the figure on foreign coins which would have been brought as models by the coiners they employed. The first of the British coins (VII. B 6) is inscribed TINC(ommius); the second (7) VERI(ca). On the reverses each king is described as CO(mmii) F(ilius). Tincommius and Verica, sons of King Commius, are supposed to have been contemporary rulers in Hampshire and Sussex, in which counties alone their coins have been found. The armed horseman on No. 6 is not at all badly done; foreign aid may have been called in to assist native art at the British mints. The coin of Verica (No. 7), found at Romsey, in Hampshire, is of "extremely fine work, the leaf on the obverse being engraved with the highest skill, and great spirit combined with delicacy of execution in the horseman." The leaf appears to be of the vine. The permission of the Emperor Probus (272-286 A.D.) for Spain, Gaul, and Britain to cultivate the vine and make wine implies its existence and use in all three countries at that time (John Evans, The Coins of the Ancient Britons, p. 227). The next coin (VII. C 8) is of Tasciovanus, whose capital was Verulamium (St. Albans) and who is supposed to have reigned from about 30 B. C. to 5 A.D. This coin was found at High Wycombe with ten others in an oblong hollow flint. The other British coin (VII. C 9) is of Cunobelinus (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare) who ruled over the Trinobantes from 5 B.C. to about 43 A. D. Essex is most prolific in his coins, but they are also found in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Notts, Herts, Beds, Bucks, Oxon, Middlesex, and Kent. His capital was Camulodunum (Colchester); the name in an abbreviated form (CAMV) is inscribed on this coin. He was the son of Tasciovanus.

The series of Roman coins which occupies the rest of this case illustrates many points in the history of the period. For example, on one coin (VII. C 15) we see a Samnite bull goring the Roman wolf: it is a coin struck by the confederate Italian peoples during the Social War, 90-89 B.C. On other of the coins, we see soldiers taking the oath of allegiance. This they did by touching with the points of their swords a pig held in the arms of a kneeling man (VII. C 13, 14). On another coin (VII. C 18), struck by Faustus Sulla, son of the dictator, there is a reference to the war against Jugurtha. The scene described is the betrayal, in 106 B.C., of Jugurtha (who kneels as a captive) to Sulla (seated) by Bocchus (who kneels and holds up an olive branch). On the next coin (VII. C 19), struck in 58 B. C., is an allusion to a more nearly contemporary event-the submission of King Aretas to Scaurus, Roman governor of Syria. On VII. C 21 is a globe, surrounded by wreaths; on either side an aplustre (ornament of a ship's stern) and ear of corn, symbolising Pompey's victories by sea and land. The gold coin, or aureus, numbered 22, was struck by Julius Cæsar in 49 B.C., when he had made himself master of Rome. On the obverse, head of Venus; on the reverse, a trophy of Gaulish arms. The remarkably realistic portrait on No. 25 is of C. Antius Restio, tribune of the people about 74 B.C. The portrait of Pompey is on the gold piece, No. 27. Several heads of Augustus bring the

Roman series to a close on No. 36 is the inscription Pater Patriæ, a title conferred upon him in 2 B.C.

Among the African coins at the end of this case, the portrait-head of Juba I. is interesting (VII. C 38). "Juba is called by Cicero adolescens bene capillatus, and Suetonius relates how Cæsar on one occasion, in 62 B.C., pulled him by the beard. This coin presents us, therefore, with a characteristic portrait" (Guide to the Principal Coins of the Ancients, p. 120).

Case VIII.-Greek Portraiture

The coins here exhibited are arranged chronologically to illustrate the portraiture of the Greeks. The portrait sides only of the specimens are shown. Most of the coins, with both obverse and reverse, are included in Cases I.-VII., and we have already noticed many of the more remarkable portraits. Here, therefore, a few general remarks will suffice to suggest some of the points of interest which the visitor may find in examining this series arranged so conveniently for comparison and study.

An exhibition such as this brings very vividly before one the value of a collection of coins as a portrait gallery :

'Perhaps the most interesting manner," says Mr. Poole, "in which coins and medals illustrate history is in their being contemporary, or nearly contemporary, portraits of the most famous kings and captains from the time of the first successors of Alexander the Great to the present age, whereas pictures do not afford portraits in any number before the latter part of the Middle Ages; and works of sculpture, although occupying in this respect the same place as coins in the lastmentioned period and under the Roman Empire, are neither so numerous nor so authentic. There is no more delightful companion in historical reading than a cabinet of coins and medals. The strength and energy of Alexander, the ferocity of Mithradates, the philosophic calmness of Antoninus, the obstinate ferocity of Nero, and the brutality of Caracalla, are as plain on the coins as in the pages of history" ("Numismatics" in Ency. Brit.).

Our series of portraits begins with two coins (VIII. 1, 2) issued by Persian satraps with the authority of the Great King. The first has been conjectured to be the portrait of Tissaphernes (412-408 B.C.); the second head has written beside it the name Pharnabazus (411-394 B.C.). The first coins bearing indisputable portraits did not appear till a century later, and it is possible that the satrapal coins present

only idealised representations of the Great King. "I cannot think it possible," says Prof. P. Gardner, "that at a time when not even Dionysius of Sicily or the Macedonian kings ventured to put their portraits on coins, such a liberty would be taken in Asia by a mere satrap. Surely such a venture would have cost him his post and his life. Nor indeed do we find in the present effigy (No. 1) anything individual; the type, though marked, is general and impersonal. On the reverse (for which see III. A 27) is the inscription BAZI, and this legend appears conclusively to show that the head on the obverse is meant to represent the Great King. The Greek artist who executed the type having probably small idea what the king really was like, simply tried to express his idea as to what a Persian king ought to be" (Types of Greek Coins, p. 144). From this point of view the head is admirable. The treatment is simple; the features are regular. The habit of command and regal dignity are strongly expressed. The head-dress is the mitra of the Persians.

In the case of Greek coins, portraits do not begin to appear till a comparatively late date. On the early Greek coins the heads were ideal representations of patron deities. When the heads of rulers begin to appear on coins, they figure there rather as gods than as men. We begin with Alexander the Great (VIII. 5, and IV. B 20). Alexander himself never placed his own portrait on coins. This coin was issued by one of his successors, Lysimachus. It is placed on the coin, not as the portrait of a reigning monarch, but as a representation of the deified Alexander. The ram's horn denotes that he is considered as son of Zeus-Ammon. The portraiture

itself is probably idealised also. The next stage is reached when the successors of Alexander found it agreeable to their ambitions to assume equal divinity for themselves, and placed their own heads on their coins. Thus Demetrius Poliorcetes appears with the bull's head of Bacchus (No. 8 and IV. B 16). The style of portraiture here also is idealised.

The earliest portrait which strikes one as full of individual character is that of Ptolemy I. of Egypt (B.C. 305-284) on No. 6 (IV. A 14). In the next age the engravers of coins show us an unsparing realism. See, for instance, the bullheaded Philetærus (No. 16, and V. A 9), and the thick-lipped, sharp-nosed Pharnaces (No. 43, and VI. A 5). Nowhere is the realism more striking than among the portraits of the

Bactrian kings, to which we have already called attention. In the best portraits the relief is high, and every wrinkle is minutely wrought. In the latest period the relief is lower and the workmanship less careful. In the portraits of some of the later Seleucid kings, the spirit of idealism seems to revive (Nos. 61 and 62, VI. A 25, 26). To the portrait of Mithradates the Great (No. 67, VII. A 2) we have already called particular attention for its striking effect.

Jewish coins.-In the lower portion of Case VIII. is a selection of Jewish and other coins illustrating the Bible-such as the shekel, the " penny" (i.e. denarius or shilling), the "pieces of silver" (tetradrachms), the "widow's mite," and the "farthing" (No. 6). (For an account of these coins, see Guide to the Department of Coins and Medals, 1901, p. 17). By ringing the bell at the entrance to the coin room and signing his name in a book, the visitor obtains admission to a corridor where later Roman coins and some other collections are exhibited.

We now proceed to the remaining Cases in the Etruscan Saloon, in which miscellaneous antiquities are exhibited.

CHAPTER XXIV

MISCELLANEOUS ANTIQUITIES, CHIEFLY ROMAN

"To attempt to classify miscellaneous antiquities would be as difficult as the classification of the various objects which formed part of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Wherever man has left the stamp of mind on brute matter; whether we designate his work as structure, texture, or mixture, mechanical or chymical; whether the result be a house, a ship, a garment, a piece of glass, or a metallic implement, these memorials of economy and invention will always be worthy of the attention of the archeologist. Our true motto should be: Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto" (C. T. NEWTON).

ATTEMPTING, then, no general classification, we may proceed at once to examine the miscellaneous antiquities here arranged. Many of them are full, as we shall see, of a very human interest, and all are of a certain value for the light they throw on the arts, industries, and customs of the ancients. We begin with the Table-case lettered M. Above this case

are:

(1) Objects in glazed porcelain, including the portraithead of an Egyptian queen (from Naucratis) and a Cupid riding on a goose (from Tanagra). "Objects in this ware are rare, especially of the size and elaboration of the present specimen."

(2) A case of Roman steelyards, weights and measures. The steelyard (stalera) was a Roman invention; the equipoise was generally adorned with a head or other figure (see some other specimens in the Anglo-Roman collection, p. 763). There is also a collection of Greek weights, chiefly from Athens, containing specimens of the more ancient and heavier Attic mina (roughly = 1 lb.), called the emporic, and of the lighter mina, introduced by Solon as the standard of coins,