See me, read me, understand me

Roman coins could have had various audiences. This could be specifically soldiers on campaign, or even the whole Roman population. It is not always very straightforward which audience is being targeted. One clear indication we have for this coin is the material: gold coins obviously had a high value and in many cases, it can be assumed that these were used by elites. This is not 100% certain however, so we have to look at the archaeological context in which they were found.

This specific coin was found in 1894 on one of the Roman hills, the Aventine. Unfortunately, not much is known about the exact circumstances at that time. What we do know is that the coin was found in a hoard, together with 300 to 400 others(!). All of them contained images of Lucius Verus, partly with Sohaemus on the reverse. The other ones had an image of the personification of victory, Victoria (see figure above). The main message of these coins was therefore that the depicted emperor, Lucius Verus, had managed to achieve a (military) victory somewhere in the Roman Empire. The victory in this case can be seen by the title that Lucius Verus bestowed on himself, as seen on the obverse side: ARMENIACVS, “conqueror of the Armenians”. Similarly, our coin shows an extra message of control in Armenia. REX ARMEN(IS) DAT(US) (“a king given to the Armenians”) tells us about the way the Romans regarded their political action, or at least about how they wanted it to be regarded. It refers to Sohaemus being installed as king, though he is lower in hierarchy than the emperor.

Lucius Verus is shown on the platform, sitting in the curule chair and flanked by a soldier and an official, thus indicating authority and power. The king that is installed is lawfully brought to power, but is clearly under Roman control - he even wears the same Roman clothing. On the other hand, we should not assume that every user of the coin was able to read. For those people, the imagery as explained above was apparently sufficient to understand that military progressions were being made, although it would be less clear where these would actually be. As these coins were both minted and found in Rome, it seems highly likely that the message was meant for Roman inhabitants, likely to be part of the elites. From this, one can assume that the idea was that the elites in Rome had to be informed of the stabilization of the situation in Armenia so as to avoid political instability in the capital during a period of multiple struggles within the Roman Empire.