DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49262#0093
ch. in] MONETARY THEORY AND PRACTICE 73
that the crime was in most states a capital one, has already
been mentioned. The false moneyer, whether a private person
or the state official, was subject to the same penalty. The
death penalty is mentioned in the inscription relating to
the Lesbio-Phocaean electrum union ’. In Rome, the adultera-
tion of gold or silver was regarded as equivalent to forgery-.
The lex lulia peczilatus of Augustus1 2 3 provided against the
adulteration of the public gold, silver, or bronze. Of the
enactments of the later emperors, that of Tacitus is W'orthy
of notice, making it a capital offence (involving confiscation
of the offender’s property) to alloy gold with silver, silver with
bronze, or bronze with lead4. And there are numerous
provisions against the issue from the mint of cast instead of
struck coins.
§ 5. Protection by Tariff.
As we have said, money to which the law gave an arbitrarily
high value within the district subject to that law, fell to its
proper value outside the limits of the jurisdiction concerned.
Similarly money which was thoroughly sound was, it might
be supposed, always worth carrying with one5. In the
autonomous period of Greek history this was probably always
the case. But when the Greek world became subject to Rome,
certain measures were taken by the mistress of the world
towards protecting her own money ; the money, i. e. of the
Roman state, and that issued by Rome for provincial purposes.
The denarius being in Imperial times made the official money
of account all over the world, all forms of money were brought
into rough and ready relations with the denarius, and always
to their disadvantage. Before Imperial times we see a similar
measure adopted to the disadvantage of the tetradrachms of
the Attic standard still in circulation, which were assimilated
in value, though not in weight, to the lighter cistophoric
1 See below, ch. iv. § 13.
2 ‘Lege Cornelia cavetur, ut qui in aurum vitii quid addiderit, qui
argenteos nummos adulterinos flaverit, falsi crimine teneri ’ (Ulpian, Dig.
xlviii. 10. 9). Notice the distinction between the gold, which was in bars,
and the silver, which was coined.
3 Mommsen, iii. p. 37 ; Dig. xlviii. 13. 1.
4 Scr. Hist. Aug. Tacit. 9. 3 Xen. De Vect. iii. 2.
that the crime was in most states a capital one, has already
been mentioned. The false moneyer, whether a private person
or the state official, was subject to the same penalty. The
death penalty is mentioned in the inscription relating to
the Lesbio-Phocaean electrum union ’. In Rome, the adultera-
tion of gold or silver was regarded as equivalent to forgery-.
The lex lulia peczilatus of Augustus1 2 3 provided against the
adulteration of the public gold, silver, or bronze. Of the
enactments of the later emperors, that of Tacitus is W'orthy
of notice, making it a capital offence (involving confiscation
of the offender’s property) to alloy gold with silver, silver with
bronze, or bronze with lead4. And there are numerous
provisions against the issue from the mint of cast instead of
struck coins.
§ 5. Protection by Tariff.
As we have said, money to which the law gave an arbitrarily
high value within the district subject to that law, fell to its
proper value outside the limits of the jurisdiction concerned.
Similarly money which was thoroughly sound was, it might
be supposed, always worth carrying with one5. In the
autonomous period of Greek history this was probably always
the case. But when the Greek world became subject to Rome,
certain measures were taken by the mistress of the world
towards protecting her own money ; the money, i. e. of the
Roman state, and that issued by Rome for provincial purposes.
The denarius being in Imperial times made the official money
of account all over the world, all forms of money were brought
into rough and ready relations with the denarius, and always
to their disadvantage. Before Imperial times we see a similar
measure adopted to the disadvantage of the tetradrachms of
the Attic standard still in circulation, which were assimilated
in value, though not in weight, to the lighter cistophoric
1 See below, ch. iv. § 13.
2 ‘Lege Cornelia cavetur, ut qui in aurum vitii quid addiderit, qui
argenteos nummos adulterinos flaverit, falsi crimine teneri ’ (Ulpian, Dig.
xlviii. 10. 9). Notice the distinction between the gold, which was in bars,
and the silver, which was coined.
3 Mommsen, iii. p. 37 ; Dig. xlviii. 13. 1.
4 Scr. Hist. Aug. Tacit. 9. 3 Xen. De Vect. iii. 2.