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.
(Continues...)
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