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On this page: Argentum

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ARGKNTUM.

Sat. i, 6. 86), while others speak of them with contempt (Plant. Cure. iv. 2. 20, Casin. Prol. 25, &c.; Trucul. i. 1. 47) ; but this contradiction may "be easily reconciled by distinguishing between a lower and a higher class of argentarii. A wealthy argentarius who carried on business on a large scale, was undoubtedly as much a person of re­ spectability as a banker in modern times; but others who did business only on a small scale, or degraded their calling by acting as usurers, can­ not have been held in any esteem. It has already been observed that the argentarii had their shops round the forum (Liv. ix. 40, xxvi. 11, 27; Plaut. True. i. 1.51; Terent. Phorm. v. 8. 28, Adelph. ii. 4. 13); hence to become bankrupt, was expressed by foro cedere9 or abire, or foro nieryi. (Plaut. Epid. i. 2. 16 ; Dig. 16. tit. 3. s. 7. § 2.) The .shops or booths were public property, and built by the censors, who sold the .use of them to the argen­ tarii. (Liv. xxxix. 44, xl. 51, xli. 27, xliv. -16 ; comp. J. G. Sieber, Dissertat. de Arc/entariis, Lip- siae, 1737 ; H. Hubert, Disput. juridicae III. de Argentaria veterum, Traject. 1739; W. T. Kraut, De Argentariis et Nummulariis^ Gottingen, 1826.} [L. S.]

ARGENTUM (frpyvpos), siker,<one of the two metals which, on account of their beauty, their du­rability, their density,.and their .rarity, have been esteemed in all civilised conn tries,, and in-all ages, as precious, and which have, on account of .the above qualities and the facility of working them, beeuused for money. The ancients were acquainted with silver from the earliest known periods. (Pliny ascribes its discovery to Erichthonius or to Aeacus, //. N. vii. 56. s. 57.) It is constantly mentioned in Homer; but in a manner which proves that it was com­paratively scarce. It was much more abundant in Asia than in Greece Proper, where there were not many silver mines. The .accounts we have of the revenues of the early Lyctian and Persian kings, and of the presents of some-ofthem, such as Gyges and Croesus, to Pytho and other shrines, ,prove the great abundance of both the ^precious metals in Western Asia. Of this wealth, hovever, a very large proportion was laid up in the royal .and sacred treasuries, both in Asia and in-Greece. But in time, and chiefly by the effects of wars, these accumulations were dispersed, and the precious metals became commoner and cheaper throughout Greece. Thus, the spoils of the Asiatics in the Persian wars, and the payment of Greek merce-3iari"S by the Persian kings., the expenditure of Pericles on war and works of art, the .plunder of the temple of Delphi by the Phocians, the military expenses and wholesale bribery .of Philip, and, jibove all. the conquests of Alexander, caused a vast increase in the amount of silver and gold in actual circulation. The accounts -we have of the treasures possessed by the successors, of Alexander would be almost incredible if they were not per­fectly well attested.

It was :about this time also that the riches of the East began to be familiar to the Romans, among whom the precious metals were, in early times, extremely rare. Very little of them was found in Italy; and though Cisalpine Gaul fur­nished some gold, which was .carried down by the Alpine torrents, it contained but a very small pro­portion of silver. The silver mines of Spain had been wrought by the Carthaginians at a very «arly period ; and from this source, as well as

ARGfiNTUM.

from the East, the Romans no doubt obtained most of their silver as an article of commerce. But when first Spain and then Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria, were brought beneath the Roman poAver, they obtained that abundant supply both of silver and gold which formed the instrument of the extravagance and luxury of the later republic and the .empire. " The value of the precious metals did not, however, fall in proportion to their increase, as large quantities, wrought for works of art, were taken out of circulation.’" (Bb’ckh.)

The relative value of gold and silver differed considerably at different periods in. Greek and Roman history. Herodotus mentions it (iii. 95) as 13 to 1 ; Plato (Hipp. c. Q, ;p. 231), as 12 to 1 ; Menander (ap. Politic, ix. 76), as 10 to 1 ; and Livy (xxxviii. II), as 10 to 1, about ,B. c. 189. According to Suetonius (Jul. Caes. 54), Julius Caesar, on one occasion, exchanged silver for gold in the proportion of 9 to 1 ; but the most usual proportion under the early Roman emperors was about 12 to 1; and from Constantine to Justinian about 14 to 1., or 15 to 1. The proportion in mo­dern times, since the discovery of the American mines, has varied between 1.7 to 1 and 14 to 1.

Silver Mines and Ores. — In the earliest times the Greeks obtained their silver chiefly as an article of commerce from the Phocaeans and the Samians; but they soon began .to work the rich mines of their own country and its islands. The chief mines were in Siphnog, Thessaly, and Attica. In the lastTnamed country, the silver mines of Laurion furnished a most abundant supply, and were gene­rally regarded as the chief source of the wealth of Athens. We learn from Xenophon (Vectig. iv. 2), that these mines had been worked in remote antiquity; and Xenophon speaks of them as if he considered them inexhaustible. In the time of Demosthenes, however, the profit arising from them had greatly diminished.; and in the second century of the Christian era they were no longer worked. (Paus. i 1. § 1.) The "Romans obtained most of their silver from the very rich mines of Spain, which had been previously worked by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and which, though abandoned for those of Mexico, are still not ex­hausted. The ore from which the silver was ob­tained was called silver earth (apyvplris y/j, or simply apyvpTns, Xen. Vectig. i. 5, iv, 2). The same term (terra) was also applied to the ore by the Romans.

A full account of all that is known respecting the ores of silver known to the ancients, their mining operations,) and their processes for the re­duction of the ores, is given by Bb’ckh. (Disserta­tion on the Silver Mines of Laurion, §§ .3, 4, 5.)

Uses of Silver. — By far the most important use of silver among the Greeks was for money. It was originally the universal currency in Greece. Mr. Knight, however, maintains (Prol. Horn.} that gold was coined first because it was the more readily found, and the more easily worked; but there are sufficient reasons for believing that, un­til some time after the end of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians had no gold currency. [Au-r.um.] It may be remarked here that all the words connected with money are derived from apyvposj and not from XPvff6s, as icaTapyvp6c*>, " to bribe with money ;" apyvpafj.oi§6s, "amoney­changer," &c.; and ftpyvpos is itself not unfre-quent’ly used to signify money in general (Soph.