Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces

Coins have been described as ‘the most deliberate of all symbols of public identity’, yet the Roman historian will look in vain for any good introduction to, or systematic treatment of, the subject. Sixteen leading international scholars have sought to address this need by producing an authoritative and richly-illustrated volume, which ranges over the whole Roman world from Britain to Egypt, from 200 BC to AD 300. The subject is approached through surveys of the broad geographical and chronological structure of the evidence, through chapters which focus on ways of expressing identity, and through regional studies which place the numismatic evidence in local context.
Roman provincial coinage is a remarkably rich resource - comprising up to a hundred thousand coin types, from well in excess of five hundred cities - much of which is only now becoming readily available through the publication of the Roman Provincial Coinage series. The relatively even survival of the material from all places and periods in which it was produced contrasts markedly with the patchy nature of the literary, epigraphic, sculptural and other archaeological evidence, and offers a unique opportunity for comparative work.
Identity has been a major focus of research in recent decades, and the advent of the Euro has inevitably drawn attention to money in this context. There is thus considerable interest in the opportunity to explore through coinage the assertion of local, regional, and imperial identities in a multicultural and multilingual world with overarching political and military structures.