(queir); from which name Romulus, as the reputed son of Mars, received his surname Quirinus. The sword as it superseded the earlier javelin in warfare, may have become the emblem of Mars with the early Romans, in preference to the lance.

It has been said, that the ases bearing different domestic animals, &c., for their types, are in general not Roman, but of the neighbouring Italian states. This remark, however, does not apply to the square pieces, to which, no doubt, Pliny alluded in stating that Servius Tullius was the first who caused them to be so marked, and which, there is good reason to believe, are nearly all Roman.

Those square monetary ingots that have come down to us are of comparatively late workmanship, though no doubt considerably earlier than the earliest of the circular form, as some of them are nearly of the full weight of the pound to the "as," while none of the pieces of circular form are above nineand-a half ounces. They also appear to be the work of Greek artists, who were no doubt employed by the Romans to execute the models, from which moulds were made for casting them. This employment of Greek artists probably took place at the time the Roman power began to extend in the direction of Campania, and to absorb many Greek settlements of minor importance. Such pieces, however, are in all probability copies of more ancient ones, merely improved in artistic treatment. They continued to be made in the square form, as above stated, after the issue of the circular " as.

THE ES OR AS IN THE CIRCULAR FORM.

In its circular form the "as" or pound weight of bronze became a true coin, and no doubt passed by tale, as well as by weight, if not exclusively by tale. At this period, when the circular, or true coin form, was first adopted, which M. Le Normand estimates to be about 385 B.C., the weight of copper given to each was reduced from one pound to nineand-a-half ounces, and this reduction may have taken place in consequence of the impoverished state of the finances,

• Except, perhaps, the piece seen by the Duc de Luynes, described at page 253

which must have followed the taking of Rome by the Gauls immediately previous to this period.

It has been thought by earlier writers that the Romans imported the forms and weight of this grand uncial coinage from the Etrurians; but evidence of the most unimpeachable character is in favour of its being of Roman origin.

Pliny states that in the time of the first Punic war, 264 B.C., in order to meet the extraordinary demand on the finances of the state, the "as" was reduced from one pound to two ounces; and in the second Punic war, in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius Maximus, ases of one ounce were made; and the recently-introduced silver coin, the denarius, was decreed to be worth sixteen ases, instead of ten, its original value. Other ancient authorities prove that successive diminutions took place in the weight of the "as;" but it is not necessary to believe that one so great and so sudden as that described by Pliny took place at once. That the as was coined of two ounces only in the first Punic war is no doubt true; but that it had been gradually reduced previously, from its original weight there can be no doubt, especially as the oldest of the circular form with which we are acquainted only weigh nine-and-a-half ounces; and subsequent diminutions to a great extent must have taken place previous to the one mentioned by Pliny, in order to bring the copper medium into relation with the silver of the Greek states, as they became more and more intimately connected with Rome. But these facts have only been brought forward here to show that the greater weight is a sure test of the greater age in coins of this class. Taking this, then, as the mode of estimating the relative antiquity of this great bronze coinage of the states of central Italy, we shall find that the earliest known coins are undoubtedly Roman-those with the Roman types of Janus and the prow of a ship, alone weighing nine and a half ounces. The next

heaviest are those of Tuder, weighing eight ounces; the next are those of Volterra, weighing about seven and a-half ounces; then come those of the Umbrian city of Iguvium, weighing seven ounces. Hence it appears clear that the

*

The only exception to this theory of weights is found in the ases of Hatria, which weigh nearly a full pound. But the modern character of the Latin letters show them to be more recent than any of the above,

ES" OR

Romans originated the grand copper coinage under description, and that it was only introduced in the neighbouring states as they successively became subject to Rome, or strongly influenced by her institutions. Thus at Tuder it would seem to have been introduced at the time when the weight had fallen at Rome to eight ounces; at Volterra, the only Etruscan town to which ases have been yet assigned, when the weight at Rome had fallen to seven-and-a-half ounces; and in the same way in other states.

At the time the circular form was adopted, the ancient types of animals appear to have been superseded by those of deities, a course somewhat analogous to that which took place in Greek types.* The head of the bifrontal Janus, or Saturn, as some deem it, was adopted at this period as the principal type of the "as," perhaps in reference to the fabled inventor of money, Saturn, or to the temple of Saturn in which the public treasure was deposited. The two-faced Janus is often considered by others to be the same with Saturn, or Time, who is supposed to be represented with two fronts, as looking back into the past, and forward into the future.

The ship which was at the same time adopted as the reverse of the chief piece of the uncial† coinage is also supposed to refer to the landing of Saturn in Italy, thus alluded to by Ovid

"At bona posteritas puppim signavit in ære

Hospitis adventum testificata dei."-Fasti, lib. i.

as:"

The numeral I. on the reverse denotes the unit; one the globules or dots on the smaller pieces denote its subdivision in ounces.

The plebeian of the Roman streets appears to have used these copper pieces for gambling purposes, by "tossing-up" just as at the present day-and the young Roman, as Macrobius informs us, cried out " Capitat aut Navim," (heads or ship,) long after the heads and ship had disappeared from the Roman coinage.

The coin engraved in Plate VII. is a circular "as" of the oldest form that has come down to us, weighing above nine

* See Chapter on Greek types.

+ Uncial-as being calculated by ounces.

In the plural, on account of the two faces of Janus.

S