Augustan coins from Sisak and coin circulation in the Augustan period in Siscia

The important Iron Age settlement of Segest(ic)a (southwestern Pannonia) was captured by Octavian in 35 BC. Sometime during the late 1st c. BC and/or the early 1st c. AD a Roman legionary camp was established in the now Roman Siscia, which remained an important military centre up to the early Claudian period. At the same time, a civilian settlement has gradually developed on the same site, but its relation to the legionary camp remains largely undocumented in the archaeological record. The present paper analyses the coin finds from Sisak issued during Augustus’ reign and attempts to reconstruct the coin supply and coin loss during the Augustan period in Siscia. It is immediately recognized that these two categories of numismatic record should not be treated as identical to the point that it remains an open question to what extent, if any, were the former involved in the latter. The answer to this question was sought for in stratified deposits lately documented in controlled archaeological excavations in the area occupied by the modern Sisak, even though these are not particularly numerous and are often inconclusive. This has conditioned the provisional nature of the interpretations and conclusions reached in this essay (including the important question of the precise localisation of the legionary camp), which is thus meant to be a modest contribution constrained, as always, by the present state of research.