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Gold for the Barbarians? Uniface Gold Medallions of the House of Constantine Found in Britain and Ireland*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2012

Roger Bland
Roger Bland*
Affiliation:
The British [email protected]
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Abstract

The paper discusses a hitherto neglected group of five uniface gold medallions in the names of Constantine I and II, issued between c.a.d. 318 and 337, found in Britain and Ireland. These have been found either beyond the frontier (three examples are from Ireland and one from Scotland) or close to it (one example is from Cumbria). It is suggested that they may have been produced as diplomatic gifts for peoples beyond the frontier or as payment for laeti.

Keywords

RomanConstantinegoldmedallionBritainScotlandIreland
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 43 , November 2012 , pp. 217 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2012. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

This paper has been greatly improved as a result of the comments received from friends and colleagues on an earlier draft: Richard Abdy, Edward Besly, Andrew Burnett, Aleksander Bursche, Jean-Marc Doyen, Georges Depeyrot, Robert Janiszewski, Sam Moorhead and Richard Reece. I am very grateful to all of them and also to the anonymous referees. My thanks also to Nick Holmes and Eamonn Kelly for their help with illustrations.

References

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