Issue of Patrae showing the ritual of the colony’s border demarcation, RPC I, 1253

Research / Clusters / Politics: Power and Institutions

From the Hellenistic world to the Roman ‘oikoumene’

Coin iconography and policies in the Roman colonies

Harikleia Papageorgiadou

Research coordinator

Harikleia PapageorgiadouResearch Director Emerita

As a result of political choices, the iconographic types used by colonial mints reflect their position within the empire. Variations are observable from the time of each colony’s foundation through to its end, depending on its role in the organization of the provinces of Achaia and Macedonia. At the same time, clear iconographic similarities are also evident, stemming from their integration into the Roman political system and the emergence of a Greco-Roman koinē, particularly from the second century AD onward.

Ch. Papageorgiadou, “Remembrance and Identity in Roman Provincial Coinage. From local “Histories” to a Greco-Roman ‘Koiné’”, in The Past in the Present: Cultural Memory and its Agencies in the Ancient Mediterranean World and Beyond, 5th Euro-Japanese Colloquium on the Ancient Mediterranean World, held in March 2024 (in press).
Ch. Papageorgiadou, “Local variations under the same status. Some aspects of a differentiated numismatic iconography”, in Robyn Le Blanc, Melissa Ludke, and Szymon Jellonek (eds.), Coins of Roman Colonies: evidence, identity, and connectivity from the Middle Republic to the 3rd Century CE (in press; Classical Archaeology Studies, Brepols).
Ch. Papageorgiadou, “Numismatic issues of Patrai in the light of Caracalla’s Parthian campaign”, in P. Iossif, E. Markou (eds.), Strapped for Cash. Needy Soldiers, Reluctant Authorities: Studies on Military Payments in Greek and Roman Antiquity, Meletemata 86 (Athens 2024) 207-227.