In this paper, the author will attempt to argue that Antony’s monetary policy in the East represented a real ‘revolution’, a turning point for the bronze coinage produced and circulating in the Eastern provinces of the Empire. In the iconography and the
weight of bronze coins, he and
his magistrates introduced radical changes that became the norm over the course of the Augustan period. The thesis is that the innovations implemented in full by
Augustus had already been introduced by Antony, making him the individual responsible for the ‘bronze revolution’ generally attributed to
Augustus.
In support of this thesis, the author will first focus on iconographical innovations introduced in the 40s BC both by bronze civic coinages in
Greece and
Asia and by
Roman official coinages such as the fleet coinage.
In the second
part of this paper the author will argue that Antony’s years in the East (from 42 BC to the battle of
Actium) introduced bilingual
Roman denominational marks on Greek and
Roman bronze coinage, new
denominations and
weight standards in order to establish a metrological correlation between the two monetary systems. Several metrological innovations introduced in these years, such as a non-silver
sestertius and the quartuncial
standard, became the norm in the Augustan Age.
In sum, Antony’s monetary policy in the East was characterized by a reciprocal adaptation of Greek and
Roman monetary systems from both the iconographic and the metrological point of view. The
success of this attempt, epigraphically exemplified by the Thessalian diorthoma, is reflected in the permanence of several of these innovations over subsequent years.
https://www.academia.edu/39115637/Mark_Antony_and_the_bronze_revolution?email_work_card=title