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Traduções/Translations Power, image and archaeology: ral processes, is constructed according tions, which only look at the purchase monetary iconography and the to certain determined rules that follow value, are not useful when we study an- social conventions. In fact, a coin cir- tiquity. In order to define a coin we need Roman army culates in three different levels, where it to understand its function back then3. Cláudio Umpierre Carlan simultaneously is an icon, an index and The present paper has this context as a conventional symbol. The peoples that PhD IFCH/Unicamp background. We tried to identify each Associate researcher at Núcleo de Estudos inhabited the vast Roman Empire had existing symbol on the obverse and on Estratégicos (NEE/Unicamp) the knowledge to recognize their ruler in the reverse of the studied coins through Holder of a Capes scholarship a bust engraved in a small bronze, silver iconographical analysis. Those repre- or gold piece. sentations served as a kind of political, Introduction Coins have been studied as a simple social, economical and religious propa- financial exchange, another merchandise This paper analyzes Roman coinage ganda. They also have a strong ideologi- within the large world of commerce. The of the 4th century and its connection cal weight, because the final objective numismatic researcher has been more with the society back then through two was to legitimize the rulers’ power before concerned with the economical and so- perspectives: its material relevance when their subjects. cial body that coins served, that is selling used for payment of the troops and of and buying transactions, salary payment, the provisions the empire needed, and etc., than with the metal with which coins I - Crisis and revolts in the 3rd century its symbolic meaning as showed in the were made and that also informed of the After Septimius Severus death (222- representations of the rulers and of their richness of a reign2. 235), Rome falls into a period of political administrative policies. Having this in- anarchy that would last circa fifty years. tention in mind we will use not only nu- Contemporary man hardly connects coins to a mode of communication be- One after the other, successive emperors mismatic sources, but also written and tween distant peoples. Nevertheless, a would be hailed by the troops at dawn archaeological ones, all belonging to strange monetary piece would speak to a and assassinated at nightfall. As a way this period. Because of lack of space, we Roman owner through (1) the metal with to surpass financial difficulties, coinage will deal only with some coins from the which it was coined, noble or not, (2) its was struck in such an altered way that the tetrarchy period (285-305), when more iconographic type and (3) its legend. The people refused to accept them. than 300 types were coined1. metal would inform of the richness of a During most of the 3rd century, es- The coins used in this research belong reign and the other two elements would sentially during Aurelian’s government to the National Historical Museum, in tell him something about its art - that is, (270-275), there is an attempt to rees- Rio de Janeiro, an institution that has the how high was the technological ability tablish the finances and to regain eco- largest coin collection in Latin America, used in the manufacture of that specific nomical balance. At first, in order to comprising more than 130 thousand coinage -, about the power of the issuing make coin circulation easier, different pieces coming from several regions. Dat- authority and, mainly, about the political mints were opened, but soon after the ing from the 4th century alone, there are and religious ideology that embodied it. Emperor himself had them shut down. 1.888 coins bearing the representations of This last aspect of a numismatic source is A new wave of revolts broke all over the all emperors, usurpers and empresses that the one we intend to explore here. Empire. To make the situation go back gravitated towards the power back then. We just made a huge anachronism to normal, only coinage minted by the The coins, besides offering economic when we compared a capitalistic society, state is accepted, and the Senate had no well being have also intrinsic iconic as- like ours, that has its own economical pat- longer the right to inspect its production. pects. When we analyze the monetary terns, to a society that existed a thousand Increase in prices reach 1.000%. In 273 obverses and reverses conceiving them or two years ago. In a world of extremely an uprising breaks in Rome. The mint as fabricated images, we see that coins low levels of alphabetization and precari- workers (Monetari), backed up by the low imitate the things to which they refer ous modes of communication, iconogra- Roman classes, kill more than 7 thou- to. Any sign, even the iconographical phy played a fundamental role. According sand soldiers of the repression forces. one, engraved through physical or natu- to Corvisier, modern and simple defini- The Empire had last territories and was RHAA 6 181 Traduções/Translations impoverished. Changes were due: politi- curia or village); peasants, colons and ten- in the Empire. The coins minted in the cal and economical reforms that would ants had to stay permanently at the lands Orient bear also a star in their field. The make the moribund body live again. they worked on, they were prohibited of National Historical Museum has 145 such leaving; urban workers were obliged to coins, from Diocletian, and 107 from Max- keep the same profession and to pass it imianus. Fifteen of those still carry this II - The tetrarchy and the on to their descendants. A novel system characteristic, including the silver cover, restoration of order of classes is, thus, established, one that which is a very important artistic device. The process of transformation begins was unknown in Rome until then. The In 301, the tetrarchs tried, through during Gallienus government (253-268). intent was to maintain the Empire’s eco- the Editum Diocletiani et Collegarum de pretiis He starts a reorganization of the army nomical structure immobilized. rerum venalium, or Diocletian’s Edict on and chooses to form his personal guard The diarchy turns into a tetrarchy, and Maximum Prices, to reestablish the Em- the elite of the officials, together with a Galerius and Constantius Chlorus par- pire economy by rating the maximum large cavalry group. Administration wise, ticipate as Caesars. They were both con- prices of the goods - practice known, in senators lose the command over the le- nected, by marriage, to the two Augus- our “post-modern” society, as “freezing” gions. His successors proceed with the tus. Galerius marries Valeria, Diocletian’s of prices and salaries, something still in restoration work, at least the ones that daughter, and Constantius Chlorus mar- are able to maintain themselves in power: use among our traditional political class. ries Theodora, Maximianus daughter. Aurelian (270-275) and Probus (276-282). As it happens nowadays, it did not bring These initial reforms pave the way for the The new Caesars do not have a mere good results, corruption and smuggling ones established by Diocletian (284-305). administrative function. They need to were stimulated. strengthen their “Augustus”. One “Cae- After the murder of Numerianus In this period also new mints were sar”, as a kind of “vice-emperor”, would (283-284), Caius Aurelius Valerius Dio- opened in order to fulfill the tetrarchy’s aid each “Augustus”. Thus, the pairs cletianus, born in Salona (nowadays Split obligations and the commercial needs: were obliged to help one another, im- or Spalato, a city and a port in Croatia), public enterprises and increase of the mediately, in case of danger: the oriental was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. military and civil strength. Because of this Augustus and his Caesar would came in Although he possessed an illustrious new issues begin to circulate bearing let- aid of the occidental colleagues. Their name, Valerius, he did not descend from ters at the inferior part of the coin reverse, vow of friendship is depicted at the por- the aristocratic Roman family of the also known as exergue. When visible we phyry sculpture called “The Tetrarchs”, same name. So, he was not a patrician. can identify the name (a kind of abbre- in Venice, where the four of them are His father had been a freedman (ex-slave) viation) of the place of minting, like, for represented embraced. from Dalmatia (Croatia’s cost). In order instance: PÈT (Ticinum); ARLQ, PCON, to avoid having a similar end as his an- Besides those facts, we have an in- PAR, SCON (Arles); AQ, AQP* (Aqui- tecessors, Diocletian relied on known version of the political axis. Rome was leia); MRH, SMHA (Heraklea); VRB, trustful people that came from his so- placed in second plan after the new ROM, VRB.ROM.Q, R*T, RWT, RT cial background. Some of the members capitals became official: Aquilea and (Rome); ASI, ASSIS, BSISZ, SMAKA, of the future tetrarchy belonged to that Treveris, in the Occident, Sirmio and SMKG (Cizicus) (Carlan 2000: 30). group: Galerius (305-311), his adjunct, Nicomedia, in the Orient. Those values are shown explicitly at had guarded livestock at the Carpathian In an attempt to reestablish the power the coinage of the period. In the dupon- Mountains; Maximianus Herculius of the Roman economy, Diocletian tries dius, a bronze coin with a diameter larger (285/286-305) served army with Diocle- to accomplish an economical and admin- than 2,5 mm, weighing more than 8 g, tian; Constantius Chlorus, Maximianus istrative reform.