FINANCING SULLA'S RECONQUEST OF ITALY

Appian states that Sulla had at his disposal an army of 40,000 men, including five legions of Roman infantry, 6,000 knights, plus Greek and Macedonian auxilia. According to M. Speidel's calculations, this would imply that Sulla needed to have at his disposal the equivalent of almost 10 million denarii. Since Sulla was barred from taking advantage of the enhanced monetary production of the Roman mint, it becomes clear that he must have taken advantage of the bullion supplied by his recent victories in the East.

The monetary production of the collegium of triumviri monetales of 83–82 BCE, composed by P. Crepusius, C. Mamilius Limetanus (RRC 362/1) and L. Marcius Censorinus have been the object of foundational die studies that provided a model for future ones. Back in 1976, T. Buttrey published a fundamental study of Crepusius' issues. Schaefer's archive provided the material for the study of the issues of L. Marcius Censorinus and C.Mamilius Limetanus. The importance of these issues does not only reside in the historical moment they produced in, but also in their technical peculiarities.

 
P. Crepusius. ANS 1944.100.557

 
L.Cornelius Sulla. 3.81 g. Berlin MünzKabinett

 
L. Cornelius Sulla. ANS 1944.100.64169

 
Athens. New Style tetradrachm with trophies

To read the complete articles, see:
FINANCING SULLA'S RECONQUEST OF ITALY (PT. I) (http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/sulla-1/)
FINANCING SULLA'S RECONQUEST OF ITALY (PT. II) (http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/sulla-2/)

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