ancient style of 
 armour, and this feeling was so much respected 
 in other parts of Greece, that, as we learn from 
 Demosthenes^, the great painting in the IIoikiX'/] 
 of Athens, which represented the Plataeans in the 
 act of bringing up their reinforcements at the 
 battle of Marathon, exhibited them in their Boeo- 
 tian helmets. A coin has been noticed by Froe- 
 lich, which he describes as follows : Clypeus JBceo-^ 
 ticus )-( EPX intra coronam spiceam. Now, in 
 despite of the Boeotian shield, Froelich assigns 
 this coin to the hamlet of Erchia in Attica, be- 
 cause he was unable to find any town in Boeotia 
 corresponding with the letters of the inscription : 
 Eckhely objects, by alleging the presence of the 
 Boeotian shield, and confirms his objection by 
 mentioning another coin in the Hunterian mu- 
 seum, which reads EPXO in its inscription, and 
 proves, by the additional letter O, that it cannot be 
 assigned to Erchia. But this eminent antiquary 
 was himself in error in supposing that the in- 
 scription has no reference to place, but, after the 
 manner of other coins of Boeotia, is the abbreviat- 
 ed name of some public officer. It is in truth the 
 ancient method of writing the word Orchomenus ^, 
 
 X Kara Nem. p. 1377. ^ Vol. II. p. 196. 
 
 z See Rose, Inscr. Grsec. p. 271. and Osann. Inscr. Fasc. 
 IV. p. 186. 
 
LECTURE V. 131 
 
 a well-known town of Boeotia ; and this fact is 
 established by a marble found near the spot, and 
 containing a decree of the Orchomenians, which 
 has been described by me in my lectures on Greek 
 inscriptions. 
 
 Another coin of the same country, and belong- 
 ing to the same valuable museum, possesses a still 
 greater interest, from the light it throws upon a 
 perplexing passage of Xenophon. In his Grecian 
 History^ he states that a body of Arcadians join- 
 ed Epaminondas against the Lacedaemonians, and 
 expresses himself, according to our best editions, 
 after the following manner: eireypacjiovTo ^e kou tZv 
 ApKo^o^v OTrXiTat poiraXa ep^ovres*, cog S'f](3ouoL ovreg. These 
 words are translated by Leunclavius, " Nonnulli 
 " etiam Arcades gravis armaturae pedites nomina 
 " dabant gestantes clavas, perinde ac si Thebani 
 " essent." Now this translation involves two in- 
 superable difficulties. The word eTreypacpovro can- 
 not mean nomina dabant, for hiypacfyfi, though 
 very similar in sound, is extremely remote in 
 meaning from airoypacjiYi : and it is moreover mon- 
 strous to suppose that the Arcadians, and much 
 more so that the Thebans, in the highly ad- 
 vanced condition of Grecian tactics, should imi- 
 tate the Hercules of the fable, and carry no other 
 weapon than a club. The real meaning of heypa- 
 
 a Lib. VII. c. 5. §. 20. 
 K 2 
 
132 LECTURE V. 
 
 <f>ovTo is bore a device, as we also observe in a si- 
 milar expression of the 'Axapyfji : 
 
 Kat yap (Tv fxeyaXrjv iireypdc^ov rrjv Topyova^. 
 
 But a difficulty still continues. If we read the 
 passage with all past editors, lireypdcpovTo poiraXa 
 tyovreg, we must understand that the soldiers had 
 the device of Arcadians armed with clubs on their 
 shields, like the bearer of the firebrand on the 
 shield of Capaneus in the Septem Thebani ^ : but 
 if, on the authority of some good MSS., and in 
 exact accordance with the expression of Aristo- 
 phanes, we omit the word e^ovrtf, we obtain the 
 following translation ; " The Arcadian Hoplitae 
 " had clubs as devices upon their shields, after the 
 " manner of the Thebans." The proposed change 
 of reading is singularly confirmed by the follow- 
 ing coin of Thebes, 6E Caput imberhe Herculis 
 )-( Clypeus Sceoticus, cui inserta clava. 
 
 Elis is the only remaining state of Greece, 
 whose coins I intend to notice. And till a late 
 period Elis has been treated with singular injus- 
 tice. It could scarcely be supposed that a country 
 which stood so high in the estimation of the an- 
 cient world, should have been entirely destitute of 
 coins, and it was thought one of the most remark- 
 able anomalies of this branch of knowledge that no 
 
 ^ Ver. 1094. « ^sch. S. T. 434. 
 
LECTURE V. 133 
 
 such specimens had been found. But what was in 
 reality the case ? A number of coins, bearing the 
 inscription FAAEION, had been known to the 
 older numismatic writers, and from their igno- 
 rance of the digamma, and their neglect of the 
 Doric dialect, had been strangely assigned to the 
 Falisci in Etruria. Misled by the opinion of their 
 predecessors, but too wise to adopt all the ab- 
 surdities connected with it, Eckhel and some of 
 his contemporaries still endeavoured to find out 
 reasons for supposing these coins to have been 
 minted by the ancient Tuscans. Sestini was the 
 first to throw off the long-established error, be- 
 ing convinced from their being uniformly found 
 in Greece, that they could not have been minted 
 by so distant a people as the Falisci ; but he was 
 unfortunate enough to fall into as great a mistake 
 as the one from which he had escaped ^, He ven- 
 tured to suggest, as Froelich seems also to have 
 done, that they came originally from Phalerum, 
 the harbour of Athens. After much uncertainty 
 Payne Knight^ explained to them that the first 
 letter was the ancient Greek digamma, that the 
 second was the Doric H, and that the whole word 
 FAAEIOIS is to be seen, without the slightest dif- 
 ference, in the well-known inscription that was 
 
 d Sestini, torn. II. p. 10. 
 
 e Payne Knight, Class, jjour. 13. See also Rose, Insc. Graec. 
 p. 29. and Boeckh. Corp. Insc. vol. I. p. 26. 
 
 K 3 
 
134 LECTURE V. 
 
 found at Elis. All subsequent writers have joined 
 with Eckhel and Sestini ^ in holding forth the ab- 
 surdity of the ancient error, and the certainty of 
 the modern interpretation. 
 
 ^ Eck. vol. II. p. 265. Sestini, torn. V. p. 44. 
 
LECTURE VI 
 
 K 4 
 
Roman coinage — Pliny's account of it — Inconsistency of 
 that account — Extreme variations of standard at Rome — 
 Pecunia — Supposed meaning of the word — Disputed — Real 
 meaning — Illustrated from the coins of other countries — Par- 
 ticularly of ancient Gaul — First known devices of Roman 
 coins — Variety of brass coins — Tokens of their current values 
 — Silver coins — When first minted — Their current values 
 how distinguished — Gold coins — Pliny's account of them — 
 Disputed — Livy and Polybius — Restituti of Trajan — Opinion 
 of Eckhel — Triumviri monetales — Triumviri mensarii — Ci- 
 cero's letter to Trebatius — Anecdote of Julius Caesar — Coins 
 of Roman families — Likenesses on coins — The head of Roma 
 — Explained — Restituti — Serrati. 
 
± HE early history of the Roman coinage is 
 given by Pliny ^ in his Natural History at consi- 
 derable length, but in such a manner as to create 
 no little doubt as to the correctness of it. It may 
 be comprised, with a view to the distinct consi- 
 deration of it, under the following heads. 
 
 Roman money was first stamped in the time of 
 Servius ; it was of brass, and was called pecunia, 
 from the figure of a pecus impressed upon it. 
 
 Its earliest form was the as libralis, or piece of 
 twelve ounces ; and so continued till the time of 
 the first Punic war. The denarius of silver was 
 introduced about the year 259 B.C., five years 
 before the commencement of that war ; and, as 
 the word itself implies, was equivalent to ten 
 asses. 
 
 The as was reduced to a sextantarius, or piece 
 of two ounces, at some time during the first Punic 
 war ; and so continued till a further change was 
 made by Q. Fabius Maximus, about the year 216 
 B.C. 
 
 In the time of Fabius the as became uncialis, 
 or piece of one ounce ; and the denarius, which 
 
 ^ Lib. XXXIII. §. 13. See also Letronne sur I'Eval. des 
 Mon. p. 17. 
 
138 LECTURE VI. 
 
 had hitherto been equivalent to ten asses, was 
 now made equal to sixteen. 
 
 In a short time afterwards, on the passing of 
 the Papirian law, the date of which is not pre- 
 cisely known, the as became semuncialis, or piece 
 of half an ounce in weight. 
 
 Now my first observation upon this reputed 
 history regards the extreme greatness and sud- 
 denness of the reductions made in the intrinsic 
 value of the coin. Confining ourselves for the 
 moment to the change effected during the first 
 Punic war, and making all due allowance for the 
 difference between the simple habits of exchange 
 existing at that period, and the highly artificial 
 notions contracted by ourselves, we still find that 
 the measure recorded by Pliny must have been 
 too generally disastrous to the wealthier orders, to 
 have been attempted by the government success- 
 fully and at once. Its tendency would certainly 
 be to reduce all property, entrusted to other per- 
 sons and payable in money, to one-sixth of its 
 former value. The relative prices of commodities 
 in general would either remain stationary, or 
 would soon recover from the first disturbance; but 
 all the engagements, whether of debt, of bargain, 
 or of service, that had been previously contracted, 
 would be fulfilled, to the inevitable ruin of the 
 one party, and without any necessary profit to 
 the other. Suppose a senator to have lent 6000 
 
LECTURE VI. 139 
 
 asses, on the condition that he should receive the 
 same sum on repayment, and the customary in- 
 terest during the interval; and suppose the change 
 in the currency to take place a few days after- 
 wards ; the borrower converts 1000 of these asses 
 into coin of the new denomination, and finds them 
 sufficient to pay off the whole of his debt. But 
 suppose that more than a few days have elapsed, 
 and that the borrower has no longer any of the 
 ancient and heavier coin in his possession ; the re- 
 adjustment of prices has taken place, the lender 
 suffers in the same ratio in which the prices are 
 advanced, and the borrower continues exactly as 
 he was before. But the mention of the denarius 
 in silver, which is stated to have been issued some 
 few years previously to the change, adds greatly 
 to the difficulty. The denarius seems still to have 
 been equivalent to only ten asses, and could not 
 possibly continue in circulation, when it would 
 purchase six times the quantity of asses, by being 
 converted into bullion. At a subsequent period, 
 indeed, this inconvenience appears to have been 
 felt ; but how was it obviated ? The as, in the 
 time of Fabius, was reduced in weight of brass to 
 an ounce ; and the denarius, to go on concurrently 
 with the alteration, was declared equal to sixteen 
 asses. And yet, in point of fact, and in despite of 
 this supposed adjustment, the inequality was still 
 greater than before ; for the denarius, which was 
 
140 LECTURE VI. 
 
 intrinsically worth 120 ounces of brass, was, as 
 current money, worth only sixteen ; and so, by 
 the operation of minting, was reduced to f of its 
 real value. In this argument I have only as- 
 sumed, what I am fully justified in doing, that 
 the ratio established between the two kinds of 
 coin, when silver was originally minted, was the 
 ratio of their real value ; and that the denarius, 
 no information being given us to the contrary, 
 and strong presumptions existing in favour of 
 the supposition, continued of the same standard 
 throughout the whole period. But the strongest 
 objection against the statement of Pliny still re- 
 mains. If his account were correct, no as could 
 ever have been minted of a weight between the 
 libralis of the earliest period, and the sextantarius 
 of the Punic war ; nor in like manner any semis- 
 sis between the full weight of six ounces, and the 
 reduction to one single ounce ; whereas the fact 
 is, that we meet with both these coins in all the 
 several stages of degradation, proving incontest- 
 ably that the change was gradual. That such 
 changes were actually made, and that the common 
 currency of Rome underwent repeated, and at last 
 extreme variations in its standard, is a fact that 
 might certainly be anticipated from the unscien- 
 tific character of the times, from the demands of 
 a constant state of warfare, and even from the 
 universal prevalence of debt ; but this fact is fully 
 
LECTURE VI. 141 
 
 established, as to the mode and extent of its ope- 
 ration, not by what we gather from history, but 
 by what is clearly laid before us in a series of 
 coins. 
 
 There is still another point in the narrative of 
 Pliny, to which it is necessary to advert. He 
 says that money was called pecunia from the pe- 
 cus that was impressed upon it ; and the con- 
 struction put upon this is, that originally the coin 
 was intended to be a substitute for the pecus re- 
 presented on it, in the business of exchange ^. 
 Now, as the fact of stamping a piece of metal, in 
 order to make it a legal tender, implies a certain 
 degree of advancement in the science of money ; 
 and as before that time it must have been clearly 
 seen that no one piece of money whatever can 
 constantly purchase the animal impressed upon it, 
 it is probable that wherever such impressions ap- 
 pear on early coins, they were introduced with 
 some other reference than to point out an object 
 that was equivalent to them. It is probable also, 
 from the known habits of infant communities, and 
 still more so when those communities were pre- 
 datory tribes, that the devices first adopted by 
 them were borrowed either from the fables of 
 their country, or from their own military exploits. 
 Those fables, moreover, might already have af- 
 
 ^ Such is the construction given by Sperling and others. 
 
142 LECTURE VL 
 
 forded them objects of religious worship, and their 
 military exploits might also have been depicted in 
 some rude decoration upon their arms ; and thus 
 a favourite emblem would already be in existence, 
 and, if so, would have an irresistible claim to be 
 impressed upon their coinage. As the readiest 
 discovery made by individuals is of their own 
 virtues, so too the first step taken by an infant 
 community is to deify some rude quality that they 
 are proud of. That they are quick in discovering 
 such a quality, is owing, no doubt, to the feeling, 
 inseparable from their nature, that they were 
 made for themselves ; that they deify that quality, 
 is owing to another feeling, which is, if possible, 
 still more inseparable from them, that they were 
 not their own makers. 
 
 I must not refer you, in illustration of these 
 opinions, to the emblems which I have already 
 spoken of as belonging to civilized periods ; al- 
 though, in some instances, they may be traced 
 back to the first origin of their respective commu- 
 nities, and cannot, I think, in any of those instances, 
 have any possible reference to the theory of ex- 
 change. I need not ask whether the lion of Leon- 
 tium, or the cock of Himera, the bull with a hu- 
 man head of Campania, or the flying horse of 
 Corinth, would be a badge, adopted for the first 
 time, at a civilized period ; or if otherwise, could 
 possibly, when represented on a coin, denote an 
 
LECTURE VI. 143 
 
 object to be purchased by it. But I will dwell for 
 a moment on the early coins of Gaul, as furnish- 
 ing us with the best specimens we possess of a 
 rude period and a primitive money. The usual 
 devices on these coins are horses and boars ^ ; and 
 that they had no connexion with traffick, but de- 
 noted either the fierceness of the Gauls in combat, 
 or, at the lowest, the most valuable kind of pro- 
 perty they possessed, may be seen by reference to 
 their history. Strabo*^ says of them, " They are 
 " all warlike by nature, but they are still more 
 " serviceable as horsemen than as foot-soldiers." 
 Pliny ^ says, that in the Roman army boars were 
 carried as insignia before the lines; and Tacitus^, 
 in speaking of the tribes bordering on the Baltic, 
 is a most valuable witness as to the meaning of 
 the emblem ; " insigne superstitionis, formas apro- 
 *' rum gestant. Id pro armis omnique tutela ; se- 
 " curum Deae cultorem etiam inter hostes prae- 
 " state' 
 
 c The usual devices of the coins of Gaul are horses and 
 boars ; but there are many which bear a naked head on the 
 one side^, and a figure in a biga on the other. These are 
 thought to have been stamped in imitation of Macedonian 
 coins^ brought back about 280 B. C. by the troops of Bren- 
 nusj which had been serving in Macedon and Greece. See 
 Eck. vol. I. p. 63. 
 
 d Lib. IV. p. 273. Ed. Ox. e Lib. X. §. 5. 
 
 f De mor. Ger. c. 45^ 
 
 S A boar was the well-known cognizance of the 20th le- 
 
144 LECTURE VI. 
 
 But returning from this digression to the early- 
 coinage of Rome, we may observe, that if a 
 " pecus" were the first device impressed upon it, 
 there is no known specimen of it in existence. 
 The earliest and the prevailing devices ^ so far as 
 examples will carry us, are the head of Janus on 
 the one side, and on the other the prow of a ship; 
 and it is to these devices, as being of the earliest 
 period, that we find the strongest testimony borne 
 by a constant pastime of the Romans, which was 
 no bad indication of a primitive custom, and con- 
 tinued to exist long after the custom itself was 
 abandoned. " Ita fuisse signatum," says Macro- 
 bius \ in speaking of the devices I have mentioned, 
 " hodieque intelligitur in alise lusu, quum pueri 
 " denarios in sublime jactantes ' capita aut navia' 
 " exclamant." 
 
 As the weight of the coin was diminished, it 
 
 gion, and was also a device of Spain ; in which country the 
 legion appears to have been originally levied. Horseley, in 
 his Brit. Bom. p. 194, in explaining the figure of a boar^ 
 which he found inscribed upon an ancient monument of the 
 20th legion^ has forgotten that it was the cognizance of the 
 troops by which the monument was erected, and has supposed 
 it to represent the native Caledonians. 
 
 h There is an as described by Eckhel (vol. V. p. 10.) bear- 
 ing the head of Pallas on the one side, and on the other a 
 bull ; but the presence of the head of Pallas shews that this 
 coin is of a more recent period. 
 
 i Saturn, lib. I. c. 7- 
 
LECTURE VI. 145 
 
 Would naturally make room for the introduction 
 of other coins of a higher denomination than any 
 previously minted, but containing a smaller quan- 
 tity of the same metal than would have accorded 
 with the original standard. It is probable indeed, 
 however gradual might be the change, that the 
 great alterations made in the weight of the as, 
 whilst the denarius continued stationary, would 
 in time occasion the silver to disappear from the 
 circulation ; and the inconvenience that would 
 thus be gradually coming on, would give rise to 
 the issuing of other brass coins of a higher deno- 
 mination than the as, and preserving a constant 
 and real relation to it. Of this description are the 
 dupondius, the tripondius or tressis, the decussis, 
 and other multiples, the remaining specimens of 
 which, as far as I have seen, bear the Caput Pal- 
 ladis, or some other device more recent than the 
 time of the denarius, and intimate thereby that 
 they were designed for some purpose which the 
 denarius was no longer able to fulfil. 
 
 The variations in the value of the coin would 
 also give rise to a peculiarity which we had no 
 occasion to notice in the coins of Greece. There 
 was nothing by which its conventional value could 
 be known, unless some token were impressed upon 
 it for that especial purpose. To apply the words 
 of Cicero, " Jactabatur temporibus illis numus, sic 
 " ut nemo posset scire, quid haberet^." It had 
 k Cic. de Off. III. 20. 
 
 L 
 
146 LECTURE VI. 
 
 not adhered to past and well-known precedent; 
 and though the head upon the obverse appears to 
 have varied according to a constant law^ that 
 would scarcely be a sufficient indication of the 
 value that was given to it. Like those ancient 
 paintings therefore, in which figures, coarsely ex- 
 ecuted, are compelled to tell their history by labels 
 issuing from their mouths, the coins of this fluc- 
 tuating currency had numbers, or other tokens, 
 impressed upon them to denote their legal values. 
 The as being always the unit, the several multi- 
 ples were stamped with their corresponding num- 
 bers ; the semissis bore the letter S, the quincunx 
 the letter Q, the triens, the quadrans, and other 
 smaller portions of the as, bore round balls agree- 
 ing in number with the ounces respectively repre- 
 sented by them. And as in the present instance, 
 so too in many others, this addition to the bear- 
 ings of a coin may be considered as evidence, not 
 so much of attention to public convenience, as of 
 previous disorder and bad government. 
 
 Silver money, as we learn from the testimony 
 of Pliny "^ and others, was first minted at Rome 
 about the year 269 B.C., five years before the 
 
 ^ The as bore the head of Janus, the semissis that of Ju- 
 piter, the triens that of Pallas, the quadrans that of Hercules, 
 the sextans that of Mercury, the uncia that of Pallas ; and 
 all bore on the reverse the prow of a ship. — Eck. vol. V. 
 
 p. 11. 
 
 ■» Plin. lib. XXXIII. §. 13. Liv. Epit. lib. XV. 
 
LECTURE VI. 147 
 
 commencement of the first Punic war. The time 
 clearly points out the circumstances which gave 
 occasion to it, in the conquest which had recently- 
 taken place of the south of Italy, and the spoils 
 obtained by the Romans from provinces long cele- 
 brated for their skill in the fine arts, and their 
 commercial enterprise. The Roman coins of this 
 metal were the denarius, (approaching so near to 
 the Attic drachma^, as to bear to it the ratio of 8 
 to 9,) the quinarius, and the sestertius. The li- 
 bella, or piece of a single as, is noticed by Plautus, 
 Cicero o, and other authors ; but, probably on ac- 
 count of its smallness, and the abundance of cop- 
 per money, it was not in general circulation ; and 
 I am not aware that any specimen of it has hi- 
 therto been found. It appears that all the silver 
 coins had originally the same impression, and 
 their values were distinguished by figures after 
 the manner of the brasses ; but distinct devices 
 appear to have been adopted in later times. 
 LivyP, we know, in speaking of denarii, uses the 
 term higati to denote them ; and Cicero^, in like 
 manner, the word victoriati, as the customary 
 name for quinarii. 
 
 I will not speak of the method of computing 
 by the sestertius, as the subject does not properly 
 
 » Eck. vol. V. p. 18. « Cic. in Ver. lib. II. c. 10. 
 
 P Lib. XXXIII. c. 23* q Pro Font. c. 5. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LECTURE VI. 
 
 belong to my inquiry ; and is, moreover, too fa- 
 miliar to you to need any explanation. 
 
 Pliny again is our authority for supposing a 
 gold coin to have been minted at Rome during 
 the progress of the war with Hannibal, and about 
 the year S07 B. C. He calls it a denarius, not 
 because it corresponded with the silver denarius 
 in weight, but merely from its size. And there 
 are, in fact, some few gold coins extant of an age 
 anterior to the time of Julius Caesar, and com- 
 monly alleged in justification of Pliny's narrative. 
 But, on the other hand, the extreme paucity of 
 these coins, especially when taken in reference to 
 the magnitude of the republic, may naturally give 
 rise to some degree of suspicion. It is certainly 
 surprising that, in the course of 150 years, there 
 should not have been coins sufficient to yield an 
 abundant harvest to modern collectors, if gold 
 were actually issued at the beginning of that pe- 
 riod. It is possible, no doubt, that such coins may 
 have been minted in abundance, and may either 
 have totally perished, or may some of them be 
 discovered hereafter; and the anomaly is certainly 
 not greater than others which have already been 
 acknowledged. But there is still no assignable 
 reason why we should have so copious a supply 
 of gold coins from Macedon, from Sicily, from 
 Magna Graecia, and even from Cyrene, and many 
 of them of a higher date, when we are destitute 
 
LECTURE VI. 149 
 
 of Roman gold for so long an interval, and so ex- 
 tensive a dominion. I say there is no assignable 
 reason, and till some reason be discovered, the 
 fact establishes a presumption against the correct- 
 ness of Pliny's narrative. This presumption again 
 is greatly increased by the total silence of Livy, 
 who wrote expressly of the period at which this 
 gold is said to have been minted, and yet makes 
 no mention whatever of it ; and on a subsequent^ 
 occasion, when he mentions the terms imposed 
 upon the -^tolians, and says, " Dum pro argenteis 
 " decem aureus unus valeret," appearing to state 
 that gold coins were then actually current, he 
 probably Avould have been more accurate, had he 
 described the ratio by weight, and not by tale, 
 after the manner of Poly bins ^ rcov lUa fxvcov apyv- 
 piov ')(j)vaov (xvoiv '^i^ovre^. A farther evidence may 
 be found in the case of the coins already noticed 
 under the name of restituti. Trajan seems to 
 have had a great pleasure in restoring coins, not 
 only of the emperors, his predecessors, but also of 
 the republic, stamping them in every instance 
 with his own " restituit." We know that he re- 
 stored gold coins of the empire, as well as silver ; 
 but when we come to his restituti of the repub- 
 lic*, we meet with specimens in the latter metal 
 only, and none whatever in the former. 
 
 r Lib. XXXVIII. c. U. s Hist. lib. XXII. c. 15. 
 
 t M^m. de I'Acad. torn. XXIV. p. 205. 
 L 3 
 
150 LECTURE VI. 
 
 In this argument I have been following the 
 steps of Eckhel, and am disposed to think, with 
 that eminent antiquary, that gold did not make 
 part of the common circulation of the Romans 
 till about the time of the first triumvirate; always 
 admitting that the coins of Macedon and other 
 foreign states were current among them, and that 
 Philippei are often mentioned by Plautus, as if 
 they were common money in his time. 
 
 And this leads me naturally to consider at what 
 time and with what powers the triumviri moneta- 
 les were appointed, the title of whose office con- 
 nects itself with the minting of gold : " auro ar- 
 " gento seri flando feriundo ;" for if these officers, 
 with the title commonly given to them, were in 
 existence at the early period at which some writers 
 have supposed, it will also be evident that gold 
 coin was minted by them long before the time of 
 the first Triumvirate. 
 
 Pomponius " states expressly that the triumviri 
 monetales were appointed at the same time with 
 the triumviri capitales ; and this latter office, we 
 have reason ^ to believe, is of a date as early as 
 the year 288 B. C, and therefore twenty years 
 earlier than the first introduction of silver into 
 the currency of Rome. And yet Pomponius calls 
 these officers ceris argeriti auri flatores, speaking 
 of them at a time when it is admitted that nei- 
 
 « De Orig. Jur. leg. 2. x Liv. lib. II. Ejiit. 
 
LECTURE VI. 151 
 
 ther silver nor gold was minted by them. I will 
 not attempt to apologize for him by alleging the 
 more remarkable anachronism of Lactantius^, who 
 mentions 300 Philippei as the price demanded by 
 the Sibyl from Tarquinius Priscus ; but, rejecting 
 the statement of Pomponius as of no authority, I 
 will endeavour to obtain more satisfactory in- 
 formation from some other quarter. We know 
 that in the earliest periods of the Roman history 
 all the business of the revenue was transacted by 
 the quaestors ; but we find from Livy^, that in 
 the year 215 B.C., soon after the battle of Cannae, 
 Triumviri mensarii were appointed " propter pe- 
 " nuriam argenti." It is probable that the new 
 duties of providing bullion, (duties which had 
 grown up with the increasing difficulties of the 
 times,) had required that the exchequer or bank- 
 ing department should be taken away from the 
 quaestors, and entrusted to a new and separate 
 board. At this period, therefore, the Triumviri 
 mensarii, although themselves a newly-severed 
 branch of the executive government, united the 
 two distinct offices of the public moneyers and the 
 public accountants. And this view of the case 
 not only accords with that distribution of em- 
 ployment which we know is gradually going on, 
 as the wants and resources of a country are gra- 
 
 y De Fals. Rel. c. 6. 
 
 z Lib. XXIII. c. 21. See also Soliii. de Usuris, p. 510. 
 L 4 
 
152 LECTURE VL 
 
 dually increasing, but it is also strongly confirmed 
 by a subsequent passage of Livy% in which the 
 consul Laevinus exhorts the senate to carry the 
 rest of their gold and silver, and all the brass that 
 they had in money, to the Triumviri mensarii ; 
 the gold, apparently, that it might be employed 
 by them in barter, the silver that it might be 
 minted by them, and the brass that it might be 
 issued for their immediate wants. But however 
 this may be, the first authentic notice that we 
 meet with of triumviri monetales, as a separate 
 board, discharging the simple office of moneyers, 
 is in a letter of Cicero ^ addressed to Trebatius, 
 then near Treviri in Gaul ; who says to him, 
 playing on the name of the town, " audio capita- 
 " les esse, mallem auro aere argento essent." The 
 inscriptions indeed on some of the coins them- 
 selves in which these officers are denoted by the 
 letters AAAFF, or others of like import, are pro- 
 bably of older date than the epistle to Trebatius ; 
 but that is the earliest instance to which a date 
 can be assigned, and that is not earlier than about 
 the year 53 B. C. 
 
 The number of these officers appears to have 
 
 ^ " Ceterum omne aurum, argentum^ aes signatum, ad tri- 
 " umviros mensarios extemplo deferamus." Liv. lib. XXVI. 
 c. 36. 
 
 t Epist. ad Fam. lib. VII, c. 13. See also de Leg, lib. UI. 
 c. 3. 
 
LECTURE VI. 153 
 
 been increased to four by Julius Caesar ; and if 
 his historian is to be credited, he gave them at 
 the same time a novel occupation. Suetonius ^ in- 
 forms us that he took three thousand pounds of 
 gold privately from the capitol, and replaced the 
 sum with the same quantity of gilded brass. The 
 ancient number was restored by Augustus, and 
 they appear at that time to be merely the ma- 
 nagers of the mint, and to be employed alike for 
 all kinds of money, whether issued by the em- 
 peror or by the senate. 
 
 But their title, though it does occasionally oc- 
 cur, is not found so frequently as we might ex- 
 pect to find it, on the money that they issued ; 
 and it appears that when sums of money were 
 voted for distinct services, the senate granted the 
 corresponding weight of bullion, and the coin was 
 issued from the mint with the titles and the em- 
 blems of the public officer, whether praetor, or 
 aedile, or quaestor, or proconsul, to whom the ser- 
 vice was entrusted. It is to this arrangement 
 that we owe the coins of Roman families, a class 
 of specimens belonging to the most valuable and 
 the most intricate periods of Roman history, and 
 impressed with its most illustrious names ; but 
 which, nevertheless, from its total want of dates, 
 is calculated to gratify the inquirer rather by re- 
 
 %Ju\. cap. 54. 
 
154 LECTURE VI. 
 
 ceiving illustration from the facts of contempo- 
 rary history, than by imparting it. 
 
 And this leads me to consider the devices that 
 appear upon this class of coins ; and in so doing, 
 I shall be concerned with silver pieces only, as 
 the brasses adhered to their ancient insignia, and 
 the gold coins are too few or too doubtful to be 
 noticed. 
 
 It has already been observed, that a biga was 
 so common an emblem on the denarius, and a 
 figure of Victory on the quinarius, as to give cor- 
 responding appellations to them ; and yet, in this 
 latter instance, there have been writers who have 
 endeavoured to find some historical meaning for 
 the emblem, and to assign every quinarius that 
 they meet with, to some real victory. But be- 
 sides these customary emblems, the obverse pre- 
 sents heads of deities, of genii, and of ancient 
 worthies, in all possible variety, connected, no 
 doubt, by real or by fanciful relation, with the fa- 
 mily of the public officer, for whose service they 
 were minted. Without an accompanying inscrip- 
 tion it is not always easy to identify the em- 
 blem ; but with such assistance we can clearly 
 make out the resemblances of Honor, Triumpus, 
 Moneta, Leibertas, Pietas, Fides, Concordia, and 
 other unreal personages, and we have as certainly 
 the countenances of Quirinus, Numa, Ancus, and 
 the earlier Brutus, as they presented themselves 
 
LECTURE VI. 155 
 
 to the imaginations of their remote descendants. 
 Caesar seems to have been the first whose head 
 appeared upon the public money during his own 
 lifetime ; and for this act of sovereignty even Cae- 
 sar was contented to obtain the authority of the 
 senate. The example was followed, but, as far as 
 we know, without the same authority, by An- 
 tony and Lepidus and Octavianus, and even by 
 the liberator Brutus. 
 
 But the head which appeared in the first in- 
 stance upon the Roman silver of every denomina- 
 tion, and for a long time had undisputed possession 
 of it, is Caput muUehre galeatum alatum. For a 
 considerable length of time this was taken without 
 inquiry as representing the genius of Rome, and 
 the word ROMA, which frequently accompanied 
 it, was supposed to be conclusive as to its iden- 
 tity. But it is observed in answer, that the word 
 ROMA is also found united with Apollo, or Her- 
 cules, or Saturn, and must therefore be admitted 
 to have no necessary connexion with the figure 
 that it accompanies. We see moreover that in 
 any ancient monument which is known to bear 
 the form of Roma, the wings, which are in reality 
 the characteristic token, are wanting. Eckhel 
 supposes the head to be Pallas, but is obliged to 
 have recourse to some questionable evidence to 
 account for the wings. It appears to me that the 
 whole may be explained in the following manner. 
 
156 LECTURE VI. 
 
 By the conquest of the southern provinces of 
 Italy the Romans obtained at once a taste for 
 new refinements, and the means of gratifying it. 
 Silver, indeed, had long been employed by them 
 for useful as well as ornamental purposes in their 
 households, and also as a medium of exchange by 
 weight in dealings of considerable amount. But 
 being now imported into Rome in immense quan- 
 tities, it sunk greatly and rapidly in value, com- 
 pared with all other commodities, and began to 
 be used more generally as a medium of ex- 
 change, and in much smaller dealings. The cir- 
 cumstances of the case therefore created the ne- 
 cessity for a silver currency; and the coin ob- 
 tained from the southern provinces was already 
 in the treasury, and well-fitted, if not to constitute 
 the issue that was wanted, at least to furnish a 
 model for it. Now the coins of Athens had long 
 been known throughout the Mediterranean as the 
 best medium of traflftck, and in many of the towns 
 upon its coasts had supplanted the native money, 
 even in the common dealings of the inhabitants. 
 And so remarkably was this the case in the towns 
 of Magna Graecia, that there are few of them on 
 whose coins we do not find, at some period or 
 other, one at least, and in some instances both, of 
 the well-known emblems of Athens. The coins 
 of Athens in short were like her citizens, ex- 
 tending themselves by their enterprise into every 
 
LECTURE VI. 157 
 
 part of the civilized world, and obtaining, where- 
 ever they settled, the highest places of rank and 
 opulence, Tarentum, for example, which afforded 
 to the Romans the proudest and the most costly 
 triumph of the whole period, admitted upon its coins 
 the Caput Palladis on one side and the Noctua of 
 Athens on the other, inscribing its proper name 
 TAPAS to accompany them, but contented to aban- 
 don its own ancient emblems in order to receive 
 them. And yet Tarentum was connected politi- 
 cally with Lacedsemon rather than with Athens, 
 and is therefore a proof, so much the more forci- 
 ble, of the ascendency of Athenian commerce. 
 Now suppose these coins to have been received in 
 considerable quantity at Rome, and suppose the 
 Romans anxious to retain the badge of the con- 
 quered provinces, or, if you will, the insigne of 
 Grecian commerce, and to place it in conjunction 
 with their own national devices ; it was a thought 
 well calculated at once to gratify the liberality of 
 science, and to flatter the pride of victory. To 
 make the reference therefore as pointed as was pos- 
 sible, the wings are taken from the noctua of the 
 one side to be added to the helmet of the other, 
 the two Athenian emblems are combined in one 
 Roman trophy, and being received at first as a 
 new bearing, become in a short time the distin- 
 guishing device of the Roman coinage. 
 
 Of special devices ^nd inscriptions I shall speak 
 
158 LECTURE VI. 
 
 at considerable length hereafter, when I treat of 
 coins of families and of emperors in detail. 
 
 A class of coins has already been mentioned in 
 connexion with questions of some importance, 
 and distinguished by the name of restituti. They 
 are found in all the three metals, and, as far as 
 we have yet discovered, the gold and silver were 
 minted in almost every instance by Trajan, gene- 
 rally in exact accordance, but sometimes, as it 
 would seem, slightly differing from some earlier 
 coin either of a preceding emperor, or of the time 
 of the republic. In addition to their earlier im- 
 press they bear a circular legend of Trajan and 
 his various titles, terminating with the four first 
 letters of the word RESTITVIT. In some in- 
 stances possibly he impressed this legend on coins 
 already in existence ; in others he employed the 
 ancient coin as a model for the formation of a new 
 die, and with so much exactness, as to retain the 
 private stamp of the older coinage, or some anti- 
 quated mode of spelling, or even some deformity 
 in the ancient workmanship : but there are also 
 cases in which new dies appear to have been cut 
 with deviations from the older pattern. The brass 
 restituti were minted by his predecessors in the 
 empire, Titus, Domitian, and Nerva ; and there 
 is a peculiarity belonging to them, which has al- 
 ready been noticed as belonging to the gold restitu- 
 ti, but which in this instance has certainly arisen 
 
LECTURE VI. 159 
 
 from some diiferent cause. There are no restituti 
 of brass coins of the republic ; and this may be 
 explained, without affecting the argument con- 
 structed on the like absence of all gold restituti of 
 the same period, by observing that the brass coins 
 of a remote date would, in all probability, have 
 changed their original value, or even have totally 
 lost it, and could not be restored for the purpose 
 of taking their ancient place in a modern cur- 
 rency ^. 
 
 The serrati are another description of coins, 
 and may be introduced by a quotation from Taci- 
 tus*^. Speaking of the ancient Germans, he says, 
 " Pecuniam probant veterem et diu notam, serra- 
 " tos bigatosque." And this would seem to be an- 
 other instance, and at an earlier period, of the 
 suspicion entertained by the barbarians of Roman 
 dishonesty, and of the caution exercised by them 
 in avoiding it. The Germans clearly preferred 
 the ancient denarii, on account of their intrinsic 
 value and their long established reputation. They 
 probably had learnt to notch the money, after the 
 
 d Eckhel has ingeniously applied this class of restituti, as 
 a method of trying the good faith of Goltz. Of the many 
 impressions of coins given by that writer, and depending on 
 his sole authority, it might be expected that some one would 
 be the only archetype remaining of a subsequent restitutus. 
 But that is not the case. 
 
 e De Mor. Ger. c. 5. 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
 manner of a saw, in order to satisfy themselves that 
 it was not plated ; and so in process of time the 
 Romans were induced to mint denarii in that 
 manner for their use. However that may be, the 
 contrivance was certainly adopted at the Roman 
 mint, and was, as far as we know^ confined ex- 
 clusively to silver denarii ^ ; and having been 
 introduced apparently about eighty years after 
 the first issuing of silver, was discontinued before 
 the time of the empire. Cautious as the Germans 
 were, they found, in course of time, that they were 
 deceived by the reliance they had placed on their 
 favourite and rude criterion. The Roman forgers 
 supplied them with denarii of plated copper pro- 
 vided with the proper indentations, and serrati 
 of this description are still remaining, as evidence 
 at once of the cunning of our barbarian fore- 
 fathers, and the united cunning and dishonesty of 
 their civilized masters. 
 
 ^ Even in the time of Tacitus the Germans continued to 
 prefer silver to gold, " argentum quoque magis quam aurum 
 " sequuntur/' (De Mor. Ger. c. 5.) and this perhaps may be 
 considered a sufficient token that gold was not issued at so 
 early a period as is supposed by Pliny. 
 
LECTURE VIL 
 
 M 
 
Roman coins considered in detail — Coins of Families — 
 Accoleius Lariscolus — M. Lepidus — M. Lepidus. Pont. Max. 
 — Truth of inscription disputed — Marcellinus — Spintlier — 
 Supposed origin of the name — Disputed — Real origin con- 
 jectured — Mamilius Limetanus — A passage of the Odyssey — 
 Thorius Balbus — Bos irruens explained — Two quinarii of 
 Marc Antony — Foundation of Lyons — Heraldic badge of 
 Antony — Dissertation on beards — Antony represented as 
 Bacchus — His entry into Athens — Flattery and wit of the 
 Athenians, 
 
1 COME now to a detailed consideration of Ro- 
 man coins, selecting my specimens as they may 
 seem calculated either to throw light upon ques- 
 tions of history and literature, or to diversify the 
 general sameness of my subject. The coins of fa- 
 milies must be taken without any reference to 
 the order of time, from the total want of mate- 
 rials for assigning dates to them ; but the coins 
 of the empire will be considered in chronological 
 succession. 
 
 P -ACCOLEI VS • LARISCOLVS Caput mulie- 
 bre )-( Tres virgines adversce stantes in 
 arhores mutantur. Arg. 
 
 Now the gens Accoleia is, as far as I have yet 
 discovered, unknown to history, excepting through 
 the medium of this denarius, and one ancient in- 
 scription in the collection of Gruter ; and in pro- 
 portion therefore as there seems little to be learnt, 
 so is the antiquary the more anxious to investi- 
 gate. It appears to me not improbable that Ac- 
 coleius was of the colony of Aquileia, which, as 
 we learn from Livy% was founded on the Adriatic 
 in the year 181 B. C, and afterwards became a 
 place of considerable importance. The name of the 
 family implies of itself some probable connexion 
 
 a Liv. XXXIX. 54. and* XL. 34. and XLIII. 17- See also 
 Sil. Ital. VIII. 604. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 LECTURE VII. 
 
 with it; but the supposition is much strengthened 
 by the cognomen Lariscolus, and the device which 
 accompanies and elucidates it. The three females 
 evidently refer to the fable of the three sisters of 
 Phaeton and the neighbourhood of the Po, and 
 the word Lariscolus, a laricibus colendis, shews 
 still farther the connexion of the family with that 
 neighbourhood, and with the shores of the Adri- 
 atic. Vitruvius ^ says of the larix, " Non est no- 
 " tus, nisi his municipibus qui sunt circa ripam flu- 
 " minis Padi et maris Adriatici litora." He also ^ 
 states that the wood is not easily ignited ; so that 
 we may doubt whether the word, which we com- 
 monly translate larch, does not really include a 
 species of poplar. This we certainly may believe ; 
 that the ancients were not quite agreed as to the 
 kind of tree which grew out of the transforma- 
 tion, Virgil^ himself in one passage declaring it 
 to have been a poplar, and in another an alder. 
 
 Gens jEmilia. 
 
 Caput muliehre )-( MLEPIDVSANXVPR- 
 
 H'O'C'S Eques lento gressu s. tropceum ges- 
 
 tat. Arg. 
 
 It is not known to which of the many members 
 
 of the illustrious family of Lepidus this denarius 
 
 ij Lib. II. c. 9. 
 
 c Lib. II. c. 9. See also Pliny, lib. XVI. c. 10. 
 
 d Mii. X. 190. Eck. VI. 63. 
 
LECTURE VII. 165 
 
 is to be assigned ; but the inscription is evidently 
 to be completed in the following manner : Marcus 
 LEPIDVS ANnorum XV. PRsetextatus Hostem 
 Occidit Civem Servavit. If this interpretation rest- 
 ed on conjecture only, it would still have much pro- 
 bability in its favour ; but it is fully established 
 by the following passage of Valerius Maximus ^ : 
 " ^milius Lepidus puer etiam turn progressus in 
 " aciem hostem interemit, civem servavit, Cujus 
 " tam memorabilis operis index est in capitolio 
 " statua bullata et incincta praetexta, S C posita." 
 
 ALEXANDREA Caput rnuliehre turritum )-( 
 MLEPIDVS • PONTM AX- TVTORREG- 
 S*C Lepidus togatus starts regi togato ad- 
 stanti et d, hastam tenenti diadema imponit. 
 Arg. 
 It seems evident from this denarius, that a Lepidus 
 was commissioned by the Roman senate to act as 
 guardian to a king of Egypt. Tacitus ^ also men- 
 tions the fact as having occurred long before his 
 time ; " majores M. Lepidum Ptolemaei liberis tu- 
 " torem in jEgyptum miserant." But Valerius 
 Maximus ^ and Justin describe it with more pre- 
 cision : the words of the former are, " quum Pto- 
 '*^ lemaeus rex tutorem populum R. filio reliquis- 
 " set, senatus M. ^milium Lepidum Pont. Max. 
 " bis consulem ad pueri tutelam gerendam Alex- 
 
 e Lib. III. c. 1. 11. 1. f An. II. 67. g Lib. VI. c. 6. ii. 1. 
 
 M 3 
 
166 LECTURE VII. 
 
 " andriam misit." Exact as this description is, it 
 is yet a matter of some doubt which of the many 
 Ptolemies was the one, whose son was placed un- 
 der the guardianship of Rome; but the opinion 
 adopted by Usher has the strongest evidence in its 
 favour, that Ptolemy the Fourth, surnamed Phi- 
 lopator, was the father, and Ptolemy the Fifth, 
 surnamed Epiphanes, was the young king con- 
 fided to the care of the Romans. Now Philopator 
 died in the year 203 B.C., and Lepidus therefore 
 must have been sent to Alexandria soon after- 
 wards. 
 
 But on the other hand Livy^ informs us that two 
 years afterwards, immediately after the close of the 
 second Punic war, M. ^Emilius Lepidus and two 
 Others were sent to the king of Egypt, to an- 
 nounce the success of the Romans, and to offer 
 their thanks for the continued attachment of the 
 king under circumstances so full of danger to 
 them. It appears' also that ^milius was the 
 youngest of the three commissioners, and more- 
 over that Licinius^ was Pontifex Maximus at 
 that time. We find also, from a fragment of Po- 
 ly bins ^, that upwards of thirty years afterwards, 
 when the son of Epiphanes sent commissioners to 
 Rome, and complained of the loss of territory, 
 which his crown had suffered during the minority 
 
 h Lib. XXXI. c. 2. i Liv. lib. XXXI. c. 18. 
 
 k Liv. lib. XXXI. c. 9. - 1 Lib. XXVIII. c. 1. 
 
LECTURE VII. 167 
 
 of his father, M. iE.milius was the person under 
 whose advice they acted. Upon the whole, if 
 Livy and Polybius are to be heard, it is probable 
 that iEmilius was not appointed guardian to Epi- 
 phanes, although he might be present as the re- 
 presentative of Rome at his coronation ; and it is 
 certain that at that period he was not, as Valerius 
 calls him, bis consul, for his first consulship was 
 not till sixteen years afterwards ; much less was 
 he, as both Valerius and the coin describe him, 
 Pontifex Maximus. The difficulties of the case 
 have increased till it would appear that there was 
 no possible method of escaping from them ; and I 
 certainly know no method of doing so, unless I 
 may suppose it to be an example of what I have 
 already stated in the words of Cicero ™, " lauda- 
 " tionibus historia rerum nostrarum facta est men- 
 " dosior." I suppose then that ^milius was sent 
 to Egypt to congratulate the young king on hie 
 taking the government into his own hands, and 
 that this office was a little magnified in the records 
 of the ^milian family, under the description of 
 tutor regis, I suppose too this denarius was 
 minted by some one of his descendants, who was 
 desirous of recalling the memory of his illustrious 
 ancestor, either merely from the feeling of family 
 importance, or with a view to promote some am- 
 
 m Bruto c. 16. See Lect. II. 
 M 4 
 
168 LECTURE VII. 
 
 bitious project of his own. And a most favour- 
 able occasion of this latter kind did actually occur 
 in the year 43 B. C, when Lepidus" the triumvir 
 was ambitious of becoming Pontifex Maximus, 
 and Antony was compelled to have recourse to 
 artifice, in order to obtain his appointment to the 
 office. Under such circumstances, what would be 
 more probable, than that Lepidus would join in 
 the deception, and prepare the minds of his coun- 
 trymen for his appointment to the disputed office, 
 by exhibiting to them the former services and ho- 
 nours of his family? These suppositions are ut- 
 terly at variance with the questionable narratives 
 of Valerius and Justin, and the direct authority 
 of Tacitus ; but they accord with the information, 
 such as can be obtained, from Polybius and Livy, 
 and the coin itself, being capable of a reasonable 
 explanation in either case, may fairly be consi- 
 dered neutral. ,\y 1 
 
 Gens Claudia. 
 
 MARCELLINVS Cap?it virile imherhe nu- 
 dum ; pone triquetra )-( MARCELLVS* 
 COS-QUINQ Templum quatuor colmnna- 
 rum, ad quod vir velatus et togatus accedit 
 tropceum gestans, Arg. 
 
 This medal will shew more clearly than the 
 n Liv. Epit. lib. CXVII. c. 8. See also lib. CXXIX. c. 30. 
 
LECTURE VII. 169 
 
 preceding one, that it was a practice of the Roman 
 nobles to recall the memory of their forefathers in 
 the devices of their own coins. Its reverse clearly 
 refers us to the illustrious Marcellus, who, during 
 his first consulship, obtained the spolia opima in 
 Gaul, and offered them up in the temple of Jupi- 
 ter, (the third instance of the kind since the days 
 of Romulus,) and in his fifth consulship died in 
 battle, being deceived by the stratagems of Han- 
 nibal. But the best commentary upon the device 
 is in the words of Virgil o : 
 
 Aspice, ut insignis spoliis MarceUus opimis 
 Ingreditur, victorque viros supereminet omnes. 
 Hie rem Romanam magno turbante tumultu 
 Sistet eques, sternet PoenoSj Gallumque rebellem^ 
 Tertiaque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino. 
 
 That the obverse is a continuation of the same 
 subject, we may infer from the triquetra, or three 
 legs united, which clearly alludes to some im- 
 portant transaction in Sicily, and may best be ex- 
 plained by the celebrated conquest of Syracuse 
 obtained by the same Marcellus. We may rea- 
 sonably suppose, therefore, that the head on the 
 obverse was a likeness of this distinguished war- 
 rior, taken, it may be, from a statue in the pos- 
 session of his family, and impressed upon the pub- 
 lic money by some one of his descendants. This 
 
 o ^n. VI. ver. 869. 
 
17a LECTURE VII. 
 
 person was evidently the Marcellinus of the ob- 
 verse ; and the name implies some one of the Mar- 
 celli, who had been adopted into another family, 
 and had, according to the Roman custom, added 
 the proper termination to his former name. It 
 appears, from a passage of Cicero p, that such an 
 adoption was made into the gens Cornelia and the 
 family of Lentulus ; and we also find that a Cor- 
 nelius Lentulus Marcellinus was consul in the 
 year 56 B.C., and another of the same name forty 
 years afterwards. To one of these the medal now 
 before us may fairly be assigned. 
 
 And this leads me to the mention of another 
 member of the same gens Cornelia. 
 
 Caput nudum harhatum ; pone OSCA )-( 
 P-LENTP-F-SPINT Vir harhatus velatus 
 seminudus sedens in sella curuli d. cornu 
 copicB s. hastam, et d. pede globo insistens 
 coronatur ah advolante Victoria, Arg. 
 
 It cannot be uninteresting to inquire into the 
 history of a Lentulus who was an important actor 
 at the most critical period of the falling republic, 
 and of whose services to himself Cicero^ could 
 speak in the following emphatic language : " P. 
 " Lentulus consul, parens, deus salutis nostrse, 
 " vitae, fortuna3, memoriae, nominis, simul ac de 
 
 P 111 Brut. c. 36. q Ad Quir. Post. Red. c. 5. 
 
LECTURE VII. 171 
 
 " solenni religione retulit, nihil hurnanarum reruin 
 " sibi prius quam de me agendum judicavit." 
 
 The devices are not calculated to give us much 
 assistance, but the inscription on the reverse 
 clearly denotes Publius Lentulus Publii Filius 
 Spinther, at a time when he does not yet appear 
 to have been consul ; and the word Osca, the an- 
 cient name of a city in Spain, would imply that 
 the coin was minted whilst Lentulus was acting 
 as pro-prsetor, or other public officer, in that pro- 
 vince. Now we know that he was pro-praetor in 
 Spain in the year 58 B. C, and we find him, on a 
 subsequent occasion^ endeavouring to conciliate 
 Caesar, as Thetis^ conciliated Jupiter, by enume- 
 rating the many favours which Caesar had be- 
 stowed upon him, mentioning especially his ap- 
 pointment to the Spanish province, and afterwards 
 the assistance afforded him in his canvass for the 
 consulship. It appears, therefore, from these no- 
 tices combined, that Lentulus had the name of 
 Spinther before the year of his consulship, the 
 memorable year in which he obtained the recall of 
 Cicero from his banishment. 
 
 I mention this fact, in order to introduce an 
 anecdote which is to be found, more or less largely 
 told, by Valerius Maximus^ Pliny, and Quincti- 
 
 r Caesar. B.C. 1. 22. s Arist. Eth. Nic. 4. 3. 25. 
 
 t Val. Max. IX. 13. ?liny, VII. 10. Quinct. vol.1, p. 377- 
 
172 LECTURE VII. 
 
 lian ; and which, like many other anecdotes, ap- 
 pears to have owed its credit rather to its point 
 than to its authenticity. According to Valerius, 
 (and all of them seem to have derived their infor- 
 mation from the same authority), in the year 
 when Lentulus and Metellus were consuls, there 
 were two actors on the Roman stage, to whom 
 they bore so strong a resemblance, that Lentulus 
 was ever after called Spinther from the one, and 
 Metellus would also have been called Pamphilus 
 from the other, had not his extravagant habits 
 already obtained for him the more appropriate 
 epithet of Nepos. Now this anecdote, although it 
 appears to have been credited at Rome, is open to 
 every possible objection. It is known that Nepos 
 was already a family name of the Metelli, and 
 therefore was not given to this consul on account 
 of his own habits : it is clear also from the coin, 
 that Lentulus had the name of Spinther before 
 the year of his consulship ; and it is incredible, 
 however unanimous the populace might be in 
 giving him the appellation, that Lentulus, an am- 
 bitious man, and of the gens Cornelia, would have 
 been proud of his resemblance to a stage-perform- 
 er, and have willingly adopted a new name as a 
 memorial of it. The converse is more likely to 
 have been the case, and the actor might more rea- 
 sonably be supposed to have contracted the well- 
 known name of the consul. There are instances. 
 
LECTURE VII. 173 
 
 indeed, of Roman emperors, such as Caligula and 
 Caracalla, who are better known to us by popular 
 appellations than by their own names ; but there 
 are no instances in which they themselves adopted 
 the spurious honour, or inscribed it on their coins 
 in preference to their own patrician titles. 
 
 Having, I think, shewn that there is much rea- 
 son for doubting the correctness of the anecdote, 
 which seems to have been received without suspi- 
 cion by Valerius, Pliny, and Quinctilian, I may 
 perhaps be expected to supply its place with some 
 more probable account of the first introduction of 
 the name of Spinther into the family of the Len- 
 tuli. The word itself signifies an armlet or collar, 
 and being so used by Plautus, was doubtless a 
 word commonly employed in his days. I might 
 suppose, then, some accident to have occurred in 
 the patrician circles of Rome, somewhat similar 
 to the case which is said to have given rise to the 
 English order of the Garter ; and I might leave 
 the rest to be supplied by the imagination of my 
 hearers. But something more may be said upon 
 the subject. The name of Torquatus had long 
 been known among the proudest titles of Rome, 
 and, under the influence of modern refinement, 
 conveyed associations as remote from its original 
 meaning, as the manners of the times of Cicero 
 were different from those of the first Torquatus. 
 The progress of the arts might easily have sub- 
 
174 LECTURE VII. 
 
 stituted a costly decoration for the rude badge of 
 the torquis, and public opinion going on concur- 
 rently with the change, and forgetting the warlike 
 qualities implied in the ancient title, would con- 
 nect the honours of the family with the appear- 
 ance of the modern decoration. Any Roman am- 
 bitious of the same distinction, but prevented from 
 taking the title of Torquatus, might be supposed 
 likely to assume another name (such as Spinther) 
 in the place of it, which had the same kind of 
 splendid ornament connected with it, and, accord- 
 ing to the interpretation of modern manners, con- 
 veyed much of the same actual importance. That 
 the title itself was an object of general ambition 
 may be shewn from Suetonius", who states that 
 Augustus bestowed it, together with a gold tor- 
 quis, upon a person who had been injured, as a 
 compensation for what he had suffered ; and it 
 appears from Dio^, that the very Lentulus of 
 whom we are speaking, was so partial to the title, 
 that, though unable to assume it himself, he shew- 
 ed that he preferred it to any of the celebrated 
 names of Rome. Wishing to obtain admission for 
 his son into the college of augurs, but being pre- 
 vented by the law, which prohibited any two per- 
 sons of the same gens from being members of that 
 body at the same time, his best method was to 
 have his son adopted into a different family, and 
 " Suet. vol. I. p. 284. c. 43. x Lib. XXXIX. c. 17. 
 
LECTURE VII. 175 
 
 he selected the family of Manlius Torqiiatiis for 
 his purpose. 
 
 I may now proceed to the consideration of an- 
 other coin. 
 
 Gens Mamilia. 
 
 Protome Mercurii; pone litera Alphabeti )-( 
 CMAMILLIMETAN. Vir curto habitu, 
 tectus pileo rotundo^ s. scipionem habens 
 graditur ; ei adblanditur canis. Arg. 
 
 The appearance expressed in the words curto Tia^ 
 bitu suggests the notions of poverty and hardship ; 
 the pileo rotundo might remind us of Mercury, 
 or some one of his descendants ; the scipionem 
 hahens implies fatigue and wandering ; the ad- 
 blanditur canis — whom can all these circum- 
 stances represent, but the Ulysses of the Odyssey, 
 the reputed offspring of Mercury, returning to his 
 ancient horned? 
 
 ivrcax^ XevyaXeo) evaXiyKios rjde yepovTi, 
 a-KrjTTTOfievos' ra Se Xvypa Trepl XP^''- ^'^P-o.ra ecrro. 
 
 And again : 
 
 av Se KV(ov K€(^aKr]V re Koi ovara K€LfX€Vos eax^v 
 "Apyoi *Obv(T(rrjos TaXacri(f)povos, ov pa. ttot avTos 
 Opeyjre fiev ovS' airov-qTO. 
 
 So then, even at this period, the study of Homer 
 was so popular at Rome, that his poetry had ap- 
 peared on the escutcheons of private families. 
 
 y Odyss. XVII. 337. and XVII. 29. 
 
176 LECTURE VII. 
 
 But though in this instance the picture drawn by 
 Homer was probably adopted by some one of the 
 Mamilii possessing a more refined taste than the 
 rest of his kindred, we have reason to know that 
 the whole family were proud of their descent from 
 Telegonus and Ulysses. A native of Tusculum, 
 the " Telegoni ^ juga parricidae," and one of the 
 most distinguished of its citizens, Lucius Mami- 
 lius, migrated to Rome in the dictatorship of 
 Quinctius Cincinnatus, and became the founder of 
 several consular families. That they continued 
 to keep up the tradition of their heroic origin is 
 evident from the notice taken of it by Livy% 
 where he mentions the Mamilius, the son-in-law 
 and friend of the younger Tarquin : "Is longe 
 " princeps Latini nominis erat, si famae credimus, 
 " ab Ulixe deaque Circe oriundus." 
 
 The first of the family^ who bore the name of 
 Limetanus was tribune of the people in the year 
 164 B. C, and carried a new law, ** de limitibus 
 " gerendis," which seems to have given occasion 
 to the name. 
 
 Gens Thoria. 
 
 I-S-M-R Caput Junonis Sispitce )-( L*THO- 
 RIVS'BALBVS Bos irruens ; superne va- 
 rians Alphaheti litera. Arg. 
 
 2 Hor. Od. III. 29. a Liv. lib. I. c. 49. 
 
 b See Pighii Ann. vol. II. pp. 392 and 490. 
 
LECTURE VII. 177 
 
 It is a sufficient reason for commenting upon this 
 denarius, that Cicero*^ has left us an admirable 
 description of the character and fortunes of Bal- 
 bus. " L. Thorius Balbus fuit, Lanuvinus ; quern 
 " meminisse tu non potes : is ita vivebat, ut nulla 
 " tam exquisita posset inveniri voluptas, qua non 
 " abundaret : erat et cupidus voluptatum, et cu- 
 " jus vis generis ejus intelligens, et copiosus : ita 
 " non superstitiosus, ut ilia plurima in sua patria 
 " sacrificia et fana contemneret ; ita non timidus 
 " ad mortem, ut in acie sit ob rempublicam in- 
 
 " terfectus. Color egregius, Integra valetudo, 
 
 " summa gratia, vita denique conferta voluptatum 
 " omnium varietate." The letters on the obverse 
 are the initials of Juno Sispita Magna Regina; 
 and the attachment of Balbus to the worship of 
 that goddess, or, to speak more correctly, his 
 adoption of such a bearing for his coins, was 
 clearly owing to his connexion with Lanuvium ^, 
 a place celebrated for the worship of Juno. Even 
 in later times, Antoninus Pius and Commodus, 
 who were born at Lanuvium, shewed the same 
 respect for the goddess of their native place, by 
 preserving her image on their coins ^. But the 
 Bos irruens, on the other face of the medal, is 
 
 c Cic. De Fin. lib. II. c. 20. 
 
 d See iElian de Nat. An. lib. XI. c. 16. Cic. de Nat. Deor. 
 lib. I. c. 29. ^ 
 
 e See Eck. vol. VII. pp. 14 and 107- 
 
 N 
 
178 LECTURE VII. 
 
 not so easy of explanation. Some writers suppose 
 it to have a reference to the Agrarian law, which 
 was carried by Balbus, when he was tribune, in 
 the year 106 B. C. : but as irruens is not properly 
 descriptive of the quiet employments of agricul- 
 ture, and is not the form usually taken for that 
 purpose, I am disposed to adopt the suggestion of 
 Eckhel, who thinks that the Sos irriiens is a 
 punning allusion to the praenomen Thorius, or 
 Sovptog, in the same manner in which I have al- 
 ready explained the similar bearings of the town 
 of Thurium. 
 
 I have now to consider two quinarii of Marc 
 Antony. 
 
 Protome rictorice alata )-( LVGVDVNI'A'XL 
 
 Leo gradiens. Arg. 
 IIIVIR-R-P-C Protome Victorice alata )-( AN- 
 
 TONI • IMP A- XLI Leo gradiens, Arg. 
 
 It is evident from the coins themselves that they 
 were minted at Lyons ; and we learn from an in- 
 scription found at Gaeta^, on the tomb of Muna- 
 tius Plancus, and from the more precise narrative 
 of Dio^, that Lepidus and Plancus were employed 
 by the senate in founding the colony of Lugudu- 
 num, in the vear 43 B. C. This was a little more 
 than a year after the assassination of Julius Cae- 
 
 f Gruter, p. 439. n. 8. s Dio C. lib. XLVI. c. 50. 
 
LECTURE VII. 179 
 
 sar; and, in a few months from this time, An- 
 tony, who had previously sought refuge with Le- 
 pidus in Gaul, entered into the well-known trium- 
 virate against Brutus and Cassius, and obtained 
 the greater part of Gaul, including Lyons, as his 
 province. We may readily admit, therefore, that 
 these quinarii were among the first productions 
 of a mint, which is noticed by Strabo^, within 
 fifty years afterwards, as issuing both gold and 
 silver, on account of the extensive commerce of 
 the neighbourhood. We may be confident that 
 they were issued within three years from the 
 foundation of Lyons ; as, after that period, An- 
 tony was constantly occupied in the east, and 
 Octavianus had succeeded him in the province of 
 Gaul. 
 
 And this degree of uncertainty as to the time 
 will still continue to attach to them, until we are 
 able to assign the date, which actually appears 
 upon them, to some known and certain epoch. 
 At a subsequent period, as I have already stated, 
 the battle of Actiuni was often taken as the fixed 
 point for the chronology of the empire ; but we 
 know of no similar epoch that was received by 
 the Romans at an earlier period. In the present 
 instance, moreover, we can find no event in the 
 history of the republic which would at once cor- 
 
 h Lib. IV. p. 266. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LECTURE VII. 
 
 respond with this date, and be important enough 
 to stand forth, from the confusions of the time, to 
 be commemorated at any subsequent period. So 
 that we are compelled to look to some sera con- 
 nected with the local history of Lugudunum, and 
 in so doing we naturally lose much of the interest 
 belonging to the subject as a question of general 
 chronology. 
 
 But here again we meet, at the very outset, 
 with an insuperable difficulty. It appears that, 
 before the establishment of the colony by Plancus, 
 there was no town existing upon the spot, nor 
 any thing which could have given a history or 
 an epoch to the neighbourhood. In the absence 
 therefore of all other explanation, it has been sup- 
 posed that the date refers to some event in the 
 life of Antony himself; and, in defence of this 
 opinion, the number is calculated, according to 
 the narrative of Plutarch \ to coincide exactly 
 with the years of his age. It was certainly a 
 greater refinement in adulation, which, some few 
 years afterwards ^% induced several towns of Italy 
 to date the commencement of their year from the 
 day on which Augustus first visited them. The 
 supposition would have been more probable, had 
 the name of Antony appeared upon the first of 
 the two coins, and so connected the date by ex- 
 
 i Ant. c. 86. k See Suet. Octav. c. r>9. 
 
LECTURE VII. 181 
 
 press reference with his history : but it is also 
 possible, and it is consistent with the many tokens 
 we have met with of the prevalence of heraldry 
 in ancient times, that the Leo gradiens was com- 
 monly known as the badge of Antony, and pointed 
 him out as intelligibly as the actual letters of his 
 name. He certainly did claim to be descended 
 from Hercules, and might therefore be expected 
 to take a lion as his bearing; it was only five 
 years previously^, on his return from the battle 
 of Pharsalia, that he entered the city with lions 
 yoked to his chariot ; and you will remember the 
 words of Cicero to Atticus "^, " Tu Antonii leones 
 ** pertimescas cave," where he speaks of lions as if 
 they always suggested the recollection of Antony, 
 and leads us to connect them with his well-known 
 love of parade and ostentation. 
 
 The words Triumvir Reipuhlicce Constituendce 
 require no explanation ; Imperator will be ex- 
 plained hereafter; and whatever opinion may be 
 formed of the interpretation given to the date, it 
 seems generally admitted that the heraldic bear- 
 ings and the present name of the modern city are 
 both of them derived from the lion of Antony, 
 impressed by him upon his coins, and upon other 
 public memorials of his government. 
 
 1 Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. VIII. c. 21. and Plut. Vit. Ant. 
 m Epist. ad Att. X.*13. 
 
 N 3 
 
182 LECTURE VII. 
 
 I might now entertain you with a dissertation 
 on beards, and shew you, from the coins of An- 
 tony, Pompey, Brutus, Octavianus, and others, 
 how common it was to wear long beards at this 
 period. In many instances it seems intended to 
 denote sorrow for the troubles of the republic ; in 
 others, as in the cases of Julius Caesar and An- 
 tony, it was the token of some particular vow, wait- 
 ing for its fulfilment. But I will conclude the Lec- 
 ture with noticing another coin of Antony, which 
 was minted after he had contracted Asiatic tastes, 
 and places him before us in a new character. 
 
 MANTONIVS IMP-COS DESIGITERET- 
 TERT Caput Antonii hedef^a redimitum; in- 
 fra lituus; omnia intra coronam Jiederaceam 
 )-( IIIVIR-RP-C Cista Bacchi inter duos 
 serpentes, cui imminet caput muUebre nu- 
 dum. Arg. 
 
 So then the natural disposition of Antony, which 
 Cicero has described as partaking more of the 
 love of ease and indulgence than of warlike quali- 
 ties, had been fully developed in the luxuries of 
 the east, and, like the well-known character in 
 the Frogs of Aristophanes, had thrown off the 
 emblems of Hercules, and appeared in the more 
 appropriate attributes of Bacchus. But before I 
 make any further observation upon this change, I 
 must notice the words Consul Besignatus Iterum 
 
LECTURE VII. 183 
 
 et Tertio. They plainly shew that the ancient 
 practice of ajipointing consuls for the coming year, 
 and for that year only, had been abandoned, and 
 some other method had been adopted, which dis- 
 posed of public office for several years in advance. 
 We can easily conceive that in those times of 
 peril it was necessary to secure the cooperation 
 of powerful and ambitious partisans. We can 
 also conceive the dangers of the times to be so 
 great, and the strife of party to be so ready to 
 exaggerate them, that, conscious only of their 
 present peril, the leaders of the day might be 
 totally indifferent to the ultimate inexpediency of 
 their measures. Their present resources being 
 exhausted, they anticipated the future strength of 
 the republic. They mortgaged the honours of the 
 state, as modern governments have mortgaged 
 their incomes ; and they would no doubt have 
 been as lavish of the incomes, as they were of the 
 honours, of their descendants, if commercial credit 
 had been a thing intelligible at Rome. 
 
 We find accordingly, that in the year 38 B. C, 
 when the triumvirate still existed, but the govern- 
 ment was evidently in great want of support, con- 
 suls were appointed at once for the eight following 
 years, and that the years 34 and 31 B.C. were 
 assigned to Antony. It is clear, then, that this 
 coin was minted between the year 38 B. C, when 
 this appointment was made, and the year 34, when 
 
 N 4 
 
184 LECTURE VII. 
 
 he would no longer be elect, but actually in office, 
 for the second time. It is admitted also, from its 
 emblems of Bacchus, which seem to have been 
 peculiar to the east, that it was minted in Asia. 
 Perhaps no date is more reasonable than the year 
 38 B.C., in which farther triumphs were obtained 
 by his troops over the Parthians, and Herod the 
 Great was established by him on the throne of 
 Judaea. It was in the preceding winter that he 
 resided at Athens ; and, on his arrival there, the 
 circumstances occurred, which are noticed by Se- 
 neca" in the following manner : "Quum Antonius 
 " vellet se Liberum patrem dici, et hoc nomen 
 " statuis subscribi juberet, habitu quoque et comi- 
 " tatu Liberum imitaretur, occurrerunt venienti 
 " ei Athenienses cum conjugibus et liberis, et A/o- 
 " vva-ov salutaverunt. Bene illis cesserat, si nasus 
 " Atticus ibi substitisset. Dixerunt despondere 
 " ipsi in matrimonium Minervam suam, et roga- 
 " verunt ut duceret. Ac Antonius ait ducturum, 
 " sed dotis nomine imperare se illis mille talenta. 
 " Tum ex Graeculis quidam ait Kvpte, o Zevg tyjv fjiyj- 
 *' repa, aov Ee/xeAvyv ocTrpoiKov e/p^e," " Sir, your father 
 " Jupiter got no fortune, when he married your 
 " mother Semele." 
 
 " Sen. Suasor. lib. I. p. 5. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
Roman coins of the empire — Two coins of Augustus — 
 Great roads of Italy — Tiberius — Twelve cities of Asia de- 
 stroyed — Tacitus — Phlegon — Marble discovered at Pozzuoli 
 — Germanicus and Agrippina — Lesbos — Caligula — ^His po- 
 pularity — Claudius — Britain — Nero — The closing of the tem- 
 ple of Janus — Tacitus and Suetonius — Galba^ Otho, and 
 Vitellius — Brasses of Otho. 
 
IN treating of imperial coins, I shall begin with 
 a gold coin of Augustus, minted in the year 27 
 B. C. This was four years after the battle of Ac- 
 tium, and two years after the closing of the temple 
 of Janus, and at a time when, foreign hostilities 
 and civil discord being at an end, all men were 
 looking forward to the establishment of some last- 
 ing form of government. It was at the beginning 
 of this year therefore that Octavianus prudently 
 abandoned the intention of taking the name of 
 Romulus, and obtained, with the approbation of 
 the senate and the people, the new and solemn 
 title of Augustus. Dio furnishes us with a long 
 oration which, he says, Augustus read to the 
 senate, on the occasion when they conferred the 
 sovereign power upon him, and describes the dif- 
 ferent feelings which actuated his hearers, making 
 them all concur in commending his moderation 
 and submitting to his government. Studiously 
 avoiding any title which might create suspicion 
 or bring back painful recollections, he accepted 
 the sovereign power conferred upon him, and pro- 
 mised to resign it at the expiration of ten years, 
 or even at an earlier period, if good order should 
 have previously been established throughout the 
 empire. The gratitude of the senate was de- 
 
188 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 dared, as we learn from the same historian % by 
 decreeing that laurels should be placed before his 
 house in the Palatine, and an oaken garland 
 suspended from it, in token at once of the con- 
 quest obtained over his enemies, and the benefits 
 conferred upon his countrymen. It is to this de- 
 cree that Ovid refers^, when he addresses the 
 laurel in the following words : 
 
 Postibus Augustis eadem fidissima custos 
 Ante fores stabis, mediamque tuebere quercum ; 
 
 and it is to the same decree, and with the same 
 distinctness, that reference is made, in the medal 
 which I now describe to you. 
 
 CAESAR • COS • VII • CI VIBVS • SERVATEIS 
 Caput wM^w^)-( AVGVSTVSS-C Aquila 
 expansis alls coronw quernce insistens; pone 
 duo lauri rami. Aur. 
 
 My next coin is a denarius of the same reign, 
 but minted eleven years afterwards, and within a 
 year after the celebration of the Ludi Saeculares. 
 We might expect it therefore to contain some 
 notice of the title of authority permanently adopt- 
 ed by the emperor, and of the municipal improve- 
 ments which he had already been able to accom- 
 plish. 
 
 ^ Dio, lib. LIII. c. 16. b Ovid. Metam. I. 5H2. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 189 
 
 AVGVSTVS-TR-POT-VIII Caput nudum )-{ 
 Cippus, cui inscriptum S*P'Q*R*IMP*CAE' 
 QVOD- VMSEXE APQ IS- AD ADE ; in 
 orhem L'VINICIVSLFIIIVIR. Arg. 
 This is the first mention we have met with of 
 the TRibunicia POTestas, the title of authority 
 adopted eight years previously by Augustus, and 
 which had evidently been selected by him for the 
 purpose of conciliating the popular party in the 
 state. The title itself is of so much importance 
 in the chronology of the empire, that I shall re- 
 serve it for a distinct consideration. But the cip- 
 pus impressed on the reverse would seem likely at 
 first sight to defeat all the endeavours we might 
 make to interpret it ; and certainly were we to 
 take a casual sentence from Cicero or Tacitus, re- 
 taining only the initials of the several words, it 
 would form a problem which none but skilful 
 men could investigate, and even the skilful them- 
 selves would work out into different solutions. 
 But, on the other hand, we must remember that an 
 inscription of such a nature, if it were inexpli- 
 cable to a modern reader, would also offer no 
 small difficulties to a common Roman ; and that 
 no person, whose object it was to be understood, 
 would purposely take the surest method of making 
 himself unintelligible. So that we may assume 
 the existence of other circumstances, known so 
 familiarly in the days of Augustus, that they 
 
190 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 would be present to the mind of every Roman, 
 and assist him in the interpretation of this and 
 similar inscriptions. 
 
 And this opinion is confirmed on the first ex- 
 amination of the inscription itself. It is clearly 
 a decree of the senate and people, which was in- 
 scribed in brief on the base of some statue or 
 other monument erected in honour of the em- 
 peror, and had doubtless been made known in the 
 usual public manner as a law of the empire. But 
 it had still stronger claims than these on general 
 notoriety. It was a vote of approbation, similar 
 to many others which had been passed before, 
 and probably expressed in a customary form of 
 words. To judge therefore, as easily as a Roman 
 might, of the meaning of such abbreviations, we 
 must be as well acquainted as he was, with en- 
 comiums and honorary tablets, and with the pub- 
 lic services which commonly obtained such tokens 
 of remembrance. To a Roman the letters V*M-S 
 would clearly denote Viae Munitae Sunt, and that 
 the rest of the inscription was also familiar to 
 him, may be shewn from the very words of a Se- 
 natus-consultum, quoted by Livy as having pass- 
 ed in the second Punic war, and expressed, no 
 doubt, according to the established usage ; " refe- 
 " rente ^ P. Scipione, senatus consultum factum 
 
 <- Liv. lib. XXVIII. c. 38. See also lib. XXXVII. c. 57. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 191 
 
 " est, ut qiios ludos inter seditionem militarem in 
 " Hispania vovisset, ex ea pecunia quam ipse in 
 " aerarium detulisset, faceret.'^ The whole inscrip- 
 tion, therefore, is as follows^ : Senatiis Populus 
 Que Romanus IMPeratori CAEsari QVOD Viae 
 Munitae Sunt EX EA Pecunia Quam IS AD 
 Aerarium DEtulisset. The legend running round 
 it is of the IIIVIR monetalis, who, during that 
 year was, together with his colleagues, the master 
 of the mint. But the word imperator is now used 
 in a new manner, not having, in this instance, the 
 signification of commander, as before, or referring 
 to the number of times that he was saluted under 
 that title by his troops, but conveying the new 
 notions of civil government expressed by the word 
 emperor. 
 
 And what could be a more favourable occasion 
 for inscriptions than the formation or re-establish- 
 ment of a military road ? Running through several 
 important cities, provided with bridges over the 
 streams, and buildings at stated intervals for the 
 reception of travellers, and decorated in many in- 
 stances with works of sculpture and triumphal 
 arches, they presented to the Romans of all pe- 
 riods, from the time of Appius to the latest years 
 
 d It is even possible that Livy, who was writing his his- 
 tory at the time when this coin was minted, may have filled 
 np the senatus-consultum of the time of P. Scipio with words 
 taken from the pnblic proceedings of his own time. 
 
192 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of the empire, the most tempting opportunities 
 for recording their names and public services. In 
 the present instance, the Flaminian way had been 
 restored by Augustus ; and, as Dio^ informs us, 
 triumphal arches, surmounted with the statue of 
 the emperor, were placed at its two extremities. 
 The cippus on the coin is probably copied from 
 the tablet of the arch which stood upon the bridge 
 of the Tiber ; and the coin itself may have been 
 minted from one of the silver statues, which, the 
 same historian tells us, were presented on the oc- 
 casion to the emperor, and by him converted into 
 coin. 
 
 My next specimen is a brass of Tiberius^. 
 
 TI • CAESAR • DI VI • A VG • F AVGVST • P • M • 
 TR-POT-XXIIII in medio SC )-( CIVI- 
 TATIBVS-ASIAE-RESTITVTIS Impera- 
 tor togatus capite laureato sedens pedibus 
 scdbello fultis d. pateram s. hastam, Mn, 
 
 The 28th year of the tribunicia potestas of Ti- 
 berius began in the 22nd year of the Christian 
 sera ; and the event commemorated on this medal 
 receives so much illustration from the writers of 
 the time, and from surviving monuments, that no 
 
 e Dio. lib. LIII. c. 22. 
 
 f The inscription^ written at lengthy is, Tiberius Caesar Di^^i 
 Augusti Filius Augustus Pontifex Maximus Tribunicia? Po- 
 testatis 24. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 19S 
 
 doubt or difficulty attaches to it. It has been ex- 
 plained by Gronovius, in his Thesaurus §^ ; by 
 Schlegel, in Morell's Thesaurus ^^; by the Abbe 
 Belley, and M. Le Beau, in the Memoirs of the 
 French Academy^; by Eckhel^ and by almost 
 every other writer on the coins of the empire. 
 
 You will remember a remarkable passage of 
 Tacitus^, where mention is made of an earth- 
 quake which destroyed in one night twelve cities 
 of Asia, ^' Eodem anno duodecim celebres Asiae 
 " urbes conlapsae, nocturno motu terrae ; quo im- 
 " provisior graviorque pestis fuit : neque solitum 
 " in tali casu effugium subveniebat in aperta pro- 
 " rumpendi, quia diductis terris hauriebantur. 
 " Sedisse immensos montes, visa in arduo quae 
 " plana fuerint, efFulsisse inter ruinam ignes, me- 
 " morant." He then proceeds to mention the cities 
 which had suffered, and the bounty bestowed upon 
 them by the emperor. This event took place in 
 the 17th year of the Christian aera, and we must 
 inquire therefore to what cause it was owing that 
 the medal, which was clearly intended to comme- 
 morate the munificence of the emperor, was not 
 minted till five years afterwards : and the more 
 so, as we have another medal of similar inscrip- 
 tion^, which was minted only two years after the 
 
 S Vol. VII. p. 446. h Vol. I. p. 578. 
 
 i Vol. XXIV. pp. 13(iet 152. k Tac. Ann. II. 47- 
 
 1 See Ac. Inscr. vol. XXIV. p. 129. 
 
 O 
 
194 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 disaster had occurred, and when the bounty of 
 Tiberius was fresh in every one's memory. 
 
 Now it might be a sufficient answer to observe, 
 that some few years must necessarily have elapsed, 
 before these towns could be again inhabited ; and 
 that five years, as we learn from Tacitus, was the 
 term actually allowed, in the cases in which the 
 emperor granted a remission of their taxes. We 
 may also observe, that, in addition to the cities al- 
 ready noticed, Ephesus"^ appears to have suffered 
 severely in the following year, and that the conti- 
 nuance of the danger would naturally retard the 
 work of restoration. But this is not all. Phlegon, 
 who lived probably in the days of Hadrian, men- 
 tions in his book irefi davfLacricov the destruction of 
 the Asiatic cities, and informs us that a colossal 
 statue of Tiberius was erected in the Forum Cae- 
 saris", with the figures of the several cities as an 
 accompaniment to it, in honour of his munificence. 
 Now what can be more reasonable, than that on 
 the erection of this statue, an event which could 
 
 ™ And this fact will explain the apparent inconsistency 
 between Tacitus and Pliny on the one hand;, who say that 
 twelve cities were destroyed ; and Eusebius and other more 
 modern writers on the other^ who mention thirteen. See 
 Morell's Thes. Numism. Wessel. vol. I. p. 579. The account 
 of Nicephorus^ who states the number to have been fourteen, 
 will be explained in the sequel. 
 
 n See M. Le Beau, Ac. Ins. vol. XXIV. p. 158. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 195 
 
 not well take place till some few years after the 
 disaster, a new coin was struck by the senate, in 
 token of their admiration ? Meursius^ indeed is 
 of opinion that no such statue was ever erected 
 at Rome, no one having been mentioned by any 
 of the various older writers who have recorded 
 the ravages of the earthquake. But Meursius 
 was not acquainted with some farther testimony 
 on the subject, which has been brought to light 
 more recently. In the year 1693 a piece of mar- 
 ble was discovered at Pozzuoli, which had evi- 
 dently been the base of a colossal statue, and was 
 inscribed to the emperor Tiberius. Round it, in 
 exact accordance with the words of Phlegon, are 
 figures representing the several Asiatic cities, and 
 described by their respective names ; but in addi- 
 tion to the thirteen already noticed, we find an- 
 other, representing the town of Cibyra in Phrygia. 
 And in explanation of this, we learn from Taci- 
 tus?, that in the year 2S after Christ, Tiberius 
 granted relief to Cibyra, which had recently suf- 
 fered from an earthquake ; and the marble itself 
 shews, according to the date inscribed upon it, 
 that it was not erected till the year 30. So that 
 all these circumstances being taken in combina- 
 tion, it appears that, within two years after the 
 great earthquake, the senate had determined to 
 erect a statue to Tiberius, and had issued a new 
 o See his note on Phlegon, p. 161. P Ann. IV. 13. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 coinage, as a memorial of his bounty; that, within 
 five years after the same event, the statue was 
 completed, and a new die was cut, from which 
 the medal we have been considering was minted ; 
 and that finally, in the year 30, when Tiberius 
 had withdrawn himself from Rome, and was liv- 
 ing in the neighbourhood of Puteoli, the inha- 
 bitants of that town erected another statue, after 
 the model already exhibited at Rome ; thereby ex- 
 pressing their sorrow for a calamity, for which 
 their own volcanic country would teach them to 
 feel compassion, and honouring at the same time 
 the emperor's repeated acts of generosity. We 
 may infer, that the seated figure on the reverse 
 of the medal was intended to resemble that colos- 
 sal statue of Tiberius, which we have traced from 
 the time, when the plan of it was first adopted by 
 the senate, to the time when it was finally erected 
 at Puteoli. 
 
 And this is a favourable opportunity for no- 
 ticing a Greek coin of Germanicus. 
 
 eEONTEPM MTTI Caput Germanici nu- 
 dum )-( 0EAN-AIOAIN-ArPinniNAN-MTTI 
 Caput Agrippifice, Mn. 
 
 It is clear that this brass was minted at Mytilene 
 in Lesbos, and equally clear that it commemorates 
 two persons, whose names create as great an in- 
 terest as any names connected with the history of 
 
LECTURE VIII. 197 
 
 the empire. M. Pellerin% who was the first to 
 describe the coin, was of opinion that the word 
 ATOAIN was a mistake of the graver for lOTAIAN; 
 and maintained, but without quoting any au- 
 thority in his favour, that Agrippina, the wife of 
 Germanicus, had the praenomen of Julia. But 
 here M. Pellerin has asserted what he is utterly 
 unable to prove. He acknowledges that he can 
 find no coin to support him ; and when he says 
 that Agrippina is known in history with the ad- 
 ditional name of Julia, he probably confounds her 
 with her daughter Agrippina, the wife of Clau- 
 dius, who was certainly admitted into the gens 
 Julia. 
 
 But groundless as is the argument in favour of 
 the word lOTAIAN, it is not more so than the 
 objection that was felt against the real reading, 
 AIOAIN. It is natural to suppose that the Lesbi- 
 ans, who minted the coin, might also have en- 
 rolled Agrippina among their countrywomen, and 
 so have styled her an jEolian ; and the more so, 
 as she resided for some time in the island, and 
 had the strongest reasons for being attached to it. 
 But the whole question is determined by an in- 
 scription, which Eckhel has adduced from the 
 Thesaurus^ of Muratori, representing Nero^ the 
 ill-fated son of an illustrious father, as IIAIAA 
 
 q Rec. de M^d. je Peup. vol. III. p. 229. 
 r Nov. Thes. vol. I. p. 228. 
 o 3 
 
198 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 BEOT TEPMANIKOT KAI GEAE AIOAIAOS KAP- 
 nO^OPOT AFPinnElNAS. 
 
 The other epithet^ here given to Agrippina 
 may have some reference to the event which oc- 
 casioned her to reside at Lesbos, and gave rise to 
 the attachment already noticed. It was in the 
 year which preceded the death of Germanicus*, 
 and when he was on his progress into the east, 
 that he employed himself for some time in ex- 
 ploring the Adriatic and the Mgean, and in visit- 
 ing places upon their coasts, distinguished in the 
 history of his own or of other nations. He was 
 accompanied by Agrippina, and after surveying 
 the scene of the battle of Actium, and receiving 
 the homage of the Athenians, they repaired to 
 Lesbos, where Julia Livilla was born to them, the 
 last addition to a family, which seems to have 
 combined more splendour and degradation than 
 any other family of Roman history. It was pro- 
 bably this event which caused a permanent con- 
 nexion to subsist between Germanicus and the 
 Lesbians, and gave occasion to the coin in honour 
 of himself and Agrippina, which was issued from 
 the mint of Mytilene. 
 
 The next is a brass of Caligula, minted by the 
 senate in the year 39 after Christ. 
 
 s See the same epithet given to Julia, the mother of Tibe- 
 rius.— Eckh. vol. VI. p. 168. 
 t Tac. Ann. II. 53, &c. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 199 
 
 CC AESAR DI VI- A VG PRON • AVG • S- C Pi^ 
 hus lihertatis )-( COS-DES'III-PON-M-TR- 
 P-IIIP-P; in medio RCC.^ Mn, 
 The titles which Augustus received reluctantly 
 and by degrees, and some of which Tiberius ob- 
 stinately refused, were all greedily accepted by 
 Caligula; and the epithet of Germanicus, the only 
 epithet which conferred real honour upon him, 
 and which he had hitherto constantly retained^ 
 was in this year finally abandoned by him. In 
 this year also, finding that his treasury was ex- 
 hausted, and wearied with his residence at Rome, 
 he proceeded into Gaul, on that memorable expe- 
 dition which terminated in his descent upon the 
 Northern ocean, and his conveyance to Rome of 
 shells and pebbles to be the spoils and trophies of 
 his conquest. 
 
 The pileus lihertatis ^ an emblem of the popu- 
 larity enjoyed at one period by Caligula, may pos- 
 sibly refer to the hopes which he created of the 
 revival of the ancient Comitia ^, and the readiness 
 with which the Romans were led to expect that 
 their former liberties would be restored to them. 
 A less favourable interpretation is, that the Ro- 
 mans, having lost the knowledge of real freedom, 
 
 ^ Caius Caesar Divi Augusti Pronepos Augustus Senatus- 
 consulto. Consul designatus 3. Pontifex Maximus^ Tribu- 
 iiiciae Potestatis 3. Pater Patriae. Remissa Ducentesima. 
 
 X See Suet. Calig. c. 16. 
 
 o 4 
 
200 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 were already contented to substitute in the place 
 of it that love of shows and spectacles, which the 
 emperor had been gratifying beyond all former 
 example. But however this may be, the act which 
 appears immediately to have given birth to this 
 sense of freedom, is expressed in the letters RCC 
 which appear on the reverse. They denote the 
 words " Remissa ducentesimay," and refer to the 
 tax on all transfers of property, which, having 
 been originally established at the rate of one per 
 cent, by Augustus, had afterwards been reduced to 
 a ducentesima, and was now abolished by Caligula. 
 The words of Suetonius are " ducentesimam auc- 
 " tionum Italiae remisit ;" and to shew that the 
 abbreviated form of expression was intelligible at 
 Rome, coins of Galba ^ may also be produced, 
 bearing a similar abbreviation, and known to re- 
 fer to a similar remission. 
 
 In illustrating the reign of Claudius, it is na- 
 tural to select a coin connected with his victo- 
 ries in Britain. 
 
 TI CLAVD- CAESAR AVGPM TRP VI- 
 IMF'XI Caput Iaureatu7n)-{I>E'BR1TA^1S^ 
 inscriptum arcui triumphali^ supra quern sta- 
 tua equestris inter duo tropcea. Aur. Arg. 
 
 It is evident from the date given to the Trib. 
 
 y See Suet. Cal. c. 16. with the note of Baumgarten. 
 z See Eckhel, vol. VI. p. 296. col. 2. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 201 
 
 Pot. that this coin was not minted before the 
 middle of the year 46 after Christ, the sixth year 
 of the reign of Claudius, although we know from 
 Dio that a triumph for his victories in Britain 
 had been decreed by the senate three years pre- 
 viously, and had actually been celebrated in the 
 year 44. The coins however which bear our in- 
 scription are in gold and silver, and were there- 
 fore minted by the emperor; they were minted 
 too, as appears from the reverse, in commemora- 
 tion of the triumphal arch erected by the senate % 
 and therefore could not well be issued till some 
 time had elapsed after his return from Britain. 
 It is worthy of remark that, although Claudius 
 was partial to the title of imperator, and even on 
 some of his coins is styled IMP-XXVII, he uses it 
 in no instance as a praenomen; confirming there- 
 by the words of Suetonius^, who says expressly, 
 " Praenomine imperatoris abstinuit," but at the 
 same time leading to the permanent abuse of the 
 title, as a token of victory, by the frequency and 
 absurdity of the occasions on which he adopted it 
 
 IMP • NERO CLAVD- CAESAR AVGGER 
 PMTRPPP Caput laureatum)-{ PACE 
 PRTERRAMARIQ- PARTA • lANVM 
 CLVSIT Templum Jani clausis Jbribus. 
 Aur. Mn. 
 
 The coins of Nero, bearing testimony to the clos- 
 a Dio, lib. LX. c. 22. b Suet. Claud, c. 12. 
 
202 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ing of the temple of Janus, are many in number, 
 are in both gold and brass, and evidently proceed 
 from several different dies. The inscriptions are 
 not sufficiently precise to admit of our assigning 
 them with certainty to their proper dates, but 
 their number and variety would seem to justify 
 the opinion that they were minted at different pe- 
 riods. It might naturally be inferred therefore 
 that the temple of Janus had either been closed 
 on several different occasions, or at least had con- 
 tinued closed for several successive years, during 
 the reign of Nero. 
 
 But this opinion, though the testimony of coins 
 is strongly in its favour, is exposed to consider- 
 able objections from other quarters. In a frag- 
 ment of Tacitus, preserved by Orosius ^, and quot- 
 ed by him as evidence of the fact, it is stated that 
 the temple of Janus was opened in the old age of 
 Augustus, and continued open till the reign of 
 Vespasian. It is possible indeed that the histo- 
 rian may purposely have omitted the several oc- 
 casions, on which the ceremony of closing the tem- 
 ple was performed by Nero, considering them as 
 undeserving of historical record, because they 
 were inconsistent with historical truth. And it 
 must be admitted that no narrative, which derived 
 the history of those times from the proceedings or 
 the proclamations of the emperor, could justly be 
 
 c Oros. lib. VII. c. 2. See also Just. Lips. Ant. Lect. II. 8. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 203 
 
 considered as a representation of real occurrences. 
 Nevertheless, whatever opinion may be formed of 
 the meaning of Tacitus, the existence of these 
 coins will oblige us to admit that the temple of 
 Janus was actually closed by Nero, and will also 
 give us reason to suspect that the ceremony was 
 performed by him frequently, and without suffi- 
 cient warrant in the circumstances of the times. 
 
 But another important testimony is still to be 
 produced. Suetonius ^ says of Nero, " Janum ge- 
 " minum clausit tam nullo quam residuo bello," 
 asserting that the temple was closed equally, whe- 
 ther there was or was not a reason for closing it. 
 And this statement would seem to be in exact ac- 
 cordance with the opinion conveyed by the coins. 
 The passage indeed is not without its difficulties ; 
 but when taken in connexion with the negative 
 support of Tacitus, and with the number and va- 
 riety of the coins, it is so far confirmed by them, 
 that there seems to be no sufficient reason for adopt- 
 ing the ingenious but unauthorized emendation of 
 Lipsius, who, instead of " tam nullo quam residuo 
 " bello," reads " tanquam nullo residuo bello." 
 According to the amended reading, it would be 
 admitted that there was one, and that an im- 
 portant, occasion, viz. during the ceremonies con- 
 nected with the arrival at Rome of Tiridates king 
 
 d Suet, in Ner. c. 13. cum notis Burm. et Baumg. 
 
204 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 of Parthia, that the temple was closed by Nero ; 
 but this supposition is founded upon a conjectural 
 reading, is insufficient to account for the facts 
 established by the coins, and is irreconcileable 
 with the words of Tacitus: in all these respects 
 the ancient reading, though not free from difficul- 
 ties, has decidedly the advantage, and therefore 
 ought not to have been discarded, as is the case 
 in some modern editions % from the text of Sueto- 
 nius. 
 
 The reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, were 
 so short, and full of tumult, that I shall confine 
 myself to a few general remarks upon their coin- 
 age, and terminate the Lecture with some notice 
 of the controversy that has subsisted respecting 
 the brasses of Otho. 
 
 Short and tumultuous, however, as these reigns 
 were — so short, that, when united, they did not 
 amount to seventeen months ; so tumultuous, that, 
 during their continuance, the empire seemed to be 
 totally destitute of civil government — there was no 
 period more prolific of coins, or more boastful, in 
 the inscriptions borne by them, of its liberties and 
 public virtues. " Securitas et libertas" appear to 
 have been the favourite inscriptions of a period 
 when every thing was known to be in danger ; 
 " honos et virtus," when such qualities were sel- 
 
 ^ See the edition of Baiimgurten. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 205 
 
 dom cultivated, and often derided ; and even " sa- 
 " lus generis huraani" was then proudly asserted 
 of one of the darkest aeras of the human race. 
 But this was the natural consequence of disorder, 
 which always endeavours to supply the want of 
 actual strength hy the largeness of its promises, 
 and always finds its hopes frustrated, by the very 
 measures it has taken for their accomplishment. 
 That the coins should be in great abundance, 
 especially those which were minted by the em- 
 perors, might be expected, not only from the ne- 
 cessity that existed in such times of warfare for 
 large supplies of money, but also from the conve- 
 nience they afforded of proclaiming the commence- 
 ment of a new reign, and conciliating the favour 
 of the empire. The coins of Galba are common 
 in all the metals ; and his titles are written so 
 variously, as to prove the existence of at least 
 twenty-nine different dies, and all of them pro- 
 bably employed at the Roman mint : the gold 
 and silver of Otho and Vitellius are not uncom- 
 mon : but the difference as to the brasses of the 
 three reigns is most remarkable. In the case of 
 Galba they are so abundant as to be almost worth- 
 less ; in the case of Vitellius, who reigned a little 
 longer than Galba, they are extremely rare ; and 
 in tha case of Otho no single brass of Roman ^ 
 
 f The genuine brasses hitherto discovered were evidently 
 minted in Syria, (see Eck. vol. VI. p. 304.) but many spu- 
 
206 LECTURE VIII. 
 
 coinage has hitherto been found. There is indeed 
 a brass restitutus of the emperor Titus ^, which 
 professes to be a re-issue of an Otho, and would 
 accordingly seem to prove the issue of a brass 
 coinage during that short and turbulent reign. 
 But the coin is too far open to suspicion to be 
 employed as testimony, wher^ in its own nature 
 it is questionable, and where, even with the most 
 favourable construction, it must stand alone. 
 
 And this fact, of the total want of Roman brasses 
 belonging to the reign of Otho, is one of the most 
 remarkable facts of numismatic antiquities. It is 
 usual indeed to look to the discord of the times, 
 and to allege the hostility and the dejection of the 
 senate, as reasons sufficient to account for their 
 unwillingness to issue any coinage, which would 
 acknowledge their submission to Otho. It has 
 also been urged, that the fact may in some degree 
 be explained by the short duration of Otho's reign. 
 But this explanation is inadequate. The gold and 
 silver coins of the same short period are nume- 
 rous, and even brasses are not uncommon of the 
 still shorter and more distracted reign of Perti- 
 nax ^. And why should their dislike of Otho in- 
 duce the senate to withhold the coin wanted for 
 
 rious brasses were coined by the Italian falsarii of the six- 
 teenth century. 
 
 s Eck. vol. VI. p. 306. Mionnet, vol. I. p. 145. 
 
 h Mionnet, vol. I. p. 2(59. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 207 
 
 the common circulation of Rome? They regretted 
 the death of Galba ; but they were actually under 
 the power and at the mercy of his successor. 
 They dreaded the consequences of a military 
 usurpation ; but those consequences were met and 
 averted by the interposition of the usurper \ We 
 are expressly told by Tacitus ^, that when Otho 
 was proclaimed, the senate instantly assembled, 
 and voted him the Tribunicia potestas, and the 
 title of Augustus, and all the usual honours of 
 the purple ; and we must not suppose that they 
 would withhold the smaller acknowledgments of 
 the coinage, when, in order to do so, they must at 
 the same time be provoking the restless population 
 of Rome to tumult and rebellion. It is possible that 
 the senate may never have issued any brass coin 
 with the insignia of Otho, and may have supplied 
 the wants of Rome by continuing to use the dies 
 of his predecessor ; but it is a more reasonable 
 solution, that such coins were actually minted, 
 and may hereafter be brought to light by some 
 fortunate discovery. 
 
 i Tac. Hist. I. 84. k Hist. I. 47- 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
Coins of the empire continued — Vespasian — Rebuilding 
 of the Capitol — Jewish tribute — Titus — The Colosseum — 
 Imperator explained — Domitian — Device of Pallas adopted 
 by him — Flattery of Quinctilian^ and hatred of Tacitus — 
 Nerva — Method of travelling — Gregory Nazianzen — System 
 adopted by Augustus — Improved by Nerva — Extended by 
 Hadrian — Trajan — Charitable institutions — Brass plate found 
 near Piacenza — Hadrian — Circenses — The Parilia — Disserta- 
 tion on the Tribunicia potestas. 
 
IMPCAESVESPASIANAVGPMTRPP- 
 P-COS-III Caput laureatum )-( S'C Tern- 
 plum pet^elegans sex columnarum, statuis 
 super ne atque utrinque exornatum^ in cujus 
 medio signum Jovis sedentis^ cui ad dextram 
 adstat Pallas^ ad sinistram Juno. iEn. 
 
 X HE third consulship of Vespasian corresponds 
 with the year 71 after Christ, a year distinguished 
 in the annals of Rome for the establishment of 
 peace abroad and the restoration of tranquillity at 
 home. In this year was celebrated the triumph 
 decreed to the emperor and his son Titus for the 
 conquest of Judaea, the temple of Janus was so- 
 lemnly closed, and the city was rising with in- 
 creased lustre from the ruin and destruction of a 
 state of anarchy. The temple represented on the 
 coin, and connected with the honours offered by 
 the senate to Vespasian, is clearly the temple of 
 Jupiter Capitolinus, which was at this time build- 
 ing, in the place of the more ancient temple de- 
 stroyed by fire during the recent tumults. 
 
 But the subject is involved in some difficulty, 
 owing to a difference that subsists between the 
 historians of the time ; and though the question 
 itself is of minor importance, and the evidence of 
 the coin is not decisive, yet as the accuracy of 
 
 p 21 
 
212 LECTURE IX. 
 
 Tacitus is at stake, and several great events were 
 passing at the period, it may be well to state the 
 point at issue, and as far as possible to elucidate it. 
 
 Tacitus^ informs us that the foundations of 
 this temple were laid with the greatest solemnity 
 on the 11th of the calends of July in the year 70; 
 but states that Vespasian himself was absent, and 
 had appointed Vestinus to represent him. Sueto- 
 nius^ on the contrary, who is supported by the 
 Abridgment of Dio^, states that Vespasian was 
 present in person, mentioning even the part that he 
 took in preparing the ground for laying the foun- 
 dation. The coin might appear at first sight to 
 confirm the statement of Suetonius and Dio, as it 
 might seem to connect the rebuilding of the tem- 
 ple with the presence of Vespasian ; it being pre- 
 sumed, that the senate would not have selected 
 that temple as an ornament for his coin, if he had 
 not taken a personal interest in restoring it. 
 
 But what were the facts of the case ? It had 
 been determined by the senate ^ in the preceding 
 year to rebuild the Capitol, but delay having ari- 
 sen owing to the want of money, the matter ap- 
 pears to have been referred to Vespasian then ab- 
 sent. Doubtless he encouraged the undertaking ; 
 and this may be inferred not only from the popu- 
 larity of such a measure, and the commission ac- 
 
 a Hist. IV. 53. b Suet. Vesp. c. 8. 
 
 c Dio, LXVI. 10. d Tac. Hist. IV. 4. and IV. 9. 
 
LECTURE IX. 213 
 
 tiially given by him to carry it into effect, but also 
 from an order issued by him soon after the return 
 of Titus, and recorded by Josephus ^ requiring 
 that the didrachm, which the Jews had been 
 accustomed to pay for the service of their temple, 
 should for the future be paid by them for the use 
 of the Capitol. It appears moreover from the 
 course of events, that Vespasian returned to Rome 
 within a few months after the foundations of the 
 temple were laid, and that the brass, which we 
 are treating of, was minted in the following year; 
 at the time probably, when Vespasian was issuing 
 his order for the addition of the Jewish tribute to 
 the treasures of the Capitol. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, the coin cannot be al- 
 leged as evidence in favour of Suetonius, because 
 it was not minted for more than twelve months 
 after the foundations were laid ; on the contrary, 
 it tends to establish, what Tacitus has stated, that 
 Vespasian was not present at the ceremony; in- 
 asmuch as it was not minted at the time when 
 the ceremony took place, and was actually minted 
 at a subsequent period, at which we learn, for the 
 first time and from another writer, that the tem- 
 ple was enriched by the edict of the emperor. 
 
 The three deities represented on the coin are 
 the same to whom, according to Tacitus ^, the 
 building was consecrated. 
 
 e De Bell. Jud. VII. 6. 6. ^ Hist. IV. 53. 
 
 P 3 
 
214 LECTURE IX. 
 
 IMP • TITVS • C AES • VESPASIAN- AVGPM 
 Caput laureatum )-{ TR • P • IX • IMP • XV* 
 COS'VIIIP-P Elephas loricatus. Aur. Arg. 
 The ninth Tribunicia Potestas of the emperor 
 Titus began in the middle of the year 80, the 
 year preceding his death. It was the year imme- 
 diately following the completion of the enormous 
 amphitheatre, now known by the name of the 
 Colosseum ; and when accordingly we may ex- 
 pect to meet with constant traces of the spectacles 
 exhibited to the populace of Rome. And an oc- 
 casion of this kind is clearly denoted on the coin 
 by the elephas loricatus ^, an animal w^hich it 
 had been the practice from the time of the re- 
 public to introduce into the contests of the arena : 
 and four elephants are expressly mentioned in the 
 Abridgment of Dio^, as among the 9000 animals 
 slaughtered in the wild and horrible destruction 
 which took place on the opening of the Colosseum. 
 The number is stated more sparingly by Sueto- 
 nius ^ : " Amphitheatro dedicato, thermisque juxta 
 " celeriter exstructis, munus edidit apparatissi- 
 " mum largissimumque. Dedit et navale praelium 
 " in veteri naumachia ; ibidem et gladiatores : at- 
 " que uno die quinque millia omne genus fera- 
 " rum." 
 
 This coin, like many others, affords us an in- 
 
 g See Plin. H. N. lib. VIII. c. 4. h xiphil. LXVI. 25. 
 i Suet. Tit. Vit. c. 7- 
 
LECTURE IX. 2!15 
 
 stance of the two meanings of the word imperator, 
 presented at the same time ; the one referring to 
 the highest office in the state, the other denoting 
 the number of times on which Titus had been sa- 
 luted by his troops as conqueror. The first time ^ 
 was after the memorable capture of Jerusalem ; 
 the fifteenth, as is stated in the transactions of 
 this year by the abbre viator of Dio ^ was in ac- 
 knowledgment of the victories obtained by Agri- 
 cola in Britain — victories which might speedily 
 have led to the total subjugation of the island, 
 but were in reality followed by the disgrace and 
 retirement of the commander who achieved them. 
 
 IMPCAES-DOMITIANAVGGERMANI- 
 CVS Caput laureatum )-( P-M'TR-POT- 
 IIIIMP-V-COS-X-P-P Pallm stans, Aur. 
 Arg. 
 
 The emperor Titus having died in the September 
 of the year 81, the third Tribunicia Potestas of 
 Domitian must have ended in the same month of 
 the year 84. In this year too, or at the close 
 of the preceding one, he assumed the title of Ger- 
 manicus, on account of his successes over the Catti ; 
 retaining it, as we find from his other coins, for 
 the rest of his reign. But the most remarkable 
 circumstance connected with the coin is the intro- 
 
 k Suet. c. 5. Joseph. B. J. VI. 6. 1. 
 1 Lib. LXVI. c. 20. *Tac. Agric. XL. 3. 
 P 4 
 
216 LECTURE IX. 
 
 duction of a new device in the figure of Pallas ; a 
 device too which occupies the place generally as- 
 signed to the more agreeable office of recording 
 the personal merits of the emperor. By the aid 
 of history this device is easily explained, and re- 
 flects in its turn some little confirmation on the his- 
 tory that explains it. We learn from Suetonius "^ 
 that Domitian was peculiarly devoted to the wor- 
 ship of Pallas ; but had we learnt nothing further, 
 it would scarcely have been considered a sufficient 
 reason for the constant appearance of the head of 
 Pallas on the medals of his reign. The doubt 
 however is completely removed by a passage of 
 Philostratus ", which might itself have otherwise 
 fallen under some suspicion, in stating that Do- 
 mitian publicly declared himself to be the son of 
 Pallas, and required accordingly that divine ho- 
 nours should be paid to him. 
 
 It was with reference to this devotedness of the 
 emperor, that Quinctilian ® thus addresses him, in 
 a passage full of the basest adulation : " Quis ca- 
 ** neret bella melius quam qui sic gerit? Quem 
 " praesidentes studiis Deae propius audirent ? Cui 
 " magis suas artes aperiret familiare numen Mi- 
 " nervae ? Dicent haec plenius futura saecula." 
 The future generations to whom Quinctilian was 
 
 ™ Domit. c. 15. 
 
 n Vit. Apollon. 1. VII. c. 24. Plin. Paneg. XXXIII. 4. 
 
 o Inst. Or. lib. X. c. 1. 
 
LECTURE IX. 217 
 
 willing to refer for a confirmation of his flattery, 
 have, on the contrary, adopted the stern and just 
 execration of Tacitus p : " Dedimus profecto grande 
 " patientiae documentum ; et sicut vetus aetas vidit, 
 ** quid ultimum in libertate esset, ita nos, quid in 
 " servitute, adempto per inquisitiones et loquendi 
 " audiendique commercio. Memoriam quoque ip- 
 " sam cum voce perdidissemus, si tam in nostra 
 " potestate esset oblivisci quam tacere." 
 
 IMPNERVACAES-AVGPMTRPCOS- 
 III-P-P Caput laureatum )-( VEHICVLA- 
 TIONEITALIAEREMISSA- SC Bucb 
 mules pascentes ; pone vehiculum. Mn. 
 
 The Vehiculatio, or "Munus vehicuiarium," was 
 the office of providing conveyances along the great 
 roads of the empire, for persons travelling on pub- 
 lic business. At a later period, Gregory Nazian- 
 zen, afterwards raised to the see of Constantino- 
 ple, describes the village of Cappadocia, where he 
 first discharged his pastoral duties, and complains, 
 in language which may remind us of more recent 
 grievances^, of the tumults occasioned in the place 
 
 P Agric. Vit. c. 2. 
 
 q A living prelate, who is not surpassed by Gregory in the 
 three points in which he was preeminent, his scholarship, 
 his manliness, and his piety, has made similar complaints of 
 the tumults created in the scene of his earlier labours by the 
 presence of a posting-.h#use. See Bishop Blomfield's Letter 
 on the Lord's Day, p. 19. 
 
218 LECTURE IX. 
 
 by its being the station of a Roman post-house, 
 and the strange mixture of travellers and vagrants 
 that formed a considerable portion of his flock : 
 
 Kovcs TO, Tvavra, KaX yJAocfjOL (tvv dpyLacri, 
 Sprjvoi, (TTevayfiol, rrpuKTopes, crrpe^Xai, nedai' 
 Xaos S' ocroL ^evoi re koc TrXaviOfxevoi. 
 avTT] Sao-i/icoi/ rcov €pa)V eKKKrjcria^. 
 
 Now although this account was written nearly 
 two centuries after the time of Nerva, yet, as it 
 refers to a remote province of the empire, it may 
 be taken as descriptive of the activity which pre- 
 vailed at a much earlier period on the great roads 
 of Italy. 
 
 Before the time of Augustus no plan had been 
 adopted systematically for the service of the Ro- 
 man roads. At an early period, indeed, envoys, 
 travelling on urgent business, were authorized to 
 demand beasts of burden from the towns upon 
 their route; but all other public officers, whose 
 business did not require despatch, were provided 
 before their departure with the outfit requisite for 
 their journey, and had recourse to the hospitality 
 of friends or acquaintance, which they repaid by 
 similar attentions on their return to Rome. This 
 distinction, however, was easily evaded ; and, as 
 early as the year 173 B. C.^ we find a consul 
 issuing orders to the magistrates of Praeneste, to 
 
 r De vita sua, §. 32. s Liv. XLII. 1. 
 
LECTURE IX. 219 
 
 prepare suitable apartments for his reception, and 
 horses to convey him on his journey. And in this 
 manner, imposing great hardship upon the pro- 
 vinces, and giving occasion to constant complaints, 
 the service of the roads was conducted till the time 
 of Augustus. 
 
 This skilful monarch \ anxious to have early 
 and accurate intelligence from the provinces, sta- 
 tioned messengers at moderate intervals upon the 
 public roads, and provided carriages for their use; 
 but his plan does not appear to have extended be- 
 yond the arrangements necessary for couriers and 
 confidential agents of the government. It laid the 
 foundation indeed for the general system of posts 
 established afterwards, but it appears still to have 
 been accompanied with those powers of impress- 
 ment, in all other cases, which had previously 
 supplied the only means of public communication. 
 It is evident from our coin that Nerva introduced 
 an important change in the ancient practice, by 
 relieving the towns of Italy from the oppressive 
 service. And this testimony is the more valuable, 
 because not only have the biographers of Nerva 
 made no mention of the fact, but also subsequent 
 writers have spoken in general terms of the 
 changes made by Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, 
 as though the ancient practice had continued in 
 
 t Suet. Aug. c. 49. 
 
220 LECTURE IX. 
 
 all its rigour until their time. The Augustan 
 historian" says of the former monarch, " Statira 
 " cursum fiscalem instituit, ne magistratus hoc 
 " onere gravarentur." The probability is, that 
 Nerva had already established posts upon the pub- 
 lic roads of Italy, and made the service charge- 
 able upon his own exchequer ; and that Hadrian, 
 perceiving the advantage of the improvement, ex- 
 tended it to all the provinces of the empire. 
 
 IMP • CAES • NERVAE • TRAIANO • AVG • 
 GERDACPMTRPCOSVPP Caput 
 laureatum )-( ALIM*ITAL-S*C Imperator 
 sedens dextram extendit versus mulierem ad- 
 stantem cum hinis injhntibus, quorum unum 
 in ulnis gestat, adstante altera. Mn. 
 
 The medal bearing this inscription, and clearly 
 referring to the foundling-hospitals and other cha- 
 ritable institutions of Trajan, is a token of the 
 gratitude of the senate, and might fitly be their 
 answer to the panegyric of the younger Pliny ^ 
 delivered before them in honour of the same em- 
 peror. The encomiast does not fail to dwell on 
 the munificence of his sovereign. " Paullo minus, 
 " patres conscripti, quinque millia ingenuorum fu- 
 " erunt, quae liberalitas principis nostri conquisi- 
 " vit, invenit, adscivit ; hi subsidium bellorum, 
 
 « Hadrian. Vit. c. 7- Aiitoniii. c. 12. x Puneg. c. 28. 
 
LECTURE IX. 221 
 
 " ornamentum pacis, publicis sumptibus aluntur ; 
 " patriamque noii ut patriam tantum verum ut 
 " altricem amare condiscunt. Ex his castra, ex 
 " his tribus replebuntur, ex his quandoque nas- 
 " centur, quibus alimentis opus non sit." 
 
 The medal cannot be assigned to any precise 
 date, as the expression COS'V, the only part of 
 the inscription which might seem to intimate the 
 exact year, is applicable to any part of the reign 
 of Trajan, from the year 104 to the year 111 in- 
 clusive. But it is not necessary to attempt a more 
 precise account of it ; for it may readily be sup- 
 posed, that the liberality of the emperor, which 
 had in the first instance been employed in sup- 
 porting five thousand children in the capital, would 
 gradually be obtained for other places of large and 
 needy population, and eventually be extended to 
 the smaller towns of Italy. So rapid and exten- 
 sive would be the progress of a measure, which 
 released parents from the support of their chil- 
 dren y, and created by its own operation new and 
 endless claims upon its bounty. 
 
 But this case is strikingly illustrated by an in- 
 
 y And so Pliny clearly foresaw : (Paneg. c. 28.) " Quanto 
 " majorem infantium turbam iterum atque iterum videbis 
 " incidi (augetur enim quotidie et crescit, non quia cariores 
 " parentibus liberi, sed quia principi cives) dabis congiaria si 
 ^^ voles, praestabis alimenta si voles, illi tamen propter te 
 ^^ nascuntur." 
 
222 LECTURE IX. 
 
 scriptioii, as remarkable as any one that has ever 
 fallen under the notice of antiquaries. In the 
 year 1747 a brass plate, 10^ Italian feet wide, 
 and 5^ in height, and covered with an inscription 
 in several columns, was dug up in the neighbour- 
 hood of Piacenza, and at a short distance from 
 the Via ^Emilia. The inscription has been ex- 
 plained by Muratori ^', MafFei % and others ; but 
 the only notice which can here be given of it is, 
 that it belongs to the same date with the medal ; 
 that it records the bounty conferred by Trajan 
 upon the obscure town of Veleia, a town almost 
 unknown in ancient history ; that it specifies the 
 monthly allowance granted to 281 children be- 
 longing to this town ; and describes, with the 
 greatest exactness, the proprietors in the neigh- 
 bourhood, with the reports made by them of the 
 value of their property, and the sums which they 
 received on mortgage ; binding themselves in re- 
 turn to pay the moderate interest of five per cent, 
 for the support of the institution. 
 
 The last specimen which I shall notice is a 
 gold coin of Hadrian, bearing inscriptions and 
 devices, which are also to be found on a large 
 brass of the senate, minted at the same period. 
 It is natural to suppose that they refer to some 
 
 z Sposizione fatta da L. A. Muratori, in the Symb. Litt. of 
 Goriiis. Flor. 1748. vol. V. 
 
 a Museum Veronense. Veron. 1 749. p. 399. 
 
LECTURE IX. 223 
 
 gracious act, calculated equally to call forth the 
 ostentation of the emperor and the gratitude of 
 the senate. 
 
 IMP • CAES • H ADRIANVS • AVG • COS • III 
 Caput laureatum )-( ANNDCCCLXXIIII* 
 NATVRBPCIRCON Mulier humi se- 
 dens d. rotam s. tres oheliscos sen conos com- 
 plexa. Aur. Mu. 
 
 The device on the reverse of this coin would 
 sufficiently shew, without the aid of the inscrip- 
 tion, the kind of occasion on which it was struck. 
 It evidently denotes some addition made by the 
 emperor to the exhibitions of the circus ; the 
 wheel referring to the chariot-race, and the three 
 cones to the obelisks placed at each extremity of 
 the barrier, by which the circus was divided. But 
 the exact occasion is not so easily ascertained. 
 Hadrian obtained the title of COS'III in the year 
 after the death of his predecessor ; ^nd, as he did 
 not accept the office at any subsequent period, 
 continued to use the same title during the whole 
 of his reign. The date also of DCCCLXXIIII. 
 which clearly commences from the foundation of 
 the city, might be supposed likely to furnish us 
 with the exact year. But this is almost the only 
 instance of the Roman sera appearing upon a 
 coin ; and though it is on that account the more 
 curious, it is for th^same reason the less valuable 
 
224 LECTURE IX. 
 
 for historical purposes, as there are no means of 
 discovering, which of the methods of computing 
 the foundation of Rome has been followed by it^. 
 The inscription itself is an instance of the per- 
 plexity, that has been inflicted upon modern anti- 
 quaries by the abbreviations of ancient writing ; 
 different interpretations having been given to it 
 according to the different meanings assigned to 
 the letter P. It is clear that it must be the re- 
 presentative of some word of general occurrence 
 in Roman inscriptions, the meaning of which 
 could easily have been supplied by the common 
 reader. And such, thought Vaillant, would be 
 the word populus ; and he accordingly completed 
 the inscription in the following manner : " Anno 
 " 874 natali urbis populo Circenses concessi." But 
 this conjecture is opposed by the well-known fact, 
 that the games of the Circus had long been fami- 
 liar to the Romans, and could not, without ex- 
 treme absurdity, be said to have been established 
 by Hadrian. Another attempt was made to ex- 
 plain the enigma by supposing the letter to denote 
 plebeii, and to mean that games were exhibited 
 for the amusement of the lower classes of the 
 people. But this again is inconsistent with the 
 fact that the Circus had always been open for all 
 orders alike, and that such mixed and more splen- 
 
 ^ Petavius, Doct. Temp. vol. II. p. 67- fol. 
 
LECTURE IX. 225 
 
 did exhibitions would naturally have the greatest 
 attractions for the populace. A more plausible 
 interpretation is by the word primum^ the inscrip- 
 tion being made to signify, that on the 874th an- 
 niversary of the foundation of Rome, the day on 
 which the festival of Parilia was held, games of 
 the circus were added, for the first time, by the 
 emperor Hadrian, to give greater splendour to the 
 festival. To me, however, it appears the best 
 method to retain the word populo, as suggested 
 by Vaillant ; a word which is constantly denoted 
 on coins by the single letter P ; and to make the 
 inscription refer, in the same restricted manner, 
 to the circenses granted to the people, for the 
 first time, on that occasion of holding the Parilia. 
 And certainly we may infer, from the description 
 of the festival given by Ovid*^ and Propertius, 
 that in their times it was celebrated with great 
 simplicity, and in a manner calculated to remind 
 the Romans of its origin, but little likely to satisfy 
 the taste of a luxurious people. And that Hadrian 
 did actually make some addition to this festival, 
 and changed its name to Feriae Romanae, honour- 
 ing it at the same time by a temple, consecrated 
 to the genius of Rome, is evident from a passage 
 of Athenaeus ^, from which we learn that the con- 
 
 « Fast. IV. 721. El. IV. 4. See also Plut. Rom. c. 12. 
 d Athen. lib. VIII. c. «3. 
 
226 LECTURE IX. 
 
 versation of his deipnosophists was interrupted by 
 the loud sounds of mirth and music, occasioned 
 by the festival, as it was then celebrated by the 
 whole population of Rome, in the reign of the 
 best and most classical of monarchs. 
 
 I have now to conclude with a brief disqui- 
 sition on the tribunicia potestas, the materials 
 for which are derived, as has been the case in 
 many other instances, from the elaborate work of 
 Eckhel. 
 
 I have already stated that this title was adopted 
 by Augustus as the least likely to create a feeling 
 of jealousy or suspicion against his government. 
 This is the reason assigned by Tacitus % " Id 
 " summi fastigii vocabulum Augustus reperit, ne 
 " regis aut dictatoris nomen adsumeret, ac tamen 
 " adpellatione aliqua cetera imperia praemineret." 
 And, in order to deviate as little as possible from 
 the practice of the republic, and to preserve the 
 ancient rights of the tribuneship unimpaired, the 
 emperor was not appointed to the* office of tribune, 
 but merely invested with its privileges. Being a 
 patrician, he was ineligible to the office ; and this 
 distinction was so anxiously maintained, that tri- 
 bunes of the people were appointed during the 
 time of the empire, as they had previously been ; 
 
 e Ann. lib. III. c. 56. 
 
LECTURE IX. 227 
 
 and though their authority fell gradually into de- 
 cay, the regular appointment of them is supposed 
 to have continued to so late a period as the reign 
 of Constantine. 
 
 But the popular title thus assumed by the em- 
 peror conveyed, in reality, much greater powers 
 than belonged to the actual office of the tribune. 
 In the latter case the office was conferred for a 
 single year, was incapable of being held together 
 with any other appointment, and was confined, as 
 to the exercise of it, within the precincts of the 
 city. The tribunicia potestas, on the contrary, 
 was conferred on the emperor for a term of years, 
 or more commonly for life, created no disqualifi- 
 cation for the holding of other offices, and was of 
 equal authority in all parts of the empire. The 
 tribunes, moreover, were appointed annually in 
 the month of December, when the state officers in 
 general were appointed ; but the potestas was con- 
 ferred at any period, whenever an emperor was 
 admitted, either solely or conjointly, to the exer- 
 cise of the imperial functions. 
 
 And this leads to an inquiry of much import- 
 ance with reference to the chronology of this pe- 
 riod, viz. from what time the commencement of 
 the second year of holding the tribunicia potestas 
 was calculated ; whether from the return of the 
 day on which the title was conferred, or, accord- 
 ing to the practice of other offices, from the end 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LECTURE IX. 
 
 of the month of December. It is evident that 
 great confusion might arise in the adjustment of 
 dates, if this point were not previously considered 
 and ascertained. Nero, for instance, was pro- 
 claimed emperor, and invested with tribunician 
 powers in the month of October, in the year 54 : 
 it is evident, therefore, that with a view to accu- 
 racy, not only in this, but in every other year of 
 his reign, it must be known whether the first year 
 of the potestas contained only the two months 
 still remaining in the year 54, or included also 
 the ten other months extending to the October of 
 the following year. If this point be not ascer- 
 tained, all the events which occurred in any year 
 of Nero's reign, between January and October, 
 may be assigned by different persons, calculating 
 alike on the tribunicia potestas, to different years. 
 The testimony to be obtained from coins depends 
 peculiarly upon this description of date, and makes 
 it the more important that the question should be 
 accurately solved. 
 
 It has been the opinion, then, of some of the 
 most eminent writers on Roman chronology, whose 
 authority might be deemed sufficient in itself to 
 terminate the dispute, that the tribunician powers 
 were dated every year from the return of the day 
 on which they were originally conferred. It is 
 natural that the day of a sovereign's accession 
 should be made an epoch for all the transactions 
 
LECTURE IX. 229 
 
 of his reign. It might even be expected, that, 
 where there is no fixed system of chronology, the 
 former methods of computing time would be made 
 to accommodate themselves to the new aera ; and 
 that all subordinate offices would date their com- 
 mencement from the accession of the reigning so- 
 vereign. And this opinion seems to be confirmed 
 by a passage of Dio^, in which the years of each 
 reign are said to be computed from the time of 
 obtaining the tribunician powers ; but a stronger 
 proof is afforded by many inscriptions on coins, 
 which shew plainly that the tribunician years 
 were not calculated from the customary day of 
 electing state officers, but from some distinct epoch 
 of their own. We find, for instance, in the case 
 of Caligula, two coins bearing alike the inscrip- 
 tion COS III, but differing as to the tribunician 
 date ; the one of them^ being inscribed TR'POT* 
 III; the other, TR-P-IIII. Now Caligula suc- 
 ceeded to the throne in the calends of April of the 
 year 87 ; so that, according to the present suppo- 
 sition, the third year of the trib. pot. would ter- 
 minate, and the fourth would begin, in the same 
 calends of the year 40, the current year of his 
 third consulship. And this is exactly the suppo- 
 sition which the coins would appear to verify. 
 From these and similar considerations, it might 
 
 f Lib. LIII. c. 17. • s Eckh. vol. VI. p. 225. 
 
 q3 
 
230 LECTURE IX. 
 
 be admitted that the tribunicia potestas was com- 
 puted in perfect calendar years from the accession 
 of each emperor respectively. And this appears, 
 on examination, to have been the case in all the 
 earlier reigns of the empire, and whilst the title 
 was considered as the real conveyance of author- 
 ity. But we must not hastily infer that the prac- 
 tice continued to be the same at all periods. It 
 would not be surprising if, at a subsequent time, 
 when the emperor had thrown off all respect for 
 the senate, and the names of office assumed by 
 him were equally unmeaning, the tribunicia po- 
 testas should be found to date, like the rest of his 
 titles, from the commencement of the civil year. 
 And, on examination, we have reason to believe 
 that this had already begun to be the case in the 
 reign of Elagabalus. This emperor did not reign 
 four complete years ; and as we meet with the ex- 
 pression TR'P'V upon several of his coins, we are 
 thereby compelled to suppose that the portion of 
 the year, which still remained after his accession, 
 was calculated as a perfect year of office. He be- 
 came emperor in the middle of the year 218 ; the 
 second year of his trib. pot. began with the com- 
 mencement of 219 ; and by this method of calcu- 
 lation, his fifth year of the same title began with 
 the commencement of 222, and terminated with 
 his death in the March following. 
 
 Other cases of the same kind might easily be 
 
LECTURE IX. 231 
 
 adduced ; and the facts being admitted, it will 
 follow, that at some time previously to the reign 
 of Elagabalus a change had taken place in the 
 ancient practice, and the trib. pot. had been made 
 to date, in every instance, from the end of the 
 month of December. Eckhel has traced the 
 change, after a close examination of successive 
 coins, to the reign of Antoninus Pius; and thinks 
 that he is able to assign it, by still more exact 
 testimony, to the precise year in which it was in- 
 troduced. He produces a coin of Aurelius, minted 
 when he was Caesar, and therefore in the reign of 
 Antoninus Pius ; which bears on the reverse, in 
 close juxtaposition, the two conflicting dates, TR* 
 POTVII-TR-POT-VIII. In what method can 
 this contradiction be explained, unless you sup- 
 pose that the coin was minted at the very period 
 when the change was made, and in one of those 
 dubious months at the commencement of the civil 
 year, which, according to the ancient practice, be- 
 longed to the seventh year of the tribunician title, 
 but, according to the new style, was reckoned in 
 the eighth ? 
 
 However this may be, it is not unreasonable to 
 conclude that it was the original practice of the 
 Romans to calculate the tribunicia potestas by 
 perfect years, from the first assumption of the 
 title by each emperor respectively; and that an 
 
 q4 
 
232 LECTURE IX. 
 
 alteration was made in the time of Antoninus 
 Pius, by which this title of authority, like all the 
 rest, was made to date from the commencement of 
 the civil year. 
 
GRECIAN COINS, 
 
 REFERRED TO IN LECTURE V. 
 
 [iEGINA.] 
 ^lAO Diota )-( Clypeus Bceoticus, Arg. 
 
 ATHENS. 
 
 Caput PaUadis )-( A0E Noctua stans; pone, oli- 
 vcB ramus et luna crescens; ante, quiddam ig- 
 notum, Aur. 
 
 Caput PaUadis )-( AGE BAEIAE MI0PAAATHS 
 Noctua diotce insistens ; in area astra solis et 
 lunce. Arg. 
 
 Caput PaUadis )-( A6HN Bupes super qua tern- 
 plum ; juxta statua PaUadis et porta ad quam 
 gradus per rupem ducunt Mn. 
 
 Caput PaUadis )-( A0HNAION Vir nudus toto 
 nisu prcegrandem lapidem erigit Mn. 
 
 LACED^MON. 
 Caput PaUadis )-( AA Hercules nudus peine 
 leonis exuviis coopertce insidens. d. clavam, 
 Arg. 
 
234 COINS. 
 
 Caput HercuUs imherhe leonis exumis tectum 
 )-( BAEIAEaS APEOS Jupiter sedens d, aquu 
 lam s. hastam, Arg. 
 
 BCEOTIA. 
 
 Clypeus Boeoticus )-( EPX intra coronam spi- 
 ceam, Arg. 
 
 0E Caput imherhe HercuUs )-( Clypeus Boeoti- 
 cus cui inserta clava, Arg. 
 
 ELIS. 
 Caput Jovis laureatum )-( FAAEION intra lau- 
 ream. Mn. 
 
 ROMAN COINS OF THE REPUBLIC, 
 
 REFERRED TO IN LECTURE VII. 
 
 P • ACCOLEI VS • L ARISCOLVS Caput muliehre 
 )-( Tres virgines adversce stantes in arhores 
 mutantur. Arg. 
 
 Caput muliehre )-( MLEPIDVS-ANXVPR'H- 
 O'C'S Eques lento gressu s, tropceum gestat. 
 Arg. 
 
COINS. 235 
 
 ALEXANDREA Caput muliehre turritum )-( 
 M • LEPIDVSPONTMAX • TVTOR • REG. 
 S'C Lepidus togatus starts regi togato adstanti 
 et d, Jiastam tenenti diadema, imponit. Arg. 
 
 MARCELLINVS Caput virile imherhe nudum ; 
 
 pone triquetra )-( MARCELLVSCOSQUINQ 
 
 Templum quatuor columnarum^ ad quod vir ve- 
 
 latus et togatus accedit tropceum gestans. Arg. 
 
 Caput nudum harhatum ; pone OSCA )-( P* 
 LENT-P-F-SPINT Kir barhatus velatus semi- 
 nudus sedens in sella curuli d. cornu copice s, 
 hastam, et d. pede gloho insistens coronatur 
 ah advolante Victoria, Arg. 
 
 Protome Mercurii ; pone litera Alphabeti )-( C* 
 MAMIL-LIMETAN Vir curto hahitu, tectus 
 pileo rotundo, s. scipionem habens graditur; el 
 adhlanditur canis. Arg. 
 
 I-SMR Caput Junonis Sispitce )-( L-THORIVS- 
 BALBVS IBos irruens; superne varians AU 
 phdbeti litera, Arg. 
 
 Protome VictoricB alata )-( LVGVDVNI-AXL 
 Leo gradiens. Arg. 
 
 IIIVIRRP-C Protome Victoria alata )-{ AN- 
 TONI • IMP • A- ^LI Leo gradiens. Arg. 
 
236 COINS. 
 
 MANTONIVSIMPCOSDESIGITERET- 
 TERT Caput Antonii hedera redimitum; in- 
 Jra lituus; omnia intra coronam hederaceam 
 )-( IIIVIR'RP'C Cista Bacchi inter duos ser- 
 pentes, cui imminet caput muUebre nudum. 
 Arg. 
 
 ROMAN COINS OF THE EMPIRE, 
 
 REFERRED TO IN LECTURES VIII. AND IX. 
 
 CAESARCOSVIICIVIBVSSERVATEISCtt- 
 put nudum )-( AVGVSTVSS'C Aquila expan- 
 sis alis cor once quernce insistens; pone duo lauri 
 rami. Aur. 
 
 AVGVSTVS TR • POT • VIII Caput nudum )-( 
 Cippus, cui inscriptum S-P-Q*RTMP*CAE- 
 QVODVMSEXEAPQISADADE ; in 
 orhem L-VINICIVSLFIIIVIR. Arg. 
 
 TI • CAESAR • DI VI- AVG F AVGVSTPMTR- 
 POTXXIIII in medio SC)-(CIVITATIBVS- 
 ASIAERESTITVTIS Imperator togatus ca- 
 pite laureato sedens pedihus scabello fultis d. 
 pateram s. hastam. Mn. 
 
COINS. 237 
 
 OEONTEPM MTTI Caput Germanici nudum 
 
 )-( 0E AN • AIOAIN • AFPinniNAN • MTTI Caput 
 Agrippinae. Mn. 
 
 CCAESARDIVIAVGPRONAVGSC Pileus 
 libertatis )-( COS-DESIIIPONMTRPIII- 
 PP ; in medio RCC. Mn. 
 
 TICLAVDCAESARAVGPMTRPVIIMP- 
 XI Caput laureatum )-( DE'BRITANN in- 
 scriptum arcui triumphali, supra quern statua 
 equestris inter duo tropcea, Aur. Arg. 
 
 IMPNEROCLAVDCAESARAVGGERP- 
 M-TR-P-PP Caput laureatum )-( PACE'P-R- 
 TERRAMARIQPARTAIANVMCLVSIT 
 Templum Jani clausis forihus. Aur. Nm. 
 
 IMPCAESVESPASIANAVGPMTRPPP- 
 COS -III Caput laureatum )-( S'C Templum 
 perelegans sex columnarum, statuis superne 
 atque utrinque exornatum, in cujus medio sig- 
 num Jovis sedentis, cui ad dextram adstat Pal- 
 las, ad sinistram Juno. Mn. 
 
 IMPTITVSCAES- VESPASIAN- AVGPM 
 Caput laureatum )-( TR- P- IX • IMP'XV- 
 COS • VIII • P • P Elephas loricatus. Aur. 
 Arg. 
 
LECTURES ON ANCIENT COINS. 
 
 OXFORD. 1832. 
 
A SELECTED LIST 
 
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 STANDARD PUBLICATIONS k REMAINDERS 
 
 Offered for Sale at remarkably low prices by 
 
 JOHN GRANT, Bookseller, 
 25 & 34 George IV. Bridge, 
 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 Robert Bur?is' Poetical IVorks, edited by W. Scott 
 Douglas, with Explanatory Notes, Various Readings, and Glossary, 
 illustrated with portraits, vignettes, and frontispieces by Sam 
 Bough, R.S.A., and W, E. Lockhart, R.S.A., 3 vols, royal 8vo, 
 cloth extra (pub £2 2s), i6s 6d, W. Paterson, 1880. 
 
 Dryden^s Dra??iatic Works, Library Edition, with Notes 
 and Life by Sir Walter Scott, Bart,, edited by George Saints- 
 bury, portrait and plates, 8 vols, 8vo, cloth (pub £i\ 4s), £\ los, 
 Paterson. 
 
 Large Paper Copy — Best Library Edition. 
 
 Moliere's Z)ra?natic JVor/es, complete, translated and 
 edited by Henri Van Laun, with Memoir, Introduction, and 
 Appendices, wherein are given the Passages borrowed or adapted 
 from Moliere by English Dramatists, with Explanatory Notes, 
 illustrated with a portrait and 33 etchings, India proofs, by 
 Lalauze, 6 magnificent vols, imperial 8vo, cloth (pub ^g 9s), ;C2 
 1 8s 6d. Wm. Paterson. 
 
 The same, 6 vols, half choice morocco, gilt top 
 
 (pub ;,^i2 i2s), £4 i8s 6d. 
 
 " Not only tlie best translation in existence, but the best to be hoped. It is a 
 direct and valuable contribution to European scholarship." — Athenieum. 
 
 Richardso7i' s {Sa7nuel) Works, Library Edition, with 
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 Choice Illustrated Works :- 
 
 Burnefs Treatise 07i Pahithig, illustrated by ijo Etchings 
 from celebrated pictures of the Italian, Venetian, Flemish, Dutch, 
 and English Schools, also woodcuts, thick 4to, half morocco, gilt 
 top (pub /4 los), £2 2s. 
 
 Ca7iova\s Works in Sadptiire atid Modellings 142 exqui- 
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 by Count Escognara, handsome volume, imperial 8vo, half 
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 Carter's Specimens of A?icient Sculptiwe and Fainting now 
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 quaries, illustrated with 120 large engravings, many of which are 
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 handsome volume, royal folio, half crimson morocco, top edges 
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 by 109 large copperplate engravings, comprising upwards of 2000 
 Specimens shown in Plan, Execution, Section, and Detail, best 
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 Castles ( The) and Mansions of the Lothians, illustrated 
 in 103 Views, with Historical and Descriptive Accounts, by John 
 Small, LL, D., Librarian, University, Edinburgh, 2 handsome 
 vols, folio, cloth (pub £6 6s), £2 15s. W. Paterson. 
 
 Claude Lorraitte's Beauties, consisting of Twenty-four of 
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 Geoige Spencer, Thi7'd Dnke of Marlborough, illustrated by 108 
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 Descriptions in French and Latin by Jacob Bryant, Louis 
 Dutens, &c., 2 handsome vols, folio, half crimson morocco, gilt 
 top (selling price ;!^io los), £2 12s 6d. John Murray, 1844. 
 
 The most beautiful Work on the " Stately Homes of England.'''' 
 Nash^s Mansions of England in the Olden Time, 104 
 Lithographic Views faithfully reproduced from the originals, with 
 new and complete history of each Mansion, by Anderson, 4 vols 
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 Ly7idsay {Sir David, of the Mount) — A Facsimile of the 
 ancient Heraldic Manuscript emblazoned by the celebrated Sir 
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 the Original MS. in the possession of the Faculty of Advocates, 
 folio, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges (pub ;i^io los), ^^3 los. 
 Impression limited to 250 copies. 
 
 Also Uiiiforni. 
 Scottish Arms, being a Collection of'Armorial Bearings, 
 
 A.D. 1 370- 1 678, Reproduced in Facsimile from Contemporary 
 
 Manuscripts, with Heraldic and Genealogical Notes, by R. R. 
 
 Stodart, of the Lyon OfHce, 2 vols, folio, cloth extra, gilt tops 
 
 (pub £\z I2s), £\ los. 
 
 Impression limited to 300 copies. 
 
 Several of the manuscripts from which these Arms are taken have hitherto been 
 unknown to heraldic antiquaries in this country. The Arms of upwards of 600 
 families are given, all of which are described in upwards of 400 pages of letter- 
 press by Mr Stodart. 
 
 The book is uniform with Lyndsay 's Heraldic Manuscript, and care was taken 
 not to reproduce any Arms which are in that volume, unless there are variations, 
 or from older manuscripts. 
 
 Strutfs Sylva Britaiinice. et Scotice ; or, Portraits of 
 Forest Trees Distinguished for their Antiquity, Magnitude, or 
 Beauty, drawn from Nature, with 50 highly finished etchings, 
 imp. folio, half morocco extra, gilt top, a handsome volume (pub 
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 The Modern Cupid {en Che?ni?i de Fer), by M. Mounet- 
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 Bright, Attractive Series of Verses, illustrative of Love on the Rail, 
 with dainty drawings reproduced in photogravure plates, and 
 printed in tints, folio, edition limited to 350 copies, each copy 
 numbered. Estes & Lauriat. 
 Proofs on Japan paper, in parchment paper portfolio, only 65 
 
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 Proofs on India paper, in white vellum cloth portfolio, 65 copies 
 
 printed (pub 50s), i6s. 
 Ordinary copy proofs on vellum paper, in cloth portfolio, 250 
 copies printed (pub 30s), los 6d. 
 The Costumes of all Nations, Ancient and Modern, 
 exhibiting the Dresses and Habits of all Classes, Male and Female, 
 from the Earliest Historical Records to the Nineteenth Century, 
 by Albert Kretschmer and Dr Rohrbach, 104 coloured plates 
 displaying nearly 2000 full-length figures, complete in one hand- 
 some volume, 4to, half morocco (pub £d^ 4s), 45s. Sotheran. 
 Walpole's {Horace) Anecdotes of Fainting in England, 
 with some Account of the Principal Artists, enlarged by Rev. 
 James Dallaway ; and Vertue's Catalogue of Engravers who have 
 been born or resided in England, last and best edition, revised 
 with additional notes by Ralph N. Wornum, illustrated with 
 eighty portraits of the principal artists, and woodcut portraits of 
 the minor artists, 3 fiandsome vols, 8vo, cloth (pub 27s), 14s 6d. 
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 Edinhurgh and its Neighbourhood in the Days of our 
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 and Descriptive Sketches, by James Gowans, royal 8vo, cloth 
 elegant (pub 12s 6d), 6s. J- C. Nimmo. 
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 readable and full of information. The volume is in all respects handsome." — 
 
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 Edinburgh Uiiivei'sity — Account of the Tercentenary Fes- 
 tival of the University, including the Speeches and Addresses on 
 the Occasion, edited by R. Sydney Marsden, crown Svo, cloth 
 (pub 3s), IS. Blackwood & Sons. 
 
 Historical Notices of Lady Yester's Church and Parish, 
 by James J. Hunter, revised and corrected by the Rev. Dr Gray, 
 crown Svo, cloth (pub 2s 6d), Qd. 
 Of interest to the antiquarian, containing notices of buildings and places now 
 
 fast disappearing. 
 
 History of the Quecft's Edinbu7gh Rifle Volunteer Brigade, 
 with an Account of the City of Edinburgh and Midlothian Rifle 
 Association, the Scottish Twenty Club, &c., by Wm. Stephen, 
 crown Svo, cloth (pub 5s), 2s. Blackwood & Sons. 
 " This opportune volume has far more interest for readers generally than might 
 have been expected, while to members of the Edinburgh Volunteer Brigade it 
 cannot fail to be very interesting indeed." — St James's Gazette. 
 
 Leighton^s (Alexander) Mysterious Legends of Edinburgh, 
 
 illustrated, crown Svo, boards, is 6d. 
 
 Contents :— Lord Kames' Puzzle, Mrs Corbet's Amputated Toe, The Brownie 
 of the West Bow, The Ancient Bureau, A Legend of Halkerslone's Wynd, Deacon 
 Macgillvray's Disappearance, Lord Braxfield's Case of the Red Night-cap, The 
 Strange Story of Sarah Gowanlock, and John Cameron's Life Policy. 
 
 Steven^ s (Dr William) History of the High School of 
 Edinburgh, from the beginning of the Sixteenth Century, based 
 upon Researches of the Town Council Records and other Authentic 
 Documents, illustrated with view, also facsimile of a School 
 Exercise by Sir Walter Scott when a pupil in 1783, crown Svo, 
 cloth, a handsome volume (pub 7s 6d), 2s. 
 Appended is a list of the distinguished pupils who have been educated in this 
 
 Institution, which has been patronised by Royalty from the days of James VL 
 The Authorised Library Edition. 
 
 Trial of the Directors of the City of Glasgow Bafik, before 
 the Petition for Bail, reported by Charles Tennant Couper, 
 Advocate, the Speeches and Opinions, revised by the Council and 
 Judges, and the Charge by the Lord Justice Clerk, illustrated 
 with lithographic facsimiles of the famous false Balance-sheets, 
 one large volume, royal Svo, cloth (pub 15s), 3s 6d. Edinburgh. 
 
 Wilson's {Dr Daniel) Memorials of Edinburgh in the 
 Olden Time, with numerous fine engravings and woodcuts, 2 vols, 
 4to, cloth (pub £2 2s), i6s 6d. 
 
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 Works on the Highlands of Scotland :— 
 
 Disruption Worthies of the Highlands, a Series of Bio- 
 graphies of Eminent Free Church Ministers who Suffered in the 
 North of Scotland in 1843 for the Cause of Religious Liberty, 
 enlarged edition, with additional Biographies, and an Introduc- 
 tion by the Rev. Dr Duff, illustrated with 24 full-page portraits 
 and facsimiles of the autographs of eminent Free Churchmen, 
 4to, handsomely bound in cloth, gilt (pub ^^'i is), 8s 6d. 
 Gaelic Names of Plants, Scottish and Irish, Collected and 
 Arranged in Scientific Order, with Notes on the Etymology, 
 their Uses, Plant Superstitions, &c., among the Celts, with 
 Copious Gaelic, English, and Scientific Indices, by John Came- 
 ron, 8vo, cloth (pub 7s 6d), 3s 6d. Blackwood & Sons. 
 " It is impossible to withhold a tribute of admiration from a work on which 
 the author spent ten years of his life, and which necessitated not only voluminous 
 reading in Gaelic and Irish, but long journeys through the Highlands in search 
 of Gaelic names for plants, or rather, in this case, plants for names already 
 existing. " — Scotsman. 
 
 Grant {Mrs, of Laggan) — letters from the Mountains, 
 edited, with Notes and Additions, by her son, J. P. Grant, best 
 edition, 2 vols, post 8vo, cloth (pub 21s), 4s 6d, London. 
 Lord Jeffrey says: — "Her 'Letters from the Mountains' are among the 
 most interesting collections of real letters that have been given to the public : 
 and being indebted for no part of their interest to the celebrity of the names 
 they contain, or the importance of the events they narrate, afford, in their suc- 
 cess, a more honourable testimony of the talents of the author. The great 
 charm of the correspondence indeed is its perfect independence of artificial 
 helps, and the air of fearlessness and originality which it has consequently 
 assumed." 
 
 Historical Sketches of the Highland Clans of Scotland, 
 containing a concise account of the origin, &c., of the Scottish 
 Clans, with twenty-two illustrative coloured plates of the Tartan 
 worn by each, post 8vo, cloth, 2s 6d. 
 " The object of this treatise is to give a concise account of the origin, seat, 
 
 and characteristics of the Scottish Clans, together with a representation of the 
 
 distinguishing tartan worn by each." — Pr-eface. 
 
 Keltic {John S.) — A History of the Scottish Highlands, 
 Highland Clans, and Highland Regiments, with an Account of 
 the Gaelic Literature and Music by Dr M'Lauchlan, and an 
 Essay on Highland Scenery by Professor Wilson, coloured illus- 
 trations of the Tartans of Scotland, also many steel engravings, 2 
 vols, imperial 8vo, half morocco, gilt top (pub;^3 los), £\ 17s 6d 
 Mackenzie {Alexander) — The History of the Highland 
 Clearances, containing a reprint of Donald Jvfacleod's '" Gloomy 
 Memories of the Highlands," "Isle of Skye in 1882," and a 
 Verbatim Report of the Trial of the Brae Crofters, thick vol, 
 crown 8vo, cloth (pub 7s 6d), 3s 6d. Inverness. 
 
 " Some people may ask, Why rake up all this iniquity just now? We answer, 
 That the same laws which permitted the cruelties, the inhuman atrocities, 
 described in this book, are still the laws of the country, and any tyrant who may 
 be indifferent to the healthier public opinion which now prevails, may le(;ally 
 repeat the same proceedings whenever he may take it into his head to do so." 
 
 Stewarfs {General David, of Garth) Sketches of the 
 Character, Institutmns, and Customs of the Nighlauders of Scot- 
 land, crown 8vo, cloth (pub 5s), 2s. Inverness. 
 Stewart's sketches of the Highlands and Highland regiments are worthy to 
 
 rank beside the Highland works of Sir Walter Scott, or even more worthy, for 
 
 facts are stronger than fiction. Every Scottish lad should have the book in his 
 
 hands as soon as he is able to read. 
 
John Grant, Bookseller, 
 
 Scottish Literature :— 
 
 The genial Author of " Noctes Auibrosianc^" 
 
 Christopher North — A Mefuoir of Professor John Wilson, 
 compiled from Family Papers and other sources, by his daughter, 
 Mrs Gordon, new edition, with portrait and illustrations, crown 
 8vo, cloth (pub 6s), 2s 6d. 
 
 " A writer of the most ardent and enthusiastic genius." — Henry Hallam. 
 
 " The whole literature of England does not contain a more brilliant series of 
 articles than those with which Wilson has enriched the pages of Blackwood' s 
 Magazine." — Sir Archibald Alison. 
 
 Cockburn {Henry)— Journals of being a Continuation of 
 the Memorials of his Time, 1831-1854, 2 vols, Svo, cloth (pub 
 2is), 8s 6d. Edinburgh. 
 
 Cochran- Patrick {P. JV.) — Pecords of the Coinage of 
 Scotland^ from the Earliest Period to the Union, numerous 
 illustrations of coins, 2 vols, 4to, half citron morocco, gilt top, 
 ;i^'4 I OS. David Douglas. 
 
 . Also tuiifonn. 
 
 Cochran-Patrick (P. JV.) — The Medals of Scotland, a 
 Descriptive Catalogue of the Royal and other Medals relating to 
 Scotland, 4to, half citron morocco, gilt top, fz 5s. David 
 Douglas. 
 
 Also tinif 07-711. 
 
 Cochran-Patrick (P. IV.) — Early Pecords relating to 
 Mini7ig i7i Scotland, 4to, half citron morocco, £\ 7s 6d. David 
 Douglas. 
 
 "The future historians of Scotland will be very fortunate if man^' parts of 
 their materials are so carefully worked up for them, and set before them in so 
 complete and taking a form." — Atliencejtm. 
 
 " We have in these records of the coinage of Scotland not the production of a 
 dilettante but of a real student, who with rare pains and the most scholarly dili- 
 gence has set to work and collected into two massive volumes a complete history 
 of the coinage of Scotland, so far as it can be gathered from ancient records." — 
 A cadetny. 
 
 "Such a book .... revealing as it does the first developments of an 
 industry which has become the mainspring of the national prosperity, ought to 
 be specially interesting to all patriotic Scotsmen." — Satui'day Revieiv. 
 
 Crieff: Its Traditions and Characters, with Anecdotes of 
 Strathearn, Reminiscences of Obsolete Customs, Traditions, and 
 Superstitions, Humorous Anecdotes of Schoolmasters, Ministers, 
 and other Public Men, crown 8vo, is. 
 
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 Scottish literature. A gathering up of stories about well-known inhabitants, 
 memorable local occurrences, and descriptions of manners and customs." — 
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 Scottish Literature— co/7^//7we£/ /— 
 
 Douglas' ( Gavin, Bishop of Dunkeld, 14^^-1^22) Poetical 
 Works, edited, with Memoir, Notes, and full Glossary, by John 
 Small, M.A., F.S.A. Scot., illustrated with specimens of manu- 
 script, title-page, and woodcuts of the early editions in facsimile, 
 4 vols, beautifully printed on thick paper, post 8vo, cloth (pub 
 £Z 3s), £^ 2s 6d. W. Paterson. 
 
 ''The latter part of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, a 
 period almost barren in the annals of English poetry, was marked by a remark- 
 able series of distinguished poets in Scotland. During this period flourished 
 Dunbar, Henryson, Mercier, Harry the Minstrel, Gavin Douglas, Bellenden, 
 Kennedy, and Lyndesay. Of these, although the palm of excellence must beyond 
 all doubt be awarded to Dunbar, — next to Burns probably the greatest poet of 
 his country, — the voice of contemporaries, as well as of the age that immediately 
 followed, pronounced in favour of him who, 
 
 ' In barbarous age. 
 Gave rude Scotland Virgil's page,' — 
 Gavin Douglas. We may confidently predict that this will long remain the standard 
 edition of Gavin Douglas ; and we shall be glad to see the works of other of the 
 old Scottish poets edited with equal sympathy and success." — Athenceum. 
 
 Lyndsafs {Sir David, of the Mount, 14^0-1568) Poetical 
 Works, best edition, edited, with Life and Glossary, by David 
 Laing, 3 vols, crown 8vo, cloth (pub 63s), i8s 6d. 
 
 Another cheaper edition by the same editor, 
 
 2 vols, i2mo, cloth (pub 15s), 5s. W. Paterson. 
 
 "When it is said that the revision, including Preface, Memoir, and Notes, 
 
 has been executed by Dr David Laing, it is said that all has been done that 
 
 is possible by thorough scholarship, good judgment, and conscientiousness." — 
 
 Scotsman. 
 
 Lytteil ( William, M.A.) — Landmarks of Scottish Life 
 
 and Language, crown Svo, cloth (pub 7s 6d), 2s. Edinburgh. 
 
 Introductory Observations ; Cumbrae Studies, or an "Alphabet" of Cumbrae 
 Local Names; Arran Studies, or an "Alphabet" of Arran Local Names; 
 Lochranza Places ; Sannox Scenes and Sights ; Short Sketches of Notable 
 Places; A Glance Round Bute ; Symbols; Explanations, Sic. &c. 
 
 M'Kerlie's {P. H., F.S.A. Scot.) History of the Lands and 
 their Oivners in Galloway, illustrated by woodcuts of Notable 
 Places and Objects, with a Historical Sketch of the District, 5 
 handsome vols, crown Svo, roxburghe style (pub ;i^3 15s), 26s 6d. 
 W. Paterson. 
 
 Rafnsay {Allan) — The Gentle Shepherd, New Edition, 
 with Memoir and Glossary, and illustrated with the original 
 graphic plates by David Allan ; also, all the Original Airs to the 
 Songs, royal 4to, cloth extra (pub 21s), 5s. W. «S: A. K. 
 Johnston. 
 
 The finest edition of the celebrated Pastoral ever produced. The paper has 
 been made expressly for the edition, a large clear type has been selected, and 
 the printing in black and red is of the highest class. The original plates by 
 David Allan have been restored, and are here printed in tint. The volume con- 
 tains a Prologue, which is published for the first time. 
 
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 Scottish Literature— coA7^//7i/ea'/— 
 
 77/6 Earliest known Printed English Ballad. 
 
 Scottysche Kynge — A Ballad of the, written by John 
 Skelton, Poet Laureate to King Henry VIII., reproduced in 
 facsimile, with an Historical and Biographical Introduction, by 
 John Ashton, beautifully printed on thick paper, small 4to, cloth, 
 uncut edges (pub i6s), 3s 6d. Elliot Stock. 
 Southey says of him : — " The power, the strangeness, the volubility of his 
 
 language, the audacitj' of his satire, and the perfect originality of his manner, 
 
 made Skelton one of the most extraordinary writers of any age or country." 
 This unique ballad was printed by Richard Fawkes, the King's printer, in 
 
 1513, immediately after the battle of Flodden Field, wnich is described in it, and 
 
 is of great interest. 
 
 Every justice has been done to the work in this beautiful volume, the paper, 
 
 printing, and binding of which are all alike excellent. 
 
 One of the Earliest Presidents of the Couj't of Session. 
 
 Seton {Alexander, Earl of Dunfermline, Chancellor of 
 Scotland, 1 5 55 -1622) — Memoir of, with an Appendix contain- 
 ing a List of the various Presidents of the Court, and Genealogical 
 Tables of the Legal Families of Erskine, Plope, Dalrymple, and 
 Dundas, by George Seton, Advocate, with exquisitely etched 
 portraits of Chancellor Seton, and George, seventh Lord Seton, 
 and his family ; also the Chancellor's Signatures, Seals, and Book- 
 Stamp ; with etchings of Old Dalgety Church, Fyvie Castle, and 
 Pinkie House, small 4to, cloth (pub 21s) 6s 6d. Blackwood & Sons. 
 
 *' We have here everything connected with the subject of the book that could 
 interest the historical student, the herald, the genealogist, and the archaeologist. 
 The result is a book worthy of its author's high reputation.'' — Notes and Queries. 
 
 Warden^ s {Alex. J.) History of Angus or Forfarshire, its 
 
 Land and People, Descriptive and Historical, illustrated with 
 
 maps, facsimiles, &c., 5 vols, 4to, cloth (published to subscribers 
 
 only at £2 17s 6d), £\ 17s 6d. Dundee. 
 Sold separately; vol 2, 3s 6d ; vol 3, 3s 6d ; vols 4 and 5, 7s 6d ; 
 
 vol 5, 3s 6d. 
 
 A most nseful Work of Reference. 
 Wilson's Gazetteer of Scotland, demy 8vo (473 pp.), 
 
 cloth gilt (pub 7s 6d), 3s. W. & A. K. Johnston. 
 
 This work embraces every town and village in the country of any importance 
 asexisting at the present day, and is porrable in form and very moderate in 
 price. In addition to the usual information as to towns and places, the work 
 gives the statistics of real property, notices of public woi'ks, public buildings, 
 churches, schools, &c., whilst the natural history and historical incidents con- 
 nected with particular localities have not been omitted. 
 
 The Scotsvtan says : — " It entirely provides for a want which has been greatly 
 felt." 
 
 Younger (John, shoe?naker, St Boswells, Author of " River 
 
 A7igling for Salmon ajui Trotit,^^ " Corn La7v Rhymes,^'' ^c.) — 
 
 Autobiography, with portrait, crown 8vo (457 pages), cloth (pub 
 
 7s 6d), 2s. 
 
 " 'The shoemaker of St Boswells,' as he was designated in all parts of Scot- 
 land, _ was an excellent prose writer, a respectable poet, a marvellously gifted 
 manin conversation. His life will be read with great interest ; the simple heart- 
 stirring narrative of the life-struggle of a highly-gifted, humble, and honest 
 mechanic, — a life of care, but also a life of virtue." — London Review. 
 
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 Grampian Club Publications, of valuable MSS. 
 and Works of Original Research in Scottish 
 History, Privately printed for the Members :— 
 
 The Diocesan Registers of Glasgow — Liber Protocollorum 
 M. Cuthberti Simonis, notarii et scribae capituli Glasguensis, a.d. 
 1 499- 1 5 13; also, Rental Book of the Diocese of Glasgow, A.D. 
 1509-1570, edited by Joseph Bain and the Rev. Dr, Charles 
 Rogers, with facsimiles, 2 vols, 8vo, cl, 1875 (pub £2. 2s), 7s 6d. 
 
 Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Coupar- Angus, 
 with the Breviary of the Register, edited by the Rev. Dr Charles 
 Rogers, with facsimiles of MSS., 2 vols, Svo, cloth, 1879-80 (pub 
 £z I2S 6d), los 6d. 
 
 The same, vol II., comprising the Register of 
 
 Tacks of the Abbey of Cupar, Recital of St Marie's Monastery, and 
 Appendix, Svo, cloth (pub ^^i is), 3s 6d. 
 
 Estimate of the Scottish Nobility during the Minority of 
 fames VI., edited, with an Introduction, from the original MS. 
 in the Public Record Office, by Dr Charles Rogers, Svo, cloth 
 (pub los 6d), IS. 6d. 
 
 The reprint of a manuscript discovered in the Public Record Office. The 
 details are extremely curious. 
 
 Genealogical Memoirs of the Families of Colt and CouttSy 
 by Dr Charles Rogers, Svo, cloth (pub los 6d), 2s 6d. 
 
 An old Scottish family, including the eminent bankers of that name, the 
 Baroness Burdett-Coutts, &c. 
 
 Rogers' {Dr Charles) Memorials of the Earl of Stirling 
 and of the House of Alexander, portraits, 2 vols, Svo, cloth (pub 
 £2 3s), los 6d. Edinburgh, 1877. 
 
 This work embraces not only a history of Sir William Alexander, first Earl of 
 Stirling, but also a genealogical account of the family oi Alexander in all its 
 branch^es ; many interesting historical details connected with Scottish State affairs 
 in the seventeenth century ; also with the colonisation of America. 
 
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 Histories of Scotland, complete set in 10 vols 
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 The Series comprises : — 
 Scoticrofiicon of John de Fordun, from the Contemporary 
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 of Brunswick, collated with other known MSS. of the original 
 chronicle, edited by W. F. Skene, LL.D., Historiographer-Royal, 
 2 vols (pub 30s), not sold separately. 
 
 The Metrical Chi'onicle of And7'etv Wyjitoun, Prior of St 
 Serf's Inch at Lochleven, who died about 1426, the work now 
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 Life of Saint Cohanba, founder of Hy, written by Adamnan, 
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 A Ci'itical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland, 
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 In connection with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a uniform series of 
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 by notes, critical and explanatory, was commenced some years since and has 
 recently been finished. 
 
 So much has recently been done for the history of Scotland, that the necessity 
 for a more critical edition of the earlier historians has become very apparent. 
 The history of Scotland, prior to the 15th century, must always be based to a 
 great extent upon the work of Fordun ; but his original text has been made the 
 basis of continuations, and has been largely altered and interpolated by his con- 
 tinuators, whose statements are ur,ually quoted as if they belonged to the original 
 work of Fordun. An edition discriminating between the original text of Fordun 
 and the additions and alterations of his continuators, and at the same time trac- 
 ing out the sources of Fordun's narrative, would obviously be of great importance 
 to the right understanding of Scottish history. 
 
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 Histojy of the War of Frederick I against the Communes 
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 Forestry and Forest Products — Prize Essays of the 
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