WHO IS THE AUDIENCE, EMPEROR? TARGETING AUDIENCES ON LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE COINS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/j.v10i2.873Keywords:
audience, imperial communication, consul, soldiers, imperial representationAbstract
This article suggests that audience targeting occurred on late Roman and early Byzantine coins by differentiating imperial attributes on the obverse rather than images on the reverse. Although late Roman and early Byzantine coin types are substantially more standardized than previous Roman imperial issues there are still subtle differences to be found between the various metals and even denominations. By focusing on imperial attributes this article indicates the way in which targeted messages were sent by changing the representation and subsequent role of the emperor on the obverse. By analyzing the appearance of the so-called military and consular types, this article will provide two case studies of imperial representations that were struck on rare gold, and occasional silver, issues intended for a specific audience well into the Byzantine era. Additionally, these imperial representations were under specific circumstances also broadened to a larger audience using bronze coins.Downloads
References
ALFÖLDI 1935
Alföldi, A., Insignien und Tracht der römischen Kaiser, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Institut, Römische Abteilung 50:1, 1–171.
ALFÖLDI 1959
Alföldi, A., Hasta-Summa Imperii: The Spear as Embodiment of Sovereignty in Rome’, American Journal of Archaeology 63:1, 1–27.
BAGNALL et alli 1987
Bagnall, R./Cameron, A./Schwartz, S./Worp, K., Consuls of the Later Roman Empire (Atlanta: American Philological Association).
BASTIEN 1992
Bastien, P., Le buste monétaire des empereurs romains. Volume I (Wetteren: Editions Numismatique Romaine).
BETJES 2022
Betjes, S., The Mind of the Mint: Continuity and Change in Roman Imperial Coin Design from Augustus to Zeno (31 BCE – 491 CE) (Enschede: Ipskamp Printing).
BRUUN 1966
Bruun, P., The Roman Imperial Coinage 7. Constantine and Licinius A.D. 313–337 (London: Spink).
CAMERON 1979
Cameron, A., Images of Authority: Elites and Icons in Late Sixth-Century Byzantium, Past & Present 84, 3–35.
CARAMESSINI-OECONOMIDES 1996
Caramessini-Oeconomides, M., An Unpublished Consular Solidus of Justinian I, Museum Notes ANS 12, 75–77.
CARLA-UHINK 2020
Carla-Uhink, F., Three Metals, but no Trimetalism. The Status of Silver Coinage in Late Antiquity and its Designations. In: Chameroy, J./Guihard, P.M. (eds.), Argentum Romanorum sive Barbarorum. Tradition und Entwicklung im Gebrauch des Silbergeldes im römischen Westen (4. –6.Jh.). Permanences et évolution des usages monétaires de l’argent du IVe au VIe siècle dans l’Occident romain (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums), 1–16.
CLAES 2015
Claes, L., Coins with power? Imperial and local messages on the coinage of the usurpers of the second half of the third century (AD 253–285), Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde 102, 15–50.
CLAES 2023
Claes, L., Legitimacy and loyalty between the Severan emperors and their soldiers in the provinciae Germaniae (AD 193–235): an epigraphic and numismatic case study. In: Iossif, P./Markou, E. (eds.), Strapped for cash: needy soldiers, reluctant authorities (Athens: National Hellenic Research Foundation), 56–79.
DAGRON 2007
Dagron, G., From the mappa to the Akakia: Symbolic drift. In: Amirav, H./Romeny, B. (eds.), From Rome to Constantinople: studies in honour of Averil Cameron (Leuven – Paris: Peeters), 203–220.
GAG 1933
Gag, J., La theologie de la victoire imperiale, Revue Historique CLXXI, 1–44.
GANDILA 2009
Gandila, A., Early Byzantine Coin Circulation in the Eastern Provinces: A Comparative Statistical Approach, American Journal of Numismatics 21, 151–225.
GRIERSON 1950
Grierson, P., The Consular Coinage of Heraclius and the Revolt against Phocas of 608–610, The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society 10:37/38, 71–93
GRIERSON 1955
Grierson, P., The Kyrenia Girdle of Byzantine Medallions and Solidi, Numismatic Chronicle XV, 55–70.
GRIERSON 1968
Grierson, P., Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collections Volume II-2 (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection).
GRIERSON 1999
Grierson, P., Byzantine Coinage (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection).
GRIERSON/MAYS 1992
Grierson, P./Mays, M., Catalogue of Late Roman Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection).
GUEST 2005
Guest, P., The Late Roman Gold and Silver Coins from the Hoxne Treasure (London: British Museum Press).
GUEST 2008
Guest, P., Roman Gold and Hun Kings: the use and hoarding of solidi in the late fourth and fifth centuries. In: Bursche, A./Ciolek, R./Wolters, R. (eds.), Roman Coins Outside the Empire Ways and Phases, Contexts and Functions (Wetteren: Moneta 2008), 295–308.
HEDLUND 2008
Hedlund, R., ‘… Achieved Nothing Worthy of Memory’: Coinage and Authority in the Roman Empire c. AD 260–295 (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis).
HEKSTER 2020
Hekster, O., When Was an Imperial Image? Some Reflections on Roman Art and Imagery. In: Russel, A/Hellström, M. (eds.), The Social Dynamics of Roman Imperial Imagery (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press), 275–288.
HEKSTER 2022
Hekster, O., Caesar Rules: The Emperor in the Changing Roman World (c. 50 BC – AD 565) (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press).
HENDY 1985
Hendy, M., Studies in the Byzantine monetary economy c.300–1450 (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press).
HERRIN 2007
Herrin, J., Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
KAZHDAN 1983
Kazhdan, A., Certain Trends of Imperial Propaganda in the Byzantine Empire from the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century. In: Makdisi, G. (ed.), Prédication et propagande au Moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident (Paris: Presses universitaires de France), 13–28.
KAZHDAN 1991
Kazhdan, A., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium Volume II (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
KAZHDAN/MCCORMICK 1997
Kazhdan, A./McCormick, M., The Social World of the Byzantine Court. In: Maguire, H. (ed.), Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), 167–198.
KEMMERS 2005
Kemmers, F., Not at Random. Evidence for a Regionalised Coin Supply? In: Bruhn, J./Croxford, B/Grigoropoulos, D. (eds.), TRAC 2004: Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, Durham 2004. (Oxford: Oxbow Books), 39–49.
KEMMERS 2019
Kemmers, F., The Functions and Use of Roman Coinage: An Overview of 21st Century Scholarship (Leiden: Brill).
KENT 1959
Kent, J., The Antiochene Coinage of Tiberius Constantine and Maurice 678–602, The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic society 19, 99–103.
KING 1999
King, C., Roman portraiture images of power? In: Paul, G./Lerardi, M. (eds.), Roman coins and public life under the empire (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), 123–136.
KRUSE 2020
Kruse, M., The Politics of Roman Memory. From the Fall of the Western Empire to the Age of Justinian (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).
MOORHEAD 2012
Moorhead, S., The Coinage of the Later Roman Empire, 364–498. In: Metcalf., W. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage (Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press), 601–631.
NEGIN 2015
Negin, A., Roman helmets with a browband shaped as a vertical fronton, Historia I Swiat 4, 31–46.
NELSON 2011/2012
Nelson, R., “And So, With the Help of God’’: The Byzantine Art of War in the Tenth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 65/66, 169–192.
OLOVSDOTTER 2011
Olovsdotter, C., Representing Consulship: On the concept and meaning of the consular diptychs, Opuscula 4, 99–123.
OLSTER 1993
Olster, D., The Politics of Usurpation in the Seventh Century: Rhetoric and Revolution in Byzantium (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert)
PARNELL 2020
Parnell, A., The Emperor and His People at the Chariot Races in Byzantium, The International Journal of the History of Sport 37(3–4), 233–245. DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2020.1762576.
RIEDEL 2018
Riedel, M., Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity: Writings of an Unexpected Emperor (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press).
SAXBY 2017
Saxby, M., Remilitarising the Byzantine Imperial Image: A Study of Numismatic Evidence and Other Visual Media 1042–1453. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
TREADGOLD 1995
Treadgold, W., Byzantium and its Army (Redwood City: Stanford University Press).
TREADGOLD 1997
Treadgold, W., A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Redwood City: Stanford University Press).
TROMBLEY/TOUGHER 2019
Trombley, F./Tougher, S., The Emperor at war. In: Tougher, S. (ed.), The Emperor in the Byzantine World (London – New York: Routledge), 179–195.
VRIJ 2016
Vrij, M., The Numismatic Iconography of the period of Iconomachy (610–867). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
WALKER 2012
Walker, A., The Emperor and the World: Exotic Elements and the Imaging of Middle Byzantine Imperial Power, Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries C.E. (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press).
WEI/KELLY 2022
Wei, R./Kelly, B., The Roman Aristocracy at Court. In: Kelly, B./Hug, A. (eds.), The Roman Emperor and His Court c. 30 BC – c. AD 300 Volume I (Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press), 85–114.
Downloads
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, we use CC BY-NC-ND license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) wich only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
