The coinage was controlled by the Senate, acting for the sovereign people; and the conduct of the mints was in the hands of boards of junior magistrates, the tresviri. From about the mid-2nd century, each of a mintâs three tresviri normally issued coins bearing his own name, and on special occasions these were supplemented by issues of quaestors, curule aediles, prefects, or praetors; these were distinguished by special inscriptions such as ex s(enatus) c(onsulto) and ex a(rgento) p(ublico). The function of all these officials was quantity and quality control.
The moneyersâ names at first were shown as simple monograms. The Dioscuri reverse was followed by Diana or Victory in a biga (two-horse chariot), and these again by figures of Jupiter, Juno, or Apollo in a quadriga, with the moneyersâ names in fuller form. In the mid-2nd century bc, however, newer tendencies appeared, as when Sextus Pompeius Fostlus paired the Roma obverse with a reverse showing his traditional ancestor Faustulus discovering the wolf and twins; the reference was to the greatness of Rome, but it was to be seen through the lineage of a moneyer. Later republican denarii gave keen expression to party politics, as when corn ears recorded circa 100 the purchase of grain by the quaestors Piso and Caepio, or the head of Ceres with ploughing oxen proclaimed the program of the Marians, or Sextus Nonius Sufenas advertised the games that he had staged as praetor.
It was in the provinces, however, that the republican coinage took the decisive steps toward its finally imperial character. Campaigning generals began, in the 1st century bc, to operate mints for paying their troops in the field. In Italy mint policy had usually looked beyond personal politics to the state. But the military coinages of the imperatores equated the state with the personalities of the generals. Such were the aurei and denarii struck from eastern mints about 82â81 by Sulla, with, obverse, L. SVLLA and head of Venus (his family patroness) and, reverse, IMPER(ator) ITERVM, priestly jug between trophies. Pompey issued comparable aurei about 61 (also in the east). From these precedents the earlier coinage of Julius Caesar followed naturally in the late 50s and early 40s, with, obverse, CAESAR and elephant (the family badge) and, reverse, priestly symbols, or obverse, head of Venus (his traditional ancestress) and, reverse, CAESAR, Gaulish trophy, and captives. Such coinages still avoided the portraiture of a living man, the only examples of which hitherto had been on provincially struck coins.
In the last year of his life, Caesar developed personal control of the coinage to a point at which it lay ready to hand for Augustus to use later as a fully imperial instrument. Already, from 46 bc, coinage in gold had been instituted in Rome by Caesarâs lieutenant Hirtius. Caesarâs seizure of the treasury and his expansion of the annual board of moneyers from three to four members indicated his intention to deal absolutely with the coinage. In 44, denarii were issued in considerable quantity by his quattuorviri, bearing the portrait of Caesar on the obverse, with such inscriptions as DICT(ator) QVART(um) or DICT(ator) PERPETVO, and Venus Victrix or other semipersonal reverse types. For the token coinage a new alloy was now first struckâyellow orichalcum or brass, a copperâzinc alloy. Caesar may have enjoyed a monopoly of zinc from mines in Cisalpine Gaul.
From 44 to 31, bronze coinages were struck at various non-Italian mints, notably in or around Sicily, by officials attached to the cause of one or other of the members of the second triumvirateâAntony, Octavian, and Lepidus. But the principal issues of these years were of gold and silver. The mint of Rome continued its regular series until about 37 and then ceased. Antonyâs coinage emanated at first from Gaul, then increasingly from eastern mints, including his cistophori and denarii (some showing his head conjoined with Cleopatraâs) struck in Asia: his vast issue of often base denarii showing warships and military standards, shortly before the naval battle of Actium, was eastern. Octavian coined mainly in Gaul, Italy, and Africa. The piratical movement of Sextus Pompeius was reflected in the activity of a mint or mints in Sicily.
It was characteristic of most of the gold and silver after 44 that it showed portraits of the rival statesmen on the obverses, with reverses that alluded to their achievements or policies. This was true even of the âliberatorsâ who murdered Caesar, for a famous eastern issue in the name of Brutus showed his portrait, with BRVT(us) IMP(erator) on the obverse, with reverse EID(ibus) MAR(tiis)âthe fatal Ides of Marchâand daggers flanking a cap of liberty. By the close of the Roman Republic, three factors had entirely transformed the originally simple idiom of the early denarial coinage: gold was freely struck in addition to silver; the types of both were personal to military leaders and included living portraiture; and coinage could be produced elsewhere than at Rome.
