The other coins of Africa are those of the state of Cyreno, consisting of early of the trine of the Battiadte, of the republic, of the Lagidm, and of the Pentapolis, n.o. 96. The gold tetrastaters, staters, and bend staters have the head of Jupiter Ammon and the Silphiura, or Assa fectida, sometimes with the gcrboa on the stalk ; the tetrobols with a rider and the Silphium are very fine; the silver currency with like types is also fine. Of the revolted Magas, n.c. 256, there are only bronze coins, with his portrait, and of Ptolernteus Apion, n.c. 96, silver and brass. The states of Leptis, Sabratha, Byzacene, and Zeugitaoa, offer little numistnatic interest, and of Carthage itself there are no coins, although a fine series of Carthaginian coins was struck in Panor Inns. Hippo Libera and Utica have coins with the supposed heads of Libya and Julia Augusta. Certain coins with Punic legends have been assigned to Mauritanian princes, Masinissa, Micipsa, Jugurtha, and Hiempsal II., and of these are drachma: with portraits and Latin legends of Juba 11., Ptolemy, and Cleopatra.
The imperial series struck in the Creek cities under the Roman empire has considerable points of interest, showing the state of the arts, the nature of the magistracies, the titles assumed by the cities, occasionally as still enjoying their municipal freedom. They placed on their coins the heads of the personified Demos, or People; Synkletos or Senate ; Gerousia, or Comitia ; and Bode, or Town Council ; but gene rally from civic adulation the court of the imperial family appear on the coins. The reverses resemble the Roman, hut present great variety of type, and aro executed with less taste. Their inscriptions are re markably copious. Their monetary system assimilated itself to the Roman by issuing large brass obols, and medium and smaller sizes to imitate the Roman bronze currency, but the pieces are generally flatter, and the relief lower, and the weight less. The coins of the few Roman colonies have been alluded to, and fall into this system; they struck permiseu Augusti or Preconsulis, by the permission of Augustus or the Proconsul, but were soon suppressed, or converted into imperial mints.
From the coins of the Greeks the natural transition is to the currency of Rome, from which the present monetary systems of Europe have been derived.
Although little has been recorded about the condition of the Creek mints, rather more is known of the Roman. The asses were originally cast, ffeeissce. but towards the close of the republic were struck ; the dies are supposed to have been of hardened brass, the blanks were cast, and then cut or separated at the gate of the mould, they were then placed with the forceps on the anvil, and struck between the dies by the hammer ; occasionally a coin, not having been withdrawn, the next piece was impressed with the incuse or intaglio type, which as it is the obverse, shows that the obverse die was upper most. The mint itself was held in the temple of Just) MONETA, or " the Adviser," and the following officers presided over it, the Ties tors, the triumviri monetales, or triumvirs of the money, to whom Julius Cesar added a fourth, and who appear B.C. 289, the director, optic ; assayer, exactor ; caster, flator, flatorius ; the placer or feeder, suppostor ; the striker, malleator ; and the engraver, scalptor ; the officinator, work man, and nummularius, treasurer, and coenarius, purifier. They formed a corporation; under the republic the workmen were public slaves, but Cmear appointed freedmen, and the Gothic kings of Rome elevated the social position of the mint masters. The triumviri monetales presided
over the issues of all three metals, but the brass continued under the empire to be struck by decree of the senate, while the emperors alone had the right of coining gold and silver, and had their money separate in the treasury (Dio. HE), which was superintended by the Prufectus Aerarii, or the Procurator in the later times of the empire. In Rome itself the whole establishment was under the Prmfectus urbie, in the provinces under the Presides, and under the barbarian kings of Rome under the mayor of the palace. Bronze dies of the empire have been found.
At the earlier times the Romans had no gold coins, but used the Philippei, or Macedonian stater, a term retained under the later empire Lactantius,' i. c 6 ; A.U.C. 546), the gold aurei were first issued sixty two years after the denarii. The earliest aurei are supposed to have been coined B.C. 207, and some writers have supposed that originally 48 were struck from the pound of gold till 134 B.C. ; 45 from B.C. 134-119 ; 42, B.C. 119-104; 40, B.C. 104-37; 41, B.C. 37-14A.n.; 40 under the early emperors till Nero's reign, who issued 45; 50 under Caracalla, 60 under Diocletian, and 72 under Constantine. The aureus was called like the silver coin den arias, but weighed 2 scriptuke, or double the weight, and was worth 25 silver coins, and 100 sesterees or large brass pieces called nummi, with some fluctuations. The half aureus or Roman half sovereign was called quinarius at a later period. This was for greater public convenience, the taxes under the empire being paid in gold into the treasury; and under the Byzantine emperor, Alexander Comnenue, the payments of the state issued in copper. The right of striking gold as well as silver belonged to the emperor alone, and it was an act of treason for a subject to place his image on the coin, or even to show the least dishonour to the imperial portrait or effigy, which was considered inviolable. The types of the earliest gold and electrum coins of the Romans, struck in Capin, about B.C. 210-180, have on the obverse the head of Mare, or Janus, and on the reverse Roman deities. They are marked behind the head with their value in sesterces, the piece of xx sesterces weighed a Roman scriptula, or scruple, 18.06 gre.; that of xxx •sesterces; of xxxx sestercee ; and Njx. (lx) sesterces, in proportion. Pieces struck by Sylla and Lucullus, called Lucullians, weighed • 10 scriptulw, or 165 grains. I'iecea of larger size and heavier weight than the aureus are called medallions, and are supposed to have been issued as medals for the legions. Elagabalue is said to have struck denarii of double, treble,. four, and a hundred times the usual size, and even to the weight of two pounds, but such vagaries were destroyed after his downfall. Alexander Severna struck halves called semisses, and thirds, tremisses, to accom modate the remission of taxation to one-third. After the time of Con stantine the gold coin was called solidus, and victoriatus, from the recurrence of the figure of Victory on the reverse. Towards the close of the republic. the aureus was sometimes of electrum, or silver, and under the Lower Empire of obryzum, or gold mixed with copper or rouge. It was generally very pure ; at the time of Vespasian, its purity had only of alloy. The proportion of gold to silver was as 1 to 10; a.c. 189, 1 to 9; B.C. 54, under the Empire,. as 1 to 12; and as 1 to 14 or 18 from Constantine to Justinian.