Did we possess a secret history of the Saturnalia, it would doubtless have afforded some materials for the present article. In those revels of venerable radicalism, when the senate was closed, and the _Pileus_, or cap of liberty, was triumphantly worn, all things assumed an appearance contrary to what they were; and human nature, as well as human laws, might be said to have been _parodied_. Among so many whimsical regulations in favour of the licentious rabble, there was one which forbad the circulation of money; if any one offered the coin of the state, it was to be condemned as an act of madness, and the man was brought to his senses by a penitential fast for that day. An ingenious French antiquary seems to have discovered a class of wretched medals, cast in lead or copper, which formed the circulating medium of these mob lords, who, to ridicule the idea of _money_, used the basest metals, stamping them with grotesque figures, or odd devices--such as a sow; a chimerical bird; an imperator in his car, with a monkey behind him; or an old woman's head, _Acca Laurentia_, either the traditional old nurse of Romulus, or an old courtesan of the same name, who bequeathed the fruits of her labours to the Roman people! As all things were done in mockery, this base metal is stamped with S. C., to ridicule the _Senatus consulto_, which our antiquary happily explains,[89] in the true spirit of this government of mockery, _Saturnalium consulto_, agreeing with the legend of the reverse, inscribed in the midst of four _tali_, or bones, which they used as dice, _Qui ludit arram det, quod satis sit_--"Let them who play give a pledge, which will be sufficient." This mock-money served not only as an expression of the native irony of the radical gentry of Rome during their festival, but, had they spoken their mind out, meant a ridicule of money itself; for these citizens of equality have always imagined that society might proceed without this contrivance of a medium which served to represent property in which they themselves must so little participate.