[Illustration: Aureus Nummus. (British Museum.)]
AURUM (χρυσός), gold. Gold was scarce in Greece. The chief places
from which the Greeks procured their gold were India, Arabia,
Armenia, Colchis, and Troas. It was found mixed with the sands of the
Pactolus and other rivers. Almost the only method of purifying gold,
known to the ancients, seems to have been that of grinding and then
roasting it, and by this process they succeeded in getting it very
pure. This is what we are to understand by the phrase χρυσίον ἄπεφθον
in Thucydides, and by the word _obrussa_ in Pliny. The art of gilding
was known to the Greeks from the earliest times of which we have any
information. The time when gold was first coined at Athens is very
uncertain, but on the whole it appears most probable that gold money
was not coined there, or in Greece Proper generally, till the time of
Alexander the Great, if we except a solitary issue of debased gold at
Athens in B.C. 407. But from a very early period the Asiatic nations,
and the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands, as well
as Sicily and Cyrene, possessed a gold coinage, which was more or
less current in Greece. Herodotus says that the Lydians were the
first who coined gold, and the stater of Croesus appears to have been
the earliest gold coin known to the Greeks. The Daric was a Persian
coin. Staters of Cyzicus and Phocaea had a considerable currency in
Greece. There was a gold coinage in Samos as early as the time of
Polycrates. The islands of Siphnos and Thasos, which possessed gold
mines, appear to have had a gold coinage at an early period. The
Macedonian gold coinage came into circulation in Greece in the time
of Philip, and continued in use till the subjection of Greece to the
Romans. [DARICUS; STATER.] The standard gold coin of Rome was the
_aureus nummus_, or _denarius aureus_, which, according to Pliny,
was first coined 62 years after the first silver coinage [ARGENTUM],
that is, in the year 207 B.C. The lowest denomination was the
_scrupulum_, which was made equal to 20 sestertii. The weight of the
scrupulum was 18·06 grains. The annexed cut represents a gold coin
of 60 sestertii. Pliny adds that afterwards aurei were coined of 40
to the pound, which weight was diminished, till under Nero they were
45 to the pound. The average weight of the aurei of Augustus, in the
British Museum, is 121·26 grains: and as the weight was afterwards
diminished, we may take the average at 120 grains. The value of the
aureus in terms of the sovereign = 1_l._ 1_s._ 1_d._ and a little
more than a halfpenny. This is its value according to the present
worth of gold; but its current value in Rome was different from
this, on account of the difference in the worth of the metal. The
aureus passed for 25 denarii; therefore, the denarius being 8½_d._,
it was worth 17_s._ 8½_d._ The ratio of the value of gold to that of
silver is given in the article ARGENTUM. Alexander Severus coined
pieces of one-half and one-third of the aureus, called _Semissis_
and _tremissis_, after which time the aureus was called _solidus_.
Constantine the Great coined aurei of 72 to the pound; at which
standard the coin remained to the end of the empire.
[Illustration: Aureus of Augustus. (British Museum.)]
AURUM CŎRŌNĀRĬUM. When a general in a Roman province had obtained a
victory, it was the custom for the cities in his own provinces, and
for those from the neighbouring states, to send golden crowns to him,
which were carried before him in his triumph at Rome. In the time of
Cicero it appears to have been usual for the cities of the provinces,
instead of sending crowns on occasion of a victory, to pay money,
which was called _aurum coronarium_. This offering, which was at
first voluntary, came to be regarded as a regular tribute, and was
sometimes exacted by the governors of the provinces, even when no
victory had been gained.