Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 3419559, member: 72790&quot;]The denarii you mention, the legionary issues, were issued a few years after the failed expedition by Mark Antony to Parthia. Those denarii, heavily debased, were issued by Mark Antony to finance the final showdown with Octavian. The denarii issued by Mark Antony, ca. 40 BC, for use in his eastern campaign, if they were denarii, would have been close to pure silver, similar to the Parthian drachmas of the period, and pretty close in weight and fineness to the Parthian drachma and thus easy to counterstamp and put into circulation in Parthia. It is not a question of coins being made into Roman denarii but one of Parthian coins being made from the captured Roman pay chests. However, Mr. Cheeseman in his response above, may be on to something about the Roman coins in the captured pay chests being tetradrachmas, perhaps those of Syria or Egypt (Cleopatra). Roman troops on expeditions to the east were often paid in local currency like Syrian (Antioch), or in this case Ptolemaic tetradrachmas, which were somewhat debased. I have seen Parthian tetradrachmas of this period and they seem to be also somewhat debased. The author of the book I read never used the terms denarius and drachma. That was my presumption but perhaps what the author was alluding to were Roman pay chests with&nbsp; Eastern debased tetradrachmas which could be counter stamped or restruck as Parthian tetradrachmas. I wish the author would have footnoted where this information, about the captured Roman coins being converted in some way for Parthian use came from but&nbsp; the author does not seem to be a numismatist and the remark seems to be tangential to the narrative.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in