Problems Historical and Numismatic in the Reign of Augustus

Abstract

THIS is not a book on which one can easily pass judgment. It is inspired by a coin in the possession of one of the author's colleagues in California, which purports to be an Augustan denarius but which, the author frankly admits, could quite possibly be spurious. However, if it is not a counterfeit, the coin might throw considerable light on certain problems of Augustus' reign: e.g., the status of the tresviri monetales (without, however, any reference being made to their usually patrician connections), the alleged monopoly by Lugdunum of the minting of all the Empire's gold and silver, or the uncertainty surrounding the disloyalty of Cn. Cinna. With immense learning and ingenuity and a very laboured style, the author shows what the possible implications of this possibly fake coin are, and no one can read what he has to say without acquiring a very healthy respect for his scholarship in the process. But the present reviewer feels inclined to mutter illud Cassianum: cui bono?. Professor Smith obviously had a lot of fun with his study, and one reader at least had a lot of fun following his closely reasoned argument. But, as the author himself disarmingly agrees, a coin that may be false seems to be a pretty fragile foundation on which to base far-reaching conclusions.