Affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Jane Sancinito is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is a specialist in the social and economic history of the ancient Mediterranean world and author of the book, The Reputation of the Roman Merchant (University of Michigan Press, 2024). Her current research focuses on ancient stereotypes and the concept of greed in antiquity. She is also a numismatist, specializing in the coinage of Roman and Byzantine Syria, the iconography of money, and numismatic education.
In the middle of the third century CE, emperors and usurpers vied for power and legitimacy amid civil and foreign wars. The province of Syria was a major battle ground as Persia encroached from the East and rogue generals and noblemen attempted to seize the throne from within. In the background of this chaos, the money of the eastern Mediterranean experienced a shocking change. The local coins, the tetradrachms, that had existed for centuries suddenly stopped being produced. This talk looks at the how and the why: how a coin denomination dies, how money can be a symbol of power, and why “rightful” rulers might adjust imperial policy because of a revolution that could undermine everything.
Zeus was god of Lightning Athena, goddess of Wisdom, and, at least on paper, Plutus was the god of wealth. Yet Plutus is an enigmatic figure. He is not commonly prayed to or mentioned in ancient literature, and he is almost invisible in our material record, only turning up occasionally as a son of Demeter. Even in the place where we might reasonably expect to find him, on coins, he is a rare figure. This talk considers the few (and often disputed) appearances of Plutus on ancient money and argues that while the personifications of abundance, generosity, and even money were reasonably common, Plutus was considered a step too far, too close to greed, to make regular appearances on ancient coins.
Ancient temples appear regularly on Roman coins, celebrating the piety of the Roman populace and the generosity of republican and imperial builders. They offer invaluable evidence for structures that have been lost to time, but they tell us relatively little about ancient religion that we would not know from texts and surviving structures. A handful of coins, however, show a different, now-lost kind of worship-space: mobile temples and shrines that could be carried or lifted in processions or on pilgrimages. Ancient polytheistic religion was flexible and worshippers had access to multiple ways of honoring their gods. Still, it was usually expected that humans would travel to the gods, not the other way around. These coins suggest that that was not always the case, and that sometimes the gods would hit the road and see a bit of the world. This paper looks at these portable shrines and attempts to reconstruct both the practicalities of their physical forms and the purposes they might have served for religious Romans.
Coins provide some of the smallest art from the ancient world. By necessity, their designs are often abbreviated, simplified, and iconic to catch the eye and convey a lot with very little. As a result, the iconography of coins from the Greek and Roman world has been appealing to later, modern audiences. The imagery of and from ancient coins has been reused and recycled in other media, including painting, fashion, dance, and architecture. This talk looks at these later images to discuss what aspects of ancient coins continue to engage and inspire modern artists and audiences.
