was the metal which more naturally presented itself because abundant in the country. It was adopted from the earliest times in rough forms of most irregular shape and of the most varied dimensions, such as resulted from their rude smelting works, so that their value was determined by weight alone'.

This is the AES RUDE called also aes infectum (unwrought bronze); many of these pieces are preserved in our museums varying in weight from a few grammes to a kilogramme and more. These are the pieces called raudera, rauduscula, rudera.

122. AES SIGNATUM. With the progress of civilization and the increase of trade it became ever more troublesome to have constant need of recourse to the scales in every contract, and it was felt necessary to have the metal divided into pieces of uniform

1. For this reason the word peso both in our language and in many others is often used in the sense of value or of money or payments and similar words are still used which are derived from the Latin "pendere such as to spend, to expend, to dispense, compendium, stipend, pension, &c., just as in the same way the words esteem, estimate, have their origin in the Latin " aes (aestimare).

size, and to have a sign imprinted on them signifying the weight and thence also the value at least approximately. They began therefore to cast the metal in the following shapes, oblong, irregular, square, and oval, stamping them roughly first on one side only and then on both, with certain marks consisting in a kind of long branch furnished with lateral projections or they may be also likened to a kind of fish-bone.

Later on globes or bosses, evidently signs of weight and therefore of value, were impressed upon them. Thus we pass gradually from the rude fragments of metal to the stamped coins (from aes rude to aes signatum).

123. If these first pieces bearing a mark of value really constitute the first money of the Romans it is difficult to determine whether they are to be attributed to the authority of the State or to private enterprise.

Just as indeed among almost all nations, private coinage, that is money on which a private person, banker or merchant has stamped a mark, guaranteeing the weight and goodness of the metal preceded that issued by the authority of the State so it is most likely

or one may say almost certain that this was also the case at Rome and that these first coins were the product of private enterprise.

124. Generally the honour of having organized a regular and legal system of weights and measures is attributed to Servius Tullius handing the control of them over to the State: mensuras et pondera constituit. This being admitted as a fact supported by the authority of several writers some would also attribute to Servius Tullius the organization of the monetary system. And this is fully admissible if by that is meant the introduction of a system of the use of metal by weight for business transactions.

But if the introduction of true and proper money is meant we should not know how to determine the kind of coinage thus introduced by Servius Tullius, because all the pieces remaining to us, whether oval or quadrilateral, if judged by the art they present must be attributed to a later period.

125. AES GRAVE AES LIBRALE. The coins of heavy bronze called. Aes grave present a rough and coarse appearance; the art exhibited on them is certainly not archaic. In spite of their rude appearance they are evidently derived from Greek art.

The modelling on them is true and vigorous, and the artists who wrought them shewed themselves so clever and experienced in the difficulties of relief and perspective that one can do no less than suppose that they were brought from Greece, In fact instead. of progressing with time the Art on the Republican coinage shews

Roman Coins.

retrogression and the Asses of the reduced series certainly do not show the same strong and firm treatment which we admire in the coinage of the libral and quadrilateral series. One may therefore attribute the first issue of the aes grave to the less ancient period of the Decemviri rather than to that of Servius Tullius.

According to historical testimony it is precisely at the epoch of the Decemviri (304 AVC. 450 B.C.) that a true monetary system was adopted and coinage issued as true money, furnished not only with an impression of some sort indicating the weight, but with a legal and sacred emblem shewing the authority of the State, and also with a sign representing the value.

The form or shape adopted was what is called lenticular (see no 92); on the Obverse a sacred emblem of divinity is always the

principal type, since it was that which gave the money itself its legal value, and the emblem varies as we shall see according to the different subdivisions of the money.

The Reverse is always filled with the prow of a galley, a symbol which appears to have been adopted either to indicate the maritime power of Rome, to which the Decemviri had given so great an impulse, or to call to mind the arrival of Jove in Italy, and the worship of the Dioscuri, the protectors of navigation. The sign shewing the value is always repeated on both sides.

126. The AS bears on the Obverse the head of Janus bifrons and the indication of value I. (1 As).

127. The SEMIS (or half As) the head of Jupiter and the letter S. (semis).

128. The TRIENS (the third of an As) the head of Minerva (or of Roma) and four bosses (4 ounces).

129. The QUADRANS (the quarter of an As) the head of Hercules and three bosses (3 ounces).

130. The SEXTANS (the sixth of an As) the head of Mercury and two bosses (2 ounces).