Jump to content

Aureus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Aurei)
For other uses, see Aureus (disambiguation).

Aureus minted in 193 by Septimius Severus to celebrate Legio XIV Gemina, the legion that proclaimed him emperor

The aureus (pl. aurei, 'golden') was the main gold coin of ancient Rome from the 1st century BC to the early 4th century AD. This type of coin was sporadically issued during the Republic and standardized during the Empire, originally valued at 25 silver denarii and 100 sestertii. The aureus was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus. It was about the same size as the denarius, but heavier due to the higher density of gold (as opposed to that of silver).

During the Republic

[edit]

The production of proper Roman coins began in the 3rd century BC and was limited to the minting of bronze aces; the gold brought back from spoils and war indemnities was sotred in the public treasury (Aerarium). According to the needs of the state finances, the gold in the reserve was sold for minted silver, at a ratio of 1 to 12.[1] The Second Punic War (218–201), due to its considerable financing needs, made it necessary to draw on the reserves of precious metal. Rome therefore issued silver denarii and several series of aurei, but the production of gold coins ceased after the war.[2]

  • Issue worth 40 (XXXX) asses, 211 BC. The obverse depicts the god Mars.
    Issue worth 40 (XXXX) asses, 211 BC. The obverse depicts the god Mars.
  • Issue minted by Sulla, 82 BC. The obverse depicts Roma.
    Issue minted by Sulla, 82 BC. The obverse depicts Roma.
  • Issue minted by Caesar, 45 BC. The obverse depicts Victory.
    Issue minted by Caesar, 45 BC. The obverse depicts Victory.

In the years following 87 BC, and in exceptional circumstances, the general Sulla resumed issuing gold coins during his campaign in Greece. Disowned by the Senate and deprived of its financial support, he seized the treasures of the Greek and used them to issue gold or silver coins bearing his name.[3] These issues also served a propaganda purpose during the ensuing civil war.

In 49 BC, Julius Caesar, claiming that the Republic was in danger, seized the gold reserve of the public treasury and using it alongside his personal during his civil war. The minting of the aureus resumed in itinerant workshops following the movements of Caesar's legions, then in Rome, at the standard weight equivalent to of a Roman pound (about 8.16 grams) . This coin, made of pure gold, was called aureus nummus or denarius aureus, "gold denarius". Shortly before his death, Caesar's began issuing silver coins with his own portrait, a departure from traditional coinage.

The period following the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March 44 BC saw competition between various factions, each mobilizing its own army and paying its soldiers in gold coins. Mints competing with that of Rome multiplied in Italy, Gaul, Roman Africa , Sicily , or itinerant ones depending on the movements of the armies. Each faction leader had his effigy and emblems struck: the triumvirs (Mark Antony, Lepidus and Caesar's nephew Octavian), the "liberators" Brutus and Cassius Longinus, and Sextus Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great). Octavian became sole master of the Roman world in 31 BC, after defeating his last opposition at Actium. Four years later, in 27 BC, he assumed the name and title of Augustus, marking his accession as the first Roman emperor.

Early Empire

[edit]

Julius Caesar struck the coin more often, and standardized the weight at of a Roman pound (about 8 grams). Octavian Augustus tariffed the value of the sestertius as of an aureus.[4] The aureus, which mint was placed at Lugdunum, weighed 1/42 a pound (7.79 grams) and was worth 25 denarii and 100 sestertii. A sub-multiple existed, the gold quinarius or half-aureus. The Augustan system of the 1st century was as follows:[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Aureus Quinarius Denarius Quinarius Sestertius Dupondius As Semis Quadrans
Aureus 1 2 25 50 100 200 400 800 1600
Quinarius Aureus 1⁄2 1 12+1⁄2 25 50 100 200 400 800
Denarius 1⁄25 2⁄25 1 2 4 8 16 32 64
Quinarius Argenteus 1⁄50 1⁄25 1⁄2 1 2 4 8 16 32
Sestertius 1⁄100 1⁄50 1⁄4 1⁄2 1 2 4 8 16
Dupondius 1⁄200 1⁄100 1⁄8 1⁄4 1⁄2 1 2 4 8
As 1⁄400 1⁄200 1⁄16 1⁄8 1⁄4 1⁄2 1 2 4
Semis 1⁄800 1⁄400 1⁄32 1⁄16 1⁄8 1⁄4 1⁄2 1 2
Quadrans 1⁄1600 1⁄800 1⁄64 1⁄32 1⁄16 1⁄8 1⁄4 1⁄2 1

The mass of the aureus was decreased to of a Roman pound (7.3 g) during the reign of Nero (r. 54–68).[13] According to Cassius Dio, writing at the start of the 3rd century, notes that the aureus was still worth 100 sesterii, and comments that it was equivalent to 20 Greek drachmas.[14] At about the same time the purity of the silver coinage was also slightly decreased.

Aureus of Octavian, c. 30 BC

After the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) the production of aurei decreased, and the weight fell to of a Roman pound (6.5 g) by the time of Caracalla (r. 211–217).

During the 3rd century, the Roman Empire experienced a 50-year period of instability that also saw an increasingly severe economic and monetary crisis. The number and weight of aurei produced decreased more and more rapidly, dropping from about 7.20 grams under Septimius Severus (r. 193–211) to less than 3.50 grams under Valerian (r. 253–260), about half of its original value. The simultaneous devaluation of gold and silver coins caused their mutual devaluation. While the correspondence of 25 denarii for 1 aureus was maintained during the 1st and 2nd centuries, the value of the aureus became unstable: a Greek inscriptions under the reign of Philip (r. 244–249) gives 1 aureus for 21 antoninianii, or 42 denarii.[15]

In addition, gold pieces were introduced in a variety of fractions and multiples, making it hard to determine the intended denomination of a gold coin.[16] During Gallienus's reign, the purity was briefly reduced to 94%, and a small amount of coins were minted with as low as 80% purity. This was reset back to 99% by the next emperor.[17]

The devalued aureus would be replaced by the solidus, during the 4th century. An early form of this coin was first introduced by Diocletian (r. 284–305) around 301 AD, when he struck at 60 to the Roman pound of pure gold (and thus weighing about 5.5 grams each) and with an initial value equal to 1,000 denarii.[17] In that same year, Diocletian issued the Edict on Maximum Prices fixing a price for minted gold of 72,000 denarii per pound, or more than a thousand denarii for one aureus, the denarius being no more than a unit of account. This authoritarian measure did nothing but stop the fluctuation of the aureus.[18] Diocletian's solidus was struck only in small quantities, and thus had only minimal economic effect, although its stable weight brought an end to the instability that had existed for a while.

When the solidus was reintroduced by Constantine I (r. 306–337) in 312 AD, permanently replacing the aureus as the gold coin of the Roman Empire, it was struck at a rate of 72 to a Roman pound of pure gold, each coin weighing twenty-four Greco-Roman carats, or about 4.5 grams of gold per coin.[19][20] By this time, the solidus was worth 275,000 of the increasingly debased denarii. However, regardless of the size or weight of the aureus, the coin's purity was little affected.[21] Due to runaway inflation caused by the Roman government's issuing base-metal coinage but refusing to accept anything other than silver or gold for tax payments, the value of the gold aureus in relation to the denarius grew drastically. Inflation was also affected by the systematic debasement of the silver denarius, which by the mid-3rd century had practically no silver left in it.

Gold content[22]
Ruler Year Average
Caesar 44 BC 8.18 grams
Augustus 14 AD 7.80 grams
Tiberius 37 AD ~ 7.75 grams[23]
Caligula 41 AD ~ 7.72 grams
Claudius 54 AD ~ 7.66 grams
Nero 68 AD 7.28 grams
Galba 69 AD 7.26 grams
Otho 69 AD 7.24 grams
Titus 81 AD ~ 7.21 grams
Domitian 96 AD ~ 7.40 grams
Nerva 98 AD ~ 7.54 grams
Trajan 117 7.22 grams
Hadrian 138 7.19 grams
Antoninus 161 7.19 grams
Marcus 180 7.19 grams
Commodus 192 7.26 grams
Pertinax 193 7.19 grams
Severus 211 7.19 grams
Caracalla 217 6.48 grams
Alexander 235 6.30 grams
Maximinus 238 5.80 grams
Pupienus 238 5.54 grams
Balbinus
Gordian III 244 4.86 grams
Philip 249 4.40 grams
Decius 251 4.30 grams
Gallus 253 3.65 grams
Valerian 260 3.40 grams
Diocletian 290 5.46 grams[24]

Today, the aureus is highly sought after by collectors because of its purity and value, as well its historical interest. An aureus is usually much more expensive than a denarius issued by the same emperor. For instance, in one auction, an aureus of Trajan (r. 98–117) sold for $15,000, and a silver coin of the same emperor sold for $100. The most expensive aureus ever sold was one issued in 42 BC by Marcus Junius Brutus, the assassin of Gaius Julius Caesar, which had a price realized of $3.5 million in November 2020;[25] there is an example of this coin on permanent display at the British Museum in London. An aureus, issued by the emperor Alexander Severus (r. 222–235), has a picture of the Colosseum on the reverse, and had a price realized of $920,000 in 2008.[26] An aureus with the face of Allectus was auctioned off in the United Kingdom for £552,000 in June 2019.[27]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Le Glay, Marcel (1990). Rome, Grandeur et Déclin de la République, Éd. Perrin, p. 116. ISBN 2262018979
  2. ^ Depeyrot, Georges (2006). La monnaie romaine. Paris, Éditions Errance. pp. 14-15. ISBN 978-2-87772-330-5
  3. ^ Plutarch, Lucullus 2.
  4. ^ Drinkwater, J. F. (2019). Nero: Emperor and Court. Cambridge University Press. p. 355. ISBN 978-1-108-47264-7.
  5. ^ Elkins, Nathan T. (2017-07-03). The Image of Political Power in the Reign of Nerva, AD 96-98. Oxford University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-19-064804-6.
  6. ^ Sellars, Ian J. (2013). The Monetary System of the Romans: A description of the Roman coinage from early times to the reform of Anastasius. p. 56.
  7. ^ Travillian, Tyler T. (2015). Pliny the Elder: The Natural History Book VII (with Book VIII 1-34). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-4725-2101-9.
  8. ^ Metcalf, William (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. OUP USA. pp. 336–352. ISBN 978-0-19-530574-6.
  9. ^ Mesihović, Salmedin (2015). ORBIS ROMANVS: Udžbenik za historiju klasične rimske civilizacije (in Croatian). Salmedin Mesihovic. p. 118. ISBN 978-9958-0311-2-0.
  10. ^ Theophilos, Michael P. (2019). Numismatics and Greek Lexicography. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-567-67437-1.
  11. ^ Jones, Tom B. (1967). Paths to the Ancient Past. Simon and Schuster. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-02-916630-7.
  12. ^ Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy A. (1998). Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. OUP USA. pp. 305–314. ISBN 978-0-19-512332-6.
  13. ^ Cooley, M. G. L. (2023). Tiberius to Nero. Cambridge University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-009-38285-4.
  14. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 55, § 12.
  15. ^ Depeyrot 2006, pp. 118–138.
  16. ^ The Imperial Roman Economy. "Hoarding, Gresham's Law and All That". www.forumancientcoins.com.
  17. ^ a b Scheidel, Walter. "The monetary systems of the Han and Roman empires" (PDF). Stanford University.
  18. ^ Depeyrot 2006, p. 100.
  19. ^ Porteous, John (1969). "The Imperial Foundations". Coins in history : a survey of coinage from the reform of Diocletian to the Latin Monetary Union. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 14–33. ISBN 0-297-17854-7.
  20. ^ Walbank, F.W. (1996) [1969]. La pavorosa revolución. La decadencia del imperio romano en occidente [The AwfulRevolution – The Decline of the Roman Empire in the West] (in Spanish). Translated by Doris Rolfe. Madrid: Alianza Universal. pp. 56–67. ISBN 8420622095.
  21. ^ Grant, Michael (2011). The Emperor Constantine. Orion. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-78022-280-6.
  22. ^ Louis Caulton, West (1941). Gold and silver coin standards in the Roman empire. New York: American Numismatic Society – via ANS Digital Library.
  23. ^ Authors vary slightly on the exact amount, so an average is given
  24. ^ Pannekeet, C. G. J. (2013). The Roman coinage in the 4th and 5th century AD. Also Feature Auction CNG 111. Diocletian. AD 284-305: "During the reigns immediately prior to Diocletian, the weight of the gold aureus fluctuated wildly, from as heavy as 6.90 grams to as light as 4 grams, and seemed to vary almost arbitrarily from mint to mint. This irregularity continued into the first years of the new regime (see previous lot), but between AD 286 and 290, Diocletian stabilized the aureus at 60 to the pound, or about 5.46 grams of gold, throughout the Roman Empire."
  25. ^ "Goldberg Coins and Collectibles". Images.goldbergauctions.com. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  26. ^ "Goldberg Coins and Collectibles". Images.goldbergauctions.com. Retrieved 2014-06-07.
  27. ^ "Metal detectorist 'ecstatic' after find on farm turns out to be ultra-rare Roman coin fetching £552,000 at auction". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aureus.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aureus&oldid=1284344279"