Coins of the roman revolution, 49 BC - AD 14) : evidence without hindsight

Coins of the best-known Roman revolutionary era allow rival pretenders to speak to us directly. After the deaths of Caesar and Cicero (in 44 and 43 BC) hardly one word has been reliably transmitted to us from even the two most powerful opponents of Octavian: Mark Antony and Sextus Pompeius - except through coinage and the occasional inscription. The coins are an antidote to a widespread fault in modern approaches: the idea, from hindsight, that the Roman Republic was doomed, that the rise of Octavian-Augustus to monarchy was inevitable, and that contemporaries might have sensed as much. Ancient works in other genres skilfully encouraged such hindsight. Augustus in the Res Gestae, and Virgil in Georgics and Aeneid, sought to flatten the history of the period, and largely to efface Octavian's defeated rivals. But the latter's coins in precious metal were not easily recovered and suppressed by Authority. They remain for scholars to revalue. In our own age, when public untruthfulness about history is increasingly accepted - or challenged, we may value anew the discipline of searching for other, ancient, voices which ruling discourse has not quite managed to silence. In this book eleven new essays explore the coinage of Rome's competing dynasts. Julius Caesar's coins, and those of his `son' Octavian-Augustus, are studied. But similar and respectful attention is given to the issues of their opponents: Cato the Younger and Q. Metellus Scipio, Mark Antony and Sextus Pompeius, Q. Cornificius and others. A shared aim is to understand mentalities, the forecasts current, in an age of rare insecurity as the superpower of the Mediterranean faced, and slowly recovered from, division and ruin. The long revolutionary age, which culminated in the autocracy of Octavian-Augustus, is one of Roman history's most richly documented periods - and most misrepresented. From Roman to modern times, hindsight has dominated. The theme of Augustus' rise overshadows all. His rivals are commonly defamed (Antony), belittled (Sextus Pompeius), or eclipsed to the point of being barely recognisable (Domitius Ahenobarbus, Cornificius). Seldom in history has the mentality of historians so diverged from the attitudes of contemporaries, the Romans and provincials - all of them - who did not know that Octavian would win, let alone that his regime would survive for decades. This work privileges a class of neglected evidence which colourfully expresses the uncertainty, and the hopes, not of historians but of contemporaries: coinage. Here an international team of young scholars examine the ideals expressed, and the fears reflected, in the coins issued by warring chiefs during Rome's, and the provinces', long conflicts. There results a subtle and lively characterisation of individuals and ideas which even Augustan ideology could never efface. The long revolutionary age, which culminated in the autocracy of Octavian-Augustus, is one of Roman history's most richly documented periods - and most misrepresented. From Roman to modern times, hindsight has dominated. The theme of Augustus' rise overshadows all. His rivals are commonly defamed (Antony), belittled (Sextus Pompeius), or eclipsed to the point of being barely recognisable (Domitius Ahenobarbus, Cornificius). Seldom in history has the mentality of historians so diverged from the attitudes of contemporaries, the Romans and provincials - all of them - who did not know that Octavian would win, let alone that his regime would survive for decades.0This work privileges a class of neglected evidence which colourfully expresses the uncertainty, and the hopes, not of historians but of contemporaries: coinage. Here an international team of young scholars examine the ideals expressed, and the fears reflected, in the coins issued by warring chiefs during Rome's, and the provinces', long conflicts. There results a subtle and lively characterisation of individuals and ideas which even Augustan ideology could never efface Contents Introduction Acknowledgments 1 Coin Types as Political Topoi : The Paradoxical Proximity of Numismatic Discourses During the Civil Wars of the Late Roman Republic (44–29 BC) 2 Mark Antony and the Bronze Revolution in the East 3 Scipio and Cato in 47–46 BC: Ideals and Expectations Seen Through Coins 4 Quintus Cornuficius, Heir of the ‘Africana Causa’? the Testimony of Coins 5 Sextus Pompey, Scylla, and South Italy 6 A Place for Peace in a Time of War 7 The Significance of Imagery in Coin Hoards from the Time of the Roman Revolution: Reflections on the Aurei Deposit from Martigues 8 the SC Coinage and the Role of the Senate Under Augustus 9 Money, Media and Cultural Memory Under Augustus 10 Re-examining the Design Types of the Renewed College of Moneyers in C.19 BC 11 Augustus as Eagle: Analysing a Symbol of Augustan Coinage Index