| dc.description.abstract | While Imperial Roman coinage is a highly studied topic by historians and archaeologists alike, there is still a major gap in this area with regard to the women who appear on it. Many studies have been done on individuals such as Livia, Agrippina the Younger, both Faustinae, and Julia Domna, but none have been completed in a comparative sense. This paper looks at the imperial coinage of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, who set the standards for the Principate period of ancient Rome, in order to determine the similarities and differences between each emperor’s chosen depictions of their female family members. Individual elements shown on these coins were analyzed for symbolic meanings that may shed light onto the specific purposes of each complete image. Following this analysis, Categories A-M were created to discuss elements that were often shown together and to examine how their combination affected the overarching message being relayed. In doing this, four points of emphasis were identified: influence, dynasty, Ceres, and the imperial cult. Influence was the most common point of emphasis, as it merely functioned to depict a Julio-Claudian woman as important in her own right. Claudius was the most innovative emperor, creating the Ceres point of emphasis in which the common matronly role found on coinage was given a divine aspect, associating the women with the matron goddess of the harvest, Ceres. The dynastic point was solely associated with sisters and daughters, while the imperial cult point of emphasis used the priestess within the family to bolster worship of the imperial regime. Overall, mothers were the most critical relationship for each emperor (except Augustus), following typical Roman familial custom. Wives were only eligible for minting if they were married to the Emperor during his reign and produced heirs to the throne, with the exception of Poppaea Sabina, who was minted without giving birth to a male. Five of the eleven women who were minted make up the majority of the depictions. The most notable of these women is Agrippina the Younger, who was illustrated on nineteen of the forty-seven coins in this assemblage. This is most likely due to her numerous roles within the imperial family (sister, wife, and mother) as well as her ambitious personality and Augustan lineage. | en |
