MAT. AVOG. MAT. BEAT. MAT. PAT., Or, the parent of Augustus, the senate, and of her country ; but Tiberius became blas phemous, as far as blasphemy could be said to exist in the heathen mythology, by calling himself the divi Pius. How ever wanting these legends and inscrip tions might he in verity, they must be al lowed the merit of beautiful simplicity in their construction, and the most elegant compression.
We have hitherto treated the subject of coins and medals conjointly, which was in a great degree unavoidable, through the similarity of each to the other ; for though a coin may be said to be merely intended as a circulating me dium, calculated to prevent the difficul ties attending the bartering of commodi ties, yet it has been customary from time immemorial to impress figures on the pie ces of metal used for this purpose, of equal import with those stamped on me dals intended solely as historical records, or as adulatory offerings to supreme power.
Medallions were made of dimensions far too large for circulation as money, which was necessary in order to give due effect to the design, and to render it intelligible at first view ; some were struck as pat terns of proposed coins ; others were is sued at the commencement of a new reign, and on remarkable occasions ; and in some instances they may have been the effects of caprice of men in high authority; and, in a few cases, of gratitude. It is usual to consider as medals, all those Roman pieces which exceed the denarius aureus in size ; those of silver larger than the denarius ; and those of brass, which are of greater diameter than the sestertius ; but Mr. Pinkerton is of opinion, "that the gold medallions, weighing two, three, or four aurei only, passed in currency, as the Greek gold didrachms, tridrachms, or tetradrachms, according to their size. The like may be said of the silver, which are commonly of the value of a Greek tetradrachm : they, I have little doubt, went in currency for four denarii." The brass medallions have the greatest varie ty of devices on their surfaces, and are executed in a style of superior excel lence. Greek pieces of the above de scription, made before the Roman em pire, are extremely rare ; but Greek me dallions of Roman emperors are far more numerous than the Roman. After the
reign of Hadrian, the medallions of that country are seldom found to. be of fine workmanship, yet they are invaluable for their rarity, variety, and the intelligence of their devices ; these circumstances ren der them very high priced.
Besides the superior class of medal lions, there are others, particularly of a size between the first and second brass, which the Italians call medaglioncini, and Mr. Pinkerton, medalets, and tokens, and counters, each proceeding from a variety of causes occurring in the Roman domi nions. The contorniatii, another kind, are so termed from the hollow circle round them ; those are large as medal lions, thin, and of inferior execution, and have afforded much latitude for conjec ture as to the purpose for which they were intended.
We are under the necessity of dwell ing on the foreign coins and medals of antiquity to a considerable extent, that the subject might be fully understood, as we are wholly indebted to the ancients for the invention of money, and even for our designs in many instances. It ap pears, from the account of Britain writ ten by Czesar, that the inhabitants at that period had brass and iron money, the use and coinage of which was probably de rived from our Gallic neighbours. Cuno belin, to whom many ancient coins found in England have been ascribed, was edu cated in the court of Augustus, and King of the Trinobantes : those are supposed to be the only extant, purely English, of which there is an admirable collection in our national museum; the legends of them are generally CVNO, and TASCIA, and CAMV ; the first seems to apply to Cunobelin, the second has never been explained, and the third may be Camudolanum ; the devices are a horse, an ear of wheat, and a bust, accompanied by the abbreviation Cuno, on one side, with a variety of emblems on the other, and Camu.
English medals, intended entirely as such, were never struck in the ancient periods of our history, and the first known to have been made by order of an Eng lishman, and stamped on brass, most pro bably in Italy, was one found in Knares. borough forest, in the seventeenth centu ry, which bears a bust with the legend