Propaganda and the Imperial Coinage

Abstract

During the first half of this century the view came to be widely held by numismatists, and by many Roman historians too, that the types chosen for the Roman imperial coinage were to be interpreted as a means of influencing public opinion, of reconciling his subjects to the rule of the Princeps, and of explaining imperial policy to them; in short, as propaganda. Thus for C.H.V. Sutherland coins are, in essence, ‘organs of information’, while in the words of M. Grant, ‘Roman coinage . . . served a propagandist purpose far greater than has any other national coinage before or since . . . This was the means which the Roman government . . . used to insinuate into every home in the empire each changing nuance of imperial achievement and policy’.

moedas das mulheres imperiais

“…Em relação a escolha do tema de uma moeda, ou quem decidia a cunhagem de tal moeda, Levick (1982) e Wallace-Hadrill (1986) concordam que as moedas deveriam ser escolhidas por oficiais do governo (tresviri monetales, 8 três magistrados de cunhagem), 8 Roma começou a produzir suas próprias moedas seguindo os modelos grego, no final do século IV a.C. O lugar de cunhagem de Roma era administrado por triumviri monetales, ou seja, três magistrados de cunhagens, que eram responsáveis pelo modelo, desenho e emissão das moedas. Eles eram escolhidos pelos cônsules, que, geralmente, acatavam parentes ou clientes.…”

Untitled

“…Concretamente, en un artículo en relación con las monedas de época imperial, B. Levick (1982) demostró que hablar de propaganda en época romana resulta anacrónico. De igual forma, P. Veyne sostiene que la palabra propaganda suena históricamente falsa, pues en lugar de comprender mejor los hechos antiguos acercándolos al presente, ignora la mentalidad de antaño, llegando este mismo autor a la conclusión de que es de aparato, de fasto monárquico de lo que hay que hablar (Veyne, 2009: 336).…”

Food, poverty and patronage: the significance of the epigraphy of the Roman alimentary schemes in early imperial Italy

“…96 Courtiers close to Nerva or Trajan, Pius or Marcus, had some notion of each princeps' personal position in these debates, and perceptions of how the emperor liked to see himself 97 must have informed those individuals responsible for drafting imperial letters and inscriptions, and those responsible for coin types and imperial iconography. It is less a matter of propaganda than of a broad consensus of court opinion about the nature and role of the emperor.…”