CHARACTER, in a general sense, denotes any mark whatever, serving to represent either things or ideas: thus letters are characters, types, or marks of certain sounds; words, of ideas, &c.
Literal characters may be divided, with respect to the nations among whom they have been invented, into Greek characters, Roman characters, Hebrew characters, &c. The Latin character now used through all Europe was formed from the Greek, as the Greek was from the Phœnician; and the Phœnician, as well as the Chaldean, Syriac, and Arabic characters, were formed from the ancient Hebrew, which subsisted till the Babylonish captivity; for, after that event, the character of the Assyrians, which is the square Hebrew now in use, prevailed, the ancient being only found on some Hebrew medals, commonly called Samaritan medals. It was in 1091 that the Gothic characters, invented by Ulfilas, were abolished, and the Latin ones established in their room.
Medallists observe, that the Greek character, consisting only of majuscule letters, has preserved its uniformity on all medals, as low as the time of Gallienus; from that time it appears somewhat weaker and rounder: from the time of Constantine to Michael we find only Latin characters; and after Michael the Greek characters recommence; but from that time they begin to alter with the language, which was a mixture of Greek and Latin. The Latin medals preserve both their character and language as low as the translation of the seat of the empire to Constantinople: towards
the time of Decius the character began to lose its roundness and beauty; some time after, it retrieved, and subsisted tolerably till the time of Justin, when it degenerated gradually into the Gothic. The rounder, then, and better formed a character is upon a medal, the fairer pretence it has to antiquity.