Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700 by Harl, Kenneth W.;

Short description:

It will be of interest to scholars and students of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as to professional and amateur numismatists.

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Long description:

Richly illustrated with photographic reproductions of nearly three hundred specimens, Coinage in the Roman Economy offers a significant contribution to Roman economic history. The first comprehensive history of how Roman coins were minted and used.

The premier form of Roman money since the time of the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.), coins were vital to the success of Roman state finances, taxation, markets, and commerce beyond the frontiers. Yet until now, the economic and social history of Rome has been written independently of numismatic studies, which detail such technical information as weight standards, mint output, hoards, and finds at archaeological sites. In Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700, noted classicist and numismatist Kenneth W. Harl brings together these two fields in the first comprehensive history of how Roman coins were minted and used.

Drawing on literary and documentary sources as well as on current methods of metallurgical study and statistical analysis of coins from archaeological sites, Harl presents a sweeping overview of a system of coinage in use for more than a millennium. Challenging much recent scholarship, he emphasizes the important role played by coins in the overseas expansion of the Roman Republic during the second century B.C., in imperial inflationary policies during the third and fourth centuries A.D., and in the dissolution of the Roman Mediterranean order in the seventh century A.D. He also offers the first region-by-region analysis of prices and wages throughout Roman history with reference to the changing buying power of the major circulating denominations. And he shows how the seldom-studied provincial, civic, and imitative coinages were in fact important components of Roman currency.

Richly illustrated with photographic reproductions of nearly three hundred specimens, Coinage in the Roman Economy offers a significant contribution to Roman economic history. It will be of interest to scholars and students of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as to professional and amateur numismatists.

This thought-provoking work . . . should be important reading for scholars in a variety of disciplines. It challenges, for example, the long-held belief that a large-scale drain of Roman specie went to India and the East in the early centuries of the Roman Empire and the concept that the western provinces of the Roman Empire were never completely monetized. These reinterpretations and others, presented forcefully with careful documentation, should arouse the attention of anyone interested in ancient or medieval history, economics, or numismatics.
—History

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Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Coins, the Money of the Roman Economy
Chapter 2. Monetization of Roman Italy, 500–200 B.C.
Chapter 3. The Denarius and Overseas Expansion, 200–30 B.C.
Chapter 4. The Augustan Coinage, 30 B.C.–A.D 235
Chapter 5. Currencies of the Roman East, 30 B.C.–A.D 200
Chapter 6. The Great Debasement and Reform, A.D. 193–305
Chapter 7. Imperial Regulation and Reform, A.D.. 305–498
Chapter 8. The Loss of Roman Monetary Ways, A.D. 400–700
Chapter 9. Government's Aims and Needs
Chapter 10. Coins in the Cities and Markets of the Roman World
Chapter 11. Coins, Prices, and Wages
Chapter 12. Roman Coins Beyond the Imperial Frontiers
Appendix: Weights and Measures in the Roman World
Plates
Abbreviations
Notes
Glossary
Select Bibliography
Index

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