276

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

LXIX.

The coin.

strength, though not the beauty, of the capital;to fortify the seat of their arms and counsels:and as often as they ascended the hill, the cold-est minds must have glowed with the remem-brance of their ancestors. II. The first Caesarshad been invested with the exclusive coinage ofthe gold and silver; to the senate they abandon-ed the baser metal of bronze or copper.* 1 Theemblems and legends were inscribed on a moreample field by the genius of flattery; and theprince was relieved from the care of celebratinghis own virtues. The successors of Diocletian despised even the flattery of the senate: theirroyal officers at Rome , and in the provinces, as-sumed the sole direction of the mint; and thesame prerogative was inherited by the Gothickings of Italy , and the long series of the Greek,the French , and the German dynasties. Afteran abdication of eight hundred years, the Romansenate asserted this honourable and lucrative pri-vilege; which was tacitly renounced by thepopes, from Paschal the second to the establish-ment of their residence beyond the Alps. Someof these republican coins of the twelfth and thir-teenth centuries are shewn in the cabinets ofthe curious. On one of these, a gold medal,Christ is depictured holding in his left hand abook with this inscription: “The vow of the‘ Roman senate and people: Rome the

11 This partition of the noble and baser metals between the emperor«.nd senate must however be adopted, not as a positive fact, but as theprobable opinion of the best antiquaries (see the science des Medailles of the Pere Joubert, tom ii, p. 208-211, in the improved and scarceedition of the Baron de la Bastie).