Ancient History from Coins
Published October 26th 1995 by Routledge – 192 pages
Series: Approaching the Ancient World
Like other volumes in this series, Ancient History from Coins demystifies a specialism, introducing students (from first year upwards) to the techniques, methods, problems and advantages of using coins to do ancient history.
Coins are a fertile source of information for the ancient historian; yet too often historians are uneasy about using them as evidence because of the special problems attaching to their interpretation. The world of numismatics is not always easy for the non-specialist to penetrate or understand with confidence. Dr Howgego describes and anlyses the main contributions the study of coins can make to ancient history, showing shows through numerous examples how the character, patterns and behaviour of coinage bear on major historical themes. Topics range from state finance and economic policy to imperial domination and political propaganda through coins types.
The period covered by the book is from the invention of coinage (ca 600BC) to AD 400.
'Vastly informative and always to the point. There is much to be discovered or brought to our attention here' - - Greece and Rome Volume 4