Historical Roman Coins: From The Earliest Times To The Reign of Augustus / Descr. by G.F. Hill

HISTORICAL ROMAN
COINS
FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
TO THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS
DESCRIBED BY
G. F. HILL, M.A.
(OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM)
WITH FIFTEEN PLATES
LONDON
CONSTABLE & CO LTD
1909
PREFACE
This volume is intended as a companion to
Historical Greek Coins, published three years ago.
The evidence afforded by Roman coins as to the
course of Roman history is of two kinds. The first,
and the more valuable, is contemporary evidence
;
the
historian has to extract from the extant coins such
information as they provide concerning the circum-
stances in which they were cast or struck. But,
owing to the commemorative habit, which was strong
in the Roman race, a certain number of coins illustrate
the history of a period which was past when they were
issued. Such pieces give us evidence less trustworthy
than the first kind, although not infrequently there is
less opportunity of error in the interpretation of their
meaning. But they are incidentally of interest as
indicating the state of opinion which prevailed at the
time when they were issued. A case in point is the
coin, struck in the first century B.C., commemorating
the mission of Lepidus to Egypt at the end of the
third century. However, in the selection of coins for
this volume, preference has naturally been given to
pieces of the contemporary kind.
The dry, matter-of-fact temperament of the Romans
v
PEEFACE
is naturally reflected in their coinage. The artist is
seldom carried away by any flight of artistic imagina-
tion from his immediate purpose, which is to provide
a convenient medium of exchange
;
his, allegories and
his symbolism tend to be crude and frigid ;
his
references to events are, as far as possible, direct and
pointed. One cannot imagine a Greek of the fifth or
fourth century proclaiming to the world, with the
help of an inscription, that his coins were issued
u
for
the purchase of corn." As for artistic conception and
execution, traces of good style are here and there
faintly perceptible in the earliest coinage, where it
was under Greek influence. Towards the end of the
Eepublic the workmanship improves, and the coins
provide a certain number of striking portraits. But
even the best Greek engravers employed during the
Augustan age seldom succeed in producing a reverse
design that has any merit as a work of art.
In Eoman numismatics, therefore, the pursuit of
the truth is deprived of some of the attractions which
the study of Greek coins presents. But there is no
lack of sport, for anyone who is interested in the
interpretation of obscure types, or in the reconciliation
of confused or corrupt passages in Eoman historians
or antiquaries with the evidence of the coins.
Until recently the history of the earliest Eoman
coinage has been involved in the utmost obscurity.
But the distinguished scholar and collector, Dr. E. J.
vi
PEEFACE
Haeberlin of Frankfurt, in the most remarkable con-
tribution that has been made in recent years to any
branch of numismatics, has thrown a flood of light on
the subject, atid shown how much in the coinage that
has seemed unintelligible and chaotic is, when properly
interpreted, a clear and orderly development, marching
side by side with the progress of Borne as a power in
Italy and in the ancient world.
In the period following the introduction of the
denarius, the arrangement of the coinage presents
problems of a different kind, soluble rather by minute
and patient comparison and classification than by the
exercise of the historical imagination. In this field
the work that was done by Count J. F. W. de Salis,
although almost unknown even to professional numis-
matists, is of extraordinary importance. The whole
of the vast Roman and Byzantine collection in the
British Museum was arranged by him in the light of
his unrivalled knowledge and experience. Enormous
quantities of coins, singly or in hoards, passed
through the hands of this indefatigable collector, and
his eye for fabric and style seems to have become
almost infallible. The trays of the British Museum
collection have long preserved, in their arrangement,
almost the only record of his work ; for he seems to
have been singularly averse to publication. Of late,
however, his services to Byzantine numismatics have
been duly acknowledged by Mr. Wroth, in the Preface
vii
PEEFACE
to his Catalogue
of
the Imperial Byzantine Coins in
the British Museum. And his still more important
work on the Eepnblican period will be embodied in
the forthcoming British. Museum Catalogue
of
Roman
Republican Coins
y
by Mr. H. A. Grueber.
The fact that, by Mr. Grueber's kindness, I have
been able during the preparation of this volume to
consult the proof-sheets of his Catalogue, so far as it
had advanced, has made my task very much less
troublesome than it might have been. But this bald
statement by no means expresses the amount of my
debt to his unfailing kindness and readiness to place
his knowledge at my disposal in difficult questions of
arrangement and interpretation. Eeferences to the
forthcoming Catalogue are, where possible, inserted
after the descriptions of the coins.
Mr. George Macdonald also, with characteristic
generosity, undertook to read not merely the proofs,
but the even less attractive manuscript of the book.
Those who know his published work need not be told
that his criticisms have been invaluable.
I have also, as usual, to thank the authorities of the
Berlin and Paris Cabinets, especially Dr. K. Eegling,
M. A. Dieudonn^ and M. J. de Foville, for kindly
providing casts of certain coins not represented in the
British Museum.
G. F. HILL.
January^ 1909.
vni
GLOSSARY
OF SOME TECHNICAL TERMS USED IN THE TEXT
Aes grave : the early heavy circular coinage of bronze of Rome and
Italy. See p. 11.
Aes rude : the amorphous lumps of bronze used as currency in Italy
before the introduction of coinage proper. See
pp.
13, 14.
Aes signat um : a term applied to the large quadrilateral "bricks"
issued by the Roman mint. See p. 13.
As : a bronze coin originally corresponding in weight to the libra or
pound
;
afterwards reduced. See p. 6 and passim.
Attic Standard : see Euboic-Attic.
Aureus : a gold coin, usually equivalent to 25 denarii. See Nos. 51,
55, 56, 58, etc.
Bigatus : a coin of which the type is a two-horse chariot. See
p.
(iO.
Blank : see Flan.
Campanian Standard : a standard derived from the Phoenician, the
didrachm weighing 7*76 grammes (later reduced to 6*82 grammes).
Canting Type
or Symbol : a type or symbol which indicates, by
means of a pun, the person or state to which it refers, as the
flamen's cap of Flamininus.
Cast Coins :
see Struck.
Coin
: a piece of metal (or, exceptionally, some other convenient
material) artificially shaped and marked with a sign or type as a
guarantee of its quality and weight, and issued by some
responsible authority, to serve primarily as a medium of exchange,
in terms of which the value of exchangeable commodities can be
expressed. Distinguished from a token by having or being
supposed to have an intrinsic value more or less nearly approach-
ing the value imposed upon it by the issuing authority.
Countermark
: a small mark impressed on a coin, usually by some
person other than the issuing authority, and intended to giye the
coin fresh currency.
ix
GLOSSARY
Denarius : a silver coin equivalent originally to 10, later to 16 asses.
See
pp. 29, 47 and passim.
Didrachm :
piece of two drachms, q.v.
Die : the instrument containing the design which, by being impressed,
produces the type on a coin. The coin in striking was placed
between the upper and lower dies. The lower die in ancient times
was usually let into an anvil, its fellow inserted in the lower end of
a bar of metal, the other end of which could be struck with the
hammer.
Drachm : a division of the stater (q.v.), usually one-half, but in some
systems, as the Corinthian, one-third. Usually derived (after
Plutarch Lysand.
17) from
SpdTT<r6at,
as representing a
* *
handful
"
of obols. This is probably a popular etymology, and drachm may
be the same word as the Phoenician
darkemon.
Dnpondius : a coin of two asses. See Nos. 4,
98.
Electrum {rjXtKTpov, kcvKos xpv<ros)
'
any alloy, whether natural or
artificial, of gold or silver, in which there is more than twenty per
cent, of silver.
Euboic-Attic Standard : the standard based on a unit (stater) of
8*72
grammes. See Nos. 5, 6.
Exergue : that segment of the field of a coin which, lying below the
type, is separated from the rest of the field either by the lower
outline of the type itself, or by a line drawn expressly for the
purpose.
Fabric:
the external shape and appearance given to coins by the
mechanism employed to cast or strike them ; distinct therefore
from style, which is conditioned by the artistic qualities of the
designer.
Field : that portion of the surface of a coin (within the border, if any)
which is not occupied by the type.
Plan
or blank : the shaped piece of metal which is made into a coin
by having the necessary types impressed on it.
Libella : &
scripulum in the Romano-Campanian system ; a bronze
coin nominally equivalent to
-fa
scriptdum of silver. See
p.
22,
Litra:
the Sicilian or Italian pound of copper or bronze; or the
silver coin of
0*87 gramme which was originally the equivalent
of the
pound of copper; or the bronze token nominally repre-
senting the pound of copper. See No. 49.
X
GLOSSAEY
Obverse :
the side of a coin impressed by the lower die, which was
let into an anvil. Since, when one of the two types of a coin was
a human head, it was usually produced by the lower die, it has
become usual to regard the side with the head, by whichever die
it was produced, as the obverse.
Osco-Latin Standard : standard according to which the pound
weighed 272-88 grammes. See
p. 6.
Quadrans : one-fourth of an as, q.v.
Quadrigatus :
a coin of which the type is a four-horse chariot. See
p.
25.
Quinarius : a silver coin equivalent originally to 5 asses
; half the
denarius
j
q.v.
Reverse :
the side of a coin impressed by the upper die : see Die.
Roman Standard : standard according to which the pound weighed
327 45 grammes. See
p.
6.
Scripulum or
scruple :
sis
of the Roman pound, i.e., 1*137
grammes.
See
p.
17.
Semis : one-half of an as, q.v.
Semnncial Standard : standard according to which the as weighed
normally half an uncia. See No. 54.
Serratus : a coin with notched edges. See No. 47.
Sestertius : (1)
a silver coin originally equivalent to 2 asses,
i
denarius, q.v.
; (2)
a brass coin introduced by Augustus, equiva-
lent to 4 asses. See No. 97.
Sextans : one-sixth of an as, q.v.
Sextantal Standard : standard according to which the as weighed
normally a sextans or two uneiae. See p.
30.
Shekel : the name for the unit of weight in the Oriental coin-standards.
Cp. Stater.
Standard : a system of weights according to which the various
denominations of a coinage are fixed.
Stater : the standard or unit-coin in any system
;
e.g. the Attic silver
stater was a tetradrachm of 17*44 grammes, the Attic gold stater
a didrachm of
8*72 grammes, the Corinthian silver stater a
tridrachm of 8*72 grammes. Cp. Shekel.
Struck Coins : coins on which the designs are produced by dies
impressed on the previously fashioned blank by blows with a
hammer
;
opposed to cast
coins, which are produced by the single
process of pouring molten metal into a mould.
xi
GLOSSAKY
Symbol : a subsidiary type, being either
(1)
an attribute of the chief
type, as the eagle of Jupiter, or (2) and this is the strict numis-
matic use of the termindependent of the chief type, and serving
to identify a person (as the authority responsible for the issue of
the coin) or a mint (where the chief types indicate not the place of
issue but the ruler).
Tressis : a coin of three asses. See
p.
12.
Triens : one-third of an as, q.v.
Triental Standard : standard according to which the as weighed
normally a triens or four unciae. See p. 30.
Type : the design on a coin. In the narrower sense, the essential
portion of the design (as distinct from adjunct, inscription, border,
etc.), which is the distinguishing mark of the issuing authority
and guarantee of the good quality of the coin.
Effigies
est nummi
qualitas extrinseca, et signum testimonii publici (Jac. Lampadius,
de Natura Nummi).
Uncia : one-twelfth of an as
t
q.v.
Uncial Standard : standard according to which the as weighed nor-
mally one uncia. See
p.
47.
Victoriatus : a silver coin weighing originally 3 scruples
(\
denarius),
See
pp.
35 f., 441
Xll
LIST OF THE CHIEF ABBREVIATIONS
USED IN THE TEXT
Babelon =
E. Babelon : Monnaies de la RSpubligue romaine. Paris,
1885, 1886.
B.M.C. = British Museum Catalogue. "Where no further title is
given, the volumes are those of the Catalogue of Boman Repub-
lican Coins, by H. A. Grueber. Otherwise a word in italics, such
as Italy, denotes the particular volume of the Catalogue of Greek
Coins referred to.
Eph. Epigr. = Epkemeris Epigrapkica (Berlin).
J.ff.S. = Journal
of
Hellenic Studies (London).
I. = left. Used not in the heraldic sense, but from the spectator's
point of view.
Mommsen-Blacas = Th. Mommsen : Histoire de la Monnaie romaine
(trans, by Blacas and de Witte). Paris, 18651875.
Mori. Anc. = Monumentum Ancyranum, in the second edition of
Mommsen (Res gestae Divi Augusti, Berlin, 1883).
Num. Chron.

Numismatic Chronicle (London).
Numism. Zeitschr, = Numismatische Zeitschrift (Vienna).
r.

right. Used not in the heraldic sense, but from the spectator's
point of view.
Rev. Num. = Revue Numismatique (Paris).
Zeit.
f.
Num. = Zeitschrift fur
Numismatik (Berlin).
Xlll
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface . ... v
Glossary . . . . . ix
List of Abbreviations . . . xiii
List of Plates .... .... xvii
Historical Roman Coins :
1
3. The Earliest Roman Coinage: circa 338 B.C. . 1
4
6. The Romanization of Campania : circa
312290 B.C. 10
712. The Final Subjection of Italy : 290269 B.C. . . 18
13
19. The Inauguration of an Imperial Coinage : 268 B.C. 27
2024. The Crisis of the First Punic War : 242 B.C. . . 37
25. The Acquisition of Corcyra : 229 B.c 44
26, 27. After Trasimene: 217 b.c 46
28. Hannibal in Capua : 216215 B.C. . . 50
29. M. Aemilius Lepidus and Ptolemaeus Y. : 201 B.C. . 51
3032. Changes in the Denarius : 2nd cent. B.C. 56
33. C. Minucius Augurinus : circa 150125 B.C. . . .62
JJ4.
T. Quinctius Flamininus : circa 124103 B.C. . . 65
3539. Charters of Liberty . . ... 66
40. The Surrender of Jugurtha by Bocchus : 106 or 105 B.C. 70
41, 42. Marius and the Barbarians : 104101 B.C. . . 72
43, 44. C. Coelius Caldus, his achievements : 10794 B.C. . 75
45. The Corn Law of Saturninus : 100 B.C 79
46, 47. The Social War : 90 b.c 82
4852. The Social War : 9081 b.c 85
53, 54. The Lex Papiria de asse semunciali : 89 B.C. . . 89
55. Sulla in Greece : 8784 B.C. 92
56. Pompeius in Africa : 81 b.c .94
57. The Subjection of King Aretas : 62 B.C. . . 98
5860. Caesar in Rome : 49 B.C. . ... 100
61, 62. The Senatorial Party in the Provinces: 49 B.C. . 104
63. Caesar's Fourfold Triumph : 46 B.C. . . 107
64, 65. Corinth refounded: 44 B.C. . . . .110
XV
CONTENTS
66, 67. The Murder of Caesar : 44 b.c.
68
71. Brutus in Asia and Macedon :
43
42 B.C.
7274. The Triumvirs : Nov. 43Dec. 38 B.C. .
75. Cassius at Rhodes : 43 b.c
76, 77. The Legates of M. Antonius in Gaul : 4241 B.C.
78, 79. Sextus Pompeius in Sicily :
4236 B.C. .
80. Q. Labiemis Parthicus : 40 B.C.
81, 82. The Armenian Expedition of M. Antonius : 34 B.C.
83, 84. Octavian's Triumph : 29 B.C.
85, 86. Caesar Augustus : 27 B.C.
8790. The Recovery of the Standards : 20 B.C. .
91. The Province of Asia : 19 B.C.
92. Armenia Recepta : circa 19 B.C.
93. 94. The Secular Games : 17 B.C. .
95, 96. The Public Roads : 17 B.C.
97100. The Monetary Reform of Augustus : circa 15 B.c
101103. The Altar of Lyon : 10 b.c.
104. The Death of Nero Drusus : 9 B.C.
105, 106. The Senatorial Mint at Antdoch : circa
7
6 b.c,
107. Gams Caesar : circa 5 B.C
108. Gaius and Lucius Caesares : circa 2 B.C.
109. The Pannonian Triumph of Tiberius : a.d. 13
Index
PAGE
112
116
118
121
123
126
128
131
134
136
138
143
145
148
150
153
158
160
162
165
168
171
175
XVI
LIST OF PLATES
Plate I.
H.
ni.
IV.
Y.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
xm.
XIV.
XV.
Nos.
13
Nos. 4, 5
No. 6, obverse
No. 6, reverse .
Nos. 7, 8 .
Nos.
911
No. 12, obverse
No. 12, reverse
Nos. 1327
Nos. 2845 .
Nos. 4660 .
Nos. 6174
Nos. 7588
Nos. 89100
Nos. 101109
at page 2
10
14
14
18
20
22
22
46
80
102
118
138
154
172
H.R.C.
XV11
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
THE EARLIEST ROMAN COINAGE
CIRCA. 338 B.C.
1. Obv. Bearded head of Janus; below,

;
all on
raised disk.
Rev. Prow of galley r. ; above,
I
; all on raised
disk.
Bronze as (cast). 294-97 grammes (4552-08 grains). B.M.O. I.,
p. 5, No. 1.
2. Obv. Beardless head of Hercules L, wearing lion-
skin
;
behind,
;
all on raised disk.
Rev. Prow of galley r. ; below,
;
all on raised
disk.
Bronze quadrana (cast). 73*42 grammes (1133*04 grains). B.M.O.
L,p. 9, No. 46.
3. Obv. Bearded head of Mars
1.,
in crested helmet.
Rev. Head of bridled horse r. ; behind, ear of
barley; below, on raised band,
ROMANO.
Silver Campanian didrachm. 7*45
grammes (115-0
grains). B.M.O.
II, p. 121, No. 1.
Until comparatively recent times, it was usual to
accept the tradition that coinage was introduced
into
Eome as early as the regal period, and this although
H.R.C. B
2
HISTOEICAL KOMAN COINS
some scholars, including Eckhel, the founder of numis-
matic study, had shown irrefutable reasons against so
early a date. The tradition was that King Servius was
the first to mark bronze with a type
;
x
and that the
type was some kind of cattle (pecus), whence was
derived the name pecunia. Further, sums of money
are mentioned in the Twelve Tables ; and we find
equivalents of fines in cattle fixed by the lex Iulia
Papiria of 430 B.C. and other early laws, such as the
lex Tarpeia, which equated the ox to 100 asses, the
sheep to 10 asses.
Now these sums of money were not necessarily
coins,
2
any more than were the shekels of the time of
Abraham ; they were merely weights of bronze. That
is to say, they were not pieces of metal artificially
shaped and officially marked with types in guarantee
of quality and weight. Pliny's statement, again, that
the type of the earliest Eoman money represented
cattle, is probably due to some misunderstanding of his
authority, or to a false inference from the etymology
of the word. If his authority for the statement was
Timaeus, whom he quotes in the previous sentence, he
may well have misunderstood the Greek. The only
early Koman coin with a type in any way corresponding
1
Plin. JSF. H. 33. 43 : Servius rex primus signavit aes, antea nidi
(i.e., amorphous brouze) usos Eomae Timaeus tradit. signatum est
nota pecudum, unde et pecunia appellata.
2
See Samwer und Bahxfeldt, Oesck. des dlteren rom. Munzwesms
(1883), pp.
17 f.
2
PL, F
Nos. I
3.
HISTOEICAL EOMAN COINS
to Pliny's description is one of the quadrilateral
bricks which, bears the figure of an oxa rare piece,
which cannot have had much currency. But there
is a curious parallel to Pliny's statement in the belief
of various Greek authorities (Plutarch, Pollux, and the
scholiast on Aristophanes) that the type of the earliest
Attic coins was an ox. It is quite possible that all
these statements go back to a misunderstood original.
Some writer perhaps was discussing the primitive
method of estimating values in cattle, and the substi-
tution for it, in later times, of a monetary medium. He
was taken to mean that the earliest coins actually repre-
sented, pictorially as well as economically, certain
quantities of cattle. So that Pliny may not himself
have been initially responsible for what must be
regarded as an error.
"
Mme dans ses b^vues," says
M. Theodore Eeinach,
1
"
Pline n'est qu'un copiste."
The literary "authority" for the commencement of a
Eoman coinage earlier than the middle of the fourth
century cannot possibly stand against the evidence of
the coins themselves. Their style points unmistakably
to the period indicated. The type of prow on the
reverses is not archaic. Nor is there any subsequent
sign of advance in style from an archaic to a mature
art, such as would necessarily appear had the coinage
begun before the art was fully developed, as it was
about 400 b.c.
1
VHistoire par les Monnaies,
p.
98.
B2
3
HISTOKICAL EOMAN COINS
Eome first took rank as the chief power in Italy
about 350 b.c. The Latin League was reorganised,
doubtless on terms much more favourable to Eome
than had been the case before, in358. In 354 she
made a treaty with the Samnites. By 353 she had
completed the subjugation of Southern Etruria. In
348, most important of all, came the treaty with the
Carthaginians. The agreement with the Samnites
broke down in 343, when Capua and other Campanian
communities threw themselves into the arms of Rome.
In two years the Samnites were forced to recognise
Eome as the suzerain of the Campanian cities. About
340
338,
the Campanians, especially the Capuans,
received the civitas sine suffragio.
The last rival to
Eoman supremacy on the Latin coast, the Volscian
Antium, whose inhabitants were famous for their
piratical propensities, fell at the close of the Latin
War, and in 338 the beaks of the Antiate battleships
became the ornament of the speakers' platform in the
Eoman forum.
1
Partly because of the prestige which it confers, but
still more because of the revenue which it produces, the
right of coinage has almost always been one of the most
jealously guarded prerogatives of political supremacy
;
and it was now imperatively necessary that Eome
should come into line withthe other Italian states which
1
Plin. iV. H. 34. 20 : in suggestu rostra devictis Antiatibus fixerat
(C. Maenius) anno urbis ccccxvi.
4
HISTOKICAL KOMAN COINS
had coined money with their own types for more than
a century, especially as some of these very states were
by this time subject to her. The earliest Eoman
coinage
1
is accordingly dual, consisting partly of
coins issued at Rome itself, partly of coins issued in
Campania for currency in the Campanian dominion.
In Central Italy, excepting Etruria, there had
hitherto been no coinage, although imported coins
and local uncoined bronze doubtless circulated as a
medium of exchange. Bronze, indeed, was, and long
remained, the standard metal in these parts. It stood
to silver in the relation of 1 to 120. At this rate,
one silver Campanian didrachm of 7*58
grammes
2
would be equivalent in value to
3j
pounds, or 3
didrachms to 10 pounds, of bronze of the Osco-Latin
standard of 273 grammes to the pound.
3
This is
an inconvenient and clumsy relation
;
but it was the
best that could be attained at the time, and was im-
proved at the first opportunity.
1
What foUows is based on Haeberlin's brochure, Systematik des
dltesten romischen Munzwesens (Berlin, 1905), which has revolutionised
our ideas of the early Eoman coinage, and produced comparative order
out of chaos. His theory has been attacked by A. Sambon (Vaes
grave italico, Milan, 1907) and M. C. Soutzo (Les lourdes monnaies de
bronze de Vltalie Centrale inBev. Num. 1907), but, as I think, without
due appreciation of the weight of his arguments.
2
This seems to have been the normal weight, although the majority
of the extant specimens fall below it. See Haeberlin, Die metrolo-
gischen Orundlagen derail, mittelitah Munzsysteme (Zeit.
f.
Num. xxvii.),
pp.
60 f.
8
120 X
7*58 = 909-60 =
3J
X
273*15.
5
This pound or libra of 273 grammes,
1
containing
12 ounces or unciae, was the pound on which the
system of the earliest Eoman bronze was based, the
coin corresponding to the libra being called the as.
It will be noticed that the as No. 1 weighs a good
deal more than the normal libra. Indeed, it used to
be assumed that the basis of the earliest Eoman
coinage was the heavier ("new Eoman
5
')
pound of
327*45 grammes,
1
but that for some reason the coins
were almost always cast underweight.
2
But the aver-
age weight, as ascertained from more than 1100 speci-
mens of the asj is 2
67'
66 grammes, which, allowing for
the loss of weight by the circulation to which extant
specimens must have been subject, may well represent
an effective weight of 273 grammes. The excessive
weight of some specimens, such as No.
1,
and the low
weight of others, must be accounted for by the rough-
ness of the primitive methods of regulating the
capacity of the moulds in which the coins were cast.
The original Eoman bronze coinage was of six
denominations, all bearing the prow on the reverse,
while on the obverse were the heads of different
divinities
;
marks of value were placed on both sides.
The system was as follows :
1
On the origin of this pound and of the new Eoman pound of
327*45 grammes, see Haeberlin, op. citf.pp. 44 f., and Lehmann-Haupt,
Zeit.
f.
Num. xxvii.,
pp.
131 f.
2
The heaviest specimens seldom exceed 11 ounces of this heavier
pound.
6
As : obv. type, head of Janus ; mark of value, I.
Semis ; obv. type, bead of Jupiter
;
mark of
value,
S-
Triens : obv. type, bead of Minerva ; mark of
value, .
Quadrans : obv. type, head of Hercules
;
mark of
value,
.
Sextans : obv. type, bead of Mercurius ; mark of
value, .
Uheia : obv. type, bead of Bellona ; mark oi
value, .
Janus, as the god of beginnings, leads the series,
just as bis month leads the year.
1
"Juno Moneta,"
it will be noticed, is conspicuous by her absence.
How is this to be explained ?
It must be remembered that during this period,
in spite of the general advance, and whatever later
Roman historians may say, the course of Rome's
fortunes was not marked by unbroken prosperity. It
is, indeed, probable that, when the Romans entered
into their first treaty with Carthage, so far from the
Carthaginians making overtures,
2
the Romans were
themselves in need of assistance ; in other words, of
money. It is significant
3
that the goddess Moneta
1
Macdonald, Coin Types,
p.
182.
2
Liv. vii. 27 : Cum amicitiam ac societatem petentes venissent
( Carthaginienses)
.
8
On this subject, see Assmann's ingenious speculations in Klio, vi.,
pp.
477 ff.
7
is first mentioned in connexion with a battle against
the Aurunci in the year 345, when L. Furius Camillus
invoked her aid. The temple which he vowed to her
was built and dedicated on the Capitol in 344.
1
It is generally supposed that the connexion of
the mint with the temple of Juno Moneta on the
Capitol dates only from the third century.
3
But the
evidence to this effect is inadequate. Whether we
accept or reject the ingenious theory which explains
the Latin word moneta as a corruption of the Punic
machanath ("camp"), a legend inscribed on one
of the most important currencies circulating in the
Western Mediterranean in the fourth century,
3
is of
no importance for our present purpose. There can
be little doubt that moneta gave rather than owed its
name to the goddess. Moneta is the personification
of money ; and if the idea she embodies was of
Carthaginian origin, we can understand why she
became identified with Juno.
4
We may take it,
therefore, that the Roman mint was from the first
1
Liv. vii. 28.
2
Marquardt, Eomische Btaatsverw., ii. p. 11. Suidas, $.v. Mojito,
says that the Romans, being short of money in the war against
Pyrrhus, obtained it by following the counsel of Moneta, the
"Adviser," in gratitude to whom they vowed to establish their mint
in the temple of the goddess. This story is partly due to the false
etymology from monere.
8
Hill, Coins
of
Ancient Sicily,
pp.
143 E,
A
Vergil, Aen. i. 671 : Iunonia hospitia. The Carthaginian goddess
is really Astarte.
8
attached to the temple on the Capitol. But in this
still comparatively conservative period, it is not to be
expected that the Eomans should represent on their
coinage a deity who was a somewhat unsubstantial
personification.
The coins struck at the mint of Capua (possibly also
at other Campanian mints, although these cannot have
been important) consist of silver didrachms and librae
(each ^th of a didrachm), and of bronze coins used
as small change. This bronze moneylike most
bronze in the Greek as opposed to the Italian world
was mere token money; its weight does not corre-

spond to its nominal value. The types of the Capuan
coins are various. Besides those of No. 3 we have
the head of Apollo, or of the young Hercules, a horse
and star, or the wolf and twins, on the silver, and
other types on the bronze coins. Some of them
are difficult to explain. The horse's bust may have
been suggested by a similar device on some of the
Carthaginian coins mentioned above.
1
The horse and
star together may represent the Dioscuri, who after-
wards appear on the first silver coinage struck in
Rome itself (Nos. 13
15).
The inscription on these
Capuan coins takes the Campanian or Oscan form
ROMANO,
corresponding to forms like CALENO,
1
Hill , Coins
of
Ancient Sicily, Plate x., 6. This itself reminds us
of the omen which decided the choice of the site of Carthage (Vergil,
Am. i. 442).
9
SVESANO,
found on autonomous coins of the cities
of Campania.
1
The first stage of the Koman coinage lasted down
to 314 or
312,
when the Samnite attempts to wrest
Campania from the Eomans were finally defeated, a
dangerous revolt in Capua itself was crushed, and the
Via Appia, connecting Home with Capua, completed.
The Bomanization of Campania.
Circa 312290 B.C.
4. Obv. Head of Roma r., wearing Phrygian
helmet ; behind,
II-
all on raised disk.
Rev. Archaic wheel of six spokes
;
between two
of them,
II;
all on raised disk.
Cast bronze dwpondius. 600*24 grammes (9263 grains). B.M.O.
Italy,
p. 53, No. 1.
5. Obv. Head of Roma r., wearing Phrygian
helmet; behind, a cornucopiee.
Rev. Victory fastening a taenia to a palm branch
;
behind,
ROMANO;
in front,
y.
Silver didrachm. 6*62 grammes (102*2 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 126,
No. 36.
6. Obv. Eagle to front, displayed, holding thunder-
bolt in its talons.
1
E. S. Conway, however (Italic Dialects, i. p. 144), thinks this form,
in the inscriptions where Latin letters are employed, may be Latin.
10
Nos.
4, 5-
Rev. Pegasus galloping
1
; below,
[r]OMAIMOM
Cast bronze "brick,' 1389*63 grammes (21445 grains). B.M.C.
L, p. 3, No. 2.
The second stage in the development of the Eoman
coinage is marked by a great extension of the functions
of the Capuan mint.
1
At Eome itself little change
seems to have taken place. Only the mark of value
disappears from the obverse of the as ; towards the
end of the period the lowest denomination (uncia) is
discontinued, and the prow is turned to the left instead
of to the right. These changes are insignificant.
But in Campania, in addition to four issues of silver
didrachms (such as No.
5),
not to mention drachms
and small bronze, which continue with modifications
the issues of the previous period, we now find certain
series of heavy bronze or aes grave (such as No.
4),
certain single issues of bar-money or quadrilateral
"
bricks
"
(such as No.
6),
and also perhaps even gold
coins. But the gold issues more probably began for
the first time in the next period (No. 11).
The silver didrachm of this series
2
weighs
6-82 grammes normal, and is the equivalent of
1
The dating and historical interpretation of the coins described in
this section, as in the preceding and in the following, are in aU
essentials due to Haeberlin's Systematic.
a
The
T
on Tne reverse is a series mark, employed by the mint
officials to distinguish the various dies, or batches of coins. In this
series, beginning -with A, the marks run right through the Greek
alphabet and then begin again with AA and once more exhaust the
alphabet to nn.
li
6 silver scruples or scripida of Koman weight. At
the rate of 120 to 1 the didrachm would correspond
in value to 3 asses of bronze,
1
and it is significant that
the highest known denomination of the series of coins
to which No. 4 belongs is not an as, but a tressis or
piece of 3 asses. The connexion of this wheel-series
(as, from the constant reverse type, it is called) of
aes grave with the silver series is further established
by the community of obverse types, and by other
smaller points of contact. The connexion of the quad-
rilateral bricks with the silver is less certain, but may
be regarded as probable. On the brick No. 6 is the
inscription
ROMANOM. It can therefore hardly be
later than this first issue of silver (No.
5)
in this
period, for the subsequent issues have not
ROMANO
or ROMANOM,
but ROMA. On all the other
varieties of bricks the inscription is wanting. This
brick (No. 6)
might, it has been urged, equally well
belong to the first period of the Eoman coinage.
3
Such an arrangement, however, would leave the first
issue of silver in the present period without any
corresponding brick ; whereas, on the system described
above, each of the four issues of silver in this period
would have its corresponding brick.
The helmet worn by Komafor that Eoma is
1
6-82
X 120 = 818-40 == 3
X
272*80.
2
Regling, in Klio
%
vi. p. 500.
12
intended admits of no doubt
1
is of the
u
Phrygian
n
type ; it is crested, and its point ends in a small
griffin's head. This form of helmet seems to convey
an allusion to the legendary foundation of Eome by
exiles from Troy. It has already been suggested that
the reverse type of the earliest Eomano-Campanian
didrachm (the horse's head) may have been inspired
by a Carthaginian model. And here again our Eoman
type reminds us, though somewhat faintly, of the fine
head of a queen wearing a tiara (not a helmet) of
Asiatic form, on certain other Carthaginian pieces.
2
The Victory, as symbolical of the continued advance
of the Roman power, is obviously appropriate to the
occasion of issue.
The reverse type of the new aes grave of the Capuan
minta wheelhas been ingeniously explained as
a symbol of the internal communication which was
established between Eome and Capua by the comple-
tion of the Appian Way. It thus forms a sort of
parallel to the prow on the Eoman aes grave, which
symbolized the newly acquired command of the sea.
3
The quadrilateral brick is one of a class of pieces
which numismatists have as a rule conspired to call
aes signatum, keeping the term aes grave for the
circular coins, while the most primitive amorphous
1
See Haeberlin in Corolla Numismatica
(1906), pp.
135 ff!.,
p. ]46, etc.
2
Hill, Coins
of
Ancient Sicily, pi. x. 7.
3
Haeberlin, Systematise,
p. 32, where an analogy from an imperial
coin is quoted,
13
metal currency is called aes rude. To the last term
no exception whatever can be taken. But, strictly
speaking, any aes marked with a typewhatever its
formis signatum. Since, as we now know, the
quadrilateral pieces did not belong to the earliest
period of Roman coinage, the restriction to them of
the term aes signatum is even less justifiable than it
was when they were supposed to represent the tran-
sition from the amorphous to the circular coins.
On the piece at present before us the eagle, as
the attribute of Jupiter and the symbol of Roman
sovereignty,
1
has a general appropriateness. Of the
Pegasus, on the other hand, no certain explanation
has been offered. The Romans must recently have
become familiar with it as a coin-type, for
"
Pegasi
"
on the Corinthian model
2
had been struck in large
quantities since the middle of the fourth century at
the South Italian city of Locri and at Syracuse, and
in less numbers at small mints, such as Mesma and
Rhegium in Bruttium and Leontini in Sicily. Roman
relations with the eastern shores of the Adriatic were
not as yet very close, but the
"
Pegasi
"
of the various
mints in that part of the world, and of Corinth itself,
must have been common in Italy. This, then, may
have suggested the type. If so, it is improbable that
it has any special mythological significance here.
1
This idea, however, may be of later origin.
2
See Hist. Or. Cains,
pp.
85 f.
14
PL. Iff
O
2
pl. /r
HISTOEXCAL EOMAN COINS
These
< l
bricks,
'
' regarded as money, are only-
surpassed in awkwardness
1
by the enormous bronze
coins of necessity issued in Sweden in comparatively
modern times. But were they really coins after all ?
The weights of the extant specimens vary from 1830
to 1142 grammes. They never, like the contempo-
rary circular money, bear marks of
value. They
very frequently occur in fragments, having been, it
seems, deliberately broken. It is doubtful, therefore,
whether they were actual money. It has been sug-
gested
2
that they were issued by the mint to serve all
purposes hitherto served by the aes rude and the type-
less bars of metal, except the one purpose of monetary
exchange. Bronze was used, for instance, to dedicate
to the gods, or to place with the dead to furnish them
with means for their journey into the other world, or
to supply their needs when arrived there
;
it played a
part in various legal acts, such as emtio-venditio per
aes et libram. An alternative suggestion
3
is that they
were issued as a sort of raw material, which could be
used in large payments together with ordinary circular
bronze. The types impressed upon them would serve
to guarantee the quality of the metal of which they
1
We are reminded of the passage in Livy (iv. 60) in which the
Romans are described as aes grave plauatris ad aerarium convehentes,
because argentum signatum did not yet exist. This was when the
military pay was introduced in the Volscian War at the end of the
fifth century, i.e., before the Romans had any coined money at all
!
2
Haeberlin, op. cit.,
pp.
56 f.
8
Regling in Klio, ut sup., p. 501.
15
were made. Of course the scales would still be
necessary. There is ample evidence that in the Middle
Ages bars of metal, stamped and issued officially by
various mints, were used together with ordinary
coins
;
and it is not improbable that the Eoman gold
bars of the end of the third and the fourth century of
our era often played a similar part. Nevertheless, it
must not be forgotten that these bars, both in late
Eoman and in mediseval times, were made of the
more precious metals then in circulation. Whereas,
when the bronze bricks were used, we know that an
official silver coinage existed. Thus, since, in the
period which we are now considering, the silver
didrachm was worth three asses, a couple of such
didrachms would have more than served the purpose,
from the point of view of exchange value, of one of
these unwieldy bricks. It is possible to urge that in
some of the central districts the silver Eomano-Cam-
panian coinage would perhaps be scarce
;
that, if the
aes grave issued at the Capuan mint was intended
specially for the Latin district, the Capuan silver
would be more or less restricted to Campania. We
j.
may also be reminded of the fact that, in the sacred
well at Vicarello, heaps of the struck Eomano-Cam-
panian bronze occurred together with all sorts of
bronze coins,
1
but no Eomano-Campanian silver.
For the significance of the fact that the Eomano-Campanian money
circulated farther north, see Haeberlin in Zeit.
f.
Num. xxvi. p.
235.
16
This, however, proves little, for silver is seldom found
in sacred deposits,
1
It must, at the same time, be
admitted that Eomano-Campanian silver rarely occurs
in hoards from Central Italy, although the struck
bronze of the same class does so frequently.
2
The
question of the use of the
"
bricks
"
must, therefore,
for the present, be left open ; we cannot disprove the
theory that they may have been used in large pay-
ments, but the theory that they served ceremonial
purposes is by far the most plausible that has yet
been advanced. It is just in such usages that we
should look for the survival of a somewhat clumsy
and inconvenient form.
In the coinage of this period, even as thus briefly
outlined, we see a striking reflection of the gradual
Eomanization of Campania and Latium. The silver
is issued on a Roman standard, based on the scruple
of
1*137 grammes, which is the equivalent of half a
pound of bronze. The relation between the bronze
and silver coinage becomes convenient and har-
monious, the incongruity of the preceding period being
abolished. The apparently Campanian
genitive
ROMANO
is superseded, after the first issue, by
1
Mommsen-Blacas,
Hist, de la Monn. rom. L,
p. 174.
2
The statements of Marchi and Tessieri (L'aes grave del Mm.
Kircheriano, p. 66)
are somewhat vague in regard to the metal of the
coins from "New
Latium," and in the other hoards mentioned by
A. Sambon (Uaes grave Italico,
pp.
11, 12) the
Romano-Campanian
issues represented are all of bronze.
H.B.C.
17
HISTOKICAL ROMAN COINS
ROMA. The personification of Eoma herself appears
as the leading type. At least one of the other types
conveys a direct allusion to the binding together of
Rome and Capua by the Appian "Way.
It is perhaps more than a coincidence that, as
Haeberlin reminds us, the year of the censorship of
the greatest Roman of the age, Appius Claudius
Caecus, is the year to which, on independent grounds,
the reform of the Capuan mint can best be assigned.
It is clear that a far-reaching reform like this could
not have been instituted without his consent ; and it
is reasonable to suppose that the man who joined
Capua to Rome by road also helped to consolidate
the young Roman empire by the highly important
economic measure which we have just discussed.
the final subjection of italy.
290269 b.c.
7. Obv. Head of BellonaL, wearing crested Athenian
helmet ; behind,
Rev. Prow r. ; above, ROMA ; below,
Bronze uncia, 13'48
grammes (208 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 22,
No. 91.
8. Obv. Head of beardless Janus on raised disk
;
above,
I.
Rev. Head of Mercurius 1. in winged petasus, on
raised disk; above, |.
Oast bronze as. 339*25
grammes (5235'4 grains). British Museum
(Parkes Weber gift).
18
PL. V
'-
.
'
>
"
v*
:
^c
Nos.
7,
8.
9. Obv. Head of Apollo r., hair bound with diadem,
on raised disk
;
[above,
|].
Rev. Similar type
1. ; above, I.
Cast bronze as. 346*02 grammes
(5340 grains). B.M.C. Italy,
p. 51, No. 1.
10. Obv. Head of Janus, beardless, laureate.
Rev. Jupiter, with thunderbolt and sceptre, in
four-horse chariot r., driven by Victory
;
below, in sunk letters on a raised tablet,
ROMA.
Silver quadrigalus didrachm.
6*52
grammes (100*6 grains). B.M.C.
II.,
p. 133, No. 90.
11. Obv. Similar type to No. 10
;
below, XXX.
Rev. Two soldiers taking an oath over the body
of a pig, held by a kneeling attendant
;
below, ROMA.
G-old piece of 30 asses. 4*47 grammes
(69
grains). British Museum.
12. Obv. Elephant r.
Rev. Sow 1.
Cast bronze
"
brick." 1746*49 grammes (26952 grains). B.M.C
Italy,
p. 62, No. 1.
The Samnites, whose power was broken at the battle
of Sentinum in 295 B.C., continued the struggle
against Eome until they were forced to conclude
peace in 290. The third phase of the early Eoman
coinage is probably to be dated approximately from
this time. The introduction of the denarius in 269 or
268 gives us the lower limit.
The first historical fact which we must bear in
c2
19
mind is the establishment by Rome of an effectual
control over the whole of Central Italy. By 283 the
Sabine country had been annexed, colonies like Hatria
established on the Adriatic coast, and the Kelts, who
threatened from the North, decisively defeated.
Secondly, this settlement was followed by a displace-
ment of the forces towards the South. The bar-
barians of Central Italy began to press hardly on
the Greek cities of Magna Graecia. The Eomans,
urged to interfere, effectively restored order, estab-
lished garrisons in Locri and other cities, and drove
the Tarentines, jealous of their position, into war.
The success of Eome in the struggle with Tarentum
and Pyrrhus left her mistress of practically the whole
of Italy.
This is a period, then, of transition. Out of a state,
powerful indeed, but still not so powerful that other
Italian states can only despair of success in a struggle
with her, Eome is developing into the undisputed
ruler of the peninsula. The coinage likewise passes
through a transitory phase : various experiments seem
to be made ; the system is complicated, half-hearted,
and lacks uniformity ; and it is only after more than
twenty years of this unsatisfactory state of things that
Eome takes the heroic step of sweeping aside her
rivals in the coinage. She issues her own silver,
which henceforthwith but few exceptionsis the
only silver currency of Italy.
20
PL. VI
Nos. 9it.
HISTORICAL EOMAN COINS
The first innovation in the coinage of the Roman
mint which attracts our notice in this period is a
reduction in the weight of the as. Opinions vary
much as to the degree of this reduction. The actual
weights of the asses of this "older reduction" vary
from 156*65
to
99*60
grammes, with an average of
131-23
grammes. The semisses vary from
89*50
to
57*96
grammes, with an average of
73*16 grammes.
1
If we are to suppose that there was throughout this
period a normal weight for the as, and that the old
Osco-Latin pound was still in use, we are almost
hound to accept the view that the weight was
136*5
grammes, i.e., half the old libra. The new as would
then be the equivalent of the scruple of silver. But,
when we consider the smaller denominations of this
period, from the trims down to the quarter-ww^'a, a
curious fact emerges. The normal weights indicate
that
?
if we assume an as of
136*5 grammes normal, it
was divided not duodecimally, as before, but decimally.
Thus the normal uncia weighs apparently not
11*37
but
13*64
grammes (actual average
12*85 grammes),
le^
^
of the as of
136*5 grammes. How are we to
explain the sudden super/ession of the duodecimal by
the decimal system ?
It is due to the fact
2
that the bronze coinage was
1
Eegling, ut sup.,
p.
495.
2
See Haeberlin, MetroL Grundlagen,
pp.
104 f
.
; also his Systematic,
p. 39.
21
now regarded as subordinate to the silver
;
the semi-
libral as was merely the equivalent in bronze of the
silver scruple. Now in the Komano-Campanian silver
system the unit, or scruple, was divided decimally into
ten libellae
;
the actual denominations were all issued
in bronze, in the shape of pieces of
4, 3,
2 Ubettae,
1 libella and
~
libella. Since the dominant unit, the
silver scruple, was divided decimally, it is not sur-
prising that the subordinate unit, the bronze as, was
divided in the same way.
Such being the relation between the two units, the
reduction of the as was a matter of course
;
it and the
other denominations were bound in time to become a
sort of token-money, although we do not know that
any restriction was placed on the amount of such coin
which could be tendered at a time. The reduction of
the bronze has been regarded as a sign of state-bank-
ruptcy
;
but it was nothing of the kind, so long as the
bronze was covered by the silver issues of the state.
This being so, why should the government have been
at pains to fix the weight of the bronze coins ? The
reason was that the ordinary Roman, if he was like the
ordinary modern, would never really understand the
nature of token-money. A reduction in the size of
the British penny would be quite enough to produce a
popular outcry and shake the public confidence. In
order to reassure the public, therefore, it may well be
that the Eoman state pretended, from time to time,
22
PL. VII
O
PL. VIII
to regulate the weight of the as, while allowing it
gradually to sink. But the evidence of the coins
themselves shows that any such action can have been
little more than a pretence.
Wemust not leave the question of the first reduction
of the as without mentioning Haeberlin's suggestion
that it was associated with a public remission of debts.
By the reduction of the weight of the as, debtors
would be proportionately relieved. Now, about the
beginning of our present period (288
286)
the Plebs,
after long and serious disturbances on account of
debt, seceded to the Janiculum ; they returned at the
instance of the dictator Q. Hortensius.
1
It is quite
possible that they returned only on condition of the
remission of their debts by some such measure as the
halving of the as. If so, the beginning of our period
must be fixed in 286 B.C.
2
The reduction in the weight, and therefore in the
size, of the bronze coins brought about a technical
change. The uncia No. 7,
unlike the pieces of aes
grave with which we have met so far, is struck, not
cast. It is a difficult matter to make dies of a large
size strong enough to stand the strain of striking.
Thanks to the reduction, it became possible for the
Bomans to produce by striking not only the uncia,
^
uncia, and
J
uncia, but also the sextans or piece of
1
Liv. Epit. Ubri xi.
2
Haeberlin, Sy&termtik,
pp.
44 f.
23
2 unciae. The higher denominations continued to
be made with moulds, until the further reduction
brought these also within the range of the engraver
of dies.
Two series of aes grave, other than the ordinary
Eoman series just considered, were produced in this
period. They are known as the heavy Janus-Mercurius
and the heavy Apollo series,
1
from the types of the
asses in each (see Nos.
8, 9).
Coins of the former series
are characterized by bad workmanship and rudeness
of style, by comparatively low relief, by a weight
based on the pound of 327'45
grammes,
2
and by a
greyish granular oxide common in the district round
Eome ; they also occur in the famous deposit of
Vicarello in much greater quantities than the Apollo
series (1109 as against 108 pieces). The coins of the
Apollo series, on the other hand, are of good style
unusually good for aes graveand in high relief,

conform to a different standard (a pound of 341
grammes),
3
and have the fine smooth green or brown
patina characteristic of Campania. The Apollo series
is accordingly assigned to the Capuan mint, the
Janus-Mercurius series to the Eoman. The head of
1
To be distinguished from the light series -with corresponding types,
and symbols (sickle and vine-leaf) on their reverses
; these belong to
the previous period.
2
Both Nos. 8 and 9 are above the normal weights, as is often the
case with aes grave. Cp. Haeberlin, Metrolog. Qnmdlagen,
p. 41.
3
See Haeberlin, Metrolog. Grundlagen,
p.
21.
24
Janus on these coins is beardless, not bearded as on
the prow series. We find the same head on the
earliest Capuan silver and gold, with which we shall
deal presently.
1
Thus we now see the pound of 327*45 grammes
(with the scruple of 1-137 grammes as its ^--3-
P
ar
^)
definitely established in Rome.
At Capua, the only silver coins issued in this period
are the well-known quadrigati (No.
10),
struck on
the same standard as their predecessors. The types,
it is to be observed, are purely Roman. The Capuan
mint also issued large quantities of struck bronze of
smaller denominations, the libella, its multiples (up
to
4)
and its half.
More remarkable are the gold coins (No. 11)the
first issued under Roman authority
which accom-
panied the silver quadrigati. They have a similar
obverse, but on the reverse is a representation of
two soldiers taking an oath over the body of a
sacrificed swine. There are three denominations,
the didrachm weighing 6 scruples, a piece weighing
4 scruples, and the drachm of 3 scruples. On the
piece of 4 scruples (No. 11)
appears a mark of
value,
XXX, showing it to be equal to 30 asses.
These are supposed to be 30 asses of Italic weight,
i.e., of 273 grammes each. This may well be so,
1
The lack of a beard on this double head is not sufficient reason for
assuming it to represent some deity other than Janus.
25
for, although, the new pound may have now come
in at Borne, there would be nothing surprising in the
retention of the older pound, as a unit of reckoning
at least, in Campania.
1
Of the various "bricks" which are attributed to
this period, one (No.
12),
is of peculiar interest, for it
is impossible to deny that in some way or other it
must be associated with the war with Pyrrhua.
Legend says that at the battle of Ausculum in
279 B.C. the elephants of Pyrrhus were frightened by
the grunting of swine on the Koman side.
2
The five
elephants taken later at the battle of Beneventum
were led in triumph in 273, and it was probably
on this occasion, when elephants were first seen in
Rome, that the piece was issued at Capua.
3
Whether
the story of the swine is true, or had already been
invented by that time, or was even a later growth,
inspired by the types of the "brick," who shall
say?
1
The extremely difficult problems connected with this early gold
coinage have been discussed by Haeberlin (Zeit.
f.
Num. xxvi.,
pp.
229 f.).
In particular he has rehabilitated the piece of 30 asses,
which was generally supposed to be false.The equation of 4 scruples
of gold to 30 asses of bronze of the Italic weight gives a ratio of
1820 : 1 as between gold and bronze, and if silver was to bronze as
120 : 1, of
15i
: i as between gold and silver. 30 X
273 = 8190 =
approximately 1820 X
1-137
X 4; and 1820 = 120
X
15J.
2
Aelian de nut. anim, I. 38.
3
Haeberlin, Systematik,
p. 54.
26
HISTOBICAL EOMAN COINS
the inauguration op an imperial coinage.
268 b.c.
13. Obv. Head of Eoma r. in winged helmet, orna
mented with griffin's head
;
behind,
X.
Rev. The Dioscuri on horseback, charging r.
;
below, on tablet, ROMA.
Silver denarius. 4*32
grammes (66*7 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 15,
No. 6.
14. Similar to preceding, but
V instead of X on obv.,
and ROMA on rev.
Silver quinarius. 2
-
03 grammes (31'3 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 15,
No. 10.
15. Similar to No. 13, but MS
instead of X, and
ROMA.
Silver sestertius. 1*07 grammes (16*5 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 16,
No. 13.
16. Obv. Head of Janus, laureate; above,
I.
Rev. Prow r.
;
above I ;
below, ROMA.
Struck bronze as. 43-16 grammes (666 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 29,
No. 219.
17. Obv. Bust of Jupiter r. laureate; behind,
S.
Rev. Prow r. ; below, ROMA
;
above, S.
Struck bronze semis. 20*41
grammes (315 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 31,
No. 232.
18. Obv. Head of Eoma i\, in winged helmet;
behind, V.
27
HISTORICAL KOMAN COINS
Rev. The Dioscuri charging r. ; below their
horses, b
;
in exergue, ROMA.
Silver quinarius.
2*11
grammes (32*6 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p.
179,
No. 151.
19. Obv. Head of Jupiter r. laureate.
Rev. Victory crowning a trophy ; in exergue,
ROMA.
Silver victoriatm.
3*22
grammes (49*7 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 36,
No. 296.
"Imperial" is not too grand an epithet for the
coinage on the new system inaugurated by Eome in
269-8 B.C. The denarius, at first intended as the
standard coin of the Italian possessions, spread with
the extension of the Eoman dominions beyond the
seas, and eventually dominated the currency of the
civilized world for more than five hundred years.
Not until the end of the third century after Christ,
when it had sunk, it is true, to be a pitiable reflection
of the excellent money as which it began, was it
finally superseded by a new silver denomination. All
through the Middle Ages the name persisted, and its
initial still provides the abbreviation for the English
"penny."
We are fortunate in knowing within a couple of
years the date of the great reform. Pliny's reckoning
which is circumstantially stated
gives us 269 b.c.

1
1
N. H. 33. 13
(44) : Argentum signatum anno urbis cccclxxxv,
Q. Ogulnio C. Fabio cos., quinque annis ante primum Punicum bellum.
28
HISTOEICAL ROMAN COINS
The Epitome of Livy
1
places the change between
the foundation of the colonies of Ariminum and
Beneventum on the one hand, and the subjection of
the Umbrians and Sallentines on the other. The two
colonies in question were founded in 268 B.C.; the
wars with the Umbrians and Sallentines seem to have
gone on during 267 and 266. It may be that the
rogation introducing the reform dated from 269, the
coinage itself from the next year. It would take
some time, when once the law was passed, to organize
the Eoman mint for the production of silver.
Engravers would have to be fetched from Capua, and
new workshops for striking coins installed. Hitherto
few but cast coins had been issued from Eome. If
the law was passed late in 269, it would be surprising
if the coins were issued before 268.
2
The denarius was, as its name implies, the silver
equivalentof 10bronze asses; henceits markof value, X.
Similarly the quinarius (marked
V),
and the sestertius
or semis-tertius (marked IIS), are the equivalents
of
5 and 2\ asses respectively.
3
Let us for the
moment
et placuit denarium pro decern librls aeris valere, quinarium pro
quinque, sestertium pro dupondio ac semisse.
1
Epit. lib. xv, : Coloniae deductae ArvmiTuim in Piceno, Beneventum
in Samnio. tunc primum populus Romanus argento uti coepit. Umbri
et Sallentini victi, etc.
2
A certain amount of confirmation of the date 268 is to be gathered
from an independent passage of Pliny relating to the coinage of
217 B.C., which we shall discuss later.
8
The dividing dot between the two units in the sestertius mark has
29
assume that when the denarius was introduced the
weight of the as was fixed by law. The normal
weight of the earliest denarius is
4*55
grammes
(4
scruples). At the rate of 120 :
1,
it would be
equivalent to 546 grammes of bronze, or 10 pieces of
54*6
grammes. The as of the time must therefore
have weighed
54-6
grammes, which is
(the sextans)
of the pound of 327*45
grammes. In other words,
the as of the original denarius system was of the
sextantal standard.
There is, however, a certain body of opinion in
favour of the view that the as had not fallen quite so
low at the time of the introduction of the denarius,
and that it belonged not to the sextantal but to the
triental standard ; that is to say, that the denarius was
the equivalent in value of 10 asses of
109
'15 grammes.
Such an equation postulates a ratio between silver
and bronze of no less than 240 : l.
1
We should there-
fore have to assume that, when the denarius was
instituted, silver was forced up in value to twice as
much as it had been hardly a generation before.
There is nothing incredible in this, since, as we have
seen, silver was now the dominant partner in the
system, and the bronze coin was little more than a
token. Still, so violent a change in the ratio
between
been combined with them so as to give the sign
HS
generally used in
texts for sestertitis.
1
1091-5 = 239"8
X
4'55.
30
the metals would probably have excited apprehension,
and it is much more probable that when the denarius
was introduced the bronze as had actually fallen to
so low a weight that the equation was possible with
the old ratio of 120 : 1.
The triental system, it has been argued, must have
been in force in 268, since as late as 246, when the
Eoman colony of Brundusium was founded, the
coinage of that place was instituted on the triental
standard. Mommsen maintained that, if this Eoman
colony issued coins on the triental standard at the
time of its foundation, that standard must have then
been in use at Eome itself. But it is impossible to
insist on such an argument, in view of our scanty
knowledge of the relative values of bronze and silver
in Calabria at this time. On that relation partly, and
not wholly on the relation in force at Eome, would
depend the standard adopted for the bronze coinage
in the new colony. Or, it may well be that, in order
to spread the influence of the denarius, the Eomans
gave it a forced value in their colonies, such as they
could not afford to give to it at Eome itself. If a
denarius was worth 10 triental asses in Brundusium,
and only 10 sextantal asses in Eome, denarii would
tend to flow towards the colony.
A very doubtful support is given to Mommsen's
theory by
the statement of Pliny
1
that the weight of
i
N,
E
r 33. 44.
31
HISTORICAL SOMAN COINS
the as was reduced during the first Punic War.
Pliny indeed leads one to suppose that the libral
weight had been maintained up to then, and that it
was suddenly lowered to the sextantal. In view of
the weights of the extant coins, this is either nonsense,
or to be interpreted as meaning that the reduced
weight was not legally recognized until the
sextantal stage was reached. Pliny's statement is
so far in favour of Mommsen's theory that it implies
that the sextantal stage was first legally recognized
during the first Punic War. But we have seen what
a serious difficulty is caused by supposing that the
legal as was more than sextantal when the denarius
was
introduced. It is quite likely that Pliny may
have been anxious to find an honourable excuse for
the reduction of the asunnecessarily, since, as we have
seen, the reduction was a natural development and
not a symptom of state bankruptcyand so hit upon
the stress of the first Punic War as offering circum-
stances sufficiently straitened. The probabilities,
however, are all in favour of the sextantal as having
been legalized when the denarius was introduced. Up
till that time, since the mint at Eome issued no silver,
it may not have seemed so necessary to fix the weight
of the asj although the number of asses which went to
the silver unit was doubtless constant. But when
both silver and bronze began to be issued from Eome
it would obviously be desirable not merely to define
32
the exchange, but also to determine by law the weight
of the bronze money.
We have seen that in the previous period the as was
divided decimally. With the introduction of the
denarius system a return was made to the duodecimal
division.
"
From the moment when in the capital the
clear principle of a parallel double standard took the
place of a fluctuation between a silver standard and
the expression thereof in bronze, the denarius was
divided into ten asses, the as into twelve unciae.
'
'
* That
is to say, each metal was now coined on its natural
divisional system.
The head of Eoma
2
on the new silver coinage is
considerably altered from the form in which the early
Capuan silver showed it. The helmet is no longer
"
Phrygian"; it is of the ordinary round shape with
visor, provided, however, with wings and with a griffin-
headed crest such as decorated the old "Phrygian"
helmet. This, with slight modifications, long con-
tinues to be the usual head-dress of Eoma, although
the Phrygian form is occasionally revived.
The Dioscuri are represented charging, as the later
Koman tradition conceived their epiphania at the battle
of Lake Eegillus in 496 B.C. The older tradition,
preserved by Livy, seems to have been merely that
1
Haeberlin, Metrol. Grundlagen,
p.
105.
2
Certainly not Minerva. See Haeberlin, Der Boma-Typus, in
Corolla Numismatica,
pp.
135155.
H.R.C. D
33
Aulus Postumius vowed a temple to Castor. But
before the denarius was introduced Pollux had become
the inseparable twin-brother of Castor, in accordance
with the Greek conception of the pair, and perhaps
also with the legend of their intervention at the battle
of the Sagra on the side of the Locrians against the
Crotoniates.
1
But apart from all this the significance
of the type, from a monetary point of view, lies in the
fact that the Dioscuri were the tutelary divinities of
the Eoman knights, i.e., of that class of the sovereign
people who were especially occupied with commerce,
so that their temple was in the heart of the business
quarter.
2
The reduction of the as to one-sixth of the original
weight, and the corresponding reduction of the
smaller denominations, brought them all down to a
diameter (the as measuring about an inch and a half)
which made it possible to strike them with dies
instead of casting them in moulds. In the previous
period this had not been possible for denominations
larger than the triens. Some of the latest of the
cast coins, by their grotesque rudeness, offer a curious
contrast to the struck pieces.
What was the effect on the coinage of Italy in
general of the important changes which we have
1
Justin xx. 3. Bethein Pauly-Wissowa, Reahncychp.
V. 1105. The
battle took place about 520 B.C.
3
Mominsen-Blacas, ii.,
p. 29 ; Macdonald, Coin Types,
p.
183.
34
described ? Capua continued to issue the silver
quadrigatty perhaps even as late as the Hannibalian
War ; but the issue was limited, and the metal
eventually adulterated. Elsewhere in Italy the local
silver coinage came to an end, with one or two excep-
tions. Of these the most important was the coinage
of the Bruttians, which was continued down to the
Hannibalian War. It is possible that Tarentum and
Neapolis also continued their silver currency in a
limited measure.
1
In regard to bronze, the local
mints, so far as we know, were little, if at all, restricted.
To compensate for the cessation of the independent
coinage of silver, the Romans established mints for
coinage on the denarius system in various places, such
as Hatria, Croton, Luceria. Some of these issues can
be identified by mint-marks : thus the quinarius No. 1
8
is attributed to Luceria on the ground of the letter
h
(for
l),
which it bears. In other cases the local
coinage is distinguished merely by its somewhat
ruder workmanship, and cannot be assigned to specific
mints.
But in addition to the local issues of coins on the
denarius system, the Romans established, either about
the same time or a little later,
2
a currency which is
represented by the victoriatus (No. 19).
The reason
1
See A. J. Evans, The
"
Horsemen
"
of
Tarentum,
pp.
165 f.
2
The date generally accepted is 229 B.C., when Corcyra, Apollonia,
and Dyrrhachium submitted to Eome, retaining however some
considerable measure of autonomy.. Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
p.
93.
D 2
35
for the name is clear from the type of the reverse.
The normal weight of the victoriatus in the first period
of its existence was

of the denarius
,
i.e., 3 scruples
or
3-41
grammes. It was, however, regarded not as a
denomination subordinate to the denarius, but as a
unit by itself ; witness the fact that its half was
marked with
S,
just as was the half as. What is
more, from the purely Eoman point of view, it was
not looked upon as a regular coin. It is the only piece
not marked with its value. It follows that, though it
had of course a commercial value, it was not legal
tender.
"
A man who was owed 300 denarii could be
forced to take 600 quinarii or 1200 sesterces, but
ndX"^
400 victoriati."
1
It was, as Pliny says, treated mercis
loco.
2
Why was this ?
The fact is that the victoriatus took the place of the
Campanian drachm, the half of the quadrigatus
didrachm, the drachm having ceased to be issued
before its double, which, as we have said, lingered
on until nearly the end of the century. The victoriatus
weighed the same as the drachm which it succeeded,
and was struck in all the local Eoman mintsLuceria,
Vibo Valentia, Croton, Corcyra and the like. It also
weighed the same as certain currencies of important
trading cities in Illyricum, viz., Apollonia and
Dyrrhachium. Whether the victoriatus or the Illyric
1
Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
p. 87.
2
N. H. 33. 46.
36
coinages on this standard came first we cannot know.
In either case, the uniformity of system points to the
importance of trade between Italy and the Illyric
coast. But the way in which Eoman influence was,
through the Eomano-Campanian coinage, pervading the
Mediterranean coast is also shown by the facts that the
latest Tarentine didrachms are based on a standard of
6 scruples, and that a great trading port like Massalia
found it desirable to assimilate its standard to that of
the Eomano-Campanian 3-scruple drachm.
The victoriatus, then, was not part of the home
coinage properly speaking, but a kind of feeler thrown
out by Eome before she decided to make the denarius
itself a world coinage. When she found herself able
to do this, she abolished the victoriatus as a separate
denomination, by equating it to the quinarius. This
was effected by the Clodian law, about 104 B.C.
1
the crisis of the first punic war.
242 b.c.
20. Obv. Bust of Mars, r. wearing crested helmet,
behind,
lK
Rev. Eagle r. on thunderbolt, flapping its wings
;
below, ROMA.
Gold. 60 sesterce piece. 3*41 grammes (52*6 grains). B.M.C.
I.,
p. 27, No. 185.
1
On the significance of the victoriatus, as outlined above, see
Haeberlin in Zeit.f. Num. xxvi., p. 238.
37
HISTOEICAL BOMAN COINS
21. Similar to preceding, but with, anchor as symbol
on reverse.
Gold. 60 sesterce piece. 3*34
grammes (51*5 grains). B.M.C.
H.,
p. 155, No. 19.
22. Similar to No.
20,
but with mark of value XXXX,
and on reverse ROMA.
Gold. 40 sesterce piece. 2*23 grammes (34*5 grains). B.M.C.
I.,
p. 27, No. 187.
23. Similar to No. 20, but with mark of value XX,
and on reverse
ROMA-
G-old. 20 sesterce piece. 1*12
grammes (17'2 grains). B.M.C.
I.,
p. 27, No. 190.
24. Obv. Head of Eoma r. ; behind, X.
Rev. The Dioscuri on horseback charging r. ; below
horses, anchor ; on tablet, ROMA.
Silver denarius. 4'06
grammes (62*7 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 155,
No. 21.
The date of the first issue of gold from the mint at
Eome is a matter of much dispute. Pliny has a
definite statement to the effect that the
"
gold coin
was first struck 51 years after the silver, the scripulum
being equivalent to 20 sestertii, and the pound there-
fore amounting in value to 5760 sestertii of the
time."
1
Fifty-one years from the introduction of the
1
Nt H. 33. 47. His source here is probably not the same as that
whence he derived the date 217 B.C. for the uncial reduction and the
equation of the denarius to 16 asses (see below, Nos. 26, 27). The
passage is tacked on, at the end of the section about coinage, some-
what loosely, and looks like a note taken from some other authority.
As regards the date, the good Bamberg MS. reads LI, the others LXIL
38
denarius bring us to 218 or 217 B.C., according as we
accept the Plinian or the Livian date for the earlier
reform. Now it is a principle well-known to numis-
matists, and evidently familiar also to ancient
historians, that isolated gold coinages were usually
initiated in times of monetary distress. There was
no unusual strain on the Eoman finances in the year
218.
1
The Senate took no steps to raise extraordinary
forces for the coming opening campaign. But after
the disaster of Trasimene in April, 217, all the circum-
stances were such as would justify the issue of a special
gold coinage. "We have therefore here an independent
confirmation
2
of the Livian
(268)
as against the
Plinian date
(269)
for the introduction of the
denarius.
Now the date
217, to which the issue of gold coin
is on this evidence assigned, has generally been
accepted as correct. We have little pieces of gold of
three denominations, with marks of value representing
60 (Nos.
20, 21),
40 (No. 22) and 20 (No.
23),
and
Willers [Corolla Numism.,
p. 314) corrects to LX, and makes the
passage refer to the well-known gold Romano-Campanian coins with
the oath-taking scene, which he assigns to 209 B.C. He has not made
out his case
;
see Haeberlin in Zeit.
/.
Num. xxvi.,
pp.
241 f.
1
See Mommsen, Hist,
of
Rome, or the passage from Neumann quoted
by Willers, op. tit., p. 312.
2
The confirmation is not affected by the possibility that no such
gold coinage was really struck in 217 b,o. We assume that Pliny's
authority thought it was, and made his chronological reckoning
accordingly.
39
equating them to as many sestertii respectively.
The
denominations weigh in scruples
3,
2 and 1 respec-
tively. There is no reason to doubt that Pliny's
authority had these coins in mind when he gave
the value of the gold scruple in sesterces. Whether
he is right in his date is quite another question.
Count de Salis, in his arrangement of the British
Museum collection, divided our gold pieces into two
classes,
(1)
those of poor style, with moneyers' symbols,
(2)
those of good style, without symbols. The latter
he assigned to Eome ; the others, with the corre-
sponding denarii and bronze coins, he assigned to local
mints
;
and both classes, according to his chronological
classification, belong to about
240
229 b.c.
Now, what is the basis of this chronology ? If we
take the gold pieces which bear symbols, and which
were apparently issued at local mints, we find the
following symbols : anchor, spear-head, staff, pentagon,
ear of corn. The same symbols occur also on denarii
and on bronze of the sextantal standard. But those
who wish to maintain the later date of the gold pieces
in question point out that four out of these five
symbols, viz., the anchor, the spear-head, the staff,
the pentagon, occur on denarii or bronze coins which
must, owing to the bronze being uncial in standard,
be ascribed to a later date, since the uncial standard
superseded the sextantal in 217 B.C. It does not,
however, follow from this that the gold coins must
40
belong to the later date, but only that we are free to
make our choice between the two dates. The bulk of
the evidence of the symbols points to the earlier, and
so also does the style of the gold coins which, in the
specimens assigned to the Eoman mint by de Salis, is
very much better than the style of the denarii which
belong to the years about 217 B.C.
But if we accept de Salis's date, Pliny's statement
as to the year in which gold was first struck at Eomc
must be rejected. That statement may indeed well
have been due to some antiquary's constructive
imagination. We must not, as we have already seen,
be misled by Pliny's circumstantiality.
1
There is
nothing more easy than to be circumstantial in support
of a conjecture. An antiquary, who had made up his
mind that these gold coins were issued during the
great Hannibalian crisis, would very naturally reckon
back to see how many years it was since the intro-
duction of the silver coinage. The fact that Pliny
specifies this number of years adds no credibility to
his statement. The modern archseologist bases his
date, right or wrong, on the comparison between the
gold coins themselves and the other objects with which
they must have been contemporary, viz., the denarii
1
He is of course often demonstrably "wrong, and usually muddled
;
but Mommsen (h\,
p. 12) unnecessarily accuses him, or his and
Festus's authority, Verrius Flaccus, of saying that the quadrigati and
bigati were the most ancient denarii. The passage means no more
than that the quadrigati and bigati were so called from their types.
41
and bronze coins, which by their weight or style are
shown to belong to the period before the Hannibalian
crisis.
There is no other Eoman gold coinage which can
reasonably be attributed to the year 217 or 218 B.C. If
the theory described above is true, then either Pliny's
source is untrustworlhy, or Pliny himself has mis-
understood his authority, or such gold coins as were
then struck have disappeared.
Next let us examine de Salis's date, and see
whether we can narrow its limits. His suggestion of
240
229 B.C. may be allowed to include a margin of
a few years on either side. Now, in antiquity, such
isolated gold coinages as we are discussing were, as
we haye said, almost always issued during crises. A
good instance is the gold coinage struck when the
Arcadians seized Olympia in 365 B.C. and placed the
conduct of the games in the hands of the Pisatans.
1
The exceptional gold issues of Athens dating from
407 and 338 b.c are well known. "Recently, a group
of electrum coins struck by Chios and other Ionian
states has been, with great probability, ascribed to
the crisis of the Ionic Eevolt.
2
The types of the coins
before us, be it noted, are distinctly martial. But in
240 b.c Eome had passed through her crisis. The
1
Eist. Greek Coins,
p.
76.
2
P. Gardner, The Gold Coinage
of
Asia be/ore Alexander the Great
in Proc, Brit Acad. iii.
42
First Punic "War was just over. The time was there-
fore not apt for a special coinage.
"We have, however, seen that, according to the
most probable chronology, the sextantal standard was
legalized as early as 268 B.C. So far, therefore, as we
may argue from the sextantal bronze coins with which
the local issues of gold are associated, that gold coinage
may date back to 268 B.C. The denarii with symbols
,
on the other hand, do not seem to be of quite the
earliest type. In fact, the mere appearance of the
symbol is a sign that they are likely to be compara-
tively late. It may be suggested, therefore, that the
coinage in question belongs to the end of the First
Punic War, in fact to that final crisis which imme-
diately preceded the victory of Catulus at Aegusa
(10 March, 241). We know that the fleet which
won this battle was provided by private subscription.
Two hundred ships manned by sixty thousand men :
for such a force a special issue of coin must have been
necessary. It is to this date then that we would
conjecturally attribute the gold coins of 60,
40 and 20
sesterces, and the corresponding silver and bronze
coins.
Such is the argument in favour of an early date for
the gold pieces of
60,
40 and 20 sesterces. The argu-
ments against it, as summarized by Dr. Haeberlin,
1
1
In a private communication, for which I desire to express my
indebtedness.
43
are:
(1)
if it is accepted, Pliny's evidence must be
rejected
; (2)
the fleet in 242 was raised by private
efforts, not by the state
;
(3)
it is probable that a
gold issue accompanied the uncial reform of
217,
gold being tariffed above its real value ; and such an
excessive value for gold suits no other year better
than the crisis of
217
;
(4)
the evidence from the
symbols is not against the later date. With
(1)
and
(4)
we have already dealt. In reply to
(2)
it may be
said that although the fleet was raised by voluntary
efforts, money was necessary to pay the crews.
Demarete voluntarily provided the treasure out of
which the Demareteia were coined, but it was the state
that coined them.
1
As regards
(3),
there was a crisis
in 242, as there was in 217
;
though perhaps not so
serious, it might easily have led to the issue of gold
at a rate above its real value.
the acquisition of corcyra.
229 b.c.
25. Obv. Head of Jupiter r., laureate.
Rev. Victory crowning a trophy ; in exergue,
ROyuvA ; in the field, monograms of
KOPK
and AT.
Silver victoriatus. 2*77 grammes (42*7 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 197,
No. 227.
One of the consequences of the expedition to Scodra
1
Hist. Greek Coins,
p. 38.
44
and the suppression of the Illyrian pirates in 229 B.C.
was that Corcyra became an
"
ally
"
of Eome, under
a Eoman governor. This was the first step of the
Eomans across the Adriatic. Its importance is illus-
trated by the fact that on, or soon after, the acquisi-
tion of the island coins of distinctly Eoman character
were struck there. The monograms containing the
first three or four letters of the name of Corcyra, and
the first two letters of the name of a Corcyraean
magistrate
(' Ay-qa-avhpos
?y
are all that distinguish this
vietoriatus and a contemporary quinarius from the
victoriati and quinarii issued at Italian mints. The
monogram of the name of Corcyra is of a form actually
found on local coins,
2
so that there can be no doubt as
to the attribution.
Wehave already
(p.
36) had to deal incidentally with
the origin of the vietoriatus. It is hardly necessary to
say that the existence of this particular vietoriatus, with
the mint-mark of Corcyra, which could not have been
issued before 229 B.C., does not prove that no victoriati
were issued before that date. The actual course of
events was probably that at a somewhat earlier
period the Eomans began by issuing victoriati from
Eome itself, although they were intended, as we have
seen
(p. 37),
for extra-Eoman currency. Then, when
1
This was the name of a Corcyraean prytanis
;
see F. Lenormant in
Bev.Nwm., 1868, p.
152.
3
B.M.C. Thessaly to Aetolia,
pp.
140 ff.
45
more mints were established in the peninsula, they
issued victoriati with local mint marks, such as
L, C,
B, H,
or VB in monogram : marks which have been
assigned to Luceria, Canusium, Beneventum, Her-
donea and Yibo Yalentia. The Corcyra mint-mark
ranks with these. It is a general rule that of two
similar series of coins, one with and the other without
differentiating marks, the former is the earlier, since
such differentiae are usually due to increasing com-
plexity of organization.
APTER TRASIMENE.
217 B.C.
26. Obv. Head of Eoma r., in winged helmet;
behind,
X.
;
below, on tablet, ROMA ;
symbol, prow r.
Silver denarius. 4*02 grammes (62*0 grains). B.M.O. L, p. 54,
No. 448.
27. Obv. Head of Jupiter r., laureate; behind,
S.
Rev. Prow r. ; below, ROMA ; above, symbol,
prow r. ; to r.
S-
Bronze semis. 14*64 grammes (226*0 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 54,
No. 454.
The reduction of the bronze as from the weight of
two ounces to one is by general consent dated to the
crisis of the Hannibalian war. Verrius Flaccus, an
46
PL. IX
Nos.
1327.
antiquary of the Augustan age, is the authority
l
for
the statement : numerum aeris perduct[um esse ad
xvi in denario lege Fla]minia minus solvendi, cu[m
Hannibalis bello premere]tur populus romanus.
Pliny
2
is probably, though not certainly, quoting
from the same source when he says :
"
When Hannibal
was pressing the Romans hard, in the dictatorship
of Q.
Fabius Maximus, the as was made uncial, and
it was decided that the denarius should exchange for
16 asses, the quinarius for eight, the sestertius for four.
Thus the state made a gain of a half
"
(the as having
been previously of the weight of two unciae)^
"
but,
in paying military wages one denarius was always
given for 10 assesV On this stage in the develop-
ment of the Eoman coinage some further light is
thrown by a passage of Zonaras:
3
"Hieron sent
many contributions, of which the Eomans accepted
only the corn and a figure of Victory, although they
were in such pecuniary straits that they adulterated
with bronze the silver money which had hitherto been
unadulterated and pure."
Another passage of Pliny relating to this same
year 217,
and the supposed first issue of gold money,
has already been discussed (above,
p.
21).
There is a contradiction between the passages of
1
Apud Festum, p. 347, quoted by Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
p.
11.
2
N. H., 33. 45.
3
8.26.
47
Pliny
and of Festus, since, as Mommsen points out,
Flaminius was dead before Fabius became dictator.
If the reform was due to a lex Flaminia, it must have
been promulgated before the battle of Trasimene.
But the dictatorship of Fabius is probably, and very
naturally, used to date the whole year, although he
only held office for part of it.
The authorities are silent on another important
change which was made in this year. The weight
of the denarius was reduced by about one-sixth. It
had previously weighed about
4*55
grammes
(4
scruples); it henceforth weighed about 3*90
grammes
(3^
scruples),
1
or -^ of a pound instead of
^.
Denarii
of about this weight (No.
26)
are associated with the
uncial as and its divisions, such as the semis (No.
27).
It will be noticed that the two coins illustrated have
the same differentia, a prow. Since the denarius now
weighed
-%
of the pound and was, as we are told, the
equivalent of 16 asses of uncial weight, it follows
that -^ lb. of silver was the equivalent of
if
lb. of
bronze, so that the relation of silver to bronae was
112 : l.
a
The annual stipendium of the soldier
was 1200
asses. For this he continued to receive 120 denarii,
and not 75 only, as he would have done had he been
1
It is significant that this is the weight of the Carthaginian drachm.
Haeberlin, Metrolog. Grundlagen,
p. 61, note.
if X
84 = 112.
48
subjected to the new rate. Later, Julius Caesar
trebled the number of asses in the stipendium, giving
3600 instead of 1200 ; but he reckoned these asses
at the modern rate of 16 to the denarius, so that he
paid his soldiers 225 denarii a year.
1
The fact that in 217 B.C. the number of asses for
which a denarius was given, in estimating the pay of
the Eoman legionary, remained unchanged, is supposed
to account for the retention of the mark of value X.
That mark, indeed, was probably by this time
regarded as denoting the name rather than the value
of the coin. The numerals
XVI
appear for a short
time on denarii which may be dated about 140 B.C.
2
Still later (about
125),
the form * appears, and
becomes usual. This does not mean
XV
I,
as some
have supposed, but is merely
X
differentiated as
denominational mark by means of a horizontal stroke.
The stroke was more often, in such cases, placed
above the letter; but a passage of Maecianus
3
con-
firms the explanation just given, for besides the
form * for denarius he gives a
V
similarly erased as
the mark of the quinarius. The quinarius was not
issued again until the end of the second century;
when it reappeared, it was marked with a
Q
.
1
Tao. Ann., i., 17.
8
Ghrueber, B.M.C., Rom. Rep., i.,
p.
118.
3
Hultsch, Metrol. Script., u.
}
p.
66.
H.E.C. E
49
HANNIBAL IN CAPUA.
216215 B.C.
28. Obv. Janiform head of Persephone, wearing corn-
wreath.
Rev. Jupiter in quadriga r., driven by Victory
;
he holds sceptre in 1. and wields thunder-
bolt in r.
Electrum. 2*79 grammes (43'0 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p.
139,
No. 147.
The attribution of these coins, as regards date and
mint, is more or less conjectural ; but the conjecture
1
has been generally accepted. The types, on the
obverse recalling, on the reverse actually repeating,
the types of the quadrigati (see No.
10),
identify the
mint, without possibility of reasonable doubt, as
Capua. But instead of the beardless head of Janus,
we have a janiform head of a divinity wearing a
wreath of corn-ears, in which every person acquainted
with the coins of Carthage will recognize a janiform
representation of the goddess Persephone, as the artists
of the later Carthaginian issues conceived her. She
is made janiform in order to appeal as familiar to the
Campanians who had long used the quadrigati. These
very Campanians had been accustomed to good honest
gold, silver and bronze ; electrum now made its first
appearance in Italy. The Carthaginians had for some
1
Due chiefly to Percy Gardner, Num. Chron.
1884,
pp.
220 f.
50
time been issuing coins in this somewhat unsatisfactory-
mixture, an expedient to which they had been driven
by the gradual loss of their wealthy possessions in
Sicily and Spain. Finally, the weight is peculiar ; the
maximum seems to be
3*10
grammes (47-9 grains).
Now that is very close to the weight of the Cartha-
ginian electrum coins of the period
218
146 B.C.
1
The conclusion is irresistible that we have here
Carthaginian coins struck at a Campanian mint, which
is tantamount to saying that they were issued when
Hannibal was in possession of Capua. They illustrate
the Punic art of slily adapting the coinage of their
neighbours, with slight modifications, an art which is
vividly displayed in the case of the earliest Siculo-
Punic coinage.
2
m. aemiutts lepidus and ptolemaetjs v.
201 b.c.
29. Obv. Head of the City of Alexandria (ALEXAN-
DREA) r., wearing turreted crown.
Rev. M. Aemilius Lepidus placing a wreath on
the head of Ptolemaeus V., who holds a
sceptre; inscription,
M LEPIDVS
TVTOR
i
L. Miiller, Num. de Vane. Afrique, ii., p. 86, Nos. 70
73 ; max.
3*05 grammes (47*1 grains).
2
Hill, Coins
of
Ancient Sicily, PL X.
E 2
5]
REGpONPMAXSC(the NF ligatured
to represent NTIF).
Silver denarius.
3*98 grammes (61*5 grains). B.M.O. I.,
p.
449,
No. 3648.
This coin was struck about 65 b.c. by M. Aemilius
Lepidus, a descendant of the person whom it com-
memorates. Other coins of the same date and
moneyer represent
(1)
the equestrian statue, granted
by the Senate, of one Aemilius Lepidus, who as a
boy of fifteen slew an enemy in battle and saved the
life of a Roman citizen
;
(2)
the Basilica Aemilia.
The inscription on the former is
MLEPIDVS AIMXV'
PRHOCS' Yalerius Maximus tells the story, and
uses the phrase progressus in actem. Consequently the
abbreviations have been resolved : an(norum) XV.
pr(ogressus) h(ostem) o(ccisit) c(ivem) s(ervavit).
But the participle progressus can hardly be used
absolutely.
1
A better suggestion is praetextatus^
although his standing is sufficiently indicated by
AN -XV.
2
It seems to be generally assumed, without
1
Mr. George Macdonald suggests that, in view of the extraordinary
coincidence between the words of Valerius Maximus [progressus in
aciem hostem interemit, civem servavit) and the inscription on the coin,
progressus may after all be right ; Valerius Maximus, or his authority,
may be quoting (from memory) the actual inscription of which the
coin gives a shorthand version. But these abbreviated inscriptions on
Homan coins show a curious conscientiousness on the part of the
engravers, who represent every word of the original in some way
(cf. No. 96).
2
There is no stop between the P and the R, otherwise P(opuli)
R(omani), qualifying H(ostem), would be possible.
52
any evidence, that this youthful hero was the man
who is represented on No. 29 as "tutor" of the
young Egyptian King. As regards the Basilica
Aemilia, that was built by the propraetor M. Aemilius
Lepidus out of the plunder which he accumulated
during his governorship of Sicily in 80 B.C. The
moneyer was probabljr the son of this propraetor.
The man with whom we are at present concerned was
despatched in 201 B.C. with two others (who, though
older than he, played a subordinate part throughout)
to Egypt and Syria, in order to secure the support of
their rulers against Philip Y.
1
At the time,
Ptolemaeus V. was a minor, and two writers, not
indeed of the highest authority, seem to confirm the
statement of the coin that Aemilius acted as the
king's guardian. Valerius Maximus
2
tells us that
Ptolemaeus IV. had by his will appointed the Eoman
people guardians of his son, and that the Senate
despatched as its representatives three men, including
M. Aemilius Lepidus, Pontifex Maximus and twice
consul.
8
Further, Justin confirms the statement about
1
Polybius xvi. 27. 5 ; Liv. xxxi. 2. 3.
2
VI. 6. 1.
"
Niese, Gesch. d. gr. u. mak. St. ii.,
p.
637 note, argues that this
description implies a later date, since Lepidus was not consul H.
until 175 B.C. He might have added that he was not pontifex
maximus until 180 B.C. It is more surprising to find that even by
Mommsen-Blacas (ii.,
p. 501, note) Valerius is also accused of a
"faute de chronologic." Obviously the titles
"
twice consul" and
" pontifex maximus" are only used by Valerius, as by the designer
53
the will of Ptolemaeus IV.,
1
and says that the Alex-
andrians demanded a regent from the Komans, who
were only too glad of this excuse for interference.
3
A third writer, who commands more respect, Tacitus,
3
also reminds his readers that "maioresM. Lepidum
Ptolemaei liberis tutorem in Aegyptum miserant."
There was, then, certainly a very distinct belief, as
early as the period of our denarius, ue
n
about 65 B.C.,
that the mission of Aemilius to Egypt was prompted
by the demand, expressed either by Ptolemaeus IV.
or by the Alexandrians, for the interference of Kome.
Now, modern criticism
4
has discovered that there is
"
no room
"
for a Eoman guardian of the king at this
period. Of guardians the little Ptolemaeus has first
Agathokles, then Tlepolemos, and then Aristomenes.
Also, Polybius and Livy say nothing about such a
function being fulfilled by Aemilius. In any case, he
left Egypt very soon, for we hear of him anywhere
rather than in that country. It seems, however,
unnecessary to conclude that the story of the guar-
dianship is entirely a myth of comparatively late
origin. Whether the will of Ptolemaeus IV. appointed
of the coin, to distinguish this Aemilius from others, not with
chronological significance.
1
XXXI. i. 2.
9
XXX. ii.
8 ; iii. 3 f. Mittitur et M. Lepidus in Aegyptum, qui
tutorio nomine regnum pupilli administret.
8
Annal. ii. 67.
4
See Niese, loc. cit., and Svoronos, Munzen der Ptol., IV. 260 ff.
54
Borne the guardian of his son or not, we can well
imagine that the Romans would take full advantage of
any claim, real or invented, to such a title. It might
be used diplomatically, and yet not find a place in the
narrative of a Polybius or a Livy. It seems reason-
able, therefore, to believe that the story of this
guardianship is founded upon fact, although some
elements of exaggeration may have made their way
into the family tradition.
Count de Salis attributed the coin with which we
are dealing to the year 65 B.C., approximately. The
date is based on the stylistic connexion between this
moneyer's coins and the coins of Q. Pomponius Musa
and M. Piso M. f. Frugi, which de Salis assigns, on
different grounds, to 67 and 66 B.C. respectively.
Mommsen, on the other hand, prefers the date
61,
since about that time negotiations, upon which the
fate of Egypt hung, were going on at Rome. There
is, it is true, no reason to assume that the type must
have been inspired by some event of the moment ; it
was chosen primarily as an illustration of the moneyer's
family history. Nevertheless, there may well have
been some such connexion with current events. We
know that Ptolemaeus Auletes spent the greater part
of his reign and much of his fortune in attempts to
obtain the support of Rome. Some circumstances in
his intrigues even as early as 65 b.c may therefore
well have inspired the type.
55
The denarius which we have been discussing bears
neither the word
ROMA
nor those types which were
characteristic of this class of coin in its first
stages. In our next section we shall see how the
original character of the denarius was gradually
modified during the second century. Both these modi-
fications, and the disappearance, at a still later date,
of the word ROMA, seem to have been due to the
same ultimate cause, viz., the gradual development of
the denarius into a world-currency, and the elimination
of its rivals.
1
CHANGES IN THE DENARIUS.
SECOND CENTURY B.C.
30. Obv. Head of Eoma r., in winged helmet
;
behind, X
Rev. Luna, with crescent on forehead, in chariot
r. drawn by two galloping horses
;
below,
a prawn, and (on tablet) ROMA-
Silver denarius, 3*95 grammes (60*9 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 75,
No. 585.
31. Obv. Similar to No. 30.
Rev. Yictory, winged, in chariot r. drawn by two
galloping horses; below, VrSAVF
(the
VF
ligatured) and
ROMA
(on tablet).
Silver denarius.
4*06 grammes (62*7 grains). B.M.C. L, p. Ill,
No. 834
1
See Macdonald, Coin Types,
p.
185.
56
32. Olv, Similar to No. 30,
but behind the head a
one-handled jug.
Rev. She-wolf suckling the twins Komulus and
Remus ; in the background the ruminal
fig-tree with birds perched on it ; on the
1. the shepherd Faustulus leaning on staff
and raising r. hand; around,
SEXTOM.
[FO]STLVS ; in exergue, ROMA.
Silver denarius. 3*89 grammes (60'0 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 132,
No. 927.
These three pieces serve well to illustrate the
character of the changes through which the denarius
passed in the first three quarters of the second cen-
tury. No. 30, according to de Salis's classification,
belongs to the period 196173 B.C.; No. 31 to the
period 172151 ; andNo. 32 to the period 150125.
The definitions of these periods are, it must be
remembered, somewhat conjectural ; but it may be
taken as certain that all three coins belong to the first
75 years of the century, and that they are arranged,
relatively to each other, in chronological order.
The reverse of No. 30 gives us the earliest varia-
tion from the original denarius type of the Dioscuri.
The goddess is generally described as Diana ; some-
times as
"
Diana or Luna." It is, however, preferable
to distinguish her as Luna. The two deities were for
long kept distinct ; and Diana, as worshipped at
Rome in early times, was the Latin goddess of the
57
type known in the famous sanctuary of Aricia. She
was essentially the goddess of childbirth and the
helper of women. It is doubtful whether she would
be represented as the goddess is represented on our
coin, although figures of the Diana Nemorensis from
Nemi do represent her, owing to Greek influence,
as a huntress. If we could suppose the coin-type to
be meant for the Eomano-Greek Diana-Artemis, we
should have an interesting historical combination,
accounting for her appearance on the coins at this
time. For in 187 b.c. the consul M. Aemilius
Lepidus, during his campaign against the Ligurians,
vowed a temple to Diana, which he dedicated during
his censorship in
179.
* But it is probable that the
Greek Artemis would also have been represented as
the huntress-goddess, even as we find her on the coins
issued at Syracuse just before this period, during the
democracy of
215212 B.C. The goddess on our
coins is so evidently characterized as Luna or the
Moon that we have no justification for calling her
anything else.
Now this goddess was much revered at Kome.
Her chief temple, said to have been founded by
Servius
Tullius,
2
lay on the slope of the Aventine,
1
Liv. xxxix. 2, xl. 52. This, and a temple of Iuno Regina, dedicated
at the same time, were in the neighbourhood of the Circus Flaminius.
2
Ovid, Fast. iii. 883
;
Tac. Ann. xv. 41. In 182 b.c. a storm
forem ex aede Lunae, quae in Aventino est, raptam tulit, et in posticis
partibus Cereris templi affixit (Liv. xl. 2).
58
ad circum maximum. The other shrines, such as that
of Noctiluca on the Palatine,
1
seem to have been less
important. "Was there any historical reason for the
adoption of the moon-goddess as a coin-type during
the period to which these coins are attributed ? The
only event which seems to suggest itself is the reform
of the calendar which took place, by the provisions of
the lex Acilta, in the year 191 B.C. The calendar
3
had
fallen into serious confusion in the year 207 B.C.,
when the principle of intercalation was given up.
Apparently it was thought that the sun-god Apollo was
offended because the expression in the calendar of his
annual course was distorted by contamination with the
foreign lunar element. So the intercalary month was
dropped, and it was not until the year 191 that the
consul M' Acilius Glabrio effected a reform. The
details of this may not be quite certain, but there
is no doubt that it had to do with the restoration of
something like the old system. The moon, therefore,
may be regarded as having come to her own again,
and it is hardly fanciful to conjecture that such a
change may have been commemorated by the intro-
duction of the type of Luna into the coinage. If so,
we may date the first appearance of these coins to the
year of the consulship of Acilius, 191 b.c.
1
Hor. Carm. iy. 6. 38.
2
For an account of this episode, see Unger, Zeitrechnung, in Iwan
Mutter's Handbuch, i
2
.
pp.
804 f.
59
The coin of L. Saufeius bears the device of
Victory in a biga, another of the types which helped
to break down the monopoly of the Dioscuri. It
is probably to coins like this and the preceding
that Tacitus refers when he alludes to the popularity
among the northern barbarians of the coins bearing a
biga.
1
If we seek a motive for the adoption in the period
172151 of Victory as a new type for the denarius
we may find it in the signal successes which in this
period attended the Eoman arms. The crushing
defeat of Antiochus the Great at Magnesia in 190 B.C.
had placed the whole of the Levant virtually at the
feet of Rome. But even more striking, because much
nearer home, was the victory at Pydna in 168
that
final humiliation of the Greeks which allowed Eome
to enter upon the inheritance of Alexander the Great.
It is not surprising that such a change in her position
should be reflected in the coinage.
The type of Sex. Pompeius Fostlus, on the other
hand, is one of those personal types which began to
appear once it was felt that change in the reverse type
of the denarius was permissible. The process is
characteristic of Eoman historical development : first,
complete uniformity
;
then the beginnings of change,
1
Germ. 5 : pecuniam probant veterem et diu notam, aerratos higatosque.
The serrati are the coins with notched or serrated edges, regarding
which see No. 47.
60
but still without the obvious intrusion of the personal
element ; finally, the domination of the individual.
1
Behind the wolf and twins stands the
ficus
rumimlis,
which once shaded the Lupercal, or cave in which
Bomulus and Eemus were suckled by the she-wolf.
Of the birds, which on good specimens may be made
out on the tree, one should be the picus Martis, the
woodpecker sacred to Mars.
2
The type is either
merely a "canting" type, referring to the cognomen
of the moneyer Sex. Pompeius (or Pomponius)
Fostlus,
3
or else, as is more probable, it indicates a
claim on his part to be descended from Faustulus, the
shepherd who rescued the twins. In any case, the
reference of the type is strictly personal. The one-
handled vase which occurs as a symbol on all the coins
of this moneyer, irrespective of their type, has been
explained, presumably in jest, as a milk-jug, because
the she-wolf is giving her milk to the twins.
4
The initials of the moneyers began to be placed on
the coins during the period 217197 B.C. It was
1
See Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
p. 43, and Macdonald, Coin Types,
pp.
190 f.
2
On most other representations (e.g., the gems in Botticher,
Baumkultus, fig. 37
;
Furtwangler, AntiJce Qemmen, PL xxviii.,
58)
only one bird is to be seen
;
on the Bolsena mirror (Mon. delV Institute,
xi., PI. 3.
1)
there appear an owl and a woodpecker.
3
Eoman moneyers were very fond of "canting" types. See
Macdonald, Coin Types, p. 188.
4
Babelon, Monn. de la Rip. Romaine, ii.,
p. 336; by Mommsen-
Blacas, ii.,
p. 503, the vase is also described as a milk-jug.
61
about this time, it would seem, that the cousuls lost
the right of coiuage -within the city. Consequently
the special board of magistrates, tresviri monetales^
appointed from time to time when money was needed,
naturally began to leave their mark on the coinage.
We find first of all only symbols, then initials, then
abbreviations of a less scanty kind, and finally a full
indication of the moneyer's name.
C. MINUCIUS AUGURINUS.
CIRCA
150125 B.C.
33. Olv. Head of Eomar., wearing winged helmet;
under chin, X ; behind, ROMA-
Rev. Corinthian column, supporting a figure
of L. Minucius Augurinus, resting on
staff and holding ears of corn
(?)
;
from
the capital hang bells ; at the base, lions'
heads surmounted by ears of corn ; on
r., M. Minucius Faesus standing, togate,
holding a lituus; on 1., L. (or P.)
Minucius Augurinus standing, togate,
holding a dish and a loaf, his 1. foot
resting on a corn measure
;
1
above,
CAVG.
Silver denarius,
3*86 grammes (59*5 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p.
136,
No. 953.
A. B. Cook, J. H. S.
xxii.,
p. 19, describes him as clapping
cymbals, with his foot on a ball. But his left hand and right hand
hold the objects differently.
62
The popular hero of the Minucia gens was L.
Minucius Augurinus, who as praefectus annonae in
439 B.C., when there was a serions famine, obtained
a supply of corn from abroad, and in three market
days lowered the price of corn to a maximum of one
as for a modius. The grateful people erected to him
a brazen statue on a column outside the Porta
Trigemina, everyone subscribing an uncia} The
column, with the statue on it, is represented on the
coin. The two figures at the sides of the monument
have been explained as other members of the family.
The man on the right, holding the augur's wand, may
then be M. Minucius Faesus, one of the first plebeian
augurs to be elected after the passing of the lex
Ogulnia in 300 B.C.
2
The man on the left may be
either the praefectus annonae himselfadmiring his own
monumentor P. Minucius Augurinus, a still earlier
public benefactor, who as consul in 492 B.C. relieved a
famine by
obtaining supplies from abroad.
3
But it is
quite possible that the augur on the right is merely a
canting allusion to the moneyer's cognomen, while
the figure on the left may also have some allusive
significance which
escapes us.
The ears of corn
flanking the monument need no
1
Plin. N. E. xviii. 4 ;
xxxiv. 11. This, Pliny thinks, was perhaps
the first honour of the kind conferred by the people, not by the
Senate. Op. Dion. Hal. Tre/ai e7rt/3ouAuiv, p.
xxxvi, ed. C. Mueller.
2
Liv. x. 9.
*
Liv. ii. 34.
63
explanation. Tlie lions' heads may be either purely-
ornamental or apotropaic ; less probably they were
fountains. The bells are difficult to explain. It has
been thought that they were used to announce the
opening and closing of the corn market
;
1
but what
possible market was held outside the Porta Trigemina,
which led through the walls below the north-west slope
of the Aventine, close to the Tiber ? Like the bells
on the facade of the second temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus, they were probably prophylactic,
2
though
why they should be used here we cannot say. It is,
however, significant that one of the most important
rites performed by the augurs was augurare vineta
vtrgetaque, apparently with the object of protecting
the crops in general from damage by drought.
3
Bells
may have played some part in this ceremony.
4
This coin is attributed to the third quarter of the
second century. A certain C. Minucius Augurinus,
1
Babelon, ii,,
p. 228.
2
A. B. Cook in J. H. 8., loc. eft.
3
Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa, fiealencycl,, ii. 2329.
4
The bells and the lions' heads recall the Dipon or Diwat, a granite
pillar at Mahoba in India.
"
Its name is derived from the practice of
placing a lamp, or dip, on its summit on stated occasions. But this
certainly could not have been the original purpose of the pillar, as it
is crowned with a broad, flat-topped capital, and does not possess a
single receptacle for a lamp. It is a single shaft 18 ft. in height . . .
the uppermost (portion) is ornamented with four chains, and bells
suspended from four lions' heads immediately beneath the capital."
Alex. Cunningham, Archceol. Survey
of
India, Reports, Vol. ii.
(1871),
p.
443.
64
perhaps the moneyer's father, was tribune of the plebs
in 187 B.C. The Ti. Minucius C. f. Augurinus, who a
little later struck coins with a very similar representa-
tion of the ancestral monument, was doubtless the son
of our Caius.
T. QTJINCTIUS FLAMININUS.
CIRCA 124 103 B.C.
34. Obv. Head of Romar., in winged helmet; behind,
flamen's apex
;
under chin, X.
;
below, T
Q
and round Macedonian shield
;
in exergue,
ROMA.
Silver denarius. 3*88 grammes (59'8 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 155,
No. 1040.
The moneyer who issued this denariuswhich is
dated by some to a slightly earlier periodmust have
been a descendant of T. Quinctius Flamininus, who
won the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 B.C., since the
letters
T Q
on the reverse, combined with the
flawed$
cap on the obverse, clearly represent a person of this
name, while the Macedonian shield indicates a Mace-
donian victory, as on the coins of M. CaeciliusMetellus.
1
This being so, we can see a special significance in
the use of the type of the Dioscuri here, for it was at
this time no longer the ordinary type of the denarius^
and we know that the conqueror of Philip V. made a
1
Babelon, i., p. 269.
H.R.C. y
65
special dedication to the Dioscuri at Delphi. The
objects dedicated were silver bucklers
(ao-mSas)
and
his own scutum
(rbv kavrov flvpeoV).
1
The bucklers were
doubtless Macedonian bucklers, one of which is
represented on the coin under the figures of the
Zyvhs
Kpatirvdia-i yeyaOoTes hnTO<r6vcu<n Kovpot
to whom it was
dedicated.
Which of Flamininus' descendants issued this coin
we do not know. It is usually ascribed to the one who
became consul in 123 B.C., in which case it must have
been issued some time before that date, since the office
of moneyer was of comparatively low rank. The date
here adoptedon grounds of styleis due to Count
de Salis.
CHAKTERS OF LIBERTY.
35. Obv. Head of Eoma r. in winged helmet ; under
chin, X
;
behind,
LAECA.
Rev. Libertas, crowned by Victory, in fast quad-
riga to r., holding cap of Liberty and
sceptre; below, MPORC; in exergue,
ROMA.
Silver denarius. 3*98 grammes (61*5 grains). B.M.C.
L, p. 151,
No. 1024.
36. Obv. Head of Eoma r. in winged helmet ; above,
ROMA
;
in front, X
;
behind, P LAECA
(the AE in monogram).
1
Plut. Titus, 12.
66
Rev. A general wearing a cuirass and armed with
a sword, accompanied by a lictor holding
in his right hand a long stake
1
or spear
erect, in his left, two rods (the fasces).
The general extends his hand over the
head of a togate figure ; below, PROVOCO.
Silver denarius. 3'90 grammes (60'2 grains). British Museum.
37. Obv. Head of Roma r. in winged helmet ; behind,
: and voting urn (sitella).
Rev. Libertas in fast quadriga r., holding cap of
Liberty and sceptre; below, CCASSI;
in exergue, ROMA.
Silver denarius.
3*89 grammes (60*0 grains). B.M.O. I., p. 153,
No. 1033.
38. Obv. Headof Vesta r., veiled; behind, Q.CASSI VS;
before, VEST.
Rev. Circular temple of Vesta, surmounted by a
figure of the goddess, holding sceptre and
patera
;
within, curule chair; on 1.,
urn
(sitella)
;
on r., tablet (sorticula) inscribed
AC
Silver denarius. 3*98 grammes (61*5 grains). B.M.O. L, p. 482,
No. 3871.
39. Obv. Head of Vesta 1. veiled ; behind, two-
handled cup
;
before, letter
A.
1
This suggestion is due to Mr. Stuart Jones, who thinks it may be
meant for the stake to which criminals were tied for flogging. It is
however very slight in form and might even be a long sword.
f2
67
Rev. A citizen, togate, dropping into a cista a
tablet inscribed
V;
behind him, LONGIN
1 1 IV.
Silver denarius. 3'89 grammes (60'0 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 494,
No. 3929.
The allusions on the reverses of Nos.
35, 36 are to
an ancestor or ancestors of the moneyers, who carried
the laws pro tergo civium^ which were among the chief
charters of the people's liberty.
1
Nothing is known
of the moneyers themselves
;
but the first coin and the
third appear to belong to the same period, and that
the end of the second century B.C. The second
moneyer (No.
36)
probably issued his coins from one
of the local Italiau mints about 90 B.C. His coin is
supposed to allude to the extension of the right of
provocatio even against military commanders : in the
general is seen a provincial governor from whom the ius
in capita civiwn was taken away by one of the three
Porcian laws. The gesture of the general, then, is
not one of protection, as we should naturally suppose.
1
Liv. x. 9 ;
Cic. 'pro. Rah. perd. 4
(12)
; cp. in Verr. ii., 5. 63
(163)
;
de Rep. ii. 31 : leges Porciae, quae tres sunt trium Porciorum. The
dates of these laws are uncertain ; one was before the time of the
Gracchi, another was suggested by Cato the Elder (Festus s.v. Pro
Scapulis). See Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
p.
321. One of these Leges
Porciae authorized appeal to the people from the holder of the military
imperium; this was before 108 B.C., for a statement of Sallust
(Bell. Jug.
69)
proves that at that date the commander had the right
against the Latins but not against the Romans : Turpilius . . . iussus
a Metello causam dicer
e,
postquam sese parum expurgat, condemnatus
verberatusque capite poenas solvit ; nam is civis ex Latio erat.
68
Of the three Cassian coins, No. 37 is generally-
attributed to C. Cassius Longinus, son of L. Cassius
Longinus Eavilla. No. 38 is given to Q. Cassius
Longinus, quaestor to Pompeius in Spain in 54 B.C.,
and notorious for his harsh treatment of the pro-
vincials. His coinage probably dates from about
58 B.C. The third, No.
39,
probably belongs to
L. Cassius Longinus, who seems to have been
triumvir of the mint about 52 B.C.
It was Eavilla who, in 137 B.C., as tribune of the
plebs, carried the second lex tabellaria, extending the
process of voting by ballot to the public tribunals
;
it
had been introduced two years before for the elections
of magistrates. He it was also who, when the deci-
sion of the Pontifex, Lucius Metellus, in the trial of
the Yestal Virgins in 113 B.C., was regarded as too
lenient, was appointed president of the commission to
re-hear the case. The lex tabellaria was one of the
most popular of democratic measures, and Eavilla was
therefore regarded as an especial champion of liberty.
That is why Libertas figures on the coinage of his
son.
1
The voting urn on the obverse, however, refers
not to this reform, but to Eavilla's action in the affair
of the Vestals. The same is the case with the urn and
the voting tablet with the letters AC (absolvo, condemno)
1
0. Cassius must have been moneyer at the latest about 104 b.o.
(he was consul in
96),
so that the events alluded to on his coins were
very recent.
69
HISTORICAL SOMAN COINS
on the coin of Q. Cassius (No.
38)
; and the curule
chair within the temple is the chair of the judge.
The method of voting, by placing tablets indicating
acquittal or condemnation in an urn, was employed in
quaestiones, such as that which was concerned with
the Yestals. But in the comitia, when the people
were voting on a rogation, the tablets bore or indi-
cated the words antiquo and uti rogas. Mommsen
adds
1
that in the comitia the tablets were placed not
in an urn, but in a cista or box ; and this method is
illustrated on the coin of L. Cassius Longinus (No. 39).
Here is a citizen voting, according to the lex tabellaria
of Cassius Eavilla
;
and in favour of the proposal
before the comitia, since his tablet bears the letter
V
for uti rogas.
THE SURRENDER OF JUGURTHA BY BOCCHUS.
106 OR 105 B.C.
40. Obv. Bust of Diana r., wearing stephane, with
crescent above
;
behind, lituus
;
in front,
FAVSTVS.
Rev. Sulla seated 1. on a platform; before him,
kneeling r., Bocchus holding up an olive
branch
;
behind him, Jugurtha kneeling
1.,
his hands tied behind his back ; above, on
r.,
FELIX.
Silver denarius. 3'87 grammes (59*7 grains). B.M.C. L,
p. 471,
No. 3824.
1
p. 504, note.
70
This coin was struck, probably about 62 B.C., by
Faustus Cornelius Sulla, son of the dictator by his
fourth wife, Caecilia Metella. The story of the
capture of Jugurtha is in all the history books. The
interest of the type is that it probably reproduces more
or less exactly the subject of a seal ring which Sulla,
in his pride, had made for himself, and used con-
stantly, much to the irritation of Marius.
1
Bocchus
himself also dedicated in the temple of Capitoline
Jupiter some figures of Victory bearing trophies and
beside them a group in gold of the handing over of
Jugurtha to Sulla.
2
The head of Diana on the obverse
of our coin alludes to the dictator's especial cult of
the goddess,
3
the lituus to his augurship.
The dictator is identified by the title FELIX, a
title which he did not finally adopt until after the
death of the younger Marius.
4
Faustus, therefore, on
his coin commits a
"
chronological error
"
like that of
which some critics have complained in connexion with
the coins of M. Aemilius Lepidus.
5
1
Plut. Sulla, 3: rjv Be rj ypa<j>7} Bokôs /*ev TrapaStSovs, SvXXas Be
irapa\ap./3dvu)v rbv *loyop6av. Id. Mar, 10 ; Praec. ger. reip. xii.
;
Plin. N. H. xxxyii. 4.
9 ; Val. Max. viii. 14. 4 (Bern.).
*
Plut. Mar. 32
;
Sulla, 6.
3
Veil. Paterc. ii. 25 : privileges granted after Sulla's victory over
Norbanus to the shrine of Diana Tifatina near Capua. See also the
inscriptions cited by Wissowa in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. v. 327.
i
Veil. Paterc. ii. 27.
6
See supra,
p. 53.
71
MARIUS AND THE BARBARIANS.
104101 B.C.
(
41.)
Obv. Head of Apollo r., laureate
;
behind,
C*
EGNATVLEIC F ;
below,
Q
(NAT and
VL
ligatured).
Rev. Victory standing L, writing on oval shield,
which is fastened to a trophy, on which
are a helmet with bull's horns, cuirass and
spear ; at the foot of the trophy is a war
trumpet (karnyz)
;
in the field,
Q
; in the
exergue,
ROMA.
Silver quinarius. 1*85 grammes (28'5 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 165,
No. 1077.
(
42. Obv. Head of Jupiter r., laureate
;
under chin,
-B*
Rev. Victory standing r., holding palm branch
and wreath which she is about to place on
trophy ; at foot of trophy, a seated captive
and a karnyx ; in field, downwards, T*
CLOVLI (VL ligatured) ; in exergue,
Q.
Silver quinarius. 1'83 grammes (28'3 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 168,
No. 1105.
The quinarius had fallen into disuse before the end
of the third century
;
it was revived by the lex Clodia.
Pliny tells us i
1
Is qui nunc victoriatus appellator lege
Clodia percussus est. antea enim hie nummus ex
Illyrico advectus mercis loco habebatur. est autem
1
N. H. xxxiii. 3. 46.
72
signatus Victoria et inde nomen. These victoriati
were not the coins originally so-called, but new
quinarii with somewhat similar types. Pliny's remark
about Illyricum is generally admitted to be a blunder.
He confounds the Roman victoriate with the Illyrian
coin of the same value.
1
The date of the lex Clodia is conjectural. Quinarii
of the new sort were struck by M. Cato, who died in
91 b.c, and the similar pieces of T. Cloulius (No.
42),
C. Fundanius, C. Egnatule'ius (No.
41),
and P.
Sabinus are older still.
2
The law is generally
assigned to about 104 B.C. The coins with which we
are at present concerned doubtless belong to the
period immediately following the enactment, for there
are none older in style. The types of the reverses
evidently allude to a victory over some northern
barbarians, since the horned helmet,
3
the shield, and
the war trumpet are of northern, apparently Keltic,
type ; the last being particularly associated with the
Kelts. The barbarians in question can hardly be
other than some of those defeated by Marius at Aquae
Sextiae or at Vercellae. At the former battle the
tribes concerned were the Teutons
generally re-
garded as Germansand the Ambrones, a Gallic
tribe. The Cimbri, who were crushed at Vercellae,
1
Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 87, note 2.
2
Id. ii.,
p. 101.
8
See Mowat in Gazette archeohgique,
1887, p.
130.
73
have been claimed both as Kelts and as Germans
;
among the ancients the evidence of most of the earlier
writers is in favour of their Keltic origin, while later
authors (who knew the Germans better) called them
Germans. But even if the Cimbri were Germans, we
know so little about German armour at this date
that it would be rash to deny that the Cimbri may-
have employed armour and trumpets such as are repre-
sented on our coins. It is therefore impossible to
determine whether the reference is to a victory over
any one particular tribe ; and, indeed, it is most
reasonable to assume that the reference is quite
general to the victories over the northern barbarians
;
accuracy in distinguishing the armour of the various
foes of Eome is hardly to be demanded of a die
engraver. De Salis assigned the coins to the years
102 and 101 ; the latter date seems on the whole the
more probable.
The letter
Q
is generally explained as a mark of
value (for quinarius). The value of this coin, it must
be remembered, was now 8 asses, and could no longer
be strictly expressed by
V,
as on the earliest issue.
Had the
Q
only occurred on the obverse, in close
connexion with the name of the moneyeras a
matter of fact it is separated from the name
we
should have been justified in explaining it as
Quaesto?*,
1
and in supposing that Egnatuleius, for
1
So Lenormant, La Monn. dans Vant. ii,
p. 293.
74
I instance, was one of Marius's quaestors, who struck
I coins for use in the Gallic war. But the nearly, if not
quite, contemporary quinarii of T. Cloulius all have
Q
on the reverse only, and on the obverse a series of
letters differentiating the various issues.
These letters are a striking proof of the enormous
quantity of dies which must have been used, for it
appears that each letter marks a different die. That
is to say, it is not to be supposed that, after a number
of coins had been struck from a die bearing the letter
B, that letter was erased and another engraved on the
same die. A complete new die, marked with the next
letter, C, was engraved. There are three series of
these letters in the coinage of Cloulius, according as
the letters are placed behind, below, or in front of the
neck of Jupiter ; in each series the whole alphabet is
represented ; and finally, the varieties are multiplied
by placing dots at the sides of, below or above the
letters. In the British Museum Catalogue alone Mr.
Grueber enumerates 33 varieties of this quinarius
coinage.
C. COELIUS CALDUS.
HIS ACHIEVEMENTS, 107 94 B.C.
43. Obv. Head, r., of C. Coelius Caldus ; behind, a
tablet with the letters L.
D. ; inscr.
C-COEL-CALDVS COS.
75
Rev. Head of Sol r., radiate ; in front, circular
shield ; behind, oblong shield with
thunderbolt device ; inscr. CALDVSi
IIIVIR.
Silver denarius. 3"97 grammes (61*3 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 474,
No. 3833.
44. Obv. Similar head and inscription ; behind, a
vexillum inscribed HIS ; in front, a
standard in the form of a boar.
Rev. An epulo preparing a lectisternium ; at
either end of the couch, a trophy, one
with circular, the other with oblong
shield; inscr. LCALDVS VIIVIREPVL-
OCALDVSIMPAX, and CALDVSIM
VI R
(various ligatures).
grammes (64'1 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 475,
No. 387.
The descendants of C. Coelius Caldus were extremely
proud of their ancestor, the homo novus to whom the
honourable position of the family in the last century
of the Eepublic was due. These coins were struck
by C. Coelius Caldus, his grandson ; their precise date
is uncertain, some (as Mommsen) giving them to
about 54 B.C., while de Salis prefers 61 b.c. The
moneyer, as one of the monetary triumvirate, signs
his coins Caldus Illvir.
The elder C. Coelius Caldus was tribune of the
plebs in 106 B.C. In this capacity he impeached
76
C. Popilius Laenas, who, when the consul Cassius
Longinus, the year before, had been defeated and
killed by the Tigurini, came to terms with the enemy
and brought off the army, with the loss of their
baggage and their honour. In order to secure a con-
viction, Coelius passed his lex tabellaria, introducing
the method of voting by tablets into the court of
perduelliO) from which it had hitherto been excluded
doluitque, says Cicero (de Leg. iii. 16.
36),
quoad vixit se ut opprimeret C. Popilium nocuisse
rei publicae. The tablet behind the head of
Coelius on No. 43 bears the initials of the words
Libero, Damno. Coelius was praetor in Hispania
Citerior about
99,
1
and it is to his achievements in
this province that the vexillum with the inscription
HlS(pania) and the Keltic boar standard refer. The
same reference is, according to some authorities, also
intended by the shields on the reverse of No. 43 and
on the trophies on the reverse of No. 44. The head
of the Sun would then perhaps be used in allusion to
the names of the family.
2
Still, Borghesi's sugges-
tion that it refers rather to some victory won by a
member of the family in the East is tempting. For
we find one C. Coelius C.f. (i.e., either the founder of
the family or his son) mentioned in the so-called
1
See Wiladorf in Leipziger Studien, i., p. 110.
2
As Vaillant puts it (Num. ant
fam.
Rom. i.,
p. 292; cp. Eckhel,
Num. vet. v., p.
1*76) : quod sol in coelo videatur et caldus sit.
77
Senatus consultum Adramyttenum as a Senator of
praetorian rank.
1
In the latter case, the circular
shield, if not the oblong one, may well represent an
Eastern enemy.
The lectisternium type (No.
44)
2
commemorates
L. Coelius Caldus, probably a younger son of the
elder Caius, and father of the moneyer. He was
septemvir epulonum, and it is probably he who is
represented preparing the ledum, on which the gods
were supposed to recline at the repast offered to them.
A third member of the moneyer's family, probably
his uncle, is the C. Caldus mentioned on the same
coin as Imp(erator) A(ugur) X(vir sacris faciundis).
It is to be noted that the name and titles of this
member of the family are written close to the trophies,
thus confirming the suggestion that the trophies (and
the corresponding shields on the reverse of No. 43)
refer not to the Spanish victories of the elder
C. Coelius Caldus, but to some exploits of the moneyer's
uncle of the same name. These exploits, as we have
seen, may have been partly in the East.
1
The date of the inscription is uncertain : Mommsen (Eph. Epigr.
iv.,
pp.
216 f. ; Staatsr. iii., 986 note), supported by Foucart (Bull.
Corr. Hellen. ix.
401), gives it to 122120 B.C.; Viereck (Sermo
Oraecus,
pp.
22 f.), foUowing Willems, prefers
98
94 B.C., on the
ground of its containing
thin
very name, C. Coelius Caldus.
2
If the curved object attached to the trophy with the oblong shield
is a karnyx, and not a lituus militaris, then this trophy must refer to
a victory over Grauls or Celtiberians. But, even so, the trophy with
the round shield may still be Eastern.
78
THE CORN LAW OP SATURNINUS.
100 B.C.
45. Obv. Head of Saturn r., laureate; behind, a ser-
rated sickle; around, PISO.CAEriO.Q;
below, a trident.
Rev. L. Calpurnius Piso and Q. Servilius Caepio
seated on a bench, at each end of which
is an ear of corn ; in exergue, AD.FRV.
EM[V]EXSC
Silver denarius. 3'76 grammes (58*0 grains). B.M.C. I., p, 170,
No. 1127.
The author of the Rhetorica ad Herennium (I. xii.
21)
takes as an instance of a legitimate issue arising
out of a definition, the question whether Q. Caepio
1
violated the majesty of the Eoman people when he
prevented the tribune Saturninus from carrying his
corn law. He was quaestor urhanus at the time, and
when L. Appuleius Saturninus proposed his lex fru-
mentaria de semissibus et trientibus, by which the state
was to let the people buy corn at a semis and a triens
(i.e.,
%
of an as) for a modius, he urged that such a dole
would break the treasury. The Senate decreed that
the measure proposed was unconstitutional. Satur-
ninus defied the veto of his colleagues ; Caepio
1
Probably the eon of the Q. Caepio who was responsible for the
disaster of Arausio in 105, and in whose condemnation Saturninus took
a leading part.
79
thereupon broke up the comitia and for the time
prevented the law being carried ; hence the charge
brought against him. It appears from Appian
(B. C. i.
30)
that Caepio's interference was fruitless,
since the Marian veterans, who swarmed in the city,
in their turn drove Caepio's "viri boni" from the
forum, the voting was resumed, and the Appuleian
law was passed.
Saturninus's proposal reduced the price of corn
per bushel from
6
asses to the nominal sum of
f
as.
Numismatic writers have generally assumed that the
lex frumentaria was not carried, but that the Senate
found it necessary to soothe the populace with a dole,
and that they accordingly instructed the quaestors to
buy corn largely, and decreed an appropriation from
the treasury to this end. It would follow that these
coins were struck EX S(enatus) C(onsulto) AD FRV
(mentum) EMV(ndum).
As a matter of fact, we know that the Senate (with
the single exception of the stalwart Metellus Numi-
dicus) took the oath to observe the terms of the new
law.
The obvious consequence seems to be that they
must have instructed the quaestors to act in accordance
with the law, and procure the necessary corn. The
coins must therefore have been struck in order to
enable the quaestors to carry out the provisions, not of
some
Senatus Consultum of which we have no other
record,
but of the lex frumentaria of Saturninus,
80
PL. X
The phrase EX
S C on the coins refers to the order of
the Senate for their issue, not to the order for the
purchase of corn; i.e., it is to be construed not with
emundum, but with words meaning "coin struck"
understood.
1
The head of the harvest god Saturn, with the
sickle,
2
shown on the obverse, and the ears of corn on
the reverse, are obviously appropriate to the occasion.
But the primary reason for the use of the obverse
type was that the aerarium populi Romani which,
subject to the sanction of the Senate, provided the
urban quaestors with the funds for this expenditure,
was situated in the Temple of Saturn below the
Capitol.
The trident is a mark to distinguish this particular
issue from others, which have an arrow, a bow, etc.
Such distinguishing marks do not occur before this
date. The substitution for Eoma of another deity,
on the obverse, is also an innovation.
Caepio's colleague appears to be L. Calpurnius Piso
Caesoninus, son of the consul of 112, and father of
Cicero's enemy, the consul of 58.
1
Did it refer to the decree for the purchase of the corn, as some
suppose (Mommsen-Blacas ii.,
p. 168), the order of the words should
be AD EKV.EX. S.C. EMV.
3
The form of the sickle is interesting, inasmuch as it corresponds
to the toothed form described by Hesiod (Theog. 115:
/capâpoScov)
;
whereas ordinarily the attribute of the god resembles the harpa of
Perseus. See Daremberg and Saglio, Diet. Ant. ii.,
p. 971.
H.K.C.
G
81
THE SOCIAL WAR.
90 B.C.
(46. Obv. Head of Magna Mater i\, wearing turreted
crown and veil ; behind, EXAPV.
Rev. Yictory in a two-horse chariot r. ; before
the horses, a bird
;
under them, C*, and
C'FABT CF- in exergue.
grammes (61*9 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 223,
No. 1596.
(47. Obv. Head of Eoma r., helmeted ; behind, PV
;
all in laurel wreath.
Rev. Victory in a two-horse chariot r. ; inscr.,
MLVCILI.RVF.
Silver denarius (edge serrated). 3*95 grammes (61*0 grains). B.M.C.
L,
p. 224, No. 1613.
It is probable that, in the earlier period of the
Eoman coinage, all new issues in Eome only took
place in accordance with a special decree of the
Senate. But after the constitution of the monetary
magistracy of the tresviri aere argento auro flando
feriundO) and even before this had become a regular
magistracy, rather than a commission appointed from
time to time as necessity demanded, no such special
decree of the Senate was needed, the issues being
made by the moneyers in virtue of their office. The
definitive constitution of the magistracy is placed by
Mommsen
1
between 104 and 89 b.c. It is just about
1
pp.
47 f.
82
this time that formulas like EX S.C., S.C., AEG(ento)
PVB(lico), EX A(rgento) P(ublico), PV(blice), etc.,
occur most frequently.
1
These phrases indicate special
issues which were made in accordance with special
decrees either of the Senate or of the people, and not
by the tresviri in ordinary course. But what exactly
is meant by saying that the coins were issued ex
argento publico ? Naturally, the bullion from which all
coins were issued by the State must have been public
property. We are, it seems, compelled to assume that
a reserve of silver in bars
2
was kept in the public
treasury (which continued to be known as the aerarium
populi Romani long after bronze ceased to be stored
there)
;
3
that this reserve was known especially as the
argentum 'publicum
;
and that when in an emergency
this reserve had to be converted into coin the source
of the metal was indicated in the manner described.
The coins Nos.
46, 47,
are dated by external
evidence (as of hoards in which they occur) to about
90 B.C., and there can be no doubt that the special
circumstances which occasioned the issue of which
1
For more exact dates, see Mommsen-Blacas, ii.,
pp.
168, 169.
*
Pliny (N. Ht xxiiii. 3.
55)
quoting an inventory of the treasury
in . . . B.C., gives the amounts of gold and silver, and of silver cash
(numeratum) separately. He also quotes an inventory of the beginning
of the Social War, but the text is injured. It is possible that the
occurrence on the coins of the phrase we are discussing, and Pliny's
record of an inventory made about the time these coins were struck,
are to be connected, and point to some special measures then taken
with regard to the treasury (cp. Mommsen-Blacas, ii.
p.
407 note).
3
Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 72.
02
83
they formed part are to be looked for in the Social
"War. The denarii of C. Fabius fall into two groups,
both having the same types. In one group, which is
without the inscription EX A. PV.,
the various series
are distinguished by Greek letters on the obverse
;
in
the other, which has the inscription just mentioned,
the distinguishing letters are Latin, and are placed on
the reverse. We may infer that the former group
was struck first, and the latter only when it became
necessary to encroach on the reserve.
Nothing is known of the moneyers C. Fabius and
M. Lucilius Rufus. The bird on the reverse of
C. Fabius's denarii has been described as a buteo,
because that word was used as a cognomen by some
members of the Fabia gens
;
but the buteo was prob-
ably a bird of prey, whereas the creature shown on the
coins resembles an ibis or some other long-legged bird.
The choice of the Magna Mater for representation on
the obverse has probably no historical reason, and we
may assume that Fabius selected it on private grounds.
The serrated edge seen on the coin of Lucilius
1
is a
feature which occurs on Roman silver coins exception-
ally in the second century B.C., and commonly from 92
to 70 B.C. The Romans were preceded in this fashion
in the years about 200 B.C. by the Carthaginians, by
Antiochus III. of Syria, and by Philip V. of Macedon
;
1
The notches are not bo clearly marked as usual on the specimen
illustrated.
84
the last two use the fashion on bronze coins, the
Carthaginians on gold and silver. No explanation
of the practice presenting the slightest degree of
probability has yet been offered.
1
the social war.
9081 b.c.
(.48. Obv. Head of Italia r., helmeted; behind, a
wreath; below,
[*]
ITALIA.
Rev. The Dioscuri on horseback ; in exergue, in
Oscan letters, retrograde, c paapi
*
c
*
Silver denarius.
4*11 grammes (63*5 grains). British Museum.
( 49. Obv. Head of a Bacchante r., wreathed with ivy;
in front, in Oscan letters, retrograde,
mutil

embratur.
Rev. Bull goring wolf ; in exergue, in Oscan
letters, retrograde, c
*
paapi.
.Silver denarius. 3'82 grammes
(59"0 grains). British Museum.
(50. Obv. Female head r., laureate; behind, ITALIA.
Rev. Young man kneeling, holding a pig, which eight
warriors touch with the points of their
swords; in the background, a standard
upright, in exergue,
Q..SILO-
Silver denarius. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
(51.) Obv. Head of a Bacchante r., wearing ivy
wreath.
1
See the various theories in B.M.C., I., p. 159.
85
Rev. Cista mystica, with thyrsos, to which a fillet
is attached, leaning against it ; on the
cista, a fawn skin
;
in the exergue, in
Oscan letters, retrograde, mi

ieiis

mi.
Aureus, 8*47 grammes (130*7 grains). Bibliotheque Nationals,
l*is.
\52. Obv. Helmeted female head (Italia), crowned
with wreath by a small figure of Victory
from behind.
Rev. Two warriors clasping hands
;
on the right,
prow of a galley, on which are a standard,
spears and shields ; in exergue,
y\.
Silver denarius. Berlin Museum.
These five coins, of which three are unique
specimens at Paris or Berlin, are selected , from the
numerous varieties issued by the Allies during the
Social War. The names of both the Marsian Q.
Pompaedius Silo and the Samnite C. Papius Mutilus
appear. The latter describes himself as
u
Caius Papius,
son of Caius, Mutilus, Imperator." The gold coin is
issued by Minius Ieius (Iegius
?),
son of Minius.
There was no more effective expression of the
Allies' defiance of Eoman authority than the issue of
a coin in gold. The weight of the piece is that of an
Attic stater. Now just about this time Mithradates,
with whom the Allies were in communication, was
issuing gold coins on the same standard, in defiance
of the Eomans, at Pergamum, Athens, and Ephesus.
86
The types chosen by the Allies are also significant.
Thus Italianot the country, but the city of Corfinium,
which was thus named during the war as destined to
be the new capitalis represented, either by a
laureate female head, or by a helmeted head copied
directly from the Roma on Eoman denarii. The
much-desired defeat of Eome by the Allies is sym-
bolized by the Italic bull goring the Eoman wolf.
The alliance with Mithradates is alluded to by the
type of two warriors joining hands. One of them
wears a diadem, while the prow of a shipindicating
the fleet with which Mithradates was to descend upon
Italyis seen beside them
;
on the obverse of this
coin, the helmeted bust of Italia is crowned by
Yictory with a wreath.
1
The scene of the warriors taking an oath over the
body of a pig has been explained as an allusion to the
treaty of the Caudine Forks. It is more probable
that it represents merely the oath taken by the Allies
to be faithful to each other against Eome. A similar
ceremony (with only two warriors) is shown, as we
1
Cavedoni and Lenormant (La Monn. dans VAntiquite, ii.,
pp.
296 f)
consider that this piece was struck by the remnant of the revolted
Allies to celebrate the disembarkation of Marius on his return from
Africa, when the democratic party in Eome had made common cause
with the Allies. The type would appear to have been copied by Sulla
to celebrate his disembarkation at Brundusium in 83 B.C. after
conquering Mithradates ; but one would like to be sure of the authen-
ticity of the Sullan coin, which was published in the eighteenth century,
and of which no specimen is now known to exist.
87
have seen, on the earliest Eoman gold coinage (No. 11).
It is also fonnd on the denarii struck by Tiberius
Veturius in 92 B.C. There, because T. Yeturius
Calvinus was one of the two consuls who concluded
the treaty of the Caudine Forks, the type has been
regarded as alluding to that disgraceful event. If so,
it would be unique among the memorial types found
on Eoman coins
;
and it is surely singularly perverse
to accept such an interpretation when the type may
equally well refer to the treaty (also concluded by
T. Veturius) giving the Campanians and Samnites the
rights of citizenship in 334 B.C. It seems more
reasonable, therefore, to regard none of these treaty
types as alluding to the Caudine Forks ; although,
if any of them do so allude, it is the one placed by
the Allies on their coins, rather than either of the
others.
The significance of the Dionysiac types is obscure.
But they may have been partly inspired by the fact
that Mithradates posed as the "New Dionysos," the
liberator ; on his own coins he uses an ivy wreath as
a border.
The coins with the names of Papius Mutilus and
Pompaedius Silo were probably, as Mommsen points
out, struck early in the war; for Mutilus seems to
have disappeared from the scene after he was defeated
by Sulla in 89 B.C., although he lived some time
longer. Silo died in 88 B.C. "The greater number
88
of these coins, and especially those which bear the
legend Italia or Viteliu, must have been struck during
the first years of the Social "War, when the insurgents
still hoped to found a capital which would rival
Eome. On the other hand, the rarer coins, bearing
the names of Sabine or Samnite chiefs, are of later
date, and were struck when Samnium continued to
bear alone the burden of the war, and was fighting
simply for her own independence.
nl
THE LEX PAPIRIA DE ASSE SEMtJNCIALI.
89 B.C.
53. Obv. Head of Apollo r., laureate
;
behind,
PISO-
Rev. Eiderless horse galloping r. ; below, FRVGI
;
above, E.L.P.
Silver sestertius. 0*95 grammes (14*7 grains). B.M.C. I., p. 280,
No. 2177.
54. Obv. Head of Minerva r., helmeted; [behind,

J
Rev. Prow r. ; above, L.P.D-A.P-
Bronze triens. 4*41
grammes (68'0 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 282,
No. 2192.
By the Lex Papiria (generally but without good
reason called the Lex Plautia Papiria), says Pliny,
2
semunciarii asses faeti; the weight of the as was
reduced to half an ounce (normally 13*64
grammes or
1
Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 424, note.
3
N. H. sxxiii. 3. 46.
89
HISTORICAL BOMAN COINS
210-5
grains). The author of the law was C. Papirius
Carbo, tribune of the people in 89 B.C., who, along
with M. Plautius Silvanus, carried the famous Lex
Plautia Papiria extending the citizenship. This was
probably passed quite early in 89 B.C., if not at the
close of 90 B.C. ;* the law with which we are con-
cerned was intimately connected with the policy of
extending the franchise, and therefore was also doubt-
less passed early in the tribunate of Papirius. In a
considerable number of cities in Italy, long before the
passing of this law, bronze struck on the semuncial
standard was in use : e.g., in Calabria, at Brundu-
sium, Orra, and Uxentum ; in Lucania, at Copia ; in
Bruttium, at Vibo Valentia and Petelia. Bronze had
by this time already become a mere token coinage.
The money of the cities which were now incorporated
in the Eoman state, and which therefore lost their
right of coinage, might have been called in, or tariffed
at some arbitrary rate ; but what Papirius did was to
reduce the legal weight of the Boman as to the weight
prevailing elsewhere.
2
Very soon afterwards
3
even the
Boman mint was closed for bronze, and Italyonce the
home of the bronze standard
presents the curious

4
1
Mommsen, Bom. Hist. Yol. iii.,
p. 247, note.
2
p. 73, note.
3
About 80 B.C.
1
Curious, that is to say, at so late a date in history
;
for previous
to the fourth century B.C. little bronze was coined in the ancient
world.
90
spectacle of a country without a bronze coinage, for
the few coins which Paestum was for some reason
allowed to issue can have made little impression on
the currency.
The letters
E L P
on the sesterce No. 53 have been
rightly expanded by Borghesi into E Lege Papiria
;
and the letters
LP DA P
explained by Mommsen
1
as
Lege Papiria de aere publico, by Graebler
2
as Lege
Papiria de assis pondere. Of these explanations,
Mommsen's is more strongly supported by the analogy
of other inscriptions.
The sesterce was issued only twice, the quinarius
only four times, in the forty
\
years following the
Papirian reform, so that the Eoman coinage thence-
forward consisted of little but denarii. L. Calpurnius
Piso Frugi himself was responsible, about 88 B.C., for
an enormous series of denarii, probably the largest
ever put out by any one morieyer during the Eepublic.
3
During the short period
49
i4 B.C., small silver
was once more issued in some quantities. But
how the Romans and Italians can have been
content for some 65 years (the bronze coinage
was resumed in 15 B.C.) to dispense with the use
of bronze, it is puzzling to conceive.
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi is Cicero's friend. It
1
Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 420, note.
2
Zeit.f. Num. 1902, p. 174, note.
8
The British Museum contains over 270 varieties.
91
was probably he who, after the end of the Social
War, carried the law embodying two new tribes, and
who was praetor with Yerres in 74 b.c. The Apollo
and the horse on his coins refer to the races celebrated
at the Ludi Apollinares. These were inaugurated in
212 B.C., and the annual celebration was established
next year by Piso's ancestor, C. Calpurnius Piso,
praetor urbanus.
SULLA IN GREECE.
8784 B.C.
55. Obv. Head of Yenus r.
;
before it, Cupid standing,
holding palm branch ; below,
LSVLLA*
Rev. Sacrificial ewer and lituus between two
trophies; above and below,
IMPER
ITERVM
Aureus.
10*72 grammes (165'4 grains). British Museum.
This aureus is one of the earliest specimens of that
gold coinage, issued by generals in virtue of their
imperium, which eventually developed into the gold
coinage of the Empire. Gold issues of this kind were
at the time quite outside the province of the ordinary
Roman civil moneyer. Apart from that fact, the
fabric of the coin proves that it was not produced by
the mint at Eome. There is general agreement
among numismatists that it should be assigned to the
period of Sulla's campaign against Mithradates.
During this campaign his quaestor Lucullus issued^
92
money in Peloponnesus
: At' heCvov Ikotty] to -nkticrrov h
Tl\07TOVV7j(T<a TTpl TOV MlSplhaTLKOV TTOkejAOV, KOL AoVKOijWtlOV
air* Kivov TTpocrr)yopv8r), kcli bterikea-ev eirl TrXeiarov, vtto r&v
(TTpCLTKOTLKtoV \pZLtoV V T(i) TTokifMlO XafXÔLVOV afXOl^TjV Tdy/iaV
'}
the military necessities of the situation caused it to
change hands rapidly and to remain long in circula-
tion. Sulla, as is well known, laid all the great
temple treasuries of Greece under contribution
Olympia, Delphi, and Epidaurus were plundered
to pay the expenses of his army. Further, after the

peace with Mithradates, he levied an indemnity of
20,000 talents on the province of Asia, and this also
Lucullus had to convert into coin.
2
It is well known,
as we have seen
(p. 42),
that in such periods of
hasty coinage the metal used is more often gold than
silver, since gold was the metal which the plundered
treasuries afforded more plentifully. Signs of haste
are evident in the rude workmanship of these Lucullan
coins.
Sulla's idea that he was the favourite of Venus
3
accounts for the representation of her head and of
Cupid on his coins. But the palm branch which
Cupid holds is the symbol of victory in war. The
sacrificial ewer and lituus are indications of priestly
office. The two trophies have been explained by
1
Pint. Luculh 2.
2
Ibid. 4. See I\ Lenormant, La Monnaie dans VAntiquite, ii.,
p.
295.
3
Plut. Sulla, 34.
93
Lenormant as referring to the two salutations as
imperator received by Sullaone in Italy, during the
Social War, the other in Greece after his first successes
there. Von Sallet, however, with much more proba-
bility, explains them as trophies of the two victories
at Chaeroneia and Orchomenus over Archelaus, the
general of Mithradates, in 86 and 85 B.C.
1
The aureus
must therefore date from the year 85 at the earliest.
The weight of Sulla's first aureus is about
-$
of the Eoman pound (its normal weight should
be
10-915 grammes). Later aurei were struck
at
-^
(Sulla and Pompeius),
-^
(Caesar), and
-%
(Augustus), and so on in regular decrease to the time
of Constantine.
POMPEITJS IN AFRICA.
81 B.C.
56. Ohv. Head of Africa in elephant-skin head-
dress between ewer and lituus; behind,
MAGNVS; all in wreath.
Rev. A triumphal quadriga containing a person
holding a palm branch and crowned by a
flying Victory ; on one of the horses, a
boy holding a palm branch and wand
;
in
exergue,
PRO COS
Aureus. 8*93 grammes (137*8 grains). British Museum.
Zeit.
f.
Num. xii.,
p.
381. These same trophies occur on a
contemporary tetradrachm with Athenian types evidently struck by
Sulla in Greece (B.M.C. Attica,
p. lv).
94
Pompeius, having in 82 B.C. as propraetor recovered
Sicily, proceeded in the next year to Africa, in order
to deal with Domitius Ahenobarbus and Hiarbas, the
usurper of the Numidian throne. His victory was
easy. The events which followed are well known
:
the attempt of the Senate to disband his army, and to
baulk him of his triumph, which, as a matter of fact,
being an extraordinary magistrate, he could not con-
stitutionally claim
;
his protest, and Sulla's concession.
When Pompeius returned to Eome, Sulla greeted him
as
"
Magnus." That title had already been given
him by his troops in Africa,
1
and Sulla was wise
enough to defer to their opinion. So Pompeius, who
was only 24 years old, and not yet even a senator,
triumphed : eques Eomanus, id quod antea nemo,
curru triumphali revectus.
2
This aureus undoubtedly refers to a triumph, which
the head of Africa on the obverse identifies, with a
strong degree of probability, as the triumph after the
African victories.
3
But where and when was the coin
struck ? Not in Eome, for gold coins like this were
issued by military commanders, in virtue of their
1
See Plutarch, Pomp. 13.
2
Plin. N.H. vii. 96
;
Liv. Ep. lxxxix. Cp. Lioinian. Gran.
p.
39 :
et Pompeius annos natus xxv. eques Eomanus, quod nemo antea, pro-
praetore ex Africa triumphavit iiii. idus Martias.
3
So Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 456, note. But it is straining a point to
argue that the head of Africa also alludes to Pompeius' grand elephant
hunt or to his idea of triumphing in a car drawn by elephants.
95
imperium, and only outside the city. Probably in
Spain, whither Pompeius proceeded in 77 B.C. as pro-
consul. This accords with the inscription on the
coin. Mommsen, it is true, associating the inscrip-
tion directly with the African triumph, has some
difficulty in explaining the title
PROCOS-
He notes
that (according to Licinianus) Pompeius, on his return
from Africa, triumphed with the title pro praetore
;
but he explains that between this title and that of
pro consule there is a distinction only of rank, not of
authority. Pompeius, having been despatched to
Sicily and Africa with an extraordinary imperium,
without holding or having held any magistracy,
might well have assumed the title pro consule in
Africa, and triumphed as pro praetore in Eome !
"
Tout le reste s'explique facilement." The extreme
subtlety of such an explanation becomes entirely
unnecessary if we suppose that the coin was issued
when Pompeius was actually proconsul, but before
the glory of his African triumph had been dimmed
by greater exploits. That was the case when he was
fighting Sertorius in Spain from 76 to 72 B.C. The
circumstances of the campaign might very naturally
demand the issue of a military coinage in gold such
as we have before us.
Other dates which have been suggested for the coin
are 71 B.C. (the Spanish triumph) and 61 B.C. (the
Asian triumph). In considering these alternatives
96
we have always to remember that the gold coins
must have been issued in some province, not in
Kome. Therefore they cannot have been produced
actually on the occasion of the triumph to which
they refer
;
* since in order to triumph Pompeius
had to be in Eome. It follows that, if they allude
to the Spanish triumph, they cannot have been struck
until he next went out with military imperiumviz.,
in 67 B.C., to the East; if to the Asian triumph, it
would seem, on similar grounds, that they must date
from his proconsulship in Spain, which began in
55 b.c.
The fabric of the coins gives us little assistance
;
it
does not seem to be indisputably Eastern, and of the
fabric of coins struck in Spain we know too little to
speak decisively.
One other point has to be considered. If the boy
who rides on one of the horses is the son of Pompeius,
the younger Cneius, then the triumph cannot be the
African one, since Cneius was still unborn at the
time. But, as Mommsen points out, the honour of so
riding was often given to relatives when sons were
1
It has indeed been suggested, at least in connexion with certain
analogous "triumphal" pieces of Sulla, that they were struck
shortly before the triumph to serve for largess. But there is no
foundation for such a statement, and it is significant that the Sullan
pieces in question are rarely found in Italy, and were evidently
issued and circulated chiefly in the East. The coin of Pompeius
before us is extremely rare, only two or three specimens being known,
H.R.C. H
97
not available.
1
This argument, therefore, carries no
weight.
We are thus, it would appear, free to choose among
the various available dates, and the period of the
first Spanish proconsulship seems to have more in its
favour than the rest ; since, other things being equal,
we are then able to connect both obverse and reverse
with the same event, and that an event of fairly recent
date.
The weight of the coin shows that it was struck on
the standard of 36 to the Eoman pound.
THE SUBJECTION OF KING AEETAS.
62 B.C.
57. Obv. King Aretas kneeling r. beside a camel,
holding an olive
-
branch ; above,
m
SCAVRAED.CVR ;
below, EX
SC REX
ARETAS,
Rev. Jupiter in a quadriga L, hurling a thunder-
bolt; below horses' feet, a scorpion; above,
P- HVrSAEVS AEDCVR ;
below,
C
HVPSAE COSPREIVERCAPTV.
grammes (58*0 grains). B.M.C. L, p.
484>
No. 3878.
Aretas III., king of the Nabathaeans, interfered
more than once in the affairs of Syria and Judaea.
1
Mommsen suggests that in this case it is Sextus Pompeius (first
cousin once removed of the triumvir), who was born about 95 B.C.
98
He ruled for a time in Damascus
;
defeated the Jewish
king Alexander Jannaeus at Addida, and besieged
king Aristobulus in Jerusalem
(65
B.C.). M. Aemilius
M. f. M. n. Scaurus, sent against him by Pompeius,
frightened him away ; but although during his retreat
he was defeated by Aristobulus, he was far from
crushed, and continued to give trouble. Pompeius,
unable to take the field himself, sent Scaurus once
more, and in 62 B.C. Aretas made peace, obtaining
good terms. That did not prevent Scaurus from
representing the king as a suppliant, who has dis-
mounted from his camel and kneels, proffering an
olive-branch. This is the earliest instance of a
Eoman moneyer commemorating on his coins his
own exploits.
The piece before us belongs to an issue made
specially (ex Senatus consulto) on the occasion of the
aedilician games celebrated by Scaurus in 58 B.C.
These games were notorious for their insane extrava-
gance: 150 panthers, five crocodiles, the bones (forty
feet long) of the very monster to which Andromeda
was said to have been exposed at Joppa in Judaea,
were amongst the attractions which he provided
1
and
which helped to ruin his fortunes and the morality of
the populace.
2
His colleague in the aedileship
was
P. Plautius Hypsaeus, who had also been in the
i
Pliny N. H. viii. 64
; 96 ; ix. 11.
2
Pliny N. H. xxxvi. 113.
h2
99
service of Pompeius as quaestor. The scorpion may
indeed refer to some exploit performed by Hypsaeus in
the province of Commagene, of which it is the emblem.
1
The significance of the type of Jupiter fulminating is
obscure ; for the suggestion that the god is meant,
as
Zeis v-tyiGTos,
to refer to the name of the
moneyer, is not very attractive. After all, the type
was an old one. But the legend appears to connect it
definitely in some way with the capture of Privernum
by the moneyer*s ancestor, the consul C. Plautius.
2
This feat marked the final subjection of the Volscians
in 329 B.C.
3
Probably
4
the type refers to the consul's
triumph after his Yolscian campaign ; for it must be
remembered that in a triumph the victorious general
appeared in the character and guise of Jupiter.
The form CAPTV (for captum) is less probably an
instance of anousvara
i.e., the suppression of

M
in
writingthan an abbreviation caused by lack of space.
caesar in rome.
49 b.c.
58. Obv. Female head r., wearing wreath of oak-
leaves, and jewellery; behind 11.
1
But it occurs only on one of the two (or three) series of coins
struck by Hypsaeus, so that it is more probably a differentiating mark
of some kind.
2
His cognomen seems to have been Decianus, not Hypsaeus as the
coin gives it.
8
Liv. viii. 20.
1
As Mommsen (ii.,
p.
491 note) seems to imply.
100
Rev. Trophy of Gaulish arms (tunic, horned
helmet, shield and karnyx) ; on r., an
axe adorned with an animal's head
;
across
field, CAE SAR.
Aureus, 8*50
grammes (131*2 grains). B.M.C. L,
p. 505,
No.
3954.
59. Obv. Similar to preceding.
Rev. Similar trophy ; at its foot, figure of a
prisoner, seated, with
hands tied behind
him
;
across field, CAE SAR.
Silver denarius. 3*37 grammes (52 grains). B.M.C. I.,
p. 506,
No. 3959.
60. Obv. Head of Apollo, r., hair confined by fillet;
below, star ; around,
Q
SICIN IVS
IIIVIR.
Rev. Club and lion-skin between bow and arrow
;
around, CCOPON[IVS] PRSC-
Silver denarius, 3*99
grammes (61*6 grains). British Museum.
When Caesar entered Rome in 49, he naturally
seized the state treasure in the temple of Saturn, and
converted it into coin for the payment of his troops.
The gold and silver coins, Nos. 58 and 59,
form part
of this issue, which is remarkable in many ways.
Eoman commanders had previously issued a military
coinage distinct from the regular urban coinage ; thus
Lucullus, acting as quaestor for Sulla in the Mithra-
datic war, had struck gold pieces in his commander's
name (see No. 55). But here we have the general
101
striking a military coinage in Eome itself, "while
the only approach to a regular urban coinage was
being struck outside Eome ! Thus there are denarii
(No.
60)
issued in this year for the praetor C.
Coponius, who was in command of the fleet at
Ehodes, by the monetary triumvir Q. Sicinius. Con-
stitutionally
Q.
Sicinius, as home magistrate, had no
right to issue a military coinage ; he placed himself
within his rights by adding the letters S.C. The
inverted position of affairs, caused by Caesar's occupa-
tion of the capital, could not be better illustrated.
But Caesar's coinage, irregular as it seems, was none
the less the foundation of the imperial gold coinage,
which is, strictly speaking, an imperatorial coinage
issued from the Eoman mint.
The goddess represented on the obverse of Caesar's
coins is generally identified with Pietas, because this
name is inscribed against a somewhat similar head
on a contemporary coin of Decimus Brutus. But
the head on Brutus's coin has no oak-wreath, an
attribute which must surely be significant. The
amount of jewellery which the goddess wears (ear-
ring, necklace, and pearlsapparentlyon the knot in
which her hair is tied behind) suggests that Eckhel
1
was right in calling her Venus, who would obviously
be appropriate as the divine ancestress of the Julian
family. But there appears to be no evidence that
1
Doctrina Num. Vet. vi. p.
6.
102
PL. XI
Nos. 4660.
Venus was ever represented with the oak-wreath.
The identification must, therefore, for the present be
regarded as uncertain.
The numerals 11
(52)
1
have been explained as an
indication of Caesar's age. This is not so absurd as
it may at first sight seem. The legates of M. Antonius,
on coins struck in Gaul in 42 and 41 B.C., indicated
the triumvir's age (see Kos.
76, 77).
Caesar was
probably born in 102 B.C., not in 100,
as is generally
supposed.
2
Thus in the year 49 he would have com-
pleted his fifty-second year. The reason for stating
his age would be to remind the Eomans that in the
next year he would constitutionally be entitled to
hold the consulship for the second time, (If the coins
were distributed on Caesar's birthday the mention of
his age would have additional significance.) No man,
by the lex annalis, could hold the consulship before he
had entered on his forty-third year. An interval
of eleven years was required between two consulships.
Caesar, now in his fifty-third year, would in 48 B.C.
be once more eligible. The trophy, on the other hand,
served to recall Caesar's exploits in Gaul, the shaggy-
headed prisoner represented on the reverse of the
denarius being probably no other than Yercingetorix.
3
1
For so they must be interpreted, rather than as the letters
1
1"|".
2
See the note in Mommsen's History
of
Rome, bk. v., chap. i.
B
See Babelon, Rev. Num. 1902,
pp.
1 ff. On coins of Hostilius
Saserna, struck about 48 B.C., we have the heads of Vercingetorix and
of the oak-wreathed goddess described above.
103
The shield, helmet, and war-trumpet are typically
Gaulish ; but it may be doubted whether the axe is not
a form of sacrificial axe rather than a barbarian weapon.
An axe decorated with a lion's head is represented
among the sacrificial implements on denarii of P.
Sulpicius Galba issued about 69 B.C.
;
1
and an actual
bronze axe with a bull's head was in the Forman
Collection.
2
In the present case, a wolf's head seems
to have been employed as ornament.
These a^m and denarii of Caesar are alike extremely
rare. The aurei were struck at 38 to the Eoman
pound of 327'45 grammes, evidently with the object
of approximating as closely as possible to one of the
many forms of the
"
gold-shekel
M
standard which had
been almost universal in the Eastern Mediterranean
from time immemorial. Soon afterwards the standard
was lowered to 40 to the pound, or
8*18
grammes.
As the gold coins continued to be worth the same
number of denarii
(25),
the older, heavier ones were
probably melted down. This would account for their
rarity, but hardly for the rarity of the denarii.
THE SENATORIAL PARTY IN THE PROVINCES.
49 B.C.
61 . Obv. Young male head r., hair confined with fillet
;
around, L LENT-CMARCCOS (NT and
MA
ligatured).
1
G-rueber, B. M. C. i., p. 433, Nos. 3516 f.
2
C, Smith, Catal.
of
the Forman Collection, No. 160.
104
Rev. Jupiter standing, holding eagle and thunder-
bolt
;
at his feet, altar
;
in field 1., star
and
Q.
Silver denarius. 3'75 grammes (57"8 grains). British Museum.
62. Oiv. Winged Gorgon's head in the middle of the
three-legged symbol (triskeles) of Sicily
;
between the legs, ears of barley.
Rev. Jupiter standing, holding eagle and thunder-
bolt
;
in field r., pruning-hook
;
on r. and
1. : LENT.MAR.COS (NT and MAR
ligatured).
Silver denarius.
4*12
L. Lentulus Crus and C. Claudius Marcellus were
chosen consuls for the year 49 B.C. Both, more espe-
cially Lentulus, were declared enemies of Caesar, and
fled hastily at his approach to Eome. Early in
March they were sent forward by Pompeius to Epirus.
During the time of Caesar's Spanish expedition,
Lentulus seems to have been occupied in raising
troops in the East, but he returned in time for the
fighting in Epirus. Of Marcellus we hardly hear
again ; in 48 B.C. he was, with Coponius, in command
of the Ehodian squadron.
Of the two coins bearing the names of the consuls,
the first was issued by a quaestor (hence the letter
q
on the reverse), either at the Pompeian head-
quarters, Dyrrhachium, or else at Apollonia. The
latter mint is perhaps the more probable, since in the
105
obverse type we may recognize Apollo, whose head is
the regular type of the silver
"
denarii" of Apollonia
in the first century B.C. The second coin, on the
other hand, bears a symbol which definitely connects
it with Sicily. For, whatever may have been the
original meaning of the triskeles,
1
there is no doubt
that, at the time when these coins were struck, it
recalled the three-cornered island of Sicily to the
Eomans as clearly as the same symbol recalls to us
the Isle of Man. Now of any actual visit of the
consuls to Sicily in their year of office we have no
record
; and as our information with regard to their
movements, from the time of their leaving Eome to
their departure from Brundisium, is fairly detailed,
we may well doubt whether they went to Sicily at all.
But Pompeius was actively employed, until he left
Italy, in raising men and money from every source.
2
It is improbable that he would have neglected Sicily,
especially as it was held for the Senate by Marcus
Cato, until the approach of Curio drove him to join
Pompeius. We may therefore not unreasonably con-
jecture that these coins were struck in the name of
the consuls, in connexion with the levies of men,
provisions, or money, which were being made on the
island by the Senatorial party. The ears of barley
1
On this see an interesting note by J. Six in Sertum Nabericum
(1908),
where it is suggested that the triskeles is the symbol of
thunder.
2
Cass. Dio. xli. 9.7.
106
attached to the triskeles remind us that Sicily was one
of the great sources of corn-supply.
The figure of Jupiter is common to the two issues.
It is of course possible that in the one case it has
some local reference, while in the other it is merely
retained without any particular significance. Thus,
if the Sicilian issue is the earlier, as is probable, the
figure may represent some statue of Zeus in Sicily.
Furtwangler,
1
accordingly, approves Havercamp's con-
jecture that it is meant for the Syracusan Zeus
Eleutherios. Further, he maintains that these coins
need not have been struck in or for Sicily at all, but
that the Sicilian types are personal to the consul
Marcellus, who was descended from the conqueror of
the island. It seems however improbable that the
types of both sides of the coin with the triskeles
should refer to Marcellus, leaving Lentulus in the
cold. A satisfactory explanation of the Jupiter type
has still to be discovered.
caesar's fourfold triumph.
46 b.c.
63. Obv. Veiled beardless head r. ; around, C-CAESAR
COSTER.
Rev. Lituus, ewer and axe; below, AHIRTIVS
PR.
Aureus. 8*07
grammes (124*6 grains). B.M.C. L,
p. 525, No. 4050.
1
Masterpieces,
p.
218.
107
The third consulship of Julius Caesar dates this
coin to the year 46 b.c. It was struck by Caesar's
lieutenant A. Hirtius,
1
the continuator of the
a
Gallic
War/' who abbreviates the name of his magistracy
thus : PR. Does this mean Praetor, or Praefectus
whi ? The former is the more probable, since there
is no certain instance of the abbreviation PR standing
alone
,
without the qualifying dative or genitive VRB (i)
or VRB(is), being used on a coin for
praefectus.
When, as in the coins of C. Clovius, the qualifying
word is omitted, the abbreviation is PRAEF.
2
Histori-
cally, the choice before us is an even one ; for we
know that in or for the year with which we are con-
cerned Caesar arranged for the appointment of six
praefecti of the city and ten praetors.
3
Hirtius may
have been either, and as either may have issued the
coin in question. On the whole, the evidence, from
a linguistic standpoint, favours the interpretation of
the abbreviation as Praetor.
An examination of a number of these coins shows
that they are hastily and carelessly struck from, as a
1
On Hirtius, see Max L. Strack in Bonner Jahrbucher, Heft 118.
9
Whether Clovius is meant to be described as praefectus urbis or
praefectus chassis (or even praefectus fabrum, as Munzer suggests, in
Pauly-Wissowa s.n.) does not affect the argument. The coins of
Q. Oppius call him
PR,
but there is nothing to prove that this means
praefectus. Cestius and Norbanus, also called
PR,
were most probably
praetors.
3
Cassius Dio, xlii. 51 and xliii. 28.
108
rule, rather roughly executed dies. There can be
little doubt that this coinagewhich, it must be
remembered, was not the ordinary silver coinage of
the triumvirs of the mint, but a special issue of gold
was intended to serve for the enormous largesses

which Caesar squandered at his triumphs in 46 B.C.
He gave, for instance, to each veteran foot-soldier,
20,000 sesterces, i.e. 200 such aurei; to each of the
populace, in addition to a dole of corn and oil, 400
sesterces
,
i.e. 4 such aurei.
1
The enormous coinage
which must have been required explains the rudeness
with which the coins are executed, and their compara-
tive plentifulness at the present time. The types do
not seem to carry any allusion to the events of the
year. The head on the obverse is generally described
as Pietasa name which is somewhat indiscriminately
applied by numismatists to any veiled head of some-
what feminine appearance. When we remember how
common a religious rite was the veiling of the head,
the doubtfulness of such an identification is apparent.
Nevertheless here, where the type of the reverse
alludes to Caesar's position as religious head of the
state, it is quite reasonable to suppose that the
obverse represents Pietas, or the sense of duty
towards the gods, the outward sign of which, as
we know from Lucretius's protest,
2
was the veiling
1
Suetonius, Divus Iulius, 38.
2
Bk. V. 1198.
109
of the head before the sacred images of the
gods
:
nee pietas ullast, velatum saepe videri

vertier ad lapidem atque omnia accedere ad aras.
corinth refounded.
44 b.c.
64. Obv. Head of Julius Caesar r., laureate; behind,
LAVSIVLICORINT (INT ligatured).
Rev. Bellerophon mounted on Pegasus r., striking
downwards with spear ; above and below,
[L-CERTO-AEFICIO C]
IVLIO iTviR (AE
ligatured).
Bronze. 5'27 grammes (81*4 grains). B.M.O. Corinth,
p. 58,
No. 48V.
65. Obv. Bellerophon, wearing petasos and chlamys,
walking r., leading Pegasus by the bridle,
before an arched doorway. In exergue,
CORINTHVM
Rev. Poseidon seated r. on rock, r. hand resting
on knee, 1. holding long trident upright
;
on r. [PJTADICHILO, on L C IVLI-
NICEPII-VIR.
Bronze. 8*34 grammes (128*7 grains). B.M.C. Corinth,
p. 58,
No. 484.
The recolonization of Corinth and Carthage
was
intended by Julius Caesar at the same time as an
"atonement for two of the worst crimes committed
110
by the old Bepublic, and as a means not only of
relieving the capital of the world of starving pro-
letarians, but also of vigorously enforcing the Komani-
zation of the subject provinces/'
*
Corinth began to
rise from its ruins probably one hundred and two
years after Mummius sacked it
i.e., in 44 B.C.
;
whether actually before the murder of the dictator or
not, it is difficult to say. For the fact that the
foundation is definitely ascribed by many ancient
writers to Caesar merely means that he made the
necessary plans before his death. It has indeed been
maintained that the real foundation was only effected
by the triumvirs after the battle of Philippi. The
numismatic evidence, on the whole, favours an earlier
date.
3
For the duoviri L. Certus Aeficius and
C. Iulius, who strike coins with the head of Julius
Caesar, do not represent the heads of M. Antonius or
Octavian, as they might be expected to do if their term
of office had fallen after the campaign of Philippi.
Further, the full title of the colony, Laus Iuli(a)
Corint(hus), which, on the coins certainly of the time
of Antonius, Augustus and the earlier emperors down
to Domitian, is replaced by the form CORIIMT or
CORINTHI, would be expected on the earliest coins.
1
Hertzberg, Ge&ch. Q-riechenlands, L,
pp.
460 f. ; where also the
varying views as to the date of the foundation are discussed.
B
On the chronology of the coins, see Earle !Fox, in Journal Inter-
national d
y
Arckeologie Numismatique, ii.
(1899), pp.
94 f.
in
HISTOEICAL KOMAN
COINS
The coin of the duoviri P. Tadius Chilo and C. Iulius
Niceporus, which is also for various reasons placed
early in the series, bears the legend Corinthum.
This
use of the accusative is not paralleled elsewhere, and
is difficult to explain.
The types are local- The standing type of the
coinage of Corinth from the earliest times was
Pegasus. Bellerophon himself was less commonly
represented. On one of our coins he is seen leading
Pegasushaving evidently but just tamed him
towards the doorway of a building of some kind

;
possibly this is meant to indicate the fountain-house
of Peirene. On the other, we have part of the battle
with the Chimaerawithout the Chimaera. It is not
certain whether the figure of Poseidon reproduces an
actual statue.
1
The coins are signed by the duoviri iure dicundo,
the highest officials of the colony, as eponymous
magistrates.
THE MURDER OF CAESAR.
44 B.C.
66. Obv. Head of Julius Caesar r., laureate, veiled;
in front, CAESAR; behind, DICT.
PERPETVO.
1
See Tmhoof-Blumer and Gardner, Nvmwm. Comm. on Pausania8
%
pp.
16 f., for the various Poseidon statues at Corinth.
112
Rev. Yenus standing to 1. with sceptre (at foot of
which is a shield) in her 1.,
and a Victory
in her r. ; on r.,
PSEPVLLIVS; on L,
MACER.
Silver denarius. 3-85 grammes (59'4 grains). B.M.C. L,
p.
549,
No. 4173.
67. Obv. Head of M. Antonius r., bearded,
veiled
;
in
front, lituus
;
behind,
one-handled
jng.
Circular countermark.
Rev. Horseman riding at a gallop and leading a
second horse to r. ; behind, wreath and
palm-branch ;
above,
P
SEPVLLIVS
;
below, MACER.
Silver denarius. 4*28 grammes (66*0 grains). B.M.C. L, p.
550,
No. 4178.
The exact date of these coins has been much
discussed, though the choice of years lies only between
44 and 43 B.C. The second piece, showing the head
of M. Antonius with the beard which he grew in sign
of mourning, must obviously have been struck after
the death of Caesar, March 15th, 44 B.C. The first,
on which Caesar is called
"
Dictator perpetuo," must
accordingly date after the beginning of 44 B.C.
Another denarius of Macer represents the temple
which the Senate proposed, shortly before the Dicta-
tor's death, to erect to his clemency ;* Clementia and
Caesar were represented joining hands, and this virtue
1
Plut. Caes. 57
;
App. I.e. ii. 106 ; Cass. Dio, xliv. 6.
H.R.C. I
113
thus
entered the ranks of the gods publicly worshipped
at Eome. Although the temple is represented on the
coin of Macer, it by no means follows that it was
actually completed at the time.
1
There is thus no cogent reason for postponing the
magistracy of Macer until 43 B.C.
;
indeed, since
Antonius left Eome at the end of November, 44, and
was thenceforward active against the Senate, being in
fact declared a public enemy after his defeat by Hirtius
in April,
43,
it is difficult to see how the Senate could
have allowed a moneyer of the latter year to place
the head of Antonius on the coins.
2
So far, Caesar's
was the only portrait of a living person that had
appeared on the Eoman coinage, and that in accordance
with a special decree of the Senate.
3
The privilege
would not have been repeated for Antonius during
the period of strained relations with the Senate ; or
for him alone, without Lepidus and Octavian, during
the triumvirate. Again, when the triumvirate came
into being, late in the year, Caesar had been dead for
1
Any more than the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini was completed
in the form represented on Matteo de' Pasti's medal of Sigismondo
Malatesta, which was cast in 1450 to show the elevation planned by
the architect Leone Battista AlbertL
2
See Grueber, B.M.C. i.,
p.
548.
3
Cassius Dio, xliv. 4. "What Dio saysis:
Uaripa T avrov
-rifc
mrpi&os
c7r<Dvo/iocrai' kcu S to. vofita-fiara v)(dpa.av. A better writer would
have inserted a word making it clear that it was Caesar's portrait, and
not his title Pater Patriae, which was engraved on the coins ; but there
can be no doubt as to the real significance of the passage.
114
more than eighteen months, and the Caesarian types
would have lost much of their point. We may there-
fore accept De Salis's attribution of these coins to the
year of Caesar's death. The first was probably struck
before the fatal event. Caesar is represented with
veiled head as pontifex maximus. The portrait, though
not nearly so well executed as the head on the coins
of L. Aemilius Buca, another moneyer of the same
year, is more like the traditional Caesar. He wears
the laurel-wreath, the perpetual use of which was
granted to him by the State, much, says Suetonius,
1
to his satisfaction, because his baldness exposed him
to the derision of his enemies. Venus is represented
on the coin as the ancestress of the Julian house
;
she is here the Venus Victrix whose name was Caesar's
watchword at Pharsalus and Munda,
2
and whom he
had represented on his signet-ring.
3
On the second
coin the palm-branch and wreath show that the
type is agonistic
;
the rider is a desultor, and the con-
test that in which a horseman leaps from one horse to
another in full gallop. Suetonius records
4
that nobilis-
simi iuvenes rode in such races at the Circensian games
celebrated by Caesar. As this performance by young
men of good position was something out of the common,
Macer may have thought it a suitable type for coins
1
Divut Iulius, 45.
2
Appian he. ii. 68. 281 ; 104. 43.0.
8
Cassius Dio, xliii. 43.
4
Dims Iuliua 39.
12
115
so closely connected with. Caesar or his memory. The
same type is used as the reverse of the coins with the
temple of Clementia.
brutus in asia and macedon.
4342 b.c.
68. Oho. Head of Brutus r. ; on 1. BRVTVS, on r.
IMP
; the whole in a wreath.
Rev. Military and naval trophy
;
on 1. CASCA,
on r. LONGVS.
Aureus.
8*64
69. Obv. Head of Brutus r.; behind, LPLAETCEST;
above and in front, BRVT IMP-
Rev. Cap of Liberty between two daggers;
EIDMAR.
Silver denarius. 3-80 grammes (58*7 grains). British Museum.
70. Obv. Bust of Liberty r., veiled; around, LSES7T
PROQ
Rev. Tripod, axe, and sacrificial ladle
;
around,
QCAEPIO BRVTVS PROCOS.
Silver denarius,
3*84
71. Obv. Head of Brutus r.
Rev. Four-legged seat (subsellium) between
viator's wand (virga) and money-chest
(fiscus) ;
below,
Q.
Bronze. 9*36 grammes (144'5 grains). British Museum.
Of these coins, No. 68 was struck in Asia Minor,
during the year
43,
when Brutus was preparing for
116
the campaign of Philippi; the others in
42,
when he
was in Macedon. The name of Brutus, as the adopted
son of Q. Servilius Caepio, has on No. 70 the official
form Q. Caepio Brutus. Besides him, the coins name
three of his officers. L. Plaetorius Cestianus is
unknown to history. L. Sestius, who strikes as pro
quaestore, is that attractive person, the devoted friend
of Brutus, to whom Horace addressed an ode
(1.4),
and whom Augustus took into his favour. Casca
Longus is Servilius Casca : either Publius, who was
the first to strike at Caesar,
1
or his brother Caius.
2
Publius served as the legatus of Brutus, fought at
Philippi, and died soon afterwards. Caius, who was
also among the conspirators, was, like his brother,
present in the campaign of Philippi. The bronze
piece, No.
71,
does not, strictly speaking, come into
the ordinary Eoman series. Prom comparison with
other coins it is clear that it was struck in Macedon,
and probably at Pella or Thessalonica, shortly before
the campaign of Philippi.
3
The types for the most part explain themselves.
The cap of liberty between the two daggers, with the
inscription commemorating the Ides of March, has an
extraordinarily modern flavour. The sacrificial instru-
ments on No. 70 must refer to some priestly office.
1
Cic. Phil. ii. 11; Plut. Caes. 66; Brut 17,45; Cass. Dio, xliv. 52;
xlvi. 49.
2
Cic. ibid.
;
App. ii. 113
;
Cass. Dio, xliv. 52,
8
Jmhoof-Blunter, Mommies grecqueSj
p. 60, No. 1.
H7
The trophy on Casca's coin commemorates the petty
victories which the tyrannicides won over the unfor-
tunate Asiatics in the year before Philippi. On the
reverse of the bronze coin we find the insignia of the
quaestor who issued it (marking it accordingly with
the letter
Q).
THE TRIUMVIRS.
Nov.
43
Dec. 38 b.c.
72. Obv. Head of M. Antonius r. ; around, M*ANT-
ONIVSIIIVIRRPC-
Rev. Heroic figure (Anton) seated 1. on rocks,
with spear and shield
;
around,
L
REGVLVSIIIIVIRAPF.
Aureus. 7'98 grammes (123'1 grains). B.M.C. L,
p. 578, No.
4255.
73. Obv. Head of Octavian r. ; around, CCAESAR
III VIRRPC
Rev. Aeneas carrying Anchises r.
;
around, in-
scription as on preceding.
Aureus. 8*24
grammes (127*1 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 579, No.
4258.
74. Obv. Head of Lepidus r. ; around, MLEPIDVS
IIIVIRRPC.
Rev. The Vestal Aemilia standing L, holding
simpulum and sceptre ; around, inscrip-
tion as on No. 72.
Aureus. 7*98 grammes (123'2 grains). B.M.C. L, p. 580, No.
4259.
118
PL. XII
HISTOEICAL SOMAN COINS
L. Livineius Eegulus issued these coins as one
of the quattuorviri auro publico feriundo. Other
moneyers who struck gold coins with the same title
about the same time are L. Mussidius Longus and
P. Clodius M. f. All three men issued sets of
three gold coins with portraits of the triumvirs
;
and C. Vibius Varus, though he does not describe
himself as belonging to the quattuorvirate, has an
analogous issue. It seems natural, therefore, to
assign these four moneyers to the same year, viz., the
first year of the triumvirate,
43
42 B.C. De Salis,
however, on various numismatic grounds with which
we need not concern ourselves here, gives the coins of
Mussidius and Eegulus to the year 39, and postpones
the issues of the two others to the next year. It
was in 44 B.C. that Caesar raised the number of
moneyers from three to four. De Salis' s view was
that only two of the board of four exercised their
right of coinage in each year. And he supposed the
portraits of the triumvirs to have appeared, not in the
first year of the triumvirate, but after the third
partition of the Empire at the treaty of Brundisium.
However this may beand De Salis's position has
been shaken in some details by the discovery of coins
unknown to himthe historical interest of these issues
does not depend entirely on their exact date. "We
have already noticed the gradual intrusion of the gold
imperatorial coinage into the system of the Eoman
119
mint. The process is now complete ; these gold coins
are part of the regular currency, struck by the regu-
larly appointed officials of the mint, without reference
to the military imperium. Equally important, how-
ever, is the emphasis laid on the personalities of the
triumvirs. The portrait of Julius Caesar was the first
to appear, quite irregularly, as the portrait of a living
person, on the coins
;
z
then, in exceptional circum-
stances, came the portrait of M. Antonius
; now, with
the portraits of the triumviri reipublicae constituendae
side by side before us, we no longer feel that there is
anything exceptional in the portrayal of the living
rulers of the state. Another blow has been struck at
the
"
republican
"
nature of the coinage. On the coins
of Q.
Voconius Vitulus and Ti. Sempronius Gracchus,
which De Salis has attributed to 37 B.C., the heads of
Antonius and Lepidus do not occur, and their absence
illustrates the growing power of Octavian, who alone,
with Divus Julius, is represented. This is the next
stage. Finally, after this year, not even the names of
the quattuorviri or other moneyers are inscribed on
the coins, while the types refer wholly to Octavian,
not to the moneyer's family history ; we have, to all
intents and purposes, reached the full imperial stage
of the coinage. "With the revival of the bronze or
brass coinage in 16 B.C., the moneyers' names reappeared
1
On the significance of the portraits of living persons on Roman
coins, see Macdonald, Coin Types,
pp.
192 f
,
120
for a brief period, and the Senate's authority was
recognized, in that this money bore the letters
S C
(Senatas consulto). These letters, indeed, continued to
mark, with few exceptions, all the coins of copper,
bronze or brass, for nearly two and a-half centuries, as
issued by the authority of the Senate. But the gold
and silver coinage always retained the character which
had been given it in the years with which we are
dealing. The imperial coinage of Rome thus begins
not with the year 27 B.C., but some ten years earlier.
The types on the reverses here described are obvious
in their personal reference. Anton, son of Hercules,
was claimed by the Antonii as the founder of their
race. Aeneas appears on the coins of Octavian as
founder of the Iulii. The Yestal is presumably the
Aemilia who, when the fire of which she was in charge
went out, prayed to the goddess and, throwing a
piece of her robe on the embers, miraculously re-
kindled the flame. Yet the Romans who saw a Vestal
represented on the coins of an Aemilius could hardly
?
fail to remember first of all the scandal of the Yestal
Aemilia who for her unchastity paid the penalty of
death in 114 B.C.
cassius at rhodes.
43 b.c.
75. Obv. Head of Liberty r., laureate; behind,
CCASSEI IMr
121
Rev. Crab holding in its claws an aplustre
;
below, a diadem and a half-blown rose
;
on 1. MSERVILIVS, on r. LEG.
Cassius, having crushed Dolabella in Syria, returned
to meet Brutus in Asia. Before proceeding to
Macedonia he undertook to punish the adherents of
the triumvirs in Asia Minor, and first directed himself
against the Ehodians, who had sided with Dolabella.
They attempted to appease his wrath, but he declined
to listen, and after defeating them by sea and by land,
gained possession of the city, which he plundered.
Plutarch relates that after his victory, when the
Ehodians hailed him as king and lord, he replied
:
"
Neither king nor lord, but the slayer and chastiser
of the lord and king."
1
Four objects are crowded together on the reverse of
this coin ; of these it is obvious that the aplustre
alludes to victory at sea, while the diadem and the
rose speak of the royal greeting which the Ehodians
extended to their conqueror. But the crab is more
difficult to explain. If the rose, as the Ehodian arms,
alludes to the Ehodians, it would seem that the crab
represents the arms of the neighbouring island of Cos.
2
1
Plut. Brut. 30.
a
The crab had at this time almost disappeared from the Coan
coinage ; but, as it had from the earliest times been the standing type
of the Ooan coins, it doubtless always remained the badge or arms of
the city.
122
It appears that Cassius's sea victory was won in Coan
waters.
1
Thereis, indeed, just a possibility that the crab
has not here any reference to Cos at all, bnt that, as
Thalassa, the personification of the sea, wears a head-
dress of crab's claws, so the crab may be a kind of
short-hand for the sea. The reference to Cos, how-
ever, seems much less far-fetched.
Cassius's victory took place in 43 B.C. The coin
itself was struck by his legatus M. Servilius, probably
in the next year, after Cassius himself had left on the
fatal expedition to Philippi ; at any rate, after he had
rejoined Brutus at Sardis, where he was saluted as
imperator.
The form CASSEl on the obverse preserves an
older form of the name, which was written with El
instead of I-
M. Servilius, the legate of Cassius, appears to be
the person who was tribune of the people in 44 B.C.,
and was described by Cicero as vir fortissimus?
THE LEGATES OF M. ANTONIUS IN GAUL.
4241 B.C.
76. Obv. Female portrait bust r., with small wings
on either side of neck.
1
See Borgheei, (Euvres, i.,
p.
393
;
from Appian iv. 71. 300 f., we
see that the action began off Myndue ; cp. Cass. Dio, xlviii. 33.
*
ddfarn,
xii,
7;
Phil, iv. 6, 16.
123
Rev. Lion walking r. ; below and above [L]VGV
DVN [I] ;
in field 1. [A], r. XL-
Silver quinarius. 1*43 grammes (22 grains). British Museum.
77. Obv. Similar to obv. of No.
76;
around
77I.VIR
R-P-C.
Rev. Similar to rev. of No.
76 ; above lion,
ANTONI, below IMP; in field 1. A,r.XLI
Silver quinarius. Cabinet des Medailles, Bibliotheque Nationale,
Paris.
In the division of the provinces under the second
triumvirate in 43 B.C., Lepidus received Spain and
Gallia Narbonensis, Antonius the rest of Gaul. The
two triumvirs were represented in their absence by-
legates
;
P. Yentidius Bassus seems to have governed
GalliaLugdunensis until, in 41 B.C., he lefttheprovince,
which then came under Fufius Calenus.
M. Antonius was born in 82 b.c His 40th birthday
therefore fell in 42,
his 41st in 41 B.c. EckhePs inter-
pretation of
A XL
and
A
X|J
as anni or annos xl. or
xlL has generally been accepted, the point of the com-
memoration of Antonius's age on these coins being
clear if we assume, with Hirschfeld, that they were
struck for his birthday and distributed to his troops.
1
The locative LVOVDVN I shows that the first, at any
rate, was struck at Lugdunum. It is certainly odd that
on the earlier quinarii the name of M. Antonius is
not mentioned. But if they were distributed on his
1
See above, on Caesar's coinage of 49 B.C.
(p. 103).
124
birthday, everyone concerned must have known the
meaning of the number XL. When the issue was
repeated next year, we may suppose that the omission
was rectified, and the name of Lugdunum had to give
way to the name of the triumvir.
The types are significant. The woman who appears
as Victory on the obverse is the triumvir's wife Fulvia.
That is clear from a comparison with coins of the city
of Eumeneia in Phrygia, which for a time bore after
her the name of Fulvia; on those coins also she is
represented as Victory. The lion on the reverse
has been ingeniously interpreted
1
as the triumvir's
genethliac sign. It appears from Pliny
2
that he
showed the same sort of partiality for the lion as
Augustus showed for the Capricorn ; and as the
Capricorn became the badge of several legions founded
by Augustus, so, it has been thought, the lion was the
badge of a legion established by M. Antonius. And
as a matter of fact there exists a quinarius of Augustus
with a running lion as its reverse type and the inscrip-
tion LEG. XVI. It may well be, then, that this sixteenth
legion was founded by M. Antonius, and that the
quinarii struck at Lugdunum were issued for its
especial benefit. But, whatever we may say as to
1
By Willers, in the Numism. Zeitachr, xxxiv.
(1902), in an elaborate
study of the coinage of Lugdunum, to which the information given
in the text is mainly due.
8
N. H. viii. 21. 55.
125
HISTOEICAL
BOMAN COINS
these conjectures, there can be little doubt as to the
occasion on which the coins were issued.
The early form Lugudunum for the name of the
city is noteworthy.
sexttjs pompeius in sicily.
4236 b.c.
78. Obv. Head of Sextus Pompeius r.
;
around, MAG
PIVS IMP ITER
;
the whole in oak-
wreath.
Rev. Heads of Cn. Pompeius
Magnus r. and Cn.
Pompeius the Younger 1.,
confronted
;
on
1.,
lituus, on r. tripod ; above and below,
PRAEF CLASET-
ORAE MARIT-EX S C
(some of the letters ligatured).
Aureus. 8'06 grammes (124*4 grains). British Museum.
79. Obv. The pharos of Messana ; on the top, figure
of Neptune (holding trident and dolphin,
with his foot on a prow) ; lying before it,
a war-galley, bearing a military eagle, a
trident and a thyrsos. Around, inscrip-
tion as on obv. of No. 78.
Rev. Scylla, with double tail, and foreparts of
wolves around her waist, brandishing an
oar; around, inscription as on rev. of
No. 78.
Silver denarius.
3'86 grammes (59*5 grains). British Museum.
Sextus Pompeius Magnus was the younger son of
126
Pompeius the Great. From the time of the battle of
Pharsalia he was almost continuously a thornin the side
of Caesar, and, after the dictator's death, of Antonius
and Octavian. In 44 B.C., "when the Senate broke with
M. Antonius, Pompeius was appointed praefect of
the fleet and of the sea-coast, as he calls himself on
his coins. The phrase EX SC* which follows the title
refers, probably, to the grant of this office, and not to
the grant of the right of coinage. From the beginning
of the triumvirate, being proscribed, he turned pirate,
and eventually (in 42 B.C.) made himself master of
Sicily. Here he held out for six years, until Agrippa,
defeating him first at Mylae and then decisively at
Naulochus, broke his power. He fled to the East,
where he met his death in 35 b.c During his six
years in Sicily his only idea seems to have been to
annoy the triumvirs, without aspiring to restore the
Republican regime or to seize the supreme power
himself. His rough, uncultured nature
1
is well
expressed in the portrait on the obverse of his aureus.
As the avenger of his father and his elder brother
(killed in Spain after the battle of Munda in
45),
he
calls himself "Pius," and represents their portraits on
his coinage. The denarius is one of a number with
types of local interest : for all these coins appear to
1
Veil. Paterc. ii. 73 : hie adolescens erat studiis rudis, sermone
barbarus, impetu strenuus, maim promtus, cogitatione celer, fide
patri dissiraillimus, libertorum suorum libertus, servorumque servue,
speciosis invidens, ut pareret humillimis.
127
have been struck in Sicily.
1
Scylla symbolizes the
Straits of Messana
;
the obverse of the same coin shows
an admiral's galley
2
occupying the harbour of Messana.
On the pharos is a statue of Neptune,
naturally appro-
priate to such a place, but also significant of the fact
that Sextus claimed to be
"
son of Neptune." He
called himself Imperator iterum, probably after his
defeat of Q.
Salvidienus Eufus in 42 b.c.
;
a victory
over Asinius Pollio in Spain in 45 or 44 having
allowed him to take the title for the first time.
3
The augurship of Pompeius the Great
4
is alluded to
by the lituus behind his head ; the tripod is also the
symbol of some priestly office.
q. labienus paethicus.
40 b.c.
80. Olv. Head of Labienusr. ; around, Q. LABI ENVS
PARTHICVS IMr
Rev. Bridled and saddled horse standing r.
Silver denarius. 3*78 grammes (58*3 grains). British Museum.
1
For others see my Coins
of
Ancient Sicily, PI. xv. 6 and 9.
2
The meaning of the thyrsos which leans against the aplustre (or
stern ornament) is obscure. It is found in the same position on the
ship in the beautiful Ludovisi relief representing Paris and Oenone.
Attempts have been made to explain the significance of this Dionysiac
emblem on the relief, but without success. It seems still more out of
place on the flagship of Sextus Pompeius.
8
Cassius Dio, xlv. 10.
*
Cic. Phil. ii. 4.
128
Q. Labienus
1
was the son of that T. Labienus who,
after serving under Caesar in Gaul, deserted to the
side of Pompeius, and was slain at Munda. After
the murder of Caesar, Quintus was sent to Parthia by
Brutus and Cassius to obtain help from King Orodes
;
and he stayed in the countryuntil, in 40 B.C., a favourable
opportunity occurred for him to strike a blow against
the power of the triumvirs. With Pacorus, the son
of Orodes, he invaded Syria, which for the most part
submitted without a blow. Leaving Pacorus to com-
plete the work in Syria, Labienus overran the greater
part of southern Asia Minor, reaching as far as
Caria. His successes induced him to take the title
of Parthicus Imperator, which must have been doubly
offensive to a "Western ear, since, according to Roman
usage, it should have meant that he was the conqueror
of the Parthians, not their ally. The orator Hybreas,
who unsuccessfully defended the Carian fortress of
Mylasa against him, ironically proposed to call himself
KapiKos avroKp&Tcop*
The successes of Labienus in
1
Labienus is a gentile name, but the error -which, regards it as a
cognomen of the gem Atia still persists. For the career of Labienus,
see especially Cassius Dio, xlviii. 24
26, 39, 40.
2
Strabo, xiv. 660. Strictly speaking, no doubt, "Parthicus" and
"
imperator
"
are co-ordinate words, qualifying
"
Q. Labienus." But
Hybreas chose to take *' Parthicus" as an adjective qualifying
"imperator"; or perhaps he knew no better. Cassius Dio carefully
says
avTOKparopa re avrbv teal ILapOtKOV ye Ik tov ivavruaT&TOv rots
Pujuouxs
0ovs wvo/ao^cv (liv. 26). Gardthausen {Augustus I. L
p. 225) seems to have missed the point of Hybreas* joke.
H.R.C.
K
129
Asia Minor were brought to a close by M. Antonius'
lieutenant, P. Yentidius, in 39 B.C.
The coin of Labienus must have been issued by
him either in Syria (at some such place as Antioch) or
in Asia Minor. A Syrian mint is, on the whole, more
probable, although it cannot reasonably be argued
from a statement of Cassius Dio that Labienus took
no Parthian cavalry with him across the Taurus.
1
Labienus doubtless claimed that he was issuing money
in virtue of his Eoman imperium
;
so he issued it of
the weight and in the style of the denarius
;
and, at
the same time, struck an aureus precisely like it in all
respects save metal and weight.
The reverse type alludes to the Parthian light
cavalry with which he raided Koman territory. It
offers an admirable contrast to the conventional repre-
sentation of horses which prevails at this time, is
evidently carefully studied from -the life, and gives a
better idea than anything else now extant of what
the Parthian horse was like. It is difficult to explain
what it is that hangs from the saddle. One of the
Scythian horses on a famous silver vase, from
Tchertomlitsk in South Eussia,
2
carries an object
depending from its saddle in the same way, but on a
much smaller scale. None of the explanations that
1
XLY11I. 39 : when Ventidius came upon Labienus in Asia Minor,
Labienus
avev twv Tldp$(DV fiTcL twv avroOeu o"Tpa,Tta)Twv fi,6vo)v rjv.
2
Kondakoff, Tolstoi and Reinach, A?itiquites de la Eussie Meridionale,
p.
298. I owe this analogy to Mr. 0. M. Dalton.
130
occur to the mind (bow-case, stirrup, saddle-bag,
saddle-cloth) seems satisfactory.
Ventidius, says Dio,
1
got nothing from the Senate
for his services, because he was serving merely as
Antonius' lieutenant. A rare denarius, on which both
Antonius and Ventidius are named with the title
imp(erator), has been associated with the campaign
of Ventidius against Labienus and the Parthians. It
was, however, more probably issued in Cisalpine Gaul
when Ventidius was acting on behalf of Antonius in
43 B.C., or else a little later, during the Perusine "War.
M. Antonius is still represented as wearing a beard in
mourning for Julius Caesar. There is no numismatic
record of Ventidius' Parthian victories.
2
THE ARMENIAN EXPEDITION OF M. ANTONIUS.
34 B.C.
81. Obv. Head of M. Antonius r.
;
around, AN-
TON IVS

AVGVR COS DES ITER
ET TERT.
Rev. Armenian tiara, with bow and arrow (or
sceptre) crossed behind it; around, IMP
TERTIO III VIR
R P C
Silver denarius. Cabinet des Medailles, Bibliothque Nationale,
Paris.
1
XLVIII. 41. He was compensated, however, when Antonius sent
him
back to Rome, by a splendid triumph in Nov. 38, after which he
disappears from history.
5
Except probably the dates on coins of Bhosus ; see Journ, Internat.
d'Arch. Num. 1903, pp.
47 f.
K2 131
82. Obv. Bust of Cleopatra r., diademed, with small
prow before it; around, CLEO[PATRAE
REGINAE] REQVM FILIORVM REGVM.
Rev. Head of M. Antonius r. ; behind, small
Armenian tiara
;
around,
ANTONI
[A]RMEN[IA]
*
DEVICTA.
grammes (55'2 grains). British Museum.
On his unfortunate expedition against the Parthian
Phraates in 36 B.C., M. Antonius was accompanied
by his ally Artavasdes, King of Armenia, with
6,000 horse and 7,000 foot. But, after the destruction
of the Eoman siege-train under Oppius Statianus,
Artavasdes deserted the Eoman cause, and returned
to Armenia with his troops. As the king was thus in
some measure responsible for the subsequent disasters
to the Eoman forces, Antonius determined to have
his revenge ; but he concealed his intentions until
after his return to Syria. In the spring of 34 B.C.
he invaded Armenia, obtained possession of the person
of Artavasdes by treachery, and carried him off to
figure in the triumph which was celebrated at
Alexandria. The recognition of the eastern capital
as a place where an imperator could triumph as well
as in Eome earned for Antonius no small unpopu-
larity. At the same time he proclaimed Cleopatra
Queen of Egypt, Cyprus, Libya, and Coele-Syria;
her sons received the title of King of Kings, Armenia
with other kingdoms being assigned to Alexander,
132
"while Cleopatra herself was hailed as "Queen of
Kings."
1
Antonius was designated consul for the second and
third time in 39 b.c.
3
His third imperatorship dates
from
39,
3
or at latest from 36 B.C. (the Parthian expedi-
tion being regarded by courtesy as victorious),
4
and his
second consulship from 34 B.C. The denarius No.
81,
on which he is described as
"
imperator tertio
"
but
is not yet
"
cos. ii.," must have been struck at the
latest in 35 B.C. Now in this year Antonius had
not even started on his Armenian expedition. The
Armenian tiara that forms the type of the reverse is
evidently therefore an anticipation of the subjection
of the country.
5
The coins were probably struck at
Alexandria during the preparations for the expedition
which started in the next spring. On the other hand,
the denarius with the head of Cleopatra, describing
her as "Queen of Kings, the sons of Kings," was
doubtless issued after the return of M. Antonius to
Alexandria with Artavasdes in his train. Accordingly
1
Cass. Dio, xlix. 41.
*
Babelon, i., p. 160.
3
Supposing that he was acclaimed imperator on the strength of
Yentidius' defeats of Labienus and the Parthians.
*
We know that Antonius sent to Rome announcements of imaginary
successes in this campaign (Cass. Dio, xlix.
32).
5
As Mr. Grueber reminds me, Antonius promised at this time to
give Lesser Armenia to Polemo I. of Pontus, as a reward for the
mission on which he sent him
to the Median king. He kept his word
(Cass. Dio, xlix. 33, 44). Mr. Grueber thinks that it is this claim to
dispose of Lesser Armenia which is illustrated by our coin.
133
we have the tiara behind the conqueror's head, and
the inscription ARMENIA DEVICTA. The prow,
which appears as an adjunct to the portrait of
Cleopatra, is difficult to explain, unless it be the
mark of some Syrian mint, such as Tripolis or
Berytus.
octayian's triumph.
29 b.c.
83. Obv. Victory to r. on prow of galley, holding
wreath in r. and palm-branch in 1.
Rev. Octavian in a triumphal quadriga r., holding
laurel-branch
;
in exergue, CAESAR
DIVI F.
Silver denarius. 3*78 grammes (58*3 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 12,
No. 4342.
84. Obv. Similar to preceding.
Rev. Similar to preceding, but with inscription
replaced by IMP

CAESAR.
Silver denarius.
3*98
grammes (61 '4 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 13,
No. 4343.
The triple triumph which Octavian celebrated on
his return from the East in the summer of 29 B.C. is
alluded to in various ways on the coinage of the time.
The victory of Actium in particular is commemorated
not merely by the type of Victory on a prow, but
also by a figure of Neptune standing with one foot on
a globe, and by a combined naval and military trophy.
The Neptune and the Victory are interesting as
134
showing a conscious adaptation of types used by
Demetrius Poliorcetes on his coinage to commemorate
his victory over Ptolemy in 306 B.C. The Greek, on
one of his coins, represented Poseidon standing with
his foot on a rock, leaning with his left hand on his
trident
probably a reproduction of a statue. On

another was Victory, blowing a trumpet, on a prow
this too representing a statue, which is still preserved

to us in the Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre.
Octavian makes Neptune (or perhaps himself in the
guise of the god) stand with his foot on a globe, and
hold an aplustre
;
he rests with his left hand on a
trident, but he wears a sword at his side ! His
Victory, instead of the magnificent figure of the fourth-
century artist, is a wreath-and-palm-bearing winged
woman of highly conventional style. The types thus
show, not merely a conscious adaptation, but a frigid
modification of a great original.
It will be noticed that the two denarii here described
differ only in the legend of the reverse. The coins on
which Octavian is called Imperator Caesar (No.
84)
appear to date from the years 29 to 27 B.C. In the
latter year he received the title Augustus. The coin
with Caesar Divi
ftlius (No.
83),
on the other hand, is
one of a class which is assigned to the period 36 to
29 B.C. Since it refers to the Actian triumph, it must
belong to the very end of this period.
Octavian was saluted as imperator twenty-one times
135
in all, the first occasion being in 43 B.C. But he also
employed the word, and does so here, in an extra-
ordinary sense, in that he used it as a personal
praenomen, inheritable by his children, and having no
direct reference to military achievements. When he
assumed this praenomen in 29 B.C.,
1
he dropped his
old praenomen Gaius.
caesar augustus.
27 b.c.
85. Obv. Head of Augustus r. ; around, CAESAR*
COS- VII- CIVIBVS- SERVATEIS.
Rev. An eagle, wings spread, holding in his
talons an oak-wreath ; behind his wings,
two branchesof laurel ; above,
AVCVSTVS;
at sides of wreath, S. C
Aureus, 7*81 grammes (120*5 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 18, No. 4371.
86. Obv. Head of Augustus r ; around,
CAESAR
AVGVSTVS-
Rev. A shield, inscribed S PQRCL'V', leaning
against a column ; before the column,
Victory flying r., holding in her hands a
wreath.
Aureus. 7*92 grammes (122*2 grains). B.M.O. II.,
p. 22, No. 4385.
In the Will of Augustus we read: senatu[s con-
sulto Aug(ustus) appe]llatus sum et laureis postes
1
Cass. Dio, lii. 41 ; cp, xliii. 44.
136
aedium mearum v[estiti publice coronaq]ue civica super
ianuam meam fixa est [clupeusque aureu]s in [c]uria
Mia posituSj quern mihi senatum [populumque
Komanu]ru dare virtutis clem[entia]e iustitia[e pietatis
causa testatum] est pe[r e]ius clupei [inscriptionjem.
1
The title of Augustus was conferred on Octavian
on 16th January, 727
(
=
27 b.c.) by decree of the
Senate. Three days earlier the honours of the oaken
crown and the laurels at his door had been granted to
him. Cassius Dio tells us
2
that laurel trees were
placed before the door of the house of Octavian, and
an oak-wreath hung above it. This is confirmed by
a coin of L. Caninius Grallus, which shows a pair of
laurel trees and an oak-wreath in position at the door
of the Emperor's house.
The golden shield of valour mentioned in the will is
described in an inscription
3
in the following words :
S.P.Q.E. Augusto dedit clupeum virtutis [c]le[men]-
ti[ae ius]t[itiae pietatis causa]. Ancient writers are
silent regarding it. But there can be little doubt
that it was voted to the Emperor at the same time as
the other decorations. It was deposited, as Augustus
tells us, in the Senate House, where also stood the
statue of Victory from Tarentum, with the altar which
he dedicated in the year 29. This fact is illustrated
1
Mon. Anc. (Mommsen, Res Gestae Divi Aug.) c. 34.
LIIL 16.
3
C. I. L. ix. 5809. Other inscriptions also refer to it.
137
HISTOEICAL SOMAN COINS
in the type of the coin No. 86, which connects Victory
with the shield of valour. On the preceding coin the
oaken corona civica is borne by an eagle. This is the
symbol of Empire, which Augustus is said to have
borrowed from Egypt, where it had, almost from the
foundation of the Ptolemaic dynasty, been used on the
coins as the type of sovereignty.
1
It must, however,
be remembered that the Eomans had long used the
eagle for the purposes of a standard in war
;
and, the
Empire being based on a military imperium, the bird
would naturally come to be used as its emblem.
Count de Salis assigned the aureus with the eagle to
the year 27 B.C., and the other piece before us to the
period 24
20 B.C. His reasons for this division appear
to lie in the treatment of the portrait. For our pur-
pose, it is sufficient to note that both were struck
between 27 and 20 B.C., and that No.
86,
with its
pointed reference to the decree of 16th January,
27,
was doubtless issued in that very year.
THE RECOVERY OF THE STANDARDS.
20 B.C.
87. Obv. Head of Augustus r.
;
below,
[AVOVSTVS]-
Linear border.
Rev. SIGIMIS PARTHICIS RECEPTIS in three
lines, within a linear circle.
grammes (59 grains). British. Museum.
1
See Oder in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl. L 375.
138
PL. XIII
m
V*
=>
- fe - "H -a
,''"
^ - X X
'
Nos.
75
x
88. Obv. Head of Augustus r; around, CAESAR
AVGVSTVS.
Rev. Mars, nude but for a slight cloak fastened
round his waist, helmeted, walking to
1.,
looking back
;
he holds in his right a
legionary eagle, in his left the standard of
a maniple
;
inscription on 1. SIGN IS,
on r.
RECEPTIS.
Silver denarius. 4*36 grammes (67*3 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 26,
No. 4405.
89. Obv. Head of Augustus r. ; around,
S PQR
IMP CAESARI AVG COS XI TR POT
VI.
Rev. Triumphal arch with three openings
;
above, Augustus in quadriga to front,
between a Parthian (on
1.),
offering a
manipular standard, and another (on r.),
offering a legionary eagle and holding in
his 1. a bow; around,
CIVIBETSIGN
MIl-ITAPARTRECVP\
Aureus. 7*81 grammes (120*5 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 37, No. 4453.
90. Obv. Head of Augustus 1.
;
around, CAESAR
AVGVSTVS.
Rev. Circular domed temple
;
within, Mars to
1.,
holding a legionary eagle and a manipular
standard
;
across the field,
MAR VLT-
Silver denarius.
3*89 grammes (60-0 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 28,
No. 4411.
The stroke of diplomacy by which in 20 B.C.
139
Augustus induced Phraates to return the standards
which the Parthians had on three different occasions
captured from Eoman armies was one of the achieve-
ments of which he was most proud.
u
Signa militaria
complur[a per] alios d[u]ces ami[ssa] devicti[s hostibus
reciperavi] ex Hispania et [Gallia et a Dalmjateis.
Parthos trium exercitum Eoman[o]rum spolia et
signa re[ddere] mihi supplicesque amicitiam populi
Eomani petere coegi. ea autem si[gn]a in penetrali,
quod e[s]t in templo Martis TJltoris, reposui."
1
The
standards recovered from the Dalmatians (in 33 b.c.)
were those which had been lost in 48 by Gabinius
and in 44 by Vatinius. Of those recovered from
Spaniards and Gauls we know no more than Augustus
tells us. The three armies defeated by the Parthians
were those commanded by Crassus (in
53),
and by the
legates of M. Antonius,L. Decidius Saxa in
40,
and
Oppius Statianus in 36. The Parthians, threatened
by Augustus with war, handed over to Tiberius
the standards which they had retained, as well as
some prisoners.
2
Augustus celebrated their recovery
with great pomp
;
among other things, he erected the
triumphal arch which is represented on the aureus
No. 89. The standards themselves were placed in the
temple of Mars the Avenger. By this, in the passage
1
Mm. Anc, c. 29. Cp. Cassius Dio (liv. 8) :
typovei /xeya, Acywv
cm to. irporepov 7rore v rats /mâis d-jroXop.eva olkovitl ckcko/*1(Tto.
2
Sueton. Divus Aug. 21; Tib. 9; Cass. Dio, liv. 8.
140
quoted from the Will of Augustus, is undoubtedly
meant the Temple in the Forum of Augustus. But
as that was not finished until the year 2 B.C., the
standards must have been placed elsewhere in the
meantime. A small shrine of the god was erected on
the Capitol in 20 B.C., and it is definitely stated by
Cassius Dio
1
that it was meant for the reception of
the standards. Both Horace and Propertius, however,
seem to imply that they were dedicated to Jupiter
:
Tua, Caesar, aetas . . .
signa nostro restituit Iovi
derepta Parthorum superbis
postibus.
(Hor. Carm. iv. 16.
6.)
Adsuescent Latio Partha tropaea Iovi.
(Prop, iii (iv.) 4.
6.)
It is accordingly tempting to assume that they
found a temporary resting-place in the Temple of
Jupiter on the Capitol. But, on the other hand, we
have the definite assertion of Dio just cited. At first
sight it would appear that the passages of Horace and
Propertius cannot be regarded as good evidence
against the statement of the historian. But they are
not really contradictory. The historian only says that
Augustus decreed the erection of a temple on this
occasion ; but the standards must have been kept
somewhere pending its completion. Has the temple
of Jupiter Feretrius more claim to consideration as the
1
LIV. 8.
141
temporary resting-place of the standards than the small
shrine of Mars Ultor on the Capitol ? Let us examine
the coins.
Of the few coins chosen here, out of the many which
commemorate this achievement, the first (No.
87)
was
struck in the East, possibly at Pergamum.
1
The second
(No.
88),
on the other hand, is of Eoman fabric. The
war-god carries a legionary eagle in one hand, a mani-
pular standard in the other. Both kinds of standards
are, of course, included in the general term signum.
This coin was probably struck on the return of
Augustus to Eome in 19 b.c. These pieces do not
assist us to decide the question of the temples. But
on No. 90 (also struck in Eome at the same time as
No.
88),
we see a circular-domed temple of Mars Ultor.
Now Borghesi
3
and Mommsen
3
regard this type as
an anticipatory representation of the greater temple
eventually dedicated in the Forum of Augustus.
There is, of course, nothing improbable in the sug-
gestion that the type should thus anticipate the
completion of the temple which had been vowed
during the campaign of Philippi.
4
But one thing is
very clear from the remains of the temple itself, and
that is that it was not circular, but an octastyle
1
E. Grabrici, Numism. di Augusto in Milani's Studi e Materiali, ii.
2
(Euvres, ii.,
p.
379.
3
Res gest. div. Aug.
p.
126.
*
See supra, p.
114. n. 1.
142
peripteros.
1
Obviously then, either the representation,
if it is meant for the temple in the Forum of Augustus,
is quite imaginary, or else the original plans were
completely altered when it came to building. But
neither alternative is so reasonable as the supposition
that in the temple on the coins of 19 B.C. we have the
shrine which Augustus built on the Capitol, hard by
the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, as a temporary resting-
place to receive the standards until they should be
transferred to a more permanent abode.
2
This being so, the references by Horace and
Propertius to Jupiter must be taken in a general
sense, as indicating merely that the standards were
placed on the Capitol, which was especially associated
with Jupiter.
THE PROVINCE OF ASIA.
19 B.C.
;
below, IMP IXTR
rov.
Rev. Fa9ade of a hexastyle temple, inscribed on
architrave
ROMETAVGVST;
across field,
COM ASIAE.
Silver
et
cistophoric medallion."
11*92 grammes (184 grains).
British Museum.
The date of this piece is fixed, by the titles given
to Augustus on the obverse, to 19 B.C. The coin
1
See, for instance, the plan in Lanoiani, Ruins and Excavations
,
p. 305.
2
So Eichter in Baumeister's Denkmciler, iii.
p. 1480 ; A. Schneider,
das alte Rom, PI. yiti. 12.
143
HISTOLICAL KOMAN COINS
itself is one of a class
1
which corresponded in weight
and purpose to the cistophori which had long been the
chief silver currency of the province of Asia.
2
The
old cistophoric types gradually disappeared ; thus on
a piece issued in the name of M. Antonius, about
3938 B.C., the ivy-wreath, snakes and cista mystica
still remain, but on the obverse we have the head of
M. Antonius in the wreath, while the cista is trans-
ferred to the reverse, where with the head of Octavia
it occupies the place of the old bow-case. On a piece
of Octavian, struck in 28 B.C., the only relic of the
old types is the cista, used as an adjunct in the field of
the reverse.
Although it was no new thing for the different
cities of a province to send representatives to a
common assembly for some definite purpose, Augustus
is rightly credited with having first organized the
Kolvov 'Ao-tas (commune Asiae) in the form which
it was to maintain for nearly three centuries. The
assembly met periodically, and its object was above all
to celebrate the joint cult of Home and Augustus.
Once their religious functions had been fulfilled, the
members could proceed to deliberate on matters of
politics interesting the province. In the province of
Asia there was one supreme high priest of this cult,
1
On which see E. Gabrici, Numism, di Augmto, in Milani's Studi e
Materialif ii.
2
Hut. Or. Coins,
p.
138 f.
144
known simply as
apx^pevs
'Ao-iW
In addition, how-
ever, there were a certain number of apx*-
P&
'A<r(a$
}
each of whom was attached to the temple of the
Kolvov
in the various cities which possessed such
temples : thus we have an
ipx^pevs
'A<r(a$ va&v t&v h
ITe/jyd/xw.
Pergamum, indeed, was the first city in which
a temple of Eome and Augustus was erected at the
expense of the province; and it is probably this
Pergamene temple that is represented on our coin.
Not improbably also the occasion for the issue of this,
and other coins connected with it, was the dedication
of the temple.
1
Other cities at which the assembly is
known to have met are Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis,
Cyzicus, Laodicea and Philadelphia. This provincial
cult was the focus of the official religion of the
provinces during the first three centuries of the
Empire, and its importance cannot be exaggerated as
a public expression of the relations between the
provinces and Eome. Its organization was one of the
most masterly achievements of Augustus.
ARMENIA RECEPTA.
CIRCA 19 B.C.
92. Oiv. Head of Augustus r.
;
below,
AVGVSTCVS].
Rev. Armenian tiara, bow-case with bow and
quiver with arrows ; above and below,
ARMENIA RECEPTA.
grammes (58 grains). British Museum.
1
Grabrici, op. cit.
p. 15.
H.R.C. L 145
Artaxias, who succeeded to the throne of Armenia,
when his father Artavasdes was taken prisoner by
M. Antonius in 34 B.C., had a troubled reign of some
14 years. His brother Tigranes, who had also
fallen into the hands of Antonius, had passed into the
possession of Augustus. "When Augustus was in the
East, actually preparing an expedition against
Artaxias,
1
the Armenians begged that Tigranes
might be sent back to rule over them. While the
young prince was on his way, conducted by Tiberius,
Artaxias was murdered by his subjects.
"
Armeniam
maiorem," says Augustus in his Will,
2
"
interfecto rege
eius Artaxe c[u]m possem facere provinciam, malui
maiorum nostrorum exemplo regn[u]m id Tigrani
regis Artavasdis filio, nepoti autem Tigranis regis,
per T[i. Ne]ronem trad[er]e, qui turn mihi priv[ig]nus
erat. et eandem gentem postea d[esc]iscentem et
rebellantem domit[a]m per Gaium filium meum
regi Ario[barz]ani regis Medorum Artaba[zi] filio
regendam tradidi et post e[ius] mortem filio eius
Artavasdi. quo [inte]rfecto [Tigra]ne(m), qui erat ex
regio genere Armeniorum oriundus, in id re[gnum]
misi."
The denarius before us is generally supposed
1
On this sojourn in the East, see Gabrici, II secondo Viaggio di
Augusto in Oriente, Naples, 1900, and the same writer's Nvmisrmtica
di Augusto in Milani's Studi t Materiali, ii.
2
Mon. Anc. c. 27 ; cp. Tac. Ann. ii.
3 ; Veil. Patera ii. 94 ;
Cass.
Dio, liv. 9.
146
to refer to the occasion when Tiberius occupied
Armenia in force, and the country accepted a king at
the hands of Augustus. The fabric of the coin shows
that it was struck in the East ; and there is much to
be said for the suggestion that the mint was Pergamum,
and the occasion the dedication of the temple of Rome
and Augustus which had been begun nine years
earlier.
1
The types explain themselves : the bow and arrows
of the Armenian soldiery, and the Armenian royal
tiara,
2
a tall head-dress with dentated crown. The
latter varies in some details from the tiara worn by
Tigranes the Great on his coins
3
that, for instance,
has flaps hanging down on to the shouldersbut in
general form it is the same.
Some of the coins commemorating the events in
Armenia use, instead of
"
recepta," the form
"
capta."
It is possible that the coins with
u
recepta" are the
earlier, and that the form " capta" was an afterthought,
for "recepta" recalled the fact of the previous
subjugation of Armenia by M. Antonius, whose
exploits it was not to the purpose of Augustus to
glorify.
4
1
Gabrici, Numism. di Augusto,
p. 15.
2
Cp. the coins of M. Antonius, above, No. 81.
8
Hist. Or. Coins, PL xiii. 96.
4
Gabrici, op. cit.,
p. 12.
l2
147
THE SECULAR GAMES.
17 B.C.
93. Olv. Head of Augustus r. laureate
;
around,
IMP*
CAESAR TR POT NX.
Rev. Augustus seated 1. on a platform inscribed
LVD
S ;
lie hands an object, taken from a
basket at his feet, to one of two togate
figures standing before
him
; in exergue,
AVGSVPP;
around,
[LME]CSI NIVS.
Aureus, 8*01 grammes (123*6 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 53, No.
4487.
94. Olv. Head of Augustus r. laureate; around
CAE
[SAR] AVGVSTVS TR POT.
Rev. A cippus inscribed
IMP CAES AVG LVD
SAEC ;
across field,
XV S'F;
around [L'
mescin]ivs rvfvs [iii-vir].
Silver denarius. 3'47
grammes (53*5 grains). B.M.C. IL,
p. 54,
No. 4488.
Since Augustus is described on the former of these
coins as holding the tribunician power for the eighth
time, its date is fixed to the year 16 B.C. "We know
nothing of the moneyer L. Mescinius Eufus
;
for there
is some difficulty in identifying him with the man of
that name who was Cicero's quaestor in Cilicia in
51,
and served under Cassius in Asia in 43. Augustus,
as master of the college of quindecimviri sacris faciundis,
celebrated the secular games for the college in the
148
consulship of C. Furnius and C. Silanus,
1
i.e., in
17 b.c.j the year preceding the issue of the coins of
Mescinius. The letters XV S F-
on No. 94 are pro-
bably to be taken as referring to Augustus, xvvir
sacris faciandis, rather than to the whole college of
zvviri. They were, as a matter of fact, for this special
occasion at least twenty-one in number, and their
names are preserved.
2
Augustus, in the Monumentum
Ancyranum, mentions Agrippa as his colleague.
Agrippa, nevertheless, was not one of the five magistri
of the college, whose names are preserved elsewhere.
3
Before the games began, the quindecimviri, seated
on platforms, distributed to the people purificatories
for fumigation. These were knQwn as purgamenta or
suffimenta,
and their distribution is illustrated on the
reverse of No. 93, with the inscription Aug(ustus)
8uf[fimenta)
p(opulo dedit). The purification was
effected by the burning of torches with sulphur and
bitumen ; only after this had been done were the
people fit to partake in the festival.
Other features of the festival are alluded to on
other coins of Augustus. Thus, on aurei and denarii
of M. Sanquinius, dating from 12 B.C., there is repre-
sented the herald who proclaimed the festival; he
wears a helmet decorated with two long plumes, and
1
Mon. Anc. ch. sxii. Mommsen, Res gest.
y pp.
91 f.
2
Eph. Epigr. viii.
pp.
240 ff.
8
Fasti Capitolini, C, I. L. i.
p.
442.
149
carries a caduceus and a circular shield. On other
pieces, probahly struck in the year of the games, two
priests (perhaps Augustus with another person) are
occupied in sacrifice at the altar. Further light is
thrown on the various ceremonies by the coinage of
Domitian, who celebrated the secular games for the
sixth time in his fourteenth consulship (a.d.
88).
1
THE PUBLIC ROADS.
17 B.C.
;
around,
SP-QR IMP.
CAESARI.
Rev. Triumphal arch with two openings on a
viaduct or bridge
;
on the arch, Augustus,
crowned by Yictory, standing in a car
drawn by two elephants
;
around,
QVOD
VIAE MVN'SVNT.
Aureus. V'83 grammes (120*8 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 39, No.
4462.
96. Obv. Head of Augustus r. ; around, AVGVSTVS
TRPOTVH
Rev. On a cippus, the inscription [S'P]Q*R*
| IMP.CAEIQVOD V' |
MS-
EX
|
EAP'Q'IS
|
AD ADE
;
around,
L'VINICIVS L[FIIIVIR].
Silver denarius.
4*03
p. 49,
No. 4471.
1
The whole of the material relating to the history of the secular
games has been collected by Mommsen and Dressel in Eph. Epigr. viii.
pp.
225315, and by 0. Wasiner, Ludi Saeculares (Warsaw, 1901, in
.Russian).
150
HISTOKICAL BOMAN COINS
The restoration of the great Italian roads is one of
the most important public works which stand to the
credit of Augustus. In his Will
1
he records that in
his seventh consulship (a.e., 727 a.tt.c.
=
27 b.c.) he
restored the Flaminian Way from the city to
Ariminum, and all the bridges except the Mulvian
and the Minucian. An inscription on the arch at
Ariminum records that it was erected in honour of
Augustus, "v[ia flammjia [et reliquei]s celeberrimeis
Italiae vieis consilio [et sumptib]us [eius mu]niteis."
2
Further, we know from Cassius Dio
3
that in com-
memoration of the work statues of Augustus were
set up on the bridge over the Tiber and in
Ariminum.
The inscription on the second of our two coins is to
be expanded : S(enatus) p(opulus)q(ue) E(omanus)
Imp(eratori) Caes(ari) quod v(iae) m(unitae) s(unt)
ex ea p(ecunia) q(uam) is ad a(erarium) de(tulit).
This must be one of the four occasions mentioned by
Augustus in his Will (chap.
17),
in which he came to
the assistance of the treasury. Mommsen
4
draws a
distinction between money thus given by Augustus out
of his private purse, and money obtained by the sale
of booty (manubiae) and devoted to public works. It
was out of such pecunia manubialis that the Temple of
1
Ch. 20 ; Mommsen, Res gest.
p.
86.
2
Cf. Suet. Aug. 30.
*
LIU. 22.
d
Op. cit.
p. 66.
151
HISTOKICAL KOMA1T COINS
Mars Ultor was built,
1
and the Flaminian "Way-
restored.
2
It would follow, if Mommsen is right, that
the grant made by Augustus to the treasury, and
commemorated on the cippus on No. 96, was not
identical with the money expended by him on the
Flaminian Way. However this may beand the
distinction appears to be somewhat over-subtleit
seems probable that the triumphal arch erected on a
viaduct or bridge, represented on No.
95,
is one of
those erected on the Flaminian Way. Whether it is
the arch on the Mulvian bridge (the bridge over the
Tiber mentioned by Dio), or some other, we can
hardly decide. But it can scarcely be meant for the
arch at Rimini, which has but a single opening. And
the road on which it stands looks more like a viaduct
than a bridge.
In any case, the aureus. No.
95,
commemorating
though it does an event of 27 B.C., was nevertheless not
struck until ten years later
;
for it belongs to a class
which are assignable on various good grounds to
17 B.C. The denarius, No. 96, again, is dated by the
fact that Augustus held the tribvunicia potestas for the
seventh time in 17
16 B.C.
3
We may assume that the year 17 b.c. saw the
1
Mon. Anc, ch,
-giri
2
Suet. Aug. 30 : desumpta sibi Flaminia via Arimino tenus munienda
reliquas triumphalibus viris e mamibiali pecunia stemendas distribuit.
3
Another coin of Vinicius is dated TR. POT. "VTIL, i.e., in 16 B.C.,
but late in the year.
152
completion of the work of restoring the roads which had
been begun in 27 B.C. Probably the Flaminian Way-
was finished early in the period ; but when the general
completion of the works was commemorated the road
especially associated with Augustus naturally figured
on the coins.
Other triumphal arches are commemorated on coins
of the same date. Thus we have one resembling in
every particular that already described, except that
the car of Augustus is drawn by four horses. There
is another (see No. 89)
of quite a different character
associated with the recovery of the standards (CIVIB*
ETSIGNMILIT A PART RECVP). Of these prob-
ably only the former belonged to the Flaminian Way.
THE MONETARY REFORM OF AUGUSTUS.
CIRCA 15 B.C.
97. Obv. Oak wreath between two laurel-branches
;
inscription OB CIVIS SERVATOS.
Rev. The letters
S'C
surrounded by the inscrip-
tion CCASSIVSC FCELERIIIVIR.
AAAPF.
Brass sestertius. 27*11 grammes (418*4 grains). B.M.O. II.,
p. 58, No. 4501.
98. Obv. Oak wreath ; inscription
AVGVSTVS
TRIBVNIC POTEST.
Rev. Similar to No.
97,
but without
OF.
Brass dupondius. 8*28
p. 59, No. 4505.
153
99. Obv. Head of Augustus r. ; around,
CAESAR
AVGVSTVS TRIBVNIC POTEST.
Rev. Similar to No.
97,
but without
C'F.
Copper as. 11*15 grammes (172*0 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 59,
No. 4507.
100. Obv. Cornucopiae between
S C ;
around,
PVLCHER-TAVRVSREGVLVS.
Rev. Coin anvil, wreathed
;
around, I II VI
R*
A'A'Aff.
Copper quadrans. 3*37 grammes (52'1 grains). B.M.C. II., p. 76,
No. 4577.
The four coins represent the four denominations
which were instituted by Augustus. The quadrans
was never issued in large quantities ; but the three
higher denominations persisted for nearly three cen-
turies. To modern eyes, time having covered the
surfaces of the majority of coins with a deceptive
patina, the distinction between the dupondius and
the as is usually imperceptible. But from analysis,
combined with a statement of Pliny,
1
we know
that the sestertius and the dupondius were of brass
and the as and the quadrans
2
of copper. The deno-
minations, as will be seen from Nos. 97
100, are
1
H. N xxxiv. 2. 4 : the copper of Corduba contains, after that of
the Livian mines, the greatest proportion of zinc and equals the
quality of orichalcum (artificial brass) in sestertii and dupondii, while
the asses are of pure copper. For various analyses, see Mommsen-
Blacas, iii.
p. 38; Grueber in Num. Chron. 1904, p.
244.
3
Usually these small coins (like No. 100) have been called semisses
;
but they never exceed in weight a quarter of an as (Grueber, Num.
Chron. 1904, p. 241). Although weight counts for little in this token
coinage, it seems more probable that they are quadrantes.
154
J L. XIV
Nos. 89100.
distinguished by their obverse types, although these
were not adhered to for long. The quadrans, which
was not struck by C. Cassius, is illustrated from a
specimen bearing the names of the triumvirs Clodius
Pulcher, Statilius Taurus, and Livineius Kegulus,
who are assigned by Ct. de Salis and Mr. Grueber
to the year 13 B.C. The date of the coins of Cassius
is uncertain, but they serve as well as any other to
indicate the denominations introduced by Augustus
when he revived the bronze coinage. There is a
general agreement among numismatists in dating
this revival in the year 15 B.C. Opinions differ,
however, as to the year in which Augustus first
allowed the monetary magistrates to place their names
on the gold and silver coinage ; the earliest date
suggested is 20 B.C., the latest 16 b.c For our
purposes the fact of chief importance is the intro-
duction of the new brass and copper currency. It
will be noticed that, besides the names of the triumvir
a(ere) a{rgento) a(uro) f{lando) f[eriundo)^ all these new
coins bear the letters SC' (Senatus Consulio) in a
prominent form. In other words, they record the fact
that Augustus, while keeping the coinage of gold and
silver in his own hands, gave to the Senate the privi-
lege of striking the baser metals.
1
This the Senate
1
For certain exceptions, in the shape of coins in these metals which,
not bearing the letters S.C., appear to have been struck by imperial
authority, see Strack in Bonner Jahrbucher, 111
112, p. 435. Cp. also
F. Gnecchi, in Eiv. Ital, di Numism,, 1908, p.
526.
155
retained until the middle of the third century, when
the silver coinage had become so degraded that it could
not, as a rule, be distinguished from copper or brass.
"We are accustomed, owing to the resemblance in
size between the dupondius and its half, the as, to
regard the system inaugurated by Augustus as
singularly unpractical. But, as we have seen, the
two denominations, when fresh, were easily distin-
guished by their metal, with a certain amount of
assistance drawn from the variation in their types.
Apart from this, however, these coins were all tokens,
representing an arbitrary value. The normal weight
of the sestertius from Augustus to Elagabalus was
kept, with considerable regularity, at one Eoman
ounce
(2
7
'29 grammes); the dupondius and as seem
to have weighed the same, viz., half an ounce. The
aureus was equivalent to 25 silver denarii ; the
denarius to 4 sesterces of brass; the sesterce to 4 asses
of copper. Since the aureus of this period was -^ lb.,
the denarius
^
lb., the sesterce
^
lb., and the as
-^ lb. in weight, we obtain the following relations
between the metals, as expressed in the coinage
:
Gold to silver as
12*5 to 1.
,,
brass
??
350
,,1.
copper
;>
700
1-
Silver to brass
?>
28
,,!
copper
5?
56
1-
Brass to
JJ
2
1.
In the case of the relations of the nobler to the baser
metals, this could hardly have represented intrinsic
value
;
probably the sestertii and smaller denominations
were minted at something like double their actualvalue.
1
One element of the reform of Augustus was of
brief duration. The privilege which the moneyers
enjoyed of placing their names on the coins was
withdrawn after 3 B.C. We do not know why it was
taken away, any more than we know why it was
granted in the first place. It was possibly a con-
cession to republican feeling. Although the types
and legends usually have direct reference to Augustus,
we have on some coins types which recall the good
old days when moneyers commemorated their family
history. Thus L. Aquillius Floras represents his
ancestor M' Aquillius supporting Sicily, a fainting
woman ; another type is the three-legged symbol of
Sicily. Both refer to the suppression by M' Aquillius
of the slave revolt in 100 B.C. Allusions of this kind,
however, are excluded from the brass and copper
coinage. One may regard them as concessions made
by Augustus to the moneyers working under his
direct control.
2
1
On this whole question see Mommsen-Blacas, iii.
pp.
42
48.
9
Moneyers who issued gold or silver in this period very rarely
issued brass or copper, and vice versa. The only exceptions are
M. Sanquinius and P. Licinius Stolo. It is possible, therefore, that
the triumvirs were divided into two classes, one imperial, the other
senatorial.
157
THE ALTAR OF LYON.
10 B.C.
101. Olv. Head of Augustus r., laureate; around,
CAESAR PONT MAX.
Rev. Altar, surmounted by eight objects of
uncertain significance, and decorated in
front with a wreath, between two small
figures
(?)
holding laurel branches ; on
either side, on a column, a Yictory
holding a wreath and a palm branch
;
in
exergue,
ROMETAVG.
Bronze. 11*02 grammes (170 grains). British. Museum.
102. Olv. Head of Augustus
1.,
laureate ; behind,
caduceus.
Rev. Similar to No. 101.
Bronze. 4*40
grammes (67-9 grains). Cabinet des Me'dailles,
Biblioth^que Nationale, Paris.
103. Olv. Head of Augustus r., laureate ; around,
CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F- PATER
PATRIAE.
Rev. Similar to preceding.
Brass. 24*76 grammes (382*2 grains). British Museum.
The great altar of Lyon was inaugurated by the
Gaulish chiefs, in honour of Eoma and Augustus, on
1st Aug., 10 B.C.
1
It is well kuown that Augustus
allowed no cultus of himself alone, apart from Eoma
;
1
See Toutain, in Bee, des Mem. de la Soc. Nat. des Ant. de France,
Centenaire, 1904, pp.
455459, where the date 12 B.C. is disposed of.
158
accordingly this altar, the focus of Eomanism in Gaul,
was always known as the ara Eomae et Augusti. It
was associated with the concilium of the Tres Galliae,
sometimes called the conventus arensis. The concilium
was the earliest assembly of the kind (corresponding
to the Greek koivo) to he founded in the "West. It
was attended at first by representatives of 60,
after-
wards of 64 Gaulish civitates} The provincial priest,
who presided over the concilium, held the title sacerdos
Bomae et Augusti ad confluentes Araris etRhodani; and
his most important function was the conduct of the
festival which took place on 1st Aug., consisting of a
grand procession, prayers and sacrifice for Roma and
the Emperor, a banquet and athletic contests.
There can be no doubt that the erection represented
on the coins Nos.
101103 is meant for the altar,
although an attempt has been made to disprove the
current interpretation.
2
The wreath (corona civica)
between the laurel branches conveys an obvious
allusion to Augustus (see No.
85)
; the same decora-
tion is found on the altar of the Genius Augusti at
Pompeii.
3
No satisfactory explanation has, however,
1
On the numbers, see Ferrero, Qrandezza e Decadenza di Boma, v.
p. 71. On the organization of the Tres Galliae the latest writer is
Hirschfeld in Etta, 1908.
2
Willers in Numiam, Zeitsclir. xxxiv.
(1902) maintains that it is
the ovarium of the circus at Lugdunum ; see the reply to his article in
Rev. Numism, 1904,
pp.
46 ff. by Poncet and Morel, and in Bonner
Jahrbucher, 111, 112, pp.
442 f. by Max L. Strack.
8
Oyerbeck-Mau, Pompeii, 118 f.
159
been found for the two objects (if they are not meant
for small figures) flanking the laurel branches, or for
the objects on the top of the altar.
In addition to the series of coins (such as No.
101)
issued at the time of the inauguration of the altar,
there is a second series (to which No. 103 belongs)
issued after Augustus had received the title Pater
Patriae, i.e., after 3 B.C. Finally, there exists a small
bronze coin (No. 102) having the altar on the reverse,
and a laureate head of Augustus on the obverse, with
a caduceus behind it.
1
It has recently been main-
tained that the festival of the three Gauls was
celebrated at Lugdunum on 1st Aug., because that
was the date of the festival of the Gaulish Mercurius,
and Augustus had been received into the Gaulish
Pantheon in the character of that god. The coin
seems to give some confirmation to this view.
2
THE DEATH OP NERO DRT7SUS.
9 B.C.
104. Obv. Head of Nero Drusus
1.,
wearing oak
wreath
; around, NERO CLAVDIVS
DRVSVS
GERMANICVS IMP.
1
Unfortunately much worn, so as hardly to repay
reproduction.
2
See R. Mowat, Procea-verbaux de la Soc. Nat. des Ant. de France, 20
Avr. 1904 ; the theory of Augustus and the G-aulish
Mercurius is
Otto Hirschfeld's (Bee. des MSm. de la Soc. Nat. des
Ant.
de France
Centenaire, 1904, pp.
211 f.).
160
Rev, A triumphal arch, surmounted by an
equestrian statue of Drusus, charging r.
with spear couched, between two trophies,
each with a captive at its foot ; inscription,
DE GERM.
Aureus. 7*69
grammes (118-7 grains). British Museum.
Nero Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, and
the favourite stepson of Augustus, died on 14th Sept.,
9 B.C., as the result of a fall from his horse on his way
from the Elbe to the Rhine. His body was brought to
Borne, his brother Tiberius walking all the way beside
the bier, and his memory was honoured in an unpre-
cedented manner. A splendid funeral was partial
compensation for the triumph of which death had
robbed him. A cenotaph was erected to him on the
Ehine, near Moguntiacum, and a marble triumphal
arch on the Yia Appia. The Senate ordered the
setting up of various statues, and granted to him and
to his descendants the name of Germanicus.
The triumphal arch and the name Germanicus
are both recorded on the aureus No. 104. This coin
and all the others relating to Drusus are obviously
posthumous ; the question is whether they were struck
immediately after his death, or much later. Owing,
presumably, to the fact that a coin with the portrait
of Drusus was struck by his son Claudius after he
became Emperor, it has been supposed that all the
pieces referring to the German victories date from the
h.r.c.
m 161
reign of Claudius. It is true that some of them bear
a portrait, the treatment of which recalls the style of
the coins of Claudius ; this is the case with the aurei
inscribed DE GERMAN IS in full (on a triumphal arch
or around a trophy of arms). Our aureus with the
shorter inscription, however, shows a broad treatment
of the head which seems earlier, and it may well have
been struck under Augustus or Tiberius.
THE SENATORIAL MINT AT ANTIOCH.
CIRCA 7 6 B.C.
105. Obv. Head of Augustus r., laureate ; around,
KAIZA[POZ ZE]BAZTOY; fillet border.
Rev. The Tyche of Antioch, wearing turreted
crown, seated r. on rock
;
she holds palm
branch
;
at her feet, half-figure of the
river Orontes swimming
;
around,
ETOYZ
crK NIKHZ, andin field,
Yn (in monogram)
IB and monogram of ANTIOX-
Silver stater. 14*88 grammes (229*6 grains). B.M.C. Galatia,
p. 166, No. 131.
106. Obv. IMP-AVGVST- TR'POT. Head of Augustus
r., laureate
;
beneath head,
/ve
(in mono-
gram, retrograde).
Rev.
S'C*
within laurel wreath.
Bronze. 17*43 grammes (269 grains). B.M.C. Galatia, etc.,
p. 166,
No. 128.
The policy generally adopted by the Emperors from
Augustus onwards, in regard to the bronze
currency
162
of the Eastern provinces, was to leave the control
in local hands. The municipal coinages sufficed for
all ordinary purposes. The city of Antioch, however,
was one of the three great cities of the Eastern
provinces in which the Emperors established mints
which played a special part in producing provincial
currency. At Alexandria, the capital of the Imperial
province of Egypt, the control of the coinage, both
bronze and silver, remained entirely in Imperial hands
;
there was no municipal coinage. Augustus, in fact,
simply continued the Ptolemaic system ; his first
Alexandrian pieces, issued in the period
30
27 B.C.,
are merely a continuation of the coinage of Cleopatra,
with the same reverse types and the same marks of
value. In a province which was peculiarly Imperial,
the Senate naturally would be allowed no part in the
coinage. At the mint of Caesarea in Cappadocia,
which supplied the silver coinage for the greater
part of Eastern Asia Minor, there is again no sign
of Senatorial control. But at Antioch, the political
and military centre of the Syrian province, the exten-
sive and varied coinage falls into two or three classes.
"We have, first, an Imperial silver coinage (No.
105)
with the portrait of Augustus, the date (calculated
from the
"
Yictory," i.e., according to the Actian era,
and by the Emperor's consulship
1
),
and a representa-
tion of the famous figure of the Tyche of Antioch
1
The abbreviation YII is for
forccrou.
m2 163
by Eutychides of Sicyon. Again, there is a
bronze
coinage commemorating the assumption by
Augustus
of some high priesthood (whether the office of Pontifex
Maximus or some local Antiochene dignity we do
not know). But this coinage has a more definitely
local character than the other, on which at first the
name of Antioch does not appear at all. The inscrip-
tions on these two classes are in Greek. The third
class of coins with the head of Augustus is illustrated
by No. 106. There is yet another small class of
bronze coins, without the Emperor's head, but with
the names of the legates of the province, Yarus
(74 b.c.) and Saturninus (45 a.d.).
1
The reverse of
No. 106 tells its own tale; the coin in fact corre-
sponds to the brass and copper coins introduced at
the Eoman mint by Augustus in 15 B.C. At what
date, however, the Senatorial mint was established
at Antioch it is difficult to determine. In 14 B.C.
Augustus founded the colony of Berytus, and it might
be urged that the organization of the mint at Antioch
dates from the same period. But the coinage itself
does not, apparently, begin until later
;
the first of
the silver coins above mentioned is of the 26th year
of the Actian era : i.e.,
6
5 B.C. The first coin with
the name of Varus is of the preceding year, 7
6 B.C.
The coins commemorating the high priesthood of
1
On these various bronze issues, see Macdonald in Numism.
Chron.
1904, pp.
105 f.
164
HISTORICAL
ROMAN COINS
Augustus begin in
5
4 B.C., that is to say in the
year when Varus's tenure of office came to an end,
and some change was evidently made in the arrange-
ments of the mint. These
u
archieratic
"
coins con-
tinued to be issued down to year 31 of the Actian
era
(
=
1 b.c.
1 a.d.), ceasing at the same time as

the silver coins with the figure of Tyche. These two
issues of silver and bronze were thus, as
Macdonald
remarks, closely connected. As the Senatorial coinage
is not likely to have been permitted before the Imperial,
we may date the organization of the mint about7
6b.c.
There is nothing on the coin No. 106 itself to prove
its attribution to the mint of Antioch. But the pro-
venance of coins of this class is Syrian
;
and a chain of
numismatic evidence, which we cannot follow here, links
these coins to others which are certainly Antiochene.
GAIUS CAESAR.
CIRCA 5 B.C.
107. Obv. Head of Gaius Csesar r. ; below, CAESAR
;
all in oak wreath.
Rev. An incense altar, with lion's feet and ram's
heads as decoration ; around, a wreath
containing flowers, paterae and bucrania
;
across field, AVGVST.
Aureus. 7-96 grammes (122*8 grains). B.M.C. II.,
p. 42, No. 4468.
This aureus, with the corresponding denarius, was
assigned by Count de Salis to the mint of Borne and
165
the year 17 B.C., in which. Augustus adopted Gaius and
Lucius, the sons of Agrippa by Julia. Now as Gaius
was born in 734 a.tt.c. = 20 B.C., he was only three years
old at that time
;
his brother Lucius was still younger,
having been born a few days before the adoption. The
person whose head is represented on our coin must,
however, have been at least in his teens at the time
when the coin was struck
;
a fact which it is difficult to
reconcile with the date and interpretation given to the
coin by De Salis. Further, had the piece been issued
to celebrate the adoption of Gaius, we should have
expected to find his brother represented on the same
or on an analogous coin. But this one stands alone.
It seems, therefore, that we must look somewhat
later in the life of Gaius for the event which the coin
commemorates. Before proceeding further, however,
it is well to face any doubts we may have as to the
identity of the person represented. It is just possible,
but hardly probable, that the word CAESAR does not
refer to the portrait, but is to be read with the word
AVCVST which comes on the reverse. Even so,
however, the portrait must represent some youth in
intimate relationship with Augustus ; and the choice
lies between Gaius and Lucius. And Gaius, being
the elder, is more likely to have been represented
alone than his brother.
In his "Will
1
Augustus says,
"
Gaium et Lucium
1
Mon. Anc. ch. xiv. (Mommsen, Res gest?
pp.
51 ff.).
166
Caesares honoris mei caussa senatus populusque
Eomanus annum quintum et decimum agentis consules
designavit, ut [e]um magistratum inirent post quin-
quennium, et ex eo die, quo deducti [s]unt in forum
,
ut interessent consiliis publicis decrevit sena[t]us."
The deductio in forum took place early in 749
=
5 B.C.
l
perhaps, as Mommsen says, on 1st January.
L. Caesar did not receive the toga virilis until three
years later. But the designation of Gaius as consul
did not necessarily take place at the same time as the
deductio in
forum? Some decent interval probably
elapsed. It is to this interval that we may, perhaps,
without rashness, assign the coin before us, Now Dio
tells us,
3
in connexion with the admission of Gaius to
public affairs, that he received Upaxrvvrjv nvL
In
this statement we may find an explanation of our
reverse type. The thymiaterium or incense altar and
the wreaththe constituents of which are the ordinary
decorations of Roman altars
4
both indicate some

priestly office, as surely as do the sacrificial imple-
ments which are so common as reverse types on
Eoman coins.
So far as our information goes, there is no objection
to the date here suggested for this aureus. Placed
1
Sueton. Aug. 26; Zonar. 10. 35 : 12th consulship of Augustus.
*'
Mommsen, Res gest.
pp.
52 f. disposes of the current belief that
G-aius was designated consul while still praetextatus.
3
LV. 9.
4
See Eeisch in Pauly-Wissowa, i. 1679.
167
beside the coins of 17 B.C. it cannot be said that it
looks "at home," even if the portrait could possibly
be meant for a boy of three years. But if we bring
it down to a later date, we cannot place it after the
designation of Gaius as consul in 749
;
for such an
honour would surely have been mentioned.
1
On the
other hand, we can hardly put it before his assump-
tion of the toga virilis early in that year, since we
know of no occasion which would have justified the
issue of a coin with his portrait before that event.
The fabric of the coin is somewhat peculiar, and is
unlike the Eoman fabric of the year to which De Salis
assigned it ; nor does it fit well with the Eoman coins
of the last ten years of the century. It is just possible
that it was struck in Gaul. But if so, we are practi-
cally compelled to date it three years earlier, i.e., to
8 B.C., when Gaius accompanied Tiberius on his cam-
paign against the Sugambri. In that case, some other
explanation must be found for the reverse type.
GAIUS AND LUCIUS CAESARES.
CIRCA 2 B.C.
108. Obv. Head of Augustus r., laureate
;
around,
CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER
PATRIAE.
1
A fortiori, the coin cannot commemorate his death, -which "would
have been in some way alluded to.
168
Rev. Gaius and Lucius standing to front, each,
veiled and togate, holding a spear and
shield
;
above, sacrificial ladle and lituus
;
in exergue,
CL-CAESARES
;
around,
AVGVSTIF-COS-DESIG-PRINC'IVVENT.
Aureus. 7*79
"
[Fil]ios meos, quos iuv[enes mi]hi eripuit
for[tuna], Gaium et Lucium Caesares honoris mei
caussa senatus populusque Komanus annum quintum
et decimum agentis consules designavit, ut [e]um
magistratum inirent post quinquennium . . . equites
[a]utem Eomani universi principem iuventutis
utrumque eorum parm[is] et hastis argenteis donatum
appellaverunt."
2
Augustus received the title of pater patriae on^
Feb.
5,
2 B.C.
2
C. Caesar had already in 5 b.c. been
designated consul, to enter on his consulship in the
fifth ensuing year, i.e., on Jan.
1,
a.d. 1. This coin,
therefore, since on it Augustus is called pater patriae
y
and Gaius is still consul designate, must have been
struck between Feb.
5,
2 b.c. and Dec. 31, 1 b.c.
The date of the acclamation of the two adopted
sons of Augustus as principes iuventutis is not known.
Mommsen inclines to the day on which they first laid
aside the toga praetexta and appeared in public among
1
Mon. Anc. ch. xiv. ; Mommsen, Bea geat.
pp.
51 f.
2
Mon. Anc. ch. xxxv.
169
the equites. That is of course the most probable
occasion.
The aureus', to judge from its inscription, seems to
have been struck mainly to commemorate the honours
heaped upon the two princes. L. Caesar assumed the
toga virilis and became consul designate in 2 B.C.,
probably on Jan. I.
1
It is reasonable to suppose that
the coin was issued in the course of the same year.
It is a brief commentary on the passages from the
Monumentum Ancyranum and from Cassius Dio
2
relating to the entrance of the princes on public life.
They are represented wearing the toga virilis; they
are veiled, and sacrificial implements are placed beside
them, to indicate that they held priestly offices, such
as Dio mentions in connexion with Gaius. They
have the silver shields and spears which the knights
bestowed on them.
3
As Mommsen has shown, the attainment of the
dignity of princeps iuventutis was equivalent to
nomination as successor to the reigning Emperor.
These coins, then, must have served as a means of pro-
claiming the choice of Augustus. They were struck
in great numbers, both in gold and silver, and circu-
lated widely, not only in the Eoman Empire, but far
1
Mommsen, lies gest.
p. 52.
2
LIV. 18.
3
Dio (lv. 12), in describing the funeral ceremony of Gaius and
Lucius says that these decorations were dedicated in the Senate house
;
hut he calls them golden.
170
beyond its limits. They are frequently found in
India,
1
and it is a curious fact that the denarii from
that source are nearly always of base metal plated
with silver. Mommsen has accordingly suggested
2
that they were purposely issued for trade with South
India. However this may be, the Indians found them
much to their liking, and barbarous imitations con-
tinued to be made in considerable numbers for many
years after the originals first appeared in India. It
was not the custom of barbarians in antiquity to
imitate coins of bad quality
;
the two Greek currencies
which were most imitated by barbarians were the
excellent coinages of Athens and of Philip II. of
Macedon. Here we have an exception to the general
rule, which awaits explanation.
THE PANNONIAN TRIUMPH OP TIBERIUS.
A.D. 13.
109. Obv. Head of Augustus r., laureate; around,
CAESAR AVGVST[VS] DIVI F. PATER
PATRIAE.
Bev. Tiberius in a triumphal quadriga to r.,
holding a sceptre surmounted by an eagle
and a laurel branch; around,
TTCAESAR
AVG-F'TR'POT- XV.
Silver denarius. 3*16 grammes (48*7 grains). British Museum.
1
See Num. Chron. 1898, p. 319.
2
Mommsen-Blacas, iii. p. 337.
171
The dangerous Illyrico-Pannonian revolt, which
broke out in a.d.
6,
provoked by the demands made
upon the provincials in preparation for Tiberius'
expedition against the Marcomanni, was not quelled
until the autumn of a.d. 9. Cassius Dio records
1
that
Augustus accepted a triumph for the conclusion of this
war ; whether he is correct or not,
3
Tiberius at any
rate was saluted imperator and granted a triumph and
two triumphal arches in Pannonia. The titles
"
Panno-
nicus
"
and
"
Invictus
"
which it was also proposed to
give him were, however, disallowed by Augustus.
The fearful disaster to the legions of Yarus pre-
vented Tiberius from immediately enjoying the honour
accorded to him. He left almost at once for the
Rhine, and was occupied there until the end of a.d.
12. Not until 16 Jan., a.d. 13 did he celebrate the
long-delayed triumph.
The date on this denarius and on corresponding
aurei (tribunicia potestate %v.) is equivalent to the
year a.d.
13
14,
and the triumph commemorated is
obviously the one with which we are concerned. The
event is also commemorated on the magnificent cameo
at Vienna, known as the Gemma Augustea, on which
Tiberius is seen alighting from his chariot to greet
Augustus.
3
1
LYI. 17.
2
See Mommsen, Bes gestae,
p. 19.
3
Furtwangler, Ant. Oemmen, Taf. lvi.
172
PL. XV
Nos. 101
109.
Thisthe last
u
historical coin" in the present
selectionhas brought us well into the Imperial period.
The Koman money, as we have seen
(p.
121) has
already borne an Imperial character for something
like half a century. "We stop on the threshold of an
age in which the coinage is, if possible, still fuller of
historical interest than we have found it during the
three and a half centuries which we have surveyed.
173
INDEX
[Italicised entries represent inscriptions on covns. The numbers
refer to pages
of
the text.]
A. C, 67, 69
Actium, victory of, 134
Adfru. emu. ex S. C, 79
Adramytteum, Senatus consultum of, 78
Aegusa, battle of (241 B.C.), 43
Aemilia, Vestal, 121
Aemilius Lepidus, M., moneyer (65 B.C.), 52
Aemilius Lepidus, M., propraetor in Sicily
(80 B.C.), 53
Aemilius Lepidus, M., tutor of Ptolemaeus V., his career, 51 ff.
Aemilius (M.), M. f, M. n. Scaurus, his campaign agaiust Aretas, and
his aedilician games, 98
Aeneas carrying Anchises, 118, 121
Aerarium populi Romani, 81, 83
Aes grave of Campania, 11, 13 ;
see also As.
Aes rude, 14
Aes signatum, 13 f.
Africa, head of, 94 f.
Africa, Pompeius in, 94 f
.
Agrippa : defeats Sex. Pompeius, 127
;
xvir sacris faciundis, 149
A, Hirtius Pr., 107
Alexandrea, 51
Alexandria : coinage of, 163 ;
head of, 51 ; M. Antonius triumphs at,
132
Allies. See Social "War.
Altar of Lugdunum, 158. See also Incense altar.
Antioch in Syria, coinage of, 162 f.
Antium, subjection of, 4
Anton, son of Hercules, 118, 121
Antoni. Armenia devicta, 132
Antoni. imp. a. xU.> 124
175
INDEX
Antonius augur cos. des. iter, et tert., 131
Antonius, M. : portraits of, 113, 118, 120, 131 f. ;
his coinage as
triumvir, 118 ; his legates in Gaul, 123 ff.
;
birthday coins, 124
;
uses Hon as badge
(?),
125
; his relations with Ventidius, 131
;
his Armenian expedition, 131 ff., 147 ;
his expedition against
Phraates, 132 ; his triumph at Alexandria, 132
;
bestows kingdoms
on Cleopatra and her sons, 132 f
.
; his cistophori, 144
Anvil, 154
Aplustre, alluding to naval victory, 122
Apollo : head of,
9, 19, 24, 72, 89, 101 ;
"
Apollo
"
series of aes grave,
24
Apollonia : coins issued at, 105 f. ;
"
victoriati
"
of, 36
Appian Way, completion of, 10, 13, 18
Appuleius. See Saturninus.
Aquillius, M', coins commemorating exploits of, 157
Ara Romae et Augusti, 159
Arches. See Triumphal.
Aretas III., subjection of, 98 f.
Argentum Publicum, 83
Arg. Pub., 83
Ariminum, arch at, 151
Armenia : expedition of M. Antonius against, 131 ff.
;
given to
Alexander, son of Cleopatra, 132
;
recovered by Augustus, 145 f.
;
Lesser, given to Polemo, 133 n.
Armenia devicta, 132, 134
Armenia recepta, 145
Armenian : arms, 145, 147
;
tiara, 131 f., 145, 147
Artavasdes, king of Armenia, 132
Artaxias, king of Armenia, 146
As : earliest libral, 6 f.
;
reductions in, 21 &., 30 1, 46 f.
;
of Augustus,
154, 156
Asia, Commune of, organized by Augustus, 143 f
.
Aug. suf. p.,
148
August., 165
Augustus, 136, 138, 145
Augustus (see also Octavian): portraits of, 136, 138 f., 143, 145, 148,
150, 158, 162, 168, 171 ; receives oaken crown, laurels and golden
shield, 137 ;
recovers lost standards, 138 ff. ; builds shrine for
them, 141 f. ; his temple of Mars Ultor, 140 f. ; organizes Com-
mune Asiae, 144 f.
;
celebrates secular games, 148 ; restores
176
INDEX
public roads, 150 ff.
;
reforms coinage, 153 ff. ; cult of, 158 ff.
;
his monetary policy in the East, 163
;
receives title of
"
pater
patriae," 169; declares G-. and L. Caesares his successors, 170;
will of, see Monumentum Ancyranum.
Augustus tribunic, 'potest., 153
Augustus tr. pot. vbh., 150
Aurei: of Caesar, 100 f., 104; of Pompeius, 94 f. ; of Sulla, 92 f.
;
of
the Triumvirs, 118 ff. See also Gold.
Ausculum, battle of (279 B.C.), 26
Axe, sacrificial, 101, 104
A. <cl., a. xli., 124
Bacchante, head of, 85
Barbarous imitations of Roman coins, 171
Basilica Aemilia, 52 f.
Bellerophon and Pegasus, 110, 112
Bellona, head of, 7, 18
Bells on column of Augurinus, 64
Beneventum : battle of, 26
;
mint of, 46
Biga : of Luna, 56 ; of Victory, 56, 82
Bigati, 60
Bocchus surrenders Jugurtha, 70 f.
Brass coinage of Augustus, 154
"
Bricks," quadrilateral, issued by Roman mint, 11, 14 ff., 26
Bronze: its relation to silver, 5, 12, 17, 21 f., 29 ff., 48; ceremonia
use of, 15
; cessation of coinage in, 90. See also Aes.
Brundusium, colony of, 31
Brut, imp., 116
Bruttian silver coinage, 35
Brutus imp., 116
Brutus
(Q.
Caepio), the tyrannicide, in Asia and Macedon, 116 f
;
portrait, 116
Bull goring wolf, 85, 87
Buteo, 84
Caesar,
101, 165
Caesar Augustus, 136, 139
Caesar Augustus Divif. Pater Patriae, 158, 168, 171
Caesar Augustus tribumc. potest., 154
Caesar Augustus tr. pot., 148
H.B.C. N
177
INDEX
Caesar (C. Iulius) : portrait of, 110, 112, 120; increases military
stipendiurn, 49
;
returns to Rome (49 B.C.), 100 f.
;
his fourfold
triumph, 107 ff. ; founds Corinth, 110; murdered, 112 f.
Caesar cos. vvi. civibus servateis, 136
Caesar Diet, perpetuo, 112
Caesar Divi
/.,
134
Caesar pont. max., 158
Caesarea in Cappadocia, coinage of, 163
Caesares, Graius et Lucius, 165 ff.
Caldus. See Coelius.
Caldus Illvir, 76
Calendar, reformed in 191 B.C., 59
Caleno, 9
Calpurnius Piso, C, establishes Ludi Apollinares, 92
Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, L., coin of, 79, 81
Calpurnius Piso Frugi, L., coinage of, 91
Campania: relations with Rome in 4th cent., 4,5; Romanization
of, 10 ff.
Campanian : didrachm, 5, 9
;
drachm superseded by vietoriatus, 36
Canting allusions, 61, 63
Canusium, mint of, 46
Cap of Liberty, 116 f.
Capitol, Roman mint on, 8
Capua : mint at, 9, 24 f., 35
;
Hannibal's coinage in, 50. See also
Campania.
Carthaginians : relations with Rome in 4th cent., 4, 7 ff.
;
influence on
Roman coinage, 9, 13
Casca Longus, 116
Casca Longus (P. or C. Servilius), coin of, 117
Cassei
t
123
Cassius, C, at Rhodes (43 B.C.), 121 f.
Cassius Longinus, C, coin of, 69
Cassius Longinus, L., moneyer about 52 B.C., 69
Cassius Longinus, Q. (quaestor 54 B.C.), coin of, 69
Cassius Longinus Ravilla, L., his judicial reforms, etc., 69 f.
Caudine Forks, 87
C. Aug., 62
C. Caesar cos. ter., 107
C. Caesar Illvir r. p. v., 118
C. Caldus Imp. A. X., 76
178
INDEX
C. Cassei imp., 121
C. Cassi, 67
C. Cassius Celer iiivir
a.a.a.ff,
153
C. Cassius
G.f.
Celer iiivir.
a.a.a.f.f.,
153
C. Coel. Caldus Cos., 16
C. Coponius Pr., 101
C. Egnatulei.
G.f.,
72
C. Fabi.
G.f,
82
Chariot. See Biga, Quadriga.
C. Hypsaeus Cos., 98
Cimbri, 73 f
.
Circensian games, 115
Cista : for voting, see Voting-box ; mystica, 86
Cistophori, 143 f.
Citizen : appealing, 67
;
voting, 68
Civib. et sign. mildt. a Part, recup., 139, 153
Civibus servateis, 136
Claudius Caecus, Ap., the Censor, 18
Claudius Marcellus, C, cos. 49 B.C., 105
G. L. Caesares Augusti
f.
cos. desig. prime, invent., 169
Clementia Caesaris, temple of, 113 f.
Cleopatra : portrait of, 132 f.
;
gifts of M. Antonius to, ibid.
Cleopatrae regmae regum fiUorum regum, 132
Clodius, P., M. f., moneyer, 119
Clodius Pulcher, moneyer, 155
Cloulius, T., coin of, 72 f.
Glovius, C, praefect, 108
Club and lion-skin with bow and arrow, 101
Clupeus virtutis, 137
Coelius Caldus, C, founder of the family, his career, 75 f.
Coelius Caldus, C, Imp., Augur, xvir sacris faciundis, 78
Coelius Caldus, C, moneyer, 76
Coelius Caldus, L., epulo, 78
Column of L. Minucius Augurinus, 62 ff.
Com. Asiae, 143
Conventus arensis, 159
Coponius, C, coin of, 101
Copper coinage of Augustus, 154
Corcyra, Roman mint at, 36, 44 ff.
Corinth refounded, 110 f
.
n2
179
INDEX
Corinthian coinage in the West, 14
Corwitfoum, 110
Cornelius Sulla, Faustus, coin of, 71. See also Sulla.
Corn-laws, 79 f.
Corn-supply of Eome, 63, 79 f.
Cornucopiae, 154
Cos, victory of Cassius near, 123
C. Paapi. C.y 85
Crab, badge of Cos, 122
Crassus defeated by Parthians, 140
Croton, Roman mint at, 35 f
.
Cupid on coin of Sulla, 92
Daggers and cap of Liberty, 116 f
.
Dalmatians, standards recovered from, 140
Debts, remission of, 23
Decidius Saxa, L., defeated by Parthians, 140
Decimal division of the as, 21 f.
Deductio in forum, 167
De Germ., 161
De Germanis, 162
Delphi, dedication by Flamininus at, 66
Denarius : introduction of, 28 ; equated to 16 asses, 47 ff. ; reduced,
48
Desultor, 115
Diana : confused with Luna, 58 ; bust of, 70 f
.
Dionysiac types on coins of Social War, 88
Dioscuri, 9, 27, 28, 33, 38, 46, 65, 85
Drusus. See Nero Drusus.
Duoviri of Corinth, 111 f.
Dupondius of Augustus, 153 f., 156
Dyrrhachium :
"
victoriati " of, 36 ; coins issued at, 105
Eagle : holding thunderbolt, 10, 14 ; standing on thunderbolt, 37 f.
;
as symbol of sovereignty, 136, 138
Egnatuleius, C, coin of, 72 f.
Egypt. See Alexandria, Ptolemaeus.
Eid. Mar., 116
Electrum coinage, 50 f.
Elephant, 19,
26
180
INDEX
E. L. P., 89, 91
Epulo, 76, 78
*Etovs sk' Nfoijy, 162
Ewer, sacrificial, 92 f., 94
ExA.Pu.jS2t
Ex S. G.
t
81, 98, 126 f.
Fabius, C, coin of, 82, 84
Fabius Maximus,
Q.,
dictator, 47 f.
Faustulus the shepherd,
57, 61
Faustus, 70
Felix, 70
Fig-tree, ruminal,
57, 61
Fiscus, 116
Flamen's apex, 65
Flaminian Way, 151
Flaminirms. See Quinctius.
Frugi, 89
Fufius Calenus, governor in Gaul, 124
Fulvia, wife of M. Antonius, portrait of, 125
Gaius Cabsak, coins relating to, 165 ff. ; his career, 166 f.
Galley in harbour of Messana, 126. See also Prow.
Gaul : legates of M. Antonius in, 123 f. ; worship of Borne and
Augustus in, 159
Gaulish trophy, 101, 103
Gemma Augustea, 172
General with lictor and citizen, 67
Germanicus, title given to Nero Drusus, 161
Gold coins : first issued at Capuan mint, 25
; attributed to 242 B.C.,
37 ff. ; issued in times of stress, 39, 42
; issued by the Allies, 86
;
becomes part of ordinary Roman currency, 120; relation to
silver, 156. See also Aurei.
Hannibalian crisis, 39 fi\, 46 ff.
Hatria, Roman mint at, 35
Hercules, head of, 1, 7, 9
Herdonea, mint of, 46
Hirtius, A., 108
His., 76
Horse : 9, 89, 128 ; Parthian, 128, 130 ; head of, 1, 9
181
INDEX
Horseman (desultor), 113, 115
HS, see IIS
Hybreas the orator, 129
Hypsaeus. See Plautius.
Ibius, Minius, coin of, 81
Illvir
a.a.a.f.f.,
154
Illvir r.p.c, 124
IIS, 27, 29
Illyrico-Pannonian revolt, 172
Imp. August, tr. pot., 162
Imp. Caesar, 134
Imp. Caesar, tr. pot. iix., 148
Imp. Caes. Aug. Lud. Saec, 148
Imperator, Octavian's use of title, 135 f
.
Imperial coinage, origins of, 102, 121
Imper. iterum, 92
Imperium, military, 68
Imp. ix. tr. po. v., 143
Imp. tertio Illvir r.p.c, 131
Incense altar, 165, 167
India, Roman coins from, 171
Italia, 85
Italia (Corfinium), 87
Italia, head of, 85 ff.
Janiform head of Persephone, 50
Janus, head of, 1, 7, 18 f., 25
Janus-Mercurius series, 24
Jugurtha, surrender of, 70 f
.
Juno Moneta, 7 f.
Jupiter : on coins of Lentulus and Marcellus, 107 ; in quadriga, 19,
50; head of,
7, 44, 46 ; Feretrius, temple of, 141 f.
Kawrapos Sc/^cuttou, 162
Karnyx, 72, 78
Keltic arms on trophies, etc., 73, 76 f.
Labienus, Q.,
career and coinage of, 128 ff.
Laeca, 66
Largess, coins struck for, 109. See also Triumphs.
182
INDEX
Latin League reorganised
(358 B.C.), 4
Laurel-branches, bestowed on Augustus, 136 f.
Loms ItiU. Corint., 110
L. Calckts Vllvir epul., 76
L. Certo Aeficio C. IuUo Ilvir,, 110.
L. D., 75
Lectisternium, 76 f.
Leges : Acilia (191 B.C.), 59 ; annalis, 103 ;
Appuleia frumentaria de
semissibus et trientibus, 79
;
Cassia tabellaria, 69
;
Clodia (104
B.C.), 37, 72 ; Coelia tabellaria, 77 ; Flaminia minus solvendi, 47
;
Iulia Papiria, 2
;
Ogulnia, 63 ; Papiria de asse semunciali, 89 f.
;
Plautia Papiria, 90
;
Porciae, 68 ;
Tarpeia, 2
Leg. xvi.y 125
Lent. Mar. Cos., 105
Lentulus Crus, L., cos. 49 B.C., 105
Lepidus. See Aemilius.
Libella, 22, 25
Liberty : in quadriga, 66 ff. ; head of, 116, 121 ; cap of, 116 f.
Lictor attending general, 67
Lion : used by M. Antonius as a badge
(?),
124 f.
;
head of, on
column of Augurinus, 64
Lituus, 62, 70 f., 92 f., 94, 107, 126, 128, 169
Livineius Begulus, moneyer (c. 13 B.C.), 155
Livineius Regulus, L., moneyer (43 38 B.C.), 119
L. Lent. G. Marc. Cos., 104
L.
Mescinius, 148
L. Mescinius Bufus Illvir, 148
Local Roman coinage of Italy, 35 f., 40, 46, 68
Longin. HIV., 68
L. P. D. A. P., 89, 91
L. Plaet. Cest.
y
116
L. Begulus Illlvir
a.p.f.,
118
L. Sauf., 56
L. Sesti. proq., 116
L. Sulla, 92
Luceria, Roman mint at, 35 f., 46
Lucilius Rufus, M., 82
Lucius Caesar, coin representing, 168 f.
Lucullus, coinage of, 92 f.
Ludi Apollinares, 92
183
INDEX
Lud. S.
}
148
Lugdunum : coins struck at, 124 f
.,
158 f. ; altar of, 158 ff.
Luguduni, 124
Luna : in biga, 56 ff. ; worship of, 58 ;
reason for appearance on coin-
age, 59.
L. Vvrricvus L.
f.
iiivir, 150
Lyon. See Lugdunum.
Macedonian shield, symbol of Macedonian victory, 65
Magna Mater, head of, 82, 84
Magnesia, battle of, 60
Magnus, 94
Mag. Pius. imp. iter,, 126
M. Antonius Illvir r.p.c, 72
Marcellus. See Claudius.
Marius defeats the Barbarians, 72 f
.
Mars : holding standards, 139
;
within temple, ib. ;
head of, 1, 37 f.
;
Ultor, 139 ff., 151 f.
Mar. Ult., 139
Massalia, 3-scruple drachms of, 37
Mercurius : Gaulish, Augustus identified with, 160
;
Roman, head of,
7, 18 f., 27.
Mescinius Rufus, coins of, 148
Messana, pharos of, 126, 128
Mi. leiis. Mi., 86
Military coinage, 101 f.
Minerva, head of,
7,
89
Minucius Augurinus, C, 62 ff.
Minucius Augurinus, L., 62 ff.
Minucius Augurinus, P., 63
Minucius Augurinus, Ti., 65
Minucius Faesus, M., 62 f.
Mithradates and the Allies, 86 ff.
M. Lepidus An. XV. Pr. H. O. G. S., 52
M. Lepidus Illvir r.p.c, 118
M. Lepidus Tutor Begis Pontif. Max., 51 f.
M. LuciU. Buf.j
82
Moneta, supposed origin of the name, 8
Moneyers : gradual appearance of their marks, etc., on coinage, 61 f.
;
under Augustus, 120, 157. See also Tresviri, Quattuorviri.
184
_
x
INDEX
Monumentum Ancyranum (will of Augustus), 136 f., 140, 146, 149,
151, 166 f., 169
Moon-goddess. See Luna.
M. Pore, 66
M. Scaur, aed. cur., 98
M. Servilius leg., 122
Mulvian bridge, arch on, 152
Mussidius Longus, L., moneyer, 119
Mutil. embratur, 85
Mutilus. See Papius.
Nabathaea. See Aretas III.
Neapolis, silver coinage of, 35
Neptune : Octavian represented as, 135 ; statue of, on pharos of
Messana, 128
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus imjp., 160
Nero Drusus, death of, 160
Oak-wreath : bestowed on Augustus, 136 f., 153
;
worn by Venus
(?),
102
Oath-taking scene, 19, 25, 85, 87 f.
Ob civis servatos, 153
Octavian: portraits of, 118 ; as triumvir (4338 B.C.),
118; growth of
his power reflected in coinage, 120 ; his triumph in 29 B.C., 134 f.
;
receives title "Augustus," 135 ff. ; represented as Neptune, 135
;
use of title
"
imperator," 135 f. See Augustus.
Oppius Statianus defeated by Parthians, 140
Orontes, river, 162
Osco-Latin standard, 5
Ox as coin-type, 3
Pacorus of Parthia invades Syria, 129
Paestum, late bronze coinage of, 91
Pannonian triumph of Tiberius, 171 f.
Papirius Carbo, C, his lex de asse semunc, 89 i.
Papius, 0., Mutilus, coins of, 85 ff.
Parthians : joined by Labienus, 129 f.
; restore the standards, 139 ff.
Parthicus, title taken by Q. Labienus, 128 f.
Pater patriae, title of Augustus, 169
Pecunia, origin of name, 2
Pegasus, 11, 14. See also Bellerophon.
185
INDEX
Pergamum : coins struck at, 142, 145, 147
;
temple of Borne and
Augustus at, 145
Persephone, janiform head of, 50
Personal names and types on coins of Republic, 60 ;
of Augustus, 157
Phraates IV. of Parthia : M. Antonius attacks, 132
;
restores standards,
139 f.
Phrygian helmet worn by Roma, 13
P. Hypsaeus aecL. cur., 98
Picus Martis, 61
Pietas, head of, 102, 109
Piso, 89
Piso Caepio
Q.
t
45
P. Laeca, 66
Plaetorius (L.) Cestianus, moneyer, 117
Plated coins, 171
Plautius, Hypsaeus (or Decianus), C, 100
Plautius Hypsaeus, P., curule aedile, coin of, 99
Pliny : on earliest Roman coinage, 2 f
.
; on introduction of the
denarius, 28 f. ; on reduction of the as, 31 f., 47 ; on earliest gold
coinage, 38 f. ; on equation of denarius to 16 asses, 47
\
on
victoriatus, 72 f.
Pompaedius Silo,
Q.,
coin of, 85 ff-
Pompeius, Cn., Cn. f., 97, 126
Pom(peius
?)
Fostlus, Sex., denarius of, 57 ff.
Pompeius Magnus, Cn. : his African campaign, 94 f. ; sends Scaurus
against Aretas III., 99
;
sends Lentulus and Marcellus to Epirus,
105
;
portrait of, 126
Pompeius, Sextus, Cn. f., his career, 126 f.
Pompeius, Sextus (first cousin once removed of the IHvir), 98
Portraits of living persons on coins, 114, 120
Poseidon of Corinth, 110
Pound : of 273 grammes, 6 ;
of 327*45 grammes, 6, 24 f. ; of 341
grammes, 24
Pr. Praetor or Praefectus, 108
Praef. clas. et orae marit. ex S. C, 126
Praefecti of the City appointed by Caesar, 46 B.C., 108
Praetors appointed by Caesar, 46 B.C., 108
Preiver. Captu., 98
Priestly office, symbols of, 93, 107, 116, 170
Princeps iuventutis, meaning of title, 170
186
INDEX
Prisoner tied to trophy, 101
Privernum captured, 100
Pro cos.) 94
Provincial cult of Rome and Augustus, 144 f.
Provocatio, 68
Provoco, 67
Prow of galley: 1, 6, 13, 18, 27, 89; as mint-mark on coin of M.
Antonius and Cleopatra, 134 ; Victory on, 134 f
.
P. SepulUus Macer, 113
P. Tadi Chilo C. IuU. Nicep. Ilvir., 110
Ptolemaeus IV. and the Romans, 53
Ptolemaeus V. and M. Aemilius Lepidus, 51 ff.
Ph., 82 f.
Pulcher, Clodius, moneyer, 155
Pulcher Taurus Regulus, 154
Punic War, First, 37 ff.
Purgamenta, 149
Pydna, battle of, 60
Pyrrhus, war with, 20, 26
Q
= quaestor, 105, 116, 118
Q
= quinarius, 49, 72, 74
Q.
Caepio Brutus procos., 116
Q.
Gassius, 67
Q.
Labienus Parthicus imp., 128
Q.
Sicvnius Illvir, 101
Q.
Silo, 85
Quadrans, 7,
154
Quadriga : of Jupiter, 50, 98, 100 ; of Liberty, 66 ff. ; triumphal,
94 f., 134, 171
Quadrigatus, 19, 25, 35
Quattuorviri auro publico feriundo, 119
Quinarius, 29, 72 f., 123 ff.
Quinctius Flamininus, T., moneyer, 65
Quinctius Flamininus, T., victor of Gynoscephalae, 65 f.
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis, 148
Quod viae mun. sunt, 150
Reduction : of the as, 22, 46 f. ; of the denarius, 48
Regulus. See Livineius.
187
INDEX
Bex Aretas, 98
Rhodes plundered by Cassius, 122
Roads, public, 150 f. See also Appian Way.
Boma, 12, 18, 19, 27, 28, 37, 38, 44, 46, 56, 57 ; disappears from the
coins, 56
Roma, the goddess: head of, 10, 18, 27, 33, 38, 46, 56 f., 62, 65 fi.,
82 ; temple of, 143 f., 145, 147; worship of, 143 ff., 158 ff.
Bomwno, 1, 9, 10, 12, 17
Bomcmom, 11, 12
Bom. et Aug.j 158
Bom. et August., 143
Romulus and Remus. See Wolf and Twins.
S., 7, 27
Sacrificial instruments, 92 f., 107, 116, 170
Samnites : in 4th cent.,
4
; in 3rd cent., 19
Sanquinius, M., coins of, 149
Saturn, head of, 79
Saturninus (L. Appuleius), corn-law of, 79 f.
Saturninus, legate in Syria, 164
Saufeius, L., denarius of, 56 ff.
S.C., 83, 101 f., 121, 136, 153 ff., 162
Scaurus. See AemiUus.
Scruple, 17
Scylla, 126, 128
Secession of the plebs (288286 B.C.), 23
Secular games, 148 f.
Semi-libral as, 22
Semis, 7
Sempronius Gracchus, Ti., moneyer, 37 B.C., 120
Semuncial standard, 89 f.
Senate, its control of coinage, 121, 155, 162 f.
Senatorial Party exiled from Rome, 104 f.
Sepullius (P.) Macer, coins of, 113
Series marks on coins, 75
Serrati, 60, 84
Servilius Caepio,
Q.,
coin of, 79
Servilius, M., legate of Cassius, 123
Servius, King, 2.
Sestertius, 29 ; of Augustus, 153 L, 156
188
INDEX
Sestius, L., coin of, 117
Sex. Pom. Fostlus, 57
Sextans, 7
Sextantal standard, 30 f., 43
Shield of valour bestowed on Augustus, 136 f.
Sicily: coins of Lentulus and Marcellus connected with, 106
;
Sex.
Pompeius in, 126 ff.
Sicinius,
Q.,
coin of, 101
Sickle of Saturn, 79, 81
Signis PartMcis receptis, 138
Signis receptis, 139
Silo. See Pompaedius.
Silver : restriction of local coinage in, 135 ; relation to brass and
copper, 156 ; relation to bronze, 5, 12, 17, 21 f., 29 ff., 48
Sitella. See Voting urn.
Social War, 8289
Sol, head of, 76 f
.
Soldiers : clasping hands, 86
;
pay of, 48 f. ; taking oath. See Oath-
taking.
Sorticula. See Voting tablet.
Sow, 19
Spain, Pompeius in, 96
Spanish boar-standard, 77
S.P.Q.B. CI. F., 136
S.P.Q.B. Imp. Cae. quod v. m. s. ex ea
p. q.
is ad a. de., 150
S. P. Q. B. Imp. Caesari, 150
S. P. Q. B. Imp. Caesari Aug. cos. xiA. tr. pot. vi.
}
139
Standards, military : recovered by Augustus, 138 ff. ; boar-shaped, 76 f
.
Statilius Taurus, moneyer, 155
Stipendium of Roman soldier, 48 f
.
Struck bronze, introduction of, 23
Subsellium, 116
Suesano, 10
Sufnmenta, 149
Sulla : receives Jugurtha from Bocchus, 70 f. ; disembarks at Brun-
dusium, 87 ;
in Greece, 92 f. ; acknowledges Pompeius as Mag-
nus, 95 ;
his triumphal coins, 97. See also Cornelius.
Swine and elephants, 26
Symbols on coinage, a mark of lateness, 40, 43
Syria, coins issued in, 130
189
INDEX
Tarentum : relations with Rome in the 3rd. cent., 20 ; late silver
coinage 35, 37
Taurus, moneyer, 155
T. GlonU.y 72
Temple : of Mars Ultor, 139 ff. ;
of Rome and Augustus, 143
Teutons, 73 f.
Thyrniaterium, 167
Thyrsos, as ornament of galley, 128
Tiberius : occupies Armenia, 146 f
.
; brings body of Nero Drusus to
Rome, 161
;
his Pannonian triumph, 171 f.
Ti. Caesar Aug.
f.
tr. pot. xv., 171
Tigranes, son of Artavasdes, king of Armenia, 146
Token money, 9, 22, 90
T.
Q.,
65
Trasimene, crisis after, 39, 46 ff.
Tresviri A. A. A. F. F., 82
Tresviri monetales, 62
Triens, 7
Triental standard, 30
Triskeles symbol of Sicily, 106
Triumphal arches : of Augustus, 139 f., 150 ff. ; of Nero Drusus, 161
;
of Tiberius, 172
Triumphs, coins relating to, 95 ff., 134, 171
Triumvirate : of 4338 B.C., 118 f.
;
monetary. See Tresviri.
Trophies, 72, 76, 92 f., 101, 103, 116. See also Victory.
Tyche of Antioch, 162 f
.
Uncia, 7
Uncial standard, 46
Urban coinage, 102
F., 27, 29
Varus, legate in Syria, 164
Veiled head: of Caesar, 115
;
of Liberty, 116; of Pietas, 107, 109
Ventidius Bassus, P. : governor in Gaul, 124 ; crushes Labienus, 130
131 ; his service under Antonius, 131
Venus: head of, 92, 102 f.
;
Victrix, 113, 115
Vercingetorix, 103
Vest, 67
Vesta : head of, 67 ;
temple of, 67 ff.
190
INDEX
Vestal virgins, 69, 121
Veturius, Ti., coin of, 88
Vibius Varus, C, moneyer, 119
Vibo Valentia, Roman mint at, 36, 46
Vicarello, deposit of, 16, 24
Victoriatus : origin of, 35 f., 44 ff.
;
struck at Corcyra, 44 ff. ; revived
by lex Clodia, 72 f.
Victory : crowning Liberty, 66 ; crowning trophy, 28, 44, 46,
72 ; driv-
ing chariot, 50, 56, 82
;
fastening taenia to palm branch, 10 ; fly-
ing, before shield of Valour, 136 ff. ; Fulvia as, 125
;
standing on
prow, 134 f. ; statue of, in Senate House, 137 ;
writing on shield,
72
Virga viatoris, 116
Voconius Vitulus, Q., moneyer, 120
Voting : box, 70 ; tablets, 67 ff., 75, 77 ; urn, 67 ff.
Wheel, 10, 12 f
.
Wolf : gored by bull, 85, 87 ; suckling twins, 9, 57
X as mark of value, 49
X as mark of value, 49
XVI as mark of value, 49
XV. 8. F., 148
Zeus Eleutherios, statue of, 107
| ||
(= 52), 100, 103
4,X(= 60), 37
BRADBURY, AONEW & CO. LD., LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.
191

Historical Roman Coins: From The Earliest Times To The Reign of Augustus / Descr. by G.F. Hill

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HISTORICAL ROMAN

was mere token money; its weight does not corre-

unusually good for aes graveand in high relief,

gives us 269 b.c.

presents the curious

Olympia, Delphi, and Epidaurus were plundered

to pay the expenses of his army. Further, after the

i.e., the suppression of

was intended to serve for the enormous largesses

nee pietas ullast, velatum saepe videri

towards the doorway of a building of some kind

probably a reproduction of a statue. On

this too representing a statue, which is still preserved

1 a.d.), ceasing at the same time as

both indicate some

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