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The Celts outside Gaul

The earliest native coinages of Celtic Europę were usually therefore precise imitations of coins issued by those Mediterra-nean communities with which the Celts had had their most important contacts. We may suppose that the imitative coins, like their Mediterranean prototypes, were used by Callic war-lords to pay retainers, mercenaries and clients, and to distribute largesse. These earliest first-phase imitations, sotne of which may belong to the mid third century, were followed by the end of the century by the first fully indi viduated Celtic series, some closely modelled on their respective Mediterranean prototypes, even down to details such as countermarks, but others with morę innovative designs. This was an important turning-point in the history of Celtic coinage and for the first time we can be confident that we are dealing with systematically produced coinages and not slavish imitations or simple substitutes.

From the start of this development, marked regional differences can be discerned, although overall similarities can also be recognized, due to the Celts’ shared experience of relations with the Mediterranean world. In this and the following chapters each Celtic region will be reviewed in tum, starting with those that were the first to adopt coinage.

The Celtic East

The most easterly Celts to strike any coinage of their own were located on the borders of Macedon in modern Serbia and Bośnia. Here, the Celts were a relatively smali colonial population, but influential nonetheless, not least where coinage was concerned, because of their vigorous military relations with Macedon during the fourth and third centuries bc. Here, the earliest native coinages are found in those areas where Celtic settlement was densest: many other warrior groups in that area served as mercenaries for the Macedonian kings without adopting the practice of coining for themselves. As time wore on, however, and fresh Celtic immigration into the area came to a halt, the eastern Celts gradually merged with the native Getae and Dacians, and coinage spread to them. From the mid second century onwards local coinage tends to be found in the vicinity of the major Dacian settlements, and together with its authors deserves the new title Geto-Dacian rather than Celtic. Its later history therefore lies outside the scope of this book. m

The earliest coins struck by the eastem Celts were very faithful imitations of posthumous silver tetradrachms in the nameof Philip U (57). These may perhaps be regarded morę as supplements to current Macedonian coinage than as fully indi viduated coinages in their own right, sińce some seem to datę from the late fourth century when they circulated alongside the Macedonian coins they so closely resembled.

Between c.300 and 250 the first unmistakably native coinages emerged between the Balkans and the lower Danube (55-9). The Philip 11 silver tetradrachm was the most popular model for this coinage, and its sphere of popularity may indicate the earliest Macedonian recruiting-grounds among the eastem Celts. Further east, however, the Alexander 111/Philip 111 tetradrachm was adopted instead (60), something that indicates another somewhat later centre of contact between the Macedonian kings and the eastern Celts, while the coinage of Lysimachus of Macedon (360-281 bc) with its horned deity on the obverse had a widespread impact in the next generation. suggesting that military contact with Macedon continued to spread into the third century when Celtic expansion reached its eastern most limits. Then, between 250 and 150 bc, the first Dacian coinages appeared, employing a wider rangę of Greek prototypes, which suggest that the Dadans had their own distinctive pattern of interaction with the Mediterranean world. Their coinages quickly developed a characterisic dumpy or scyphate (dished) shape with bold geometrical and abstract types (61) that departed from the earlier, morę fluid, eastern Celtic designs. By this time eastem Celtic coinage was displaying a wide rangę of variations upon the basie Macedonian the mes.

Until at least the mid third century, eastem Celtic coinages presented the great diversity of types and poorly defined areas of circulation typical of the first phase of Celtic coinage. Although on the whole less elaborately Celticized than many western coinages, their design still abounds in recognizably Celtic motifs such as horses, severed heads, torąues, and tribrachs. During the second century, however, perhaps under the impact of the Roman conquest of Macedon and all that that entailed for the native societies of the Danube basin. there was a further senes of changes, characteristic of the second phase of Celtic coinage. The absolute number of coin types decłined sharpły but the volume of each group inereased, accompanied by a steep drop in weight and

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