It is not absolutely certain whether these moulds were all used for fraudulent purposes by forgers; the find at Damery, for instance, was made on the site of Bibe, an important station on the road from Rheims to Beauvais, which would be too prominent a place for forgers to have selected. It is much more likely that in such a case they were used to make coins of inferior alloy, perhaps in some instances for the issues of usurpers who, being at a considerable distance from the capital, were unable to fill their military chests except with hastily cast coins. The distant parts of the Empire in which these moulds are found lend some colour to this theory. It will also be remembered that they mostly date from the time when a debased coinage was current throughout the Empire, beginning with the reign of Septimius Severus; this was put an end to by Diocletian in 297. We may therefore suppose that they represent, so to speak, officially recognised forgeries, emanating from a kind of local mint for producing coins hastily for provincial use. Hence the rapid spread of base money in the third century, which was not only forced upon the State, but was also readily taken advantage of by forgers.
[2395]. Pliny, H.N. xxxi. 47; Columella, Re Rust. iii. 11, 9.
[2396]. Etym. xv. 8, 16: cf. xix. 10, 16.
[2397]. Pliny, H.N. xxxv. 170; Nonius, p. 445, 22.
[2398]. Columella, Re Rust. ix. 1, 2; Vitr. i. 5, 8; Varro, Re Rust. i. 14, 4.
[2399]. Vitr. ii. 8, 4; Varro, Re Rust. ii. 3, 6.
[2400]. Columella, loc. cit.: paries crudo latere ac luto constructus. Cf. Caesar, Bell. Civ. ii. 9, of a floor, and ii. 15; also Vitr. ii. 1, 7; Pliny, H.N. xviii. 301.
[2401]. Vitr. ii. 3, 3.
[2402]. H.N. xxxv. 170 ff.