Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces

by Christopher Howgego (editor), Volker Heuchert (Editor), Andrew Burnett (Editor)

Coins were the most deliberate of all symbols of public communal identities, yet the Roman historian will look in vain for any good introduction to, or systematic treatment of, the subject. Sixteen leading international scholars have sought to address this need by producing this authoritative collection of essays, which ranges over the whole Roman world from Britain to Egypt, from 200 BC to AD 300. The subject is approached through surveys of the broad geographical and chronological structure of the evidence, through chapters which focus on ways of expressing identity, and through regional studies which place the numismatic evidence in local context.

Genres: Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know absolutely nothing about coinage, but I like the Roman provinces, and questions of identity and Romanitas are always interesting, so I read this. I am sure a specialist would have gotten more out of it, but I learned a lot -- I had no idea that there were coins minted in Hebrew during the revolts, or really that there were coins in anything that wasn't Greek and Latin -- and I enjoyed reading about all the various iconograpy. My favorite chapter was the one on Britain (of course), but there are some really, really nice, detailed maps of Asia Minor that I appreciated.