The assassination of Caesar had plunged Rome into turmoil; ditto, in a sense, for its coinage, as the mint even shut down in 40 B.C. The triumvirs in charge of the government (Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus) struck coins in gold and silver, their allies and subordinates also coined in bronze, and all the numismatic imagery was designedly political in nature. Antony and Octavian, especially after they divided the Roman world into eastern and western sectors under their respective leadership, needed not only the money but also the propaganda gained from minting coins as they endeavored to gain power over each other. The battle at Actium in 31 B.C. ended the struggle: Antony and Cleopatra were defeated, Octavian stood alone at the top of the Roman world, but he was faced with the daunting task of reinventing its government. The republic had acquitted itself well during the lengthy period of, first, Italian and then, due to the Punic wars, Mediterranean expansion but had only uncomfortably allowed Caesar to expand into Europe, and then only because it could not prevent him from doing so; the age of revolution had taken its toll. The world--Rome was by this time urbs et orbis, "city and world," insofar as the Romans and their international dependents were concerned--needed stability more than anything else, and that is what Octavian gave it, in the form of an empire that externally accommodated itself to traditional republican offices and duties but that internally vested power in one man, Octavian himself, and in his personal, imperial bureaucracy. The passage from republic to empire and the accomplishments of Rome's "first citizen" are abundantly documented on the coins issued during, and even after, his reign.

Numerous coins celebrate the achievements abroad whereby Octavian, or Augustus as he was later named (see below), stabilized the frontiers of the empire: he defeated his rival Sextus Pompey early (no. 67), thereby controlling the western Mediterranean; consolidated the eastern Mediterranean by capturing Egypt (nos. 61, 62); expanded the empire in the north (no. 68); and secured the eastern border with Parthia via an historic diplomatic, rather than military, success (nos. 63, 64). He spent time in the provinces (no. 68) and balanced the competing claims of social classes as well as of geographical areas. These successes and victories assured the Pax Augusta, "Augustan peace," which allowed both business and government to prosper, and earned Augustus many honors, two of which-the clipeus virtutis, "shield of virtue," and corona civica, "civic crown"-appear on coin no. 65. He also stabilized and reformed Rome's coinage. The gold aureus and silver denarius he retained at clearly established and constant values (40 and 84 to the Roman pound respectively), he introduced token "bronze" coinage in brass (orichalcum) and in copper, and he allowed provinces and regions to mint in bronze. The major imperial mints issued gold and silver coins featuring Augustus' achievements, i.e., his military victories and the peace and prosperity he secured, whereas bronze coins tended to emphasize his civil powers and honors and were stamped SC (senatus consulto, "by decree of the senate"). This model continued for almost three centuries. The gold and silver imperial coins circulated widely among the wealthier classes, whom Augustus favored (but not so much as to cause animosity), whereas the bronze as and dupondius or double as became the civil and military standard.

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