Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/47

Rh vessels and other objects, it is evident that the Gaulish and Celtic nations had made rapid strides in civilization. Like his imperial patrons he struck a numerous series of types, but not upon the Roman standard, for he was necessarily influenced by the fluctuating standard, which, probably introduced by the Greeks at Marseilles, or after the invasion of Brennus, continued to circulate among the Celtic nations. His gold is often alloyed with silver or copper; his silver currency is smaller and lighter than the denarii, probably originally derived from the drachma, and his copper is always small like the Greek chalcos. The fullest form of his name inscribed on these pieces is Cunobelinus rex, and he contracts it CVNOBELIN, CVNOBELI, CVNOB, CVNO, and CVN; in some instances he uses the genitive Cunobelini, i. e. the money of Cunobelin. Three legends occur on his reverses, 1. those reading • and  •, but some few of the abbreviated forms are owing to the indifferent manner in which they have been struck. 2. The coins reading and Camul. On a coin in Mr. Huxtable's cabinet, is the full form, which confirms the appropriation to Colchester. 3. Those with the reverse reading, but I believe the correct form is, as on a good specimen also in Mr. Huxtable's cabinet, : it may be the commencement of the name of a town, which the Itineraries have not preserved. I consider it probable that he issued the coins with the name of Colchester on their reverses at the commencement of his reign, from the circumstance of their resembling in style and fabric those of Tasciovanus, who placed the name of St. Alban's, his capital, on his reverses, and that the coin with Solidu is referable to some political change or conquest. The series No. I., on which he claims his descent from Tasciovanus, is generally of finer and improved style, and was probably coined when his sons commenced to trouble him at Rome, and when he wished to recall to the notice of his imperial patrons the fact that he was the son of their old and probably honoured ally. On one coin he writes KVNOBHL, in which case his mint master seems to have been a Greek or Gaul, and the substitute of the H for the E occurs on two or three other specimens. Some of the Gaulish chiefs used Greek or Latin legends, probably for a mixed population; we have Pixtillos in Greek, and Pistillus in Latin,