BÍRÓ-SEY KATALIN: COINS FROM IDENTIFIED SITES OF BRIGETIO AND THE QUESTION OF LOCAL CURRENCY / Régészeti Füzetek II/18. (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest, 1977)
I. INTRODUCTION
As scattered coins, Republican denarii were found in Brigetio also. Even some Greek coins (4l/l-5)of Carthage, Apollonia, Dyrrhachium-Syria were represented. Only the coin of the Syrian Antioch I could be determined precisely, and could be dated to 69-31 B. C. But we do not consider the occurrance of these Greek coins important. There is a minimal contemporary flow of eastern coins into the Carpathian basin; but it is also quite likely that the troops returning home from the east at the beginning of the 3rd century A. D. brought them along, as they did with the contemporary bronze medailons and the colonial impressions as well. It is of much greater significance that there are Celtic coins too (4l/6-8), two gold coins, and a silver tetradrachma. There is even an Eravisc imitation of a Roman denarius among the scattered coins (42/9). According to the archaeological material the Boians, the only Celtic tribe striking gold coins in the Danubian territory, settled into southern Slovakia and the northern rim of the Hungarian Great Plain during the 2nd century B. C. The production of their coins can be dated to about 60 B. C.*^ The Eravisc denarii must have been struck around 2o B. C. to supplement the lack of money. Their occurrance in the neighbouring area is just as understandable as the occurrance of the Boian gold coins as well. There are very few Republican denarii (42/lo-l9) which are not characteristic to Brigetio, but to the whole of Transdanubia. The earliest denarius (42/io) was struck between 145 and 138 B.C. and the latest betv/een 32 and 31 B. C. (42/15-19). From the first decades of the Empire only scattered coins of Augustus (42/2o-22), Tiberius (42/23-29), Caligula (42/3o) and Claudius (42/31-34) occur. The first scattered aureus is of Nero (42/35) from this area. Starting with Galba there are denarii also (42/39-4o). The number of impressions grow from Vespasian on, a variety of denarii and different bronze coins (43/4l-5o). During Titus bronzes represent the majority (43/51-61), and this characterizes the Domitian period also (43/62-88). By the end of the 80s the number of coins decreased, the yearly average did not even teach 1, compared to the previous much higher figure (Fig. XIV). They began to build the legionary camp in Brigetio during Domitian. ^ Different legions occupied it during the first decade of Trajan's rule. The settled militia meant not only the construction of the legionary camp and the counter-castle, but the regular influx of money in the form of legionary's pay. 2 2 The yearly pay was 3oo denarii = 1, 2oo sestertii during Domitian. Thus in the case of one legion, if we only considered the simple pay of legionaries, the circulation of money amounted to 1,5 million denarii, that is six million sestertii. There is no great increase but the years between 9o to loo A. D. are characterized by a definitely higher yearly average number, with outstanding figures in the middle of the decade, than the previous times. Taking a look at our aureus find (Find No. I), we see, that there is not a single aureus from 80 A. D. to the end of the 90s. But as we stated before, hoards are not always characteristic to the currency of a period, especially a gold find from an area where only scattered aureus could have been registered. As everywhere, next to Brigetio as well, the canabae and the civilian settlement came into being, which were always the centers of commerce, thus new source of money for the settlement."^ During Nerva (44/89-99), then during Trajan (44/loo-l6o) the yearly average number of 8
