italianartsociety:Coins not the only Currency in Ancient RomeOne of the reasons the currency of the
italianartsociety:Coins not the only Currency in Ancient RomeOne of the reasons the currency of the RomanEmpire was embossed and decorated with images of its leaders andculturally signigicant symbols and landmarks was, as today, to remindusers that coins had exchange value because the rulers of the empirehad decreed this fact to be so.In the third century BCE, Rome introduced a newcurrency system based around a silver coin called the denarius.The growth of the empire meant that Roman money was used acrossthe Mediterranean – the only currency to be employed across Europeuntil the introduction of the euro in 1999. However, given the sizeof the empire, cities (such as Pompeii, which had many regional coins)often struck their own metalic currency for use within smaller localeconomies.Alternatives to government-issued money alsoexisted. Gold, jewels, even lead, was used in trade, in addition tosmall objects, such as carved semi-precious gemstones.Reference: Reference: Emma Mason. “From bes toBitcoin: alternative currencies in the ancient Roman world,“ BBC History Magazine, 24 October2016.Cosmographia Scoti, Notitiadignitatum. Folio Nr. 070r., 1436. Panels showing Romancoins and the Roman personalities associated with them.The manuscript ismodelled after the lost Carolingian CodexSpirensis, a late antique manuscript. This manuscript is theearliest copy of this text to survive complete, made at Basel in 1436by an Italian scribe and a French illuminator (Peronet Lamy) forPetrus Donatus, bishop of Padua. The Notitia Dignitatum, a hand-bookdealing with the military and civil organisation of the late RomanEmpire, contains views on all important imperial officials, bothmilitary and civil, including their insignia of rank, office staffand administrative subordinates. Bodleian Library, University ofOxford, Shelfmark: MS. Canon. Misc. 378.Sesterius with Galba, Emperor of Rome in veristic style, 68-69. Yale Univesity Art Gallery, Coins and Medals. Accession Number 2001.87.579. ID Nr. 96964.Lapus lazuli Imperial Eagle, c. 200,(10.5 x 6.6 x 4.6 cm). Findspot: Torre Del Greco, Italy. The WaltersArt Museum, Nr. 42.1406.Coins from Mt. Ingio, Perugia, Italy. Museo comunale diGubbio / Scala Archives, Florence.Further Reading: Michael Grant. Roman History from Coins: Some uses of the ImperialCoinage to the Historian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1968.William E. Metcalf. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Posted by Jean Marie Carey -- source link
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