Numizmatičke Vijesti, Vol. 63 No. 74, 2021.
Original scientific paper
Some Examples of Court Mint Mobility of Western Roman Rulers (Valentinian III and Julius Nepos)
Željko Demo
orcid.org/0000-0002-7433-7429
; Zagreb, CRO
Abstract
The mobility of the late imperial court mint and its work and activities is a numismatic theme
recognized long ago. Although interesting and important, due to a lack of acceptance in
numismatic circles outside the former “Viennese” numismatic school in which it originated, it
eventually fell into oblivion and was (and remains) largely unexplored, but is still here or there
timidly or stealthily mentioned. In the period when this aspect of mint activities was explicitly
noted, the available numismatic material and possibilities of research were much more modest
in comparison to the present day. Therefore, it seemed worth placing this topic back on the
table and beginning with questioning and investigating on a new basis. For this occasion,
mobility in one part had to be conceptually redefined and factually and directly connected
(when possible) with both known and unknown imperial itineraries and the circumstances
that led to it. Two randomly chosen examples of the mobile activities of the Western Roman
court mints aided in this: the first, based on the known itineraries from the lengthy reign of
the emperor Valentinian III (425-455) and the numismatic material created during his stays
outside of his residential seat, and the second, based on the numismatic material from the
brief reign of the emperor Julius Nepos (474-475), where features attributed to the mobility
of the court mint aided in detecting imperial itineraries unrecorded in the historical sources.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
275816
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2021.
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