The emperor, the army and the coinage: Four quantitative studies.

Abstract

The Emperor, The Army and The Coinage: Four Quantitative Studies examines two important and related questions by whose authority Roman imperial coinage was produced and who was responsible for the selection of coin types. When studying the question of authority, one must consider the coin types' audience and in particular the role of the army as the most likely recipient. In this context, four emperors (Hadrian, Pius, Vespasian and Severus) and their military coinage was studied in order to establish that military emperors produced military coinage while non-military emperors preferred to issue non-military coinage. This study supports several scholars' theories that the emperor played an important role in coin types' selection and that the army was an important recipient of that coinage.