There is in Pliny, xxviii, 12, seq. a famous statement to the effect that his own age had seen human sacrifice carried out in the Forum Boarium: “nostra aetas vidit.” The whole subject of the ritual offering of men's lives to the gods at Rome in the historical period is full of interest and has been, of course, much discussed, but statements about it continue to be made by writers of authority, which appear to be very dubious when the ancient evidence is rigorously scrutinised. Pliny introduces the theme in a curious manner, not directly, but in order to illustrate the practical efficacy of the precatio when a venerable religious formula is uttered with all the due accompaniments. He instances the devotio of Decius, father and son, and the story of the vestal Tuccia, who, when accused of impurity, addressed a deprecatio to her goddess, and successfully carried a sieve full of water from the Tiber to the forum. (Unfortunately Livy seems to have recorded her condemnation.) Pliny then proceeds: “boario vero in foro Graecum Graecamque defossos aut aliarum gentium cum quibus tum res erat etiam nostra aetas vidit. Cuius sacri precationem qua solet praeire quindecimvirum conlegi magister si quis legat, profecto vim carminum fateatur, omnia ea adprobantibus octingentorum triginta annorum eventibus.”

When this interesting bust, identified and published by Sir Cecil Harcourt Smith, by whose kind permission I reproduce it here, in the Burlington Magazine 1908, was transferred to the British Museum for cleaning purposes in 1916, a close examination of it in its new state led me to think that the portrait character of this obviously Mithraic work had been overstated. The photograph in the Burlington Magazine somewhat exaggerates the prominence of the lower part of the face, which is neither so full nor so individual as the plate suggests; the low Zeus-like forehead differs essentially from the high and rounded brow of the emperor, while the parted hair, curling only at the ends, and the beard are, as Sir Cecil Smith notes, like those of a Zeus, though they are surely very different in character from the frizzed interlacing locks of Commodus. The admittedly Zeus-like character of the bust is in fact against the identification as a Commodus-Mithras, sicnce not only does the youthful god differ in every respect from the ruler of Olympus, but the one known mythological portrait of Commodus, the Commodus-Hercules in the Conservatori, far from modifying the emperor's features to suit his part, rather represents the portrait element as triumphing at the expense of the divine; so that the lion-skin is pushed back and unnaturally balanced on the crest of hair, in order to keep the latter unmodified by one lock or curl, and the polished beauty of the imperial arms supersedes the mighty muscles of the hero. Again, the features of the Salting bust are finer, straighter and less sensual than in any known portrait of the emperor, while the features of the Commodus-Hercules are presented in their most extreme form. Perhaps, then, the explanation of the bust of a portrait is untenable, and its Zeus-like character is perplexing in the case of a head intended for a Mithras.

The ancient Lucania, the area of which corresponds, more or less, to that of the Neapolitan district of Basilicata, the modern province of Potenza, is little known even to the more leisured traveller in Italy; and we must turn to the pages of Keppel Craven and Lenormant for any but the most summary account of it. In the period of the Roman supremacy in Italy no events of singular interest are connected with Lucania, save only in the operations of the Hannibalic war around Grumentum. No military colony of outstanding importance, if we except Venusia to which Apulia lays an equal claim, was founded within its borders; no ancient remains to equal those of the country of the Samnites and the northern Sabellian peoples have attracted the attention of travellers and scholars; the Via Popilia, which ran through the heart of Lucania on its course from Campania to Rhegium, and the Via Herculia, the cross-road which cut through the northern half of Lucania between the Via Appia and the Via Popilia, are amongst the least known and the worst preserved of ancient Italian highways. Even the remains of the ancient Grumentum which lies in the upper valley of the Aciris in the heart of the Lucanian hills, are little known and less visited. Nor has Lucania been altogether fortunate in its local historians, whose weakness has lain especially on the topographical side.

My object in this paper is to present to students of Roman history a general view of the imperial coinage from Augustus to Vespasian, not of course in all its details, but mainly with reference to (1) the mints at which and (2) the authorities by whom it was issued. It is a subject on which recent numismatic research has yielded novel and interesting results, which are probably not yet familiar outside specialist circles. My conclusions are based mainly on independent research work, conducted in the Medal Room of the British Museum, in the years 1912–1914; but I gratefully acknowledge my debt to fellow-workers in the field—M. Mowat, E. Gabrici, the Rev. E. A. Sydenham, to name only a few—above all to L. Laffranchi, who has worked out in detail a number of points which I have only had time to raise and to whose work I shall have more than once to refer.