A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE The name of the king appears but rarely in an extended form upon his own coins ; but on those of his son Cunobelinus it is sometimes given at full length. Both he and Epaticcus were proud of being the sons of their father, and make use of Tasciovani films in some abbreviated form as a title of honour. On No. i of the coins in the plate the name of TASCIOVAN is given at full length, on No. 3 the spelling TAXCI occurs, and on No. 2 is seen the form TASCIAV, with an A instead of the O, a form which not unfrequently appears on his coins in silver and copper. Nos. 13 to 24 on Plate i. show the silver coins of Tasciovanus, all of which, with the exception of No. 23, were probably struck at Veru- lam. On Nos. 1 3 and 1 4 the name of the town, in an abbreviated form VER, occupies the post of honour on the obverse, the name of the king being, in the case of No. 14, entirely absent. On No. 15 the cruciform ornament, the direct but almost unrecognizable descendant of the head of Apollo on the Macedonian rPhilippus, is to be seen. In the angles are the letters VERL. In the nearly corresponding small gold coin No. 9, the fourth letter is an O, unless possibly it is merely a kite-shaped orna- ment. The boar of the reverse occurs also on some of the copper coins of Verulamium. The coins with TASC on a tablet, Nos. 16, 17, are closely con- nected with the small gold coin No. 7, but the horseman on the reverse of No. 1 6 seems more nearly allied to the warrior on the coin struck at Riconium, No. 12. The type of the coin No. 1 6 is manifestly copied from that of a denarius of the Emperor Augustus struck between B.C. 12 and B.C. 10. It probably belongs to the latter part of the reign of Tasciovanus. The art displayed on Nos. 19 and 22 is of no contemptible order, and the dies for these coins were probably engraved by a foreign artist. The eagle occurs on the small copper coins of Verulamium, PI. ii., No. 24, and in a somewhat different attitude on the silver coins of Epaticcus the son of Tasciovanus. The Pegasus is seen on other coins of this king, and the griffin, which can hardly be regarded as indigenous to Britain, is to be found on many coins of Greek and Roman origin, and seems to be significant of a foreign engraver having been employed to produce the dies. The three concentric circles, that in the centre being beaded, suggest the possibility of Nos. 16, 22 being the work of the same artist. Nos. 20, 21 seem also to be the products of the same engraver, who, however, hardly deserves to rank as an artist. The dotted work of the obverse is peculiar, and though extremely rude, by no means ineffec- tive. The horseman on the reverse of No. 2 1 seems to wear the same kind of embossed cuirass as that on No. 1 2. The legends TASCIA and TASCIO respectively show that the spelling of the period had not been reduced to a monotonous level. The coin No. 23, though probably struck at the city of Segontium, and not at Verulamium, bears upon the reverse a horseman in all respects identical with that on the silver coin of Verulamium, No. 14. 240
