Coinage had been known there for so long, that the Romans found it expedient to leave a large part of the issues to local mints. Provincial silver or billon was struck in Asia, at Caesarea in Cappadocia, at Antioch in Syria, and at Alexandria in Egypt. Small change was issued freely not only in a number of provincial issues, but also at a vast number of city mints. It may fairly be said that the right to issue such small change was freely granted to almost every urban community. Under these circumstances the part assigned to imperial coinage was a restricted one. The aureus, indeed, had hardly a rival, the denarius circulated beside the provincial silver; but the token coinage in use was almost ex clusively of local make. Not till late in the 3rd century did this local coinage succumb before the debasement of the imperial silver and the opening of provincial mints for imperial coin.
The provincial coinage was, in its degree, a concern of the imperial government ; the local coinage, however, was in theory independent. Its types are largely taken up with local interests; and, although reference to the Emperor or senate or people of Rome, is common, it is by no means universal and expresses a compliment rather than a definite acknowledgment of sovereignty. Portraiture.—We have seen how under Julius Caesar inter est in the living individual found expression on the coins in the form of portraiture. This tendency was developed to an immense degree under the Empire; but, as was only natural, interest was now focussed on the Emperor himself and the members of his family. Beside them there was no room for individual distinc tion. The Emperor, as head of the state, enjoys the right of portraiture on the obverse—a right which extended, at first spar ingly, later more freely, to living Empresses or princes or to deceased members of the line. The reverse types, too, are full of his personality and his prowess. His victories, his triumphs, his distributions to the poor of Rome, his public shows, his measures for the welfare of Italy or the provinces, his arrivals and departures, his marriages, the birth of his heirs, his pro vision for the succession—these and many more, find constant reference on the coins. It is significant of the growth of imperial influence over the senatorial coinages, that, after a time, such reference is found as freely on the bronze coinage as on the gold and silver.
Religion still plays a large part. But even the great gods of the state are freely brought into connection with the Emperor and his protectors or as types of his qualities; and what is true of them is even more true of the minor deities, or virtues, who were so widely worshipped by the Romans. The virtues of the Emperor provide a symbolism fit to cover the whole of the imperial admin istration; his valour and victorious power, his care for the corn supply of Rome, his spirit of constitutionalism, his liberality, his justice and his mercy. The coinage has throughout a strongly propagandist character. It serves to make known the achieve ments and to advertise the policies of the government.
The imperial system produced its own cult, the worship of those Emperors who, after death, were adjudged worthy of the honour of consecration. The worship of the "divi," as these deified Em perors were called, bulks large on the coins. They wear the radiate crown of the Sun-god as the symbol of their divinity; while on the reverses appears the eagle, the symbol of the soul flown heavenwards, the pyre, the temple, or types of "Aeternitas," that world beyond time, conceived of as in the starry heavens, to which the soul of the good depart.
Diocletian.—Diocletian refounded the Roman Empire, but in a form that Augustus would hardly have recognized. The Em peror is now a monarch of the Eastern pattern, even in his life time receiving something like divine worship.
The mints formed a section of the department of the chancellor of the exchequer and, under him, were administered by "ration ales." The moneyers, like so many other professions of the age of Diocletian, were organized as a rigid caste, from which escape was barely possible. They were subject to severe discipline and terrible penalties for abuses: but, despite this, false coinage was immensely prevalent and flourished in the face of repression.
Diocletian in A.D. 296 completed the task which Aurelian had begun. He finally cleared away the depreciated coinages of the 3rd century and issued a new coinage, based on sound gold and silver coins. His gold piece was struck at sixty to the pound of gold, his silver at ninety-six to the pound of silver. His succes sors continued his policy in the main lines unchanged. Constan tine substituted the solidus, a piece of end of the pound, for Diocletian's sixtieth; this standard found general acceptance and passed on to the famous "besant" of the Byzantine Empire. In the first thirty-five years of the 4th century silver was very sparingly struck. When its free issue was resumed, new denomi nations, the nziliarense of the gold pound) and siliqua of the gold pound) soon replaced Diocletian's ninety sixth. The silver came more and more to be struck below stand ard weight—that is to say, to become a subordinate token coinage. The basis of the system was the steady supply of a standard gold coin.
Whether Diocletian and his successors issued a regular coin age in bronze or copper is very doubtful. They certainly continued to issue the very base billon, which represented the last stage of the debasement of the double denarius.
Diocletian's reform must have brought some improvement on the chaos of the great anarchy of the third century. But one great evil persisted—the cost of living remained high and would not come down. Diocletian's edict of A.D. 301 fixing maximum prices, was undoubtedly only one of a series of blows aimed at a recur rent social evil.
Influence of Christianity.—The spirit of the coinage under goes a change, similar to that of its form. The divine Emperor dominates the entire coinage : even the gods hardly appear except as patrons of the new dynasty—Jupiter for Diocletian, Her cules for Maximian, Mars for Galerius, Sol for Constantius I. When Christianity, surviving the great persecution, received full tolerance and increasingly marked favours from Constantine, the pagan element in the coinage declined. Little of Christianity, however, took its place. For many years types and legends of a neutral character were preferred, though Christian signs and emblems—cross, monogram of Jesus Christ, labarum (Christian standard) begin to appear. There was in fact an unavowed truce between old and new. After Julian—who revived pagan types on his coins—notably the Apis bull of Egypt—the Christian element becomes stronger. The Emperor appears more and more as the defender of the faith, the imperial Victory shades off into the Christian angel. But the full development of the Christian tra dition in coinage was reserved for Byzantium.
The Roman coinage of the East passes on without interruption into that of Byzantium. In the West, the Empire, succumbing to the barbarians in the late 5th century, left them its coinage as part of its legacy.