VOT XX SIC XXX - Votis vicennalibus feliciter solutis, sic tricennalia solventur.

VOTIS MVLTIS Votis multis susceptis solutisque.

V V

Valeria victrix (LEGIO).

XV VIR SAC FAC - Quindecemviri sacris faciundis (Vitellius). XXXX Quadragesima (Galba)1.

255. NUMERAL LETTERS. The following letters taken from the Greek alphabet may form a concluding list of abbreviations. These letters are found on some of the Byzantine coins, and are generally used to indicate the year of the reign of the various rulers on the coins minted in Alexandria.

256. The head represented on an Imperial coin, and the name in the legend surrounding it, do not always indicate that the coin should be attributed to that Emperor.

In other words, certain coins were struck with the head and name of a deceased Emperor on one side, in the reign of another Emperor, whose name only appears on the other side.

The obstructive policy of the Senate, jealous of its own authority to impress on the coins placed under its own jurisdiction the portrait of the reigning Emperor, was the first cause of the issue of these coins. And in fact the first posthumous coins are of bronze seeing they were issued by the Senate.

Already during a considerable period the dictators, triumvirs and prefects of the fleet and the commanders of the army (imperatores) had stamped their portraits upon the coins struck directly under their authority, that is the say on gold and silver; but this did not quite content the Senate.

1. The abbreviations relative to the Mints are noticed in chapter XXXV.

Therefore as soon as its own coinage began to be issued in Rome (that is to say in the reign of Tiberius, for we have no bronze coinage issued in Rome either by M. Antony, Pompey or Augustus), the Senate placed only the name of Tiberius on one side and on the other the head of Augustus; a considerable time elapsed before they resolved to place that of the reigning Emperor on the

coins.

Such was the origin of the posthumous coinage which on this account presents us with the anomaly of the Obverse and Reverse types as it were reversed.

The side which bears the head, (generally devoted to the Obverse), is really the Reverse, whilst the true Obverse is that side which bears the name of him who caused the money to be struck, or of him who was Emperor at the time at which it was struck.

257. Posthumous coins are not therefore generally placed under the name of the Emperor whose portrait they bear, but under that of whoever issued them.

But we shall return to this subject in the following chapters since the posthumous coins are not limited to those of which we have just treated, and which may be defined as mere memorials, but embrace also two other group of coins, those known as Restitution and those as Consecration coins.

CHAPTER XXX

RESTITUTION COINS

258. Restitution coins are those which, after a more or less considerable interval after their first issue, were restruck by another. Emperor who, reproducing more or less faithfully the prototype. added to it his own name followed by the abbreviation REST, or more rarely the whole word RESTITVIT.

259. BRONZE. The restitution of the Bronze Senatorial coinage was commenced in the reign of Titus, when restored coins of Augustus, Livia, Agrippa, Tiberius, Drusus, Germanicus, Agrippina I and Galba were issued.

Domitian, (or to speak more accurately the Senate in the reign. of that Emperor), restored coins of Augustus, Agrippa, Tiberius, Drusus, Germanicus, Claudius, and Julia daughter of Titus.

Finally Nerva (always understanding the Senate under him) restored coins of Augustus and of Agrippina I.

And with these the brief series of restored bronze coins is completed.

260. GOLD AND SILVER. Nerva was the first who restored a denarius of Augustus, and it appears that very few of these restoration coins were issued, since only one specimen is known to us.

It is to the Emperor Trajan that the most splendid series belongs, or more accurately the only series of restitution coins in both gold and silver.

He issued, in gold, restitution coins of Julius Cæsar, Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, Galba, Vespasian, and Titus, and in Silver, denarii of the families Emilia, Cacilia, Carisia, Cassia, Claudia, Cornelia, Cornuficia, Didia, Horatia, Junia, Livineia, Lucretia,

Fig. 72.

Aureus of Claudius restored by Trajan.

Mamilia, Marcia, Maria, Memmia, Minucia, Norbana, Numonia, Pompeia, Rubria, Scribonia, Sulpicia, Titia, Tullia, Valeria, and Vipsania.

Fig. 73.

Denarius of the Cornelia gens restored by Trajan.

The epoch of the restitution of silver coins was closed under Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, who issued restored coins of LEG. VI of Marc Antony.

261. It is difficult to say with confidence what may have been the motive of the Roman Senate, and afterwards of some Emperors for restriking certain of the ancient coins. One might argue that it was the intention to keep alive the memory of their predecessors among the reigning families; but if that were so, there then arises the difficulty of explaining the choice of the names restored.

One can well understand for example that under Tiberius and Claudius it might be desired that the name of Augustus should be recorded; but why should the names of Tiberius and Claudius have been recorded under the reign of the good Emperor Titus?

These are questions to which probably we may never be able to give a precise answer, neither can we explain each individual case, but rather only give a general explanation sufficiently satisfactory, considering that such issues may have been suggested by the special

Roman Coins.

II

recurrences of anniversaries to which the ancient Romans paid much attention.

Hence the choice of names may not have always been free or spontaneous, but often required by special circumstances by the opportuneness of the times, or from other causes which we who live in these far-off times must always find it impossible to discover.

This supposition also explains sufficiently the recalling of names which it would have been better to forget.

262. More likely to be true and more exhaustive is the explanation which may be given concerning the series of the Republican Restitution coins struck by Trajan. The coins of the Republic which still remained in circulation were already worn by long usage, but although much worn possessed nevertheless an intrinsic value far higher than that of the Imperial Denarii whose silver contained 15% of alloy.

A reform of the coinage was demanded by the general administrative rearrangement of the Empire, and still more probably by the evident advantage which the public treasury would derive from a general melting and restriking of the silver coinage, and this was debated and carried into execution by Trajan during the years 103 to 107 A.D. The legionary denarii of M. Antony only were excluded, seeing that they, being of base metal, were of no use to the treasury, but would rather haveproved a loss.

The Emperor moreover being sorry to see the coins which had been known and valued for so long disappearing determined to restrike a certain number in order to preserve them from being forgotten, this he did, keeping exactly the old types, but adding to them. the legend commemorating their being restruck, with the words IMP. CAES. TRAIAN AVG.GER.DAČ.P.P.REST.

Much discussion has arisen concerning the leading ideas which guided the choice of the denarii to be restruck and of the families whose memory was to be thus preserved. Some have thought that there may have been some favouritism towards individuals descended from these old families in the choice of the coins or intrigues among the families; in regard to this idea we should enquire how it happened that we have preserved among the restitution coins the names of Plebeian families but little known to us whilst there are none among them from the more noble and illustrious families.

For my part I am inclined to believe that there was no choosing at all, and that they restored without distinction all the denarii which were found in circulation. Some coins on account of their rarity had already disappeared from commerce, and perhaps great care was spent in procuring them.