Denarius - History

History

An early form of the denarius was first struck in 269 BC, five years before the first Punic War with an average weight of 6.8 grams,or 1⁄₄₈ of a Roman pound. Contact with the Greeks prompted a need for silver coinage in addition to the bronze asses that the Romans were using during that time. The denarius was a Greek-styled silver coin, very similar to didrachm and drachma struck in Metapontion and other Greek cities in southern Italy. These coins were inscribed for Rome but closely resemble their Greek counterparts. They were most likely used for trade purposes and were seldom used in Rome.

Around 225 B.C., the first distinctively Roman silver coin appears. Classic historians often cite these coins as denarii, but they are classified by modern numismatists as quadrigatus, which is derived from the quadriga, or four-horse chariot, on the reverse, and which was the prototype for the most common designs used on Roman silver coins for the next 150 years.

Rome overhauled its coinage around 211 BC and introduced a standard denarius alongside a short-lived denomination called the victoriatus. This standard denarius contained an average 4.5 grams, or 1⁄₇₂ of a Roman pound of silver. The Denarius acted as the backbone of Roman currency throughout the Roman republic.

The denarius began to undergo slow debasement toward the end of the republic period. Under the rule of Augustus, its silver content fell to 3.9 grams (a theoretical weight of 1⁄₈₄ of a Roman pound). It remained at nearly this weight until the time of Nero, when it was reduced to 1⁄₉₆ of a pound, or 3.4 grams. Debasement of the coin's silver content continued after Nero. Later Roman emperors reduced its content to 3 grams around the late third century.

The value at its introduction was 10 asses, giving the denarius its name, which translates as "containing ten". In about 141 BC, it was re-tariffed at 16 asses, to reflect the decrease in weight of the as. The denarius continued to be the main coin of the Roman Empire until it was replaced by the antoninianus in the middle of the third century. The last issuance of this coin occurred in bronze form by Aurelian, between AD 270 and 275, and in the first years of the reign of Diocletian. For more details, see 'Denarius', in A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins, by John R. Melville-Jones (1990).