[gothic-l] Re: Gothic Coins: Was Runic Influences

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

at the route may have been busiest in the second and third

> >of
> >> place in the literature, thanks partly to Bede, who noted their
> >presence in
> >> London in 679. The importance of the Frisians is underlined by
the
> >relative

> >
>
> There is no wonder you can't find any Ostrogotic coins in Britain.
> They didn't make their own coins.
>
> Peter Heather writes in the "Goths" ISBN 0-631-16536-3
>
> After 511, Theoderic's quasi-imperial posturing was matched by a
realm
> which he could with justification claim to be the western Roman
Empire
> reconstituted. In certain formal contexts, Theoderic drew back from
> declaring himself a new Roman Emperor, but not very far. The eastern
Empire
> remained the most powerful state of its day, and Theoderic probably
did not
> want to antagonize it unduly. We shall see  below what difficulties
a
> hostile Empire would cause him in the 520s,even without invading
Italy.
> Thus his formal title was always king, not Emperor; his coinage
usually
> carried the Emperor's bust, and he forebore from issuing gold coins:
an
> imperial prerogative. The latter was very much a constitutional
nicety,
> however, and, on occasion, the mask slipped.
>
> cheers
> Tore

Hello Tore,

The Ostrogoth certainly minted coins in all metalls an in superior
qualtity to the Constantinopel coins. It is true that Theoderic never
put his name on gold coins (i.e. Solidi and Tremises), but his gold
coins can easily be identified by the the variation of the title
legend and the mint mark as Italian mints rather than Constantinopel
or other mints. Thus, a solidus with the title "DN ANASTASIVS PP AVG"
with mintmark CONOB is from Constantinopel, while "DN ANASTASIVS PF
AVG" with mintmark COMOB is from Rome under Theoderic. Also on some
rare solidi Theoderic even put his initials in Latin and Greek on the
coins.

Moreover, Theoderic put his full monogram on his (quite common) silver
coinage (i.e. quarter and half siliquae). His successors from
Athalaric onwards also put their full name on these coins and
introduced copper coins with their full name, e.g. "DN BADVILA REX" on
a dekanummi. Most famous is Theodahat's copper follis with his
life-like portrait and his full title.

Grierson and Blackburn refered to the easily recognisable Ostrogothic
gold coins and the silver coinage when commenting that neither have
ever been found in Britain. Grierson and Blackburn used this
observation to demonstrate that their was no or vey little direct
contact between the Anglo-Saxons in Britain and the Ostrogoths in
Italy.

As gold presented an easy means of portable wealth, one would expect
the Ostogoths - who you think migragted to Britain - to have taken
gold coins with them. For example, the involvement of Alamanni in the
Ostogothic-Byzantine wars can be gauged from an increase of
Ostrogothic gold coins from the mid-6th century in Alamannic finds.
Also, Ostrogothic silver coinage has been found in fairly large
numbers in Alamannia, but never in Britain.

cheers
Dirk









------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~>
eGroups is now Yahoo! Groups
Click here for more details
http://click.egroups.com/1/11231/1/_/3398/_/980856448/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.
Homepage: http://www.stormloader.com/carver/gothicl/index.html