Center and periphery. The Roman monetary policy regarding the Lower Danube provinces at the mid 3rd century AD

Coordonatori: Corneliu GA/V Horapu BODALE /ttcelft .iCXJ4 Center and periphery: Roman monetary policy regarding the Lower Danube provinces at the mid 3rd century AD Cristian GAzDAC is well-known that from the end of the 1st century AD until the reign of Valerian I and Gallienus , imperial mint was Rome. Other imperial mints, like the eastern olles, played a temporarily and ~-, role. They were destined to cover shortagesof supply with silver coin or the payments of the oriental campaigns.Mter AD 196 the statute of these Easternmints changedfrom independent branches of the Roman mint in Rome (RIC]v;1,p. 56-58). beeil agreed that with the joint of Valerian land Gallienus the Roman imperial monetary policy -aprocessof decentralization (Howgego1994,p. 12). '. There were sameprevious aspectsthat had announced what was going the secondhalf of the 3Mcentury AD. And from this point of view, the proVincesfrom the Lower Dada) are an excellentexample. the reign of Septimius Severusthe coin rinds show a similar pattern concerning the coin supply The mint of Rome has the supremacyof coin supply. Other mints represented by coin rinds are hut the frequency of finding of such coins is extremely low, and they are almost all made of of Septimius The increase of bronze ..~ rinds ,,--Severus of the hag represented of the issued the lower silver by the a strang coinage central point was mint in the crisis followed at Rome of denarius (Depeyrot, coinage. Moisil The quantity by a lack could and have of bronze beeil denomination .especially notified 2002, already pI. Q 4-5). bronze was not case mint p. denominations (dupondius os) (Gazdac from this area indicate even a stronger decrease of the finding frequency of central für the period of Septimius Severus and his successors (see pI. 1). The phenomenon only to the Middle thai and Lower Danube but also in other of bronze 1989, parts of the Empire. the specific In the central , it hag beeil reign considered in fact there (Walker1988, the change was a shortage p. 299; Clay coinage from of Septimius of this ...' , -The lighter p. 40). Severus situation p. 219-220; Duncan-Jones was 1998, consequence c -'. denominations ' .c so-called (the bronze coinage) c- "'emergency-money" limes/also frequently the coins (cast coins für the missing on the or "monnaie de a bad quality with reign alloy and 2002, than the genuine coins were coins) issued are more with found of Septimius or local and the of Moesia compared to If these or without permission the reigns mints, of imperial of Commodus they ., are regarded ..,. as faked coins is still difficult to star. study, an interesting aspect occurred be seen in the graph during of civic für the province high the Greek civic coins issued in the period AD 180-218 is extremely coin-finds were those minted at Amisus (Pontus), Lycia. The silver issues of thesemintslhad a short ..T-.., .,. , '1911, p. 497);Lycia: Domitian-Trajan (Head 1911,p. 694).The thosemints have different statute.The mint für the East (Head 1911, 752)while the Olleflom Alexandriais connected the p. to (Head 1911,p. 860). the adjacentprovinces (seepI. 3). Although it has beeil suggested that this situation is a result of the imperial visits in this region (Boteva1997, 252), in fact we might have hefe a sampIe of the monetary-political ability p. of the Imperial hause. Actually the imperial hauseachievedtwo goals.Behind the screenof allowing the Greek cities to issue coins to flatler the Imperial hause-an old Greektradition (!) (Burnett1993,p. 151)-, the emperor could got rid -thus, the central mint -of the burden of bronze coin supply in this area.The fact that cities such as Dionysopolis, Callatis and Tomis,which at the beginning of the reign of Septimius Severuswere forbidden to strike coins as they had supported PescenniusNiger, now they had regained this fight together with other mints from Balkans(Boteva1997,p. 248),is an argumenton this line. In fact, this imperial monetary policy was not somethingnew. Already, the Greekcivic coins issued during the reign of Commodus,reached 77.2% of the isolated coin finds in the province of Moesia,especiallyMoesiaInferior (seethe pI. 3). Practically, from the reign of Commodusto the mid 3rdcenturyAD, in the province of Moesia, concerning the bronze coinage,the central mint of Romewas overwhelmed by the civic Greekmints. This phenomenonwas not an isolated Gase. was followed by other similar measuresin the neighboring It areas. In AD 239 was openedthe mint of Viminacium (todayKostolac, Serbia)(MaItin 1992,p. 21). Although at the first sight this mint looks to be nothing else than another local mint. Actually, the bronze coin rinds from the provinces of Pannonia,Moesia Superior and Dacia (seepI. 2) prove that this mint was opened to cover an irregular supply with bronze coin from the central mint of Rome. An argument on this line may be considered the fact that no "limesfalsa" coin depicting an emperorlater than SeverusAlexander was found at the moment in the area under study. This could mean a regularization of the supply with bronze coin tor a while or at least enoughbronze coins on the market, thus, the "limesfalsa" were not longer needed. Another excellent example about the Imperial minting decentralization in the mid 3n1 century AD is offered by the case of the provincial mint of Dacia. Although the mint of Viminacium was the mall mint to supply bronze coin in this province, it looks that different from the Pannonianprovinces and Moesia Superior,Dacia was still confronted a difficult monetary situation in the time ofPhilip I. That is why in AD 246 (MaItin 1992,p. 21), the province was granted the fight to issued the own bronze collage (the type "PROVINCIA DACIA"). For the entire reign of Philip I the mint of Dacia was the main supplier with bronze collage tor this province. The fragility of this measure soon came to the end. The period AD 249-253indicates a scarceproduction of this mint, when the issues of Viminacium, are found slightly more frequently in Dacia than those of the local mint. Despitethe fact that the coins PROVINCIA DACIA of Valerianus I are found more frequently than those of the same emperor issued at Viminacium (see pI. 3), the production of mint wellt lower and in AD 257 the mint was closed. The rate of the min t from Viminacium was not better. This mint was closed in AD 255 (Martin 1992,p. 21). RegardingOll topic it can be observedthat at the mid 3n1 century due to a lack of bronze denomination, the monetary policy moved from a strang centralism towards a controlled decentralization. .;( Although, both mints from Viminacium and Dacia are placed under the authority of concilium provinciae (Kos1992,p. 212-214;Ardevan 1992-1993, p.120), the coins were issued accordingto the imperialiconography and in concordancewith the weight, size of the central bronze denominations (sesteItius, dupondius, os). Even more, the provincial coins minted at these two mints will follow the trend of the central issues:the decrease of weight; the gradual disappearanceof smaller denominations such as dupondius and as (MaItin 1992, p.; Alföldy-Gazdac,Gazdac 2004,mss). These local mints, placed at the periphery of the Empire bad becomethemselves tor same period centers of coin supply tor the adjacentareas.Going further with the analysis, according with the area of circulation, it has beeD. demonstratedthat the mint of Dacia was opened with the purpose to supply only this province with bronze coin [Alföldy-Gazdac, Gazdac 2004,mss.). On conclusion, it can be affirmed that the decentralizationprocessof minting bronze collage in the 3rd century AD, was a controlled measureby the central institution in Rome.The image of minting bronze in this period looks like a central body (Rome)that surveysits "satellites". I We can seehefe the prelude of the total decentralizedthe minting systemwithin the Empire at the end of the 3n1 century and mainly in the 4th-5th centuriesAD. 72 Bibliography Alfäldy-Gazdac, Gazdac A. Alföldy-Gäzdac, C. 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