Los tesoros imperiales de Hispania

Resumen

This study establishes a first corpus of hoards and coin deposits from Hispania. It covers a period from the reign of Augustus to the 6th century A.D., which coincides with the close of the Romano-Visigothic period. Some 413 hoards have been assembled, and, if we take into account those where the information is fragmentary, more than 810 hoards are involved. In considering the various coin groups, we have proposed a classification into hoards, deposits and coins in a funerary context. We have also identified a number of materials as doubtful, since we are not sure that they are, in fact, deliberate coin assemblages. After documenting the structure and contents of each hoard, we have characterized the coin supply behind them, considering which coins were buried, or selected for a particular purpose, and, over time, how particular types of coin appear, disappear and reappear in hoards. We evaluate coin supply and use both in terms of the type and numbers of particular coins that were introduced into a certain area or province, as well the uses they were put to in that place, and by whom. During the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the Roman denarius becomes the standard silver coin in the Iberian Peninsula. The Republican denarius continues to circulate, while the Iberian denarius falls away during the reign of Tiberius. With the suppression of Hispanic provincial coinage under Claudius, local Iberian workshops appear that imitate Claudian coinage. These constituted a circulating currency, and are also hoarded. Republican denarii continue to be used under the Flavian and Antonine dynasties. With the Antonines, the aurei become common in hoards, almost all of which contain numbers of Nero's post-reform aurei. Gold hoards do not reappear until two centuries later, in the reign of Gratian. Although the new coin, the antoninianus, was first minted under Caracalla, the denomination only begins to be hoarded in large numbers in the reign of Galienus, already in a very debased form. Furthermore, it is found in hoards together with late denarii. From the beginning of the Tetrarchy, another combination of denominations appears in hoards: antoniniani and the new nummus. Mixed hoards with antoniniani and nummi continue for much of period of the Constantinian, Valentinian and Theodosian dynasties, where several modules are found together (AE2, AE3 and AE4). The siliqua appears in military contexts under Constantine III and Maximus of Hispania, along with the solidus, and becomes slightly commoner in the reign of Honorius. With the arrival of the Visigoths, two types of coin are again hoarded together: the Roman solidus and Visigothic the imitations of the solidus. The many hoards, in the Hispanic northwest, which stretch over a long period of time, can be related to the history of the area. It was a favorite place for recruiting military auxlia, and the area had important gold mines, which provided a strong basis for the economic development of Gallaecia.