Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/137

Rh (as uncialis). The result was that the copper coins became token money, like the American and English silver coins.

During the last two centuries of the republic, a Roman pound of gold cost four thousand sesterces; consequently, the normal ratio of silver and gold was 11.91:1. If the denarius is reduced to gold according to this standard, it is worth about five grains of gold, or somewhat more than one-fifth of the American gold dollar of 23.22 grains, or approximately $0.218.

The Downfall of the Opposition. — Flaminius naturally assumed a distrustful attitude toward the senate. When he had fallen in the battle at Lake Trasimenus and his army had been annihilated, the nobility seems to have been conciliatory, and to have left the choice of a dictator and of a master of horse to the sovereign people, as the surviving consul could not be informed of the necessity that existed and be directed to make the appointment. Taught by experience, the people elected Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator, and made Marcus Minucius Rufus master of horse. The over-cautious strategy of Fabius excited the popular impatience, and Minucius fanned the discontent. It was charged that the war was being prolonged purposely for the benefit of the nobility. Then a tribune belonging to the opposition carried the unconstitutional proposal that the master of horse should be given the same authority (imperium) as the dictator. Fabius saved his colleague from utter defeat, and made plain the popular mistake, but without avail. A new and inexperienced man, Gaius Terentius Varro, who had been a leading supporter of the above proposal, was elected consul for 216 by the opposition. The result was the battle of Cannae, where seventy thousand Romans fell. The opposition lost its influence with the people, and remained insignificant during the continuance of the war.