Although Roman coinage soon diverged from Greek conventions, its origins were similar. Rome, founded in the 8th century BC, had no true coinage until the 3rd. Roman historians later attributed coinage unhesitatingly to the much earlier regal period: some derived nummus (“coin”) from Numa Pompilius, by tradition Rome’s second king, and Servius Tullius was credited with silver coinage, as well as with bronze stamped with the device of cattle. Roman historical tradition, however, seriously confused the elements of the true picture. Rough, unworked lumps of bronze (aes rude) were certainly used as a metal currency from the 6th century, if not much earlier, perhaps in rare conjunction with very small quantities of unworked gold and silver, themselves also passing by weight. Simultaneously, standards of value appear to have been expressed in terms of cattle and sheep, as is clear not only from the derivation of pecunia (“money”) from pecus (“cattle,” or “sheep”) but also from the early assessment of fines in oxen and sheep. From this it was falsely concluded that bronze coins marked with the device of cattle existed from the 6th century. In fact, the expression of values in terms of cattle may have lasted, officially, into the 5th century, for it was not until the decemvirs (a legislative commission) codified the law and drew up the Twelve Tables (451- 449 BC) that fines were fixed in bronze. This bronze still consisted of unworked lumps or, at most, rough bars of irregular weight.
During the 4th century BC, Roman contact with the Greek cities of southern Italy slowly increased; these included such prolific mint cities as Nola, Hyria, and Naples. The coinages of these cities consisted of silver didrachms, of which Rome presumably made use in any necessary dealings with them. A hint is given, however, of widening Roman monetary interests by two issues of bronze token coinage. These, though certainly not produced at Rome, may perhaps be regarded as the earliest coins in the name of the Romans, struck at Naples about 325 - 285 within the terms of their alliance and intended for use in Campania, as distinct from Rome and Latium. It is unlikely, indeed, that a mint in the proper sense existed at Rome before 289, the year to which Pomponius assigned the establishment of tresviri (a board of three officials) who should be aeris flatores (“bronze melters”); and this mint (in the temple of Juno Moneta) did not yet produce true coins but aes signatum, bronze bars (of about six pounds) lacking a mark of value but bearing on each side a clearly recognizable type (including cattle) and perhaps equivalent in value to a Greek silver didrachm.
These aes signatum bars were halfway between aes rude and true coinage. In 269 true coinage appeared. It consisted of aes grave, large circular cast coins of bronze all bearing marks of value, from the as (weighing one pound) down to its 12th, the uncia; the obverses showed the head of a deity, the reverses a ship’s prow. These were paralleled at mints elsewhere by similar cast coins; their types showed not, as at Rome, Latin deities but rather Greek (in the south) or Umbrian and Oscan. At the same time, there appeared struck silver didrachms, on the standard of the Greek silver coins of Campania, bearing Greek types but marked ROMANO or ROMA. Accompanied by small struck bronze token coins, these were issued from Campanian mints, and they probably continued to the Second Punic War, terminating in a new issue of silver coins of Roman style and types (marked ROMA), including Jupiter in a quadriga (four-horse chariot) from which their name, quadrigati, derived; they were imitated in electrum by the Carthaginians in Capua. The quadrigati were of the weight of the lighter Romano-Campanian didrachms and reflected the rising cost of silver at a time of stress; concurrently the cast bronze coinage of Rome dropped steadily in weight from an as of one pound to one of three ounces or less. Financial stress is similarly to be seen in the exceptional issue. of gold units and halves. Toward the end of the Second Punic War the quadrigati were replaced by silver coins of half their weight, with a Victory on the reverse, and hence called victoriates. By about 190 a mainly silver coinage, Latin-inscribed, was in production at Rome and other authorized mints, accompanied by bronze coinage so greatly reduced in standard (and thus size) that it could at last be struck instead of being cast.
Adjustment of the previously fluctuating relationship between bronze and silver was first secured by the issue about 211 BC of the silver denarius (marked X - i.e., 10 bronze asses), together with fractional coins, also of silver (marked V - i.e., five; and IIS - i.e., 2 1/2 asses - a sesterce, or sestertius). The denarii were lighter than the quadrigati; their types were a Roma head on the obverse, with the Dioscuri (the twin deities Castor and Pollux) and ROMA on the reverse. Their production came to be confined principally to the mint of Rome. The victoriates, again lighter (their weight standard had come from Illyria), were issued until about 150 BC, being perhaps intended for principal circulation outside Italy. The denarius, however, quickly established itself as the major currency in the central and western Mediterranean. In its eastward expansion, Rome learned to make use of local currencies - gold staters of Macedonia and silver tetradrachms of Athens or Asia. Rome was also prepared to employ Macedonian gold in the west, as was shown by the release to western markets of large quantities of gold staters after about 150 BC. In the 2nd century BC, Roman coinage in gold was exceptional. Coinage in bronze, however, continued, but further variation in silver–bronze values was seen in two developments. The as dropped in weight to that of an uncia and then less, becoming a token currency; together with its fractions, it was now always struck and not cast. The value of the denarius in terms of bronze was altered, being revalued about 133 at 16 instead of 10 asses; the silver quinarius (now of eight asses and with the types of the victoriate) became rare; and the silver sesterce (now equal to four asses) virtually disappeared. After about 80 BC the striking of bronze was discontinued until the time of Caesar.
These developments mirrored the economic difficulties of the day. Reduction of the weight of the as from one to 1/2 ounce in 89 BC was accompanied temporarily by debasement of the denarius, resulting in the issue of denarii with serrated edges, intended to show that they were not plated (see plating).
The coinage was controlled by the Senate, acting for the sovereign people; and the conduct of the mints was in the hands of boards of junior magistrates, the tresviri. From about the mid-2nd century, each of a mint’s three tresviri normally issued coins bearing his own name, and on special occasions these were supplemented by issues of quaestors, curule aediles, prefects, or praetors; these were distinguished by special inscriptions such as ex s(enatus) c(onsulto) and ex a(rgento) p(ublico). The function of all these officials was quantity and quality control.
The moneyers’ names at first were shown as simple monograms. The Dioscuri reverse was followed by Diana or Victory in a biga (two-horse chariot), and these again by figures of Jupiter, Juno, or Apollo in a quadriga, with the moneyers’ names in fuller form. In the mid-2nd century BC, however, newer tendencies appeared, as when Sextus Pompeius Fostlus paired the Roma obverse with a reverse showing his traditional ancestor Faustulus discovering the wolf and twins; the reference was to the greatness of Rome, but it was to be seen through the lineage of a moneyer. Later republican denarii gave keen expression to party politics, as when corn ears recorded circa 100 the purchase of grain by the quaestors Piso and Caepio, or the head of Ceres with ploughing oxen proclaimed the program of the Marians, or Sextus Nonius Sufenas advertised the games that he had staged as praetor.
It was in the provinces, however, that the republican coinage took the decisive steps toward its finally imperial character. Campaigning generals began, in the 1st century BC, to operate mints for paying their troops in the field. In Italy mint policy had usually looked beyond personal politics to the state. But the military coinages of the imperatores equated the state with the personalities of the generals. Such were the aurei and denarii struck from eastern mints about 82–81 by Sulla, with, obverse, L. SVLLA and head of Venus (his family patroness) and, reverse, IMPER(ator) ITERVM, priestly jug between trophies. Pompey issued comparable aurei about 61 (also in the east). From these precedents the earlier coinage of Julius Caesar followed naturally in the late 50s and early 40s, with, obverse, CAESAR and elephant (the family badge) and, reverse, priestly symbols, or obverse, head of Venus (his traditional ancestress) and, reverse, CAESAR, Gaulish trophy, and captives. Such coinages still avoided the portraiture of a living man, the only examples of which hitherto had been on provincially struck coins.
In the last year of his life, Caesar developed personal control of the coinage to a point at which it lay ready to hand for Augustus to use later as a fully imperial instrument. Already, from 46 BC, coinage in gold had been instituted in Rome by Caesar’s lieutenant Hirtius. Caesar’s seizure of the treasury and his expansion of the annual board of moneyers from three to four members indicated his intention to deal absolutely with the coinage. In 44, denarii were issued in considerable quantity by his quattuorviri, bearing the portrait of Caesar on the obverse, with such inscriptions as DICT(ator) QVART(um) or DICT(ator) PERPETVO, and Venus Victrix or other semipersonal reverse types. For the token coinage a new alloy was now first struck - yellow orichalcum or brass, a copper - zinc alloy. Caesar may have enjoyed a monopoly of zinc from mines in Cisalpine Gaul.
From 44 to 31, bronze coinages were struck at various non-Italian mints, notably in or around Sicily, by officials attached to the cause of one or other of the members of the second triumvirate - Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus. But the principal issues of these years were of gold and silver. The mint of Rome continued its regular series until about 37 and then ceased. Antony’s coinage emanated at first from Gaul, then increasingly from eastern mints, including his cistophori and denarii (some showing his head conjoined with Cleopatra’s) struck in Asia: his vast issue of often base denarii showing warships and military standards, shortly before the naval battle of Actium, was eastern. Octavian coined mainly in Gaul, Italy, and Africa. The piratical movement of Sextus Pompeius was reflected in the activity of a mint or mints in Sicily.
It was characteristic of most of the gold and silver after 44 that it showed portraits of the rival statesmen on the obverses, with reverses that alluded to their achievements or policies. This was true even of the “liberators” who murdered Caesar, for a famous eastern issue in the name of Brutus showed his portrait, with BRVT(us) IMP(erator) on the obverse, with reverse EID(ibus) MAR(tiis)—the fatal Ides of March - and daggers flanking a cap of liberty. By the close of the Roman Republic, three factors had entirely transformed the originally simple idiom of the early denarial coinage: gold was freely struck in addition to silver; the types of both were personal to military leaders and included living portraiture; and coinage could be produced elsewhere than at Rome.
Augustus (27 BC - AD 14) based the coinage on the aureus of 1/42 of a pound of gold, equivalent to 25 denarii, each of 1/84 of a pound of silver, the metals being struck almost pure. The denarius was valued at 16 asses. Token coinage consisted henceforth of brass sesterces and dupondii (equal to four and two asses, respectively), with copper asses, halves, and quarters, the as being the most common. Nero in AD 64 lightened aureus and denarius to 1/45 and 1/96, respectively, but debasement of silver subsequently took place. Under Septimius Severus it reached 40 percent, and Caracalla issued a debased double denarius of the weight of only 1 1/2 denarii. Gallienus’ double denarius of copper and silver, leached to give a more silver-rich surface, marked a monetary breakdown, only partially cured when Diocletian and Constantine again made gold the firm basis for supplementary pure silver and abundant copper coinage.
Augustus’ earliest gold and silver were coined chiefly in the east - e.g., at Ephesus and Pergamum—and more briefly at Emerita in Spain. Bronze also was mainly eastern, though some was struck at Nemausus (Nîmes). The Rome mint was reopened about 20 BC for gold and silver and remained open for this purpose until about 12 BC; its bronze continued irregularly. From 12 BC, Lugdunum (Lyon), with other mints of uncertain identity, undertook the main western coinages in gold, silver, and bronze. After 64 Rome was once more the chief mint for all metals. Official mintages were supplemented by a mass of regional or local coinages, while official coinages from eastern mints provided necessary currency for local Roman frontier forces.
The bronze of Rome was marked S(enatus) C(onsulto) and continued to bear the names of the tresviri monetales - masters of the mint, now reduced to their traditional number - until 4 BC. But S C also appeared on bronze from Lyon and Antioch in imperial provinces, showing that whatever nominal senatorial rights of coinage still lingered on - the tresviri are known until the 3rd century - the emperor wielded effective control over all metals everywhere. This was logical, since his economic powers were equally comprehensive. In fact, the old senatorial mint was transferred from the temple of Juno Moneta on Rome’s Capitoline Hill and merged, probably after the fire of 64, with an imperial mint for gold and silver elsewhere in the capital. Henceforth, it worked in sections - six were normal later - controlled immediately by an imperial procurator and staffed by slaves or freedmen.
The use of Caesar’s own portrait upon coinage set a precedent; although under Augustus and Tiberius token denominations occasionally lacked the imperial portrait, it was thereafter an essential element of virtually every gold, silver, and bronze coin of the official mints, as also of nearly all provincial and local coins. Emphasis on the personality of the emperor (extended sometimes to empresses, sons, or deceased members of the imperial house) was a powerful propaganda instrument in a coinage that circulated throughout a vast empire. The great series of imperial portraits, from Augustus to Romulus in AD 476, is artistically outstanding. Many of the finest appeared on the large brass sesterces down to the 3rd century and on the even larger bronze medallions produced for presentation; but particular care was taken over the portraits for gold, which, being softer, showed a beautiful and highly sensitive impression. Nothing is known of the portrait artists, though it is likely that they were often from the Greek East.
Imperial reverse types, if artistically less remarkable, are uniquely important for the unparalleled fullness of the historical commentary that they supply. The major mints provided annual evidence of imperial interests: victories in war; frontier defense (e.g., Rex Parthis datus – “A king is given to the Parthians” - of Trajan); a well-earned peace (e.g., the Pace terra marique parta Ianum clusit – “There being peace on land and sea, the doors of the Temple of Janus were closed”- of Nero); the birth of an heir or alternative provision for the succession; public shows; acts of social reform or public relief (e.g., Civitatibus Asiae restitutis – “For the restitution of the citizenries of Asia”); imperial journeys (e.g., Adventus Augusti – “The arrival of the emperor”); and religious or other anniversaries (e.g., the Felix temporum reparation – “Happy days are here again” - on Rome’s 1,100th birthday). Their interpretation demands care, since, being selected by imperial officials, their tenor can conflict with the attitude of anti-imperial historians. But they show the efforts made by emperors, as the omnipotent semireligious heads of a huge and heterogeneous empire, to conciliate and inform. They contributed powerfully to the growing conception of an eternal Roman empire, seen no less in the special types of eagle (the soul flown heavenward) or funeral pyre or temple in honour of “good” emperors consecrated as divi than in the annual record of military victory, economic security, and provincial peace and implicit in the regularity of imperial succession. The normal colour given to this imperial program was religious, for the coinage types commonly embraced such characteristically Roman concepts as Aequitas (Justice), Fides (Faith), and Concordia (Harmony)—social virtues operating in the guise of minor deities.
Diocletian’s institution of the tetrarchy, by which the empire was divided administratively between two Augusti and two Caesars, brought fundamental changes in social and economic policy; the instability of prices called for complete renewal of the monetary system. His coinage reforms took place in stages from about 286 to about 296. First, new aurei were struck at 60 to the pound of gold. Then, about 293 - 294, new silver coins, of good purity, were struck at the revised Neronian weight of 96 to the pound of silver. Finally, about 294 - 296, new copper coins appeared that were larger and intrinsically more valuable than the small debased double denarii of previous reigns. The contemporary names of these silver and copper pieces are not known. This reformed coinage was struck at a variety of mints from Londinium (London) to Alexandria, most of which coined in all three metals. Types were closely controlled in the silver and copper coinage; in the latter the almost universal type was for some years that of the “Genius Populi Romani.” The obverse bore the portrait of one or other of the tetrarchs, each of whom coined with portraits of all four.
The breakdown of the tetrarchy after 306 weakened the new system. Copper was quickly and steadily lightened, and silver struck very sparingly. Gold, however, continued in good supply; and though Constantine’s solidus showed a reduced weight standard, there was no shortage of gold throughout the rest of the 4th century. In time, silver coinage increased, especially after about 350, when the miliarense (1/1,000 of a gold pound) and smaller denominations appeared. By the end of the 4th century, however, the size of copper coins had dropped very sharply, and in the 5th, until the Western Empire collapsed in AD 476, the western coinage consisted finally of gold with a little silver, struck mainly from the mints of Ravenna and Rome.
From 312, when Constantine became emperor of the West, coin types began to show new tendencies. The imperial portrait was still the dominant feature. Reverses displayed complementary themes—the glory of the army, vows for continued imperial rule, the constant struggle against barbarian pressure on the frontiers. The old variety of pagan gods—Jupiter excepted - mainly disappeared, though Sol, popular from Aurelian onward, was used, especially by Constantine. Christian emblems did little to take their place, though the Christian monogram, the Greek letters chi and rho superimposed, sometimes on a standard, began to appear with Constantine and was combined with the alpha and omega under Constantius II and Magnentius. On the whole, however, there was an unavowed truce between Christianity and paganism, only occasionally broken, as when Julian revived a range of pagan types; the full development of the Christian tradition in coinage was reserved for Byzantium.
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