Numismatics is the study of currency, and when researching the archaeology of the classical world coin artefacts can reveal many fascinating facts about the politcal and cultural history of a civilization. Moreover, coins can also reveal secrets about the lives of individuals. For this blog I aim to share with you my research and interest on a very amazing Roman woman named Agrippina the Younger. I also want to display how a few coin artefacts can provide evidence that women in the ancient world held political and cultural influence in their society.
Agrippina the Younger, the great-granddaughter of the first emperor of Rome, Augustus, was a woman of substantial ambition and political astuteness: She was the sister of the Emperor Caligula, the wife and niece of the Emperor Claudius, and the mother of the Emperor Nero. Respectively, Agrippina took full advantage of her familial ties to gain legal power and influence that no other woman had possessed before. To emphasize Agrippina’s unique individual power, Larry Kreizer, in his studies of Roman numismatics has analysed two “cistophori issues from Ephesus” which bare the portraits of Agrippina and her husband Claudius.[i] Surprisingly, the coins bear Latin inscriptions which label Agrippina as Augusta. Krietzer indicated that this “constitutes the first time the title Augusta… was borne by a living wife of the reigning Emperor. Previously, only Livia… enjoyed the title… only after the death of her husband.”[ii] What struck me, was that on the reversal of the coin was the image of the Roman goddess Diana, the goddess of the hunt and of virtue. If Krietzer is correct in arguing that “coinage represented a most effective means of Imperial propaganda,” and that coinage, “emphasized official policies and ideas,” then this coin would certainly suggest the endorsement of feminine virtue and modesty were still being used, in Agrippina’s time, as a means to gain favour with the masses.[iii]
Discussion:
What this means is Agrippina, a royal woman, was being affiliated with a goddess of virtue and was gaining the favor of the people of Rome. In this way, a woman participated in the usage of propoganda and was able to benefit the political advancement and affluence of her own family. Agrippina, like many of the Julio-Claudian women, set an example for other Roman women, who looked to women of privledge to understand what constituted the proper behavior of a woman. By selecting particular images to place on coins, such as images of virtue and modesty associated with images of Agrippina, Agrippina gained the approval of her people, and publically supported a particular political regime. In this way, the material remains such as coins have been able to provide classical historians and archaeologists a more detailed profile and narrative of a noble woman living in Ancient Rome.
On a final note, for anyone interested in learning more about the importance of Numismatics in aiding archaeological investigation please take a look at the Victoria Numismatic Club's website: Victoria Coin Club Website .
Works Cited:
[i]
Kreitzer, Larry Joseph. Striking New Images: Roman imperial coinage and the New Testament world. (Continuum International Publishing Group, 1996), 102-103.
[ii] Kreitzer,Striking New Images, 105.
[iii] Kreitzer,Striking New Images, 105-108.
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