Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/380

 Didrachm of Tarentum.

Now besides the litra, which we found to be both a copper-unit and a silver coin in Sicily, there is another term of great interest, especially as it plays an important part in the history of Roman money. The general Latin name for a coin is numus, which in the later days of the Republic usually meant a denarius when used in the more restricted sense, but in the earlier period it was the term specially applied to the silver sesterce (sestertius). This is almost certainly a loan-word, for Pollux is most explicit in warning us that, although the word seems Roman, it is in reality Greek and belongs to the Dorians of Sicily and Italy. It is always a name of a coin of silver in Sicily, being so used by Epicharmus. The coin meant by this poet cannot have been one of great value, for he says: "Buy me a fine heifer calf for ten nomi." It was in all probability the Aeginetan obol, for Apollodorus in his comments on Sophron set it down at three half (Attic) obols, that is, almost 17 grs. This is confirmed by the fact that an Homeric scholiast makes the small talent weigh 24 nomi, which gives nearly 17 grs. as the weight of that unit. Crossing into Italy, we find that according to Aristotle there was a coin called a noummos at Tarentum, on which was the device of Taras riding on a dolphin. This is the familiar type of the Tarentine didrachms which, from their first issue down to the invasion of Pyrrhus (450-280 ), weigh normally 123-120 grs., although one specimen weighs 128 grs. This coin Mommsen recognized as the noummos of Aristotle. Professor Gardner afterwards suggested that the diobol, on which occasionally the same type is found, was rather the coin meant. Recently]