SZ. BURGER ALICE: LATE ROMAN MONEY CIRCULATION IN SOUTH-PANNONIA / Régészeti Füzetek II/22. (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest, 1981

LATE ROMAN MONEY CIRCULATION IN SOUTH-PANNONIA

LATE ROMAN MONEY CIRCULATION IN SOUTH PANNÓNIA The economic background of the regular monetary circulation of South Pannónia starting in A. D. 324 was the series of monetary reforms of Diocletian in the years 293-295

, The evolution and consolidation of the court, the cost of the maintenance of a complicated bureaucracy had their impact as well, together with the contradictions of the composition of the society. Besides, the victorious campaigns of the years of 322-323 against the Sarmatians and the internal struggle for power under Constantine I prior to the consolidation of the monarchy, also had a considerable impact. Thus it is understandable that the evolving monetary circulation became regular in our region only around 330, a growth in quantity and territorial strength can be demonstrated around that time. As money is not only a means of payment but an object in the service of ideology and propaganda that can be spread over the widest territory simultaneously, thus Constantine I had put the production of coins into the service of early Christianity, which was no more persecuted but had be come the state religion. Hitherto Christogram and Labarum did not occur and as late as until 325 Pagan temples and symbols also figured on the reverse of coins. On the obverse sides (of bronze coins) the Eastern diadem of pearls symbolizing monarchy adorned the forehead of Emperors after 325, the year of the Synod of Nicea, in accordance with the uniform iconography. The monetary circulation of the years 330-33

5 was mainly covered by the production of the eastern mints. The earliest coins from 324-330 could be identified mainly in the graves in the vicinity of Keszthely, from 330-335 in the cemeteries of Baranya-Tolna-Somogy counties (Gr/l>), in the town of Sopianae (Pécs) and in a few closed finds (Figs. 8-11). In 335 Constantine I divided his Empire among his three sons. From this date onwards the division and coordination of the production of the mints by certain types can be observed. In 337, after the death of the Emperor, who ruled firmly for thirty years, basic changes took place in the Roman Empire. The Constantine dynasty was in an enviable position from the point of succession: the continuation of the dynasty could have been ideally quaranteed in the person of the three sons. But hopes attached to this were shattered. As soon as the sons of Constantine became Augusti and actually took over the various parts of the Empire allotted to them after the division of 335, internal struggle for power and religious strife intensified. At the same time the Pannonian part of the system of the limes, fortified by Constantine, had to stop with increasing frequency the movements of peoples hitherto kept at bay at the border of the Empire. In our territory it appears from the data of monetary circulation that between the years 324 and 337 the life style of the well-to-do inhabitants of relatively consolidated circumstances can be better demonstrated by the material of the cemeteries and of Sopianae (Pécs), much better than by the material of closed finds. Thus from 337 onwards the sons of Constantine I ruled in the following territorial division: Constantine II possessed the provinces of Britain, Gaul and Hispania; Constans ruled over Italy, Africa, Pannónia, Macedonia and Dacia; Constantius II had become master of the Eastern provinces and of Thracia. Rivalry began at an early stage. Constantine II started a campaign against Constans and occupied Italy. But in 340 he was murdered and from that time onwards only Constantius II and Constans remained at the head of the Empire. Besides struggle- for power the two brothers were increasingly preoccupied by the sharpening religious controversies within Christianity, I refer here to the strong Arian influence over Constantius II. South Pannonian monetary circulation sharply reacted to the insecure situation of internal and external policy of the years after the death of Constantine I: the curve of all graphs suddenly dropped around that time. Between the years 337/34

1 and 341/34

6 the division of the production of the various types can already be well observed in connection with coins that were struck upon the order of Constans and Constantius II. ^ Between the years 324/34

6 the mints did not work uniformly (Fig. 20). Almost all the Eastern mints, mainly under the reign of Constantine I, were in production; at the same time the mint of ROME had hardly any production between 324/330, and AQUILEIA started working only in 334. The biggest quantity of coins was produced by the mints of SISCIA and THESSALONICA. During the 22 years between 324-346 19 kinds of reverses were in circulation: mostly GLORIA EXERCITUS (Rev/Typ. Nr. 12 13 14 ); the fol-hfollis of URBS ROMA and CONSTANTINAPOLl/S made up 20 per cent of the monetary circulation of the early PHASE A (coins from 324 to 364

) (Figs. 27. , 64). During this period - independent of the annual average of the smaller or bigger periods - the annual average of monetary circulation was 30 pieces (Fig. 65). 1 50