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In the documentary 'Money Masters' the host talks about how two Roman emperors tried to mint their own coins in order to control the economy due to the rising inflation before Julius Caesar, who apparently tried to do likewise and may have been a reason why he was assassinated. I was not aware of emperors prior to Octavian unless maybe he is referring to Kings which they had before the Republic?I suppose this leads me to another question was the position of Imperator & Dictator in existence during the Republic times, and what was that person's role? I can only think of Sulla who I think he made himself dictator maybe he was one of these 2 fellows?
You are correct that Octavian/Augustus was the first Emperor. I think Pompey minted his own coins during his war with Caesar after the break-up of the first Triumvirate.Dictator was a Republican office. It was someone elected by the Senate for six-months during a grave crisis who had complete power to see Rome through the crisis. Imperator was also an office under the Republic but I am not certain of what its exact scope was. It is probably related to Imperium which is a Latin word for the level of authority the Kings of Rome had.Skiguy is kind of a numismatist so he can probably talk coinage better than I can.
Don't know much about coinage in or economy of the Republic (other than that they are expensive), but every emperor minted his own coins and they were worthless under other emperors.
I think the person in the documentary must have misspoke. As was suggested by others, the person may have been referring to one of the Roman kings or generals in charge during the Republic.I was watching Glenn Beck on TV within the last few weeks and heard him say something about Caesar Augustus making some bold power grab at the end of the Empire. I can't remember exactly what the power grab was, but I realized that he was referring to Julius Caesar at the end of the Republic.
