Women in your wallet
The communicative power of Roman and Byzantine empresses on coins
Amsterdam Centre for Ancient Studies and Archaeology
In the Roman and Byzantine empire, coins were a common means to convey strong messages about power. The emperors of Rome were usually the ones depicted, but the women of the imperial houses also frequently appeared on coins. These coins were often understood to have been struck for the sake of communicating ideas of dynasty and progeny for the ruling emperor. However, these coins were at least as much about making statements of power for imperial women in their own right.
The objects presented in this zone offer a rich view of the many ways by which the power of Roman and Byzantine empresses was represented. The stories that bring the objects to life were created by the students of the ReMA course ‘Research Project: Money in the Ancient World’ at the University of Amsterdam. Together these stories present us with the female perspective through the lens of numismatics.
