The Gender of Money: Byzantine Empresses on Coins (324–802)

Abstract

Coins played different roles in the ancient and medieval worlds from those that they play in the economy today. In the late antique and early Byzantine world -that is, roughly between 300 and 800 -there were in a sense two currencies: gold coins and base metal (copper) coins. Both were minted and distributed by the state, but the gold solidi (in Latin) or nomismata (in Greek), introduced in 309, were by the end of the fifth century in practice used above all for the payment of tax and for major transactions such as land sales, while the copper coins (nummi, replaced in 498 by folles) were broadly the currency of market transactions. 1 Another striking difference is that late antique and Byzantine coin types changed with great frequency: as an extreme example, Maria Alföldi catalogued over seven hundred different types for a single emperor, Constantine I the Great (306-37, sole ruler from 324). 2 There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important has to do with communication: centuries before the advent of the press, images on coins were a means to circulate information about the state. This is particularly true of the first three and a half centuries covered by this article. While the extent to which coins were used in daily exchange transactions is still uncertain, and was very variable, the frequency with which they appear in archaeological excavations of urban sites throughout the former eastern Roman empire until 658 indicates their wide diffusion. After this, gold coinage continues in Gender & History

Filiae Augustorum: The Ties That Bind in the Antonine Age

“…It is clear that, in the middle of the second century, these two women helped legitimate the succession of emperors. 90 The fact that their coinage names both as daughters of their father-emperors instead of as wives of their husband-emperors, as previously done, demonstrates that their roles were important in linking three generations of the imperial family. The coinage of Faustina and Lucilla stands apart from that of the preceding empresses due to a new usage: the identifi cation of a woman either as the daughter of the emperor or simply by her name and the title Augusta, instead of the designation as wife of the emperor, which had been the practice for more than a century.…”

Anverso e reverso: a imagem monetária de Élia Eudóxia, imperatriz do Oriente (395-404)

“…No Império Romano do Oriente, diversas figurações femininas aparecem em moedas como símbolos de concórdia e homenagem, o que nos possibilita elucidar aspectos específicos da cunhagem, como podemos destacar na dinastia teodosiana, da qual Eudóxia fazia parte (HOLUM, 1982;BRUBAKER;TOBLER, 2000).…”

Medieval queenship

“…Today, queenship is a prominent thematic strand at conferences and queenship scholars advise doctoral students. Library shelves are lined with studies on individual queens as partners of the king, mothers, political actors, intercessors, and patrons in Iberia (Bianchini, 2012; Earenfight, ; Echevarria, ; Martin, ; North, ; Rodrigues, ; Santos Silva, ; Silleras‐Fernández, ; Woodacre, ), Germany (Fößel, ; Jasperse, ; Nash, ; Nelson, ; Scheck, ), France (Adams, ; Grant, ; Rohr, ), Italy (Casteen, ; Clear, ), England (Hicks, ; Laynesmith, ; Mudan‐Finn, ; Okerlund, ; Slater, ; Turner, ; Klein ), Scotland (Comba, ; Downey, ), Ireland (Edel, ; Preston‐Matto, ), Scandinavia (Etting, ; Larrington, ; Layher, ), the Byzantine Empire (Brubaker & Tobler, ; Herrin, ; James, ; Karagianni, ; Kotsis, , b; Kotsis, ; Martin, ), and central and eastern Europe (Adamska, ; Mikó ; Zajac, ).…”