Rhodium

RHODIUM, or Rhodiense Numisma. This Name is given, by the Learned, to two Silver Medals, which are preserved, one in the Treasury of the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in the City of Paris, and the other in that of St. John of Lateran at Rome, and are pretended to be such as were given to Judas, as the Price of our Saviour, when this Traytor sold him to the Jews. These Medals are certainly some of the ancient Money of Rhodes, as is seen by the Inscription Rhodion, and the Image of a Rose on one Side, and on the other Side the Head of the Colossus, or of the Sun. Goltzius and Antoninus Piso have had the same Medals in their Hands, and have caused them to be engraved. ‘Tis not impossible but, by Chance, they may have given some Pieces of this Money to Judas, which might then be still current in the Empire, by the Consent of the Romans; but it is much more probable, that Judas was paid in the Current Money of the Country, which was the Roman Money of the Emperor then reigning, Mat. xxii. 20, 21.or of some of his Predecessors. See Selden de Jure Nat. & Gent. l. 2. c. 8.

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