Affiliation: Mount Allison University
Fae Amiro is an Assisstant Professor at Mount Allison University. She has previously worked as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Western Ontario, a postdoctoral fellow and visiting assistant professor at the University of Toronto, and the Crake Doctoral Fellow at Mount Allison. She received her PhD from McMaster University in 2021. Her research focuses on portraits of imperial women in Rome and the provinces, considering their role in both imperial messaging and the Roman portrait dissemination system. She also works as a numismatist for the coins excavated from the Roman fort at Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall.
The Roman fort at Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall is best known for its well-preserved organic materials from anaerobic deposits, including most famously leather objects and writing tablets. Inhabited from ca. 85 to the late fourth century CE, the fort and surrounding community are among the best excavated auxiliary sites in Roman Britain. One major body of evidence that has received less public attention are the approximately 4500 coins found in the excavations of the site since the 1930s. These coins provide insights into the economic and social activities of those living at the fort, as well as providing utility for dating the archaeological contexts.
This past year, I created a standardized database of the coins found at the site, which facilitates study of the entire corpus. The coins have recorded findspots from all excavations from 1930 until present, a rarity for a corpus of this size, and have been individually published in annual and periodic site reports. It is now possible to look back on these to understand the numismatic history of the site as a whole and its broader implications for our understanding of Vindolanda and the Roman frontier in Britain.
The two largest groups of coins from the site are bronzes from late third century Gallic Empire and the House of Constantine. Both groups also include significant quantities of local forgeries used to supplement the coin supply and fill the need for lower denominations for day-to-day purchases. The remaining coins date from the mid-Republic to the Theodosian Dynasty. There is a noteworthy dip in finds from the tetrarchy, suggesting a change in occupation patterns during this time. Collection highlights include the only gold coin found at the site to date, an extremely worn Nero aureus found in a fourth century context, and seventeen coin hoards, varying from small purses to two assemblages of over one hundred radiate copies. Vindolanda’s anaerobic layers have also preserved some of the only Roman copper alloy coins that still have their original surface appearance. These are so rare that even replica Roman coins of copper and orichalcum are produced with a dark patina instead of their original orange and golden hues.
The coins from the site are revealing about settlement patterns and economic activities of the inhabitants of Vindolanda. This includes the identification of a late third/fourth century market within the fort in part due to the high concentration of low value coins in the area around the granaries. While not as well-known as other material from the site, the Vindolanda coins provide a valuable dataset that both complements the site’s other materials and stands on its own.
The coins produced by the hundreds of mints throughout the eastern half of the Roman Empire rarely play a major role in Roman portrait studies. While their small format, varied quality, and lack of cohesion provide methodological challenges, these coins have significant untapped potential. As the largest corpus of imperial portraits produced in the provinces, by provincial people, and for provincial audiences, they are the best extant source for understanding the dissemination and reception of imperial images.
Portraits of imperial women are particularly useful for two reasons. First, it is often challenging to identify what specific portrait type, if any, a provincial coin portrait of an emperor was based on due to the subtle differences between most male hairstyles. This, however, is rarely a problem for women, for whom changes in portrait type often consist of completely different configurations of elaborate coiffeurs. Second, while the emperor became the standard portrait on coins from most provincial cities, women were never the default. Therefore, each provincial coin portrait of a woman represents a deliberate choice on the part of the mint.
From my study of women’s provincial coin portraits from Claudius to Hadrian, there are several major conclusions that add nuance and at times bring into question standard assumptions about portrait type dissemination. All portrait types were not sent to the provinces for copying, as is often assumed. Instead, each woman had one dominant portrait type on provincial coins, regardless of how many were produced at Rome. It is also clear from this that coins in circulation were not the primary portrait models used by provincial mints. Uncanonical portraits, meaning portraits that were not based on any central model, are most common prior to the introduction of the women to the imperial coinage and nearly always use the portrait of the previous empress as the model. Newly invented provincial portrait types are extremely rare, showing either a desire to adhere to imperial models or at least a lack of interest in imperial portraiture on the part of provincial mint workers. Looking at the quantity of coins produced and their adherence to centrally produced portrait models, it is clear that the promotion of imperial women in the provinces, or their reception by provincial coin designers, varied significantly reign to reign and woman to woman.
The provincial coin portraits of Roman imperial women are a crucial resource for understanding the communication between Rome and the provinces. The nuances of their appearance across time are revealing of the workings of the provincial coinage system and the individuals involved in making decisions within it.
Despite only accounting for approximately one hundred words in extant Roman historical writing, Sabina, wife of Hadrian, has a much larger and more varied presence in portraiture than any previous imperial woman. She was represented with five different portrait types in plentiful annual coin issues at Rome from 128-138 and a greater quantity of provincial coin types than any previous empress. While portrait scholarship often focuses primarily on sculpture, the coins reveal many important nuances of the portrait dissemination and reception system across the empire.
The vastly different ratios of her five portrait types (hairstyles) between the two groups of coins reveal the differing influences and practicalities at play for each. Imperial coins, struck at Rome, were directly approved by the imperial administration, making them an important source for her officially sanctioned imagery. Since these coins were produced annually, the quantity of each portrait type roughly corresponds to the length of time it was in use before the introduction of the next type. The type that was current the longest, the third portrait type, is the most common. Two of the five types were introduced at Rome while Sabina was abroad, raising questions about the practicalities of the invention of new portrait types.
Provincial coins were produced by local mints throughout the eastern half of the Empire, receiving little if any imperial oversight. Their products reflect what information was gained from Rome and how it was received by provincial officials. Three quarters of these coins use the first imperial coin portrait type, bringing into doubt the assumption that new portrait types were always sent from Rome to the provinces. How closely these portraits mirror imperial coin models and the ways in which they diverge provide valuable insights into the provincial reception of imperial imagery.
Built on the foundation of a new chronology established from die studies of the imperial coinage, the nuances of Sabina’s different modes of representation and her appearance in each medium challenge previous assumptions about the workings of the imperial portrait system.
