Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/379

the stater of 135 grs. was considered to consist of 10 units of 13-1/2 grs. each. In other words, whatever the Etruscans may have called their stater, it was exactly the same in weight and method of subdivision as the decalitron of Syracuse. At a later period (350-268 B.C.) we find on coins of like weight the symbols XX instead of X, X instead of instead of . The unit now is exactly half of what it was at an earlier stage, 6-3/4 grs. instead of 13-1/2 grs.

Not till 268 B.C., just on the eve of the First Punic War, did Rome first coin silver. This coin, called denarius, as its name implies, represented 10 asses. It was divided into four parts, each of which was called a sestertius or 2-1/2, and was marked with the symbol representing that number.

Fig. 54. Sesterce of first Roman silver coinage.

It is very remarkable that the Etruscan coin of the second series, marked 2-1/2, is only very slightly heavier than the Roman sesterce (sestertius) which bears a similar mark. Hence it has been very reasonably inferred that when the Romans set about the coinage of silver, they simply adopted with slight modification the silver system employed by their neighbours across the Tiber. This is all the more probable, as it is almost certain that, though Rome did not strike silver she like Athens before the time of Solon, and like Syracuse, used freely the coins of other communities for a long time previously. The Etruscan coins would therefore serve as silver currency at Rome. We may then assume that the monetary system must have been much the same on both sides of the river. Accordingly, since in 268 B.C. we find the Romans striking a coin in silver representing 10 copper asses, which is almost the same in weight as the Etruscan coin marked X, we may reasonably infer that, if the Romans had commenced coining silver a century earlier, their denarius or 10-as piece would have been the same weight as the Etruscan.