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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mharlan, post: 2719828, member: 87090&quot;]I just came across this forum and, as the author of the books being discussed, I thought I’d make a few comments. The harshest criticism my books received had to do with the dating especially with two moneyers, Plaetorius Cestianus and Pomponius Musa. I assigned those moneyers to years before 64 BCE and that was contrary to the Mesagne hoard evidence. I held that opinion in both books. But, after thrashing it out with some of my critics, I decided I was wrong and revised the dates and moved the moneyers into the second edition of the book dealing with the years 63 BCE to 49 BCE. The interesting thing was that it did not dramatically change my interpretation of the designs of either coin. Andthat is what I think is important and some of you on this forum also grasp that point. There will never be agreement on the dating. I was always more interested in the message found in the design, but I had to make some determination of date in order to interpret the coins. The dating of the coins in the period 81 BCE- 64 BCE is the most difficult because so many of the moneyers are unknown. But the coin designs from that era contain some of the more interesting messages and reveal how newly enfranchised citizens from distant Italian cities began to move into Roman politics. They are talking to their fellow citizens about who they are, what policies they support, and hint at what can be expected of them if entrusted with office. To extract the message, you really only need to get close to the date, since the message was intended to circulate much longer than one year of office. Interpretations also generate criticism, but with interpretation there is no absolute as with dates. And we have to remember that probably a good many people who handled the money never got the message and just spent the money. But considering what we pay for the coins today, I think we will enjoy them more if we say, “Talk to me.”[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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