Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/712

Rh 654 NUMISMATICS [BYZANTINE. There is a marked inferiority in the Roman coinage to the Grreco- Asiatic work of the same times. &quot;With a tendency to follov, the dramatic styles, the artists who worked at Rome had power enough to produce fine and highly characteristic portraits, of which the famous bust, miscalled Clytie, is the most striking example. Thus, though the grandeur and the purity of design and execution of the older masters are gone, we have in their place a strikingly faithful portraiture, which is deeply gratifying to the historical sense. The best age is the Augustan, which may be said to last through the rule of the Claudian emperors, and is decidedly under New Attic influence. This is succeeded by the second, that of the Antonines, from Trajan to Commodus. The Augustan work is larger and more refined, that of the Antonines more elaborate and laborious. Then follows a swift decline, with a temporary revival in the age of Diocletian and Constantiue, when an attempt, neces sarily weak, was made to improve the art of the coins ; thence forward it slowly declined. In the Augustan age two manners may be recognized, the Greek and the Grreco-Roman, the one repeating earlier works, the other portraying living persons and events. Under the Antonines we notice, as a distinct reaction against the poor idealism of the age, which even occasionally endeavoured to treat portraits in an ideal style, a vigorous realism which looks like the actual parent of the Italian Renaissance in its classical phase. Midway between these stands the realistic style of the age. Among the finest examples of art in the Roman coinage are the portraits of Livia as Pietas, Justitia, and Salus, and that of the elder Agrip- pina. For stern realism the head of Xero is most remarkable, the growth of whose bad passions may be seen in the increasing brutality of his features and expression. The medallion series is full of charming subjects, though when they have been treated by Greek artists of earlier ages the contrast is trying ; the most satisfactory are the representations of older statues ; the purely new composi tions are either poor inventions, or have a theatrical air that removes them from the province of good art. III. MEDIEVAL AND MODERN COINS OF EUROPE. The period of the medireval and modern coins of Europe must be considered to begin about the time of the fall of the Western empire, so that its length to the present day is about 1400 years. It is impossible to separate the mediaeval and modern coins, either in the entire class, because the time of change varies, or in each group, since there are usually pieces indicative of transition which display characteristics of both periods. The clearest division of the subject is to place the Byzantine coinage first, then to notice the characteristics of its descendants, and lastly to sketch the monetary history of each country. Byzan- The Byzantine money is usually held to begin in the reign of tine em- Anastasius (491-518 A.D.). The coinage is always in the three metals, pire. but the silver money is rare, and was probably struck in small quantities. At first both the gold and the silver are fine, but towards the close of the empire they are much alloyed. The gold coin is the solidus of Constantine, with its half and its third, the so-called semissis and tremissis. The chief silver coin was the miliarision, of a lower weight than the solidus, and its half, the keration. Heraclius, in 615 A.D., coined a larger piece, the hexagram, weighing 105 grains. This coin was discontinued, and afterwards the miliarision and keration were coined until the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins. The silver money of the restored Greek empire is obscure. In 498 Anastasius introduced a new copper coinage, bearing on the reverse, at and about his time, the following indexes of value as the main type : M, K, I, E, A, T, B, and A, or 40 nummi, 20, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. These coins bear beneath the indexes the abbreviated name of the place of issue. Justinian I. added the regnal year in 538 A.D., his twelfth year. The money of this class presents extraordinary variations of weight, which indicate the condition of the imperial finances. The Alexandrian coins of this class begin under Anastasius and end with the capture of the city by the Arabs. They have two denominations, IB and S, or 12 and 6, and there is an isolated variety of Justinian with AT (33). The Alexandrian bronze never lost its weight, while that of the em pire generally fell, and thus some of the pieces of Heraclius, while associated with his sons Heraclius Constantinus and Heracleonas, have the double index IB and M. The Vandals of Carthage had a peculiar double system of their own with the indexes XLII, XXI, XII, and IIII. Under Basil I. the bronze money appears to have been reformed, but the absence of indexes of value makes the whole later history of the coinage in this metal very difficult. There was one curious change in the aspect of the money. Early in the llth century the solidus begins to assume a cup-shaped form, and this subsequently became the shape of the whole coinage except the smaller bronze pieces. These novel coins are called nummi scyphati. The types, except when they refer simply to the sovereign, are of a religious, and consequently of a Christian character. This feeling increases to the last. Thus, on the obverse of the earlier coins the emperors are represented alone, but from about the 10th century they are generally portrayed as aided or supported by some sacred personage or saint. On the reverses of the oldest coins we have such tynes as a Victory holding a cross, but on those of later ones a representation of Our Saviour or of the Virgin Mary. Sub sequently some allegorical religious types are introduced, as that of the Virgin Mary supporting the walls of Constantinople. The principal inscriptions for a long period almost invariably relate to the sovereign, and express his name and titles. The secondary inscriptions of the earlier coins indicate the town at which the piece was struck, and, in the case of the larger bronze pieces, the year of the emperor s reign is also given. From about the 10th century there are generally two principal inscriptions, the one relating to the emperor and the other to the sacred figure of the reverse, in the form of a prayer. The secondary inscriptions at the same time are descriptive, and are merely abbreviations of the names or titles of the sacred personages near the representa tions of whom they are placed. From the time of Alexius I. (Comnenus) the principal inscriptions are almost disused, and descriptive ones alone given. These are nearly always abbre viations, like the secondary ones of the earlier period. The lan guage of the inscriptions was at first Latin with a partial use of Greek ; about the time of Heraclius Greek began to take its place on a rude class of coins, probably local ; by the 9th century Greek inscriptions occur in the regular coinage ; and at the time of Alexius I. Latin wholly disappears. The Greek inscriptions are remarkable for their orthography, which indicates the changes of the language. Of the art of these coins little need be said. It has its importance in illustrating contemporary ecclesiastical art in the West, but is generally inferior to it both in design and in execution. Besides the regular series of the Byzantine empire, in which we Cognate include the money assigned to the Latin emperors of Constantinople, groups, there are several cognate groups connected with it, either because of their similarity, or because the sovereigns were of the imperial houses. There are the coinages of the barbarians to be next noticed, and the money of the emperors of Kicfea, of Thessalonica, and of Trebizond. The last group consists of small silver pieces, which were prized for their purity ; they were called Comnenian aspers (da-rrpa Ko/j-vrivaTo.), the princes of Trebizond having sprung from the illustrious family of the Comneni. The coinage of the other states of Christian Europe will be best Periods understood if we view it generally in successive periods, afterwards of other more particularly describing the currencies of the chief countries. Euro- The periods have been well defined as (1) transitionary period, pean from Roman to true mediajval coinage, from the fall of Rome (476) coinage, to the accession of Charlemagne (768) ; (2) true mediaeval age, dur ing which the Carlovingian money was the currency of western Europe, from Charlemagne to the fall of the Swabian house (1268) ; (3) early Renaissance, from the striking of the florin in Florence (1252) to the classical Renaissance (1450); (4) the classical Renais sance, from 1450 to 1600 ; (5) the modern period. (C. F. Keary in the Antiquary, 1883.) 1. The Roman money was adopted and imitated by the barbarian Transi- conquerors of the empire. They struck in gold, silver, and bronze, tional ; gold being the favourite metal. The names of the kings soon appear upon the silver and bronze, but the gold money is at first a copy of the Byzantine, then monograms of kings appear, and at last their names in full save when the money in the Frankish series is of civic issues. The currencies of this period are those of the Ostrogoths in Italy, the Vandals in Africa, the A isigoths in Spain, the Franks in Gaul, and the Lombards in Italy. The most im portant coinages of this age are of gold. 2. The inconvenience of gold money when it represents a very Mediaj- large value in the necessaries of life must have caused its abandon- val ; ment and the substitution of silver by the Carlovingians. The denier (denarius) or penny of about 24 grains was at first practically the sole coin. The solidus in gold was struck but very rarely, perhaps as a kind of proof of the right of coining. The Byzantine solidus or bezant was used and probably the equivalent Arab gold. The Arab silver piece, the dirhem, was almost exactly the double of the denier, and seems to have been widely current in the north. The new coinage spread from France, where it was first royal and then royal and feudal, to German} 7, Italy, where the Byzantine types did not wholly disappear, England, Scandinavia, Castile, and Aragon. In Germany and France feudal money was soon issued, and in Italy towns and ecclesiastical foundations largely acquired the right of coinage from the empire, which was elsewhere rare. The consequence of the extended right of coinage was a deprecia tion in weight, and in the middle of the 12th century the one-sided pennies called bracteates appeared in Germany, which were so thin that they could only be stamped on one side. The types of this whole second coinage are new, except when the bust of the emperor is engraved. The most usual are the cross ; and the church as a temple also appears, ultimately taking the form of a Gothic build ing. There are also sacred figures, and more rarely heads in the later age. 3. The true herald of the Renaissance was the emperor Frederick II. Of earl; In restoring the gold coinage, however, he followed in the steps of Renais- the Norman dukes of Apulia. With a large Arab population, theso sance ;