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- 4 Şub 2022
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The Second Punic War was one of the defining events in the history of Rome, a city-state on the verge of becoming an imperial power. It lasted nearly a generation and tested the government, the military and the system of alliances that Rome had painstakingly built in Italy and beyond. It also caused economic devastation: to pay for the war, the Roman state resorted to credit for the first time in its history, soliciting loans from leading citizens and their ally Hieron II, king of Syracuse. The strain is reflected in Rome’s coinage: not only was gold coinage required for the first time in Rome’s history, but the course of events forced a monumental change by which the Roman monetary system came to be based on the silver denarius rather than the bronze as, which had lost 80 percent of its weight in the first six years of the war.
That the Romans prevailed is remarkable, for the news at the outset was terrifying. Despite Hannibal losing an eye while crossing the Apennines, his skills were in peak form: in the ambush at Lake Trasimene in 217 he killed 15,000 men and took 10,000 prisoners; and at Cannae the number of Romans and allies he killed or captured perhaps reached 50,000. The devastation of individual communities throughout Italy must have been incomprehensible, and the Romans responded with a gold coinage meant to support their war effort both in a financial and a political sense.
The janiform head of the Dioscuri [Castor and Pollux] on the obverse no doubt was meant to recall the miraculous intervention of the saviour twins so long ago at the Battle of Lake Regillus. The reverses of the staters and half-staters offered here, both struck early in the struggle against Hannibal, 218-216 BC, show an oath-taking scene in which two soldiers touch the tips of their swords to a pig held by an attendant. The man on the right, un-bearded, youthful and armoured, is a Roman, and the man on the left, bearded and without armour, represents one of his Italian allies. The meaning of this scene is clear: Rome demonstrates to her allies that the war against Carthage is a cooperative effort. This was critically important because not only did Rome need this system of alliances to survive Hannibal’s invasion, but it has often been suggested that Hannibal’s true goal in invading Italy was not to capture the city of Rome, but to dismantle its alliances. As such, these gold coins should be regarded as historical documents of Rome’s counterpoint to Hannibal’s effort to undermine its emerging empire.
That the Romans prevailed is remarkable, for the news at the outset was terrifying. Despite Hannibal losing an eye while crossing the Apennines, his skills were in peak form: in the ambush at Lake Trasimene in 217 he killed 15,000 men and took 10,000 prisoners; and at Cannae the number of Romans and allies he killed or captured perhaps reached 50,000. The devastation of individual communities throughout Italy must have been incomprehensible, and the Romans responded with a gold coinage meant to support their war effort both in a financial and a political sense.
The janiform head of the Dioscuri [Castor and Pollux] on the obverse no doubt was meant to recall the miraculous intervention of the saviour twins so long ago at the Battle of Lake Regillus. The reverses of the staters and half-staters offered here, both struck early in the struggle against Hannibal, 218-216 BC, show an oath-taking scene in which two soldiers touch the tips of their swords to a pig held by an attendant. The man on the right, un-bearded, youthful and armoured, is a Roman, and the man on the left, bearded and without armour, represents one of his Italian allies. The meaning of this scene is clear: Rome demonstrates to her allies that the war against Carthage is a cooperative effort. This was critically important because not only did Rome need this system of alliances to survive Hannibal’s invasion, but it has often been suggested that Hannibal’s true goal in invading Italy was not to capture the city of Rome, but to dismantle its alliances. As such, these gold coins should be regarded as historical documents of Rome’s counterpoint to Hannibal’s effort to undermine its emerging empire.