the next crime committed against the welfare of mankind was on the part of him who was the first to coin a denarius of gold, a crime the author of which is equally unknown. the 257 roman people made no use of impressed silver even before the period of the defeat of king pyrrhus.
king servius was the first to make an impress upon copper. before his time, according to tim?us, at rome, the raw metal only was used. the form of a sheep was the first figure impressed upon money, and to this fact it owes its name, “pecunia,” from “pecus,” a sheep.
silver was not impressed with a mark until the year of the city 485, the year of the consulship of ogulnius and fabius, five years before the first punic war; at which time it was ordained that the value of the denarius should be ten asses of copper. the weight, however, of the libra of copper was diminished during the first punic war, the republic not having means to meet its expenditure: in consequence of which, an ordinance was made that the as should in future be struck of two ounces weight. by this contrivance a saving of five-sixths was effected, and the public debt was liquidated. the impression upon these copper coins was a two-faced janus on one side, and the beak of a ship of war on the other. at a later period, when hannibal was pressing hard upon rome, in the dictatorship of q. fabius maximus, asses of one ounce weight were struck, and it was ordained that the value of the denarius should be sixteen asses, by which last reduction of the weight of the as the republic made a clear gain of one half. still, however, so far as the pay of the soldiers is concerned, one denarius has always been given for every ten asses. the impressions upon the coins of silver were two-horse and four-horse chariots, and hence it is that they received the names of “bigati” and “quadrigati.”
the first golden coin was struck sixty-two years after that of silver.
but the invention of money opened a new field to human avarice, by giving rise to the practice of lending money at interest, while the owner passes a life of idleness: and it was with no slow advances that, not merely avarice, but a perfect 258 hunger for gold became inflamed with a sort of rage for acquiring. septimuleius, the familiar friend of caius gracchus, not only cut off the latter’s head, upon which a price had been set of its weight in gold, but, before bringing it to opimius, poured molten lead into the mouth, and so not only was guilty of the crime of parricide, but added to his criminality by cheating the state. and the roman name was rendered infamous by avarice, when king mithridates caused molten gold to be poured into the mouth of aquilius, the roman general, whom he had taken prisoner.
one cannot but feel ashamed, on looking at those new-fangled names which are invented every now and then, from the greek language, by which to designate vessels of silver, filagreed or inlaid with gold, and the various other practices by which such articles of luxury, when only gilded, are made to sell at a higher price than they would have done if made of solid gold. spartacus forbade any one of his followers to introduce either gold or silver into the camp—so much more nobleness of mind was there in those days, even in runaway slaves.
i am much surprised that the roman people has always imposed upon conquered nations a tribute in silver, and not in gold. from carthage, after its conquest under hannibal, a ransom was exacted in the shape of a yearly payment, for fifty years, of silver, eight hundred thousand pounds’ weight in all, but no gold. and yet it does not appear that this could have arisen from there being so little gold then in use throughout the world. midas and cr?sus, before this, had possessed gold to an endless amount: cyrus, on his conquest of asia, had found a booty consisting of twenty-four thousand pounds’ weight of gold, in addition to vessels and other articles of wrought gold, as well as leaves of trees, a plane-tree, and a vine, all made of that metal. in this conquest, he carried off five hundred thousand talents of silver, as well as 259 the vase[200] of semiramis, the weight of which alone amounted to fifteen talents.
saulaces, king of colchis, the land of the golden fleece, had golden arches to his palace, and silver supports, columns, and pilasters, all of which he had come into possession of on the conquest of sesostris, king of egypt; a monarch so haughty, that every year, it is said, it was his practice to select one of his vassal kings by lot, and yoking him to his car, celebrate his triumph afresh.
at the games celebrated by caius antonius the stage was made of silver. the emperor caius had a scaffold introduced into the circus, upon which there were one hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds’ weight of silver. his successor, claudius, on the occasion of his triumph over britain, announced by the inscriptions that among the coronets of gold, there was one weighing seven thousand pounds, contributed by nearer spain, and another of nine thousand pounds, presented by gallia comata. nero, who succeeded him, covered the theatre of pompey with gold for one day, the occasion on which he displayed it to tiridates, king of armenia. and yet how small was this theatre in comparison with that golden palace of his, with which he environed our city.
the first statue of solid gold was erected in the temple of the goddess ana?tis, a divinity held in the highest veneration. this statue was carried off during the wars of antonius with the people of parthia; and a witty saying is told, with reference to it, of one of the veterans of the roman army, a native of bononia. entertaining on one occasion the late emperor augustus at dinner, he was asked by that prince whether he was aware that the person who committed the violence of carrying off the statue, had been struck with blindness and paralysis, and then expired. to this he made answer, 260 that at that very moment augustus was making his dinner off of one of her legs, for he himself was the very man, and to that bit of plunder he had been indebted for all his fortune.
