Arma et nummi

This is a fundamentally new analysis of the finances of the Roman state in the years 49 to 42 BC: It takes into account not only all the literary evidence for financial developments in this period, but also the contemporary coinages, thus creating - for the first time - an exciting global perspective onto the production of money and the financial transactions of both the state and the leading politicians in the years from the outbreak of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey to the battle of Philippi. The study is divided chronologically into three sections (49-48, 48-45 and 45/44-42 BC), each of which consists of two parts: Part A assembles the entire information available on financial topics in written sources on the given period and provides the first ever thorough analysis of this literary material, whereas Part B examines the relevant coinages in minute detail, concentrating on questions of dating and localisation; in a second step, the various issues are confronted with the literary evidence. The new results achieved in this study are manifold, both concerning (financial) history and numismatics. The fresh insight gained into the financial background of the outbreak of the Alexandrian war, into Caesar`s donativa, his financial dispositions during the monarchy, his confiscation of the Pompeian estates and the monetary situation after his assassination deserves as much attention as the new dating and/or localisation of the following series in M. H. Crawford`s `Roman Republican Coinage` (Cambridge 1974): nos. 441 (the urban quaestor Nerius struck in Illyria, not in Rome), 443 (Caesar`s elephant-denarii were produced in southern Gaul and/or north-eastern Spain in mid-49), 444 (the issue of Sicinius and Coponius was minted in Asia minor), 446 and 447 (the denarii of the Pompeian proquaestors Piso and Varro were struck at the beginning of 48 on the Illyrian coast), 452 (Caesar`s second imperatorial issue was produced in mid-48 in Apollonia), 458 (Caesar`s Aeneas-denarii are not African in origin but were struck in Asia minor), 467 (D and M on these coins, which were presumably issued in Sicily, are signatures of the die-engravers), 476 (C. Clovius was one of Caesar`s urban prefects), 483 (Nasidius struck in Sicily), 488 (Mark Antony`s entire issue was produced in Gallia cisalpina in late 43), 498-508 (a new chronological arrangement for the coinage of the liberators is proposed; Cassius did not mint any coins during his stay in Syria), 511 (Sextus Pompey began minting precious metals in Sicily only after 38), 512-515 (the year of office of these four monetales was 43, not 41), 550 (Oppius had his orichalcum-pieces minted in Rome in 46). Furthermore, technical comments on and innovative typological interpretations of many coinages (e. g. nos. 465/1f., 468/2, 469, 470, 491/2, 514/2) are given. The interdisciplinary approach chosen enables the reader to appreciate the relationship between the different types of sources (texts and coins); in general, the literary evidence is in agreement with the numismatic material in that periods of high expenditure are counterbalanced by an exceptionally high mint-output. Thus, an impression of compatibility of these two classes of sources emerges.