Supplies for the Army: Bithynian Coins in the Balkans in the 3rd Century AD

Abstract

The last twenty years of numismatic research in Serbia and Romania have produced an unprecedented set of published data from excavations in different parts of the countries, largely from archaeologically documented contexts, providing new insight into the coin circulation in the territories of Roman Moesia Superior and Dacia. The publication of these materials allows for novel considerations on various aspects of the monetary economy of this area of the Empire, including one of the most puzzling phenomena in the provincial coinage of the 3rd century: the exceptionally large presence of Bithynian issues, mainly from Nicaea, dating from the reign of Severus Alexander to that of Gordian III (AD 222-244)