In the Roman currency system, the dēnārius (pronunciation: /deː.ˈnaː.rɪ.ʊs/; pl. dēnāriī (pronunciation: /deː.ˈnaː.rɪ.iː/) was a small silver coin first minted about 211 BC during the Second Punic War. It became the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased in weight and silver content until its replacement by the double denarius, called the antoninianus, early in the 3rd century AD. The word dēnārius is derived from the Latin dēnī “containing ten,” as its value was 10 assēs, although in the middle of the 2nd century BC it was recalibrated so that it was now worth sixteen assēs or four sēstertiī. It is the origin of several modern words such as the currency name dinar; it is also the origin for the common noun for money in Italian denaro, in Slovene denar, in Portuguese dinheiro, and in Spanish dinero.
A predecessor of the denarius was first struck in 267 BC, five years before the first Punic War with an average weight of 6.81 grams, or 1/48th of a Roman pound. Contact with the Greeks prompted a need for silver coinage in addition to the bronze currency that the Romans were using during that time. The predecessor of the denarius was a Greek-styled silver coin, very similar to the didrachm and drachma struck in Metapontion and other Greek cities in southern Italy. These coins were inscribed for Rome but closely resemble their Greek counterparts. They were most likely used for trade purposes and were seldom used in Rome.
The first distinctively Roman silver coin appeared around 226 BC. Classic historians sometimes called these coins dēnāriī in the past, but they are classified by modern numismatists as quadrīgātī, which is derived from the quadrīgæ, or four-horse chariot, on the reverse, and which with a two-horse chariot or biga was the prototype for the most common designs used on Roman silver coins for the next 150 years.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Denarius, Denarii, Antoninianus, Double denarius
Bible reference(s): Matthew 18:28, Matthew 20:2, Matthew 20:9, Matthew 20:10, Matthew 20:13, Mark 6:37, Mark 14:5, Luke 7:41, Luke 10:35, John 6:7, John 12:5, Revelation 6:6
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Denarius,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.