Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/435

Rh select is a view of the part of the ancient Roman wall, called now the Jewry wall, the general appearance of which is here very well represented; but the layers of bricks are not sufficiently well defined, and the engraver has given the appearance of a receding arch to what was merely intended for a breach in the masonry under the third archway. Much doubt has existed on the original object for which this building served. It has been by some supposed to have been a temple of Janus, while others consider it to have been one of the Roman gateways of the town. Mr. Thompson has given a brief abstract of the various opinions on this subject, and concise accounts of the numerous other remains of Roman and medieval antiquity in Leicester, and we leave his book with the wish that it may serve as a model to similar guides to many an old and interesting locality. 

Such a guide to the collector and student of coins struck in the cities and provinces of the ancient world has long been required. The great work of Eckhel is expensive, and new discoveries have rendered it as a perfect list exceedingly incomplete, particularly in regard to the coins of ancient Spain, with which Mr. Akerman's geographical arrangement commences. The "Description" of Mionnet, excellent and most useful as it has been found, is yet very incorrect, and the little attention that had been paid to paleographical studies (a subject with which Eckhel seemed averse to grapple) at the period of the commencement of that work, has led him in some instances to confound the coins of three or four cities of Bætica, merely because their types resembled each other, though the inscriptions were altogether dissimilar. Moreover, from the number of supplements, Mionnet's work, until it be entirely remodelled, will be as troublesome for reference as it is costly to the numismatic student. To remedy these defects, and to afford to the less wealthy collector the information to be found only in many expensive volumes, is the object of the present undertaking, which has the additional advantage of being accompanied by most accurate engravings of every coin to which the editor can obtain access in the cabinets, both private and public, of England and the continent; almost every individual specimen in which, if purchasable, would perhaps cost the price of half a dozen numbers of this publication. It is scarcely necessary to add that this cannot be a pecuniary speculation, and that nothing but an ardent love of the subject, could have led the author to undertake a work requiring so much patience and labour, research and application.