The Battle of Abritus, the Imperial Treasury and Aurei in Barbaricum

From the region between the southern Baltic seaboard and Ukraine, territory of Gothic culture settlement, we have records of a great many aurei of Trajan Decius and his immediate predecessors. The early years of the 21st century have witnessed a considerable increase in these finds, the result of widespread amateur metal detector use. In contrast, elsewhere in Barbaricum the same issues are very seldom recorded. All the aurei are pierced above the head of the emperor and some were deliberately chopped into fragments prior to deposition. This treatment of gold coins is not noted elsewhere in Barbaricum or within the Roman Empire. The coins described here are quite certain to be the remains of plunder taken by Goths after their defeat of the Romans at Abritus in AD 251. It is very likely that the entire imperial treasury was captured by the Gothic troops. This is because the Augustus himself and his son, Herennius Etruscus, were killed in that battle. The capture of so many tonnes of gold by the barbarians may be the direct cause of the deterioration in the quality of the aureus under the successors of Trajan Decius. The chopping of the coins into fragments prior to their deposition, that is, a de facto destruction of the enemy's portrait and annihilation of his power, shows that they must have been a part of the plunder. The destruction of booty taken from defeated enemies is a typically Germanic custom, attested also by the bog deposits of northern Europe.