THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JULY, 1783.

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ART. I. The Medallic Hiftory of Imperial Rome; from the first Triumvirate, under Pompey, Craffus, and Cæfar, to the Removal of the Imperial Seat, by Conftantine the Great. With the feveral Medals and Coins accurately copied, and curioufly engraven. which is prefixed, an Introduétion, containing a general History of Roman Medals. By William Cooke, M. A. Vicar of Endford in Wiltshire, and Rector of Oldbury and Didmarton in Gloucefterfhire. 4to. 2 Vols. 31. 3 s. Dodfley. 1781.

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HE Author of this work did not live to exhibit it himself to the Public, though he had been able, amidst many interruptions, by sickness and inquietude, to bring it nearly to the form which it now wears. The correction and completion of the whole devolved on the Author's fon, who has, we believe, endeavoured to perform his part with proper attention.

The Reader is not to expect in this performance a new collection of coins; it is not an hiftory of Roman medals, but a medallic history of Rome under the Emperors, containing a fpace of almoft four hundred years. In the introduction, we have feveral pertinent obfervations on coins and medals, to which those who wifh for fome knowledge on the subject may profitably attend. Our Author infifts on the utility of the study; and in fome measure we agree with him, though we cannot fully fubfcribe to all the encomiums which have been paffed on it. With fome perfons it is thought to be a trifling ufelefs employment; while to others, who understand its nature and extent, it becomes an agreeable learned amufement, produtive of confidérable utility.

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A cabinet of medals, properly arranged, has been confidered as conftituting a body of hiftory, having this advantage over books, that their flory is fooner told, and a whole `volume fummed up in forty or fifty of thefe antiquated memorandums. VOL. LXIX.

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But whatever utility we think proper to afcribe to them, it must be acknowledged, that our notions of the ftate, the events, the manners and cuftoms of ancient kingdoms would be very defective indeed, had we no other fources from whence to draw our information. It yields however fome fatisfaction to obferve, how these remnants of earlier days concur with the relations which we by different means receive: they may also prove agreeable in other refpects, as Mr. Cooke remarks, in the following paffage, in which we must allow fomething to the flou rifh of a profeffed antiquary:

To furvey the lineaments of the great men who have figured fo long before us, and to confider how far they correspond in our imagination with the mighty actions afcribed to them, and the many things which we have read of them, is without doubt a very pleafing amufement. To examine the look, the air, the drefs and fashion of those beauties who have taken in their toils those rulers of the world, is a fund of reflection to the curious. From feveral of thefe the British fair might learn fashion much more fweetly correfponding with their native charms, than the towering head-drefs of the prefent mode. A modern voyager of difcernment, fpeaking of fome of the Indian ladies at Batavia, fays, "that their hair is univerfally black, and formed into a kind of circular wreath on the top of the head, where it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpreffibly elegant." And this is the very fashion which distinguishes the elder Fauftina. But they will find much more to admire and imitate, while they reflect on the tenderness of Cornelia, the difcretion of Livia, the fanctity of Platina, the magnanimity of Zenobia; examples, which have raised the fex to that height of glory which may juftly vie with the reputation of the most exalted heroes of antiquity.'

As to the latter kind of inftruction here mentioned, it must be obtained by methods different from the affiftance of medals and coins, though they may ferve to revive the ideas which had been gained by other means; and as to the former, if we might venture the remark, the expreffion on thefe antiquities is fometimes at least not very pleafing and it may be doubted, whether any exact ideas can be formed of the perfons from thefe very ancient remains.

The editor of thefe volumes very pertinently produces a heavy charge brought against the Roman hiftorians by one of their own number (Vopifcus in Aureliano), that the veracity of not one of them is entirely to be depended on.' If this is well founded, it is farther afked, what is to be done? It is very properly added in reply, certainly the concurrence of teftimonies, where it is to be had, and the farther affiftance of ancient monuments, are abfolutely neceffary for the confirmation and establishment of facts. Among

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