Most people have some idea what Greeks and Romans coins looked like, but few know how complex Greek and Roman monetary systems eventually became. The contributors to this volume are numismatists, ancient historians, and economists intent on investigating how these systems worked and how they both did and did not resemble a modern monetary system. Why did people first start using coins? How did Greeks and Romans make payments, large or small? What does money mean in Greek tragedy? Was the Roman Empire an integrated economic system? This volume can serve as an introduction to such questions, but it also offers the specialist the results of original research.

"The Monetary System of the Romans" provides a comprehensive and visual portrayal of the evolution of the Roman monetary system from its inception in the late fifth century BC to the bronze reform of Anastasius in 498AD. It chronologically traces the key developments in the coinage of the Roman world, covering topics such as denominations, metrology, alloys, mints, monetary edicts and more. For every issuing authority, whether it be the Senate, imperator, usurper or emperor, exemplary specimens of each denomination are discussed and clearly illustrated. With 820 pages and over 2000 full colour high resolution photographs from the world's most esteemed auction houses, this novel format provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject of Roman numismatics and will be useful to both students of history and collectors alike.

The Roman monetary system was highly complex. It involved official Roman coins in both silver and bronze, which some provinces produced while others imported them from mints in Rome and elsewhere, as well as, in the East, a range of civic coinages. This is a comprehensive study of the workings of the system in the Eastern provinces from the Augustan period to the third century AD, when the Roman Empire suffered a monetary and economic crisis. The Eastern provinces exemplify the full complexity of the system, but comparisons are made with evidence from the Western provinces as well as with appropriate case studies from other historical times and places. The book will be essential for all Roman historians and numismatists and of interest to a broader range of historians of economics and finance.

This authoritative study of the Roman monetary system offers a fascinating glimpse into the economic history of the ancient world. Drawing on original sources and extensive research, the author provides a detailed account of how money was minted, distributed, and used in the Roman Empire, shedding new light on the economic policies and practices of one of history's most powerful civilizations. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book was the first to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the impact of money on the economy, society and culture of the Greek and Roman worlds. It uses new approaches in economic history to explore how money affected the economy in antiquity and demonstrates that the crucial factors in its increasing influence were state-formation, expanding political networks, metal supply and above all an increasing sophistication of credit and contractual law. Covering a wide range of monetary contexts within the Mediterranean over almost a thousand years (c.600 BC–AD 300), it demonstrates that money played different roles in different social and political circumstances. The book will prove an invaluable introduction to upper-level students of ancient money, while also offering perspectives for future research to the specialist.