Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:38:05.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Imperial Image in Media of Mechanical Reproduction

The Tokens of Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2020

Amy Russell
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
Monica Hellström
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Get access

Summary

This piece explores what the representation of the emperor on lead tokens can reveal about the dynamics of imperial ideology formation. In particular, I explore what effect mass (re)production had on the imperial image in the Roman world. Although representations of the emperor on large media and in important locations were often tightly controlled, on small media that were mass-produced, the image of the emperor escaped the control of the imperial authorities. Paradoxically, this meant that the imperial image increased in power, gathering innumerable associations and meanings as a ‘shared’ image. Allowing the inhabitants of the Roman Empire to be co-creators of imperial ideology meant that ultimately a more personalised, and thus more powerful, connection to the emperor was generated.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alföldi, A. 1938–41. ‘Tonmodel und Reliefmedaillons aus den Donauländern’, in Laureae aquincenses, memoriae Valentini Kuzsinszky dicatae: Aquincumi babérágak, Kuzsinszky Bálint emlékének szenteli Budapest székesföváros közönsége és a Pázmány-Egyetem Érem-és Régiségtani Intézete. Dissertationes Pannonicae Series 2, 10 (Budapest: Institut für Münzkunde und Archaeologie der P. Pázmany-Universität), 312–41.Google Scholar
Alföldi-Rosenbaum, E. 1976. ‘Alexandriaca: studies on Roman game counters III’, Chiron 6: 205–39.Google Scholar
Alföldi-Rosenbaum, E. 1980. ‘Ruler portraits on Roman game counters from Alexandria (Studies on Roman game counters III)’, in Stucky, R. A. and Jucker, I. (eds.), Eikones: Studien zum griechischen und römischen Bildnis (Bern: Francke Verlag Bern), 2939.Google Scholar
Alföldi-Rosenbaum, E. 1984. ‘Characters and caricatures on game counters from Alexandria’, in Bonacasa, N. and Di Vita, A. (eds.), Alessandria e il mondo ellenistico-romano: Studi in onore di Achille Adriani (Rome: ‘L’Erma’ di Bretschneider), 378–90.Google Scholar
Bédoyère, G. de la 1998. ‘Caurausius and the marks rsr and INPCDA’, NC 158: 7988.Google Scholar
Benassi, F., Giordani, N., and Poggi, C. 2003. ‘Una tessera numerale con scena erotica da un contesto funerario di Mutina’, NAC 32: 249–73.Google Scholar
Benefiel, R. R. 2010. ‘Dialogues of ancient graffiti in the House of Maius Castricius in Pompeii’, AJA 114: 59101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, W. 1999. ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’, in Illuminations (London: Pimlico), 211–44.Google Scholar
Bertoldi, M. E. 1997. Antike Münzfunde aus der Stadt Rom (1870–1902): Il problema delle provenienze (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag).Google Scholar
Bianchi, C. 2015. ‘“Pedine alessandrine”: testimoni illustri di un gioco ignoto’, in Lambrugo, C., Slavazzi, F., and Fedeli, A. M., I materiali della Collezione Archeologica ‘Giulio Sambon’ di Milano. 1. Tra alea e agòn: giochi di abilità e di azzardo (Milan, Università degli Studi di Milano), 5365.Google Scholar
Billig, M. 1995. Banal Nationalism (London: Sage Publications).Google Scholar
Bolter, J. D. and Grusin, R. 2000. Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Boon, G. C. 1958. ‘A Roman pastrycook’s mould from Silchester’, AntJ 38: 237–40.Google Scholar
Buck-Morss, S. 2010. ‘Obama and the image’, in Curtis, N. (ed.), The Pictorial Turn (London: Routledge), 4968.Google Scholar
Burnett, A. 2016. ‘Zela, acclamations, Caracalla – and Parthia?’, BICS 59: 72110.Google Scholar
Buttrey, T. 1973. ‘The spintriae as a historical source’, NC 13: 5263.Google Scholar
Calomino, D. 2016. Defacing the Past: Damnation and Desecration in Imperial Rome (London: Spink).Google Scholar
Campana, A. 2009. ‘Le spintriae: tessere romane con raffigurazioni erotiche’, in La donna romana: Immagini e vita quotidiana (Cassino: Diana), 4396.Google Scholar
Ceccaroni, E. and Molinari, M. C. 2017. ‘I reperti numismatici provenienti dai recenti scavi del santuario di Ercole di Alba Fucens’ in Caccamo Caltabiano, M. (ed.), XV International Numismatic Congress Taormina 2015: Proceedings (Rome; Messina: International Numismatic Commission), 717–19.Google Scholar
Cesano, L. 1904. ‘Matrici di tessere di piombo nei musei di Roma’, BCAR 32: 203–14.Google Scholar
Clark, A. 2010. ‘Material surrogacy and the supernatural: reflections on the role of artefacts in “off-line” cognition’, in Malafouris, L. and Renfrew, C., The Cognitive Life of Things: Recasting the Boundaries of the Mind (Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research), 23–8.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. R. 2003. Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans (Berkeley: University of California Press).Google Scholar
Dahmen, K. 2001. Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Porträts der römischen Kaiserzeit (Münster: Scriptorium).Google Scholar
Dattari, G. 1901. Numi Augg. Alexandrini: Catalogo della collezione G. Dattari (Cairo: Arnaldo Forni Editore).Google Scholar
Davenport, C. and Manley, J. 2014. Fronto: Selected Letters (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
Dolansky, F. 2011. ‘Celebrating the Saturnalia: religious ritual and Roman domestic life’, in Rawson, B. (ed.), A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Malden, MA: Blackwell), 487503.Google Scholar
Dressel, H. 1922. ‘Römische Bleimarken’, ZfN 33: 178–83.Google Scholar
Erll, A. 2007. Prämediation – Remediation: Repräsentation des indischen Aufstands in imperialen und post-kolonialen Medienkulturen (von 1857 bis zur Gegenwart) (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier).Google Scholar
Erll, A. 2008. ‘Literature, film, and the mediality of cultural memory’, in Erll, A. and Nünning, A. (eds.), Media and Cultural Memory / Medien und kulturelle Erinnerung (Berlin: De Gruyter), 389–98.Google Scholar
Erll, A. 2009. ‘Remembering across time, space, and cultures: premediation, remediation and the “Indian Mutiny”’, in Erll, A. (ed.), Mediation, Remediation, and the Dynamics of Cultural Memory (Berlin: De Gruyter), 109–38.Google Scholar
Fejfer, J. 2008. Roman Portraits in Context (Berlin: De Gruyter).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ficoroni, F. 1740. I piombi antichi (Rome: Girolamo Mainardi).Google Scholar
Franke, P. R. 1984. ‘Q. Caecilius Q.F. Oinogenus F. Curator’, ZPE 54: 125–6.Google Scholar
Fussell, P. 1975. The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Gallivan, P. A. 1979. ‘The fasti for the reign of Gaius’, Antichthon 13: 66–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gatti, G. 1888. ‘Oggetti scoperti nell’alveo del Tevere’, NSc: 439–59.Google Scholar
Graillot, H. 1896. ‘Une collection de tessères’, MEFRA 16: 299314.Google Scholar
Gregori, G. L. 1997. ‘Alcune iscrizioni imperiali, senatorie ed equestri: nell’antiquarium comunale del Celio’, ZPE 116: 161–75.Google Scholar
Gülby, O. and Kireç, H. 2008. Ephesian Lead Tesserae (Selçuk: Selçuk Belediyesi).Google Scholar
Harris, W. V. 2000. ‘A Julio-Claudian business family?’, ZPE 13: 263–4.Google Scholar
Hurschmann, R. 2008. ‘Salutatio’, in Cancik, H. and Schneider, H. (eds.), Brill’s New Pauly (Leiden, Brill).Google Scholar
Kopytoff, I. 1986. ‘The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process’, in Appadurai, A. (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 6494.Google Scholar
Krmnicek, S. and Elkins, N. 2014. ‘Dinosaurs, cocks, and coins: an introduction to “Art in the Round”’, in Krmnicek, S. and Elkins, N. (eds.), Art in the Round: New Approaches to Ancient Coin Iconography (Tübingen: VML Verlag Marie Leidorf), 722.Google Scholar
Küter, A. 2016. ‘Imitatio Alexandri – the image of Drusus Minor on brass tokens of the Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’, JAC 31: 85122.Google Scholar
Maderna-Lauter, C. 1988. ‘Glyptik’, in Heilmeyer, W. D., La Rocca, E., and Martin, H. G. (eds.) Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik (Berlin: Kulturstadt Europas), 441–73.Google Scholar
Martini, R. 1999. ‘Una tessera numerale bronzea con ritratto di Augustus in collezione privata. “Tessera triumphalium(?)”: note per una discussione’, Annotazione Numismatiche Supplemento 13: 1215.Google Scholar
Miller, P. A. 2012. ‘Imperial satire as Saturnalia’, in Braund, S. and Osgood, J. (eds.), A Companion to Persius and Juvenal (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell), 314–33.Google Scholar
Milne, J. G. 1971. Catalogue of Alexandrian Coins (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Mitchell, W. J. T. 2005. What Do Pictures Want? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
Mitchiner, M. 1984. ‘Rome: imperial portrait tesserae from the city of Rome and imperial tax tokens from the province of Egypt’, NC 144: 95114.Google Scholar
Munzi, M. 1997. ‘Quadranti anonimi e tessere monetali dalle tombe di Leptis Magna’, Annotazioni Numismatiche 26: 589–93.Google Scholar
Mwangi, W. 2002. ‘The lion, the native and the coffee plant: political imagery and the ambiguous art of currency design in colonial Kenya’, Geopolitics 7: 3162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noreña, C. 2011. ‘Coins and communication’, in Peachin, M. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 248–68.Google Scholar
Pardini, G., Piacentini, M., Felici, A. C., Santarelli, M. L., and Santucci, S. 2016. ‘Matrici per tessere plumbee dalle pendici nord-orientali del Palatino: nota preliminare’, in Ferrandes, A. F. and Pardini, G. (eds.), Le regole del gioco tracce archeologi racconti: Studi in onore di Clementina Panella (Rome: Quasar), 649–67.Google Scholar
Pedroni, L. 1997. ‘Tessere plumbee dalle terme di Fregellae’, BNum 28–9: 203–10.Google Scholar
Perry, J. S. 2011. ‘Organized societies: collegia’, in Peachin, M. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 499513.Google Scholar
Raja, R. 2015. ‘Staging “private” religion in Roman “public” Palmyra: the role of the religious dining tickets (banqueting tesserae)’, in Ando, C. and Rüpke, J. (eds.), Public and Private in Ancient Mediterranean Law and Religion (Berlin: De Gruyter), 165–86.Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. 1903. Tesserarum urbis romae et suburbi plumbearum sylloge (St Petersburg: Commissionnaires de l’Académie impériale des sciences).Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. 1905a. ‘Interprétation des tessères en os avec figures, chiffres et légendes’, RA 5: 110–24.Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. 1905b. Römische Bleitesserae: ein Beitrag zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit (Leipzig: Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung).Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. 1957. The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. and Prou, M. 1900. Catalogue des plombs de l’antiquité (Paris: Chez C. Rollin et Feuardent).Google Scholar
Rostovtzeff, M. and Vaglieri, D. 1900. ‘Alveo del Tevere’, NSc: 256–68.Google Scholar
Rowan, C. 2016a. ‘Ambiguity, iconology and entangled objects on coinage of the Republican world’, JRS 106: 2157.Google Scholar
Rowan, C. 2016b. ‘Imagining empire in the Roman Republic’, in Haymann, F., Hollstein, W., and Jehne, M. (eds.), Neue Forschungen zur Münzprägung der römischen Republik (Bonn: Habelt Verlag), 279–92.Google Scholar
Rowan, C. 2020. ‘The remediation of cultural memory under Augustus’, in Powell, A. (ed.), Coinage of the Roman Revolution (Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales), 175–92.Google Scholar
Salzmann, D. 1989. ‘Sabina in Palmyra’, in Cain, H.-U., Gabelmann, H., and Salzmann, D. (eds.), Festschrift für Nikolaus Himmelmann (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern), 361–8.Google Scholar
Sauer, E. 2005. Coins, Cult and Cultural Identity: Augustan Coins, Hot Springs and the Early Roman Baths at Bourbonne-les-Bains (Leicester: University of Leicester).Google Scholar
Saunders, N. J. 2001. ‘Apprehending memory: material culture and war, 1919–1939’, in Bourne, J., Liddle, P., and Whitehead, I. (eds.), The Great World War 1914–45 (London: Harper Collins), 476–88.Google Scholar
Schneider, R. M. 2003. ‘Gegenbilder im römischen Kaiserporträt: die neuen Gesichter Neros und Vespasians’ in Büschel, M. and Schmidt, P. (eds.), Das Porträt vor der Erfindung des Porträts (Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern), 5976.Google Scholar
Sironen, T. 1990. ‘Una tessera privata del II secolo a.C. da Fregellae’, ZPE 80: 116–20.Google Scholar
Stannard, C. 2015. ‘Shipping tesserae from Ostia and Minturnae?’, NC 175: 147–54.Google Scholar
Thornton, M. K. 1980. ‘The Roman lead tesserae: observations on two historical problems’, Historia 29: 335–55.Google Scholar
Thornton, M. K. (unpublished). Roman lead tesserae in the British Museum.Google Scholar
Tooker, L. 2014. ‘Conversation with … Bill Maurer’, Exchanges: The Warwick Research Journal 2: 2034.Google Scholar
Turcan, R. 1987. Nigra Moneta: Sceaux, jetons, tesseres, amulettes, plombs monétaires ou monétiformes, objects divers en plomb ou en étain d’époque romaine conservés au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (Lyon: Diffusion de Boccard).Google Scholar
Vaglieri, D. 1908. ‘XXIII. Ostia’, NSc: 329–36.Google Scholar
Vaglieri, D. 1912. ‘Ostia’, NSc: 273–80.Google Scholar
van Berchem, D. 1936. ‘Tessères ou calculi? Essai d’interprétation des jetons romains en plomb’, RN 39: 297315.Google Scholar
Virlouvet, C. 1988. ‘Plombs romains monétiformes et tessères frumentaires. A propos d’une confusion.’, RN 30: 120–48.Google Scholar
Virlouvet, C. 1995. Tessera Frumentaria: Les procédures de distribution du blé à Rome à la fin de la République et au début de l’Empire (Rome: École française de Rome).Google Scholar
Yarrow, L. 2013. ‘Heracles, coinage and the west: three Hellenistic case-studies’, in Prag, J. R. W. and Quinn, J. (eds.), The Hellenistic West: Rethinking the Ancient Mediterranean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 348–66.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×