Dakota Bagley-Sweet, British Numismatic Society Intern, writes about an important coin asssemblage

Roman Catterick was a place of significant importance both to Roman military/colonial interests as well as to regional inhabitants of the North of England at the time.

Beginning as a military outpost at the frontier of the Roman world, Catterick attracted people from around Roman Britain as well as from further afield, with the civilian settlement eventually overtaking the size and importance of the military element of the city.

Catterick also has a close association with the Roman Ninth Legion (the Spanish Legion) and the mystery of their fate.

The Roman garrison at Catterick would have been one of their last homely stops on their march to Hadrian’s Wall and Caledonia beyond to quell uprisings of indigenous Scottish tribes.

The Ninth Legion fits in with the wider narrative of Catterick as one of the last known locations prior to the unit’s disappearance at some point after crossing into Scotland.

There is much speculation surrounding the fate of the ninth leading to a great deal of fog on the matter.

However if it is true that the ninth was sent North of Hadrian’s wall to quell a rebellion (at some point soon after completing renovation works to the Roman fort at Eboracum), then they would certainly have passed through Catterick, as it sits along Dere street and guards a primary river crossing between North and South.

The wide variety of mints exhibited in this collection of coins represents Catterick’s level of involvement within the wider Roman world and its numerous cultures and peoples.

Rather than being a backwater frontier town, one can see Catterick as representation of the diversity of the Roman Empire as well as its tendency for the adoption and accumulation of local cultures.

Catterick was a place of strategic and civilian importance prior to the Roman presence, as it is even mentioned in Gaelic oral and literary traditions.

The Romans, however, brought to bear their ability to marshal people and resources from around the Roman world for a common and centralised purpose.

There are coins minted from such far off places as Siscia, Cyzicus, Rome, and Trier, struck by people who would never have been to or heard of Catterick.

Indeed the Ninth Legion itself was levied in Cordoba and would have been composed of Spaniards, Romans and Gauls having campaigned with Julius Caesar successfully in Gaul prior to its fabled disappearance.

This coin shows at once the dichotomy of Rome’s conception of itself in relation to the world around them. On the obverse, a bust of Titus, stern and hard-faced. On the reverse a delicate figure of Pax, open-armed, with olive branch and wreath in hand.

This, at a time when the Roman army was making inroads into Britain, establishing forts, imposing Roman rule and tamping down local resistance may seem dubious.

Actually it seems to accurately portray the process of Roman colonisation; invasion and militarised presence, followed by a steady easing into a civilian community life.

This coin, minted immediately after the loss of the Ninth legion and the removal of any information about it from official records, comes from a significant time for Rome and the Roman people.

The empire is at the height of its area and influence following annexations made by Marcus Aurelius.

Roman Britain, Catterick and the North, are in a greater state of settlement and consolidation than at the time of the dupondius of Titus.

The numerous small and irregular coinage of late-period date represents an overall shift in Catterick, as with other formally frontier/garrison Roman towns, from a primarily military establishment, to a civilian community.

After an initial conquest and state of military marshal law, with the legionares acting as occupiers, local, indigenous communities congregate around Roman garrisons and thrive on the access to distant and lucrative trade routes, the steady resource of legionary salaries, and the relative protection afforded by proximity to the garrisons.

Also, beginning in the late 3rd century, the minting, striking, and circulation of Roman currency becomes less centralised in correspondence with trends of inflation and devaluing of currency units.

This leads to coinage being more accessible on a day to day, purchase to purchase level to a wider range of citizenry, beyond simply soldiers and the wealthy, and beyond even Romans in general.

The reduced size and quality of later period coins reflect this.