The Barbaric Tremissis in Spain and Southern France: Anastasius to Leovigild

Description

Anyone who attempts to study early sixth century coinage in the West must come to grips with the difficulty of separating fact from fiction. The endeavor is obfuscated not only by the small number of facts but by the larger number of hypotheses which have become accepted as fact. The student cannot help but be skeptical of the use of this numismatic material as evidence because of the uncertainty of attributions, the seemingly endless variety of type styles, the lack of any systematically studied or recorded hoards and the lack of any complete catalogue. This skepticism is aggravated by aesthetic prejudices towards non-classical forms. To see these coins as barbarous, nonclassical, ergo crude and ugly, is not to see them at all. This aesthetic blindness or narrowness has hindered numismatic understanding and has limited the usefulness of the numismatic material. FOREWORD ix BIBLIOGRAPHY, COLLECTIONS AND KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS xiii I. ANTECEDENTS FOR THE SIXTH CENTURY TREMISSIS 1 II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VPW TYPE AND ITS USE ON THE ANASTASIUS TREMISSIS IN THE WEST 12 III. BARBARIANS AND THE VPW TREMISSIS 25 IV. THE DATING OF THE TREMISSIS A. THE DATE OF THE FIRST VPW ANASTASIUS TREMISSIS 45 B. THE DATE OF THE LAST VPW ISSUE 63 V. DETERMINANTS FOR STYLISTIC ANALYSIS 76 VI. THE ANALYSIS OF GROUPS 88 VII. OBSERVATIONS ON STYLE GROUPS AND PROGRESSIONS 135 STYLISTIC FACTORS OF DESIGN 135 LEGENDS 143 STARS AND CROSSES 145 WEIGHTS 148 MINT ATTRIBUTIONS 152 CONCLUSION: VISIGOTHIC ART AND NUMISMATICS 173 THE CORPUS 183 CHARTS GENERAL ABBREVIATION KEY TO CHARTS 201 I. TREMISSES IN THE Vth CENTURY 202 II. TREMISSES AND l1/2 SCRIPULUM IN THE LATE IVth CENTURY 264 III. VPW IN OTHER DENOMINATIONS IN GOLD AND SILVER, LATE IVth—Vth CENTURIES 266 IV. VPW IN BRONZE, LATE IVth-Vth CENTURIES 268 V. LEGEND ASSOCIATION WITH VPW TYPES IN Æ3 AND Æ4 ISSUES 271 VI. INCIDENCE OF VPW TYPES IN GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE 275 VII. NUMBERS OF COINS STUDIED BY STYLE GROUPS AND BY COLLECTION 283 VIII. STYLE GROUP PROGRESSIONS 288 IX. QUANTITATIVE GRAPH OF FRENCH AND IBERIAN COLLECTIONS STUDIED 289 X. FREQUENCY TABLE OF WEIGHTS OF COINS IN MAJOR GROUPS 290 Xa. GRAPH OF CHART X — AVERAGE WEIGHT IN LARGEST WEIGHT GROUP 292 Xb. GRAPH OF CHART X — AVERAGE WEIGHT OF ALL SPECIMENS OF KNOWN WEIGHT 293 Xc-Xi. AVERAGE WEIGHTS IN STYLE GROUP PROGRESSIONS 294 XI. FREQUENCY TABLE OF WEIGHTS OF COINS IN COMBINED MAJOR AND SUB-GROUPS 296 Xia. GRAPH OF CHART XI — AVERAGE WEIGHT IN LARGEST WEIGHT GROUP 298 Xlb. GRAPH OF CHART XI — AVERAGE WEIGHT OF ALL SPECIMENS OF KNOWN WEIGHT 299 INDEX TO LETTERED PLATES 300 PLATES 303