Bilbilis, a municipium in the upper Ebro valley of Hispania Tarraconensis, was granted the right to strike bronze coinage under Augustus as part of a broader Roman policy of encouraging local civic identity through controlled minting. The town is best known today as the birthplace of Martial, though the poet was born roughly half a century after these coins first circulated. Local Iberian script on earlier Bilbilis issues had already given way entirely to Latin by this period, a linguistic transition the coinage itself documents.
RPC I 389 is one of several magistrate issues from the city, with the named duoviri serving as the issuing authority rather than any imperial mint.
Bilbilis, a municipium in the upper Ebro valley of Hispania Tarraconensis, was granted the right to strike bronze coinage under Augustus as part of a broader Roman policy of encouraging local civic identity through controlled minting. The town is best known today as the birthplace of Martial, though the poet was born roughly half a century after these coins first circulated. Local Iberian script on earlier Bilbilis issues had already given way entirely to Latin by this period, a linguistic transition the coinage itself documents.
RPC I 389 is one of several magistrate issues from the city, with the named duoviri serving as the issuing authority rather than any imperial mint.