Coinage, iconography and the changing political geography of the fifth-century Hispania

Abstract

Ancient governments minted coins chiefly to cover their expenses. At no time did they possess a clear economic theory or feel any need to stimulate the economy by regular issues of coin. For this reason, the concentration or the relative absence of coined money in a given region will usually be an indicator not only of its economic dynamism, but also of its political importance. The diffusion of coinage in Spain after 394, in the early stages of imperial crisis in the West, constitutes valuable evidence for the most important logistical routes of the period, while the iconography of certain coin series sheds light on the politics of fifth-century Hispania. In what follows, it will become clear that political, strategic and monetary change worked simultaneously upon fifth-century Spain, and that the distribution of coin can act as a snapshot of the whole era.