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COINS AND MESSAGES:AUDIENCE TARGETING ONCOINS OF DIFFERENTDENOMINATIONS? Olivier Hekster2003 год

COINS AND MESSAGES: AUDIENCE TARGETING ON COINS OF DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS?
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Аннотация: Some Romans were aware of the images and legends on their coins.Passages from various literary texts make this clear.The examples are well known.The Gospel of Matthew, for instance, tells us how:"They brought him a denarius, and he said to them, 'whose portrait is this? and whose inscription?' and they said to him: 'Caesar's'.Then he said to them, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's'."I Sceptics could still argue that this passage actually shows a lack of awareness of images on coins from the part of the public, as the emperor's portrait and inscription needed pointing out.Arrian, however, in a famous passage, goes further and explicitly connects value judgements on individual emperors with their particular coins.He takes it entirely for granted that people were aware of which emperor was depicted on which coin: "The stamps with which a man comes imprinted on his disposition [are] like the stamps we look for on coins too: if we find them we accept their value, if we don't, we chuck them out.'Whose stamp does this serterce bear?Trajan's?Take it.Nero's?Chuck it out, it will not pass, it is rotten.'" (Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus 4.5.15-17)Even if people did not 'chuck out' the coins of 'evil emperors' (and they probably did not), the emphasis on awareness of the individuals depicted on coins is striking.It seems to imply more than mere economic awareness of the • This paper has been greatly improved by the critical comments of Chris Howgego and Cathy King, who kindly read an earlier draft.They saved me from many mistakes, but should not be held responsible for any remaining blunders, nor for the opinions that are ventilated.My gratitude, also, to the participants of the workshop, especially Werner Eck and Richard Talbert.But most thanks should go to Thijs Goverde, who pointed out to me the possible relevance of 'brands' and 'marketing' as a modern parallel for my ideas on the Roman world.value of coins from the part of the authors?People saw the images on coins and reacted to them in a variety of ways.Hence, for instance, Hadrian's putting down of the Bar Kokhba revolt (AD 132-5), was followed by a rabbinical prohibition for Jews to use coins of that emperor.His coins -though economically of course still valid modes of payment -had become tainted. 3 Coins were an important medium in the Roman world.Were they consciously employed to reach specific audiences?This question is, of course, a central one to our understanding of Roman 'ideology' and its dissemination.Unsurprisingly, many scholars have already grappled with it, and it is thus with some trepidation that I would like to suggest a way in which the question could be answered. 4 That is, one might want to look whether there was a diversification of messages between coins of different denominations.If so, one could argue that there was awareness amongst those who designed coins that different denominations could target different groups of audiences.In a way, this addresses an important problem formulated by A.H.M. Jones.Almost 50 years ago, he heavily criticized the notion of coins as 'propaganda', and noted: 'It would be a matter of some interest if numismatists could try to determine, on internal evidence, within the general probabilities of the situation, at what classes the propaganda on the coins was directed'.5 If different denominations sent out different messages to different audiences, Jones' challenge may have been met.2 Cf.Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus 3.3.3;Artemidorus, Oneirocritica 4.31; Dio Cassius 78.16.5;CTh 9.22, and Statius, Silvae 4.9.22 on a gift, which was only worth plus minus asse Gaianothough this may refer to Claudius' invalidation of Gaius' coins: Dio Cassius 60.22.3;AA Barrett, 'The Invalidation of Currency in the Roman Empire: The Claudian Demonetization ofCaJigula's Aes', in:
Год издания: 2003
Авторы: Olivier Hekster
Издательство: Brill
Источник: BRILL eBooks
Ключевые слова: Statistical and Computational Modeling
Другие ссылки: BRILL eBooks (PDF)
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Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (PDF)
Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (HTML)
Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (HTML)