98 FEBRUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukRoman coins
The keys to the
Camp Gates
In his latest coin collecting guide, Steve Webb highlights another inexpensive Roman series that offers
wide collecting potential and a few puzzling questions still in need of answersit and absorbing the adjacent land
into the ever-expanding territory
ruled by the Emperor and held by
his legions. It worked so long as he
commanded an abundance of money
and men; but in the 4th century both
became overstretched as a result of
too many conquests and too much
extravagance by emperors and their
entourages. New methods of holding
the Empire together required urgent
invention and implementation.
A strategy that succeeded over
many decades re-structured much
of the old army, transforming half
into mobile field forces (comitatenses)
of rapid reaction cavalry billeted inthe population centres of provinces
deemed most vulnerable to attack.
These forces were led by some of the
Empire’s best generals, or even by
the Emperor himself. The other half
became frontier troops (limitanei)
stationed in a system of fortifications
along the borders. Their jobs were to
discourage and snuff out small raids
across the border, and to slow the
progress of larger concentration of
enemy troops until the comitatenses
could respond to an alert signal, then
intercept and destroy the invaders
inside Roman territory. Clearly
an efficient and reliable signalling
system had to lie at the heart of
such an arrangement; the mile
castles along the length of Hadrian’s
Wall probably served in a similar
communications chain.
The preferred locations for the
signals are show on the reverses of
many Roman bronze, billon, and
some silver coins from the reigns of
Diocletian, Constantine I, Lucinius,
Licinius II, Crispus, Constantine II,
Flavius Victor and a few other rulers.
The beacons are placed at the tops of
stone structures incorporating gates
(hence the name Campgate) and
having the appearance of watch towers
from which smoke or fire signals must
have been sent to the next turret orB
orders on the
peripheries of Europe,
together with an almost
forgotten dividing line
between England and
Scotland, have featured
prominently in our national news in
recent times. Not since the dark days
of the Second World War have we paid
so much attention to the geographical
separations between other nations and
ourselves; nor thrown so many of our
resources into attempts at solving the
problems insecure borders give rise to.
The Roman solution to any border
problem in the early days of the
Empire lay in simply charging acrossHow many varieties of
Campgate reverse can
you pick out from our
gallery? Included here
are types with two,
three and four beacons;
types with five, six,
seven and eight bands
of stonework; types
with open and narrow
doors; and some with
and without starsp98 Campgates.indd 98 21/12/2015 10:24