The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

492 SIR ARTHUR EVAXS.
where COM OB is interpreted as COMITIS OBRY-
ZIACVS, that is,
"
the standard gold solidus of the
Comes". Whether this official is the "Count of the
Sacred
Auri
"
Largesses or his subordinate the
" Comes
" mentioned in the Notitia of the Western
Empire 92
is more difficult to determine. It is in
favour of the former supposition, however, that there
exists a standard gold weight or exagium solidi with the
triple busts of Honorius, Arcadius, and Theodosius II,
the reverse of which bears the inscription EXAC[IVM]
SOL[IDI] SVB VI[RO] INL[VSTRI] lOhANNI
COm[ITE] S[ACRARVM] L[ARCITIONVM]. 93 The
administration of the mints as a whole was under the
last-named official.
The second class of stamp on the Sirmian bars bears
the names of monetary officials who seem to have
controlled the work of the former officer, to whom
perhaps was entrusted the actual refining of the metal.
One variety bears the inscription :
FL FLAVIA
NVS PRO
SIC AD DICMA>^
This stamp is ascribed by Mommsen 94 to the Procurator
92 This is Willers's suggestion (Num. Zeitschr., xxxi (1899), p. 45).
93 Sabatier, Medailles Byzantines, i, PI. iii. 9 ; Cohen, viii, p. 191. 8
(see, too, Num. Chron., 1878, PL ii. 3).
94 Z. fur Num., xxx (1898), p. 223, and xxxi (1899), p. 38.
The existence of Imperial officials called probatores is ascertained.
The Greek equivalent of probator was fio/a/iao-r/jf. Willers
appositely cites Jeremiah vi. 27 "Probatorera dedi te in populo
meo robustum ; et scies et probabis viam eorum . . . Defecit
sufflatorium, in igne consumptum est plumbum'; frustra conflavit
conflator, malitiae enim eorum non sunt consumptae. Argentuin
reprobuin vocate eos, quia Dominus proiecit illos." In the Greek
translation here probator is doKi^aa-rr^ and argentum reprobuin