Description
Book SynopsisUsing the production and circulation patterns of the Asian cistophorus as a case study, Hidden Power seeks to develop a better understanding of Roman monetary policy in the province of Asia between its establishment in the 120s BC and the beginning of the Mithraditic Wars. The first in-depth monograph on this popular and historically important coin series, this book will be a valuable resource for both scholars and collectors interested in Georgian, Mongol, and Islamic numismatics. Hidden Power catalogues and illustrates some 1,737 cistophoric tetradrachms and fractions from the mints of Ephesus, Pergamum, Tralles, Laodicea, Apamea, Adramyteum, Nysa, and Smyrna. Most of the coins included in the study are late cistophori, issues between 134.3 BC and the 60s BC. Appendix I provides a discussion of the late cistophori of Tralles struck after 89 BC, showing not only the direct correlation between cistophori and Roman military campaigns, but also Roman taxation. In Appendix II, circulatio
