COINS FROM THE CENTRE OF ROME (original) (raw)
This paper gathers together previously published parts and a new section on the Historia Augusta. It is mainly a list of references from texts with short discussion.
Identifying and Research Roman coin finds. Part 2: 4th century Roman coins
Treasure Hunting, 2023
In the first part of this series featured in the December 2023 issue of Treasure Hunting, I introduced 4th century coins and some of the hints and tips I have learnt over the years which I use in coin training to help in identification. This month I want to look a little further into some of the quirkier finds you might get in assemblages and explore what they can tell us about 4th century Roman Britain.
Roman coins from a rural settlement in central Italy
Pecunia Omnes Vincit. The coins as an evidence of propaganda, reorganization and forgery, 2017
The excavations at San Vincenzo al Volturno (trench SS4, on the other bank of the river) brought to light a Republican vicus. It was replaced by a rural villa of Imperial Age, which was abandoned in the second half of the 4th century AD. The 70 coins which were found during the researches allowed the dating of the settlement’s phases. The aim of my paper is to submit a catalogue of a group of these coins. It shows what kind of currency circulated in a rural area of Roman Age and how the Imperial propaganda used it.
A hoard of bronze coins of the 3rd century BC found at Pratica di mare (Rome)
The excavations at Pratica di Mare (ancient Lavinium) have yielded 118 coins altogether; 36 of these coins were found near the Sanctuary of the XIII altars. 2 This short paper aims at illustrating a small hoard published in 1990 with a description of the context of retrieval, namely a large building inside the Forum 'with rooms opening onto a central courtyard with a porch shaded by a wooden veranda'. 3 This building was probably razed by a fi re in the third century BC and never rebuilt. Actually, during the third century BC the town experienced a moment of severe decline, before being abandoned in the following century. 4 . The building where the hoard was found.
Roman coins are peculiar objects. In the first place, they were the official means of payment of the Roman Empire and thus the most important mass product of the pre-modern era. Because of the many images and texts depicted on ancient coins, we can also correctly refer to Roman coins as the first mass medium of antiquity. Given their intrinsic monetary function, they reached the remotest corners of the empire and were able to communicate the messages of the imperial administration to the people. However, in their aesthetics—both in their materiality and in their function as a means of communication—Roman coins differ fundamentally from their modern relatives. It is precisely this that the present exhibition takes as a starting point, aiming to present a broad perspective of the phenomenon of Roman coins and their peculiar aesthetics and significance in an ancient context. To this end, we have chosen five representative thematic areas, which we believe can be used to present the most important perspectives on ancient life: Beautiful and Ugly / Portraits / Representations of Nature / Dynasties / Role Models. The broad spectrum of themes makes it clear; the beauty or specific nature of these objects is and was truly in the eye of the beholder.
Coin use in the Roman Republic
In: F. Haymann, W. Hollstein and M. Jehne (eds.), Neue Forschungen zur Münzprägung der Römischen Republik. Beiträge zum internationalen Kolloquium im Residenzschloss Dresden 19.-21. Juni 2014, Nomismata 8 (Bonn 2016) 347-372, 2016
2018
EDIZIONI QUASAR e s t r a t t o Giacomo Pardini, Nicola Parise, Flavia Marani (a cura di), Numismatica e archeologia. Monete, stratigrafie e contesti. Dati a confronto. Workshop Internazionale di Numismatica (WIN) ISBN 978-88-7140-809-5 (seconda edizione) © Roma 2018, Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon srl via Ajaccio, 43 -00198 Roma -tel. 0685358444 fax 0685833591 e-mail: qn@edizioniquasar.it -www.edizioniquasar.it Volume stampato con il contributo di Progetto grafico della copertina Mirella Serlorenzi, Federica Lamonaca, Cecilia Parolini, Giacomo Pardini, Massimo Cibelli Progetto grafico e impaginazione Marco Tortelli Ottimizzazione Massimo Cibelli