The most important material evidence for the Roman trade with India is in the form of hoards of gold and silver Roman coins found in India. The aim of this thesis is to present an accurate and upto- date list of these hoards, and a critical study of them. It is concluded that the earliest phase of trade on any significant scale began, under the Emperor Augustus, and that it was conducted using denarii of two'common types. Later in the Julio-Claudian period the medium changed to the aureus, and a greater diversity of types was used. The denarius ceased to be imported some time before the debasement of the silver by Nero, and denarii on the reformed standard are absent from attested hoards. There are comparatively few aurei from the period of Nero to Trajan; but the second century saw a revival of trade. Hoards of this period contain aurei which are very little worn. This phase saw the spread in the distribution of hoards; most first century hoards are confined to the southernmost part of India, whereas the second century hoards are spread up into parts 'of the Deccan.

My thesis analyses the changes which occurred in the coinage of Rome from the mid-first century BC to the succession of Tiberius in AD 14 and investigates how they can contribute to our understanding of the nature and chronology of the formation of the Principate. The first chapter discusses methodological problems. I argue that the current organization and classification of Roman coinage - especially the treatment of all post-31/27 BC coins as "imperial" - have prejudged and obscured the value of coinage as evidence for this transition. The second chapter examines the Octavianic CAESAR DIVI F(ilius) and IMP(erator) CAESAR series of c. 32-27 BC. I argue these coins should be seen in a "Hellenistic monarchic" tradition following the Late Republican debt to Hellenistic artistic media. The third chapter and the fourth chapter focus on coins minted at Rome and in Spain from 23 BC to 16 BC. I argue that while many of these coins still employ numerous Late Republican Hellenising motifs, they also introduce novel elements into the typological inventory of Roman coinage, such as "honorific" and "anticipatory" issues, as well as a boom in the use of explanatory legends. The fifth chapter explores the dramatic shift in "familial" coin typology from the "ancestral" references in the Republic to portrayal of living members of the domus Augusti. The domus Augusti is the one numismatic theme that is found both on Augustan "mainstream" and "provincial" coins, and it seems that these types were first developed on the "provincial" coins. Overall, I conclude that these developments were not unilinear: there had been a general trend starting in the late Republic to adopt "Hellenistic monarchic" elements on Roman coins, while Tiberian coins of the end of Augustus’ reign still have strong "Republican" elements. I argue, however, that, after a ’false start’ before 27 BC, the decisive shift towards "monarchic" typology occurred after 19 BC.

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Little detailed analysis has been undertaken which looks at the coin in the context of the burial. Their numismatic information is discussed in detail in excavation reports but little or no attempt is made to investigate the function of the coin. In many cases they are simply regarded as payments to Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology, for the journey to the afterlife; an interpretation based on classical literature. Earliest research into the subject tended to look for evidence for ‘Charon’s Obol’ using the information in the Greek and Roman sources with little or no reference to the archaeological material. This did not allow for a full understanding of their presence and meaning. Publication of Gorecki’s Studien zur Sitte Münzbeigabe in römerzeitlichen Körpergräbern’ (BRGK 56, 1975) and Cantilena’s Un obolo per Caronte? (PdP 50, 1995) significantly changed methodology by analysing burial remains but even these are limited. They look very specifically at one part of the Empire and a single aspect of the coin in the burial, i.e. location and thus are not sufficiently detailed to find patterns which can be tested in different areas of the Roman Empire. This work is a systematic analysis of the coin in the context of the burial using case studies from cemeteries from Roman Italy, Germany, Britain and unconquered Scandinavia (as a comparison to the Imperial evidence). It takes a database of c. 450-500 burials from each of the areas (with the exception of Denmark which has fewer examples) and investigates the pre-Roman tradition, chronological distribution of the practice, the metal type and number of coins used, the length of time between coin and burial date, pierced coins and associated grave goods. The aims are as follows: - Thoroughly investigate the coin in the context of the burial in each of the case study areas and compare the patterns identified; - Explore the origin and spread of this custom, from early Greece to Italy across the Roman Empire and beyond, while investigating the potential religious or social meanings of the practice and its distribution; - Chart the evolution and the possible reasons for changes and modifications to the practice over space and time; - Assess the significance of my findings in terms of the transmission of cultural traditions or religious beliefs and practices between ancient societies.

No description available.