Roman Coinage: The Materiality of an Ancient Economy

The scholarly study of Roman coinage, focusing on historical trends from the late Republic to the early Empire, 3rd c. BCE-2nd c. CE. Topics of particular attention will be: introduction of coinage in Rome and the provinces; historically contextualizing the making, using, and losing of money (how and why coins are produced, exchanged, buried, counterfeited, even used in religious rituals). Coins as works of art—but common, widely circulating works of art produced by governments, often used to spread propaganda about state goals or national identity.