Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

810 NLUMMUS. NUMMUS,
ancient copper money of Rome. (See Eckhel, 1. c. us that most coinages have been subjected, destroys
p. xv.) Another test of a medal is its being of the meaning of the terms of weight, which are
an unusual or very elaborate device or workman- still applied to the coins. Examples of the first
ship. Respecting the occasions on which medals cause of disagreement occur of necessity in every
appear to have been struck, see Eckhel, l.c. pp. monetary system which contains more than one
xvi-xviii. metal; of the second, an interesting illustration
V. Tests of the genuzsineness of ancient Coins. - will be found in the Attic weights and money;
As this work is intended for the general classical and of the third, we have a striking instance in
student, and makes no pretension to be a perfectly the progressive diminution of the Roman as. [As.]
adequate guide for the special study of each branch Still, however, where we have no historical eviof antiquity, and as this branch of numismatic dence of such discrepancies between the weights
science, although of primary importance for ncue and monies of a people, especially in early periods,
who wishes to examine the ancient coins them- we assume their correspondence. If we did not,
selves, is yet one of the most intricate, and is corn- the attempt to reconstruct any ancient system of
paratively unimportant for the mere explanation of weight and money, and to express it in terms of
the Greek and Roman writers, it must suffice to our own, would be hopeless, as there would be no
refer to the chief writers, quoted at the end of this basis whatever for the investigation. Unless then
article, with only the observation that the abun- we know.anything to tile contrary, we assume a
dance of ancient false money and modern forged talent of money to mean a talent's wzeight of the
coins is one chief cause of the great difficulties of metal, which was chiefly used for money, namely,
the subject. among the Greeks, silver; and, conversely, that the
VI. History of Greek and Roman Coins. - It weight of the silver coins, which make up the
has already been observed that the general defini- value of a talent, gives us the amount of talenttion of money is a certain weight of metal of a weighAt.
certain value, that is, of a certain fineness; the In order that what follows may be better nisi-weight and the fineness being attested by a stamp derstood, we give here the chief denominations of
upon the coin. The latter condition was not in- weight and mioney among the Greeks and Romans.
troduced until the first had long been acted upon; Among all the Greeks, the unit was the tarleft,
and, on the other hand, there are malny occasions which was thus divided (comp. PONDEuRA and the
on which the stamp upon a coin is altogether neg- tables): -
lected, and it passes current merely according to its 1 Talent* contained 60 Mina.e.*
real weight and fineness: one interesting examsple I Mina,, 100 Drachmae.
of this has been noticed under As, p. 140. The 1 Drachma,, 6 Oboli.
primitive stage in the invention of money is illus- In this system we have a combination of the decitrated by various passages in the historical books mal and duodecimal systems.
of the Old Testament, and in Homer. Coined Among the Romans, the unit of weight and
money is never once mentioned in the Homeric money was the As or LIBaA, which was divided
poems; but the instrument of all the traffic re- on the duodecimal system, its twelfth part being
ferred to in them is either simple barter, or quan- called ssncia, and the intermediate parts beiing
tities of gold, silver, and copper. Gold alone is named according to the nullber of snci;e they conreferred to as measured by a definite weight, the tained, or according to the fractional part of the
dahavToe, which in Homer appears to be quite a As which each was. In some parts of Italy, howdifferent quantity from the common talent of the ever, (namely, Central Italy, north of the Apenhistorical period. This word was originally a nlines,) the decimal division of the As was used,
generic term for weight, and signified a 2pair of' the 2un1cia being its tenth part. (Comp. As, PONscales, and anly tling weighed out, as well as a dleft- DER, UNCIA, and the Tables.)
smite weiqht. The same is true of the Latin word i. Histo?y of Greek Msoney. - The invention of
libra: the original meaning of the equivalent word coined money among the Greeks is ascribed by
as was merely unity, or a unit, whether of weight tradition to two sources, not to mention the merely
or of anything else. The other principal Greek mythical stories of its origin (Pollux, ix. 83). As.word, Lva', which is later than the Homeric poems, cording to one account, the Lydians were the first
is, undoubtedly, of Oriental origin, and probably of mankind who coined and used gold and silver
means anything divided, apportioned, or deter- money (Herod. i. 94; Xenoph. ap. Poll. 1. c.).
mined, akin to the Hebrew mrnnelh, and to utcdotuat, The other anud prevailing tradition is, that Pheidon,
suonere, snoneta, &c. These words concur with all king of Argos, first coined both copper and silver
the other information we have upon the subject, money at Aegina, and first established a system of
and with the very necessity of the case, to prove weights and measures. (Herod. vi. 1 27; Ephor.
that every systesm of noney is founded ulpo a pre- ap. Stracb. viii. p. 376; Ael. V. 1I. xii. 10; Poll.
viously existing system of zoeiqlst. It is, however, 1. c.; Marual. Par. 45, 46; Grote, Iiistory of Greece,
of the utmost importance to observe, that a word vol. ii. p. 424: the date of Pheidon, according to
denoting a certain weight does not, of necessity, the Parian Marble, is B. c. 895; but Grote, Clinton,
when applied to money, indicate a quantity of Bdckh, and Miiller all agree in placing him about
metal of the same weight. For, first, the word the middle of the eighth century, between 783
talent or pound may be applied to an equiealesnt or 770 and 744 or 730, B. c.; see Grote, 1. c.
value of gold, silver, or copper, although, ins weisght, p. 419.) These traditions are not altogether illits meaning must be restricted to one of these consistent; only we must understand the former
metals: secondly, there may be, in the formation as implying nothing more than that a system of
of a monetary system, an intentionaldeviation from money existed in Asia Minor in very early times
the existing standard of weight, while the names
of that standard are preserved: and, lastly, the * These were not coined, but were monies of
progressive deterioration, to which'history informs account.