It maybe that Gratidianus codified the purity of the silver and the number of denarii to be struck to the pound. In a word, no one ever enjoyed greater popularity with the masses. And that coup, if you care to know, brought him vast honor in every street statues of him were erected before these incense and candles burned. And while all the rest withdrew, some in one direction, some in another, Marius (Gratidianus) went straight from the council-chamber to the rostra and published individually what had been drawn up by all together. In joint session they drafted an ordinance, defining the penalty and the method of procedure in cases of violation of the ordinance, and agreed that they should all appear together upon the rostra in the afternoon to publish it. Cicero writes of the legislation of Gratidianus as a praetor under the Cinnan regime in the 80s BCE thus:Įven our kinsman Gratidianus failed on one occasion to perform what would be a good man’s duty: in his praetorship the tribunes of the people summoned the college of praetors to council, in order to adopt by joint resolution a standard of value for our currency for at that time the value of money was so fluctuating that no one could tell how much he was worth. Our literary testimony seems to speak of similar concern. They are outwardly visible signs of the care the moneyer took in regulating his issues.

The irregular application of and great variety in control mark systems and other intermittent minting innovations such as serrations may derive from these regular shifts among post-holders and these individuals’ desires to distinguish themselves from their forerunners. Both processes are extremely labor intensive and neither became standard operating procedure. Flans were serrated by cutting the edges prior to striking control marks may have corresponded to record-keeping regarding batches of bullion issued to the mint. On the coins themselves, we find increased use of serration and the use of control marks ( 1.40). These concerns seem to develop in the mid 110s BCE and continue down until the early 50s BCE, with a peak in intensity in the late 80s. We have both literary and physical evidence that suggests anxiety over the authenticity of coins and the ability of the state to regulate coin production, two issues that go hand-in-hand. 1.40 and was cut to keep the book somewhat close to target word length. This is from a draft of chapter 1 of my coin book written 2018. This is an active post so I’ll be dropping more primary evidence and thoughts at the end as I spend more time with the topic. What follows has repetitions section to section, but it is useful for me personally to see the slight changes in my own framing or where I’ve been consistent over the years. A round up of stuff I’ve said or learned before about Gratidianus and concerns over the coinage in the 80s BCE

Silver denarius coin