The siliqua (. siliquas or siliquae) is the modern namegiven without any ancient evidence to confirm the designationto small, thin, Roman silver coins produced in the 4th century and later. When the coins were in circulation, the Latin word was a unit of weight or value defined by one late Roman writer as one twenty-fourth of a Roman

solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin) The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; : ''solidi'') or ''nomisma'' () was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. It was introduced in the early ...

. The term siliqua comes from the ''siliqua graeca'', the seed of the

carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit, which takes the form of seed pods, and as an ornam ...

tree, which in the Roman weight system is equivalent to of a scruple ( of a

Roman pound The units of measurement of ancient Rome were generally consistent and well documented. Length The basic unit of Roman linear measurement was the ''pes'' (plural: ''pedes'') or Roman foot. Investigation of its relation to the English foot goes ...

or about 0.19

gram The gram (originally gramme; SI unit symbol g) is a Physical unit, unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. Originally defined in 1795 as "the absolute Mass versus weight, weight of a volume ...

s). The term has been applied in modern times to various silver coins on the premise that the coins were valued at of the gold solidus (which weighed of a Roman pound) and therefore represented a siliqua of gold in value. Since gold was worth about 12 times as much as silver in ancient Rome (in Diocletian's

Edict on Maximum Prices The Edict on Maximum Prices (Latin: ''Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium'', "Edict Concerning the Sale Price of Goods"; also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian) was issued in 301 by Diocletian. The document denounces greed ...

of 301),Bransbourg, Giles. "Inflation and monetary reforms in the fourth century: Diocletian's twin Edicts of AD 301" in ''Debasement: manipulation of coin standards in pre-modern monetary systems'', edited by Kevin Butcher, 2020. such a silver coin would have a theoretical

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

of 2.22 grams ((4.45 grams/24)x12 = 2.22 grams). This has not prevented the term from being applied today to silver coins issued by

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I * Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine g ...

, which initially weighed 3.4 grams and to the later "heavy siliqua" of

Constantius II Constantius II (; ; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civ ...

of c. 3 grams, but it would fit the later "light" or "reduced siliqua" from after the reform of 355 which weighed about 2.2 grams. The term is one of convenience, as no name for these coins is indicated by contemporary sources. Thin silver coins as late as the 7th century which weigh about 2–3 grams are known as siliquas by numismatic convention. The majority of examples suffer striking cracks (testimony to their fast production) or extensive clipping (removing silver from the edge of the coin), and thus to find both an untouched and undamaged example is fairly uncommon. It is thought that by clipping, siliquaes provided the first coinage of the

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

, as this reduced them to around the same size as a

sceat A sceat or sceatta ( ; , ) was a small, thick silver coin minted in England, Frisia, and Jutland during the Anglo-Saxon period that normally weighed 0.8–1.3 grams (about troy ounce). It is now (as of 2024) more commonly known in England ...

, and there is considerable evidence from archaeological sites of this period, that siliquas and many other Roman coins were utilized by Saxons as pendants, lucky charms, currency, and curiosities.

References and external links

{{Roman coinage Coins of ancient Rome Numismatics Silver coins 4th century

See also

References and external links