The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

THE "HORSEMEN" OF TARENTUM.
199
cial expedients to which Rome herself had been reduced
the stress of the Hannibalic war had revolutionized the
by
conditions of the Italian money-markets. In 217 the
value of the originally libral As, which had already in
practice fallen to two ounces, was reduced in virtue of the
Lex Flaminia to a single ounce. At the same time the
weight
of the Roman denarius had fallen from about
4*55 grammes to 3'90, 228 and that of the Victoriatus to
2 '92. Tarentine commerce must have felt the full effect
of this depreciation, since, as already remarked in the
preceding section, the find of early Victoriati within the
ancient walls of Tarentum tends to show that these
Romano-Capuan coins had by this time entirely displaced
the native Tarentine.
It does not seem, however, that the new Tarentine
coinage had any direct relation to the Roman currency
which it temporarily displaced. The average weight of
seven Tarentine pieces of the present class of which I
have a personal knowledge is 3'46 grammes. As compared
with the contemporary Victoriatus, which since 217 had
fallen to 2*92 grammes, this indicates a very considerable
rise in the weight of the principal monetary unit. The
weight, however, is still too low to be confounded with
that of the reduced denarius of 3'90 grammes.
It is clear, however, that in the interests of their prospective
commerce, the Tarentines when adopting a new
standard for their staters, must have endeavoured as far
as possible to conform to one or other of the monetary
228
Mommsen, op. cit. (ed. Blacas, ii. 22 and 77), who, while
to decide whether the reduction of the
admitting his inability
denarius weight had been gradual or the result of a special law,
points out that the reduced weight becomes permanent about
the year 217 B.C.