The Portraits of the Roman Empresses on Coins Found at Colonia Flavia Scupinorum (20 min)

Presenters

Milica Vasileva, Museum of the City of Skopje

Abstract

The coinage of the Roman empresses as vivid evidence for the imperial women, that is, the imperial authority, is reflecting their role in the imperial cult but also the public image of the Roman matrona. The variety of obverse portraits often determined by their coiffures like the nest, chignon, queue, basket, or veil, and distinctive facial features were very potent propaganda material of divinity and power, as they aimed to praise the imperial ideology.

This paper will present the elusive numismatic portrayals of the Roman empresses according all the available information derived from the coins discovered during the archeological excavations on Colonia Flavia Scupinorum. Scupi is a Roman colony established by organized settling (deduction) of veterans during the Flavian period and is located in the southernmost part of the Moesia Superior province. Its location in the central part of the Balkans near the intersection of two main roads, the first one running from north to south connecting the Danube River through the Morava-Vardar Valley with the Aegean region, while the other one runs from the Adriatic on the west to the Black Sea on the east, contributed to the fast transformation of the original settlement into a complex urban Roman city with a developed monetary economy. It must be mentioned that this essay is a preliminary study with limited data due to the still ongoing conservation process on most of the numismatic material.

  AIA-1J