The drachma, or eighth part of an ounce, was the leading denomination of the Gre cian money, and their coins were gene rally named from their weights, though sometimes the case was reversed ; the sil ver drachma was equivalent on a medi um to nine-pence sterling, and the Ro mans considered their denarius as of the same value with the drachma. The di drachm of silver was double the amount of the drachma ; the tridrachm was three drachmas ; and the tctradrachm, the largest of Greek silver coins, except the tetradrachm of the Eginean standard, • is equivalent to five shillings of our mo ney.
The silver drachma was divided into several denominations, as the tetrobolion, worth a modern sixpence ; the hemi drachm, or trio holion, the dioholion, the obulus, the hemiobolion, the tetartobolion, and the dichalcos ; the latter was worth about a farthing and a half. Very few of those minute silver coins have reached us, and others are mentioned by Greek wri ters, which were still less, and are con sequently entirely decayed, or have been overlooked or neglected for the larger species.
It may be proper in noticing these coins, to mention the figures impressed on some of them, for instance, Pallas and Proser pine on the tetradrachm, and the troizene; the cistophori had the mystic chest of Bacchus, with a serpent rising out of it ; but the Athenian coins were the most nu merous, though the execution of them was indifferent. The first copper coins extant are Syracusan ; those of Greece are the chalcos, originally of very incon siderable value. It does not appear that gold was used for this purpose in Greece before the reign of Philip of Macedon, and Athens was destitute of this descrip tion of money at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war ; Sicily had set the example in this respect, the government of which island had issued gold coins four hundred and ninety-one years before Christ. The Xpverec, or Philippus, was a didrachm , the common form of gold coins of very remote times, and was equal in value to one pound sterling. The Philippus was divided into four parts, and there were still smaller coins of this precious metal. The izpV7e4, of Alexander and Lysimach us, was of greater value than the Philipps, and is said to have been worth forty shil lings of our money. Some of the Egyp tian monarchs quadrupled the Xpvee;, consequently their coins equalled four pounds.
The Romans estimated their money by weight, as the Greeks had done before, but they differed from that people in a dopting silver for their coins, as they used copper, not in preference, but from neces sity. The Roman pound was twelve ounces, consisting of four hundred and fif ty-eight grains, though the money-ounce appears to have been four hundred and twenty troy grains, or five thousand and forty to the pound ; this was the standard of copper. After silver was introduced, the ounce consisted of seven denarii, and gold was estimated by the scruple, the third part of a denarius, and the preced ing weights. The sestertius, or half the
third, a division of the number ten equal ly improper, and subsequently unusual, was chosen by the Romans as. the princi pal estimate of their money. Servius Tut lus introduced the practice of impressing figures on their copper or aes, which were those of pecus, or small cattle, from which circumstance the word pecunia was de rived. This manner of distinguishing the coin was afterwards changed, and Janus on one side, and the prow of a galley on the other, became the marks of the aes ; this, with the triens, the quadrans, and sextans, impressed with the form of a vessel, were for a very long period the on. ly medium ; but five years before the first Punic war, circumstances had enabled the Romans to use silver, which they coin ed into denarii, bearing the head of the genius of Rome, with a helmet on one side, and on the other chariots drawn by two or four horses. The coin called vie toriati received the figures of Victory and of Rome ; and the sestertii generally had the protectress of the city, with Castor and Pollux.
The emperors usually ordered their own busts to be placed on their coins, ex cept Augustus, who had Capricorn. Sixty two years elapsed between the introduc tion of silver and that of gold, which oc curred in the consulship of M. Livius Sa linator. The as, derived from ms, brass, originally consisted of one pound weight, but the difficulties experienced during the first Punic war, compelled the public to reduce the value of the as, and to con vert one into six ases. The success of Hannibal in the second contest, under the above term, produced still greater dis tress in the state, and another reduction in their value took place, when the as be came but one ounce in weight ; this was again reduced, by a law of Papyrius, to half an ounce, in which state it afterwards remained. The as, supposed by Kennet to be equal in value to a farthing and a half sterling, was the tenth part of the denarius, and the semi•ms, or semissis, was the half; the trims, as the word im plies, was the third part of the as, and the quadrens the fourth, which was some times called triune's and teruncins, as it weighed three ounces previous to the diminution of its value. The sex. tans, or sixth part, were not sufficiently numerous, and other divisions were made to answer the public convenience, such as the uncia, or twelfth part of the pound, the semi-uncia, and the sextula, or sixth part of an ounce; besides these there were the decussus, valued at ten ases, or one denarius ; the vicessus, the value of two denarii ; and the centussis was the largest coin of this metal, which was worth ten denarii, or one hundred ases, and may be said to be equivalent to six shillings and three-pence sterling.