Hill, George Francis: Historical Roman coins: from the earliest times to the reign of Augustus (London: Constable & Co. Ltd, 1909)

HISTORICAL ROMAN COINS
spectacle of a country without a bronze coinage, for
the few coins which Paestum was for some reason
allowed to issue can have made little impression on
the currency.
The letters E L P on the sesterce No. 53 have been
rightly expanded by Borghesi into E Lege Papiria ;
and the letters L P D A P explained by Mommsen1 as
Lege Papiria de acre publico, by Gaebler2 as Lege
Papiria de assis pondere. Of these explanations,
Mommsen’s is more strongly supported by the analogy
of other inscriptions.
The sesterce was issued only twice, the quinarius
only four times, in the forty ’ years following the
Papirian reform, so that the Roman coinage thence-
forward consisted of little but denarii. L. Calpurnius
Piso Frugi himself was responsible, about 88 b.c., for
an enormous series of denarii, probably the largest
ever put out by any one moneyer during the Republic.3
During the short period 49—44 b.c., small silver
was once more issued in some quantities. But
how the Romans and Italians can have been
content for some 65 years (the bronze coinage
was resumed in 15 b.c.) to dispense with the use
of bronze, it is puzzling to conceive.
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi is Cicero’s friend. It
1 Mommsen-Blacas, ii., p. 420, note.
2 Zeit. f. Num. 1902, p. 174, note.
3 The British Museum contains over 270 varieties.
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