Early Roman Coins

AR Denarius of L. Plautius Plancus (48-47 B.C.): The obverse side of the coin features the frontal view of the face of Medusa. This shows a change in artistic views as it goes against the traditional side view of the observe side and represents a terrifying monster. The reverse side features the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, leading the four horses of the sun while holding a palm branch. During this time, Caesar was fighting against Pompey and his army, and Aurora was included on the coin to praise her. This relates to the evolution of coins as it includes two mythological figures in Medusa and Aurora. Most ancient coins used Mythological gods or goddesses, and then progressed to putting emperors or kings on the observe side.

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AU Stater of Mithradtes VI (120-63 B.C.): The obverse of this coin depicts Alexander the Great wearing the horn of Zeus. The reverse shows Athena seated with her elbow resting on a shield, holding goddess Nike. Mithridates purposely included Alexander the Great on his coin to try and link himself to a glorious past and give his reign more notability. This coin is unique as it includes the head of Alexander the Great wearing the horn of Zeus. Along with including the Greek goddesses Athena and Nike on the back, the coin’s combined leaders with Greek gods to show their power. This shows a shift from ancient coins to more recent coins as they start to include emperors and leaders on the observe side as opposed to gods and goddesses.

The Early Roman coins were more of a transitioning point in the evolution of coins. The coin creators started giving praise/respect to emperors or rulers as opposed to gods and goddesses. As you can see on the coin, AR Denarius of L. Plautius Plancus, Julius Caesar put Aurora on the reverse side of the coin to honor her, which connects to most coins during the Pre-Roman Empire, which depict gods rather than rulers.

They were starting to move away from that feature and moving toward depicting emperors and rulers as seen on the coin, AU Stater of Mithradtes VI. Mithradtes shows respect to Alexander the Great and tries to connect his own leadership to Alexander’s rule. The coins have not finished transitioning, as each of them still include a goddess on the reverse side of each coin.