the year 537 A.D., when the independence formerly conceded to Človis, was finally acknowledged by treaty in the reign of Childeric, his grandson, with the privilege to coin money as before stated.

The coins of the Gothic princes of Italy are frequently found with the head of Justinian on one side and the name and title of the Gothic king by whom they were issued, on the reverse, as on those of Witiges and others. On those of Witiges the name and title stand D. N. WITIGES REX, within a small wreath of foliage. This, with the suppression of the late Roman form, the D. N. "Dominus Noster," became the simple style of the names and titles on all the coinages of the early kings of the different countries of modern Europe.

There are gold coins of the late Roman emperors of the West, even to Romulus Augustus; but of the Gothic kings only silver and copper are known, of which a list will be found in the Appendix, as well as of those of the Vandal princes, who conquered the Roman possessions in Africa.

TO

COINS OF THE EMPERORS OF THE EAST, FROM THE SEPA RATION OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN EMPIRES THE TIME OF THE TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE 1453 BY MAHOMET II.

IN

The coinage of the eastern empire after the death of Justinian, and commencing with the reign of Justin II. in 565 A.D., may be said to belong, strictly speaking, to modern history, as it extends to the recent date of 1453, when this last portion of the Roman world, or rather its capital, which had for some time been nearly all that remained of the Eastern empire, fell before the furious onslaught of the Turkish conqueror, Mahomed II.; but as the Byzantine coins are of a distinct class from those of the kingdoms of modern Europe, and closely allied to those of the lower Roman empire of the West, it appears better to allude to them here, before proceeding strictly to the modern portion of the subject.

The series of Greco-Roman emperors, from Anastasius, 518 A. D., to Constantine Palcologus, 1453, are only interrupted by the French emperors as they are termed who held the city from 1205 to 1261 A.D., who occupied

BB

but littie more of the territory that then remained to the Greco-Roman empire, than the city of Constantinople and its immediate dependencies. These usurpers, Baldwin and his successors, had reduced Constantinople by means of the crusading armies of Europe; but Michael VIII., Paleologus, who, with several predecessors, had made Nicea, in Bithynia, the seat of government during the French occupation of Constantinople, and coined money there, having re-conquered Constantinople, again established the seat of government in the ancient capital, and the coinage of the remaining emperors was minted there.

The monetary system of the Roman empire in the East appears to have undergone a thorough reform in the reign of Anastasius, and it is consequently with that emperor that De Sauley commences his study of the Byzantine series. Indeed, that period, when the Western empire was extinguished, while the Eastern portion still to a great extent remained intact, appears the proper one to commence the Eastern series of Roman coins as a separate series.

The gold money of Anastasius is the solidus and the triens, or third of the solidus; which, in the countries of the

West, became known as Bezants or (Byzantiums). They formed the model of the gold triens of the Merovingian princes of France, the only sovereigns of the new barbaric kingdoms, with the exception of the Gothic princes of Spain, who issued gold money at that early period.

The copper also was reformed in the reign of Anastasius, and an attempt made to issue a large coinage similar to the

old Roman sestertius, as will be seen by the annexed engraving of a copper coin of this reign.

This copper coinage is considered to be a re-issue of the follis increased in size. The large M, the monetary index placed beneath the cross, is thought by some to be the Greek numeral 40, expressing the value of the piece as that of forty noumia; the CON is the abbreviation of Constantinople, and the other types are moneyer's marks. Money continued to be struck in several Greek cities in the reign of Phocas, such as Carthage, Nicomedia, Cyzicus, &c., but the workmanship is very barbarous. On the copper, the large M of the coinage of Anastasius and his immediate successors, disappears in the reign of Phocas, and is replaced by the Italic numerals XXXX. On the obverse of these coins the emperor holds a purse or scroll, and a cross.

The name and titles of the emperor are, at this period, still in Roman letters, and in succeeding reigns the large M reappears on the copper, and the letters expressing the place of mintage are also generally Greek, except those of the Imperial mint at Constantinople. The gold solidus and triens continue the best coins of the Eastern empire.

Eventually the Latin inscriptions become partially Greek and the titles also are Grecianised, as on the coins of Leo the Wise, on which the legend stands, LEOn EnX® EVSEBES BASILEVS ROMAIwn; on some LEOn En EO BASILEVS ROMEN; and on others, IhSVS XRISTV nICA, with the head of Christ.

On the reverse of one gold coin of this reign, 886 to 911, the head of the Virgin Mary appears, with MARIA, and M-R.-Ou, which appears to be a strange jumble of Latin and Greek, both in letters and language, and seems to be intended for M(ate) R. e(n)v.

The emperor Andronicus, a son of Michael Paleologus, changed the type of the Byzantine gold, making the reverse represent a plan of Constantinople with its fortifications. In the centre of which a figure of the Virgin Mary is generally

found.

On the obverse the emperor is seen kneeling to St. Michael. The titles of Basileus-autocrator, or despotos-were, towards the close of the series, generally assumed instead of

*See next Chapter.

Cæsar or Augustus; and the coins engraved below will convey a good general idea of the style of types, and the treatment of the head of Christ, a frequent type on those coins.

The later inscriptions on this series of coins are in a strange jumble of Greek and Latin characters and terms, being sometimes all Greek.

The last two emperors died bravely, as became the last representatives of the great Roman empire, defending the walls of Constantinople, and the last one has left coins; but the last of his line, Constantine Paleologus, foreseeing his inevitable doom, refused to exercise the privileges of sovereignty, except in dying as became an emperor, resisting to the death his relentless enemy.

A coin of Mahomet II., struck after the taking of Con stantinople, appropriately closes the series of the Imperial coinage of the Eastern dominions of Rome.

The inscription-a strange mixture of Turkish and Greek, as those of the later Greek sovereigns had been of Greek and Latin, both in the letters and the language-stands, ΟΜ ΜΗΔΙΚΙΟ ΠΑCHC ΡΩΜΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΛΕΣ: (the sovereign

of all Greece and Anatolia, Mahomet). The coin is countermarked in Arabic characters.

A list of the Eastern emperors who coined money, with the comparative rarity of the coins, will be found in the Appendix.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ON THE WEIGHTS, METALS, VALUES, TYPES, INSCRIPTIONS, ETC., OF THE ROMAN COINAGE.

THE WEIGHTS, VALUES, AND DENOMINATIONS OF ROMAN METALS,
COPPER OR BRONZE.

I HAVE endeavoured to trace, in my article on first Roman copper money, its origin, devices, &c. ; it remains, therefore, in this place, only to sum up, in few words, the principal points connected with the adoption of copper as the standard of the Roman coinage. It appears from many detached passages of ancient authors, that the early people of Italy (the Romans among the number) had, like other races in a primitive or barbarous state, used pieces of wood, leather, or shells, as a sort of money. We find the next step to be the adoption of pieces of metal passed by weight, and with the Romans this metal appears to have been copper,* which must have been abundant in Italy and Sicily, as its export from those countries is even mentioned by Homer, while copper mines exist at the present day in the neighbourhood of Mount Etna, which till very lately were still worked. Some confusion exists with respect to the Roman copper coinage, in regard to values, sizes, weights, &c., &c., partly in consequence of the undefined terms, brass, copper, and bronze. What the ancients called orichalcum, was similar to the mixed metal now termed bronze. Æs, the term from which the name of the first Roman coin was derived, was given to the mixed metal of which these coins were formed. The modern Italian term, ottone, rame, the French airain, and the Eng ish brass, have been long used to express this metal, put are all incorrect, brass being composed of copper and

Not, as among the Greeks, silver.