The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources

Liv Mariah Yarrow

May 2021 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

The narrative of Roman history has been largely shaped by the surviving literary sources, augmented in places by material culture. The numerous surviving coins can, however, provide new information on the distant past. This accessible but authoritative guide introduces the student of ancient history to the various ways in which they can help us understand the history of the Roman republic, with fresh insights on early Roman-Italian relations, Roman imperialism, urban politics, constitutional history, the rise of powerful generals and much more. The text is accompanied by over 200 illustrations of coins, with detailed captions, as well as maps and diagrams so that it also functions as a sourcebook of the key coins every student of the period should know. Throughout, it demystifies the more technical aspects of the field of numismatics and ends with a how-to guide for further research for non-specialists.

About the author

Liv Mariah Yarrow is an Associate Professor of Classics at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her previous books include Historiography at the End of the Republic: Provincial Perspectives on Roman Rule (2006) and Polybius, Imperialism and Cultural Politics (edited with Christopher Smith, 2012). She co-directs, with Lucia Carbone, the Roman Republican Die Project at the American Numismatic Society and her ongoing research includes classical reception, the Roman Republican representation of kings, and the metallurgy and metrology of early Roman bronze coinage. At Brooklyn College she specializes in interactive large general education courses presenting Classics to a modern audience.