A Hoard fo Roman Silver Coins from the Village of Supska near Ćuprija (Supska II)

Abstract

The Supska II hoard of Roman coins contains 933 denarii and two antoninians. It was discovered in the village graveyard in the village of Supska in the immediate neighbourhood of ancient Horreum Margi (present-day Ćuprija), an important point on the Viminacium – Naissus via publica. Despite incomplete archaeological evidence on the site, we can assume that in the immediate vicinity of Supska there was an agricultural estate and that this find constituted the savings of the owner of a villa. The earliest specimens in the find are the denarii of Marcus Antonius/Galba, and the last is a denarius of Maximinus I, dated to between January/autumn (?) of 236, and the beginning or first three months of 238. There may be several, different reasons for burial, given the broad approximation of the date to during the short-lived rule of Maximinus I – internal fiscal policy and the violence of the local administrations when collecting taxes, the campaigns against the Sarmati and Dacians, about which historiography has little to tell, or the preparations for the campaign Maximinus was going to launch against Rome at the beginning of AD 238. The probability that the hoard was not collected in its entirety at the site where it was found, leaves open the question as to the cause of its burial.