that of the latter received the name of _fiscus_. Augustus also established a third treasury, to provide for the pay and support of the army, and this received the name of _aerarium militare_. He also imposed several new taxes to be paid into this aerarium. In the time of the republic, the entire management of the revenues of the state belonged to the senate; and under the superintendence and control of the senate the quaestors had the charge of the aerarium. In B.C. 28, Augustus deprived the quaestors of the charge of the treasury and gave it to two praefects, whom he allowed the senate to choose from among the praetors at the end of their year of office. Various other changes were made with respect to the charge of the aerarium, but it was eventually entrusted, in the reign of Trajan, to praefects, who appear to have held their office for two years. AES (χαλκός), properly signifies a compound of copper and tin, corresponding to what we call _bronze_. It is incorrect to translate it _brass_, which is a combination of copper and zinc, since all the specimens of ancient objects, formed of the material called aes, are found upon analysis to contain no zinc. The employment of aes was very general among the ancients; money, vases, and utensils of all sorts, being made of it. All the most ancient coins in Rome and the old Italian states were made of aes, and hence money in general was called by this name. For the same reason we have _aes alienum_, meaning debt, and _aera_ in the plural, pay to the soldiers. The Romans had no other coinage except bronze or copper (_aes_), till B.C. 269, five years before the first Punic war, when silver was first coined; gold was not coined till sixty-two years after silver. The first coinage of aes is usually attributed to Servius Tullius, who is said to have stamped the money with the image of cattle (_pecus_), whence it is called _pecunia_. According to some accounts, it was coined from the commencement of the city, and we know that the old Italian states possessed a bronze or copper coinage from the earliest times. The first coinage was the _as_ [AS], which originally was a pound weight; but as in course of time the weight of the _as_ was reduced not only in Rome, but in the other Italian states, and this reduction in weight was not uniform in the different states, it became usual in all bargains to pay the asses according to their weight, and not according to their nominal value. The _aes grave_ was not the old heavy coins as distinguished from the lighter modern; but it signified any number of copper coins reckoned according to the old style, by weight. There was, therefore, no occasion for the state to suppress the circulation of the old copper coins, since in all bargains the asses were not reckoned by tale, but by weight.--Bronze or copper (χαλκός) was very little used by the Greeks for money in early times. Silver was originally the universal currency, and copper