{{Short description|Gold coin of ancient Rome}} {{Italic title}} {{Other uses|Aureus (disambiguation)}} [[File:Aureus of Septimius Severus, AD 193.jpg|thumb|300x300px|''Aureus'' minted in 193 by Septimius Severus to celebrate Legio XIV Gemina, the legion that proclaimed him emperor]] The '''''aureus''''' (<small>{{abbr|pl.|plural}}</small> '''''aurei''''', 'golden') was the main gold coin of ancient Rome from the 1st century BC to the early 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the ''solidus''. This type of coin was sporadically issued during the Republic and standardized during the Empire, originally valued at 25 silver ''denarii'' and 100 ''sestertii''. It was about the same size as the ''denarius'', but heavier than the ''denarius'' since gold is denser than silver.
== During the Republic == The production of proper Roman coins began in the 3rd century <abbr>BC</abbr> <abbr>and was</abbr> limited to the minting of bronze ''asses''; the gold brought back from spoils and war indemnities was stored in the public treasury (''Aerarium''). According to the needs of the state finances, the gold in the reserve was sold for minted silver, at a ratio of 1 to 12.<ref>Le Glay, Marcel (1990). ''Rome, Grandeur et Déclin de la République'', Éd. Perrin, p. 116. {{ISBN|2262018979}}</ref> The Second Punic War (218–201), due to its considerable financing needs, made it necessary to draw on the reserves of precious metal. Rome therefore issued silver ''denarii'' and several series of ''aurei'', but the production of gold coins ceased after the war.<ref name="Depeyrot">{{Cite book |last=Depeyrot |first=Georges |title=La monnaie romaine |publisher=Éditions Errance |year=2006 |isbn=978-2-87772-330-5 |location=Paris |pages=14–15|language=fr}}</ref> <gallery mode="packed" heights="116"> File:2 scrupulum coin.JPG|Issue worth 40 (XXXX) ''asses'', 211 BC. The obverse depicts the god Mars. File:L. Sulla & L. Manlius Torquatus, aureus, 82 BC, RRC 367-4.jpg|Issue minted by Sulla, 82 BC. The obverse depicts Roma. File:C. Julius Caesar and L. Munatius Plancus, aureus, 45 BC, RRC 475-1a.jpg|Issue minted by Caesar, 45 BC. The obverse depicts Victory. </gallery>In the years following 87 BC, and in exceptional circumstances, the general Sulla resumed issuing gold coins during his campaign in Greece. Disowned by the Senate and deprived of its financial support, he seized the treasures of the Greeks and used them to issue gold or silver coins bearing his name.<ref>Plutarch, ''[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lucullus*.html Lucullus]'' 2.</ref> These issues also served a propaganda purpose during the ensuing civil war.
In 49 <abbr>BC</abbr>, Julius Caesar, claiming that the Republic was in danger, seized the gold reserve of the public treasury and used it alongside his personal wealth during his civil war. The minting of the ''aureus'' resumed in itinerant workshops following the movements of Caesar's legions, then in Rome, at the standard weight equivalent to one-fortieth of a Roman pound, about 8 grams. This coin, made of pure gold, was called ''aureus nummus'' or ''denarius aureus'', "gold denarius". Shortly before his death, Caesar began issuing silver coins with his own portrait, a departure from traditional coinage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dye |first=John S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bo1-XxK2TAwC&pg=PA87 |title=Dye's Coin Encyclopædia: A Complete Illustrated History of the Coins of the World.. |date=1883 |publisher=Bradley |pages=87–91}}</ref>
The period following the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC saw competition between various factions, each mobilizing its own army and paying its soldiers in gold coins. Mints competing with that of Rome multiplied in Italy, Gaul, Roman Africa, Sicily, along with itinerant ones depending on the movements of the armies. Each faction leader had his effigy and emblems struck: the triumvirs (Mark Antony, Lepidus and Caesar's nephew Octavian), the "liberators" Brutus and Cassius Longinus, and Sextus Pompey (the son of Pompey the Great). Octavian became sole master of the Roman world in 31 BC, after defeating his last opposition at Actium. Four years later, in 27 BC, he assumed the name and title of ''Augustus'', marking his accession as the first Roman emperor.<gallery mode="packed" heights="116"> File:Marcus Iunius Brutus 10100420.jpg|Issue by Brutus, 42 BC. File:Aureus Sextus Pompeius 42BC Goldberg.JPG|Issue by Sextus Pompey, 42 BC. File:Aureus of Antony & Octavian, 40 BC.jpg|Issue by Antony and Octavian, 40 BC. </gallery>
== Early Empire == Julius Caesar struck the coin more often, and standardized the weight at one-fortieth of a Roman pound, about 8 grams. Octavian Augustus tariffed the value of the ''sestertius'' as one-hundredth of an ''aureus''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drinkwater |first=J. F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqh7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA355 |title=Nero: Emperor and Court |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-47264-7 |pages=355}}</ref> The ''aureus'', which mint was placed at Lugdunum, weighed {{Fraction|42}} of a pound (7.79 grams) and was worth 25 ''denarii'' and 100 ''sestertii''. A sub-multiple existed, the gold ''quinarius'' or half-''aureus''. The Augustan system of the 1st century was as follows:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elkins |first=Nathan T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjoqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |title=The Image of Political Power in the Reign of Nerva, AD 96-98 |date=2017-07-03 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-064804-6 |pages=9 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sellars |first=Ian J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_Y-CgAAQBAJ&&pg=PA56 |title=The Monetary System of the Romans: A description of the Roman coinage from early times to the reform of Anastasius |date=2013 |publisher= |pages=56 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Travillian |first=Tyler T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dwvSBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA258 |title=Pliny the Elder: The Natural History Book VII (with Book VIII 1-34) |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4725-2101-9 |pages=258 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Metcalf |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DePLWNBEvfQC&pg=PA338 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage |date=2012 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-530574-6 |pages=336–352 |language=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mesihović |first=Salmedin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rjxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |title=ORBIS ROMANVS: Udžbenik za historiju klasične rimske civilizacije |date=2015 |publisher=Salmedin Mesihovic |isbn=978-9958-0311-2-0 |pages=118 |language=hr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Theophilos |first=Michael P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLS9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |title=Numismatics and Greek Lexicography |date=2019 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-67437-1 |pages=93 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Tom B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1IFI8-tBSgC&pg=PA180 |title=Paths to the Ancient Past |date=1967 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-02-916630-7 |pages=180 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Adkins |first=Lesley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JJdqJ8YGH8C&pg=PA306 |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome |last2=Adkins |first2=Roy A. |date=1998 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-512332-6 |pages=305–314 |language=en}}</ref> {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !Aureus !Quinarius !Denarius !Quinarius !Sestertius !Dupondius !As !Semis !Quadrans |- !Aureus |1 |2 |25 |50 |100 |200 |400 |800 |1600 |- !Quinarius Aureus |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |{{frac|12|1|2}} |25 |50 |100 |200 |400 |800 |- !Denarius |{{frac|1|25}} |{{frac|2|25}} |1 |2 |4 |8 |16 |32 |64 |- !Quinarius Argenteus |{{frac|1|50}} |{{frac|1|25}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |2 |4 |8 |16 |32 |- !Sestertius |{{frac|1|100}} |{{frac|1|50}} |{{frac|1|4}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |2 |4 |8 |16 |- !Dupondius |{{frac|1|200}} |{{frac|1|100}} |{{frac|1|8}} |{{frac|1|4}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |2 |4 |8 |- !As |{{frac|1|400}} |{{frac|1|200}} |{{frac|1|16}} |{{frac|1|8}} |{{frac|1|4}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |2 |4 |- !Semis |{{frac|1|800}} |{{frac|1|400}} |{{frac|1|32}} |{{frac|1|16}} |{{frac|1|8}} |{{frac|1|4}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |2 |- !Quadrans |{{frac|1|1600}} |{{frac|1|800}} |{{frac|1|64}} |{{frac|1|32}} |{{frac|1|16}} |{{frac|1|8}} |{{frac|1|4}} |{{frac|1|2}} |1 |} The mass of the ''aureus'' was decreased to {{frac|45}} of a Roman pound (7.3 g) during the reign of Nero ({{reign|54|68}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooley |first=M. G. L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A8vPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |title=Tiberius to Nero |date=2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-38285-4 |pages=14}}</ref> According to Cassius Dio, writing at the start of the 3rd century, notes that the ''aureus'' was still worth 100 ''sesterii'', and comments that it was equivalent to 20 Greek drachmas.<ref>Cassius Dio, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/55*.html ''Roman History'', Book 55, § 12].</ref> At about the same time the purity of the silver coinage was also slightly decreased.
[[File:Octavian aureus circa 30 BCE.jpg|thumb|left|''Aureus'' of Octavian, {{Circa|30 BC}}]] After the reign of Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180) the production of ''aurei'' decreased, and the weight fell to one-fiftieth of a Roman pound (6.5 g) by the time of Caracalla ({{reign | 211|217}}).
During the <abbr>3rd</abbr> <abbr>century</abbr>, the Roman Empire experienced a 50-year period of instability that also saw an increasingly severe economic and monetary crisis. The number and weight of ''aurei'' produced decreased more and more rapidly, dropping from about 7.20 grams under Septimius Severus ({{reign|193|211}}) to less than 3.50 grams under Valerian ({{reign|253|260}}), about half of its original value. The simultaneous devaluation of gold and silver coins caused their mutual devaluation. While the correspondence of 25 denarii for 1 ''aureus'' was maintained during the 1st and <abbr>2nd</abbr> <abbr>centuries, the</abbr> value of the ''aureus'' became unstable: a Greek inscription under the reign of Philip ({{reign |244|249}}) gives 1 ''aureus'' for 21 ''antoninianii'', or 42 ''denarii''.<ref name="Depeyrot" />
In addition, gold pieces were introduced in a variety of fractions and multiples, making it hard to determine the intended denomination of a gold coin.<ref> {{cite web |last1=The Imperial Roman Economy |title=Hoarding, Gresham's Law and All That |url=https://www.forumancientcoins.com/historia/de-basement/economy.html |website=www.forumancientcoins.com}} </ref> Under Gallienus({{reign|253|258}}), the purity was briefly reduced to 94%, and a small amount of coins were minted with as low as 80% purity. This was reset back to 99% by the next emperor.<ref name="Scheidel" />
The devalued ''aureus'' would be replaced by the ''solidus'', during the 4th century. An early form of this coin was first introduced by Diocletian (r. 284–305) around 301 AD, when he struck at 60 to the Roman pound of pure gold (and thus weighing about 5.5 grams each) and with an initial value equal to 1,000 ''denarii''.<ref name="Scheidel">{{cite web |last=Scheidel |first=Walter |title=The monetary systems of the Han and Roman empires |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/020803.pdf |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=2025-04-07 |archive-date=2020-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027234223/https://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/020803.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> In that same year, Diocletian issued the Edict on Maximum Prices fixing a price for minted gold of 72,000 ''denarii'' per pound, or more than a thousand ''denarii'' for one ''aureus'', the denarius being no more than a unit of account. This authoritarian measure did nothing but stop the fluctuation of the ''aureus''.<ref>Depeyrot 2006, p. 100.</ref> Diocletian's ''solidus'' was struck only in small quantities, and thus had only minimal economic effect, although its stable weight brought an end to the instability that had existed for a while.
When the ''solidus'' was reintroduced by Constantine I (r. 306–337) in 312 AD, permanently replacing the ''aureus'' as the gold coin of the Roman Empire, it was struck at a rate of 72 to a Roman pound of pure gold, each coin weighing twenty-four Greco-Roman carats, or about 4.5 grams of gold per coin.<ref><cite>{{cite book |author=Porteous, John |title=Coins in history : a survey of coinage from the reform of Diocletian to the Latin Monetary Union. |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1969 |isbn=0-297-17854-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/coinsinhistorysu00port/page/14 14–33] |chapter=The Imperial Foundations |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/coinsinhistorysu00port/page/14 |chapter-url-access=registration}}</cite></ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Walbank |first=F.W. |author-link=F. W. Walbank |url=https://www.academia.edu/62545773/WALBANK_F_W_1969_1996_LA_PAVOROSA_REVOLUCION_LA_DECADENCIA_DEL_IMPERIO_ROMANO_EN_OCCIDENTE_91_PP_Alianza_Editorial_ |title=La pavorosa revolución. La decadencia del imperio romano en occidente |date=1996 |publisher=Alianza Universal |isbn=8420622095 |location=Madrid |pages=56–67 |language=es |translator-last=Doris Rolfe |trans-title=The Awful Revolution – The Decline of the Roman Empire in the West |orig-date=1969}}</ref> By this time, the ''solidus'' was worth 275,000 of the increasingly debased ''denarii''. However, regardless of the size or weight of the ''aureus'', the coin's purity was little affected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=75ChbKPElCwC&pg=PT72 |title=The Emperor Constantine |date=2011 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-280-6 |pages=72 |language=en}}</ref> Due to runaway inflation caused by the Roman government's issuing base-metal coinage but refusing to accept anything other than silver or gold for tax payments, the value of the gold ''aureus'' in relation to the ''denarius'' grew drastically. Inflation was also affected by the systematic debasement of the silver ''denarius'', which by the mid-3rd century had practically no silver left in it. {| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:1.5em;" |+'''Gold content'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Louis Caulton |first=West |url=http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan92614 |title=Gold and silver coin standards in the Roman empire |publisher=American Numismatic Society |year=1941 |location=New York |via=ANS Digital Library}}</ref> !|Ruler!! |Year!! |Average |- |Caesar||44 BC|| 8.18 grams |- |Augustus||14 AD|| 7.80 grams |- |Tiberius |37 AD |~ 7.75 grams<ref>Authors vary slightly on the exact amount, so an average is given</ref> |- |Caligula |41 AD |~ 7.72 grams |- |Claudius |54 AD |~ 7.66 grams |- |Nero||68 AD||7.28 grams |- |Galba |69 AD |7.26 grams |- |Otho |69 AD |7.24 grams |- |Titus |81 AD |~ 7.21 grams |- |Domitian |96 AD |~ 7.40 grams |- |Nerva |98 AD |~ 7.54 grams |- |Trajan |117 |7.22 grams |- |Hadrian |138 |7.19 grams |- |Antoninus |161 |7.19 grams |- |Marcus |180 |7.19 grams |- |Commodus |192 |7.26 grams |- |Pertinax |193 |7.19 grams |- |Severus |211 |7.19 grams |- |Caracalla |217 |6.48 grams |- |Alexander |235 |6.30 grams |- |Maximinus |238 |5.80 grams |- |Pupienus | rowspan="2" |238 | rowspan="2" |5.54 grams |- |Balbinus |- |Gordian III |244 |4.86 grams |- |Philip |249 |4.40 grams |- |Decius |251 |4.30 grams |- |Gallus||253||3.65 grams |- |Valerian||260||3.40 grams |- |Diocletian||290||5.46 grams<ref>Pannekeet, C. G. J. (2013). ''[https://www.academia.edu/106282371/The_Roman_coinage_in_the_4_th_and_5_th_century_AD The Roman coinage in the 4th and 5th century AD]''. Also ''[https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=381616 Feature Auction CNG 111. Diocletian. AD 284-305]'': "During the reigns immediately prior to Diocletian, the weight of the gold aureus fluctuated wildly, from as heavy as 6.90 grams to as light as 4 grams, and seemed to vary almost arbitrarily from mint to mint. This irregularity continued into the first years of the new regime (see previous lot), but between AD 286 and 290, Diocletian stabilized the aureus at 60 to the pound, or about 5.46 grams of gold, throughout the Roman Empire."</ref> |}
Today, the ''aureus'' is highly sought after by collectors because of its purity and value, as well its historical interest. An ''aureus'' is usually much more expensive than a ''denarius'' issued by the same emperor. For instance, in one auction, an ''aureus'' of Trajan (r. 98–117) sold for $15,000, and a silver coin of the same emperor sold for $100. The most expensive ''aureus'' ever sold was one issued in 42 BC by Marcus Junius Brutus, the assassin of Gaius Julius Caesar, which had a price realized of $3.5 million in November 2020;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://robbreport.com/shelter/art-collectibles/roman-aureus-coin-julius-caesar-record-1234578781/ |title=Goldberg Coins and Collectibles |publisher=Images.goldbergauctions.com |access-date=2014-06-07}}</ref> there is an example of this coin on permanent display at the British Museum in London. An ''aureus'', issued by the emperor Alexander Severus (r. 222–235), has a picture of the Colosseum on the reverse, and had a price realized of $920,000 in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://images.goldbergauctions.com/php/chap_auc.php?site=1&lang=1&sale=46&chapter=2&page=2 |title=Goldberg Coins and Collectibles |publisher=Images.goldbergauctions.com |access-date=2014-06-07}}</ref> An ''aureus'' with the face of Allectus was auctioned off in the United Kingdom for £552,000 in June 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.msn.com/en-xl/europe/europe-top-stories/metal-detectorist-ecstatic-after-find-on-farm-turns-out-to-be-ultra-rare-roman-coin-fetching-%C2%A3552000-at-auction/ar-AACCz9n?li=BBKxJ6T&ocid=iehp|title=Metal detectorist 'ecstatic' after find on farm turns out to be ultra-rare Roman coin fetching £552,000 at auction|website=www.msn.com|access-date=2019-06-10}}</ref>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="86" caption="Imperial ''aurei'' from Augustus to Alexander"> File:Gold Aureus of Augustus (obverse).png|1. Augustus File:Gold aureus of Tiberius.jpg|2. Tiberius File:Caligula&Germanicus Aureus (obverse).jpg|3. Caligula File:Aureus of Claudius (obverse).jpeg|4. Claudius File:Gold Aureus of Nero.png|5. Nero File:Galba, aureus (obverse).jpg|6. Galba File:Gold Aureus of Otho.jpg|7. Otho File:Vitellius, aureus, 69, RIC I 85 (obverse).jpg|8. Vitellius File:INC-2056-a Ауреус. Веспасиан. Ок. 75—79 гг. (аверс).png|9. Vespasian File:Rare aureus of Titus (obverse).jpg|10. Titus File:INC-1882-a Ауреус. Домициан. Ок. 87 г. (аверс).png|11. Domitian File:Nerva aureus (obverse).png|12. Nerva File:TRAJAN RIC II 257 (obverse).png|13. Trajan File:Hadrian RIC II 308 (obverse).jpg|14. Hadrian File:INC-1833-a Ауреус Антонин Пий ок. 153-154 гг. (аверс).png|15. Antoninus File:INC-1817-a Ауреус Марк Аврелий ок. 166-167 гг. (аверс).png|16. Marcus File:INC-2957-a Ауреус. Луций Вер. Ок. 163—164 гг. (аверс).png|17. Lucius File:INC-1818-a Ауреус Коммод ок. 186-187 гг. (аверс).png|18. Commodus File:Aureus of Pertinax (obverse).jpg|19. Pertinax File:Aureus Didius Iulianus (obverse).jpg|20. Julianus File:Septimius Severus. AD 193-211 (obverse).jpg|21. Severus File:Caracalla RIC 4A-211b (obverse).jpg|22. Caracalla File:Rare aureus of Geta (obverse).jpg|23. Geta File:Aureus Macrinus-RIC 0079 (cropped).jpg|24. Macrinus File:INC-1854-a Ауреус Элагабал ок. 218-219 гг. (аверс).png|25. Elagabalus File:INC-1855-a Ауреус Север Александр ок. 228 г. (аверс).png|26. Alexander </gallery>
==See also== {{Portal|Numismatics}} *Roman currency *Coinage reform of Augustus
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons}} *[http://monetaoro.unicatt.it/ Online numismatic exhibit: "This round gold is but the image of the rounder globe" (H.Melville). The charm of gold in ancient coinage]
{{Roman coinage}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Coins of ancient Rome Category:Gold coins