Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/383

 to that unit. We may therefore expect to find the term nomos applied to various kinds of coins among the Italiotes and Italians, according to the particular coin chosen by each state as its own unit of account.

Accordingly we find the term nomos applied to certain bronze coins struck on the sextantal (two ounce) and uncial standards, at Arpi and other towns, which are inscribed N II (the double nummus), N I (nummus), (quincunx), (triens), (quadrans), .. (sextans), .S (sescuncia), .(uncia), and [Greek: S] (semuncia). The divisions being those of the as, it is clear that the nomos, or current coin in those places, was the reduced as. Finally, when the Romans first use the term nummus, it means the silver sestertius (2-1/2 asses), the one-fourth of the denarius or ten-as piece, which weighed a scruple (i.e. 18-1/2 grs.) at the time of the first Roman coinage of silver. Here we have all our positive evidence for the nomos. As diobols of 18 to 17 grs. are found in the coinages of various towns in Magna Graecia, such as Arpi, Caelia, Canusium, Rubi, and Teate, it has been plausibly held that such a diobol was the nomos par excellence of these states, and that it was from contact with them that the Romans learned both the use and the name of such a monetary unit. But Rome may have been influenced by her Etruscan neighbours, for, as we have seen, the smallest denomination in the second silver series of Etruscan coins (of which the coins weigh 129 grs., 32 grs. and 17 grs. respectively) is just the weight of the Roman sestertius, and bears the symbol [Greek: LZI**] (2-1/2), just as the latter bears IIS (2-1/2). Taking into consideration these facts, it looks as if the Romans and Etruscans grafted on to a native system the diobol, or current silver coin of Southern Italy, the Romans (and for all we can tell the Etruscans likewise) adopting at the same time the name nummus. Finally, we observe that this nummus is identical with the Sicilian nomos, which in turn was found to be none other than the Aeginetic obol. The Roman sestertius being a scriptulum (17-7/12 grs.) in weight, we thus find a direct connection between the latter and the Aeginetic obol (16-2/3 grs.). This need not surprise us, for it is most natural that in the welding of a weight system (partly foreign, and on