DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51762#0071
HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
the exchange, but also to determine by law the weight
of the bronze money.
We have seen that in the previous period the as was
divided decimally. With the introduction of the
denarius system a return was made to the duodecimal
division. “ From the moment when in the capital the
clear principle of a parallel double standard took the
place of a fluctuation between a silver standard and
the expression thereof in bronze, the denarius was
divided into ten asses, the as into twelve unciae.’ ’1 That
is to say, each metal was now coined on its natural
divisional system.
The head of Roma2 on the new silver coinage is
considerably altered from the form in which the early
Capuan silver showed it. The helmet is no longer
“Phrygian”; it is of the ordinary round shape with
visor, provided, however, with wings and with a griffin-
headed crest such as decorated the old “Phrygian”
helmet. This, with slight modifications, long con-
tinues to be the usual head-dress of Roma, although
the Phrygian form is occasionally revived.
The Dioscuri are represented charging, as the later
Roman tradition conceived their epiphania at the battle
of Lake Regillus in 496 b.c. The older tradition,
preserved by Livy, seems to have been merely that
1 Haeberlin, Metrol. Grundlagen, p. 105.
2 Certainly not Minerva. See Haeberlin, Der Roma-Typus, in
Corolla Numismatica, pp. 135—155.
H.R.C. D 33
the exchange, but also to determine by law the weight
of the bronze money.
We have seen that in the previous period the as was
divided decimally. With the introduction of the
denarius system a return was made to the duodecimal
division. “ From the moment when in the capital the
clear principle of a parallel double standard took the
place of a fluctuation between a silver standard and
the expression thereof in bronze, the denarius was
divided into ten asses, the as into twelve unciae.’ ’1 That
is to say, each metal was now coined on its natural
divisional system.
The head of Roma2 on the new silver coinage is
considerably altered from the form in which the early
Capuan silver showed it. The helmet is no longer
“Phrygian”; it is of the ordinary round shape with
visor, provided, however, with wings and with a griffin-
headed crest such as decorated the old “Phrygian”
helmet. This, with slight modifications, long con-
tinues to be the usual head-dress of Roma, although
the Phrygian form is occasionally revived.
The Dioscuri are represented charging, as the later
Roman tradition conceived their epiphania at the battle
of Lake Regillus in 496 b.c. The older tradition,
preserved by Livy, seems to have been merely that
1 Haeberlin, Metrol. Grundlagen, p. 105.
2 Certainly not Minerva. See Haeberlin, Der Roma-Typus, in
Corolla Numismatica, pp. 135—155.
H.R.C. D 33