Roman Republic Crawford 317/1 Silver Denarius

Monetary Context and Historical Setting

The denarius catalogued as Crawford 317/1 was issued in approximately 104 BC during an era of pronounced political and military strain for the Roman Republic. Rome was confronted simultaneously by the devastating incursions of the Cimbri and Teutones along the northern frontiers and the ongoing campaigns against Jugurtha in Numidia, which concluded around this time under the leadership of Gaius Marius. The financial pressures of raising and equipping reorganized consular legions required substantial state expenditure, reflected in voluminous coin issues. The moneyer responsible for this series, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, was a prominent popularis politician who served as tribune of the plebs in 103 BC and 100 BC. Whether this coinage was struck during a preliminary tenure as a regular monetary magistrate (triumvir monetalis) or as an extraordinary commission tied to agrarian legislation and subsidized grain distributions has been debated by historians, but its issue date of 104 BC aligns with standard Roman triumviral administration.

Mint Location and Production Technology

Crawford 317/1 was struck exclusively at the state mint located in the city of Rome, situated on the Capitoline Hill adjacent to the Temple of Juno Moneta. The production was conducted entirely by manual hot-striking between intaglio-engraved bronze or iron dies. Crawford 317/1 belongs to a high-volume output requiring dozens of individual obverse and reverse dies. Blank flans were cast in spherical molds, heated to achieve optimal malleability, and positioned between an anvil die and a punch die before being struck with a hammer. The weight standard followed the prevailing late Republican standard for the denarius, targeting a theoretical weight around 3.99 grams, though surviving uncirculated specimens typically cluster between 3.80 and 3.95 grams with a diameter ranging from 17 to 20 millimeters. Die alignment varied considerably across the issue, as fixed-die orientation was not yet standard practice in Republican minting.

Obverse Iconography

The obverse of Crawford 317/1 departs from the conventional right-facing profile of the goddess Roma, depicting instead a left-facing bust of helmeted Roma. She wears a winged Attic-style helmet adorned with a visor and crest, with locks of hair escaping below the neckpiece. The choice of a left-facing bust is characteristic of several late second-century BC denarii, functioning visually to distinguish specific annual moneyer colleges or special production blocks. The truncation of the neck is cleanly executed, and the entire bust is enclosed within a dotted border (border of dots). Die variations reveal differences in the curvature of Roma's visor, the angle of the winged crest, and the fullness of the facial rendering, reflecting the hands of multiple official engravers working within the Capitoline officinae.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse displays the god Saturn driving a galloping four-horse chariot (quadriga) toward the right. Saturn holds the reins of the horses in his left hand while raising a curved sickle (harpa or falx) in his right hand. Below the galloping horses, in the exergue, sits the moneyer's name. The depiction of Saturn is an overt canting badge or visual pun on the moneyer's cognomen, Saturninus, a common thematic device among late Republican moneyers seeking to promote their lineage. In addition to personal propaganda, Saturn carried profound civic and fiscal associations: the Aerarium Saturni (the public treasury of Rome) was housed beneath the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum. The presence of Saturn and his agricultural implement also resonated with popularis themes of grain distribution and Italian land allocation championed by the Appuleian family.

Inscriptions and Control Marks

The primary legend on the reverse exergue reads L·SATVRN, an abbreviated Latin inscription standing for Lucius Saturninus. The lettering is set in block capitals within the exergual register beneath a neat ground line. The defining numismatic feature of Crawford 317/1 is its elaborate control-mark system. To monitor production quantities and account for silver bullion provided to individual workshop teams, the mint implemented an alphanumeric sequencing system. Control marks appear in the reverse field, typically either above the quadriga or beneath the horses' raised hooves. These marks consist of Latin alphabet characters accompanied by single or double dots positioned in various quadrants around the letter (for example, a dot above, below, or to the side of a character). This variable dotting greatly multiplied the available unique markers without requiring new engraved letterforms.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Michael Crawford classified this issue under entry 317/1 in Roman Republican Coinage, fixing its date to 104 BC. Within Crawford's typological framework, this denarius forms the principal component of the issue of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus. It is clearly distinguished from later issues bearing the name Saturninus, such as the denarii inscribed with the authority of the quaestor urbanus (Crawford 330/1, inscribed P·SATVRN), which were struck around 100 BC with an obverse head of Roma accompanied by control marks and a reverse displaying Saturn in a quadriga. Earlier nineteenth-century scholars, such as Theodor Mommsen and Ernest Babelon, occasionally dated Crawford 317/1 closer to Saturninus's political tribunate in 100 BC. Modern hoard seriation, however, firmly establishes that Crawford 317/1 preceded the social unrest of 100 BC and belongs to the regular annual magistracies of approximately 104 BC.

Circulation, Hoard Evidence, and Survival

Crawford 317/1 saw wide circulation across the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean provinces. Significant deposits containing this type have been discovered in Italian hoards such as those from Fiesole and Cingoli, as well as in provincial hoards across Cisalpine Gaul, Spain, and the Balkans. The substantial volume of dies recorded by numismatists indicates that the total mintage numbered in the millions of pieces. Because of this massive original output, specimens survived in large numbers, often circulating for several decades until the monetary reforms and recoinages of the early Empire. Many preserved examples exhibit test cuts (banker marks) applied by moneychangers to verify the interior metal purity against silver-plated contemporary forgeries (fourrées), confirming their active role in high-velocity commercial transactions.

References

1. Roman Republican Coinage. pp. 323-324, no. 317/1
2. Coinage of the Roman Republic Online: RRC 317/1. RRC 317/1
3. Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum, Volume I. pp. 216-219, nos. 1493-1550
4. Roman Coins from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. pp. 64-75