Travel souvenir coins
As a travel memory coins ancient coins are referred to in connection with the travels of Hadrian stand. They were minted in all metals. In the years 122-138, Hadrian visited the seats of procurators and governors in order to control the provincial officials.
Surname
The designation “travel memorial coins” was introduced by Theodor Mommsen and Paul Leberecht Strack , but should be viewed critically because the connection with Hadrian's travel activities cannot explain the entire pictorial program of the series and the name therefore falls short. A second component besides the travels is Hadrian's idea of the empire as a whole.
background
Roman mint masters have shown victories over other peoples on imperial coins since republican times. This was initially done using symbols, since the 1st century BC. BC also through personifications and continued under Augustus. The coins from the years 19 and 18 BC are interesting here. On which the defeated Armenians and Parthians were depicted as enemies in war armor and often tied up or kneeling down, provided with legends such as ARMEN (ia) CAPT (a).
A change in the representation took place in the year of the Four Emperors: For the first time, unanimous provinces were shown as supporters of Emperor Galba .
Especially among the Flavians, the depiction of conquered peoples on coins was a means of imperial self-presentation. Vespasian and Titus strongly emphasized the victory in the Jewish war in propaganda terms, especially when one considers that this was not a conquest, but the pacification of an insurgent province.
Trajan presented himself as a militarily successful emperor, and two opposing trends can be identified in coinage. Germania was portrayed as a pacified, not so much a subjugated province. After the end of the Dacian Wars , the Dacia was personified as a seated female figure with children, which indicated its positive future as a Roman province. On the other hand, there were also representations of submission in the tradition of coinage among the Flavians.
Hadrian's coinage went one step further: the subjugated, humiliated enemies had become Roman provinces that adopt a free and sovereign stance. Submission was consequently dispensed with.
Image program
On the basis of the legends on the back, four types of coins can be distinguished among the travel commemorative coins.
Geographical personifications - not always provinces - from all parts of the empire are shown. The Hadrianic coinage made use of well-known motifs. The personifications are mostly female figures with known attributes.
The new thing about Hadrian's travel souvenir coins is that almost all provinces of the empire were depicted once or several times, regardless of whether or not military successes were reported. No Roman emperor presented so many territories on coins as Hadrian. Apparently, however, the aim was not to please the inhabitants of the province concerned: the coins were intended for local currency, but were not found in the regions to which they refer.
Type α ( natio type)
A geographical personification can be seen on the back; in the inscription your name is in the nominative .
In addition to the personified provinces, the city of Alexandria and the river god Nilus are depicted on coins of the type α .
A special feature of the coin type α is that the personifications are not always identified with a province name; some are historical regions. Mommsen and Strack had suspected that the peoples of the empire ( nationes, gentes ) who see themselves as a unit and were administratively divided into several provinces were shown here. Under this assumption, the empire would be largely covered geographically. Since there is archaeological evidence of a comparable pictorial program with the Sebasteion of Aphrodisias , recent research has also been able to follow this thesis; Recently, however, Marco Vitale has asserted counter-arguments: The representational context of the personifications of peoples in the Sebasteion is clearly military-triumphant and therefore no parallel to the pictorial program of travel commemorative coins. According to Vitale, the inscriptions on the travel commemorative coins were chosen according to administrative geographic considerations. Hadrian's journeys were by nature sightseeing and inspection journeys.
Type β ( adventus type)
The inscription on the back addresses Hadrian's arrival in the province as part of his inspection trips: ADVENTVI AVG (usti) "for the arrival of Augustus."
The motif shows the greeting emperor in one half of the picture, in the other the personified province that offers him sacrifices, the altar forms the center of the picture. Not all provinces that Hadrian can be shown to have visited were embossed with type β.
Type γ ( restitutor type)
The inscription on the back praises the imperial care for the area concerned: RESTITVTORI "for the restorer."
Provinces and the city of Nicomedia are shown . Hadrian could rightly call himself the restorer of Nicomedia, because he had the city rebuilt after an earthquake and wintered there in 123-124 AD.
The motif shows how the standing emperor takes the kneeling woman by the hand and raises it. The γ-type coins only show those provinces in which Hadrian was actually involved through financial support and building projects.
Already Trajan had to coins as restitutor Italiae be represented, benefactor of Italy. That was something new in his time, because up until then the emperors had seen themselves primarily as benefactors of the city of Rome. Hadrian's coinage went one step further and extended the imperial care to the provinces.
Type δ ( exercitus type)
The inscription on the back names the name of the region as an adjective together with EXERCITVS "Army Association".
The motif shows how the emperor addresses the army of the province concerned with a speech ( adlocutio ). He can do so from a tribunal in military uniform and be accompanied by a lictor or praefectus or not. Or Hadrian is depicted as a rider and turns to the troops from the striding horse.
Coins with the motif of the Adlocutio , on which Hadrian turned not to one of the provincial armies but to the Praetorians (inscription: [ADLOC] COHORT PRAETOR), can be viewed as a variant of type δ . However, the regional allocation is given up here, and therefore these coins can only be addressed as travel commemorative coins to a limited extent.
Interpretations of the coin series
The viewing habit of the population at the time was to expect a proof of performance from the emperor when one picked up an imperial coinage.
Hadrian had to be measured against his predecessor Trajan.
Regardless of what purposes or personal interests Hadrian pursued with his extensive travel activities, he was in fact absent from Rome to an extent that was unusual. He could not interact socially with the people of Rome, on whose support he was dependent, in the way other emperors did: neither appear at public games in an audience-effective manner nor come into contact with the Roman elite as the host or guest of honor at a feast.
Trajan had also not been present in Rome for long periods of time, which in his case had been militarily justified, and he compensated for his absence by having his military successes in Rome glorified with monumental buildings, but also with coinage. On the Trajan Column , the Danube provinces are represented as prosperous parts of the empire and the provincials as satisfied subjects, which makes the general Trajan appear in a new light.
Hadrian could not compete with Trajan in the military field and tried, according to Gunnar Seelentag , to outdo his predecessor as benefactor, "to be a particularly caring princeps ... not only for Rome and Italy, but for the entire world." In this context are the travel souvenir coins. This is made explicit in the inscription for coins of the restitutor type. But it is also the basic message of the adventus-type coins. The depicted act of sacrifice, a consensus ritual, created a special closeness between the emperor and the provincials
From this pictorial program of the benefactor for the whole world, the Italy is set back; Although Hadrian tried to secure his popularity here in other ways, that was a weak point of the whole concept. Italia is represented by coins of the types α, β and γ, which has thus lost its traditional special status and, although administratively not a province, appears to be classified in the series of provinces. It has a cornucopia as an attribute; the globe depicted on Trajan's coins as an attribute of Italy is not used as an attribute under Hadrian, but again under Antoninus Pius.
A minority opinion is represented by Thomas Witulski, who classifies the travel commemorative coins in the context of the imperial cult. In daily use, the coin kept the religious experience of the imperial presence (guarantor of protection, security, welfare) associated with his arrival ( adventus ) in the province, since the emperor only occasionally spoke to the Subjects could interact in this way. The objection is that the coins were minted in the city of Rome and were not specifically brought into circulation in the region that is personified on the coin. The provincials, who, according to Witulski, were the addressees of the embassy, might not have seen these coins, in fact, they would not have been able to use these imperial coins in the Greek cities of the east, but had to exchange them for local coins.
Dating
The travel commemorative coins are minted series from the city of Rome. It is not certain whether the coins were created successively or whether they were minted more or less simultaneously according to a uniform program, as Paul Leberecht Strack assumed. He suspected that the Vicennalia of Hadrian (137 AD) were the reason for the minting of the travel commemorative coins.
The Pannonia and Iudaea coins play an important role in Strack's dating and are therefore presented in more detail.
Pannonia
The region is represented by a coin of the type α and belongs only to a limited extent to the series of travel commemorative coins. Because on the obverse, not Hadrian is shown, but Lucius Aelius Caesar (inscription: L AELIVS CAESAR), whom Hadrian adopted as his successor and to whom he had entrusted the administration of the two pannonia. The reverse shows the personification of Pannonia, a female figure with a wall crown who holds a vexillum in her right hand. This attribute underlines the special military importance of Pannonia for the empire, because four legions were stationed here. The inscription reads: TR POT COS II PANNONIA S C. The coin was thus minted during the second consulate of Aelius (137 AD).
Strack assumes that the series encompassed all regions that Hadrian visited on his travels, but that Pannonia was left out in order to put the designated successor L. Aelius Caesar in the picture: since this coinage certainly dates back to 137 AD . can be dated, the entire series of coins for Strack must also be dated to this year.
Iudaea
According to Cassius Dio , Hadrian founded the Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem during his visit in 130 AD, thereby provoking the Bar Kochba uprising ; If, on the other hand, one follows Eusebius of Caesarea , the establishment of the Aelia Capitolina as a pagan city was a punitive measure after the suppression of the uprising (135 AD). New archaeological finds such as the fragment of an arch of honor that the Legion stationed in Jerusalem erected on the occasion of the imperial visit and excavations on the edge of the Western Wall Plaza (Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah and Alexander Onn, 2005 to 2009) decided this question in favor of Cassius Dio. Numismatics could provide additional confirmation. There are undated Hadrianic coins commemorating the founding of the city by Aelia Capitolina and issues of the Bar Kochba administration. The rebels minted Roman coins in circulation; If a struck Aelia Capitolina coin were found, the evidence for the founding of Hadrian in the year 130 AD would have been established, but such a find has not yet been made. It is also unlikely because most of the coins minted do not date from Hadrian's reign but are older.
The travel souvenir coins show how Hadrian wanted to see the province of Judea:
Type α / β: The coin follows type α in the inscription, but shows an arrival scene as it corresponds to type β. Hadrian, dressed in a toga, stands on the right with his right arm raised in greeting. Opposite is the Iudaea, a woman dressed in a long dress. Two children can be seen between the two with palm branches, presenting them to Hadrian. A third child seems to hide shyly behind the iudaea. In the middle of the field of view, as is to be expected with type β, an altar can be seen: The Iudaea is about to bring the emperor a libation with a patera and thus participates in the imperial cult ; Jewish attributes are missing.
Type γ: This rare sesterce is in the National Museum of Naples and is not listed in the RIC . Depicted is the emperor, dressed in a toga, raising the Iudaea kneeling in front of him with his right hand. The three children appear in the same way as with the aforementioned type.
Overview
The following overview contains the geographical names on the coins, the corresponding provincial names and the approximate date of the imperial visit.
| Coin type | geographical name (inscription) | Associated provinces | Date of Hadrian's visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| γ | Achaia | Achaia | 124/125, 129, 130/132 |
| α | Aegyptus | Aegyptus | 130 |
| α, β, γ | Africa | Africa proconsularis | 128 |
| α, β | Alexandria | 130 | |
| β, γ | Arabia | Arabia | 130 |
| α, β, γ | Asia | Asia | 124 |
| β, γ | Bithynia | Bithynia et Pontus | 123/124 |
| α, β, δ | Britannia | Britannia, Britannia inferior , Britannia superior | 122 |
| α, δ | Cappadocia | Cappadocia | 126/129 |
| β | Cilicia | Cilicia | 129 |
| α, δ | Dacia | Dacia , Dacia inferior , Dacia superior | 131 (?) |
| δ | Delematia (sic!) | Dalmatia | 131 (?) |
| β, γ | Gallia | Gallia Aquitania , Gallia Belgica , Gallia Lugdunensis , Gallia Narbonensis | 121/122 |
| α, δ | Germania | Germania inferior , Germania superior | 122 |
| α, β, γ, δ | Hispania | Baetica , Hispania citerior , Lusitania | 122/123 |
| α, β, γ | Italia | ||
| α, β, γ | Iudaea | Iudaea | 130 |
| γ | Libya | Creta and Cyrene | |
| β, γ | Macedonia | Macedonia | 131 (?) |
| α, β, δ | Mauretania | Mauretania Caesariensis , Mauretania Tingitana | 128 |
| β, δ | Moesia | Moesia inferior , Moesia superior | 131 (?) |
| γ | Nicomedia | 123/124 | |
| α | Nilus | 130 | |
| β, δ | Noricum | Noricum | 122 |
| α | Pannonia | Pannonia inferior , pannonia superior | (Special case, only partially part of the travel commemorative coins) |
| β, δ | Phrygia | Asia | 129 |
| δ | Raetia | Raetia | 122 |
| α, β, γ | Sicilia | Sicilia | 125 |
| δ | Syria | Syria Phoenice | 123; 129 |
| β, δ | Thracia | Thracia | 131 (?) |
Web links
- American Numismatic Society: Online Coins of the Roman Empire
literature
- Robert Carson: Coins of the Roman Empire. Routledge, London 1990.
- Helmut Halfmann : Itinera principum. History and typology of the imperial journeys in the Roman Empire (= Heidelberg ancient historical contributions and epigraphic studies. Volume 2). Steiner, Stuttgart 1986. ISBN 978-3-515-04551-3 .
- Larry J. Kreitzer: Striking New Images: Roman Imperial Coinage and the New Testament World. (= Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series. Volume 134). Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1996, ISBN 1-850-75623-6 .
- Harold Mattingly , Edward Allen Sydenham (Eds.): The Roman Imperial Coinage . Volume 2: Vespasian to Hadrian. Spink & Son, London 1926 (reprint 1972).
- William Metcalf (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-195-30574-6 .
- Christoph Michels : Reich and Reich thought on the coins of the Antonines. Reflections on Hadrian's and Pius' Provincial Series. In: Benedikt Eckhardt, Katharina Martin (ed.): A new coinage. Innovation potentials of coins in Greco-Roman antiquity (= Philippica. Classical studies. Volume 102). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-447-10705-1 , pp. 57-92 ( online ).
- Gunnar Soul Day : Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Interpretation patterns and perspectives. In: Aloys Winterling (Ed.): Between structural history and biography. Problems and perspectives of a new Roman imperial history from Augustus to Commodus. Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70454-9 , pp. 295-315.
- Paul Leberecht Strack : Investigations into the Roman Empire coinage of the 2nd century. Part II: The imperial coinage at the time of Emperor Hadrian. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1933.
- Edward Allen Sydenham: Historical References on Coins of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Gallienus . Spink & Son, London 1917 ( digitized version ).
- Jocelyn Toynbee : The Hadrianic School: A chapter in the History of Greek Art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1934.
- Marco Vitale : Personifications of provinciae on the coinage under Hadrian: On the iconographic traces of 'governor provinces' and 'sub-provinces' . In: Klio . Volume 94, 2012, pp. 156-174 ( PDF ).
- Christopher Weikert: From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina: The Roman Policy towards the Jews from Vespasian to Hadrian . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-647-20869-5 .
- Thomas Witulski: Imperial cult in Asia Minor: The development of cultic-religious emperor veneration in the Roman province of Asia from Augustus to Antoninus Pius. 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-53986-6 .
- Michael Zahrnt : Hadrian's “Provincial Coins”. In: Rudolf Haensch , Johannes Heinrichs (Hrsg.): Herrschen und Verwalten. The everyday life of the Roman administration in the high imperial era (= Cologne historical treatises. Volume 46). Böhlau, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-23806-3 , pp. 195-212.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paul Leberecht Strack: Investigations on the Roman Empire coinage of the 2nd century, Part II: The Empire coinage at the time of Emperor Hadrian , Stuttgart 1933, p. 139.
- ↑ Michael Zahrnt: Hadrian's “Provinzmünzen” , Cologne 2007, p. 208.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reichsgedanke on the coins of the Antonines , Wiesbaden 2016, p. 58.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reichsgedanke on the coins of the Antonines , Wiesbaden 2016, p. 59.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reichsgedanke on the coins of the Antonines , Wiesbaden 2016, p. 64.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reichsgedanke on the coins of the Antonines , Wiesbaden 2016, p. 58. Marco Vitale: Personification of provinciae on the coinage under Hadrian , 2012, 158.
- ↑ Marco Vitale: Personification of provinciae on the coinage under Hadrian , 2012, 164.
- ↑ Michael Zahrnt: Hadrian's "Provinzmünzen" , Cologne 2007, p. 211 f.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reichsgedanke on the coins of the Antonines , Wiesbaden 2016, p. 61 f. Gunnar Soul Day: Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Interpretation patterns and perspectives . Munich 2011, p. 308 f.
- ↑ Gunnar Soul Day: Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Interpretation patterns and perspectives . Munich 2011, p. 300
- ↑ Gunnar Soul Day: Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Interpretation patterns and perspectives . Munich 2011, p. 310.
- ↑ Gunnar Soul Day: Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. Interpretation patterns and perspectives . Munich 2011, p. 312. Christoph Weikert: From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina , Göttingen 2016, p. 262.
- ↑ Christoph Michels: Reich and Reich thought on the coins of the Antonines . Wiesbaden 2016, p. 63.
- ↑ Thomas Witulski: Imperial cult in Asia Minor , Göttingen 2011, p. 164 f.
- ^ Konrad Stauner: Review by Thomas Witulski, Kaiserkult in Asia Minor. The development of cultic-religious emperors in the Roman province of Asia from Augustus to Antoninus Pius. In: Gephyra, magazine for history and culture in the area of today's Turkey. 2009, pp. 161–167 , accessed on September 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Paul Leberecht Strack: Investigations into the Roman Empire coinage of the 2nd century, Part II: The Empire coinage at the time of Emperor Hadrian , Stuttgart 1933, p. 147.
- ↑ Larry Joseph Kreitzer: Striking New Images , Sheffield 1996, pp. 181-183.
- ↑ Christopher Weikert: From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina , Göttingen 2016, pp. 99 f., 269–271.
- ↑ Christopher Weikert: From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina , Göttingen 2016, p. 266.
- ↑ Larry Joseph Kreitzer: Striking New Images , Sheffield 1996, p. 175.
- ↑ Larry Joseph Kreitzer: Striking New Images , Sheffield 1996, p. 175.
- ↑ Marco Vitale: Personification of provinciae on the coinage under Hadrian , 2012, 162 f.