Cartagine al confine occidentale dell'impero bizantino: diffusione e funzione economica delle sue emissioni monetarie tra VI-VII secolo

ABSTRACT – From the reign of Hunerich (477-484) to that of Gelimer (530-534), the Vandal silver and bronze issues at Carthage respected de facto the imperial monopoly of gold minting. On the one hand, the following Byzantine coinage of Carthage under Justinian (ca. 538/539) partly resumed the monetary tradition of the Vandals. On the other hand, far from Constantinople and in the center of the Mediterranean, it developed as one of the most original coinages for the metrological choices, the iconography, in particular of solidi with chronological indications, given the peculiar features of the bronze issues, especially if fractional with respect to the follis. This contribution shows the data of an ongoing research aimed at collecting the greatest number of reports, in particular with proven archaeological provenance, concerning the diffusion and hoarding of the Carthaginian issues. Georeferencing and the statistical elaborations allows first of all to formulate hypotheses on the stock produced from the reopening of the mint until its transfer to Sardinia around 695, shortly before the Arab conquest. No less relevant is an update on its diffusion in the Mediterranean world (starting from the research of Cécile Morrisson) which allows to define, for example, the relations of this divisional with that of the mints of Sicily and Constantinople, highlighting similarities or discrepancies, especially from the metrological point of view. It will be possible to deduce the existence of one or more Byzantine monetary areas in the center of the Mediterranean, and their mutual influence, by following the network of commercial relations, and their changing pattern, up to the end of the 7th century.