Of all the many domains through which our understanding of the Roman world is shaped, that of the coinage minted in support of Roman authority but not by Rome itself has perhaps languished the longest notwithstanding the great promise that it holds. Arguably lacking any better nomenclature than the current if banal ‘Roman provincial coinage’, this material consists of a remarkably rich and varied assortment of coinages, ranging from often episodic civic issues of traditionally Greek poleis, and then of Roman coloniae and the like, to the burgeoning products of great metropolitan cities such as Antioch and Alexandria. Struck at hundreds of mints and sometimes in stupendous quantities, each coinage reflects the particular history of a place as it related to Rome, even if just for a few years at a time. New discoveries continue to be added at a quick pace. There is no field, be that art and archaeology, economics and law, epigraphy, literature, military history and so on with which these coinages do not intersect and upon which they do not prove to be uniquely illuminating, as amply illustrated at every turn by this volume. With respect to the field of ancient numismatics, this volume makes a remarkably significant contribution as well, far beyond the avowedly and rightly didactic purpose emblazoned in its title.

Several elements account for this deserved approbation. First, deploying an extraordinary expertise and breadth of vision, B. laid the groundwork for this present book through decades of work on the Roman Provincial Coins (RPC ) project, for which he was co-author of the first two volumes, to say nothing of his extensive and authoritative scholarship on Roman coinage more generally and his long curatorial service at the British Museum (now, too, in a different role at the Ashmolean Museum). Armed with comprehensive knowledge touching on almost every conceivable topic and problem, B. not only possesses the well-honed curator’s eye for patterns and their exceptions, but also engages assiduously with those overarching, difficult questions that have radically advanced our knowledge concerning provincial coinages. Readers will thus find it useful, but nowhere strictly necessary, to consult the entries for individual coins in RPC (easily so through Roman Provincial Coins Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk), for which B. gives the appropriate (volume and number) reference at every turn. Notes and citations are accurate and easily allow readers to explore any number of topics. Illustrations are used effectively throughout, and a number of important topics are ably placed in discussion boxes rather than allowed to clog the general flow of the argument. Numerous coins are beautifully reproduced and well chosen, though in some cases an additional arrow or other sign might have been helpful to point out a key feature, such as evidence of an overstrike. The maps, however, show the undersea topography of the Mediterranean, which seems oddly irrelevant. Too often the colour and small scale of a map, especially seen against the landward topography, obstruct one’s ability to identify what one should be looking at. Figures and tables, nonetheless, are presented clearly and accurately. Errors are few and mainly limited to areas such as the otherwise excellent bibliography (though the Greek is treated a little inconsistently across the text). In any case, the production values of the book are generally very high.

Second, the monograph fulfils its declared purpose through B.’s careful presentation, whereby each chapter and its subordinate parts build cumulatively and are effectively signposted to look backward and forward as needed. Thus, the general plan of the book is to proceed chronologically and to situate major thematic topics in those chapters where they are best situated so as to provide an essential platform of understanding before moving onward. This works even with the perhaps curious choice of initiating the whole volume with a chapter on the role of precious metal in the Roman world across time before commencing in the next chapter a fuller discussion of Rome’s first forays into provincial coinage c. 300 bce. Aside from the closed currency system of Roman Egypt, on which this reviewer would have liked to have seen more, it is difficult to imagine any topic that B. has not addressed if evidence exists. Each section can be taken and read on its own, and I would not hesitate to employ the volume as a required text in an introductory course to ancient numismatics.

Third, and finally, this volume far exceeds any sense one might garner from its title that it is merely an introduction to the subject, though it can well serve in that capacity. Nothing comparable to this book exists in the marketplace, but at this moment it represents the best version of a status quaestionis for which we might have possibly hoped had there already been the usual examples of such treatments. It also pushes us to reconsider old notions and problems from novel perspectives. This is a book about Roman coinage, all of it, including that which was struck at the imperial mints such as Rome. Not only does B. combine the imperial and the provincial coinage as elements of one larger phenomenon, but he also extends the treatment of them far earlier (i.e. c. 300 bce, for Rome’s civic coinage) than one would have usually considered appropriate for the so-called provincial coins given that they appear from the late Republic until shortly after 260 ce, when such coinage became almost totally extinct. It is essential reading, therefore, for anyone interested in any aspect of Roman coinage; and because it is also a book deeply concerned with the process of Romanisation, it is crucial for anyone interested in other domains of the Roman experience noted earlier even if they might think that those have little to do with coins. It is also, therefore, a book of signal interest with respect to all societies whose coinages were somehow part of that process, from Greeks to Gauls. For example, B. shows, convincingly to this reviewer, that, with the strong exception of Carthage, direct intervention by Rome in the coinages of peoples who came under its sway was halting or even lackadaisical, thus inducing remarkable monetary diversity, even chaos, across the empire that was permitted until the very end. Moreover, B. illustrates how the elites of the western provinces took the initiative first in adopting Roman features into their own coinages and then came to prefer imperial coins so strongly that their own coinages almost entirely disappear by the reign of Tiberius. Indeed, in B.’s formulation, the greatest single factor in almost any element of provincial coinage was the ‘cultural outlook’ of the civic elite. Rome’s consuls, governors and emperors are quite absent as agents of change. B. thus looks primarily for simple, efficient explanations that have much more to do with large-scale, under-the-radar dynamics than isolated causes, directives from the top or single events, notwithstanding the precision and detail of his presentation. Those views, and others still, may surprise some readers, but B. grounds his case firmly in the numismatics and a solid array of evidence from other domains. Methodological precision and clarity are evident throughout, so much so that it might be easy to miss the importance or novelty of B.’s claims even where he has duly signalled that his interpretation intercedes on a highly controversial question.

In sum, across the span of this volume B. consistently addresses the question ‘what are the coins evidence of?’, to which the overarching, resounding answer would seem to be the constant making and re-making of the Roman world.