Coinage of the Social War (91–88 BC)

{{see also|History of coins in Italy}}

Coins issued during the Social War consist chiefly of silver coins of the weight of the contemporary Roman denarius, and they are thought to have been issued from the mints of Corfinium and Aesernia.

This coinage belongs to the crucial years of the revolt against Rome (90–89 BC). Similar coins of the same family may have been struck later, although there is no firm evidence of this.

They circulated in parallel and openly with the Roman denarii of the same weight,.Alberto Campana, La monetazione degli insorti italici durante la Guerra Sociale (91–87 a.C.), p. 37 Furthermore, some isolated exempla come from stratigraphic contexts much more recent than the insurrection against Rome.

One coin that circulated during the Social Wars was a silver denarius coin that on the front side depicted Bacchus with a wreath and on the back depicted the Italian bull goring the Roman wolf.{{Cite book|title = The Romans From Village to Empire|last = Boatwright, Gargola, Lenski, Talbert|first = Mary T., Daniel J., Noel, Rochard J. A.|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 2012|isbn = 978-0-19-973057-5|location = New York|pages = 173}}{{Cite web|url = https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1154153&partid=1&|title = Coin (1)|date = |accessdate = December 6, 2015|website = The British Museum|publisher = |last = |first = }} There is an inscription in Oscan on both sides.

Another example of a silver denarius personifies Italia on one side, and on the other shows eight warriors swearing an oath.{{Cite web|url = https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=1154146&partid=1&output=bibliography/!!/OR/!!/6738/!//!/A+catalogue+of+the+Roman+Republican+Coins+in+the+British+Museum,+with+descriptions+and+chronology+based+on+M.H.+Crawford,+Roman+Republican+Coinage+(1974)/!//!!//!!!/bibliography/!!/OR/!!/6738/!//!/A+catalogue+of+the+Roman+Republican+Coins+in+the+British+Museum,+with+descriptions+and+chronology+based+on+M.H.+Crawford,+Roman+Republican+Coinage+(1974)/!//!!//!!!/People/!!/OR/!!/57869/!/57869-4-8/!/Issuer+Italian+allies+-+Social+War/!//!!//!!!/&orig=/research/online_research_catalogues/russian_icons/catalogue_of_russian_icons/advanced_search.aspx¤tPage=4&catalogueOnly=true&catparentPageId=29126&catalogueName=&catalogueSection=&numpages=12|title = Coin (2)|date = |accessdate = December 6, 2015|website = The British Museum|publisher = |last = |first = }}

There is also in the Paris Collection a well-preserved single gold stater of Attic weightRobert Seymour Conway, [https://archive.org/stream/italicdialects00conwgoog#page/n248/mode/1up The Italic Dialects], Cambridge University Press, 1897, p. 216 of 8.47 gr. (a picture of this coin can be seen [http://numismatica-classica.lamoneta.it/moneta/R-RRG/30 here]. A drawing is in [https://archive.org/stream/dieoskischenmnz01friegoog#page/n90/mode/1up] ) and its first appearance dates back to 1827,See the description of the coin in Francesco De Dominicis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cTYGAAAAQAAJ&q=%22pelle+di+Lupo%22 Repertorio numismatico: per conoscere qualunque moneta greca tanto urbica che dei re, e la loro respettiva stima], Tome II, p. 417, Tipografia di Mattia, Naples, 1827 although Julius Friedländer reported 1830:[https://archive.org/stream/dieoskischenmnz01friegoog#page/n90/mode/1up Die oskischen Münzen], Lipsia, 1850, p. 73

• Obverse: head of young Dionysos right, crowned with ivy wreath.
• Reverse: Cista mystica adorned with three wreaths and with a wolf (or panther) skin on the top; thyrsos with ribbons; in exergue, Oscan retrograde legend mi.ieíis.mi, (a certain and otherwise unknown Minatius Jegius, Minatii f. (?)).

The authenticity of this coin is disputed. The genuineness of the piece was supported by Julius Friedländer in his fundamental work about Oscan coinageJulius Friedländer, [https://archive.org/details/dieoskischenmnz01friegoog Die oskischen Münzen], Lipsia, 1850, pp. 73–75 with an argument based on the perfect accuracy of the legend when compared with the poor knowledge of the Oscan alphabet and language at the time the coin first appeared before the pioneering works of Klenze (1839),Philologischen Abhandlungen von Clemens August Carl Klenze (1795–1838), edited by his friend Karl Lachmann, published posthumous in Berlin, 1839 Mommsen (1845)Theodor Mommsen, Oskische Studien, Berlin, 1845 and Lepsius (1841).Karl Richard Lepsius, [https://archive.org/details/inscriptionesum00unkngoog Inscriptiones Umbricae et Oscae], Leipzig, 1841 The coin, in particular, shows a perfect distinction between i and stressed í (the difference, in Oscan script, is the addiction of a little lineKarl Richard Lepsius, [https://archive.org/stream/inscriptionesum00unkngoog#page/n164/mode/1up Inscriptiones Umbricae et Oscae], p. 142), a distinction that none were aware of before the work of Klenze.

Arguments against the coin's authenticity come from Secondina Lorenza CesanoSecondina Lorenza Cesano, Di Uranio Antonino e di altre falsificazioni (About Uranius Antoninus and other falsifications), in Rivista Italiana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini, pp. 35–69 and Alberto Campana, who very closely follows Cesano reasoning.Alberto Campana, La monetazione degli insorti italici durante la Guerra Sociale (91–87 a.C.) (The coinage of the Italic insurgents during the Social War (91–87 BC)), pp. 135–138

Some of the iconographic themes were original, while others were borrowed from the Roman coinage.

When borrowed, the themes acquired new meanings or resonances. For example, the heads on the obverse was usually a personification of Italia depicted as a goddess with a helmet, which replaced the head of Rome, accompanied by a legend reproducing his name, ITALIA, in the Latin alphabet or VITELIU (víteliú = Italia) in Oscan alphabet (there is a unique copy, actually in the de Blacas collection, known to report the double LVITELLIU [vítelliú]).Theodor Mommsen, Histoire de la monnaie romaine, (trad. by Louis de Blacas), Paris, 1865–1875, p. 531

The inscriptions were partly in Oscan and partly in Latin characters. The pieces were struck by a central mint with two different and simultaneous issues, one for the Oscan-speaking and one for the Latin-speaking citizens.

Legends often record the names of the chief leaders of the Revolt: Quintus Poppaedius Silo, Gaius Papius Mutilus, with his title Imperator, an unknown Numerius Lucius (?), and others.

• Roman Republican currency
• Ancient Greek coinage
• History of coins in Italy
• Coinage of Aesernia

• (in Italian) Alberto Campana, La monetazione degli insorti italici durante la Guerra Sociale (91–87 a.C.), Apparuti edizioni, Soliera, 1987
• (in Italian) Secondina Lorenza Cesano, Di Uranio Antonino e di altre falsificazioni (About Uranius Antoninus and other falsifications), in Rivista Italiana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini, pp. 35–69
• (in German) Julius Friedländer, [https://archive.org/details/dieoskischenmnz01friegoog Die oskischen Münzen], Lipsia, 1850
• (in French) Theodor Mommsen, Louis de Blacas, Histoire de la monnaie romaine, Paris, 1865–1875
• This article incorporates text from:
• Barclay Vincent Head (1844–1914), Historia Numorum, a Manual of Greek Numismatics, Oxford: 1887; 2° ed. London, 1911, pp. 29–30 ([http://www.snible.org/coins/hn/social_war.html online version] from snible.org) a publication now in the public domain
• (in Latin) Karl Richard Lepsius, [https://archive.org/details/inscriptionesum00unkngoog Inscriptiones Umbricae et Oscae quotquot adhuc repertae sunt omnes], Leipzig, 1841

{{commons category|Coins of the Social War (91–88 BC)}}

• [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/rsc/marsic_confederation/t.html Roman Republic Coinage of the family Marsic Confederation] from wildwinds.com
• [http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=marsic Marsic coinage] from coinarchives.com

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{{Historic Italian currency and coinage}}

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Category:91 BC