467. NUMISMATICS. Early Christian Numismatics, and other Antiquarian Tracts. By C. W. King. Illustrated. London, 1873. Svo, cloth, scarce • • • .$3.50 ®mm\\ WLmvmxty fSihnwg THE GIFT OF HEBER CUSHING PETERS CLASS OF 1892 *■ TLtfc-WVla v\W\v- 5226 Cornell University Library BR131 .K52 Early Christian numismatics and other a olln 3 1924 029 242 041 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029242041 J Jobbms hth EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS, OTHER ANTIQUARIAN TRACTS. By C. W. |ING, M.A., AUTHOR OP ' ANTIQUE GEMS,' ETC. 1 Csesaris vexilla linquunt, eligunt signum Crucis ; Proque ventosis draconum quae gerebant palliis, Eligunt insigne lignum quod Draconem subdidit." Prudentius. LONDON: BELL & DALDY, YOKE STEEET, COVENT GABDEN. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFOKD STREET AKD CHARING C110SS Constantine, decus mundi, lux aurea ssecli, Quis tua mixta canat mira pietate tropa;a ! " Optatian. PREFACE. T^E little treatise which gives its title to the present volume originated in an application made to me by our Regius Professor of Divinity to point out to him any history of the introduction of Christian types upon the Roman coinage. The only book of that nature to which I was able to refer him was Dr. Walsh's brief essay ' On the Coins, &c, illus- trating the Progress of Christianity in the Early Ages/ published so long ago as 1828 ; and which, so far as I have been able' to ascertain, remains the only work in any language that takes for its ex- clusive subject this truly interesting and fertile province of Numismatics. But its errors and incom- pleteness rendered it a very unsatisfactory guide to the enquirer, who consequently was obliged to trace out for himself the progress of Christian a 2 iv PREFACE. symbolism in coin-types by the aid of that invaluable, but, at the same time, bewildering, series, engraved by Bauduri in the plates to his 'Numismata Imp. Kom. a Trajan o Decio usque ad Pakeologos ' ; by hunting up amongst the multitude of reverses the dispersed examples that offered any indication of the nature sought for — a task of considerable labour. Our repeated conversations upon various parti- culars in this research had the effect of turning my attention to the whole subject, and to the method in which it might most intelligibly and com- prehensively be treated. Coins, especially Roman imperial, had always been a favourite study with me, and (as a matter of course with tbe English collector) those of the late period, supplying the information required, were those most abundantly brought under my notice through their perpetual disinterment in all parts of Britain. The foundation for any treatise of the nature contemplated had been already laid by that Cory- phaeus of Christian archaeologists, the learned and laborious Father G-arrucci. As it would be a mere impertinence in another to attempt to remodel what he has already done so perfectly in this line, I have commenced my work with a close translation^ of his memoir 'Des Signes de Christianisme qui se trouvent sur les Monnaies de Constantin, &c.' supplemented by notes and remarks suggested by my own experience as a collector, or by my reading in the authors of PREFACE. V the times with which, we are concerned. Grarrucci has confined his enquiry to the period of the earliest introduction of the badges of Christianity upon the coinage, and consequently it did not fall within his plan to carry the investigation farther down than the elevation of all the sons of Constantine to the rank of Augusti. Beyond that period, the absence of all competitors in the field has emboldened me to pursue the history down to the extinction of the last traces of the Roman Empire. " Dans le pays des aveugles le borgne est roi " is a maxim which will, I hope, secure a favourable reception for this first attempt. It is certainly most interesting to mark how the momentous change in religion shows itself in these impartial and imperishable records of their times — the coins of the empire-^- first by symbols sparingly and timidly introduced, mere accessories to old established types, then by allegories more plainly avowing the Faith, and lastly by direct representations of Divine personages, which finally banish every other decoration from the field. The study of these aids to history will probably in- spire others, as it did myself, with a higher esti- mation of the character of the celebrated author of this revolution — a character to which moderns are inclined to do too little justice, by the natural re- vulsion from that extravagant praise of which for so many ages it had been the theme. These medals, with their modest and inobtrusive confessions of v i PREFACE. faith, are in themselves the best testimony to the wisdom and moderation of their issuer in carrying out that mighty change to which he was urged by mature conviction of its necessity. But the first Christian Caesar, bred up amidst trials and dangers of every sort, carried successfully through all by the support of men of every creed, and a true patriot above everything else, had fully obeyed the Apostle's precept, " to try all things, hold fast to that which is good." Before openly renouncing the religion of his fathers, he had carefully weighed the pretensions of the other novel doctrines then disputing men's minds with the Catholic, "cum limatius superstitionum qusereret sectas, Manichceorum et similium," as Ammian incidentally informs us, in a very remark- able passage (xv. 13). And when his decision was finally made, even then his consideration for the prejudices of others is manifest in his selection of coin-types in which no opinion could find reasonable grounds of offence. His "Invincible Sun," so ac- ceptable to the numerous Mithraicists of the age, could not scandalise the equally numerous Christians, who easily recognised their own " Sun of Righteous- ness" in the allegory, as Chrysostom himself in- terprets the heathen title : his " Mars the Defender " expressed the military genius of the sovereign equally with the ancient patron deity of Rome ; his other coin-devices are the emblems of " Glory," " Hope," " Tranquillity," and " Peace "—the unanimous aspi- PREFACE. vii rations of every creed. Such wise impartiality in the all-powerful victor is the more to be admired when we take into consideration the insidious in- fluence in the other direction, to which the declining years of his life were necessarily exposed — an in- fluence the true spirit whereof is to be seen in the insulting and sanguinary laws on religion passed soon after by the priest-ridden Theodosius. There is another pleasing feature in this investi- gation : these medallic records bear convincing testi- mony to the great emperor's love for the arts, altbough then so sadly on the wane. The large variety of the types on both sides, the ingenuity displayed in their conception, the even poetic feeling that manifestly inspired some in the list, the admirable workmanship of such whose intrinsic importance demanded special care (and which puts to shame the best productions of modern mints) — all combine to render the Constantinian series a garden of delight, and a refreshing halting-place for the numismatist about to plunge into the barbarism that speedily ensued. The coins of the Lower and of the Byzantine empire, though generally with little to recommend them in the way of art, are yet interesting from the occasional gleams of taste discoverable in the in- vention of their types, but more instructive by their affording a faithful mirror of the transition in style and taste from the antique into the regular mediaeval. V1U PREFACE. Their variations in workmanship curiously indicate the vicissitudes of the empire : they manifest the utter prostration of all things under the immediate successors of Justinian, and the sickly rejuvenescence of power and the arts under the influence of the Oomneni. Of yet greater interest is it to observe how they become the models for the respective coinages of Europe whenever the different tribes of barbarian usurpers have settled down into any semblance of civilised life ; and this consideration, if pursued by one better acquainted with Continental Numismatics than myself, would, as my own limited experience assures me, lead to very extensive re- sults of much historical value. To the discussion of Christian coin-types an appro- priate supplement is found in the history of the Medals commemorating the Saviour Himself, and of the wondrous Emerald (fit comparison to the Sangraal) which they all claim for their ultimate source. These medals, ever and anon turning up to the bewilder- ment of all, to the deception of the unwary collector, and the immense profit of fraudulent dealers, were briefly treated of in my memoir " Upon the Vernicle of the Vatican," which dealt more particularly with the pictures and engraved gems of the like nature. The subject has now been rendered complete in all its bearings by the most obliging permission of Mr. Albert Way to supplement it with his essay on the medals specially considered— a tract full of that PREFACE. ix immense and accurate research which characterises every one of his contributions to archaeological knowledge. The remaining essays completing the volume made their appearance at long intervals in the ' Archaeological Journal.' Some amongst thern met with considerable approbation at the time, and copies of them have frequently been solicited, long after my " short " supply of them was exhausted. I have therefore reasonable grounds to hope that their republication (with the large additions supplied by the intervening years) may be acceptable to such as take an interest in the matters of which they treat. They include, however, one newly written essay, that " On the Portraits of Commodus and Marcia," which was but lately suggested to me by discovering the existence of an intaglio (by means of a cast casually acquired), which readers qualified to judge will probably agree with myself in accepting for the key to a long disputed question in glyptic history. Some excuse may perhaps be required for the number of notes appended to the text, many of which, as far as the subject is concerned, had more suitably been embodied in it. But the unexpected length of time occupied in getting this small number of sheets passed through the press has given space for the growth of a crop of " pensees d'escalier," which my readers, let me hope, will prefer having X PREFACE. out of their proper place to not having at all. In a science like archaeology, based so largely upon materials supplied by the perpetual accidents of time and place, a field no sooner appears exhausted than fresh suggestions or discoveries necessitate the renewal or extension of one's previous labours. Trinity College, Cambridge: January 1873. 0. W. King. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface .. .. .. „ .. .. „ ,, iii Description of the Lithographs .. .. .. .. xiii Description of the Woodcuts .. .. .. .. .. xvi Early Christian Numismatics .. .. .. .. .. 1 The Emerald Yernicle of the Vatican .. .. .. 95 The Clepsydra used at Eaces in the Circus Maximus .. 113 Signet of Q. Cornelius Lupus .. .. .. .. .. 123 Seal set with an Intaglio of the Laocoon, used by Thomas Colyns, Prior of Tywardreth .. .. .. ..151 Talismans and Amulets .. .. .. .. .. 173 Ceraunia of Jade converted into a Gnostic Talisman .. 223 On the True Nature of the Contomiate Medals . . . . 249 The Gem-Portraits of Commodus and Marcia .. .. 265 On an Antique Paste Cameo, found at Stan wis, near Carlisle 275 Ancient Portraitures of our Lord .. .. .. ..287 Notes .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 303 Index .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 317 DESCRIPTION OF THE LITHOGRAPHS. (All drawn to the actual aize.) 1. — Coin of Antoninus Pius. The Phoenix standing in its glory; with a legend AIU5N, "the Age (in which we live)," plainly setting forth the sense in which the device was to he taken. The letters L-S in the field give the date, the sixth year of the emperor's reign, L heing the ancient hieroglyph for " year." This piece is the base billon (potin) of Alexandria, into which the Ptolemaic stater of silver had gradually degenerated. Its composition, in which the alloy so largely preponderates, supplied a curious simile to the late Egyptian author of the Gnostic Gospel, the ' Pistis-Sophia,' § 293 : — " Now, therefore, my Lord, hear me : I will speak unto Thee four thoughts which have been caused in me. The first thereof is concerning the word which Thou spakest : Now therefore the Soul giveth in her defence and her seals unto all the Eulers that be in the regions of King Adamas ; also the Soul giveth honour and glory unto all that pertain to the Kingdom of Light. Concerning the word, therefore, that Thou spakest unto us aforetime touching the stater (tribute-penny) ; when the stater was brought unto Thee, and Thou sawest that it was of silver and of brass, Thou didst ask : Whose is this image ? and they said : It is of the king. But when Thou sawest that it was of silver and of brass, Thou saidest : Give the part which is the king's unto the king, and the part which is God's unto God." (From the Lewis Col- lection.) 2. — "Denarius of Salonina. The empress seated, holding forth the olive branch, symbol of pacification, and bearing the sceptre that indicates her dignity. The legend AVGusta IN PACE is explained at p. 48. My explanation is strongly corroborated by the letters M S in the exergue, hitherto unnoticed in the xiv DESCRIPTION OF THE LITHOGRAPHS. descriptions of this type, and equally unknown to me at the time of writing it, the present specimen (which is fresh from the die) having subsequently come to my knowledge. Exergual mint-marks on the denarii were not invented before Diocletian's monetary reform; in the present case, therefore, these two letters must stand for some title, and " Memoriae Sanctae " not merely gives a most appropriate sense, but is supported by the VN.MR, "Venerandae Memoriae," upon the apotheosis coins of the first Christian ermperor. (British Museum.) 3. — The Apotheosis of Constantine, described at p. 53. On another coin with the same obverse, the beatified emperor stands wrapped in his toga (probably a copy of his monumental statue), with the legend above-mentioned in the field. Third Brass from the Woodbridge find. (Lewis.) 4. — Second Brass of Constantius II., struck at Treviri ; also a favourite reverse with his brother, Constans (p. 68). (Trinity College Library.) 5. — Third Brass of Constans, with the Phoenix on its funeral pyre (p. 67). (Trinity College Library.) 6. — Second Brass of Constantius II. (p. 65). Struck at Siscia ; the numeral 1 1 1 in the field denotes its value. (British Museum.) 7. — Third Brass of Constantine; exhibiting the labarum (p. 41). Prom the Woodbridge find. (Lewis.) 8.— Second Brass of Magnentius with the " Chrisma," or Name of Christ in monogram (p. 69), proclaimed by the. legend for "The Salvation of our lords, the Augustus and the Ceesar (Decentius)" : struck at Treviri. (Trinity College Library.) 9. — Solidus of iElia Flacilla, wife of Theodosius (p. 69). The CONOB in the exergue is the regular mark of the gold coinage of the period, and for many years subsequently, to denote the quality of the metal as " obryza," refined. The word is con- stantly used in the Byzantine laws as equivalent to our " standard currency." Its derivation is unknown, but I suspect DESCBIPTION OF THE LITHOQEAPHS. XV it to be Celtiberian, the source of many Eoman terms connected with gold-mining. (Hunter Cabinet, Glasgow.) 10. — Solidus of Pulcheria (p. 69). The legend, " Votis vicen- alibus, multis tricenalibus," announces the completion of twenty- years of a reign, and the vows offered for the addition of another ten years to its duration. This refers to her brother Theodosius II., in whose name this princess really conducted the govern- ment. (Hunter.) 11. — Solidus of Petronius Maximus, displaying the orthodox Augustus "bruising the head" of the Old Serpent of heresy (p. 70). The R.M- in the field is the mint-mark of Borne. (Hunter.) 12. — Gold medallion of Basil the Macedonian, and his son Constantino VIII., associated. The reverse furnishes a very characteristic specimen of the " Bex Eegnantium " portrait of the Saviour (p. 72). (British Museum.) 13. — Bezant of an emperor of Nicsea, whose name is lost through the faulty striking of the piece. The types are the Coronation of the Prince by the hand of the Virgin ; and, for reverse, her Son enthroned, holding the book of the Gospels, and giving His benediction. The style exhibits the degradation to which monetary art had fallen by that time (thirteenth century), this piece being a fair example of its class. It may be men- tioned here, for the benefit of the unlearned in these matters, that "bezant," from " Byzantinus," became the mediaeval name for the gold of the Eastern Empire at the time when it con- stituted the only gold currency known in Europe — a period of nearly five hundred years. * " Solidus," entire, came to designate the principal gold piece after the later emperors had begun to issue largely its halves and thirds (" semisses," " trientes "), as a remedy for the ever-growing scarcity of silver. The bezant also went by the name of '' Money of St. Helena," in virtue of the sacred portrait forming its regular impress. (Lee.) DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. Title-page. — The Old Serpent, transfixed by the Banner of the Cross (p. 58), typifying, as the legend sets it forth, "The Public Hope." Emblazoned on the banner, the practised and (what is greatly to the present purpose) unprejudiced eye of my draughts- man has distinguished the word DEO in what, upon the pre- viously published specimen, appeared only three unmeaning circles. The apposrteness of this inscription to the sense of the device gives the idea a still further claim to the praise I have already bestowed upon it, before this very interesting discovery was made. The head on the obverse presents the boyish, not to be mistaken, features of Constantine II., with title CON- STANT! NVS AVG. This coin is the Wigan specimen (described at p. 25), and has recently passed into the very choice cabinet of Mr. Lewis, Fellow of Corpus Christi College. (Drawn to twice the actual size.) Page in. — Medallion of Constantine : gold, 125-7 grs., probably intended for a double solidus. Some numismatists wish to ex- plain the uplifted face, the gesture of adoration, as one of com- mand, and as a mere plagiarism from the copper coin of Alexander the Great, struck in Eoman times ; but the testimony of Eusebius, quoted at p. 54, is amply sufficient to establish the sense in which Constantine designed it to be received. One cannot help suspecting that it is actually this devout attitude of the Christian Augustus that Julian had in view when he pictures him as keeping his eyes fixed steadfastly tipon the Moon, " of whom he seemed to be desperately enamoured" (p. 55). It is indeed possible this may only be a sneer at Constantino's partiality for Byzantium, of which city the Crescent was the ancient cog- nisance ; yet it is more probable the shaft was aimed at the religion he professed, and gloried in by representing himself DESCRIfTION OF THE WOODCUTS. XVII thus upon his finest coinage. Long before, the heathen had taunted the Jews with their " adoring nothing save the clouds, and the power of the heavens," and with their " wagging their long ears at the skies," as Juvenal and Petronius express it. And again, the scrupulous care displayed so conspicuously in the arrangement of Constantine's wavy chevelure in the portrait before us, and the extreme sumptuousness of the diadem with which it is encircled, go far to justify the satirical remarks of old Silenus in the text (p. 56) upon his coxcombry in that particular, and his womanish fondness for splendour in apparel. The technical execution of this head is a lesson to every modem die-sinker ; the relief is not too high for convenience in a current coin ; the surface is kept quite flat, yet has all the forms modelled upon it with wonderful effect, in the style practised by our T. Simon in his portraits of Cromwell, the glory of the English mint, but which none of his successors there have had either the ability or the taste to copy. The weight of this piece exceeds that of our sovereign by no more than a couple of grains, yet how immeasurably superior is it in boldness and the expression of life ! The execution of this medallion strikingly exemplifies, at the same time, a very curious anomaly in the history of Art. Although the head does not yield in any requisite quality to the finest of those that preceded it in the imperial series, yet the figure of the Dea Roma on the reverse is altogether out of drawing, and carelessly finished in the details. The same discrepancy between the heads and the full-length figures cannot fail to strike the intelligent numismatist as con- spicuous in the coinage from Severus downwards. The ability for modelling portraits from the life seems to have survived at Eome, and even in the provinces (as the coins of the Gallic and British usurpers plainly manifest), long after figure-drawing had fallen into utter decay. The mint-mark SMN shows this coin to be the production of the mint of Nicomedia, a favourite residence of Constantine.« As Eusebius was bishop of that city, his testimony as to the significance of the gesture acquires still more weight, since from his position at court he must have been acquainted with all the circumstances of its emission. The woodcut, as excellent a facsimile of an original as the art xviii DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. has ever produced, is drawn to the actual size of the medallion, which belongs to the British Museum. Page x. — Serapis, lord of the universe (see p. 105). Sardonyx, enlarged. (Wood.) Page 93. — Shield devices of the Constantiniani, copied from the picture of cohort-bearings preserved in the ' Notitia dig- nitatum utriusque Imperii.' This work, drawn up under Arcadius and Honorius, contains drawings of all such distinctive figures then used in the Eoman army. They are highly in- teresting, as being regularly heraldic in their nature, showing rules based upon tinctures and differences, equally with variation in the actual figures : pointing out the real source of that science. The Christian meaning of the present device is placed beyond dispute by the appearance of a very similar one (but containing three doves only) in a Christian ring, figured by Fortnum in his curious and comprehensive essay on the subject, published in the ' Archasological Journal,' xxviii. p. 273. Page 94. — The Douglas Vernicle (p. 97). Page 113. — Clepsydra, of the primitive form, supported by two genii. Banded agate in the author's collection, drawn to double the actual size. Page 122. — Clepsydra, in its perfected state, furnished with dial-face and indicator. The quadrant placed on the top might lead us to suppose the instrument a common sun-dial, but the dolphin, which has the appearance of being so contrived as to mark the hour by its own progression, indubitably declares the hydraulic nature of the motive power. This instrument continued in use in the Boman law-courts so long as these courts con- tinued to exist. Its employment there furnished that late poet, Symposius, with the subject of a very neat enigma : — " Lex bona dicendi, lex sum quoque dura tacendi ; • Jus avidae linguae, finis sine fine loquendi ; Ipsa fluens dum verba fluunt, ut lingua quiescat." JEnigm. lxx. But I strongly suspect that Haroun-al-Kaschid's " horologium ex aurichalco " (referred to at p. 119) was a true wheel-cloclc, set in motion by either a weight or a spring. The terms, "arte DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. xix mechanica mirifioe compositum,'' would hardly have been applied by Eginhard, a man of considerable education, to so old-fashioned a contrivance as a water-clock, the principle of which, moreover, is not properly described as a " mechanical contrivance." The Arab horologe, so wondered at by the receiver and his court, doubtless soon got out of order, without possibility of repair, and was forgotten in the dark and troublous times of Charlemagne's successors. (Drawn to double actual size, from one of Stosch's easts.) Page 123. — Horse's Head, and Two Gallic Shields : device taken for his signet by Q. Cornelius Lupus. Sard in the Waterton Collection. (Drawn to double actual size.) Page 129. — The Mars of Treviri : placed upon a Third Brass coin of Constantino, now in the collection of Mr. Lee. (Double of actual size.) Page 130. — Combat between Eomans and Gauls: a picture the genuine antiquity of which is established by the exact cor- respondence of its details with archaeological facts only recently brought to light. The most striking of these is the peculiar sword in the hands of the Gaul, and his manner of using it, which so exactly illustrate my quotations in the text (p. 131). Such adherence to historical accuracy was totally unknown to the cinquecento artists (who alone could dispute this gem with the ancient ) ; they would have equipped every barbarian alike with a regular Saracenic falchion. As there was always a sig- nificance in every particular of a gem-design, it is certain that the duplication of the two parties carried its meaning along with it to the contemporaries of the engraver. Hence we may safely conclude this subject to commemorate the triumph of the two Consuls with united forces over some confederation of as many Gallic tribes : examples of which are so common in the history of the Eepublic that it is impossible to signal out any particular one as the occasion of the monument before us. Sard, from the author's collection. (Drawn to double actual size.) Page 149. — Primitive Thorax. (From Stosch's casts.) Page 150. — The Laocoon Group, from a drawing made by Mr. A. Mulready upon the indications supplied by the Tywardreth seal. In an alternative sketch, in accordance with my own view 6*2 XX DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. of the traces in the wax, he makes the second serpent attack the throat of the father, who is grasping it close to the head, exactly in the same way as he seizes the first serpent in the unrestored portion of the work. This action has two strong arguments in its favour : it is the natural one of a man attacked by biting animals to seize each by the throat in order to choke it off; and so is it invariably represented in that often repeated ancient subject, the Infant Hercules attacked by two serpents in his cradle. The law of symmetry is likewise more strictly observed by thus giving the same action to both hands of the father, whilst the sons are similarly experiencing one and the same fate, that of violent compression in the serpentine coils. The latter, it must be borne in mind, is the mode of death of the child Opheltes, another favourite scene with ancient artists ; he is pressed to death, not stung by his assailant : " Prsecisum squamis avidus bibit anguis Opheltem," as Statius describes it. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir E. Smirke for the loan of this admirably executed cut, which was drawn under his direction to serve as an illustration to his supplementary notice of the Tywardreth seal published in the ' Archajological Journal.' I embrace this opportunity to add that an eminent sculptor, in a very recent conversation with me upon this gem, was of opinion that the first restorer of the arm misunderstood the original action fully as much as did Bernini, who erred in the opposite extreme. The arm drawn close to the face (as Montorsoli restored it) interferes with the effect of the head: the arm extended at full length (Bernini's) is too weak, and inconsistent with the requirements of the material. The action given by the sculptor himself to the figure of Laocoon was that of pushing away the serpents with both hands, so that the right hand came almost on a level with the right breast, separated from it by the length of the fore-arm only. This action improved the massing of the group, and imparted yet greater energy to the dying struggles of the father. Page 151. — The Laocoon Group, engraved in a gem used in sealing a deed belonging to Tywardreth Priory. (Drawn to twice the size of the original.) Pa,ge 164.— Death of Laocoon, a facsimile of Bartoli's copy of DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. XXI the picture in the Codex Vaticanus of Virgil. These pictures are the most ancient examples of similar illustrations to a text that have yet been discovered : the excellence of their com- position and the strictly classical character of all the adjuncts and costumes prove to the experienced archaeologist that they cannot have been designed (and, to all appearance, executed) later than the close of the second* century. To give a single but most convincing argument. In the MS. illuminations dating from the Lower Empire, like the Codex Eomanus (the pictures from which also Bartoli has engraved in the same work), the warriors are always figured according to the Prankish equip- ment, which was identical with the Anglo-Saxon. They wear no body-armour, but have the " Phrygian " leathern cap, and round shield with large conical umbo. But the Vaticanus ex- hibits them covered with the classical thorax, and carrying the long flat oval shield ornamented with legionary devices, and the Athenian metal helmet on their heads — the exact counterparts of the soldiers on the triumphal arches and columns. Again, the temples, wherever introduced with the details of their decoration, ceremonies, and sacrifices, are pictured with a certainty and intelligence that breathe of a period when the ancient worship was still in its full glory. This picture, in the original, includes two scenes. In that on the left hand, it shows the temple of Neptune, and Laocoon standing at the altar in front of it, making ready to sacrifice the young steer, as the poet describes him, whilst in the distance the twin serpents are perceived ploughing their way towards him over the deep. The other episode is the one represented in my woodcut, with only the omission of the background. Page 171. — The Laocoon Group, from an admirable gem-copy by a cinquecento artist. The right arm of the father, it will be noticed, is considerably more elevated above his head than upon the Tywardreth seal; and this action most probably repre- sents that in the then existing restoration by Montorsoli. An architectural background is introduced, in accordance with the taste of that age. This is the gem of the French cabinet published by Mariette as an undoubted antique — a circumstance which has at least the value of proving that it was no recent addition to the collection. (Drawn to double the actual size.) xxii DESCBIPT10N OF THE WOODCUTS. Page 222.— Celt of Green Jade, engraved on both sides with. Gnostic inscriptions. The upper figure shows the actual dimen- sions of the stone, the lower is considerably magnified for the sake of rendering the minute legends more conveniently legible. I have to express my gratitude to the Council of the Archaeo- logical Institute for the loan of these cuts, as well as those of the medals inserted at pp. 286, 302. Page 263.— Niobe attempting to shield the last of her sons from the shafts of Apollo the Destroyer (see remarks at p. 166). This design, which belongs to the archaic period of gem- engraving, has all the appearance of a copy from some cele- brated piece of statuary of still earlier date. The subject formed one of the regular decorations for temples of Apollo. Propertius, describing the dedication by Augustus of the "Aurea Phoebi porticus," calls Cynthia's particular attention to the folding- doors as " a splendid work in Libyan ivory : the one pictured the Gauls beaten down from the summit of Parnassus (when they attempted to plunder Delphi); the other deplored the slaughtered children of the daughter of Tantalus." (Black agate, drawn to double the actual size : Demidoff Collection.) Page 265. — Heads of Hercules and Omphale (or Commodus and Marcia in those characters), united in a Janus bust. The novel conceit suggests of itself the character of a " strenea " in the gem, so appropriate is it to a present intended for the Calends of the " Deus Bifrons." (Drawn to double the actual size from the cast of a gem formerly in the Hertz Collection.) Page 286. — Large Brass Medal, belonging to the King's Cabinet in the British Museum. Page 302. — Medal of white bell-metal, resembling silver, in the collection of Mr. Albert Way. Specimens of this medal are known to me that retain traces of thick gilding, which may account for Hottinger's assertion of their existence in gold. Page 324. — The Good Shepherd, carrying the Lost Sheep on his shoulders, according to the usual type, but with the unusual addition of the Chrisma, twice repeated, in the field ; with the DESCRIPTION OF THE WOODCUTS. xxiii object of more clearly setting forth the meaning of the allegory. But the special interest of this intaglio (one much superior in execution to its class) lies in the fact of its proceeding from the North of India, and the probability of its being a memorial of the Christianity anciently planted in that region. Colonel Pearse, who has recently added this treasure to his large and unique collection of Indian glyptics, informs me that he has come upon vestiges of the religion, to be recognised unmistakably by the peculiar orientation of its burial-places, in provinces (near Eamalcandy, for instance) very remote from the Malabar coast, to which its planting, according to common supposition, was confined. (Sard, drawn to double the actual size.) COKKECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. Title-page. — The actual coin has traces of an A in the field, under the p of spes : probably a mint-mark, for which no room was left in the exergue. • The vertical line of the Monogram also has a portion of the curve completing the letter. Page 62, line 16, for " an x " read " a X " (Greek). Addition to Note at page 305. — Since this Note was printed, I have met with a fact that completely settles the question of the ownership of the type, reading secvbitas KEiPVBLiCfls. It occurs on coins of Helena struck at the London mint ; which mint was given up be/ore the dedication of Constantinople, a.d. 330. See De Sulis' memoir on "Eoman Coins struck in Britain," in the ' Archaeological Journal,' xxiv. 149. EABLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. SIGNS OP CHRISTIANITY POUND UPON THE MEDALS OP CONSTANTINE AND HIS FAMILY, WITH A CONTINUATION ON THEIR DEVELOPMENT UNDER HIS SUCCESSORS. 1 On the 6th of the calends of November (October 27th), a.d. 312 — all historians are agreed upon this point — Constantine, under the protection of the Cross, suc- ceeded in destroying Maxentius in the vicinity of the Milvian Bridge, and made his triumphal entry into Eome, where he caused himself to be represented with this victorious emblem in his hand. " Oonstantine was admonished in a dream to paint on his soldiers' shields the heavenly sign of God, and so to give battle. He does as he is commanded, and with the letter X placed transversely, having one extremity bent round, he marks their shields with. Christ. Armed with' this sign, his army draws the sword." This is the express statement, in the very words, of Lactantius, preceptor to the emperor's eldest son, and very probably an eye-witness of the fact (' De Mort. 1 ' Des signes de Christianisme qui se trouvent sur les monnaies de Constantin et de ses fils, avant et apres la mort de Licinius. Par R. Garucci.' — Revue Numismatique for 1866. B 2 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. Persec' c. 44). From that moment no doubt can exist as to Constantine's public profession of faith in the doctrines of Christianity. No obstacle, therefore, could intervene to prevent the engraving upon the coinage and even on the armour of the emperor, the figure of the cross, and Christian monograms. It is not to be supposed that the association in the imperial dignity of Licinius, who was a pagan, had the power to deter him from such public profession, since from that time forwards the two princes came to au agreement to protect the Christians ; they sanctioned the religion, and gave orders that these should be suffered to practise it without molestation, and publicly. From such a disposition the natural result was that they should be pleased to grant their sanction to the outward symbols of a religion which they had recog- nised as lawful, in order that the Almighty God to whose favour they ascribed their empire and their victory might not be incensed against them, but rather vouchsafe them the continuance of his protection and favour. It is in the first-mentioned sense that Constantine wrote to Elaphius : " The Supreme Deity might be moved to anger against myself, to whom by his heavenly will he hath granted the government of all earthly things." In the second sense are the directions of Licinius to the governors of Bithynia: " So that the divine protection over us, which we have experienced on so many and important occasions, may continue through all time with our own pro- sperity to the public welfare." A little before, he had used the terms, " That the Supreme Deity may in all matters show us his accustomed favour and good will." EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 3 We know still further that after having conquered Maximums in 313 he returned thanks to God, to whom he acknowledged himself indebted for the victory: " Licinius upon his return to Nicomedia returned thanks to God, through whose aid he had conquered." In the same strain, in the inscription placed upon his triumphal Arch, Constantine declares that he had been stirred up by God to deliver the senate and Eoman people from the tyrant and his accomplices : " Quod instinctu Divinitatis . . . tarn de tyranno quam de omni ejus factione uno tempore justis rempublicam ultus est armis." "Whether the Divinity in question were the true God of the Christians or the deity invoked by the pagans makes absolutely no difference in the matter, for in either case the Christian symbols that represent the Divinity were equally sanctioned, and that by the* two Augusti. As far as Constantine is concerned, a private motive rendered him disposed^to favour these ideas, and this motive was his own conversion to Christianity — a conversion which had been prepared by his mysterious vision, confirmed by the Cross which he had taken for his banner, through the power whereof he had gained his triumph, and which the senate, according to the account of Prudentius, consented to adore : . . . . " tunc ille senatus Militis illustris titulum Christique verendum Nomen adoravit quod collucebat in armis." In addition to this, it appears to me that the fact of the interposition of the Deity, which the emperor admits in order to give lustre to his victory, is far b 2 4 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATIC 8. from being an unimportant circumstance ; it is a thing without precedent in all the honorific inscriptions engraved previously to his reign ; for it is as a matter of course the emperors and not the Deity whom we see glorified in such inscriptions ; it is to them that the victories are attributed, whereas in the present case all the glory of it is referred to God, who has guided, stirred up, and directed the emperor. This is a confession altogether in the Christian style, and in the same spirit as that which Constantine ordered to be engraved upon the base of his statue. 1 Lactantius, living at the time of these events, expresses the same idea when he calls this triumph and this victory the triumph and the victory of God : " Let us therefore celebrate the triumph of God with rejoicing, the victory of the Lord with frequent praises." And before this he had used the words, " For God raised up princes who should destroy the wicked and bloody rule of the tyrants, and should provide for the welfare of the human race." 2 After having made these preliminary remarks to explain the dispositions of the two emperors Constan- tine and Licinius, I shall proceed to the description of the coins bearing their images, and those of their 1 Euseb. ' Hist. Eccl.' ix. 9. To be given in another place, where the erection of this statue is discussed. 2 The scarcity of the coins with this religious badge, and the very limited number of the mints producing them, show that the intro- duction of this profession of faith was due to the zeal of individual mint-masters, or even die-sinkers, who ventured upon taking such liberties, though only with the currency of the populace. Their zeal was more tempered by discretion than that of the unlucky Dracon- tius, who was killed by the Alexandrians for pulling down an altar which had been recently (i.e. on the news of Julian's accession) erected in the mint of which he was master (Ajnmian. xxii. 11). EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 5 sons, upon which we meet with the symbols of the Christian faith. 1. IMP. CONSTANTINVS AVG— Bust armed with cuirass, the head covered with a helmet, in the middle of which is a broad band, upon which appears in relief the monogram -4/ between two stars ; upon the right shoulder a spear, on the left arm a shield, upon which is figured a horseman, who transfixes with his lance a barbarian prostrate at his feet. Rev. VICTOR I AE LAETAE PRINC PERP— Two Victories supporting a shield placed on a pedestal; on the shield VOT. PR, on the pedestal I ; in the exergue B. SIS. This medal was first published by Angelo Beneventano, in whose possession it was at the time. Afterwards it passed into the hands of Fulvius Ursinus, where Baronius having seen it caused it to be engraved for his 'Annales Ecclesiastici,' an. 312, p. 510. A similar specimen has been inserted by Sada in his ' Dialoghi dell' Agostini,' p. 17. Tanini possessed a third example in his own cabinet ; and a fourth came to the knowledge of Garonni, who gives an engraving of it in the ' Museum Hedervar/ Nos. 3996, 3971. These authors are all agreed as far as relates to the type and the description, excepting that Sada omits the IMP, and prints PR I NCI ; whilst Garonni leaves out the VOT ; but as to the monogram between two stars there is no diversity either in description or drawing. In spite of all this, there is room for believing that the monogram is not composed of X and P, but rather of X and I, with a little dot on the extremity or at the side of the I, a mark which 6 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. modern authors, as well as their predecessors, are in the habit of figuring in the form of the equivalent character P. I have cited here no more than the actual testimony of writers who had the medal before their eyes, omitting all those who merely describe it upon their authority. Of less rarity is the medal which bears types almost the same, but differing in one point, which is that the monogram is engraved upon the globose part of the helmet, whilst upon the band in the centre appears the crescent of the moon, 1 accompanied by a few dots, or else the dots alone, placed one over the other. The monogram is represented by the older numismatists as well as by the modern under the form of vj^ , which is not quite correct. The following is the description of the two best preserved specimens of this type that have come to my own knowledge. 2. IMP. CONSTANTI NVS AVG. — Bust armed with cuirass, with shield decorated with the horseman over- throwing a barbarian, spear upon the shoulder, and helmet with the double monogram sp upon the con- vex part ; the lunar crescent and a single dot upon the band in the middle. Rev. VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PERP— Two Victories holding up a shield, placed upon a pedestal ; upon the shield the legend VOT. PR ; on the pedestal the letter X in relief; in the exergue B. SIS. (Paris, Cabinet des medailles). 1 Which well illustrates the joke of Julian, quoted further on, about his uncle's extraordinary affection for that luminary. The dots are intended for stars. EARL Y CHltIS TIAN NUMI8MA TICS. 7 In a second specimen, struck at another mint, the emperor's bust is clad in the paludamentum ; and on the reverse the pedestal is decorated with a festoon ; in the exergue we read T T. In this example the monogram is more distinctly figured. Upon another die from the same mint, bearing ST in the exergue of the reverse, the distinction is clear and striking between the monogram vu- and the star ^ , Eusebius (' Vit, Const.' 31) assures us thatConstan- tine was accustomed to wear the monogram engraved upon his helmet, and the medal before us comes to confirm and put out of doubt what the historian records. No other emperor, we are certain, ever wore a helmet decorated in the same manner. The coins of Constantine having for reverse the two Victories and the legends VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC PER P. and VOT. PR. are followed by those both of himself and of his two sons, Crispus and Con- stantine the Younger, which bear the same type, and have a cross with four equal arms engraved upon the pedestal on the reverse. The following is their descrip- tion : — 3. CONSTANTINVS MAX. AVG.— Head to the right, covered with a helmet adorned with a laurel wreath. Rev. VICTORIAE LAITAI (sic) PRINC. PERP.— The two Victories as before; upon the pedestal a cross with four equal arms ; in the exergue ST. (In the possession of Depoletti, dealer in antiquities, Rome.) 8 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. This cross is widened at the four extremities, thus i-k , as in the specimen in the museum of Bologna. Upon another example, described by Father Hardouin, instead of ST we read PT. From this piece again differs the one described by Muselli, which bears TT in the exergue. Father Hardouin publishes two addi- tional examples, the first of them from the mint of Aries, P. ARL; the second from the London mint, P, LN. Upon this last piece the title IMP on the obverse is wanting. Another specimen presenting a different bust on the obverse is described by Tanini (p. 267), the legend is CONSTANTINVS AVG; and the emperor is shown armed with the spear, cuirass, and shield. On the reverse we read PR on the votive shield, and ST in the exergue. 4. D.N. CRISPO NOB. CAES.— Head to the right. Rev. VICTORIAE LAETAE PRINC. PERP.— Two Victories supporting a shield engraved with VOT. PR above a pedestal, upon which is inscribed a cross with four equal arms. (Tanini, p. 283.) 5. FL. CL. CONSTANTIVS IVN. N. C— Radiated bust to the right in the paludamentum. Rev. Type as before. In the exergue P. LN. (Ta- nini, p. 289.) The Abbe Cavedoni is of opinion that this type is anterior to the year 330, and probably even to the year 326 ; since it is found upon many coins with the portrait of Crispus. Since then, the. same critic has come over to my opinion, and throws back its date even earlier than the year 323, on account of the non- appearance of the same type in the mintage of Con- EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 9 stantius Csesar ; a peculiarity to which I have already called attention in my ' Numismatica Constantiniana.' The pieces of the following series are almost all of them unpublished ; as I had figured (in the work just quoted) no more than the single medal of Constantine the Great ; and given the descriptions of only those of his two sons, Crispus and Constantine, of which I now subjoin the copies ; and in addition, those of the two Licinii, father and son, which were totally unknown up to the present time. 6. CONSTANTINVS AVG.— Busts to the right, armed with cuirass and helmet. Rev. ViRTVS EXERCIT.— Two captives at the foot of a standard upon which is read VOT. XX ; to the left the monogram, with a dot at the upper end of the vertical bar; in the exergue A. SIS. (Kircherian Museum.) 7. IMP. LICINIVS AVG.— Bust, slightly bearded, to the right, armed with cuirass and helmet. Rev. VIRTVS EXERCIT.— Standard bearing the inscription VOT. XX, on each side a captive in a dif- ferent posture, on the left the monogram ; in the exergue TSA. (Paris.) 8. LICINIVS IVN. NOB. C— Laureated bust to the left, holding in his hand a Victory perched upon the globe. Rev. Standard bearing the words VOT. XX, at its foot two captives ; on the left the monogram as in No. 6 ; in the exergue TT. (Depoletti.) 9. CRISPVS NOB. CAES. — Laureated bust, seen from the back, turned to the left, with the shield and spear. 10 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. Rev. VI RTVS EXERC1T.— Standard with the words VOT. XX between two captives ; to the right the mono- gram as in No. 6 ; in the exergue AQT. (Paris.) 10. CONSTANTINVS IVN. NOB. C— Laureated bust to the left, with cuirass and paludamentum, and holding in the right hand a Victory perched on the globe, and something, perhaps a precious stone, in the two fingers of the left hand. [It is evident that the young Caesar is merely resting his hand upon one of the studs of his breastplate, a conventional attitude clearly exemplified in the figure of Drusus upon the ' Gemma Augustea.'] Rev. VIRTVS EXERCIT.— Standard with the words VOT- XX between two captives : on the left the mono- gram as in No. 6 ; in the exergue ST, (In the Lo- vatti cabinet.) Upon another almost identical specimen in the Firrao cabinet, we read in the exergue TSB. Compare Muselli (tab. ccl. 5), who cites in error Beger and Hardouin, neither of whom have described any piece of Constantine the Younger that bears the monogram. This type is prior to the year 323, because the two Licinii have employed it, and because it is wanting in the entire monetary series of Constantius Caesar. It is to the year 317, when the two emperors gave the title of Caesar to their sons Crispus, Constantinus Junior, and Licinius Junior, that the mintage of the coins with the standard or Labarum ought to be referred (vid. De Witte, ' Eev. Num.' for 1839, p. 156). To the foregoing series we must join the following four types : — EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. H 11. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG.— Laureated bust with, the cuirass. Rev. MARTI CONSERVATOR I— The same bust, armed in the cuirass, to the right, having the helmet decorated with the monogram. (Tanini, p. 271.) 12. IMP. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG.— Laureated bust to the right. Rev. MARTI CONSERVATORI —Mars nude, standing, armed with spear and shield ; on the right in the field a cross, having four equal arms ; to the right a star ; in the exergue P. T. (Graronni, ' Ragguaglio d'un Viaggio in Barbaria,' ii. p. 189 ; where by mis- take he has figured on the obverse PP, which he tran- scribes in his text as PF.) Hardouin gives for the legend on the obverse, IMP. C. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG. 13. IMP. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG.— Laureated head to the left. Rev. MARTI PATRI CONSERVATORI —Mars nude, standing, with helmet and spear, and leaning on a shield adorned with the monogram, as in No. 6. In the field, to the right A, to the left S ; in the exergue PTR. (Tanini, p. 269.) But the writer has here confounded two different pieces. 14. IMP. C. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG.— Lau- reated head to the right. Rev. SOLI INVICTO COMITI —Nude figure, crowned with rays, with the chlamys fastened upon the right shoulder, and wrapped about the left arm, the face looking upwards, the right hand raised, and the globe in the left. In the field to the left the monogram 7$; ; in the exergue R.P. (Lovatti cabinet.) 1 2 EABL Y CHRIS TIAN N UMISMA TICS. 15. IMP. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG. — Lau- reated bust to the right, with the cuirass and paluda- mentum. Rev. SOLI INVICTO COMITI —Nude figure crowned with rays, with the pallium rolled about the arm, the globe in his left hand, the right elevated and turned towards the east ; in the field to the left a cross, widen hag at the extremities, to the right a star ; in the exergue T T. (Grarucci.) Sometimes this cross is placed within a laurel wreath, and the exergue reads QQ. A specimen in my own possession bears P T in the exergue. If these coins are, on the one side, later than the year 312, on the other they must be earlier than the year 323, for the sufficient reason that none of the sort belong to Con- stantius Caesar. As to the type of the " Invincible Sun," since it is not to be found on the coins of Licinius Junior, we must conclude that it was revived several times at that period ; the first time for the two Augusti, Constantine and Licinius ; the second for the family of Constantine alone. This emperor must have struck the coins with the type of the Sun after the year 319, when dissension had broken out between the two families, a dissension which speedily ended in open war. I would like now to make some remarks upon the different symbols which have been passed in review in describing the coins of Constantine the Great, Licinius, and the three Caesars, Crispus, Constantinus Junior, and Licinius Junior — symbols which we shall again meet with upon other coins. I will begin by acknow- ledging that although these symbols, as far as regards EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 13 their material form, were not invented by the Chris- tians, they nevertheless received at this time a new signification, and which became their proper one ; and everybody agrees in giving them this peculiar signifi- cation when they occur in the coinage of Constantine. In fact, coins of the Ptolemies are known bearing the monogram n^ ; also those of Herod the Great struck forty years before our era, with this other form of the monogram _E . Similarly the monogram formed out of the I and X is figured on the denarius of L. Lentulus, flamen of Mars, with the portrait of Julius Caesar, in which situation it represents the star of Venus, Julium sidus •js ; and another •js is figured in the same manner upon, some medals of the kings of the Bos- porus, for instance on those of Sauromates, Pescu- poris, &c, §§ ; although the asterisk, or star, is commonly figured like the sigla 7^ , which amongst the Bomans served to indicate the denarius. The letter chi, X, traversed by a line or bar placed vertically, and terminated at the upper end by a circle, ^ , or by a small dot, yS , may be compared with the sigla ^ , which denotes, it is supposed, the com- mander of a thousand men — x i ^ a PX w > an( ^ which, crossed by a horizontal bar, makes its appearance on some coins of the Ptolemies. 14 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. As for the cross with the four equal arms, the most ancient example, and which at the same time approxi- mates the most closely to it in form, is furnished by a statue in the British Museum, found at Nineveh, and which carries this sign —J- suspended from the neck. 1 At a later date we find a cross formed of simple lines, -J- , and sometimes accompanied with globules, or dots, ■jp-, upon the painted vases ; symbols having perhaps for their origin the mark-r^» (fylfot), often employed in antiquity as the sign of Safety. Sometimes these different kinds of cross are meant for nothing more than a star ; for example, upon the complete series of the coins of Eugubbium ; where it is accompanied with the lunar crescent ; and again, over the heads of the Dioscuri upon an antique mirror and on the consular denarii. A similar cruciform intention is observable upon a coin of Cossutius Meridianus, a moneyer of Julius Csesar's, who writes his own name in the form of a cross, apparently in allusion to the star Venus. 2 The same motive for imitating the shape of the cross or star may have influenced the similar disposition of the names on certain terra-cotta vases : 1 This " Maltese cross '' figured as a four-rayed star is the proper symbol of Shamas, the Assyrian sun-god ; as the eight-rayed star is of his consort Gula. 2 Much more probably in allusion to the " noonday sun " that gave him hiB cognomen, through that fondness for the rebus so conspi- cuous in the mintage of the times. A striking example is the moon and the seven stars upon the coinage of Fulcinius Trio. S~ EA RL Y CHRISTIAN NUMISMA TIGS. 1 5 m U SOTER CRVSANTVS Sempronius Hieron, who worked for the Twenty- second Legion quartered in Upper Germany, had the same intention when he stamped upon the bricks of his manufacture the inscription in form of a cross : Z o DC Ul LEGXXIIPF Q. S And it is a mistake to discover in the inscriptions thus arranged a profession of Christianity made by the whole legion, an assertion controverted by the pagan monuments raised by the soldiers of the very same legion. Some have wished to interpret LEGXXIIPPF ("legio xxii. primigenia pia felix ") by legio xxii. pristina fidelis, by changing the letters PPF into PRF. But these letters, any more than the standard on which they are emblazoned, cannot be regarded as symbols of a religion. I do not however pretend to deny that in the first ages of Christianity, people did occa- sionally write their names in the figure of a cross, and in proof I will cite a square seal of bronze, recently found at Terracina, reading " Furco vivas :" FVRCOVI < > 16 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. To the same sign is allied the letter Tau of the Ara- mean alphabet, to which the cross was likened even in Origen's times (' Comment, in Bzechiel,' ix. 4). Notwithstanding the acquaintance the ancients had with these forms of the cross, employed either as groups of letters or as symbols, people generally accept as evidences of his Christianity the monograms and crosses which appear on the coins of Constantine. The manner of figuring these asterisks, or stars, upon all the medals of that epoch is altogether different from that previously used ; for these stars are placed at the side of the monograms and at the side of the crosses, and the examples I have figured in my plates are sufficient to prove this. As for the examples above quoted from the medals of the kings of the Bosporus, they can hardly modify this manner of considering the ques- tion, they being simply isolated instances, due either to accident or to the carelessness of the engravers of the dies, and generally the crosses seen upon them have the transverse bar drawn either horizontally or ob- liquely, thus -)£, ^ ; whereas in our monograms of Christ this bar is vertical, ; exergue S CONST. (Turin; Vienna; Feuardent, ' Eev. Num.' 1853, vii. 3.) 29. VRBS ROMA.— Bust of the City, with crested helmet, to the left. Rev. The wolf and the twins ; above them the monogram sj^ between two stars; exergue P CONS or S CONS (Garcia della Torre). Upon another example (Lovatti), we read distinctly ROMA, preceded and followed by indistinct letters. On the example described by Eckhel, the mint-mark is MOST ; and on that by Tanini no letters occur in the exergue. 30. CONSTA.MTINVS MAX. AVG.— Laureated bust to the right. Rev. SPES PUBLICA — Labarum, upon which are embroidered three globules ; on the top, above the cross-piece from which the banner hangs, is the mono- gram ys ; below, a serpent transfixed by the spiked end of the flagstaff; exergue CONS. First published by Baronius ; Eckhel describes an example in the Waldeck cabinet; Tanini (p. 275) a third in his own collection. A fourth is described by Gaillard in the Della Torre cabinet ; this piece reads on the obverse CONSTANTINVS AVG. 1 31. CONSTANTINVS MAX. AVG.— Head to the right, wearing a laurel crown enriched with gems. 1 This most important one amongst the numismatic memorials of the triumph of Christianity, is unfortunately of a rarity commen- surate with its interest. Although discovered so long ago as the 26 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS —Two soldiers armed with spear and shield, between them the labarum embroidered with the monogram _E ; exergue P. CONST (Banduri, Feuardent, Garucci, Brit. Mus.) With the different mint-marks A. SIS, €. SIS. (Garonni.) With mint-mark of Lyons PLG. (Feuar- dent, I.e.) Two pieces struck at Siscia, A. SIS ; T. SIS ; one described by Tanini, the other seen by me in the Gonzales cabinet. Also are known r. SIS, with the legend on the obverse IMP. CONSTANTINVS P. F. AVG. ; P. SIS; €. SIS; SMTS; and three without any mint-mark. 32. CONSTANTINVS IVN. NOB. C— Laureated head to the right. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS — Usual type of soldiers and labarum inscribed with the monogram ; exergue, P. CONST. (Tanini; Feuardent, I.e.) 33. FL. IVL. CONSTANTIVS NOB. C— Laureated head to the right. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS —Type as the last; exergue S. CONST, or CONS. Numerous examples cited. times of Baronius, Eckhel himself knew but a single specimen, that in the Waldeok cabinet, and the most experienced numismatist of our day, M. Feuardent, had doubted of its genuine existence until he actually became the possessor of an incontrovertible example upon his recent acquisition (1872) of that receptacle of things unique, the immense Wigan collection. Through his kindness I have care- fully examined the coin, and find it to be a third brass of the smallest size {module dv, quinaire), and in tolerable, but not fine con- dition. The execution is very neat, in the style of the pretty little pieces with the head of " Populus Romanus." M. Feuardent attri- butes it to Constantinus Junior, but coined upon his elevation to the dignity of Augustus in the last days of his father's lifetime. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 27 34. FL. IVL. CONSTANS— Laureated head to the right. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS— Type as before; ex- ergue S CONS, or P CONST, or C CONST. Other mint-marks are AQ.P, ASIS, BSIS, TSIS, HSIS. 35. FL. DELMATIVS NOB. C— Laureated head. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS — Type as before. Mint-marks are P CONS, P CONST, S CONST, CONS; also SMKT, SMDN, SMAL A, SMISE, 1 R * Q. 36. DIVO CONSTANTINO — Head covered with a veil, to the right. Rev. AETERNA PI ETAS — The emperor in military costume, standing, and leaning upon a spear, holding in his right hand the globe on which is placed the monogram _P. The legend reads sometimes AETRNA, for AETERNA. Exergue CONS. 37. DIVO CONSTANTINO — Veiled head to the left. Rev. AETERNA PI ETAS— Type as the last; in the field to the right a plain cross ; in the exergue PLC. Tanini gives one from his own cabinet, read- ing DIVO CONSTANTINO P, and for mint-mark P CONS. 38. CONSTANTINVS MAX. AVG.— Youthful head to the right, with the hair long and wavy, wearing a laurel crown enriched with gems ; with the paluda- mentum. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS — Usual type, the 1 This looks like a false reading of the mint-mark of Siscia, of which SMSIS is the regular form. The others denote the mint- ages of Constantinople, Carthage, Naissus, Alexandria fourth office, and Rome. 28 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. labarum inscribed with the monogram ^ Mint-marks AS IS, €SIS, €SIS with crescent, TSIS. 39. CONSTANTIVS P. F. AVG.— Head to the right, wearing a crown of laurel enriched with gems. Eev. GLORIA EXERCITVS — Type as before; exergue TSIS. 40. CONSTANS P. F- AVG. — Head to the right, wearing the jewelled crown of laurel, and the paluda- mentum. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITUS— Type as before; mint- marks AS IS, BSIS, SMS IS, AQS, AQ.P, BOON ST, PLO, 1 SMNA. The type of the two soldiers and the two standards was only adopted after the death of Crispus ; it was maintained for the eleven years that Constantine sur- vived; and even was continued after his death. To this type are joined the crosses, no longer with four equal arms, but of the Tau shape ; and the monogram of Christ, placed sometimes in the field, sometimes upon the banner of the labarum. It must be supposed that this form of the cross was introduced upon the coinage between the years 326 and 333, because it does uot make its appearance upon the similar pieces of Constans. It might, however, be supposed that the introduction of this form of the cross was previous to the year 330, because we find no piece of Constantino- polis bearing such a mark ; but this argument is destitute of foundation, inasmuch as it appears that it was the mint of Aquileia alone that had adopted this 1 Evidently a false reading of PLG> for the London mint was given up before Constans became Augustus. EABLY CERTSTTAN NUMISMATICS. 29 symbol of salvation. The second series, or that bear- ing the monogram N( in the field, is beyond a doubt anterior to the year 333, because we do not meet with pieces of the kind that have the portrait of Constans, but only those with the portraits of Constantine the father, and of his two sons, Constantinus and Constan- tius. It is therefore necessary to place later than the year 330 those pieces that have the monogram, at least those bearing the mint-mark of Constantinople. The third series presents the labarum having the monogram of Christ embroidered upon the banner. This series was struck before the death of Constantine, but these pieces are not anterior to the year 335, because we find the same type with the portrait of Delmatius, who was created Csesar in that year, and survived his uncle but a very short time. The sons of Constantine when they became Augusti resumed this type, as is proved by the examples 38, 39, 40. Besides these, we meet with other coins bearing Christian symbols, issued by different mints in the course of these years , and in the first place the small brass with the portrait of St. Helena, Constantine's mother. It is known that Helena was obliged by Constantine's command to emerge from private life, and I think it certain that before giving to his mother the title of Augusta he struck medals in her honour, as well as in honour of Fausta, 1 his own empress : which latter equally received at a later period the title 1 The impossibility of this theory will be demonstrated further on ; the good padre is here led astray by a natural eagerness to antedate the numismatic triumphs of his faith. 30 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. of Augusta. This fact is proved to demonstration when we compare the medals which read on the obverse HELENA N. F. and have for reverse a laurel crown with a star in the middle. It is supposed that the coin which joins with the type of Peace the legend PAX PVBLICA and the cross with the four equal arms in the field, was struck upon the discovery of the sacred wood of the Cross by the empress ; but if the presence of the cross suggests this date, I am obliged to own it is not a well-grounded argument, since this cross makes its appearance before that epoch upon the coins of Constantine. In the same way it is not possible to fix the date when the aureus of the Tanini cabinet was minted (No. 19), nor the small silver medallion (No. 26) which displays the statue of Constantine. It is more easy, in my opinion, to determine the years in which were issued the pieces described under Nos. 24 and 25, because the piece with the portrait of Constantine cannot be anterior to the year 333, for the reason that a similar piece exists with the portrait of Constans Caesar ; and the date of this issue can be fixed with much probability in the year 335, on account of the legend VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG.; VICTORIA CAESAR. IVN.; acclamations which took place every fifth year in honour of the emperors and their families ; the seventh lustre falling nearly in the year 335. It is not necessary to speak of the pieces bearing the mint-mark of Constantinople, and which are for that reason posterior to the year 330. Similarly it is evident that the piece No. 36, was struck in honour of EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 31 Constantine after his death, by order of his sons, pro- bably in the year 337, or at latest in 338, the epoch at which the three brothers, having assumed the title of Augusti, and the eldest that of " Maximus," struck afresh the coins with the legend GLORIA EXERCITUS with type of the two soldiers, which had been pre- viously used on two different occasions in the years 330 and 335. It results from the review of the long series above described, that I have brought into it all the coins described in my ' Numismatica Constantiniana,' with the sole exception of those which exhibit the labarum terminating at its upper extremity in a cross, the aureus of Constantinus Csesar, which bears the cross with four equal arms, and finally another aureus of Constantine the Great, which has the monogram sB placed between the A and U). I have followed the plan of separating the things that are unquestionable from such as in our times may give room for dispute. But although it has appeared to me advisable to make this distinction, I shall not on that account pass over in silence the pieces in question. The coins which exhibit standards terminating in a cross have been admitted by Cavedoni amongst the medals bearing Christian symbols. Subsequently to him, I have adduced some fresh pieces of the series in my ' Numis- matica Constantiniana.' The same critic, however, now refuses to believe in the existence of this class of coins, forgetting that he himself has described a gold medal of Constantinus Junior on which is seen a standard terminating in a cross. The reason assigned 32 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. by Cavedoni for refusing this kind of piece admission into the ranks of those bearing Christian symbols is, that on comparing them with others he has satisfied himself that it is not the Cross that is really figured there, but merely a resemblance to a cross. Now if an argument like this is allowed to have any weight, a large proportion of the coins above described as bearing crosses and Christian monograms would run the risk of being rejected, because we find a considerable number. of pieces bearing the same types, but without crosses or monograms — a fact of which it is easy to certify oneself. Meanwhile it is right to mention that I have seen a vexillum terminating in a cross upon a coin of Licinius in the Lovatti cabinet. This coin bears the mint-mark of Aquileia, AQS. In pub- lishing this piece it seems quite allowable to conclude that those who have published similar pieces as having been seen by themselves, were not under a delusion, although neither Borghesi nor myself had previously met with any example of the kind. Besides, I have thought it both advantageous and prudent to separate these four pieces from the number of those exhibiting indubitable symbols of Christianity. I use the word four and not nine, because I except from the number the coins of the two Licinii and of the two Constan- tines, father and son, which display in the field the monogram of Christ ; to which must be added the medal of Crispus and the one of Licinius the Elder bearing the vexillum terminating in a cross, of which I have just spoken. And although upon these pieces the monogram is not drawn in the customary figure N?, as the early engravers represented it, nor yet EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 33 the Cross such as we find it described, yet both figures are drawn in such a manner that it is easy to reduce them to well-known and correct forms ; and it is impossible to see in this monogram merely a star, as Cavedoni will have it to be. As for the aureus of Constantinus Ca?sar, it is re- jected by the illustrious numismatist of Modena as " a strange coin" (strano nummd), on account, not merely of the faulty abbreviation IV. in place of the customary IVN., but yet more on account of the type, which is not to be met with, in my opinion, in all the numerous sequence of Constantine's medals. But the first objec- tion is of no weight, for every one knows that we often meet with blunders committed by the engravers of the dies. Besides, the piece in question is not the only one with the portrait of Constantinus Caesar that bears the abbreviation IV. ; Cohen describes another with the same reading. The second reason assigned by Cave- doni for rejecting the aureus of Constantinus Caesar, viz., the novelty of the type, does not appear much better founded; for in that case we ought to have doubts about the genuineness of all exceptional types — a thing perfectly inadmissible. Besides this, the type seen on the reverse of the aureus of Constantinus Caesar is not altogether so novel as Cavedoni supposes it; the seated female holding a little Victory in the right hand and a sceptre in the left, with the legend VICTORIA AVGG, is a type which is found already noticed by Mezzabarba in the number of the reverses of the coins of Constantine. But whatever it may be, notwithstanding the arguments I have just advanced, I do not choose to admit this aureus amongst the 34 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. medals bearing the cross with four equal arms, in order not to admit doubtful pieces into the series, and thus give occasion to renewed discussions. Tanini (Sup pi. to Banduri, p. 265) gives a place in the list of authentic medals to the aureus published by De Brie (' Num. Aur.' pi. li.), and upon which the Canon Hemalarius wrote a dissertation. This piece bears the laureated head of Constantine the Great facing to the right, with the legend CON STANTI N VS P. F. AVG ; on the reverse the monogram A sB Id, around which is traced the legend VICTORIA MAXIMA. 1 I have inserted this piece in my ' Numismatica Constan- tiniana,' at No. 65, as well as a small brass, No. 66, bearing a similar type, and described by Vettori in his MS. catalogue of the Christian Museum in the Vatican. This is what Vettori says of it : " Nummus ex cere parvi 'moduli in quo Constantini caput et Uteres partim deperditce. In aversa parte monogramma Christi decassatum, Uteris extrinque A et 10, et literce in gyro detrit03." Although this small brass confronted with the aureus confirms the genuineness of the latter, I have deemed it expedient to set it aside, and wait for further confirmation. I have rejected from my catalogue the mono- gram S& engraved upon the helmet of Constantine, and also the monogram vB- traced in intaglio upon the pedestal supporting the shield bearing the inscription 1 This strikes me as a false reading for MAXIM I, referring to Constantine himself by his especial title. EARLY OBBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 35 VOT- PR, because I regard the signs traced upon both these medals as being of modern fabrication. Upon another specimen which I have seen the pedestal bears the monogram _E engraved in intaglio in the same manner and probably by the same hand. The star with eight rays which is found on the reverse of the piece described in the ' Numismatica Constan- tiniana,' No. 31, cannot be a monogram; it is a veritable star which recalls the vision of Constantine, in the same way as the wooden bridge upon the reverse of a similar coin does the defeat of Maxentius. This star figures the sun which appeared to Constantine in his celebrated vision at the same time with the Sign of Christ — " signum Christi ;" and which from that time forth became, as it appears, a symbol peculiar to Eome and an emblem of the emperor. On the Development of Christian Symbolism. Thus far extends the elaborate dissertation of the indefatigable Garucci, which it is my purpose to supplement by a notice of other types in the same series which, though not presenting Christian symbols directly, were evidently dictated to the designers by the infl uence of the new religion. But before entering upon this hitherto untrodden field, some statements of the learned Father advanced in the preceding pages appear to me to be open to several valid objections. To begin with those occurring latest in his memoir. The "bridge," which he interprets as a memorial of the rout and death of Maxentius, cannot possibly have d 2 36 EABLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. any reference to that event, the scene of which was the Pons Milvius (Ponte Molle), then as now a sub- stantial stone edifice of many arches, whilst the bridge seen upon the little coin in question (a reverse of the minimus with the head and legend POPVLVS ROMANVS) is a military bridge of boats, guarded by two towers, tites de font, at each end ; clearly com- memorating some noted performance of the kind in crossing the Danube, or other great river, in those expe- ditions against the Sarmatians, or similar barbarians, which shed a lustre on the concluding years of Con- stantine's life. That the memory of Maxentius and his defeat had become obsolete long before the issue of these curious little coins may be proved by the obser- vation of the mint-mark, for they all bear that of Constantinople, the foundation of which was long sub- sequent to the fall of Maxentius and conquest of Italy. Garucci is certainly wrong in assigning the coins with reverse of the sun-star within a wreath to the mother and wife of Constantine. The Helena and Fausta, whose coins exhibit this remarkable symbol, both take in the legend the title of N.F. Now this title, "Nobilissima Fcemina," is beyond all doubt the feminine equivalent to " Nobilissimus Csesar," the regular style at that period of the next in succession to the empire. Consequently such a title would never have belonged to the Helena, Constantine's mother, whom her husband Constantius was forced to divorce in order to marry Theodora, Maximian's stepdaughter; one chief condition of his elevation to that dignity of Csesar. Helena, thus repudiated, remained in a private station until created Augusta by the filial piety of her EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 37 son, upon his own accession to the empire. She was at no time of her life the wife of a Caesar, and con- sequently could not have borne the title appropriated strictly to that dignity. The case is yet stronger as regards Fausta, who was an Augusta from the first, for her father, Maximian, upon giving her in mar- riage to Constantine, raised him at the same time to the rank of an Augustus. The star type on both these coins will, however, enable us to ascertain indisputably who this Helena really was. This reverse is found on only three other coins ; a second minimus with the bust and legend of " Populus Romanus," a denarius of Gallus, and another of his brother Julian, both proceeding from Gallic mints. There is, consequently, every proba- bility that all coins bearing this very singular device were struck at the same time, and were inspired by the same motive. Now, Helena, youngest sister of Constantius II., wife of Julian, who governed Gaul with the rank of Csesar only, would take of right the title of N.F., and the fact of this particular type being then actually in use at the Gallic mints, is an addi- tional reason for assigning these very rare pieces to the daughter, not mother, of Constantine. She never enjoyed the dignity of Augusta, for she died during the celebration of the Quinquennalia by her husband at Paris, the first occasion on which he ventured to as- sume the pomp and jewelled diadem of an Augustus, having previously contented himself with a " simple wreath (vili corona) and purple robe, so that he looked 1 Of bay twigs, such as the lanista is seen wearing inthePompeian paintings. 38 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. like a trainer of athletes " (Ammian. xxi. 1). As for the Fausta, who uses the same style and type, it is now impossible to discover her identity ; she may have been the wife of one of the cousins of Julian, whom to their own destruction Constantine created Caesars in the last year of his life. Some have supposed her the first wife of Oonstantius II. before his marriage to Eusebia, but this supposition rests upon no historical evidence ; and these small copper coins are all of one and the same fabrique, and apparently issued about the date of Constantine's demise. But the most satis- factory explanation is the one quoted by Bauduri, which makes her a sister of Gallus and Julian, men- tioned by the latter in his Epistle to the Athenians. Her portrait upon the rare coin preserving it, is de- cidedly more juvenile than that of Fausta the Em- press, and the resemblance to the latter may be ex- plained either by the real family likeness of mother and daughter, or by the want of skill on the part of the engraver. On this supposition we have coins of Julian, his wife, brother, and sister all issued at one and the same time (probably that of Julian's elevation to the rank of Caesar), and stamped with the same auspicious device, the rarity of the medals of this younger Helena and Fausta being explained by the premature death of the two princesses. Lastly, the argument — a very strong one, too — from costume, comes in to settle the question. Helena Augusta on her coins wears the diadem due to her rank, and always has her back hair arranged in a large queue, carried upwards and fixed to the top of her head, after the fashion which had prevailed in the EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 39 century that gave her birth, and of which the latest example (beside her own) is exhibited by Valeria, daughter of Diocletian. But the Helena with the title N.F. wears her hair waved and tied up in a simple chignon at the back of her head after the elegant antique fashion that had been revived by the better taste of the Fausta of whom there is every reason for supposing her the daughter-. The old numismatists declared this Helena the wife of Crispus, from the fact of the two being named together in a law of the period ; and Cohen shares all coins with the name of Helena equally between the mother and daughter of Constantine, not having perceived the stumbling-block to such attribution that lies in the difference of titles. M. Feuardent had anticipated Garucci to a certain extent, in a memoir under the same title as his ; published in the ' Eevue Numismatique ' for 1856. He describes a treasure-trove of 6000 Third Brass of Constantine and his three younger sons, all, with a single exception, from the Constantinople mint, all of the smallest module ; and apparently, from the quality of the metal, and artistic execution, the work of the same die-sinker. A single coin of Hannibalianus was in the lot ; and one piece, giving Constans the title of Augustus, fixes their date as later than the year 337. This last was struck at Siscia. The reverses were all of the commonest description, but included a few of each prince with the " Gloria Exercitus " type, in which the labarum was emblazoned with the monogram of Christ ; and others of " Constantinopolis," with the monogram in the field. M. Feuardent observes : " From what we have remarked with respect to the 40 EARL T CHRISTIAN NUMISMA TIGS. heads and legends above described, people will be convinced, at least we think so, that the monogram of Christ does not figure on the coinage until about the year 335. Constantine had it engraved upon his own coins and those of his sons, at the moment when he divided between them his vast empire ; it is our belief that this sign was then, for the first time, placed upon the coins of these four princes, and that the idea of the great emperor was, in thus consecrating this memorable epoch, to bind his sons religiously to observe his ar- rangements. If in reality this prince believed he was giving to his sons a lesson of concord, his wishes were, alas ! without effect ; for hatred and discord were not krog in breaking out in the bosom of his family." "After the numerous dissertations that have been published upon the pieces bearing the monograms of Christ, and the extraordinary care that museums and collectors have taken in seeking after pieces of the sort, we think the coins we are now describing cannot fail to interest the antiquarian world. It will be seen that they not only bear testimony to a memorable event, the establishment of a new religion, but also to another fact, no less interesting in the historical point of view, that of the first partition of the vast Roman empire between the three sons of Constantine ; a partition, moreover, that was full of misfortune, inasmuch as it brought about in a few years its dismemberment and downfall. The curious coins under consideration, offer seven varieties, perfectly distinct, and all having the appearance of being struck at the same time." 1 1 One of these coins of Constantine bears the Lugdunum mint- EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 41 The kindness of Fortune has enabled me to add two fresh specimens to Garucci's list, differing in some particulars from any he has published. In the year 1870 was discovered at Sutton, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, a vase containing a "bushel " of Eoman small brass coin. Out of a parcel of 260 examined by my- self, half were the usual Urbs Roma and Constanti- nopolis, all fresh from the die ; the rest were of Con- stantine and his three younger sons, three of Helena^ the same number of Theodora, and one of Licinius of the Jupiter Conservator type. Another lot examined by a friend included coins of Constantius Chlorus, and Crispus. The latest pieces in the hoard were those of Constans Augustus, of which but few presented them- selves ; and those perfectly fresh. But on examining the reverses minutely, with a view to the object of this dissertation, two prizes rewarded my trouble ; of which this is the description: CONSTANTINVS IVN. NOB. C. Youthful diademed (?) head to the right; rather defaced by oxidation. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS. The regular two soldiers, between them the labarum, of unusual size, bearing a large monogram Jy ; in good preservation, except the mint^mark, which is not visible, and in fact looks as if intentionally effaced by a blow with the hammer. (In the collection of Trinity College Library.) The second is still more valuable, as belonging to Constantine himself. CONSTANTINVS P. AVG (the mark, S L G : the legend of the obverse is CONSTANTINVS MAX. AVG, hut the face is so juvenile that it must belong to the son, and therefore (although M. Feuardent has not remarked it) gives the same indication of date as the Constans " Augustus," already noticed by him. 42 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. last two words indistinct). Head of Constantine, advanced in life, wearing the diadem, and of good workmanship. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITVS, type as the last, but the banner of the labarum of still larger dimensions, and the monogram rendered very conspi- cuous. Mint-mark i P. CONS. This side of the coin is fresh from the die, but the obverse has the legend somewhat blurred. (Collection of S. S. Lewis.) A parcel of 363 from the same hoard has yielded to our Disney Professor a new variety in a Theodora with a cross in the field of the reverse PI ETAS ROMANA, exergue TRS ; also of Constantine, of the GLORIA EXERCITVS type, with the cross on the standard, and a second with the monogram ; of Constans, four of the same type with the monogram, three struck at Con- stantinople, one at Treves ; of Constantius II., one of the same kind. It will be seen that taking the parcel submitted to me as a test, Christian types form about one per cent, of the whole ; it may therefore be hoped that by calling the attention of other sharers in the treasure-trove to this particular point, many further contributions will accrue to this most interesting series. Before quitting the subject of the labarum and its two guards, some remarks that have occurred to me in turning over this parcel (in which, with a single ex- ception, it formed the only type of the coins of Con- stantine and his sons), as affording matter for curious speculation, can hardly be considered out of place. At first it puzzled me much for what cause the " Glory of the Army " should be represented some- times by a pair of standards, sometimes by a single EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 43 one, until a comparison of the coins so impressed respectively satisfied me, by the difference of their module, that the motive was no deeper than pictorial information to the illiterate (whose currency it was) of the different values of the coins ; that with the one standard on it being evidently the half of that bearing the pair. 1 The reader must be reminded that this currency, though now degraded to the class of " Third Brass," was in its time the denarius cereus, the sole representative of silver (being in truth a very base billon) known in the western provinces of the empire ; hence the care bestowed upon the engraving of the dies, as well as upon the striking of the pieces, which, indeed, when new, had all the appearance of true silver, from the pellicle with which they were coated, just as the fire-new Silbergroschen and Heller of our own day. After Constantius II. had restored the standard silver currency in all parts of his empire, these neat little copper deniers disappear, and the small change is supplied by real coppers of the most uncared-for and slovenly execution. It will also be noticed that the labarum on this particular coinage of Constans is regularly emblazoned with a large M, whose conspi- cuousness attests the importance of its functions in that position. 2 At first, arguing from the analogy of 1 This hieroglyphical mode of expressing value is to be found in Grecian numismatics. The Due de Luynes has pointed out that where a horse forms the type of the unit, the half and the quarter are denoted by the half -body, and the head alone, of the same animal. Similarly in the late papal currency, whenever the paolo bore the head of one apostle, its double was marked by the figures of two standing side by side. 2 Which is still further shown by its occupying the centre of the field, as if to receive the crowns from the hands of the Twin Vic- tories in the type VICTORIAE. DD. NN. AVGG. 44 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. the XCVI (" 96 to the pound") or the fine denarii of Diocletian, and the LXXII ("72 to the pound") on certain solidi of Constantine's reformed coinage, I was inclined to understand the letter as a numeral, indi- cating the coin to be the thousandth part of the aureus. But this explanation is upset by the occurrence of other letters, C and O, in the same position on the similar denomination of the coinage of his brothers, which reduces me to finding in the mysterious letter the initial of a name. Now, whose name could more naturally be looked for in a type devised to compliment the army, and to furnish pay for the troops, than that of the "Magister militum," or commander-in- chief, under each of the three boy-emperors ? In the case of Constans the name of this officer is known, and " Magnentius " tallies with the initial, and exactly fits my hypothesis : probably a careful scrutiny of the history of these times would discover persons holding the same office under his two brothers, whose names might equally well take to themselves the other initials. Salonina. There exists a coin, bearing almost certain traces of Christian inspiration, and struck half a century before the epoch of Constantine, but to which, strange to say,, very little attention has hitherto been paid. This is a denarius of Salonina, wife of Gallienus, having for type the empress seated, with an olive branch in her hand, with legend AVGVST. IN PACE. This is a legend entirely without precedent on a coin ; but, on the other hand, the " In pace " forms a regular con- EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 45 elusion to every Christian epitaph of the same period — in fact serves to distinguish them from the contem- porary pagan, whose D. M. it takes the place of. The employment of this watchword of the faith seems to me proof positive of two things — that Salonina was a Christian, and that the coins exhibiting it were struck in her honour after death by Grallienus, being, in fact, of the same nature as the apotheosis-medals of former empresses, but on which the normal style, "Diva," was precluded by the religion of the person commemorated, and consequently the monumental expression of good hope, "In pace," was with justice used for its equivalent. That this empress died in the lifetime of Gallienus is shown by a remark of Treb. Pollio's, in a passage of which the beginning is lost, which runs thus : " . . . Pipara, daughter of a barbarian king, whom he loved to distraction. Gallienus, with his family, always used to dye his hair yellow, ' flavo crinem condit.' '" This last remark, apparently so out of place, signifies that the princess, being of Teutonic race, 1 had brought yellow hair into fashion ; as Martial has recorded of long before, " Caustica Teutonicos accendit spuma capillos Captiva poteris comptior esse coma." It is evident the chronicler was speaking of a second marriage of Gallienus with this barbarian princess — an action that would have brought upon the emperor 1 She belonged to the powerful Marcomanni, against whom his father had carried on a war. I cannot help conjecturing that this child of the North with the golden hair is the " Chrysogone" whose head adorns some Egyptian coins of this reign ; for the expression of a noble Roman name by a Greek sobriquet would be a liberty without precedent in the history of the mint. 46 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. greater discredit in the opinion of his contemporaries than all his other crimes and follies put together. Now Salonina, who was married to Gallienus in the lifetime of his father, the rigid Censor Valerian, was, according to the necessity of the case, as well as from the evidence of her gentile name, the child of that high patrician family the Cornelii, Saloninus heing a cognomen of the Asinii. 1 She is also highly praised by historians for her numerous virtues, especially cle- mency, and the beneficial effect of her influence upon the emperor — a character affording further support to the explanation I have offered for her title. The religion of his wife may likewise serve to explain the change in the policy of Gallienus towards the Christians, as soon as he was released from the control of his father, that notorious persecutor of the Church. To borrow the words of Gibbon, " The accession of Gal- lienus, which increased the calamities of the empire, restored peace to the Church, and the Christians ob- tained the free exercise of their religion by an edict addressed to the bishops, and conceived in such terms as seemed to acknowledge their office and public cha- racter. Eusebius (vii. 13) gives us a Greek version of this Latin edict, which seems to have been very concise. By another edict he directed that the cceme- teria should be restored to the Christians." The words of the rescript, which Eusebius says he has " translated out of the Latin for the sake of intelli- gibility to his readers," are as follows : " The Emperor 1 It was first given to his son by Virgil's patron, Pollio, to com- memorate his taking of Salona. The cognomen probably got into the Cornelian family by the process of adoption. EARLY OBBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 47 Caesar Publius Licinius Gallienus, Pious, Fortunate, Augustus, unto Dionysius and Pinna and Demetrius, and the rest of the bishops. The benefit of my con- cession I have ordained to be firmly established throughout all the world, so that they may desist from these persecutions. And for this cause ye also are empowered to make use of the form of my rescript, in order that no one may molest you. And that which, according to right (Kara to e£oV) is allowable to be discharged by you, has been already, long ago, con- ceded by me. And on this account Aurelius Cyrenius, who presides over the supreme court " [the original must have read " summae rei prsepositus"], "shall pre- serve the form that has been granted by me." The words in italics, obscured as they are by a double translation, read almost like an apology to the bishops for the tardy concession of toleration in all lawful matters, which the emperor had long before allowed so far as his limited power permitted. And this agrees with Eusebius's remark that, as soon as Gallienus became sole ruler, he put a stop to the persecution. This conduct indicates a domestic influence, like that of Marcia over Commodus, acting strongly upon the emperor in this direction, and producing decided effects on the first opportunity. A further proof that Salonina's life ended some time before that of her husband may be deduced from the fact that her head is to be found on very few amongst the innumerable pieces of the basest billon, 1 the miser- 1 The same observation applies to her equally with her son Salo- ninus, who was put to death by Postumus in 259, nine years before the fall of Gallienus. Did the cruel fate of the young Csesar hasten his mother's death ? 48 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. able denarii cerei that disgrace the concluding years of the reign of Gallienus. Eckhel is of opinion that she was married to Gallienus ten years before his accession to the empire ; but why modern numismatists make her to have been slain at the same time as her husband at the siege of Milan (a.d. 268) remains a mystery to me. Treb. Pollio merely notices that Valerian Junior, brother of the emperor, shared his fate, and Zosimus gives the details of the death of Gallienus alone. 1 The latter historian had previously mentioned the blockade of Saloninus, son of Gallienus, and his tutor Silvanus, in the city of Cologne on the Rhine, by Postumus on his first seizing the empire, and the slaughter of the two when surrendered by the starved-out garrison. But this took place nine years before the death of Gallienus, who has comme- morated the fate of the young Csesar by several con- secration medals. The unprecedented form of the legend AVGVSTA IN PACE was a problem to the early numismatists. Tristanus does not attempt to solve it ; Bandurius thinks to explain it as being a satirical medal, reflect- ing upon Gallienus's noted effeminacy, and struck by some one of the numerous usurpers of his times ; com- paring it with the existence of the celebrated type of VBIQVE PAX. But this writer was led astray by the medallic usages of the moderns, and even these will not account for the supposed satirical reflection being imprinted on the coins of the unoffending empress — 1 Which was rather an act of public necessity than a murder ; for it was executed with the privity of the best men of the times, after mature consultation, and was not followed by any massacre at the camp. MARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 49 The plentifulness, also, of the coins bearing this legend seems to betoken a mintage proceeding from imperial authority rather than from the transient spite of an ephemeral usurper. There is, moreover, no dif- ference in their fabrique from the other denarii of Salonina, which, no one doubts, were struck at Eome, whereas the productions of the Gallic mint (which alone could be suspected of such a fabrication) have an idiosyncrasy to be recognised at the first glance. The credit of discovering in this legend evidence of so interesting a fact as the avowed, and allowed, Chris- tianity of a Roman empress in the middle of the third century, is due to that eminent antiquary, De Witte, who published it as a conjecture in his ' Meinoires sur l'imperatrice Salonine," in the ' Mem. Soc. Roy. de Belgique,' vol. xxxvi. 1 But I cannot imagine what unlucky afterthought has made him retract his expressed opinion, for he writes, five years later (in the ' Revue Numismatique ' for 1857, page 71), " II est impossible, comme je l'avais pense, de considerer les pieces qui portent la legende AVGVSTA I N PACE comme des medailles de commemo- ration frappees apres la mort de Salonine, pour rendre hommage a la memoire d'une princesse chretienne." Lenormant, in his memoir on the portrait of Marcia (p. 245 of the same volume), takes this legend for an unmistakable declaration of faith ; but, accepting with- out examination the current opinion as to the time of Salonina's death, he makes these medals to have been 1 Not having access to that periodical, his arguments are unknown to me : those therefore which I have advanced in the text have, at least, the merit of originality. E 50 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. issued by her own command. To escape the difficulty of the essentially funereal nature of the words, " In pace," he brings forward, with a parade that betrays his sense of their real weakness, a number of argu- ments to show that the same expression was applied to living people. But, "most lame and impotent conclusion," he cites, as deciding the question, Paul's admonition to married people (1 Cor. vii. 15), " In pace autem vocavit nos Deus"; which is a general observa- tion on the working of the religion, not an employment of the phrase as a technical term. The problem there- fore remains as first stated — a form of words known to be used in a strictly defined sense makes its appear- ance upon a coin, and common sense obliges us to give it the same value there as if we had found it inscribed upon a tombstone. Gallienus evidently took a pleasure in perpetuating the memory of those he loved, or admired, by the in- strumentality of medals. He struck consecration coins not only for his two sons, the Saloninus above men- tioned, and Q. Julius Gallienus, but also for his pre- decessors, Augustus, Yespasian, Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus, M. Aurelius, Commodus, Severus, Sev. Alexander. All these have the regular title of " Divus," and reverse of pyre, or eagle, with " Conse- cratio." Why did he not deify his empress (who there is every reason to believe died before him) after the established fashion, unless he had been prevented by the insurmountable obstacle of her religion, and the fear of shocking the powerful body to which she belonged ? There is another singular omission in his list of consecrations — it does not include his own EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 51 father, whilst of his mother, Mariniana, they exist in abundance. A plausible, if not sufficient, explanation is found in the fact that Valerian had gone down to posterity as a persecutor of the Christians, and was therefore ignored by his son for precisely the same motive that caused the placing of this " Augusta in Pace" upon the medals commemorating his pious wife. But to resume the subject of coin types dictated by the spirit of Christianity, it seems to me unaccount- able why Garrucci should have omitted the one that, if correctly described, displays the influence of the new creed in a most remarkable degree. Mionnet, who is followed by Cohen, copies without the slightest kind of suspicion the following description of a bronze medallion of Crispus, then in the Sanclementine Mu- seum : "SALVS ET SPES REIPVBLICE : Christ seated, seen in front face, his right hand raised, in his left a cross, between two military figures standing : in the exergue S. P." Now everyone acquainted with the history of Christian art will perceive that such direct representation of the Saviour on the coin- age was a thing utterly repugnant to the feelings of that early period, and one that would have shocked the Christians equally with the pagans. But the explanation of the problem is sufficiently obvious : Mionnet and his successor, Cohen, have copied the description without taking the trouble to ascertain its accuracy; had they done so, they would have found this astounding picture to turn out no other than what occurs on a bronze medallion of Constantine with the same legend, and from the same mint, and which Mionnet correctly catalogues as " the emperor E 2 52 EABLY CEBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. seated, seen in front face, between his two sons. ' Whether the object in the hand of the emperor, upon the medallion of Crispus, be really a cross, or merely some indistinct symbol such as a Victoriola, converted into the Christian badge by the fancy of the draughts- man in the copper-plate (or by the fraudulent in- genuity of the vendor of the actual coin), it is of course impossible to decide in the absence of the original. But it is safer to conclude that the true Cross, symbol of the Faith, does not really make its appearance upon this medallion, for it issues from the mint of Rome, and Garrucci's laborious researches have conclusively proved that she was not one of the few cities that as yet ventured to introduce the tokens of Christianity upon their coinage. The ancient capital continued to the last to be the stronghold of the old religion of the empire, as the recently founded capital was, from its beginning, that of the new. In all the extensive series of the medals of Con- stantine, not one displays so conspicuously the in- fluence of the religion of the Bible as does the elegant little piece (module of the quinarius) struck in memory of his apotheosis. The idea of the conveyance of the soul of the deceased Augustus up to the celestial regions where he should take his place as a new "Divus," was actually expressed (as Dio Cassius de- scribes it in his account of the obsequies of Severus), by the letting loose of an eagle from the topmost stage of the lofty funeral pile at the moment when the torch was applied to the base. Hence upon the con- secration coins struck in honour of any departed emperor, he is depicted soaring aloft upon the bird of EARLY CEBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 53 Jove ; and down to the reign of Constantine the eagle was used as the established symbol of an apothe- osis. No stronger proof of this can be adduced than the coins struck in honour of his deceased father by Constantine's own command (as their mint-marks attest), where the eagle, variously displayed, deco- rates the numerous pieces issued to perpetuate the MEMORIA DIVI CONSTANTII. But the medal doing similar homage to the departed Constantine, although its obverse still covers his head with the regular consecrated veil, entirely discards from its reverse the figure of the pagan vehicle of souls. Its place is taken by a type most unmistakably suggested by the Biblical record of the translation of Elias by the agency of " a chariot of fire and horses of fire," for the emperor is seen standing up in a chariot of four horses going at full speed, whilst the Hand of God issues from the heavens, to which he raises his eyes and hands. These interesting medals belong to the mints of Alexandria, Antioch, and Carthage alone, but must have been issued to a large extent, consider- ing their plentifulness at the present day. A very interesting piece in the list of Constantine's medals is the one that illustrates certain remarks of both his panegyrists and detractors. This is the aureus (medallion and solidus) presenting his head, with eyes uplifted, and no legend round, executed in the very highest style (and which may still com- mand our admiration) of which the age was capable ; whilst the reverse always has reference to triumph in type and legend, as GLORIA or VICTORIA CON- STANTINI AUG. The emperor's motive for this 54 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. striking innovation in Roman medallic portraiture 1 is thus given by his eulogist, Eusebius (' Yita Constant.' iii. 15) : — " How great was the strength of the divine faith that was the foundation of his soul may be esti- mated from the consideration that he devised how his own portrait should be represented upon the gold coins after such a manner as to appear to be looking upwards, stretching himself aloft 2 towards Grod, in the action of one praying. Now the pieces thus stamped are in circulation all over the Roman world. More- over, in the palace itself, at certain of the entrances, upon the pictures placed over the gateways, he had himself painted standing upright, looking towards heaven, and stretching forth his hands in the attitude of one in prayer. And thus even in his pictures he represents himself as a suppliant ; but he passed a law forbidding any portraits of himself to be dedicated in the temples of idols, in order that his image should not be polluted by the deceit of things forbidden, even in its painted similitude." But his irreverent nephew sneers alike at this pious gesture, and at the scrupulous care which the imperial devotee expended upon his hair and personal appearance (so conspicuously exhibited by the same medal), in the following humorous terms (Julian's 'Csesars') : — "Con- stantine in his turn received permission topleadhis cause. He had prepared himself for this contest with a great deal of confidence. But little by little, as he came to 1 Before him it is to be seen only on certain denarii of Augustus, the idea of which was evidently suggested by the Greek regal drachmae. 2 'Avarem/ievo?, which Valesius renders " manibus expansis," con- trary both to the Greek and to the medal. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 55 reflect upon the actions of those who had just spoken, he found his own exploits very inconsiderable when compared with theirs. For, to tell the truth, although he had rid us of a couple of tyrants, the one was a weak effeminate wretch, the other equally debilitated by distress and old age ; and both of them abominable in the sight of gods and men. As for his performances against the barbarians, that was a point in which he appeared only to deserve to be laughed at, for he had in a manner made himself tributary to them, and was moreover entirely given up to self-indulgence. For this reason he kept himself aloof from the company of the gods, and continued standing in the vestibule of the Moon, of whom he seemed desperately enamoured, and upon whom he kept his eyes fixed, without paying the least attention to Victory. But as he was obliged to speak, he acquitted himself as follows : ' It will not be difficult for me to show that I have surpassed all those who have spoken before me : this Marcus Aure- lius, because I have had to combat Eomans, and Ale- manni, and Scythians, and not merely the barbarians of Asia; Caesar and Augustus, because I have not taken up arms, through civil dissension, against good and virtuous citizens, but for having taken them up against the most wicked and infamous of tyrants. As for Trajan, the exploits I have performed against these tyrants, give me of right the precedence over him. For, through my having recovered the same countries which he had gained by his arms, I might put myself on a level with him, were it not a greater thing to recover that which has been lost than to make new conquests. Marcus Aurelius shows plainly by his 56 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. silence that lie cedes to all of us, with a good will, the honour of precedence.' " ' What ! ' said Silenus to Constantine, ' do you vaunt to us these gardens of Adonis, as actions of any real value?' — 'What do you mean,' replied Constantine, ' by what you call " gardens of Adonis "?' — ' I mean,' said Silenus, ' such as women prepare for the minion of Venus, by filling flower-pots with earth fitted for making certain plants spring up, the which grow dry and wither so soon as they begin to come into blossom.' Constantine had no sooner heard this than he turned very red, recognising the close resemblance of the thing to the actions of his own life. . . . " After this, Mercury, addressing himself to Con- stantine : ' And thou, what thing hast thou regarded as the finest thing of all ? ' To which he replied : ' To amass great riches, and to employ them in satiating my own desires or in gratifying those of my friends.' Whereupon Silenus, laughing ready to split his sides, asked : ' How comes it then that you, with this noble intention of turning banker, should have so far forgotten yourself as to lead the life of an under-cook, or female hair-dresser ? Your style of wearing your hair and your face already announced it ; and now the noble sentiment you have just de- clared bears ample testimony to the same charge.' Thus did Silenus rally him, roughly enough. After this, silence being made, the gods gave their votes in secret, the great majority of them being for M. Aurelius. But Jupiter, after a little whispering with his father, commanded Mercury to pronounce sen- tence, which he did in the following terms : — EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 57 " ' Ye Mortals who have presented yourselves for this competition, know ye all that the laws and judg- ments are pronounced amongst us in such a manner that the successful one may indeed exult, but the vanquished must refrain from complaining. Go there- fore each one of you, according to his liking, to range yourselves under the guidance and protection of the several gods, and to live henceforth under their auspices ; and let each of you choose one of their number for his Master and Protector.' " Upon this proclamation being made, Alexander ran towards Hercules, Augustus to Apollo, and M. Aurelius kept his place by the side of Jupiter and Saturn. As for Caesar, after wandering about in un- certainty from one side to the other, the mighty Mars and Venus at last took pity upon him and called him to them. Trajan ran towards Alexander, wishing to take his place by his side. But as for Constantine, as he could discover no model of his own life amongst the gods, when at last he perceived Effeminacy close by, he went and ranged himself by her side. She received him very lovingly, and held him a long while in her embrace, and after clothing and decking him out in a lady's flowered gown, 1 she led him up to Luxury. It was there that he found his son (Con- stantius), who was crying aloud to all passers by : 'Whosoever feels himself guilty of violences, of murders, 2 of sacrileges, or any other abominable crime, 1 The imperial robes of silk which he had introduced into court costume. 2 Julian here takes revenge upon his cousin for the slaughter of his father and brother, Julius Constantius, and Oonstantius Gallus. 58 EARLY CHBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. let him come hither in all confidence, and as soon as I shall have washed him with this water, I will make him altogether clean. Nay, more ; if he fall back again into the infamy of the same crimes, I will bring it about that after he has well thumped his breast and beaten his head, he shall become pure and clean as before.' So Constantine was very well pleased to dwell with this goddess, and he and his sons retired in her company out of the assembly of the gods. But the latter, the Avengers of impiety, strangely tor- mented him and his sons, and justly punished them for having shed the blood of their relations, until at last Jupiter granted them a little respite, for the sake of Claudius Grothicus and Constantius Chlorus." Of all the types in this numerous series (the very last in which antique taste, then fast expiring, ven- tured to display itself, and often with considerable success), the most curious for the boldness of its decla- ration of faith, and the most ingenious in the con- ception of its allegory, is the already quoted piece with the labarum transfixing the serpent, and the legend SPES PVBLICA. Although both these quali- ties at first lead the sober numismatist to suspect a cinque-cento forgery in the case, which suspicion is confirmed by the rarity of the coin itself (only four specimens being known), which prevents the satisfying of doubt by a careful examination of its material claims to authenticity, yet the moral possibility of its being the production of the age of Constantine is made out by certain other proceedings of that emperor, the account of which I shall transcribe from his biographer ('Vita Constant.' iii. 3). "Moreover, he EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 59 set up in a certain painting, placed over the grand entrance of the palace, the spectacle of the Cross, that life-giving symbol being placed over his own head ; whilst below him the Adversary and Enemy of man- kind, who through the agency of impious tyrants had assailed the Church of Christ, was being cast down headlong in the figure of a serpent. For the divine oracles in the books of the prophets have called him a dragon, and a smoky serpent. For which cause the emperor ordered the serpent pierced with darts through the middle of his belly, and drowned in the depths of the sea, to be painted with wax dissolved with fire 1 under the feet of himself and his children, and to be set up for a spectacle unto all men : pointing out in this manner that secret foe of mankind whom he de- picted as being hurled down into the pit of destruction by the force and potency of that salutary trophy which was placed above his own head. And this truth the picture painted in lively colours clearly set forth. I cannot but admire the intelligence of the emperor, who, thus moved by divine inspiration, exhibited in painting the things predicted by the voices of the prophets so long before, saying that God would bring down His great and terrible sword upon the dragon, the serpent that fled away, and would slay the dragon that lieth in the depths of the sea. The figures, there- fore, of these things did the emperor express, exactly rendering the reality by the painting." This picture was therefore designed as a decoration for the most conspicuous building in the new capital, and the flowery expressions of Eusebius intimate that 1 Encaustic painting, vised by the ancients instead of fresco. 60 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. the serpent symbolized the power of the tyrants whom Constantine had recently destroyed. The place selected for the exhibition of such an allegory proves the confidence of the designer that it would be not distasteful to the great bulk of those who beheld it. The type of the coin in question, with its transfixed serpent, 1 may be called an abbreviated expression of the same idea, and consequently may have been actually suggested by this very remarkable painting above the palace gate ; whilst no stronger objection can be made against the issuing of such a coin type than against the exhibition of such a picture at Con- stantinople, to which mint alone this singular medal belongs. In the type under discussion, the monogram tipping the flag-staff is simply formed of the letter X tra- versed by a vertical bar, and the banner itself is emblazoned with three circles, probably conventional representations of the imperial stars 2 that regularly occupied the same place : particulars explained by the full account of the labarum, and its origin, which Eusebius shall proceed to give in his own too rhetorical language (i. 28) : — " He therefore began to implore His aid, praying and beseeching that He would deign to make Himself known unto him, and stretch forth a helping hand in his present necessity. And whilst the emperor was praying and earnestly supplicating for this, a wonderful sign, sent by God, appeared unto 1 The counterpart of the " serpent pierced with darts through the middle of his belly," in the painting just described. 2 That customary emblem of the beneficent sway of the family : an idea so clearly expressed by that common type, the altar shone upon by these luminaries, with the legend BEATA TRANQVILLITAS. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 61 him. Which sign, had it been related by any other person, the hearers would not readily give credit to the same. But seeing that the victorious Augustus himself related the event, and confirmed his narration by the sanction of an oath to us who write the present history (that is to say, at a much later period, when we enjoyed his acquaintance and friendship), who can hesitate to believe the account ? Especially when the intervening time has confirmed by its own evidence the truthfulness of this communication. About the meridian hours of the sun, when the day was already on the decline, the emperor declared that he saw with his own eyes, in heaven itself, placed above the sun, the trophy of the Cross, composed out of light, and an inscription fastened 1 to it, saying, With this overcome (tovtw viko) ; and that astonishment at the sight seized both himself and his whole army, which was following him as he was pursuing his march, and which became an eye-witness of the prodigy. " Furthermore he added that he was greatly perplexed as to what this apparition might be, and whilst he was turning it over in his mind and musing upon it, the night came on and overtook him ; and then, whilst he was sleeping, the Christ of God appeared to him together with the sign (or standard 2 ) that had been shown in the heavens, and commanded him to cause to be made a copy of the sign seen in the heavens, and to use the same for a helper in his conflicts with the enemy. 1 Svvrjtj>6ai, clearly signifying that the words were written on a banner or scroll, tied to the " trophy." 2 'Srjjidov, like sigmwn, has both these senses; and Eusebius evi- dently delights in playing upon them. 62 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. " Eising with daybreak, he disclosed the secret to his friends ; and summoning the workers in gold and precious stones, he takes his seat in the midst of them, and describes the appearance of the sign ; and ordered them to make a copy in gold and precious stones, which same (model 1 ) we ourselves have had the oppor- tunity of examining with our own eyes. " Now it was fashioned in the following shape. A long spear, covered over with gold, had had a pole placed across it made in the form of a cross, whilst above, at top of all, was a wreath twined out of gold and precious stones, upon which was affixed the symbol of the Saviour's own appellation, that is, two letters of the alphabet expressing the name of Christ, signi- fying it by means of the first two characters, the P being formed into an X in its middle part: which sign also the emperor was accustomed to bear upon his helmet in the time that followed. But from the transverse pole that was fixed upon the spear, a sort of hanging cloth was suspended, a royal texture 2 covered with a variety of precious stones fastened together, 3 and flashing with rays of light, with much gold woven into it, presenting to all beholders an indescribable object of beauty. Now this banner, fastened from the cross-bar, received a proportionate measure of length and width ; whilst the spear itself, being greatly elongated, below the trophy of the Cross placed upon the top of the banner just described, 1 The very original made upon the occasion : a remark showing that it was preserved as a holy relic. 2 That is, made of the same purple as the imperial robes. 3 So as to form a definite design : for example, the stars already noticed. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 63 carried the image of the pious emperor down to the breast made of gold, and also those of his sons. This symbol of salvation therefore the emperor always had as a defence against the forces of whatsoever enemy was opposed to him ; and ordered that others made after the same pattern should be carried at the head of all his armies." The reader will remember that in the account of the same circumstances given by Lactantius, and already quoted, no mention whatever is made of this apparition of the Cross in the heavens. " The distance of a thousand miles and a thousand days " (Lactan- tius was writing at Nicomedia three years after the event), to which Gibbon ascribes the inaccuracies in his narrative, is not sufficient to account for his silence, although it might for any embellishment of the actual facts. His reason for such reticence was doubtless the very one Eusebius openly assigns, that even he himself would not have believed the story had he not received it from the emperor's own mouth, with the most solemn assurances of its truth. Lac- tantius may very well have heard the popular report of the miracle, and yet abstained from introducing it into his history, for fear of drawing down upon himself the ridicule of the educated circle in which he moved. But there is no necessity for our suspecting Con- stantine of inventing, or Eusebius of retailing, a false miracle. In our own times, and very recently too, the most credible and unprejudiced witnesses have observed the same phenomenon, and under circum- stances to which its manifestation so aptly fitted that the story, if found in an ancient or mediaeval author, 64 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. would be unhesitatingly set down for a monkish fable. 1 There is, however, one little part in the narrative which one cannot help suspecting the worthy prelate has transferred from one event in the emperor's story to the other, either through a slip of memory or from the irresistible impulse, due to his profession, of height- ening the effect of so miraculous a tale. The natural phenomenon appearing to him a thing so utterly in- credible, he made no difficulty of appending to it an embellishment which it was utterly impossible for the ordinary powers of Nature to produce. This is the banner emblazoned with the famous inscription, which he makes Constantine see fluttering from the Cross, like a flag from its pole. This portion of the story, as told by the emperor, we may fairly believe belonged to the dream, the very natural production of his imagi- nation so highly excited by the wonderful sight of the afternoon. This view of the matter is strongly supported by the brief and vague statement, so far as it goes, which Lactantius gives of that nocturnal visit of Christ, in consequence of which the Csesar, as yet halting between two opinions, adopted the banner of the Cross. And in truth, Eusebius expressly states that the labarum was made after the pattern, not of the Cross seen in the heavens, but of the standard presented to Constantine by the Saviour's own hand in 1 In Whymper's ascent of the Matterhorn, four of his com- panions were killed by falling down a precipice. Shortly after this had ocexirred, the survivors were astonished by the appearance of three luminous crosses of immense height in the sky, the central one considerably elevated above the others placed at its sides. A drawing of the scene, made at the moment, is given in his ' Scrambles amongst the Alps.' The native guides, naturally enough, connected the vision with the fate of the lost. The time was 6i p.m., July 14, 1865. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 65 the vision of the night. This same nocturnal vision seems to be the source of that very curious type upon a medal of Constantius II., which shows that prince holding a standard emblazoned with the Christian monogram, the legend being HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS, "Under this banner thou shalt be victonous" (for such is the true sense of signum). There is every reason to believe that this type not merely had refer- ence to Constantine's dream, but preserves the exact words addressed to him by the celestial visitant. For the native tongue of that prince (a Dalmatian by birth) was the Latin, and therefore the same in his sleeping as in his waking conversations, so that we must take the tovtui viko. of Eusebius for merely the interpretation given him by the emperor (the bishop probably not knowing a word of Latin) of the exhorta- tion addressed to himself by Christ. The occasion that induced his son to take for himself this encouraging watchword may plausibly be supposed the moment of extreme peril when the usurper Magnentius was marching upon him with every prospect of success. This same coin-type presents another point of in- terest in the probability that it preserves the memory of the celebrated statue erected at Rome by Constan- tine in acknowledgment of the celestial helper, whose admonition is expressed in the legend. The erection of this statue is briefly noticed by Lactantius in his narrative of the fall of Maxentius already quoted ; but Eusebius gives a much fuller and very curious account of the same event, the whole of which I shall here translate (cap. xl.) : — "By a great inscription, and by monuments, he proclaimed unto all men the Sign of F 66 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. salvation : having in the middle of the imperial city set up this for a grand trophy over his enemies, engrav- ing in indelible characters this Sign of salvation, a protection for the supremacy of the Eomans, and for the whole of the empire. For he at once commanded them to place a tall spear, in the shape of a cross, in the hand of his own likeness put up as a statue, in one of the most public places of Eome ; and to engrave below it this inscription in the language of the Eomans : ' Through this saving Sign, the true test of virtue, I have delivered your city, rescued from the yoke of tyranny : and moreover I have liberated and restored the senate and Eoman people to their pristine nobility and splendour.' 1 " That by "the tall spear made in the form of a cross " the labarum is intended, and that the statue was modelled in the attitude repre- sented on the coin under discussion, may be regarded as certain, for on all coins prior to the erection of this statue it is the regular legionary standard, of a totally different construction, that is placed in the hand of the Csesar : for example, upon the medals of Constantine with legend PRINCIPI IVVENTVTIS. We now come to another type, which commemorates the change of religion and the blessings expected to flow therefrom, by means of a very poetical allegory : this is the Phoenix. The story of the wondrous bird and the renewal of its life is first told by Herodotus (ii. 73) ; but to him the thing was only a very curious 1 This seems intended for a liberal version of tie Latin, couched in some such form as, " Hoc salutari signo, vers virtutis argu- mento, urbem vestram a tyrannica dominatione liberavi : et S. P. Q. R. pristinse dignitati splendorique libei-atum restitui." EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 67 natural phenomenon. The idea was first applied to a higher sense by Trajan, who placed the phoenix on an aureus, without any further inscription, leaving the significant figure to speak for itself. It was next pressed into the service by the directors of the Alex- andrian mint in the reign of Antoninus Pius, upon whose medals (and those of his adoptive sons) the phcenix appears with radiated head standing upon a funeral pyre. In this place the notion of the resusci- tation of the bird from its ashes is by a stroke of sagacious flattery applied to the revival of the Eoman world under the beneficent sway of the two Antonines. A similar allusion is contained in that very remark- able reverse of an Egyptian coin of the elder emperor, the head of Serapis within the coiled-up asp, emblem of Eternity, and surrounded by the images of the different planets ; having the signification of the com- mencement of a Sothiac period or " Great Year ; " when the world was to start afresh on its course with renewed youth. After this period the phoenix was dismissed from its post on the coinage, the continuous disasters of the succeeding reigns having rendered its employment there more like a satire than a com- pliment to the reigning prince. It only reappears when Constantine was firmly seated on the throne, and order was restored throughout the empire ; upon which the reverse of a bronze medallion exhibits the emperor seated, to whom a military figure, Virtus in person, presents the orb on which sits the auspicious bird; the legend being GLORIA SAECVLI VIRTVS CAESAR IS. But on the coins of his successors, Constans and Constantius, the phcenix by itself occupies f 2 68 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. the field, represented in exactly the same manner as upon the already noticed mintage of Alexandria. The signification of the allegory is now proclaimed to the world by the legend accompanying it, " Felix Temporum Eeparatio." ' It is a very noticeable cir- cumstance that this promising reverse is confined to the small brass — the currency of the lower classes. Amongst them who had no interest involved in the ancient order of things the new faith had made its greatest progress, just as twelve centuries later the doctrines of the Eeformation first gained a hold over the artisans and husbandmen of Germany and Prance. The conception of another reverse bearing the same legend evinces a charming poetical feeling, quite asto- nishing for so degenerate an age. The emperor, hold- ing the labarum in one hand, extends with the other the orb surmounted by the phoenix, as a pledge of future happiness to the subject nations; he stands on the deck of a galley, that very ancient emblem of a prosperous course, 2 whilst the pilot of the vessel is no other than Victory in person. This is the most usual reverse of the large brass of Constans, minted in his Gallic dominions ; and may have commemorated his 1 This notion, like most others in the Roman belief, was of Etruscan origin. Plutarch notices (' Life of Sylla ') that the great trumpet-blast heard in a serene sky, A.v.c. 665, was interpreted by the best Etruscan diviners to the senate, then sitting in the temple of Bellona, as portending the renovation of the world. " There were to be eight several races of man, each enduring for one Great Tear, and each totally differing in mode of thought from the one before it. For example, in one period divination should be held in honour ; in the next, utterly despised," &c. 2 For which reason it generally bears the legend LAETITIA AVG on the medals, EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 69 successful expedition into Britain, for a medallion with the same design actually is inscribed BONONIA, the regular port of embarkation for this island. But the Bird of promise vanishes from the scene together with the last of the sons of Constantine : tbe cry of the times was, " Who can show us any good ?" and it was useless attempting to disguise it. The inscription " Felix Temporum Beparatio " is now applied to the figure of the emperor destroying, or leading captive, a barbarian enemy; the summum bonum of Boman desire being by this time reduced to the holding one's own, and keeping off the packs of hungry wolves that beset on all sides the failing empire. The monogram of the Saviour's name frequently becomes the exclusive occupant of a medal's field under the two sons of Constantine already named. It is placed between the mystic letters A and 10, and has the legend " Salus Augusti " — a bold declaration on which their father never ventured. The murderer of the youngest of these Caesars, the Briton Magnentius, continues to employ the same reverse, but with his fall it, at least in this shape, disappears from the moneyer's repertory. The most tasteful way in which the monogram was introduced is that to be seen decorating the solidi of the two Eudoxias (the wife and the daughter-in-law of Arcadius), of Fulcheria, and of some other subsequent reigns. Victory, seated on a pile of armour of the vanquished foe, is inscribing the sacred letters upon a shield supported upon a cippus, emblem of stability, or else held up for her by an infant genius (now to be regarded as a Christian cherub), to acknowledge the 70 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. source of all prosperity — a sense declared by the SALVS REIPVBLICAE of the legend. During the same period the monogram inscribed within a laurel' wreath forms the common reverse of the smaller gold pieces : and this, again, on the silver quinarii is simplified into a Latin cross, also within a wreath ; both these types speaking for themselves, and requiring no inscription. A singular transition of ideas is to be discovered in the treatment of the most usual reverse of the solidus, which has the legend "Victoria Augusti." During many reigns the invariable type is the figure of the reigning prince, holding orb and labarum, and setting his foot upon the neck of a crouching barbarian, whose nationality is declared by his Scythian cap. But the effeminate Valentinian III. changes the earthly into the spiritual enemy — it was, in truth, a much easier thing to boast of victory over Satan than over a Genseric or an Attila — " nulli gravis est percussus Achilles." The barbarian is therefore transformed into the con- ventional figure of the Tempter, the serpent with angel's face, whose head the orthodox emperor proudly bruises with his heel. This pious conceit was so well suited to the taste of the times that it held its ground in the Roman mint under many successive emperors. There was, however, a degree of self-assumption in so depicting the prince himself that must have scan- dalised the sensitive piety of Majorian's mintmaster, for he replaces it by an unmistakable angel, holding for spear a long and broad Latin cross with jewelled borders ; the legend remaining as before. This ele- EABLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 71 gant design continues, with but trifling variations, to constitute the regular reverse of the solidi for the space of a century and a quarter (450-575). The drawing, however, became more incorrect, and the workmanship more careless, with each succeeding reign, until at last either devotion or want of skill (or both com- bining together to excuse the change) reduced it, under Tiberius Constantinus, into the simple "Jerusa- lem cross " (cross potent) elevated upon a " Calvary " of four steps. This last perfunctory device held its ground for several years amidst the civil distractions and foreign invasions of the succeeding disastrous reigns, until, the empire reviving under the vigorous administration of a tyrant, it was replaced by a new type, once more making by no means inconsiderable pretensions to be considered a work of art. Justinian II. had, by his exactions and cruelty, so exasperated his subjects that they dethroned him and elected Leontius in his place, who exiled the tyrant to the Tauric Chersonesus, after cutting off his nose, whence his subsequent epithet, " Ehinotmetus." But through the assistance of the Bulgarians he regained the empire in 705, and held it for six years, at the end of which his intolerable conduct brought about a second revolution and his own death. His gratitude to Heaven for his almost miraculous recovery of his ancestral throne is commemorated by a complete change in the types of the gold piece, that, besides ostentatiously manifesting his piety, does also much credit to his taste. The obverse of the solidus now offers the bust of the Saviour, not the emperor, seen in front face, holding the volume of the Gospels in one 72 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. hand, and giving the sacerdotal benediction with the other, the legend being, " Jesus Christus, Eex regnan- tiuin." For reverse stands at full length the emperor himself, attired in the imperial robes, and carrying a long sceptre 1 tipped with a Jerusalem cross: and he glories in the new title of " Servus Christi." The head of the Saviour is drawn with much character and dig- nity, and the die is engraved with carefulness and technical skill, altogether refreshing to the eye after the long series of miserable attempts at portraiture that precede the reign of Justinian. This head is said to be a copy from an older statue of the Saviour erected over the palace gate, Chalce : the original has every appearance of having been suggested to the sculptor by the established type of Serapis ; so closely does it resemble the countenance of that deity upon the elegant little Alexandrian medals of Julian's coin- age. The emperor, in his full-length portrait on the other side, grasps firmly with one hand the Cross planted on the Calvary, a speaking manifestation of the trust he places in that emblem of salvation ; in the other hand he holds the mappa or rolled-up nap- kin used for giviug the signal in the Hippodrome, and therefore the regular badge of sovereignty; he also figures for the first time in the robe composed of em- broidered squares, from thenceforth the established form of the Byzantine purple. The portrait of Christ was entirely banished from its place on the bezant during the succeeding period of the Iconoclast dynasty, and only reappears 1 Now called " narthex," the old name for the wand borne by those initiated into the Greek Mysteries. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 73 when Michael Ehangabe (811-81 3), the ally of Charle- magne, enters into amicable relations with the Pope, and re-establishes the worship of images. But after his brief reign the adverse feeling again got the upper hand, and the sacred effigies was discarded as idola- trous, for another thirty years. But the great schism of the Eastern and Western churches seems to have called forth an extraordinary religious display from the prince under whom it happened, Michael III. (842), and the bust of the Saviour, still preserving some traces of a better style, resumes its place upon the gold coin- age, and holds its ground to the date of the first capture of Constantinople. Basil the Macedonian (886) manifests his zeal for the faith by giving yet more prominence to the divine image, for he depicts the Saviour at full length, blessing the world with one hand, and holding the book of the Grospels in the other ; and seated on a wide and richly jewelled throne, a copy of that occupied by the emperor himself. The devotion of his son, Leo the Philosopher, is further signalised by the introduc- tion of a type of a most remarkable character, a con- spicuous landmark of the change then commencing in the spirit of Christianity. This innovation is the bust of the Virgin Mary, shown in front face, with hands, palm upwards, "manus supinas cselo ferens," on each side; and by no means despicably executed. The legend over the head is MARIA, and on each side in the field MP 0Y ; the usual abbreviation of the title " Mother of God." For many generations following this Madonna seems to have been appropriated to the coinage of a female sovereign. 74 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. Nicephorus Phocas (963) invents a device which became popular for some years after him, although not admitted to the honour of figuring on the bezant. He marks his entire attachment to the Faith by placing his own miniature likeness signed with his initials within a quatrefoil elevated on the top of the Cross of Calvary. The bust of Christ, and the Saviour on the throne, appear to have been used indiscrimi- nately by the emperors of these times, some preferring the one, some the other representation to form the decoration of their bezant. But the grand epoch of religious mintage is that of John Zimisces (969). This heroic usurper seeks to atone for the murder of his cousin Nicephorus Phocas, and for the consequent perjury through which he ob- tained coronation at the hands of the patriarch Poly- euctes, by an unprecedented display of religious fervour upon his coinage, corresponding with the munificent acts of charity that accompanied his accession to the throne. His gold presents two half-lengths, him- self, and the Madonna in person placing the diadem on his head, whilst the Hand of God issuing from the skies gives its benediction to the ceremony. The malicious Greeks might easily have discovered in this group an acknowledgment of the important share in his elevation to the empire taken by the amorous Theophano (so ungratefully requited), had it not been for the title MP ©Y in the field, and the invocation running round in an abbreviated form of Qeoroice, ^ot)- 6ei 'Iwawij Seown/, " Mother of God, aid our Lord John." The reverse bears the long-established bust of the Saviour, and still the Latin inscription, IhS EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 75 XPS REX REGNANTIVM. His very rare silver coins bear the bust of the Madonna alone, holding out before her the celebrated Veronica handkerchief; the reverse a miniature of Zimisces, inserted in a circle fixed on the summit of the Cross of Calvary. But the noted zeal of this emperor has chiefly perpetuated itself in a vast multitude of the sacred effigies minted in the baser metal. This mintage was in fact the translation of the bezant into the currency and language of the people, for it bears the Saviour's bust exactly copied from the time-honoured type of the gold, but with the legend EMMANOYEA, whilst the Latin legend (now unintelligible to the multitude) is rendered into the Greek IhSuS XRISTuS BASILEu BASILE. These pieces are of the size of the First and Second Brass of the Roman empire, and have often supplied materials for the coinage of the succeeding reigns. Their exist- ence in such profusion furnishes a curious illustration of history, upon which I shall quote the remarks of Sabatier : — "The attribution of these anonymous copper coins to John Zimisces is founded upon a passage in Scylitzes and in Cedrenus, where it is said 'that this emperor gave orders to put upon the coin the image of the Saviour, which had no place there up to that time, and on the other side were Latin letters forming the sentence, Jesus Christ the King of kings.' This record has clearly reference to the copper coinage ; 1 the sense of it is in some measure confirmed by the exist- ence of specimens in pretty considerable numbers that have served for blanks to coins struck at a later period 1 That being the only metal " on which the image of the Saviour had no place before." 76 EABLT CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. by Mcephorus Botaniates, Eomanus Diogenes, Eudoxia Delassene, and Constantine Ducas." (' Mon. Byz.' ii.) The curious anomaly that these Greek words are printed on the coin in Latin characters had forcibly struck the two historians, the fact being that the letters are the uncials of the debased Boman alpha- bet then in general use. That sole lingering vestige of ancient Boman supre- macy, the REX REGNANTIVM legend of the bezant, is visible for the last time upon the gold of Con- stantine XIII. (1078). His obverse, however, bears a type first employed by Bomanus Argyrus, two full- length figures, in front face, of the emperor standing in his robes of state, and the Virgin placing the crown on his head. This group is very gracefully composed. This enlargement of the proportions of the device was favoured by the considerable change in the module of the coin, first made at the beginning of the century. For more than sis hundred years the dia- meter of the solidus (or bezant) had remained at the measure fixed by Constantine the Great in his mone- tary reform, namely at about four-fifths of an inch, and of a well-proportioned thickness, but Basil II. (975-1025) beat out the same weight of gold to an ad- ditional extent of one-third, preposterously attenuating its substance. This change, there can be little doubt, was made in imitation of the gold dinars of the Caliphs, who had purposely retained the pattern of their Sas- sanian predecessors, whose coinage had from its com- mencement distinguished itself from the ancient by its tenuity ; a peculiarity which had constantly augmented, until the pieces of the two last Chosroes (which the EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 77 Caliphs for seventy-nine years continued to mint) were as thin as the very thinnest in the mediaeval series. This reduction of the thickness of the gold piece, how- ever unfavourable to artistic excellence, possessed two great recommendations from the commercial point of view. In the first place, it completely obviated the an- cient and so common method of forgery, that of plating a copper core with a thick leaf of gold (which demanded considerable thickness in the piece in order to be suc- cessful), and likewise was a bar to the debasement of the standard, for the pure metal admitted of bending in all directions, like so much wax (the test still employed by the Sennaar traders for their gold ring money), whilst a very slight admixture of copper rendered the gold too brittle for such manipulation. At the time this important revolution took place in the size, another and very curious innovation was made in the form, evidently for the purpose of pro- tecting from the defacement of wear the image and superscription of the emperor. This result was ob- tained by making the one die very convex, the other equally concave in the field, which produced a coin in the shape of a shallow saucer ; whence the name of " nummi scyphati" given to the currency by mediaeval Europe, which knew no other gold coin down to the close of the thirteenth century. It is a laughable cir- cumstance as proving the superior veneration enter- tained by even the most superstitious of men for the earthly over the heavenly sovereign that it is always the emperor who enjoys the benefit of the shelter of the concave side, the divine likeness having to bear .the brunt of circulation upon the convex part. 78 EARLY OBBISTIAN NUMISMATICS. To Romanus Diogenes (1065) is ascribed the credit of first making both gold and silver carry a poetical legend, accompanying a truly elegant type. This is the full-length figure of the Virgin, in well-managed drapery, bearing the Infant on her arm, with the hexameter verse, continued from one side to the other around the coin, Ylap6eve aot TroXvaive os- ^jK-kike ttuvto. KctTopBo?, " glorious Virgin, he that trusteth in thee prospers in all things." The reverse presents the emperor at full length, attired in his robes ; but with no indication of name. The only other example of a current coin, as distin- guished from medal, graced with poetry is that most famous of all currencies, the zecchin of Venice, which reads in a very abbreviated and puzzling form round the figure of the Saviour, " Sit tibi Christe datus quern tu regis iste Ducatus." l This innovation in the legend on the Byzantine pieces (though not adopted by any of the succeeding emperors) may reasonably be supposed to have suggested the same pious ejacu- lation to the designers of the zecchin ; first struck two centuries after the times of Romanus (1280). Alexius Comnenus has been termed by historians the first of the Greek emperors of the East, and in fact his coinage displays Byzantine pictorial art fully deve- loped in all its features, and which became stereotyped from this time downwards. The long and (com- paratively) prosperous succession of his dynasty, under 1 The concluding word gave the coin its so familiar name of " ducat." Its other appellation, " zecchino," from the Arabic zecca, " the mint," signifies legal currency ; the application being analogous to that of " moneta " with the ancients, and of " sicca " (i. e. zecca) rupee with ourselves. , EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 79 which learning, commerce, the arts, more especially the glyptic, revived, has enriched the medallic series of the Eastern empire with several novel and well- executed types. The bezants of Alexius commonly bear the Saviour enthroned, but the time-honoured Latin legend is replaced by the Greek prayer, Kvpie fioriOei, " Help us, Lord !" A half-bezant, instead of the Divine Son, displays His Mother seated on His accustomed throne, and holding forth the holy ver- nicle of Edessa : but the regular practice of the mint was to restrict the patronage of the Madonna to the silver currency alone. The usual legend attending upon her figure is, QeoTOKe f3or]6ei 'A\e%iw AeavoTy tw H.OjJLVt]VW, John Comnenus varies the picture of his consecrated coronation, upon the principle of equal compensation to both his heavenly patrons. When Christ is figured placing the diadem on the imperial head, then the throne on the reverse is occupied by the Virgin Mary ; and the converse scene is repeated upon the other moiety of the gold coinage. A striking innovation of this reign is the obverse representing the emperor and St. George supporting between them a tall cross ; the reverse being the usual enthronement of Christ. Manuel Comnenus takes St. Theodore for his patron instead of St. George upon a few of his bezants ; but also continues the old subject of his consecration by the Virgin ; for whom, in one remarkable instance, he substitutes the Hand of God issuing from the skies. The bust of the Saviour, inscribed fc — XC at the sides, now resumes its old place upon the reverse of the gold ; and in some examples, by a most un- 80 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. accountable variation upon the established type, the face is depicted beardless and infantine. Isaac Angelus (1185) makes an elegant change, suggested by his own surname, in the obverse of the bezant, taking the Archangel Michael for his helper in the onerous support of the Cross, instead of the former St. George ; the reverse of these pieces presents the Virgin, holding the vernicle, upon the throne. The same " canting arms " of the angel, at full length, or as a bust, decorate the copper coinage of the same emperor. The Prankish empire of Constantinople has left an appropriate memorial of its fifty-seven years of chronic bankruptcy in the shape of rude copper pieces bearing on one side the customary bust of Christ, and on the reverse a cross with legend I C — X C — N I KA. During the same interval the exiled Creek emperors, who had made a new capital of the city of Niceea, continued the issue of bezants (but of very debased standard, being only sixteen carats fine) with the Comnenian types of the prince crowned by the Virgin, or with a saint standing at his side, and the Christ enthroned upon the reverse. But Michael Palseologus signalises his obligation to Heaven for the miraculous restoration of his ancient capital, by a complete change in the devices upon his coin. Christ and Caesar no longer stand side by side as joint rulers of heaven and earth : the former is now seated on the throne, whilst the emperor, presented by his guardian the Archangel, kneels low before him to receive his benediction. Still more conspicuous is the display of gratitude made on the reverse, which shows EARLY CHEIBTIAN NUMISMATICS. 81 •the Virgin herself, with extended hands, in the midst of the circle formed by the walls and towers of the city recovered through her interposition. This change is mentioned by Pachymer (vi. 8) in the following brief terms : — " Afterwards, when the capital was re- captured, Michael changed the device of the old coins, engraving the figure of the city on the reverse ; which he did [referring to the debasement described in the previous sentence] by reason of the heavy payments, especially to the Italians, to which he was compelled." This new recognition of the true source of sovereign power became the established type for the miserable and debased coins sparingly issued by the unfortunate line of the Palseologi, and therefore will serve to mark the last epoch in the history of ancient Christian numismatics. But the same design was taken up, and perpetuated almost down to our own times, in a nobler material, though the first barbaric, or conventional, style of art was most religiously preserved. It was copied, with the substitution of doge for emperor, even to the vertical arrangement of the legend, upon the obverse of the zecchin, first struck in Venice in 1280, that is, nineteen years after the piety of the restored emperor had excogitated the device. In truth, the type appears to possess the gift of immortality, for though the actual mintage of the zecchin ended with the fall of the republic of Venice in 1797, yet facsimiles of it continue to be reproduced by the jewellers of Hindostan ; so high is the reputation of the time-honoured image and superscription as an amulet all over the East. The coinage of Byzantium served for a model to tbe a 82 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. barbarians of Europe, as tbey successively attempted to possess a gold currency of their own. The first instance is that of the Frankish king Theodobert, who imitates with some success the solidus of Justinian in his own sou dor. The actual bezants that found their way thus far west were looked upon by the Saxons as precious jewels, were mounted as such in necklaces, and clumsily imitated with the punch and graver upon disks of gold. But the most conspicuous instance where the Byzantine type furnished the pat- tern, which was adapted to another purpose, and brought to perfection by the more refined taste and greater mechanical skill of the borrower, is to be found in the gold penny of our Henry III., minted in 1257, or four years earlier than the monetary revolution of Palaeologus. It is evident at first sight that the figure of the king in his robes, seated upon a wide throne, of a pattern entirely different from the normal Gothic, has been copied, with no more than the necessary alterations, from the Christ enthroned of the bezants ; a type having then the prescription of nearly three centuries to recommend it. But the English (or Eoman l ) die-sinker who produced this glory of our national series was no servile copyist ; he corrected the drawing and completed with matchless delicacy all the details of his model, producing a result infinitely superior to the best that ever emanated from the Byzantine mint. The " Hand of God " we have seen for the first time upon that most interesting little medal which Probably the " Petrus civis Romanus,'' Henry's goldsmith, then employed upon the grand shrine of the Confessor. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 83 represents the first Christian Augustus rapt to Heaven in the fiery chariot of Elias. The same Hand, holding forth the laurel wreath of celestial victory (that of earthly triumph had been a mockery in those times) over the brows of the Defenders of the Faith, makes its appearance upon the .mintage of the family of Theodosius. After a long discontinuance, it is again to be seen on the gold of Constantine Copronymus, associated with Leo Chazar, descending in the field between the heads of the imperial partners, and dividing its benediction equally between the two. This symbol is represented as open, from the en- graver's inability to give in so confined a space the complicated positions of the five fingers that go to form the Greek benediction. In this formula the several finders, straightened or bent in turn, are supposed to express the sacred letters I C — X C — N . 'Irjaovf; XpioTo? viko.. The Latin benediction, on the contrary, is given with the two first fingers extended and the others closed, to typify the union of the two Natures in the One Person. The Byzantine Hand was adopted on some Saxon pennies, notably on those of the unlucky Ethelred IT., the mystic A and fl being placed at each side to denote the sense of the symbol ; but contrary to what might have been ex- pected from the Church of the adopters, the fingers usually * express the Byzantine, not the Roman, form of benediction. The director of Ethelred's mint must have been a man of taste as well as of learning, these coins with the type of the Hand surpassing all 1 Of the five examples figured by Ruding, only one shows the three fingers closed. G 2 84 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. in the Saxon series for accuracy of engraving and carefulness in the striking (with the sole exception of those of Offa, the work of a Roman artist) : they are in fact immeasurably superior to any that follow, until we come to the civilised epoch of Edward I. Before quitting the subject of Saxon imitative art, notice is due to that interesting coin of the Confessor, the " sovereign " penny. This piece takes its name from the full-length figure of the king (in profile) seated on the throne, and holding the orb surmounted by the cross. This type was intended to proclaim him sovereign ruler, or suzerain, over all the other kings of Great Britain, and contains the same as- sumption of supremacy as does the title of " Basileus " in the contemporary Byzantine sense, which also he employs in his charters. With respect to the symbol he carries, a few words will here not be out of place. From the time of Probus downwards, the emperor was often figured (in his bust) on the obverse of the coin, holding in his hand the orb, on which perches a little figure of Victory. But, in place of this heathen idea, the director of the Bavenna mint, upon the acces- sion of Jovian, chose to substitute the triumphant Cross, evidently desiring to celebrate the victory of Faith in the death of Julian. Thenceforward, the orb and cross becomes the regular badge of imperial power; although Justinian, with characteristic arro- gance, to set forth his religious and temporal su- premacy, makes his appearance upon a medallion, holding in one hand the orb with the Christian, in the other with the pagan decoration. And before quitting the Confessor and his "sovereign" penny, EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 85 the reverse of the same piece furnishes matter for the most curious speculation. Its type is .the Four Birds placed in the cantons of a Greek cross, popularly called starlings, and supposed by many (following Polydore Vergil) to have given the name " sterling " to the silver currency of all subsequent reigns. Wow this identical device is found amongst the cohort shield- bearings, drawings of which are preserved in the 'Notitia Imperii;' and, what is equally worthy of notice, the corps using this particular badge is entitled the " Constantiniani," which shows that it had been raised by that emperor. The device is therefore in modern parlance his coat of arms, and must have been recommended to the holy Saxon by that circumstance, as tallying so well with the imperial type he had put on the obverse of the same piece. It is in truth impossible to imagine any other motive for the Con- fessor's selecting this particular figure out of the long array of cohortial insignia, innumerable specimens of which must have met the eye upon the Eoman monu- ments standing in his time in every part of England. This shield of starlings (in reality doves), after heraldry had grown into a regular science, was esteemed the true coat of arms of the Confessor ; and the assump- tion of it by the celebrated Earl of Surrey was judged and punished as an act of high-treason. Constantine's vision of the Cross in the heavens is not commemorated directly by any monetary record of his times, unless it be by the medal of his son Con- stantius, to which attention has been called above (p. 65). But there can be no doubt that it sug- gested the idea of that follis of Heraclius which 86 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. exhibits that emperor standing at full length in his robes, with his hand resting upon a tall cross in lieu of a spear; whilst the reverse bears a Greek cross surrounded with a legend in the very words of Euse- bius €N TaTO (sic) NIKA. This is the first time the Greek language makes its appearance on the mintage of a Byzantine Caesar, and must therefore have owed its admission to some very powerful motive ; and the all-sufficient one is supplied in the history of its miraculous origin, then become an article of faith. The occasion for its mintage may with every proba- bility be supposed the event of Heraclius' taking the field against that most formidable of all the enemies of the Church and the empire, the Sassanian Khosru Parviz. The issuing of this coin might well have been regarded in those times as dictated by the spirit of prophecy, foreshowing his glorious deliverance of Jerusalem, and the True Cross, out of the hands of the unbelievers. To transform the sovereign's name into the actual Ensign of Salvation, ^aiTrjptov Hrj/jLeiov, as Eusebius loves to call it, was the invention of the ingenious flattery of the Byzantine mint. The letters composing PWMANOC, and NIKHPOC, were so disposed in monogram as to form a Cross, filling the obverse of the coin; of which that of Bomanus combines also the favourite Christian symbol of the anchor, whilst that of Nicephorus is constructed with great elegance of outline. The same notion is continued by Alexius Comnenus, who simply applies his initials to the arms of the life-giving Sign. This device, too, had taken the fancy of the Saxons, for that enigmatical Knut, EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 87 whose coins formed so large a portion of the grand Cuerdale find, had adopted it for the setting forth of his name and title to the ntter bewilderment of our numismatists, whom it took so long to analyse the simple combination. The example of adopting the By- zantine invention had been already set by Charlemagne, whose name KAROLVS lends its elements readily to the construction of a very elegant cruciform monogram ; his satisfaction with which is attested by his making it the commonest type of his imperial deniers. Other Saxon moneyers, too unskilled in caligraphy for the composition of a monogram sufficiently compact to serve for a coin device, do the best in their power to carry out the same principle by dividing their employer's name into syllables, separated by blank spaces, each of which should correspond to one ex- tremity of the cross placed in the centre of the field. This subject cannot be properly concluded without some notice being taken of the curious misreadings, and real forgeries, by which the credulity of the older numismatists, and the craftiness of their providers, have augmented the series of Christian types. At the head of the list, in every sense of the term, stands the piece of Constantine's, first published by Ducange, which represents the emperor in military attire stand- ing with orb in one hand, sceptre in the other ; with a legend, then read as conveying the all-important announcement to the world of the emperor's actual admission into the Church in the definite words CONSTANTINO Pio AVGusto BAPtismate Nato. As may well be supposed, this conspicuous piece of evi- dence was hailed with delight, and republished by a 88 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. host of subsequent Church-historians ; and admitted for authentic by the most recent writer of Christian numis- matics, Dr. Walsh ; the gift was too welcome to allow of any impertinent scrutiny into its genuineness. It is with regret that one is now obliged to submit to the very simple explanation, which so cruelly breaks this charming bubble, that the momentous declaration is pro- duced merely by the wrong reading of A for R ; x a very facile interchange upon a badly preserved specimen, but which elicits the announcement of the first imperial baptism out of the common title, " Constantino Pio Augusto Bono Beipublicce Nato." This legend is to be read, in characters admitting of no misunder- standing, not only upon numerous bronze coins with the same type of Constantine himself, but, what sets the matter at rest, in an inscription found at Feleri, in honour of him and his pagan colleague, Licinius, and their children : and again in another commemorating the very unorthodox Julian (Orelli, No. 1110). The first appearance of it fully written on a coin is on a solidus of Victor as colleague of Mag. Maximus, BONO REIPVBLICAE NATI ; and later on solidi of Galla Placidia and Grata Honoria. Longpe'rier has collected numerous examples of the lapidary use of this title in his "Note sur une Legende monetaire de Constantin le Grand" ('Revue Numismatique ' for 1868). There is also a sufficient chronological argument against the old interpretation of this legend, which may • It was the Pere Hardouin, so famed for his wondrous interpreta- tions, who first pointed out the absurdity of this. He went right in this case, out of the spirit of contrariety, and did summary justice upon all interlopers in his own peculiar province. EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. 89 as well be mentioned here, in case the reader should require yet stronger moral proof in order to dispel his pleasing illusion. The coin bearing this far-famed reverse does not give Constantine the title of " Maxi- mus," which became his regular style from the time it was conferred upon him by the Roman senate in the year 312; and for this very reason the coin in question must have been minted before that date. Now, Euse- bius records that Constantine had always cherished a strong desire to submit to the rite of baptism under circumstances worthy of the occasion, namely, in the waters of Jordan itself, there " to partake of the seal of salvation," in imitation of his Lord ; but he was surprised by his fatal sickness at Nicomedia, and felt himself compelled to abandon his long-cherished in- tention, and to receive baptism at that place, without further loss of time : in fact his death was only re- moved from the ceremony by a very few days. This event took place a.d. 337 ; so that the medal supposed to commemorate it must have been issued at least twenty -five years beforehand — a very remarkable example of prescience on the part of its designer, though one which probably would not have proved an insuperable objection (had their knowledge of history suggested it) to writers of the class above mentioned, accustomed as they are to discover a, prophecy in every record of the past. The most extravagant of all the forgeries ever perpetrated in that favourite domain of fraud, antique medals, was suggested by the existence of that great Catholic festival, the " Exaltation of the Cross." This festival was instituted to keep up the memory of the 90 EARLY CHRISTIAN NUMISMATICS. conveyance of the wood of the True Cross to Jerusalem by the emperor Heraclius in person, after it had been restored by the Shah Siroes ; whose father, Khosru Parviz, had become possessed of it at the time of his capture of the Holy City. The medal in question, equal to the dignity of its subject in material and size, being of fine gold and five inches in diameter, exhibits the bust of Heraclius with a long beard, which he grasps in his hand, supported upon a crescent, and with eyes devoutly lifted up to heaven, whence streams the light of the Shechinah. Out of his mouth proceed the words, " Illumina vultum tuum, Dominus " ; and below, "Super tenebras nostras militando in genti- bus " ; around runs his style in Greek. The reverse shows the victor seated in what the artist meant for a triumphal car, but which is literally copied from a mediaeval travelling-carriage with curtains ; it is drawn by three horses, and guided by a driver on foot. Heraclius wears a crown, much resembling the papal tiara, and holds a long cross in lieu of sceptre ; he is supposed to be uttering the prayer placed in the field in Greek capitals, Ao£a h v^Iotois ■% executed in the highest style to which Byzantine glyptic art ever attained. Nevertheless, there is a possibility of a strange con- fusion of personages in the giving of the names to such representations. Even that very learned and practical antiquary, Chiflet, has fallen into a singular error in this actual particular. He figures a noble head of Serapis, wreathed with persea-branches, as that of the Saviour crowned with thorns, 1 and attri- butes its origin to the Carpocratian Gnostics, who are accused by Epiphanius of making and worshipping similar images. But the calathus capping the head would alone unmistakably declare the presence of the patron god of Alexandria, did not the excellence of the engraving likewise bespeak the best period of the glyptic art, not the much lower and decrepit ages when the Gnosis flourished. Chiflet calls the mate- rial emerald, and his word may be accepted in this instance without too much questioning, for the Greco- Egyptians frequently consecrated the most costly pro- duce of their national mines to the embodiment of the conceptions of their gods. Examples in fine ruby as well as emerald have repeatedly come within my own observation. This interchange of personages, how- ever, is facile enough to a beholder paying no atten- tion to the distinctive attributes of the Alexandrian 1 No. Ill in the plates to his valuable ' Macarii Abraxas-Proteus, seu Apistopistus,' Antv. 1657. 106 THE EMEBALD VEBNICLE. deity. Antique art has stamped the features of Serapis with that expression of profound thoughtfulness and majestic severity so well befitting his special character as Lord and Judge of the dead, the very character in which the Saviour came subsequently to be most usually depicted in early Christian work. Compare any of the numerous fine camei extant of the Serapis' head in front face with the better executed examples of the Byzantine Christ, for instance, as portrayed (for the first time) in coinage on the solidi of Justinian Bhinotmetus (685-711), and every draughtsman will detect and be astonished at their identity. The latter portrait, however, is said (on what authority I know not) to have been copied from the bronze statue of Christ which stood over the vestibule Chalce of the imperial palace until destroyed by the great iconoclast, Leo the Isaurian, who has commemorated his sub- stitution of the simple cross in place thereof by an inscription still (or recently) to be read upon the marble. Lastly comes the all-important question — Does this paragon of all glyptic monuments anywhere exist, with any probability of ever being recognised ? — an object of warmest adoration to devotee and to archae- ologist alike. Alas ! sober consideration compels an answer in the negative. Small chance had it of escaping that worse than " Spartacum vagantem," the mercilessly ransacking Spaniard at the lament- able sack of the Eternal City in 1527, unless, indeed, by special miracle (like that which protected the ver- nicle of Edessa) it should have had the good luck to be amongst the precious stones from St. Peter's THE EMERALD VERNIQLE. 107 Treasury, which Cellini assisted the Pope and his confidant, Cardinal Cornaro, to sew up in their own robes when starved into surrender out of their last stronghold, Castel Santangelo ! The quantity of these jewels may be guessed from the two hundred pounds weight of gold which the veracious chronicler avers he obtained from melting down their settings. Nay, even the last chance (on which I had once confidently reckoned, hoping against hope) has finally disappeared. Clement, restored to the ruins of his power, might be supposed to have replaced the emerald, so cleverly rescued by his Florentine astuteness, within the gem casket of the Vatican- — a collection which, during the peaceful interval between the Constable Bourbon and the Emperor Napoleon I., had, through the perpetual favours of Fortune (so propitious at this her ancient seat), grown to such dimensions that its catalogue, drawn up by Visconti at the beginning of this century, filled two folio volumes. But over the fate of this cabinet there hangs an impenetrable mys- tery. It is not visible in any part of the public gal- lery ; and when, some few years back, a learned and sagacious friend, being engaged upon the MSS. of the Vatican Library, made careful enquiry about it at my request (for this special object), none of the officials could give him any information, or were aware that any such collection had ever existed in the place ! And yet this cabinet contained, amongst numerous gems of " great volume," as Visconti expresses it, the largest cameo in the world, the Carpagna, " The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne," a piece whose 108 THE EMERALD VERNIGLE. magnitude was surpassed by its artistic worth, and so well known by repeated publication in previous times that wherever it went its recognition could not be avoided. It is, however, not impossible that in the troublous times speedily following Visconti's labours, the cabinet was put away so carefully that the place of deposit had been lost to the next generation of keepers, as was actually the case here for more than fifty years with the better known Marlborough Gems. But there is another solution of the difficulty, and, I fear, the true one. When the Vatican statues were transferred to the Louvre, no notice can be found of the gems having accompanied them upon their en- forced journey ; they, therefore, may have been appro- priated as perquisites by the French commissaries. In those days, when the gem mania raged so furiously, the temptation to such an exercise of the law of might was almost irresistible ; and a very unanswerable reply to papal remonstrance would be found in the repetition of the old Gallic hint — " Vse victis." It is well known how French authorities, putting taste before religion, carefully despoiled the shrine of St. Elizabeth, Marburg, of every antique gem with which it was studded, but honestly left untouched all its gold and precious stones. These remarks upon the disappear- ance of the Vatican Cabinet are appended here in the hope of eliciting, from any parties better informed about its fate, that explanation which I have long laboured ineffectually to obtain. But to return to the Douglas Vernicle : its existence in Man has been plausibly accounted for by supposing it brought thither by T. Stanley, the last Catholic occupant of THE EMERALD VERNIGLE. 109 the see. During his sequestration and detention in London under Edward VI., he was on intimate terms with the Norfolk family, then in close relation with the court of Spain, and therefore in the way of ob- taining similar relics. A second example, bearing the same inscription, but slightly varied and modernised, which now hangs in the sub-librarian's room in the Bodleian Library, was presented by Mrs. Mary Prince (1722), "painted by herself," a copy, doubtless, of some older work, accompanied by a portrait of the " Eoyal Martyr," from the same hand ; both, as my informant hath it, " horrid daubs." The current story that a third exists in the Provost's lodge, Trinity College, Dublin, has proved, upon enquiry, totally without foundation. Another, with some slight variations in the inscription, well painted and in ex- cellent preservation, has been long in the possession of the Lechmere family, at Ehydd, Worcestershire. The prototype of all these pictures there are many reasons for supposing to be the one discovered by M. Coutet in an out-of-the-way chateau of Yaucluse ; the description of which cannot be better given than in his own words •. — " A 1' entree du village de Grambois, petite commune du canton de Pertuis, arrondisse- mentd'Apt, s'eleve un modeste chateau, assez moderne, rnais dont tout l'ameublement rappelle encore la fin du regne de Louis XIV. Tous les appartements sont tapisses en haute lisse et renferment quelques tableaux remarquables. Mais le plus curieux sans contredit est un buste de Notre Seigneur, barbu, vu de profil, sur fond d'or, et entoure (Tune aureole, composee de tetes d'anges, ailees. Les proportions de ce joli tableau 110 THE EMERALD VERNICLE. sont d'environ 30 centimetres de hauteur sur 20 de largeur. 1 II est peint sur cuivre, avec un cadre en ebene, couvert de moulures, et releve par des coins en argent ciseles. La figure du Christ est celle d'un homme dans la force de l'age, elle est plutot serieuse que triste, avec ce noble caractere qui nous est transmis par 1'iconographie chretienne. Ce qui donne un attrait et un merite particulier a ce curieux echautillon de l'art byzantin, c'est une inscription en vieil anglais, qui occupe toute la partie superieure du tableau, et que je copie textuellement, avec sa naive orthographie : " THE PRESENT FIGVEE IS THE SIMILITVDE OF OVE LOED IHN OVEE SAVIOE 1MPEINTED IN AMAEILD By THE PEEDECESSORS OF 'HE GEEATE TVEKE AND SENT TO THE POPE INNOSENT VIII AT THE COST OF THE GEETE TVEKE FOE A TOKEN FOE THIS CAWSE TO REDEME HIS BEOTHEE HAT WAS TAKYN PEISONOE" 2 The local tradition makes this picture to have been a present from the family of the famous Treasurer, Fouquet, to Pierre Eafelis de Koquesante, Conseiller au Parlement de Provence. He was on the commis- sion appointed in 1661 for the trial of the great " self- helper," and by his exertions got the sentence of death commuted into one of exile; for which act he was himself banished and sequestrated by the exaspe- rated king. The picture is furthermore reported to have been stolen out of the Vatican ; a circumstance that can be referred to no other occasion than the sack of Eome under the Constable Bourbon. Nothing is known of the manner by which it got into Fouquet's 1 About 12 x 8 inches. 2 " Un Portrait de Jesus-Christ, et le prince Zizim." Par Jules Coutet, Sous-Prefect de Drie. (' Reyue archeologique,' iii. p. 101.) THE EMERALD V Eli NIC IE. Ill possession, but the fact of the inscription being in English (which so sorely puzzles M. Coutet) makes it highly probable that it came out of the Gallery at "Whitehall, sold by the Parliament a few years pre- viously. Its existence in that gallery might be ascer- tained by reference to the catalogue drawn up by its keeper, Vanderdoort. Great light is at last thrown upon the source of all these paintings, and of the legend so oddly blundered both as regards the event and the material, by the production of a medal from the King's Cabinet, British Museum. This medal bears the head of the Saviour'to the left— legend IHS XPC SALVATOR MVNDI. On the reverse, "Presentes figurse ad simi- litudinem domini Ihesu Salvatoris nostri et apostoli Pauli in amarildo impressse per Magni Theucri prede- cessores antea singulariter observatse niissas sunt ab ipso Magno Theucro S- D. IM. papse Innocencio octavo pro singulari cleinodio 1 ad hunc fmem ut suum fratrem captivum retineret." Here, at last, is the real cause assigned for the gift by the Sultan to the Pope of the inestimable relic — it was a bribe to induce him to detain his brother in his safe keeping. But the English painter who transferred portrait and legend from the medal to his panel or his copper-plate, being perfectly ignorant of the history of the transaction, very naturally concluded that the emerald was sent in the customary way of ransom, and under that impression translated the "retineret" 1 Probably the German " Kleinod," jewel, Latinised, and, if so, an indication of the atelier of the medal. "Theucro," also, suggests " Tiirke." 112 THE EMERALD VERNICLE. of the legend as " redimeret " — a mistake hardly avoidable under such circumstances. The designer of the celebrated piece of tapestry with the same portrait (in the possession of Bagster, the publisher) has similarly misread the legend of the medal, for his inscription gives the sending of the emerald as "pro redirnento fratris Christianis captivo " (sic). That the medal last mentioned was the real source of the inscription placed upon the paintings is made evident by one curious particular. Instead of "smaragdo," its legend gives the barbarous word " amarildo " ; and this the painters have duly tran- scribed without any definite notion of its meaning ; in fact, some of the variations in its spelling in the diffe- rent copies give reason to suspect that they understood it as the name of a place. Now the word " amarild," being thoroughly un-English, could never have crept into the inscription through the accidental mistake of the painter, but must have existed in the original from which he was making his copy. ( 113 ) NOTICE OF A REMARKABLE INTAGLIO REPRE- SENTING THE CLEPSYDRA USED AT RACES IN THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS. At the dispersion (1864) of the collection of works of ancient art formed by the late Mr. J. W. Brett, I became possessed of a very curious, possibly unique, intaglio, the subject engraved upon the gem being the ancient Clepsydra. Although the nature and general fashion or con- struction of the instrument originally employed by the Greeks, and subsequently used at Eome, for measuring time by the escape of water, may be under- stood from passages in the works of Aristotle, and other writers of antiquity, 1 representations of the clepsydra are of very rare occurrence. An example which has been pointed out in a bas-relief at the Mattei Palace in Eome closely resembles in form the hour-glass of our own times. 2 1 Aristot. ' Problem.' xvi. 8. 2 Figured in Rich's ' Companion to the Latin Dictionary,' v. Clepsydra. I 114 CLEPSTDBA. The remarkable antique gem (drawn to twice the actual size), which I am desirous to bring under the notice of archaeologists, is an intaglio on a "banded agate" (a sardonyx cut transversely), representing two Cupids turned back to back, and supporting in their uplifted arms a huge oviform vase with a con- tracted mouth, whence issues a stream of water. On the belly of the vase appears a horse at full speed, and a large star (the sun). These adjuncts precisely indi- cate the subject of the design : the clepsydra of the Circus Maximus, where the great races were held on December 25, the Natale Solis. In a bas-relief of the date of the Lower Empire, figuring the Hippodrome of Constantinople, a similar vase appears, but more simply mounted, being merely traversed by an axis and turned with a crank handle by the proper official, the entire arrangement being what is still seen in a large grindstone. By this contrivance the instan- taneous inversion of the vase was secured. The contents escaping in a certain definite time showed the number of minutes taken up by each missus, or course, of which, at the Great Games, there were twenty-four. The gem which has suggested this brief notice, in itself a very valuable relic of ancient art — a fine engraving of the best Roman period — doubtless is a faithful picture of the elegant adaptation of such a timekeeper that adorned the Circus Maximus in the days of the first Caesars. There is a copy of this subject in the Blacas Cabinet, made by a modern artist, who, not comprehending its real meaning, has converted the whole into a lyre, of CLEPSYDRA, 115 which the Cupids form the arms, and the falling water the strings. Visconti describes the same gem, then in the De la Turbie Collection, as typifying Spring, with the two Genii bringers of its genial showers. The clepsydrae used in the ancient law-courts for regulating the time allotted to each pleader were yet simpler in arrangement — a mere vase inverted by an attendant. Pliny incidentally mentions that each marked the third of an hour: — "Dixi horis psene quinque; nam xii clepsydris quas spatiosissimas ac- ceperam sunt additse quatuor." — Ep. ii. xi. 14. Prom the fact that so many clepsydrae were assigned to each pleader before opening his case, it would appear that a large number were kept in readiness, filled beforehand, and inverted in succession by the special officer until the speaker's allowance was run out. Hence, in the extant speeches of the Attic orators, we find "water" perpetually used as a synonym for "time." This custom supplies Martial with a humorous allusion where, describing a dull declaimer repeatedly moistening his throat with a glass of water during the progress of his interminable harangue, he suggests that it would be an equal relief both to himself and to the audience were he to drink every time out of the clepsydra itself: 1 — " Septem clepsydras magna tibi voce petenti Arbiter invitus Cseciliane dedit. At tu nmlta diu ducis, vitreisque tepentem Am pnllia potas semisupinus aquam ; Ut tandem saties vocemque sitimque rogamus, Jam de clepsydra Oapciliane bibas." — Ep. vi. 35. 1 The reader who may desire further information in regard to the clepsydra of the Greeks and Romans, or the water-clocks of mediaeval i 2 116 CLEPSYDMA. The picture of the Vatican Virgil (vi. 414) repre- sents Minos seated in judgment. At his side is a table and a high square frame supporting a large globular vase upon pivots, exactly after the arrange- ment of the clepsydra of the Hippodrome. Its intro- duction clearly refers to the " urnam movet," but the painter, not being acquainted with the old practice of trying the cases in the order given them by lot, has put here the clepsydra (court-clock) for its repre- sentative. " . As when a girl Plays with a clepsydra of hammered brass, Whilst she its pipe stops with her pretty hand, And dips the vessel in the yielding wave, No drop can enter — for the pent-up air Falls heavily and shuts the numerous holes. But when she lifts her hand the air escapes ; Pours in the waters in a copious flood. Again, when the same vase with water filled Distends its brazen womb, but mortal hand Doth close the passage of its gaping mouth, Then strives th' external air to force its way Through those same apertures, and bars the flow, Keeping fast the passage of the sounding tube. Remove the hand — the former scene 's reversed ; Furious pours in tie air, whilst from below The loosened water gushes in a stream." This simile of the Sicilian, Empedocles, enables us to form a clear idea of the simple machine of his primitive times (b.c. 414). The bottom of the vessel was pierced like a colander, whilst the top was solid, times, may be referred to the curious particulars collected by Beck- mann, in his ' History of Inventions,' in the dissertation on Water- clocks, and also in that on Clocks and Watches. Notices of writers who have treated on water-clocks are given by Fabricius, ' Biblio- graph. Antiquaria,' p. 1011 ; and by Berthoud, ' Art de mesurer le temps par les horloges.' CLEPSYDRA. 117 having merely a short pipe inserted that could be easily closed with the, finger. Supposing this vessel, when empty, to be immersed in water, so long as the orifice above was stopped, no water would enter through the holes below, in consequence of the resist- ance of the confined air. And, conversely, if filled with water, the water would be retained so long as the upper orifice was stopped. The principle was exactly that of the common trick of giving a person, to uncork, a bottle with perforated sides. This simple plan enabled the clepsydra to be filled expeditiously by merely plunging it into a vat of water. The mediaeval watering-pots for gardens were made in earthenware upon this principle. Perfect specimens have come to light in London excavations, and are figured in C. E. Smith's Catalogue of the Museum proceeding from that source. 1 - This contrivance in its primitive form, it will be perceived, only marked the lapse of a fixed portion of time, and not the steps of its actual progression. Its improvement and adaptation to this important use was due to Ctesibius of Alexandria some two centuries before our sera, a mechanician who had paid particular attention to hydraulics. The principle of his water- clock was simple and effectual; a cylindrical vessel filled with water bearing up a float loosely fitting its interior, out of which rose a vertical gauge marked with the hours, which, by its gradual ascent, as the 1 Athenseus (xiii. 567) mentions a lady of pleasure at Athens who got the title of Clepsydra, from her selling her favours according to the measurement of this time-keeper. KKe\j/v8pa, ourms iMjOq avrr) fj iratpa eVf i'Si/ irpbs Kktyvhpav avvovula^ev Has Keva>8rj, ws ' Aa-K~Kr]7ndSrjs eiprjlcev. 118 CLEPSYDRA. water entered through a small aperture into the cylinder, showed the passing away of the day with tolerable accuracy. Indeed, after due allowance had been made in the first construction for the variation in the rapidity of the water's inflow as the weight of the column above augmented, in the equable climate of Egypt, where the atmospheric pressure may be assumed as almost constant, a very efficient time- keeper, never liable to get out of order, was thus readily attainable. And such must have been the case, since the principle was applied to the most com- plex motions, for Yitruvius has a chapter upon the construction of a clepsydra which, besides the hours, told the moon's age, the zodiacal Sign for the month, and several other particulars — in fact, it was a regular astronomical clock. His details, though in their time a valuable guide to the horologist used to the making of such machines, are now so obscure and complicated as to afford but a confused idea of its mode of working. The principle, however, is sufficiently in- telligible : the float, scaphium or phellos, as it moved upwards, by means of the vertical column fixed in it, drove different series of cog-wheels, tympana denticulis cequalibus, which impelled in their turn other sets, " by means of which figures are made to move, obelisks to twirl about, pebbles or eggs are discharged, trumpets are sounded, and many other tricks, parerga, put in action." : The admission-pipe was made either out of gold, or a gem perforated, in order neither to wear away nor to be liable to fouling. But there is a circumstance that renders it extremely probable the 1 Vitruvius, lib. ix. c. viii. CLEPSYDRA. 119 common Eoman clepsydra had both a regular dial-face and one hand, set in motion by a string and float, exactly like the index in onr wheel barometers. In his horologium anaphoricum, the dial, painted with the world and the zodiac, was traversed by an axle, on which was wound a flexible brass chain, supporting by its one end the float, on the other a balance weight, saburra, equal to that of the float. As the latter rose with the water, so the balance weight, descending, unwound the chain and made the dial revolve. In two of Albrecht Diirer's engravings, known as " The Knight and Death," and " Melancholy," the hour-glass there represented displays a dial (of different shape in each instance, a circle in one, a quadrant in the other) fixed upon its top, and marking the hours by the re- volution of a hand. This result could only be attained by the contrivance just noticed ; and it is allowable to conjecture that the notion was borrowed from the ancient water-clock. At what precise time the classic timekeeper became obsolete cannot now be ascertained ; but a water- clock is specified amongst the presents sent by Haroun-al-Easchid to Charlemagne, early in the ninth century. 1 Yet further, the Romans had already " given Time a voice," to make them take note of his loss ; for, though Petronius makes the millionaire Trinalchio 1 a.d. 807. " Horologium ex aurichalco arte mechanica mirifice composition, in quo duodecim horarum cursus ad clepsydram verte- batur, cum totidem sereis pilulis qua ad completionem horarum decidebant, et casu suo subjectum sibi cymbalum tinnire faciebant." — Eginhard, ' Ann. Franc' In the ' Obronicon Turoneuse ' it is stated that the hours were marked not only by a sound (cymbalo), but by twelve horsemen issuing from windows. 120 CLEPBYDBA. keep a trumpeter who by his hourly blast apprises him " how much of his life is spent," and warns him to make the most of the remainder (which could not have been done without some exact mode of marking the time being accessible to this human bell), yet, in the next century, Lucian, amongst the numerous con- veniences of certain newly built baths, describes a horologium that proclaimed the hour dia. /mvKTjfxaro? — " by means of a roaring sound." 1 This sound was doubtless produced by hydraulic pressure upon the air contained in a cupola with pipes attached, according to the plan so skilfully elaborated by the Romans of the Decline in their hydraulis or water-organ. The prin- ciple of the latter was exactly that of the steam- whistle, water-pressure being substituted for that of heated vapour; and the confined air, driven into avast brazen cylinder, or turris, by means of forcing-pumps (worked sometimes by seventy men at once), was allowed to escape through valves placed in pipes ar- ranged above, and regulated by keys worked by the performer. Vitruvius has minutely given all details. 2 It will hence be seen how Lucian's horologium might have made its voice audible to as great a distance as the modern giant whose whistle so per- petually assails our ears. The same contrivance is evidently alluded to, and at the same time explained, by Lucilius, the friend of Seneca, in his ' iEtna/ 293 : — " Nam veluti sonat hora die Tritone canoro Pellit opus collectus aquse victusque moveri Spiritus, et longas emugit buccina voces." Lucian, ' Hippias,' 8. CLEPSYDRA. 121 A sudden gush of water, admitted into the cavity of the figure by the opening of a valve, expelled the air by the only passage left for its escape, the pipe forming the trumpet. Our cuckoo-clocks still perform upon the same principle, only substituting a small pair of bellows for the old water-power. It must be men- tioned that the Cambridge MS. of Lucilius (the most ancient extant) reads " due " for " die " in the passage cited, which makes no sense at all, and is not much helped by the latest editor's correction into "duci." The reading now proposed carries conviction with it, so easily explained as the slight blunder of the ancient scribe ; besides the moral argument that a simile is naturally taken from some well known, or commonly used, object. Add to this, Triton's profession was that of trumpeter, and whenever figured in ancient art, he is sounding his spirally twisted, straight buccina ; in the " parerga " mentioned by Vitruvius, he would necessarily be introduced in that capacity. The name horologium seems to have been given to the clepsydra, or "steal-water," after the improvements in the latter enabled it to tell the time. The same term is used for that other most ancient indicator, the sun- dial. This originally was no more than a column, the shadow of which by the variations in its length marked the hour. Aristophanes speaks of its being dinner time^when the shadow of this gnomon, which he terms arov^eiov, waxed ten feet long. Augustus, says Pliny, converted an Egyptian obelisk (that now serving the same purpose in Eome, on the Monte Citorio) into a gigantic gnomon in front of his Mausoleum in the Campus Martius. Pliny notices that in his day it 122 CLEPSYDBA. had ceased to mark the hour correctly, either through " some change in the solar orbit," or the settlement of its own foundations, in spite of the vast depth (equal to the height of the obelisk) at which they had been laid by the emperor's architect. 1 Vitruvius assigns to Berosus the Chaldean the in- vention of the concave sun-dial (the usual form with the ancients), the " hemicyclium excavatum ex quad- rato ;" to Aristarchus, of Samos, the convex kind, the " hemisphserium," and also the horizontal dial ; to Scopinas, of Syracuse, the vertical, " plinthus, lacunar,"' one of which was set up in the Circus Maminius ; to Theodorus, that for all latitudes, 7r/?oVlaJy The Laocoon Group, restored from the Arundell Seal. To face page 151. ( 151 ) SEAL SET WITH AN INTAGLIO OF THE LAOCOON, USED BY THOMAS COLYNS, PEIOK OF TYWARDRETH, CORNWALL, EARLY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. When Goethe, for the first time in his life, had the opportunity of studying a collection of antique gems (in the Hemsterhuis Cabinet), the impression which, at the very outset, forced itself upon his mind was, " that here it was also undeniable that copies of great, im- portant, ancient works, for ever lost to us, are pre- served, like so many jewels, within these narrow limits ; hardly any branch of art wanted a repre- sentative amongst them ; in scarcely any class of subjects was a deficiency to be observed." I have else- where (' Handbook of Engraved Gems,' p. 45) adduced several examples which have come under my own ob- servation in the pursuit of the same study, that amply corroborate this opinion of the acutest of German critics; and I have there described gems which are the only things preserving the memory of the, in their day, wonders of the world, the master- 152 INTAGLIO OF THE LAOGOON. pieces of Canachus, Apelles, Lysippus, and Leochares. Gems, to the same extent as coins, have carried down to our times exact ideas of such marvels of art, or monuments of pristine creeds, like celebrated statues of deities, as were from their nature objects of popular worship to the communities issuing the coins stamped with their figures ; but gems go far beyond this limit, and in this very province of creative art claim an infinitely more extensive domain. To say nothing of Painting (which has bequeathed little to us by the way of numismatics), the Grlyptic art has, from the very beginning, especially delighted in rivalling her elder sister, Sculpture, and in perpetuating, in miniature, those performances of hers that recommended them- selves, not by the traditional sanctity only of the object, but by their intrinsic merit and beauty, or by the celebrity of their authors. To the same causes is it due that engraved gems are almost the sole means enabling us to form a notion of the more essential principles of ancient Painting — its rules of composition and design in its best days — which otherwise would have all but entirely perished, inasmuch as vase- painting, which would otherwise have preserved their remembrance in a yet more complete manner (as our lithographs do the pictures of modern times), was in rapid decadence before historical painting had truly commenced ; whilst, on the other hand, the frescoes of the later ancients, copies of these masterpieces, have long since shared their fate, their scanty, half obliterated remains, like the Pompeian, being merely sufficient to assure us of the immensity of our loss. But gems possess a further value of their own. INTAGLIO OF THE LAO 00 ON. 153 Besides summoning up before us the beauteous spectres of what has passed away for ever, they have the practical advantage of empowering us rightly to understand that which has survived the wreck of ages, though with a maimed and mutilated existence, and which too often has suffered as much from the in- judicious friendship of modern restorers as from the hostility of accident, or old iconoclastic fanaticism. Of all such glyptic traditions of the original state of memorable antique works, none has hitherto been brought to light so replete with interest to all lovers of art, equally with archaeologists, as the little relic forming the subject of the present memoir — an interest derived from the important service it lends towards the true restoration of, perhaps, the most celebrated and remarkable of all extant remains of ancient sculpture. For the knowledge of this monu- ment, almost as deserving of notice from the circum- stances of its preservation as from its special value in the subject under discussion, I am indebted (as on many former occasions of the like nature) to the kind- ness of Mr. Albert Way, who lately communicated to me the impression of the private seal 1 (figured [p. 151] double original size) of Thomas Colyns, Prior of Ty- wardreth, from a.d. 1507 to 1539. This signet was 1 Attached to a document now in the possession of Lord Arundell of Wardour. We are here indebted to the researches of our friend Mr. Smirke, whose investigations of documentary evidence and of ancient remains in the western counties have frequently contributed to the gratification of the Institute. The grant to which the signet of Prior Colyns is appended was brought to light at "Wardour Castle by Mr. Smirke. The intaglio of Laocoon is noticed by him in Dr. Oliver's ' Monasticon,' Additional Supp. p. 5. See the memoir of Colyns, ' Monast. Dioc. Exon.' p. 35. 154 INTAGLIO OF TEE LAOCOON. set with an antique intaglio (on sard, as its style of cutting seems to indicate), a spirited though minute reproduction of the famous group of the Laocoon. In my own judgment, based upon the long-pursued com- parative study of ancient glyptics, the work of this intaglio exhibits nothing of the style of the first quarter of the Oinquecento, so easily recognisable in its treatment of complicated designs like this, 1 nor even of the Eoman imperial school, but rather pos- sesses every characteristic warranting its ascription to the best period of Greek art in this particular branch, viz. the two centuries commencing with the sera of Lysippus and Pyrgoteles. It is necessary thus to premise with the confession that the antique origin of the work is to a certain degree only conjectural, resting as it does upon critical decisions alone, not upon chrono- logical data that render its authorship (Greek or Eoman) a matter beyond all dispute : which would have been the case had the Cornish prior, its last owner, flourished within the preceding century, when gem-engraving yet slumbered, together with the Laocoon, amidst the dust of the perished empire. For the marble group, its prototype, was disinterred as early as 1512 from its burial-place on the Esquiline, by Felix de Fredis, who still " glories in death" in the discovery, says his epitaph in the Ara Cceli. Hence there is a possibility (sufficient to disquiet the faith of those incompetent, from want of special knowledge of the art, to ap- 1 Whoever has examined with an experienced eye the miniature groups of the greatest proficient in this line, P. M. da Pescia, the friend of M. Angelo, will at once perceive that our Laocoon displays a totally different technique in the mode of its execution. INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. 155 predate the evidence borne by the gem itself to its own Hellenic parentage, however sufficient the same may be to connoisseurs) that Colyns, who is known to have had transactions with the Apostolic See under Leo X., may have procured, for his own delectation, a gem-copy from the newly-discovered and far-famed sculpture, done by some clever hand among the in- numerable rivals of Valerio Vicentino flourishing there at the time, when "si ne era cresciuto si gran numero che era una meraviglia," as Vasari tells us, that is, before the fatal sack of the city in 1528. This uncertainty is increased by the unlucky lateness of date to the document (1529) ; one prior or shortly subsequent to 1512 would have settled the question in favour of my position ; but it will be perceived that Colyns lived and sealed for many years after the discovery of the marble. Another consideration must be taken into account. Before the discovery of the impression which forms the subject of this enquiry, no antique representation of the Laocoon group had ever made its appearance. Nothing of the kind is to be found in Winckelmann's Catalogue of the immense and all- comprehensive Stosch collection (confined to antiques) ; and although Easpe, in his Catalogue of Tassie's pastes, does put down eight repetitions of the group in gems, yet, as he gives the post of honour amongst them to that signed by Flavio Sirletti (1700-37), it may safely be concluded that he regarded the rest as modern per- formances, and of trivial importance. Having now, as candour required, stated the weightiest objections that occur to me as possible to be brought, with any show of reason, against my own 156 INTAGLIO OF TEE LAOCOON. decision in the case, the next step is to produce con- firmatory evidence in its favour ; and such evidence is most unexpectedly furnished by a single particular in the seal, rendering testimony of the utmost value on my side, when it comes to be dispassionately examined in all its bearings upon the question. The intaglio differs from the marble group, as we see it at present (besides some minor details), in one grand point — the action of the right hand of the father. He appears on the wax attempting, with his right arm bent, to tear away the head of the serpent from his throat, into which it has already fastened its fangs, whilst at the same time he vainly averts his face from its attack. Now in the marble the action is totally different : Laocoon extends the same arm at full length, and forces away from him merely a fold of the serpent's body, the head of which appears much lower down. Singularly enough, one of our first living sculptors recently pointed out (to my informant whilst con- templating the group in his company at Borne) this very action of the principal figure, as being not merely unmeaning, but positively detrimental to the force and expression of the whole design. But the dis- crepancy is easily explained. This portion of the marble was wanting upon its discovery, and was im- mediately restored — by M. Angelo, as the story, of course, goes — consistently with his own false con- ception of the original attitude. 1 Nevertheless, a small projection is still visible on the head of Laocoon, sufficient to have guided a more sagacious restorer 1 Most likely being misled by Virgil's expression (' JEia.' ii. 220) : " Simul manibus tendit divellere nodos." INTAGLIO OF THE LAO 00 ON. 157 to a better understanding of his duty, by suggesting the former adhesion of the serpent's bite in that par- ticular place. For it will be perceived, upon the information of our gem, that the sculptor had, as his better knowledge of nature dictated, made his twin- serpents fasten their teeth on the two most mortal parts — the jugular vein and the region of the heart. Virgil himself beheld the attack made upon the head of the principal victim ; his Laocoon stands — " Perfusus same vittas atroque cruore.'' Now this very discrepancy demonstrates, in my opinion, that the gem-copy was taken when the marble was still perfect, and therefore before the date of 1512, and the Italian Revival. It is inconceivable that any Cinquecento gem engraver should have presumed to restore the design in a sense so strongly differing from that sanctioned by the overwhelming authority of the " divine " Florentine ; or again, and what is more to the purpose, that, having such audacity, he should have exhibited in his conjecture an intelligence so much superior to the greatest of modern artists. This last is a moral argument, and derives its weight from other considerations than those of art criticism, but it appears to me irresistible when backed by the evidence afforded by the technical execution of the intaglio itself, worked out, as the impression, though dulled and wasted by time, unmistakably shows, almost entirely with the diamond point, that grand agent of the best masters in ancient glyptics, but totally unknown to their emulators of the Cinquecento school. Accounts vary greatly as to the restorer of the arm. Vasari states that Bandinelli, when making his copy 158 INTAGLIO OF THE LA 00 ON. of the group (finished in 1525) now in the Galleria, Florence, " also restored the antique Laocoon in the right arm, the which being broken off and never found, Baccio made one in wax, the full size, that cor- responded with the muscles, and with the boldness and character of the original, and united with it in such a manner as to prove how well Baccio understood his profession ; and this model served him for making the perfect arm of his own work " (' Vita di Baccio Bandinelli'). But Winckelmann ('H. A.' x. 1, § 13) has the following account of the restoration : — " The right arm of Laocoon, which was wanting and replaced by one of terra-cotta, M. Angelo formerly thought of restoring, and commenced cutting it out of marble in the roughest way possible, but never finished it ; this piece therefore now lies under the statue. This arm, entwined with the serpents, would have bent itself on high over the head of the statue. . . . Bernini has, on the contrary, stretched out the arm restored by him in terra-cotta, in order to leave the head of the figure free, and that no other portion might approach the same in an upward direction." It must, however, be observed here that, had M. Angelo attempted the restoration, it could not possibly have escaped the knowledge, and the chronicling, of his devoted admirer, Vasari, who says nothing of it. Winckelmann must certainly be confounding the great Michele with his obscure friend Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, who is actually mentioned by Yasari (' Vita di G. Ang. Montorsoli') as having "restored the left arm, which was wanting, of the Apollo, and the right of the Laocoon," for Clement VII. INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. 159 But, whether well-grounded or not, the tradition proves his idea of the proper action of the arm to have been equally wide of the original 1 as what we see at present, whether that be due to Bandinelli or to Bernini. In the Paris intaglio of this group (clearly a Cinque- cento work, though published by Mariette as undoubt- edly antique) the arms of Laocoon and one son are similarly bent, but elevated considerably more above the heads : showing the nature of the first restoration. 1 To attribute a Grecian origin to the copy of a sculpture believed by a large section of the antiquarian world 2 to have been executed in Pliny's own times, certainly demands some explanation on my part. A few remarks therefore, or rather a contribution of fresh conjectures towards the elucidation of this long dis- puted question, will probably not be thought out of place as a conclusion to this notice. The soundest mode of approaching the subject is to examine the actual words of Pliny, in which the conflicting opinions discover equally good grounds for the most discordant conclusions. " Quorundam claritati in operibus eximiis obstante numero artificum, quorum nee unus occupat gloriam, nee plures pariter nominari possunt ; sicut in Laocoonte qui est in Titi imperatoris domo, opus omnibus et picture et statuarise artis praeferendum. Ex uno lapide eum ac liberos draconumque mirabiles nexus de consilii sententia fecere summi artifices, Hegesander et Polydorus et Athenodorus Ehodii. Similiter Palatinas domos Csesarum replevere probatis- 1 Our Laoooon'a hand almost touches his ear. 2 Headed by Thiersch in his ' Epochen der hildenden Kunst.' 160 INTAGLIO OF TEE LAO CO ON. simis signis Craterus cum Pythiodoro, Polydeuces cum Hermolao, Pythiodorus alter cum Artemone, et singu- lariter Aphrodisius Trallianus" (xxxvi. 5). The point in dispute is whether Pliny meant to imply that the three Ehodian partners executed this unrivalled group "at the commission of Titus," as those named in the next sentence are beyond all question mentioned as working for the preceding Csesars, " whose palace they filled with their own highly approved sculptures ; " — or whether he merely cites the Laocoon as " then standing in Titus's palace," but the work of artists belonging to a much earlier period, perhaps to the school of Lysippus, to which the majority of critics at present refer them. The latter interpretation of the passage seems to me the true one. Pliny's prime object in quoting the Laocoon was indubitably the same as for quoting the names of the then modern sculptors in the passage following : to substantiate the assertion with which he starts, " that the copartnership of artists in a work, however meritorious the result, deprives them individually of the credit they deserve." This he shows by examples, taken, as the natural mode of arguing in similar cases suggests, from both old and recent experience ; addu- cing the Laocoon as the most conclusive instance in the former class (probably on account of some special predilection of his patron Titus for that piece), and the very praiseworthy modern sculptures decorating the edifices on the Palatine as proving the same un- welcome truth in the case of artists of his own times. It is clear to me that the Laocoon is adduced for no other reason than as being the most conspicuous INTAGLIO OF THE LAOGOON. 161 example known to the historian of a great sculpture produced by a partnership of artists. The very expres- sion laid hold of to prove its recent execution — •" now standing in Titus's palace " — has a contrary effect on my judgment, for it sounds more applicable to an old work, transferred from another destination, than to one just completed for the place it filled ; whilst the " similarly " commencing the next sentence infers a comparison between the Past and the Present. Pliny evidently considered that the highest claim of the Laocoon group to admiration was the cutting of the whole out of a single block, for a Little above he has pointed out the same circumstance in the master- piece of a certain Lysias — an Apollo and Diana standing together in a quadriga — a piece so much esteemed by Augustus that he had selected it (which proves it an older and not Roman work) to adorn the. arch erected by him to the memory of his father, Octavius. This notice of the group by Lysias, equally elabo- rate in its details with the Laocoon, may serve to throw light upon the original destination of the latter work — to adorn the pediment of a temple of Apollo — as the very nature of the first-named piece of sculpture assures must have been the case with it. The appro- priateness of the subject for such a position, though not obvious at first, is however completely established by the explanation Hyginus gives of the cause of the miraculous destruction of Laocoon. He was the priest of Apollo, but had sacrilegiously polluted by inconti- nence the shrine of the pure god of Light. This tradition also accounts for the choice of the particular M 162 INTAGLIO OF TEE LAOCOON. ministers of divine vengeance, the serpent being Apollo's most noted attribute. 1 On the other hand, the "earth-bom dragon" had nothing to do with Neptune, to whom Virgil, compelled by his plot, ascribes its mission, both as being the arch-enemy of Troy, and desirous to punish Laocoon for having pro- fanely struck the horse, peculiarly sacred to that god as the actual creator of the animal. 2 The punishment of Laocoon therefore, exhibited in life-like horror above the entrance to the temple of Phcebus, read an awful lesson on the necessity of purity to priests and votaries alike. The choice of marble instead of bronze for the material of so complicated a design as this, which by its nature falls rather within the province of statuaria in metal than of sculpture/, in stone, is at once accounted for, if my idea concerning its proper destination be accepted. All intelligent readers of ancient notices of works of art will have perceived that for statues intended to be honoured by mortals, or to do honour to mortals, in the form of gods or memorial-figures of distinguished men, metal was re- garded as the only appropriate medium, partly from traditional usage as having been the first to be so employed, partly from its superior costliness. Dsedalus and Learchus and their disciples, with their figures in hammer-wrought bronze, preceded by many genera- tions Scyllis and Dipoenus, the Cyprian, inventors of 1 The Pythian Oracle is commonly expressed on gems by a column entwined with a serpent, and supporting a raven, Apollo's own pro- phetic bird. 2 Hence the sea-faring Carthaginians, and, after them, the Saxon pirates, took the horse for the national cognisance. INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. 163 sculpture in marble. 1 Praxiteles is noted by Pliny as a remarkable exception to tlie rule, and to have done bis best in marble, " marmoris gloria superavit etiam semet." But for architectural decoration, necessarily meant to be viewed from a distance, and where the utmost conspicuousness was the greatest recommenda- tion, marble was with good reason preferred to bronze. Its brilliant white, 2 yet further enhanced by the accus- tomed tinting of the background, rendered all its details distinguishable at the greatest distance from which they possibly could be viewed. No instance occurs to my recollection where the pediment or frieze of a temple is mentioned as decorated with whole figures, or with rilievi, in metal. The group of the Laocoon would be with equal propriety chosen to fill the tympanum of a temple of Phoebus as that of Niobe and her children, teaching another moral, to decorate one consecrated to his goddess sister. Any one with a tincture of ancient art who reads Virgil must often have been struck, and then highly interested, with the scrupulous anxiety the very erudite poet manifests to have good ancient authority for all his descriptions. One often feels that he is trans- ferring into his verse almost servile copies of the paintings and sculptures by the great masters of old Greece then accumulated around him in the palaces of his patrons at Rome. Here and there the pictorial representation has had such overpowering charms for him that he introduces it as an incident somewhat 1 Who, migrating to Sicyon, first practised the new art there about 01. 50, B.C. 650 (Plin. xxxvi. 4). 2 Its name comes from the same root as papnaLpuv, " to shine." M 2 164 INTAGLIO OF THE LAO CO ON. clumsily incorporated with the rest of his story, like the defence and fall of the wooden tower at the taking of Troy. That he had admired some ancient repre- sentation of the fate of Laocoon, no one can douht after reading his truly pictorial description of the scene ; but that he drew his inspiration from the very sculpture we still possess is by no means so certain. There is one notable variation in his account of the mode of attack of the serpents from that adopted by Hegesander and his colleagues: in his verse they make a double coil around the throat and body of the father, and tower aloft over him with their heads and necks : — " Bis medium amplexi, bis collo squamea circum Oolla dati superant capite et cervicibus altis ; " whereas, in the sculpture, they leave their victim's neck entirely free, and show no attempt at suffocating him in their coils. Again, Virgil makes them devour the two boys before, they attack the father : — " Corpora natorum serpens amplexus uterque , Implicat, et miseros morsu depascitur artus." The picture of this catastrophe in the Vatican Virgil (ii. 193) is highly interesting, as displaying a totally different manner of treating the subject : neither inspired by the poet's description nor by the extant group. And yet the importance of the latter in every age of the empire would, it were to be supposed, have made it the fixed model for all future painters. But here, Laocoon has one knee on the altar, his sons are twins of three years old, they are lifted from the ground halfway up his sides by the folds of the serpents whose tails encircle his arms, and whose heads point sym- Picture in the Codex Vaticanus. To face page 164. INTAGLIO OF THE LAOGOON. 165 metrically downwards at his hips. He wears a cope flying in the air over his head. A child destroyed by a serpent must have been a very favourite subject with the Greek sculptors, to judge from the frequency with which the "Death of Opheltes " is reproduced upon gems ; for it is an article of faith with me that no fine gem-work was without a more celebrated prototype in statuary. The subject was recommended to ancient taste not so much by the importance of the legend it commemorated as by the opportunities it afforded to art in the con- trast between the rounded and the attenuated contours of the victim and the destroyer, and equally for the graceful convolutions into which the coils of the latter could naturally be thrown. Curves and spirals had a special charm for the Grecian eye, as the decoration of the painted vases alone proves to demonstration. Why the Laocoon group should not, in any previously known example, have been taken for his model by the gem-engraver (a fact containing the sole grave ob- jection against the antiquity of the work before us) admits of satisfactory explanation to those experienced in ancient glyptics. Gems of the best period, as a rule, present only a single figure, very rarely do they admit more than two ; to enclose the multiplied details of an entire picture within their narrow limits, was reserved for the misplaced and unsuccessful ingenuity of the Cinquecento school. The ancient engraver knew the capabilities of his art too well to strain after such impossibilities, and never attempted a miniature reduction of a complicated group unless in some special cases where he was induced by the equal importance 166 INTAGLIO OF TEE LAOOOON. of every member of the composition as in his oft repeated copies of the far-famed masterpiece of Euty- chides, the rv^v 7ro\ew? of Antioch, in which the City seated on the Orontes, her founder Seleucus, and the attendant Victory all form one inseparable whole. When the story of Niobe, for example, is represented on a gem, it is sufficiently told by the introduction of no more than the two principal figures, the mother shielding her child ; the escape of iEneas from Troy, by himself carrying his father (which is only equiva- lent to a single figure), and his little son grasping his hand. Unquestionably, therefore, the reason was a very sufficient one, that so happily induced the old engraver to break through the rule of his art and daringly transfer this very elaborate composition to the gem which the tasteful Prior of Tywardreth was fortunate enough to obtain for the embellishment of his personal signet, of which the half effaced im- pression has alone transmitted to us the correct idea of one of the most important existing monuments of antiquity. The discoverer of this most interesting monument has assigned (in a memoir published in the ' Archaeo- logical Journal,' vol. xxv.) some very cogent reasons for changing the ownership of the seal, which point I had taken for granted. His words are : — " I have already stated that the document was a grant of the patronage of a living of which the Convent was patron, to a member of the well-known knightly family of the Arundells of Lauherne. The date is 25 May, 21 Henry VIII. (a.d. 1529) ; about 23 years after the discovery of the mutilated marble group in the INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. 167 vineyard of Felice de Fredis at Eome, in the spring of 1506 : a date which is fixed by contemporary letters, and other early notices. It at first appeared to me (as I stated in Dr. Oliver's Supplement) that the grant being found in a collection of title-deeds and muni- ments of the dissolved Priory, and purporting to be a grant of some property of the Convent, was the iden- tical grant by the Convent ; and it appeared singular that the Convent seal (well known, and of a very diffe- rent type) should not be attached to it : but on recon- sideration and reinspection of the original by the favour of Lord Arundell of Wardour, I am satisfied that the seal was the seal of the grantee, Thomas Arundell. The deed is styled in the deed itself an ' indented ' one, and it is so indented along the upper edge in the usual fashion of the time, indicating that it was one of two facsimile instruments, written at opposite ends of a single piece of parchment. The regular seal of the Priory was no doubt attached to the other half, and delivered to the grantee for his own use and security, and was therefore not likely to be found amongst any muniments of the Priory. The bundle of Priory instruments had long been deposited, for some unexplained reason, in the muniment room of the Arundells, though it is not known that any portion of the Convent lands had ever been granted by the Crown to that family. We know, indeed, historic- ally that such a grant was very improbable. That there had, in fact, been some voluntary transactions, directly or indirectly, between the Convent and that family before the dissolution, is apparent from the documents supplied by Dr. Oliver in the volume of 168 INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. the ' Monasticon ' first printed, and included in the long list of instruments under the head of that Priory. "The general practice of the Augmentation Office was, I think, to deliver the muniments of the surrendered monasteries, or some of them only, to the subsequent grantee of the Crown ; but I can easily believe that a religious house, on the eve of its threatened disso- lution., might consider it expedient to put its muni- ments of title into the hands of a powerful and favoured family, on whose known friendship it had good reason to rely. "As the missing deed has at last, after much search, been recovered, I have thought it worth while to print a copy of it, leaving an occasional blank where there is some obscurity or obliteration in the original : and I am also more disposed to do so, because its ex- istence had well nigh become a matter of doubt, and because it gives me an opportunity of correcting some former observations made by me in the supplemental volume of the above work. I there expressed some surprise that the old Prior, then on the verge of his professional extinction, should have possessed himself of an ancient gem, and employed it as the official representative of his House in the course of a strictly canonical and capitular act. That such an ornamental object should be found in the possession and use of the scion of a distinguished family, who figures, if I mistake not, among the young retainers of the magni- ficent Cardinal — who was himself a candidate for the See of Eome, in opposition with the House of the Medici in the person of Clement the Seventh — could INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. 169 be a matter of no surprise at all, In fact, he had in various ways abundant facilities for obtaining from beyond seas such specimens of ancient art, at that time so highly prized." " There are some observations not immediately con- nected with the principal subject of this paper, which occur to me to make in connexion with the Convent, and with the ancient family whose name we find asso- ciated with it in the above document. "Among the muniments of the Priory, which are several hundreds in number, I find one which pur- poses to grant to John Arundell, Esq., eldest son of Sir J. Arundell, Knight, and to two others (probably trustees), the next presentation of the church of St. Austell, also in Cornwall. Like the grant of St. Anthony to Thomas Arundell, it has only one seal attached, accompanied by an apparently autograph sub- scription by the grantee, Jno. Arundell. It is plain that this must be a counterpart, though called a ' scriptum ' only, and not an indenture. The seal is not the Convent seal, but one in a finger-ring, which was doubtless the property of John Arundell. It is remarkable that the seal is a well-executed but fanciful one, perhaps with some mystic meaning, and repre- sents what seem meant for a lion, a crab, and a small mirror. 1 The date of this deed is 15th March, 1530 (in words, not figures), i.e. 21 Henry VIII. It is therefore of nearly the same date as the one sealed 1 An astrological device, embodying for the benefit of the wearer the joint influence of Leo and Cancer (the Souses of Sol and Luna) with that of the planet Venus. The impression shows this engraving to have been cut in the metal of the ring itself, not in any gem. 170 INTAGLIO OF THE LAOOOON. with the Laocoon seal. Copies of this seal, made fifteen years ago, are in the possession of myself and of Mr. Way, and the deed has not been lost, but is now in the possession of Lord Arundell, with the original papers. The autograph signature serves to identify the ownership of the signet-ring, and to confirm what I have already stated, that the instrument is a coun- terpart, as in the case of the Laocoon deed. " At the present time the subscription of the name of a grantee would be a matter of course in a counter- part. At the time of this grant it was not a very usual, or a necessary practice : and so far as my ex- perience extends, the reign of Henry VIII. was about the time when the practice of autograph subscription in addition to a seal was coming into use. It was indeed a marked period in our history as to art, archi- tecture, and legal forms : a sort of line of demarcation between the outgoing and the incoming law about to be followed in the next century by the great living landmark of Lord Chief Justice Coke, whose works constitute a real wall of separation and transition be- tween the living and the dead jurisprudence. "Again^ I find another curious document of a rather earlier date. It is a licence given by the same Prior Colyns to Eichard Wencote, dated on 5 February a.d. 1517. Wencote then was, or had lately been, one of the monks of Tywardreth, and a priest, and the licence enabled him to go to Eome with the utmost expedition, ' cum permagna celeritate/ and there to obtain from the Pope liberty to visit the holy places at his pleasure, ' in fulfilment of his pious and meri- torious vows.' INTAGLIO OF THE LAO GO ON. 171 " Now it may be that the sole object of this visit to Bome was only of a professional or religious character : but it is certain that if the worthy envoy happened to be a man of taste, or had learned at the court of Leo of this famous monument of Ehodian art, of which the praises were at that time sung by Sadoletus in verses of no mean merit, he might have been tempted, or perhaps wa? duly commissioned by the Prior, or his friends at Lauherne, to make an investment in the purchase of such ornamental specimens of glypto- graphic art as the two signets of which the wax im- pressions are now before me." The Laocoon group. ( 173 ) TALISMANS AND AMULETS. Although these terms are usually confounded to- gether, their proper meaning is entirely distinct. Talisman is no more than the corruption in the Arabian mouth of the Greek a7roTeAeer^a., the influence of a planet or zodiacal Sign upon the person born under the same ; whence came the technical term for astrology, v\ airoTeXeffjucmK-?). Now the influence of every degree in each Sign was typified by a fanciful figure, or group, painted in the " Table of Myrio- geneses " (a term to be explained further on), and thus, by a natural transition, in course of time the symbol itself usurped the name, Apotelesma, of the idea which at first it was only meant to portray. A talisman was therefore by its very nature a sigil, symbolical figure, whether engraved in stone or metal, or drawn upon parchment and paper. An excellent illustrative example is the one figured by Raspe, No. 354, where the Abraxas god, carrying the lustral vase, is encircled by the ungrammatical invocation of its Alexandrian fabricator, riPOC HANTAC AN- ©PWnON AOTAI XAPIN TOIC