was stamped with a Victory and hence its name. The gold piece was struck sixty-two years after the silver on such a standard that a scruple was worth twenty sesterces, and this on the scale of the then value of the sesterce made 900 go to the pound. Afterwards it was enacted that 1040 should be coined from gold pounds, and gradually the emperors reduced the weight, most recently Nero reduced it to 45.” This statement of Pliny is supported in various details by several disjointed passages of Varro and Festus. Thus the former says that “the most ancient bronze which was cast was marked with an animal (_pecore notatum_)[444], and elsewhere he says that the ancient money has as its device either an ox, or a sheep, or a swine[445],” a statement repeated by Plutarch and other later writers. Festus (_s.v._ _grave aes_) says “_aes grave_ was so called from its weight because ten _asses_, each a pound in weight, made a _denarius_, which was so named from the very number (i.e. _deni_). But in the Punic war, the Roman people being burdened with debt, made out of every _as_ which weighed a pound (_ex singulis assibus librariis_) six _asses_, which were to have the same value as the former.” We have also a statement in the fragment of Festus (4, p. 347, Müller) that afterwards the _asses_ in the _sestertius_ were increased (_i.e._ to 4 from 2½), and that with the ancients the _denarii_ were of ten _asses_, and were worth a _decussis_, and that the amount of bronze (in the _denarius_) was reckoned at XVI _asses_ by the Lex Flaminia when the Roman people were put to straits by Hannibal[446]. Again, Festus says: “_Asses_ of the weight of a _sextans_ (two ounces) began to be in use from that time, when on account of the Second Punic war which was waged with Hannibal, the Senate decreed that out of the _asses_ which were then libral (a pound in weight) should be made those of a _sextans_ in weight, by means of which when payments began to be made, both the Roman people would be freed from debt, and private persons, to whom a debt had to be paid by the state, would not suffer much loss[447].” Varro likewise is worth hearing: “In the case of silver the term _nummi_ is used: that is borrowed from the Sicilians. _Denarii_ (were so named) because they were worth ten (coins) of bronze each, _quinarii_ because they were worth five each, _sestertius_, because a half was added to two (for the ancient _sestertius_ was a _dupondius_ and a _semis_). The tenth part of a _denarius nummus_ is a _libella_, because it was worth a _libra_ of bronze in weight, and being made of silver was small. The _sembella_ is half the _libella_, just as the _semis_ is of the _as_. _Teruncius_ is from _tres unciae_; as this is the fourth part of the _libella_ so the _quadrans_ is the fourth part of the _as_.” [Illustration: FIG. 58. Sextans (Aes Grave). (The two globules mark the value.)]