The Romans continued the well-established Greek practice of coinage. Because the Romans were in the habit of minting coins with portraits of their emperors on one side, their money has become one of the most reliable guides to what these rulers looked like. While the widespread use of coinage constituted a great step forward in the development of a complex economy, the ancient world was not free of the problems associated with currency, and there were numerous instances of counterfeiting, inflation, and debasement of the coinage.
At various times, the Romans used many different coin denominations, and the relative values of these denominations also changed over time. Three of the most common coins were the silver denarius, the bronze sestertius, and the bronze as. Much rarer was the gold aureus. The relative values of these coins was as follows: 1 aureus = 25 denarii, 1 denarius = 4 sesferces, and 1 sestertius = 4 asses. Sometimes very large sums were expressed using the Greek denomination of a talent. One talent was equivalent to approximately 6,000 denarii. When writing about the Roman world, most historians express numbers in terms of sesterces, which they abbreviate as HS. ft is very difficult to meaningfully translate Roman amounts of money into comparable modern sums, but the annual salary of a Roman legionary was 900 HS, and the minimum wealth qualification to be a Roman senator was 1,000,000 HS.
During the republic, there were no standard designs for coins, but human beings were not supposed to be depicted on coins. During the empire, most coins were minted with the head of the emperor in profile on one side, surrounded by his titles written encircling his head, while the other side was decorated with propagandistic symbols and slogans. Due to the obvious space limitations, the Romans made heavy use of abbreviations on their coinage. Some of the most common abbreviations and slogans are listed in bold below:
S C (SENATUS CONSULTUM) = By order of the senate
IMP (IMPERATOR) = Emperor
COS (CONSUL) = Has been elected Consul
TRIB POT or TR P (TRIBUNICIA POTESTAS) = Holder of Tribuni-dan power F (FILIUS) = Son of DIVI = Divine AUG (AUGUSTUS)
CAES (CAESAR)
PIUS = Pious
PONT MAX (PONTIFEX MAXIMUS) Chief priest P P (PATER PATRIAE) - Father of the country S P Q R (SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS) = The senate and people of Rome
-ICUS (added onto a geographical place) = Conqueror of that place
Sometimes Roman numerals appear. These were used if someone held an office more than once. For example, if a coin bore the inscription COS II, it meant that the person was elected to the consulship twice. These same abbreviations were often used in inscriptions carved in stone. One factor that can make coins and inscriptions hard to read is that the Romans often did not put spaces between words and abbreviations.
Example: A typical coin might have an inscription such as IMPDIVIAUGNEROPONTMAXCOSIVPARTHICUS This can then be divided up as IMP DIVI AUG NERO PONT MAX COS IV PARTHICUS
Translated, this inscription would mean something like, "The emperor, the divine augustus Nero, chief priest, elected consul four times, conqueror of Parthia."
World History
