SILIQUA: COIN OF ROMAN EMPIRE
Siliqua, 347-355: Later Roman Empire
Ruler: Constantius II (Latin "Flavius Julius Constantius") — Roman emperor from 337 to 361, the son of Constantine the Great. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civil wars. His religious policies inflamed domestic conflicts.
VOTIS XXV MVLTIS XXX: the emperor's oath to serve the people and the senate for many years; assumption: "I will serve for 25 years and even 30" /in fact, the promise was not destined to come true/.
The legend of the coin is placed in the traditional laurel wreath for this denomination.
ANT: Mint of Antioch (the capital of the Roman province of Syria; now the Turkish city of Antakya).
D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG (Dominus Noster CONSTANTIUS Pius Felix AUGustus): our ruler Constantius the Blessed Happy Augustus.
Portrait of the emperor in a diadem.
- Silver: 20 mm - 2.66 g
- Reference price: 33$
COIN SILIQUA — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- ROMAN EMPIRE (4th-7th centuries): siliqua = 1/24 solidus
SILIQUA as coin name.
Siliqua — the main silver coin of the Roman Empire from 324 AD. It gradually replaced the denarius.
Siliqua was 1/24 part of the gold solidus. In different periods the weight varied from 1.3 g to 3.4 g. This coin was noticeably thinner than the denarius.
The first siliqua known today dates back to 324 — the period of the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (the first Christian on the throne, an Orthodox saint).
A distinctive feature of siliqua of almost all issues is a characteristic, well-recognizable style of emperor's (or empress) portrait in a diadem.
Emission of siliqua coins was stopped in the second half of the 7th century.
It is not known for certain what the name of this coin was in ancient times. One thing is clear: modern scientists named it siliqua from the Latin phrase "siliqua graeca" — that was the name of the carob seed, which was used by the Romans as a unit of weight (0.19 g).
Although there is also a version according to which in Rome a siliqua was called a silver coin that was worth the same as gold weighing 1 siliqua (0.19 g). At that time, gold was about 14 times more expensive than silver.
