The coinage and the Roman conquest of Dacia. A comparative study of the sites: Ulpia Traiana, Porolissum, Carnuntum, Ovilava, Poetovio
Cristian Găzdac
- abstract -
The purpose of this presentation is to seek for general and specific patterns of coin finds and the foundation of sites. From this point of view the historical background of Dacia is one of particular interest as it is known that this territory became a Roman province during the reign of Trajan.
The recent publication of numismatic monographs of some of the most important sites of Roman Dacia, Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetusa, Romania) and Porolissum (Moigrad, Romania), allow us a detailed analysis of the coin finds. An important aspect for the analyze is the fact that at the time of their establishment under Trajan one of the site was directly raised at the rank of colonia (Ulpia Traiana) while the other one (Porolissum) was a heavy militarised place and became a municipium in the time of Septimius Severus.
At the same time the study will analyse the coin finds from other 3 important sites from different Roman provinces Noricum (Ovilava - Wels, Austria), Pannonia Superior (Carnuntum - Petronell, Austria; Poetovio - Ptuj, Slovenia).
Beside a detailed and large publication of the numismatic material these sites were chosen for other reasons, too. Their history started much earlier in the 1st century AD, thus 1 century before the beginning of the two sites from Dacia. The urban status of these sites was granted the time of Trajan (Poetovio - Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio) or during the reign of Hadrian (Ovilava - Municipium Aelium Ovilavis; Carnuntum - Municipium Aelium Carnuntinum).