Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/687

Rh NUMISMATICS 629 of various tribes and isolated settlements, and having been allowed to form itself comparatively without check, can scarcely be learned from ancient books. Their writers give us but a partial or special view of it, and modern authors, in their attempts to systematize, have often but increased the confusion. The Greek coins, whether of kings or cities, until the death of Alexander, bear sacred subjects only. Afterwards, on the regal coins, the king s head usually occupies the obverse and a sacred subject is placed on the reverse. The coins of Greek cities under the em pire have usually an imperial portrait and a reverse type usually mythological. The whole class thus- affords us invaluable evidence for the reconstruction of Greek mytho logy. We have nowhere else so complete a series of the different types under which the divinities were represented. There are in modern galleries very few statues of Greek divinities, including such as were intended for architectural decoration, which are in good style, fairly preserved, and untouched by modern restorers. If to these we add reliefs of the same class, and the best Grseco -Roman copies, we can scarcely form a complete series of the various repre sentations of these divinities. The coins, however, supply us with the series we desire, and we may select types which are not merely of good work, but of the finest. The mythology of ancient Italy, as distinct from that of the Greek colonies of Italy, is not so fully illustrated by the coins of the country, because these are for the most part of Greek design. There are, however, some remarkable exceptions, especially in the money of the Roman common wealth, the greater number of the types of which are of a local character, including many that refer to the myths and traditions of the earliest days of the city. The coins of the empire are especially important, as bearing representa tions of those personifications of an allegorical character to which the influence of philosophy gave great prominence in Roman mythology. Geo- Coins are scarcely less valuable in relation to geography graph y. than to history. The position of towns on the sea or on rivers, the race of their inhabitants, and many similar particulars are positively fixed on numismatic evidence. The information that coins convey as to the details of the history of towns and countries has a necessary connexion with geography, as has also their illustration of local forms of worship. The representations of natural productions on ancient money are of special importance, and afford assistance to the lexicographer. This is particularly the case with the Greek coins, on which these objects are frequently portrayed with great fidelity. We must recollect, however, that the nomenclature of the ancients was vague, and frequently comprised very different objects under one appellation, and that therefore we may find very different representations corresponding to the same name. Art. The art of sculpture, of which coin-engraving is the off spring, receives the greatest illustration from numismatics. Not only is the memory of lost statues preserved to us in the designs of ancient coins, but those of Greece afford admirable examples of that skill by which her sculptors attained their great renown. The excellence of the designs of very many Greek coins struck during the period of the best art is indeed so great that, were it not for their smallness, they would form the finest series of art-studies in the world. The Roman coins, though at no time to be compared to the purest Greek, yet represent worthily the Grseco -Roman art of the empire. From the accession of Augustus to the death of Commodus they are often fully equal to the best Grseco -Roman statues. This may be said, for instance, of the dupondii struck in honour of Livia by Tiberius and by the younger Drusus, of the sestertii of Agrippina, and of the gold coins of Antoninus Pius and the two Faustinas, all which present portraits of remark able beauty and excellence. The medieeval Italian medals are scarcely less useful as records of the progress and char acteristics of art, and, placed by the side of the Greek and Roman coins, complete the most remarkable comparative series of monuments illustrating the history of the great schools of art that can be brought together. Ancient coins throw as great light upon the architecture as upon the sculpture of the nations by which they were struck. Under the empire, the Roman coins issued at the city very fre quently bear representations of important edifices. The Greek imperial coins struck in the provinces present similar types, representing the most famous temples and other structures of their cities, of the form of some of which we should otherwise have been wholly ignorant. The little- known art of painting among the ancients does not re ceive so much illustration from the coins. The best Greek pieces are of too severe a style to admit of an approach to pictorial treatment, although we perceive such a tendency in the works of important schools, and during the period of decline. The Roman coins sometimes present groups which have a very pictorial character, traceable to the tendency of the sculpture of the period ; this is principally about the time of the Antonines. They are, however, never so pictorial in treatment as the mediseval Italian medals. The art of gem-engraving among the ancients is perhaps most nearly connected with their coinage. The subjects of coins and gems are so similar and so similarly treated that the authenticity of gems, that most difficult of archaeological questions, receives the greatest aid from the study of coins. After what has been said it is not necessary to do more Litera- than mention how greatly the study of coins tends to ture - illustrate the contemporary literature of the nations which issued them. Not only the historians, but the philosophers and the poets, are constantly illustrated by the money of their times. This was perceived at the revival of letters ; and during the last two centuries coins were very fre quently engraved in the larger editions of the classics. A want of technical numismatic knowledge in the editors, and the carelessness of the artists, combined to deprive these illustrations of much of their value. Probably in part on this account, but chiefly in consequence of the change from historical to textual criticism, ancient coins have been little used in this manner by the new school. This neglect is being remedied, although the full value of coins and medals in illustration of the literature of modern as well as of ancient times is not as yet suffi ciently perceived. The science of numismatics is of comparatively recent Origin origin. The ancients do not seem to have formed collec- of. the tions, although they appear to have occasionally preserved sc individual specimens for their beauty. Petrarch has the credit of having been the first collector ; but it is prob able that in his time ancient coins were already attract ing no little notice. The importance of the study of all coins has since been by degrees more and more recognized, and at present no branch of the pursuit is left wholly unexplored. Besides its bearing upon the history, the religion, the Practical, manners, and the arts of the nations which have used money, use. the science of numismatics has a special modern use in relation to art. Displaying the various styles of art pre valent in different ages, coins supply us with abundant means for promoting the advancement of art among our selves. If the study of many schools be at all times of advantage, it is especially so when there is little originality in the world. Its least value is to point out the want of artistic merit and historical commemoration in modern coins, and to suggest that modern medals should be exe-