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The addition ofthe aureus to the Roman imperial coinage system has not yet been fully explained, but a convergence of four factors in the 40s BCE explains this coin's introduction and continuation. First, the use of gold coins as a medium of exchange and store of value was easily comprehensible or Romans. Second, the civil wars in the 40s and 30s provided the need or a high value coin so the generals struck numerous aurei. Thirdly, Romansperceived a need for more media of exchange during the debt crisis ofthe 40s so the coin was readily accepted into common use. Finally, the mint continued to produce aurei topay the imperial army.
Keywords: Denarius aureus, debt crisis, Roman army, numismatics, economics
Unlike the Roman Republican coinage system, the Roman Imperial coinage system included gold coins. Scholars have often commented on this difference and the transition to the trimetallic Imperial system,1 but the successful addition of the aureus to the Imperial coinage system has not been fully explained. Kenneth Harl has asserted that aurei were avoided during the Republic "as the money of kings," which would then be more suited for the Imperial period. He also argues that aurei were struck in order to more conveniently pay donatives to soldiers and citizens.2 This argument ignores the aurei struck by Caesar's assassins, who ardently opposed monarchy and used coin types invoking liberty on some of these aurei (e.g. RRC500/2,4 and 6).3 While a smaller amount of gold coins were undoubtedly more convenient for making payments than a large number of silver coins, convenience is not a sufficient explanation for the denomination's creation and acceptance. Bernhard Woytek has proposed that the aureus originated as a convenient way for Julius Caesar, other civil war generals and the Roman mint to pay soldiers large sums of money,4 but he fails to account for the other economic factors and the acceptance of the coin within the larger, civilian society.
This paper does not seek to explain why the mint in Rome, or other Roman mints, had not struck gold coins because they had. During the 3rd century BCE, there were gold coins worth both six and three scruples.5 When the denarius was introduced around 211 BCE, new gold denominations worth twenty, forty...