appears to have been seldom coined till after the time of Alexander the Great. The copper coin was called _Chalcous_ (χαλκούς). The smallest silver coin at Athens was the quarter-obol, and the chalcous was the half of that, or the eighth of an obol. In later times, the obol was coined of copper as well as silver. AES CIRCUMFORĀNĔUM, money borrowed from the Roman bankers (_argentarii_), who had shops in porticoes round the forum. AES ĔQUESTRE, AES HORDĔĀRĬUM, and AES MĪLĬTĀRE, were the ancient terms for the pay of the Roman soldiers, before the regular _stipendium_ was introduced. The _aes equestre_ was the sum of money given for the purchase of the horse of an eques; the _aes hordearium_, the sum paid yearly for its keep, in other words the pay of an eques; and the _aes militare_, the pay of a foot soldier. None of this money seems to have been taken from the public treasury, but to have been paid by certain private persons, to whom this duty was assigned by the state. The _aes hordearium_, which amounted to 2000 asses, had to be paid by single women (_viduae_, i.e. both maidens and widows) and orphans (_orbi_), provided they possessed a certain amount of property. The _aes equestre_, which amounted to 10,000 asses, was probably also paid by the same class of persons. The _aes militare_, the amount of which is not expressly mentioned, had to be paid by the _tribuni aerarii_, and if not paid, the foot soldiers had a right of distress against them. It is generally assumed that these _tribuni aerarii_ were magistrates connected with the treasury, and that they were the assistants of the quaestors; but there are good reasons for believing that the _tribuni aerarii_ were private persons, who were liable to the payment of the _aes militare_, and upon whose property a distress might be levied, if the money were not paid. They were probably persons whose property was rated at a certain sum in the census, and we may conjecture that they obtained the name of _tribuni aerarii_ because they levied the _tributum_, which was imposed for the purpose of paying the army, and then paid it to the soldiers. These _tribuni aerarii_ were no longer needed when the state took into its own hands the payment of the troops; but they were revived in B.C. 70, as a distinct class in the commonwealth, by the Lex Aurelia, which gave the judicia to the senators, equites and tribuni aerarii. AES UXŌRĬUM, was a tax paid by men who reached old age without having married. It was first imposed by the censors in B.C. 403. [LEX JULIA ET PAPIA POPPAEA.]