Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Le trésor de « Délos 1905 » (RRCH 465)

2003; French Numismatic Society; Volume: 6; Issue: 159 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3406/numi.2003.2516

1963-1693

Charikleia Papageorgiadou-Bani,

Archaeology and Historical Studies

Summary. — The hoard was unearthed in 1905 during the excavations of the French School in a house near the theatre on Delos. It consisted of 650 coins, one of them of Juba I, while the rest were Roman denarii. The Roman pieces can be divided in two groups, the first with denarii of Republican monetales, dated from 147 to 40, and the second, more numerous, with 604 coins, issued for the legions of Marc Antony. This group provides the dating of the hoard to the period of the battle of Actium. The Delos hoard can be compared with other finds from the Actium area itself and Euboea (Styrra) which show the same composition. Such hoards are rare in Greece (in total, four) and must be closely connected to the movements of Antony's army in the aftermath of the naval battle. The composition of these hoards reminds us of another group consisting of Roman coins alone which have been found for the most part in the region of Macedonia. The deposition of all of them can be dated to particular military events, dating from 54 to 42 B.C., and they all consist of a very large number of denarii issued within the span of a century. The same conclusions can be drawn concerning the Macedonia and Actian finds. The denarii, coming to Greece in the hands of the Roman soldiers, went into everyday circulation through local trade and were then gathered by the local authorities in order to fulfil their obligations toward the state. In turn, Rome paid them back in order to finance her subsequent military enterprise. Thus, we find only a very small number of denarii of this period in local circulation.