Coinage as a historical source first hand.
Coinage presents a primordial interest for the history of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD. Numismatics, as an auxiliary science in the etymological sense of the term, brings to the historian a precious aid for a period when the contemporary literary sources, reliable and complete, are missing and when epigraphic witnesses start to dwindle. Coinage is an essential means of reaching a historical knowledge of the period, constructing a first-hand source, directly circulated by the imperial administration, immediately marking history and conveying Roman ideology.
Coins cast a meaningful light on the reconstitution of historical events, on economic and social questions, on material exchanges, on the movement of property and goods, on the diffusion of ideology and religion, on the political history of Rome, on the growing connections between the centres of power and the principal consumer of currency, the army.
Thus, monetary history largely exceeds the strict circle of numismatists and interested specialists. The aim of this website is to provide one of the works of reference which is missing for that period.