Just read an interesting (to me) brief article on livescience.com titled, "Roman Change: Roman Coins Reveal Rise of an Empire." It's in the Live Science Archeology section. For you long-time "Dark-Siders" this might be old news, but it was a great little lesson for me on the importance of the origin of silver in Roman coins. Steve
Yeah, it was making the rounds through the press a few days ago. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...t-Roman-coins-evidence-Hannibal-s-defeat.html
Interesting article embedded in a ridiculously trashy website. Surrounded by a sea of drivel and ads.
I am sorry that I came to this article rather late. Here's another (slightly more scientific) review: https://cosmosmagazine.com/chemistry/roman-conquest-of-spain-written-in-chemistry-of-ancient-coins A team of geochemists led by Fleur Kemmers and Katrin Westner from Goethe University in Frankfurt analysed 70 Roman coins dating from between 310 and 101 BCE. Roman conquered Spain, and thus acquired control of the country’s silver mines, around 211 BCE. CHEMISTRY Using mass spectrometry, the German team showed that the lead content of most Roman coins changed after 209 BCE. Lead isotope concentration serves as a geological clock, identifying the origin or the ores used to extract silver. Looking at four isotopes – 208Pb, 207Pb, 206Pb and 204Pb – the researchers established that Roman coins made before the Spanish conquest used silver that came from the same sources used by Greek and Sicilians in the same period. By 211 BCE, however, the isotopes clearly identified the silver sources as being located in either southeast or southwest Spain. Here's a quote from another article: The researchers, led by Professor Fleur Kemmers and Dr Katrin Westner from the Institute for Archaeological Sciences at Goethe University in Frankfurt, analyzed the isotopic structures of 70 Roman coins using a process called mass spectrometry to determine their country of origin. The coins date from 310-300 BCE to 101 BCE, a period that brackets the Second Punic War. They discovered differences in the isotopic signatures of lead between coins before 209 BCE and those after 209 BCE. Those in the later coins correspond to deposits in southeast and southwest Spain, whereas those of earlier coins derive from the same sources of coinage found in Greek cities in Sicily and Italy. This shows just how pervasive Spanish silver was after the Second Punic War and how important it was to the rise of Rome, which was until now just speculation. "This massive influx of Iberian silver significantly changed Rome's economy, allowing it to become the superpower of its day," explains Westner. "We know this from the histories of Livy and Polybius and others, but our work gives contemporary scientific proof of the rise of Rome."What our work shows is that the defeat of Hannibal and the rise of Rome is written in the coins of the Roman Empire." http://www.iflscience.com/plants-an...als-defeat-discovered-in-ancient-roman-coins/ I enjoy this type of article (despite its overstatements) because it makes us think. So, we are supposed to believe that the Spanish silver fueled later Roman expansion based on the high amount of Spanish silver used for silver coinage after 211 BCE? I agree that Spain later became an important and well integrated part of the Roman Empire. The Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius were from Spain, for example. A nice, happy story, right? But not so fast .... Let's look at this article objectively: First, the coin sample size was only 70 coins. I am also not sure exactly where the coins came from and how diffusely spread over Roman territory the coins with the Spanish silver were. Second, the Roman conquest of Spain was brutal, long, and bloody. The horrific wars of resistance in Spain and Portugal after the defeat of Hannibal make one question the value of the many decades of struggle in the Iberian peninsula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania Napoleon's later failure and frustration in the Peninsular Wars (1807-1814) led Napoleon to refer to his conflicts there as the "Spanish ulcer." It took great efforts culminating in Augustus, nearly two centuries later, to finally subdue most of the Iberian Peninsula. It doesn't seem like Rome's early presence in Spain could have been a great benefit overall to Rome. It took several generations of Romans to finally reap the benefits of their conquests in Spain Thank you, again, for posting this article.
