The Roman Monetary System

A comprehensive study of the Roman monetary system in the Eastern provinces during the Principate.

This book is a comprehensive study of the workings of the Roman monetary system in the Eastern provinces from the Augustan period to the third century AD. It includes comparisons with the evidence of the Western provinces and appropriate case studies from other historical times and places.The Roman monetary system was highly complex. It involved official Roman coins in both silver and bronze, which some provinces produced while others imported them from mints in Rome and elsewhere, as well as, in the East, a range of civic coinages. This is a comprehensive study of the workings of the system in the Eastern provinces from the Augustan period to the third century AD, when the Roman Empire suffered a monetary and economic crisis. The Eastern provinces exemplify the full complexity of the system, but comparisons are made with evidence from the Western provinces as well as with appropriate case studies from other historical times and places. The book will be essential for all Roman historians and numismatists and of interest to a broader range of historians of economics and finance.