Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 2 - Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire

chapterfive

Cash Distributions in Rome

and Imperial Minting

*

Inthespringof1989Ihadthepleasureofmakingajourneythroughthose
areasofsouthernTurkeywhichwereregardedinantiquityasbelongingto
Syria.^1 Mypurposewastoacquireatleastageneralconceptionofthegeog-
raphy of the northern part of ancient Syria; for the whole region which
stretchesfromtheMediterraneantothedesertandtheTigris,andfromthe
Taurus to Egypt was due to form the subject of my book on the Roman
NearEast.^2
StartingfromAnkara,wecrossedthecentralplateauofAnatoliaandtook
the modern road which by-passes the Cilician Gates. At that point, if one
leaves the modern road where it debouches from the mountains onto the
Cilicianplain,andclimbsuponeofthelimestonehillswhichformthelower
reachesoftheTaurus,onefindsastretchofRomanroad,perfectlypreserved
over a distance of some two kilometres; as was normal, the route chosen
followedthecrestofthehillratherthanthevalley.^3 Idonotknowofany

*First published in French, as ‘‘Les congiaires à Rome et la monnaie,’’ in A. Giovannini,
ed.,Nourrir la plèbe: actes du colloque tenu à Genève les 28 et 29.IX.1989 en hommage à Denis van
Berchem(1991),143–59.IwouldliketothankC.J.HowgegoandC.E.Kingverywarmly
forinformationandcriticalobservationswhichhavegreatlycontributedtoimprovingthis
chapter.

1. Iamextremelygratefultomycompaniononthatjourney,Dr.C.S.R.Lightfoot,
   thenassistantdirectoroftheBritishInstituteatAnkara,whoseknowledgeofthearea,and
   boundlessenergyandenthusiasm,madeitpossiblebothtocoverthewholeregioninafew
   daysandtovisitvariousremoteandinaccessiblesites.
   2.The Roman Near East, 31bc–ad 337 (1993).


2. Forthisstretchofroad,seeW.M.Ramsay,Cities of St. Paul(1907),withthemapon
   p.106,andpl.2.SeealsoM.HellenkemperandH.Hild,Neue Forschungen in Kilikien(1986),
   96–97 and pls. 139–40. Moreover, Dr. David French was kind enough to inform me by

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